AI Email Free Generator

AI Email Free Generator — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Enterprise resource planning

    Enterprise resource planning

    Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities. The finance module in particular is essential to a suite of applications meeting the definition of an ERP system. The finance module provides the system of record for the organisation; recording the commercial impact of the business operations in the General Ledger. ERP systems can be local-based or cloud-based. Cloud-based applications have grown rapidly since the early 2010s due to the increased efficiencies arising from information being readily available from any location with Internet access. However, ERP differs from integrated business management systems by including planning all resources that are required in the future to meet business objectives. This includes plans for getting suitable staff and manufacturing capabilities for future needs. ERP provides an integrated and continuously updated view of core business processes, typically using a shared database managed by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make up the system share data across various departments (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, etc.) that provide the data. ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions and manages connections to outside stakeholders. Estimates of the size of the global ERP market range between USD $78 and $81 billion in 2026 . Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises, smaller enterprises increasingly use ERP systems. The ERP system integrates varied organizational systems and facilitates error-free transactions and production, thereby enhancing the organization's efficiency. However, developing an ERP system differs from traditional system development. ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, typically using a database as an information repository. == Origin == Business and technology research and advisory firm Gartner is credited for first using the acronym ERP in the 1990s. The term captured a functional extension of two manufacturing-based concepts, material requirements planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP II). Without replacing these terms, ERP came to represent a larger whole that reflected the evolution of application integration beyond manufacturing. Not all ERP packages are developed from a manufacturing core; ERP vendors variously began assembling their packages with finance-and-accounting, maintenance, and human-resource components. By the mid-1990s ERP systems addressed all core enterprise functions. Governments and non–profit organizations also began to use ERP systems. An "ERP system selection methodology" is a formal process for selecting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Existing methodologies include: Kuiper's funnel method, Dobrin's three-dimensional (3D) web-based decision support tool, and the Clarkston Potomac methodology. == Expansion == ERP systems experienced rapid growth in the 1990s. Because of the year 2000 problem many companies took the opportunity to replace their old systems with ERP. ERP systems initially focused on automating back office functions that did not directly affect customers and the public. Front office functions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), dealt directly with customers, or e-business systems such as e-commerce and e-government—or supplier relationship management (SRM) became integrated later, when the internet simplified communicating with external parties. "ERP II" was coined in 2000 in an article by Gartner Publications entitled ERP Is Dead—Long Live ERP II. It describes web–based software that provides real–time access to ERP systems to employees and partners (such as suppliers and customers). The ERP II role expands traditional ERP resource optimization and transaction processing. Rather than just manage buying, selling, etc.—ERP II leverages information in the resources under its management to help the enterprise collaborate with other enterprises. ERP II is more flexible than the first generation ERP. Rather than confine ERP system capabilities within the organization, it goes beyond the corporate walls to interact with other systems. Enterprise application suite is an alternate name for such systems. ERP II systems are typically used to enable collaborative initiatives such as supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) among business partner organizations through the use of various electronic business technologies. The large proportion of companies are pursuing a strong managerial targets in ERP system instead of acquire an ERP company. Developers now make more effort to integrate mobile devices with the ERP system. ERP vendors are extending ERP to these devices, along with other business applications, so that businesses don't have to rely on third-party applications. As an example, the e-commerce platform Shopify was able to make ERP tools from Microsoft and Oracle available on its app in October 2021. Technical stakes of modern ERP concern integration—hardware, applications, networking, supply chains. ERP now covers more functions and roles—including decision making, stakeholders' relationships, standardization, transparency, globalization, etc. == Functional areas == An ERP system covers the following common functional areas. In many ERP systems, these are called and grouped together as ERP modules: Financial accounting: general ledger, fixed assets, payables including vouchering, matching and payment, receivables and collections, cash management, financial consolidation Management accounting: budgeting, costing, cost management, activity based costing, billing, invoicing (optional) Human resources: recruiting, training, rostering, payroll, benefits, retirement and pension plans, diversity management, retirement, separation Manufacturing: engineering, bill of materials, work orders, scheduling, capacity, workflow management, quality control, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects, manufacturing flow, product life cycle management Order processing: order to cash, order entry, credit checking, pricing, available to promise, inventory, shipping, sales analysis and reporting, sales commissioning Supply chain management: supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, product configurator, order to cash, purchasing, inventory, claim processing, warehousing (receiving, putaway, picking and packing) Project management: project planning, resource planning, project costing, work breakdown structure, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management Customer relationship management (CRM): sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer contact, call center support – CRM systems are not always considered part of ERP systems but rather business support systems (BSS) Supplier relationship management (SRM): suppliers, orders, payments. Data services: various "self-service" interfaces for customers, suppliers or employees Management of school and educational institutes. Contract management: creating, monitoring, and managing contracts, reducing administrative burdens and minimising legal risks. These modules often feature contract templates, electronic signature capabilities, automated alerts for contract milestones, and advanced search functionality. === GRP – ERP use in government === Government resource planning (GRP) is the equivalent of an ERP for the public sector and an integrated office automation system for government bodies. The software structure, modularization, core algorithms and main interfaces do not differ from other ERPs, and ERP software suppliers manage to adapt their systems to government agencies. Both system implementations, in private and public organizations, are adopted to improve productivity and overall business performance in organizations, but comparisons (private vs. public) of implementations shows that the main factors influencing ERP implementation success in the public sector are cultural. == Best practices == Most ERP systems incorporate best practices. This means the software reflects the vendor's interpretation of the most effective way to perform each business process. Systems vary in how conveniently the customer can modify these practices. Use of best practices eases compliance with requirements such as International Financial Reporting Standards, Sarbanes–Oxley, or Basel II. They can also help comply with de facto industry standards, such as electronic funds transfer. This is because the procedure can be readily

