A Guide to Running a XR Usability Study

This article is part 4 of an ongoing series, catch up on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 hereUnderstanding depth and volume is crucial when designing for Augmented Reality. We experience the world in more than one dimension and need to design accordingly. In this article, Ill shine a light on what 3D means in Augmented Reality. We will take a look at the components of a 3D scene, how the underlying technology works, and methods for producing 3D objects. This article is ideal for readers who want to:Create their own 3D content for ARLearn how to source 3D contentHave a better understanding about the current landscape for 3D.How can designers start learning 3D?For many years, 3D had an impossibly high barrier of entry for designers. Its long been considered a technical medium reserved for industries like visual effects, video games, and medical illustration. Adoption in design has been further blocked by a steep (and rocky) learning curve, poor user experience, and prohibitively expensive entry fees.As the need for designers with 3D skills skyrockets, however, new initiatives are emerging to make learning 3D easy, accessible, and fun for designers. One such initiative is 3D for Designers, which has become the de facto starting point for designers and illustrators who want to add 3D to their toolkit. Created and taught by design industry veteran Devon Ko, it includes both free lessons and a comprehensive 3D design fundamentals course. If you want to learn shape, form, lighting, color, and animation in 3D, I highly recommend starting here. Disclosure: Devon helps me edit this Augmented Reality on Mobile series, and Im a Teaching Assistant in her course Composition of a 3D SceneA 3D scene is composed of several objects and things that exist in x,y and z space. Some of the more common objects you will find in a scene are as follows:Mesh: A collection of points, edges and faces that describe an object. e.g.: A 3D mesh of a sphereCamera: A fixed viewpoint, as of that from a camera. e. g. : A view that is always fixed on the sphere no matter where it goes.Light: A source of illumination that creates light and shadow in the scene.e.g.: A spotlight that only exposes something in the middle of a scene. Material: contains information about how an object looks, including color, texture, and density.e.g.: A sphere that look like its made out of wood.Shader: Similar to a material but contains procedural data about how an object should look. e. g. : Creating the effect of electricity zapping away a sphere.A 3D file may also contain additional data such as animation and rigging information. A mesh by itself or with additional data is also referred to as a 3D model. Pre-Rendering vs Real-Time RenderingRendering is the process of interpreting 3D scene data into a graphic. Traditionally, 3D software has a render preview mode that can be activated to see a (typically) lower-quality preview of the final render. Depending on the hardware and complexity, a single frame can take a few seconds or even days to render. AR as a medium cannot afford a few seconds or days to show content. This medium requires the rendering to always be done instantly and in real time and therefor requires a real-time rendering solution.A real-time renderer is capable of displaying and updating information immediately. Examples of real-time renderers are Unity or Eevee.For a real-time experience to feel smooth, the frame updates should take place at about 60 frames per second (60 fps). Keeping an eye on the fps ensures that the experience mimics the real world. Common 3D content typesThere are several types of 3D extensions and formats, some are exclusive to their authoring environment whereas others are open source. The following are common and emerging formats:Object File (.obj): This is the most common and basic type of 3D file, it contains only the geometry information of an object. Most . objs are accompanied with an . mtl (material library file) that contains information about the material and textures.Filmbox (.fbx): This file format stores more than just geometry and includes scene, camera, lighting, rigging and other 3D information. It does not include textures but may sometimes have base surface color. This format is maintained by Autodesk. Collada (. dae): Similar to . fbx, but maintained by the open source community.Graphics Library Transmission Format (.glTF): The self proclaimed JPEG of 3D, glTF is an open source 3D file format supported by The Khronos Group. It can carry a diverse amount of data specially created to meet the emerging needs of web and mobile 3D. It is functionally similar to an . fbx but much smaller in size. Universal Scene Description ZIP (. USDZ): This is a zipped version of a . USD file, a format developed by Pixar to include robust and interchangeable data into a single file format. This means that you can have variations of an object in the same model instead of having several models.So whats the best file format for AR?The challenge with loading 3D objects into an AR application is that it needs to be done immediately and in real-time. The best file format is one that loads and performs as fast as possible, and thats the goal of both .glTF and .USDZ.The major conflict between these formats is that the industry has divided itself in terms of support. For example, Apple exclusively supports and encourages the use of . USDZ for ARKit applications, however Chrome does not support this format on the web and promotes .glTF.If you are considering commissioning or buying a 3D asset, my recommendation would be an .fbx since you can covert it into both .glTF and .USDZ based on your needs.Constructing a 3D object3D models are constructed in two primary ways: sculpting and modeling. Figuring out the type of object you need first will determine the software or artist that is right for the task.Sculpting: The act of deforming polygons with a brush point, similar to working with clay. This method is best for organic shapes like figures and animals. The most popular software specialized for this type of work is ZBrush and Mudbox.Modeling: Controlling every point with precision, similar to working with vectors. This method is best for hard surfaces like machines and architecture. 3D tools such as Blender, Maya and Cinema4D are capable of both types of authoring.Whichever process is chosen, it will ultimately create a mesh. A mesh is simply a collection of points, edges and faces that help describe a 3D object in space. These points, edges and faces combine to form polygons. The higher the polygon count, the smoother your 3D model will look. A higher polygon count may also impact performance and load times. This is one of the main reasons current AR games do not look as high fidelity as a game designed for a console.Sometimes, instead of creating a high polygon count mesh, a material can act as a way of introducing the same amount of detail but with a faster load time.MaterialsTheres a misconception that materials are like a layer of paint on an object. Materials are more like upholstery, they have structure and properties within themselves and can even influence the shape of a model. They can also exist separately from the mesh and be reused. The most popular tools for authoring materials are Substance Painter and Substance DesignerUV Map: When a material is applied to an object, the UV map is one way to define how it is projected on the mesh. For example, if a flat texture of the earth is applied to a sphere, without a UV map it would look like all of the continents are squished into one spot.In some cases a purchased model may not look correct, oftentimes because the materials are missing or the mapping is incorrect.Engine Specific MaterialsNot all renderers are the same, in fact, each rendering engine will have unique characteristics that will impact how something looks. For example, purchasing a model with V-Ray materials will only work if you are using the V-Ray renderer.A material may not be the only thing that affects how your model looks, the following list of properties can also influence the visualization of an object.LightingLighting does more than just brighten a dark scene, its the secret to making something look like it belongs in an environment. Incorrect lighting is one of the most obvious visual discrepancies a viewer can pick up on.Lighting can sometimes also have a greater impact on the color of an object than the materials themselves.For lighting to be believable, it needs to be accompanied by the right shadows. Our eyes are trained to recognize where an object is in space based on the cues that shadows provide. For example, natural light from the sun casts stronger directional light and shadows than artificial light.Some models come with a lighting rig which is a set of lights that mimic different studios or setups. These setups can be static or animated and can have different properties.Sometimes the lighting can be defined by a 360 image, these are called Image Based Lights (IBL) and are a cheap solution for creating realistic lighting.Many AR services use a method called lighting estimation to generate more realistic lighting and shadows. This is a method of using computer vision to understand the world around the user and then generate the correct lighting setup. This process is similar to an IBL and is constantly analyzing information so it can update to match any new changes that take place.3D ScanningWith the advancement of cameras and sensors on phones, 3D scanning is starting to pick up momentum as a viable way of generating content from a phone. One of the most common methods of scanning is using photogrammetry.An application like Meshroom can take image data from your phone and help generate a mesh so you have a 3D model.At this moment 3D scanning via phones still has some way to go since the mesh is not 100% accurate. If you do go this route, be prepared to clean up the materials and the mesh that gets generated.The good news is that mobile device manufacturers are continuously investing in better hardware and sensors, which will in turn enable even more precise scanning in the future. A time when you can instantly scan a production ready 3D asset might not be that far away. ResourcesThere are several resources that can help make it easier to get the right 3D content. Here are a few recommendations:Art Station: A resource and community for sharing work and finding professional 3D artistsTurbosquid: A paid stock site with some of the most extensive offerings of 3D models and textures.Google Poly: Thousands of free 3D assets optimized for AR/VRSketchFab: A web based service and community for viewing 3D models and finding artistsUnity Asset Store: A large offering of paid and free 3D models and extensions optimized for a real time engine. Mixamo: A free web service that automatically rigs biped models.In part five I will explore tips and tricks from the visual effects (VFX) industry that can help craft more realistic and compelling AR experiences.Thanks always to Devon Ko for the editing and Tony Parisi, Jeremy Cowles and Brendan Ford for the insights. RELATED QUESTION Can a stroke patient hope for a 100% recovery rate after 3 years? It is not 100% guaranteed that a stroke patient would recovery completely after a certain period of rehab therapy, however, according to American Stroke Association, rehabilitation is the only effective way to recover from stroke sequelaes, such as foot drop and arm paralysis problems.To regain the health and fitness, patients can choose a home-used therapy machine so that they can do rehabilitation training at home whenever they want, maximizing the utility of recovery process.Here are two of the latest and most innovative stroke rehabilitation equipments recommended:H1 Hand Rehab System2. G3 Foot Drop System.

