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The elusive lynx, once considered part of Colorado's past, now has a big following in the modern world of social media.
Retired National Park Service employee Steve Chaney snapped a rare photo of a pair of the wild cats in southwest Colorado last weekend.
The photos were posted on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Facebook page Wednesday and had more than 9,000 likes early Thursday evening, along with more than 900 comments. More than 6,400 users had shared it on their own pages.
"Wow!" commented T.A. Williams of Breckenridge. "They really do exist."
The pair seemed calm as they walked along a steep, snowy roadside. The precise location was not stated.
The Smithsonian magazine has called lynxes "ghost cats" because they are so rarely seen.
The state's wildlife agency began reintroducing lynxes in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado by releasing animals captured in Alaska and Canada.
The first kittens born to the transplanted lynxes were documented in 2003, and third-generation cats were first found in 2006.
By 2006, 218 lynxes had been brought in and equipped with tracking devices on collars so researchers could monitor their movements.
The much more common bobcat is often mistaken for a lynx, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. A larger cat with a shorter tail, the lynx is gray, 20 to 30 pounds, with a black-tipped bobtail and large hind feet. | <urn:uuid:0f5b2f70-57a2-434a-a5ee-d40b54680416> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22451548 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973452 | 298 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Help for bleeding hearts: New research links a third protein to blood-clotting disordersStudying receptors on the surface of blood platelets, sticky cells that cause blood to clot, has given one Rockefeller researcher new insight into potential causes and treatments for certain cardiovascular diseases. Barry Coller, David Rockefeller Professor and the university's physician-in-chief, has been focusing on a rare disorder known as Glanzmann thrombasthenia, in which platelets lack one of two proteins. Together, the two proteins -- ?IIb and ?3 -- create a cellular receptor that's involved in aggregating blood cells for coagulation; analyzing patients with the disorder previously led Coller to develop a novel therapy for heart-attack and stroke victims that targets this receptor.
In research published in the April 1 issue of Blood, Coller and Beau Mitchell, a research associate in Coller's lab, further characterize the ?IIb?3 receptor by exploring its production and degradation. With colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, they found that the production of the receptor, the protein complex of both ?IIb and ?3, is dependent on a third molecule called calnexin. Calnexin plays an important role in protein folding, and the researchers found that it not only helps form the ?IIb?3 receptor complex, but also tags improperly folded ?3 proteins for destruction. Their findings suggest that the factor that controls receptor formation is likely the calnexin cycle; if the two receptor proteins fail to form a correctly folded complex, ?IIb is broken down by the cell. Coller hopes that further study of ?IIb?3 will yield more information about not just Glanzmann thrombasthenia but the synthesis of other receptors like it. These receptors, which are in the integrin superfamily, play a role in many different functions, including embryonic development, inflammation, and tumor growth and metastases, Coller says. "Insights into rare diseases allow us to study and devise strategies for common diseases."
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:efeef599-3eb1-4f69-9359-9b9908717224> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-04/ru-hfb041906.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931424 | 445 | 3 | 3 |
The Scars on Oedipus's Feet
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Oedipus' Feet Are Swole
Poor Oedipus probably had to wear the ancient Greek equivalent of Crocs: his feet are messed up. It's actually amazing to think that he was able to murder a whole slew of people at a crossroads when his tootsies were so hobbled.
When Oedipus was three days old, his parents received a prophecy saying that he would one day kill his father. So, they pierced and bound his feet and sent him off to be abandoned on a mountainside. Oedipus survived the incident, but was left with scars on his feet. In fact, his name in Greek translates to "swollen foot."
Oedipus's scarred feet are more than a little symbolic. They highlight the fact that he has been marked for suffering from the moment of his birth. This expounds upon Sophocles's idea that humans have no power in face of the gods. For some mysterious reason, Oedipus has always been damned, and there's not much he can do about it.
The scars also highlight the irony of Oedipus's ignorance. Although his name blatantly points attention to his scarred feet (which are the keys to discovering his identity), Oedipus doesn’t realize his true identity until it’s too late. This one's on Jocasta as well. You'd think she might she might have clued in to Oedipus's name long ago and asked him how he got it... or just looked at her hubby's feet. | <urn:uuid:0d174375-4cd3-4579-b230-28ea2caa8741> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/scars-on-oedipus-feet-symbol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99327 | 345 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Classroom Set-Up: Assessing Your Space
Working With What You Have
You've been assigned a classroom. Now you need to assess what you've got to work with, start creating activity areas, and adding and arranging furnishings that will facilitate the activities.
As you assess your classroom space, remember that it is a work place and it should provide adequate light and air, noise control, and storage areas for you and your students.
Here are some questions to help you think about how you want to use your classroom space:
- What kind of space have you been given? An old classroom, an open classroom with sliding doors, a trailer? What accommodations do you need to make?
- How much light do you have? Lots of windows, no windows? Do you need to add a floor lamp? Get brighter bulbs or florescent lighting?
- What are the walls like? Cinderblock? Steel? Magnetic? Mostly windows and cabinets? How will you attach charts? Where will you place computers?
- How do the floors affect your activity areas (no carpet, all carpet, or some carpeted areas)? Could carpet remnants be used to create a relaxing area where students could gather for a whole-group discussion?
- How will you handle student work spaces? Maybe you have only round tables. Or long tables with lab equipment or computers. Or square desks that you can cluster in different ways. How will you provide quiet areas for students? A small table in a corner? Or a carpeted area with overstuffed sofa and floor pillows?
- Can you use the ceiling to suspend interesting objects? Like a solar system model. Or ladders of Spanish verb conjugations. Or student-made mobiles and art.
- Do you have adequate shelving for books, plants, and fish tanks?
- Is there enough storage for students' things? Desks, cubby holes, lockers? Or will you have to provide additional storage containers, like baskets and boxes?
- Do you have enough storage for your personal things and teaching materials? Desk, file cabinets, closets?
As you design your space -- throughout the year -- make sure you're creating a fun place that you and your students will enjoy. Your classroom space should reflect:
- Your personality
- The interests of your students
- The subjects that you're studying
- A touch of whimsy
- A bit of humor
- Plants or animals (if your school allows them) | <urn:uuid:e94b40b9-3beb-45d5-95dc-5721942afc5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.nea.org/tools/classroom-setup-assess-your-space.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933014 | 510 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Johnson Space Center, Houston
Sept. 18, 2007
NASA Maps the Moon with Google
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - New higher-resolution lunar imagery and maps that include NASA multimedia content now are available on the Google Moon Web site.
Updates include new content from the Apollo missions, including dozens of embedded panoramic images, links to audio clips and videos, and descriptions of the astronauts' activities during the missions. The new content is overlaid on updated, higher-resolution lunar maps. Also added are detailed charts of different regions of the moon suitable for use by anyone simulating a lunar mission.
"NASA's objective is for Google Moon to become a more accurate and useful lunar mapping platform that will be a foundation for future web-based moon applications, much like the many applications that have been built on top of Google Maps," said Chris C. Kemp, director of strategic business development at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "This will make it easier for scientists everywhere to make lunar data more available and accessible."
Google Moon's visible imagery and topography are aligned with the recently updated lunar coordinate system and can be used for scientifically accurate mission planning and data analysis. The new site is designed to be user-friendly and encourage the exchange of data and ideas among scientists and amateur astronomers.
This announcement closely follows the release of new NASA content in Google Earth, including photographs taken by NASA astronauts and imagery from NASA's Earth observing satellite sensors, such as the Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor, Landsat and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer.
Astronaut photography was developed in collaboration with the Crew Earth Observations team, part of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. Satellite imagery of Earth was developed in partnership with the Earth Observatory team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
The alliance was accomplished under a Space Act Agreement signed in December 2006 by Google and NASA's Ames Research Center. Google is headquartered near Ames in northern California's Silicon Valley.
For more information on Google Moon, visit: http://moon.google.com
For more information on Google Earth, visit: http://earth.google.com
For information about NASA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
- end -
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NASA Image Policies | <urn:uuid:d9d646e3-35cf-4e15-a832-6355ac238297> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2007/07_65AR.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.849966 | 552 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Access for Students with Low Vision
For many students with low vision, using standard educational materials
is a daily struggle. Look here for Assistive Technoloy suggestions
on adapting educational materials to address many difficulties.
We also offer a handout on Vendors of AT
devices for students with Low Vision. Another website offers
useful information on Aids
and Assistive Technology: Library Services for Visually Impaired
This section offers a range of solutions for what to do if the:
- Print size is too small.
of foreground and background is too low.
- Background is too busy or cluttered
to perceive important foreground information.
- Material is not organized
in a direct left to right sequence, making tracking difficult.
handwriting is slow and quality is poor, making it difficult to complete assignments
on time and to re-read what s/he wrote.
- Browser window is too small and the pointer is hard to find
Some solutions help the student directly. Others are used to modify
classroom materials so the student can independently use them.
For many students with low vision, access to standard educational
materials is a daily struggle that often requires adult assistance.
describes visual impairments that can affect education:
- "Partially sighted" indicates some type of
visual problem has resulted in a need for special education.
- "Low vision" generally refers to a severe visual
impairment, not necessarily limited to distance vision. Low vision
applies to all individuals with sight who are unable to read the
newspaper at a normal viewing distance, even with the aid of eyeglasses
or contact lenses. They use a combination of vision and other
senses to learn, although they may require adaptations in lighting
or the size of print, and, sometimes, Braille.
make print materials accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, four
methods are widely used. These are sometimes referred to as alternate
- Electronic documents, and
- Large print. | <urn:uuid:837710c7-c38e-4db0-9caa-67a742a7e2e2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Populations/LowVision/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909176 | 422 | 3.359375 | 3 |
In July 1894, the U.S. Congress enacted a law to enable the territory of Utah to be admitted into the Union as a state. The act spelled out the calling of a convention composed of 107 delegates to meet beginning in March 1895 to draw up a state constitution. These records are the papers of that convention. They include a copy of the federal enabling act; roll call; transcripts, published and unpublished, of the proceedings; files of proposals, petitions, and other recommendations for inclusion in the state constitution; and a limited number of committee reports, minutes and notes.
Statehood Constitutional Convention (1895) | <urn:uuid:aad2406c-90a6-4623-8041-b322bfeeb591> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://archivesresearch.wordpress.com/tag/state-constitution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924891 | 125 | 3.484375 | 3 |
The handgun is one of the most convenient weapons since it is easy to carry and can be fired by using one hand. Today many people own handguns for sport and personal use. If you follow a few simple steps, a handgun can be easy to draw.
1Create an L-shaped outline. Make the part where the trigger is located a little pointy.
2Draw a horizontal line across the outline. Add an irregular square with rounded edges to complete the trigger guard.
3Add more form to the handgun. Draw the barrel, front sight, rear sight and hammer. Next, draw the trigger, grip and lastly the magazine below. This is where the bullets are loaded.
4Now add a little dimension to the drawing. First shade the top part with a dark shade of gray. Below the horizontal line, shade it with black following the usual contours of a gun. Shade with a lighter shade of gray following the shape of the grip.
5Finally, to complete all the details, draw two horizontal lines near the barrel. One line should be thick and one should be thin. Draw two circles at the center. Add a button near the trigger by drawing a small rectangle with five lines across it. Draw seven inverted L's. The last inverted L must be aligned vertically with the rear sight. Add a slanted rectangle with round corners in the middle of the grip.
Categories: Drawing Weaponry
In other languages:
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 157,422 times. | <urn:uuid:9ff74e8a-9de5-4449-87f6-d1c86a39ea0b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Handgun | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924917 | 311 | 2.84375 | 3 |
A header field in the mail buffer starts with a field name at the beginning of a line, terminated by a colon. Upper and lower case are equivalent in field names (and in mailing addresses also). After the colon and optional whitespace comes the contents of the field.
You can use any name you like for a header field, but normally people use only standard field names with accepted meanings. Here is a table of fields commonly used in outgoing messages.
This field contains the mailing addresses to which the message is addressed. If you list more than one address, use commas, not spaces, to separate them.
The contents of the Subject field should be a piece of text that says what the message is about. The reason Subject fields are useful is that most mail-reading programs can provide a summary of messages, listing the subject of each message but not its text.
This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, like To except that these readers should not regard the message as directed at them.
This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, which should not appear in the header of the message actually sent. Copies sent this way are called blind carbon copies.
To send a blind carbon copy of every outgoing message to yourself, set the variable mail-self-blind to t. To send a blind carbon copy of every message to some other address, set the variable mail-default-headers to "Bcc: address\n".
This field contains the name of one file and directs Emacs to append a copy of the message to that file when you send the message. If the file is in Rmail format, Emacs writes the message in Rmail format; otherwise, Emacs writes the message in system mail file format.
To put a fixed file name in the FCC field each time you start editing an outgoing message, set the variable mail-archive-file-name to that file name. Unless you remove the FCC field before sending, the message will be written into that file when it is sent.
Use the From field to say who you are, when the account you are using to send the mail is not your own. The contents of the From field should be a valid mailing address, since replies will normally go there. If you don't specify the From field yourself, Emacs uses the value of user-mail-address as the default.
Use this field to direct replies to a different address. Most mail-reading programs (including Rmail) automatically send replies to the Reply-to address in preference to the From address. By adding a Reply-to field to your header, you can work around any problems your From address may cause for replies.
To put a fixed Reply-to address into every outgoing message, set the variable mail-default-reply-to to that address (as a string). Then mail initializes the message with a Reply-to field as specified. You can delete or alter that header field before you send the message, if you wish. When Emacs starts up, if the environment variable REPLYTO is set, mail-default-reply-to is initialized from that environment variable.
This field contains a piece of text describing a message you are replying to. Some mail systems can use this information to correlate related pieces of mail. Normally this field is filled in by Rmail when you reply to a message in Rmail, and you never need to think about it (Chapitre 29).
This field lists the message IDs of related previous messages. Rmail sets up this field automatically when you reply to a message.
The To, CC, BCC and FCC header fields can appear any number of times, and each such header field can contain multiple addresses, separated by commas. This way, you can specify any number of places to send the message. A To, CC, or BCC field can also have continuation lines: one or more lines starting with whitespace, following the starting line of the field, are considered part of the field. Here's an example of a To field with a continuation line:
To: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com
When you send the message, if you didn't write a From field yourself, Emacs puts in one for you. The variable mail-from-style controls the format:
Use just the email address, as in firstname.lastname@example.org.
Use both email address and full name, as in email@example.com (Elvis Parsley).
Use both email address and full name, as in Elvis Parsley <firstname.lastname@example.org>.
Allow the system to insert the From field.
You can direct Emacs to insert certain default headers into the outgoing message by setting the variable mail-default-headers to a string. Then C-x m inserts this string into the message headers. If the default header fields are not appropriate for a particular message, edit them as appropriate before sending the message. | <urn:uuid:e633669f-0e88-4a52-af09-ea7bbdc2c661> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.linux-france.org/article/appli/emacs/manuel/html/mail-headers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.863765 | 1,030 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Gamut of Emotions
Healthy psychological development in childhood, and self-actualization in adulthood, require the individual to experience motivational reversals on a regular basis, between each of the motivational dichotomies, so that dominance tendencies do not become fixated. In the paratelic mode the individual explores in a relatively open ended and adventurous way, thus becoming familiar with many aspects of his environment, and developing a range of skills. In the telic mode, the effectiveness of these skills and the relevance of this knowledge is then tested out and modified during serious attempts to cope with anxiety-provoking problems.
One of the major causes of developmental failure is for the paratelic mode to occur too infrequently, the effect of which is that the individual does not have a wide enough range of developed skills to draw from, in confronting serious situations. This results in increasing rigidity of behavior patterns, a few stereotyped avoidance responses tending to be used in the face of threats. Since these forms of response are less likely to be effective than more sophisticated reactions, the individual will tend to feel even more threatened and become entrenched still further in the telic mode - and thus have even fewer opportunities for learning or self-affirmative experiences. A negative learning spiral has been set up, as discussed previously in relation to the COEX. The range of primary emotions resulting from the inter-action of motivational states, is illustrated in the following structural diagram:
The deep structure underlying the generation of 16 primary emotions
(1 of the 8 somatics always accompanying 1 of the 8 transactional emotions)
One should be able to experience the warm agreeableness of being a good citizen, but also from time to time the keen pleasures of defiance and independence; one should be able to experience the pride of personal strength as well as, on other occasions, the comforts of modest humility. The person who can only be serious, can only conform, and can only be modest, displays a stability that is maladjusted. The person who can never be serious, is always awkward and difficult, and continually strives to dominate others, is equally unhealthy.
(A peculiar fact is that supposedly unpleasant 'negative' emotions - such as anger, horror, greed, contempt, fear, disgust - may be enjoyed, given sufficient protective detachment from the contingent circumstances, such as is provided by the cinema, sports field or TV news. These 'parapathic' emotions exist alongside their telic 'twins' of the same name, but have an inverted relationship to hedonic tone. The moments of horror, grief or tragedy, when we are thrilled or moved, are the 'best' parts of the experience. It seems that whatever the source of arousal and whatever the emotion, it will be enjoyed in the paratelic mode, if it is sufficiently intense and we are protected enough for a reversal to the telic not be caused.)
Move on to Transactions
Return to Transforming the Mind - Contents | <urn:uuid:b163182f-5f47-4016-add0-b362824ffe79> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.trans4mind.com/transformation/transform6.2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00099-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947765 | 604 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Article by Selina Lee-Andersen, ©2006 Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
This article was originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Energy - Oil & Gas, March 2006
Under the Kyoto Protocol, emissions trading is one of the key market mechanisms by which countries can meet their emission reduction targets. With the Kyoto Protocol in force, emissions trading systems are either underway or will be implemented shortly in many countries around the world.
The Canadian Domestic Offsets System, which is backed by the Climate Fund Agency, will be implemented in early 2006. Beginning on March 31, 2006, the Climate Fund Agency will purchase credits created by the Domestic Offsets System as well as international credits sanctioned under the Kyoto Protocol. To date, one billion dollars has been allocated for purchases by the Climate Fund Agency, which could yield reductions of between 75 and 115 megatonnes annually between 2008 and 2012. Canada’s reduction goal under the Kyoto Protocol is 270 megatonnes. For more information on emissions trading, please see Emissions Trading under the Kyoto Protocol: Giving Credit where Credit is Due, Blakes Oil & Gas Bulletin, December 1, 2005.
To ensure clarity and to properly allocate risk, parties to an emissions trade will rely on contractual terms to protect their interests. A transaction for the purchase and sale of emission products carries with it inherent risks and challenges which are unique to the carbon market. The form of contract can be tailored to address these aspects and the following issues are often considered in articulating the terms of the contract:
One. Participants to the transaction
Two. Nature of the commodity being traded
Three. Terms of purchase, sale and delivery
Four. How emission reductions and compliance will be evidenced
Five. Representations and warranties
Six. Potential risks and uncertainties
Seven. Dispute resolution
Setting the Tone
The preamble should clearly set out the purposes of the contract, which will help to ensure that the terms of the contract are consistent with those purposes. Such purposes may include complying with a company’s emission reduction obligations, retiring emission rights, obtaining financing for emission reduction projects, or trading in certain emission markets.
On the surface, the identification of parties may appear to be a simple task, but the proper identification of parties to the transaction could be complicated by the fact that various entities may have a potential claim to the emission rights being traded. In identifying the parties, regard should be had to any entities with potential claims arising from their involvement with associated land, people, facilities, equipment, services and investments. Where a number of potential claimants exist, the parties may find comfort through representations and warranties as to the title of the emission rights, or through disclosure provisions. Parties may also wish to obtain waivers or assignments of title from third parties with potential interests in the rights.
The Nature of Emission Rights
In emissions trading, the legal nature of the emissions right will depend on the type of emissions trading system being implemented. Broadly speaking, an emissions right may be classified as either a legislative right or a contractual right. A legislative right is one that is allocated under legislation (such as those created under the Canadian Domestic Offset System) or a right generated by an activity approved by a regulatory authority in accordance with a set of rules (such as the "certified emission reduction" under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol). A contractual right arises from emissions reduction activities outside of established trading regimes, such as a voluntary trade between two private parties. Attempts to define the nature of emission rights may be complicated by the existence of wide-ranging standards under varying domestic emissions reduction regimes. From a buyer’s perspective, a broad definition of the commodity is preferable; but from a seller’s perspective, a narrower definition is preferable to reduce the risk of open-ended obligations.
Emission rights may be further characterized by the year in which they are created (the so-called ‘vintage’ of the right), the jurisdiction and trading system in which they are created, as well as the kind of compound being addressed. If reference is made to a particular system in the contract, provision should be made for the impact of changes to that system or its rules. Furthermore, it will be necessary to determine which gases will be included under the category of greenhouse gas emissions and whether the trading system limits trading to any particular category of gases. Finally, emission rights will need to incorporate a definition of a baseline from which the emission rights resulting from the project will be measured. Methodologies for calculating baselines can be addressed in the provisions pertaining to reporting and verification, however parties may wish to include a baseline in the definition of emission rights itself in order to ensure greater certainty in the scope of any calculation.
