omniomni/omni-engineering huggingface dataset:
DF Helicopters DF334. The DF Helicopters DF334 is a two-seat, single-engine light utility helicopter in development by Dragon Fly Helicopters in Northern Italy. The DF 334 is a development of the Dragon Fly 333, developed by archaeologists and filmmakers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni in the 1980s. The DF334 has a larger, full composite cabin, a Rotax 914 4-stroke turbocharged engine, a governor fuel control, and an advanced Electronic Flight Instrument System. The helicopter is intended for both amateur and professional pilots.

At the beginning of 2024, DF Helicopters was acquired by SD Aviation Srl, along with all licensing rights. The current models, identified as DF334, and their unmanned versions equipped with original software, are now produced by SD Aviation Srl in Mornago, VA, Italy.

Specifications

See also

References

External links

 Avio International 
 Manufacturer's website

1980s Italian civil utility aircraft
1980s Italian helicopters
Aircraft first flown in 1989
Single-engined piston helicopters
Ultralight helicopters
Techno-Sud Vigilant. 

The Techno-Sud Vigilant is a small UAV helicopter developed in France in the 1990s for reconnaissance and surveillance applications.

It is a helicopter of conventional main-tail rotor configuration, and powered by a 9 kW (12 hp) two-stroke engine. The Vigilant is marketed by Thales, and is being sold to both military and civilian users. Civilian users have accounted for the bulk of sales, using it for applications such as security or environmental monitoring.

Specifications

References
 Vigilant on FAS website
 
This article contains material that originally came from the web article "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.

1990s French military reconnaissance aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicles of France
1990s French helicopters
Techno-Sud aircraft
Unmanned helicopters
Corvus chaff launcher. Corvus chaff launcher is a British shipborne chaff decoy launching system manufactured by Vickers Ltd Group.  It is a lightweight, quick reaction system for the self-defence of surface vessels against surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles, where chaff dispensing rockets form a radar decoy screen.

The system comprises multi-barrelled rocket launcher, launcher control, firing panel and a maximum load of 8 rockets.  The arrangement offers distraction and centroid operating modes, with the two differing in the azimuth angle at firing and the range in which the chaff is released.

Corvus features a cylindrical rotating structure that carries eight launching tubes mounted in two sets of three, one above the other and at 90° with two more tubes aligned midway between these, at a fixed elevation of 30°. A deck-mounted pedestal supports the rotating structure on its training bearing and houses a self-contained electrical power unit for the control circuits and associated electrical equipment.  The firing and control panel is located in the host vessel's combat information centre.

The rockets are reloaded by hand from a ready-to-use locker, located close to the launching platform.

References

External links
The Launcher being loaded
Corvus Chaff Rocket Launcher
3D models showing firing sequence at artstation.com

Military decoys
Naval warfare
Weapons countermeasures
Lili Diamonds. Lili Diamonds is an Israeli manufacturer of straight-edged diamonds.

Lili Diamonds was established by Siman-Tov brothers in 1981. The company owns globally registered patents for diamond cuts they developed, such as Meteor Cut®, Crisscut®, Crisscut® Cushion and Wondercut®. In addition, the company manufactures traditionally cut diamonds (i.e.Princess Cut, Emerald Cut, Square Emerald Cut and Cushion Cut).

The company's head office is located in Israel, with affiliates based in New York and Hong Kong. Lili Diamonds operates a polishing workshop in Israel employing over 100 craftsmen.

See also
Israeli diamond industry

References

Diamond Net - Fink's Jewelers to Offer the 'Meteor Cut' by Lili Diamonds.

Lili Diamonds Debuts Proprietary Meteor Cut.

Diamond Net - Lili Diamonds to Hold Press Conference at JCK Vegas.

Diamondworld - Lili Diamonds - Crafting Precision.

External links
 Lili Diamonds Official Website
 Lili Jewelry Official Website

Companies established in 1981
Diamond dealers
Diamond cutting
SSMIS. The Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder (SSMIS) is a 24-channel, 21-frequency, linearly polarized passive microwave radiometer system.   The instrument is flown on board the United States Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-16, F-17, F-18 and F-19 satellites, which were launched in October 2003, November 2006, October 2009, and April 2014, respectively.  It is the successor to the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). The SSMIS on the F19 satellite stopped producing useful data in February 2016.