In the new Netflix series Ozark, an unscrupulous main character is haunted by his sinful past, a plotline that doesnt sound that dissimilar from several acclaimed recent television dramas most specifically, the Emmy-winning Breaking Bad. As Vultures Jen Chaney mentioned in her positive review of Ozark, Once again we have a man who looks decent on the surface but gets involved in dirty deeds that dig him into deeper, more dangerous holes. Writing at Uproxx, Alan Sepinwall was less generous, observing, What might have felt like a novel idea 10 or 15 years ago middle-aged white antihero does something terrible to help his family, and only gets pulled in deeper and deeper is now so tired that it would require sheer brilliance to come out feeling [original]. But while Ozark owes a major debt to Breaking Bad not to mention the somber darkness thats the hallmark of so much prestige television its protagonist is a long way from Walter White. And as played with intriguing opacity by Jason Bateman, those differences are what help Ozark find its own rhythm. The horror of Breaking Bad was its reveal of the murderous, greedy megalomaniac hiding beneath the surface of a seemingly mild-mannered chemistry teacher. In Ozark, our antihero (Bateman) never kills anyone, never plots anybodys death and never really changes from the slightly wonkish number-cruncher we meet at the beginning of the 10-episode season. Were not even sure if hes actually evil if anything, Ozarks horror is that the audience doesnt know precisely how to feel about this wholly anonymous nobody.Bateman, who directed four episodes and serves as an executive producer, plays Marty Byrde, a Chicago financial planner who appears to have a pretty pedestrian upper-class, white-collar life working in a blandly sleek downtown office. But soon, we learn his secret: He and his business partner launder money for a calmly ruthless Mexican drug runner named Del (Esai Morales), whos pissed after discovering that someone in the operation is skimming profits. (That someone is not Marty, who is proud of his personal integrity and had no knowledge that others were cheating Del.)Having killed Martys associates in cold blood, Del trains his gun next on Marty, who talks his way out of being assassinated by proposing a crazy notion. Rather than operating illicit activities through Chicago, where law enforcement is rampant, why not move to the relatively unmonitored Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, where tourists spend a lot of cash? Marty guarantees he can easily launder $8 million in a manner of months after all, there wont be Feds around monitoring his activities in such a sleepy backwoods and Del agrees, threatening Martys whole family if he fails.From there, the show consists of Marty liquidating all his assets and quickly moving his brittle wife Wendy (Laura Linney) and teen children Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) to the Ozarks so they can start a new life and so Marty can buy up a struggling local business he can use to clean Dels dirty money. Not surprisingly, lots goes wrong with his plan, as he runs afoul of regional heroin dealers, a scheming white-trash teenager (Julia Garner) and some FBI agents hot on his trail. Ozark has been seen by some as Batemans Breaking Bad a chance for the actor, like Bryan Cranston before him, to shed his comedic persona and show off some dramatic chops. But the trick to his compelling performance is that, really, its not all that different from his role as Michael, the competent, steady center of the dysfunctional Bluths on Arrested Development.In that acclaimed sitcom, Michael was always confident in the fact that he was brighter than all the spoiled, vain idiots in his family a realization that often led to laughs when his overconfidence resulted in his own comedic undoing. Marty carries that same edge of superiority into every scene he enters, especially when he lands in the Ozarks, using his polite, unthreatening manner to sweet-talk failing local-yokel business owners into selling their shops, presenting himself as an angel investor whose financial acumen can turn their stores around.But where Walters descent into becoming Heisenberg was fueled by self-righteousness, a cancer diagnosis and a feeling of emasculation in his dead-end life, Marty has no justification for his actions. Ozark will eventually flesh out a bit of his backstory so that we understand why such a milquetoast guy got into bed with a Mexican cartel, but even then, theres no complex, dramatic explanation for Martys risky decision. Basically, he did it just for the money and because hes willing to put aside personal ethics in order to do so.As a result, watching Marty navigate the messes he gets himself into during Ozark is a far different viewing experience than it was on Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or House of Cards. On those other shows, the darkness was guided by dynamic, towering figures whose emotional complexity informed their immoral choices. By contrast, Marty is the very model of a blank-slate financial planner: Hes got a head for numbers and is adept at convincing people to trust him, but he seems so devoted to logic that hes almost entirely programmed out anything about himself that might be human.Early on, he discovers that Wendy has been cheating on him for years, but the revelation elicits no emotional tirade. Instead, after she makes an impassioned defense about why she feels so distant from him. Marty merely listens and then matter-of-factly responds, We are not husband-and-wife anymore. Were just business partners, and our job is to raise those kids.In a later episode, during a flashback to his first conversation with Wendy about whether to work for Del, Marty justifies his potential involvement with the cartel by explaining flatly, I wouldnt be a mule, I wouldnt be a dealer Id be just pushing my mouse around my desk. That kind of rationalization is how he handles everything in Ozark. Walter White built his meth empire to feed his need for power, getting off on being the badass in his own story after decades of feeling like an ineffectual loser. Marty does nothing out of emotion or for his ego everything is executed with the bloodlessness and cold efficiency of a keystroke. Even when the attractive owner of a rundown Ozarks lodge (Jordana Spiro) starts to take a shine to Marty, he never indulges in an affair. He seems cut off from everything himself most especially.Batemans uniquely qualified for such a role. You could argue that his whole career has been driving toward Marty. His early years as a cute kid in lame sitcoms like Silver Spoons paved the way for his rebirth as the snarky Michael on Arrested Development, the actors sarcastic, put-upon demeanor not just the perfect response to the wildly irresponsible Bluth clan but also an ironic, self-mocking commentary on his earlier pin-up fame.But in recent years, Bateman has twisted Michael Bluths bland handsomeness into a kind of weapon, playing soulless corporate types in movies like Hancock, Up in the Air and The Gift, the characters inoffensive exteriors proving to be a ruse to hide the ugly ambition underneath. In a recent Vulture interview, Bateman seized upon this dilemma about his career as the pleasant, slightly forgettable guy. [N]o one is going to see a Jason Bateman vehicle, the actor said. Why would they? I cant do what Will Ferrell does. Im not that guy. Im the guy you cut to after Will Ferrells character does something who gives a frozen blink. As Bateman put it, You cant hang a movie on that guy.Maybe, but you can definitely put him at the center of a twisty, pulpy Netflix series. The whole secret to Martys success is that, as an everyday financial planner, he was able to walk through life undetected, effortlessly laundering money without tipping off the Feds. His undistinguished whiteness allowed him to blend into the background, which is how he likes it. But as Martys life gets more complicated in Ozark and different people want him dead, he doesnt discover a newfound, darker persona or get a taste for killing. In fact, Marty never once even mentions the idea of bumping off any of his many adversaries a move that Walter White and other prestige-television characters have discovered is a handy way of getting out of tight spots. Marty is too fundamentally benign and buttoned-down to ever consider something so heinous. If hes indeed evil, its the kind thats a lot less showy. Sure, he may launder drug dealers millions, but hes not a monster.In the era of Breaking Bad, theres been a lot of talk about why we watch (and maybe even root for) dastardly characters, and the answer is usually that because theyre such nuanced, compelling figures we become magnetized by their contradictions and mixture of charm and malice. Ozark challenges that assumption by giving us an antihero so plainly ordinary that theres no glee or discomfort in watching Marty try to outfox his foes. Near the end of the show, a born-again pastor one of Ozarks beacons of goodness feels his faith shaken. And yet, he tells Marty, Theres gotta be a god, because theres the devil. I think youre the fucking devil. Its a shock to Marty and maybe the audience, too. Were used to our television devils relishing in flashing their horns and pitchfork. At the height of his power, Heisenberg arrogantly demanded to his underlings, Say my name. But most monsters arent like that more often, theyre Marty, who hopes you dont notice him at all. Tim Grierson is a contributing editor at MEL. He last wrote about Keith Law, baseballs reigning intellectual and firebrand.More movies:The Oral History of Wedding CrashersHow does it feel having worked on this generations Animal House?melmagazine. comTobey Maguire Was the Original and Best Spider-ManThe latest installment of Misleading Men, the series where we look back at actors who ruled Hollywood for one A Ghost Story, the Afterlife Is HellThe superb Sundance drama argues that only after we die will we realize how much we wasted our RELATED QUESTION How does a welding machine work? Every welding machine is different, sort of like cars. Anyways, the basics are: it uses the input voltage and amperage from whatever outlet it's plugged into (110,220, and so on) and uses a series of complex electrical components that I dont want to list to convert that electricity into what needs to be used.I strongly recommend that you look this up on Google or yahoo or whatever you use to get a better explanation, as there is a plethora of info out there from people much more qualified to talk about than me.

