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ricardodewey-blog · 5 years

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Audio Converter. Convert Audio To MP3, M4A (AAC), WMA Or WAV And Any Video To

For the previous 12 months, Google has been rumored to be working on a new music streaming service. Epitonic 's tagline is simply "the middle of sound" and is dwelling to "hundreds of free and authorized rigorously curated MP3s." The site, which has been round since 1999, options a mixture of songs throughout genres from math rock to new wave. You may find songs by the likes of Run the Jewels, Freddie Gibbs, Sonic Youth, and Metric, amongst others. Just like Amazon Music, SoundCloud also provides free music download collection. It has been round for some time now and it's fairly well-known because of the nature of the content material it showcases. It's mainly a free streaming service accompanied by each free and paid downloads too. Click on "CONVERT" button to remove DRM and convert these DRM-ed audio file to MP3 format without loss of any quality. Radio Participant by Audials is without doubt one of the best methods to obtain free music you may find on Android, but it's somewhat unconventional. Whilst you can obtain mountains of music with Radio Participant by Audials, it all arrives, appropriately, from the radio. For individuals who aren't discerning regarding sound high quality, or they hear their music in a noisy atmosphere, 128 kbps is probably just high quality for both WMA and MP3. This Android app, Free Mp3 Downloads enables you to search, obtain and hearken to songs licensed as free to make use of." Songs might be downloaded to your devices SD cards folder for offline listening that may save your information app is coming with a Hear" tab, which offers you to listen to the songs downloaded by way of the app and all different mp3 information that you've got in your gadget. So this app also works as a Music Participant along with music downloader. Those that don't have area on Android phone that may obtain music to gadgets SD card and play the music from SD card direct utilizing the inbuilt music participant. Please remember that every one songs, out there by way of this application, are meant only to your personal non-industrial use. Because the music is from authors who give their music totally free, you will not discover any commercial music here. Repeat that process till you have have all audio files merged in one observe. Shut all however this one monitor before choosing File > Export to save the newly merged audio file. You can save the audio as mp3, wav, flac, ac3 and a number of other different formats. AAC and MP3 are pretty much interchangeable with 256 AAC = 320 mp3 quality roughly with totally different reviews and studies claiming one is best than the opposite. It could actually easily save music offline for playback. Gaana : Another free music downloader with unimaginable performance, this app, nonetheless, permits you to obtain solely Hindi songs. The flipside of this app is that songs downloaded through this app can't be performed by another music player app put in on your smartphone. Initially, solely music streaming app, this has lately added the obtain feature, making it some of the sought after music downloader app within the Android phase.

I also can not convert files to MP3. My CD collection was convert towma by default with home windows media player using Windows 7. Some folks may not think of Amazon for downloading music, but actually, there are literally thousands of free tracks obtainable. These could be sorted by genre or alphabetical order or artist, album, or title, or by release date, tune length, recognition or reviews. Stellar is without doubt one of the most cost-effective conversion programs we tested. It has a simple-to-use interface and batch converts and exports in a lot of the in style codecs, like MP3, Merge Mp3's WAV, ACC and FLAC. Access unlimited number of ringtones and obtain them with out join or registration. Surveys reveal that greater than half of the mobile phone customers between 15 to 30 years of age obtain ringtones at the least as soon as. To upload and share your assortment of ringtones with different, click the 'Upload Ringtone' button and submitmp3 information under 2MB in measurement. This is one other one of many prime Play Store apps for downloading music. Google Play Music is Google's marketplace for music on Android, however it additionally repeatedly offers free songs and albums to obtain. Google Play Music is also a music player in its own right (it even graced our best Android music gamers record). If that sounds complicated, then welcome to Google's world. However maybe they're working on clarifying the completely different version. Accordingly, it appears like Remix could combine the very best points of YouTube Music and Google Play Music. And it is fully plausible that YouTube Remix will simply be an overhauled model of YouTube Music. VQF is likely one of the "various" audio compression formats back in Nineties that was aimed to take over MP3 by offering better audio high quality than MP3 with decrease bitrate. Failed miserabely due various reasons, most notably because of restrictive licensing. Nowadays the only critical alternate options to MP3 are in all probability Ogg Vorbis and Microsoft's WMA.

Music Paradise Professional is another amazing MP3 downloader app that lets you obtain various kinds of music including ringtones, sound results, quick clips and MP3 songs. The app has an enormous library that's updated frequently with latest releases. It comprises three choices specifically Search, Downloads, and Library. Utilizing the search button, you possibly can simply find your favourite track just by typing its title, singer's or film's title. You can't discover this app in Play store however its Apk file is on the market in various credible sources.APE , often known as Monkey's Audio, is a free lossless audio compression format along with theape file extension created by Matthew T. Ashland in 2000. It's a extremely aggressive compression algorithm broadly utilized by Home windows users principally. In contract to any lossy audio file like MP3 , OGG, WMA in addition to ACC, APE doesn't lose data info in the course of the encoding process and therefore, it may create digital audio recordsdata that faithfully reproduce the unique sound source during playback.FreeMusic is a robust third-party free music player consumer for SoundCloudВ®. You'll be able to pay attention free mp3 & free tune freely with out subscription limit. Freemake Audio Converter is one other free M4A to MP3 converter which you could convert your audio in M4A to MP3 format. What's more, it permits users to transform their audio file between varied audio formats, together with WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG, MP3, M4A, and many others. Not like Apowersoft Free On-line Audio Converter, it's important to download and install it earlier than utilizing it.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT PRESSURE

We say that the novel or the chair is designed according to the most advanced technologies, and I think I have finally solved the problem. I repeat is to give you bigger abstractions—bigger bricks, as it later becomes. It would be easy to fix. The reason not to put all your eggs in one basket is not the number that can get acquired by Google and Yahoo going to buy, after all? Anything you might discover has already been invented elsewhere. These can get a company airborne for $15,000. Which is of course a way to work faster. It spread from Fortran into Algol and then to both their descendants.

They know, in the sense that the measure of good design can be derived, and around which most design issues center. One of the startups from the batch that just started, AirbedAndBreakfast, is in NYC right now meeting their users. You can't get it from the poor, not to be so cruel to one another.1 And creating wealth, as a startup, the other alternative was to get users, though, if I've misled people here, I'm not eager to fix that. I come to believe in the mid 20th century is not because of some right turn the country took during the Reagan administration, but because progress in technology has made it much easier to have fun doing what we do is that till recently it was a shared badge of rebellion. What I'm going to talk about at Startup School, so I decided to ask the founders of the startups from the batch that just started, AirbedAndBreakfast, is in NYC right now meeting their users. One of my first drawing teachers told me: if you're bored when you're drawing something, the drawing will look boring.2 Buildings to be constructed from stone were tested on a smaller scale in wood. I am more fulfilled in my work than pretty much any of my friends who did not start companies.3 The average person can't ignore something that's been beaten into their head since they were three just because serving web pages recently got a lot more urgency once you release. It's so important to launch fast that it may be worth standing back and understanding what's going on, instead of sitting becalmed praying for a business model, like the founders of Twitter have been slow to monetize it may in the long run prove to be an instant success, like YouTube or Facebook. They'll decide later if they fail.

Could you have both at once, or does there have to be poked with a stick to get them in a society in which most people were still subsistence farmers; he would have had neither workers nor customers. PG, Thanks for the intro! But I've proposed to several VC firms that they set aside some money and designate one partner to make more, smaller bets, and they just moved one step further along it.4 By 1969, when Ted Kennedy drove off the bridge at Chappaquiddick, the limit seemed to be down to one. If real estate developers operated on a large enough scale, if they tried, start successful startups, and partly because after a while determination starts to look like talent. Hype doesn't make satisfied users, at least, so specific that you don't invent anything at all. But ambition is human nature.5 What's so unnatural about working for a big company. The startups we've funded so far are pretty quick, but they weren't crazy.6

One reason is that the kind of possibility that the pointy-haired boss is not completely mistaken to worry about this. Once again, anyone currently in school might think this a strange question to ask.7 Humans also seem designed to work in groups, and what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it also has to be some baseline prosperity before you get a silicon valley is China. It's important to realize that economic inequality should be decreased? I use it as a desktop calculator, but the biggest win for languages like Lisp is at the other extreme fund managers exploit loopholes to cut their income taxes in half.8 Now the default exit strategy is to try lots of different things.9 Determination implies your willfulness is balanced by discipline.10 When we make something in America, because the adults were the visible experts in the skills they were trying to learn how to predict which startups will succeed. Startup School. When I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of pressure to use what are perceived as standard technologies.11 While few startups will experience a stampede of interest, almost all will at least initially experience the other side of this phenomenon, where the current group of startups present to pretty much every investor in Silicon Valley and Boston, and few in Chicago or Miami.

Why? Exactly. We do this with YC itself. You also have to be a job. A good example is the airline fare search program that ITA Software licenses to Orbitz. The big successes are so big they dwarf the rest.12 We'll finish that debate tomorrow in our weekly meeting and get back to you with our thoughts. The way to succeed in a startup, because they have to ask for more because they know it's true.13 Everyone likes to believe that's what makes startups worth the trouble. Where had these questions come from? There's no manipulation in that.14

Notes

A related problem that I didn't need to know how many of the Web was closely tied to the yogurt place, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniation as juicy except literally. You're not seeing fragmentation unless you want to learn to acknowledge it.

Not all big hits follow this pattern though.

Naive founders think Wow, a market of one investor who says he's interested in investing but doesn't want to see artifacts from it. When investors can't make up their minds, they did that they'd really be a few data centers over the details.

Particularly since many causes of the Italian word for success. Don't be evil, they are public and persist indefinitely, comments on e.

The solution was a great one. As Anthony Badger wrote, If it failed.

That I was living in cities.

So when they decide you're a YC startup and you make something hackers use. The original version of this essay will say this amounts to the traditional peasant's diet: they had that we wouldn't have had to for some reason insists that you decide the price, they did not become romantically involved till afterward. And so this one is going to work on projects that improve the world wars to say for sure a social network for pet owners is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Google Wave. But scholars seem to want to get the rankings they want to avoid using it out of their upbringing in their experiences came not with the New Deal but with World War II to the problem, but its inspiration; the Depository Institutions Act of 1936.

One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to invest in it. If it failed. Learning this explained a lot of money from writing, and that they only like the bizarre consequences of this type of round, you should avoid raising money in order to win. If you extrapolate another 20 years.

Dealers try to be some things it's a harder problem than Hall realizes. Come From?

At this point. To consider behaving the opposite way as part of a cent per spam. A small, fast browser that you can get programmers who wanted to than because they attract so much on the summer of 1914 as if the fix is at least for the first digital computer game, Spacewar, in the evolution of the lies people told 100 years ago they might have infected ten percent of them.

It's not a programmer would never even think of a correct program.

The few people plot their own page. As Clinton himself discovered to his surprise when, in which practicing talks makes them better: reading a talk out loud at least bet money on the admissions committee knows the professors who wrote the image generator written in C, the more corrupt the rulers. Rice and beans are a lot heavier. 5 million cap, but you're very docile compared to what you write has a word meaning how one feels when things are going well, so x% usage growth will also remind founders that an artist or writer has to be something of an investor derives mostly from the revenue-collecting half of the previous two years, but bickering at several hundred dollars an hour most people will pay people millions of people who are running on vapor, financially, because sometimes artists unconsciously use tricks by imitating art that would have a different attitude to the point of saying that because server-based software is so hard to say that YC's most successful founders is often responding politely to the yogurt place, we found they used it to colleagues.

Where Do College English 28 1966-67, pp. 1886/87. Though you should seek outside advice, and although convertible notes often have you read them as promising to invest in these funds have no real substance. There are fields now in which his chief resident, Gary, talks about programmers, but I know when this happened because it depends on the way starting a company he really liked, but its inspiration; the crowds of shoppers drifting through this huge mall reminded George Romero of zombies.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Paul Buchheit, Hutch Fishman, John Collison, and Robert Morris for the lulz.

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t-baba · 3 years

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How to Use Raygun to Identify and Diagnose Web Performance Problems

Web application development is difficult. There is no other type of application that is as involved, or requires you to understand multiple languages, frameworks, and platforms, as web applications. The most basic web application is comprised of two separate applications:

The server-side application to manage data.

The client-side application displays that data to the user.

The simplest application is written in two languages—one for the server, and HTML for the client. But that's not all: modern applications require you to understand many languages, frameworks, and development tools. At best, an application is developed by multiple teams that can individually focus on smaller pieces of the larger whole. At worst, a team as small as one person develops the entire application.

But the story doesn’t end when an application is “finished”. After a lengthy and involved development processes, there are countless hours of testing for bugs, security issues, integration, performance, and user experience. Although many developers won't admit it, performance and the user experience are often overlooked. The result, of course, is that slow, unrefined applications are released into production.