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  • Digital Cinema Package

    Digital Cinema Package

    A Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema (DC) audio, image, and data streams. The term was popularized by Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC in its original recommendation for packaging DC contents. However, the industry tends to apply the term to the structure more formally known as the composition. A DCP is a container format for compositions, a hierarchical file structure that represents a title version. The DCP may carry a partial composition (e.g. not a complete set of files), a single complete composition, or multiple and complete compositions. The composition consists of a Composition Playlist (in XML format) that defines the playback sequence of a set of Track Files. Track Files carry the essence (audio, image, subtitles), which is wrapped using Material eXchange Format (MXF). Track Files must contain only one essence type. Two track files at a minimum must be present in every composition (see SMPTE ST429-2 D-Cinema Packaging – DCP Constraints, or Cinepedia): a track file carrying picture essence, and a track file carrying audio essence. The composition, consisting of a Composition Playlist (CPL) and associated track files, are distributed as a Digital Cinema Package (DCP). A composition is a complete representation of a title version, while the DCP need not carry a full composition. However, as already noted, it is commonplace in the industry to discuss the title in terms of a DCP, as that is the deliverable to the cinema. The Picture Track File essence is compressed using JPEG 2000 and the Audio Track File carries a 24-bit linear PCM uncompressed multichannel WAV file. Encryption may optionally be applied to the essence of a track file to protect it from unauthorized use. The encryption used is AES 128-bit in CBC mode. In practice, there are two versions of composition in use. The original version is called Interop DCP. In 2009, a specification was published by SMPTE (SMPTE ST 429-2 Digital Cinema Packaging – DCP Constraints) for what is commonly referred to as SMPTE DCP. SMPTE DCP is similar but not backwards compatible with Interop DCP, resulting in an uphill effort to transition the industry from Interop DCP to SMPTE DCP. SMPTE DCP requires significant constraints to ensure success in the field, as shown by ISDCF. While legacy support for Interop DCP is necessary for commercial products, new productions are encouraged to be distributed in SMPTE DCP. == Technical specifications == The DCP root folder (in the storage medium) contains a number of files, some used to store the image and audio contents, and some other used to organize and manage the whole playlist. === Picture MXF files === Picture contents may be stored in one or more reels corresponding to one or more MXF files. Each reel contains pictures as MPEG-2 or JPEG 2000 essence, depending on the adopted codec. MPEG-2 is no longer compliant with the DCI specification. JPEG 2000 is the only accepted compression format. Supported frame rates are: SMPTE (JPEG 2000) 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps @ 2K 24, 25, and 30 fps @ 4K 24 and 48 fps @ 2K stereoscopic MXF Interop (JPEG 2000) – Deprecated 24 and 48 fps @ 2K (MXF Interop can be encoded at 25 frame/s but support is not guaranteed) 24 fps @ 4K 24 fps @ 2K stereoscopic MXF Interop (MPEG-2) – Deprecated 23.976 and 24 fps @ 1920 × 1080 Maximum frame sizes are 2048 × 1080 for 2K DC, and 4096 × 2160 for 4K DC. Common formats are: SMPTE (JPEG 2000) Flat (1998 × 1080 or 3996 × 2160), = 1.85:1 aspect ratio Scope (2048 × 858 or 4096 × 1716), ~2.39:1 aspect ratio HDTV (1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160), 16:9 aspect ratio (~1.78:1) (although not specifically defined in the DCI specification, this resolution is DCI compliant per section 8.4.3.2). Full (2048 × 1080 or 4096 × 2160) (~1.9:1 aspect ratio, official name by DCI is Full Container. Not widely accepted in cinemas.) MXF Interop (MPEG-2) – Deprecated Full Frame (1920 × 1080) 12 bits per component precision (36 bits total per pixel) XYZ' colorspace; the prime mark indicates gamma encoding (gamma=2.6) Maximum bit rate is 250 Mbit/s (1.3 MBytes per frame at 24 frame per second) === Sound MXF files === Sound contents are also stored in reels corresponding to picture reels in number and duration. In case of multilingual features, separate reels are required to convey different languages. Each file contains linear PCM essence. Sampling rate is 48,000 or 96,000 samples per second Sample precision of 24 bits Linear mapping (no companding) Up to 16 independent channels === Asset map file === List of all files included in the DCP, in XML format. === Composition playlist file === Defines the playback order during presentation. The order is saved in XML format in this file; each picture and sound reel is identified by its UUID. In the following example, a reel is composed by picture and sound: === Packing list file or package key list (PKL) === All files in the composition are hashed and their hash is stored here, in XML format. This file is generally used during ingestion in a digital cinema server to verify if data have been corrupted or tampered with in some way. For example, an MXF picture reel is identified by the following element: The hash value is the Base64 encoding of the SHA-1 checksum. It can be calculated with the command: openssl sha1 -binary "FILE_NAME" | openssl base64 === Volume index file === A single DCP may be stored in more than one medium (e.g., multiple hard disks). The XML file VOLINDEX is used to identify the volume order in the series. == 3D DCP == The DCP format is also used to store stereoscopic (3D) contents for 3D films. In this case, 48 frames exist for every second – 24 frames for the left eye, 24 frames for the right. Depending on the projection system used, the left eye and right eye pictures are either shown alternately (double or triple flash systems) at 48 fps or, on 4k systems, both left and right eye pictures are shown simultaneously, one above the other, at 24 fps. In triple flash systems, active shutter glasses are required whereas optical filtering such as circular polarisation is used in conjunction with passive glasses on polarized systems. Since the maximum bit rate is always 250 Mbit/s, this results in a net 125 Mbit/s for single frame, but the visual quality decrease is generally unnoticeable. == D-Box == D-Box codes for motion controlled seating (labelled as "Motion Data" in the DCP specification), if present, are stored as a monoaural WAV file on Sound Track channel 13. Motion Data tracks are unencrypted and not watermarked. == Creation == Most film producers and distributors rely on digital cinema encoding facilities to produce and quality control check a digital cinema package before release. Facilities follow strict guidelines set out in the DCI recommendations to ensure compatibility with all digital cinema equipment. For bigger studio release films, the facility will usually create a Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM). A DCDM is the post-production step prior to a DCP. The frames are in XYZ TIFF format and both sound and picture are not yet wrapped into MXF files. A DCP can be encoded directly from a DCDM. A DCDM is useful for archiving purposes and also facilities can share them for international re-versioning purposes. They can easily be turned into alternative version DCPs for foreign territories. For smaller release films, the facility will usually skip the creation of a DCDM and instead encode directly from the Digital Source Master (DSM) the original film supplied to the encoding facility. A DSM can be supplied in a multitude of formats and color spaces. For this reason, the encoding facility needs to have extensive knowledge in color space handling including, on occasion, the use of 3D LUTs to carefully match the look of the finished DCP to a celluloid film print. This can be a highly involved process in which the DCP and the film print are "butterflied" (shown side by side) in a highly calibrated cinema. Less demanding DCPs are encoded from tape formats such as HDCAM SR. Quality control checks are always performed in calibrated cinemas and carefully checked for errors. QC checks are often attended by colorists, directors, sound mixers and other personnel to check for correct picture and sound reproduction in the finished DCP. == Accessibility == === Hearing impaired audio === A Hearing Impaired (HI) audio track is designed for people who are hearing-impaired to better hear dialog. Moviegoers can wear headphones which play this audio track synchronized with the film. Hearing Impaired audio is stored in the DCP on Sound Track channel 7. === Audio description === Audio description is narration for people who are blind or visually impaired. Audio description is stored in the DCP as "Visually Impaired-Native" (VI-N) audio on Sound Track channel 8. === Sign Language Video === A Sign Language Video track can be included in a DCP to allow for display of sign la

