#relational database model

[nitor-infotech]

Discover how Database sharding can transform your application's performance by distributing data across multiple servers in our latest blog. With insights into key sharding techniques, you'll further learn how to implement sharding effectively and avoid common pitfalls.

As you move forward, this blog will help you dive into real-life use cases to understand how sharding can optimize data management. Lastly, you'll get the most important factors to consider before sharding your database and learning to navigate the complexities of database management. 

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Children's Death Comprehension

Psychology contributes to the understanding of the human encounter with death in many ways.

Stages of Death Comprehension in Childhood:

STAGE — AGE RANGE — INTERPRETATION OF DEATH

1 — 3 to 5 — Death is separation; the dead are less alive; very curious about death

2 — 5 to 9 — Death is final, but one might escape it!

3 — 9 to adult — Death is personal, universal, final, and inevitable

Precisely how does the child’s understanding of death develop?

The most influential answer derived from a study by Hungarian psychologist Maria Nagy (1948) who interviewed children and asked them to draw death-related pictures.

"Auntie Death," as she was affectionately called, found a stage-like progression, as summarized above.

These findings provide a useful database for contemporary studies although personifications of death in childhood have been relatively uncommon in subsequent studies, and the variables of developmental level and personal experiences with death have received more attention.

Five other points are worth consideration in comprehending the child’s orientation toward death:

Even the youngest children are aware of separation and its threat to their survival. One does not have to understand the mature adult model of death in order to respond to the experience of loss.

Young children do occasionally express spontaneous insight into the finality of death, as when encountering a dead animal or withered plant; however, there is often a retreat from this realization and a return to more limited and wish-fulfilling ideas.

Children have a lively curiosity about death, leading at times to questions or little experiments that can unsettle adults (e.g., taking a caterpillar apart to see if it can be put back together again and made to go). The brightest and most observant children usually show the most curiosity.

Adults often exclude children from death-related conversations and respond to their questions with evasion and anxiety. A rule of silence regarding death applies in many homes, and with particular force to children.

Adults who are committed to preparing children for life should themselves be prepared to serve as mentors and guides as children encounter death in either reality or fantasy. Many parents have reported their discomfort in trying to help their children deal with death-related questions and experiences because they had so little guidance in their own childhood.

Source ⚜ More: On Psychology

[jstor]

I saw something about generative AI on JSTOR. Can you confirm whether you really are implementing it and explain why? I’m pretty sure most of your userbase hates AI.

A generative AI/machine learning research tool on JSTOR is currently in beta, meaning that it's not fully integrated into the platform. This is an opportunity to determine how this technology may be helpful in parsing through dense academic texts to make them more accessible and gauge their relevancy.

To JSTOR, this is primarily a learning experience. We're looking at how beta users are engaging with the tool and the results that the tool is producing to get a sense of its place in academia.

In order to understand what we're doing a bit more, it may help to take a look at what the tool actually does. From a recent blog post:

Content evaluation

Problem: Traditionally, researchers rely on metadata, abstracts, and the first few pages of an article to evaluate its relevance to their work. In humanities and social sciences scholarship, which makes up the majority of JSTOR’s content, many items lack abstracts, meaning scholars in these areas (who in turn are our core cohort of users) have one less option for efficient evaluation. 

When using a traditional keyword search in a scholarly database, a query might return thousands of articles that a user needs significant time and considerable skill to wade through, simply to ascertain which might in fact be relevant to what they’re looking for, before beginning their search in earnest.

Solution: We’ve introduced two capabilities to help make evaluation more efficient, with the aim of opening the researcher’s time for deeper reading and analysis:

Summarize, which appears in the tool interface as “What is this text about,” provides users with concise descriptions of key document points. On the back-end, we’ve optimized the Large Language Model (LLM) prompt for a concise but thorough response, taking on the task of prompt engineering for the user by providing advanced direction to:

Extract the background, purpose, and motivations of the text provided.

Capture the intent of the author without drawing conclusions.

Limit the response to a short paragraph to provide the most important ideas presented in the text.

Search term context is automatically generated as soon as a user opens a text from search results, and provides information on how that text relates to the search terms the user has used. Whereas the summary allows the user to quickly assess what the item is about, this feature takes evaluation to the next level by automatically telling the user how the item is related to their search query, streamlining the evaluation process.

Discovering new paths for exploration

Problem: Once a researcher has discovered content of value to their work, it’s not always easy to know where to go from there. While JSTOR provides some resources, including a “Cited by” list as well as related texts and images, these pathways are limited in scope and not available for all texts. Especially for novice researchers, or those just getting started on a new project or exploring a novel area of literature, it can be needlessly difficult and frustrating to gain traction. 