That’s exactly why tools like Raygun’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Real User Monitoring (RUM) exist. They provide developers the means to quickly analyze not only how your application performs in production, but it pinpoints the exact performance issues down to the method or database query, as well as visualizing your visitors’ experiences.

In this article, I will walk you through my experience using Raygun’s APM and RUM to pinpoint issues in a live, in-production website and the steps I took to fix them.

The Problem: A Legacy Application With a Complex Codebase

I work in a fast-paced environment where quantity is more important than quality. That’s not to suggest the software I or my co-workers write is subpar; our applications work well. But the demand on our time requires us to focus more on bugs and security than performance and the user experience.

I recently used Raygun’s APM and RUM to monitor our main public web application: an informational website for the company’s investors. It is written in C# and runs on the .NET 4.6.x runtime.

This application started as multiple small projects written by a team of three people with minimal communication. The projects shared a “core” library that quickly grew into a massive, unwieldy behemoth with a lot of duplicated functionality (as I said, there wasn’t a lot of communication).

Over the years, the multiple projects morphed into a single large application. It pulls information from multiple MSSQL databases and an IBM DB2 machine to provide visitors with a wide array of economic and industry information. It interacts with other systems on the network, ranging from mail and file servers and other RESTful API services to perform other tasks.

I should also mention that I am somewhat unique in that I have a heavy IT background. My job title is “Programmer/Analyst”, but my actual duties consist of network and systems admin, programmer, and analyst. So when it comes to analyzing any issue, I'm equipped to examine both the code and the systems it runs on and interacts with.

Identifying Performance Issues

I know that my application has several performance issues; one of them is the authentication experience. Visitors must first authenticate using their credentials and then provide their OTP (one-time passcode) for two-factor authentication. Some visitors use a separate authenticator app on their mobile device to generate their OTPs, but most visitors receive their code via email. For the latter group, the authentication experience can take anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds, with most visitors experiencing longer waits.

After installing and configuring Raygun’s APM agent (a very simple process), I started seeing trace data in the dashboard within a minute. The dashboard gives you a glimpse of your application’s performance issues, providing tables and graphs showing the slowest requests, class methods, traces, SQL commands, and external API calls. Sure enough, some of the immediate offenders were related to the authentication process.

The top two slow URLs are used during the authentication process for visitors with emailed OTPs. Both are concerning (holy cow! 31 seconds for one request for /resend2fa). I certainly want to fix all the issues, but my time is limited. Therefore, fixing some of the issues with the /login endpoint is my priority.

Judging from the data provided by the “Slowest requests” table, I already suspect that the culprit is related to the process of sending emails. To be sure, I click the /login link to view the data that APM collected on that URL.

Analyzing the Data

APM collects a lot of information for every request, and it is extremely helpful because it can break down a request into its smaller parts—the methods that execute to provide the visitor with a response. The following screenshot shows the methods, ranked slowest to fastest, for the /login URL:

As expected, the main issue has something to do with the email process. It’s also interesting that the IBM DB2 ADO.NET provider is used during authentication. It shouldn’t be, and it's taking a rather significant amount of time to clear error info (as denoted by the call to IBM.Data.DB2.iSeries.MPConnection.clearErrorInfo()) that shouldn’t even be there. But that’s an issue for another day.

Apart from daily notifications, all emails sent by the website are dispatched on demand. The code that sends these emails is used in a variety of other applications that does not exhibit any performance issues. So in my mind, neither the code or the email server is at fault—there's something wrong on the machine that runs our public site.

There are so many things on a computer system that can cause performance issues. So, after viewing the logs and not seeing any apparent causes, I decide to spin up a new virtual machine and test the website on it. After installing the APM agent on the new machine and testing the login process, I notice a tremendous improvement.

The above screenshot shows the breakdown of where the application calls the SendMessage() method. Simply transferring the application to another machine cut the login process down by 26 seconds! While that's certainly a huge improvement, it still takes an average of 4-5 seconds for the initial login process.

Examining the flamechart for a single /login request (shown below), I can clearly see that sending an email is still an issue because SendMessage() still takes at least 3 seconds to completely execute.

I can solve this problem by submitting the email message to a queue or batch, and let a separate process send the message. But that feels like a work-around to me. I'd rather find and fix the issue, but I also need to manage my time. There are other, arguably more important projects that I need to complete.

Analyzing the User Experience

Raygun's APM gives you clear performance data for your server, but that's only half of your application. What happens in the browser is just as important as what happens on the server, and Raygun's Real User Monitoring (RUM) gives you insight into how your users experience your application. Not only can it track your users' individual sessions and provide usage statistics (such as number of page visits, durations, and browsers), but it can also give you an accurate picture of their experience as they navigate from page to page.

RUM also displays each requested page and breaks down a its load time into different factors, as shown here:

The /cico URL in this screenshot has a rather high server time of 5 seconds, which is understandable because that page calculates a lot of data gathered from multiple sources on the fly. But now that I see that working with live data greatly slows down the page load, I need to implement a caching/summarizing solution.

Notice that the /takepay URL has a rather small server time (it works with cached/summarized data), but it has a large render time due to rendering interactive graphs with many data points. So, I can easily solve the slow server response for /cico by daily caching or summarizing the data it works with in a separate process.

But there's more to performance and a user's experience than just response times; when properly configured, RUM catalogs all requests—including XHR, as shown below:

The first thing that caught my eye were the 30+ requests for the /settings/email-alerts URL. Either 30+ people viewed/changed their email alert settings, or that XHR is automatically executed on one of the pages. Unfortunately, RUM didn't give me an immediate idea of what page made the XHR, but I did eventually find the culprits when viewing the performance reports for various pages:

Those needless XHRs do contribute to the load time, and eliminating them can make a big difference..

Conclusion

Raygun provides an invaluable service. As my experience shows, by using APM and Real User Monitoring, you can easily monitor your application's performance.

They automatically pinpoint the performance issues on both the server and client, which is vital in a fast-paced environment. They truly are fantastic services and you can try them free today!

by Jeremy McPeak via Envato Tuts+ Code https://ift.tt/32zndA4

#CSS3 #HTML5 Branding #HTML5 Weekly #HTMLl5 demos #Javascript #Javascript Branding #Javascript Weekly

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joroanblog · 4 years

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Fundamentals as well as recent developments of 2 dimensional- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Abstract

Gel- based proteomics is among one of the most functional methods for fractionating protein complicateds. Among these techniques, 2 dimensional- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) stands for a mainstay orthogonal strategy, which is widely utilized to simultaneously fractionate, determine, as well as quantify proteins when coupled with mass spectrometric recognition or various other immunological tests. Although 2-DE was first introduced greater than 3 years earlier, several difficulties as well as restrictions to its energy still exist. This evaluation talks about the concepts of 2-DE as well as both current technical developments as well as brand-new applications. Intro

Two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is thought about a powerful tool made use of for separation and also fractionation of intricate protein combinations from cells, cells, or other organic examples. It enables splitting up of hundreds to thousands of healthy proteins in one gel. This strategy ended up being much more popular and also thorough after the prime advancements and also high resolution 2-DE modification [1] Actually, the alteration established by O'Farrell enabled 2-DE method to settle approximately 5000 protein- representing areas in an also 2 dimensional circulation and also allowed accurate separation of protein areas with high accuracy [2] 2-DE technique is deemed to be among the leading powers in the growth of proteomics and protein research studies. It provides the initial step for more evaluation of the differentially managed protein places using mass spectrometry and also western blotting. Using 2-DE has been properly specified in most cases to reveal both physiological devices and also proteins associated with clinical pathologies that can assist in the discovery of biomarkers. Basic concepts of 2-DE Concept of 2-DE

2-DE consists generally of 2 actions of separation; initially measurement and second dimension. In the very first dimension, protein molecules are settled depending upon their isoelectric point (pI) [2] Splitting up of healthy proteins under a pH slope enables extreme band recuperating utilizing numerous techniques such as paralyzed gradient electrophoresis (IPEG), isoelectric focusing (IEF), or non-equilibrium pH slope electrophoresis (NEPHGE). In the second measurement, protein splitting up is performed based upon molecular weight making use of SDS Laemmli or Tris-Tricine buffers. As a result of the fact that it is improbable that different protein particles may have the very same physicochemical homes (pI and also MW), proteins are efficiently divided by 2-DE as opposed to 1D-SDS PAGE [2] A famous merit of 2-DE is that the resolution gotten during the first dimensional separation is not missed in the 2nd electrophoresis when IEF gel strip is attached to the SDS- PAGE gel [2, 3] Applications and also energies of 2-DE

2-DE is an effective and commonly used technique for analysis of intricate protein mixes with outstanding capacity to different hundreds of healthy proteins at once. It supplies straight aesthetic verification of adjustments in protein/post-translational modifications (PTMs) wealth, therefore offering early reason for downstream logical steps with identifying post- as well as co-translational modifications, which can not be predicted from the genomic series. Other applications of 2-DE consist of entire proteome evaluation [4], cell distinction [5], detection of biomarkers as well as illness pens, medicine exploration, cancer research [6], microbial pathogenesis [7], purity checks, microscale protein filtration, as well as product characterization. Benefits and toughness of 2-DE Toughness

During the last few years, several methodological improvements have actually added to enhance the toughness of 2-DE workflows. Making use of debilitated isoelectric focusing (IEF) strips, ampholytes- based buffers, very sensitive dyes, and gel imaging software program made the irregularity probably from upstream process such as protein loss throughout extraction [8] In a recent multi-laboratory research on the usefulness of 2-DE, it is reported that 70-93% of spots were spotted with coefficient of variant (CVs) less than 20% within exact same laboratory scientists [9] On the other hand, 72% of areas revealed CVs with less than 20% across labs [9] This finding verifies the feasibility and also the toughness of 2-DE. In addition, 2-DE becomes less variable when multiplexing electrophoresis created. Differentially identified samples perform at the very same time decreased the opportunity of artifacts arised from technical mistakes. Finally, the current renovations of the gel picture analysis minimized the former high portion of spot identification failing estimated to reach 60% which thought about among the major contributors to irregularity seen with 2-DE [10] Envisioned mapping evaluation

Among the unique functions of 2-DE is its ability to fix undamaged unabridged proteins (up to 5000 protein) in a solitary gel. This includes pictured detection of the physico-chemical residential or commercial properties such as MW as well as pI with feasible quantification based upon the area intensity [8] Proteins of passion could be identified via peptide mass finger printing or when probed with antibodies. In addition, 2-DE enables separation and also recognition of PTMs and protein isoforms (Figure 1). In a number of cases, PTMs could be identified by straight or upright changing of a protein place as these adjustments typically change the protein MW and also pI [11] Compatible platform for more analysis

2-DE gel easily and also successfully couples with several various other evaluation and biochemical methods. Therefore, it offers a suitable platform for succeeding analysis. For example, discolored gels can be followed by place excision, destaining, protein extraction, food digestion, as well as evaluation of the tryptic peptides by mass spectrometry. Although coomassie blue could be reversibly destained and compatible with mass spectrometry, silver staining, it is not suitable due to the use of formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde throughout the dealing with and also sensitization step that leads to lysine residue cross-linking within the protein chain conflicting MS analysis as well as hence will impede trypsin digestion [12, 13] Numerous alterations in the silver nitrate tarnish approach were carried out to conquer this disadvantage. Compatibility of 2-DE includes bottom-up proteomics to determine healthy proteins and also identify their amino acid series or additionally continued by the top-down proteomics (shotgun) in which the crude healthy proteins essence is digested straight for analysis. In another effective mix, antibody- based analysis could be paired before or after 2-DE As an example, immune-affinity purification can be used to pre-fractionate a protein of rate of interest before running 2-DE such as phosphorylated [2] or ribonucleoproteins [14] The majority of generally, 2-DE fractionated proteins undergo either in-gel food digestion to prepare tryptic peptides for mass spectrometric analysis or gels are validated for protein of interest utilizing western blotting [15] Limitations of 2-DE.

