Slot Machine Payback Percentages: The Devil is in the Moment

The average payback percentage from slot machines is important to gamblers, casinos and governments.  While apparently simple to define several complications can exist, among them which measure to average and potentially misleading formulas to calculate the average.  Daily slot machine data from the state of Maryland for 19 months are analyzed for the expected value of the average payback ratio per machine and per dollar gambled.  On a per dollar gambled basis, the payback percentage meets legislative requirements that the gaming floor payback be at least 90 percent. On a per machine basis, that requirement is not met which can imply a significant shift of money from gamblers to casino operators and the state. Other payback measures are hypothesized to also be less than the per-dollar gambled measure but data are lacking

Hexagon Mechanized Ball Bar Fixture

Team nineteen was partnered with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence and tasked with the assignment of automating a ball bar fixture used in error mapping of coordinate measurement machines. This design report outlines the processes employed during the design by the team, with the long term goal of creating a functional prototype of the product. This semester work was done in conceptual design and analysis to meet the design specifications developed by Hexagon and Team 19. The culmination of this semesters work is presented in a Proof of concept, with the intent of fabrication and manufacture, along with redesign and optimization being completed in the coming semester. Error mapping is a process employed in the calibration of CMMs. This process is done by placing a Bar Ball in 12 different positions within the measurable volume of the CMM and taking a measurements on the surface of each Ball. The center of each ball is calculated along with the length distance between centers. Analysis is done of the change in measured length of the Bar Ball in each position and an error map is created to offset the known errors. By utilizing this process CMMs can be accurate to less one micron. The problem faced by Hexagon is that currently this error mapping process must be done by hand which leads to a very labor intensive process. The Bar Ball must be moved into placed, then measurements taken manually with the CMM. Hexagon has charged Team 19 with creating a solution to this problem by automating the process. The goal of this project is to create a machine that can placed within the CMM, and after initial set up, can carry out the entire error mapping process without any human interaction. The design solution proposed by Team 19 is a four degree of freedom robotic manipulator. Three linkages with rotation at both the base of the machine and the center of the affixed Bar Ball provide access to all 12 of the required positions. The machine will utilize worm gear driven, DC motors in order to actuate each DOF of the manipulator, and will be controlled with an Arduino Mega AVR development microcontroller. The control software will be integrated into the system and work in tandem with the CMM control software PC-DMIS in order to completely automate the placement and measurement of the Bar Ball in the error mapping process

The relationship between frailty, functional dependence, and healthcare needs among community‐dwelling people with moderate to severe dementia

This paper examines the healthcare needs of community‐dwelling older people living in Porto, Portugal, diagnosed with moderate or severe dementia, linked to functional dependency, cognitive decline, limitations in the activities of daily life, and frailty levels. A sample of 83 participants was recruited. Data were collected between 2013 and 2017. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Barthel Index (BI), the Lawton and Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Scale, and the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) were used. A set of 26 healthcare needs was defined to support the assessment. The Pearson chi‐square or Fisher’s exact test (as appropriate) was used to examine the association of the needs (unmet and met) with the levels of dementia and frailty. Participants were diagnosed previously with moderate or severe dementia and benefited from a structured home‐care program. There was a high number rated as “severe dementia,” “fully dependent,” “severely or fully dependent in the activities of daily living (ADL),” and “severe frailty.” There were statistically significant differences among needs identified in people with moderate or severe dementia and moderate or severe frailty. The most prevalent healthcare needs in the sample were food preparation, medication/taking pills, looking after their home, toilet use, sensory problems, communication/interaction, bladder, bowels, eating and drinking, memory, sleeping, and falls prevention. In particular, the study identifies a set of needs that are present simultaneously in both frailty and dementia stages. This study underlines that despite well‐structured home‐care programs for people with dementia, unmet health needs remain. Timely healthcare needs assessment may help professionals to avoid fragmented care and to tailor quality‐ integrated interventions, including the emotional and psychological balance of the caregiver.publishe

Mucormicose órbito-rino-cerebral associada à cetoacidose diabética : registro de dois casos