Solution: Two capabilities make further exploration less cumbersome, paving a smoother path for researchers to follow a line of inquiry:

Recommended topics are designed to assist users, particularly those who may be less familiar with certain concepts, by helping them identify additional search terms or refine and narrow their existing searches. This feature generates a list of up to 10 potential related search queries based on the document’s content. Researchers can simply click to run these searches.

Related content empowers users in two significant ways. First, it aids in quickly assessing the relevance of the current item by presenting a list of up to 10 conceptually similar items on JSTOR. This allows users to gauge the document’s helpfulness based on its relation to other relevant content. Second, this feature provides a pathway to more content, especially materials that may not have surfaced in the initial search. By generating a list of related items, complete with metadata and direct links, users can extend their research journey, uncovering additional sources that align with their interests and questions.

Supporting comprehension

Problem: You think you have found something that could be helpful for your work. It’s time to settle in and read the full document… working through the details, making sure they make sense, figuring out how they fit into your thesis, etc. This all takes time and can be tedious, especially when working through many items. 

Solution: To help ensure that users find high quality items, the tool incorporates a conversational element that allows users to query specific points of interest. This functionality, reminiscent of CTRL+F but for concepts, offers a quicker alternative to reading through lengthy documents. 

By asking questions that can be answered by the text, users receive responses only if the information is present. The conversational interface adds an accessibility layer as well, making the tool more user-friendly and tailored to the diverse needs of the JSTOR user community.

Credibility and source transparency

We knew that, for an AI-powered tool to truly address user problems, it would need to be held to extremely high standards of credibility and transparency. On the credibility side, JSTOR’s AI tool uses only the content of the item being viewed to generate answers to questions, effectively reducing hallucinations and misinformation. 

On the transparency front, responses include inline references that highlight the specific snippet of text used, along with a link to the source page. This makes it clear to the user where the response came from (and that it is a credible source) and also helps them find the most relevant parts of the text. 

[bluexolux]

i have a death note superhero au living in my head but everything i make relating to it sucks so you all just have to trust me on this one okay…

some random stuff i’ve thought of for anyone interested:

light is more of a vigilante who goes by the name of “kira” (shocker). while he typically punishes villains, he does sometimes fight heroes who he deems unworthy of the title. his powers consist of super strength and flight. he gets stronger the longer a battle takes.

misa is a hero who goes by “misa-misa.” her identity is hardly a secret. she does a lot of model/acting work when she’s not fighting crime. her main power is being able to charm people, which she uses to her advantage against her enemies. while she likes to flirt with kira, she’s never used her ability on him.

there are a number of objects (usually jewelry of some kind) dropped by shinigami scattered across the earth. these give the people who pick them up very strong powers. the shinigami can only be seen and heard by the person who possesses their respective object. the shinigami will often stay within the object, but they can come out to protect their owner if they desire.

light and misa both possess shinigami objects. misa had powers before obtaining it. light did not.

L, watari, near, mello, and matt all work for an agency that specializes in superhuman related crimes. the police kinda hate them for taking their cases, but occasionally they work together when the situation calls for it.

L is sort of the head of the agency. near, mello, and matt are all sort of his students (that he makes go out and do jobs for him). his power is being able to transfer his consciousness to other people. he typically uses it to get into the heads of criminals their investigating, and figure out a way to draw a confession out of them (since “i saw it in their brain” usually doesn’t cut it) (even though L could just make the suspect say they did it, he finds it to be cheating and “no fun”). he also transfers his consciousness to watari’s body when he wants to see a crime scene first hand (which has resulted in many instances where his students have found his actual body to be practically a corpse).

watari has healing powers. like i said, L usually has him go on the field for him.

near is able to transform into different people, as long as he knows their name and what they look like. he attended a pretty good school before being selected by L to work with him.

mello is “immortal,” meaning he can’t die until he reaches the end of his own life span. L and watari have kept this a secret from him though, so he is under the impression that he has no power whatsoever. he was picked up by the agency when the rest of his family was caught up in a villain attack, and he was the only survivor among them (i wonder why).

matt is able to hack into technology using his mind. for example, he can view live camera feed by just thinking of the camera he wants to look through (though, he can’t be too far away from it). he attended the same school as near before being selected to work with L.

the agency is trying to investigate kira because he has been almost (and sometimes actually) killing villains and heroes, and he’s not registered in their database (which all people with superpowers have to do). light just thinks it’s cool he has powers and he can do something about those who hurt people. it’s basically just the plot of death note but everyone has supernatural abilities.

this is all a work in progress and i’m writing half of this stuff down as i think of it but i think it’s a cool idea?? i don’t know???

[k-hippie]

BIG NOVEMBER THINGS & STUFF ... PART 1 ( K-505 UPDATE )

Hello fellows, be prepared to read, it's going to be a bit long :D

Hope you had a great Halloween ;) Some of you have noticed related download problems on our website ( We received a lot of messages about --> Thanks to all people who took time to send us a note about, it helped us )

We worked with BlueHost to reconfigure our databases <--- meaning hours with the hotline to push them hard to repair their unknown manipulations that give all the errors you encountered :/ Silly isn't it ?