When was the last time you did a google image search for landscape? Here, Ill do it for you.In almost every little box is the sort of motivational poster fare that begs to be paired with an inspirational quote. These caricatures or idealizations of a landscape are less about the places themselves than the feeling theyre meant to evoke. In her series, aptly titled Landscape Sublime, photographer Anastasia Samoylova re-appropriates these disposable visions of unnamed places into new, physically abstracted landscapes.She does this by printing photos onto paper and then manipulating and carefully arranging them. By giving these ephemeral visions of the world a physical heft and a new compositional context, she pokes at what were really seeing (or looking for) in such images to begin with. To her, images such as these are shared and proliferated online as bite-sized portions of the sublime.These days beautiful things are not really taken seriously, theyre usually disregarded as something picturesque, Samoylova says. I wondered what really can be described as beautiful or sublime in todays sort of mediated culture I noticed a lot of them are used to symbolize just pure beauty, the beauty that cant be possessed, like it would be with the human figure. Each intricate image starts out as a public domain landscape (chew on that phrase) collected while perusing the web. Samoylova then prints out these fair use vistas, favoring those that are most popular and widely shared online. Of particular interest to her are the idealized landscapes in advertising design, like the mountain ranges on water bottles. They then become the central material for collaged compositions that also make use of whatever other materials she has at hand mirrors, metals, photo gels.The process which she films is iterative, a sort of gestural analogy for the browsing and swiping that brings these images in front of our eyeballs to begin with.What emerges are shattered geometrical formations that still manage to convey something essential and even slightly ironic about the original subject. The sculptures, finalized as digital images, are again most likely to be encountered via a link on the Internet.The notions of use, content, and image sharing that underpin the work were largely inspired by Samoylovas avid participation in the early days of Flickr.I was really interested in this idea of sharing images, and images that are meant to be used, she says. I barely ever encountered them in physical form outside of advertisements and occasional posters, but unless you were to make a trip out to a gallery to see the work, you dont really encounter those pictures in a materialized form. With this work I was trying to give them this form, I was trying to make them more physical and turn them into objects, into something you can hold in your hands.Like their various angles and vertices, the collages are built on a layered set of concepts that Samoylova strives to fit into a single image. The Illinois-based photographer and educator studied design in Moscow, and went on to study architectural and environmental design, shooting commercial photography on the side. Along with her Flickr habit, and a penchant for philosophy, the coordinates of Landscape Sublime were readily apparent.The interests were formed pretty early on in me, and my photography is really sort of a documentation of my process of thinking about images, she says. When you go out and see this vast landscape and you take a picture of that, you really shrink it down into something two dimensional and small Im trying to sort of bring them back to life, and print them out and rebuild them and create this environment again.There are distinct philosophical underpinnings driving these images, dealing formal ideas of the sublime the transcendent sense of awe that a dramatic landscape seems to evoke and which informs our notions of beauty itself. Depending on the thinker you vibe with Kant, Plato, Schopenhauer the sublime can be the result of pure aesthetic beauty in form, line, and color, or it can represent something else, a more subtle phenomenon that isnt about whether something is pretty or not but whether it stirs the witness internally. Samoylova strikes a visual balance of these ideas, interpreting our sense for the sublime as the reason these throwaway and cliche landscapes still proliferate, then abstracting and exploding them to reveal new perspectives. The images that are being produced with little digital cameras, with phones, might as well be illustrations in Kants books, she says.In our modern age of image-driven media, the old ideas of what constitutes beauty and what draws our eyes still hold currency. Even among the ubiquitous virtualized visions of the world we encounter online, the old hierarchies reliably hold sway lightning strikes and rainbows are generally categorized as having a higher aesthetic and emotional power than an image of a stone in the grass, however beautiful.My work is not really about landscapes per se, but about aesthetics and about our notions of whats beautiful and whats worthy of photographing and sharing, she says. In those images I was wondering, What are they communicating? and I couldnt find anything beyond this ideal; something beautiful. Sublime or not, Samoylovas collages are lovely to look at. Images on the Internet have become so ephemeral, so easy to dismiss, yet they still impact, guide and reflect us in ways we are far from understanding. In the image of a beautiful landscape, we might see a place we recognize specifically, but more likely were looking at a more universal symbol of beauty itself. In sharing such images whether as a photographer or an advertiser people seem to be trying to expand or exploit these fundamental human sensitivities. The question of whether were spreading beauty or commodifying a core human motivator may not be within the scope of these collages to answer, but its a question worth considering.All images by Anastasia SamoylovaTwitter | Facebook | Instagram. RELATED QUESTION What can I do as a small printing company nowadays? This is a tough question, because the printing industry has changed drastically over the past several decades. Lawrence Finn noted the range of things that a small printing shop usually does, but unfortunately even those are on their way out. And in cases where they are still around, mass-market shops with economies of scale (such as FedEx Office) can typically do anything you can do, faster and cheaperand include online ordering and previewing, etc. So the real issue comes down to what special things you can do that they cant. The closest to your current operation might be (talk about back to the future, or, more accurately, forward to the past) to get a letterpress and start doing custom, high-end work such as wedding invitations and letterhead. The equipment isnt crazy expensive, the market is not insanely expensive, and you can transfer much of what you already know. You can get a new high-speed digital press and offer large scale custom commercial printing. You can get new equipment and specialize in die cutting and embossing, and perhaps form mutual referral partnerships with local folks who do flat printing. You can get new screen printing equipment and specialize in t-shirts and the likebut thats a very different business, and already somewhat competitive. You can get new flexographic printing equipment and print small productsbut thats got the same problems of a new business with existing competition. You might try getting a laser engraver and doing on-the-spot engraving and customization (my guess is that this might be your best option, but probably only as an add-on service). You could get a number of 3D printers and offer that as a service, along with design. You could specialize as an integrated online/offline shop, combining web work, business cards, etc. with the emphasis on design, leaving the production to a larger firm like VistaPrint . Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck integrating printing into the 21st century!

