Acquired brain injury

A neurological condition, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is damage to the brain acquired after birth. It usually affects cognitive, physical, emotional, social or independent functioning and can result from traumatic brain injury (i.e. accidents, falls, assaults, etc.) and nontraumatic brain injury (i.e. stroke, brain tumours, infection, poisoning, hypoxia, ischemia or substance abuse). Most definitions of ABI exclude neurodegenerative disorders. Acquired brain injury is not to be confused with intellectual disability. People with a brain injury may have difficulty controlling, coordinating and communicating their thoughts and actions but they usually retain their intellectual abilities. Brain injury has dramatically varied effects and no two people can expect the same outcome or resulting difficulties. The brain controls every part of human life: physically, intellectually, behaviorally, socially and emotionally. When the brain is damaged, some other part of a person's life will also be adversely affected. Even a mild injury can sometimes result in a serious disability that will interfere with a person’s daily functioning and personal activities for the rest of their life. While the outcome of the injury depends largely on the nature and severity of the injury itself, appropriate treatment will play a vital role in determining the level of recovery.

Random wire antenna

A random-length wire antenna is a type of radio frequency antenna typically chosen more for convenience than any particular design criteria. This antenna sometimes is called the zig-zag antenna, as it may be strung back and forth between trees just to get enough wire into the air. For example, an antenna for 3mhz might be 20m - 40m long.

Usually, it is a long (at least one quarter wavelength) wire with one end connected to the radio and the other in free space, arranged in any way most convenient for the space available. Folding (to fit in space available) will reduce effectiveness and make theoretical analysis extremely difficult. (The added length helps more than the folding typically hurts.) If used for transmitting, a random wire antenna usually will also require an antenna tuner, as it might have a random impedance that varies nonlinearly with frequency.

Typically this antenna is constructed from a number 12 or 14 AWG (1.6 to 2.0 mm diameter) wire of nearly any length. Such an antenna can be used for transmitting on practically any frequency with a properly tuned matching network.Although random wire antennas can be made from nearly any length of wire, one-quarter wavelength works best, and one half wavelength will work poorly with most tuners.

The antenna is fed directly from output of the matching network or a tuned circuit, without a feed line. Since the antenna is located very close to the transmitter, RF feedback can be an issue. RF feedback can be minimized by selecting a wire length that causes the low feed-point impedance at a current loop to occur at the transmitter. Alternately, a remote tuner can be fed with feedline, and the tuner located on the antenna.

The ground for a random wire antenna may be chosen by experimentation. Grounds could be returned to the transmitter, a nearby cold water pipe or a wire that's approximately one-quarter wavelength long.

Transaction types

A number of transaction types may be performed, including the following:

• Sale: where the cardholder pays for goods or service

• Refund: where a merchant refunds an earlier payment made by a cardholder

• Withdrawal: the cardholder withdraws funds from their account, e.g. from an ATM. The term Cash Advance may also be used, typically when the funds are advanced by a merchant rather than at an ATM

• Deposit: where a cardholder deposits funds to their own account (typically at an ATM)

• Cashback: where a cardholder withdraws funds from their own account at the same time as making a purchase

• Inter-account transfer: transferring funds between linked accounts belonging to the same cardholder

• Payment: transferring funds to a third party account

• Enquiry: a transaction without financial impact, for instance balance enquiry, available funds enquiry, linked accounts enquiry, or request for a statement of recent transactions on the account

• E top-up: where a cardholder can use a device (typically POS or ATM) to add funds (top-up) their pre-pay mobile phone

• Mini-statement: where a cardholder uses a device (typically an ATM) to obtain details of recent transactions on their account

• Administrative: this covers a variety of non-financial transactions including PIN change