DJI E310 Thrust Coefficient

Question: I am reading Denis M. Filatov et al.'s paper "Parameters identification of thrust generation subsystem for small unmanned aerial vehicles" (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Parameters-identification-of-thrust-generation-for-Filatov-Friedrich/9ec916f9907810e41368f1ac2a6885a0bf2c2ee4). I need to use their characterization data of the DJI E310 motors for my undergraduate research project dealing with a quadcopter. In Table I, their unit for torque is "mH m". I assumed that this was a typographical error since the symbol H represents the SI unit for inductance and that the authors meant "mN m".

With this assumption, I then took the torque-to-force ratio of their first data point in $\frac{N\cdot m}{N}$ and got $1.6\times10^{-03}$. The ratio that Mark W. Mueller et al. found in their paper "Stability and control of a quadrocopter despite the complete loss of one, two, or three propellers" (https://flyingmachinearena.org/wp-content/publications/2014/mueIEEE14.pdf) was $1.69\times10^{-2}$. This is more than ten times higher than from the ratio I computed in Filatov et al.'s data. I simulated a quadcopter using the same DJI E310 420s motors and F450 body frame that Filatov et al. used. The minimum settling time for the yaw PID control turned out to be $30s$ which is absurdly way too long compared with the settling time I observe in experience which is usually within $5s$. Did the authors mean "N m" or anything else? My analysis tells me that "mN m" would make their torque readings too low compared with what standard quadcopters using DJI E310 and DJI F450 would give. I tried emailing the authors to clarify this but I got no response. I hope someone with experience or who knows the answer can help me on this.
Answer: I found a new paper titled "Quadrotor Parameters Identification and Control System Design" (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7910684) by the same authors published on the same year, presumably using the same quadcopter platform. They provided formulas relating torque in Newton-meters and PWM percentage from 0 to 100. The results in "Parameters identification of thrust generation subsystem for small unmanned aerial vehicles", using "mN m" or milliNewton-meter as a unit for the torque instead of the typographical error "mH m", match with their formulas in "Quadrotor Parameters Identification and Control System Design".

DJI E310 Thrust Coefficient


How can I create RAR archives using Windows RT?

Question: How can I create RAR archives on a Microsoft Surface RT tablet that has Windows RT? I can only create ZIP archives currently.
Comment: @slm: Where are the downloads for ARM architecture (or CPU independent .NET)?
Answer: You can't, for now. Since it's a proprietary closed format and nothing except RAR or WinRAR can create RAR archives, until an official Windows Store app is released this is not possible. (Well, it might be possible if someone reverse-engineered the format, but that would be illegal and I highly doubt such an app will ever be approved by Microsoft or survive a legal challenge.)
Since the UnRAR code is open source, programs like 8 Zip can extract RAR archives (using 7-Zip's DLL/code for archive support). An alternative to the common ZIP format though is 7-Zip's 7z, which is on par in terms of compression ratios with RAR, and being open source is supported completely (i.e. both creation and extraction) by 8 Zip.


Do I need to redownload the Aeon blockchain for the rebased software?

Question: I have a legacy v0.9.14.0 aeond running, fully synchronized. When I install the rebased software, will I need to redownload the Aeon blockchain from scratch, or can I convert the existing blockchain folder to LMDB format directly?
Answer: There's currently no way to convert the existing blockchain to LMDB format. Technically, you have to re-download. However, since you already have that legacy blockchain, there's a faster way by using that as the exclusive source for your synchronization.
As a first step, relocate the blockchain directory and start up the legacy aeond daemon using the --data-dir parameter:
mv ${HOME}/.aeon ${HOME}/.aeon-legacy
${PATH_TO_LEGACY}/aeond --data-dir ${HOME}/.aeon-legacy

Next, start up the rebased aeond daemon using the --add-exclusive-node parameter and – temporarily – different TCP ports, e.g.:
${PATH_TO_REBASE}/aeond --add-exclusive-node 127.0.0.1 \
    --p2p-bind-port 11190 --rpc-bind-port 11191

Once the blockchain is fully synchronized, you should see the message SYNCHRONIZED OK. After that, you can stop the legacy aeond daemon with the exit command, and restart the rebased aeond daemon without the extra parameters.

Note: Optionally, you can remove the legacy blockchain directory ${HOME}/.aeon-legacy if you don't intend to start that up anymore.


How do I handle baffles at the corners on a hip roof?

Question: What do the energy pros do here in the corner of a hip roof? I don't have enough room to install a baffle. I want to install insulation here, so I'm not sure if I would run into problems with moisture if I were to just block off the air space between roof and wall sheathing
Answer: First off let me say that I am not a professional insulation installer. But I can tell you that the idea with baffling is that it is supposed to allow a space for air to flow from the soffit along under the roof sheathing to the open air space above the insulation fill level. From looking at the baffle that that you have installed so far (along area in the red box below) it looks like the baffle goes all the way up to the hip rafter.
I believe that you will need to work out an air channel along the hip rafter in these short stub rafter openings that allows for air flow. Since this may well span across several of the stub rafter openings before it gets above the insulation fill level that channel will have to be able to be lower than the bottom of the stub rafter upper chord so as to allow air flow from the lower level opening to the next higher opening. Such air channel would have to be done along both sides of the hip rafter. Once this channel is provided for it can be extended down to the openings I have shown in the yellow ovals.

You may be able to then reach into these corner openings and put some baffle material but it would need to low enough down that the upper portions of the openings in the yellow ovals are open. Alternatively it may just be easier to hand pack the insulation in those corner spaces and just not allow it to fill over top of these openings.
Comment: @Nic - Ideally I think you want to find a happy medium of insulation in those corners and air space that will circulate to the area above the insulation fill level in the greater part of the attic space. If that means that you get 8.5 inches of hand placed insulation in those corner pockets but at the same time have vented the corners along the hip rafter as I described in my answer you have done a good enough job. Note that all of this discussion is moot if you do not have soffit venting to the area under this last pair of rafter tails.
Comment: Indeed the baffle that I cut at an angle needs to be cut back more. I just did that to get it to fit in there. When I moved over to the corner I realized that would be nearly impossible to cut the baffle to fit for that corner and have it do any good. I really don't understand how the professionals would install a baffle here.  If I have 12 inches of insulation, where would I be able to vent that corner? If I block off the venting in the corners of my roof, will that be a problem?
Answer: Since it's difficult to vent the lower portion of a hip roof, they usually aren't. Ridge vents typically aren't intended to be used on hips (though some are now available that meet the unique weather-protection needs of sloped ridges). You can simply remove the baffles in that area and fill your space with insulation.
Some might suggest leaving an air gap, but that necessarily reduces insulation, which would probably lead to a more severe ice dam problem. I'd seek a ridge vent that is designed for sloped ridges, or simply fill the space and move on.


How does dynamic range relate to white balance?

Question: Is there a relationship between dynamic range and white balance?
Comment: Note that there is a significant difference in the answer depending on if you are looking for sensor or final image dynamic range.  TFuto does a great job of explaining why it doesn't impact the sensor readings and I attempted to explain how adjusting white balance in post impacts the final dynamic range of the image in select color channels.
Answer: The white balance you select impacts the dynamic range for particular colors in the final output only.  When you adjust the white balance of an image, you are not actually adjusting how the sensor picks up colors of light, but rather how each signal is weighted.
If, say, red is weighted more highly than green, then the limit to how high your red value can go is lower in terms of actual measures.  A value of .85,1,1 would be white since the .85 red is being treated as 1.  Any value above .85 would exceed the color space and so that amount of dynamic range of the sensor is effectively lost as it is impossible for the camera to sample enough green and blue to properly resolve a white object that reads a value of 1 for the red pixels.
The actual dynamic range the sensor picks up is unaltered, but later white balance adjustments render one color to have a wider range than the others, the dynamic range for those colors has to be limited to make a natural looking image.
This is why, for example, when a photo is taken underwater (where there is far more green and blue light than red) the colors end up looking muted and noisy if you try to properly white balance.  Under those kinds of conditions, a white object will have blue and green fully exposed, but the red will only be at 10 or 20%.  In order to achieve a white balance, that 20% range has to be expanded to fill the whole 100%.  This expansion means that the effective dynamic range of the red color is much more limited.  It may be expanded to match the level of intensity of the other colors, but far fewer intensity levels are represented.
(As a side note, one could argue this isn't really the dynamic range, but it depends on how you look at dynamic range.  If you are looking for what is the brightest and darkest detectable value, then the dynamic range isn't altered by this.  If you are looking for the number of distinguishable values within the image, then it is, since the usable range of the sensor is impacted by the white balance even if there wasn't any information in that range.)
Answer: No, there is no relation. (NOTE: I am describing dynamic range and white balance of the raw image captured by the sensor, not a post-processed image).
Dynamic range is related to the brightness (luminous flux amount) a pixel's R,G,B component can sense. Let's take R (red). Below a certain amount of light, that channel will receive a "0" value. Above certain amount of incoming light, it will always have a maximum value, for 8-bit RGB that is 255, for 16-bit RGB that is 65535.
Anything between R being 0 and its maximum value bidirectionally maps to a certain amount of light. That is the dynamic range the camera sensor can handle and can successfully map to color channel values. This range is fixed per camera sensor, and can be objectively measured.
White balance is color-related. You photograph a white or neutral gray object, and you would expect that to be represented with R,G and B channels having the same value on your photo. However, you will see differences as the light illuminating objects are colorized - the sun is yellowish or orange, the light from the sky is blue, etc. You correct white balance by telling your camera that a neutral object's RGB is what you call white or neutral gray, and the camera or post-processing algorithm adjusts each channel separately to arrive to a solution when what you call white or gray is actually white or gray for you, observing the final image.
So basically dynamic range is an interval of possible light intensities for a camera, white balance is the relative shift of RGB channels on a photo.
Comment: Pulled my comments since we now understand each other and updated my answer to reinforce your point that it doesn't impact the sensor at all, because I do agree that is an important distinction to make.