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  • Death and the Internet

    Death and the Internet

    A recent extension to the cultural relationship with death is the increasing number of people who die having created a large amount of digital content, such as social media profiles, that will remain after death. This may result in concern and confusion, because of automated features of dormant accounts (e.g. birthday reminders), uncertainty of the deceased's preferences that profiles be deleted or left as a memorial, and whether information that may violate the deceased's privacy (such as email or browser history) should be made accessible to family. Issues with how this information is sensitively dealt with are further complicated as it may belong to the service provider (not the deceased) and many do not have clear policies on what happens to the accounts of deceased users. While some sites, including Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), have policies related to death, others remain dormant until if applicable, deleted due to inactivity or transferred to family or friends. The FADA (Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) was set in place to make it possible to transfer digital possessions legally. More broadly, the heavy increase in social media use is affecting cultural practices surrounding death. "Virtual funerals" and other forms of previously physical memorabilia are being introduced into the digital world, complete with public details of a person's life and death. == E-mail == Gmail and Hotmail allow the email accounts of the deceased to be accessed provided certain requirements are met. Yahoo! Mail will not provide access, citing the No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability clause in the Yahoo! terms of service. In 2005, Yahoo! was ordered by the Probate Court of Oakland County, Michigan, to release emails of deceased US Marine Justin Ellsworth to his father, John Ellsworth. == By website == === Facebook === ==== Policies ==== In its early days, Facebook used to delete profiles of dead people, but does not anymore. In October 2009, the company introduced "memorial pages" in response to multiple user requests related to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. After receiving a proof of death via a special form, the profile would be converted into a tribute page with minimal personal details, where friends and family members could share their grief. In February 2015, Facebook allowed users to appoint a friend or family member as a "legacy contact" with the rights to manage their page after death. It also gave Facebook users an option to have their account permanently deleted when they die. As of January 2019, all 3 options were active. ==== Controversies ==== In 2013, BuzzFeed criticized Facebook for the lack of control over memorialization that resulted in a "Facebook death" prank aimed at locking users out of their own accounts. In 2017, Reuters reported that a German court rejected a mother's demand to access her deceased daughter's memorialized account stating that the right to private telecommunications outweighed the right to inheritance. In July 2018, Dubai's DIFC Courts ruling clarified that Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts should be bequeathed in legally binding will. Social media networks have also been criticized for not responding to relatives' requests to alter information on memorialized accounts. Another criticism is that Facebook users often are unaware that their content is ultimately owned not by them, but by Facebook. === Dropbox === ==== Policies ==== Dropbox determines inactive accounts by looking at sign-ins, file shares, and file activity over the previous 12 months. Once an account is determined inactive, Dropbox deletes the files on the account. To request access to the account of a deceased person, heirs are required to send appropriate documents by physical mail. === Google === ==== Policies ==== In April 2013, Google announced the creation of the 'Inactive Account Manager', which allows users of Google services to set up a process in which ownership and control of inactive accounts is transferred to a delegated user. Google also allows users to submit a range of requests regarding accounts belonging to deceased users. Google works with immediate family members and representatives to close online accounts in some cases once a user is known to be deceased, and in certain circumstances may also provide content from a deceased user's account. === X (formerly Twitter) === ==== Policies ==== Until 2010, Twitter (launched in July 2006) did not have a policy on handling deceased user accounts, and simply deleted timelines of deceased users. In August 2010, Twitter allowed memorialization of accounts upon request from family members, and also provided them with an option of either deleting the account or obtaining a permanent backup of the deceased user's public tweets. In 2014, Twitter updated its policy to include an option to delete deceased user photographs. This policy was implemented after multiple Twitter trolls sent Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, photoshopped images of her father. As of January 2019, the only option that Twitter offered for the accounts of dead people was account deactivation. Previously published content is not removed. To deactivate an account Twitter requires an immediate family member to present a copy of their ID and a death certificate of the deceased. Twitter specified that it does not provide account access to anyone, but does allow people having account login information to continue posting. A prominent example is Roger Ebert's account maintained by his wife Chaz. ==== Controversies ==== In 2012, The Next Web columnist Martin Bryant noticed that since Twitter, unlike Facebook, did not have a "one account per real person" emphasis, memorializing accounts presented a difficulty to the service. He also criticized the service for the lack of control over hacking of such accounts and disapproved the practice of passing dead people's usernames to new owners after a certain period of inactivity. In 2013, Variety ran a feature about Cory Monteith's Twitter account that had 1.5 million followers at the moment on his death and gained almost 1 million new followers afterwards. Monteith's fans also launched #DontDeleteCorysTwitter campaign. As of February 2019, the celebrity's account had 1.63 million followers. Various media reported awkward incidents related to automatic posting and account hacking. === iTunes === ==== Policies ==== iCloud and iTunes accounts are "non transferable" since the content is not owned — users only have a licence to access it. === Wikipedia === Users who have made at least several hundred edits or are otherwise known for substantial contributions to Wikipedia can be noted at a central memorial page. Wikipedia user pages are ordinarily fully edit-protected after the user has died, to prevent vandalism. === YouTube === YouTube grants access to accounts of deceased persons under certain conditions. It is one of the data options that one can select to give access to a trusted contact with Google's Inactive Account Manager. === Instagram === ==== Policies ==== As of the COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram has notified its users of a delay in time of reviewing reports of deceased users due to the limited staff the pandemic has caused. Users that submit a report on a deceased user on Instagram can either memorialize the account or remove it from Instagram's platform. Through memorializing the account, Instagram secures and protects a platform of a deceased user, but per their policy, they do not supply any of the login credentials to the account. For both memorializing or removing a deceased users account, a verified user needs to submit a tangible document that shows proof of death of the user. However, to fully remove an account, the user must be a close or direct family member to the deceased person, and show proof of credibility as well. === Microsoft === ==== Policies ==== Per Microsoft's policies, they do not supply any of the login credentials to a deceased user's Microsoft account. A user does not have to contact or notify Microsoft of the deceased user, as the related user is able to close the account themselves. At default, Microsoft removes accounts after 2 years of inactivity. If the user does not have access to the deceased user's account, Microsoft recommends that the user deletes all bank accounts linked to that of the deceased to ensure no subscriptions are still going through. If the user wants to request to gain access to the deceased user's account, a court order or a subpoena has to be provided to Microsoft, but does not guarantee access to the deceased user's account. For users that live in Germany, more documentation is needed to gain access of a deceased user's account, including the deceased user's death certificate, a form of ID, and a documentation of consent from the deceased. The requesting user needs to provide a form of ID as well. == Digital inheritance == Digital inheritance is the process of handing over

