omniomni/omni-engineering huggingface dataset:
Karp–Flatt metric. The Karp–Flatt metric is a measure of parallelization of code in parallel processor systems. This metric exists in addition to Amdahl's law and  Gustafson's law as an indication of the extent to which a particular computer code is parallelized. It was proposed by Alan H. Karp and Horace P. Flatt in 1990.

Description
Given a parallel computation exhibiting speedup  on  processors, where  > 1, the experimentally determined serial fraction  is defined to be the Karp–Flatt Metric viz:

The lower the value of , the better the parallelization.

Justification
There are many ways to measure the performance of a parallel algorithm running on a parallel processor. The Karp–Flatt metric defines a metric which reveals aspects of the performance that are not easily discerned from other metrics. A pseudo-"derivation" of sorts follows from Amdahl's Law, which can be written as:

Where:
 is the total time taken for code execution in a -processor system
 is the time taken for the serial part of the code to run
 is the time taken for the parallel part of the code to run in one processor
 is the number of processors

with the result obtained by substituting  = 1 viz. , if we define the serial fraction  =  then the equation can be rewritten as

In terms of the speedup  =  :

Solving for the serial fraction, we get the Karp–Flatt metric as above. Note that this is not a "derivation" from Amdahl's law as the left hand side represents a metric rather than a mathematically derived quantity. The treatment above merely shows that the Karp–Flatt metric is consistent with Amdahl's Law.

Use
While the serial fraction e is often mentioned in computer science literature, it was rarely used as a diagnostic tool the way speedup and efficiency are. Karp and Flatt hoped to correct this by proposing this metric. This metric addresses the inadequacies of the other laws and quantities used to measure the parallelization of computer code. In particular, Amdahl's law does not take into account load balancing issues, nor does it take overhead into consideration. Using the serial fraction as a metric poses definite advantages over the others, particularly as the number of processors grows.

For a problem of fixed size, the efficiency of a parallel computation typically decreases as the number of processors increases. By using the serial fraction obtained experimentally using the Karp–Flatt metric, we can determine if the efficiency decrease is due to limited opportunities of parallelism or increases in algorithmic or architectural overhead.

References

External links
Lecture Notes on Karp–Flatt metric - Virginia Tech

Analysis of parallel algorithms
1,8-Octanediol. 1,8-Octanediol, also known as octamethylene glycol, is a diol with the molecular formula HO(CH)OH.  1,8-Octanediol is a white solid.  It is produced by hydrogenation of esters of suberic acid.

1,8-Octanediol is used as a monomer in the synthesis of some polymers such as polyesters and polyurethanes. 

As with other fatty alcohols, octane-1,8-diol is used in cosmetics as an emollient and humectant.

See also
Ethylene glycol
1,2-Octanediol

References

Monomers
Alkanediols
Monolithic architecture. Monolithic architecture describes buildings which are carved, cast or excavated from a single piece of material, historically from rock. The most basic form of monolithic architecture is a rock-cut building, such as the monolithic churches of Ethiopia built by the Zagwe dynasty, or the Pancha Rathas in India.  These are cut out of solid rock, to which they remain attached at the base.  In most cases, this is evident from the remaining surrounding rock, but sometimes a building is cut from an outcrop, as in the Shore Temple in southern India, and only inspection at close quarters reveals that the building is monolithic.

The terms monolith and monolithic column are normally used for objects made from a single large piece of rock which is detached from the ground. They may have been moved a considerable distance, as with several ancient Egyptian obelisks, which have been moved around the world. Buildings with a structural material that is poured into place, most commonly concrete, can also be described as monolithic. Extreme examples are monolithic domes, where the material is sprayed inside of a form to produce the solid structure.

An ancient example of a monolithic dome is that of the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna, Italy, the roof of which is made from a single stone.

See also
Architecture of cathedrals and great churches
Church architecture
Early Christian art and architecture
Statue of Ahimsa, largest monolithic sculpture

References
Russell Sturgis, Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building

External links
 

Monoliths
Selangor water works. The Selangor water works provides water supply to the state of Selangor as well as the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya in  Malaysia. The raw water is sourced mostly from surface water collected by several dams, lakes and rivers, and treated at the nearby water treatment plants. The Selangor water works is run by Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor), a Selangor State-owned company.