Labocine and Imagine Science Films in partnership with Simons Foundation are thrilled to announce ten visionary filmmakers who will realize Chimera Eperiments, a feature-length anthology film featuring stories from the most influential scientists of our time.The theme of Chimera Eperiments is evolution in its natural and artificial forms the deliberate and random modifications of an organism.As a mied genre, science-driven anthology film, Chimera Eperiments is the first of its kind. The FilmmakersNoah HuttonCHAPTER TITLE: THE MAZINGNoah is a film director and founder of the website The Beautiful Brain. In 2015 he was named a Salzburg Global Fellow in Neuroscience and Art.He is in the seventh year of work on his film Bluebrain, a 10-year documentary-in-the-making about The Blue Brain Project. Josephine DeckerCHAPTER TITLE: THE MASK TASKRecently named one of Filmmaker Magazines 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Josephine Deckers work has been lauded everywhere from The New Yorker and New York Times to The Austin Chronicle. Her short films and music videos have played at MoMA, SXSW, Cucalorus, Maryland, and Austin Film Festival. Josephine is also an actor and performance art. Ian HarnarineCHAPTER TITLE EUDOCIMUS SAPIENSIan is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his short film Doubles with Slight Pepper, which won the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama. Born and raised in Toronto to immigrant parents from Trinidad and Tobago, Harnarine studied physics and astronomy at York University and the University of Illinois before pursuing a film degree at New York University. Rachel MayeriCHAPTER TITLE: SEX, DEATH, AND KEFIRRachel Mayeri is an artist who is fascinated by animal behavior, parasites, psychology eperiments, and the biology of reproduction before cell theory. Her work mines the cultural unconscious of science the imaginative, playful, spectacular, and bizarre as well as the political. Mayeris videos have shown at Sundance, Berlinale, and Ars Electronica and received grants from the Wellcome Trust, Creative Capital, and California Council for the Humanities. She lives in LA where she is professor of media studies at Harvey Mudd College.Aleis GambisCHAPTER TITLE: THE SYMPHONY OF THE ORYXAleis Gambis is Founder & Eecutive Director of the Imagine Science Film Festival, an annual New York science film festival now in its 10th year. He also recently launched Labocine, a VOD platform and video magazine coined by reviewers as the science new wave which proposes a new way to eperience science cinema. Sally WarringCHAPTER TITLE: LICHENSally is the creative scientist behind the popular Instagram account Pondlife, which documents the fantastical unicellular microorganisms she discovers in wild bodies of water in and around New York City. Shes currently working on getting her Ph.D. in Biology from New York University in the United States. Barry J. GibbCHAPTER TITLE: MOTHERBarry J. Gibb first trained as a molecular biologist and neuroscientist. Following a decade of research, he swapped the microscope for a camera to pursue the dream of writing and making films about science. His award-winning book, The Rough Guide to the Brain, was first released by Penguin in 2007 (2nd edition, June 2012), winning him the short-lived accolade of Dr Se from the Sun newspaper and a mild look of disapproval from his wife. Jeannette LouieCHAPTER TITLE: REALM OF AN INNER CHILDJeannette Louie is an award-winning Asian American filmmaker and visual artist whose eperimental films and installations delve deeply into the netherworld of consciousness. She magnifies the dystopic diaspora of human cognition by building a world filled with narratives. In this terrain, individual minds construct multiple realms of realities defined by molecular memory and reaction. Demelza KooijCHAPTER TITLE: THE BREEDERDemelza Kooij is a Dutch native based in Liverpool where she works as filmmaker and senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University (UK). Her research concerns hybrid film forms, animals and landscape in film, posthumanism, and the voice in documentary. She presented her work at conferences, art galleries, as well as BAFTA and Oscar accredited film festivals internationally with highlights such as Festival du Nouveau Cinma, Ann Arbor, Hamptons, and Edinburgh International Film Festival. Myriam CharlesCHAPTER TITLE: A FORTRESSFrom Haitian descent, Miryam Charles studied Film Production at Concordia University. She produced and shot several shorts and feature films. She is the director of Fly, fly sadness (which have been shown at film festivals in New York, Scotland, Vienna, Spain and Montreal) and Towards the colonies (Imagine Science Films Festival 2016). Her films are a constant eploration of the repercussions of colonialism.The Three Rules of Chimera EperimentsTHE EXQUISITE CORPSEAll films must be collectively assembled in sequence into an equisite corpse where the start and end of each piece are connected (visually or sonically) to the previous and net shorts.2. MY NAME IS MOSAICAn entity referred to as MOSAIC or a variations on this name will be present in each chapter morphing into different forms and shapes. 3. THE BIRTHMARKA visual or sonic motif will be present in all films and decided collectively by the filmmakers. This will be the birthmark of this chimera creature. Watch the final product to discover what this is. The ScientistsThe chapters of Chimera Eperiments are connected by stories from some of the most influential scientists of our time.Eric Richard Kandel is a recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons. Kandel is a University Professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is a Senior Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was also the founding director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, which is now the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University. He currently serves on the Scientific Council of the Brain & Behavior Research FoundationMartin Lee Chalfie shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP. He holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard University and is a University Professor at Columbia University. His paper Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene epression is among the 20 most-cited papers in the field of Molecular Biology & Genetics. Heather Berlin employs neuroimaging and neuropsychological and psychopharmacological testing of brain lesion and compulsive, impulsive, and personality disorder patients. She is a Visiting Scholar at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)/University of Zurich, and at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Joseph LeDou is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, and a member of the Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology at NYU. His work is focused on the brain mechanisms of emotion and memory. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the New York Academy of Science, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, and the recipient of the 2005 Fyssen International Prize in Cognitive Science.Daniela Schiller is a neuroscientist who leads the Schiller Lab for Affective Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is best known for her work on memory reconsolidation, and on unlearning traumatic memories and addiction.Leslie Vosshall is the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University. Vosshall has won numerous awards. In 2001, she received a Beckman Young Investigators Award, and received a McKnight Neuroscience Scholar Award and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In 2010 Vosshall was awarded The Dart/NYU Biotechnology Achievement Award. In 2015 Voshall was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.Ali Brivanlou is head of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology at Rockefeller University. Much of the research of this developmental biologist focuses on the molecular events and cellular interactions that regulate the emergence of key structures in the early embryo. In the course of this research, he has made several influential discoveries. Dr. Brivanlou received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists. His other honors include an Irma T. Hirschl Trust Career Scientist Award, a Searle Scholar Award, a Klingenstein Fellowship, a McKnight Scholar Award, a Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award, and a John Merck Scholar Award.Stuart Firestein is the Chair of Columbia Universitys Department of Biological Sciences. He studies the vertebrate olfactory receptor neuron as a model for investigating general principles and mechanisms of signal transduction the ways in which chemicals, such as neurotransmitters, hormones, and peptides with membrane receptors, eert their influence in the brain and nervous system.Diana Reiss studies animal cognition, and has found that bottlenose dolphins (and Asian elephants) can recognize themselves in the mirror. Diana Reisss research focuses on the cognition and communication of marine animals, with an emphasis on comparative animal cognition. Michael Purugganan is the Silver Professor of Biology at New York University and Dean for Science of NYU. He is also on the affiliated faculty and the co-director of the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology at NYU Abu Dhabi. He also serves on the Biological Sciences Advisory Committee for the US National Science Foundation. Purugganan is a leading authority on plant molecular evolution and genomics, and has published over 100 research papers.ABOUT LABOCINELabocine is a new platform for etraordinary films from the science new wave. From lab footage to documentary to fiction, Labocine aspires to become one of the largest and most diverse platforms for science cinema worldwide. On the first Tuesday of each month, Labocine releases a surgically curated issue of films connected by a theme. Issues are organized in an interactive network-viewing eperience, branching out as interconnected nodes from the central theme a phylogenetic tree of movies and ideas.Part archive, part curated program, part eperiment, Labocine challenges the way you understand, interpret, and appreciate scientific ideas. RELATED QUESTION How do I calibrate MIG welding machine? One method, and probably the most simple, is to use a clamp meter to measure the amps through the negative lead at a given amp setting on the welding machine. If this is outwith the required tolerance a new label with the amperage settings is stuck on in the correct position. So for example if at 100 amps on the machine the clamp meter reads 90 amps, the new label is stuck on so that 90 amps is where 100 amps originally was. This now becomes 90 amps for all future testing, and so the next calibration test would be conducted at the new 100 amps. Depending on the requirement for the calibration, for example BS EN 10901 conformity, the calibration is in adjusting the position of the amp settings, if required. If adjustment is not required, the welding machine has still been calibrated if it has been tested. You will also need to provide a calibration certificate for the equipment used to test the welding machine. Clamp meter calibration certificates are valid for 5 years. It is also possible to use a 2 year validity period for the calibration of welding equipment.