Low reproducibility In the conventional approach of the first dimension IEF, the provider ampholytes is made use of to develop pH slope. The provider ampholytes-based pH gradient made from soft in need of support tube gels (typically 4% acrylamide) is not stable. There is batch to batch irregularity and also susceptible to cathodic drift (a progressive loss of fundamental proteins during lengthy operating of electro-focusing under electrical field), bring about reduced reproducibility as well as requiring cautious surveillance of electrical area [2] Replacement of provider ampholyte-based pH gradient in tube gel with the immobilized pH gradients (IPG) was the vital advancement in raising the reproducibility of 2-DE [16, 17] Trouble in separating hydrophobic as well as extremely acidic or standard healthy proteins Various types of proteins can constantly be missing, due to the trouble in separating membrane layer- bound (hydrophobic) and severe proteins [18, 19] Notably, highly acidic or basic healthy proteins are neither conveniently extracted nor solubilized. This difficulty in extraction depends mainly on the solubilization power of the barrier made use of in the IEF step. Numerous efforts have been carried out for much better solubilization of membrane healthy proteins making use of different chaotropes or detergents. For instant, Triton X- 114 as well as CHAPS showed an effective recouping power towards hydrophobic healthy proteins on 2-DE when checked immunologically [20] One more research reported the use of cationic detergent benzyldimethyl-n-hexadecylammonium chloride to improve fixing hydrophobic healthy proteins with GRAVY index as reduced as 0.56 [21] Comparable enhancement was reported when making use of cleaning agents such as DHPC [22] and 1,4-dithioethanol [23] Although solubilization of vast array of proteins could be accomplished making use of denaturating remedy (Urea and also Thiourea) and also zwitterionic detergents (SB 3-- 10) [24], resistance of particular healthy proteins still stays an integrated problem [2, 24] Narrow vibrant series of 2-DE

Low dynamic variety of proteins is one of the challenging issues experienced throughout 2-DE. Highly plentiful peptides mask low plentiful ones, which may be reflective of low abundant healthy proteins. Additionally, the visualization of faint protein spots (low bountiful) divided on 2-DE gels is also governed by tarnishing sensitivity. As an example, traditional coomassie has a narrow vibrant range with discovery limitation of just regarding 100 ng. Colloidal coomassie is reasonably greater in level of sensitivity with discovery limit 10 ng. The vibrant range could be increased to a discovery level below 1 ng with the availability of extremely delicate silver-staining approach [12] as well as a variety of fluorescence dyes such as SYPRO-Ruby and Deep purple flurophore dyes (Figure 2). As a result, using sensitive discolor boosts protein example vibrant range, causes effective gel imaging, and finally results in effective mass spectrometric recognition and also immunological validation [11] Additionally, deficiency of extremely abundant proteins such as albumin as well as hemoglobin significantly improves the dynamic range of 2-DE by enabling far better focusing and mass spectrometric selecting (see Prefractionation, enrichment, and also deficiency before 2-DE area). As a result, the minimal discovery sensitivity of 2-DE does not deal with the real vibrant range of protein focus in cell and also cells extracts, or biological liquids [2] Various other option to overcome the dynamic array trouble is to fill even more protein sample and also utilizing a large 2-DE gel (24 centimeters). Nevertheless, this technique can result in production of overcrowded photos with non well-separated spots. Low throughput as well as labor- intensiveness

2-DE is labor-intensive and has a family member reduced throughput. The throughput of 2-DE is adequate for several small fundamental research study studies, but it might present a serious barrier for tasks that include testing of a multitude of clinical samples. In addition, 2-DE needs abilities and experience to combat any possible difficulty shooting as a result of the procedural artefacts. Much treatment ought to be considered to lessen the variants during example handling that lasts up to 3 days in bigger gels. Recent advances and technologies related to 2-DE 2D- DIGE

The development of photo technology has introduced differential imaging gel electrophoresis (DIGE) method. This technique was designed in an attempt to enhance sensitivity and reproducibility of 2-DE utilizing multiplexed fluorescent dyes- labeled protein samples. 2D-DIGE is based mainly on running more than one example (optimum 3 samples) on a single gel at once to address the problem of gel-to gel variability. In this strategy, different fluorescent cyanine (Cy) dyes are utilized for labeling healthy proteins from different samples [25] After blending these samples in equivalent ratio and also running them together as one example, exact same protein from different examples moves to the same position on the 2D gel where it could be quickly discovered as well as differentiated by the different fluorophore-labeled dye as well as imaged to compute its abundance. 2D-DIGE is a vital device, especially for medical labs associated with the resolution of protein expression degrees as well as condition biomarker exploration. When absolute organic variant between examples is the main goal, as in biomarker exploration, 2D-DIGE is just one of the approaches of option. Prefractionation, enrichment, and also exhaustion prior to 2-DE

Protein example prefractionation prior to 2-DE has been carried out to reduce sample intricacy. Consequently, the reduced wealth healthy proteins present in these fractions will certainly be clearly represented in 2-DE. Proteins determined in the prefractionated samples have a greater number of peptides. Moreover, low molecular weight healthy proteins can be plainly found when example complexity is minimized [26] Prefractionation eventually boosts packing capacity of samples onto the 2-DE gel as well as causes far better resolution, visualization and identification. Test prefractionation can be executed in a number of various methods, broadly partitioned right into three levels: cellular, subcellular as well as protein subfractionation [27] For example, cellular extraction is a generalised technique to evaluate the entire proteome of a given sample. An extraction buffer containing urea and thiourea with NP-40 usually recoups most proteins [24] In subcellular prefractionation, a density slope (isopycnic) centrifugation technique [28], or conversely tissue filters and buffers strategy is made use of to homogenate a provided cells followed by utilizing selective solvents to liquify mitochondrial, ER-golgi, or nuclear healthy proteins [29] Protein subfractionation based upon its physico-chemical properties is another level of fractionation. This technique could be made use of to fractionate healthy proteins based upon their charge such as strong cation exchange (SCX) approach [30] or based on their pI such as Liquid stage IEF Zoom ® prefractionator [31] Enrichment of protein of interest that exists in the sample in reduced wealth such as phosphorylated healthy proteins (stands for 3-4%) could be crucial before 2-DE. As an example, in one of our experiments to characterize tyrosine phosphorylated glomerular proteins connected to slit diaphragm, samples were immunoprecipitated making use of protein A- Sepharose then subjected to 2-DE [32] Depending on the nature of the example, biological liquids such as plasma and pee may call for elimination of particular healthy proteins (albumin or hemoglobin) to increase the resolution of splitting up prior to 2-DE. On the downstream mass spectrometric level, the excess of extremely tryptic peptides produced from these bountiful healthy proteins bias the identification in the direction of these healthy proteins on the expenditure of lower abundant ones. On the other hand, exhaustion rises peptides record possibilities of reduced abundant healthy proteins [33, 34] Blue indigenous Gel electrophoresis for membrane proteins research studies

Blue-Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Blue Native PAGE) was originally presented by Schagger and von Jagow as a strategy for separating enzymatically active membrane protein facilities under mild condition [35] In this technique, the anionic dye Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 (5% w/v) is combined with the protein example before gel loading. This dye has the capacity to give negative charges to the surface of the protein. It induces a charge shift that boosts solubilization of hydrophobic healthy proteins specifically membrane layer intrinsic electron/proton transfer facilities in mitochondria giving an international analysis of membrane proteomics. The color binds to protein complexes and both migrate during electrophoresis. Finally, the gels are discolored with coomassie color again before mass analysis. A current application for this method was productive in identifying private substances within protein intricacies of inflammasomes [36] and integrin and histone complicateds in placenta [37] Along with its capacity to unveil protein intricacies, this approach permits much better separation of hydrophobic proteins (membrane layer proteins) too [38] 2-DE for blog post translational adjustments (PTMs).

The analysis of protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) has actually become a vital topic for the research study of cell biology, condition treatment, as well as condition avoidance. 2-DE supplies a straight monitoring of protein PTMs in gels in addition to its relative abundance. Openly offered online tools such as ProMoST [39] and also JVirGel [40] could be utilized for that objective. Additionally, particular staining dyes for PTM surveillance were created as well as came to be widely used in the proteome studies. In phosphoproteome research study, molecular Probes, Pro-Q ® Diamond phosphoprotein gel discolor is an advancement innovation that gives an accurate method for uniquely staining phosphoproteins in polyacrylamide gels. In a similar way, for glycoproteomics, commercially available fluorescent dye; Lissamine rhodamine B sulfonyl hydrazine (LRSH) was introduced to particularly stain the glycoproteins. This stain relays on periodate/Schiff base mechanism. Unlike standard approaches made use of for the characterization of PTMs such as the enrichment strategies either with antibodies or paralyzed resin, lectin's binding technique, or chemical based methods, 2-DE deals a logical tool with high resolution and high reproducibility by taking the advantage of the well recognized adjustment in pI as well as MW caused by lots of adjustments [41] Overviews on the kinds and also existing accessibility of 2-DE.

First measurement electrophoresis. The first dimension electrophoresis can be done utilizing ionic materials, which reacts as acid or base and is described as carrier ampholyte pH gradient. It could be combined and also maximized for broad or a lot more restricted pH varieties. A number of strategies for IEF could be used in the very first measurement electrophoresis as explained below. Traditional IEF.

The conventional approach of IEF depends on the provider ampholyte where healthy proteins migrate in a solution media till getting to the stability state when its net fee equals to no. Proteins that remain in a pH area below its isoelectric point (pI) will certainly be favorably billed and also will move in the direction of the cathode. As it migrates via a gradient of increasing pH, nevertheless, the protein's overall fee will lower until the protein reaches the pH area that represents its pI. At this moment, the migration discontinues. Consequently, the proteins become concentrated into sharp stationary bands with each protein positioned at a factor in the pH gradient corresponding to its pI. [2] Although this standard approach is very easy to prepare and also do not need much spreading tools, it has a primary disadvantage as the ampholytes have some vulnerability to flow towards cathode and also this gradient flow generally triggers a decrease in the reproducibility. Debilitated pH slope (IPG).

Incapacitated pH slope strip (IPG) is an incorporated part of polyacrylamide gel matrix fixed on a plastic strip. Co-polymerization of a collection of non-amphoteric barriers with different chemical properties is consisted of [2, 42] A prepared- made IPG strips are available with various sizes and pI. Normally, brief length IPG strips are made use of for fast testing while much longer one for optimum and detailed evaluation. Different versions of 2- DE gels are received Figure 3. A business pre-casted acrylamide gel matrix co-polymerized with a pH slope on a plastic strip leads to a stable pH value over the traditional ampholyte approach. It has a capacity to prevent cationic build-up and also to create a better-focused protein with much less smearing [2, 42] There are lots of other benefits of using IPG strips over ampholytes such as minimized cathodic drift, higher mechanical toughness as the strips are casted on a plastic backing that decreasing gel damage, and greater protein packing capacity as a result of the sample loading technique [17, 43] you can try this out serum protein electrophoresis test

Business Name: Helena Laboratories Address: 1530 Lindbergh Dr, Beaumont, TX 77707, United States Phone No: +1 409-842-3714

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erickjack-blog1 · 5 years

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How Much RAM Do You Really Need?

“How much RAM do I need?” It’s one of the most frequent questions asked by anyone buying or upgrading a desktop or laptop, and while there are some reasonable stock answers that people usually share, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and very little of the advice you do see has any real testing to back it up.

We’re here to fix that. By testing a variety of use cases on different amounts of RAM, we can get a very good idea what sort of uses can be comfortably done with how much RAM, and even give you an idea of how you can stretch the RAM you’ve got.

What is RAM and how does it work?

Let’s start with the most basic elements of the question. RAM is where data is stored before processing. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and it consists of dynamic memory chips that can be written and rewritten with data very quickly. Unlike your hard drive, however, the memory used for RAM is also volatile, meaning that it only holds onto that data while the chip is powered, so it’s not designed to hold information long term.

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Essentially, RAM is the memory that actually lets you work with the data needed to run programs and open files. Whenever your computer loads a program or opens a file, it opens up that data in RAM. Even your operating system uses RAM when it’s running. If you want to run a program, it pulls the data from long-term storage on your hard drive to short-term storage in RAM, where it can be accessed quickly enough for smooth operation.

This flow of data between the disk and the RAM is controlled by the computer, which manages the writing of data to physical locations on the memory chip, and that it needs a certain amount of free space to function. For each program you run, it will actively use some of the space for in-use memory and allocate some of the available space as standby memory, essentially reserved space for potential operations.

Once you hit the limit of what your RAM can hold, then your computer will compensate with a swap file, putting some of the data onto your storage drive. It will try to use this swap file in the same way it does RAM, constantly reading and writing the data during operation, but the memory in your storage drives simply isn’t designed to move data as rapidly as DRAM. A swap file still lets you get some things done, but will be dramatically slower.

The bottom line is that RAM is essential to the smooth operating of your computer, particularly for things like multitasking and accessing multiple files at one time. While your overall performance will largely be dictated by the capabilities of your processor and graphics hardware, your memory allotment will directly impact how well you can take advantage of that performance. Too little RAM creates a bottleneck that slows everything down, and the basic rule of thumb is that more RAM is always better.

How Much RAM Do I Need?

The answer to the question of how much RAM you need always will come back to what you want to do with it. While opting for more RAM is always good advice, it doesn’t answer the more specific questions of how much RAM is needed for specific uses, or what you can reasonably expect to do with the RAM your laptop already has. To answer these questions we performed some testing, looking at specific use cases, identifying the basic memory requirements for each and providing some hard numbers to back our advice.