Sungai Selangor Dam & Sungai Tinggi Dam
Dam capacity 344,529 million litres.
Water treatment plant (Sungai Selangor WTP) capacity; WTP1 = 950 million litres per day (mld), WTP2 950 mld, WTP3 = 800 mld.
Area served : Klang valley, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor.
Semenyih Dam
Dam capacity 59,071 million litres.
Treatment plant (Semenyih WTP) capacity = 545 million liters per day (mld).
Area served : Putrajaya, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat, Sepang, Petaling.
Sungai Langat Dam
Dam capacity 33,785 million litres.
Treatment plant (Sungai Langat WTP) capacity = 386 million litres per day (mld).
Area served : Hulu Langat, Cheras.
Klang Gates Dam
Dam capacity 25,104 million litres.
Treatment plant (Bukit Nanas WTP) capacity = 145 million litres per day (mld).
Area served : Kuala Lumpur.
Subang Dam
Dam capacity xx, xxx million litres.
Treatment plant (North Hammock WTP) capacity = xxx million litres per day (mld). 
Area served : Kapar, Meru.
Sungai Batu Dam
Dam capacity 30,199 million litres.
Treatment plant (Sungai Batu WTP) capacity =  114 million litres per day (mld).
Area served : Gombak.
Sungai Rasa WTP capacity = 250 million litres per day.
Combined production of 26 small WTP = 336 million liters per day.

References

The Star newspaper, 8 February 2007.

External links
Webpage for Air Selangor (water works operator)
Official website of Puncak Niaga

Buildings and structures in Selangor
Dams in Malaysia
Water supply and sanitation in Malaysia
2006 People's Liberation Army Air Force KJ-200 crash. On June 3, 2006, a People's Liberation Army Air Force KJ-200 crashed in Guangde County, Anhui Province, China. All 40 people on board were killed.

Background
The aircraft involved was a PRC-produced Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane, one of four that were part of the country's efforts to expand its air defences. The exact model of aircraft involved was never officially identified, although it is believed to have been a KJ-200. The aircraft had been developed in 2002, and have been undergoing extensive tests since then.

The plane was carrying thirty-five electronics and avionics technicians, as well as five crewmembers. It is believed by aviation experts that the large number of people on board the aircraft indicated that some form of test was being conducted. Carrying such a large number of people allowed the plane to avoid transmitting real time data back to the ground, which could be compromised by foreign intelligence services.

Crash
While cruising at 28,000ft, the aircraft encountered icing conditions, entered an uncontrolled descent, likely stalled and partially disintegrated while in the air before crashing into a hillside, killing all 40 people on board. It was one of the worst disasters in the history of the Chinese air force.

Investigation
The Central Military Commission announced of the investigation result on September 7, 2006. The official explanation was that the accident was due to heavy ice formation on the wings after the aircraft made repeated passes in and out of clouds in bad weather. The announcement also declared that nearly a dozen high-ranking military officers were punished, including:

 Jiang Jianzeng, commander of the Nanjing Military Region Air Force (MRAF) and deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region (MR), was censured.

References

Aviation accidents and incidents in 2006
Aviation accidents and incidents in China
People's Liberation Army Air Force
2006 disasters in China
Military history of Anhui
June 2006 in China
Xuancheng
Inventec. Inventec Corporation (; ) is a Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) making notebook computers, servers and mobile devices. Originally established in 1975 to develop and manufacture electronic calculators, major customers include Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, and Fujitsu-Siemens.

Inventec Corporation has major development and manufacturing facilities in China and is one of their largest exporters.  The company opened its first development center in China in 1991 and its first manufacturing facility in Shanghai in 1995.  In addition, the company has configuration, and service centers in the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

The company has a workforce of over 23,000 employees, including over 3,000 engineers. It partially owns a Japan-based mini notebook brand vendor, Kohjinsha (KJS), which was established in Yokohama.