It begins to be ok ... Not sure it's 100% but many errors seem to be repaired ... at last ! Crazy week indeed :)

MEANWHILE ...

MAJOR UPDATE incoming ... I finished the K-505 Base-game update <-- this is important because many things are encapsulated inside the Base-game files ! Unfortunately, Maxis modified some of these files and we were quite surprised to discover all the hidden changes ... A K-505 MAJOR UPDATE was so needed :) And it is done.

Beyond the files here and there, the most important thing of this update is the merge of Base-game + Seasons files all together.

In addition, we made complete K-505 updates for : Strangerville, Forgotten Hollow + a minor update for Sulani ( Island Living ) ...

ATTENTION : As we currently updating ALL the K-505, we re-arranged the Download Section ( a good thing anyway since BlueHost messed our databases ... :/ )

A word about the K-505 Mod ---> until Cottage Living : free doesn't mean free to steal, or use in house creation, photography posts, etc ... without crediting the tech-hippie / k-hippie team ...

We are watching. Always.

Another word related to terrains mods ---> after Cottage Living ... Even if we posted some words about, we receive numerous messages asking us to make this and that. It's OK. But let's be clear about :

We are not fond of the last 2/3/4 packs of EA for reasons of our own ...

We really though about enter in a Patreon model because we think our creations are worthing :) BUT, we dislike Patreon too for reasons of our own ...

We proposed for a long time a ko-fi/paypal volunteer system and believe me, very very very few are giving among 9000 followers. It's OK. We understand. We create too for our pleasure. BUT ...

When your priority is not ours, to make a junction, everyone should make an effort :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You use the K-505 for a long time now ? You know how it works ;) but you are always welcome to ask questions :D

You never used the K-505 but you want to have it ? Easy, put the k-505 files into your Mods folder and that's it :) If not, ask and we'll answer ;)

The K-505 Mod ( which is not really a Mod ) overrides only the graphic files of Maxis terrains, they are just DST images in .dds and so, they can only conflict with similar ID files from elsewhere.

K-505 Updated DOWNLOAD

Next Post : Discovering together the K-303 Mod and some new downloads.

Let the pixels be free and alive :) and Have Fun !

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

The tenth Doctor in journeys end (i think?) said a TARDIS is made to be piloted by 6 timelords, what roles would each have in the TARDIS?

What roles would six Time Lords have in piloting a TARDIS?

This is more speculative, based on the known features of a TARDIS.

Console Panels and Systems

A TARDIS console is split into six 'panels', with each panel operating a different aspect of the TARDIS' systems. When there are six pilots, each Time Lord would likely specialise in operating a specific panel and system. Although the console layout may change with each TARDIS's 'desktop theme,' the six fundamental panels remain the same.

[Image ID: On the left is a top-down diagram of the 9th and 10th Doctor's coral theme TARDIS, divided into six panel sections. Each section is labelled from 1-6 clockwise starting from the 12 o'clock position. On the right is a text list of the panels and their names: Panel 1: Mechanical and Master Control, Panel 2: Diagnostic and Internal Ship Systems, Panel 3: Fabrication and Information Systems, Panel 4: Navigation, Panel 5: Helm and Dematerialisation Systems, Panel 6: Communications and Exterior Monitor./.End ID]

See this page on the TARDIS Technical Index for more variations on desktop themes.

👨‍✈️ Roles and Responsibilities

Here's a breakdown of each potential role and their responsibilities:

🔧 Panel 1: Mechanical and Master Control

Role: Chief Engineer

Responsibilities: The chief engineer monitors the TARDIS's overall operation. They ensure that all the mechanical systems and master controls are working properly. If anything goes wrong, they step in and fix it.

🛠️ Panel 2: Diagnostic and Internal Ship Systems

Role: Systems Analyst

Responsibilities: This person is all about the internals. They monitor life support, environmental controls, and the internal power grid. Basically, they make sure everything inside the TARDIS is working as it should.

🖥️ Panel 3: Fabrication and Information Systems

Role: Data Specialist

Responsibilities: Managing the TARDIS’s databases and info systems, and handling any fabrication needs. Whether it’s creating new tools, repairing old ones, or just making sure the information systems are up-to-date, they’ve got it covered.

🧭 Panel 4: Navigation

Role: Navigator

Responsibilities: Plotting courses through time and space. The Navigator makes sure the TARDIS lands where it’s supposed to, calculating all those tricky temporal vectors and spatial positions. They work closely with the Pilot to make sure the journey is smooth and safe.

🚀 Panel 5: Helm and Dematerialisation Systems

Role: Pilot

Responsibilities: This is the person at the helm, controlling take-off, landing, and in-flight manoeuvres. They handle the dematerialisation and rematerialisation of the TARDIS, making sure it takes off and lands without a hitch.