Instrument characteristics 

The SSMIS sensor is a passive conically scanning microwave radiometer that combines and extends the current imaging and sounding capabilities of three previously separate DMSP microwave sensors: the SSM/T-1 temperature sounder, the SSMI/T- 2 moisture sounder, and the SSM/I. The SSMIS instrument measures microwave energy at 24 discrete frequencies from 19 to 183 GHz with a swath width of 1700 km.
The first SSMIS was launched aboard the DMSP-16 satellite on 18 October 2003.
Due to a manufacturing mistake, the polarization for the channels at 50.3, 52.8, 53.6, 54.4 and 55.5 of the first unit of SSMIS (the one flying on DMSP-16) was reversed. Those five channels detect the vertical polarization rather than the Horizontal polarization detected by the successive units of SSMIS.

References 

Microwave technology
Satellite meteorology
Radiometry
Spacecraft instruments
Seat configurations of Airbus A380. The Airbus A380 features two full-length decks, each measuring 49.9 metres (164 ft). The upper deck has a slightly shorter usable length of 44.93 metres (147.4 ft) due to the front fuselage curvature and the staircase. The widths of the main deck and upper deck are 6.50 metres (21.3 ft) and 5.80 metres (19.0 ft) respectively. Passenger capacity depends on the seat configuration chosen by the airline. 

Current operational configurations show passenger capacities ranging from 379 (4-class layout in Singapore Airlines) to 615 (2-class layout in Emirates). Since late 2015, Emirates has operated aircraft seating 615 passengers in two classes on the Copenhagen route, replacing the Boeing 777. In total, 15 aircraft have this configuration. Airbus introduced 11-abreast seating for delivery in 2017.

Some airlines have considered configurations with higher seat numbers, including a one-class layout that could accommodate 840 passengers.

List

See also
Wide-body aircraft

References

Airbus A380
Airbus A380
Deliming. The deliming operation in leather processing is a drum/paddle or pit based operation where two main objectives are met:

 Removal of alkali from the pelt and the consequent deswelling of the fibres.
 Lowering of the liquor pH to the values used in the bating process.

Deliming operations of cattle hides usually last two hours and are generally associated with the alkaline phase of beamhouse operations. The progress of deliming in pelts is monitored by the checking of pH values of process liquors and in the cutting of a pelt cross-section. Phenolphthalein is used to monitor deliming pelt cross-sectional progress.

Removal of pelt alkali and deswelling
 As an acid is added it lowers the pH value of the internal pelt solution. This neutralizes the solution alkalinity. The lowering of the pH results in rapid protonation of the collagen basic groups.

Lowering of liquor pH
 The acid present in the deliming agents neutralizes the process liquor pH. Typical values after effective, thorough deliming will range from 6 to 9. Ammonium salt deliming pH values should be pH 8 to 9.

Deliming types
The deliming process can be done with acids that can be rapid in their pH adjustment. Buffering salts like ammonium salts predominated the 20th century. Ammonium sulfate and ammonium chloride can be used as deliming agents and they follow the following chemistry:

(NH4)SO4 →  (ammonium) +  (sulfate)

The ammonium ion is then free to penetrate the pelt cross-section and further ionise to act as an acid:

 (ammonium) + H2O → NH3 (ammonia) + H3O+ (hydronium)

The protons can then serve two functions, namely to protonate basic groups of the collagen and neutralize solution alkali chemicals.

Other weak acids can be used such as boric acid, acetic acid, formic acid, lactic acid, phosphoric acid and carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is used in a deliming process called carbon dioxide deliming. Strong acids such as hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid can also be used but their use is limited.

References

Leathermaking
Product optimization. Production optimization is the practice of making changes or adjustments to a product to make it more desirable.

Description
A product has a number of attributes.  For example, a soda bottle can have different packaging variations, flavors, nutritional values.  It is possible to optimize a product by making minor adjustments.  Typically, the goal is to make the product more desirable and to increase marketing metrics such as Purchase Intent, Believability, Frequency of Purchase, etc.

Methods

Multivariate optimization is one of the most common methods for product optimization.  In this method, multiple product attributes are specified and then tested with consumers. 

Due to complex interaction effects between different attributes (for example, consumers frequently associate certain flavors with packaging colors), it is problematic to use mathematical methods, such as Conjoint Analysis, typically used in industrial process optimization.

More recently companies started to adopt Evolutionary Optimization techniques for Product optimization.  Evolutionary algorithms (such as IDDEA) are used to optimize products, concepts and messaging.

References

Product development
Ismail Faruque Chowdhury. Major General Md. Ismail Faruque Chowdhury (born 25 July 1953) is a former engineer-in-chief of the Bangladesh Army.

Early life and education

Chowdhury was born on 25 July 1953 in the Maulvibazar District of Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. He passed his HSC examination from Dhaka College in the year 1970. During service in the army, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka.