Group information 
Inventec Group comprises five companies:

Inventec Corporation 
Noted above

Inventec BESTA 

BESTA is an independent subsidiary company of the Inventec Group first launched in Taipei in 1989 to produce compact English/Chinese electronic dictionaries. BESTA has expanded its product line to PDAs, tablet computers and translators in multiple languages (including Korean and Japanese).  
 
BESTA currently produces over 30 models on the market in Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. The Thai distributor CyberDict offers customized products with additional Thai dictionaries.

BESTA also manufactures a line of language products designed specifically for the North American market, where it has become the leading provider of English/Chinese and English/Korean electronic dictionaries. In the US, BESTA products are sold under the BESTA (Chinese) or OPTIMEC (South Korean) labels and are exclusively distributed and serviced by Moy Sam Corporation (New York) and Maxmile Corporation (Los Angeles).  In Canada, BESTA products are found in Toronto and Markham.

Several BESTA models come with slots for inserting SD/MMC data cards containing additional specialized dictionaries (such as medical or business). It has been ranked in 1st place for "Taiwan's Ideal Electronic Dictionary Brand" for twelve consecutive years. Inventec Besta became a listed company in Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2007.

Key Development of Inventec Besta Co:

Year 1989—Inventec Besta Co., Ltd was founded.

Year 1999—Merged with the Inventec's References System Division, Lin Kou Factory, and Inventec (Xi'an) Company

Year 2000—Acquired Golden Atom Holdings Ltd. and invested in Besta Technology (HK) Co., Ltd.and Besta Technology (China) Co., Ltd

Tablets 
 Amazon Kindle Fire
 Barnes & Noble Nook
 N18C (Dr.Eye)
 Lyon

Mobile phones 
 OKWAP
 J98
 PHS-I99
 PHS-PG900
 PHS-PG901
 PHS-I92
 PHS-i501

See also
 List of companies of Taiwan

References

1975 establishments in Taiwan
Computer hardware companies
Computer systems companies
Electronics companies of Taiwan
Mobile phone manufacturers
Companies based in Taipei
Electronics companies established in 1975
Wilhelmy plate. A Wilhelmy plate is a thin plate that is used to measure equilibrium surface or interfacial tension at an air–liquid or liquid–liquid interface. In this method, the plate is oriented perpendicular to the interface, and the force exerted on it is measured. Based on the work of Ludwig Wilhelmy, this method finds wide use in the preparation and monitoring of Langmuir films.

Detailed description

The Wilhelmy plate consists of a thin plate usually on the order of a few square centimeters in area. The plate is often made from filter paper, glass or platinum which may be roughened to ensure complete wetting. In fact, the results of the experiment do not depend on the material used, as long as the material is wetted by the liquid. The plate is cleaned thoroughly and attached to a balance with a thin metal wire. The force on the plate due to wetting is measured using a tensiometer or microbalance and used to calculate the surface tension () using the Wilhelmy equation:

where  is the wetted perimeter (),  is the plate width,  is the plate thickness, and  is the contact angle between the liquid phase and the plate. In practice the contact angle is rarely measured; instead, either literature values are used or complete wetting () is assumed.

In general, surface tension may be measured with high sensitivity using very thin plates ranging in thickness from 0.1 to 0.002 mm. The device is calibrated with pure liquids like water and ethanol. The buoyancy adjustment is minimized by utilizing a thin plate and dipping it as little as feasible. Wetting water on a platinum plate is accomplished by using commercially available platinum plates that have been roughened to improve wettability.

Advantages and short brief

If complete wetting is assumed (contact angle = 0), no correction factors are required to calculate surface tensions when using the Wilhelmy plate, unlike for a du Noüy ring. In addition, because the plate is not moved during measurements, the Wilhelmy plate allows accurate determination of surface kinetics on a wide range of timescales, and it displays low operator variance. In a typical plate experiment, the plate is lowered to the surface being analyzed until a meniscus is formed, and then raised so that the bottom edge of the plate lies on the plane of the undisturbed surface. If measuring a buried interface, the second (less dense) phase is then added on top of the undisturbed primary (denser) phase in such a way as to not disturb the meniscus. The force at equilibrium can then be used to determine the absolute surface or interfacial tension. Due to a large wetted area of the plate, the measurement is less susceptible for measurement errors than when using a smaller probe. Also, the method has been described in several international measurement standards.