Welcome back to Making mixed reality, a series celebrating the passionate community making mixed reality into a reality. Discover here how our most inspiring creators and fans got started with Microsofts technology, and how they are shaping the future of art, entertainment, and human connection with their vision. You can also find this post on the Windows Blog. Created by Nicole McDonald and JauntVR, the full immersive app experience Free the Night is now available on Windows Mixed Reality. Read on to learn how its award-winning director made her childhood dream into a reality.Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicole McDonald, creator of Windows Mixed Reality immersive app experience Free the Night. But while some might bill the app as an interactive film, it would be an understatement to call Nicole simply a filmmaker.In the 15 years since she began creating in multimedia, Nicole has worn many hats from that of game designer, to NASA collaborator, to marketing campaign manager for the worlds biggest names, including American Idol, Cirque Du Soleil, and Toyota.Now, Nicole is channeling her wealth of creative energy towards a new endeavor: the art of storytelling in mixed reality. The latest in a list of interactive films shes created many of which have been featured in festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, and SXSW Free the Night is a collaboration between Nicole and cinematic VR producer Jaunt Studios. Designed exclusively for Microsofts Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets, the experience enables audiences to place stars back into the sky and watch them glitter and swirl as they reclaim the night.In celebration of Free the Nights full release last month, I sat down with Nicole to learn more about the initial spark behind her creation. What inspired you to create Free the Night?Nicole: In general, I am deeply inspired by my memories of being a child and childhood.Free the Night was inspired by the most vivid of these: staring up into the night sky with my family. My father loved the sky and his enthusiasm and wonder of it pulled us all in. He would point out the constellations, and wed discuss what could be out there. We grew up in a teeny tiny town and the sky was magnificent: there were thousands of stars, hints of the milky way, and we once saw a little bit of the aurora.But sadly, one year, a huge mall was constructed nearby and it washed out almost everything. The amber glow of the parking lot made it impossible to view from our front lawn. It was heartbreaking. I didnt understand how, or why, someone could do that.Fast forward to a few years ago, when I was watching a fireworks display and thought how amazing it would be to have the same sky that my father introduced to me as the backdrop. I wanted to blow out all the lights out around me and voil, Free the Night was born.You come from a background in advertising, filmmaking, and gaming. What led you to mixed reality as the medium for this story?Nicole: Ive always been interested in the marriage of narrative and technology, in understanding how innovative tools can enhance traditional storytelling. Mixed reality, to me, is placing the audience physically in the narrative, where they can participate and be moved emotionally by a story. Its such a wonderful time of exploration, and we now have an audience that is curious, if not craving, these new media and experiences.What can audiences expect from Free the Night when they put on their headsets?Nicole: In Free the Night, we become giants in a mountainous landscape, tasked with liberating the stars into the night sky. We need to be able to get low enough to the ground to extinguish the manmade lights of the city and reach high enough to place the stars back into the sky. This requires us to interact with the entire 360-degree virtual space, a range of freedom only afforded in mixed reality. With Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets, our audience has the seamless tracking and full six degrees of freedom to actively engage in the narrative and explore all around them. You mentioned that Free the Night encourages us to use our full 360-degree space with six degrees of freedom (6DOF). Can you tell me more about 6DOF for those of us who may be unfamiliar with it, and why you chose to incorporate it in your design?Nicole: 6DOF is the freedom of movement in 3D space. Six axes of movement allow us interact with objects that are as low as the ground and as high as we can lift our hands left and right, back and forth all around us. With immersive mixed reality, theres something so delightful about playing with scale and exploring a narrative in 3D space. It challenges us to have new perspective and see and play in ways we havent before.Free the Night has been tagged as both cinematic and interactive two qualities that, in conjunction, set the experience apart from your typical film or game. What inspired you to experiment with mixing the two media?Nicole: Honestly, it started when I was nine years old, in a basic computer coding class. We all worked on monochromatic monitors the instructor explained that computers would someday show us more colors. Of course, he was describing monitors that would have RGB color profiles, but, at the time, I naively thought he meant that computers would allow us to see more colors than are in our current rainbow. My mind went wild. I made up stories of who and what lived in these unseen colors What could they do that we couldnt?Ever since, Ive been captivated by using technology as a creative tool. I always ask myself if my concepts allow my audience to see more colors, more worlds that wed never see without the innovations of today. I love exploring how we might profit from experiencing and interacting with these kinds of stories and, most importantly, how can we add joy and wonder to our audiences lives. Did you have an ideal audience in mind when you decided to create this experience?Nicole: Ideally, Free the Night is for everyone. Its a universal story for human beings, and because its for all, I especially wanted it to be an invitation to those who havent necessarily found their space, or connection with content, in mixed reality. People sometimes think that mixed reality is just for gaming or 360-degree passive experiences, but I want my projects to be all-embracing interactive experiences experiences in which everyone is enticed to participate in, rather than be intimidated by, the medium. What, for you, was most intimidating about creating Free the Night?Nicole: One of the best and hardest parts of working on interactive experiences is the ice-cream headache you get when you have to find a solution but there is no playbook available. There are so many limitations and unknowns; as creators in this nascent space, we have to be a bit like MacGyver.For Free the Night, it was how to create the magic of extinguishing light embers in mixed reality. Traditionally, you can only have a small amount of particles on screen at any given time in VR. But we needed thousands, which would have personality and be responsive when we interacted with them. My dev team, led by long-time collaborator KC Austin, figured out how to write a system with compute buffers that allowed the experience to sing. More generally, the biggest challenge in creating with mixed reality is disrupting our preconceived notions of the medium. People are so often intimidated by the experience theyre about to enter, or nervous that theyre going to do something wrong. Were so conditioned to approaching this medium as a game, rather than something more. My challenge is getting people to settle in the narrative instead of trying to get the highest score.Free the Night recently debuted as a demo at the annual Future of StoryTelling Summit in New York. (Congratulations!) After months of working round-the-clock, what was it like finally seeing your demo premiere?Nicole: It was pinch-worthy. We had had our heads down working for a few months, so to see the general public instilled with the awe for which Id hoped was a dream come true.My favorite response was that of a peer who tried Free the Night for the first time at the Summit. As she took off the headset, her eyes welled with tears. She told me how she had been transported to her own childhood and was filled with the same wonder Id been way back when. Its because of reactions like this that I cant wait for everyone to experience the full project this month.If theres one idea or impression you hope audiences take away from the full version of Free the Night, what would it be?My hope is that people feel more connected to the world when their headsets comes off that by experiencing Free the Night, they are enticed to look up a little bit more often and that they truly understand that we are the magic and Earth is Eden. Weve talked a lot about your journey in making this childhood dream into a reality. Looking back, what advice do you have for someone aspiring to create an immersive experience as aesthetic and emotionally inspiring as Free the Night?Nicole: Oh, my Well, first, for those who want to create in the space, its extremely difficult and thus can be extremely fortifying. Before you begin, ask yourself what you want your audience to feel or take away from the experience. Try to understand how the idea will blossom in the medium; take advantage of what you can do inside mixed reality that you cant do in traditional linear 2D displays. Dont be afraid of limitations; you can execute the essence of ideas in many ways. Always, always storyboard, create animatics, and test and play. For those new to MR, please, dont be intimidated. There is no right or wrong way to create an interactive experience. Get comfortable; look around at your environment before trying to rush through it. Approach everything with the wonderment you had as a child.One last question, Nicole, before I let you go Now that Free the Night is officially on Windows Mixed Reality, whats next?Nicole: Surfing and yoga haha. But really, Ill be working on the full experience for HUE, an interactive film about a man named Hue who has lost his ability to see color. In this touch-based tale, he is reactive to our presence and touch like a living breathing being. We help Hue find his full spectrum by aiding him to see the everyday joy around him and his own potential to be wonderful.Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story, Nicole, and congratulations, again, on creating such a breathtaking experience. I cant wait to try Free the Night again this week!Free the Night is available from the Microsoft Store. Download it for free on your PC and plug in your headset to experience the magic of Windows Mixed Reality.For more inspiration, check out our previous spotlights and stay tuned for our next installment of Making mixed reality. To stay in-the-know with Microsoft Design, follow us on Dribbble, Twitter and Facebook, or join our Windows Insider program. And if you are interested in joining our team, head over to aka.ms/DesignCareers RELATED QUESTION What is a construction hoist? A Construction hoist is usually a Crane that you can vice and bolt to the scaffolding or the building. It is used usually to pass materials from one man to the next or from the ground to a higher floor. I'm sure you've seen persons on Scaffolds pushing along something that looks heavy. Lumberjacks have similar with Claws that grab the logs. It makes the weight move easier On Site. That's the purpose of the construction hoist. Some can even suspend over a ton of materials. They make the day go easier because rather than bust a groin moving 25 tons of materials over 12 hours or less, you hoist it up, and it is right there at your arm's reach. Yeah! No more Pianos getting stuck in the Elevator, said the piano deliveryman. In fact last year, they were changing a Rooftop Mounted Logo at Bank of America in center city Tampa. They were mounting a 3 ton (or heavier) brass eagle. They attached the hoist, hit a button, and voila it was scaling the side of the building. I did not watch the entire as I had other tasks to do, but it was fun to watch it while I could. Though I adore Eagles, I admit I was mostly really only watching to see if a dumbass might have tried to make away with this Huge Brass Eagle, so I could take a picture, and add a caption: Only in Florida.