Career
Chowdhury was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers of the Bangladesh Army on 25 December 1977 after completing his training at the Bangladesh Military Academy.  He served in the UN peacekeeping force UNTAET in East Timor as commander of the Bangladesh Engineer Battalion from March 2000 to March 2001. He commanded an Independent Engineer Brigade in Dhaka. He was the 4th commandant of the Military Institute of Science and Technology in Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh. In February 2006, he was appointed as Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) of the Bangladesh Army. As E-in-C, he was also the head of the Military Engineer Services (MES) of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Maj Gen Ismail Faruque was a participant of the Senior International Defence Management Course (SIDMC)-2006 at the Defense Resource Management Institute (DRMI), Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, California. After attaining 55 years of age he qualified for obtaining normal retirement from military service and proceeded on leave preparatory to retirement (LPR) on 24 July 2008. Thereafter in June 2009 he joined on contract service with Mirpur Ceramic Works Ltd and Khadim Ceramics Ltd as executive director and continued till July 2021. Thereafter he was appointed as advisor to the chairman and vice chairman of Mirpur Ceramic Group and is continuing in this position.

References

Living people
1951 births
Dhaka College alumni
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology alumni
Bangladesh Army generals
People from Moulvibazar District

Engineers in Chief of the Bangladesh Army
Shunt generator. A shunt generator is a type of electric generator in which field winding and armature winding are connected in parallel, and in which the armature supplies both the load current and the field current for the excitation (generator is therefore self excited).

Generator field connections
A shunt field (and any series resistor used for adjustment) may be directly connected across the armature terminals in parallel with the load. Where the machine has a series compounding winding, the field may be connected at the armature side (short shunt) or load side (long shunt).  The different connections give different voltage regulation characteristics on load. So as it is connected in shunt it has constant characteristics.

Characteristic
Current in the field windings of a shunt-wound generator is (approximately) independent of the load current, because currents in parallel branches are independent of each other. Since field current, and therefore field strength, is little affected by load current, the output voltage remains more nearly constant than does the output voltage of a series-wound generator. 

There will be a small armature voltage drop on the load, which will be reflected in the voltage applied to the shunt field. The output voltage in a DC shunt-wound generator drops slightly as load current increases because of the voltage drop across the armature resistance.

Usage
Self-energizing shunt generators were widely used on automobiles after the decline in usage of third-brush generators  but before the proliferation of alternators in the 1960's. Shunt generators are always used with regulators that regulate overvoltage and overcurrent, and disconnect the generator at undervoltage.

Compound winding
In a shunt-wound generator, output voltage varies inversely with load current. In a series-wound generator, output voltage varies directly with load current. A combination of the two types can overcome the disadvantages of both. This combination of windings is called a compound-wound dc generator.

See also
 DC motor
 Excitation (magnetic)

References

Electrical generators
Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation. Ann and Robert H. Lurie Family Foundation was incorporated in  and, in 2000, the name was changed to Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation. The Foundation was established by Chicagoans Robert H. Lurie, a real estate and investment magnate who died from colon cancer in 1990, at age 48, and his wife, Ann, who died from brain cancer in 2024, aged 79.

Ann's charitable contributions have been made both individually and through the Foundation. These include endowing the Robert H. Lurie Engineering Center and the Lurie Tower and The Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, as well as funding building and equipment costs for the Biomedical Engineering and Nanofabrication facilities, all at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor; endowing The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, funds to build and support the Robert H. Lurie Research Center and for numerous other education, healthcare and research initiatives at Northwestern; $100 million to build Ann & Robert H.Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; a $10 million endowment to maintain the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago; multi-year support for the former AID Village Clinics, a comprehensive healthcare initiative in rural Kenya; funding to build 30 rural schools in Ethiopia; and support for the research and advocacy work of Human Rights Watch in the Horn of Africa.

External links 
 Robert H. Lurie Biography at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
 Ann Lurie website

References

1986 establishments in Illinois
Non-profit organizations based in Chicago
Decontamination. Decontamination (sometimes abbreviated as decon, dcon, or decontam) is the process of removing contaminants on an object or area, including chemicals, micro-organisms or radioactive substances. This may be achieved by chemical reaction, disinfection or physical removal. It refers to specific action taken to reduce the hazard posed by such contaminants, as opposed to general cleaning.

Decontamination is most commonly used in medical environments, including dentistry, surgery and veterinary science, in the process of food preparation, in environmental science, and in forensic science.

Methods
Methods of decontamination include:
 Physical cleaning
 Water purification
 Ultrasonic cleaning
 Disinfection
 Antisepsis
 Sterilization

A variety of decontaminant methods may be used, including physical processes such as distillation, and chemical washes such as alcohols and detergents.