See also 

 Tensiometer (surface tension)
 du Noüy ring method
 Sessile drop technique

Further reading 

Holmberg, K (ed.) Handbook of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry New York, Wiley and Sons: 2002. Vol. 2, p. 219

References

Laboratory equipment
Materials science
Armstrong's acid. Armstrong's acid (naphthalene-1,5-disulfonic acid) is a fluorescent organic compound with the formula C10H6(SO3H)2.  It is one of several isomers of naphthalenedisulfonic acid. It a colorless solid, typically obtained as the tetrahydrate. Like other sulfonic acids, it is a strong acid.  It is named for British chemist Henry Edward Armstrong.

Production and use
It is prepared by disulfonation of naphthalene with oleum:
C10H8  +  2 SO3   →   C10H6(SO3H)2
Further sulfonation gives The 1,3,5-trisulfonic acid derivative.

Reactions and uses
Fusion of Armstrong's acid in NaOH gives the disodium salt of 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene, which can be acidified to give the diol. The intermediate in this hydrolysis, 1-hydroxynaphthalene-5-sulfonic acid, is also useful.  Nitration gives nitrodisulfonic acids, which are precursors to amino derivatives.

The disodium salt is sometimes used as a divalent counterion for forming salts of basic drug compounds, as an alternative to the related mesylate or tosylate salts. When used in this way such a salt is called a naphthalenedisulfonate salt, as seen with the most common salt form of the stimulant drug CFT.  The disodium salt is also used as an electrolyte in certain kinds of chromatography.

References

Reagents for organic chemistry
Naphthalenesulfonic acids
FURPS. FURPS is an acronym representing a model for classifying software quality attributes (functional and non-functional requirements):

 Functionality - capability (size and generality of feature set), reusability (compatibility, interoperability, portability), security (safety and exploitability)
 Usability (UX) - human factors, aesthetics, consistency, documentation, responsiveness
 Reliability - availability (failure frequency (robustness/durability/resilience), failure extent and time-length (recoverability/survivability)), predictability (stability), accuracy (frequency/severity of error)
 Performance - speed, efficiency, resource consumption (power, ram, cache, etc.), throughput, capacity, scalability
 Supportability (serviceability, maintainability, sustainability, repair speed) - testability, flexibility (modifiability, configurability, adaptability, extensibility, modularity), installability, localizability

The model, developed at Hewlett-Packard was first publicly elaborated by Grady and Caswell. FURPS+ is now widely used in the software industry. The + was later added to the model after various campaigns at HP to extend the acronym to emphasize various attributes.

See also 
 Types of requirements
 Expanded list of types of requirements

Further reading

External links 
 IBM on Furps+

Software requirements
Mnemonics
Thermal grill illusion. The thermal grill illusion (also known to researchers as the TGI) is a sensory illusion originally demonstrated in 1896 by the Swedish physician Torsten Thunberg. The illusion is created by a grill of bars which are alternately warm, e.g. , and cool, e.g. . When someone presses a hand against the whole grill, they experience the illusion of burning heat. But if they press against only a cool or a warm bar, only coolness or warmth, respectively, is experienced.

Researchers have used the illusion to demonstrate that burning pain sensation is in fact a mixture of both cold and heat pain and that it is only the inhibition of the cold pain "channel" that reveals the heat component.

The illusion is demonstrated by positioning the middle finger in cold water and the ring and index fingers in warm water. Due to shortcomings in the body map—the multisensory representation of the body—and this particular sensory input configuration, for some people the brain is tricked into thinking the middle finger is in the warm water and the index and ring fingers in cold water.