📡 Panel 6: Communications and Exterior Monitor

Role: Communications Officer

Responsibilities: They handle all external communications and keep an eye on what’s going on outside, involving sending or receiving messages or watching out for any threats or anomalies.

🏫 So...

Potentially, each Time Lord on the TARDIS would have a specialised role associated with a specific panel. Ideally, they're probably all working together like a well-oiled machine. However, poor old solo pilots have to jump around like madmen trying to cover all the controls at once.

Related:

🤔|🛸🧬The Life Cycle of a TARDIS: How TARDISes are born, grow, and die.

💬|🛸🧑‍✈️Do all TARDIS models require a 6-Person crew?: Piloting through the ages.

💬|🛸🌌Can a TARDIS be altered for travel in the multiverse?: How you might go about getting to the multiverse in your TARDIS.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[mariacallous]

The White House’s war against climate initiatives extends deep into the realms of climate science and information. The Administration has dismissed researchers who were working on the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report. (Scientists are continuing the work anyway, under the aegis of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.) It has cut off funds for a climate-modelling program at Princeton, arguing that the effort contributes “to a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety.’ ” (According to the Administration’s logic—if it can be called that—worrying about climate change is bad, but climate change itself is fine.) It has deleted climate information from a range of federal websites, cancelled grants to dozens of climate-related research projects, and announced that it will no longer maintain a federal database that tracks the cost of extreme-weather events. All of this is happening as, month after month, global temperature records are being shattered. As Corey J. A. Bradshaw, a professor of global ecology at Flinders University, in Australia, noted recently: “Ignoring climate change won’t make it go away.” Trump, Bradshaw noted, seems to actually believe the Ministry of Truth’s dictum: “Ignorance is strength.”

In the context of all this carnage, the Energy Star program could be seen as just another potential victim. It is, however, an unusually well-known and popular one, and that, suggested Joe Goffman, who served as head of the E.P.A.’s Office of Air and Radiation under Joe Biden, may be the point.

“I think what we’re seeing is they’re going after programs because they’re popular,” Goffman said. “They’re going after programs because people will notice, because they are in the process of repudiating the social contract.”

Why End Energy Star?

[quinn-ro]

Can you write Larry and Lawrie headcanons, thanks <3

Well this is late lol, sorry anon for keeping this in the drafts for so long. But here it is! The— wait what?

UH OH

BLORBOS ALERT!!

(this took a while to post cuz i have a lot of ideas for them and it was hard picking which ones to chose for this itty bitty post lol)

HCs for both:

- (Reposting this one from my @brawlstarshcs submission) Regarding their last names: So, they’re robots without biological families, so they wouldn't have actual family names. But i like to think on all legal records their last names are “Ampersand”. Like, “&”spelled out. So Larry & Lawrie are literally “Larry Ampersand, Lawrie (Ampersand)”

- They weren’t powered on/born full-sized as they are now, but they first had the bodies of smaller kid/preteen sized bots before getting upgraded over time.

- They can learn hobbies/skills by just plugging themselves into the Starr Park main computer, which has a huge information database. Larry learned the law in detail that way, along with some other stuff like how to swim. Lawrie uses it way more (he's learned to shred guitar and how to kickbox, among other less work-related things).

- They share a garage/bedroom together, with their sleeping docks on opposite sides of a room that's split through the middle (yknow, the classic TV twin bedroom layout).

- They do a lot more park things than just being the police. They do virtually every law-related task in the park, not just enforcement (IRS Lawrie...). They also go on bodyguard duty for the famous performers like Melodie and Draco, and funnily enough they're even trained with doing lifeguard duty when Buzz and Doug are unavailable. Larry and Lawrie (R-T too) basically are the park, at least the back-stage/logistics part of it.

- Larry's more of an optimist, and Lawrie's more of a realist (not a pessimist necessarily, but i headcanon he's maybe more in touch with reality than Larry, or at least thinks he is)

- They don’t get along with Colt. They think he's fake and lazy as hell, who's only redeeming quality is that he's famous, attractive, and knows how to shoot a gun. Larry begrudgingly tolerates him, and Lawrie would not hesitate to put him in his place.

But there's one brawler who they find even worse.

- Kit. A worse version of Colt. At least Colt has the decency of getting out their way (him being technically "on their side" as a sheriff and all). But Kit? He's a menace. He couldn't care less about the law, he's cunning and slippery enough to break out of jail whenever he wants, AND he gets away with most things from being a famous brawlywood star. He's the only frequent offender who can manage to break Larry's happy-go-lucky composure.

- Other misc relations: Gets along with Barley (Larry's just a little closer), Stu (Lawrie gets a little jealous of him), Melodie, Janet, Draco, Poco (aforementioned bodyguarding), the Junkers

Ok, now Lawrie hcs first (he deserves more love!!)