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  • Bioelectronics

    Bioelectronics

    Bioelectronics is a field of research in the convergence of biology and electronics. == Definitions == At the first C.E.C. Workshop, in Brussels in November 1991, bioelectronics was defined as 'the use of biological materials and biological architectures for information processing systems and new devices'. Bioelectronics, specifically bio-molecular electronics, were described as 'the research and development of bio-inspired (i.e. self-assembly) inorganic and organic materials and of bio-inspired (i.e. massive parallelism) hardware architectures for the implementation of new information processing systems, sensors and actuators, and for molecular manufacturing down to the atomic scale'. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, defined bioelectronics in a 2009 report as "the discipline resulting from the convergence of biology and electronics". Sources for information about the field include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with its Elsevier journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics published since 1990. The journal describes the scope of bioelectronics as seeking to : "... exploit biology in conjunction with electronics in a wider context encompassing, for example, biological fuel cells, bionics and biomaterials for information processing, information storage, electronic components and actuators. A key aspect is the interface between biological materials and micro and nano-electronics." == History == The first known study of bioelectronics took place in the 18th century when Italian physician-scientist Luigi Galvani applied a voltage to a pair of detached frog legs. The legs moved, sparking the genesis of bioelectronics. Electronics technology has been applied to biology and medicine since the pacemaker was invented and with the medical imaging industry. In 2009, a survey of publications using the term in title or abstract suggested that the center of activity was in Europe (43 percent), followed by Asia (23 percent) and the United States (20 percent). == Materials == Organic bioelectronics is the application of organic electronic material to the field of bioelectronics. Organic materials (i.e. containing carbon) show great promise when it comes to interfacing with biological systems. Current applications focus around neuroscience and infection. Conducting polymer coatings, an organic electronic material, shows massive improvement in the technology of materials. It was the most sophisticated form of electrical stimulation. It improved the impedance of electrodes in electrical stimulation, resulting in better recordings and reducing "harmful electrochemical side reactions." Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECT) were invented in 1984 by Mark Wrighton and colleagues, which had the ability to transport ions. This improved signal-to-noise ratio and gives for low measured impedance. The Organic Electronic Ion Pump (OEIP), a device that could be used to target specific body parts and organs to adhere medicine, was created by Magnuss Berggren. As one of the few materials well established in CMOS technology, titanium nitride (TiN) turned out as exceptionally stable and well suited for electrode applications in medical implants. == Significant applications == Bioelectronics is used to help improve the lives of people with disabilities and diseases. For example, the glucose monitor is a portable device that allows diabetic patients to control and measure their blood sugar levels. Electrical stimulation used to treat patients with epilepsy, chronic pain, Parkinson's, deafness, Essential Tremor and blindness. Magnuss Berggren and colleagues created a variation of his OEIP, the first bioelectronic implant device that was used in a living, free animal for therapeutic reasons. It transmitted electric currents into GABA, an acid. A lack of GABA in the body is a factor in chronic pain. GABA would then be dispersed properly to the damaged nerves, acting as a painkiller. Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) is used to activate the Cholinergic Anti-inflammatory Pathway (CAP) in the vagus nerve, ending in reduced inflammation in patients with diseases like arthritis. Since patients with depression and epilepsy are more vulnerable to having a closed CAP, VNS can aid them as well. At the same time, not all the systems that have electronics used to help improving the lives of people are necessarily bioelectronic devices, but only those which involve an intimate and directly interface of electronics and biological systems. Bioelectronics could be used to develop new label-free methods for monitoring cancer cell invasion and drug resistance. For example, the electrical resistance of cancer cells could be used to predict the effectiveness of cancer drugs and to identify drugs that are most likely to be effective against a particular type of cancer. === Human tissue regeneration === Human tissue, like most tissue in multicellular life, is known to be capable of regeneration. While tissue such as skin and even large organs such as the liver have been shown significant capacity for regeneration much of the adult body is thought to possess limited natural regenerative ability. Research in the field of regenerative medicine has identified that developmental bioelectricity can be used to stimulate and modify tissue growth beyond what naturally occurs with efforts to demonstrate its feasibility in mammals underway. Some researchers believe that future advancements could allow for the regeneration of organs or even entire limbs using bioelectronic devices providing the correct signals. == Future == The improvement of standards and tools to monitor the state of cells at subcellular resolutions is lacking funding and employment. This is a problem because advances in other fields of science are beginning to analyze large cell populations, increasing the need for a device that can monitor cells at such a level of sight. Cells cannot be used in many ways other than their main purpose, like detecting harmful substances. Merging this science with forms of nanotechnology could result in incredibly accurate detection methods. The preserving of human lives like protecting against bioterrorism is the biggest area of work being done in bioelectronics. Governments are starting to demand devices and materials that detect chemical and biological threats. The more the size of the devices decrease, there will be an increase in performance and capabilities.

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  • Histogram of oriented displacements

    Histogram of oriented displacements

    Histogram of oriented displacements (HOD) is a 2D trajectory descriptor. The trajectory is described using a histogram of the directions between each two consecutive points. Given a trajectory T = {P1, P2, P3, ..., Pn}, where Pt is the 2D position at time t. For each pair of positions Pt and Pt+1, calculate the direction angle θ(t, t+1). Value of θ is between 0 and 360. A histogram of the quantized values of θ is created. If the histogram is of 8 bins, the first bin represents all θs between 0 and 45. The histogram accumulates the lengths of the consecutive moves. For each θ, a specific histogram bin is determined. The length of the line between Pt and Pt+1 is then added to the specific histogram bin. To show the intuition behind the descriptor, consider the action of waving hands. At the end of the action, the hand falls down. When describing this down movement, the descriptor does not care about the position from which the hand started to fall. This fall will affect the histogram with the appropriate angles and lengths, regardless of the position where the hand started to fall. HOD records for each moving point: how much it moves in each range of directions. HOD has a clear physical interpretation. It proposes that, a simple way to describe the motion of an object, is to indicate how much distance it moves in each direction. If the movement in all directions are saved accurately, the movement can be repeated from the initial position to the final destination regardless of the displacements order. However, the temporal information will be lost, as the order of movements is not stored-this is what we solve by applying the temporal pyramid, as shown in section \ref{sec:temp-pyramid}. If the angles quantization range is small, classifiers that use the descriptor will overfit. Generalization needs some slack in directions-which can be done by increasing the quantization range.

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  • Electronics (journal)

    Electronics (journal)

    Electronics is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that covers the study of electronics, including the design, development, and application of electronic devices, systems, and circuits. The journal is published by MDPI and was established in 2012. The editor-in-chief is Flavio Canavero 'Politecnico di Torino). The journal covers a wide range of topics related to electronics, including: electronic devices, electronic materials, electronic circuits, electronic systems, communication electronics, power electronics, and biomedical electronics. The journal also includes articles on the application of electronics in various fields, such as consumer electronics, industrial electronics, automotive electronics, and military electronics. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, and short communications. == Abstracting and indexing == EBSCO databases ProQuest databases Scopus According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2021 impact factor of 2.690.

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  • Computer aided transceiver

    Computer aided transceiver

    Computer aided transceiver (CAT) is a non-generic serial protocol used by radio amateurs for (remotely) controlling a transceiver radio receiver equipment using a computer. Conventional transmitters are manually controlled and used to transmit voice using buttons, dials, etc. However, advances in electronics have come to market devices that can be controlled by a computer and allow digital modes such as packet radio and also the use of satellite tracking, because it can continuously change the device's frequency according to the Doppler effect. This is done by connecting a Radio receiver and a PC using a CAT interface and a CAT Program Additionally, CAT interfaces can also be used to position tracking antennas, in controllers. As a satellite moves overhead. A CAT interface is a piece of hardware that connects the PC and radio that provides a connection to allows the radio and the PC to communicate with each other. The CAT interface provides the signals to and fro via correct voltage levels and in the case of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) CAT interface it requires a "protocol" for communication but communication itself is down to the radio and the software on the PC. Software that may be called a CAT program allows a radio to be controlled through the PC. Changes made on the radio through user interactions on the CAT Program are (generally) shown on the PC's screen. The functionality of CAT equipment (software & interface) depends on the radio and what features the software writers included in the CAT software. Modern radio systems do have more CAT functionality If you run a logging program that supports CAT, then that software may take advantage of the CAT system by retrieving information from the radio to help fill in log details, such as the frequency that the contact was made. CAT is also useful on many radios where there are many sub-menus in the radios menu system, and many of the sub-menu items can be easily changed via the PC. On many HF radios, the CAT system is also used to program the memories on the radio, but you would need to use appropriate programming software. A CAT interface does not receive or transmit any DATA mode, that is the purpose of a DATA interface. Although, both may be used at the same time with the correct CAT Equipment. DATA modes, and getting audio to and from the PC is the function of a DATA interface. A completely different thing but it is easier and more useful when CAT and DATA are used at the same time. Wouldn't it be nice to have an interface that could operate Frequency-shift keying (FSK), Audio FSK (AFSK), (real) Morse Code (CW), with a CAT interface and its own sound card..... (eg. The DigiMaster Pro3).

