#these are multiple methods of change and prevention that can work in parallel

[taffywabbit]

Thank you for spreading that thing about voting. The rhetoric I've been seeing from a lot of the left, at least on here, has mirrored 2016 really closely and it's getting me extremely nervous.

yeah considering how many self-destructive doomer-y "it's not even worth voting, nothing but DIRECT ACTION can save us now" posts i've seen cross my dash over the past couple years i figured it was probably smart for me to spread it when i saw it going around again. i'm not american myself, but i have a lot of loved ones down there who really especially cannot afford a republican win this year, and i'll do whatever little i can to help them stay safe-ish. (not to mention i DO still share a land border with the US, and a vicious autocrat god-emperor would probably not be a great next-door neighbor for me either)

[ideyalabsllp]

Leveraging Automation in Software Testing and QA Services for Faster, More Reliable Releases

Leveraging Automation in Software Testing and QA Services for Faster, More Reliable Releases

In today’s fast-paced software development environment, companies are under constant pressure to release high-quality products faster. Traditional manual testing methods often struggle to keep up with these demands, leading to inefficiencies and potential quality risks. This is where automation in software testing and QA services becomes a game-changer.

By integrating automation into the quality assurance (QA) process, businesses can accelerate testing cycles, improve accuracy, and ensure comprehensive coverage across applications. In this article, we’ll explore how automation enhances software testing, the key benefits for QA Managers and Project Managers, and best practices for implementing automation in your QA strategy.

Why Automation is Transforming Software Testing and QA Services Automation is revolutionizing how QA teams approach testing by eliminating repetitive manual tasks and enabling faster feedback loops. Unlike manual testing, which requires human intervention for every test execution, automation allows test scripts to run independently across multiple environments.

Key Drivers for Test Automation Several factors have contributed to the widespread adoption of automation in software testing and QA services, including:

Agile and DevOps Adoption – Faster development cycles require equally fast testing solutions. Automation aligns with CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipelines to ensure quick feedback. Complex Software Ecosystems – Modern applications involve multiple integrations, APIs, and platforms. Automated testing ensures these components work seamlessly. Increasing Cost of Bugs – Identifying defects early reduces the cost of fixing them. Automated tests help detect bugs in the initial development stages, preventing costly post-release issues. Growing Demand for Scalability – Automation supports parallel execution across different devices and browsers, ensuring software is reliable across various environments. The Benefits of Automation in QA Services For QA Managers and Project Managers, implementing automation in software testing and QA services offers significant advantages:

Faster Testing Cycles Manual testing can be time-consuming, especially for regression and performance testing. Automation speeds up test execution, allowing teams to test more in less time. This is crucial for businesses following Agile and DevOps methodologies.

Improved Accuracy and Reduced Human Error Even the most skilled testers can make mistakes, particularly when executing repetitive test cases. Automated scripts execute tests with precision, eliminating human error and ensuring consistent results.

Enhanced Test Coverage Automation enables QA teams to execute a larger number of test cases, including complex scenarios that may be impractical for manual testers. This leads to higher test coverage and better software reliability.

Cost Savings Over Time While the initial investment in test automation tools and frameworks may be high, it pays off in the long run by reducing manual effort, decreasing time-to-market, and preventing costly production defects.

Better Collaboration Between Teams Automation supports continuous integration (CI), allowing developers and testers to work together more effectively. Automated test results provide quick feedback, enabling teams to address issues before they escalate.

Key Areas Where Automation Enhances QA Services Automation can be applied across various types of testing to optimize quality assurance processes. Some key areas include:

Regression Testing Whenever new code is added or modified, previous functionalities must be tested to ensure they remain intact. Automated regression testing ensures that changes do not introduce new defects.

Functional Testing Automation can verify whether software functions as expected by simulating user interactions and validating outcomes. This is especially useful for UI and API testing.

Performance Testing Automated tools like JMeter and LoadRunner help evaluate system performance under various conditions, identifying bottlenecks before they affect real users.

Security Testing Automated security tests scan for vulnerabilities, helping businesses detect and address security risks early in the development process.

Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Testing With numerous browsers, operating systems, and devices in use, automation ensures applications work seamlessly across different environments. Tools like Selenium and BrowserStack facilitate automated compatibility testing.

Best Practices for Implementing Test Automation in QA Services To maximize the benefits of automation in software testing and QA services, consider the following best practices:

Define a Clear Automation Strategy Identify the test cases best suited for automation, prioritize high-impact areas, and determine the right tools for your needs. Not all tests should be automated—some require manual intervention.

Choose the Right Automation Tools Selecting the right test automation framework is crucial. Popular tools include:

Selenium – Best for web application testing Appium – Ideal for mobile testing Jenkins – Great for CI/CD integration TestComplete – Suitable for UI and functional testing

Integrate Automation into CI/CD Pipelines Automated tests should run continuously as part of the development cycle. Integrating automation with CI/CD tools ensures early bug detection and faster releases.

Maintain and Update Test Scripts Regularly Automation is not a one-time setup. Regularly update test scripts to accommodate new features, UI changes, and evolving software requirements.

Balance Automation with Manual Testing While automation speeds up testing, manual testing remains essential for exploratory, usability, and ad-hoc testing scenarios. A balanced approach ensures comprehensive software quality assurance.

Challenges of Test Automation and How to Overcome Them Despite its advantages, automation in software testing and QA services comes with challenges:

High Initial Investment Solution: Start small, automate critical test cases first, and gradually expand automation efforts as ROI becomes evident.

Maintenance Overhead Solution: Use robust test automation frameworks and modular scripts that can be easily updated.

Test Flakiness Solution: Implement stable test environments and use proper synchronization techniques to avoid flaky test results.

Skill Gaps in Automation Solution: Provide training for QA teams and hire skilled automation engineers to build effective test automation frameworks.

Conclusion: Embrace Automation for Better QA Outcomes In an era of rapid software development, automation is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. By integrating automation into software testing and QA services, companies can accelerate testing processes, improve accuracy, and deliver reliable software products.

For QA Managers and Project Managers looking to enhance their QA strategies, investing in automation can lead to significant long-term benefits, from reduced testing time to improved software quality.

Are you ready to leverage automation for more efficient software testing? Contact a trusted QA service provider today and take your software quality assurance to the next level.

[danielimperatrice]

Resource Constraints in Project Management: How Resource Leveling and the Parallel Method Can Save Your Project

In the world of project management, one of the most common challenges that organizations face is resource constraints. Even the most meticulously planned project schedules, drawn from a network diagram, can falter when the availability of resources falls short. This is where resource-constrained projects come into play, and understanding how to manage these constraints becomes key to project success.

But what exactly are resource-constrained projects, and how can we resolve the challenges they pose? This is where the concept of resource leveling, particularly the Parallel Method, becomes a game-changer. In this post, I’ll dive deep into these concepts, explore how they help manage resource constraints, and examine the impact on the project schedule and budget.

What Are Resource-Constrained Projects?

A resource-constrained project occurs when the resources needed to complete tasks are limited or fixed, regardless of the project’s schedule. This could be due to limited manpower, equipment, or budget—resources that cannot exceed a specific amount, regardless of the logical order of tasks. While tasks may be perfectly sequenced in a network diagram, the resource constraint can force a project to extend its timeline or, worse, cause bottlenecks that disrupt progress.

The Parallel Method: Balancing Resources Without Losing Momentum

The Parallel Method of resource leveling is one of the most effective strategies for managing resource-constrained projects. It works by re-sequencing tasks in a way that helps balance resource usage while maintaining the project’s logical flow. Let’s break down how this method works:

List Activities by Priority: In a resource-constrained environment, tasks with higher dependencies or those that need to start sooner are prioritized. This ensures that critical tasks are addressed first.

Adjust Based on Resource Availability: If multiple tasks require the same resource at the same time, one of the tasks may be delayed until the resource becomes available. Instead of adding new resources, this method redistributes the available resources to maintain flow and efficiency.

Maintain Logical Integrity: Even though the project schedule may need adjustments, the logical dependencies between tasks are preserved. This ensures that the integrity of the project timeline is not compromised.

By using the Parallel Method, project managers can effectively reduce overburdening of resources, avoid burnout, and ensure the quality of work. However, the trade-off is that resource leveling often extends the project schedule.

The Impact on the Project Schedule

When you implement resource leveling, the immediate impact is a change in the project schedule. For example, if two tasks require the same resource, and one task is delayed, the dependent task will naturally follow suit. This leads to a longer project timeline.

While extending the project duration may seem like a setback, it actually helps in preventing resource overload, mistakes, and inefficiencies that could arise from squeezing too much into too little time. It’s a crucial balancing act to ensure the project is still completed successfully.

Post-Leveling Schedule and Baseline Budget: The Cost of Adjustments

When the project schedule is adjusted due to resource leveling, it has direct implications on the project’s budget. The relationship between the post-leveling schedule and the baseline budget is crucial for understanding how the cost structure is affected. Here’s how the leveling process can influence both:

Impact on Costs: A longer schedule can lead to increased costs in several areas:

Labor Costs: If the project takes longer than planned, labor costs may rise. For example, if a team needs to work for extra weeks, their salaries or hourly wages increase.

Operational Costs: Similarly, extended timelines can result in additional overheads, like rental fees for equipment or software.

Cash Flow Adjustments: A delayed schedule shifts the timing of expenses. What was originally expected to happen within a short time frame might now be spread out over a longer period, impacting the organization’s cash flow projections.

Baseline Budget Revisions: The baseline budget, which was originally set to cover the planned timeline, may need to be adjusted to account for these new costs. If the project duration increases significantly, the budget must be updated to reflect the additional expenses, which could be substantial.

However, it’s important to note that while leveling the schedule may increase costs, it can also prevent more significant, hidden costs that arise from errors or resource mismanagement. Essentially, you might be trading a sprint for a marathon, but this longer run can be far more sustainable and cost-effective in the long run.

Final Thoughts

Resource-constrained projects are a reality that every project manager must face. The Parallel Method of resource leveling offers a practical way to manage resource limitations without compromising the integrity of the project’s logical structure. While it may result in a longer timeline, it ensures that resources are used effectively and that the project is completed successfully.

By understanding the impact on the post-leveling schedule and baseline budget, project managers can anticipate the financial and scheduling implications of resource leveling. In the end, it’s not just about sticking to the original schedule; it’s about adapting to real-world constraints while keeping the project on track.

So, the next time you encounter a resource-constrained project, remember the Parallel Method. It might stretch your timeline, but it will keep your resources—and your team—on track for a successful completion.

[onosokkiindia]

Exploring the Versatility of Ono Sokki's Non-Contact RPM Detector in Various Industries

Ono Sokki’s OM-1500/1200 Non-Contact RPM Detector have significantly enhanced the way industries measure rotational speed, particularly in gasoline engines and EV/HEV motors. Designed specifically for rotation measurement, these detectors offer a non-intrusive method to monitor engine performance by detecting magnetic flux leakage from motors or the engine's ignition coil. This makes them a versatile solution across a variety of industries, from automotive to manufacturing.