Joseph Hellers seminal novel, Catch 22, has been adapted to the big screen before. This time around, George Clooney tries his hand at a mini series adaptation, focusing on both the surreal satire and brutality of war, seen through the eyes of bomber John Yossarian.The show opens with a naked Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) walking across the tarmac. The show quickly flashes back to his training with General Scheisskopf (Clooney) where he met his best friend, Clevinger (Pico Alexander), before shipping off to the Mediterranean theater of war. There, he finds himself stuck as Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler) keeps on increasing the required mission count, overseen by a bored, unenthusiastic Major De Coverley (Hugh Laurie).The show mainly thrives on the absurdity of the situation, as well as Yossarians interaction with classic characters such as Major Major Major Major and Milo Minderbinder. As he tries repeatedly to convince the camp doctor, Daneeka, that he is certifiably insane, he finds that there is no way to prove that hes insane because the moment he wants to go home, he proves that hes sane enough to want to survive. This is the titular catch 22 that keeps Yossarian in Italy throughout the next two years.While theres plenty of harrowing firefighting (and bomb dropping) when Yossarian is on his missions, there is also plenty of R&R: Yo-Yo and his friends go sunbathing and when in Rome, they also go on dates. As Yossarian veers closer and closer to insanity, with his friends dying off one by one while he himself is promoted to Captain.The show is mostly faithful, though it tells a story that feels more futile and defeatist than the fun satire of the book.This Yossarian is more broken, resigned to his circumstances. While in the book Yossarian has a happier ending, here he still finds himself trapped in the catch 22 cycle by the end of the series: a cycle where hes free to do what he wants until hes called into a mission and gets shell shocked.As good as the show is, at times it feels a bit too safe, with Clooney applying polish to scenes that were more grimy and raw in the source material. It also labors to make long bits of dialogue seem more polished, although the transition works more often than not. The military in the show is still dehumanizing, taking a meat grinder approach to its soldiers in a bid to gain air supremacy.However, the show often makes the struggle seem more personal for Yossarian rather than an absurdist nightmare where he is as equally trapped as the others in the Air Force. Of course, this is the kind of choice you need to make to adapt a book to television. The supporting characters, however, dont get as much presence. Major Major Major Major, for instance, explains his name too many times, and while De Coverleys search for better living quarters works well in contrast to the chaos in Yossarians life, Hugh Laurie doesnt get the screentime to make more of an impact.Still, the miniseries is no mean feat, adapting a book that seems perfect for peculiar, lightning in a bottle reasons. The series ends with Yossarian up in the air with other bombers, his fate suspended in both literal and metaphorical senses. Its an ambitious undertaking, no doubt, and theres plenty to love here, from glossy, shots of the sky to a subdued, star-making turn from Christopher Abbott RELATED QUESTION Why are group homes very restrictive for people with disabilities? The state can assign foster care placements to adults with disabilities, without offering any alternatives.The locations and ratios may inhibit access to medical services, and once you are in, it is costly to pack you and your rehabilitation equipment up and launch another series of moves.Licensing has to ensure a safe environment for multiple co-habiters per the spirit of Freuds Totem and Taboo (1913). We are living in a vulnerable community and have to make regulated social compromises.Let's say that the average client would not consent to living with a raging alcoholic. public services would not plunge you into a home with an alcoholic. Licensing manages alcohol rations closely. Licensing minimizes illness, infection, behavior, which take the orderlies away from getting your critical daily routine done.The Ratio is low, so you are not going to get dressed in real time. state codes help the home keep up with operations as well as it can. if I need urgent care you'll be behind in getting up for days. The orderlies can't appear to receive public funds to compromise our health in state institutionsAdult foster homes are childproofed, per standards for juveniles in the system.

Its frustrating reviewing a series like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. On one hand, its clearly dedicated to tell a feminist story, where witches have to contend with patriarchy in various forms, from a sexist High Priest to the Dark Lord himself.On the other hand, this is clearly a teenage show that falls victim to its trappings, from executing a love rectangle to having women constantly undermine each other for their own gains. There are a lot of things that this show gets right. Its enjoyable, and the main cast of characters are finding their group in Part 2. Michelle Gomez is as fantastic as ever, biting hard into the chewy role of the demon Lilith, whos at once both frustrated at and hung over Satan for abandoning her to her ongoing masquerade as Ms. Wardwell. Mirando Otto also shows promise as Zelda Spellman, who is equal parts conniving and ambitious, working to gain favor by marrying Father Blackwood.Yet Sabrinas character remains as irritatingly SJW-ish as ever. She is constantly fighting for equal rights, but as she gives into her darkness, she also ends up ignoring her previous friends, including her trans friend Theo. Sabrinas character has more meat to her this time around, but its still a nebulous role who stretches in dimensions to fit the whims of the episode.he magic is aplenty in Part 2, and thats not always a good thing. The Church of Night is fleshed out, but its defined chiefly by its opposition to Christianity. While there is some novelty to be found in Sabrina playing the role of the Anti-Christ while battling vengeful angels, it also feels trite and overused. This is another Chosen One narrative that, although subverted, bores more often than excites. There is a cursory attempt to examine how Sabrina can balance both sides of her nature, but its swiftly abandoned in favor of prophecies and miracles. However, the show does use magic in interesting ways. In one episode, for instance, every major character gets a tarot reading that reveals their possible futures (all of them ending in horrible ways). Theo, for instance, is able to transition fully as a man through magic, but he soon discovers that there are grave consequences for the trade, as his arm mutates into tree bark. Similarly, Sabrina ends up being warned not to trust the Weird Sisters too much, because they might lead her new boyfriend, Nick Scratch, astray.The show is perhaps at its strongest when its exploring witchcraft as a powerful tool to subvert patriarchal control and expectations. Sabrina, for instance, often states that she will do away with archaic traditions once she becomes High Priestess herself. Zelda, who ends up marrying Faustus in a bid for power, is soon turned into a docile, subservient stepford wife. Furthermore, we learn that the Satanists in this show also have a tradition disturbingly similar to Prima Nocta, where the Dark Lord Satan can claim any bride he pleases on her wedding day.The ending leaves the show in an interesting place, but it feels like a fusion of Supernatural and Riverdale, which doesnt always come off well. It does introduce higher stakes for the cast, but its also resolved conveniently in the space of one episode.This episodic nature is perhaps Sabrinas worst element. In most episodes, Sabrina is trying to subvert the status quo, sometimes working in direct opposition to Father Blackwoods wishes, whether that means running for Top Boy or trying to exonerate her cousin Ambrose, whos accused of murdering the Anti-Pope. Conflicts are introduced and then dropped soon after, which reinforces the teen Supernatural feel of the show.The feminist bent also doesnt always work out. Zelda and Hilda often find themselves being embroiled in petty rivalries, and Lilith is relegated to a background role more often. While Lilith gets restless as her Ms. Wardwell role begins to become indefinite in nature, she also suffers from bouts of jealousy at Sabrina, unhappy that shes being waylaid by Satan in such a boorish way. She pines for his touch, settling momentarily for a mortal paramour whos long been in love with Ms. Wardwell; her past soon catches up to her, however, and she returns to her machinations soon after. As it stands, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina continues to be both frustratingly obtuse and devilishly fun. Heres to hoping that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa smooths out the problems in this extended first season by next year.His writing often displays a spark of winking, clever humor. The shows characters are all interesting and flawed to a fault (except, perhaps, Sabrinas boyfriend Nick Scratch, who at times feels like a cleaner version of Edward from Twilight). It will be interesting to see what Aguirre-Sacasa brings in the next season and how Sabrinas newly-discovered heritage will inform her lifestyle choices RELATED QUESTION What is the wattage of single phase welding machine? 20 kVA = 20 kW. Volt-amps , 20KVA refers to the maximum amount of power that the machine could normally handle at it's highest settings.If the rated input power is 20kVA or 20kW and the rated out put current is 300 amps, then at 100 amps you are using 1/3 the rated output.Single phase Welding machine specifications:Power supply - 220V /- 10%Frequency - 50-60 HzPhase - SingleRated Input - 20 KVAAmpere Range - 55-300Rated Welding Current - 300 AMPSref credits:Guide to Stick, MIG, TIG, Oxy, multi-process & engine-driven models.