The Terms of the Trade
The terms of an emissions trading contract generally address the following:
Delivery date. The delivery date or trigger event by which the emission rights will accrue to the buyer, which may impact on the potential value of emission rights.
Mechanism for timing and delivery. The mechanism by which the emission rights will be transferred will depend on the type of rights being transferred. Where the right is a legislative one, the requirements of the regime should be taken into consideration as there will likely be pre-defined methods of delivery and transfer of title. If the right is a contractual one, the risks associated with delivery should be taken into account in designing the delivery mechanism. Part of this risk may be shared or minimized through the use of a clearing house or registry. The contract should specify the point at which title is transferred, which may occur upon execution of the contract or upon a change of ownership being registered. If the right does not exist yet, the delivery of such future rights should take into account any legislative changes, whether domestic or international, which may impact on the creation of rights and the transfer process.
Shortfall or failure to deliver. Appropriate arrangements should be included to address the management of shortfalls under the contract. These may include: physical replacement of the volume of shortfall of emission rights from other projects or from future years; payment to the buyer in the form of repayment of any up-front payment funds or the cost to the buyer of purchasing replacement rights; and a frustration clause in the event that the emission rights never materialize.
Terms and method of payment. The price of the emission rights should be set out in the contract, and can be tailored to the vintage of the rights or the nature of the rights involved. In addition, the terms of payment should be clearly stipulated in the form of full payment, an option, or a payment on the occurrence of a future event (e.g., such as the issuance of a certificate from the relevant regulatory authority).
Representations and Warranties. Apart from the standard commercial warranties of corporate power, creation and capacity, the parties should include warranties relating to title to the emission rights, security over the rights, creation of the rights, validity of the rights, compliance with environmental regulations, and the undertaking of emission reduction activities.
Security. Forms of security or guarantees, where applicable.
Financial penalties. Penalties for shortfalls or failure to deliver should include provisions for timing, calculation methods and responsibility.
Taxes, levies and charges. Provisions should be included for any current or future taxes, fees, levies or charges (including calculation methods and responsibility).
Default, termination and remedies. The parties should specify what constitutes an event of default and the consequences of such a default. In addition, the parties may wish to consider the consequences of the seller failing to comply with verification obligations or failing to secure host country government approval. The range of remedies can include immediate termination of the contract, the right to a reduction in purchase price, the repayment of amounts paid upfront or the payment of liquidated damages.
Evidencing the Validity of Emission Rights
The main obligation under an emissions trading contract is the delivery of the product. As a result, one of the most significant issues to be agreed between the parties is how delivery will be evidenced. In the current market, the evidentiary burden is usually discharged by demonstrating that real and measurable reductions of GHG emissions have been achieved when measured against a baseline. Where legislative rights are concerned, the form of evidence will likely come in the form of government issued certificates that can be traded or tracked through a central registry. The validation of contractual rights involve more steps and require independent verification of emission reductions. There should be clear provisions for who will be responsible for carrying out initial and ongoing validation of the project, as well as who will be responsible for the costs of verification. If a third party will be involved in verifying the emission reductions, the criteria for such verification should be specified.
The nature of emissions is unique in that the scientific processes which are used to quantify emission reductions are not static and are being improved continuously to produce more accurate results. Scientific uncertainties can be addressed by including a clause which permits the calculation of tonnes to be revisited if different numbers or methodologies are developed or adopted by the relevant authorities.
Managing the Risk
Given the uncertainties associated with the nature and measurement of emissions, certain inherent risks exist. These risks may be categorized as follows:
Project or delivery risk. Any emissions trading transaction carries with it the risk of a shortfall in delivery. The incorporation of remedy clauses can help to alleviate concerns about shortfalls or issues with verification.
Scientific risk. The science of measuring emission reductions is evolving, and changes in baseline calculations or the quantification of emissions may affect the ultimate number of reductions in a project. To mitigate this risk, parties may consider binding themselves to fixed standards or agreeing to re-assess the methodologies at regular intervals.
Counter Party Risk. Over the term of the contract, risks associated with a party’s credit rating or ability to provide credit support may intensify, particularly in the case of small businesses. Parties may wish to include terms of access to financial reports and criteria for prudential requirements, customize financial representations and warranties, define conditions of assignment and survivability, or define events that would constitute a force majeure.
Sovereign and regulatory risk. Where the parties operate outside established systems, there is no certainty that the emission reductions will be recognized or valued. Sovereign risks include expropriation of emission rights by host governments, unilateral actions taken by governments that have a direct effect on the transaction, and the imposition of additional taxes on a project by a host government. While there is little the parties can do to prevent the impact of sovereign and regulatory risks, the contractual terms may be drafted to anticipate regulatory change and limit the liability of the parties in the case of such extraordinary event.
An emissions trading transaction is fraught with uncertainty, and the contract should set out clear dispute resolution procedures in the event that the transaction does not unfold as anticipated. This is particularly important in cross-border transactions where differences in legal systems make it impractical for parties to resolve disputes through domestic courts. International commercial arbitration has become the preferred dispute resolution mechanism for international business transactions and international resource development contracts. The Permanent Court of International Arbitration encourages the use of the Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or for the Environment for settling emissions trading disputes.
With a newly-minted Conservative minority government in Ottawa, the fate of the Canadian Domestic Offsets System, as well as funding for climate change initiatives, is uncertain. However, emissions trading is already taking place in jurisdictions around the world within both regulated and voluntary systems. With the Kyoto Protocol in place – and until a new process for commitments beyond 2012 is adopted – emissions trading will continue to be one of the key mechanisms by which countries will achieve their Kyoto targets.
A well-drafted contract, designed to anticipate certain externalities which are peculiar to the carbon market, can serve to mitigate risks while creating economic and environmental benefits to all those involved.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. | <urn:uuid:66af03d9-ec3d-4f3a-825e-2c4a775e2d66> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=38990&email_access=on | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938099 | 2,441 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In view of the advancing climate change, the exhibition Climate Capsules: Means of Surviving Disaster at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
poses the question: How do we want to live in the future? and draws attention to the socio-political consequences of coexistence under new climatic conditions. In view of the fact that the politicians are hesitant to enforce strict measures for climate protection and the citizens very sluggish about changing their habits, the change appears inevitable. The world community is accordingly confronted with the challenge of investigating various possible means of adapting to the climate change. This exhibition is the first to bring together historical and current climate-related models, concepts, strategies, experiments and utopias from the areas of design, art, architecture and urban development pursuing not the aim of stopping the climate change, but envisioning means of surviving after disaster has struck. More than thirty mobile, temporary and urban capsules intended to make human life possible independently of the surrounding climatic conditions will be on view from floating cities and body capsules to concepts for fertilizing sea water or injecting the stratosphere with sulphur. A symposium, film programme, readings, performances and workshops will revolve around the interplay between design processes and political factors such as migration, border politics and resource conflicts, and investigate the consequences for social and cultural partitioning and exclusion.
The public discussion on the climate change concentrates primarily on preventing change by reducing climate-damaging emissions. This reduction is to be achieved through new means of obtaining energy as well as the optimization of energy consumption. The consumption-oriented lifestyle of the industrial nations is also to become more environmentally friendly; the citizens are called upon to change their habits. Emerging nations are admonished to avoid the mistakes made by the West from the start. There is not the slightest guarantee, however, that enough nations and enough people around the world will participate in such reductions, and that a low-carbon culture will become the globally predominant lifestyle. Nor does anyone know for sure whether the reduction goals presently being discussed will suffice to delay or stop the climate change, which is already measurable today. In the search for alternative solutions, there is a category discussed substantially less often in public: adaptation. Here strategies are developed which aim not to slow or stop the climate change but to adapt to its expected consequences. They include protective measures against flooding and overheating as well as geo-engineering, i.e. large-scale interventions in the global climate.
These technologies are usually subjected only to critical discussion with regard to their technical feasibility. Until now, their possible socio-political effects have for the most part been ignored. Their impact on the structure of the global society, however, can hardly be overestimated: in the endeavour to make life possible independently of outward climatic conditions, these strategies encourage spatial, social and political isolation. Ostensibly motivated by climate-related considerations, they could well lead to inclusion and exclusion on all levels of life, from the interpersonal to the global. They create the conditions for social segregation and global polarization. The exhibition Climate Capsules: Means of Surviving Disaster will focus primarily on application-oriented projects for climatological capsules from the areas of design, art, architecture, urban development and geo-engineering. The show will reflect on the (political, cultural, socio-spatial) impact of these current adaptation strategies on society by means of contemporary artistic approaches and avant-garde concepts of the twentieth century. Historical projects in the context of the climate change will thus assume new meaning. The current artistic projects question the positivist perspective of their counterparts of the past, and offer the exhibition visitor a further level of sensory experience. The exhibition objects can be divided into five types: body capsules, living capsules, urban capsules, nature capsules and atmosphere capsules.
The exhibition begins with the interactive installation La Parole by Pablo Reinoso. Two visitors at a time can poke their heads into the inflatable textile construction and share the air they breathe as well as a common visual and audio space. The experience of this work raises the question as to how people can protect their bodies from contaminated air, pollutants, storms and aggressive solar radiation. Again and again in the course of the show, the visitor encounters body capsules addressing the topic of clothing as bodily protection from climatic conditions.
The objects belonging to this group extend the encapsulated space from the body encasement to the immediate living space. Utopian designs for mobile capsules of the 1960s such as the Walking City by Ron Herron (Archigram) still figured in the discussion emphasizing temporary and mobile structures as experimental free spaces after ideas introduced by such architects as Constant or Yona Friedman. Today mobility is no longer just a question of freedom the counterpart to voluntary mobility is flight, the spatial equivalent the temporary camp. The visitor thus stumbles across Michael Rokowitzs paraSITE, for example, an inflatable tent which the artist developed in collaboration with the homeless person Bill Stone. Like the other tents in the series, it is designed for use in an exhaust air shaft. It can dock onto a building as a temporary parasite. In this context of precarious modi vivendi brought about not least of all by global inequality (which is further aggravated by the climate change) and the resulting mass migration what were once visionary temporary living concepts appear in a new light. They are not spaces of liberation, but of isolation.
Cities are the largest energy consumers, and urbanization continues to increase worldwide. Zero waste, zero emission, zero energy are the creeds of the present. Already in the 1950s, Richard Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao sketched the utopia of a climatically self-sufficient reorganization of the city with their Dome over Manhattan. In this vision, a huge dome covers a large proportion of the island. Today, these encapsulations from the outside are already being realized in conjunction with the design of internal climate worlds, whether on the scale of large building complexes or energy-self-sufficient cities such as Masdar by Norman Foster. Other concepts show that, against the background of imminent climate disasters, the urban system is conceived of increasingly as an autarchic unit, sealed from the outside world, and confronted with the need for the self-contained management of its ecological resources. This debate is carried to the furthest extreme by Vincent Callebauts conception for a floating city Lilypad intended as a haven for climate refugees.
Just as the city is to be protected from the climatologically changing environment, nature is also to be elevated into a sphere of safe artificiality and preserved in nature capsules. Ecosystems are replicated by human hand on the micro level and sealed off from the outside. A concept which initially presents itself as a protective mechanism robs the flora and fauna assembled within it of their connection to the macrolevel ecosystem: Earth. The question arises: can that which is being protected inside such a capsule still be thought of as nature? Or is it a deceptively genuine human artefact? These considerations are made very vivid in Ilkka Halsos photo series Museum of Nature, consisting of digital montages which insert forests, lakes and rivers into imaginary museum buildings.
The maximum scale of adaptive design strategies is reached with geo-engineering. With chemical or physical interventions, attempts are made to control climatological, geochemical and biochemical systems actively on the global level, and thus to moderate the climate. The historical forerunners of this development are psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reichs para-scientific Cloudbusters and the U.S. Armys Project Cirrus, both of which sought to influence the weather technically by different means. Today, various well-known scientists and research institutes are working on large-scale interventions aiming to protect the global climate from negative influences. Utopian proposals are juxtaposed with feasible projects such as endeavours to reduce global warming through the use of reflective white paint on roofs and streets. To date it is impossible to calculate the consequences of such far-reaching interventions, and they are nowhere near realization. Yet the fact that they are discussed seriously indicates how close climatological developments have already come to the point where emission-reduction strategies become obsolete.
Participating artists, designers and architects: Anderson Anderson Architecture (US), Ant Farm (US), Archigram (GB), Richard Buckminster Fuller (US), Vincent Callebaut (B), Juan Downey (US), David Greene (GB), Tue Greenfort (DK), Ilkka Halso (FI), Haus-Rucker-Co (AT), Ron Herron (GB), Kouji Hikawa (JP), Christoph Keller (D), MAD Architects (VRC), Lawrence Malstaf (B), Gordon Matta-Clark (US), Gustav Metzger (D), N55 (DK), Lucy Orta (GB), Michael Rakowitz (US), Pablo Reinoso (ARG/F), Shoji Sadao (US), Tomás Saraceno (Planet Erde), Noah Sheldon (US), Robert Smithson (US), Werner Sobek (D), Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (D), Matti Suuronen (FI), Ingo Vetter (D). | <urn:uuid:1e66520e-dc7a-4283-9110-586cb172b33a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://artdaily.com/news/38312/Climate-Capsules--Means-of-Surviving-Disaster-at-the-Museum-f-r-Kunst-und-Gewerbe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932676 | 1,875 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Deciphering the cosmic number: the strange friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung
Arthur I. Miller
Nonfiction 336 pages
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2009
Despite the title, you’ll have to read the final chapter before you learn much about the number 137. But that doesn’t hurt this double biography. Along the way you’ll learn about the numbers three and four and what they meant to Johannes Kepler and Robert Fludd, one a pioneer of science, the other a mystic.
While three is the number of the trinity, four is that of the cardinal directions. Jung and Pauli both examined the symbolism of these numbers.
Their relationship began when Pauli approached Jung for therapy. Although, Jung referred him to one of his pupils, Jung took an active interest in Pauli’s analysis. As their friendship developed, Pauli found an outlet for his mystical, intuitive side. Jung hoped that Pauli could lend a more scientific foundation to Jung's brand of psychology.
Jung believed that the human psyche was populated by archetypes which supplied symbolic meaning. Certain numbers, among them three and four, could take on archetypal qualities in dreams and visions. Just as these numbers appeared in myth and alchemical texts, they also appeared in Pauli’s dreams and in his efforts to discover the structure of the atom.
Early in his career, Pauli worked with Niels Bohr whose theory of the atom hinged on three quantum numbers. But the theory wasn’t complete until Ralph Kronig proposed that electrons had a spin of one half and others provided evidence. Spin became the fourth quantum number, but its addition meant that electrons could no longer be visualized.
Pauli and Jung both believed in the paranormal, unlike Jung’s mentor Sigmund Freud. Once while arguing with Freud about parapsychology, Jung experienced a feeling like his diaphragm was turning into hot iron. Just then, a loud noise came from Freud’s bookcase and both men jumped. Jung remarked that the event was an example of “a physical effect brought about by a mental thought.” Freud was merely dismissive.
Pauli was a believer in what his colleagues named the Pauli Effect. Pauli was sometimes unwelcome in physics laboratories because lab equipment frequently failed in his presence. But the Pauli Effect didn’t just destroy lab equipment. People suffered as well. On one occasion the chairs to his right and left simultaneously collapsed dislodging the women sitting on them.
Jung coined the term “synchronicity” to account for a type of paranormal phenomena. Synchronicity is what Jung calls meaningful coincidences that have no apparent cause. For example, on one occasion a woman was discussing her dream of a scarab when one tapped on Jung’s office window. The coincidental appearance of a real scarab profoundly affected Jung’s patient and allowed her to benefit from her therapy. Telepathic and precognitive dreams are other examples of synchronicity.
The causal universe of Newtonian physics was displaced early in the twentieth century by the arrival of quantum physics. Events at the quantum level could no longer be said to be causal – they are probabilistic. Both Pauli and Jung were well aware of this and Pauli had no difficulty accepting the possibility of synchronicity.
The friendship between the two resulted in the 1952 publication of “The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche,” a volume containing two essays — Jung’s “Synchronicity: an acausal connecting principal” and Pauli’s “The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler.”
Returning to 137 — the number occurs several places in the book. Bohr’s theory was tested by examining the spectral lines created by the light emitted when an electron drops from a higher to a lower orbit. Some of these were found to consist of closely spaced individual lines known as the “fine structure.” The distance between the lines of the fine structure of a spectral line, Bohr called “the fine structure constant.” Pauli was able to determine that this constant is a pure number equal to 1/137 or 0.00729. He wondered why 137 and not some other number — a question that was to occupy much of his professional life.
In addition to being a prime number, there are several other interesting facts about this number. The values of the Hebrew letters which spell the word Kabbalah total 137. So do the Biblical phrases, “The God of Truth” and “The Surrounding Brightness,” and the Hebrew word for “crucifix.”
But perhaps the oddest coincidence was that the hospital room in which Pauli died was number 137. When Charles Enz visited Pauli, he informed Enz that the room was number 137, “I’m never getting out of here alive.”
Miller’s book is an interesting mixture of biography and science and very hard to put down. For those who understand the math, Miller supplies a bit to ponder. But for the most part, the book can easily be enjoyed by non-scientists. | <urn:uuid:b1392aa5-1b6b-430d-ae58-1f1f951bd002> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.truthandtalltales.com/jung-pauli.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966717 | 1,100 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Study Raises Concerns About Drug-Resistant HIV
January 15, 2010
The emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV could one day threaten efforts to control the global HIV pandemic, according to a study published online Thursday in the journal Science, HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report reports. The researchers based their findings on "a mathematical model that tracks the transmission of multiple strains of HIV" in San Francisco, the news service writes (1/14).
The report asserts that "drug-resistant strains [in the city] are improving their ability to transfer from person to person," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "According to their research, about 60 percent of the drug-resistant strains circulating in San Francisco are infectious enough that they could create mini-epidemics among HIV-positive patients," the newspaper writes adding that "San Francisco public health officials emphasized that drug-resistant HIV is not a health crisis and said that while the study is interesting, they don't expect it to change how doctors treat people with HIV infections" (Allday, 1/15).
According to the researchers, the mutant strains run the risk of reversing progress made in HIV treatment programs in developing nations, where there is little access to alternative medications when resistance to first-line therapies occurs, Bloomberg/Business Week reports. "If the resistant strains we have identified in our analyses evolve in these countries, they could significantly compromise HIV treatment programs," the researchers wrote (Bennett, 1/14).
"This isn't just about San Francisco. It's basically about many other communities in resource-rich countries and has significant implications for global health," study senior author Sally Blower, director of the Center for Biomedical Modeling and a member of the AIDS Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a university news release, according to HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report. "San Francisco is like the canary in the mine. In fact, the most significant implications of our work are for countries where treatment is just being rolled out" (1/14).
Researchers say the results of their study cast doubt on a 2008 study by WHO that predicted "testing everyone for HIV in hard-hit African countries and treating all infections immediately may eliminate most of the virus's spread," because it did not account for the possibility of drug-resistant HIV strains, Bloomberg/Business Week writes (1/14).
TIME writes though "[c]urrent treatment guidelines do not call for the prescription of antiretroviral drugs until there is evidence of progressive damage to the immune system," some health experts have advocated "a 'test and treat policy' for populations with high HIV rates, as in major Western cities and parts of the developing world. ... In November, WHO held a conference in Geneva to discuss whether the policy should be rolled out through its various agency programs."
The magazine continues, "According to the team behind the Science study, however, that could prove disastrous. 'Test and treat has been designed based on overly simplistic modeling. It is misguided and could lead to very serious public-health problems in resource-constrained countries,' Blower says." The article includes comments by Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, who says the Science study illuminates the need for an HIV vaccine and patent pools for HIV drugs (Harrell, 1/14).
This article was provided by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. It is a part of the publication Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report. Visit the Kaiser Family Foundation's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services. | <urn:uuid:205c09db-8459-4d46-99d9-2cb8f20508b9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thebody.com/content/art55137.html?nxtprv | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952083 | 741 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I have one question regarding Application variables in jsp.
How to use application variables. What is its scope.What r its advantages.
thanx in advance
Application variables are simply Java objects, which are identified by their unique name (Just like session variables). Their scope is the entire web application, meaning once you have set then in the application, they will stay there until you remove them (or until the application teminates). An application, as defined by Sun, is "a collection of servlets and content installed under a specific subset of the server's URL namespace such as /catalog and possibly installed via a .war file".
They are usefull for global variables that all your jsp's and servlets have to access, and are typically initialized when the application starts.
An example for this might be a class which contains some application constants, which are read from a data source upon start up, and have to be accessed by servlets and jsp's. You use them like this:
in jsp's: application.setAttribute("variableName", someObject)
in servlets: getServletContext().setAttribute("variableName", someObject)
can u send me some more information on this.
well my question is
How can we get the value in Servlet, which is set in jsp by using "application.setAttribute("anyvalue",anyvalue);"?
i dont want any other alternative request.setAttribute object or use session.setAttribute in jsp instead of apllication.setAttribute....