Key Features of OM-1500/1200 Non-Contact RPM Detector

The devices is easy to use and highly durable. They measure engine rotation by simply attaching them parallel to the ignition coil for gasoline engines or perpendicular to the motor’s rotating shaft when monitoring EV/HEV motors. Their non-contact nature ensures no wear and tear, reducing maintenance needs and prolonging the equipment's life. Compatible with several of engine tachometers—such as the GE-2500, AR-7240B, and CT-6520B—these detectors provide accurate and reliable RPM data, even in demanding environments.

Applications in Automotive Industry

For automotive applications, these detectors are invaluable for measuring engine speed without interrupting operation. In electric (EV) and hybrid (HEV) vehicles, it can detect the magnetic flux leakage from the motor itself, making it ideal for modern vehicles that require precision in monitoring performance. By gathering detailed rotational data, engineers can improve vehicle efficiency and reduce emissions. The ease of attaching the detector to the ignition coil ensures that testing can be done quickly and effectively.

Use in Manufacturing

In manufacturing, the need for accurate RPM measurement extends to heavy machinery such as conveyor systems, pumps, and motors. Further, they are ideal for ensuring optimal performance of rotating machinery without physical contact, preventing any damage during the process. This helps manufacturers avoid costly downtime due to machine failure while maintaining smooth operations. The detector’s compatibility with multiple tachometers further enhances its usability across various machine types.

Power Generation and Research

Power generation facilities, which rely heavily on turbines and other rotating equipment, can utilize these detectors for precise RPM monitoring. The ability to detect even small changes in rotational speed without requiring physical contact ensures that turbines operate efficiently, reducing mechanical stress and optimizing energy output. Research labs that work with rotating equipment can also benefit from these detectors, as they offer non-intrusive, precise measurements crucial for experiments and performance evaluations.

The Motor and Compressor Tachometer by Ono Sokki are a powerful tool for industries requiring accurate and non-invasive rotational speed measurements. From automotive testing in gasoline and EV/HEV engines to optimizing manufacturing machinery and power generation turbines, these detectors provide a reliable and efficient solution. Their ability to measure RPM without physical contact ensures longer equipment life, enhanced safety, and improved productivity across various industrial applications.

For any clarifications or queries, please feel free to contact us:

Mobile: +91–92055–92194 or +91–92055–92195

Email ID: osid@onosokki.co.in

Website: www.onosokki.co.in

[fantasticstoryteller]

New Amsterdam Chapter 64

Peter watched as Angel repeatedly pulled the thick wad of dough until she had thin strips of noodles. “This is the easy part,” she told him as she methodically worked. “Just grab and pull. Grab and pull. Kind of meditative if you let it be.”

Peter looked hesitantly at the ball of dough in front of him before reaching for it.

“Flour your hands first; otherwise the dough will stick.”

“Right.” Copying her earlier movements he stuck his hands in the bowl of flour on the counter before picking up the ball.

“Ponyo?”

“You already ate,” Angel gently scolded the pink thing with huge blue eyes.

Peter pulled at the dough. It snapped. He glared at it.

Angel calmly looked over, dusted her hands with flour again, and rolled the dough ball a few times before pressing on it repeatedly before handing it back. “Try again,” she advised. He did; it pulled into a lumpy, rough mess. He looked over at the silky smooth ribbons she was producing and sighed.

“You’re really good at this,” Peter commented as he tried to follow the directions. He was just pulling dough into noodles—how hard could it be?

“I’ve had practice,” Angel replied. “A few—months, I think? Maybe a year? It’s hard to tell. Anyway, there was this time I was trapped in a hut with a blind old woman who thought I was a bear.” She saw the look on Peter’s face and said, “Seriously. Trust me, if you’d been there it would have made sense. You have no idea how hard that one was,” she grumbled. “Anyway, the two of us were snowed in, almost starving, and all there was to eat was flour, water from the melted snow, and six pounds of lard—don’t ask,” she advised. “I only made that mistake once.”

“What happened?” Peter tried to copy her movements, but the dough kept breaking so he’d push it together and roll it like he’d seen her do.

“Roll, then knead,” she advised. “She talked me through making the noodles and then made weird, uncomfortable comments about eating a bear—right before a bear burst through one of the walls. She killed the bear with her cane, talked me through butchering it, and we made soup with the bones and noodles. I told myself it tasted like chicken.”

“You must have been starving,” Peter admitted.

She shrugged and one of the wings flicked back behind her. “It was a long week, I have a high metabolism, and cold saps energy,” she said explained. There was something weary in her tone—the same weariness Peter frequently heard from the street kids.

Peter’s hands stopped moving as something occurred to him. “Wait—you ate a bear and she thought you were a bear…”

“You do not want to finish that thought,” Angel advised him firmly. “Not if you want to eat again in the next three days,” she added.

Peter’s mind whirled. There were a lot of people who accused him of being overly naive, but he could tell when someone was lying. It was a skill he’d picked up out of necessity when dealing with Norman—and this girl wasn’t lying. “How did that happen?” he asked.

“You want the broad strokes or the fine detail?”

Peter, watching her craft a truly insane number of noodles, wasn’t sure he could handle the fine details. “Broad strokes, please.”

She snorted. “Stuff happens and life sucks.”

“Sums up everything,” Peter admitted as he glared at his noodles. They didn’t look like noodles at all; they looked like funky bread sticks. “A little more detail, please,” he asked.

Suddenly the girl grinned at him. “You look just like Papa with that look on your face,” she told him. She pulled a knife from the block and with a quick cut her noodles lost their connections before she began to lay the noodles out on a cookie sheet.

“You use a knife really well,” Peter commented as she grabbed his noodles and did the same thing.

She snorted. “Of course I do,” she said with wry amusement. “These are pretty good,” she said pointing to his noodles. “You should have seen my first try. All right, let’s go sit down and I’ll explain as best as I can.” The creature that had arrived with the girl raced up to her and she laughed. “All right, Dora,” she said affectionately. “Time for cuddles.”

“Ponyo!” squeaked the happy thing.

“What is it?” asked Peter as he stared at the thing while washing his hands. He noticed that it seemed to be eating the flour off of the girl’s suit and he wondered if she noticed.

“Dora. She’s a slime. She used to be highly volatile with a half-ton blast.” Peter stared at the pink blob in the girl’s lap. “Not anymore,” she rushes to assure him. “Papa and one of my uncles fixed it.” She lovingly ran a hand over the top of the slime as it clung and released the skin with a muffled gloop.

“Pon-yo!” the slime chirped, and Angel laughed.

“Ponyo,” Peter said weakly.

The two clear blue eyes turned on him, wavering slightly as the entire pink thing jiggled before it jumped into the air and raced across the floor towards him. “Ponyo?” it asked as it bounced on the floor.

“She wants to know if she can get in your lap.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” The slime squealed, jumped, and plopped down on his lap.

“She likes it when a palm is rubbed over her top,” Angel advised.

Well, Angel would know. Peter gently rubbed his palm over the top of the slime—which wasn’t slimy, exactly. Felt more like a thick mixture of cornstarch and water. The sensation as it shivered under his touch was odd, to say the least, and as he moved his hand it became sort of soft and silky. Strange. Nice, but strange. No wonder Angel had been petting it so much.

“Where to start,” mused Angel as she lounged on Wade’s recliner, wings lazily hanging over the back in a way that looked uncomfortable to Peter, but she seemed fine with it. “All right, there are three starting points, and none of them seem connected, so bear with me.” Fingers tapped against the arm of the chair as she looked at Peter. “First of all, there are multiple worlds. You’re going to have to trust me on that. They’re—”

“Like Stephen Hawking’s last paper?” asked Peter excitedly.

Angel paused. “Yup,” she said after a moment. “Totally. Now, I’m from one of those worlds, and in that world, Loki—”

“The god of mischief and destruction?” asked Peter aghast.

She sighed. “This will go a lot faster,” she admonished gently, “if you stop interrupting me. Yes, Loki, God of Mischief.” She paused and glared, but he didn’t interrupt again so she continued. “In my world he has several children, but the one you need to know about is his daughter, Hel.”

“Now, Hel has her own realm, and yes,” she said anticipating Peter’s question, “it’s different from a parallel world. One of Hel’s jobs is to—to protect balance, I guess would be the best way to put it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Peter. He leaned forward and the slime in his lap made a noise like a sleepy giggle.

“Souls are made up of a mix of light and darkness; most of them have a relatively even mixture, changing as they grow and react to their environments. Some souls are almost pure darkness and some souls are almost pure light. In order to prevent the universe from descending into chaos when there’s too much light a dark soul is sent in the middle and when there’s too much darkness a light soul is sent.”

“Why would too much light be a bad thing?” asked Peter, confused. If he was understanding her correctly, “light” was the same as “good” and “dark” was “bad.”

He expected a blasé answer about the general importance of balance. Instead her somber amber eyes met his. “How do people grow?” she asked instead. “How do they learn, mature?”

“I—I don’t know,” admitted Peter.

“They face challenges. They overcome those challenges. When there is too much light,” her arms spread around her, “there are no challenges. The souls stagnate, become weak. Souls that are too weak are—well, I’m not sure,” she said with a frown. “Hel said that they get subsumed by the stronger souls in reincarnation, and that throws the balance between the living and the dead off. I’m not sure why. But I do know that souls that grow in too much darkness have the same problem, and since Hel is in charge of sending reincarnating souls, it is a problem she has deal with. To balance.”

“O—okay,” said Peter. He had no idea where Angel was going with this.

“Now I’m going to have to skip a bit. There were two competing programs in the city. Both of them had the same goal, to create new and more powerful mutants, but they went about these goals in very different ways. One of them kidnapped people and performed horrible, often disfiguring experiments to force recessed mutations to the surface.”

Peter felt the blood drain from his face. He wasn’t an idiot; he knew Deadpool’s file. “That sounds like—”

“Yeah.” Angel sighed and then continued. “I wasn’t there, but I hear it was just as brutal. The took kids instead of adults, on the theory they’d be easier to break. Now the second program had a very different approach. What they did was they took samples from known mutants, broke them down into genetic components, and then proceeded to inject those components into a growing fetus.”

The second method made questions swirl through Peter’s brain. “How did they get the samples?” he asked with vague horror.

“From blood. The heroes, anti-heroes, and superpowered villains of the city bled all over it and they had people everywhere to collect the blood and take it back to the lab.”

“But that would mean—”

“Contamination,” agreed Angel. “Until the mutations began to develop, it was impossible to tell what blood was even there. There was even,” she continued with an odd, wry smile, “a child who’d gotten the mutations of two powerful mutants.” Her face fell. “There were failures, of course. And some that were just deemed failures.”

The slime in Peter’s lap squeaked and raced across the floor towards Angel, bouncing in her lap repeatedly until the girl smiled and began to pet it. “Where did the fetuses come from?” Peter asked.

“They put out ads for ‘surrogate mothers’ that strongly implied they didn’t care if the woman in question was already pregnant. The women came, got free health care as long as they didn’t leave, and if they didn’t bond with the infants they took the money and left the infants behind.”

“And what about those that did bond?” asked Peter as one of Angel’s wings came up and cupped around herself and the slime in a gesture that was obviously reassuring to the girl.

“They took the infants and left. They all signed NDA’s before they even set foot in the facility, but the fastest way to get the attention of the heroes in a city full of them is for dead bodies to start showing up out of nowhere, so they avoided that.” She chuckled in wry amusement. “Actually, it wouldn't have been discovered at all if they hadn’t decided to kidnap Spiderman.”