- Lawrie’s surprisingly way more of a nerd than Larry is, in everything except for park affairs and the law. He watches movies and tv shows, listens to rock music, taught himself how to play electric guitar and bass, meanwhile Larry’s interest is almost exclusively in his work/the park.

- Technically, Larry's not his twin. Lawrie's the older brother, period. He was powered on a full three days before Larry was (and he likes to refer to this period— most of the time jokingly— as “the best three days of his goddamn life”). But because they're the same model, they’re seen as identical twins.

- Lawrie wasn't really built as equal to Larry. He's the scraps, the extra parts. I headcanon the Starr Park inventors really only planned one security bot, but saw they had just barely enough parts for a functioning second one. And they put other random parts into Lawrie to compensate more (like I hc he can like pull out a projector screen from his wrist, or a microwave from his back or whatever, random utility stuff that Larry doesn't have built in).

Larry (my boyyy)

- He's aroace. But the kind of aroace who took a bit to figure out they were aroace, and for a while thought he was gay and dated men, because he didn't find women attractive. (Is an aroace robot super cliche? Maybe. But the fact im acknowledging it makes it less cliche, right?)

- He's actually surprisingly more social than Lawrie, probably due to him being more confident, and he's more popular throughout the park in general. People know Larry as Larry, and Lawrie as Larry's twin brother— if they know he exists in the first place.

- Despite not being the one with a raging inferiority complex, Larry's self-worth still heavily relies on his identity as Lawrie’s brother (especially as being "the better one", as unwilling he is to confront that fact).

[tidalpunk]

ReefOS, connected reefs and AI

WHAT IS ReefOS ReefOS is designed to become the most advanced artificial intelligence platform for coral reefs, providing an in-depth look at the health of reef ecosystems to help monitor and restore. This is a network of reefs with connected cameras and sensors collecting crucial data such as fish population abundance, species biodiversity, coral growth and coverage, and water temperature.

HOW IT WORKS The cameras and sensors are connected to cloud servers where our AI model extracts information from the streamed data. The data is organized and stored in our time-series database to determine the trends of the health of the reef ecosystem over time. We will be able to measure the impact of our restoration efforts by identifying and discovering changes in the ecosystem related to increased health. This will also allow us to detect early signs of disease, bleaching, or invasive species. Along with a live video stream of the reef, the data will be shared to members to see a view of how adopted corals have contributed to restoring the reef.

[probablyasocialecologist]

"Part of the degrowth literature talks about how historically energy and emissions decoupling has not been fast enough, and uses this to argue for a degrowth strategy," says Kikstra. "We show that this is not a black-or-white debate. The nuance lies in the fact that also under degrowth strategies, forms of decoupling are necessary. But these are structurally different dynamics, which relate to a broad set of policies. A lot of new research is required to model such strategies, and we lay out different options to do so." "The results of the study suggest that fast emissions reductions in countries like Australia could be enabled in scenarios characterized by reduced or zero growth. Possibly even faster than in virtually all of the most ambitious mitigation scenarios described in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Scenario Database," says Bas van Ruijven, co-author of the study, research group leader, and principal research scholar in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment program. The study also shows that reduced energy demand paired with lower GDP per capita lessens technological feasibility concerns by reducing the need for upscaling solar and wind energy and limiting future material needs for renewables as electricity generation stabilizes in the second half of the century.

[caprice-nisei-enjoyer]

🫦

[covid-safer-hotties]

New COVID variant XEC now in half of states. Here's what to know. - Published Sept 18, 2024

by Alexander Tin

COVID-19 variant trackers are now closely watching the rise of a new virus variant called XEC, which has been spotted around the world and in half of states across the United States.

Health officials are so far not raising concern about this variant, unlike some previous, more highly mutated strains that worried experts.

XEC's emergence comes as COVID-19 trends remain "high" but are now largely slowing after a summer wave of infections that peaked last month. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modelers estimate that the virus will likely climb again over the winter, peaking in mid-January.

Here's the latest we know about the new XEC variant.

Which states have reported XEC cases? At least 25 states have already reported at least one case with the strain's characteristic mutations, according to preliminary data obtained from the global virus database GISAID from more than 100 cases in the U.S.

Labs in New Jersey have reported the most XEC infections – at least 15 – of any state. Only California and Virginia have also reported at least 10 cases so far.

New Jersey's detections come in large part from samples collected through the CDC's testing program of arriving travelers clearing customs at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Some of the earliest U.S. cases were reported by scientists at a lab in Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, sampled from patients in July.

"We do not see a particular trend. We should keep an eye on the samples coming and continue genomic screening more broadly," said Carla Finkielstein, head of the institute's molecular diagnostics lab, in an email.