Fastest form of "consistency" when running

Question: When running, especially in areas of varying inclines, is it faster to keep a consistent pace or consistent effort? In other words, should a runner put more effort into up-hills or slow down to maintain the same amount of effort?
Answer: Distance running is all about pacing. You will run way slower if you gas yourself out too early and have to continuously slow down for the remaining of the run because you become increasingly tired. However, if you pace yourself early in the run, you will have enough energy to finish harder in the later portions of the run.
With regards to inclines in outdoor running. If you are running a track where the start and end are at the same point (typical with races), then the elevation up will be equivalent to the elevation down. The rate of change may be different, but that doesn't much matter. So, you can use this to your advantage and pace yourself in the uphill portions and put extra effort on the downhill. You could even just put in regular effort in the downhill and you'd still make up some time. You then may find that you'll have enough energy to maintain pace in the flat portions.
Comment: And isn't it the effort (rather than the pace) that determines whether or not you are consuming energy too fast for a good pace?
Comment: @gCo Effort determines pace, yes. When I said "pace yourself" I meant slow down to save energy for later.
Answer: In order to answer your question, it is worth considering our understanding of the relationship between running economy and performance. Running performance is generally, but not always, associated with running economy. And whilst economy is a "complex, multifactorial concept," two of its most important determinants are stride rate and stride length, whose product is speed. Both of these factors can be trained, and selected.
(The success of North and East African runners appears not to be associated with economy, and can therefore be assumed to be the consequence of fixed factors such as body geometry.)
It is well established that self-selected stride length is normally the most economical—a fact which is illustrated by the observation that deviation from self-selected stride length results in higher ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). That is, well-trained athletes tend to select a stride rate and length that is most economical, and any change to those variables results in both a loss of economy and a rise in perceived exertion.
This would suggest, therefore, that in order to achieve optimal economy and performance, we should maintain our preferred (self-selected) stride rate and length. On level ground, that would imply a constant pace. However, on undulating ground, maintenance of stride rate and length requires us to compromise other determinants of running economy. Our normal horizontal stride length is necessarily shortened running uphill and lengthened running downhill, further altering factors such as balance, flight and contact times, as well as concentric and eccentric loading—the latter of which greatly influences fatigue. And on any significant grade of hill, it is plainly infeasible to maintain our median pace (or speed) without incurring significant oxygen debt.
In order to achieve optimal economy and performance, therefore, we should maintain a constant effort or rating of perceived exertion, since this represents the most economical use of our physical resources, whilst simultaneously avoiding those factors that lead to fatigue.
Although there is a paucity of literature investigating this phenomenon specifically for running, it is well established in the sport of cycling. It is entirely plausible, of course, due to the relative complexity of the interaction of the runner with the ground, as compared with cycling, that there might be distinct 'ideals' of approach to horizontal, inclined, and declined running—a notion that appears to be supported by research showing that orienteers, who routinely train on heavy terrain, exhibit better economy than track runners when they transition to hills.
I hope that is helpful.


Why does the Moon face Earth with the same side?

Question: I know that the rotation period of the moon equals its revolution period. It's just so astonishing that these 2 values have such a small difference. I mean, what is the probability of these 2 values to be practically the same? I don't believe this to be a coincidence. It's just too much for a coincidence. What could have caused this?
Comment: Same question on Astro.SE: http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/16/476
Comment: Just the fact that a question concerns astronomical bodies doesn't necessarily make it inappropriate for a physics site ;-) This is actually a physics (or astrophysics) question.
Comment: @David: Yep, I said the same thing in a comment on my post. Can't fault the questioner for being deferent though. :)
Comment: http://www.digipro.com/Trials/moon.html
Answer: This is a gravitational phenomenon known as tidal lock. It is closely related to the phenomenon of tides on Earth, hence the name.
Tidal locking is an effect caused by the gravitational gradient from the near side to the far side of the moon. (That is, the continuous variation of the gravitational field strength across the Moon.) The end result is that the Moon rotates around its own axis with the same period as which it rotates around the Earth, causing the face of one hemisphere always to point towards the Earth.
Comment: wow, didn't expect such a clear answer :) Thanks for clearing this.
Comment: Remember, that the moon was once much closer to the earth, and the field strength of the tidal compnent scales like the derivitive of the inverse R squared gravitational field (or like inverse R cubed), so the tidal forces on the moon were orders of magnitude greater in the distant past. All the modern tides have to do is maintain the lock, that was easier established in an earlier era.
Comment: No problem. It's an good question if you thought of it yourself, as you seem to have done!
Comment: Also, just for reference, this really falls under the category of *astrophysics* more than *astronomy*, so you're quite welcome to ask such questions here. In any case, the categories are pretty vague.
Comment: @Omega: This is true. Though to be fair, I suspect that even if the Moon had begun its life at this radius from Earth, it's had billions of years to get into tidal lock anyway...
Comment: Probability of any satellite being symmetrical seems to be rather small.  But the planets don't seem to experience tidal-lock with respect to the sun.  How many of the other planet's moons experience this in the solar system?
Comment: I believe the majority of planetary satellites experience this. I could be wrong though.
Answer: Begin by imagining that the moon isn't quite a perfect sphere. One side is just a little bigger than the other. As the moon rotates, the heavier face will swing around towards the earth a little faster, and it will swing away from the earth a little slower, since it feels a stronger gravitational attraction via its larger mass.
Since gravity is a conservative force, you might think that this continues forever - but it doesn't! The moon isn't totally rigid; rocks can slide around both on the surface and even inside the moon. The heavier lump actually slides through the moon to try to stay facing the earth, which causes friction inside the moon. That friction heats up the rocks, but the heat is slowly lost into space.
Now we have a conservation of energy problem: the rotational energy of the moon is being converted to thermal energy in the rocks, and that thermal energy is being slowly leaked out of the system. The only resolution is that the rotation slowly stops over many millions of years.
Finally, let's return to our assumption of a small mass imbalance. Is this true? Almost certainly - all we need is the fact that the moon isn't a truly perfect sphere.
Comment: Not so great an explanation: a *rigid* unbalanced sphere won't stop rotating by this mechanism because gravity is conservative. You can't explain it without converting the energy of rotation to some other form (i.e. heat or gravitational potential as the whole body moves away from the primary).
Comment: dmckee - quite true, but the moon isn't truly rigid, just very nearly so. The bulging heavier-mass side actually slides through the moon just a tad, and the heat loss from this kinetic process is where the energy goes.
Comment: I have given the mod up, but I also think that the effect of rotational energy loss should be made a little clearer, not just as an edit at the end. The problem with the answer as it stands, is that, until the last sentence, you are forced to think of a pendulum, and then to ask "Where is the braking force coming from?" That braking force, aka, energy loss, is the real answer. And while there is friction in space, I suspect, but cannot prove, it would not be enough to slow down the moons rotation significantly, thus this other force should really be expanded upon.
Comment: @Paul Wagland - Yeah, I was in a rush when I saw dmckee's comment. Answer is now more thoroughly edited.
Comment: @dmckee: I would think a rigid unbalanced planet would "rotate" much as would e.g. a lopsided cylinder rolling on a plane; if it has enough rotational energy, it will speed up and slow down while making complete rotations, but otherwise it would rock back and forth.  Would my intuition be correct?  I wonder if there are estimates of the moon's asymmetry which are sufficiently accurate to allow an estimation of what its period would be?
Comment: @supercat That's right. And I should say that with the edits since my earlier comment this answer is well structured and correct; it long since received my uptick.
Answer: Comment to Spencer Nelson's answer: Consider a spherically symmetric satellite. Let us, for simplicity, consider the idealized situation where all atoms of the satellite are organized into one big crystal held together by covalent bonds, so that all the individual atoms are only allowed to make movements that doesn't break any of their covalent bonds. Even such an idealized satellite can get tidally locked with Earth, because it would still get elastically stretched into an oval shape by tidal forces in the direction of Earth.
Comment: ""..where all atoms of the satellite are organized into one big crystal held together by covalent bonds, so that all the individual atoms are only allowed to make movements that doesn't break any of their covalent bonds."" Please explain, how You will achieve the dissipation of that ideal moons rotational energy.
Comment: Partial answer @ Georg: Let us, for simplicity, assume a circular orbit and ignore the Sun and other masses (although it is not essential). If the satellite has residual spin (as viewed from the rotating reference frame where the orbit plane and the center-of-masses of satellite and Earth are all fixed), then the oval shape will be out of sync with the direction to Earth (because it takes time to elastically re-shape). The tidal forces will create a net torque on the tilted oval shape, which will slow the spinning.
Comment: Comment to the answer(v1): _Spencer Nelson_ nowadays calls himself _kharybdis._
Comment: @Qmechanic And is now "spencer nelson".


Changing standard button bitmap of tool/command in ArcGIS Engine

Question: I'd like to use some of the standard 'out of the box' esri tools e.g. Measure Tool in an ArcGIS Engine 10 app, but I'd like to change the default bitmap of the tool button.
Do you have any suggestions?
Answer: I don't think inheriting the measuretool and overriding ICommand.Bitmap will work, but haven't tried it lately.
So instead, you might try creating a new tool (MyMeasureTool), and use containment, with a contained member variable for the tool whose bitmap you want to change.  Instantiate the contained command/tool in ICommand.OnCreate.  Forward all ICommand and ITool methods to the contained command, except for ICommand.Bitmap for which you'll return a handle to your preferred bitmap.


When are what type of callsigns used?