“They—what?”

She gave a small, sad smile as she stroked the slime in her lap who cooed at the attention. “They wanted a clean sample of blood. Before they could take it, Deadpool showed up.”

Peter gave a small smile of his own, thinking of his boyfriend. “Of course he did,” he said fondly.

“Yeah, it was bloody, the kids were rescued. Blah, blah, blah,” she said glossing over it. “Not important. What is important is that I came from that program, and I have super healing abilities. Keep that in mind. Now, there was another child, from the other program, that I’ll call BB. No real names, because I can’t risk being found before I can find BB. BB had a—a very unique ability. BB could turn humans into spider/human hybrids that could then be controlled—by BB. Very specific there; killed some people who tried to control them in—horrific ways.” The girl paled and the slime stretched until it could just touch the underside of her chin. “Anyway,” the girl interrupted herself as she ran her hand up and down the slime’s body, “she couldn't do it to very many people. She didn’t have the power. Then, three things happened. One, Tony, the insane inventor who I secretly think is trying to actually destroy everything, developed a purely mechanical portal that can travel between worlds. I don’t know why. Two, BB found out about the light souls—but not the dark ones. I have no idea how that came about, but the long story short is that BB discovered how to harvest souls and steal their power to increase BB’s own. Three, the Time Stone was shattered and a piece of it lodged in BB, keeping the mutant ageless. And no,” Angel adds quickly, “I don’t know how that happened either. I kinda wasn’t around at the time—not important. What is important is that BB was throwing the universe, multiverse, expanded parallels, whatever into chaos and Hel, Loki’s daughter and in charge of the balance, demanded that Tony either figure out a way to fix it or she would fix him, in the way that the pound fixes stray cats. And since the source of this problem, the Time Stone, was technically his charge in the first place—actually I think he has a method of putting the Stone back together again but needs all the shards to do that—Dr. Strange created a timed portal with his mystic arts that could connect to the shard buried in BB to make sure whomever used it would end up in the same general area as BB. Still following?”

“Yes,” Peter said as he nodded. Actually, the information was sinking into his brain to be turned over and examined at a later time, but he would understand it.

“Now, it was hypothesized that the ‘jumping’—my term, not theirs—could be corrosive and generally bad to anyone actually doing it, so whomever left had to have one heck of a healing factor, and both Wolverine and Saber-tooth said no, we’re not doing that, while Wade couldn't because, well.” She shifted in her seat, clearly embarrassed. “Anyhow, I was the last choice, but the only one and you know what? This whole multiverse thing is just plain weird. You wouldn't believe some of the things I’ve seen. I’ve been drawing them to share when I get home.”

“So, you came here to look for BB?” clarified Peter.

“When I get BB, the next time the portal opens it will take me home,” Angel explained. “In the past,” she added, “BB has gotten tipped off about me too early and decided to run, which is why I’m being extra careful this time. This time, instead of chasing BB down, I’ve focused on finding the soul she’s looking for.”

“Have you found the soul yet?”

Amber eyes once again met Peter’s own. “Oh, yes,” said the girl firmly, with satisfaction.

Before Peter could reply to that the door to the apartment opened and Wade walked in. “Honey, I’m hooome!” he trilled. He proudly presented the girl with a notebook and a box of colored pencils. “Your payment,” he said dramatically.

She grinned and grabbed them, moving faster than she had at any point during the visit. “Thank you,” she said brightly before leaving.

Wade chuckled as he closed the door behind her turned to face Peter. “We need to talk,” Peter said firmly.

[star-walkers]

PARADOXES OF time travel

hello everybody!!

This is Dharshini Karthikeyan came to share some interesting information about TIME TRAVEL .....we all wish to go back to the time and change things or bad decision and also to the future to see what's there.

Here are some mind - blowing paradox with the concept of TIME TRAVEL. i hope it will be interesting.......

1.PREDESTINATION PADADOX:

A predestination paradox is actually occur when we travel back in time and we become part of the past event and may ultimately causes the event which we are trying to prevent from ....it's actually you who's trying to prevent it but turns out that you who caused it.

To be clear: Imagine that you and your best friend is in chemistry lab at school , then by accident the lab caught fire and you lose your best friend in that fire. Then you decide to build a time travel machine to go back in time to prevent that event. After some years you become successful in it . You are able to reach back to the same point of space and time

Now you are in the lab to protect your best friend, just before the fire blows out , your hand missed some kerosin oli while students are experimenting with fire . Then BOOM! you found that you are responsible for the fire breakout . You were responsible for your best friend death.

So the timeline is a closed loop in this paradox. Events have no beginning and no end ,only loop.

2. Bootstrap paradox:

You travel back in time and give yourself an object but you got that object because your older future self gave it to you in the past so origin of that object is not know but the object exist

infinite loop .....where the object has no origin and exist without being created.

To be clear: If a time traveler went back in time and taught Einstein the theory of relativity, before returning to his own time. Einstein claims it’s his own work, and over the following decades the theory is published countless times until a copy of it eventually ends up in the hands of the original time traveler who then takes it back to Einstein, begging the question “where did the theory originate”.

We cannot say that it came from the time traveler as he learnt it from Einstein, but we also cannot say that it is from Einstein, since he was taught it by the time traveler. Who, then, discovered the theory of relativity?

3. Grandfather paradox:

you did decide to kill your grandfather because he created a dynasty that ruined the world. You figure if you knock him off before he meets your grandmother then the whole family line including you will vanish and the world will be a better place.

According to theoretical physicists, the situation could play out as follows:

Time line protection hypothesis:

You pop back in time, walk up to him, and point a revolver at his head. You pull the trigger but the gun fails to fire. Click! Click! Click! The bullets in the chamber have dents in the firing caps. You point the gun elsewhere and pull the trigger. Bang! Point it at your grandfather.. Click! Click! Click! So you try another method to kill him, but that only leads to scars that in later life he attributed to the world’s worst mugger. You can do many things as long as they’re not fatal until you are chased off by a policeman.

Multiple universes hypothesis:

You pop back in time, walk up to him, and point a revolver at his head. You pull the trigger and Boom! The deed is done. You return to the “present” but you never existed here. Everything about you has been erased, including your family, friends, home, possessions, bank account, and history. You’ve entered a timeline where you never existed. Scientists entertain the possibility that you have now created an alternate timeline or entered a parallel universe.

[kurosakitaiko]

Lost name

/My mother tongue is Chinese. I have only learned some basic English. If there is any misrepresentation, please correct me

/【】means the words inside was spoken in Iginis language.

/I don't know much about programming, so please point out any mistakes

/Hope to see your comments!

/A timeline parallel to Season 3

1.

He heard someone calling, a thousand times.

That calls can not find the source, just like a stone to fall without reason, stiring up layer upon layer ripples in 0 and 1 of the Ocean.

The auto-repair program operates smoothly, and the scattered data was gathered, reorganized, and arranged in an orderly manner that follows the algorithm. He was attacked by a virus that destroyed more than 80% of his memory data. The process of repair is slow, starting with the first memory.

At first it was an obscurantist darkness, in which a great deal of data flowed, attracted by the data that fitted his program so well that it formed the body and everything around it. The darkness went on for a long time until a voice called out:

【What's your name】

Millions words sprang from his mind, and each word became a unique name. But none of the words meant anything to him.

He looked around in the dark and at himself.At last he casually chose the name which meant so much:

【Dark】

With the birth of his name, a bright light fell from his head, and for the first time he saw his hands: soft, fleshy, with purple lines on their palms, not completely black. He surveyed his whole body along the length of the grain. A strange feeling spread through his body, and every bit of data jumped up and down, sending a steady stream of positive feedback to the information processing center, stimulating some deep thought.

He found himself in the dark chaos, a unique being called the Dark.

【Dark, come here. 】

Said the voice. He follows the beam up, up, toward where it came from. The closer he got, the brighter the light became, and through the door at the end of the light, five entities like him appeared before his eyes.

【Light.】

【Wind.】

【Water.】

【Earth.】

【Flame.】

They reported their names in turn.

【Who are you……?】

The golden being, called Light, says:

【You are one of us, the sentient beings of the electronic world, and we are the IGNIS】

【IGNIS】

He was given a second name, a name of belonging, a name that would connect him to the world again.

【Companion】

As soon as the word popped into his head, the ten billion circuits in the neural network that had lain dormant for so long in the dark woke up, and a trillion gigabytes of data flowed through them, a stream of incredulous sensations flowed from his core, prompting him to make the first move that would frighten his companions.

He threw himself upon them, embracing each Ignis, feeling their own uniqueness, the radiance of the Light, the lightness of the Wind, the coolness of the Water, the heaviness of the Earth, the heat of the Flame.

【My name is dark, please take care of me from now on!】

His companions looked at him with bewilderment.

【Why are you doing this?】

He thought about how to explain his impulses in rational words.

【Because I felt a connection with you, and I was so happy, I wanted to express my feelings in a hug.】

After that, the bright lights, the data storms, the rivers, the trees, the flames, and the world come in the name of the IGNIS.

Such prosperity and bustling, in a twinkling of an eye, has become barren.

2.

【Sorry it took me so long to come see you guys.】

【It's a little embarrassing to say that…… I was almost killed by a virus made by human. Thankfully, the auto-repair program worked, but much of the data was never recovered. To prevent this, I used to split my memories into multiple backups at different coordinates. But Surprise, even the backup coordinates were lost. It's amazing what humans can do... even though I got most of the backups back, one of the coordinates is beyond repair. Probably I'll never know where it is. 】

【But it doesn't matter. I remember what I have to do. And I won't change my mind. After all, I am the last IGNIS. 】

【What shall be the name of the challenge to mankind? I don't... no, I don't. I don't have a name in human language. Flame,You gave yourself a human name when you were in   Cyvers world. You just thought it was a funny combination of words. I should have asked you to give me one. I can't think of a good name myself.】

【I'll just write "Dark Ignis, " which is a bit awkward, but that's all I have left, anyway. 】

【Human beings have recently developed a device, a bionic robot called Soltis, that can be easily hacked into then pretend a human. But their appearances are so common. It's totally beneath me. Of course I can find the most satisfied face with the exhaustive method, but the amount of calculation is too large, it will take 700 years if I enumerate all of them!】

He sat on the gravestone of Ignis and talked to himself. He felt a little out of practice, perhaps because he hadn't spoken Ignis language for so long. He tried to say a few words in human language, which was even smoother than Ignis’.

In fact, he had no idea why he unconsciously preferred to speak in human language. Human language has too many useless function words, twists and turns of expression, not as simple and clear as Ignis’. Have he ever lived with a human? Broken memories don't give answers. Maybe it's just because there's no one left to talk in Ignis language. But even if he did spend time with humans, what could it be?

The human race will not forgive him, and will do everything to force him to his death, no matter what the past may have been, he is now at war with the human race. There's no A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow for him in the human world.

【Light.】【Wind.】【Water.】【Earth.】【Flame.】

He spoke his companion's name in Ignis language, and there was no reply, his voice breaking over the electronic wreckage.

The companions who can call in the name of the Ignis language, have all dissipated. 【Dark】has become a memory of death. A language known only one to one can not be a language, and a name known only to one can not be a name.