Finkielstein said that the majority of their samples come from hospitals across the southwestern part of Virginia, though it is unclear why exactly they were tested. "Unfortunately, we do not have demographic data on these patients, so we don't know whether the patients were hospitalized or, for example, if their samples were collected during an emergency department visit," Finkielstein said.

Why is the XEC variant in the news? Variant trackers first proposed labeling the new strain as XEC in early August, after infections were reported around the same time from labs both in Europe and Virginia.

XEC's growth in recent weeks across Germany, flagged by variant trackers like Australian consultant Mike Honey on X, has driven recent attention online to the variant's ascent.

But others in the variant tracking community have been skeptical that the strain will outcompete other strains on the rise, especially since a closely related strain called KP.3.1.1 has already reached dominance in many countries.

KP.3.1.1 now makes up more than half of cases in the U.S., according to CDC estimates published last Friday, and has been dominant for several weeks.

If XEC grows to dominance, it could mark just the latest in months of variants that have led to relatively smaller shifts in the threat posed by circulating variants.

This is in contrast to the discovery of the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant that worried health authorities around this time last year, because it had accumulated a concerning number of genetic changes compared to earlier strains.

A descendant of that BA.2.86 strain from last year, which was eventually dubbed JN.1, later rose to dominate last winter's wave of infections.

The "X" in XEC's name comes from the fact that the strain looks to be a "recombinant" of two other closely related parent variants called KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. Both KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 are descendants of the JN.1 strain.

Will XEC lead to different symptoms or vaccine effectiveness? "CDC is not aware of any specific symptoms associated with XEC or any other co-circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineage," a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.

Americans are still recommended to get this fall and winter's round of updated COVID-19 vaccines, the CDC spokesperson said. Those shots were greenlighted last month with an update to target the KP.2 strain of the virus.

The Food and Drug Administration has defended its pick of KP.2 for this year's revised vaccines in recent weeks, which overrode a recommendation from the World Health Organization and a panel of the agency's outside advisers to target its parent JN.1 instead.

The FDA said in a statement Wednesday that the agency was "highly confident" in the effectiveness of this season's updated shots.

How FDA officials think XEC will impact their pick is unclear. An FDA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants. CDC will continue to monitor the effectiveness of treatment and vaccines against circulating variants," the CDC spokesperson said.

[canmom]

continuing the theme of 'what can we make LLMs do' (I promise this is all leading to a really in-depth elaboration on some stuff about human thinking derived from that acid trip I keep mentioning, but I need to write some shader code first for a proper visual representation)

here is an interesting series of articles by @cherrvak on attempts to train an LLM to speak in-character as their friend Zef, by using a technique called RAG to pull up relevant samples from the training corpus in order to provide them in the prompt: part one, part two, part three. the technique worked poorly (in terms of style) with newer LLMs that are trained to interact chatbot style, but worked better with a non-finetuned language model.

I think it's interesting because it tries to solve the problem of gettting LLMs out of the helpful 'chatGPT voice' while still maintaining the coherence and context-sensitivity that makes them so surprisingly effective roleplay partners. if I ever end up trying to make an LLM-powered NPC in a game, seems like it will be very useful research.

so far the techniques for shaping LLM output I know about are, in roughly increasing order of computational intensity:

describing what you want in the prompt; depending on the model this might be phrased as instructions, or examples that you want to be extended

control vectors, where you provide pairs of contrasting prompts and then derive from them a set of values to apply as a kind of forcing while the LLM is generating tokens, to push its output in a particular direction

fine-tuning, where you adjust all the weights of the model in the same way as during its original training (gradient descent etc.)

reinforcement learning, such as the RLHF technique used to turn a generic language model into a chatbot like ChatGPT which follows instructions into a chatbot with certain desired behaviours

RAG largely operates on the first of these: the query is fed into a special type of lookup which finds data related to that subject, and is then appended to the prompt. it's remarkably like human memory in a way: situationally, stuff will 'come to mind' since it seems similar to something else, and we can then factor it into things that we will say.

the biggest problem seems to be not to get the LLMs to say something true if it's retrieved from the database/provided to them in the prompt, but to stop them saying something false/irrelevant when they don't have an answer to hand ('hallucination' or 'bullshitting'). as a human, we have the experience of "trying to remember" information - "it's on the tip of my tongue". I wonder if a model could be somehow taught to recognise when it doesn't have the relevant information and poll the database again with a slightly different vector? that said I still am only at the very beginning of learning to drive these things, so I should probably focus on getting the hang of the basics first, like trying out the other three techniques on the list instead of just testing out different prompts.

[vtellswhat]

Understanding the Types of Literature Review: A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding types of literature review: A comprehensive guide.

Literature reviews are critical components of academic research that give an overview of the available knowledge relating to a particular topic. This helps to identify gaps, forms a basis for further research, and grounds the study on established theory and evidence. Literature reviews, however, do not fit in one single type. Rather they are of different types. Each depends on the purpose and approach of the research. Let's have a detailed view of the types of literature reviews. ### 1. Narrative Review

A narrative review, sometimes known as the traditional one, gives a general overview of research regarding a particular topic. It is descriptive and focuses on summarizing and synthesizing findings without much depth analysis.