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  • COVFEFE Act

    COVFEFE Act

    The Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act (COVFEFE Act), House Bill H.R. 2884, was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on June 12, 2017, during the 115th United States Congress. The bill was intended to amend the Presidential Records Act to preserve Twitter posts and other social media interactions of the President of the United States and require the National Archives to store such items. H.R. 2884 was assigned to the House Oversight and Reform Committee for consideration. While in committee, there were no roll call votes related to the bill. The bill died in committee. U.S. Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, introduced the legislation due to Donald Trump's routine use of Twitter, stating "In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets. If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference". If enacted, the bill "would bar the prolifically tweeting president from deleting his posts, as he has sometimes done". The COVFEFE Act would have also treated a president's personal social media accounts (e.g., Trump's "@realDonaldTrump" Twitter account) the same as official social media accounts (e.g., the "@POTUS" Twitter account). == Background == The bill title refers to "covfefe", a word in a May 31, 2017 tweet that Trump sent at 12:06 AM EDT, reading "Despite the constant negative press covfefe". This incomplete tweet was liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, making it one of the most popular tweets of 2017, as people speculated on its meaning. The tweet was deleted at 5:48 AM EDT. At 6:09 AM EDT, Trump's account tweeted "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!" During the May 31 White House press briefing, Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the tweet and if there was any concern about the president sending out incoherent tweets that stay up for hours. Spicer responded, "I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant" and offered no other explanation. This unexpected response spawned additional media attention and criticism for its cryptic meaning, with commentators unsure whether or not Spicer was joking. Callum Borchers of The Washington Post's The Fix noted that the Trump administration deliberately responded in a way that encouraged the media and the public to focus on covfefe instead of other controversies like the Russia investigation, resignation of White House communications director Michael Dubke, or U.S.-Germany relations. == Legal significance of Trump's tweeting == Trump's tweets have been legally significant in the past. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that Trump's tweets are "considered official statements by the President of the United States". Some of his tweets have contradicted his agenda by undercutting or contradicting statements of public officials as well as the arguments of U.S. Department of Justice attorneys seeking to defend Trump's decisions in court. A federal appellate court cited one of Trump's tweets in upholding a lower court's order blocking Trump's Executive Order 13780 from going into effect in 2017. Courts have been clear that Twitter statements can be used as evidence of intent. Before Trump's "@realDonaldTrump" Twitter account was suspended, he blocked a number of users, preventing them from viewing his tweets or posting public replies. A group associated with Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of blocked users, called Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump. Plaintiffs successfully argued that @realDonaldTrump reply threads constituted a "designated public forum" akin to a public meeting, and therefore blocking users based on their political viewpoints violated their constitutional right to freedom of speech. The Second Circuit upheld this ruling on July 9, 2019. Regardless of the failure of the bill, Trump's tweets have been archived in accordance with the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014.

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  • Second-order co-occurrence pointwise mutual information

    Second-order co-occurrence pointwise mutual information

    In computational linguistics, second-order co-occurrence pointwise mutual information (SOC-PMI) is a method used to measure semantic similarity, or how close in meaning two words are. The method does not require the two words to appear together in a text. Instead, it works by analyzing the "neighbor" words that typically appear alongside each of the two target words in a large body of text (corpus). If the two target words frequently share the same neighbors, they are considered semantically similar. For example, the words "cemetery" and "graveyard" may not appear in the same sentence often, but they both frequently appear near words like "buried," "dead," and "funeral." SOC-PMI uses this shared context to determine that they have a similar meaning. The method is called "second-order" because it doesn't look at the direct co-occurrence of the target words (which would be first-order), but at the co-occurrence of their neighbors (a second level of association). The strength of these associations is quantified using pointwise mutual information (PMI). == History == The method builds on earlier work like the PMI-IR algorithm, which used the AltaVista search engine to calculate word association probabilities. The key advantage of a second-order approach like SOC-PMI is its ability to measure similarity between words that do not co-occur often, or at all. The British National Corpus (BNC) has been used as a source for word frequencies and contexts for this method. == Methodology == The SOC-PMI algorithm measures the similarity between two words, w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} and w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} , in several steps. === Step 1: Score neighboring words with PMI === First, for each target word ( w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} and w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} ), the algorithm identifies its "neighbor" words within a certain text window (e.g., within 5 words to the left or right) across a large corpus. The strength of the association between a target word t i {\displaystyle t_{i}} and its neighbor w {\displaystyle w} is calculated using pointwise mutual information (PMI). A higher PMI value means the two words appear together more often than would be expected by chance. The PMI between a target word t i {\displaystyle t_{i}} and a neighbor word w {\displaystyle w} is calculated as: f pmi ( t i , w ) = log 2 ⁡ f b ( t i , w ) × m f t ( t i ) f t ( w ) {\displaystyle f^{\text{pmi}}(t_{i},w)=\log _{2}{\frac {f^{b}(t_{i},w)\times m}{f^{t}(t_{i})f^{t}(w)}}} where: f b ( t i , w ) {\displaystyle f^{b}(t_{i},w)} is the number of times t i {\displaystyle t_{i}} and w {\displaystyle w} appear together in the context window. f t ( t i ) {\displaystyle f^{t}(t_{i})} is the total number of times t i {\displaystyle t_{i}} appears in the corpus. f t ( w ) {\displaystyle f^{t}(w)} is the total number of times w {\displaystyle w} appears in the corpus. m {\displaystyle m} is the total number of tokens (words) in the corpus. === Step 2: Create a semantic 'signature' for each word === For each target word ( w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} and w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} ), the algorithm creates a list of its most significant neighbors. This is done by taking the top β {\displaystyle \beta } neighbor words, sorted in descending order by their PMI score with the target word. This list of top neighbors, X w {\displaystyle X^{w}} , acts as a semantic "signature" for the word w {\displaystyle w} . X w = { X i w } {\displaystyle X^{w}=\{X_{i}^{w}\}} , for i = 1 , 2 , … , β {\displaystyle i=1,2,\ldots ,\beta } The size of this list, β {\displaystyle \beta } , is a parameter of the method. === Step 3: Compare the signatures === The algorithm then compares the signatures of w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} and w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} . It looks for words that are present in both signatures. The similarity of w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} to w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} is calculated by summing the PMI scores of w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} with every word in w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} 's signature list. The β {\displaystyle \beta } -PMI summation function defines this score. The score for w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} with respect to w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} is: f ( w 1 , w 2 , β ) = ∑ i = 1 β ( f pmi ( X i w 1 , w 2 ) ) γ {\displaystyle f(w_{1},w_{2},\beta )=\sum _{i=1}^{\beta }(f^{\text{pmi}}(X_{i}^{w_{1}},w_{2}))^{\gamma }} This sum only includes terms where the PMI value is positive. The exponent γ {\displaystyle \gamma } (with a value > 1) is used to give more weight to neighbors that are more strongly associated with w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} . This calculation is done in both directions: The similarity of w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} with respect to w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} : f ( w 1 , w 2 , β 1 ) = ∑ i = 1 β 1 ( f pmi ( X i w 1 , w 2 ) ) γ {\displaystyle f(w_{1},w_{2},\beta _{1})=\sum _{i=1}^{\beta _{1}}(f^{\text{pmi}}(X_{i}^{w_{1}},w_{2}))^{\gamma }} The similarity of w 2 {\displaystyle w_{2}} with respect to w 1 {\displaystyle w_{1}} : f ( w 2 , w 1 , β 2 ) = ∑ i = 1 β 2 ( f pmi ( X i w 2 , w 1 ) ) γ {\displaystyle f(w_{2},w_{1},\beta _{2})=\sum _{i=1}^{\beta _{2}}(f^{\text{pmi}}(X_{i}^{w_{2}},w_{1}))^{\gamma }} === Step 4: Calculate final similarity score === Finally, the total semantic similarity is the average of the two scores from the previous step. S i m ( w 1 , w 2 ) = f ( w 1 , w 2 , β 1 ) β 1 + f ( w 2 , w 1 , β 2 ) β 2 {\displaystyle \mathrm {Sim} (w_{1},w_{2})={\frac {f(w_{1},w_{2},\beta _{1})}{\beta _{1}}}+{\frac {f(w_{2},w_{1},\beta _{2})}{\beta _{2}}}} This score can be normalized to fall between 0 and 1. For example, using this method, the words cemetery and graveyard achieve a high similarity score of 0.986 (with specific parameter settings).