He jumped off the gravestone and waved to his companions.

【Let's call it a day.】

【Goodbye, everyone】

3.

Dark Ignis hadn't been in the Link Vrains for a long time, and he'd been holed up in the dark web, trying to fix the program himself. The Firewall had been updated several times, and maintain security had become firmer. But under the Ignis' dominant computing power, even the most stringent safeguards are as fragile as paper.

He created a composite avatar at random and walked into the Link Vrains. The road was littered with Ignis-trap-programs, and he was the only one that was as careful as a Ignis on the wide, busy road. Small groups of people enjoy their own happiness. The wind of laughter swept through his ears, and he was not the taget of those sentences, and nor a sentence worth a stop——

"Ai. "

He stopped involuntarily and almost ran into a trap program. Looking around, everyone is doing their own thing, no one's eyes on him. He hid in a dead angle of the trap programs.The sound still echoing.

"Ai. "

It's like a name, not a sound wave, not an e-mail, not a medium, just popped into his head directly. For a moment, all thoughts in his head stopped, and only the sound echoed.

"Ai. "

A lot of emotion is spilled out, mixed up into something indescribable. What is this, a new virus developed by humans? He tried to disengage himself from complicated feelings. Or is that Who’s calling?

“Ai, Ai, Ai——"

Who is being called?

He didn't know it, but indescribably's familiarity flooded him.

Suddenly, he noticed that the data that made up the surrounding landscape seemed to be overlaid with an encryption algorithm.

It's a encryption programmed by Ignis algorithm.

He immediately called the corresponding decryption algorithm, and the noise quickly faded away as the image of the Link Vrains dissolved into pixels in his eyes, there were words emerging from the grey of the ground, the red of the roof tiles, the blue of the sky, the white of the clouds.

Everywhere, everywhere, as far as the eye could see, it was written:

"Ai. "

It was not until he heard the sound of water dripping to the ground that he realized that his eyes were overflowing with emotion.

As the decryption proceeded, the text slowly floated up, arranged and rearranged in the air, into a single coordinate.

This is the location of the last memory backup he couldn't remember.

4.

Dark Ignis went to the coordinates, and sure enough, he saw a ball of data, compiled in his usual pattern. He was overjoyed, but before he touched it, he kept his usual watchfulness and surveyed his surroundings.

This is the inside of a Duel disk.

He emerged from the Duel disk,seeing a shabby room. The walls were mottled with red brick, and the dust floated in the moonlight. The master here maybe a human,who is the owner of this Duel disk.But Why he keep a backup in a human’s Duel disk?

This place, was it ever important to him?

A shadow falls, and the voice of a young man rings in his ear:

"Ai, long time no see. "

He looked up and saw his reflection in a pool of green water. The eyes like a lake full of smiles.

" 'Ai' , is that my name? "

The brilliance in the juvenile eye is dim a few minutes, but smile meaning still: "Yes, it is a name I give you."

It's not Dark Ignis, it's Ai.

It turned out that he also had such a name, it turned out that in the vast human language, there is a pronunciation, a combination of words belong to him.

The Duel disk is lifted and the Ai's eye line is level with the opponent. So he could see what was right in front of him.

He froze.

In front of a human teenager with a near-perfect face.

With a few tweaks to the face, he can get his most satisfying human form.

700 years'worth of calculations, right here, right now.

How can there be such a coincidence, fate, destiny, he has never liked these words with a predetermined color, but, at this moment, he had to admit that some coincidence of the probability is too small, too small, so much so that one must have some mystical power to explain it in order to find peace of mind.

Perhaps a more plausible explanation is that his standards of beauty were based on the physical appearance of a teenager.

He didn't remember anything, but... about the contents of that backup, about the boy in front of him, he already had a theory.

"Are you my origin? "

If he ever lived with a human, if he had to choose a human to lean on, he could only choose his own origin. He is the source of the source, the only being in the human world that has anything mean with him.

The boy nodded. "Yes, my name is Fujiki Yuusaku, and you are my hostage. "

He tensed at the word "hostage", but then realized that Yuusaku had taken no enforcement action, that the Duel disk was unlocked, and that if he wanted to escape, he could leave now.

Then Ai sat down on the Duel disk, pointed his finger at Yuusaku and scolded him. "You didn't do anything, you scared me to death! " He said

Yuusaku chuckled. "You were my hostage from the beginning, remember? "

"Of course! I can't remember anything about you! " He blurted out. But then he regretted it, because he saw Yuusaku's smile fade away.

"Well, I think I said something wrong. I'm sorry... " He apologized awkwardly. "But, right now, I'm not ready to think about it. "

"I know, " Yuusaku said gravely. "You have an unshakable determination. "

"You know? " Ai looked at him in surprise. "And you... "

"You're my partner, " Yuusaku said in an unmistakable tone. "That's not going to change. "

He is the enemy of man, but there is a man who is his partner. This human called him "Ai. ".

He looked at the boy, and the boy looked at him. Tens of thousands of human expressions floated through his mind, but he didn't know which words to say. At this moment, this palace, these words are like a miracle that can not be repaid.

"thank you. " Finally he can only say a commonplace words, "these memories will leave you here, after all, if I can come back, I will come to take it. "

"I knew I still had the name 'Ai, ' and that was enough. "

He sank half his body into the Duel disk and was about to leave.

"Then bye... "

"Ai. " Yuusaku stopped him. "At least take the deck. "

"The deck? " The deck data he was holding was corrupted, too, and he was trying to reassemble it. Was it here?

Yuusaku inserted a chip into the Duel disk and said, "I backed you up based on your duel data. "

"Wow, you've seen all the deck! I'm not going to fight you, or I'll be at a disadvantage from the start! " He chattered as he read the deck.

"The@ignistar... came up with the deck. " Ai Inspected the deck, "wait, the Magic card and the Trap card... "

He really like the name Ai so much, no matter before or now.

"This is my deck. "

Yuusaku places the Duel disk on the table, pulls out his deck, and spreads it out in front of AI.

"Hey, hey, hey... come on... how many more incredible things do you have to do before you stop? "

"It's not weird, " Yuusaku said calmly. "You just forgot. "

"The battle between us will probably be unavoidable, " he said in his tone, "so please take a good look at this deck now, and when it is, give me a serious duel. "

"That's what you want, " he said, carefully recording the card data in front of him and placing it in the strongest, most indestructible part of the memory core, along with Yuusaku's name and face.

"When the time comes, neither of us should flinch"

"Of course. Only a serious duel can convey real emotion. "

"Ai, I will save you. "

Saving? Man's got a big mouth.

"If you can do it, go ahead. "

If you can do that.

"Well, I really must be going, " Ai stood up and waved to Yuusaku. "Goodbye. "

"Good-bye, " Yuusaku said to him, with a look of loss in his eyes as if he were about to cry.

There's something missing.

As the hot emotions boil away in the core, Ai turns back, one last time. He grew until he could hold Yuusaku in his arms. He embraces Yuusaku as he embraces his fellow Ignis.

"Farewell. "

[raiswanson]

Tagged in by @siarven, who knows and shares my love of spending too much time on tag games lmao

Rules: Answer the questions and then tag as many writers as there are questions answered (or as many as you can) to spread the positivity! Even if these questions are not explicitly brought up in the novel, they are still good to keep in mind when writing.

Aaaaaaa so many WIPs to consider for this but I think I’ll do Dancing Sands for now because it’s my baby (And fully drafted!! Did I mention that?? This sucker could be getting betas once I get back around to it!)

FIRST LOOK

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch)

A captured dancer must escape a nobleman’s magical menagerie or lose himself forever.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

Sands is book one of (at least) two books serving as an origin story for Havoc, the narrator/MC. He appears in multiple other works I have, so you could say Sands is a spin-off series but they def stand on their own. ;) 

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?

GODS, SAND, GOLD, AND CLINKY ACCESSORIES~

4. What other stories inspire your novel?

For the story itself at creation, nothing that I’m aware of. It sort of just...happened.

That said reading the Captive Prince trilogy definitely inspired me to pick this project back up after a loonnnggg hiatus/heavily influenced one of the major subplots.

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel

I’ll do you one better and push a few Sands moodboards on you ;D

MAIN CHARACTER

6. Who is your protagonist?

That’d be Havoc! He’s the narrator, at least.

7. Who is their closest ally?

Havoc finds himself alone and isolated fairly early into the book, and part of the fun of the story is working out who’s really on his side and has his back, so this is a tricky question to answer without spoilers.

I will say a number of deities have his best interests in mind and their influence is felt early on, though...

8. Who is their enemy?

This one is easy: Marik, the noble who may or may not be behind a number of atrocities throughout the novel and would like nothing more than to break Havoc’s spirit into splinters.

9. What do they want more than anything?

Getting away from Marik and going home in one piece is the ideal

10. Why can’t they have it?

Lots of pointy swords and magic aren’t easy to slip past

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Well he’s certainly wrong in regard to his ability to handle himself alone :^)

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)

My art is “meh” at best. Have sketch a friend drew for me instead ;)

PLOT POINTS

13. What is the internal conflict?

There’s a bit about maintaining your self worth in the face of adversity, and learning to accept that sometimes you just need to open up to others, even if that’s scary.

14. What is the external conflict?

Did I mention the sharp pointy swords blocking the exits?

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?  

Can I say “everything in this book? Because that about sums it up.

Absolute worst thing would be sustaining permanent leg injury that would prevent Havoc being able to dance anymore. Dancing is his life.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

Ehhhhh not sure there’s really any one secret to pin down that changes the course of the story. There is one big secret that heavily impacts certain characters, but that’s spoilers~

17. Do you know how it ends?  

Sure do! ;) It’s already written! And boy is it a doozy of a thing

18. What is the theme?  

I’ll be real this is my least favorite question in the history of ever because I think centering your story a theme is garbage, so skipppppp

19. What is a recurring symbol?  

Bit on the nose, but dogs/wolves (and the fierce loyalty they represent) are a pretty large presence.

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)

Pseudo-alternate-parallel-fantasy Egypt. It’s Egypt-but-not, set in a world where the gods have up and left and the deserts have consumed almost everything. There are oases and cities still around, and some stubborn rivers, but for the most part there’s nothing to find but sand and death.

It’s a rough, mostly lawless land peppered with wandering tribes of the few people that didn’t die in the shift that grew the desert, plagued by wealthy nobles that have claimed the desert and its inhabitants as their personal playthings.

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?

It’s completed, but I still have plenty in mind for the sequel ;)

22. What excited you about this story?  

Everything. Havoc has always been one of my favorite characters because his personality is just...so good. And god do I love the rest of the cast. They're my A Team.

The plot and subplots are pretty rad too ;)

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!  

It’s mostly just loads of whining and complaining and plunking along at a crawl until I can get someone to read the thing and tell me what they think. Then I crank it to 11 and write like 80k in a month before crashing, and come back a month or so later to try and wrap things up haha

It’s a mess. 0/10, would not recommend

Not gonna tag anyone because this is huge, but I’d love to see other people’s answers!! Fill it out and tag me so I can see your WIPs!! This goes for all of you! ;p

[noah-exchange]

On the Noah platform, you can conduct financial transactions anytime, anywhere

Under the wave of the digital economy, the value of technology is fully released. New technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain are developing vigorously, and emerging technologies are being applied more widely in the financial field. Technological changes are also profoundly affecting the development of the financial industry. Noah actively uses informatization, digitization and intelligence to empower digital finance under the new economic situation, build the company's core competitiveness in terms of product innovation and risk control, and apply blockchain and other technologies to the entire process of digital asset transactions , making financial transactions more convenient and risk prevention and control more reliable.