I jst need a specific answer related to my question only.... | <urn:uuid:afddc654-f9c2-42d7-842e-9275a5389f29> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=3791 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.889495 | 333 | 2.578125 | 3 |
According to Health Facilities Management, new options for hospital lighting control systems are readily available, and one option that lets patients dim lights in the entire room or at the bedside involves the installation of standard dimming ballasts.
Meanwhile, the digital addressable lighting interface (DALI) is a "smart" ballast system, involving a centrally located processor that receives signals from ballasts located within each light fixture. The processor can be alerted to a ballast's settings or need for service, depending on the software used. Each piece of operating equipment with a DALI interface is capable of individual communication, while a DALI only needs two wires to relay the communication signal to all devices on a single network.
When considering a transition to a DALI system, health facilities professionals should assess the desirability of changing light levels within the user's own space while limiting the effect on others, the generation of automatic problem reports by the lighting system, the logging of the system's energy consumption, changing the zoning of light fixtures without rewiring, and circuiting the light fixtures as efficiently as possible without considering which fixtures are connected together.
Other emergent technologies whose deployment in the hospital environment is considered inevitable include LED lighting, which promises more efficiency than compact fluorescent lights; radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which could be employed to store a patient's lighting preferences as well as track patients in the hospital; and colored lights, which may help in the healing process and could work in conjunction with RFID technology to adjust to patients with specific ailments.
Reasons why hospitals are not universally adopting advancements, such as the DALI ballast system, include the need to install a facility-wide network to connect individual lighting fixtures to a centrally located processor and high initial costs. | <urn:uuid:1f384fdd-e09d-48a5-8cc1-4cea23e9dbd5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ecmag.com/print/section/lighting/lighting-way-better-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944681 | 363 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The arrival in Antrim of a young Caledonian slave named Succat would hardly seem worthy of historical note, but that slave became St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland and the person responsible for opening the land to Christianity. Patrick began by converting fellow slaves (who later aided his escape) and is said to have had an angelic vision of the people of Ireland crying out to him to be their spiritual guide.
Christian missionaries did exist in Ireland prior to Patrick's coming, but had little success. Patrick, understanding the religious politics of the land, started by attempting to convert the high king, Lagohaire. Though he was unsuccessful, he did amass an army large enough to gain access to Tara on Easter Sunday, 453 c.e.
Many of the legends regarding Patrick are unauthenticated, but they do show the systematic attempt to purge the faith in the Goddess form the Irish culture. It is said that during a famine, he made a herd of pigs appear - pigs were sacred and only consumed as on ritual occasions. The legend tell of Patrick "driving the snakes out of Ireland" is felt to be symbolic of the destruction of the influence of the Druids, who used small black snakes as familiars. Patrick is also given credit for making the shamrock the symbol of Ireland by linking it to the Holy Trinity, however the shamrock was already sacred to the people due to it's association with the Triple Goddess.
Patrick worked zealously building monasteries over Wittan sacred sites, enclosing sacred wells and standing stones in churchyards, and dismantling or christianizing Irish shrines. The office of "Bishop" was instituted at his behest and each clan received one, willing or not.
It is interesting to note, however that in many ways Patrick did a great service to the Wittan religion in preserving some of the earliest know pagan legends. In his effort to preserve the native culture of Ireland, he had many of the oral traditions committed to text. His reasoning, however, remains unclear as he latter had many of the original Celtic works of religion and literature burned.
Patrick and those who followed him were aware of the druidic veneration for trees and were undisturbed by it, the notion that that the people worshiped stones, however, had them roiling. The probably gained this impression from the stone megaliths and dolmens erected throughout the islands. Neither the Wittans, nor the Druids worshiped stones, and yet the papacy continuously denounced the practice.
Patrick's ploy to undermine the power of the Druids began by convincing his converts that Druidic power was a gift directly for Satan, a conjecture based on the small black snakes Druids used for familiars, and the connection between the serpent and the Christian Devil. The same rational would later be used against Latin Americans who worshiped a serpentine deity.
Christian influence in Ireland was temporarily crushed when Scandinavians, sympathetic to the Irish pagan cause, invaded. The Church turned a blind eye to the invaders and the Vikings were not routed until 1014 when King Brian Boru won the battle of Clontarf. The Church's inability to protect Ireland lost them many followers who, in keeping with Celtic custom, could not trust a leader that was not a proven warrior.
The Church's final assault began when they refused to tolerate Irish women's worship of a separate Goddess any longer and, in 1115, King Henry II obtained a papal bull authorizing his possession of Ireland. The Church then began to dismantle the Old Religion by force.
Suggested News Resources
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- ALBANY — Motorists, beware: New York State Police will again boost its drunken-driving enforcement efforts for St. Patrick's Day.
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abnormal psychology dsm-iv tr | <urn:uuid:601eb2ec-739e-4773-8d62-5026ce534ef0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.realmagick.com/5059/st-patrick/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968656 | 1,035 | 3.703125 | 4 |
January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day! The food spread made from roasted peanuts first rose up in popularity in the late 1800s. It is now considered a staple in 90% of American households, and the United States is the leading exporter of this savory and sweet spread.
Though it’s up for debate on who the original creator of peanut butter was, it started gaining popularity in the late 1800s. John Harvey Kellogg, who was a doctor and is also known for creating corn flakes cereal with his brother, patented the “Process of Preparing Nut Meal” in 1895. The holistic doctor fed peanut butter made from boiled peanuts to patients in his sanitarium. A St. Louis snack maker named George Boyle has also been credited with making peanut butter with roasted peanuts as early as 1894. George Washington Carver, who invented many other peanut-related products, is also sometimes credited with its invention. Spreadable peanut butter as we know it today was created in 1923 by the Heinz company after they homogenized peanuts.
Did you know that it takes about 550 peanuts to make a 12 ounce jar of peanut butter? Or how about that the average American consumes over six pounds of peanut butter products every year? Whether it’s paired with it’s jelly counterpart in a sandwich, baked into cookies, or slathered on a stick of celery – we love peanut butter! It’s a good thing too because peanut butter has many proven health benefits. Two teaspoons of peanut butter contain 12.3 grams of unsaturated fat, making it a heart healthy snack. Peanut butter is also high in potassium, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease. Because of peanut butter’s richness, it can keep you full longer than other snacks, which can help prevent unwanted weight gain. A serving of peanut butter also contains about 4.3 milligrams of niacin, a nutrient that helps keep you sharp and prevents cognitive decline leading to diseases such as Alzheimer’s in older age.
Celebrate National Peanut Butter Day by trying some of these recipes including the popular snack food:
- Homemade Peanut Butter Recipe
- Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
- Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies
- Peanut Butter Pudding
- Peanut Butter + Honey Milkshake
Happy National Peanut Butter Day! | <urn:uuid:2ebee5fa-d28b-4e37-a8bd-28b84e91e848> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.calendars.com/tag/january-24/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956474 | 487 | 2.96875 | 3 |
It’s the worst-case scenario. You are in the ocean and you are enjoying a great a great day of swimming, snorkeling or scuba diving. But instead of being able to observe all of the beauty of marine life, your life changes in a moment. You are being hunted, and then attacked by a shark. While you may be filled with panic and fear, your situation is not necessarily hopeless. You have a chance to survive the the attack if you take the proper steps to defend yourself. Check out these tips for fighting a shark and emerging victorious, and alive!
Prepare! Grab hold of any sharp weapon you can get your hands on if you find that a shark attack is imminent. If you are a diver, you should have a dive knife with you at all times just in case of any emergency. You should have your knife attached to your waist or your lower leg. If you do not have full diver’s gear, grab anything you can get your hands on, including a rock or a sharp stone.
Strike First! Attack the most sensitive area of the shark to defend yourself effectively. Your first blow should be around the eyes. If you can strike a blow to the shark’s eyes with a knife or a rock, you have a very good chance of stunning the shark, disorienting it, or hurting it. When that happens, you will blunt the shark’s attack and the animal will retreat and potentially leave you alone. If you can’t reach the eyes, go for the gills or the snout. If you are going after either of these areas, your attack will be more effective if you are wearing diving gloves because the shark’s skin has sharp denticles that can make it very difficult to sustain a pounding attack if you don’t have protection on your hands. Still, some cut up hands are better than being sheared in half.
Move! Position your body in a vertical position when you are in the water. It is easier for a shark to attack a horizontal victim than one that is in a standing or tall profile. The shark may swim away if you are vertical so it can look for something else to attack that is horizontal. Think of a dog with a bone in its mouth. You don’t see the bone in there vertically too often, do you? Don’t be the bone for the dog, okay? Make it tough for the shark to get a hold of you. It’s not like he has hands.
Don’t Quit! Continue to fight hard if the shark gets its jaws on you. The worst thing you can do is try to “play dead” in the hope that the shark will not continue its attack if you act in a lifeless manner. Fight hard with every breath you have and go for the eyes and gills with your punches. Playing dead only makes the shark think that he’s won, and he may carry you off to the depths. If you give up the fight, you’re done for, and if you quit, you’re done for. The only alternative is to fight hard. Keep at it, and you’ll come out okay. Well, maybe not okay, but not dead! | <urn:uuid:08aaeea5-5c8f-47b4-a014-b00d4a2c4a10> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mademan.com/how-to-fight-a-shark-and-win/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943192 | 674 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The multihop configuration provides flexible network construction, allowing for different link specifications according to given distances and transmission speeds. (All images courtesy of NICT.)
The TV white-space spectrum has proven that it can increase broadband-communication services in difficult areas. Yet it has not been fully vetted for long-range communications. When an unlicensed portion of radio spectrum with a low probability of interference is used on existing infrastructures, the lower frequency (470 to 710 MHz in Japan) typically has a low impact on distance decay (compared to higher-frequency legacy systems). Recently, a long-range broadband-communications field trial in Japan’s TV white space was completed using IEEE 802.22- and 802.11af-based systems.
The IEEE 802.22 standard for wireless regional-area networks (WRANs) covers a radius of 10 to 40 km for rural-area broadband service. The IEEE 802.11af standard, in contrast, specifically targets white-space operation. In this demonstration, a multihop network was constructed using an IEEE 802.22 backbone link. That link was connected to an IEEE 802.11af wireless link, thereby expanding the connection area. The multihop configuration uses a relay terminal to connect terminals that cannot directly transmit on their own. A wireless local-area network (WLAN), based on conventional IEEE 802.11b/g/n in the 2.4-GHz band, was attached to the IEEE 802.11af link. It allowed off-the-shelf devices to access the network’s connection.
The trial was performed in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Hitachi Kokusai Electric. It showed successful downstream and upstream data transmission—at speeds of 5.2 Mb/s and 4.5 Mb/s, respectively—at a distance of 12.7 km between an IEEE 802.22-based base station and customer premise equipment (CPE). With its potential to bring broadband service to rural areas, this technology could be especially useful in supporting communications during disasters. The multihop configuration provides flexible network construction, allowing for different link specifications according to given distances and transmission speeds. Applications include video monitoring of roads and cliffs and video-phone capabilities in mountainous areas, where network connections are either limited or completely unavailable.
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This file type includes high resolution graphics and schematics when applicable. | <urn:uuid:b08ad1d8-46a8-4b3b-99f1-f0d66d63740c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mwrf.com/services/white-space-spectrum-shows-potential-long-range-communications | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898777 | 514 | 2.875 | 3 |
Vietnamese clothing refers to the traditional clothes worn in Vietnam. Contents. [
hide]. 1 History; 2 Examples of garments; 3 20th Century; 4 Images ...
In Vietnam, there are 54 ethnic groups, each having unique and specific styles of
clothing. Traits often include splendid colors, seemingly contradicting one ...
Traditional costumes of the Vietnamese people tend to be very simple and ...
Ordinary people were not allowed to wear clothes with dyes other than black, ...
The "ao dai" ("flowing tunic") has been the traditional dress for Vietnamese
women long, long ago. There are many different kinds of ao dai: the four-part
Aug 30, 2012 ... People in Vietnam wear cotton clothes. Styles differ in northern and southern
Vietnam. Many people wear sandals made of old tire ...
A lasting impression for any visitor to Vietnam is the beauty of the women
dressed in their long gowns called ao dais.
Traditional clothes, especially Ao Dai, is the one which Vietnamese people are
always proud of and which attracts most foreigners.
Sep 13, 2008 ... As far as you may know, there are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, each of which
has unique and specific styles of clothing. Unlike the colorful ...
Mar 14, 2012 ... In Vietnam the people commonly use the dresses made up of cotton and ... the
trend is to wear the western clothing but in the remote and rural ...
Evolution of Vietnamese Clothing (and Ao Dai) by lilsuika.deviantart.com on @
deviantART Very first one is perfect for the sort of clothing style I am going for. | <urn:uuid:133b7042-8cd2-469d-af35-cb992f42d01b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ask.com/web?q=Vietnamese+Clothing&o=2603&l=dir&qsrc=3139&gc=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878076 | 347 | 2.625 | 3 |
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering News
Conway, Ehrman, Guo and Wachsman Present at Sustainability Workshop
ChBE junior Matthew Conway, Professor and Chair Sheryl Ehrman, postdoctoral research associate Dr. Juchen Guo, and Professor Eric Wachsman presented their work on solar energy, fuel cells and battery technology at the 2011 Clark School Engineering Sustainability Workshop, held in honor of Earth Day. The workshop invites faculty, students and guests from industry and government to present and propose ways to maximize technology's positive impact on the long-term availability of natural resources, and to minimize its negative impact.
In his presentation, "Sustainability of Small-Scale Development in Burkina Faso," Conway, a project leader with the University of Maryland chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), described how his team's work in installing solar-powered lights, charging stations and water pumps in Africa challenged their notions of what sustainability really meant. For EWB, "sustainability" means more than what resource generates the power.
"When we send a team to Burkina Faso to install a system," he told the audience, "our number one question is, 'When we leave...will our system continue to work without us?'" Whether a lighting system could survive infestations of insects, whether a solar-powered pump could still be used by hand in the event of a failure, whether equipment could be repaired by residents with locally-available parts, and whether a solution could be replicated and expanded beyond the original installation all became part of their definition of "sustainability."
In "Energy from Sunlight: Sustainable Processing of Materials," Ehrman discussed a variety of issues affecting the adoption of solar power. In the U.S., consumers face a number of challenges when trying to convert to solar power: the technology is still expensive, government incentives are not straightforward, and buyers are faced with the uncertainty of being able to purchase replacement parts. Storage of solar energy for later use is also still problematic. She presented her own research group's potential solutions to that problem, including photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems that convert sunlight into hydrogen split from water, which could then be stored or transported. She also discussed constraints of economy, efficiency, and materials, as well as reclamation of materials that are byproducts of solar cell production.
In his presentation, "Advanced Electrode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries," Guo described advances in the battery research he conducts with Assistant Professor Chunsheng Wang (joint, UMERC). The pair have been developing a new silicon-based electrode for lithium-based rechargeable batteries that can be used in vehicles, to store wind energy, or as part of a "smart grid" system. The new electrode incorporates nano-sized silicon particles into a porous 3D polymer scaffold structure capable of accommodating the silicon's large volume change during the charge/discharge process, keeping the electrode intact and increasing the lifespan of the battery. Guo also discussed a new high-power lithium-sulfer battery under development.
In "Low Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: A Transformational Energy Conversion Technology," Wachsman (joint; Department of Materials Science and Engineering), the director of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center, discussed his group's recent advances in the development of solid oxide fuel cells. These cells have the flexibility of operating on hydrogen or diesel fuel, which could make them feasible for use in vehicles before a hydrogen fuel infrastructure is in place, and allow them to remain functional after. His team is also working on reducing the cells' operating temperature to 600°C or lower in order to make them safe for automobiles. Wachsman also described his work on other types of fuel cells that could be used to power a home. Advances in cathode technology could provide ten times the power density—about 10W per cm3—at half the operating temperature than the commercially available cells currently sold by Bloom Energy.
Video of all of the event's presentations can be accessed from the Clark School Engineering Sustainability Workshop web site »
April 25, 2011 | <urn:uuid:6f17b8aa-3ae2-4b52-bf47-57c80e70d1cc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ench.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=5673 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947539 | 852 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|Get Ready to Read! Overview
||Use this 20-question research-based screening tool with
your 4-year-olds. The score will show if a child's pre-reading skills
are weak, strong, or somewhere in between. And activities and resources
to improve those skills will be provided.
|This tool is designed to screen a child twice during the year before kindergarten.
Use the tool first in the fall one year before the child enters kindergarten,
and again the next fall before kindergarten begins, to measure the child's
progress. Don't use the tool more than three times in a year. It's not designed
to measure small changes, and children develop new skills gradually.
|Get Ready to Read! screening tool has a sample question and 20 questions.
When you've finished all 20 questions, the tool will be scored automatically.
|How to use the Get Ready to Read! screening tool:
- Find a quiet time to work and set aside about 10-15 minutes to complete
the screening tool.
- Sit next to the child in front of the computer screen. Give the child
control of the mouse if he or she knows how to use it.
- The screening tool begins with a sample question. Use this question
to make sure that the child knows what to do. Point to the pictures
in the sample question and say to the child: "Let's look at some pictures.
I will ask you a question about them, and you point to (or click on)
the picture that is the best answer. Let's try one."
- Remember, read the statement aloud that appears at the top of the
sample question slowly, clearly, and exactly as it is written on the
screen. Ask the child to point to (or click on) the best answer. This
is a sample question, so you may give hints and feedback only on this
question to make sure the child understands the instructions.
- When you are confident that the child understands what to do, click
on "start" at the bottom of the sample page to continue to the first
- Read the statement at the top of the page to the child exactly as it is written on the screen. You or the child should click on the picture that the child chooses as the answer. Click on "next" to continue to the next question. Continue in this way through all 20 questions.
- After the 20th question, click on the "Get Score" button to get the
- To download a PDF version of the answer sheet, click here.
- The child wants to stop? Say: "We have just a few more. Let's try
to finish." If the child stops paying attention, take a short break.
Start with the next unanswered item. If the child is not able to start
again, restart the screening tool at the beginning a few days later.
- The child asks for help? Say: "Try to do it yourself." You can repeat
a question, but don't offer more help.
- The child says the answer instead of pointing to or clicking on it?
Say: "Can you show me? Put your finger on it."
- The child points to more than one picture or changes an answer? Say:
"Can you pick just one?" Choose the child's final answer.
- The child asks if the answer is right? Give a vague answer: "You're
doing a really good job." Respond the same way whether the answer is
right or wrong.
- The child answers too quickly, or points to the picture in the same
position every time? Say: "Take your time. Look at all the pictures
before you decide." The child may be tired. Take a short break. | <urn:uuid:bbeff5b8-ef43-4795-9795-24060e3c44b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.getreadytoread.org/screening/grtr_directions.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92086 | 782 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Address correspondence to: Luc Van Kaer, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Medical Center North, Room A-5301, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA. Phone: 615.343.2707; Fax: 615.343.2972; E-mail: email@example.com.
First published September 27, 2010 - More info
See the related article beginning on page 3641.
Suppressing unwanted immune responses without compromising host immunity against pathogens is considered the holy grail of immunology. Lack of responsiveness to self-antigens is normally maintained by multiple mechanisms, including the suppressive activities of several T cell subsets. In this issue of the JCI, Jiang and colleagues define a CD8+ suppressor T cell subset in humans that recapitulates a regulatory pathway previously described in mice. These investigators further show that patients with type 1 diabetes have defects in their CD8+ suppressor T cells, thus identifying these cells as potential therapeutic targets in human disease.
A cardinal feature of the immune system is its capacity to distinguish self from nonself, a property referred to as immunological self-tolerance. Breakdown of the immune mechanisms that normally maintain self-tolerance is a factor contributing to the etiology of many human diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D) and MS. Devising means to promote self-tolerance while maintaining effective immune defenses against infectious agents and cancer has been a goal of immunologists ever since the pioneering studies by Medewar and colleagues on immune tolerance (1).
Immune tolerance is normally maintained by both central mechanisms, which are active during lymphocyte development in central lymphoid organs (2), and peripheral mechanisms, which are active after lymphocyte emigration to peripheral lymphoid organs (3). Developing T cells in the thymus undergo a rigorous selection process that purges potentially harmful T cells through a process known as negative selection. Through positive selection, the thymus promotes survival of T cells that recognize antigens in the context of the MHC molecules expressed by the individual, a phenomenon referred to as self-MHC restriction. However, due to the delicate balance between the need for self-MHC restriction and elimination of potentially harmful T cells, a substantial proportion of T cells with low or intermediate affinity for self-antigens manage to escape to the periphery. These potentially harmful T cells are normally kept in check by a variety of peripheral tolerance mechanisms, including the induction of unresponsiveness, regulation by immunosuppressive cytokines, and suppression by Tregs (3). Although early studies on T cell suppression focused on cells expressing CD8, studies in recent years have centered on CD4+CD25+ Tregs and NKT cells (4). However, in this issue of the JCI, Jiang and colleagues now show that CD8+ suppressor T cells have a role in maintaining self-tolerance in humans and provide a potential means to harness these cells for therapeutic purposes (5).
