Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, & Timing Services
The global standards for heat tracing systems are developed by IEC Technical Committee 27. The scope of work for this committee is reproduced below:
Standardization in the field of industrial equipment and installations intended for electroheating, electromagnetic processing of materials and electroheat based treatment technologies Note: The scope of interest covers industrial installations with the use of the following equipment: – equipment for direct and indirect resistance heating; – equipment for electric resistance trace heating; – equipment for induction heating; – equipment using the effect of EM forces on materials; – equipment for arc heating, including submerged arc heating; – equipment for electroslag remelting; – equipment for plasma heating; – equipment for microwave heating; – equipment for dielectric heating; – equipment for electron beam heating; – equipment for laser heating; – equipment for infrared radiation heating. The list presents typical examples of equipment and its applications and is not exhaustive.
CLICK HERE for the link to the TC 27 Strategic Business Plan
Titles in this committee’s bibliography appears to be stable. As with all IEC titles, they are relatively narrow in scope compared with the titles promulgated by most US standards developing organizations. Our interest lies primarily in the application of this technology within and around education community buildings.
While heat tracing generally goes un-noticed it is an essential part of cold weather safety. It is wise to keep pace with its evolution with innovation in materials and controls with the lead.
We maintain this committee’s work on the standing agenda of our seasonal Snow & Ice colloquia; along with US standards developed by UL, IEEE, NEMA, NFPA, ICC, ASHRAE and a few others. We also collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee on this topic. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.







Issue [18-332]
Category: Electrical
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Lorne Clark, Jim Harvey
Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana” is a choral cycle based on the poems of Robert Frost. The cycle consists of settings for mixed chorus and piano, and it was premiered in 1959. “Frostiana” was commissioned to celebrate the bicentennial of the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, and it features seven of Frost’s poems set to music by Thompson.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is one of the poems included in the “Frostiana” cycle. The composition captures the reflective and contemplative mood of Frost’s poem, where the narrator pauses to admire the beauty of a snowy evening in a quiet forest. Randall Thompson’s musical setting adds another layer to Frost’s words, enhancing the emotional impact of the poem.
Thompson’s approach in “Frostiana” is characterized by its accessibility and tonal clarity. His settings aim to convey the meaning and atmosphere of Frost’s poetry through the expressive power of choral music. The entire “Frostiana” cycle is a celebration of both Thompson’s skill as a composer and Frost’s enduring contribution to American literature.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
By Robert FrostThis is one of my favourite English poems. It is vivid, melancholic, and wistful. The imagery and the final lines have stuck with me for years.
And miles to go before I sleep… pic.twitter.com/2ANM3CeTjQ
— Learn English with Alex (@AlexEngVid) November 25, 2023
Can Voters Detect Malicious Manipulation of Ballot Marking Devices?
Matthew Bernhard, et. al
University of Michigan
Abstract: Ballot marking devices (BMDs) allow voters to select candidates on a computer kiosk, which prints a paper ballot that the voter can review before inserting it into a scanner to be tabulated. Unlike paperless voting machines, BMDs provide voters an opportunity to verify an auditable physical record of their choices, and a growing number of U.S. jurisdictions are adopting them for all voters. However, the security of BMDs depends on how reliably voters notice and correct any adversarially induced errors on their printed ballots. In order to measure voters’ error detection abilities, we conducted a large study (N = 241) in a realistic polling place setting using real voting machines that we modified to introduce an error into each printout. Without intervention, only 40% of participants reviewed their printed ballots at all, and only 6.6% told a poll worker something was wrong. We also find that carefully designed interventions can improve verification performance. Verbally instructing voters to review the printouts and providing a written slate of candidates for whom to vote both significantly increased review and reporting rates-although the improvements may not be large enough to provide strong security in close elections, especially when BMDs are used by all voters. Based on these findings, we make several evidence-based recommendations to help better defend BMD-based elections.
IEEE provides this article for public use without charge.
Solidity is a high-level, statically-typed programming language used for developing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller written directly into lines of code. Solidity was specifically designed for the Ethereum platform, and it is the most widely used language for creating Ethereum-based smart contracts.