Os autores registam dois casos de Mucormicose órbito-rino-cerebral ocorridos no Maranhão em 1980 e início de 1981, em pacientes portadores de cetoacidose diabética, enfatizando a gravidade desta moléstia causada por fungos oportunistas em pacientes que sofrem de distúrbios metabólicos graves.The authors report two cases of Orbito- rhinocerebral phycomycosis observed during 1980 and the beginning of 1981 in Maranhão, Brazil. Both patients had poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, which emphasises the importance of a decrease in host defenses in opportunistic infections caused by this fungus

Learning about knowledge: A complex network approach

This article describes an approach to modeling knowledge acquisition in terms of walks along complex networks. Each subset of knowledge is represented as a node, and relations between such knowledge are expressed as edges. Two types of edges are considered, corresponding to free and conditional transitions. The latter case implies that a node can only be reached after visiting previously a set of nodes (the required conditions). The process of knowledge acquisition can then be simulated by considering the number of nodes visited as a single agent moves along the network, starting from its lowest layer. It is shown that hierarchical networks, i.e. networks composed of successive interconnected layers, arise naturally as a consequence of compositions of the prerequisite relationships between the nodes. In order to avoid deadlocks, i.e. unreachable nodes, the subnetwork in each layer is assumed to be a connected component. Several configurations of such hierarchical knowledge networks are simulated and the performance of the moving agent quantified in terms of the percentage of visited nodes after each movement. The Barab\'asi-Albert and random models are considered for the layer and interconnecting subnetworks. Although all subnetworks in each realization have the same number of nodes, several interconnectivities, defined by the average node degree of the interconnection networks, have been considered. Two visiting strategies are investigated: random choice among the existing edges and preferential choice to so far untracked edges. A series of interesting results are obtained, including the identification of a series of plateaux of knowledge stagnation in the case of the preferential movements strategy in presence of conditional edges.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figure

Controle interno da execução orçamentária

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Direito, 2017.Este trabalho aborda o tema do controle da execução orçamentária, enfatizando o seu caráter preventivo como dever-ser. Avalia a aptidão do aparelhamento estatal em prevenir a malversação do dinheiro público. Aborda o controle social popular do gasto público, e o emprego do avanço tecnológico para esse fim. Tal abordagem se justificativa diante do dilema da má qualidade dos serviços públicos e da falta de controle orçamentário, em que os recursos públicos se encaminham para a corrupção ou para o desperdício. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é verificar em que termos o ordenamento jurídico brasileiro prevê a prevenção do gasto público inadequado. Os objetivos específicos são descrever a burocracia prevista para a execução da despesa, descrever os mecanismos de controle interno administrativo, realizado pelas próprias unidades executoras de orçamento em colaboração com as controladorias, e descrever sua aptidão para dar eficácia concreta a essa forma de controle preventivo. O método alia a hermenêutica jurídica dogmática, o estudo multidisciplinar de literatura pertinente e seu contraste com o estudo de casos exemplificativos. A conclusão indica a obsolescência dos métodos de controle da administração pública brasileira em atingir os fins colimados pelo sistema de controle interno do poder executivo, apesar da previsão normativa do direito positivo, e indica a alternativa do avanço tecnológico representado pela inteligência artificial empregada em prol da decência dos gastos públicos aliada ao controle popular.This paper deals with the theme of budget execution control, emphasizing its preventive character as a must-be. It evaluates the suitability of the state apparatus in preventing the embezzlement of public money. It addresses the popular social control of public spending, and the use of technological advance to that end. Such an approach is justified by the dilemma of the poor quality of public services and the lack of budgetary control, where public resources are headed for corruption or waste. The general objective of this work is to verify in what terms the Brazilian legal system provides for the prevention of inadequate public spending. The specific objectives are to describe the planned bureaucracy for expenditure execution, to describe the mechanisms of internal administrative control carried out by the budget execution units themselves in collaboration with the controllers, and to describe their ability to give concrete effectiveness to this form of preventive control. The method combines dogmatic legal hermeneutics, the multidisciplinary study of pertinent literature, and its contrast with the study of exemplary cases. The conclusion indicates the obsolescence of the methods of control of the Brazilian public administration in achieving the ends collimated by the system of internal control of the executive power, despite the normative prediction of the positive law, and indicates the alternative of the technological advance represented by the artificial intelligence used in favor of decency of public spending combined with popular control