The existence of T cells with suppressive capacity was first proposed in the early 1970s by Gershon and colleagues (6). These cells, most of which expressed CD8, were extensively investigated during the next decade, but subsequent studies failed to identify the molecular basis of suppression, which brought the field to an abrupt halt in the mid-1980s. The field was eventually revived in the mid-1990s by the identification of natural CD4+CD25+ T cells as potent suppressors of autoimmunity (7). Since then, CD4+ Tregs have taken center stage, and CD8+ Tregs have fallen by the wayside. Nevertheless, elegant studies from die-hard proponents of the CD8+ T cell suppressor hypothesis have provided strong evidence that CD8+ Tregs have a role that is complementary to that of CD4+ Tregs (8–10). A key finding was that vaccination with irradiated, antigen-activated autoreactive T cell clones provided protection against the subsequent induction of experimental autoimmune disease in a manner that involved suppression mediated by CD8+ T cells (11, 12). These studies suggested that a subset of CD8+ T cells with suppressive activity reacted with antigenic determinants on the vaccinating cells and subsequently recognized these same determinants on the pathogenic T cells. Studies using the EAE animal model of MS further demonstrated a critical role of CD8+ T cells in suppressing disease following secondary challenge with autoantigens and during disease relapse (13, 14). The regulatory functions of CD8+ T cells were also observed in other models of autoimmune diseases, including collagen-induced arthritis, autoimmune myocarditis, and herpes simplex virus–induced stromal keratitis (15). CD8+ T cells with suppressor activities have also been implicated in human autoimmune diseases, including MS (16) and inflammatory bowel disease (17). Nevertheless, acceptance of the CD8+ T cell suppressor hypothesis required demonstration of the molecular mechanisms involved.
Early studies suggested a role for the Qa-1 molecule in the mechanisms underlying suppression of CD4+ T cells by CD8+ Tregs (18). Mouse Qa-1 and its human homolog HLA-E belong to a large group of unconventional MHC class Ib molecules that are related to conventional MHC class Ia molecules (19). Qa-1 and HLA-E are best known for their capacity to bind the inhibitory receptor CD94/NKG2A on NK cells (20). These proteins are transiently upregulated on activated T cells and bind hydrophobic peptides derived from self or foreign proteins. They are predominantly occupied by peptides, Qdm in mice and B7sp in humans, derived from the signal sequences of other MHC class I molecules. The association of CD8+ Tregs with Qa-1 was most clearly demonstrated using Qa-1–deficient mice, which develop exaggerated immune responses to self-antigens (21). Furthermore, it was shown that vaccination with irradiated, antigen-activated CD4+ T cells expressing Qa-1 induced the generation of Qa-1–restricted CD8+ T cells that suppressed autoimmunity (12). The new studies by Jiang and colleagues (5) provide strong evidence that this suppressor T cell pathway is also active in humans, as clearly demonstrated by the ability of HLA-E–restricted CD8+ T cell lines to suppress the activities of autoreactive CD4+ T cells in vitro.
Studies with Qa-1–restricted CD8+ Tregs showed that these cells do not suppress CD4+ T cell responses indiscriminately. CD8+ Tregs can sense the strength (or avidity) of target CD4+ T cells for their cognate MHC/peptide complexes (22). Thus, Qa-1–restricted CD8+ T cells suppress activated CD4+ T cells exhibiting intermediate but not high or low avidity for cognate antigen (Figure 1). Qa-1–restricted T cells accomplish this feat by sensing the self peptides that are displayed by Qa-1 at the surface of intermediate-avidity but not high- or low-avidity CD4+ T cells. In molecular terms, the CD8+ Tregs react with complexes between Qa-1 molecules and peptides derived from the signal sequence of heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60sp), which are enriched on intermediate-avidity CD4+ T cells and thus outnumber Qa-1/Qdm complexes (23) (Figure 1). Again, the article by Jiang and colleagues (5) provides strong evidence that this molecular mechanism of suppression characterized in mice is conserved in humans. Specifically, they showed that Hsp60sp-specific, but not B7sp-specific, HLA-E–restricted CD8+ T cells were able to suppress the reactivity of CD4+ T cells against self-antigens (the T1D-related self-antigen glutamic acid decarboxylase [GAD] and the MS-related self-antigen myelin basic protein [MBP]) in vitro.
Signal strength model for the ability of Qa-1/HLA-E–restricted CD8+ T cells to suppress activated CD4+ T cells. Activated CD4+ T cells with intermediate avidity for their cognate MHC class II/peptide complexes express Qa-1/HLA-E molecules that are predominantly occupied by Hsp60sp. These T cells are effectively suppressed by Hsp60sp-specific CD8+ Tregs. In contrast, activated CD4+ T cells with high or low avidity for their cognate MHC class II/peptide complexes express Qa-1/HLA-E molecules that are predominantly occupied by Qdm/B7sp peptides. These T cells are not under the control of Hsp60sp-specific CD8+ Tregs. The ultimate outcome of these interactions is inhibition of autoreactive T cell responses and enrichment of high-avidity responses against foreign antigens.
Although Qa-1/HLA-E–restricted CD8+ Tregs exhibit many similarities to other Treg subsets, there are important differences as well (4). Most notably, CD4+ Tregs suppress immune responses indiscriminately, whereas CD8+ Tregs can distinguish self from nonself. For example, using an ex vivo coculture system, Jiang and colleagues showed that Hsp60sp-specific, HLA-E–restricted CD8+ T cells suppressed CD4+ T cell responses against the self-antigens GAD and MBP but enhanced responses against the foreign antigens tetanus toxoid and purified protein derivative (5). This was not observed for B7sp-specific CD8+ T cells, which left both types of CD4+ T cells undisturbed. Autoreactive T cells predominantly exhibit intermediate or low avidity for self-antigens, whereas T cells reactive against foreign antigens exhibit a wide range of avidities. Because the CD8+ Tregs generated by Jiang and colleagues recognized HLA-E/Hsp60sp on intermediate-avidity T cells, they suppressed T cell responses against self-antigens but enriched for high-avidity responses against foreign antigens (5). Although incompletely understood, this suppression likely involves both lytic and cytokine-mediated mechanisms (5, 10).
Another important difference is that CD4+CD25+ Tregs and NKT cells manifest their natural suppressive activities during the early phases of an immune response, whereas the suppressive activities of CD8+ Tregs are only observed during the late phases of an immune response. Thus, development of CD8+ T cell suppression requires priming, something that was clearly illustrated by the vaccination studies with irradiated, self-reactive CD4+ T cell clones (12). Furthermore, CD8+ Tregs could be induced in mice by vaccination with DCs loaded with Hsp60sp but not Qdm, and this protected against autoimmunity (23).
The studies by Jiang and colleagues show that individuals with recent-onset T1D display defects in the ability of CD8+ T cells to suppress autoreactive CD4+ T cells in vitro (5). However, for most of the patients, this deficit could be restored by an in vitro stimulation with Hsp60sp-loaded DCs. Therefore, these findings identify HLA-E–restricted CD8+ Tregs as potential new targets for immunotherapy of T1D and other autoimmune diseases. One way to harness the therapeutic activities of these cells would be to inject in vitro expanded CD8+ suppressor T cells back into the patients. Alternatively, patients could be vaccinated with their own DCs loaded ex vivo with Hsp60sp, a method that has proven effective in animal studies (23). A major advantage of these proposed therapeutic modalities, as compared with antigen-specific tolerance strategies, is that they could be performed independently of detailed knowledge of the self-antigens that are targeted by the autoimmune process.
Many advances in the field of CD8+ Treg biology are needed if the therapeutic potential of these cells, suggested by the studies of Jiang and colleagues (5), is to be fully exploited. For example, it will be necessary to develop better means to identify these cells with specific markers; to improve understanding of the mechanisms that induce these cells, either naturally or during therapy; to enhance understanding of the mechanism(s) of suppression; and to improve insight into the signaling events that underlie the selective induction of Hsp60 in intermediate-avidity CD4+ T cells. It will also be important to better define the role of CD94/NKG2A, the receptor on NK cells and a subset of CD8+ T cells that is inhibited by Qa-1/Qdm or HLA-E/B7sp complexes (20), in conferring self/nonself tolerance. Other outstanding questions are whether Qa-1/HLA-E–restricted CD8+ Tregs represent a separate lineage of T lymphocytes and whether HLA-E polymorphisms are associated with human disease, as has been suggested for T1D (24). Finally, it will be important to determine how these cells impact immune responses during different immunological situations such as infection, allograft rejection, cancer, and allergies. With more studies like those performed by Jiang and colleagues (5), answers to many of these questions should be within reach, bringing us closer to attaining the holy grail of immunology.
The author is funded by the NIH.
Conflict of interest: The author has declared that no conflict of interest exists.
Citation for this article:J Clin Invest. 2010;120(10):3432–3434. doi:10.1172/JCI44395.
See the related article beginning on page 3641. | <urn:uuid:cfa00186-0e6e-418f-8686-e55bd490e504> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jci.org/articles/view/44395?key=ce025fb979c94e36a50b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934033 | 2,938 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The very first reference to Inishbofin comes from the 7th century. St Colman, who was of Connacht origin and who was earlier forced into exile after a dispute concerning the dating of Easter, left Lindisfarne and set sail via Iona to the west coast of Ireland and Inishbofin in 665 A.D. According to tradition discontent arose within the monastery and Colman died in 674 A.D. Some remains of that earlier church enclosure, in the form of a number of early crosses, a Bullaun stone and two Holy Wells, can still be identified.
The present-day ruin stone chapel dates to the 14th century and again according to local tradition was used as a place of worship up to 200 years ago. The original structure was ransacked and burned in 1334 by a John Darcy, a Lord Justice who sailed the western seaboard looting and burning. In the south-west corner of the graveyard is a well dedicated to St Flannan who was buried at Killaloe in 640 A.D. His association with the the site pre-dates Colman’s by some years.
Close to the tiny harbour St. Scaithin is also associated with Inishbofin. Little is known locally about his background although a Scaithin is known in Co. Kilkenny. A slight trace of that monastic site can still be identified here near the Children’s Burial Ground in West Quarter village. This graveyard was used up to approx. 100 years ago and was mostly utilised for burying infants who were not baptised before death. It was their parents’ way to burying them in sacred ground. On Inishark there are a number of features associated with the monastic settlement founded by St Leo. The remains of his monastic settlement consist of a small Monastic Castle (a well preserved beehive hut called Clochan Leo). Traces of a medieval church are located within the Modern Church. There is also a small holy well near Faigh Leo (a narrow inlet) called Tobar Leo dedicated to the Saint.
Categorised in: Heritage | <urn:uuid:6f7753c7-d2f7-4c04-8306-3c45f0139733> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.inishbofin.com/monastic-sites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00121-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980963 | 442 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Since their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of great scholarly and public interest. For scholars they represent an invaluable source for exploring the nature of post- biblical times and probing the sources of two of the world's great religions. For the public, they are artifacts of great significance, mystery, and drama.
Interest in the scrolls has, if anything, intensified in recent years. Media coverage has given prominence to scholarly debates over the meaning of the scrolls, the Qumran ruin, as well as particular scroll fragments, raising questions destined to increase attention and heighten the Dead Sea Scrolls mystery. Did the scrolls come from the library of the Second Temple or other libraries and were they hidden to prevent their destruction by the Romans? Was the Qumran site a winter villa for a wealthy Jerusalem family or was it a Roman fortress? Was it a monastery not for Essenes but for a Sadducean sect? Does this mean we need to revise our view of Jewish religious beliefs during the last centuries of the Second Temple? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls provide clues to hidden treasures? Does the "War Rule Scroll" (object no. 12) refer to a pierced or piercing messiah?
Since the late 1980s, no controversy has been more heated than that surrounding access to the scrolls and the movement to accelerate their publication. The push by scholars to gain what the "Biblical Archaeology Review" characterized as "intellectual freedom and the right to scholarly access" has had significant results. In 1988, the administration for scroll research, the Israel Antiquities Authority, began to expand the number of scroll assignments. By 1992, they included more than fifty scholars. In 1991, a computer-generated version as well as a two-volume edition of the scroll photographs were published by the Biblical Archaeology Society. Late in the same year, the Huntington Library of California made available to all scholars the photographic security copies of the scrolls on deposit in its vault. Closing the circle, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it too would be issuing an authorized microfiche edition, complete with detailed indices.
Judaism and Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls include a range of contemporary documents
that serve as a window on a turbulent and critical period in the
history of Judaism. In addition to the three groups identified by
Josephus (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes), Judaism was further
divided into numerous religious sects and political parties. With
the destruction of the Temple and the commonwealth in 70 C.E., all
that came to an end. Only the Judaism of the Pharisees--Rabbinic
Judaism--survived. Reflected in Qumran literature is a Judaism in
transition: moving from the religion of Israel as described in the
Bible to the Judaism of the rabbis as expounded in the Mishnah (a
third-century compilation of Jewish laws and customs which forms
the basis of modern Jewish practice).
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the events described in the New Testament, have added to our understanding of the Jewish background of Christianity. Scholars have pointed to similarities between beliefs and practices outlined in the Qumran literature and those of early Christians. These parallels include comparable rituals of baptism, communal meals, and property. Most interesting is the parallel organizational structures: the sectarians divided themselves into twelve tribes led by twelve chiefs, similar to the structure of the early Church, with twelve apostles who, according to Jesus, would to sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Many scholars believe that both the literature of Qumran and the early Christian teachings stem from a common stream within Judaism and do not reflect a direct link between the Qumran community and the early Christians.
Library of Congress Materials Relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls Today | <urn:uuid:6c3fc43a-7296-47e0-af6a-38822db37911> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/Today/today.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94958 | 786 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Cost of Quality
Cost of quality
So, you want to find lots of bugs, especially critical bugs, and also do so much more cheaply than the alternative: customers and users finding bugs in production. To measure this, use a technique called cost of quality to identify three main costs associated with testing and quality.
1. Cost of detection: the testing costs which you would incur even if you found no bugs. For example, setting up the test environment and creating test data are activities that incur costs of detection.
2. Cost of internal failure: the testing and development costs which you incur purely because you find bugs in prerelease testing. For example, filing bug reports and fixing bugs are activities that incur costs of internal failure.
3. Cost of external failure: the support, testing, development and other costs which you incur because you release systems with some number of bugs (just like everyone else). For example, much of the costs for technical support or help desk organizations and sustaining engineering teams are costs of external failure.
Calculate the average costs of a bug in testing and in production, as explained below:
1. The average cost of a test bug (ACTB) = the cost of detection + cost of internal failure divided by the number of test bugs.
2. The average cost of a production bug (ACPB) = the cost of external failure divided by the number of production bugs.
As I mentioned in a previous Knowledge Center article, the average cost of a bug found during prerelease testing is well below the average cost of a production bug-often by a factor of two, five, ten or more. The bigger the difference, the more optimized your quality assurance efforts are from a financial point of view. In addition, the more expensive it is for your organization to deal with bugs in production, the more it should invest in prerelease testing.
As you've seen in this article, quality need not be an elusive, subjective, unmanageable element in your projects. You can define quality objectives, derive important questions related to these objectives, devise metrics, set quality goals and measure quality progress. Organizations of all sizes-from small startups to large global enterprises-have already taken these steps toward quantitative quality management. You, too, can go beyond gut feel and rabbit's feet to set-and achieve-quality goals for your IT projects.
Rex Black is President of RBCS. Rex is also the immediate past president of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board and the American Software Testing Qualifications Board. Rex has published six books, which have sold over 50,000 copies, including Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Hebrew and Russian editions. Rex has written over thirty articles, presented hundreds of papers, workshops and seminars, and given over fifty speeches at conferences and events around the world. Rex may be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:56034ca9-56a3-44f7-846b-963206f4adf6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/How-to-Set-Quality-Goals-for-Your-IT-Projects/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948744 | 588 | 2.65625 | 3 |
This page is a historical archive and is no longer maintained.
For current information, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/media/
For Immediate Release: November 9, 2009
Contact: Division of News & Electronic Media, Office of Communication
Statement Regarding First Release of Global Adult Tobacco Survey Result by Thailand
Today Thailand became the first of fourteen countries to release final results from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). Many countries conduct surveys to monitor adult tobacco use, but until recently, no one standard global survey for adults has consistently tracked tobacco use, exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, and tobacco control measures. A fact sheet summarizing the results from Thailand can be found at http://go.usa.gov/2v5H
Highlights from the GATS Thailand survey include:
- 14.3 million adults are current tobacco users (27.2%)
- 6 in 10 current smokers plan to or are thinking about quitting and 5 in 10 made an attempt to quit in the last 12 months
- 7 in 10 current smokers thought about quitting because of a warning label
- 3.3 million workers (27.2% of workers) are exposed to tobacco smoke at the workplace
- 20.5 million adults (39.1% of adults) are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature disease and death in the world and kills up to half of those who use it. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide; during the 21st century, it could kill one billion. Containing this epidemic is one of the most important public health tasks of our times.
To effectively combat the tobacco epidemic, the World Health Organization recommends MPOWER, a technical assistance package that requires monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies, protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit tobacco smoking, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raising taxes on tobacco. Monitoring the tobacco epidemic is a key step in managing it. CDC oversees the GATS, which is designed to produce national and sub-national estimates on tobacco use, exposure to second-hand smoke, and quit attempts among adults across countries, and to indirectly measure the impact of tobacco control and prevention initiatives.
Thirteen countries besides Thailand participated in the first round of GATS: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam. Results from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey will help Thailand, and the other participating countries that will soon be releasing results, translate its data into action through improved policies and programs.
GATS is a scientifically representative household survey of all non-institutionalized men and women age 15 years and older using a standard and consistent protocol. Survey data are collected electronically during in-person interviews. Funding for GATS is provided by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use and is conducted in partnership with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids , CDC Foundation, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Health Organization, and the World Lung Foundation.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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On 2 March 1969 the world’s first supersonic airliner took to the skies for the first time.
Concorde’s maiden flight went off without a hitch in Toulouse after 10 years of development by an Anglo-Francois team.
The first pilot, Andre Turcat, said: ‘The big bird flies pretty well.” Even going so far as to suggest that Concorde was “easy to fly.”
It took seven years from the initial lift-off before Concorde was put into commercial usage.
Watch original footage from the flight, alongside an interview with the pilot, in this British Pathé video, above. | <urn:uuid:362785b9-91bf-4939-b986-e1a092a9fa86> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/a-day-that-shook-the-world-concordes-first-flight-2229070.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963539 | 140 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Colonial Encounters: Indians, Europeans, and Africans, July 13–19
The seminar will explore what is arguably the single most lastingly important aspect of early American history: the convergence, clash, and (sometimes) joining of three great population streams—Indian, European, and African. The Old World of Europe had nothing like it—not to mention the traditional "worlds" of the African and American continents.
The opening part of our work will treat the arrival in the Americas of explorers from Spain, Portugal, France, and Britain (chiefly in the sixteenth century), and a series of consequent adjustments embracing diplomacy, warfare, trade, and communication. From there we'll move to colonization (“settlement” per se, especially as this unfolded in seventeenth-century British North America. (Was it, as some have claimed, essentially a matter of “invasion” and expropriation? What were the gains and losses on each side?) We’ll consider as well the accompanying, and reciprocal, process of acculturation. (What ideas and attitudes did Indians and Europeans bring to their “discovery” of each other? How were their mental outlook and everyday practice reshaped, both short- and long-term?) At this point we’ll turn to the coming also of Africans—first as a trickle, then (in the eighteenth century) as a flood, and always within the evolving context of enslavement. As the three groups changed in their proportions to one another, so too did their relative power and influence. By the time of the American Revolution, their interaction was patterned along lines that would undergird the life of the independent United States—and point the way toward the multicultural society that is ours today.
In pursuit of these objectives, we’ll enter a variety of literatures: travel writings from the period and other primary source material pertinent to “encounter” as well as modern scholarship. Morning lectures will pose broad thematic questions; supplementary group discussions will focus on the readings. Guest lectures will treat specific topics, such as the structure of slavery and the Yale Indian Papers Project. One or more field trips will take us to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center and the residence (now a small museum) of an early Connecticut slaveholder. The seminar will conclude with a dinner at the eighteenth-century home of the chief instructor.