Mixed methods research is a design for collecting, analyzing and mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or series of studies to understand a research problem. Mixed method research is becoming increasingly popular. When used together, these methods can be complimentary. Mixed methods research is a systematic integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study for purposes of obtaining a fuller picture and deeper understanding of a phenomenon. Huey ChenUsing both Qualitative and quantitative research provide a better understanding of users than either method can provide alone. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods has gained broad appeal in public health research, for example. The key question has become not whether it is acceptable or legitimate to combine methods, but rather how they will be combined to be mutually supportive and how findings achieved through different methods will be integrated.Some research methods such as interviews and observations can be either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative data can be generalized to the larger population. In qualitative research subjects are selected because they have experienced the central phenomenon.Mixed methods research is a set of procedures that should be used when integrating qualitative and quantitative procedures reflects the research question(s) better than each can independently. The combining of quantitative and qualitative methods should better inform the researcher and the effectiveness of mixed methods should be evaluated based upon how the approach enables the investigator to answer the research question(s) embedded in the purpose(s) (Why the study is being conducted or is needed the justification) of the study. Newman, Ridenour Newman & DeMarco, 2003QUALITATIVE RESEARCH:Working with unfamiliar subjectsWhen data is complex ambiguous or unclearWhen you wish to understand meaningWhen you require flexibilityFor studying issues in detailQUALITATIVE ANALYSISText/Image dataCodingThemesDescriptionInterrelated themesQUANTITATIVE RESEARCHWhen the data is clearly denedWhen metrics are known When detailed numerical data is requiredWhen repeatability is importantWhen generalizable across populations is neededQUANTITATIVE ANALYSISNumeric dataDescriptive trend analysisHypothesis testing, effect size.Why Use Mixed Methods ?Together quantitative and qualitative data provide both precise measurement and generalizability of quantitative research and the in-depth, complex picture of qualitative research. To validate quantitative results with qualitative data. Finally, when outcomes to be measured are simply not enough; and need augmented interpretation and usefulness of findings.Collins, Onwuegbuzie, and Sutton (2006) identified four reasons for conducting mixed research.Participant enrichment (e.g., mixing quantitative and qualitative research to optimize the sample using techniques that include recruiting participants)Instrument Fidelity (e. g. , assessing the appropriateness and/ or utility of existing instruments, creating new instruments, monitoring performance of human instruments)Treatment integrity (e.g., assessing fidelity of intervention)Significance enhancement (e.g., facilitating thickness and richness of data)When to Use Mixed Methods ?When you want to combine the advantages of quantitive (trends, large numbers, generalization) with qualitative (detail, small numbers, in-depth). Mixed Methods should be used when you want to validate your findings or if you want to expand your quantitative finds. Its important to remember that both approaches have strengths and weaknesses RELATED QUESTION What are the latest applications of fiber optic sensors? According to a new market research report published by Credence Research Fiber Optic Sensors Market(Product Type Intrinsic Fiber Optic Sensors, Extrinsic Fiber Optic Sensors; Material Plastic, Glass; End-user Industrial, Oil & Gas, Energy & Utilities, Healthcare, Automotive & Transportation and Defense) Growth, Future Prospects and Competitive Analysis, 2018 - 2026, the global fiber optic sensors market is set to exhibit CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026.Browse the full report InsightsFiber optic sensing has emerged as a prevalent technology across numerous industries including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, civil, manufacturing, and energy. These sensors are capable of measuring a wide variety of parameters including strain, temperature, internal and applied loads, deflection, liquid level and more. Today, fiber optic sensors can be used to measure more than 60 parameters, availing a wide range of application areas. Fiber optic sensors are low cost, lightweight, robust, immune to electromagnetic interference and capable of functioning in harsh environments. Unlike conventional electrical sensors, fiber optic sensors can be positioned close to large EMI sources as well as structures that are prone to lightning strikes.The overall fiber optic sensors market is segmented based on product type, material, end-user, and geography. Based on the product type, the fiber optic sensors market is led by intrinsic sensors accounting for more 2/3rd of the total market value. Further, based on end-user, industrial manufacturing & processing segment leads the fiber optic sensors market. In the following years, the oil & gas segment is expected to register the highest growth rate in the market. Fiber optic sensors have offered a viable solution for well and reservoir surveillance in the oil and gas industry. These sensors are being widely deployed in the oil and gas sector for measuring temperature, chemical composition, pressure, acoustics, and strain. With rising subsea processing and increasing requirement of system monitoring, there has been a growing demand for optical fibers with longer transmission distances and higher bandwidth.On the basis of geography, North America dominated the overall fiber optic sensors market with a share of nearly 34% in the year 2017. The regional market growth is primarily governed by the presence of sophisticated industrial manufacturing & processing sector. The Asia Pacific is expected to demonstrate the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The market growth in the Asia Pacific is estimated to be supported by the rapidly growing industrial sector in China and India. Some of the major companies profiled in the report include ABB Ltd., Halliburton CO, Fiso Technologies, Inc., OMRON Corporation, OmniSens S.A., Opsens Oil and Gas, Deltex Medical Group PLC, Finisar Corporation, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Luna Innovations Inc., Ziebel AS, OptaSense (QinetiQ Company), AP Sensing GmbH, PepperlFuchs GmbH, Petrospec Engineering Inc. , Schlumberger Ltd. , AFL Group, SCHOTT AG, TE Connectivity and others.Browse the full report

This is part of the Open Innovation series dissecting:1. What is open innovation?2. When is open innovation successful? What are its advantages and disadvantages?3. What are examples of Open Innovation models? 4. What are the keys to implementing Open Innovation?Open Innovation didnt used to be the way the most successful companies operated. In recent years, however, the approach has resulted in significant advantages and more companies now believe that its the cornerstone of their innovation strategy. According to a survey of over 300 executives at organizations with $1bn in revenue, 79% believed their companies effectively drew innovations from other industries and organizations. Being open is scary, as it means exposing some of the companys goals and projects, but the benefits are clear.Closed innovation (e.g., traditional R&D) is great at improving existing products and services, or even helping to create adjacent ones. However, it is well documented that traditional innovation processes fail to produce breakthrough outcomes. The best ideas are unlikely to come solely from within, and without continual attentiveness to the outside world, its easy for an organization to miss the next big thing until its too late. Most small things wont grow big, but some will and those change everything.The advantages (bright sides) and disadvantages (dark sides) of Open Innovation have been widely explored in the academic literature. These broadly fit into three categories: organizational, knowledge management, and legal.Other Open Innovation benefits include:Ability to conduct strategic experiments at lower levels of risk and resources, with the opportunity to extend core business and create new sources of growthAbility to leverage R&D developed on someone elses budgetExtended reach and capability for new ideas and technologiesOpportunity to refocus some internal resources on finding, screening, and managing implementation (important not to position as a threat to internal resources)Improved payback on internal R&D through sale or license of otherwise unused intellectual propertyA greater sense of urgency for internal groups to act on ideas or technology (use it or lose it)Over time, an opportunity to create a more innovative culture, from the outside in through continued exposure and relationships with external innovatorsThe last point, in particular, is important and often misunderstood. Weve heard it before that an organization cant outsource innovation. We fully agree with that. Paradoxically though, being more open creates conditions for the internal organization to develop a more entrepreneurial (what we like to call startupup-minded) mindset.Naturally, the advantages and disadvantages of Open Innovation are contextual, and there are no one-size fits all model. Apple, for example, is notorious for the level of control and secrecy it devotes to its new products and services, though even it is loosening in those beliefs (e. g. , investments on Didi as part of its efforts with Project Titan). Google, on the other hand, works routinely with external parties to develop its products and services, including customers, other corporates, and startups, taking a more experimental (i.e., release it when its ready) approach.Regardless of their approaches to Open Innovation, both are among the top 10 corporates with the highest number of collaborations with and acquisitions of startups. Instilling Open Innovation isnt a panacea for innovation, but its benefits are clear when implemented correctly. The three critical elements for a successful Open Innovation program are transparency, clarity, and commitment.TransparencyIn deciding to pursue Open Innovation initiatives, an organization must choose to default towards transparency. Transparency means not being afraid of letting the outside world look in. Organizations, like individuals, are scared of failure, regardless of how small they are in the context of the overall picture. The truth, though, is that the most successful organizations of today are mired in failed attempts. For every Prime, AWS, and Alexa, Amazon has Amazon Destinations, WebPay, PayPhrase, AskVille, Fire, etc. For every Gmail, Google Maps, Android, Google has Lively, Print and Radio ads, Notebook, iGoogle, Wave, and countless others. ClarityIn order to attract the right partners, organizations need to have clear objectives and an understanding of what it is trying to do: a clearly outlined specification will do wonders in driving Open Innovation programs. Though innovations come from the most unusual places, haphazard innovation doesnt work in the context of a large organization. Clarity of decision making also matters. Having clear rules will help you to determine what projects you should pursue versus which projects you shouldnt. Commitment Talking about innovation is not the same thing as actually innovating. Unfortunately, its also something we also see in the market too regularly, organizations that say they want to innovate, but dont follow through on the potential. Innovation is messy, and because of the number of failures required in the process, organizations are scared to commit and shortermist when deciding to scrap ideas and initiatives. Establishing an innovation budget, setting a minimum program timeline, and properly planning your Open Innovation program will do wonders in driving it forward.Next time we discuss a few concrete examples of Open Innovation models.If you missed it, heres Part 1: What is Open InnovationOpen Innovation (Part 1/4): What is open Innovation?This is part of the Open Innovation series dissecting:medium. com. RELATED QUESTION Do online printing sites in India have their own printing machinery or they outsource printing orders? Very few online printing companies have their own machines. PrintStop is amongst those few companies who have their own printing machinery. We are a 10 year old company and have evolved to be an online solutions provider for everyone's business printing needs. What We Provide?Wider range of products:We have more than 200 print products for your brand. They range from Visiting Cards, Stationery Items, Marketing Collaterals, Promotional Items and many more products.Ready-to-use designs Pehchaan:PrintStop offers 100s of ready-to-use designs which can be easily customised to your needs. We also have Pehchaan, our in-house design team to help you create stirring designs as per your requirements.Accessibility:Order from your office desk or your living room anytime and get your products delivered anywhere in India and 50 countries, it's that simple!Technology:To make printing procurement easier for you, we've launched 2 solutions:For SMEs:PrintSmartFor Enterprise Clients:PrintSmart ProYou can know more about us at queries, feel free to contact us at 91 22 4270 5050.