Key Features:

Focuses on storytelling and descriptive summary. - Majorly used in fields such as humanities and social sciences.

Lacks a systematic methodology for selecting studies, which can lead to bias.

Purpose:

Narrative reviews are ideal for understanding a topic broadly and identifying general trends or patterns in the literature.

2. Systematic Review

A systematic review is a rigorous and structured approach to synthesizing research. It follows a predefined protocol to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and comprehensiveness.

Key Features:

Has explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Is planned in databases systematically to find studies.

Keeps bias at a minimum by having a clear methodology.

Purpose:

Systematic reviews are applied to answer particular research questions, especially in fields like healthcare, psychology, and social sciences. Systematic reviews come with immense value because of their reliability and objectivity.

3. Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis is a type of systematic review that pools data from many studies together using statistical methods to make their own synthesis, which tries to produce a quantitative overview of research findings.

Key Features:

Assumes all studies share similarities in methodology to compare them. - Offers results with statistical significance by combining data. - Is considered a demanding statistical process.

Meta-analyses are commonly used in medicine and psychology to determine the effectiveness of interventions or treatments. ***

4. Scoping Review

Scoping reviews are exploratory and aim to map the breadth and scope of research on a topic. Less focused on answering specific questions and more on identifying research gaps, they are considered exploratory. #### Key Features:

Wide inclusion criteria, casting a net to encompass all aspects of a topic. Does not critically evaluate the quality of included studies in depth. Often a precursor to a systematic review. #### Purpose:

Scoping reviews are suitable for nascent research areas or subjects where there are a few published studies to date.

5. Integrative Review

An integrative review combines qualitative and quantitative research to achieve a holistic understanding of the topic under review. * Key Features:

It integrates data based on diverse methodologies.

This integration encourages innovation.

It is useful in the development of theories or models * Purpose:

It is common to find such reviews in nursing, education, and healthcare research where mixed methods are often employed.

6. Critical Review

A critical review evaluates and critiques existing literature, often proposing new frameworks or perspectives.

Key Features:

Involves in-depth analysis and interpretation.

Challenges existing assumptions or theories.

Requires a strong theoretical foundation.

Purpose:

Critical reviews are ideal for advanced academic writing, such as dissertations and theoretical papers.

7. Theoretical Review

Theoretical reviews focus on examining theories related to a topic rather than empirical research.

Key Features:

Compares and contrasts different theoretical frameworks.

Identifies theoretical gaps.

Explores the evolution of ideas over time.

Purpose:

These reviews are often used in disciplines like sociology, philosophy, and psychology to refine or propose theoretical models.

8. Annotated Bibliography

A much simpler form of literature review is the annotated bibliography-an overview and critique of each source.

Key Features:

Lists sources with brief descriptions and critiques. Not synthesizing findings from the studies. Serves as a precursor to further developed reviews.

Purpose:

This type is commonly used for coursework or preliminary research to organize sources.

Conclusion

Each type of literature review has a specific purpose and is appropriate for a range of research objectives. Whether the use is about embracing broad trends in a narrative review or diving deep in statistical relationships as in meta-analysis, awareness of the types can guide you towards choosing the right approach for your study. The right type chosen ensures that your research not only becomes more robust but also relevant and impactful in its field. Mastering the art of literature review will keep researchers conversing effectively in the academic arenas while paving a way to make further discoveries.

Need expert guidance for your PhD, Master’s thesis, or research writing journey? Click the link below to access resources and support tailored to help you excel every step of the way. Unlock your full research potential today!

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[conceptmobius]

Staff Recruitment

Greetings! This is a post regarding staff recruitment for Concept: “Mobius”, as you probably surmised. Vertekins and I always looking to add to the ranks and make the site as detailed, informative, and cool as it can be. If you’re interested in joining, great! Let’s find you a spot! Incidentally, you may be able to fill multiple roles, but first things first. You need to run before you can Spin Attack, after all.

Concept: “Mobius” is a Sonic the Hedgehog site dedicated to information about the games within the franchise and the worlds, characters, and events within. While there are multiple wikis and whatnot that serve this purpose, we’re trying to do things differently. We want to enrich the world of the Blue Blur and hopefully make it more cohesive, less muddled, and more fun. Obviously, this is too big a job for a few people, hence the slow trickle of updates over the years.

So, we need a team to tackle this endeavor, and we have many branches for all skill sets. You'll also be asked to help out here, as well, but more on that at another time.