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  • Digital media in education

    Digital media in education

    Digital media in education refers to the use of digital technologies to support and enhance teaching and learning processes. This includes the application of multiple digital software applications, devices, and online platforms as tools for learning. Learners interact with these technologies to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media content and communication in various forms. The integration of digital media in education has dramatically increased over time, significantly transforming traditional educational practices. When viewed through a global and inclusive lens, digital education should be guided by principles of equity, inclusion, and public infrastructure to ensure meaningful participation of all learners. == History == === 20th century === Technological advances in the 20th century, particularly the invention of the Internet, laid the foundation for incorporating technology into education. In the early 1900s, the overhead projector and instructional radio broadcasts were among the first technologies used for educational purposes. The introduction of computers in classrooms occurred in 1950, when a flight simulation program was developed to train pilots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, access to computers remained extremely limited for several decades. In 1964, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz developed the BASIC programming language, which simplified computer interaction and introduced time-sharing, enabling multiple users to work on the same system simultaneously. This innovation made computing increasingly accessible for educational settings. By the 1980s, schools began to show more interest in computers as companies released mass-market devices to the public. Networking further enabled the interconnection of computers into unified communication systems, which proved more efficient and cost-effective than previous stand-alone machines. This development prompted wider adoption of computing in educational institutions. The invention of the World Wide Web in 1992 further simplified internet navigation and sparked further interest in educational settings. Initially, computers were integrated into school curricula for tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet creation, and data organization. By the late 1990s, the Internet became a research tool, functioning as a vast library. By 1999, 99% of public school teachers in the United States reported having access to at least one computer in their schools, and 84% had a computer available in their classrooms. The emergence of World Wide Web also contributed to the development of learning management systems (LMS), which allowed educators to create online teaching environments for content storage, student activities, discussions, and assignments. Advances in digital compression and high-speed Internet made video creation and distribution more affordable, fostering the use of the systems designed for recording lectures. These tools were often incorporated into learning management platforms, supporting the expansion of fully online courses. === 21st century === By 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began offering recorded lectures to the public, marking a significant milestone in the movement toward accessible online education. The launch of YouTube in 2005 further transformed educational content distribution. Educators increasingly uploaded lectures and instructional videos on platforms with initiatives like Khan Academy, which was active in 2006, contributing to You Tube's role as a prominent educational resource. In 2007, Apple launched iTunesU, another platform for sharing educational resources and videos. Meanwhile, learning management systems gained popularity, with Blackboard and Canvas becoming two of the most widely used platforms with Canvas's release in 2008. That same year also marked the introduction of the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which provided open access to webinars and expert-led instructions for global learners. As technology evolved, traditional projectors were gradually replaced by interactive whiteboards, which enabled educators to integrate digital tools more effectively in their classrooms. By 2009, 97% of classrooms in the United States had at least one computer, and 93% had Internet access. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced schools across the world to close, significantly impacted education with schools shifting to distance education. Students attended classes remotely using devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets, supported by digital platforms that facilitated at-home learning environments. However, adapting assessment methods to the new learning environment posed certain challenges. A study conducted by Eddie M. Mulenga and José M. Marbán on Zambian students during the pandemic revealed difficulties in adapting to digital learning, particularly in subjects like mathematics. Similar issues were reported among students in Romania, where the transition to virtual learning presented significant obstacles in engagement and adaptability. === Post-pandemic developments === In the period following the onset of COVID-19, education systems worldwide rapidly adopted digital solutions to maintain continuity of learning and teaching. By the end of March 2020, all 46 OECD and partners countries closed some or all of their schools nationwide. By June 2020, the length of school closures in these countries ranged from 7 to over 18 weeks. These disruptions in formal education prompted governments and educators to quickly adopt digital learning. This global shift to online education highlighted considerable inequalities in digital access, although many systems struggled with inequitable access, especially in regions lacking devices, stable internet connections, or conducive home learning environments. Stimultaneously, commercial educational technology (ed-tech) companies introduced rapid digital solutions to the disruption caused by the pandemic. This led to what has been described as a "seller's market," where the urgency of implementation may cause the prioritization of availability and scale over pedagogical and equity considerations. In the post-pandemic era, digital media in education continues to evolve. It increasingly intersects with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as adaptive learning platforms, AI-enabled content generation, and personalized learning environments. These tools enhance global engagement and access but also raise concerns about infrastructure, inclusivity, ethical implementation as well as critical pedagogies. Scholars recommend that educators and policymakers adopt inclusive practices, prioritize equitable infrastructure, and develop critical digital literacy. Facer and Selwyn also emphasize the need for public digital infrastructure and sustainable and justice-oriented policies that empower all learners. Overall, these perspectives reflect a growing consensus that digital media in education should be implemented critically to promote inclusive, multimodal, and future-oriented learning environments.