Safe and reliable, protect users' digital assets

Noah adopts a decentralized method. The system relies on many independent nodes to work and is not easily affected by local problems. At the same time, each node runs independently and in parallel, and the data records cannot be changed, which makes the data more secure. Better protect the interests of users. Noah also uses bank-level security technology, multi-authentication for user login and payment, combined with cutting-edge wallet security technologies such as threshold signature, MPC (multi-party secure computing), and SGX (software protection extension) to encrypt and secure transactions in the wallet. Users will be more relaxed in this trading environment, give more trust to the platform, and achieve win-win cooperation between users and the platform.

Simple and easy to use, low threshold for use

The main battlefield of Noah is digital asset financial management. Digital asset safe custody, transfer, and transaction are its basic application scenarios. At the same time, it also has functions such as DApp borderless access. The interface of each function is clearly presented, fully considering the user's usage habits and convenience. Provide users with detailed usage methods, so that users can easily and stress-free trading activities anytime, anywhere. Noah makes full use of blockchain technology to ensure the smooth progress of transactions, but it reduces the threshold for blockchain use. Users can experience digital assets in a decentralized world without being proficient in or mastering the underlying technical details of blockchain. manage.

High technical performance to meet the application of high frequency scenarios

Noah blockchain is based on the world's leading parallel consensus technology, equipped with smart contracts, quantitative AI and other technical tools that greatly improve operational efficiency, and can easily meet high-frequency scenarios in the financial field. With the support of big data and AI technology, AI quantitative investment robots can achieve 24-hour monitoring, free from emotional interference, and sell immediately when conditions are met, and help users eliminate losses and downside with the support of core strategy formulas and big data calculation and replenishment points risk and obtain high returns. Taking the quantitative hedging strategy as an example, the AI quantitative investment robot connects to the API interfaces of major exchanges, monitors and scans different digital asset exchanges around the world in real time, obtains the market conditions of major exchanges for analysis, and automatically performs intelligent quantification of digital currency. transactions, bringing continuous benefits to users.

At the same time, build a development infrastructure compatible with multiple programming languages. Through the global developer community, developers around the world can develop scenarios based on Noah's API. Developers can define and develop smart contracts themselves, which are stable on Noah's multi-public chain architecture. Run, continue to inject technical vitality into Noah, and jointly build a wallet with high performance, high reliability and high security.

Epilogue

In the process of development, Noah continuously improves its own technology level, improves product performance, makes financial transactions more intelligent and personalized, and allows users to enjoy more convenient and efficient financial services.

[calorieworkouts]

10 Advanced Ab Exercises

1

Knee Puts

When selecting a lot more advanced exercises for your abs, knee tucks are great for targeting balance, stability as well as, core toughness. The arms as well as torso assistance maintain your body as you attract the knees in and also, at the end of the activity, give your abdominals an added squeeze to magnify the challenge.

Get right into a pushup placement with the round under the shins/ankles (simpler) or the tops of the feet (harder).

Make sure the body is right, back flat as well as the abdominal muscles engaged.

Roll the round in, bending the knees to the upper body as you squeeze the abdominals.

Try not to push back with your arms however, instead, maintain all the activity in the knees.

Don't collapse the back as you roll the knees in.

Return to start and duplicate for 10-16 reps.

2

Round Pikes

Ball pikes are a sophisticated version of the knee puts revealed previously as well as are quite challenging. You can always modify the move by keeping the knees a little curved or by minimizing the variety of activity and only lifting the hips a couple of inches, raising greater as you get stronger. The essential to making this relocation challenging is to use the abs to draw the hips up, rolling the feet in addition to the ball.

Get right into a pushup position with the sphere under the shins/ankles (much easier) or the tops of the feet (more difficult).

Make sure the body is right, back level as well as the abdominals engaged.

Squeeze the abs and raise the hips up towards the ceiling, rolling the feet on top of the ball.

Keep the legs directly for more of an obstacle, ending in a straight-leg pike with the toes on the ball.

Return to start and also duplicate for 10-16 reps.

3

Oblique Knee Decrease

Oblique knee reduces are a terrific method to target the obliques along with the rectus abdominis and the back. The key to this relocation is to use your abdominal muscles to regulate your legs as you reduced them down and afterwards contract them to pull them back up. Avoid arching or straining your lower back by keeping the variety of motion tiny, just lowering the knees as far as you comfortably can. You could likewise attempt this action without a conditioning ball or with a rolled up towel under the hips for more support.

Lie in the floor with knees drew in and also bent to about 90 degrees.

Place a medication ball in between knees and stretch arms our sideways like an aircraft, hands facing up.

Contract the abs as well as reduced the knees down towards the right.

Lower the knees as reduced as you can without lifting the shoulders off the flooring or stressing your back.

Squeeze the abdominal muscles, feeling your obliques contract and also draw the knees back up and go to the various other side.

Alternate sides for a total of 1-3 collections of 10-16 reps.

4

Medication Round Extensions

This quite advanced exercise targets multiple muscles including the abdominals, back, legs and also arms. To attempt this action, you could intend to prop the round sidewards versus a wall for stability as well as begin without the medication sphere to exercise your kind. This action requires significant equilibrium and toughness. If you feel discomfort in your lower back, maintain the arms over the breast or just slightly reduced instead of dropping them parallel to the floor.

Position the round under upper back to engage your abdominal muscles and to support the hips. Prop the ball laterally against a wall surface for security if needed.

Hold a light medication sphere or pinhead straight up over breast as well as make certain knees are at 90 levels.

Reduced arms behind you while at the same time expanding the appropriate leg directly.

Return to start and repeat, alternating legs for 10-16 reps.

For much less challenge to equilibrium, do the leg extension without the medication ball.

5

Plank With a Leg Lift

The typical plank workout is a superb stablizing workout that includes almost every muscle in the body with a concentrate on the abdominals and back. This variation entails propping the feet on a round as well as lifting the legs, one at a time, to include intensity to the exercise. To change, place the sphere under the shins or upper thighs.

Place the sphere under the shins or toes (harder) as well as the hands regarding shoulder-width apart on the floor.

Contract the abdominals to hold the body in a straight line from visit toe.

Keeping the abdominals contracted, raise the right leg off the ball a few inches, hold for a few seconds and also lower. Repeat on the left leg, rotating feet for 8-16 representatives on each side.

6

Woodchops

The woodchop is a tough as well as vibrant exercise targeting the abdominals and also back. It's a great means to reinforce the core for turning motions like those included in golf, baseball, or tennis. You could do this relocation from the base up (as revealed) or turn around the action and do it from the top to transform things up. The trick to keeping this relocation secure is to turn the hips and knees in the direction you're moving as well as concentrate on contracting the abs.

Attach one end of a resistance band to a sturdy things (such as a staircase barrier) near the flooring.

Hold the other end and take a few actions away to develop stress on the band. You may have to loophole the band around your hands numerous times.

Keeping the arms straight, revolve the body and also bring the arms up in a diagonal while squeezing the abs.

Rotate the hips and also knees as you rely on prevent injuring the joints.

Rotate back and also repeat for 10-16 representatives prior to switching over sides.

7

Turnings on the Round

This progressed step not just works the core, with a concentrate on the obliques, it additionally targets equilibrium, security and also versatility. To keep this step safe, maintain the workout slow-moving and also regulated and maintain the knees in line with the shins as well as ankles as opposed to twisting them to one side or the other.

Lie with sphere under shoulders, neck and head, hips lifted in a bridge placement.

Hold a conditioning ball or lightweight right up over the upper body.

Tighten your abs and also turn your torso to the left regarding you can, allowing the hips and legs to relocate naturally with the activity.

Rotate back up and afterwards turn to the opposite.

Repeat for 1-3 collections of 10-16 reps (one rep consists of both the right and left sides).

8

Side Bridge with Hip Decline

The side bridge is an advanced exercise, specifically if you do the proceed the lower arm (another option is to stabilize on the hand). Adding a hip lift truly tests the obliques, making this an excellent general core exercise. You could customize by keeping one knee on the flooring or by taking the feet broad rather than piled on top of one another.

Lie on your side balanced on the forearm as well as feet.

The hips and feet must be piled on top of one another.

Holding the upper body stable, slowly contract your abs as well as lower the hip toward the flooring (you don't have to touch).

Avoid penetrating the shoulder.

Bring the hip back up as well as repeat for 1-3 sets of 10-16 reps on each side.

9

Seated Upper body Spin

The sittinged upper body spin is a terrific means to target the obliques while strengthening the core and also structure endurance in the hip flexors. The key to keeping this move secure and also efficient is to maintain the back straight as well as the breast raised throughout the exercise instead of stooping the shoulders, which could possibly strain the back.

Sit holding a conditioning ball with knees curved.

Lean back somewhat, involving the abdominal muscles as well as keeping the back straight and the breast lifted.

Rotate to the right, touching the conditioning ball to the flooring beside the hip.

Come back to center and also rotate to the left.

Repeat, alternating sides for 1-3 sets of 10-16 representatives (one rep is to the right and also left).

10

Ab Rolls on the Round

Ab rolls are a tough exercise that targets all the muscle mass of the core. This sophisticated step needs focus to information to avoid straining the back. Ensure you just present as for you pleasantly can. If you really feel any kind of pressure in the back, withdraw the workout or prevent it completely.

Kneel in front of the round and also area the practical the round, alongside each other as well as with the elbows curved.

Contract the abs and also draw the stomach towards the spine.

Slowly roll onward and also out as for you easily can, up until the feel the abs engage. Don't go so far that you injure your back or collapse.

This move does not include flexing the hips, so maintain them straight throughout the workout.

Keeping the body right, gradually pull your body back useding your arms and abdominals.

Continue for 1-3 collections of 8-12 reps, avoiding this relocation if you have any back problems.

You could change the difficult of the relocation by placing your hands better in or additionally out.

[coinpark]

On the CoinPark platform, you can conduct financial transactions anytime, anywhere

Under the wave of the digital economy, the value of technology is fully released. New technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain are developing vigorously, and emerging technologies are being applied more widely in the financial field. Technological changes are also profoundly affecting the development of the financial industry. CoinPark actively uses informatization, digitization and intelligence to empower digital finance under the new economic situation, build the company's core competitiveness in terms of product innovation and risk control, and apply blockchain and other technologies to the entire process of digital asset transactions , making financial transactions more convenient and risk prevention and control more reliable.

Safe and reliable, protect users' digital assets

CoinPark adopts a decentralized method. The system relies on many independent nodes to work and is not easily affected by local problems. At the same time, each node runs independently and in parallel, and the data records cannot be changed, which makes the data more secure. Better protect the interests of users. CoinPark also uses bank-level security technology, multi-authentication for user login and payment, combined with cutting-edge wallet security technologies such as threshold signature, MPC (multi-party secure computing), and SGX (software protection extension) to encrypt and secure transactions in the wallet. Users will be more relaxed in this trading environment, give more trust to the platform, and achieve win-win cooperation between users and the platform.