Question: Some callsigns are in the format (Something) "(Number)-(Number)". Other callsigns are in the format of one word, such as the famous examples of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. At what times are these callsigns used?
Answer: Section 2-4-20 of the 7110.65 describes how callsigns are to be used.
Tactical pilots of the US Navy and Airforce commonly give each other "callsigns", but they are actually just nicknames.  They are used only for inter-flight communication with other pilots on discrete squadron frequencies.  They are not used with ATC.
Comment: Ok, so here's what I think you meant: Take the example of a YouTuber and EA-18 pilot with the callsign "Pail" in VAQ-139. On the squadron frequency other squadron members would call him "Pail" but everywhere else he's just "Cougar (Number)-(Number)".
Comment: Something like that, yes. There are two possible definitions for the term "callsign:" 1) a nickname and 2) a formal identifier used by/with ATC. (See also [my answer here.](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/a/89357/54557))
Comment: @JustACoder, yes, that's exactly what I meant.  Cougar in this case is their assigned squadron call sign, the number is generally the mission number per the flight schedule, but it may be the side number of the aircraft.

When are what type of callsigns used?


Eye strain due to fluorescent lights

Question: I lay on the floor when ever I use my phone. I am supposed to receive direct fluorescent tube light on my eyes. Is there any way to blur or fade the light without reducing the intensity of light ?
Answer: Put on sunglasses ... unless that is considered "reducing the intensity of light". I wasn't sure if you meant "reducing the intensity of light" for other people in the room, or for you.
Answer: The eyestrain may be caused by flicker rather than by the type of light itself.  Most fluorescent lights flicker at the same rate of your AC power - generally 50 or 60 times per second.  Replacing the ballast with a high-frequency electronic ballast will make the flicker undetectable to your eyes.  Modern compact fluorescent lights are generally in this high frequency range.
If you get eyestrain even with CFLs, then it is probably caused by the color temperature or the intensity of the light, and a high-frequency ballast for a traditional tube isn't likely to help.
Is the reason you are "supposed to receive direct fluorescent tube light" a medical reason?  If so, consult with the same doctor before attempting to fix the eyestrain or you may inadvertently remove the intended benefit.  Find out which components are beneficial (frequency, color temperature, and/or intensity), and then maybe you can alter the remaining traits.
Answer: Cover it with the film used to coat car windows. It will prevent the UV light from reaching and slightly dim it, keeping its intensity.
Comment: I have only black tinted film, doing so makes light emit grey color.

Eye strain due to fluorescent lights


Do most commercial jets cruise at constant altitude/speed?

Question: The weight changes throughout, so this means aerodynamics efficiency changes to maintain constant speed and altitude. Is this how most commercial jets cruise?
Comment: Related: [What is weight-climb speed?](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/25099/what-is-weight-climb-speed)
Comment: Yes, jet airliners cruise at constant speed and altitude. As fuel is consumed and weight decreases, the power required to maintain that constant speed and altitude is reduced.
Answer: The short answer is yes, although altitude changes may be sought for various tactical reasons during a trip.  The main thing that changes from weight reduction, from the pilot's perspective, is pitch attitude and thrust.
You usually file a cruise Mach number or TAS in your IFR flight plan (or at least the company operations dept does) and you fly that speed, more or less.  If under radar coverage, you have some discretion to go faster or slower, but generally you will fly at the flight planned speed (you have to notify ATC for changes of more than 5% of TAS or .01 Mach).
If outside of radar coverage (far north, or oceanic for example), it's critical to fly the speed in your clearance within the tolerance because it's critical to maintaining separation. But in any case, in general you have the speed bug on the tape set to some target speed or Mach number and you maintain that with thrust.
When in cruise, the autopilot is in altitude hold mode, so it just pitches the plane as required to maintain whatever flight level it's set to.  It doesn't care about anything else at that point. So altitude is held constant by the autopilot, and what happens is as fuel is burned off, pitch attitude will slowly go lower as less lift is required of the wings, pretty much imperceptibly, and speed will creep up with a constant thrust setting.
You're monitoring speed the whole time, and you will adjust thrust downward as required as speed slowly creeps up as your weight goes down, to keep the speed at the bug setting you've set (some airliners with autothrottle systems may do this part for you, as well as maintaining altitude).
Sometimes you'll fly through vertical air movement at altitude, like mountain wave, and if the wave you're in is going up, you'll observe the plane pitch over slightly to keep from climbing, and the speed creep up, and you have to reduce thrust accordingly to maintain bug speed.  If you run into down wave later, the opposite happens and you have to increase thrust.  Eventually you are out of the wave and back to the settings you started with.
Answer: Large commercial jets almost always fly IFR and thus are assigned altitudes they must hold so altitude is always constant.
There are no speed limits that practically apply to commercial aircraft at cruise altitudes (since there are no supersonic passenger planes left) so speed will vary a bit but many modern auto pilots are capable of speed holds so speed can be constant.
If a higher altitude is more efficient and the pilots have enough information to know that (winds aloft, local baro, etc) they can always request it from ATC but they may not simply climb to it on their own.

There was one famous exception to this rule. Due to how high it flew the Concorde was not assigned an altitude and was allowed to freely drift up as it burnt fuel and achieve maximum efficiency at all times. It could do this because there was no risk of it flying into another aircraft at the altitudes it cruised at.
Comment: Loved the typo of "aloud" instead of "allowed" with reference to the concorde. If theres such a thing as a freudian typo, that is it!
Comment: You based you answer on an ATC standpoint (altitude is constant because ATC asks us to maintain it), this is a bit misleading. The crew asked a given altitude which it optimal for their current weight, and will ask another one when enough fuel will be burnt to step climb to the next flight level (levels are quantized). I think this is what the OP wanted to clarify.


Disable notification for declined calls

Question: I have a HTC WildFire (android 2.1) phone. I want to disable the notifications for the calls I knowingly decline. I still want to get the notification for the calls I miss. Does anyone know any setting/app to do this?
Answer: Try pressing the back button when you get an incoming call - that usually makes the caller continue listening to a ringing tone but the ringing on your phone stops.
Pressing the reject / call end button will make the ringing stop as well as cut the call for the caller.
If you'd rather stop the ringing / vibration but still want to answer the call after a few seconds (like walking out of a noisy room etc.), press any volume key on the side.
Comment: My requirement is slightly different. When I decline a call I get a notification in the notification bar for a missed call. I don't want to get the notification as I have knowingly declined the call. Currently, I have to unlock the phone and clear the notification bar after I decline the call. Otherwise, the LED keeps flashing which is kind of annoying.
Comment: Well, you Wildfire's behaviour is different to my Samsung Spica's. In my case, i don't get a notification when i decline a call, either via the END key or the BACK key. YMMV.

Disable notification for declined calls


Where can I find a data set with 1000 records of kidney patients?

Question: I need a data set that can be used to predict kidney disease risk. I searched UCI repository but it contains only 400 records. Please help me.
Comment: you'll probably need to pay cms for the medicare sample, pay ahrq for hcup, or pay for some other proprietary medical claims database.  cdc publishes cause of death vital statistics, but that won't have much predictive utility (probably)
Answer: MIMIC-III database is probably what you are looking for. Go to http://mimic.physionet.org/ for more information.


Bad or no Reputation!

Question: I'm sure again I won't get too many, if any, points at all for this post.
I can't help to think about one of my late favorite French singers with his famous line "In the prétention free village I have  bad réputation... ". This is Fora for me...!
How to get a good reputation if I can't contribute to à topic because I have not enough points?
Perhaps I should search for a forum that will accept bribes
PS I used à tag that was suggested to me as I was not allowed to use "reputation " because my lack of points for a new tag!? I feel like being caught in a vicious circle
Well the first tag suggestion was "user expectations" yet this too was rejected, but "Usability" is OK!? If you care to know I am using my phone that types strange words at times so, sorry if any mistakes
Comment: What do you mean by that you can't contribute on a topic? You can ask and answer questions, which is the main way to contribute. Once you have enough points you can start contributing in other ways. For reputation see: https://ux.stackexchange.com/help/whats-reputation and for priviledges see: https://ux.stackexchange.com/help/privileges
Comment: If you want to discuss about the reputation model in general, you should visit Meta Stack Exchange https://meta.stackexchange.com/
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about user experience as defined in the Help Center.
Answer: You can ask and answer any question on the site. And if your contributions are useful people will vote them up, thereby earning you reputation.
Regardless of this fact - why does it matter? What do you need this reputation for? There's very little you can't do on this site that you would be able to if you had more reputation.
Are you using Stack Exchange to help you solve problems in your professional life? Or do you just want to get some bigger numbers against your username for unknown reasons?
Comment: To be fair, you can't vote and can't even write comments (from what I remember) if you're below 100.
Answer: I'm sorry your onboarding experience was less than pleasant! Let me try to summarize the main mechanics.
The reputation and privileges are designed such that you can become acquainted with the site and learn how the community works a little at a time.
For your question, I imagine you were trying to create a custom tag (i.e. one that didn't already exist). That privilege is restricted so we don't end up with a high number of similar tags. Most likely one exists that will suffice, and if it doesn't, another user can fix it for you.
Asking and answering questions are the main ways of contributing to the site. Providing valuable contributions will reward you with the appropriate reputation. Earning reputation will then unlock additional privileges.

Bad or no Reputation!


How can a DCT be so fast and smooth during hard acceleration and high rpm shifting?