The code below shows how delegated voting can be done so that vote counting is automatic and completely transparent at the same time.
/// @title Voting with delegation.
contract Ballot {
// This declares a new complex type which will
// be used for variables later.
// It will represent a single voter.
struct Voter {
uint weight; // weight is accumulated by delegation
bool voted; // if true, that person already voted
address delegate; // person delegated to
uint vote; // index of the voted proposal
}
// This is a type for a single proposal.
struct Proposal {
bytes32 name; // short name (up to 32 bytes)
uint voteCount; // number of accumulated votes
}
address public chairperson;
// This declares a state variable that
// stores a `Voter` struct for each possible address.
mapping(address => Voter) public voters;
// A dynamically-sized array of `Proposal` structs.
Proposal[] public proposals;
/// Create a new ballot to choose one of `proposalNames`.
constructor(bytes32[] memory proposalNames) {
chairperson = msg.sender;
voters[chairperson].weight = 1;
// For each of the provided proposal names,
// create a new proposal object and add it
// to the end of the array.
for (uint i = 0; i < proposalNames.length; i++) {
// `Proposal({...})` creates a temporary
// Proposal object and `proposals.push(...)`
// appends it to the end of `proposals`.
proposals.push(Proposal({
name: proposalNames[i],
voteCount: 0
}));
}
}
// Give `voter` the right to vote on this ballot.
// May only be called by `chairperson`.
function giveRightToVote(address voter) public {
// If the first argument of `require` evaluates
// to `false`, execution terminates and all
// changes to the state and to Ether balances
// are reverted.
// This used to consume all gas in old EVM versions, but
// not anymore.
// It is often a good idea to use `require` to check if
// functions are called correctly.
// As a second argument, you can also provide an
// explanation about what went wrong.
require(
msg.sender == chairperson,
"Only chairperson can give right to vote."
);
require(
!voters[voter].voted,
"The voter already voted."
);
require(voters[voter].weight == 0);
voters[voter].weight = 1;
}
/// Delegate your vote to the voter `to`.
function delegate(address to) public {
// assigns reference
Voter storage sender = voters[msg.sender];
require(!sender.voted, "You already voted.");
require(to != msg.sender, "Self-delegation is disallowed.");
// Forward the delegation as long as
// `to` also delegated.
// In general, such loops are very dangerous,
// because if they run too long, they might
// need more gas than is available in a block.
// In this case, the delegation will not be executed,
// but in other situations, such loops might
// cause a contract to get "stuck" completely.
while (voters[to].delegate != address(0)) {
to = voters[to].delegate;
// We found a loop in the delegation, not allowed.
require(to != msg.sender, "Found loop in delegation.");
}
// Since `sender` is a reference, this
// modifies `voters[msg.sender].voted`
sender.voted = true;
sender.delegate = to;
Voter storage delegate_ = voters[to];
if (delegate_.voted) {
// If the delegate already voted,
// directly add to the number of votes
proposals[delegate_.vote].voteCount += sender.weight;
} else {
// If the delegate did not vote yet,
// add to her weight.
delegate_.weight += sender.weight;
}
}
/// Give your vote (including votes delegated to you)
/// to proposal `proposals[proposal].name`.
function vote(uint proposal) public {
Voter storage sender = voters[msg.sender];
require(sender.weight != 0, "Has no right to vote");
require(!sender.voted, "Already voted.");
sender.voted = true;
sender.vote = proposal;
// If `proposal` is out of the range of the array,
// this will throw automatically and revert all
// changes.
proposals[proposal].voteCount += sender.weight;
}
/// @dev Computes the winning proposal taking all
/// previous votes into account.
function winningProposal() public view
returns (uint winningProposal_)
{
uint winningVoteCount = 0;
for (uint p = 0; p < proposals.length; p++) {
if (proposals[p].voteCount > winningVoteCount) {
winningVoteCount = proposals[p].voteCount;
winningProposal_ = p;
}
}
}
// Calls winningProposal() function to get the index
// of the winner contained in the proposals array and then
// returns the name of the winner
function winnerName() public view
returns (bytes32 winnerName_)
{
winnerName_ = proposals[winningProposal()].name;
}
}
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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