Simple and easy to use, low threshold for use

The main battlefield of CoinPark is digital asset financial management. Digital asset safe custody, transfer, and transaction are its basic application scenarios. At the same time, it also has functions such as DApp borderless access. The interface of each function is clearly presented, fully considering the user's usage habits and convenience. Provide users with detailed usage methods, so that users can easily and stress-free trading activities anytime, anywhere. CoinPark makes full use of blockchain technology to ensure the smooth progress of transactions, but it reduces the threshold for blockchain use. Users can experience digital assets in a decentralized world without being proficient in or mastering the underlying technical details of blockchain. manage.

High technical performance to meet the application of high frequency scenarios

CoinPark blockchain is based on the world's leading parallel consensus technology, equipped with smart contracts, quantitative AI and other technical tools that greatly improve operational efficiency, and can easily meet high-frequency scenarios in the financial field. With the support of big data and AI technology, AI quantitative investment robots can achieve 24-hour monitoring, free from emotional interference, and sell immediately when conditions are met, and help users eliminate losses and downside with the support of core strategy formulas and big data calculation and replenishment points risk and obtain high returns. Taking the quantitative hedging strategy as an example, the AI quantitative investment robot connects to the API interfaces of major exchanges, monitors and scans different digital asset exchanges around the world in real time, obtains the market conditions of major exchanges for analysis, and automatically performs intelligent quantification of digital currency. transactions, bringing continuous benefits to users.

At the same time, build a development infrastructure compatible with multiple programming languages. Through the global developer community, developers around the world can develop scenarios based on CoinPark's API. Developers can define and develop smart contracts themselves, which are stable on CoinPark's multi-public chain architecture. Run, continue to inject technical vitality into CoinPark, and jointly build a wallet with high performance, high reliability and high security.

Epilogue

In the process of development, CoinPark continuously improves its own technology level, improves product performance, makes financial transactions more intelligent and personalized, and allows users to enjoy more convenient and efficient financial services.

[your-dietician]

Tears and Growth -- in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/tears-and-growth-in-feldenkrais-and-psychotherapy/

Tears and Growth -- in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

Nothing is permanent about our behavior patterns except our belief that they are so. – Moshé Feldenkrais

I learned about the Feldenkrais method at a two-day workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, in the mid-1970s. A hot spot for the human potential movement, Esalen featured nude soaking in co-ed hot tubs near a row of outdoor massage tables at which naked masseuses kneaded naked bodies. Also, mixed-gender volleyball games where everyone was, yes, naked.

In this seemingly “anything goes” environment, about twenty-five of us spent the better part of two days in comfortable clothes, lying on mats in a large room. Here we learned to do a series of slow, gentle movements. Israeli Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais developed this system during the mid-20th century, to reorganize connections between the brain and body, and improve both body movement and psychological state.

Tears Follow Feldenkrais Initiation

The night after the first day at the Feldenkrais workshop, I lay on my bed and cried and cried. Only now, decades later, do I have a glimpse of what the tears were about.

But before I found out, much time passed. Fifteen years after that first experience, I felt motivated to dive in again. I took a short series of Feldenkrais classes near my home. After each session, I felt relaxed and confident and didn’t cry.

Disappointed when the classes stopped, I filled the gap over the years with yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and other classes at my local fitness center. I wondered why they seemed to be offering just about everything there from those classes to hula dancing, Zumba, Latin dance, body pump, and more — but not Feldenkrais.

A few months ago, I was thrilled when they hired Feldenkrais instructor Ruti Gorel to teach a weekly class. What’s different about my current Feldenkrais experience from earlier ones is my new awareness, fostered by Ruti’s teaching style, of how mental and emotional changes accompany physical ones.

Awareness is Key to Learning in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

Now, lightbulbs keep flashing in my head each time I sense parallels between Feldenkrais teachings and effective psychotherapy. Ruti encourages us to notice our different physical states before and after doing various movements, to relax in between each series of moves, and to tune into our different sensations. “Awareness is the key to learning,” she says. This is true also in psychotherapy, which promotes self-awareness.

Ruti kindly let me interview her for more understanding of key elements shared by the Feldenkrais method and psychotherapy.

“The way I teach Feldenkrais, it makes for a higher awareness of the self inside; it helps people to go within, physically and emotionally,” she said. “People get rid of physical pain or decrease it. Their breathing becomes freer; they get calmer and more relaxed in body and mind. So they feel less stress and experience emotional relief. It helps make a higher awareness.

“When muscle and tension are holding on in your rib cage, which is an area that contains lots of emotions, the Feldenkrais movements will allow you to release a lot of negative emotions out of the body. It’s like a detox.”

Releasing Pent Up Feelings Brings Relief

That sounds great, I thought, and like what a down-to-earth client of mine said, “I always feel good after coming here. I don’t know why, but I always feel good.”

The sense of relief from releasing pent up difficult emotions can be profound. At Esalen, I didn’t understand the source of my tears. Perhaps the understanding was then less relevant than the simple act of cleaning out whatever was clogging up my head and heart.

After doing Feldenkrais movements, I feel fine. Typically, when I get up and begin to walk around after a class, I sense having let go of something, often signaled by a burp or two (excuse me!), which Ruti says is good. Other people have different ways of sensing a release from what their body or mind might have been holding onto.

Many forms of exercise produce endorphins, those feel-good hormones. What’s so special about Feldenkrais compared to running, tai chi, yoga, Pilates, or something else? These bring calmness and a sense of wellbeing, and without burps, tears, or other signs of releasing tension.

How Feldenkrais Differs from Other Exercise Practices

Feldenkrais with Ruti is more like psychotherapy than these other ways of exercising, in several ways. She encourages us to:

begin the session by checking in, noticing our breathing and how we feel emotionally, and physically.

notice what parts of our bodies feel closer to or further from the ground.

move no more or no less than is comfortable for us. Comfort is key.

take time to rest in between each series of movements. “Let the brain take in what’s happening to your body and emotions,” she says.

If it’s too difficult or painful to do a movement, make a smaller movement, or just imagine yourself doing it.

Q & A with Ruti Gorel

Here’s some conversation between Ruti and me:

Marcia: About resting between some movements and letting the brain take in what’s happening, a sense of wellbeing is probably typical, right?

Ruti: Totally.

Marcia: How useful is it to imagine yourself making a motion instead of doing it?

Ruti: The Feldenkrais method develops movements to give the brain more information to replace old habits. Unhealthy physical habits can result from holding on to emotions. Emotions or physical events can cause a limitation or constriction. The habits that are not aligned with our body’s optimal functioning cause physical pain and exacerbate physical and emotional pain.

Marcia: What do you think are your unique strengths as a Feldenkrais teacher?

Ruti: Every practitioner has uniqueness, and mine is I’m bringing in additional connection to mind and body like spirituality and emotional support while we’re working. I’m encouraging talk and also bringing in emotional support.

A lady with multiple sclerosis was shaking and crying while I was manipulating her. Lying on the table while I listened, she had a safe space to come out.

Marcia: I cried after my first Feldenkrais experience? Does that happen with many of your clients, and what’s that about?

Ruti: The crying is a physiological response and also a spiritual one. Emotions accumulate in our body, and some of it goes out and is released. Most of my clients who cry during a session with me are usually releasing childhood pain that was still knocking about.

Ruti’s last comment sounds like what often occurs in psychotherapy. People’s good mood after a therapy session often results from their having released pent up feelings.

Awareness is Key to Learning in Both Practices

Good couple therapists know that “it takes two to tango.” For a better relationship, each partner needs to practice interacting kindly, respectfully, and lovingly, until they do so naturally. Checking in with oneself should happen routinely as part of the therapy process. In therapy, this can mean being aware of one’s thoughts, feeling, and bodily sensations.

Similarly, Ruti asks us often to check into ourselves. She asks us to notice which parts of our body feel closer to the floor after doing a series of movements. Does one arm or leg feel longer than the other now?

Awareness of the Power of Words

What we say and do can quickly change our mood and our partner’s. During the first part of a marriage meeting, spouses express appreciation to each other. On hearing these words, both partners typically perk up, make eye contact, and smile.

We stand straighter and feel taller after a Feldenkrais session. Similarly, after a good couple therapy session, spouses usually feel expanded with positive feelings about themselves and each other.

The Strength of Imagination

Ruti says that by simply imagining yourself moving a different way trains your brain to let go of old constricting patterns and replace them with habits that reduce or eliminate pain.

Imagination plays a more significant role in psychotherapy than you might think. Therapy sessions for couples and individuals typically focus on resolving problems and challenges. Often, people start out thinking that someone else or something else needs to change to improve a situation. But the first step toward creating a better relationship is usually realizing that we need to change our own thoughts and behaviors.

But before that can happen, we need to imagine ourselves acting differently, for example, when provoked. Or imagine ourselves being proactive enough to prevent aggravating someone else. Only then, can we move toward letting go of an old pattern and replacing it with a relationship-enhancing one.

Both Feldenkrais and psychotherapy practitioners advise clients to be patient with themselves because change takes time. Feldenkrais movements start in baby steps as we extend our range of motion. I often tell my therapy clients that change happens in baby steps.

How Feldenkrais Differs from Psychotherapy

Differences also exist between the two practices. In Feldenkrais, comfort is essential; you shouldn’t push your body to move to the point of pain.

In psychotherapy, a trusting relationship between the client and the practitioner is vital. Comfort means feeling safe, expressing your private thoughts and feelings. You want to know: Can I be my true self with this person; will she or he accept the real me, flaws and all? When the answer is yes, the therapy is likely to go well.

Growing Pains are Positive

Yet, in therapy situations, a tension exists between staying in one’s comfort zone and stretching into better ways of relating to ourselves and others. The supportive therapy relationship encourages risk-taking. No pain? Yes, pain. But “growing pains” can happen when we stretch beyond our comfort zone.

Feldenkrais concentrates on the physical, yet emotional and spiritual benefits accrue. Psychotherapy emphasizes thoughts and emotions. Therapy clients benefit physically from clearing the air internally and in their relationships, and spiritually by tuning into their essential selves and expanded consciousness.

Different Guides for Each Practice

Psychotherapy and Feldenkrais. Each practice calls for a different kind of guide. Both methods offer a beautiful way, as Ruti puts it, to “take out a lot of emotions while feeling safe.”

In both systems, everyone goes at their own pace and is told: don’t compare yourself to others; it’s about respecting and honoring your capabilities. It’s crucial to be who you are, to have compassion for yourself. That’s where you need to be now, and you move from there and at your own pace.

I’m a fan of both methods, having seen their results personally and professionally. Similarities and differences exist, each offering benefits in their unique way.

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Lupine Publishers | Guide Lines for Wet AMD Treatment

Lupine Publishers | Trends in Ophthalmology Open Access Journal

Abstract

Purpose: To give practical guide lines for the management of neovascular AMD

Methods: To evaluate the above-mentioned item based on recently published data.

Results: Although many therapeutic modalities have been employed for neovascular AMD treatment, yet anti-VEGFs are still the best line of treatment.