Question: I know how a DCT works and what parts it has, but I've always wondered how it manages to shift very fast and still be smooth, while having little torque drop during shifts.In a manual transmission, shifting at high rpm(6000), while lifting the clutch at a reasonable speed, results in a slight forward jolt (jerk) because engine speed doesn't have enough time to drop to the corresponding rpm of the newly engaged gear.DCT-s can also shift slower during normal operation, and you can even see this by looking at the RPM clock.But when they do shift fast, does the flywheel take the shock or does a gradual (but still fast) clutch engagement solve this problem ?
Comment: See this>>>>>https://auto.howstuffworks.com/dual-clutch-transmission.htm
Comment: Thanks for your reply.I read the article but didn't find the answer for my question
Answer: The fast/smooth part you're asking about is because there is a nearly continuous flow of power. In a normal standard shift, where the driver presses a clutch pedal to release the clutch, it also releases (or disconnects) the power between the engine and transmission. In a DCT setup, the computer is ready from one shift to the next. It has the "next gear" setup and ready to go for the shift, which is almost instantaneous (the source in Moab's article states it to be 8ms ... fast enough you'll not feel it).
Why you might feel the shift at some times and not at others could be the computer itself. The computer has to "guess" at which gear you'll want next. It can only set up for one "next" gear, so looks at its programming and decides, "Oh, they are in 3rd gear, they'll want to go to 4th next" and gets the transmission ready to shift to the next gear. If you are power shifting (getting on the gas pedal and shifting up through the gears), the computer has a pretty good idea you want to go from 2nd, to 3rd, to 4th, etc., and complies without a hiccup. Let's say you're just cruising around and have travelled up from 2nd to 3rd, and normally you'd want to go to 4th, but change your mind and drop it back into 2nd. The transmission may not have accounted for it, had setup for the shift to 4th, but now must go into 2nd. It has to change the gear from 4th to 2nd on that clutch, then can engage the clutch. In doing so, there may be a perceptible feel during that gear change. This may be what you're feeling at odd times.
Please note, not all DCT are made the same nor programmed the same. Some will behave better than others. Some will shift more imperceptibly at all times. It just depends on the make/manufacturer as to how well they work. You could expect something in a $250k Lamborghini to work just a little bit better than what you'd find in a $25k Ford Focus, so please take that into account when looking at DCTs.


How do I search for CiviDiscount code redeemed (to allow an action on those contacts)

Question: We've got CiviDiscount working to apply the appropriate discounts for memberships and events, but would like to be able to add all contacts that have used a discount to a report (for our sponsors) or smart group.  When I go to the CiviDiscount page, I can see the list of contacts who've redeemed each code, but would like to be able to search and act on that information.  So I guess my question is how can I add a Custom search for codes redeemed?
Comment: Not that I know of - the extended reports was enough for our use (we could search for any code and then add it to a group) so we didn't keep going. We're on Drupal with Webforms, so have moved to using that to replace a lot of our contributions and membership forms.
Comment: I note this question is a few years old, but I am facing the same problem and wondering if there have been any changes in CiviDiscount that would help, In our case we would like to offer a fixed discount for membership when one elects to go paperless with our publications. We would need a Smart Group that excludes those who have taken the discount to send to the mailing house.  I take it from the replies so far that this is not easily done.  Anything changed since then?  (One can hope.)
Answer: We have made a participants view in Drupal that shows all event participants who have redeemed a code. We can then add them to a group for use in further searches in Civi.
I don't know how you would do this with a smart group, but at least this might get you part of the way.
We'll be doing a similar thing for memberships in due course, if that's possible.
To do this you need:
Drupal, Civicrm entity (ours is beta9), and turn on the sub module: civicrm_entity_actions as Pete mentions in the comments to the first answer here: How to configure Views VBO action to disable relationships?
You also need Views Bulk Operations
The participant view needs to have this relationship: CiviCRM Contributions: Contact Record ID
The view also needs to have an exposed filter of the Participants fee level field. (NB, don't confuse this with the Events Fee level or the Contribution Amount label fields. They won't produce the same results).
Then you can filter your view by keywords from your codes.
Add the field, (CiviCRM Contact, with custom fields) Bulk operations: CiviCRM Contact. Note this will need a relationship to Civicrm Contact. Initially it won't give you the option to add a group, but after saving the field and then re-editing it you will see Add contact to group as an option.
You will have had to previously made a suitable group in Civi.
Et Voila! Now you can bulk add participants who've used your code to your group.
I can send you an export of the view if that's helpful. Good luck!
NB: it might be helpful to know that the Contributions: Amount label field will work fine for this purpose for online event bookings. But bookings taken through the admin interface may not contain the discount code in the Amount label field.
Answer: Karin Gerritsen has created an update to the Extended Reports module to allow any discount codes to be exposed in a report, with various actions that can then be run on the search result, which is exactly what I wanted.  Previously the Extended reports only worked on discount codes for events, not for memberships.
Can ExtendedReports report on CiviDiscount usage?
Answer: Andy's solution is related to what you ask, and Eli Lisseck's CiviDiscount report is too - but none of these will give you a custom search, which you need for a smart group.
There's documentation on creating custom searches here.  I think that if you write this extension, it'd be great to submit an answer to this question with a link to the Github!


What USGS maps exist in the 7.5' × 15' metric 1:25,000 series?

Question: While browsing through the library, I discovered that USGS has, in fact, produced some metric maps at 1:25,000.  One example is Thendara (NY), 43075-F1-TM-025.  As far as I can tell, those maps are sporadic.  I do find some at the USGS website.  What is the nature of this series?  Is it a past project since abandoned, is it only for some areas, and does it exist in place of or in parallel to the imperial 1:24,000 series?  What areas are covered by those maps?
Answer: Unfortunately the answer to many of your questions is tied into the history of the USGS mapping program and decisions made, reversed, and reimplemented along the way. I don't know the specifics for that exact scale option, nor a more current version of the resource mkennedy mentions. I stumbled across a pdf earlier from I thought 2011 where a USGS official was talking about the conversion to metric or the production of a parallel 25k series (it was related to military mapping), but I can't find it again. The best current(ish) summary I can find is this article. More information on the history of the mapping program can be found at http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/history.html
One way to find areas covered at the 1:25k scale is to visit the USDA/NRCS Geospatial Data Gateway. On the right side under I Want To... is a link for Find Available Data for the US which will take you to an index, and if you scroll down you'll find a dataset that is an index for 1:25k maps. They have a map that shows covered regions.  I don't know that you can download an individual list of the maps available, but you can check by state (Order by State in that same I Want To... menu) and it will tell you how many there are, as well as where and with a preview.
Also note that at the link provided in your question you can click on Advanced Search and search by scale - although the results with just that criteria are more than 200, which is apparently all it displays.
Comment: That quote is about the 7.5' × 7.5' (1:24,000) series, not about the 7.5' × 15' (1:25,000) series, isn't it?
Comment: @gerrit Yes and no. I've removed the quote because it's not even accurate anymore according to the more recent article I have now linked to. Part of the problem is that the 25k isn't a series in and of itself. 7.5' is the series, and it comes in different sizes/scales depending on the area. Some of the series are actually derived from other series. http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/usgsmaps/
Answer: Not a complete answer! I don't know how to identify what areas had 1:25,000 mapping done. You might try searching the Federal Register based on the information below.
USGS published Maps for America (3rd edition, 1987) by Morris M. Thompson. On page 109, it states

"By 1978, published 1:24,000-scale topographic maps were available for
  about 70 percent of the conterminous United States and Hawaii. With
  the general changeover to the metric system in the United States, the
  7.5-minute series will eventually be produced with metric contours at a scale of 1:25,000. A few States have agreed to adopt the 1:25,000
  scale before the completion of 7.5-minute mapping at 1:24,000 scale."

Based on the map in the book that shows the current state as of September 30, 1980, the map you found might have been in an area that had only 15' maps up to that point. Or, at least, was near that area.
Comment: Wasn't this changeover later cancelled or reversed?
Answer: Sadly, it is a past project, since abandoned. It started during the attempt at metrification initiated during the Ford presidency and largely abandoned during the Reagan presidency. Unfortunately the overall efforts of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and the US Metric Board were considered "voluntary" and did not gain traction, and did meet some political and cultural resistance. The USGS did for a brief while produce a 1:25,000 metric friendly scale, series of "quadrangle" maps. They have reverted to their more traditional 1:24,000 scale maps.
With the official completion of the USGS mapping program in 1992, and with the less stringent US Topo project as the current mapping and map update project, we will likely never see a true metric version in our lifetimes.
Comment: The 100k maps are mostly if not entirely metric though?


Prove that $\vec a\times (\vec b\times\vec c) = (\vec a\cdot\vec c)\vec b - (\vec a\cdot\vec b)\vec c$ with the help of the Levi-Civita symbol

Question: I wanted to use the Levi-Civita permutation symbol, $\epsilon$ and the Kronecker delta, $\delta$ to prove that $$\vec a\times (\vec b\times\vec c) = (\vec a\cdot\vec c)\vec b - (\vec a\cdot\vec b)\vec c$$However I became confused as to what to do at the end and I had the minus signs the wrong way round. Here's what I've done so far: $$\vec a\times (\vec b\times\vec c) = a_i\hat e_i\times(\epsilon_{nlm}b_lc_m\hat e_n)$$ $$=\epsilon_{nlm}a_ib_lc_m\hat e_i\times\hat e_n$$ $$=\epsilon_{inx}\epsilon_{nlm}a_ib_lc_m\hat e_x$$ where $x$ is just an arbitrary index I put in.$$\epsilon_{inx}\epsilon_{nlm} = (\delta_{il}\delta_{xm} - \delta_{im}\delta_{xl})$$ $$\vec a\times (\vec b\times\vec c) = a_ib_lc_m\hat e_x(\delta_{il}\delta_{xm} - \delta_{im}\delta_{xl})$$ $$=a_ib_lc_m\hat e_x\delta_{il}\delta_{xm} - a_ib_lc_m\hat e_x\delta_{im}\delta_{xl}$$ $$=a_lb_lc_m\hat e_m - a_mb_xc_m\hat e_x$$This is the part where I got stuck on. I know that $a_lb_l = (\vec a\cdot \vec b)$ and that $c_m\hat e_m = \vec c$ but when I put this in I obtain$$(\vec a\cdot\vec b)\vec c-(\vec a\cdot\vec c)\vec b$$ which is the correct answer times $-1$. Does anyone know where I could've gone wrong? Perhaps in working out $\epsilon_{inx}\epsilon_{nlm}$?
Comment: You want to check if $\epsilon_{inx} \epsilon_{n\ell m} \stackrel{?}{=} \delta_{i\ell} \delta_{xm} - \delta_{im} \delta_{x\ell}$. Just check it with indices. Set $i=\ell=1$ and $x=m=2$ so that we check $\epsilon_{1n2} \epsilon_{n12} = \epsilon_{132} \epsilon_{312} = - 1  \stackrel{?}{=}  \delta_{11} \delta_{22} = 1$. Clearly it is off by a sign.
Comment: @Prahar So to clarify $\epsilon_{inx}\epsilon_{nlm} = (\delta_{im}\delta_{xl} - \delta_{il}\delta_{xm})$? Because that would make this work nicely :p
Comment: This is something you should very very easily be able to check even by brute force (i.e. by specifically checking it for each index value) so that's what you should do if you need convincing.
Comment: Okay thanks for your comment I'll keep that in mind next time I try something like this :)
Answer: I find it easiest to permute the indices to get the unit vector index at the end.
$$\epsilon_{inx} =  \epsilon_{xin}$$
$$ \epsilon_{nlm} = \epsilon_{lmn}$$
Now it's easy to see that when x & l are the same, you get +1, and when x/m and i/l match, it's -1
$$\epsilon_{xin}\epsilon_{lmn} = (\delta_{xl}\delta_{im} - \delta_{xm}\delta_{il})$$
Which explains your missing $-$ sign.
Comment: Thanks that'll  help me a lot when it comes to tackling similar problems in the future :p