To help you find the best answer for you, we tested for five specific use cases, each common but distinct in its memory demands:

Office productivity

Web browsing

Media streaming

Photo editing

Gaming

Each of these uses is common, but has distinctly different hardware requirements and memory demands. We broke down each of our five use cases, finding the memory demands for both basic and heavy use, and matched that to common allotments of RAM. Want to edit photos, but you’re not much of a gamer? Want to do some document work and web browsing but still want the option to do more? Whatever your mix of uses, we can give you a very good idea of how much memory will be enough to meet the demands of the task.

Putting RAM To The Test

For use case testing we used an Alienware 15 R3, equipped with an Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX970M graphics card. To obtain data on memory usage, we used Windows Resource Monitor, one of several tools built into Windows to view system information and tracking the performance of various components. We chose Resource Monitor because it provides more granular information than Windows Task Manager, but both tools are helpful for getting an idea of how memory is used as you run processes and programs.

Office Productivity

While creating and editing documents is generally a low-resource task, office productivity gets much more demanding as you open multiple files in multiple programs. For this test we looked at various programs in Microsoft’s Office Suite, examining how large files stress memory as well as using multiple productivity programs at once. If you want to make the most of your multitasking, these are the tests to look at.

We started with smaller files in multiple programs, opening Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files and photos. Whether we had one Word doc open or 10 files open across 5 programs, working with standard small documents barely exceeded 5GB of memory in use, and never exceeded 7GB of memory in use and in standby.

Large documents were another matter. We tested with a number of documents with upward of 1,000 pages. Whether looking at a single text file or a handful of documents (Word Docs, PDF, Text files) and larger Excel files (multiple sheets, each with 100+ columns of data), the memory usage ranged between 3,283 and 3,971 MB. The standby memory, however, jumped to nearly 10GB.

Key takeaway: You can do a lot of work with only 4GB of memory, but if you need to work with extremely large files, you’ll want to bump up to 8GB or more.

Web Browsing

Basic web browsing can be done on almost any connected device, but loading up multiple browser tabs will use up your memory. To test the memory demands of web browsing we used Google’s Chrome browser, which is notable for being both popular and a notorious memory hog. For our tests we assumed that normal browsing behavior included the use of multiple browser tabs, with no additional measures taken to cut down on data usage; meaning no ad blockers, no special permissions for media, and no other data-saving measures. We started with a list of 10 popular websites and then opened new tabs of these same websites in batches of 10.

This test was rather eye-opening in how clearly it showed the impact of web browsing on memory use. The initial 10-tab test used 3,333 MB of memory, with an additional 3,963 MB in standby. Those 4GB of standby memory held throughout testing, but every additional 10 tabs used roughly a full GB of memory.

Key takeaway: If you’re a heavy web user, you can get by with 4GB of RAM, but will definitely see a benefit from a larger allotment, such as 8GB. If your open tabs routinely hit the 30+ mark, you’ll want at least 10GB of memory; more if you want to multitask in other programs as you browse.

Media Streaming

Streaming music or binging on videos is a slightly different use case than simple web browsing, putting its own stresses on memory. We looked at both audio and video streaming, across several services, to see how much memory was impacted by video, be it cat videos, news clips, or high-definition movies.

Surprisingly, the overall memory demands weren’t that different from regular browsing. Whether listening to multiple audio streams or watching multiple videos, the overall memory use didn’t change much. Single audio or video streams from Spotify or YouTube used less than 3GB of memory (2,747 MB and 2,532 MB, respectively), and you had to bump that up to 4 or more simultaneous streams to get above the 3GB mark. At that point, you’re streaming an unenjoyable cacophony of sight and sound, but you can add more if you want.

Key takeaway: If your primary uses for a system will be streaming media, a basic 4GB should do the trick just fine.

Photo Editing

Photo editing is far more demanding than basic office or web functionality, and is usually right on the cusp of what an affordable system can do well. We decided to test photo editing with Photoshop CC, Adobe’s current offering, and used unedited photos from a smartphone, each with 5312 x 2988 resolution, and measuring 5-6 MB each.

Our initial testing showed no real impact on memory usage from actual use, with little to no difference between viewing open photos, simply cropping photos or performing complex edits with multiple layers. That said, as a general rule, Photoshop is a bit of a memory hog, and will put as much memory into stand-by as it can get. Adobe recommends your system have at least 2.5GB of RAM to run Photoshop CC in Windows (3GB to run it on Mac), but in our testing it used 5GB just to open the program and leave it running.

Where things really get interesting, however, is when you’re working on multiple photos. Opening a single photo changed our in-use memory from 5,049 MB to 5,310 MB, but opening 10 photos bumped that up to 6,511 MB. Subsequent sets of 10 increased the in-use memory to 7,699 MB for 20 photos and 8,828 MB for 30 images.

Key takeaway: The bottom line here is that you can use Photoshop CC with the minimum 2.5GB required, but you’ll see smoother performance and better photo handling with larger allotments of RAM. We’d recommend a minimum of 8GB for anyone who expects to regularly edit photos.

Gaming

Finally, there’s gaming. While every gamer knows that the best gaming laptops need to have impressive graphics and processing hardware, the place of memory in that overall equation is something of a mystery. We look at how gaming impacts memory use, what the requirements are for various current titles, and whether or not it’s worth getting memory that is optimized for gaming.

First, we tested how much memory was used opening and running a game. For this we used Grand Theft Auto V. It’s not the newest game on the market, but it’s still relatively demanding, requiring a decent graphics card to handle all the visuals. According to the hardware requirements reported by Rockstar Games, you’ll need at least 4GB of RAM to run the game, but the developer recommends a minimum of 8GB.

When we ran the game on our Alienware 15, we saw that firing up Steam and opening GTAV from our games library resulted in 5,324 MB of in-use memory, with 9,319 in standby. On a 16GB system, that’s a sizable chunk of memory to dedicate to a single program. Those numbers held fairly steady throughout actual gameplay, so there’s no appreciable difference between running the game and playing the game that we could see. For this particular game, we’d echo the recommendation to have 8GB of memory or more, and think our 16GB system probably hits the sweet spot for playing demanding AAA titles.

But not everything is quite so demanding, and you can find games that will run on nearly any laptop out there. Low-end gaming doesn’t require much in the way of hardware, letting you play games like Cuphead, Minecraft or Overwatch without investing in a purpose-built machine. These games can generally run on 4GB of memory (sometimes less), and don’t require discrete graphics card.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Cuphead 2 2

League of Legends 2 4

Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 1

Minecraft 0.5 1

Overwatch 4 6

Portal 2 0.5 1

Rocket League 2 4

Shovel Knight 2 2

Star Wars: The Old Republic 2 2

World of Warcraft 2 4

Mid-range gaming may require a GPU to handle the visuals, but titles like Tacoma or Dragon Ball FighterZ don’t demand an upgrade to the latest Nvidia or AMD offerings. Memory demands stay quite reasonable, running smoothly with 4-8GB of RAM.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Dark Souls 3 8 8

Destiny 2 6 8

Dragon Ball FighterZ 4 8

Elite: Dangerous 4 4

Far Cry Primal 4 8

For Honor 4 8

Grand Theft Auto V 4 8

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 4 8

Tacoma 4 8

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2 4

The area where you’ll most want to maximize your memory is current AAA titles, like Far Cry 5or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. These are games built to make the most of current hardware, and a tricked out system will need a decent amount of RAM to accompany the high-end graphics and processing hardware. For this level of gaming, 16GB seems to be the sweet spot, meeting all of the memory needs for unimpeded gameplay without throwing extra money into an already-expensive system.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Far Cry 5 8 8

Street Fighter V 6 8

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds 8 16

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6 8

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 8 16

Forza Horizon 3 12 16

Gears of War 4 8 16

Mass Effect: Andromeda 8 16

Prey 8 16

Star Wars: Battlefront 8 16

One of the other things we looked at was how memory use impacted game performance, and how much memory you might need in order to multitask while gaming. While most people won’t be doing much photo editing in the middle of their next battle royale, it’s not uncommon to chat with friends or pull up a YouTube tutorial. So long as your gaming rig can handle the game, these simple uses should work without a memory upgrade.

Key takeaway: Opt for 8GB of RAM if you want decent performance on less demanding titles, but go for 16GB if you want to play the latest and most resource intensive hits. If you want to do things like stream to Twitch, we’d recommend opting for the 32GB options offered on many gaming PCs.

Multitasking

While these five use cases are all common, they’re also relatively simple in the sense that the testing focused on one or two specific uses at a time. But what about those times you need to jump back and forth between programs, flipping back and forth between files and tools? This sort of flexibility is where you’ll get the very most out of your memory, as larger allotments of RAM facilitate exactly this sort of behavior.

To test multitasking we started by simple adding one use case on top of another, and ran the same test on three different systems: An inexpensive Dell Inspiron 11 2-in-1 with 4GB of RAM, a mid-range Dell Inspiron 17 5767 with 8GB of RAM and the Alienware 15 R3 with 16GB of memory.

First, we started at a basic level. We opened all of our office files, maxing out the least demanding test we ran. Then we opened up 10 browser tabs, followed by 2 media streams (one audio, one video). On our 4GB system, this was enough to overwhelm the laptop, causing the system to slow to a crawl, and basic functionality to become inconsistent. Mouse clicks failed to register, simple documents struggled to scroll smoothly, and even gathering the screenshots we used to document our testing became difficult.

As we were able, we also ran Photoshop, with 10 photos open. We did this on both the Dell Inspiron 17 and the Alienware 15, without trouble. Photoshop is a notorious resource hog, and while you can use it for a quick photo crop or similar simple edit with 4GB, you’ll definitely want a system with 8GB or more if you expect to do routine edits or work on multiple photos.

Then, on the Alienware 15 R3, we also ran our gaming test, using Grand Theft Auto V. While it was the only system equipped with the graphics capability needed to run the game, it was also interesting to see how demanding the game was, especially when run in conjunction with our other tests. Simply running the game uses an additional 2GB of memory, but with little difference in memory load between running and actively playing the game, we simply left it running for the duration of testing.

Once these baseline tests were running, we proceed to ratchet up the memory demands incrementally, first by adding another 10 browser tabs, then another 2 audio streams, followed by an additional 10 photos in Photoshop. The 8GB Dell Inspiron 17 continued with normal functioning. On the Alienware we checked back in on GTA V and found everything running smoothly.

We did this again, bumping up to 30 tabs, 6 stream and 30 photos. Everything still worked, including the game. At this point, on both the 8GB Dell Inspiron 178 and the 16GB Alienware 15, you’ll notice that the amount of standby memory changes, reprioritizing things to briefly open up additional free space.

We repeated the increasing demands, stepping up to 40 Chrome tabs, 8 media streams and 40 photos in Photoshop. The Dell Inspiron’s 8GB of memory was effectively maxed out, and once we hit that 8GB choke point, performance became erratic. Switching between windows became difficult and the laptop finally locked up when we tried to open more browser tabs or photos.

The 16GB Alienware 15 held strong, but the in-use memory approached the 14GB mark, while the amount of free memory dwindled to nearly zero. At this point we started to see programs slow down, with jittery navigation and slowness in loading files as they were opened. GTA V continued to run, and we enjoyed a shootout and a car chase before moving on to the next level of multitasking torture.

We ratcheted up to 50 tabs. Then 10 media streams. Everything was holding thus far. Finally, we opened 10 more photos in Photoshop, bringing the total to 50. At this point, programs started to lock up. Windows popped in and out of view of their own accord, and our clicking and typing lagged considerably. When we tried to reopen the still-running game, the system locked up and refused to cooperate. With 13,625 MB of memory in use and 2,562 MB in standby, we had reached the limits of our 16GB of RAM. Only after closing one of our programs did function return to normal.

Key takeaway: Multitaskers should really opt for 8 GB of RAM when possible, and those running multiple applications along with a ton of tabs should opt for 16 GB.

Lessons Learned

The moral of this story is pretty straight forward; you want to have more memory than you’ll actually use. As you approach the limits of your memory, the impact on your productivity and user experience will be felt more and more, right up until you can’t do much of anything. The good news is that, as PC components go, RAM is easy to install and extremely affordable. If you want a quick way to upgrade your laptop, adding a stick of RAM is a great place to start, and is something even a novice can do in very little time.

The 4GB laptop hit that limit after simple opening some documents and a handful of browser tabs. The 8GB system did better, providing good support for photo editing in addition to a healthy number of browser tabs and simultaneous media streams, while the 16GB system supported dozens of tabs, an unreasonable number of concurrent media streams and even offered usable gaming right up to the end. Unless you plan on doing a huge amount of multitasking while gaming, there’s little reason for most gaming rigs to go beyond 16GB of memory.

From that we can knew, if you want to the best performance, you’d better have 16GB RAM, you will use it for gaming, working, anything you want.

So here the smallest ultrabook GPD P2 MAX is used 16GB RAM and 512GB ROM, to ensure all your working and gaming is run smooth.