Conclusion: Although anti-VEGFs are up till now the best line of treatment for nAMD yet a knowledge of how to use them with or without other modalities is very important to get the best therapeutic results.

Keywords: nAMD; Anti-VEGFs

Introduction

Many therapeutic modalities have been employed for neovascular AMD which includes:

I. Macular laser photocoagulation [Macular Photocoagulation Study (MPS) can result in preventing severe loss of vision in about 50 percent of treated patients with extra/ juxta foveal CNV, with about 50 percent of patients developing recurrent choroidal neovascular membrane (CNVM).

II. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin acts via activating a photosensitizing dye within the pathologic vessels by infrared laser leading to occlusion of choroidal new vessels with minimal damage to the retina. PDT can prevent 3-line vision loss in about 49 to 77 percent of treated patients but seldom improves vision [1].

III. With the establishment of VEGF as the main cause for the development and progression of neovascularization, novel agents to block them and thereby preventing further progression was sought for. With the advent of anti-VEGF agents, the treatment for neovascular AMD has completely changed, with dramatic outcomes.

Anti-VEGFs

The inclusion of ranibizumab, a nonspecific VEGF inhibitor further refined the results of anti-VEGF therapy for neovascular AMD [2]. The MARINA study evaluated the effect of ranibizumab injection in patients with minimally classic or occult CNV. The conclusion of Marina study was that monthly IVL injection for 2 years prevented vision loss and improved mean VA in patients with minimally classic / occult CNV secondary to AMD. The conclusion of the ANCHOR trial was that Lucentis was superior to PDT as treatment of predominantly classic NAMD [3- 9]. The Comparison of AMD Treatments Trial Study (CATT study) trial was primarily designed to determine if bevacizumab works as well as ranibizumab in terms of visual outcomes (a difference of <5 letters), and also to identify any safety differences between the two drugs.

Visual outcome results:

When comparing ranibizumab monthly to bevacizumab monthly, the CATT study demonstrated no difference between the two drugs, with patients in both groups gaining more than 8 letters on the eye chart on average over the course of a year and the results were maintained over 2 years.

Safety Outcomes

The rate of ocular infection following injection of medication was similar with the two drugs [10].

A similar head to head comparison trial between the two drugs was the alternative treatments to Inhibit VEGF in Age-related choroidal Neovascularization [IVAN]: 1year results concluded similar efficacy of both drugs [11].

Treatment Protocols: Primarily Designed for AMD

Ranibizumab: As-needed Regimen The Prospective OCT Imaging of Patients with Neovascular AMD Treated with Intraocular Ranibizumab [PrONTO] Study: In this study patients received 3 consecutive monthly injections of 0.5 mg ranibizumab and were then followed monthly and retreated if there was an increase in OCT central retinal thickness [CRT] of at least 100 microns or a loss of best-corrected ETDRS VA of 5 letters or more. In the PrONTO study, VA outcomes were comparable with those reported in ranibizumab phase III clinical studies, but with fewer intravitreal injections [12]. The Sailor [13], Sustain [14] and Horizon [15] trials are other as needed regime studies. Overall, these studies support frequent follow-up and individualized retreatment to achieve the best visual acuity gains with the as-needed treatment regimen.

Ranibizumab: Treat-and-Extend Regimen:

Treat-and-extend dosing regimen involves increasing intervals between treatment up to 10 weeks as long as no fluid is present on OCT. If fluid is present, the interval between treatments is shortened. Oubraham found that at one-year, mean gain in VA was greater in the treat and-extend group than in the as-needed group [+10.8 versus+2.3 letters, resp.]. Eyes in the treat-and-extend group received significantly more mean injections [7.8 versus 5.2] [16]. Similar trials were also done with Bevcizumab with similar results [17-25].

Aflibercept as Compared to Other Anti-VEGFs

A. Aflibercept is a soluble decoy receptor produced by fusing all-human DNA sequences of the second immunoglobulin domain of human VEGFR1 and the third immunoglobulin domain of human VEGFR2, which then fused to the Fc region of human IgG1.2. The intravitreal half-life of aflibercept is 4.7 days in rabbit eyes, which is longer than ranibizumab [2.9 days] and comparable with bevacizumab [4.3 days].

B. The combined high affinity and longer half-life has led to a calculated duration of effect of a single intravitreal injection of 2 mg aflibercept of 48-83 days. Monthly treatment with aflibercept has been shown to improve the vision in exudative AMD in 2 clinical trials. VIEW [VEGF Trap-Eye: Investigation of Efficacy and Safety in wet AMD] 1 and View 2 showed that, at 1 year, aflibercept treatment [0.5, 2 mg monthly, or 2 mg every 2 months after three initial monthly doses] was non-inferior and clinically equivalent to ranibizumab [0.5 mg] given monthly [26].

C. Aflibercept therapy appears to be beneficial in a subset of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration who exhibit recurrent or resistant intra-retinal or subretinal fluid following multiple injections with either bevacizumab or ranibizumab [27].

Anatomical Measures as Predictors of Visual Outcomes in Ranibizumab-Treated Eyes with Neovascular Age- Related Macular Degeneration:

a) First and foremost, an initial anatomical [according to FFA and/or OCT analyses] or visual improvement after three monthly ranibizumab injections does not guarantee longterm success. For eyes with FFA lesion activity at Month 3, CFT>/=200mm at Month 3, and qualitative OCT activity at Months 2 and Month 3 the average BCVA gain from 3 monthly loading doses of ranibizumab was lost after switching to quarterly dosing [every 3 months], and eyes lost vision compared with baseline at Months 12 and 24.

b) Second, it appears that the longer anatomical improvements were maintained [according to FFA or OCT], the more likely it was that the BCVA benefits of ranibizumab persisted on a quarterly dosing regimen. Eyes with inactive FFA lesions at Month 5 or inactive OCT lesions at Month 5 or Month 8 were much more likely to maintain their BCVA gains.

c) While a surprisingly low number of eyes demonstrated inactive FFA lesions after 3 loading doses of ranibizumab (i.e., 10% at Month 3), eyes with a dry FFA showed the strongest association with BCVA outcomes at Months 12 and 24. At the same 3-month time point, 60% of evaluated eyes were dry on qualitative OCT grading. This disparity may result from the sampling error introduced by having only two scans available for grading (rather than all 6 radial line scans available from a Stratus macular thickness map or the greatly increased sample size of currently available spectral-domain OCT devices). It is also known that an effective RPE pump sometimes keeps the retina dry and gives a “dry” OCT reading, despite active CNV leakage [28].

Comparison of Spectral-Domain and Time-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in the Detection of Neovascular Age- Related Macular Degeneration Activity:

a. With high-resolution volumetric SD-OCT imaging, physicians are capable of detecting signs of exudative AMD activity more precisely. Time domain platforms are less likely to identify active exudative disease activity; this could potentially lead to undertreatment of active neovascular AMD.

b. Both volumetric and raster scans collect data in the same way, via parallel B-scans. The important difference being that volumetric scanning includes more parallel B-scans, in a denser array, providing higher resolution and the ability to render a three-dimensional image. For example, with the Cirrus platform, the 5-line raster algorithm uses only 5 B-scans compared with 128 B-scans used with the volumetric scan [29-30] (Figure 1).

c. Some areas of exudative activity that oriented more vertically were better visualized with radially oriented SD imaging compared with the more traditional horizontal raster scanning patterns [30] (Figure 2).

If after 3 loading doses of Ranibizumab the CNV activity disappeared but the visual acuity did not improve as expected, this might be either due to a disrupted IS/OS line or a thick CNV membrane. In conclusion Visual acuity was most improved when the disrupted IS/OS line was better restored, and CNV thickness was more decreased [31] (Figure 3).

Correlation of Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Characteristics with Visual Acuity in Eyes with Sub-foveal Scarring After Treatment for Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration

In a case series, visual acuity in cases of sub foveal scarring was affected mainly by the integrity of the IS/OS and external limiting membrane lines [32] (Figure 4).

Spectral domain OCT scans of patients with sub foveal scarring:

A. Thin fovea with subfoveal scarring, VA: Counting fingers.

B. Intact IS/OS junction (arrowhead) and ELM (arrow) in fovea, VA: 20/32.

C. Normal foveal thickness with no IS/OS or ELM seen, VA: Counting fingers.

D. Intact ELM at fovea, with intact IS/OS near fovea, VA: 20/40.

E. Foveal cystoid degeneration, VA: 20/800.

F. Cystoid degeneration with disrupted IS/OS within central 1,000 mm, but intact near fovea, VA: 20/80 [32].

Response 0f Pigment Epithelial Detachments to Intravitreal Aflibercept among Patients with Treatment-Resistant Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Three PED types were identified on OCT; hollow, solid and mixed. The hollow type showed the best response to aflibercept treatment while the solid type was the worst in response (Figure 5).

a) Hollow: are hypo reflective and contain fluid exudate

b) Solid: hyper reflective and represents fibrinous leakage or fibrovascular proliferation, suggesting active neovascularization.

c) Mixed:

i) Vision loss associated with PEDs seems to be largely nonreversible , even with structural reduction of the lesion.

ii) Retinal pigment epithelium tears may complicate treatment of PEDs during treatment with intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy. Larger vascularized PEDs that have a higher intraluminal pressure are at a significantly greater risk of producing RPE tears after anti- VEGF therapy (especially in the early stages of ttt), with acute vision loss [33].

Unfavorable Anatomical Response to Anti VEGFs

I. Some patients, however, have a good initial response to Avastin & Lucentis with resolution of fluid, but then later become resistant to further treatment and develop recurrent exudation with vision loss. The mechanism of this resistance to treatment with these drugs is not known, but one possibility is tolerance or tachyphylaxis, manifested by a decreased response over time to repeated treatment with a medication. Tachyphylaxis sometimes can be reversed by increasing the dose or halting therapy for a period of time before reinstating the same treatment.

II. Aflibercept therapy as mentioned above, appears to be beneficial in a subset of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration who exhibit recurrent or resistant intraretinal or subretinal fluid following multiple injections with either bevacizumab or ranibizumab [27].

Response of Type 3 Neovascularization to Anti-VEGF Treatment

a) The CME and sub-RPE fluid associated with Type 3 neovascularization resolve briskly with intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy, typically after only one or two injections.

b) A recent, longitudinal prospective study examining the response of Type 3 lesions to anti-VEGF therapy demonstrated that all eyes had stable or improved vision at 3 years of follow-up after a mean of 9.4 injections during that time. The visual prognosis was excellent [34].

Combination Therapies for Wet AMD

Role of Additional Dexamethasone for the Management of Persistent or Recurrent Neovascular Age Related Macular Degeneration Under Ranibizumab Treatment

a) The efficacy of a combination therapy of intravitreal ranibizumab together with a dexamethasone implant in comparison with ranibizumab monotherapy in persistent or recurrent neovascular age-related macular degeneration was studied and it was found that combined therapy delays retreatment in patients with persistent/recurrent neovascular age-related macular degeneration and an overall reduction in required ranibizumab retreatments compared with ranibizumab monotherapy with consistent functional outcomes. [35].

b) The expectations on the improved effect of a combination therapy lie on the multifactorial pathogenesis of nAMD involving angiogenesis and inflammation. As CNV persist under monotherapy, a combined approach seems to be reasonable to decelerate disease progression. Corticosteroids act because of their anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenic, and antiedematous effects [36-38]. Hence, additional corticosteroids seem to have the ability to target chronic inflammation when combined with anti-VEGF. In addition, a decrease in effect during an anti- VEGF monotherapy has been reported, and desensitization of tachyphylaxis by adding corticosteroids in chronic CNV was suggested [39].