Using Nikon D5300 Live View with a Amscope microscope lens

Question: I have read that Live View on Nikon cameras doesn't work with certain lens but searching through the user manual there is no mention of this. Our research lab is trying to use Live View with Nikon D5300 and the Amscope Microscope lens (CA-CAN-NIK-SLR). I can only take pictures in manual mode because camera info-message says it is the only mode allowed for non-CPU lenses. Then , when I try to switch it into Live View it gives us the error message: "Cannot start live view at current settings or under current conditions."   Is there a way to override this and allow Live Mode or would we have to get a different microscope lens with particular specifications? I am a beginner with cameras so even relevant basic information would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Answer: The camera would not go into live view mode or playback mode because the usb cord was plugged into its side. It has nothing to do with the microscope lens which only requires that the camera be in manual (M) mode to shoot photos.


Get category/product url (URL rewrite url) and re-direct after login

Question: I want to Get category/product url (URL rewrite url) and re-direct customer to that url after login. I tried getLastUrl from session / redirectReferrer. Both returns only the actual url and not the SEO ones. Is there any other possibility to achieve this on a common way. I will be using this redirect throughout the site on all pages, not only in PDP/PLP.
Answer: You could add static block with product to display upon logging in.
If you insist on a rewrite you will need to add mod_rewrite rule in your .htaccess
RewriteEngine on
 RewriteRule ^oranges.html$ apples.html
the site ending in "/oranges.html"— all of the information displayed will come from the "/apple.html" site. if you do it with magento's "url rewrite management" you will have broken links every time you reindex
Comment: I just wana redirect the customer to the previous page(before logging in) they were after logging in.


Shortcut to focus on file-chooser dialog - CTRL-L doesn't work

Question: Been using Juno for a week; love the experience of NOT even attempting any customization - except for 3 keyboard shortcuts  I had to :) one thing that I am finding difficult is in file-chooser dialog (eg: extract archive; save as from browser etc), I have to use the mouse to get the focus to path/location bar. 90% of the time, I need to change from previous folder I was in, the way I work. In Files application, CTRL-L works perfectly; but I am unable to find a shortcut for this in these instances. I have checked documentation and list of keyboard shortcuts for Files
Answer: At the moment, only the pathbar of the filechooser is supplied by Files, the rest (including keypress handling) is the standard Gtk filechooser so I am not sure this can be fixed. However, the intention is to use the NativeFileChooser interface to have the whole filechooser supplied by Files in which the shortcut will work.
I have raised an issue on the Files issue reporting page about it.


Vivitar Lens compatibility with Minolta Maxxum 5

Question: Will a Vivitar Series One Zoom 28-300mm lens work correctly on a Minolta Maxxum 5 Digital Camera?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Can I use lens brand X on interchangeable lens camera brand Y?](http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/62000/can-i-use-lens-brand-x-on-interchangeable-lens-camera-brand-y)
Comment: No, it is misleading here: The Maxxum 5D is an A mount camera, and the Series 1 28-300mm exists as an A mount version. No cross-mount adapting needed. However, there can be firmware issues with certain combinations of A mount hardware.
Answer: Vivitar is a third-party lens maker that can make a lens in a variety of camera mounts, so there's no way anyone can answer your question without being able to see the specific lens you're talking about.  I'd suggest looking through a visual guide to lens mounts to see if the Vivitar uses the mount for the Minolta AF or Sony A-mount systems (the mount the Maxxum 5 uses).
This is Minolta's autofocus mount. The manual-focus SLR mounts, (Minolta MD and Minolta MC) cannot be used directly on the Maxxum 5.
Answer: Very briefly, lenses are generally only compatible with one particular mount, so if you want a lens for a Minolta Maxxum 5D, then you need to buy an A-mount lens, which is the name of the mount used on that camera. Minolta developed the A-mount for their interchangeable-lens autofocus cameras, and Sony also uses the A-mount. (Be aware though that Sony also has interchangeable-lens cameras that use another mount called the E-mount, and E-mount lenses are not compatible with A-mount camera bodies. Also, don't confuse A-mount with Sony Alpha (α), the brand name that Sony uses to refer to its range of interchangeable-lens cameras as a whole, encompassing both A-mount and E-mount.)
You will find A-mount lenses from Sony and Minolta and also third-party lens manufacturers such as Sigma, Tamron and Tokina amongst others.


At what point does lobbying, rent seeking, and bribing coincide and differ?

Question: Are there samples where one is lobbying but not rent seeking, another is lobbying rent seeking and bribing, another is one but not the other two, and via versa?
Comment: Just a note that a lot of these items get into specific election and office-holding laws. IE, the definition of buying a vote is not the same in all jurisdictions in the United States, and certainly not globally.
Answer: As I wrote in my answer to your other question about rent-seeking: Rent-seeking is a motive while bribing and lobbying are acts. When one does lobbying or bribing, rent-seeking might or might not be their motive.
When one lobbies for a specific political change, they might be accused of doing it for rent-seeking if the change they are lobbying for would result in them gaining more money without also increasing their value for society.
For example: A widget maker lobbies for lowering the taxes for widget makers. In order to gain wide support for this proposal, the widget maker would argue that this isn't in his personal interest but in fact in the interest of the whole society:

"If I would pay less taxes, I could sell my widgets for a lower price. Everyone likes cheap widgets, so this would be a benefit for everyone."

A political opponent might then accuse the widget maker of having ulterior motives:

"Widget prices are controlled by the invisible hand of the market. If you would pay less taxes, you would have no incentive to lower your prices. All it would do is increase your personal profit margin. You are just rent-seeking.

The political opponent might then make a counter-proposal:

"If you are so interested in making cheap widgets available to everyone at the cost of the tax payer, why not have the government pay a subsidy to the customer when they buy a widget?"

The widget-maker would then reply:

"Aren't you one of my best customers? You are just interested in getting free money from the government for buying the widgets you would buy anyway. Now you are the one who is rent-seeking."

The politician listening to that argument might then think:

You are both annoying me. I won't do either and use that tax money to raise my own salary. I need that money to build my new personal golf course which I need to relieve all that stress I have from listening to greedy rent-seekers like you all day. And when I am less stressed, I can make better decisions for the good of the country. So raising my own salary is totally not rent-seeking because in the end it benefits everyone, right?!?
Comment: So a sample of lobbying without rent seeking would be something like I want subsidy for my widget because the widget have externalities? Something like that?
Comment: @J.Chang If you are actually sincere about only caring about those externalities and not about any personal economic benefits for you, then yes.
Comment: But others, like expert economies, would say that you are still rent seeking because the effect is rent seeking. You may sincerely believe that your widget have externalities. But often there is simply none.


Is telling unpleasant truth about a person Lashon Hora?

Question: Is telling something unpleasant, something that would portray a person in a very negative light even though it is true, considered Lashon Hora?
Answer: In short:

Loshon Horeh is a very wide scope of offenses performed by saying something. It is not an offense on its own (besides gossip see Rambam's Deot) but an umbrella of all. That includes various prohibitions of deceiving, assaulting, gossiping or simple overriding of "loving thy neighbor".
As your question is not specific and there are many different scenarios for telling the truth that answers your description, for example,

telling someone that his relative died or
telling someone you saw him smoking weed or
telling someone his fly is open or
telling someone his wife is cheating on him or
telling a white person he's white and a black person he's black or
praising someone for his earnings in front of an IRS agent.

Without going through all the details of L"H, I'd say it simple - if you're sure the person will thank you for saying that - say it, otherwise consult a Rabbi.


Availability of a database containing the proteins of Vibrio cholerae and their corresponding gene sequences

Question: I wanted a list of all the proteins (amino acid sequences) and their corresponding gene sequences of Vibrio cholerae. I tried to search in patric, but the number of amino acid sequences and gene sequences do not match, as they have provided the whole genome. I need to know if there is a database where all the proteins of Vibrio cholerae and their corresponding gene sequences can be obtained in a single file or in a couple of files. Copy pasting 4000-5000 genome and protein sequences individually from the internet seems cumbersome to me.
Answer: You want to go to PATRIC > Data > Download Tool.
From the Taxonomy tree, find Vibrio cholerae, choose Type of annotation as either PATRIC/RefSeq or both, choose the type of file you want (gbk or faa) and download from there.
Comment: have tried that. the number of gene and protein sequences do not match
Comment: Did you get the genes from PATRIC or NCBI? If the number of genes do not match the genes would be more. Considering that you have non-coding sequences, rRNA and tRNA genes and also hypothetical and predicted sequences.
Comment: i got it from patric.