Readings are sent by the Institute to seminar participants. Readings may include:
Tzvetan Todorov, The Conquest of America (University of Oklahoma Press, 1999)
Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country (Harvard University Press, 2003)
Allegra diBonaventura, For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England (Liveright, 2013)
Travel & Accommodations
Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Tweed-New Haven Airport is located about fifteen minutes from the Yale Campus. Taxis from Tweed cost about $15.00 one way. Additionally, Bradley Airport is located an hour north of New Haven and is served by many major airlines. Connecticut Limo shuttles leave once an hour and cost $84 round trip. Amtrak provides service directly into New Haven’s Union Station, about a ten-minute cab ride from downtown New Haven and the Yale campus. MetroNorth provides commuter service on a regular basis from New York City into New Haven.
Workshop participants will be housed in a university residence hall. Rooms are arranged in suites of two single bedrooms with a furnished living room, shared bath, and a kitchenette. The building is air conditioned. Participants should plan to bring laptops as computer access on campus will be limited. Internet service is provided. Please bring your own ethernet cable.
Yale provides sheets and towels only. Please note that participants should plan to bring alarm clocks, hangers, irons, and hair dryers. Kitchenettes are located in each suite. However, participants should bring their own utensils. Housekeeping services are provided throughout the week.
Meals will be served in a university cafeteria in space shared by other programs. All on-campus meals will be paid for by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Participants are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to and from the seminar. Each seminar participant will receive reimbursement of travel expenses up to $400. Please read our complete travel reimbursement policy before applying.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is proud to announce its agreement with Adams State University to offer three hours of graduate credit in American history to participating seminar teachers. For more information click here.
Email the Teacher Seminars department or call 646-366-9666. | <urn:uuid:4a0185ad-d8b5-4682-8c2a-57244a1c8458> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.gilderlehrman.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=612 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939284 | 985 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Voltages and Temperatures
Every overclocker knows that one of the integral factors for successful CPU overclocking is the voltage increase for different parts of the platform. For example, when you overclock an LGA775 system, you often have to raise the processor core voltage, memory voltage, processor bus voltage and chipset voltage. Setting these parameters above their nominal values almost always improves the overclocking potential of the system. Although, you should also keep in mind that higher voltage in semiconductor components results in higher heat dissipation and logically, lower life span of these components. However, using a high-quality cooling system and increasing the nominal voltages to reasonable heights allows the user to find a compromise between so called “risk factors” and frequency potential increase.
The same is true for the new generation platforms. However, Core i7 based systems have different structure that is why their voltage management during overclocking experiments requires a completely different approach. Since the chipset North Bridge and processor bus have lost their determinative role, their voltages do not need to be adjusted in most cases, even when the frequencies get pushed up fairly high. However, the memory controller, which has migrated into the processor, and L3 cache now receive their power supply independently, so playing with it may actually pay back during overclocking.
So, there are four major voltages to work with during Core i7 overclocking. They are:
- Processor core voltage of the actual CPU cores. The nominal setting for this parameter depends on the particular processor model, but it usually equals 1.2V. according to the specification, the maximum possible setting can be 1.55V, however, in this case you need nothing less than a water-cooling system involved.
- Uncore voltage of the QPI controller built into the CPU and the L3 cache. Their default voltages are set at 1.2V, however, the specification claims that they can be increased up to 1.35V without any harm done to the processor.
- Memory voltage. Although this voltage setting seems to have nothing to do with the CPU, it affects not only the overclocking potential of the DDR3 SDRAM in your system. The same voltage is used for the memory controller that moved to the CPU from the chipset. It sets certain limits to the maximum possible setting for this parameter. Intel strongly advises that it shouldn’t be raised past 1.65V. Ignoring this warning may cause the frequency potential of the damaged CPU to go down permanently.
- CPU PLL voltage (phase locked loop - a feedback control system that automatically adjusts the phase of a locally generated signal to match the phase of an input signal). This voltage used to be very important for successful overclocking of quad-core LGA775 processors, and is still important for overclocking Core i7. The nominal setting for this voltage is 1.8V, but Intel allows increasing it up to 1.88V without any risks for the processor.
As you know, increasing the voltage during overclocking makes the heat dissipation grow according to square-law. Therefore, when you overclock Core i7, as well as any other processors, it is important to monitor temperatures very carefully. Maximum allowed temperature for Core i7 is 100°C. If it heats up more, the CPU will enable thermal throttling, i.e. the Vcore and clock frequency multiplier will be forced down to 12x. This feature protects the processor die against dangerous overheating.
There are several different utilities out there that allow monitoring CPU temperatures, for example, CoreTemp or RealTemp. Using these utilities during stability tests of an overclocked processor will help find the optimal voltage setting for the overclocked CPU. They may also let you know if you need to improve your cooling.
However, it is important to keep in mind that Core i7 processors report only the temperatures of their computational cores, which allows to be more or less certain that these processor parts will not get overheated. At the same time, there is no way to control the temperature of the North Bridge built into the CPU. Besides, Core i7 has no integrated means of warning you about the overheating of the L3 cache and integrated memory controller, so you have to be extremely cautious when raising the Uncore and memory voltages. | <urn:uuid:74d3be04-4b97-4c88-9f05-fcab2f54d912> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-920-overclocking_3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924536 | 882 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
Human accelerated regions (HARs), first described in August 2006, are a set of 49 segments of the human genome which are conserved throughout vertebrate evolution but are strikingly different in humans. They are named HAR1 through HAR49 according to their degree of difference between humans and chimpanzees (HAR1 showing the largest degree of human-chimpanzee differences of the 49). Found by scanning through genomic databases of multiple species, some of these highly mutated areas are thought to have contributed to the development of human neuroanatomy, language, and complex thought.
Several of the HARs encompass genes known to produce proteins important in neurodevelopment. HAR1 is an 118 base pair stretch found on the long arm of chromosome 20 overlapping with part of the RNA genes HAR1F and HAR1R. HAR1F is active in the developing human brain. The HAR1 sequence is found (and conserved) in chickens and chimpanzees but is not present in fish or frogs that have been studied. There are 18 base pair mutations different between humans and chimpanzees, far more than expected by its history of conservation.
HAR2 includes HACNS1 a gene enhancer "that may have contributed to the evolution of the uniquely opposable human thumb, and possibly also modifications in the ankle or foot that allow humans to walk on two legs". Evidence to date shows that of the 110,000 gene enhancer sequences identified in the human genome, HACNS1 has undergone the most change during the evolution of humans following the split with the ancestors of chimpanzees.
- HAR01: HAR1F & HAR1R
- HAR02: CENTG2 including HACNS1
- HAR03: MAD1L1
- HAR05: WNK1
- HAR06: WWOX
- HAR08: POU6F2
- HAR09: PTPRT
- HAR10: FHIT
- HAR11: DMD
- HAR12: EBF
- HAR20: PPARGC1A
- HAR21: NPAS3 - association with psychiatric disorders
- HAR23: MGC27016
- HAR24: SCAP2
- HAR28: LPHN4
- HAR31: AUTS2
- HAR33: TBC1D22A
- HAR38: ITPR1
- HAR40: ZBTB16
- HAR43: AGBL4
- HAR44: FHIT
- HAR45: POLA
- HAR47: KLHL14
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pollard KS, Salama SR, Lambert N, Lambot MA, Coppens S, Pedersen JS, Katzman S, King B, Onodera C, Siepel A, Kern AD, Dehay C, Igel H, Ares M Jr, Vanderhaeghen P, Haussler D (2006-08-16). An RNA gene expressed during cortical development evolved rapidly in humans. Nature 443 (7108). supplement
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pollard KS, Salama SR, King B, Kern AD, Dreszer T, Katzman S, Siepel A, Pedersen JS, Bejerano G, Baertsch R, Rosenbloom KR, Kent J, Haussler D (October 2006). Forces shaping the fastest evolving regions in the human genome. PLoS Genet. 2 (10): e168.
- ↑ HACNS1: Gene enhancer in evolution of human opposable thumb. Science Codex. URL accessed on December 2009.
- What Makes Us Human?, Scientific American, May 2009
- Scientists Identify Gene Difference Between Humans and Chimps, Scientific American, 17 August 2006
- Researchers Identify Human DNA on the Fast Track, Howard Hughes Medical Institute website, 16 August 2006.
- Katherine Pollard's research group website
- A supplement to Pollard et al.'s article containing the list of HAR-associated genes
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:85ddb40f-664e-4156-859a-a3d68a86e046> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Human_accelerated_regions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.827545 | 904 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/7/2014 (699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg had, for most of its 45 years, been a city that was self-absorbed, boosting and pushing and striving to make itself into a great metropolis. By 1914, Winnipeg seemed to be well on the way to realizing all the ambitions of its founders.
With the coming of war, Winnipeggers began directing their energies outward, organizing for victory. During the month of August they stepped up, volunteering for the army and for the groups that would provide the major support services for the war effort over the next four years. And they began to give money with the sort of generosity Winnipeggers still show today. By war’s end, the city had donated or loaned through the purchase of Victory Bonds many millions in today’s dollars to help the Allied cause.
In 1914, Winnipeg was Canada’s third-largest city with 136,035 people, reported to the 1911 census. The makeup of Winnipeg’s population differed in some ways from the other two large Canadian cities: 75 per cent of its people — about 103,000 — had been born either in Canada or in some other part of the British Empire, compared to 91 per cent in Toronto and 90 per cent in Montreal.
Winnipeg had a strong Scottish heritage, more so than the eastern cities. And the Protestant denominations were primarily led by Presbyterians whereas in the east, Methodists were usually the most numerous.
Almost all the nations of the world were represented in the 25 per cent of the population born outside the British Empire — the largest groups were about 10,000 people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, about 8,600 from the Russian Empire, 6,000 from the United States, about 1,800 from Germany, 1,360 from Iceland and 1,400 from Sweden. This cosmopolitan population would have important implications for the way in which the war affected the city.
In 1914, Winnipeg was still suffering from the slowdown in economic growth that had ended a decade-long boom in 1913. All over the Prairies, people lost their jobs and large numbers of unemployed men headed for Winnipeg, the great labour clearinghouse for Western Canada. When they ran out of money, the city was obliged to feed and house them.
On May 26, around 2,000 of these men gathered in Market Square behind city hall to listen to speakers and to protest their hopeless condition. Fighting broke out; the police used their nightsticks on the unemployed, and the men fought back. The local Social Democratic Party wrote to city council, accusing the police of starting the riot and of being too free with the use of their sticks. This event and the threat of more to come moved city council to take action.
Councillors sent a letter to Prime Minister Robert Borden requesting immigration be curtailed until the situation improved and calling on the Dominion government to push forward public works as a means of creating jobs. Immigration Minister W.J. Roche responded the federal government was already discouraging immigration and the numbers of new arrivals had fallen by 50 per cent. The city also made relief payments and provided some employment on public works. Unemployment continued to be a problem in the city until later in the war when there was some improvement in the economy, but even then, those who had jobs were affected by inflation. The failure of wages to keep up with prices would be one of the causes of the General Strike.
There had been signs of recovery in some areas of the economy in Winnipeg in early 1914 — by August, the value of building permits had already reached $12.1 million, and some new apartment blocks and houses were under construction. The outbreak of war on Aug. 4 put an end to any hope of a resumption of growth as the province ceased all expenditures in the capital account, including work on the new legislative building, and private firms laid employees off or reduced their wages. British capital, the lifeblood of Western Canadian development, was needed for the war effort and became unavailable at reasonable rates. Local businessmen were forced to postpone or abandon plans such as those local businessman R.T. Riley was making for a mortgage company that would loan money to farmers in the West. He and his partners had been successful in selling stock in Canada, and they opened an office in London in July 1914 to sell debentures to investors there. They closed the office a few weeks later when, Riley wrote in his memoirs, "we realized that there was little opportunity of getting four per cent money in England, or anywhere else, for some time to come. We never sold any debentures, as we could not afford to pay a higher rate."
Manitobans went to the polls on July 10 to vote in a provincial election. The campaign, reported the Canadian Annual Review for 1914, had not been "a satisfactory or pleasant one." The Conservative premier, Rodmond Roblin had been in power since 1900. The Annual Review reported he "was not a conciliatory opponent nor a courteous fighter," and the Liberals, led by Tobias Norris, "accepted the gauge with true western heartiness" in a campaign that was full of "charges of corruption and bitter personalities." Nellie McClung, who had participated in the famous Women’s Parliament at the Walker Theatre in January 1914, took a large role, speaking all over the province for the Liberal cause.
Conservative speakers reminded voters of the many accomplishments of the Roblin years, speaking about balanced budgets, the huge expenditures on infrastructure and public buildings and the Manitoba Government Telephones system among other things. The Liberals had formed a coalition of reform movements that campaigned for prohibition, abolition of Manitoba’s bilingual school system and votes for women, all things to which Roblin Conservatives were opposed. By 9 p.m. on election day, when Roblin mounted the platform before a cheering crowd outside the Conservative Telegram newspaper on McDermot Avenue, it was clear Manitobans had given him his 4th majority government.
In the summer of 1914, those middle-class families that could afford it left Winnipeg, boarding trains headed for "the lake." Like their contemporaries in other parts of Canada and the rest of the British Empire, they did not suspect they were enjoying what were to be the last few weeks of peace before what one writer has called the "greatest catastrophe the world had seen" broke upon their privileged world.
Early in the summer, the international news on the front pages of the Winnipeg papers was not from Europe but Ireland, where disagreements over the Home Rule Bill passing through Parliament seemed to be pushing the country toward civil war. Then, as the Rev. Charles Gordon recorded in his memoirs, Postscript to Adventure, "on Thursday, July 30th, our boat returning with supplies brought back a newspaper with red headlines splashed across the page. Austria had declared war on Serbia." Suddenly, the peaceful Lake of the Woods community where he and his family spent their summers was talking of nothing but the war.
There had been signs of recovery in some areas of the economy in Winnipeg in early 1914 — by August, the value of building permits had already reached $12.1 million
Irene Evans, the wife of former Winnipeg mayor Sanford Evans, was also at Lake of the Woods, with their two children. Her husband was working in Ottawa at the time, and writing to him about the outbreak of war she said, "I dread the return to the city... The moon almost full — such heavenly peace — the world beyond in a nightmare."
Nellie McClung also spent time at the family cottage, in her case at Matlock on Lake Winnipeg. She later wrote, in her book The Next of Kin that: "When the news of war came, we did not really believe it! War! That was over! There had been war of course, but that had been long ago, in the dark ages, before the days of free schools and peace conferences and missionary conventions and labor unions!"
McClung described how war news gradually invaded the calm of life at the beach. The men coming out from the city "brought back stories of the great crowds that surged through the streets blocking traffic in front of the newspaper offices reading the bulletins, while the bands played patriotic airs."
As the family drove away from the boarded-up cottage at the end of their vacation, she wrote that "instinctively we felt that we had come to the end of a very pleasant chapter in our life as a family; something had disturbed the peaceful quiet of our lives; not a word was spoken, but Jack put it all into words, for he turned to me and asked quickly, ‘Mother, when will I be 18?’ "
At midnight, London time, Tuesday, Aug. 4, the ultimatum the British had given Germany, demanding that she withdraw from Belgian territory, expired. At that moment, a state of war existed between Germany and the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and Winnipeggers joined millions of others as they crossed into the strange new wartime existence.
People had been milling in front of the city’s newspaper offices for days, and since late afternoon, the crowds had been growing larger, anxiously awaiting information about the ultimatum. Many were busy calculating what time it would be in Winnipeg when it was midnight in London.
Suddenly, bulletins were rushed outside and posted on boards on the wall of the Telegram newspaper office at Albert and McDermot. At the Manitoba Free Press on Carlton Street, a man armed with a megaphone climbed onto a wooden platform in front of the building and shouted to the crowd that war had been declared. The people, like their fellow Canadians all over the country, immediately broke into Rule, Britannia! God Save the King and even La Marseillaise and the Free Press reported: "strong voices took up the strain with a will and a volume of glorious sound roared forth and set the blood of the British crowd racing at top speed."
Many in the noisy crowd that blocked traffic in front of the Free Press joined in a spontaneous parade, which surged down Portage and up Main to city hall following a young man who had jumped up on the platform and shouted for everyone to follow him. The newspaper described a crowd of 6,000 people, men and women, striding along five and six abreast in the street: "In the van walked half a dozen young men carrying a great Union Jack, which for want of a pole, was carried spread out over their shoulders."
For some, the outbreak of war was greeted in a more thoughtful way. A Free Press reporter visiting the Royal Alexandria Hotel talked to a guest of Austrian birth, "now a loyal British subject." He said Canada had been good to him and he had married a Canadian woman. "Naturally I wish the Empire well," he said, but he could not help but feel a natural sympathy for the land where he was born, "not sympathy for the diplomats and those who brought on the war, but for the people."
Outside on the streets, such honest sentiments had suddenly become sufficient cause for a beating. At least one man who admitted to being a German was set upon by a crowd and had to be carried home. The Free Press reported, "There were several fights as a result of the war spirit... Everything was English, Canadian and French last night. Not a German dared show his head and proclaim his nationality."
In the city’s North End, it was noticeably quiet: "The foreigners in the city, many of whom belong to nations now enemies of Great Britain, showed good common sense in keeping well out of sight. So far as is known, they refrained entirely from tactless demonstrations."
The extreme patriotism and extreme suspicion of people of non-British extraction would continue throughout the four years of war.
The first of many Great War military parades took to the Winnipeg streets almost as soon as war was declared. The members of the 90th Winnipeg Rifles militia regiment had been summoned to the drill hall at the corner of Broadway and Osborne. The Winnipeg Rifles was the oldest militia unit in Winnipeg, formed in 1885 at the time of the Métis resistance in Saskatchewan. A Métis fighter, referring to their black uniforms, had named them the Little Black Devils. They crossed to the university grounds on the north side of Broadway, formed ranks and marched up Kennedy Street to Portage Avenue and then on to city hall. Their band played the regimental march, Old Solomon Levi and Soldiers of the King, and the crowds cheered all along the way, many rushing into the street to march beside the militiamen.
Downtown hotel bars were packed with men toasting the beginning of the war and one of the drinkers strutted along behind the Winnipeg Rifles, "… and strove valiantly to imitate the military bearing of the officer before him," said the Free Press report. Another amused the crowds by marching along the sidewalk on Main Street with a broomstick for a rifle. "Every once in a while he would stop and mark time. Then he would give himself the order ‘forward march’ and would start off again. He created many a laugh along the street."
When the men of the 90th Regiment arrived back at the drill hall, Maj. W.A. Munro addressed them, saying the regiment’s office would be open in the morning for those wishing to sign up for duty overseas. Ten men immediately pushed forward and handed in their names, the first of many thousands of Winnipeggers who would volunteer to fight.
It is difficult now to know why many of the young men joined up. In January 1915, a Canadian officer, quoted in J.L. Granatstein’s book, Broken Promises, offered some possible answers when he said men joined "because they thought they would like it, because they were out of work, because they were drunk, because they were militia men and had to save face... but being in they have quit themselves like men." It is clear men also volunteered because their brothers or cousins did so, or because the men they worked with or were going to school with were volunteering.
Capt. S.H. Williams, who joined the Fort Garry Horse Regiment in August, later described in his book Stand to Your Horses the scene when members were asked who wanted to have the various injections necessary before going overseas. "Greatly to my surprise there were quite a few who sidestepped the inoculations and declared themselves for "home defence" service only. That, of course, was their business and it was not for the others of us to criticize. We fellows who had taken the inoculations felt nevertheless a bit of a self-righteous feeling."
The patriotic demonstrations of the first week climaxed on Saturday, Aug. 8 when the city’s veterans of the South African War, men who had fought Riel in 1885 and others who had served in the British Army and Navy, gathered in Market Square and marched to the 90th Regiment’s drill hall on Broadway. Lt.-Gov. Douglas Cameron and Premier Roblin addressed the crowd. Hugh John Macdonald, a veteran of 1885, had marched in the parade. As a former premier and son of Sir John A. Macdonald, he often played a symbolic role at such times and he, too, spoke, saying "… it is time for the sons of Britain over the seas to show they are true sons of the race." He said all the veterans were ready to fight but the men who had served in South Africa would make the best recruits: "They have the youth and experience and none could be better coming from a fighting race as they do."
By "race," Macdonald would have been referring to the "Great Chain of Race" idea popular at the time. The "Anglo-Saxon race" — the people of the British Isles and their relatives in the British Empire around the world — was supposed to have a fighting spirit superior to that of other "races." People were valued according to how closely they were related to the Anglo-Celtic population of the British Isles. White Americans, Scandinavians and, until the war, Germans, were considered to be almost the equals of the Anglo-Saxon. Others, such as southern Europeans, Africans, Asians and the aboriginal people of Canada were hardly worth considering.
These biases informed Canadian recruiting in the first years of the war. Federal Militia Minister Sam Hughes set out to create an army of sober, upright Protestant volunteers. He left the decisions about which volunteers would be accepted up to the individual battalion commanders, who often excluded ethnic minorities. The Canadian Expeditionary Force eventually had over 50,000 members of the Orange Lodge in its ranks. With the exception of the 22nd Battalion, French volunteers usually found themselves serving in English-language units, and French Canadian officers were not given commands at the front.