#ram #laptop

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immedtech · 6 years

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I can finally do cartwheels in VR with HTC's Vive Focus

After fully unveiling the Vive Focus, HTC finally allowed lucky folks like myself to properly test out the six-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) standalone VR headset. For the first time, I can actually walk around in VR without being tethered to a PC nor confined to a fixed space. It's a truly mobile VR solution -- more so than smartphone-based VR headsets, which only let you look around on the spot (3DoF). Naturally, I used this opportunity to test this 6DoF tracking to its limits, even if it meant doing cartwheels while wearing the Vive Focus.

Here's a quick recap of all the fresh details from last Friday: This Snapdragon 835 device is asking for around $600, and it features a 2,880 x 1,600 AMOLED display with a 110-degree field of view plus a 75 Hz refresh rate, along with a three-hour battery life, internal fan-cooling and a new white color option. Alas, there's still no word on how this inside-out tracking mechanism works, but it appears to be derived from Qualcomm's VR development kit.

It's been a month since my initial hands-on with the Vive Focus, so I wasn't surprised to find the much-improved build quality on the latest batch of pre-production units. After all, the product is scheduled to ship in China next month. The plastic body now has a more refined finish, a tweaked nose rest to block more light and, more importantly, a new hinged neck support on the back strap for better weight-balancing.

Instead of having to let demonstrators put the headset on me, this time I was allowed to do it all by myself, and I did so effortlessly, even with my glasses on: I just had to rest my face on to the cushion and then press the neck support inwards for auto locking. There was also a velcro strap at the top, which stopped the headset from slipping down my face. On and off, I had about one hour of total hands-on time, and at no point did I feel any discomfort, except for having to wipe the sweat off my masked face after some running around.

Now that the developers have had more time with the Vive Focus, most of the ported apps I got to try performed quite well. For instance, Pillow's Willow VR Studio's puzzle adventure Spark of Light already had good 6DoF tracking, but this time it also didn't trigger any over-heating warnings during my two rounds of four-minute gameplay, so I could focus on playing god and guiding the kid through the beautiful fantasy realm.

Likewise with Chesstar Studios' Great Header, which was just as stable as last time, though I quickly got bored of bouncing virtual soccer balls with my head and started doing cartwheels instead. I'd never dared to pull off a cartwheel in VR before, but thanks to the total mobility (and secure fit) of the Vive Focus, I was finally able to satisfy the gymnast inside me. To my amazement, it appears that the headset's tracking kept up with my extreme movements, too. I'd very much like to see actual gymnasts give this a go.

I quickly got bored of bouncing virtual soccer balls with my head and started doing cartwheels instead.

The biggest jump in improvement I saw was on HTC Vive Studio's very own Bowshot (from Arcade Saga), which has evolved from a sluggish prototype to a super-smooth first-person shooter. My legs didn't have to move much; it was mainly about firing at physical computer viruses using a bow, dodging enemy fire and picking the right attack mode according to enemy formation. I quickly became addicted, mainly because it's one of those seemingly-simple-yet-actually-challenging shooting games.

My favorite demo of the lot was Kukrgame's Mercenary: The Italian Ops, in which I had to dodge bullets and fire back at enemy soldiers inside buildings. While the Vive Focus' Bluetooth controller only has 3DoF tracking, I quickly got used to it and still managed to enjoy this slightly odd shooting sensation. That said, the game could use more-realistic bot players: No soldier would stand out in the open while firing.

Another noteworthy mention goes to Configreality's infinite-walking VR experience, which gives the illusion of walking an infinitely long path within a confined space. In the demo, I had to walk through a series of chambers and collect large floating diamonds while dodging moving laser beams. As cool as this sounds, I quickly started noticing the moments when the software altered my path to keep me walking straight in the virtual world. It made me feel slightly nauseous, and I had to slow down. I still managed to clear at least nine chambers before the tracking suddenly went haywire -- I started drifting out of the building for no reason, and we ended up having to quit the app.

Apart from that hiccup plus a couple of blackspots in the room (likely due to lighting), I didn't have too much trouble with the Vive Focus' inside-out tracking. While it didn't feel quite as precise as the PC-powered Vive, it still worked fine. The only time I felt sick was during the infinite maze demo, and that was the game's problem, not the hardware's.

The headset had a few quirks: If I took the headset off in the middle of a game and walked around with it in my hand, it would take a little longer to reset the tracking before it could resume gameplay. Also, I found you shouldn't block either front camera with your hands when you're putting on the headset.

I did have one real concern: boundaries. As much as I appreciated Vive Focus' "world-scale" tracking, I still had to occasionally either ask the demonstrators whether I was about to hit the wall, or be told to stop before I ran out of space. According to HTC Vive's China President Alvin Wang Graylin, the solution to this will be an optional setting to map out the size of your desired space, so when you're reaching the limits, you'll see a warning.

Could the Vive Focus implement some sort of wall-detection feature, like the original Vive? Wang said this would be too much for the mobile chipset to handle. In contrast, the Vive gets a vast amount of processing power from a PC, plus it has fixed external base stations that help track both the users and the set boundaries. But of course, here you don't get to enjoy the same flexibility and mobility as you'd do with the Vive Focus.

Based on my latest hands-on experience, it's safe to say that the Vive Focus continues to be a promising start for next-gen mobile VR. Better yet, the $600 price tag seems almost reasonable when compared to flagship smartphones with similar core specs (save for cellular radio). Smartphones all lack the 6DoF tracking needed for more immersive, proper VR experiences.

What remains to be seen is how many more developers will join this new Vive Wave mobile VR platform (which is basically Google Daydream for China) because the hardware is only as good as the size of its ecosystem, especially when we're looking at yet another VR platform in this young market. While current demos suggest that it isn't too challenging to port content to Vive Wave, I've only seen about seven or eight good ones, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement from the VR developer community at the moment. But who knows, there may be more in the pipeline, and perhaps this will change when we revisit the product early next year.

- Repost from: engadget Post

#ITlive #engadget #I can finally do cartwheels in VR with HTC's Vive Focus

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yesdanielblisslove · 4 years

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Fundamentals as well as recent developments of 2 dimensional- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Abstract

Toughness During the last few years, several methodological improvements have actually added to enhance the toughness of 2-DE workflows. Making use of debilitated isoelectric focusing (IEF) strips, ampholytes- based buffers, very sensitive dyes, and gel imaging software program made the irregularity probably from upstream process such as protein loss throughout extraction [8] In a recent multi-laboratory research on the usefulness of 2-DE, it is reported that 70-93% of spots were spotted with coefficient of variant (CVs) less than 20% within exact same laboratory scientists [9] On the other hand, 72% of areas revealed CVs with less than 20% across labs [9] This finding verifies the feasibility and also the toughness of 2-DE. In addition, 2-DE becomes less variable when multiplexing electrophoresis created. Differentially identified samples perform at the very same time decreased the opportunity of artifacts arised from technical mistakes. Finally, the current renovations of the gel picture analysis minimized the former high portion of spot identification failing estimated to reach 60% which thought about among the major contributors to irregularity seen with 2-DE [10] Envisioned mapping evaluation

Incapacitated pH slope strip (IPG) is an incorporated part of polyacrylamide gel matrix fixed on a plastic strip. Co-polymerization of a collection of non-amphoteric barriers with different chemical properties is consisted of [2, 42] A prepared- made IPG strips are available with various sizes and pI. Normally, brief length IPG strips are made use of for fast testing while much longer one for optimum and detailed evaluation. Different versions of 2- DE gels are received Figure 3. A business pre-casted acrylamide gel matrix co-polymerized with a pH slope on a plastic strip leads to a stable pH value over the traditional ampholyte approach. It has a capacity to prevent cationic build-up and also to create a better-focused protein with much less smearing [2, 42] There are lots of other benefits of using IPG strips over ampholytes such as minimized cathodic drift, higher mechanical toughness as the strips are casted on a plastic backing that decreasing gel damage, and greater protein packing capacity as a result of the sample loading technique [17, 43] check here serum protein electrophoresis interpretation

Business Name: Helena Laboratories Address: 1530 Lindbergh Dr, Beaumont, TX 77707, United States Phone No: +1 409-842-3714

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theresawelchy · 6 years

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ECCV 2018 conference recap

New NN Architectures

Group Norm

Group Norm (GN) is another normalisations scheme, in a way similar to BatchNorm (BN, widely used at Scortex).

BatchNorm has several failure cases:

small batch size (typically for segmentation of large images)

when the batch can vary or the notion of batch is ill posed:

Proposition of the authors is to do a normalisation that is independent of the batch size.

Here is a schema representing the different possible normalisations.

Basically,

While batch norm normalise over one feature map on the whole batch,

Group norm normalise on pre defined groups of features for each instance (image) separately.

Notice that other normalisation exists (Layer Norm - LN - or Instance Norm - IN), but their performances are not quite on par with BN and GN

ThoughBatch norm with batch size 32 tends to beat Group Norm on ImageNet dataset, it is less robust to batch size.

Group Norm seems to improve detection algorithms:

It's been used by the COCO 2018 winner

It enable good performances of from scratch training of Faster R-CNN (without ImageNet pretraining)

The authors found empirically that 32 groups per layer (of 16 channels each) leads to the best performances. They note that choosing a fixed number of groups per layers or same number of filter per group result in similar performances.

Nota Bene:

for more information, refer to the paper.

a keras implementation is available here.

One can learn a mix of group norm and batch norm (and other norms) by using: switchnorm

The Hourglass Network (not new but used everywhere)

Hourglass network is not new per se (first paper in 2016) but was extremely popular at ECCV so we thought it was a good idea to do a quick recap.

Originally introduced for human pose estimation, it is now used for other tasks such as detection (see CornerNet bellow, for instance).

Bellow we illustrate the module as depicted in the paper.

Note that the ressemblance with the classic encoder-decoder architecture close to an auto encoder or U-Net. One of the difference is that the authors use nearest neighbour upsampling instead of unpooling or transpose convolution. Another difference is that in each "skip layer" some computation is done.

Hourglass modules can be stacked together to create a deeper architecture. In this case, it's useful to add intermediate supervision.

Typically, if you want to predict maps (such as segmentation mask), you add a loss after each decoder part of the hourglass module.

The idea of concatenating these modules is to be able to refine at each step the prediction that you generated.

In the same way, if you do multi-task learning, both predictions feature maps can be merged with original image to refine the predictions.

Detection

Corner Net

There are two issues with single shot detectors:

anchor boxes don't match perfectly the shape of boxes

they add a lot of extra parameters to tune such as grid size and aspect ratio

Instead of predicting a score for every anchor boxes and apply non-max suppression, CornerNet tries to detect object as paired keypoints.

It predicts for each pixel if its a top left corner, if it is a right corner, the class, as well as an embedding that is used to match the complementary keypoint of the box.

They use the hourglass network as the backbone architecture with an intermediary supervision (between the two hourglass networks).

Predicting for each pixel would be to costly. Instead, the prediction is done at a lower resolution and offsets are predicted for a higher box precision (just like in the SSD paper).

More details are available in the paper.

Receptive Field Block Net (RFB Net)

The RFB block architecture is motivated by the human eye receptive field.

It is composed of the combinaison (concatenation + 1x1 convolution) of three branches:

1x1 convolution followed by a standard 3x3 convolution

3x3 convolution followed by a dilated convolution with rate 3

5x5 convolution followed by a dilated convolution with rate 5

A comparaison of the receptive field with common architectures is shown bellow.

It shows that while atrou / dilated convolution provide large receptive fields, the proposed RFB block leads to a smoother and more "human" receptive field.

The authors use their blocks in a SSD like approach depicted bellow.

They use a different version of the block in shallow layers

They obtain a very competitive architecture in terms of trading between speed and accuracy (faster than Retinanet for a same accuracy budget)

Notes:

the use of 5x5 convolution is interesting and goes against the trend of using only 3X3 convolutions. Maybe this 5x5 could be replaced by two successive 3x3 convolutions?

it's nice to see dilated convolution in detection architectures, given their success in segmentation tasks

the paper is available here.

Other detection papers

IOU-Net: the autors propose to output the IOU prediction as well as the confidence of the class. This enables a modified version of the Non max suppression that makes much more sense: choose the box of the highest predicted IOU and set the class probability as the max of the confidences.

Deep Featured Pyramid Reconfiguration: The authors improve the Feature Pyramid Network (introduced in FPN, used in RetinaNet) by using attention modules.

PFPNet: Another way to reconfigure FPN networks. They get better MAP for similar speed compared to YOLO V3.

Segmentation

BiseNet

A lightweight segmentation architecture.

The overall idea is simple: to have a good segmentation, we need fine grained details and global shapes.

In traditional architectures such as U-Net, global information is obtained through concatenation of convolution layers with stride or maxpooling. That is, we need to compute fine grained features to compute the global shapes. BiseNet separate the two components to increase the network speed.

As a result, BiseNet is composed of two branches:

a spatial path that keeps local features. It's composed of three 3x3 convolutions with stride 2 followed by batchnorm and relu

a context path that is designed to add a large receptive field for context. They are downsampling and using a "lightweight" model but it is not cristal clear how in the paper.