Adobe digital edition

Question: I want to create website for ebook vendor sell own ebook, And i looking for method for protect ebook, and i found adobe digital edition which can solve this because reader have to identify device with adobe, so i spend more time on the internet for find how to convert pdf or image for adobe digital edition. Unfortunately i cannot find it. Please help me solve that. "Can i convert pdf or image for adobe digital edition with drm"
Comment: Welcome to the site! Can you clarify a little bit what you are trying to do? What is your specific question? What file format do you want to start with, and what do you want to have at the end?
Answer: Yeah, finally i'm found the answer. You can use adobe content server service for store your ebook when you upload to the server you will get ascm file for download the ebook and the ascm file can open on Adobe digital edition which the reader can download adobe digital edition in free program and reader have to identified device with adobe, so you can limit your ebook for use in personal cannot pass them to another.

Adobe digital edition


Reference for annual journal subscription costs paid per university?

Question: Is there any resource that lists how much each university pay in journal subscription fees? I am mostly interested in US universities (E.g. Harvard: $3.5M/year in 2014, MIT: $4M/year in 2006 for science and engineering journals alone), but still curious about other countries (e.g. French universities paid 172M EUR/5years to Elsevier, Finnish research organisations paid a total of 27 million euros in subscription fees in 2015).
Comment: By the way, the $3.5M figure from the Guardian is based on an very unclear [Harvard memo](http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448), which stated that journals from "certain providers" cost Harvard nearly $3.75M in 2012 and that in 2010 the corresponding costs were 20% of the periodical subscription budget.  They didn't explain which providers those were, or what fraction of the periodical budget might be considered academic journals, so this leaves things rather uncertain.  But the total for journals at Harvard is almost certainly higher than $3.5M.
Comment: Another thing that is unclear about Harvard's numbers is that they were most likely released as a leverage in a negotiation with large publishers. They preceded a bogus threat to 'suspend subscriptions'. I'm at Harvard and can access all journals from the big publishers via the library, and they most likely never had the serious intention to deprive their researchers from accessing the best journals.
Comment: MATLAB and NAG (two brands of computational software) also adopt this shady practice of negotiating their prices individually with the institutions and keeping them secret.
Comment: Huh, looks like your $10M/year estimate was on target ($9,248,115 for Harvard in 2008, $16,391,638 in 2012).
Comment: @AnonymousMathematician I totally agree, I was expecting [over $10M/year](https://www.quora.com/Was-hacking-of-academic-journal-JSTOR-by-Aaron-Swartz-justified/answer/Franck-Dernoncourt?share=1).
Answer: There is, in fact, a resource with the information you asked for, for institutions in the United States.
Detailed information on individual academic libraries' expenditures (by university) is available from the National Center for Education Statistics in the United States, as part of their Libraries Statistics Program.
The data from these surveys, including the individual responses from each university, are available for download in plaintext format at this link. The most recent year available is 2012.
To take your example, according to that data, Harvard's expenditures for library resources in 2008 included $9,248,115 for serial subscriptions. In 2012, this number was up to $16,391,638 (the most of any library in the survey).
If you're interested, a set of related information on amounts paid by selected public universities to specific major publishers can be found in

Bergstrom, Theodore C., et al. "Evaluating big deal journal bundles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111.26 (2014): 9425-9430.

(see especially the supporting information for the latter.)
Answer: I know you're primarily interested in the US, but others reading the question title may be interested in other countries.  For the UK, see

Wiley/Springer/T&F/Sage/OUP/CUP (collected by Stuart Lawson and Ben Meghreblian)
Elsevier (collected by Tim Gowers)

For some information about New Zealand universities, see Mark Wilson's blog post and spreadsheet.
Answer: I don't know for sure whether there's a database that shows total journal spending at a fairly comprehensive list of universities, but I doubt there is.  There's not as much transparency around university budgets as one might hope (especially at private universities, but even at public universities).  [EDIT: As ff524 found, I was wrong about the existence of such a database.]
There is certainly no large-scale database that breaks down library budgets to show the amount spent for each publisher.  In fact, many bundle contracts explicitly keep this information secret.  Taking advantage of open records laws, Bergstrom, Courant, McAfee, and Williams managed to collect information about a number of contracts with public universities, leading to a paper and further information.  However, there are still many universities at which this data is officially confidential.
Answer: Some more data from https://ropengov.github.io/r/2016/06/10/FOI/:

Finland paid in total 131.1 million EUR subscription and other fees on scientific publishing in 2010-2015. The overall breakup of the
  costs is available as a separate table. The average annual costs for
  in Finland were 22 MEUR in 2010-2015; this is one third of the annual
  subscription costs in Austria (70 MEUR; Bauer et al., 2015), and
  two thirds of the annual expenditure (31 MEUR) in New Zealand.
  Data for the top-10 publishers in the UK 2010-2014 is available in
  Lawson, Meghreblian & Brook, 2015 (Table 1). During this period the
  UK paid altogether 4319 MEUR (rough estimate based on the exchange rate June 12, 2016) for the top-10 publishers. Finland paid 61 MEUR
  for the same top-10 publishers in the same period, which is roughly
  17% of the UK expenditure per capita (unexpectedly low?). The costs in
  the other countries seem unexpectedly high compared to Finland.

Some graphs from http://www.vsnu.nl/en_GB/cost-of-publication showing costs incurred by Finnish universities for books and journals by publisher:

FYI Why don't major research institutions systematically publish their subscription fees to scientific journals?


What is the goal of a constraint solver?

Question: What is the goal of a constraint solver? How are constraints propagated in a constraint satisfaction search?
Any references are also appreciated.
Answer: You want Chapter 6 of Russell & Norvig's AI: A Modern Approach, for a starting place.
The goal of a constraint solver is to find an assignment of values to variables such that every variable is assigned a value, but none of a list of constraints are violated.
An example problem that a constraint solver can solve is the problem of assigning students to groups for a project. The variables are the names of the students. Each variable has a set of possible values it could take on that correspond to the names of the groups. The constraints prohibit assigning certain students to the same group (perhaps they hate each other), or require certain students to be assigned to the same group (perhaps they like each other). More complex constraints are also possible (e.g. at least 2 of these 5 students need to be in the same group).
Constraint propagation is the idea that several constraints might logically imply a stronger constraint. As a simple example, suppose that student $S$ must be assigned to group $1$. That's one constraint. Suppose further that student $T$ must be assigned to the same group as $S$. That's another constraint. Together, however, they imply that $T$ must be assigned to group $1$.
Most constraint solvers operate by iteratively trying to assign values to variables and then backtracking when a constraint is violated. When assignments are made, different constraint propagation methods make different decisions about how much computational effort to spend deriving the logical consequences of constraints, as opposed to simply trying more assignments of values to variables until the consequences become apparent (one of the existing constraints gets violated).
The simplest form of constraint propagation is called forward checking. After each speculative assignment of a value to a variable, forward checking looks at all the constraints the variable is involved in. It then derives the logical consequences of the assignments. For example, continuing with the student problem from above, if $S$ was assigned value $1$, then forward checking would notice the constraint $S=T$, and would, effectively, add the constraint $T=1$ (it actually does something a little different, but it has this effect). As another example, if the assignment $T=2$ were made, forward checking would notice that $S=T$, and would add the constraint $S=2$. It would also detect the contradiction that $S=1$ and $S=2$ are both constraints, and would declare the assignment $T=2$ invalid.
More advanced constraint propagation methods can reason about these kinds of logical consequences before assignment are made. For example, they could derive that $T=1$ before the program starts. Wikipedia has a good summary of these, starting with arc consistency.


Does a "frequency-modulated" signal mean that the frequency isn't consistent?

Question: Does a "frequency-modulated" signal mean that the frequency isn't consistent? and therefore it has a specific bandwidth of frequencies is can cover??
Comment: the change in PHASE is named BETA, computed as deltaF/Frequencyof Modulation. Thus if deltaF if 75,000Hz and the (music) tone causing that is only 150Hertz, the change in phase if 75,000 /  150 = 500 radians.
Comment: Have a look at the MFSK section :) http://www.w1hkj.com/modes/
Answer: A frequency modulated signal means that the frequency is shifted around a carrier frequency. This can be done digitally or via analog multiplication.
What it looks like is a sine wave speeding up or slowing down.

Source: http://www.justscience.in/articles/what-are-the-applications-of-frequency-modulation/2017/06/02
Yes, it normally has a specific bandwidth, some of the reasons being is radio licenses and bandwidth are in short supply (there are a limited number of frequency ranges). With frequeny modulation one can transmit more information in a given section of bandwidth. Most digital wireless communication uses frequency modulation.
Answer: Frequency modulated means the instantaneous frequency of the signal is varied, with the instantaneous frequency carrying the information in the signal. This instantaneous frequency will only be of a limited range. If you provide more context we could help more.

therefore it has a specific bandwidth of frequencies is can cover

This is true of all signals. All signals have a specific bandwidth (aka range of frequency components that make up the signal via fourier transforms). Even amplitude modulated signals where the instantaneous frequency is constant (the carrier) have a bandwidth of frequency components that compose the signal.
Answer: Yes, it is a range of frequencies that are to be expected. In other words, frequency is a function of the modulated signal (or "input signal" if you want).


Am I exempt from taxes if I worked overseas, however generated income from US-based customers?