The long traditions of Quebec militia regiments were ignored and discounted by Hughes. Nevertheless, some non-British Canadians were successful in joining the army in the first months of the war and their numbers increased as the terrible attrition of trench warfare forced the army to open its doors to a broader cross section of volunteers.
In August 1914, there were men in Winnipeg with obligations to various European armies. All the European nations except Britain had adopted conscription, and in most cases this meant that, after serving a mandatory number of years in the army, a man would spend another period of years as a reservist, expected to report for duty in time of war. There were estimated to be about 1,000 Austro-Hungarian reservists in Winnipeg, for the most part men of Ukrainian or Polish ethnicity. There was a smaller number obligated to serve in the German army. On July 30, the Austro-Hungarian consul in Winnipeg, George Reininghaus, announced all reservists must return home to join the army and they would be reimbursed for the cost of the trip or given passage money if they did not have it. If they did not go, they would be charged with desertion, a capital offence.
Some reservists did leave although it is impossible to say how many. Two men — Stefan Bertnak and Tphemius Lupul — told the Telegram newspaper, as they boarded the train for the United States on July 30, they were going home early so they would have a chance to visit their families before they were called up. They explained they had to go or they would never be able to return home again.
The consul asked the churches to help spread the word about the war. At Sunday mass on Aug. 2, Father Kowalski of Holy Ghost Polish Catholic Church read out a message from Consul Reininghaus about the call to arms issued by the Austro-Hungarian government. The Ukrainian Catholic Bishop in Winnipeg, Bishop Nikita Budka, issued a pastoral letter that was printed in the Canadian Ruthenian newspaper on Aug. 1 and read out in churches the next morning. In the letter, reprinted in the appendices of Frances Swyrypa’s Loyalties in Conflict: Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War, he called on all Austrian subjects who "… are under military obligation to return to Austria… to defend our native home, our dear brothers and sisters, our people" from the Russian invaders. He said Emperor Franz Joseph had "… ever striven to avert and postpone… " war but the murder of his son, Franz Ferdinand, was an event to "… try the patience of the most peace-loving of men… "
Almost immediately, Budka was embarrassed by the entry of Canada into the war against Germany and Austria. On Aug. 6, he issued a second pastoral letter that began: "In the course of a few days political relations have changed completely." He said that "… we Canadian Ukrainians have a great and holy obligation to join the colours of our new fatherland, and if necessary to sacrifice our property and blood for it… as loyal sons of Canada, faithful to the oath have sworn to our Fatherland and our King, we should unite under the flag of the British state."
Unfortunately the bishop’s first pastoral letter was the one people remembered and it would haunt him for the next four years in spite of the fact he consistently encouraged his flock to support Canada’s war effort in every way.
Once Canada was officially at war with Austria and Germany, Lt.-Gov. Cameron ordered the German and Austrian consuls to leave the city and by Aug. 7 a proclamation had been issued saying any enemy reservists trying to return home would be arrested.
Many young Ukrainians were eager to let their neighbours know they wanted to do their part in the war effort. On the evening of Sunday, Aug. 9, at the Industrial Bureau, there was a meeting of 3,000 "Ruthenians" as Ukrainians were often called at the time. The Telegram reported the assembly voted to reject Austria-Hungary and pledge allegiance to Canada, where they had found "true liberty." They passed a resolution "that we hereby express our loyalty to the British flag and declare our readiness to stand by the colours whenever called upon." This resolution was sent to the Governor General in Ottawa. One of the speakers, J. Arsenycz, a young university student who would later be a Winnipeg judge, said Ruthenians had established themselves as useful citizens and were ready to serve their adopted country in any way asked.
On the same day, about 400 Poles gathered at Holy Ghost School on Selkirk Avenue and passed a resolution "that the Polish men of Winnipeg give their aid as far as possible to England as soldiers and especially as fulfilling our duties as good citizens."
The Home Front organizations that would support the troops began to organize. The Provincial Red Cross organization in Manitoba was launched at a meeting on Aug. 10. It was led by an executive committee headed by grocery wholesaler George Galt and included business leaders such as Augustus Nanton and R.T. Riley, Lady Aikins, Annie Bond and Mrs. R.T. Moody. Women played strong leadership roles in the Red Cross in Manitoba and across the country. Mrs. Bond was an experienced army nurse and one of the founders of the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital, and Mrs. Moody, among other things, had been superintendent of the Nursing School at Winnipeg General Hospital.
By November 1914, 49 Red Cross branches had been formed in communities all over Manitoba in response to a circular letter sent out by the Winnipeg organization — $27,000 had been raised, and over half that amount had been disbursed to buy blankets for the troops and to make a donation to Red Cross Headquarters in London. Winnipeggers and Manitobans rose to the challenge of funding the new organization and their support never faltered throughout the war. Galt and Edward Drewery, owner of the Redwood Brewery, both donated $5,000. Hundreds of others gave what they could. The Chinese community in Winnipeg raised $453, the largest amount donated by any organization in the early weeks. From outside the city came donations of $400 and $500 from communities such as Melita and Gretna. A group of Ukrainian men working in the quarries at Stony Mountain sent in $50. Special collections in churches, theatres, banquets, concerts and lectures all brought in donations. In Winnipeg, booths were set up in department stores and office buildings.
Nellie McClung, in her book The Next of Kin, wrote about fundraising in Western Canada: "... the giving was real, honest, hard, sacrificing giving. Elevator boys, maids, stenographers gave a percentage of their earnings, and gave it joyfully… one enthusiastic young citizen, who had been operated on for appendicitis, proudly exhibited his separated appendix, preserved in alcohol, at so much per look, and presented the proceeds to the Red Cross."
The women of the Manitoba Red Cross would begin operating a major production facility on the top floor of the Keewaydin Building on Portage Avenue East in 1915. They purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of raw materials and distributed them to local groups all over the province. Volunteers made bandages and all types of hospital supplies, following strict Red Cross standards, and shipped everything back to the Keewaydin building where it was crated and dispatched to hospitals in England and France.
The Manitoba Patriotic Fund, like the Winnipeg Red Cross, was born on Aug. 10 when the Board of Trade passed a motion to organize a committee that would begin the work. Patriotic Funds were private charities that had been, since the Napoleonic wars, a way soldiers and their families were supported during wartime. The Manitoba Patriotic Fund was to be independent of the national Canadian Patriotic Fund organized at the same time. The Manitoba organizers had decided they needed this autonomy so they could not only look after the relatives and children of soldiers, but to also support men thrown out of work by the war. Beginning in August, fund board members banker Augustus Nanton, Judge Robson, printer John Bulman and grocery wholesaler George Galt met personally every day with men thinking of going overseas. The assurances of the committee that their families would be taken care of and the knowledge that large amounts were being raised made it possible for many men to enlist with some peace of mind.
By April 1, 1915, the Manitoba Patriotic Fund had raised $909,000. Of this, $485,000 was paid out to 1,839 soldiers’ families. The fund had also given unemployment relief money to 2,329 cases. During the first year of the war, the fund paid out $70,000 to support unemployed civilians. One of its initiatives was a wood camp, set up and supervised by hardware merchant James Ashdown and Mayor Richard Waugh. It provided paid work sawing firewood for 357 unemployed men at a cost of $15,000.
In the end, there was never enough money for all the needs, and many wives and families knew real hardship, especially those who had no other means of support.
On the afternoon of Saturday Aug. 15, the first troops left the city bound for the front: About 200 men from Winnipeg and 100 from Saskatchewan climbed aboard the train at the CPR station to take them east. The platform was packed with friends, relatives and a few Winnipeggers determined to get to the lake for a peaceful weekend. The soldiers were recruits for Canada’s newest regiment, the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry. The unit’s honorary colonel was Princess Patricia, the daughter of the Governor General, the Duke of Connaught. The Patricias had been raised and outfitted with money given by Hamilton Gault, a Montreal millionaire and veteran of South Africa. Gault went to France with the regiment. Wounded four times, he survived to become commanding officer in 1918.
Newspaper advertisements for the Princess Patricias had stated that preference would be given to former regulars in the Canadian or Imperial armies and to men who had fought in South Africa. The men among these recruits with previous military experience were the closest Canada had to the millions of reservists who were at the time being mobilized in European countries.
Winnipeg women organized their first of hundreds of large fundraising events on Aug. 18, this time in support of the St. John’s Ambulance. A parade of 160 cars carrying the members of various women’s organizations moved through the streets accompanied by women carrying collection boxes soliciting money. One woman, Grace Stapleton, stood on a float dressed as Britannia. There were many nurses in the parade, including 70 volunteers being trained by Dr. Ellen Douglass for service overseas. Army nurses were the first Canadians to go to the front in Belgium and France, and the work they did and the sights they saw placed them among the most heroic of the Canadians who went to war.
Another women’s group that made a massive contribution was the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE). Founded at the time of the Boer War by Montrealer Margaret Polson Murray, the purpose was to give support to Canadian volunteers fighting in South Africa and to their families.
Minnie Julia Beatrice Campbell — the wife of Colin Campbell, who was the attorney general in the Roblin government — was one of the most influential members of the IODE in Western Canada. She was regent of the Fort Garry chapter and Manitoba provincial president. She had been involved with the order for many years when the war began and had taken a leading role in fundraising efforts for projects such as the Tuberculosis Sanitorium at Ninette.
In August, she set out to mobilize women for war work. Even her husband’s death in October did not slow her down. On the contrary, she made the war her cause and let her fellow IODE members know that she "… meant to take up her work immediately. There is so much that we women can do now for King and empire and the world in this time of war."
She led fundraising efforts for field ambulances, hospital supplies, blankets for the troops and "comforts" or items such as magazines, newspapers, shaving kits and cigarettes intended to make the lives of the men in trenches more bearable.
On Oct. 8, Campbell published a column in the Free Press passing on information for volunteer knitters and sewers. Addressed to the "women of Manitoba" and beginning "Dear Compatriots," the column outlines the specifications for socks: "Use No. 13 needles and four-ply wool. Some socks sent in are knitted on too course needles for comfort, warmth and durability. We want an authorized standard of work."
She took the opportunity to remind her readers of the good example of Queen Mary, who knitted constantly and expected any ladies who visited her to join in. She reported pillows were no longer needed, as the first contingent of Canadian troops had enough, but nightshirts, bed jackets and dressing gowns were now required in great numbers for the inevitable wounded. Campbell encouraged Winnipeg women to be strong-minded, wear out their old clothes, trim their old hats, and "cultivate talents growing dormant" such as knitting. They were to live their lives, in all ways, to support the war effort.
Winnipeg women did indeed live their lives to support the war effort, as did the men who stayed at home. They contributed through fundraising, making hospital supplies, gas masks and socks, meeting the trains to give returning men a welcome home and all the other activities and sacrifices the war demanded. Beginning in August 1914, the people of Winnipeg organized themselves and set out to do all they could to win the war.
Jim Blanchard is a Winnipeg writer and historian. His books include Winnipeg 1912 and Winnipeg’s Great War, both published by University of Manitoba Press. | <urn:uuid:1f0a4296-06cb-402a-bbd8-c535d2dc513a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Winnipeg-goes-to-war-268495862.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98335 | 6,359 | 3.203125 | 3 |
The second edition of this fascinating collection of traditional metaphors includes over 1500 new entries, as well as more information on first known usages and more ways to find entries. It will appeal to cultural historians, dialectologists, folklorists and language enthusiasts alike.
Metaphors are taken to include a variety of figurative meanings such as similes, proverbs, idioms, slang and catchphrases, though literary metaphors are avoided. The author draws particularly on his extensive contact with the rural cultures of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Dorset and Cornwall. Expressions from Scotland, North America and Australia and other parts of the English-speaking world are also included. The book thus provides an overview of folklore and folk wisdom as reflected in figurative expressions.
Entries are arranged under a highly original scheme following the old cherrystone rhyme 'Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief' with the additional categories 'at home' 'at school and 'at play'. Entries can be found using either the Index of Themes or the Index of Keywords. | <urn:uuid:282f4966-530b-42cc-8863-79c9308adfa0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=6462 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00143-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93438 | 228 | 3.390625 | 3 |
People who wear glasses have long been characterized as brainy types, and a new study of more than 150,000 Israeli teenage boys indicates the stereotype may be at least partially true.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University, reporting in a specialty journal of the American Medical Association, found a strong statistical association between nearsightedness and both high intelligence and amount of schooling.
The link is so strong that it is possible to write an equation predicting the percentage of myopic people in a group of given intelligence and schooling, Dr. Mordechai Rosner and Dr. Michael Belkin wrote in the November Archives of Ophthalmology.
However, the researchers still do not know whether the myopia is causing the intelligence or vice versa.
``There can be no doubt about the reality of the correlation between myopia and intellectual performance,`` the researchers concluded, noting,
``Further research is needed to clarify the nature of this relationship.``
Ever since there were playgrounds, grade school children have made the link between kids who wear glasses and ``brains,`` but scientific studies on the issue have been small and inconclusive.
Rosner and Belkin, also with the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, studied 157,748 males aged 17 to 19 and found a strong correlation between the prevalence of myopia with both intelligence test scores and years of schooling.
For those scoring 80 or less on a standard IQ test (100 is average), the prevalence of myopia was 8 percent; of those scoring 128 or more, 27.3 percent were myopic. Myopia also increased with increasing years in school, but the IQ differences persisted regardless of number of years in school.
``However, as the intelligence test included a verbal component, we cannot ascertain whether this correlation is the result of the advantage
(nearsighted people) may have in verbal ability that requires reading, rather than any innate intellectual superiority,`` the researchers said.
The researchers offered several hypotheses for their finding: Myopic people prefer near tasks, such as reading, increasing their intelligence;
highly intelligent people read extensively, affecting their vision; or myopia and intelligence are somehow directly linked genetically.
Sandra Scarr, a specialist in intelligence and chairwoman of the psychology department at the University of Virginia, dismissed these explanations as simplistic, but said she was not surprised by the study`s results.
``We have already seen this with straight mathematical ability. I would just argue with the causal relationships they`re postulating here,`` Scarr said.
One theory that has gained attention in psychological circles is that some males may be exposed to more of the hormone testosterone before birth, bolstering their analytical-mathematical ability but also predisposing them to myopia, allergies and other disruptions in their immune systems. | <urn:uuid:1ac73611-e379-462b-96d0-2ce0202a09d7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-11-03/news/8703220568_1_myopia-intelligence-schooling | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961767 | 568 | 2.796875 | 3 |
1865 - 1871
After the Civil War ended in 1865, New Jersey was experiencing a rapid growth in industry and population due to the industrial revolution which was under way. The cities quickly swelled with newly arriving immigrants who were sought out to work in the new factories and mills. Expansion into rural areas was progressing rapidly due to railroad companies laying miles of track linking the population centers of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and points further west. Jersey City was the hub of many railroad lines and became known as the ‘Gateway to the West’. As a consequence of this unprecedented expansion, there came a dramatic increase in crime.
Local law enforcement at this time consisted primarily of a few established police departments in the major cities. The suburbs were enforced by fee paid constables and part time village marshals, elected into office by local officials. The rural areas had virtually no police protection at all. The law enforcement community found itself overwhelmed by the rising crime rate. They lacked the manpower to handle, investigate and apprehend criminals effectively.
To protect themselves, citizens banded together and formed vigilante groups to bring criminals to justice. Protective associations and pursuing companies were also formed, some of which were granted limited law enforcement authority. However, none had official authority beyond the village and city boundaries.
It was at this time that the New Jersey State Legislature clearly saw the need to establish an agency with state-wide police authority, not to be constrained by jurisdictional boundaries, which could supplement the deficient police system that existed during this period. In 1871, they created the New Jersey Detective Agency (NJDA).
The NJDA was created as a ‘body politic’ and granted the authority to appoint up to 25 members who would receive a commission from the Governor, appointing each as a New Jersey State Detective. The commission conferred state-wide police authority to each member.
From its inception and into the early 1900's, New Jersey State Detectives honorably served the citizens of New Jersey by assisting various law enforcement agencies and private citizens in criminal matters. At the time, the NJDA was the only law enforcement agency with state-wide jurisdiction.
However, as years passed, things began to change. Many new municipal police departments were formed throughout the state and slowly expanded as the population increased. In 1921, the Division of State Police was formed and began providing police services in all parts of New Jersey. In addition, numerous other state and county agencies, such as the Attorney General's Office, County Prosecutors' Offices, Sheriff's Departments and County Police Departments, were formed and expanded as well.
During the 1960's, laws and statutes underwent major changes reflecting the call for better trained, educated and professional police officers. In 1961 the Legislature established the Police Training Commission (PTC) to set educational and training standards and requirements for all police organizations. Law enforcement was slowly evolving into a professional system that was much needed to fill the void that existed at the time.
Unfortunately, these positive changes had a detrimental effect on the role of the New Jersey State Detectives. Foremost was that New Jersey State Detectives were not recognized in the new laws created by the legislature, and therefore were ineligible to receive formal police training from established police academies or agencies. Also, with the establishment and expansion of numerous law enforcement agencies throughout the state, the need for the services of a New Jersey State Detective gradually diminished.
1960's to 2005
The Agency continued its operations throughout the latter part of the twentieth century. Due to their exclusion from the new laws and inability to receive proper training, New Jersey State Detectives rapidly fell behind the standards and requirements set by the PTC for all other law enforcement officers.
In the early 1990's, dramatic, positive changes began taking effect within the NJDA. Recognizing the need to enhance its image among other police professionals, the NJDA began an aggressive campaign to elect into membership only those candidates with police experience.
The NJDA amended its By-Laws by requiring candidates for membership to have a minimum of ten years of full time law enforcement experience along with a four year college degree. This amendment made membership very exclusive and more stringent than most any other law enforcement agency, and brought instant credibility to the Agency. The NJDA also created Rules & Regulations to guide the members and hold them accountable for their actions. Training sessions were also instituted.
In 1996, the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly paid tribute to the NJDA and honored the members for 125 years of exemplary, professional service and steadfast devotion to excellence in law enforcement.
Ironically, one year later, as the NJDA continued its reconstruction, the State Commission of Investigation (SCI) conducted an inquiry into the operations of the Agency. The SCI was critical of the members’ lack of accountability and lack of formal training and questioned the purpose of its existence in today’s society.
Despite a number of recommendations made by the SCI, no formal action has been taken against the Agency. During the years that followed , the NJDA has addressed all the issues of concern reported by the SCI and has continued to revamp and professionalize the Agency.
Today, the NJDA continues to move forward, and stands as an example of police professionalism. Its members now consist of retired officers coming from the ranks of the Federal government, New Jersey State Police, Prosecutors' Offices and County Police, along with Chiefs and other high ranking officers from local police departments. Commissioned as State Detectives, they serve as an extra set of eyes and ears to protect the citizens of New Jersey. The members look positively towards the future with the intense desire to continue their service to the public. | <urn:uuid:8ff4fd95-339d-49eb-af25-46ea137ed6ea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.njstatedetectives.org/history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977775 | 1,151 | 3.625 | 4 |
1 Answer | Add Yours
I think that the characterization of Veronica as stupid because of her failure to accept limitations and circumstances is myopic, at best. Consider that if Veronica does not pursue her dreams, then the cycle of enslavement and oppression continues even when Apartheid has been dissolved. The entire reason why Veronica must "dream big" is because the context of the play is one in which South Africa has eliminated Aparheid. In its abolition, Black South Africans have new opportunities to define their own reality without having it done for them. Veronica has to "dream big" because she now has the opportunity to do so. Failure to do so would move her closer to "stupid" because she would not be pursuing her dreams even with the chance to do so. For an artist who has spent his life in trying to eradicate Apartheid, Fugard recognizes the importance of the moment, what Dr. King would call "the fierce urgency of now." Veronica has to seize this moment to indicate that South Africa can change. While she loves her grandfather, it is precisely for this reason that both hold different value systems. His is one where the pain and weight of the past defines his present and the future. Veronica is one in which the hope and optimism of the future is what defines her present. She must "dream big" in order to realize this, and put aside the limitations and circumstances because, in the end, these can be transcended with her faith and certainty in her dreams.
We’ve answered 327,785 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:4aaddc00-0703-434e-8ba0-662ac4121a27> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/veronica-stupid-young-girl-who-refuses-accept-her-187469 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976259 | 322 | 2.90625 | 3 |
An earthquake is a sudden tremor or movement of the earth’s crust, which originates at or below the surface.
There are two main causes of earthquakes. They can be linked to explosive volcanic eruptions or can be triggered by tectonic activity, with the latter being the cause of most earthquakes.
Earthquakes in the UK are all tectonic quakes, triggered when the Earth’s crust is subjected to strain and eventually moves.
At the start of a quake there is a sudden movement within the Earth’s crust and shock waves move out from that point.
The focus of the earthquake or tremor | <urn:uuid:abb51052-3ec2-4e88-9304-b43c9a8e0eb2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article1917351.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940249 | 132 | 3.484375 | 3 |
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Cultivars of the earth are the most valuable citizens.