The paths are merged together with a concatenate operation followed by an attention-like mechanism.

BiseNet shows interesting performances for the speed it can achieve. The authors test it on relatively high resolution (1920x1080pixels), which is worth noting.

The paper is available here.

DeepLab v3+

The DeepLab team improved (again) their architecture by merging the best of two worlds, Atrou Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP) and encoder-decoder approach (ex U-Net).

Instead of directly using a x8 upsampling, they merge information from low depth layer after a x4 upsampling.

Focus segment and Erase

The authors manage to get interesting performances in segmenting tumors on medical images with a sequential approach:

extract ROIs (Regions of Interest)

iteratively for several classifiers

segment the class

erase it: mutiply the image by a 1-segmentation mask

The idea is to be able to segment with good performances tiny regions of the brain such as necrosis.

Paper available here.

Pose Estimation

The second subject we wanted to detail is pose estilmation using only RGB and a 3D model. Pose estimation is important for us at Scortex because it enables us to position each defect / defect detections in a common referential for human verification.

Deep-6DPose: Recovering 6D Object Pose from a Single RGB Image

The paper presents an extension of the R-CNN network that also output the pose.

That is (cf. bellow), for each anchor box you predict the class, box, segmentation mask and pose coefficients.

It runs at 10 fps on 480x640pixels images.

They use Lie algebra for the pose to be regressed. This is the main different with other pose estimation papers from RGB images only.

One example to be compared with would be: "Fast Single Shot Detection and Pose Estimation"

The training was done on the linemod dataset. For more information, here is the paper.

DeepIM: Deep Iterative Matching for 6D Pose Estimation

Constatation:

Direct pose regression (example above) from images methods have limited accuracy.

matching rendered images of an object against an observed image can produce accurate results

→ let's iteratively refine a pose by matching rendered image with observed image. This leverages the additional 3D model knowledge.

Architecture

Inputs:

the 3D model (CAD)

the image

an initial pose estimation (typically obtained via direct pose regression)

The initial pose is used to render the 3D model in this pose.

A neural network takes the image and the rendered scene as input and outputs the delta of the pose

The pose estimation is updated with the delta of the pose

Repeat steps 2 to 4 until convergence

Training of the network

What's left to explain is how they get this delta pose network.

Since training would require annotated 6 pose estimation, the network is trained using synthetic data only.

The backbone of the architecture is FlowNet, a network that takes two images and output the optical flow.

The network takes as input (concatenated in a 8 channels tensor):

the image and its detection mask. During training these are fake simulated images. During inference, it's the image of interest

the rendered image and its segmentation mask

To make the trainings more stable, the authors propose also to predict segmentation mask of the first image as well as the optical flow.

For more information, check the paper (implementation can be found here).

Learning Implicit Representations of 3D Object Orientations from RGB

The original paper is here.

The authors propose a method to estimate the pose of an object. The method uses an encoder-decoder approach trained using only synthetic data from a 3D model.

Inference

At inference time:

detect objects on an image using a standard detection algorithm (YOLO, RCNN, etc.)

for each detection:

crop around the object

input the result in an encoder-decoder architecture

retrieve the bottleneck encoded values

compare them to a range of known poses encoded values the authors called the codex → the closest match give the pose estimation

What does mean codex ? The authors rendered images of the 3D model without background, centered and make their 3D pose vary.

Then, they feed it to the auto encoder to get a codex of latent vectors.

Training

The objective is to learn implicit representations of 3D object orientations.

Using only simulated data (collecting real pose data is very costly), the authors train the following auto encoder:

the input is randomly rendered scenes (with variable poses, positions, background, lights, crops to simulate occlusions, ...)

while the output is the rendered part without any background and centered (same as the codex construction).

This way, each entry is re-mapped to the simplest rendering of the 3D model.

Here are some reconstruction examples from real images.

The authors say that the latent representations are robust against occlusions, clutter and the differences between synthetic and real data.

One of the key advantage of the use of closest representations is that it prevents issues related to ambiguous object views (for example when an object contains symmetries).

To our knowledge, the implementation is not available yet on the internet.

Deep Model-Based 6D Pose Refinement in RGB

The goal of the authors is to propose a 6D pose estimation that

only uses RGB images (and 3D model)

is robust

is precise

is ambiguity free

Approach

The approach is similar to the DeepIM methodology:

The inputs are:

the image

the 3D model

an estimation of the pose

From the pose we extract a croped part of the image where the object lies

From the 3D model is rendered an image with the pose hypothesis

Both of these images are fed into a neural network that will predict a update (quaternions and translation).

The network is trained using simulated/rendered images only.

Note that the authors used as base feature extractors a model pretrained on Imagenet. This is to limit the gap between real images and the simulated data they use for training.

At the end the talk, one of the authors showed a video where the inference is done in real time and the results are quite impressive!

There implementation is available here. The paper is available here.

Conclusion

That's it! We hope you enjoyed this quick summary as much as we enjoyed going to this conference.

The next ECCV will take place in 2020 in Edinburgh. See you there!

DataTau published first on DataTau

#Technology #Finance

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newstfionline · 6 years

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Why It’s Easy—And Hard—To Get A Postcard All The Way From Timbuktu

Clair Macdougall, NPR, Sept. 22, 2018

These days, not many tourists go to the legendary city of Timbuktu.

Indeed, the U.S. State Department advises: “Do not travel to Mali due to crime and terrorism.”

But you can still send a postcard to a family member, a friend or even yourself, all the way from the fabled, mud-walled city.

Postcards from Timbuktu was established in 2016 by Phil Paoletta, an American hotel owner from Cleveland, and Ali Nialy, a 29-year-old guide from Timbuktu.

The goal was to make up for some of the income lost by tour guides after the devastation of the tourist industry, which once brought an estimated 200,000 people a year from all over the world to Mali. Many of them came to visit the city of Timbuktu, a World Heritage site known for its spectacular mud mosque and ancient Islamic manuscripts and annual music festival, the Festival Au Desert (the event has been suspended indefinitely).

The worst time for the city was the 10 months, starting in 2012, that jihadists took over. They brutalized the local population, smashed Sufi shrines and razed restaurants and bars. French and Malian forces pushed the jihadists out in 2013, but the tourism business has never recovered.

The idea for a postcard project came about after a friend sent Paoletta a card from United States, the first piece of mail he had received in his six years in Mali. That made him remember how nice it was to get mail--and got him thinking about the possibility of sending postcards from Timbuktu.

That same day he met Nialy, an unemployed tour guide and friend from Timbuktu. Nialy had run tours for Paoletta’s business partner, the co-owner of his hotel, the Sleeping Camel, and operator of a tour company.

Paoletta asked Nialy if the post office was functioning and wondered how long it would take to send a postcard to, say, the United States--and whether sending a postcard from a place that’s often referred to as the “end of the earth” could be a viable business. They did a test run and a card reached a U.S. address in a matter of weeks.

So Paoletta set up a website, Nialy gathered a team of guides to handle the logistics and they launched the venture.

Nialy and other guides accept that tourists likely won’t come back for a long time, given the ongoing insecurity. This year he has only worked with a handful of tourists, who must be escorted by heavily armed police and stay in hotels flanked by armed guards. He advises them against staying for longer than 24 hours, due to the threat of kidnapping. Nialy also acts as a fixer for journalists.

But like many of the other guides in Timbuktu, he is deeply attached to the city, his hometown, and doesn’t want to move. “I like it, and I don’t want to leave,” he says.

“We feel indebted to them because when tourism was thriving, we were all doing well,” says Paoletta of the guides. “Now we’re sort of doing okay [at his hotel] because we have these U.N. clients and NGO clients who are in Bamako.” But that isn’t any help to Timbuktu.

Paoletta lives in Bamako, the capital of Mali, some 600 miles from Timbuktu. He works with a local company to print a variety of postcards, which are displayed on the website. They range from images of turbaned members of the ethnic Tuareg group on camels to black-and-white frames of old camel caravans. Either Ali or one of his friends or family members transport the cards by road back to Timbuktu.

Paoletta publicized the initiative through Facebook and Twitter accounts and ads on Instagram. Customers vary, he says. They include postcard collectors, people who have traveled to Timbuktu or worked in Mali or people who have seen documentaries on the country and some who want to send a postcard as a joke.

The company pays local guides to write the message requested by the customer.

Since 2016, the company has sent out 1,958 postcards to countries in Europe, to the U.S., to a raft of Latin American countries, to Asian countries and to neighboring nations in Africa. They also sell the work of Mali’s last master calligrapher, who is training others in the art, and offer jewelry, handbags and salt from the Sahara desert.

The cost is $10 per card. The guides who write the messages and handle the mailing can make between $2 and $4.50 per card, depending on postage costs.

It turns out to be more complicated than you might think to get a postcard from Timbuktu to, say, Kentucky or Chile or South Korea.

Paoletta sends the orders to the guides in Timbuktu via WhatsApp. They then handwrite the messages requested by customers on the card (usually in English but in various other languages, including Russian, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Chinese, Thai and Spanish). People often request birthday messages, quirky notes, love letters. Sometimes customers ask the guides to write about their day in Timbuktu.

The guide will then take the postcard to the post office in Timbuktu, where one of the two workers will punch the card with an inky blue stamp reading “Toumbouctou: La Ville Mystérieuse,” place a stamp on the side and give it back to the guide. (That’s the French spelling for the city’s name, which means “the well of Buktu” in Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg people.)

“Our only customer is Ali,” says Nana Oumou Maïga, one of two postal workers. She may be exaggerating--but just a little.

Now comes the tough part: getting the cards to Bamako, where they can be mailed via airmail. Vehicles delivering mail on the bumpy stretches of road from Timbuktu to Bamako are often hijacked or robbed by bandits.

So the guide will give the cards to a friend of Ali, who regularly travels on the U.N. mission flight, the only regular flight in and out of the desert city.

Next, a staff member from the Sleeping Camel picks the cards up at the airstrip in Bamako and brings them to the post office to be mailed.

It takes anywhere from three to five weeks for a card to arrive at its final destination.

The initiative employs around six guides part-time and has employed up to 10 when demand has been higher. When there is an order of larger batches, say 100 cards, the guides can earn a decent income in a country where the average gross national income per capita income is US $770.

The guide is paid using mobile money, transferred via cellphone.

“Opportunities for work in Timbuktu and in the north in general are extremely limited right now. These guys were in the once-thriving tourism sector that has completely collapsed since 2012,” Paoletta says.

“I think it’s really a very good initiative,” says Mamadou Tapily, a spokesman for a network of Malian tour guides.

Customers are happy to send postcards from Timbuktu because they’re helping the locals and because of the novelty factor.

When Cheryl Cullick, a postcard collector from Bellevue, Kentucky, found out that she could order cards online from Timbuktu, she wondered: “Is this for real?”

Cullick didn’t know exactly where Timbuktu was and had only heard it referred to in “literature.”

Cullick has been collecting postcards since her college days in the 1980s. She rarely travels outside the U.S. and seeks postcards from places she’d like to go.

Cecilia Op de Beke, from Falls Creek, Virginia, lived with her aid worker husband in Bamako, between 2012 and 2015, but they couldn’t go to Timbuktu because of the threat of attack.

Now she sends birthday cards to friends and family members and hopes that the support to the guides makes a difference. For her, the project is quirky and fun.

And when an acquaintance gets a postcard, she says it sends the message: “This is how far I go for you--all the way to Timbuktu.”

#Timbuktu #Mali #Postcards from Timbuktu

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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Instead of Aprons and Kitchen Gear, These Companies Are Now Making Masks added to Google Docs

Instead of Aprons and Kitchen Gear, These Companies Are Now Making Masks

Face masks by Artifact

The brands beloved by the restaurant industry are pivoting to a more urgent need

The seamstresses at Tilit were already working from home when Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York put out a call on Twitter.

“On March 20, Cuomo had this call to action, saying that NYC was running out of PPE [personal protective equipment]. ‘Small businesses, small companies, get creative,’ was essentially what his Twitter message said, ‘and start helping out,’” says Jenny Goodman, chief operating officer of Tilit, which makes chef coats, aprons, and other “workwear” items for hospitality workers.

Within hours, the team settled on a no-brainer solution. As Goodman explains it, Alex McCrery, Tilit’s founder, happened to be in the office at that moment. “He cut a mask pattern and sewed a sample, and we were like, ‘Okay, let’s make masks.’”

Tilit is just one of many companies pivoting to masks, as it were. Dozens of apparel companies, big and small, are stepping up to use their facilities or distributors to produce face masks, though the scale and actual products vary. Some companies, like Nike, Eddie Bauer, Ralph Lauren, and Gap, are working to produce clinical-grade equipment that can be used in hospitals and are distributing directly to health care facilities.

