Performance

A performance, in the performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience members often applaud. After a performance, performance measurement sometimes occurs. Performance measurement is the process of collecting, analyzing and reporting information regarding the performance of an individual, group, organization, system or component.

The means of expressing appreciation can vary by culture. Chinese performers will clap with the audience at the end of a performance; the return applause signals "thank you" to the audience. In Japan, folk performing-arts performances commonly attract individuals who take photographs, sometimes getting up to the stage and within inches of performer's faces.

Sometimes the dividing line between performer and the audience may become blurred, as in the example of "participatory theatre" where audience members get involved in the production.

Computer performance

Computer performance is characterized by the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system or computer network compared to the time and resources used. Depending on the context, high computer performance may involve one or more of the following:

Technical and non-technical definitions

The performance of any computer system can be evaluated in measurable, technical terms, using one or more of the metrics listed above. This way the performance can be

Whilst the above definition relates to a scientific, technical approach, the following definition given by Arnold Allen would be useful for a non-technical audience:

Performance (film)

Performance is a 1970 British crime drama film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, written by Cammell and starring James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in his film acting debut. The film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970.

Plot

Chas (James Fox) is a member of an East London gang led by Harry Flowers (Johnny Shannon); his specialty is intimidation through violence as he collects pay-offs for Flowers. He is very good at his job, and has a reputation for liking it. His sexual liaisons are casual and rough. When Flowers decides to take over a betting shop, owned by Joey Maddocks (Anthony Valentine), he forbids Chas to get involved, as he feels Chas's complicated personal history with Maddocks (which is at least partly gay) may lead to trouble. Chas is angry about this and later humiliates Maddocks, who retaliates by wrecking Chas's apartment and attacking Chas. Chas shoots him, packs a suitcase and runs from the scene.

When Flowers makes it clear that he has no intention of offering protection to Chas but instead wants him eliminated, Chas decides to head for the countryside to hide but instead winds up hiding out in London, requesting that Tony (a trusted friend he refers to as 'Uncle') helps him get out of the country. He assumes a new name, Johnny Dean, and appears at the house of Turner (Mick Jagger), makes a clumsy attempt to ingratiate himself with Pherber (Anita Pallenberg), one of the female inhabitants, and moves in. Turner is a reclusive, eccentric former rock star who has "lost his demon", and who lives there with his female friends Pherber and Lucy (Michele Breton), with whom he enjoys a non-possessive and bisexual ménage à trois, and their child maid Lorraine (Laraine Wickens).

Nona (deity)

Nona was one of the Parcae, the three personifications of destiny in Roman mythology (the Moirai in Greek mythology and in Germanic mythology, the Norns), and the Roman goddess of pregnancy. The Roman equivalent of the Greek Clotho, she spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Nona, whose name means "ninth", was called upon by pregnant women in their ninth month when the child was due to be born.

She, Decima and Morta together controlled the metaphorical thread of life.

Nona (short story)

Nona is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in the 1978 anthology Shadows, and later collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.

Plot summary

The story is the account of an unnamed man being held in prison, recounting his life as a college dropout who had met and fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Nona while aimlessly hitchhiking on a snowy winter's night in Maine. That night, the narrator is seduced by Nona into murdering several innocent bystanders. Somewhere near King's fictional town of Castle Rock, Nona lures the narrator to a graveyard, and, when asking the repeated question 'Do you love?' morphs into a hideously large rat and laughs at him. It is not immediately clear whether or not the narrator has encountered a supernatural force, or if Nona is a figment of insanity. Later, the narrator is found alone by the authorities, taken into custody and sent to prison where he now writes his tale, preparing to commit suicide as he contemplates hearing strange sounds in the walls (not unlike H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Rats in the Walls", or King's own earlier work, "Jerusalem's Lot" or later "1922" featured in the collection "Full Dark, No Stars").

NOνA

NOνA (NuMI Off-Axis ν_e Appearance) is a particle physics experiment designed to detect neutrinos in Fermilab's NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam. Intended to be the successor to MINOS, NOνA will consist of two detectors, one at Fermilab (the near detector), and one in northern Minnesota (the far detector). Neutrinos from NuMI will pass through 810 km of Earth to reach the far detector. NOνA's main goal is to observe the oscillation of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos. By observing how many neutrinos change from one type to the other, NOνA hopes to accomplish three things:

Physics goals

Primary goals

Neutrino oscillation is parameterized by the PMNS matrix and the mass squared differences between the neutrino mass eigenstates. Assuming that three flavors of neutrinos participate in neutrino mixing, there are six variables that affect neutrino oscillation: the three angles θ₁₂, θ₂₃, and θ₁₃, a CP-violating phase δ, and any two of the three mass squared differences. There is currently no compelling theoretical reason to expect any particular value of, or relationship between, these parameters.