Question: I am a U.S. citizen and have been living overseas for already couple years and easily can pass the IRS physical presence test. However, what is not clear to me is that nevertheless I worked out of my apartment in a foreign country online, I did generate income mostly from US-based customers, which would report me (in fact a single person LLC company) as a US-entity in their filings. Do I have to pay taxes as usual in full or the fact I've been living in another country somehow mitigates my tax-burden?
Comment: Are you a U.S. citizen? It seems implied but you didn't explicitly say so.
Comment: Yes, I am a US citizen.
Comment: I assume that you still have to pay taxes to the IRS, but you your country of residence might have a treaty with the US to where you will pay less taxes there. You haven't mentioned which country that is, though.
Answer: US Citizens need to file taxes on all worldwide income, regardless of their residence. They may be able to obtain reduction on their net US taxes actually owed through effectively one of two methods:
(1) Calculation of their 'foreign tax credit' [essentially foreign taxes paid on the same income stream]; or
(2) the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which allows for ~90k of employment income earned outside the US by a non-US resident to not be included in your general income for US tax purposes.
However, for #1 above to apply, it will typically need to be income earned outside the US [if it is income earned in the US, the US will have the right to tax it first, and the other country may allow you to claim your US taxes as a foreign tax credit itself].
In either case, you still need to file the full tax return.
The LLC complicates things somewhat and I'm unable to comment on that point.
If you are uncomfortable spending 20+ hours on your taxes this year (making sure you research things directly from IRS sources and maintain a good file of records for future audit purposes), hire a good accountant. Good, in this case, unfortunately means expensive. I would expect at least $500+ to get someone who knows what they're doing. Might be more like $2,500+.
Comment: @philip Agreed - and whether those taxes are ultimately owing, or will be offset by FTC's, will depend on the foreign country in question, and the tax treaty applicable there.
Comment: But if you are self-employed, still need to pay Medicare and Social Security tax


Adobe Illustrator 3D revolve produces missing parts

Question: I'm trying to make a 3D bottle using 3D revolve but I keep on producing models with missing parts. I'm using CS6 on OS X and the settings are shown on the image below. I tried two variations: the path on the far right is closed, it is a complete shape; the one on its left is an open path without the straight line on the right. They both produce the same result as shown. I've redrawn the shapes a few times and 'united' them using pathfinder just to make sure, but it didn't help. Thanks in advance for any insight into this!
Answer: Draw your profile shape with the pen tool from scratch.
I have banged my head against a stone when Illustrators 3D has produced unexpected results when applied to a path which was a complex combination. The order returned after redrawing the base shape as a simple single path.
Answer: Change some 3D property by a minute amount.
That is..... add .2° to one of the rotation fields, add 1 to the perspective, etc. until missing faces appear.
As far as I'm aware, it just takes these minute adjustments until AI decides to draw all the faces. It's annoying, infuriating, and has been a problem for more than 10 years.... Adobe doesn't update the 3D effect, sadly.
Answer: I have tried to replicate this problem using Illustrator CC 2107, but I can't, no matter how much I rotate the object.  I suspect this may be a problem that Adobe has partially fixed in the more recent versions.
From time to time however, I have noticed that the 3D Revolve filter doesn't like extreme curves between two anchors, so perhaps if you were to add one anchor point within the curve it might help.
For example, add an anchor point as shown here:


No-rinse acid sanitizer - is there a risk?

Question: My homebrewer friends recommend the StarSan acid sanitizer, hands-down.  I tried it once and it foamed everywhere and left a bunch of rings in the carboy and the bottles.  It made me paranoid that it would ruin my batch, but the beer tasted fine.  Ever since, I have been wary of using it because of all the foam.  Is there any risk associated with leftover acid sanitizer in your beer?  What happens to the phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid?  Are there trace amounts of it in my beer? Has anyone had a bad experience with it?  Am I doing it wrong?
Answer: The amount of acid in a properly mixed batch of StarSan is less than in a bottle of Coke.  I've been using it for years and find it extremely effective as a sanitizer.  I never rinse and it has had no adverse effect on my beer.  In fact, I've won several awards since I started using it.  The commonly heard refrain is "Don't fear the foam!"
Comment: Agreed; the key is to make sure you make the right concentration. The directions on the bottle are super clear & easy.
Comment: Don't fear the foam.  Got it.
Comment: +1 As a know-nothin' noob brewer, I was *super* hesitant about all the foam. Read John Palmer's How To Brew and watched a bunch of brewing videos on YouTube where they used StarSan, no rinse, foam everywhere... Now I'm a believer.
Comment: Any idea what "dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid" decomposes to? As far as I know it'S a detergent and it's effect on human health is unknown.
Answer: I had similar fears after reading the warnings on the label until I read Palmer's How to Brew, 3rd Ed. p. 23, as part of his discussion of different methods of cleaning and sanitizing:

StarSan is only effective when the pH of the solution is less than 3.5. ... This is also the reason it is a no-rinse sanitizer: When the fermenter or bottle has been drained and filled with wort or beer, the higher pH of the wort and beer neutralizes the sanitizing capability, so that the yeast are unaffected. ... [E]ven though  there can be a huge amount of foam in vessels like carboys after draining, it will have no effect on fermentation or flavor.

He even says that StarSan and Final Step (both acidic sanitizers) are his "preferred sanitizers" for whatever he can't easily do in the dishwasher.
Regarding the scary warnings on the label, he adds:

Because it is listed as a sanitizer and bactericide by the FDA and EPA, the container must list disposal warning that are suitable for pesticides. Do not be alarmed; it is less hazardous to your skin than bleach.
Answer: The difference between "drinking" tap water and "rinsing" with it is that our body can handle whatever small amount of bacteria may be in the water, but the conditions for fermenting beer are also ideal for bacteria to grow and multiply so that insignificant amount of bacteria we normally drink can grow under the right conditions (in the fermenter or bottle) and spoil a batch.
That being said, beer is more resilient than we give it credit for.
Comment: Just to clarify, yes, beer is resilient to spoilage than some would credit it for, but wort isn't, and it's during the time before the yeast have lowered the pH and produced sufficient alcohol that the wort is susceptible to bacterial contaminants.
Answer: Starsan actually breaks down and is consumed by the yeast in your beer as if it was nutrient so long as you use it as directed. So seriously don't fear the foam.
Comment: Can you link a source for this? I only find articles about sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate degradation by bacteria, but not by yeast.
Answer: I think that one should rinse after Star San usage although the manufacturer claims the opposite.
To determine the ingredients of a commercial chemical mixture like Star San, one can look in the material safety data sheet. The active ingredients are phosphoric acid, dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid and a "proprietary" compound. Little amounts of phosphoric acid (as described in other answers) are safe even if they are in the beer. However, dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid is problematic: it's a surfactant and even little traces of these substances make beer foam unstable. Therefore, I don't use dishwashing liquid or Star San for cleaning or sanitizing brewing equipment. As replacement, I'm using iodine solution and rinse with tap water. Tap water should be nearly free of germs if the pipes and the faucet aerator are clean.
Star San contains this "proprietary" compound. Without a specification of this compound, I'm unable to determine if Star San is save to use for beer brewing without rinsing.
I think using disinfectants like Star San without rinsing for commercial brewing is illegal in some countries like Germany. In DIN 10516 standard it's written that removing of the cleaning or disinfection agents is mandatory except if the substances are harmless and permitted food analogs or additives. As far as I know, dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid and probably the "proprietary" compound are not permitted as food analogs or additives.
Answer: Star-San used in the correct concentration won't affect your beer. If you do decide to rinse, boil enough water to rinse and allow it to cool. Otherwise, you risk re-introducing contaminants.
Answer: Perhaps I'm failing to "get with the program" on this no-rinse sanitizer thing, but I personally like rinsing.  I like the fact that bleach-and-water does a great job sanitizing, and then I'm glad I've got clean tap water to rinse it all out.
I don't care that the foam isn't going to hurt my beer, I still don't want to be drinking even trace amounts of sanitizer.
Comment: If you rinse sanitized bottles with tap water, you're in effect undoing your sanitizing.  You'll be able to get away with it until the day you don't.
Comment: The fact that you drink the tap water doesn't change much.  Your gut and immune system are very effective at killing foreign microorganisms.  Although the alcoholic environment limits what can grow in beer, there are several bacteria and some other species of yeast that will spoil the beer over time. (i.e. make it sour.)
Comment: If rinsing my bottles with tap water is going to contaminate my beer, I've got bigger problems to worry about than my beer.  I drink my tap water all the time.
Comment: Coming from a chemistry background - I like rinsing, too.  However, I've been using the foam and not "fearing it" for about 6 months now and my beer tastes great.  I also reuse the solution for bottles so it's actually quite cost-effective.
Comment: I bet you put far worse in your belly than drink trace amounts of StarSan with other foods you eat already.


What are options for a Windows laptop with a screen less then 12 inches for basic programming?

Question: What are options for a laptop with a screen less then 12 inches that runs Windows 10? I'm looking for something ultra portable to do basic programming using a text editor and WSL. I'm hoping for at least 4 gigs of ram and a 128 gig ssd. Screen quality is not an issue since I'm blind. I'd rather pay less and not get a 4k screen.
Comment: Budget? Also, what about something like the [Kangaroo](http://www.kangaroo.cc/kangarooplus/)? I'm not sure if it has a mic, but something like that–ultra-portable with a battery–could be pretty killer.
Answer: You have a lot of options with those specifications. I'll assume that you're looking for minimum weight and maximum battery life. A two-in-one is probably your best bet for that—that is, tablet plus laptop configuration. Or a tablet with a keyboard.

You might consider the Surface Pro. It comes with up to 16 GB of RAM (but you can probably configure it with only 4 GB if you want), and it should have a long battery life: Microsoft claims that you can play video for over 13 hours. The current generation is actually 12.3 inches, but it should be much lighter than most laptops. It should have a pretty good processor, too.
Four gigabytes of RAM, an i5, and a 128 GB SSD should be about $1000. You are paying a bit for screen quality there, though, which might not be ideal - there are cheaper options with lower-quality screens.

If price plus battery life is your main concern, and you don't care much about performance or having a fairly up-to-date processor, you have much lower-priced options. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Book is another tablet-computer combo, is  about $630, and has a  10.6 inch screen with 4 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD. It claims 11 hours of video playback. Or basically any of the ones here will be cheaper than the Surface Pro.


Does anyone know how or where can VADS (Verdix Ada Development Studio) can be obtained?

Question: Yeah, I know is obsolete and old and everything you all might say... But I just needed... This stuff happens... xD any clues?
Answer: Rational bought Verdix in '94. IBM bought Rational in '03.
So at this point my suggestion would be to go IBM's Ada webpage and follow their contact information to see if there is any way they could sell you an old VADS system.
If you totally fail at that, I believe Ada Core can be contracted to port the code to their modern compiler. A thourough tested port would probably not be cheap. But then again, I remember those VADS systems going for more than $10,000...
Answer: A few years ago I ported a large system from VADS to Rational Apex. It went fairly well, not least because Rational had made a solid effort to port the VADS-specific packages.