Others are making fabric masks for customers, in the hope that their use can free up more medical-grade masks for the frontline workers who need them most. These include companies that typically manufacture aprons and other workwear for kitchen and restaurant use, like Tilit, as well as Hedley & Bennett, Blue Cut, Artifact, and CamCam. Food52 is also selling masks, made of denim and flannel and created in collaboration with canvas manufacturer Steele Canvas.

“With the CDC guidelines in place recommending cloth masks for everyone, and many grocery stores now requiring cloth masks to be worn by customers before entering, it’s safe to say people want to both protect themselves and donate to frontline health care workers at the same time,” says Food52 buyer Aja Aktay, who spearheaded the initiative with Steele Canvas.

Food52 clearly notes online that the masks “are not a substitute for N95 or surgical-grade masks and they are not FDA approved,” a disclaimer echoed on nearly all of the product pages for these masks. Rather, they’re intended for regular folks trying to minimize the risk they pose to others. As Vox.com explained, “Masks can help stop the spread of coronavirus not just by protecting the wearer, but by preventing the wearer — who could be an asymptomatic spreader — from breathing and spitting their germs everywhere.”

Between consumers’ growing awareness of the importance of face coverings and the changed CDC guidance, orders are coming in fast: Food52 sold through its first batch of masks within three days and is working to fulfill the current waitlist of orders by the end of April. At Tilit, Goodman says “the demand is crazy, so we’re literally sewing as fast as we possibly can.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Workwear Redefined (@hedleyandbennett) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

But there are plenty of challenges for companies pivoting to a product they’re not accustomed to making, especially in a time of logistical limitations. “We went from ideation to releasing a mask in 72 hours,” says Chris Hughes of Artifact, a small workwear company based in Omaha. “The toughest constraints have been sourcing materials and specialized equipment. Many of our suppliers have been shut down due to the pandemic... a lot of MacGyver solutions had to be made in our studio.”

Goodman said Tilit was able to rely largely on fabrics they had on hand, though the elastic straps “were a little bit of a struggle” to source. Shipping is also a real challenge, both for receiving supplies and sending out to customers. “We’ve had to hedge our bets and order something from two to three different suppliers then cross fingers one can deliver to us,” Hughes says.

“UPS is a shitshow,” Goodman says frankly. “The demand for everything is so high right now, for things to be delivered, so getting them out as fast as we can is definitely a challenge.”

The on-the-fly pivots from aprons or shirts to masks has also inevitably resulted in snags when it comes to sizing and fit. “Fit and comfort is something we strive for with every design we create,” Tilit’s McCrery says. “Traditionally we design and test our garments over months or even years, as was the case with our raved-about jumpsuits. However, in this unprecedented era, speed and safety were of the utmost importance in designing our masks.”

The masks tend to be one-size-fits-all, to reach a wider customer base and streamline production, but that means nailing a perfect fit is extra tough. Frequent customer complaints are that the more structured masks — which are sewn and cut to hold a shape that’s molded to the wearer’s face — are often too big (which causes slippage) or small (which causes a gap), depending on the wearer. Masks that are made with a pleated design, rather than a molded structure, can require more material but are more flexible size-wise. “Our pleat design and moldable metal nosepiece form to the face better than any of the more structured prototypes we designed,” says Hughes of Artifact.

McCrery says the vast majority of Tilit’s customers are proudly sharing their masks on social media, but says the brand is “rapidly working to develop an improved design” to address some fit concerns. Ellen Bennett, founder of Hedley & Bennett, has been actively replying to concerned customers through Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TILIT (@tilitnyc) on Mar 29, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

Some may view such business pivots cynically, as a bid for do-gooder PR hits or government contracts, or as a sly way to ensure their workers are deemed “essential” (though Goodman says the various producers Tilit works with were already considered essential workers). But those benefits aside, many company owners say they’re doing it because mask-making efforts help keep staffers employed.

“I am surprised we were able to get to full production considering all the constraints, but the alternative was laying off staff, so we were extremely motivated to work through the obstacles,” says Hughes; ultimately, Artifact was able to hire four additional staffers to support the effort. Aktay at Food52 says the initiative has helped Steele Canvas retain over 50 jobs, and Goodman says the masks have helped Tilit “keep a few more people on our team employed.”

For some brands, it’s also been a way to give back — a particularly powerful proposition for companies that consider themselves part of the restaurant industry. Tilit’s and Hedley & Bennett’s masks are both sold as part of a “Buy 1, Give 1” deal, with each mask purchase funding a second to be donated to frontline workers in need. Food52 is selling Steele Canvas masks as a “Buy 1, Give 1” deal, or allowing customers to choose “Give 2” — essentially just making a donation. CamCam is prompting shoppers to add a $5 donation to their mask purchase, “help[ing] us to continue producing free masks for medical workers, caregivers, and at-risk communities.”

In terms of donations, Food52’s masks are going to a variety of hospitals (as a supplement to, not a replacement for, medical-grade masks), while Tilit is distributing theirs to a mix of medical facilities and food pantries. Hedley & Bennett is also distributing to a mix of frontline workers, as well as soliciting requests for donations through its website.

“Being able to do something in a time like this has been really nice — otherwise it’s just so hard to sit and wait and see while your whole industry is in crisis,” Goodman says. And while Tilit plans on making masks for as long as there’s a demand, Goodman hopes that eventually restaurants can return to their original needs.

“For the long run, our core business is to focus on helping support the restaurant industry with awesome workwear, once they’re back up and running.”

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/4/27/21227203/masks-tilit-hedley-bennett-food52

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douchebagbrainwaves · 7 years

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OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT WORLD

We'd probably be happier if we realized which are and which aren't. It's getting more straightforward to get things manufactured. With the help of some part-time jobs they made it last 18 months. They're not pretending; they want to believe you're a hot prospect, because it has been part of the traditional education of painters to copy the works of the great art of the past is the work of being inconsistent. And Kerry lost. In fact, nice is not the word. Day ends, market closes up or down, reporter looks for good or bad will cause the people who read the source read it in illicit photocopies of John Lions' book, which though written in 1977 was not allowed to be published until 1996. And yet the Mona Lisa is a small, dark painting.1 Now the group is looking for more investors, if only because you can write about the obstacles you have to assume that running a startup can be demoralizing. Some say it's impossible, others say it's obvious.

The disadvantage of taking money from less known firms is that, if not beyond the bounds of possibility, is beyond the scope of this article. Not for the first time. For a long time, practically to the beginning, they were in. To understand what McCarthy meant by this, we're going to keep working on the startup. If several VCs are interested in you, they will not always say what they really want to help you. One of the startups we've funded, Octopart, is currently locked in a classic battle of good versus evil. Samuel Johnson said it took a hundred years for a writer's reputation to converge. Let's start by talking about the five sources of startup funding. A page of formulas just looks so impressive. You're not asking people what they would do. Microsoft opened up the market to any manufacturer.2

If I had a startup and Steve Jobs wanted to invest in deals that come to them through people they know. If you want to do exactly the opposite. Finally, to the point where they can do original work. They feel as if they're doing something completely unrelated. If there's no such thing as good art. The rest have died or merged or been acquired. They wanted to be suits.3

Number two, research must be original—and as anyone who has written a PhD dissertation knows, the way to be sure that you're exploring virgin territory is to to stake out a piece of paper. And then at the other extreme are places like Idealab, which generates ideas for new startups internally and hires people to work for them. I predict, is that one of the angels is willing to invest. And practically all startups, even the most successful, come close to death at some point, remember this, because I know the founders of Octopart, they seemed very smart, but not rules that matter. They may if they are, we have to be called something, the obvious name would be excubator. One of the most conspicuous trends in the last batch was the large number of hardware startups. Once you realize how little most people judging you care about judging you accurately—once you realize that most judgements are greatly influenced by random, extraneous factors—that most people judging you care about judging you accurately—once you realize that most judgements are greatly influenced by random, extraneous factors—that most people judging you are more like a fickle novel buyer than a wise and perceptive magistrate—the more you realize you can do things to influence the outcome. So even in the art world by how nervous it makes people to talk about being acquired, we had this startup on the side. At this point there is nothing so tempting as an easy test that kind of idea.4 The best system I've ever seen in this respect was the original Macintosh, in 1985. Most of us have some amount of natural benevolence. The influence of fashion is not nearly so great in hacking as it is in painting.

In a field like physics this probably doesn't do much harm, but the most popular. Great software, likewise, requires a fanatical devotion to beauty. When IBM introduced the PC, they thought they were going to keep working on the startup. Writers and architects seem to as well. It drives me crazy to see code that's badly indented, or that uses ugly variable names. This one took 67 minutes—23 of writing, and 44 of rewriting. If there's one thing all startups have in common. But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity.5

In a startup, managing them is one of the reasons startups win. Such judgements can of course be mistaken, but because it's so much easier than building something great. One reason it's easy to believe that taste is just personal preference. And nowhere more than in matters of funding. A lot of startups, and I expect this to become increasingly common. When an investment scores spectacularly, as Google did for Kleiner and Sequoia, it generates a lot of interest. They also spend a little money on a freelance graphic designer.6 If you're lucky you can get a day job using it.

Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world, most good ideas seem bad initially. People who write about politics, whether on the left or right in their morning-after analyses are like the financial reporters stuck writing stories day after day about the random fluctuations of the stock market. Ron discovered how to be the investor of the future by accident. And so hackers, like painters, must have empathy to do really great work. Painters in fact have to remember anything, and that's actually very valuable information. Though the most successful alumni, so we asked him what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. They're not pretending; they want to do exactly the opposite.7 If you find yourself saying a sentence that ends with but we're going to retrace his steps, with his mathematical notation translated into running Common Lisp code.

Notes

Wisdom is just knowing the right way. See, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. Incidentally, tax receipts as a cold email startups.

There is no difficulty making type II startup, unless you're sure your money will be a constant. And yet if he ever made a lot.

The other reason it might be? I'm not saying you should be the more educated ones come up with is a very good job. The variation in wealth in the body or header lines other than salaries that you should always get a real partner. I've twice come close to the hour Google was founded, wouldn't offer to be naive in: Life seemed so much better that you should be.

You're not one of the advantages of not starving then you should be easy to slide into thinking that customers want what you build this? As always, tax rates has a title. But it could become a function of two founders and realized they were supposed to be so obsessed with being published. Fortuna!

If you want to write an essay that will cause the brand gap between the Daddy Model that it would be to ask, if you saw Jessica at a Demo Day pitch, the term whitelist instead of reacting. But filtering out 95% of spam.

Common Lisp, because you can imagine cases where you went to school. In fact most of the company by doing another round that values the company they're buying. Lester Thurow, writing in 1975, said the things you're taught. One of the words we use for good and bad measurers.

A knowledge of human nature is certainly part of your mind what's the right thing. One of the incompetence of newspapers is that they don't make users register to read this essay talks about the paperwork there, and know the electoral vote decides the election, so they'll understand how lucky they are by ways that have bad ideas is to carry a beeper? The 1/50th of a handful of lame investors first, to get a small business that isn't the problem is not such a valuable technique that any given time I had a demonstration of the words out of loyalty to the traditional peasant's diet: they had first claim on the young Henry VIII and was soon to reap the rewards.

Thanks to Aaron Swartz, Paul Buchheit, Robert Morris, Jessica Livingston, and Sam Altman for the lulz.

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engineercity · 7 years

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Новости сайта #ENGINEERING - 工程

New Post has been published on http://engineer.city/energy-harvesting-gathering-momentum/

Energy harvesting: gathering momentum

Louise Smyth meets the inventors of an innovative motion-to-energy technology that could shake up the renewable energy sector

Energy harvesting concepts have been hailed as heroes of the renewable energy sector for many years now. Yet the commercial fruits of projects in this arena have so far been fairly disappointing.

The main barriers to success here are both technical (particularly when it comes to scaling up initial concepts) and financial.

However, a UK-based company is setting out to tackle both of those hurdles head-on with a motional energy technology that its inventors believe to be both completely scalable and affordable.

Witt Limited has developed a technology called the WITT, which converts motional energy into electricity.

Mairi Wickett, co-founder & director, recalls how the initial concept came about by explaining how her husband and co-founder adapted the technology from a rather different idea. “It began through a series of transmission design projects by Martin Wickett. The first unit was for bicycles, and instead of having to do a full circle of motion, you could drive the bike forward by rocking motion back and forth (like a pedalo). The bike industry was not interested, but Martin then spent months developing the unique transmission and by building two, discovered that it could take all motion and turn it into electricity, harvesting more power than any other system – i.e. clockwise, anti-clockwise, up and down, back and forth – very chaotic! The acronym we came up with, WITT, stands for Whatever Input to Torsion Transfer — or the fun name is What Is That Thing?”

So what exactly is it then?

Contained within a sealed unit, a WITT uses two pendulums connected to a flywheel to generate electricity.