See also 
 Human decontamination
 Soil decontamination
 Groundwater decontamination
 Environmental remediation
 Dry decontamination
 Decontamination foam

References

Hygiene
Can You See Me Now?. Can You See Me Now? (CYSMN?) is an urban chase game developed by Blast Theory and The Mixed Reality Lab in 2001. CYSMN? is a pervasive game, where performers on the streets of a city use handheld computers, GPS and walkie talkies to chase online players who move their avatars through a virtual model of the same town. CYSMN? was built in the Equator project on the EQUIP architecture.

CYSMN? was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Golden Nica for Interactive Art at the Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria in 2003.

See also
 Location-based game
 Locative media
 Mobile media
 Pervasive game

References

Further reading 
 Steve Benford, Andy Crabtree, Martin Flintham, Adam Drozd, Rob Anastasi, Mark Paxton, Nick Tandavanitj, Matt Adams, Ju Row-Farr (2006): Can you see me now?. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 13, Issue 1 (March 2006), MIT Press. Pages: 100 - 133.
 Ars Electronica: Can You See Me Now?: Golden Nica / Interactive Art.

External links 
Can You See Me Now?

Mixed reality games
Location-based games
Basic Formal Ontology. Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology developed by Barry Smith and his associates for the purposes of promoting interoperability among domain ontologies built in its terms through a process of downward population.  A guide to building BFO-conformant domain ontologies was published by MIT Press in 2015.

The ontology arose against the background of research in ontologies in the domain of geospatial information science by David Mark, Pierre Grenon, Achille Varzi and others, with a special role for the study of vagueness and of the ways sharp boundaries in the geospatial and other domains are created by fiat.

BFO has passed through four major releases. The current revision was released in 2020, and this forms the basis of the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2, which was released by the Joint Committee of the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission in 2021.

The structure of BFO is based on a division of entities into two disjoint categories of continuant and occurrent, the former consists of objects and spatial regions, the latter contains processes conceived as extended through (or spanning) time. BFO thereby seeks to consolidate both time and space within a single framework.

Applications

BFO has been adopted as a foundational ontology by over 450 ontology projects, principally in the areas of biomedical ontology, security and defense (intelligence) ontology, and industry ontologies. Example applications of BFO can be seen in the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI).

In 2021, the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2:2021 Information Technology — Top-level Ontologies (TLO) — Part 2: Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) was published by the Joint Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. ISO/IEC 21838 is a multi-part standard. Part 1 of the standard specifies the requirements that must be met if an ontology is to be classified as a top-level ontology by the standard.

In January 2024, BFO and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), a suite of BFO-extension ontologies, were adopted as the  "baseline standards for formal DOD and IC ontology" development work in the DOD and Intelligence Community. A memorandum to this effect was signed by the chief data officers of the DOD, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

See also

 Formal ontology
 ISO/IEC 21838
 Ontology engineering
 Upper ontology

References

Further reading

External links
 Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)
Basic Formal Ontology 2.0
Basic Formal Ontology 2020 (GitHub)

Knowledge representation
Information science
Ontology (information science)
ISO standards
Bismuth(III) iodide. Bismuth(III) iodide is the inorganic compound with the formula BiI3. This gray-black salt is the product of the reaction of bismuth and iodine, which once was of interest in qualitative inorganic analysis.

Bismuth(III) iodide adopts a distinctive crystal structure, with iodide centres occupying a hexagonally closest-packed lattice, and bismuth centres occupying either none or two-thirds of the octahedral holes (alternating by layer), therefore it is said to occupy one third of the total octahedral holes.

Synthesis
Bismuth(III) iodide forms upon heating an intimate mixture of iodine and bismuth powder:

2Bi + 3I2 → 2BiI3

BiI3 can also be made by the reaction of bismuth oxide with aqueous hydroiodic acid:
Bi2O3(s) + 6HI(aq) → 2BiI3(s) + 3H2O(l)

Reactions
Since bismuth(III) iodide is insoluble in water, an aqueous solution can be tested for the presence of Bi3+ ions by adding a source of iodide such as potassium iodide. A black precipitate of bismuth(III) iodide indicates a positive test.

Bismuth(III) iodide forms iodobismuth(III) anions when heated with halide donors:
2 NaI + BiI3 → Na2[BiI5]

Bismuth(III) iodide catalyzes the Mukaiyama aldol reaction. Bi(III) is also used in a Barbier type allylation of carbonyl compounds in combination with a reducing agent such as zinc or magnesium.

References

Bismuth iodide
Iodides
Metal halides