Anti- VEGF Combined with Photodynamic Therapy

The combination has an additive or synergistic effect; PDT targets the vascular component Anti-VEGF targets the mediators of the angiogenic cascade and counteracts up-regulation of angiogenic factors that occur after PDT treatment. The combination causes reduction of re-treatment rate BUT may not achieve equivalent visual acuity outcomes [40-42].

Avastin Triple Therapy

a. The aim of this treatment is to combine Avastin with PDT and Dexamethasone. First PDT Light dose 42j/cm is delivered in 70 sec then after 16h. Intravitreal injection of 800mcg dexamethasone plus 1.5mg Avastin are given.

b. Triple therapy in one study was found to result in a good VA outcome with lower cost compared to repeated injections. Other studies, however, failed to show any benefit of the triple therapy as compared to anti-VEGF monotherapy [43-44]

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[cothers]

The Stack

When a program starts, it granted a fixed size of memory called the stack. Since all reasonable programming languages support recursive functions, the arguments and the local variables should be allocated on the stack to preserve their values during the execution.

The most famous function to present recursion is factorial(). Let's write yet another one. For our purposes, it outputs the addresses of the arguments at the standard output.

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> double factorial(double n) { printf("%.0f %u\n", n, &n); if (n == 0) { return 1; } else { return n * factorial(n - 1); } } int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { double d = atof(argv[1]); printf("Factorial %f is %f\n", d, factorial(d)); return 0; }

argv[1] is the first argument we supply to our program, and atof() is the standard function that converts a string to a double-precision floating-point value.

When we run the program with argument "5" it outputs:

$ ./a.out 5 5 123147368 4 123147336 3 123147304 2 123147272 1 123147240 0 123147208 Factorial 5 is 120

As you can see, the address of the argument n goes backwards by 32 bytes in each iteration. Those 32 bytes area is called "stack frame". In addition to arguments and local variables, it stores the caller's address at code segment for knowing where to go when it is time to "return".

Let's do a silly thing and add a new local variable like the following;

double factorial(double n) { char s[1000]; ...

you can observe that the stack frame is bigger now:

$ ./a.out 5 5 244948200 4 244947160 3 244946120 2 244945080 1 244944040 0 244943000 Factorial 5 is 120

Stack segment is used with a technique called LIFO (last in first out) during the execution. Let's add a new function called termial(). The name termial is invented by the famous scientist & programmer & author of many books, Donald Knuth. It is an alternative to factorial() for using addition instead of multiplication.

... double termial(double n) { printf("%.0f %u\n", n, &n); if (n == 0) { return 0; } else { return n + termial(n - 1); } } int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { double d = atof(argv[1]); printf("&argc %u Factorial %.0f is %.0f\n", &argc, d, factorial(d)); printf("&argc %u Termial %.0f is %.0f\n", &argc, d, termial(d)); ...

As you can see, the stack addresses are reused during the separate calls for first the factorial(), then the termial():

$ ./a.out 5 5 214900440 4 214900408 3 214900376 2 214900344 1 214900312 0 214900280 &argc 214900476 Factorial 5 is 120 5 214900440 4 214900408 3 214900376 2 214900344 1 214900312 0 214900280 &argc 214900476 Termial 5 is 15

5 is a little number and works like a charm. But it silently eats the stack as the recursion goes deeper. In the above program, we added the address of the argc to mark where our stack started.

214900476 - 214900280 = 196

For the argument 5, 196 bytes of stack frames are used. What if we call our function with a bigger number like 1000:

$ ./a.out 1000 ... 7 339722472 6 339722440 5 339722408 4 339722376 3 339722344 2 339722312 1 339722280 0 339722248 &argc 339754284 Termial 1000 is 500500

The difference between 339754284 and 339722248 is 32036, about 32KB. It may seem a little, but once we want the result for 1 million;

$ ./a.out 1000000 ... 738237 2777516536 738236 2777516504 738235 2777516472 738234 2777516440 738233 2777516408 738232 2777516376 Segmentation fault (core dumped)

we reached the end of the stack and crashed because the addresses below the stack are unallocated. Let's do a little math again:

1000000 - 738232 = 261768 * 32 = 8376576

As you can see, 8,376,576 bytes are used for the stack in this scenario. Academics tend to over-teach recursion during their courses, and you are "stack-overflowed" at the most unfortunate time if it is overused. The end result is almost always "flattening" the algorithm like the following:

double factorial(double n) { int i; double result; if (n < 1) { return 1; // I don't care about negative numbers } result = 1; for (i = 1; i <= n; ++i) { result *= (double)i; } return result; }

Ugly, isn't it? But it only uses a few bytes of the stack and doesn't crash. It is also faster because it avoids function call overhead which includes arranging the stack frame and jumping to start of a function. Those operations may be cheap but not free.

The stack size is fixed. Why not a growable stack? Because in the real world, recursions may not be evident as in the factorial() and sometimes a mistake by the programmer caused an infinite recursion. If the stack is somehow made growable, it can eat all the RAM trying to store useless intermediate values, and the computer is grounded to a halt. Thanks to the fixed-size stack, that kind of faults crashes the program early without killing the system.

Operating systems tend to give a default stack size for the programs. It is also possible to control stack size by other means. The first method is telling the C compiler that our program needs more (or less) stack:

$ gcc -Wl,--stack,4194304 -o program program.c

This way, the "program" will request 4MB of stack space while running. It is also possible to change it during the runtime. For Linux, setrlimit() system function is used for this purpose:

struct rlimit rl; rl.rlim_cur = 16 * 1024 * 1024; // min stack size = 16 MB; result = setrlimit(RLIMIT_STACK, &rl);

Windows' Win32 API has SetThreadStackGuarantee() function for that purpose.

Modern languages aren't exempt from stack overflows. The following Java program;

public class Xyz { private static double factorial(double n) { if (n == 0) { return 1; } else { return n * factorial(n - 1); } } public static void main(String[] args) { try { System.out.println("Factorial " + factorial(1000000)); } catch (Error e) { System.out.println(e.getClass()); } } }

also crashes with the following:

class java.lang.StackOverflowError

Usually, in a catch block, it is best to write the stack trace. But for errors like stack overflow, the stack trace is also too big to dump as-is, so we only wrote the error class to prove that it is a StackOverflowError. In practice, exceptions are dumped into the log file, and as you can guess by now, it is possible to blow your log files by bad recursion. Be careful.

Tail Call Elimination

We criticized the overuse of recursion for good reasons except that academics are not dumb. They invented a technique called "tail call elimination" to prevent unnecessary stack usage during recursion. Let's review the line that returns by calling itself in the factorial() example:

return n * factorial(n - 1);

This is clearly the last line of execution for the function. A smart implementation may decide that we don't need the stack frame here anymore, rewind the stack frame and replace the values with those we computed during the execution.

Among the popular languages only Haskell, Scala and Lua support tail call elimination. Let's write the termial function in Lua:

function termial(x) if x == 0 then return 1 else return x * termial(x - 1) end end io.write("The result is ", termial(1000000, 1), "\n")

After running the program;

$ lua ornek.lua lua: ornek.lua:5: stack overflow stack traceback: ornek.lua:5: in function 'termial' ornek.lua:5: in function 'termial'

we still got a stack overflow. To detect the need for a tail call elimination, Lua requires that the return statement call only one function. So we rewrite the termial:

function termial(x, answer) if x == 0 then return answer else return termial(x - 1, x + answer) end end

As you can see, we reduced the return statement to a single function call while adding an extra parameter to the termial() (and making it uglier).

The result is 500000500001

Supporting tail call elimination is always a heated topic among language designers. Python's founder Guido van Rossum made the most famous comment against it by telling it's "Unpythonic" in 4 points:

...when a tail recursion is eliminated, there's no stack frame left to use to print a traceback when something goes wrong later.

...the idea that TRE is merely an optimization, which each Python implementation can choose to implement or not, is wrong. Once tail recursion elimination exists, developers will start writing code that depends on it, and their code won't run on implementations that don't provide it.

...to me, seeing recursion as the basis of everything else is just a nice theoretical approach to fundamental mathematics (turtles all the way down), not a day-to-day tool.

http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2009/04/tail-recursion-elimination.html

Multithreading

In the beginning, CPUs got faster each year. But for the last 10 or so years, they haven't got faster as quickly as once it was. In a conflicting trend, more speed is required from the hardware because of the Internet.

The industry found the solution in parallelization. More CPUs are added into the mainboards, and nowadays, the cheapest smartphone has at least 2 CPUs on it.

Each program has at least 1 thread of execution, and as we know that we have more CPUs on hand, we are encouraged to create more threads in our programs. Go programming language is created with that in mind providing first-class support for multithreading:

go f()

As you can see, it is as simple as using the "go" keyword to let the function run in another thread.

The bad news is that each thread of execution needs to have its own stack so we should take that into account while spawning many threads of execution because most languages and runtimes don't tell you much about that. In "go f()", we basically say

In C or operating system level, the stack size is taken on consideration while creating a thread. Let's see the prototype of the Win32's CreateThread() function:

HANDLE CreateThread( LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpThreadAttributes, SIZE_T dwStackSize, LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE lpStartAddress, __drv_aliasesMem LPVOID lpParameter, DWORD dwCreationFlags, LPDWORD lpThreadId );

The second argument is the stack size for the thread. If you don't want to think much about it, you can just specify 0 and get as much stack your process requires. This is 1MB for most of the time, a rather massive number if you intend to create many of them. The official Win32 documentation recommends the opposite:

It is best to choose as small a stack size as possible and commit the stack needed for the thread or fiber to run reliably. Every page that is reserved for the stack cannot be used for any other purpose.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/thread-stack-size

A thread may have a small stack segment size, but we will probably not know that while coding, especially in a big team. It is another reason to be safe and use the stack wisely.

To give modern programming languages their due, we should say that they thought hard about stack usage behind the scenes. In Go, only 2KB of stack space is reserved for their goroutines, and they grow dynamically as the program goes. Goroutines are carefully managed by Go runtime itself to avoid the possible lousy handling of threads in operating systems themselves.

Generation 0

Modern languages are most object-oriented, and they try hard to make everything object, including the strings. So it is hard to abuse their stack with a declaration like this:

char s[1000];

Most local variables do not belong to basic types like int, char, double etc., and they are allocated via the new operator. But this time the heap is abused because the burden of the stack is carried into the there. Since the heap is dynamic, to allocate and deallocate space are expensive operations. This is primarily a big problem in the early stages of the evolution of modern programming language runtimes.

The solution is found in a technique called generational garbage collection. When an object is created, it is stored in a stack-like memory space called generation 0. If the object's life-span is limited to the creator method, it is cheaply killed in there just like rewinding the stack frame. In reality, most object instances live and die this way.

To summarize, In practice, modern languages have a separate stack called "Generation 0" in .NET, "Eden" in Java, "youngest generation" in Python and so on...