They are the most vigorous, the most independent. . .and they are tied to their country and wedded to its
liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.
— Thomas Jefferson...epistle to John Jay, August 1785
Thomas Jeffersons Virginia
irginia gave this country its greatest gift in the person of Thomas
Jefferson. This consumate statesman, who authored the Declaration of
Independence, was also a gardener, farmer and scientist. By 1814, he had
planted over one thousand fruit trees in the South Orchard at Monticello.
Hot, humid summers and a rich, deep soil nurtured by consistantly rainy
winters made the climate of central Virginia ideal for growing apples.
Although hundreds of varieties were available to colonial farmers, Jefferson
concentrated on only four cultivars: Hewe's Crab and Taliaferro (for their
cider production), and Newtown Pippin and Esopus Spitzenberg (for their fancy
dessert qualities). The Taliaferro was Jefferson's personal favourite. He
called it the best cyder apple existing. . .nearer to the silky Champagne than
any other. Because this variety has completely disappeared from modern-day
cultivation, it is sometimes referred to as Monticello's mystery apple.
While travelling in Europe, Jefferson compared the fruits of that continent to
those of Anerica. They have no apple to compare with our Newtown Pippin, he
wrote from Paris. Known later as the Albemarle Pippin, this variety was
exported to England, thereby supporting a major industry in Jefferson's home
Today Virginia ranks sixth among the apple producing states. There are over
250 commercial growers in Virginia; they utilize some 18,000 acres of land.
Orchards can be found in the rich countryside of Albemarle and Rappahannock
counties; the mountainous region of the northern Shenandoah Valley; in Roanoke
Valley; in the southwestern counties of Patrick and Carroll. Virgina apples are exported to markets in over two dozen states and twenty
countries. Much of the state's crop is also sold for processing and made into products
such as apple juice, apple butter, applesauce, and the ever-popular apple
Production now is concentrated in the northwest part of the state, with about half of the state's total crop coming from Frederick county alone. According to figures fron the Virginia Apple Growers Association, seven counties in the north account for approxmately 8 million bushels annually of the 9 million bushel annual total for the entire state. The counties are: Frederick 4 million bushels; Clarke 1.2 million bushels; Rockingham 798 thousand; Shenandoah 757 thousand; Nelson 637 thousand; Albemarle 359 thousand; and Rappahannock 350 thousand.
While Virginia may rank sixth among the states in overall apple production, she ranks first in the hearts of those who are fascinated by the romance and history of American apple cultivation. | <urn:uuid:a559c381-368c-4e88-9fc0-a9dfcc99f0ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.applejournal.com/va01.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926411 | 690 | 2.5625 | 3 |
How to Choose a Sport continued...
Both McGough and Salpekar say martial arts, particularly karate, tae kwon do, and others that emphasize form, are popular with kids who have ADHD. "In classes, the kids line up to do the same moves, and that reinforces timing and focus," Salpekar says. "Kids with ADHD really take to that."
Salpekar coached kids' soccer for many years. He suggests that parents pay close attention to their child's personality when choosing a sport. If your child isn’t competitive, he says, don’t choose an activity that pits one kid against another.
"Enjoyment, participation, and peer bonding are much more important in the long run than the competitive aspect," he says.
If your child has real talent and drive for a certain sport, though, encourage her to compete, McGough says. ADHD shouldn’t limit a child's ambition. Look at Michael Phelps. He has the disorder. He also has 18 Olympic gold medals for swimming.
"If you're really good, go for it," McGough says.
No matter what sport your child picks, make time to talk to the coach. Tell him about your child’s ADHD, and talk about ways to make sure your kid gets easy-to-handle instructions.
No Magic Bullet
Despite the benefits of playing sports, parents should realize that it won't affect or improve the disorder itself.
"Playing sports does not impact the core features of ADHD," McGough says. "You can't, for example, expect that your child will run off all of their energy."
As for medication, Salpekar says, some kids do fine without it, but most do better on it. "Kids often keep up much better with medicine, but it's not essential," he says. "See how it works."
The decision may also depend in part on the sport. If your child wants to try football, medication may be useful.
"Football has a lot of detail in the plays, and kids don't do as well without medications, parents have told me," he says.
Again, McGough says, the real impact of sports will be on your child's self-esteem, confidence, and social life, all of which are crucial to build up as early as possible.
"It's part of an approach to ADHD that is under-appreciated," McGough says. | <urn:uuid:36619173-8e95-4433-8196-b233a3aca896> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/adhd-child-in-school-13/sports-help?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978434 | 505 | 2.953125 | 3 |
French brigadier-general of artillery, retired; born at Nancy, Jan. 12, 1824. His father, who was a member of the Jewish Consistory of Nancy, was known as Moïse, though his name was Moïse Abraham. The sons were all called Moïse, and Édouard, a brother of the general, an artist at Paris, has retained the paternal appellation in the spelling Moyse (Moyse, Édouard). After passing through the Lycée atNancy, Abraham entered the École Polytechnique at the age of nineteen, Nov. 1, 1843. Thence he went to the School of Applied Sciences at Metz, from which he was graduated in 1847, after which he served for several years at Strasburg as a lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1854, and served in the Crimea on the staff of General Lebœuf. After the fall of Sebastopol he received the cross of chevalier of the Legion of Honor, as Captain Bernard Moïse. Having returned to France he was detailed in 1856 for service at the ordnance foundry at Strasburg. Two years later he married, and was obliged to assume the name of Abraham, under which he was registered in all the civil documents. In 1859 he took part in the campaign in Italy against Austria. For some time after the convention of Villefranche, Abraham remained in Milan, but subsequently returned to France. On the restoration of peace he was assigned to the department of artillery at Strasburg. He went to Paris, was promoted major, and took part in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He was detailed to the army of the Rhine at Metz, and there, after the battle of Gravelotte, was decorated with the cross of an officer of the Legion of Honor. After the war Abraham was appointed secretary of the committee on coast defenses, and became a member of the military commission on railways. He advanced in rank rapidly, reaching the grade of lieutenant-colonel in 1874 and that of colonel in 1877. As the latter he commanded the Seventeenth Infantry, for several years, at La Fère. He was finally made brigadier-general June 2, 1883, and remained in active service till Jan. 12, 1886.Bernard Abraham.
In 1895 Abraham succeeded Dr. Widal in the Central Consistory of the Israelites of France, and retained the seat for several months. J. W. | <urn:uuid:52cfeba0-2a39-4c0a-bacd-f351a5654683> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/405-abraham-bernard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985466 | 522 | 3.015625 | 3 |
During the third hour after midnight the hands on a clock point in
the same direction (so one hand is over the top of the other). At
what time, to the nearest second, does this happen?
This article for teachers suggests ideas for activities built around 10 and 2010.
Chandrika was practising a long distance run. Can you work out how
long the race was from the information?
Use this information to work out whether the front or back wheel of
this bicycle gets more wear and tear.
Grandma found her pie balanced on the scale with two weights and a
quarter of a pie. So how heavy was each pie?
On the table there is a pile of oranges and lemons that weighs
exactly one kilogram. Using the information, can you work out how
many lemons there are?
Twizzle, a female giraffe, needs transporting to another zoo. Which
route will give the fastest journey?
Bernard Bagnall recommends some primary school problems which use
numbers from the environment around us, from clocks to house
There are four equal weights on one side of the scale and an apple
on the other side. What can you say that is true about the apple
and the weights from the picture?
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on
both sides have the same total?
Mr. Sunshine tells the children they will have 2 hours of homework.
After several calculations, Harry says he hasn't got time to do
this homework. Can you see where his reasoning is wrong?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of
rabbit there are in these pens?
In this investigation, you are challenged to make mobile phone
numbers which are easy to remember. What happens if you make a
sequence adding 2 each time?
If the numbers 5, 7 and 4 go into this function machine, what
numbers will come out?
These sixteen children are standing in four lines of four, one
behind the other. They are each holding a card with a number on it.
Can you work out the missing numbers?
Start by putting one million (1 000 000) into the display of your
calculator. Can you reduce this to 7 using just the 7 key and add,
subtract, multiply, divide and equals as many times as you like?
Number problems at primary level that may require determination.
Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.
An old game but lots of arithmetic!
Throw the dice and decide whether to double or halve the number. Will you be the first to reach the target?
This number has 903 digits. What is the sum of all 903 digits?
Can you complete this jigsaw of the multiplication square?
Use your logical reasoning to work out how many cows and how many
sheep there are in each field.
At the beginning of May Tom put his tomato plant outside. On the
same day he sowed a bean in another pot. When will the two be the
This article for teachers describes how modelling number properties
involving multiplication using an array of objects not only allows
children to represent their thinking with concrete materials,. . . .
What is the lowest number which always leaves a remainder of 1 when
divided by each of the numbers from 2 to 10?
Use your logical-thinking skills to deduce how much Dan's crisps and ice-cream cost altogether.
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so
that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used
once and once only.
Here are the prices for 1st and 2nd class mail within the UK. You have an unlimited number of each of these stamps. Which stamps would you need to post a parcel weighing 825g?
The Scot, John Napier, invented these strips about 400 years ago to
help calculate multiplication and division. Can you work out how to
use Napier's bones to find the answer to these multiplications?
Ben’s class were cutting up number tracks. First they cut them into twos and added up the numbers on each piece. What patterns could they see?
A game for 2 people using a pack of cards Turn over 2 cards and try
to make an odd number or a multiple of 3.
Here is a picnic that Petros and Michael are going to share equally. Can you tell us what each of them will have?
This multiplication uses each of the digits 0 - 9 once and once only. Using the information given, can you replace the stars in the calculation with figures?
The Man is much smaller than us. Can you use the picture of him
next to a mug to estimate his height and how much tea he drinks?
A game for 2 or more players with a pack of cards. Practise your
skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to hit
the target score.
A game for 2 people. Use your skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to blast the asteroids.
Go through the maze, collecting and losing your money as you go.
Which route gives you the highest return? And the lowest?
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange
the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
Resources to support understanding of multiplication and division through playing with number.
Can you work out what a ziffle is on the planet Zargon?
How will you decide which way of flipping over and/or turning the grid will give you the highest total?
In November, Liz was interviewed for an article on a parents' website about learning times tables. Read the article here.
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? What do you think is happening to the numbers?
Look at what happens when you take a number, square it and subtract your answer. What kind of number do you get? Can you prove it?
This problem is designed to help children to learn, and to use, the two and three times tables.
Can you order the digits from 1-3 to make a number which is divisible by 3 so when the last digit is removed it becomes a 2-figure number divisible by 2, and so on?
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
Four Go game for an adult and child. Will you be the first to have four numbers in a row on the number line?
Shut the Box game for an adult and child. Can you turn over the cards which match the numbers on the dice? | <urn:uuid:c5188994-cd3f-4805-ab34-f3224047278b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nrich.maths.org/public/leg.php?code=32&cl=1&cldcmpid=4807 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00072-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935851 | 1,397 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Article 52. Principle of Homonymy.
52.1. Statement of the Principle of Homonymy. When two or more taxa are distinguished from each other they must not be denoted by the same name.
52.2. Operation of the Principle of Homonymy. When two or more names are homonyms, only the senior, as determined by the Principle of Priority (see Article 52.3), may be used as a valid name; for exceptions see Articles 23.2 and 23.9 (unused senior homonyms) and Article 59 (secondary homonyms in the species group).
52.3. Principle of Priority applies. The relative precedence of homonyms (including primary and secondary homonyms in the case of species-group names) is determined by applying the relevant provisions of the Principles of Priority and the First Reviser [Arts. 23, 24].
52.6. Incorrect and corrected original spellings. The corrected spelling of an incorrect original spelling may enter homonymy but an incorrect original spelling cannot [Art. 32.4]. | <urn:uuid:24aa44e0-a2c2-47b6-8128-1f0e312bb394> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/includes/page.jsp?nfv=&article=52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883182 | 220 | 2.640625 | 3 |
This course is a hands-on, practical approach to directing guided by the belief that "directors learn to direct by directing." Our central focus is on the collaboration between actor and director. The pace will be rapid and the workload significant: weekly, students will either present a piece that they have directed or perform in a work directed by their peers. Rehearsals will take place outside of class. To ground our work, will begin by focusing on text analysis, and on articulating the structure, rhythm, and energy of theatrical language. We will then turn our attention to staging, including composition, movement, and the relationship between a play and its theatrical (or site-specific) space. Throughout, students will explore, take risks, experience the joy and difficulty of collaboration, and challenge each other to make vital work. | <urn:uuid:2e787dbb-18e8-4d46-8803-dc63360f52d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.fivecolleges.edu/courses/details/node/24593 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969761 | 166 | 2.921875 | 3 |
How to Build a Basic Budget
Original post by C. Taylor of Demand Media
The first step to becoming financially responsible is knowing where your money goes. Building a basic budget will help you do track your income and expenses. This budget is essentially a categorized list of income and expense that helps you analyze your cash flows and identify areas where you can save money.
Calculate your total monthly take-home income. This figure should include any income you can use for your monthly bills. Do not include money paid to taxes, as that is not available for use. This total is your foundation for building a budget, because however you arrange you budget, it cannot exceed this amount.
Create a priority list that includes essential items. Your mortgage or rent, electricity, water, groceries, cell phone, insurance and debt-related bills. Use your previous check stubs, credit card statements and receipts to help you calculate the average monthly expense related to each. If you are uncertain, overestimate the cost; it's better to have money left over at the end of the month than come up short.
Create a second list that contains non-essentials. Entertainment costs, dining out, cable TV and frivolous purchases would fall into this category. As before, include an average monthly cost for each item.
Total the expenses in each list and then add them together. Compare these figures to your budget. As an example, if your monthly income is $2,000, and you have $1,400 in essential expenses and $1,000 in non-essentials, then you know you need to trim your expenses.
Analyze your non-essential list and determine what you can do without. Regularly eating out is a big expense that can be eliminated by cooking at home. Going out to movies can be replaced with DVDs. Gasoline expenses can be reduced with carpooling. Frivolous spending, such as spontaneous luxury purchases, should be eliminated. Even some essential items can be trimmed, such as more economically using electricity, raising deductibles on insurance and getting a roommate to share rent. Try to reduce your total expenses well below your income level so you can start saving money.
- Perk Street Financial; How to Build the Most Basic Budget Possible; Kyle Psaty, May 4, 2011
- The Simple Dollar; Making a Simple Budget - A First Timer's Guide; Trent; Nov 20, 2006
About the Author
C. Taylor has been a professional writer since 2009. He has written for online publications and the "Journal of Asian Martial Arts." Taylor specializes in martial arts, traveling, sciences and computer repair. He received a Master of Science in wildlife biology from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences from the College of Charleston. | <urn:uuid:a3a69ae7-3e61-400a-9b1e-89c95932ae1d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wiki.fool.com/How_to_Build_a_Basic_Budget | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00199-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936448 | 561 | 3.015625 | 3 |
July 20, 1969, US Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) landed on the Moon (while astronaut Michael Collins continued to orbit the Moon in the Command Module).
Today, included in the 45-year anniversary celebrations of the event is the commemoration of Aldrin taking communion on the lunar surface. Yasmine Hafiz, associate editor for The Huffington Post‘s Religion section, writes, “Aldrin wanted to commemorate the moment in a way he found most personally meaningful.”
Aldrin, a church elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas, at the time, spoke to his pastor Dean Woodruff to try to find a way to symbolize the wonder and awe of the moon landing a few weeks before lift-off. Aldrin said, “We wanted to express our feeling that what man was doing in this mission transcended electronics and computers and rockets.”
Before taking communion, Aldrin silently read passages from the Bible, which he had hand written on a piece of paper: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5) and “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:4).
This wasn’t the first time Scripture was read in space. December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 publicly read in turn from the first chapter of Genesis as they orbited the Moon. Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman recited verses 1 through 10, using the King James Version text. | <urn:uuid:4440c156-67b1-4bf2-b79c-fc5bcb3d9ba3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2014/07/first-liquid-poured-on-the-moon-and-the-first-food-eaten-there-were-communion-elements/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944864 | 364 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Rolled Metals and Drawn Metals Information
Rolled metals and drawn metals are metals and alloys that are rolled into sheets, plates, strips, foils, bars, rods, or other shapes. Rolling and drawing are the two different processes used to create these shapes.
The Rolling Process
Rolling is a fabricating process in which the metal, plastic, paper, glass, etc. is passed through a pair (or pairs) of rolls. There are two types of rolling processes, flat and profile rolling.
- Flat rolling creates a product that is either classified as a sheet (typically thickness less than 3 mm, also called a strip) or plate (typically thickness more than 3 mm).
- Profile rolling creates a product that may be a round rod or other shaped bar, such as a structural section (beam, channel, joist, etc.).
Rolling is also classified according to the temperature of the metal rolled.
- Hot rolling is when the temperature of the metal is worked above its recrystallization temperature. Hot rolling is an effective way to reduce grain size in metals for improved strength and ductility.
- Cold rolling is when the temperature of the metal is worked below its recrystallization temperature. It is usually applied as a finishing process after hot rolling to enhance strength and hardness, and to ensure high surface quality.
Another process also termed as 'hot bending' is induction bending, whereby the section is heated in small sections and dragged into a required radius. Heavy plates tend to be formed using a press process, which is termed forming rather than rolling.
The Drawing Process
Drawing is a process which uses tensile forces to stretch metal. It can be divided into two types: sheet metal drawing and wire, bar, and tube drawing.
- Sheet metal drawing involves plastic deformation over a curved axis. The flow of material is controlled by a balance of pressure and lubricant. If there is an overexertion of either, the material will either wrinkle from excessive movement or become too thin and break.
- Bar, tube, and wire drawing involves the starting stock being drawn through a die to reduce diameter and increase its length. Steels, copper alloys, and aluminum alloys are common materials that are drawn.
Drawing is usually done at room temperature, thus classified a cold working process. However, it may be performed at elevated temperatures to hot work large wires, rods, or hollow sections in order to reduce forces.
Advantages of Rolling and Drawing
Rolling is ideal for materials that have high yield strength. These include metals such as steel, aluminum, and various alloys. By reducing the material’s thickness in stages, rolling allows for very low tolerances (in the order of 0.0001 in.) Surface finish is very smooth and can be reduced by the use of leveling rolls. Life expectancy for the components is also high because of residual stresses on the surface that improve fatigue life. Because rolling is fast and continuous, it is most economical for large production volumes.
Drawing is ideal for products that require significant strength and minimal weight. The process is also recommended for product geometries that are unachievable through other techniques. It is also a fast process that requires fewer operations than many other metalworking techniques, meaning favorable production rates and cost-effectiveness at high volumes. Tool construction costs are also lower than those of similar manufacturing processes.
Selecting a drawn or rolled shape can be based on a number of different factors, including design specifications, load requirements, or material types. The GlobalSpec SpecSearch Database allows the user to specify the desired product based on size dimensions such as overall thickness and overall width or outer diameter (OD), mechanical properties such as yield strength and tensile strength, or material types such as aluminum and copper. | <urn:uuid:da91f713-56ac-4057-b063-f6cb53ba6187> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.globalspec.com/learnmore/materials_chemicals_adhesives/stock_fabricated_materials_components/rolled_alloys_rolled_metals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93818 | 779 | 4 | 4 |
Rickets is a disorder caused by a lack of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate. It leads to softening and weakening of the bones.
Vitamin D helps the body control calcium and phosphate levels. If the blood levels of these minerals become too low, the body may produce hormones that cause calcium and phosphate to be released from the bones. This leads to weak and soft bones.
Vitamin D is absorbed from food or produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight. Lack of vitamin D production by the skin may occur in people who:
- Live in climates with little exposure to sunlight
- Must stay indoors
- Work indoors during the daylight hours
You may not get enough vitamin D from your diet if you:
- Are lactose intolerant (have trouble digesting milk products)
- Do not drink milk products
- Follow a vegetarian diet
Infants who are breastfed only may develop vitamin D deficiency. Human breast milk does not supply the proper amount of vitamin D. This can be a particular problem for darker-skinned children in winter months (when there are lower levels of sunlight).
Not getting enough calcium and phosphorous in your diet can also lead to rickets. Rickets caused by a lack of these minerals in diet is rare in developed countries, because calcium and phosphorous are found in milk and green vegetables.
Your genes may increase your risk of rickets. Hereditary rickets is a form of the disease that is passed down through families. It occurs when the kidneys are unable to hold onto the mineral phosphate. Rickets may also be caused by kidney disorders that involve renal tubular acidosis.
Disorders that reduce the digestion or absorption of fats will make it more difficult for vitamin D to be absorbed into the body.
Occasionally, rickets may occur in children who have disorders of the liver, or who cannot convert vitamin D to its active form.
Rickets is rare in the United States. It is most likely to occur in children during periods of rapid growth, when the body needs high levels of calcium and phosphate. Rickets may be seen in children ages 6 to 24 months. It is uncommon in newborns.