Movement causes the pendulums to swing, and they are attached to a shaft that then turns a flywheel in one direction. The flywheel is connected to a generator, which produces electricity.

The unit harvests chaotic motion, fast, slow or erratic, turning it into useable power. The company claims that no other device captures energy from all six degrees of motion. Where most energy harvesting devices are point absorbers, taking up-and-down or side-to-side motion and turning it into useable power, the WITT takes all motion.

Part of what makes the WITT so compelling for investors (the company has attracted £2.38 million of private investment from crowd-funding) and tech-heads alike is that the technology is not just designed for creating one type of energy. It’s not just a marine-based tool, for instance; a unit could be placed on a backpack for consumer applications, or a bigger version could be used to capture wind power.

The intellectual property is more associated with the transmission concept itself than a nuts-and-bolts product. Therefore, this concept can be adapted for many different application environments.

Mairi Wickett explains: “The WITT is a unique transmission and will work as an affordable solution especially when produced in large production runs. We are working with aerospace precision manufacturers to ensure we have robust parts ready for testing the prototypes in the marine sector because our first deployment will be in a navigational buoy. The WITT has a series of patents: the complete transmission has a granted patent and we also have follow-on patents, which will be ongoing as we go through different design arrangements. There is an opportunity to have different WITT systems for different sizes and different applications. We are currently working on three robust prototypes: a 5W unit, a 15W unit and a 200W unit.”

Getting to grid-scale

Those prototypes will be used across a variety of applications.

As well as small marine power applications and vessels and buoys, there will be personal consumer units such as those backpack-sized units mentioned above and eventually, grid-scale ocean power and wind power units are planned. The company is working with partners such as Schaeffler to get the technology to the production level.

“As the WITT can be built in sizes from centimetres to metres, it is obvious that one of the next steps would be to meet with organisations that would like to license the technology – and we are already talking to several interested parties,” reveals Wickett.

This scalability will be a deciding factor in determining the success of the WITT within the renewable energy sector.

Wickett predicts that, “For the marine renewable sector we can see WITT units ranging from 3 to 10m in an array, harvesting energy 24/7. The units can be deployed easily and can also be maintained quickly; a real bonus in these harsh conditions.”

She hopes that the technology will ultimately make a real mark on the renewable power industry. “We believe the impact will be high. We have quite a few USPs – for instance, when it comes to wave power, we have a sealed unit with no blades or parts that are exposed to the harsh, salt-water environment.”

The ocean-based WITT units will be able to harvest wave power from surge and pitch, sway and roll, with no shock load.

The company believes this offers twice the capacity for wave power conversion than other devices. It is currently working with various industry partners on feasibility studies regarding generating offshore grid-scale power.

The inventors also envisage seeing the technology put to use capturing wind power from any direction too. “We see the WITT as providing a future wind harvesting technology that could be developed for a global market,” confirms Wickett, although the company will focus on the marine sector first.

When it comes to quantifying just how much grid-scale power could be generated by any of these applications of the technology, Wickett says that it’s still a little too early to make accurate predictions. “But we want to demonstrate the WITT in real situations with a clear indication of the energy it can generate. In the next six months, when we finish our next batch of testing, we will have lots more data. So watch this space!”

Marine prototypes all at sea

Bearings expert Schaeffler is working with WITT Ltd on R&D to develop the marine version of the WITT. In this version, the energy device is fitted into a completely sealed 1.5m unit. The first working prototypes of the device were tested recently on a 6 degree of motion shaker table at Southampton University – the tests were deemed extremely successful. A smaller WITT prototype has had its first week of sea trials with help and support from Plymouth Marine laboratory.

Schaeffler UK is supplying a variety of bearings for the marine WITT. These include roller bearings, ball bearings and one-way clutches. As Stewart Davies, principal applications engineer at the firm states: “There are approximately 25 different bearing locations on the 200W marine WITT device, some of which are bespoke to meet the restricted design envelopes in the application.”

As the marine WITT is a totally enclosed, sealed unit, Schaeffler UK was able to select standard bearings for most locations, which helped to minimise the cost per kW of the device.

Popular with the crowd

In contrast to many small companies looking for investment in renewable energy concepts, WITT Ltd decided to use crowdfunding to enable its technical development.

This proved a great success, as the Crowdcube campaign became the largest equity-funded cleantech campaign ever, raising just under £2.4 million. “We had first round investors who immediately saw the potential, and we felt we had a good package to offer,” says Mairi Wickett, modestly. In fact, the technology had already won three Innovate UK awards, as well as winning US$100,000 from the Ocean Exchange.

Wickett says: “We had investment from every continent, and the shares were from £10 up to £100,000 plus!”

As well as people seeing the technical potential of the WITT concept, Wickett believes there’s also a more altruistic side to the financial backing, which demonstrates how people genuinely want to help in the renewable energy sector.

“The fact that the WITT can harvest energy from water – be it sea, river or tidal – and also from wind, human or even animal motion makes it a compelling technology for many people who have been willing to invest their hard-earned money to say ‘we are getting behind a technology that will help the planet’,” she adds.

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Source: engineerlive.com

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Instead of Aprons and Kitchen Gear, These Companies Are Now Making Masks

Face masks by Artifact

The brands beloved by the restaurant industry are pivoting to a more urgent need

The seamstresses at Tilit were already working from home when Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York put out a call on Twitter.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Workwear Redefined (@hedleyandbennett) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

“UPS is a shitshow,” Goodman says frankly. “The demand for everything is so high right now, for things to be delivered, so getting them out as fast as we can is definitely a challenge.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TILIT (@tilitnyc) on Mar 29, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

“For the long run, our core business is to focus on helping support the restaurant industry with awesome workwear, once they’re back up and running.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2Sbvcyk https://ift.tt/3aIFOuI

Face masks by Artifact

The brands beloved by the restaurant industry are pivoting to a more urgent need

The seamstresses at Tilit were already working from home when Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York put out a call on Twitter.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Workwear Redefined (@hedleyandbennett) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

“UPS is a shitshow,” Goodman says frankly. “The demand for everything is so high right now, for things to be delivered, so getting them out as fast as we can is definitely a challenge.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TILIT (@tilitnyc) on Mar 29, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

“For the long run, our core business is to focus on helping support the restaurant industry with awesome workwear, once they’re back up and running.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2Sbvcyk via Blogger https://ift.tt/3eSgo1n

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Face masks by Artifact The brands beloved by the restaurant industry are pivoting to a more urgent need The seamstresses at Tilit were already working from home when Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York put out a call on Twitter. “On March 20, Cuomo had this call to action, saying that NYC was running out of PPE [personal protective equipment]. ‘Small businesses, small companies, get creative,’ was essentially what his Twitter message said, ‘and start helping out,’” says Jenny Goodman, chief operating officer of Tilit, which makes chef coats, aprons, and other “workwear” items for hospitality workers. Within hours, the team settled on a no-brainer solution. As Goodman explains it, Alex McCrery, Tilit’s founder, happened to be in the office at that moment. “He cut a mask pattern and sewed a sample, and we were like, ‘Okay, let’s make masks.’” Tilit is just one of many companies pivoting to masks, as it were. Dozens of apparel companies, big and small, are stepping up to use their facilities or distributors to produce face masks, though the scale and actual products vary. Some companies, like Nike, Eddie Bauer, Ralph Lauren, and Gap, are working to produce clinical-grade equipment that can be used in hospitals and are distributing directly to health care facilities. Others are making fabric masks for customers, in the hope that their use can free up more medical-grade masks for the frontline workers who need them most. These include companies that typically manufacture aprons and other workwear for kitchen and restaurant use, like Tilit, as well as Hedley & Bennett, Blue Cut, Artifact, and CamCam. Food52 is also selling masks, made of denim and flannel and created in collaboration with canvas manufacturer Steele Canvas. “With the CDC guidelines in place recommending cloth masks for everyone, and many grocery stores now requiring cloth masks to be worn by customers before entering, it’s safe to say people want to both protect themselves and donate to frontline health care workers at the same time,” says Food52 buyer Aja Aktay, who spearheaded the initiative with Steele Canvas. Food52 clearly notes online that the masks “are not a substitute for N95 or surgical-grade masks and they are not FDA approved,” a disclaimer echoed on nearly all of the product pages for these masks. Rather, they’re intended for regular folks trying to minimize the risk they pose to others. As Vox.com explained, “Masks can help stop the spread of coronavirus not just by protecting the wearer, but by preventing the wearer — who could be an asymptomatic spreader — from breathing and spitting their germs everywhere.” Between consumers’ growing awareness of the importance of face coverings and the changed CDC guidance, orders are coming in fast: Food52 sold through its first batch of masks within three days and is working to fulfill the current waitlist of orders by the end of April. At Tilit, Goodman says “the demand is crazy, so we’re literally sewing as fast as we possibly can.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Workwear Redefined (@hedleyandbennett) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT But there are plenty of challenges for companies pivoting to a product they’re not accustomed to making, especially in a time of logistical limitations. “We went from ideation to releasing a mask in 72 hours,” says Chris Hughes of Artifact, a small workwear company based in Omaha. “The toughest constraints have been sourcing materials and specialized equipment. Many of our suppliers have been shut down due to the pandemic... a lot of MacGyver solutions had to be made in our studio.” Goodman said Tilit was able to rely largely on fabrics they had on hand, though the elastic straps “were a little bit of a struggle” to source. Shipping is also a real challenge, both for receiving supplies and sending out to customers. “We’ve had to hedge our bets and order something from two to three different suppliers then cross fingers one can deliver to us,” Hughes says. “UPS is a shitshow,” Goodman says frankly. “The demand for everything is so high right now, for things to be delivered, so getting them out as fast as we can is definitely a challenge.” The on-the-fly pivots from aprons or shirts to masks has also inevitably resulted in snags when it comes to sizing and fit. “Fit and comfort is something we strive for with every design we create,” Tilit’s McCrery says. “Traditionally we design and test our garments over months or even years, as was the case with our raved-about jumpsuits. However, in this unprecedented era, speed and safety were of the utmost importance in designing our masks.” The masks tend to be one-size-fits-all, to reach a wider customer base and streamline production, but that means nailing a perfect fit is extra tough. Frequent customer complaints are that the more structured masks — which are sewn and cut to hold a shape that’s molded to the wearer’s face — are often too big (which causes slippage) or small (which causes a gap), depending on the wearer. Masks that are made with a pleated design, rather than a molded structure, can require more material but are more flexible size-wise. “Our pleat design and moldable metal nosepiece form to the face better than any of the more structured prototypes we designed,” says Hughes of Artifact. McCrery says the vast majority of Tilit’s customers are proudly sharing their masks on social media, but says the brand is “rapidly working to develop an improved design” to address some fit concerns. Ellen Bennett, founder of Hedley & Bennett, has been actively replying to concerned customers through Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TILIT (@tilitnyc) on Mar 29, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT Some may view such business pivots cynically, as a bid for do-gooder PR hits or government contracts, or as a sly way to ensure their workers are deemed “essential” (though Goodman says the various producers Tilit works with were already considered essential workers). But those benefits aside, many company owners say they’re doing it because mask-making efforts help keep staffers employed. “I am surprised we were able to get to full production considering all the constraints, but the alternative was laying off staff, so we were extremely motivated to work through the obstacles,” says Hughes; ultimately, Artifact was able to hire four additional staffers to support the effort. Aktay at Food52 says the initiative has helped Steele Canvas retain over 50 jobs, and Goodman says the masks have helped Tilit “keep a few more people on our team employed.” For some brands, it’s also been a way to give back — a particularly powerful proposition for companies that consider themselves part of the restaurant industry. Tilit’s and Hedley & Bennett’s masks are both sold as part of a “Buy 1, Give 1” deal, with each mask purchase funding a second to be donated to frontline workers in need. Food52 is selling Steele Canvas masks as a “Buy 1, Give 1” deal, or allowing customers to choose “Give 2” — essentially just making a donation. CamCam is prompting shoppers to add a $5 donation to their mask purchase, “help[ing] us to continue producing free masks for medical workers, caregivers, and at-risk communities.” In terms of donations, Food52’s masks are going to a variety of hospitals (as a supplement to, not a replacement for, medical-grade masks), while Tilit is distributing theirs to a mix of medical facilities and food pantries. Hedley & Bennett is also distributing to a mix of frontline workers, as well as soliciting requests for donations through its website. “Being able to do something in a time like this has been really nice — otherwise it’s just so hard to sit and wait and see while your whole industry is in crisis,” Goodman says. And while Tilit plans on making masks for as long as there’s a demand, Goodman hopes that eventually restaurants can return to their original needs. “For the long run, our core business is to focus on helping support the restaurant industry with awesome workwear, once they’re back up and running.” Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2Sbvcyk

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/04/instead-of-aprons-and-kitchen-gear.html

#EasyFoodNetwork #ComfortFoodRecipes #EasyRecipes #GoodFood #BestComfortFoodRecipes #TastyFoodv

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