Feature film and finding a co-writer

Question: I've written a few scripts for film, but think I need to collaborate with someone. I always run out of ideas. Where would I find a co-writer?
Comment: I'd actually potentially be personally interested, depending on whether our strengths and weaknesses are complementary or not.  My contact info is in my profile, if you want to contact me.
Comment: If you only need ideas, feel free to contact me. Most likely I can give you a lot of ideas (my personal problems isn't getting ideas, it's implementing them fast enough).
Comment: I can help if you always need a co-writer :)
Answer: A snappy sarcastic answer is tempting... Something like, "How about Craigslist?"
But on second thought...
What you're looking for is for someone to solve your problems with writers block for you, rather than solving them yourself.  Writers block is something that all writers have from time to time.  There are a number of questions here that address it that give ideas on how to solve it.  Try searching for questions with the tag, "Writer's Block."
But if you're really stuck and really want someone to help you, start with the people you know best.  I always talk things through with my wife... She's great at coming up with ideas that help me through.  Also try taking a break, exercising, watching a movie, reading a book, or whatever gets your creative juices flowing again.
Writing is sometimes easy, and it's that easiness that makes the times that aren't easy more frustrating and difficult, but it's also those times when you keep on writing even when you think you can't that you'll grow and become a better writer.
Answer: There is a website specifically for finding co-writers, http://co-writers.com .  It's not hugely active, but it is free, so it doesn't do any harm to try it out.

Feature film and finding a co-writer


problems in executing php files while running on Apache/2.2.25 (Win32) using PHP/5.4.20

Question: Hello i am using a windows 8 platform, initially i have installed wamp server package for working on php but then later on wanted to try working with Apache. At first, downloaded an apache version along with a php version but once installed and configured started to face several issues such as apache was throwing message:"operation failed" but gradually sorted it by reading plenty of posts from other users and found out it was a small syntax issue with in the php.ini and httpd.conf files respectively. Now let me get to the center of problems...

I started to work in forms, for which i coded two files under the extension .html and .php
What ever i type in the text fields in .html file will be passed on to the variables inside the .php code file
Once the form is executed it should show the values typed in the textfields of .html file and show the result on .php file (i have used conditions inside .php code)...

I hope you got what i meant?, Anyways further more..
The code i have included are as follows...
[hello.html file]...
< form action="welcome.php" method="post">

First Name:

< input type="text" id="firstname" name="firstname" />

Last Name:

< input type="text" id="lastname" name="lastname" />

< input type="submit" value="GO!" />

< /form>

[welcome.php file]...
Hello, < ?php
$firstname = $_REQUEST['firstname']; // i also tried this with $_POST
$lastname = $_REQUEST['lastname'];
if($firstname == 'john' and $lastname == 'lennon') {
  echo "Hello great musician";
} else {
  echo "$firstname $lastname";
}
?>

Once the above is executed it shows... Hello
When i run welcome.php on the server it gives me a syntax of:
Notice: Undefined index: firstname in C:\apacheserver\apache\htdocs\welcome.php on line 13
Notice: Undefined index: lastname in C:\apacheserver\apache\htdocs\welcome.php on line 14

these lines pointed to are:
$firstname = $_REQUEST['firstname'];
$lastname = $_REQUEST['lastname'];

Also when i ran httpd -k start on apache\bin> i get a message saying...
httpd: Could not reliably determine the servers fully qualified domain name,
using 192.168.0.3 for ServerName
(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network/address
/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address
0.0.0.0:80 no listening sockets available, shutting down Unable to open
logs

Can someone please help me with this issue, I have been working on it for the past 24 hrs and sleepless night..
Answer: Your code dosen't have anything to do with your issue.
Googling would tell you that running a web server on port 80 on windows 8 often dosen't work because windows 8 already has a web server running for some software that runs in modernui.
Use another port and you should be fine - you can edit your apache config file to do this.
There's also other workarounds that tell http.sys not to bind to all the ip addresses as you'd see in this SU answer or to shut down the service using port as per this SO answer
A much more sensible approach would be to grab a VM host, and do your development there, since you can better approximate a realistic production environment.


Does the Bank of England have the ability to set reserve requirements for commercial banks?

Question: I've been studying about monetary policy comittee.
Comment: Probably, but they're zero right now.
Answer: Yes, the Bank of England is the regulatory authority in the UK which sets reserve requirements for commercial banks.
A short overview of the Bank of England's history regarding money supply and reserve requirements can be found here:
http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/noftp/faculty/bergin/econ320/BOE.pdf
More information on how commercial banks hold reserves can be found in the famous Red Book:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/sterling-monetary-framework/annual-report-2017-18
Although the UK does not at present have a minimum reserve requirement, commercial banks nonetheless must be well capitalised in accordance with BoE regulation on the counter-cyclical capital buffer. (I mention this because one reason central banks have minimum reserve requirements is also in relation to capital requirements/buffering, as well as traditional liquidity and rate setting reasons.)


What if Mars and Venus switched places?

Question: So... Mars has a thin atmosphere, and is far from the sun, so it's too cold for humans. Venus is close to the sun, has a very thick atmosphere, and therefore is too hot for humans. What would happen if it were the other way around? Mars's thin atmosphere allowing solar heat to escape, while Venus is wrapped in a nice cozy blanket to keep warm. (Not concerned about how the movement would be done.) Would either planet have at least a human-hospitable temperature?
Answer: Mars would be about 50C warmer, thus still bitingly cold.
But the polar CO2 icecap should evaporate, so the atmosphere will be about twice as dense, thus still a pretty good vacuum.
Expect to see much more interesting duststorms, due to about four times the solar energy input plus double the atmospheric density.
Venus would be about 15-20C colder, thus still hotter than the hinges of hell.
Some careful science experiments might be able to measure a difference.
Remember that in their current positions, less sunlight reaches Venus surface than Mars.
YES despite their differing distance to the sun.
and YES despite mars being much smaller than Venus.
Even with this, the sheer reflection from the clouds of Venus throws away all but about 30% of incoming solar energy, and 90% of that gets stuck in the cloud layers without reaching the surface, whereas Mars's rusty surface quite greedily gobbles up 84% of all incoming light.
Comment: Shouldn't Mars get 16x the solar input instead of 2x?
Comment: @TheSquare-CubeLaw it's actually about 4.4x (590 vs 2662)
Answer: Let's assume that the switch happened early in the solar systems history. Maybe Jupiter came in closer than it did in our time line and disturbed the inner solar system.
Young Mars would still lose the atmosphere, but the younger and fainter sun would keep its surface cosy for during its early history. Things depend on the time line, meaning when does the core get too cold for a magnetic field. At that point the planet will turn into present day Mars.
However the loss of the atmosphere could prevent a runaway greenhouse. Desert planets will have larger habitable zones, because they do not have to deal with any of the water climate feedbacks. Assuming that life develops as fast as on Earth, meaning as soon as the planet's lava oceans freeze out and the steam atmosphere rains down, this Mars would have life.
Venus could be interesting in an orbit further out. Its slow rotation might have been cased by solar tides in its thick atmosphere. Meaning that if the runaway greenhouse effect never happens, it might have a rotation rate of anything between a few hours and a few days. Though, as mars and earth do rotate at a similar rate, let's say Venus went for something close to 24 hours.
Venus would probably again be doomed by its water. It would freeze out and turn the planet into a hyper reflective snowball world. Any hope will be lost if the CO2 freezes out of the atmosphere entirely. Vulcanism, especially if the tectonic history goes towards plate tectonics, but even with its current regime, could keep habitable oceans beneath the ice warm. Think black smokers on earth. The world might even experience limit cycling, given the the CO2 in the atmosphere isn't frozen out and experience periods of liquid surface water, before the weathering cased by the higher temperatures will cool the planet again.
If Venus has significantly less water, it might be even more habitable, as the ice albedo feedback loop can be avoided. A desert tundra world with a temperate equator under a thick (think 10 atm) CO2 atmosphere is conceivable.

What if Mars and Venus switched places?


What's the most efficient order in which to check for discrepancies?

Question: One of the first things that I try to notice is gender, then necessary documents, then picture, then issuing city, then expiration date. I don't think I've seen the second half of the game, so I also wonder if new conditions could change that order. I know a condition is added that involves checking faces even before checking the face in the passport, so an answer would note checking this before the passport but also noting that it isn't necessary at first until what condition is added.
Answer: Yep! You've basically got it. There isn't a strict best order "Firstly ..., secondly..." because every person is different, but you've got your bases covered.
You want to streamline your work by looking for the most common fakeries first. As a  definitive statistic breakdown on errors doesn't exist, I've ordered the list according to my opinion in the most common discrepancies:

Missing documents: passport (Inspect mode), entry ticket, entry permit...
Wanted criminal list and photo matchup
Expiration dates
Passport number matchups
Name matchups
Issuing city validity and stamps (1)
Spoken reason vs entry permit purpose and duration (2)
Sex, description
Height and weight (3)

Notes:
(1) Late game, having a color cheat-sheet from the wiki is pretty imperative for doing well. A cheat-sheet simply lists each country, their cities, icons, and seals.
(2) (if you have a short auditory memory, consider bumping this up if the audio transcript takes too much time for you)
(3) I personally have a hard time with height and weight and rarely check them for streamline purposes as they are perhaps the rarest discrepancy
Comment: Isn't the spoken part printed on the small paper above the small microphone icon though?
Comment: Yes it is! But I always found it took too much time to grab the paper and skim it for what I needed.
Answer: I suggest you start with checking the possible discrepancies that you check the fastest.
Personally, checking issuing city takes a long time for me, so I check that one last. If there is some other discrepancy that I see before I come to the end of my list, I don't have to waste time on the slow issuing city check.