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  • WebGL

    WebGL

    WebGL (short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated usage of physics, image processing, and effects in the HTML canvas. WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and composited with other parts of the page or page background. WebGL programs consist of control code written in JavaScript, and shader code written in OpenGL ES Shading Language (GLSL ES, sometimes referred to as ESSL), a language similar to C or C++. WebGL code is executed on a computer's GPU. WebGL is designed and maintained by the non-profit Khronos Group. On February 9, 2022, Khronos Group announced WebGL 2.0 support from all major browsers. From 2024, a new graphics API, WebGPU, is being developed to supersede WebGL. WebGPU provides extended capabilities, a more modern interface, and direct GPU access, which is useful for demanding graphics as well as AI applications. == Design == WebGL 1.0 is based on OpenGL ES 2.0 and provides an API for 3D graphics. It uses the HTML5 canvas element and is accessed using Document Object Model (DOM) interfaces. WebGL 2.0 is based on OpenGL ES 3.0. It guarantees the availability of many optional extensions of WebGL 1.0, and exposes new APIs. Automatic memory management is provided implicitly by JavaScript. Like OpenGL ES 2.0, WebGL lacks the fixed-function APIs introduced in OpenGL 1.0 and deprecated in OpenGL 3.0. This functionality, if required, has to be implemented by the developer using shader code and JavaScript. Shaders in WebGL are written in GLSL and passed to the WebGL API as text strings. The WebGL implementation compiles these strings to GPU code. This code is executed for each vertex sent through the API and for each pixel rasterized to the screen. == History == WebGL evolved out of the Canvas 3D experiments started by Vladimir Vukićević at Mozilla. Vukićević first demonstrated a Canvas 3D prototype in 2006. By the end of 2007, both Mozilla and Opera had made their own separate implementations. In early 2009, the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group started the WebGL Working Group, with initial participation from Apple, Google, Mozilla, Opera, and others. Version 1.0 of the WebGL specification was released March 2011. An early application of WebGL was Zygote Body. In November 2012 Autodesk announced that they ported most of their applications to the cloud running on local WebGL clients. These applications included Autodesk Fusion and AutoCAD. Development of the WebGL 2 specification started in 2013 and finished in January 2017. The specification is based on OpenGL ES 3.0. First implementations are in Firefox 51, Chrome 56 and Opera 43. == Implementations == === Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine === Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine (ANGLE) is an open source graphic engine which implements WebGL 1.0 (2.0 which closely conforms to ES 3.0) and OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 standards. It is a default backend for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox on Windows platforms and works by translating WebGL and OpenGL calls to available platform-specific APIs. ANGLE currently provides access to OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 to desktop OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Direct3D 9, and Direct3D 11 APIs. ″[Google] Chrome uses ANGLE for all graphics rendering on Windows, including the accelerated Canvas2D implementation and the Native Client sandbox environment.″ == Software == WebGL is widely supported by modern browsers. However, its availability depends on other factors, too, like whether the GPU supports it. The official WebGL website offers a simple test page. More detailed information (like what renderer the browser uses, and what extensions are available) can be found at third-party websites. === Desktop browsers === Source: Google Chrome – WebGL 1.0 has been enabled on all platforms that have a capable graphics card with updated drivers since version 9, released in February 2011. By default on Windows, Chrome uses the ANGLE (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine) renderer to translate OpenGL ES to Direct X 9.0c or 11.0, which have better driver support. However, on Linux and Mac OS X, the default renderer is OpenGL. It is also possible to force OpenGL as the renderer on Windows. Since September 2013, Chrome also has a newer Direct3D 11 renderer, which requires a newer graphics card. Chrome 56+ supports WebGL 2.0. Firefox – WebGL 1.0 has been enabled on all platforms that have a capable graphics card with updated drivers since version 4.0. Since 2013 Firefox also uses DirectX on the Windows platform via ANGLE. Firefox 51+ supports WebGL 2.0. Safari – Safari 6.0 and newer versions installed on OS X Mountain Lion, Mac OS X Lion and Safari 5.1 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard implemented support for WebGL 1.0, which was disabled by default before Safari 8.0. Safari version 12 (available in MacOS Mojave) has available support for WebGL 2.0 as an "Experimental" feature. Safari 15 enables WebGL 2.0 for all users. Opera – WebGL 1.0 has been implemented in Opera 11 and 12, but was disabled by default in 2014. Opera 43+ supports WebGL 2.0. Internet Explorer – WebGL 1.0 is partially supported in Internet Explorer 11. Internet Explorer initially failed most of the official WebGL conformance tests, but Microsoft later released several updates. The latest 0.94 WebGL engine currently passes ≈97% of Khronos tests. WebGL support can also be manually added to earlier versions of Internet Explorer using third-party plugins such as IEWebGL. Microsoft Edge – For Microsoft Edge Legacy, the initial stable release supports WebGL version 0.95 (context name: "experimental-webgl") with an open source GLSL to HLSL transpiler. Version 10240+ supports WebGL 1.0 as prefixed. Latest Chromium-based Edge supports WebGL 2.0. === Mobile browsers === Google Chrome – WebGL 1.0 is supported on Android as of Chrome 25. WebGL 2.0 is supported on Android as of Chrome 58. Chrome is used for the Android system webview as of Android 5. Firefox for mobile – WebGL 1.0 is available for Android devices since Firefox 4. Safari on iOS – WebGL 1.0 is available for mobile Safari in iOS 8. WebGL 2.0 is available for mobile Safari in iOS 15. Microsoft Edge – Prefixed WebGL 1.0 was available on Windows 10 Mobile.. Latest Chromium-based Edge supports WebGL 2.0. Opera Mobile – Opera Mobile 12 supports WebGL 1.0 (on Android only). Sailfish OS – WebGL 1.0 is supported in the default Sailfish browser. Tizen – WebGL 1.0 is supported == Tools and ecosystem == === Utilities === The low-level nature of the WebGL API, which provides little on its own to quickly create desirable 3D graphics, motivated the creation of higher-level libraries that abstract common operations (e.g. loading scene graphs and 3D objects in certain formats; applying linear transformations to shaders or view frustums). Some such libraries were ported to JavaScript from other languages. Examples of libraries that provide high-level features include A-Frame (VR), BabylonJS, PlayCanvas, three.js, OSG.JS, Google’s model-viewer and CopperLicht. Web3D also made a project called X3DOM to make X3D and VRML content run on WebGL. === Games === There has been an emergence of 2D and 3D game engines for WebGL, such as Unreal Engine 4 and Unity. The Stage3D/Flash-based Away3D high-level library also has a port to WebGL via TypeScript. A more light-weight utility library that provides just the vector and matrix math utilities for shaders is sylvester.js. It is sometimes used in conjunction with a WebGL specific extension called glUtils.js. There are also some 2D libraries built atop WebGL, like Cocos2d-x or Pixi.js, which were implemented this way for performance reasons in a move that parallels what happened with the Starling Framework over Stage3D in the Flash world. The WebGL-based 2D libraries fall back to HTML5 canvas when WebGL is not available. Removing the rendering bottleneck by giving almost direct access to the GPU has exposed performance limitations in the JavaScript implementations. Some were addressed by asm.js and WebAssembly (similarly, the introduction of Stage3D exposed performance problems within ActionScript, which were addressed by projects like CrossBridge). === Content creation === As with any other graphics API, creating content for WebGL scenes requires using a 3D content creation tool and exporting the scene to a format that is readable by the viewer or helper library. Desktop 3D authoring software such as Blender, Autodesk Maya or SimLab Composer can be used for this purpose. In particular, Blend4Web allows a WebGL scene to be authored entirely in Blender and exported to a browser with a single click, even as a standalone web page. There are also some WebGL-specific software such as CopperCube and the online WebGL-based editor Clara.io. Online platforms such as Sketchfab and Clara.io allow users to directly upload their 3D models

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  • Paperless society

    Paperless society

    A paperless society is a society in which paper communication (written documents, email, letters, etc.) is replaced by electronic communication and storage. The concept was first introduced by Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster in 1978. Furthermore, libraries would no longer be needed to handle printed documents. "Librarians will, in time, become information specialists in a deinstitutionalized setting". Lancaster also stated that both computers and libraries will not always give us the information that other people and living life will. == Literature == Brodman, E. (1979). Review of Toward Paperless Information Systems. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 67(4), 437–439. Buckland, M. K. (1980). Review of Toward Paperless Information Systems. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 5(6), 349. Grosch, A. (1979). Review of Toward Paperless Information Systems. College & Research Libraries, 40(1), 88–89. Kohl, D. F. (2004). From the editor . . . The paperless society . . . Not quite yet. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(3), 177–178. Lancaster, F. W. (1978a). Toward paperless information systems. New York: Academic Press. Lancaster, F. W. (1980b). The future of the librarian lies outside of the library. Catholic Library World, 51, 388–391. Lancaster, F. W. (1982a). Libraries and librarians in an age of electronics. Arlington, VA: Information Resources Press. Lancaster, F. W. (1982b). The evolving paperless society and its implications for libraries. International Forum on Information and Documentation, 7(4), 3–10. Lancaster, F. W. (1983). Future librarianship: Preparing for an unconventional career. Wilson Library Bulletin, 57, 747–753. Lancaster, F. W. (1985). The paperless society revisited. American Libraries, 16, 553–555. Lancaster, F. W. (1993). Libraries and the future: Essays on the library in the twenty-first century. New York: Haworth Press. Lancaster, F. W. (1999). Second thoughts on the paperless society. Library Journal, 124(15), 48– 50. Lancaster, F. W., & Smith, L. C. (1980c). On-Line systems in the communication process: Projections. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 31(3), 193–200. Miall, D. S. (2001). The library versus the Internet: Literary studies under siege? Proceedings of the Modern Language Association, 116(5), 1405–1414. Salton, G. (1979). Review of Toward Paperless Information Systems. Journal of Documentation, 35(3), 250–252. Sellen, A. J., & Harper, R. H. R. (2003). The myth of the paperless office. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Stevens, N. D. (2006). The fully electronic academic library. College & Research Libraries, 67(1),5–14. Young, Arthur P. (2008).Aftermath of a Prediction: F. W. Lancaster and the Paperless Society LIBRARY TRENDS, 56(4),(“The Evaluation and Transformation of Information Systems: Essays Honoring the Legacy of F. W. Lancaster,” edited by Lorraine J. Haricombe and Keith Russell), pp. 843–858.