Writers

Arguably one of the most important roles. Writers will be contributing the bulk of the site’s content, from articles and reviews to think pieces and news blurbs. You’ll be expected to be able to spell, know your grammar, and write coherently. If the most writing you’ve done is on Twitter, you may find yourself at a loss here, especially since you’ll probably have to be your own editor, unless you ask your teammates for help (which you can, to be clear).

Artists

Another absolutely crucial role. You’ll be responsible for how the site looks: graphics, character art, zone landscapes, etc. It’ll be a big task, but you’ll always be credited for your work, with links going to whatever platform you choose.

Programmers/Modders

Your job will be to modify the games. Why? Two reasons.

We’ll be using various games for clips and showcases, and we need them to be accurate as possible. Many of them are either missing content, have various inaccuracies between one another, or just don’t look/sound/play right for our purposes. We can’t very well show Sonic’s world if it’s lackluster, can we?

We want to show what even the worst of the franchise could look/sound/play like if given the TLC they deserve.

I know this doesn’t sound necessary or worthwhile, but I assure you, it will make sense in the future.

Theorists

You’ll be helping with various theories and doing your best to plug up various plotholes in the Sonic universe. Unlike certain other game theorists, however, you’ll be expected to show restraint when speculating and not go off on tangents or grasping at whatever straws you see.

Cartographers

Your job is a doozy: making a single, DEFINITIVE map of Sonic’s Earth. You see, there have been many in the games, and they’ve been different every time, depending on the game or the area it's based in. And each one has been inconsistent. Heck, people don't even know where Green Hill Zone definitively is, despite its number of uses.

THIS.

WILL.

NOT.

DO.

If anyone is going to take Sonic lore seriously (and few people do), we need one map that can be used for every game. That way, there is more consistency in the narrative and people have a more defined view of the world.

Modelers

Your role will be to make various character renders to be used for the cast in the Character Database. You’ll be working with the artists to make the most “true to life” representations of Sonic and the others as you can. You might also find yourself recreating certain areas or scenes from the games, demonstrating various abilities, or just letting the cast style on each other.

News Reporters

You’ll be reporting on everything Sonic-related that is newsworthy, whether it be a game announcement or a funny pic from Sega. Just try not to post any memes.

That'll do for now, although, we're welcoming anyone with a notable skill set. If you think you have something to contribute to Concept: "Mobius" that is or isn't listed here, let us know. Just be aware that we can't afford to pay anyone for their work.

Thank you very much in advance!

~Ryan

[liferecorder]

various catalog/database sites for collectibles

it's getting increasingly difficult to find informative sources on collectibles (using a broad definition here) through search results and not just a sea of advertisements. here are notable ones i'm aware of. any sites with the 🔞 emoji next to them include some sexual content

(2/24/2025 update: now sorted by type)

multi:

collectpeanuts (documenting one person's extensive collection of merch for the comic strip peanuts)

colnect (stamps and many other forms of ephemera, mainly card-based or food-related. be aware it doesn't allow you to use an ad blocker, but i'm including it due to having the most comprehensive stamp database i've seen. lacking in us items in several areas due to a primarily european userbase) 🔞

hobbydb (states it's for any collectibles, but is focused on funko, vinyl toys, diecast models, and pins)

jellyneo (neopets merch)

lastdodo (pretty much anything as far as i can tell, which has pros and cons…primarily european userbase like colnect, so certain collectibles from the us aren't on there) 🔞

muppet wiki merch section

pins:

button museum (vintage pin-back buttons) 🔞

indie pin database (enamel pins, centered around independently made pins. not sure if it's currently being maintained)

pincollector (general enamel pins, centered around company/brand pins. extensive listings of olympic pins, sparse in other areas)

(the site pininn that i previously linked is not up anymore)

toys and plush:

beaniepedia (ty plush)

coleka (primarily toys, the only general plush database i'm aware of. be aware it's poorly managed)

dollect (dolls)

ghost of the doll (older id site for 1980s-90s toys. lots of information on prototypes)

inflate and ride (inflatable toys) 🔞

the internet puzzle database (jigsaw puzzles)

jelly collector (jellycat plush)

milkcap mania (pogs and similar items with different names)

my little wiki (mlp)

myfigurecollection (primarily for anime figures and paraphernalia) 🔞

rotocasted (vinyl art toys)

strawberry reef (another mlp resource)

the toy pool variety of brand-specific toy databases. has comprehensive sister sites for the following:

ever after high

littlest pet shop

lol surprise

minecraft

mlp

monster high

nendoroid

other:

discogs (physical music releases) 🔞

fruitsticker.de (fruit stickers, as in the kind placed on fruits. appears to be documenting one person's collection)

k-collect (kpop photo cards)

lolibrary (lolita and other j-fashion pieces)

stampworld (for stamps exclusively. not as comprehensive as colnect, but will let you use an ad-blocker)

reply with any others you're aware of and i'll add them, mostly regardless of focus with two exceptions that are very easy to find sources on:

disney pins

pokemon cards