In an fMRI experiment of the illusion, researchers in 2011 observed an activation of the thalamus not seen for control stimuli. Also, activity in a portion of the right mid/anterior insula correlated with the perceived unpleasantness of the illusion.

Notes

Further reading 
 Craig, A. D., Bushnell, M. C. The thermal grill illusion: unmasking the burn of cold pain. Science. 1994; 265: 252–5.
 Defrin, R., Ohry, A., Blumen, N., Urca, G. "Sensory determinants of thermal pain" Brain. 2002; 125: 501–10.
 "How the 'Thermal Grill' Illusion Tricks the Mind"

Tactile illusions
John van Geen. John van Geen (August 17, 1929 – June 6, 2000) was a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) who was known for his advances in the acoustically coupled modem.

Early life and education
Van Geen was born in 1929 in Etterbeek, Belgium. In 1953, he received a degree in electrical and radio engineering from Brussels University.

Career
In 1959, Van Geen joined the Stanford Research Institute. Van Geen's enhancements to the modem in 1966 allowed the designed receiver to detect data (in the form of bits) and distinguish it from background noise more reliably than any previous models.

His advancements also led to the release of the first public modem. It appealed to the public because it mimicked the characteristics of a standard telephone handset at that time.

Van Geen retired from the Stanford Research Institute in 1989 after 30 years there. He died on June 6, 2000, in Monterey Peninsula.

References 

1929 births
2000 deaths
SRI International people
Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni
Belgian computer scientists
People from Etterbeek
Morfeo Open-Source Software Community. Morfeo Open-Source Software Community is a group that promotes the use of open source software, focused on improving technical transfer between companies, and on generating social networks for collaboration, and to encourage for small-sized companies providing certain resources for carrying out this task.

The group is backed by the regional governments of Andalusia, Aragon, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, Catalonia and Valencia. It relies on its members' contributions, and Telefónica I+D releases proprietary software components and provides resources for the group.

The organization works with projects including MyMobileWeb, SMARTFlow (a workflow platform), CORBA Components and service-oriented architecture (SOA) components. Other projects include B2Booking, EasyConf, MyMobileSearch and UptaZone.

References

External links 
 Morfeo Open-Source Software Community
 WIKI:Morfeo Open-Source Software Community

Free and open-source software organizations
ARC Macro Language. The ARC Macro Language (AML) is a proprietary high-level algorithmic language for generating applications in ArcInfo. It was designed by ESRI in 1986 specifically for their command line-driven ARC/INFO geographical information system. AML's syntax was based on CPL (the shell language of the PRIMOS operating system) because the majority of ARC/INFO installations at that time ran on Prime computers. The macro language features include the ability to create onscreen menus, use and assign variables, control statement execution, and get and use map or page unit coordinates.

Although the language is still supported by ESRI in modern ArcInfo Workstation environments, the language has been superseded by the geoprocessing framework, which is part of the ArcGIS suite and allows programming access using ArcObjects through VBA or Python.

References
 ESRI, 1995. ARC Macro Language, ESRI Press, 828 p.

External links
User submitted AML scripts at ESRI ArcScripts

Esri software
GIS software
Macro programming languages
Sharp Actius RD3D. The Sharp Actius RD3D was a 3D laptop computer manufactured by the Sharp Corporation in 2004.  The company marketed it as the first "autostereo" PC, offering 3D images without glasses.

Features
It had a built-in 3D graphics button that would create a 3D image by using a "parallax barrier", which beamed two different images to each eye, confusing the brain into thinking that the user was looking at a 3D image, all without the use of 3D glasses.

Problems
Common problems with the Sharp Actius RD3D were:

The 3D graphics could reportedly not be seen if the user slightly shifted position while looking at the computer.
The computer's performance reportedly slowed when it was put into 3D mode.
It was also very big (12 pounds), bulky, and extremely expensive, selling for $2,999.
The battery life was also inferior, reportedly lasting for a mere 2 hours.

The product was featured in the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" list published by PC World magazine in 2006.

External links
 Sharp Actius RD review - CNET

References 

Actius RD3D
Stereoscopy
Computer-related introductions in 2004