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  • Creately

    Creately

    Creately is a SaaS visual collaboration tool with diagramming and design capabilities designed by Cinergix. The application is mostly known for creating flowcharts, organization charts, project charts, UML diagrams, mind maps, and other business visuals. == History == The initial beta version of Creately was released by Chandika Jayasundara. Hiraash Thawfeek, Nick Foster and Charanjit Singh joined the project in the same year. Chandika Jayasundara is CEO of Cinergix. The headquarters of the company is located at Mentone, Victoria, Australia. == Features and reception == Creately provides predefined templates and diagram elements for incorporating in the projects. It provides drag and drop feature with which both predefined and custom made shapes can be included to build the desired diagram while the same workspace can be shared with multiple persons for collaboration. Some experts have reviewed the application by commenting on its lacking in accessible integration options as its downside. The company claims Creately to have integration feature with Slack, Confluence while not having the integration with Zapier and OneDrive yet. It is compatible with Google Drive and Dropbox. The software is available as both freemium and paid option.

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  • Industry Dive

    Industry Dive

    Industry Dive is a United States-based business-to-business news organization with an estimated 18 million readers in more than 25 industries, such as banking and waste management. Since 2022, it has been owned by Informa plc. Industry Dive aims to serve business executives who read news on their mobile phones. The company had an estimated revenue of more than of more than $110 million in 2023. As of 2020, it has more than 300 employees, including 80 journalists and 12 engineers. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C. == History == Industry Dive was formed in 2012 by Sean Griffey (president), Eli Dickinson (chief technology officer), and Ryan Willumson (chief revenue officer). It was funded with $900,000 from private investors in 2012 and 2013. The company covered five industries: construction, education, marketing, utility, and waste. In 2016, it began its Dive Awards. Industry Dive's revenues quadrupled from 2015 to 2018, putting it in the top half of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and the top 20 percent of the Inc. Top 5000 list. In 2019, Falfurrias Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in the company. ID's content marketing clients included IBM, Siemens, and UPS. In 2020, DCA Live named Industry Dive to its "Red Hot Companies" list, which recognizes the D.C. area's 'fastest-growing' companies. In the same year, Industry Dive acquired CFO. In 2021, Industry Dive acquired PharmaVOICE. In 2022, it was purchased by Informa plc, which bought its majority stake from Falfurrias Capital Partners for about $530 million. == Publications == Industry Dive provides news coverage of a variety of industries including agriculture, banking, construction, education, fashion, healthcare, and manufacturing, each using a different website: == Awards == Industry Dive publications have received several national and regional Awards of Excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors, including for a series of 2020 articles about Big Pharma and the race for the coronavirus vaccine. The Washington Post recognized Industry Dive as a top place to work for four consecutive years, from 2016 to 2020.

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  • Proximedia Group

    Proximedia Group

    Proximedia Group is a Belgian media group. == History == Proximedia Belgium was founded in 1998, by Fabrice Wuyts and Eric Glachant. The company specializes in providing websites for SMEs. The Proximedia Group SA was founded in 1999 and became the coordinating organization of Proximedia Belgium, Online, Bizbook Channel, Globule Bleu bvba, Click+, Proximedia France, Proximedia Nederland, and Proximedia Spain. The Proximedia Group has been listed at the Free Market of Euronext Brussels since 2005. In 2007, the Proximedia Group founded the Bizbook Channel. This branch specialized in creating corporate videos. In 2008, Proximedia SA took over the web agency Globule Bleu. The following year, Proximedia launched the brand BeUP. They were also elected ‘Enterprise of The Year 2009’ by Ernst & Young. Proximedia launched two new services in 2011: Videobiz and Promobook. In 2012, the Bizbook Channel was launched. Proximedia was acquired by Publicis Groupe S.A. in July 2014. == Branches == Proximedia Belgium: the oldest branch of the Proximedia Group. It makes websites and provides support for their customers. Similar branches are Proximedia France and Proximedia Nederland. Batibouw +: specialized in bringing contractors and clients together. Bizbook Channel: specialized in creating corporate videos for SMEs. Click+: offers the management of Google AdWords campaigns. This contains advertising in Google's search results. Globule Bleu: specialized in digital campaigns for larger companies or organisations. Online: an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides internet access, domain names, hosting of websites and data centers, email service, etc. Bizbook: an online guestbook where users can post reviews on products and services of a company. Promobook: an online service which can be used to print promotions and coupons. == Key figures == == Sale tactics and lawsuits == There are a lot of websites, forums and blogs that warn for Proximedia. This is because of the long duration of the contract, the inability to terminate the contract and the alleged aggressive approach of Proximedia and the alleged low quality of service that Proximedia offers. Also, there are a lot of lawsuits every month, some of which are customers that wish to terminate the contract, others that allege Proximedia of misguiding. List of some example lawsuits: Mitigation of contractual termination compensation on the basis of article 6:248 paragraph 2 of the Dutch Civil Code A clause on the basis of which a termination fee is claimed can be considered a penalty clause. Mitigation of the penalty based on article 6:94 of the Dutch Civil Code? Performance claim rejected; successful appeal to breach of contract; dissolution; restitution claim awarded. Agreement for IT services. Contents of the agreement. No reflex effect of the Door-to-Door Sales Act for small entrepreneurs. Implementation Act of the Consumer Rights Directive. Breach of contract? Unreasonably onerous clause? Cassation: ECLI:NL:HR:2016:996, (Partial) annulment with referral. Final judgment: ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2014:4228 Error. Reflex effect of the unfair commercial practices law? Compelling evidentiary force of written agreement. (No summary provided by court) Proximedia case. No valid defense against the claim concerning a number of monthly invoices. Article 7.1 of the agreement (containing a termination fee) is a general term in the sense of article 6:231 introductory text and under a of the Dutch Civil Code. No "reflex effect" of article 6:237 introductory text and under i of the Dutch Civil Code. Insufficiently argued why article 7.1 would be unreasonably onerous in the sense of article 6:233 of the Dutch Civil Code and that granting the claim would be unacceptable according to standards of reasonableness and fairness. Termination fee is not a penalty in the sense of article 6:91 of the Dutch Civil Code. A retailer (sole proprietorship) is approached by a representative of a company and enters into an "agreement for IT services" with a term of four years, which includes a dissolution fee of 60% of the not yet due monthly payments. The retailer is instructed to prove that, at the time of entering the agreement, the company promised him that he could terminate the agreement without any further obligations if he terminated his business. The retailer is considered to have succeeded in the burden of proof, and the company's claim for payment of the dissolution fee is rejected.

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