This is part of the Open Innovation series dissecting:1. What is open innovation?2. When is open innovation successful? What are its advantages and disadvantages?3. What are examples of Open Innovation models? 4. What are the keys to implementing Open Innovation?Xerox PARC is simultaneously known as one of the most successful and one of the worst failures in corporate innovation.In short, Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) was a research center established by the Xerox Company in Palo Alto in the 1970s to avoid the fate of many technology companies that had come before it: failure to innovate leading to its demise.PARC was certain successful in that it created technologies that ended up truly changing the world, including many of the features of the modern day computer such as the GUI (Graphical User Interface), the Ethernet networking protocol that is the base of the internet, PostScript for font rendering, document management software, and web indexing technology.Unfortunately, Xerox failed to see the goldmine upon which it was sitting and most of this revolutionary technology was never commercialized by Xerox. In fact it was small startups like Apple and Microsoft which legally appropriated and took a lot of these technologies to market.Many attribute this lack of value-capture on Xerox's part to corporate managements ignorance or internal politicking, but careful study by Henry Chesbrough leads to another conclusion Xerox was stuck in a Close Innovation paradigm.Xerox saw little potential to apply the technologies it had developed internally, so it let newly formed startup companies take these to market. Many of these companies failed along the way, but others (3Com, Adobe, Documentum, Apple, Microsoft) made it as big as it gets. Although some of these technologies made it big, it is unlikely that Xerox would have been able to commercialise these alone even if it recognized how much value they would create. The truth is all of these technologies underwent significant development and transformation when taken to market.Xerox could have captured a lot of this value, however, if it were operating in an Open Innovation paradigm working with partners that could help exploit technologies that it wasn't able to fund, develop, or take to market singlehandedly.Many other corporates have since embraced the Open Innovation paradigm.P&G's Connect and DevelopWe knew that most of P&Gs best innovations had come from connecting ideas across internal businesses. And after studying the performance of a small number of products wed acquired beyond our own labs, we knew that external connections could produce highly profitable innovations, too. Betting that these connections were the key to future growth, Lafley made it our goal to acquire 50% of our innovations outside the company. The strategy wasnt to replace the capabilities of our 7,500 researchers and support staff, but to better leverage them. Half of our new products, Lafley said, would come from our own labs, and half would come through them.It was, and still is, a radical idea. As we studied outside sources of innovation, we estimated that for every P&G researcher there were 200 scientists or engineers elsewhere in the world who were just as good a total of perhaps 1.5 million people whose talents we could potentially use. But tapping into the creative thinking of inventors and others on the outside would require massive operational changes. We needed to move the companys attitude from resistance to innovations not invented here to enthusiasm for those proudly found elsewhere. And we needed to change how we defined, and perceived, our R&D organization from 7,500 people inside to 7,500 plus 1.5 million outside, with a permeable boundary between them.It was against this backdrop that we created our connect and develop innovation model. With a clear sense of consumers needs, we could identify promising ideas throughout the world and apply our own R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing capabilities to them to create better and cheaper products, faster.Unilever FoundryThe consumer goods giant has announced the creation of The Unilever Foundry, a new platform that unites and expands the companys existing efforts to work with startups. The Foundry will serve as Unilevers flagship, global tech collaboration and investment program, providing an accessible mechanism for startups to interact with the worlds second largest advertiser, and gain access to the companys marketing expertise, massive global scale (Unilever products are used by 2 billion people daily), and, potentially, funding.Philips High Tech CampusTogether, more than 10,000 international researchers, developers and business people at the Campus create a huge amount of knowledge and dynamism. They have turned High Tech Campus Eindhoven into one of the global hotspots in the areas of Health, Energy and Smart Environments.At the Campus, you will find everything you could require to translate technology innovation to business. 45,000 square metres of R&D facilities, collaborative efforts for developing new technologies, IT and HRM support, patent agencies and close connections with investor networks will support fast innovation and business development from day one.Researchers, developers and entrepreneurs can join existing international networks and innovation projects, led by leading R&D institutes such as Holst Centre and Solliance. The Solliance institute brings together global innovation and solar power knowledge. Business people can easily join the international networks which are incorporated into these projects. This accelerates the time-to-market for new technologies and helps high tech entrepreneurs more rapidly reach their goal: Turning Technology Into Business.Telefonica Open FutureAn open innovation program from Telefonica and our key partners, the initiative connects entrepreneurs, investors, public and private organizations worldwide across all our innovation and investment initiatives (Wayra, Amerigo and Telefonica Ventures, among others) into a single program.Its designed to support talent and bring value to the whole ecosystem rather than view each part as a different mechanism.GE Open InnovationGE understands solving the worlds toughest problems through advanced manufacturing techniques and processes requires collaboration. By crowdsourcing innovation both internally and externally GE is improving customer value and driving advancements across industries. By sourcing and supporting innovative ideas, wherever they might come from, and applying GEs scale and expertise, GEs approach to open innovation is helping to address customer needs more efficiently and effectively.We believe openness leads to inventiveness and usefulness.We also believe that its impossible for any organization to have all the best ideas, and we strive to collaborate with experts and entrepreneurs everywhere who share our passion to solve some of the worlds most pressing issues.Were initiating a fundamental shift in the way we do business this is what well stand for in our open collaboration efforts and how we will operate.Samsung Open InnovationFor Samsung to evolve its software and service presence, and continue building compelling consumer experiences, GIC is cultivating deep relationships with startup ecosystems in Silicon Valley, New York City and around the globe. GIC builds these relationships through four vehicles: investments, partnerships, acquisitions and its Accelerator program in San Francisco and New York City. By working with startups at any stage of development, GIC engages with entrepreneurs in a variety of ways, offering them more opportunities than investments would alone.Deutsche Bank LabsWith innovation at the heart of Deutsche Bank, purpose-built labs have been established to accelerate the Banks adoption of new technologies to compete more effectively in the digital age.Jon Pearson explains that the accelerated pace of technology innovation that fuelled the rise of the Fintech phenomenon now permeates everything that we do in banking; and with the advent of crypto-currencies, and particularly developments like Blockchain, it is essential we keep pace with this ever-changing landscape."And we can go on and on with additional examples from every industry, from retail, FMCG and travel, to education, transport or health.Next week we look at the keys to implementing Open Innovation in your organization.If you missed the first 2 parts, you can find them below:Open Innovation (Part 1/4): What is open Innovation?This is part of the Open Innovation series Innovation (Part 2/4): When is open innovation successful?This is part of the Open Innovation series dissecting: 1. What is open innovation? 2. When is open RELATED QUESTION What are the latest applications of fiber optic sensors? According to a new market research report published by Credence Research Fiber Optic Sensors Market(Product Type Intrinsic Fiber Optic Sensors, Extrinsic Fiber Optic Sensors; Material Plastic, Glass; End-user Industrial, Oil & Gas, Energy & Utilities, Healthcare, Automotive & Transportation and Defense) Growth, Future Prospects and Competitive Analysis, 2018 - 2026, the global fiber optic sensors market is set to exhibit CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026.Browse the full report InsightsFiber optic sensing has emerged as a prevalent technology across numerous industries including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, civil, manufacturing, and energy. These sensors are capable of measuring a wide variety of parameters including strain, temperature, internal and applied loads, deflection, liquid level and more. Today, fiber optic sensors can be used to measure more than 60 parameters, availing a wide range of application areas. Fiber optic sensors are low cost, lightweight, robust, immune to electromagnetic interference and capable of functioning in harsh environments. Unlike conventional electrical sensors, fiber optic sensors can be positioned close to large EMI sources as well as structures that are prone to lightning strikes.The overall fiber optic sensors market is segmented based on product type, material, end-user, and geography. Based on the product type, the fiber optic sensors market is led by intrinsic sensors accounting for more 2/3rd of the total market value. Further, based on end-user, industrial manufacturing & processing segment leads the fiber optic sensors market. In the following years, the oil & gas segment is expected to register the highest growth rate in the market. Fiber optic sensors have offered a viable solution for well and reservoir surveillance in the oil and gas industry. These sensors are being widely deployed in the oil and gas sector for measuring temperature, chemical composition, pressure, acoustics, and strain. With rising subsea processing and increasing requirement of system monitoring, there has been a growing demand for optical fibers with longer transmission distances and higher bandwidth.On the basis of geography, North America dominated the overall fiber optic sensors market with a share of nearly 34% in the year 2017. The regional market growth is primarily governed by the presence of sophisticated industrial manufacturing & processing sector. The Asia Pacific is expected to demonstrate the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The market growth in the Asia Pacific is estimated to be supported by the rapidly growing industrial sector in China and India. Some of the major companies profiled in the report include ABB Ltd., Halliburton CO, Fiso Technologies, Inc., OMRON Corporation, OmniSens S.A., Opsens Oil and Gas, Deltex Medical Group PLC, Finisar Corporation, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Luna Innovations Inc., Ziebel AS, OptaSense (QinetiQ Company), AP Sensing GmbH, PepperlFuchs GmbH, Petrospec Engineering Inc. , Schlumberger Ltd. , AFL Group, SCHOTT AG, TE Connectivity and others.Browse the full report