Symptoms of rickets include:
- Bone pain or tenderness in the arms, legs, pelvis, and spine
- Decreased muscle tone (loss of muscle strength) and weakness that gets worse
- Dental deformities, including delayed tooth formation, defects in the tooth structure, holes in the enamel, and increased cavities (dental caries)
- Impaired growth
- Increased bone fractures
- Muscle cramps
- Short stature (adults less than 5 feet tall)
- Skeletal deformities such as an odd-shaped skull, bowlegs, bumps in the ribcage (rachitic rosary), breastbone that is pushed forward (pigeon chest), pelvic deformities, and spine deformities (spine that curves abnormally, including scoliosis or kyphosis)
Exams and Tests
A physical exam reveals tenderness or pain in the bones, but not in the joints or muscles.
The following tests may help diagnose rickets:
- Arterial blood gases
- Blood tests (serum calcium)
- Bone biopsy (rarely done)
- Bone x-rays
- Serum alkaline phosphatase
- Serum phosphorus
Other tests and procedures include the following:
The goals of treatment are to relieve symptoms and correct the cause of the condition. The cause must be treated to prevent the disease from returning.
Replacing calcium, phosphorus, or vitamin D that is lacking will eliminate most symptoms of rickets. Dietary sources of vitamin D include fish, liver, and processed milk. Exposure to moderate amounts of sunlight is encouraged. If rickets is caused by a metabolic problem, a prescription for vitamin D supplements may be needed.
Positioning or bracing may be used to reduce or prevent deformities. Some skeletal deformities may require corrective surgery.
The disorder may be corrected by replacing vitamin D and minerals. Laboratory values and x-rays usually improve after about 1 week, although some cases may require large doses of minerals and vitamin D.
If rickets is not corrected while the child is still growing, skeletal deformities and short stature may be permanent. If it is corrected while the child is young, skeletal deformities often improve or disappear with time.
- Chronic skeletal pain
- Skeletal deformities
- Skeletal fractures, may occur without cause
When to Contact a Medical Professional
Call your child's health care provider if you notice symptoms of rickets.
You can prevent rickets by making sure that your child gets enough calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D in the diet. People who have gastrointestinal or other disorders may need to take supplements. Ask your child's health care provider.
Kidney (renal) causes of poor vitamin D absorption should be treated right away. People who have renal disorders should have their calcium and phosphorus levels monitored regularly.
Genetic counseling may help people who have a family history of inherited disorders that can cause rickets.
Osteomalacia in children; Vitamin D deficiency; Renal rickets; Hepatic rickets
Greenbaum LA. Rickets and hypervitaminosis D. In: Kliegman RM, Behrman RE, Jenson HB, Stanton BF, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 19th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2011:chap 48.
Update Date 8/30/2014
Updated by: Neil K. Kaneshiro, MD, MHA, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. | <urn:uuid:07d67cc5-87bb-4402-bfba-dcb5696635b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000344.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91672 | 1,211 | 3.984375 | 4 |
On 26th August 1789, just over a month after the fall of the Bastille, the National Constituent Assembly adopted The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The first article of this document declared, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility." Despite this declaration of principle it was not until 4th February 1794, that the National Convention - then under the control of the Jacobins and at the height of the Revolutionary Terror - decreed that slavery be abolished in all French colonies:
The National Convention declares the abolition of Negro slavery in all the colonies; in consequence it decrees that all men, without distinction of colour, residing in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy all the rights assured by the constitution.
Following the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, those that took over the reigns of government in France tried to undo what they saw as the excesses of the Revolution. As such, on 20th May 1802 the Consulate - with Napoleon elected as First Consul - reintroduced slavery to France and her colonies. Napoleon went on to become sole ruler of France until he was defeated and the Monarchy was restored.
In February 1848 the government of King Louis-Philippe I collapsed and a liberal provisional government declared the Second Republic. Two months later, the anti-slavery campaigner Victor Schoeler and president of the commission for the abolition of slavery oversaw the passage of the decree to end slavery in French territories for the second time. The first article read:
"Slavery will be completely abolished in all the colonies and the French possessions, two months after the promulgation of the present decree in each of them. From the promulgation of the present decree in colonies, any corporal punishment, any sale of not free persons, will be absolutely forbidden ."
The following primary sources are available online:
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (26th August 1789) at the excellent Liberty, Equality, Fraternity pages
Decree of the National Convention of 4 February 1794, Abolishing Slavery in all the Colonies, also at Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Decree of the abolition of the slavery (27th April 1848) at the History of Slavery in Martinique web site.
Constitution of Vermont abolished slavery, 7th July 1777
Josiah Henson born, 15th June 1789
Haitian Revolution, 22nd August 1791
All slaves emancipated in British Empire, 1st August 1834 | <urn:uuid:54b713d0-3282-4278-9ae2-9a0d81bc04c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://modernhistorian.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-this-day-in-history-french-abolish.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951236 | 533 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Job Lost and Found
||edHelper's suggested reading level:
||grades 3 to 5
||Flesch-Kincaid grade level:
||fraternal, immediately, announcement, tighten, outdoor, education, driveway, somehow, canoe, exactly, homework, overnight, minutes, buses, leftover, bills
||Smith Valley Elementary School
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Job Lost and Found
By Jody Williams
1 Kelly and Ben are best friends. Not only are they best friends, but they are sister and brother. Not only are they sister and brother, but they are twins. They are fraternal twins. That means that they do not look identical. Kelly was born first, and two minutes later Ben was born. They are both in the fourth grade at Smith Valley Elementary School.
2 One day, the fourth grade teachers made an announcement to their classes. They said that the fourth graders would be going on an overnight trip. This is a trip that fourth graders go on every year. They travel to an outdoor education camp. Parents would be needed to go along. Everyone would stay in cabins, go on hikes, canoe, swim, play games, and do craft projects. A campfire and a hike in the woods at night were also planned. The teachers explained that there would be leaders at the camp to run the activities.
3 As the teachers were sharing the news about the trip, the faces of every fourth grader grew a little brighter with excitement. Each teacher handed out a packet of information to be taken home to parents. A meeting was planned for parents to learn more about the trip, and the cost of the trip would be discussed.
4 The bell rang, and it was time for the school day to end. As fourth graders made their way to the buses, all they could talk about was the trip. Kelly and Ben got on the bus and sat together as they always did. They talked the whole way home about how they couldn't wait to tell their parents all about the trip. They knew that at least one of their parents, if not both, would go along.
5 The bus stopped in front of their house. Kelly and Ben leaped off the bus and ran up the driveway. They burst into the house ready to shout their news at the top of their lungs. Then they noticed that something was different. Dad was home. Usually, Dad was at work when they got home from school. He looked different, too. He looked sad, like his best friend in the whole world moved thousands of miles away. They looked at their mom for an answer to the question that was on both of their faces: "What's wrong?"
6 Mom pulled the twins into the living room and explained that Dad had lost his job. She explained that the company that Dad worked for had to let go some workers because the company couldn't afford to pay them. Dad was one of them. Kelly and Ben immediately asked what they could do to help. Mom tried to assure them that Dad would find another job soon, but somehow she wasn't very convincing. She also explained that the family would have to "tighten their belts." That meant that money could only be spent on the things they needed, like food and house bills.
7 Mom asked Kelly and Ben to go up to their rooms and start their homework. As they walked up the stairs, they looked at each other. They knew exactly what the other was thinking. They both went in Kelly's room and sat on the floor. Kelly said, "What about our trip?" They both agreed that they couldn't tell their parents about it. It cost money to go on the trip, and Mom said they had to "tighten their belts."
8 After finishing their homework, Kelly and Ben came downstairs to find Mom and Dad fixing dinner. It was Thursday and usually they went out every Thursday for a family dinner at their favorite restaurant. This was only the first of many changes for the family.
Paragraphs 9 to 17:
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West Point - Combating Terrorism Center
"...the Center has been actively involved in supporting the Global War on Terror through education, research, and policy analysis."
Aolescent Directory On-line (ADOL)
"...an electronic guide to information on adolescent issues. It is a service of the Center for Adolescent Studies at Indiana University. Educators, counselors, parents, researchers, health practitioners, and teens can use ADOL to find Web resources..."
"The purpose of EDSITEment is to offer a gateway for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies."
"...an annotated guide to the best education related sites on the Web. They're sorted by subject and lifestage..."
Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes (ENSI)
"The main objective of ENSI is to improve the teaching of evolution in High School Biology courses by encouraging teachers to teach evolutionary thinking in the context of a more complete understanding of modern scientific thinking (see Nickels et al article on this site)."
Lesson plans include: Nature of Science Lessons ; Evolution Lessons ; Origin of Life Lessons.
Historians Against the War
Statement: "We historians call for a halt to the march towards war against Iraq. We are deeply concerned about the needless destruction of human life, the undermining of constitutional government in the U.S., the egregious curtailment of civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad, and the obstruction of world peace for the indefinite future."
"...is an innovative, issue-based approach for engaging high school students in informed political discourse. The web site uses audio from the Justice Talking radio show and articles from The New York Times to teach students about reasoned debate and the often-conflicting values inherent in our democracy. The web site includes articles, editorials and oral debate from the nation's finest journalists and advocates."
- A Collaboration of NPR's Justice Talking and The New York Times Learning Network.
The Digital Magazine for Kids - By Kids from 8 to 18.
National Institutes of Health - Office of Science Education (OSE)
"...coordinates science education activities at the NIH and develops and sponsors science education projects in house. These programs serve elementary, secondary, and college students and teachers and the public."
NSTA Webwatchers' Science Guides
"Lists of pre-selected web sites to hep YOU teach key subjects."
Sections include: K-4 Science Guides ; 5-8 Science Guides ; 9-12 Science Guides.
- National Science Teachers Association
Online Poetry Classroom
"...combines poetry, pedagogy, and technology with the belief that poetry is an essential part of America's heritage and a vital tool in helping students comprehend and articulate human experience...Designed to enhance poetry education on a national level, OPC employs technology to encourage the development of new poetry curricula and teaching strategies by high school English and Language Arts teachers."
- A Program of The Academy of American Poets
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)
"...offers online handouts covering writing, research, grammar, and MLA and APA style."
- The Writing Lab Newsletter
"...is a forum for exchanging ideas and information about writing centers in high schools, colleges, and universities."
Online Degree Information
Do you want to improve your earning potential and further your career? Learn about earning an online degree through an an accredited online college or campus-based university. Browse through hundreds of subjects to find your desired degree program or online course - or start by choosing your degree level (e.g. associate, bachelor, master or doctoral). | <urn:uuid:9ce4d594-73d7-4fbe-a5eb-aacbdd6ff196> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.academicinfo.net/edteachhs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.88716 | 765 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Geneva launches hunt for geothermal sources
The Local · 26 Oct 2015, 22:30
Published: 26 Oct 2015 22:30 GMT+01:00
- Voters reject energy levy to replace sales tax (08 Mar 15)
- Geneva utility CEO quits amid wind power scandal (12 Sep 13)
- Downsized plant set to burn Geneva’s garbage (04 Jul 13)
- Migros unveils monster Solothurn solar system (30 Nov 12)
The programme is part of the 20-million-franc GEothermie 2020 project launched last year by the Services Industriels de Genève (SIG) to find naturally occurring sources of hot water beneath the earth’s surface.
Heat can be extracted from this water to power electrical power generators or to provide heating.
SIG said that initial tests last year in an eight-kilometre zone between the municipalities of Chancy and Bernex concluded that hot water is available in the Lake Geneva basin in limestone rock at levels less deep than previously thought — as little as 500 metres below ground.
The exploration involves beaming sound waves into the earth to detect, in a manner similar to sonar imaging, where the areas of hot water can be most readily accessed.
The work, which SIG said will have no harmful impact on residents, will continue through November and will then resume next year with more targeted exploration.
Countries such as Germany and Italy have pioneered the use of geothermal energy for power generation.
But currently, no electricity is being generated in Switzerland from geothermal sources, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).
“One of the main obstacles to the development of this technology is the fact that very little is known as yet about the local conditions underground,” SFOE says on its website.
The Centre for Hydrology and Geothermics at the University of Neuchâtel says that generating electricity from geothermal energy requires temperatures of around 150C.
In Switzerland that means drilling down 5,000 metres, the centre said.
Individual buildings can be heated through boreholes dug to a depth of 50 to 300 metres with heat exchangers.
SIG said the potential for geothermal energy is high.
It is a source of energy that is “local, clean, renewable and continuously available” with “numerous thermal and electrical applications”.
The canton of Geneva estimates it could, over time, cover two-thirds of its heating needs through geothermal energy.
SIG said developing this form of power is a priority as a way of reducing Geneva’s dependence on fossil fuels and to develop energy independence.
Geothermal energy is already used to heat more than 50,000 buildings in Switzerland, including individual homes, apartment buildings, offices and hotels.
But attempts to develop larger geothermal projects by drilling boreholes into the ground have failed in the cities of Basel and Saint Gallen.
A planned power plant in Basel was scrapped in 2009 after earlier drilling triggered earth tremors.
Saint Gallen also abandoned a geothermal project last year because of concerns about seismic risks. | <urn:uuid:ace34d2c-c926-4c7e-95fd-d0183a2d6275> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thelocal.ch/20151026/geneva-utility-launches-hunt-for-geothermal-sources | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937534 | 651 | 2.515625 | 3 |
the office, have hitherto given us on the whole a very good bench.
The distinguishing features of the life of the city between 1820 and 1860 were its steady and rapid growth in population, the introduction of an absolutely democratic system of government, the immense immigration from abroad, completely changing the ethnic character of the population, the wonderful growth of the Roman Catholic Church and the great material prosperity, together with the vast fortunes made by many of the business men, usually of obscure and humble ancestry.
The opening of the Erie Canal gave an extraordinary impetus to the development of the city. The canal had been planned, and reports concerning it drawn up, at different times by various New York citizens, notably by Gouverneur Morris; but the work was actually done, in spite of violent opposition, by De Witt Clinton. Clinton was, more than any other man, responsible for the introduction of the degrading system of spoils politics into the State; most of his political work was mere faction fighting for his own advancement; and he was too jealous of all competitors, and at the same time not a great enough man, ever to become an important figure in the national arena. But he was sincerely proud of his city and State, and very much interested in all philanthropic, scientific, and | <urn:uuid:ca01f14c-a5e3-4a78-a65c-df27da3361a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bartleby.com/171/pages/page215.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979341 | 257 | 2.703125 | 3 |
(CBS WASHINGTON) — A World Meteorological Organization-approved reanalysis of U.S. temperature data has shown that temperatures are rising only half as much as claimed by the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN).
Monitors of temperature were moved to “more spatially representative” locations for getting accurate surface temperature trends. The analysis demonstrated that temperatures reported from 1979-2008 were spuriously doubled, with 92 percent of that over-estimation occurring because of faulty locations: being too close to urban areas where concrete, asphalt, roadways, and air conditioning system heat exchangers tainted the given temperatures.
The study’s assessment, for the years 1979 to 2008, yields a trend of +0.155 degrees Celsius per decade from the high quality sites, a +0.248 degrees Celsius per decade trend for poorly sited locations, and a trend of +0.309 degrees Celsius per decade after NOAA adjusts the data. This issue of station siting quality is expected to be an issue with respect to the monitoring of land surface temperature throughout the Global Historical Climate Network and in the BEST network.
“The new rating method employed finds that station siting does indeed have a significant effect on temperature trends,” said lead author of the research, Anthony Watts. “The previous 1999 site rating method employed to create the early metadata, and employed in the Fall et al 2011 paper I co-authored was incomplete, and didn’t properly quantify the effects.”
Previous papers all used a distance only rating system from Leroy 1999, to gauge the impact of heat sinks and sources near thermometers. Leroy 2010 shows that method to be effective for siting new stations, such as was done by NCDC adopting Leroy 1999 methods with their Climate Reference Network (CRN) in 2002 but ineffective at retroactive siting evaluation.
Using the old testing method, the study concluded that, “These factors, combined with station siting issues, have led to a spurious doubling of U.S. mean temperature trends in the 30 year data period covered by the study from 1979 – 2008.”
Other findings include, but are not limited to:
• Statistically significant differences between compliant and non-compliant stations exist, as well as urban and rural stations.
• Poorly-sited station trends are adjusted sharply upward, and well sited stations are adjusted upward to match the already-adjusted poor stations.
• Well sited rural stations show a warming nearly three times greater after NOAA adjustment is applied.
• Urban sites warm more rapidly than semi-urban sites, which in turn warm more rapidly than rural sites.
• The raw data Tmean trend for well sited stations is 0.15 degrees Celsius per decade lower than adjusted Tmean trend for poorly sited stations.
• Airport USHCN stations show a significant differences in trends than other USHCN stations, and due to equipment issues and other problems, may not be representative stations for monitoring climate.
Researchers in the current study are still investigating other issues and flaws with the old methods of climate change evaluation. | <urn:uuid:67019fb7-67af-4110-ac6d-705e5b73dfe6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/08/03/study-half-of-global-warming-in-us-is-significantly-over-estimated/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940963 | 641 | 2.8125 | 3 |
This refrain captures the common sentiment in Armenia, and is at the heart of the growing issue of sex imbalances in the country. , with 114 baby boys born for every 100 baby girls, above the natural rate of 105. We recently met with groups across Armenia to dig deeper into the root causes of sex preferences, with the hope of helping find an effective policy solution.
This issue has long affected countries like China, India and others in Asia, but it has emerged only recently in the South Caucasus. In Armenia, the ratio of boy births to girl births started increasing in the 1990s, when economic disruption and the desire to have smaller families, combined with the availability of sex detection technology, led many families to choose sex selection in the quest to have a son. The result? A generation of “missing girls,” as Amartya Sen first called this phenomenon.
Also available in: العربية
The entire world is hypnotized by the struggle of the European continent with the rapidly escalating numbers of refugees and migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Yet, only a handful reflect about the plight of those who stay behind, entangled in violence and persecution, or those who remain in refugee camps. Some believe those 'left behind' are the solution and saviors to the future of the Middle East and Africa, and one great way to help them is to give them bicycles.
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.” – Susan B. Anthony
In 2015 alone, the UN Refugee Agency reported that of the 520,957 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean, 2,980 died or went missing. Eighteen percent of the migrants are children and 13% are women. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, an estimated 200,000 additional refugees are still planning to make the sea journey by the end of 2015. So, the seismic human waves are far from subsiding in the region.
Today, there are a series of internal and regional armed conflicts around the world, most of which are concentrated in two regions: the Middle East and Africa. The desperate attempts by so many Syrians to flee Assad regime’s and the Islamic state’s terror by escaping to security in Europe has caught the world’s attention. However, Syrians are not alone in deserving compassion. Although international interest in Afghanistan has waned and most foreign troops are gone, the war there is only getting worse. In addition, there is an influx of desperate refugees from Eritrea, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Gambia, and Bangladesh who are just as entitled to refugee status as the others.
While humanity is being washed ashore in the Mediterranean Sea, the treacherous passage does not resemble a migration, but a human tsunami. The departing refugees and migrants leave a vacuum, as the most skilled, able-bodied, and educated keep leaving the continent, most of them are males. This leaves females, elderly and disabled behind and entangled in the local violence. The families left behind often count on reuniting with their loved ones in the near future or hope to receive remittances to support their livelihoods as they try to rebuild their communities.
What should the world do with these gutted societies? The global community should invest in women power, leadership opportunities for women, and in modifying the social order with regards to female emancipation on the continent. We must pay immediate attention and react with empathy and solidarity.
For far too long, women and girls in Africa have faced discrimination and inequalities in the workforce which have not only hurt them, but their families, communities and their countries as a whole. As we begin 2015, the African Union’s Year of Women’s Empowerment, one thing is clear: we will not reduce poverty without working to achieve gender equality.
While most governments in Africa acknowledge that empowering women and girls is a key contributor to economic development, the fertility transition in Africa ─ an important factor in sustained economic growth ─ has been much slower than in other regions of the world. Access to family planning and maternal health services – as well as education for girls – typically results in improved economic opportunity for women and lower fertility. Some governments in Africa are seeking innovative ways to accelerate the demographic transition. In Niger, for example, where the fertility rate (7.6 children per woman) is among the highest in the world, “School for Husbands”, an education program delivered by trusted, traditional community leaders are flourishing across the country and highlighting the benefits of family planning and reproductive health.
Change. Global leaders galvanize nations in pursuit of it, advocates demand that policymakers facilitate it, and I’d suggest that we all strive to be a part of it. As the saying goes, change is “easier said than done.” But young people don’t seem to see it that way. Not only are young people calling for social, political and economic change, but they are being the change.
Today’s generation of young people is the largest the world has ever seen. In fact, over half the world’s population is under the age of 30. To some, this number may seem daunting – but the way I see it, that’s more than 3.5 billion young people representing 3.5 billion opportunities for change.
We know that when you invest in young people – particularly in girls – the returns are tremendous. Girls with access to education and health care, including youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and services, are more likely to marry later and, once mothers, are more likely to send their children to school and provide them with health care.
And the impact flows beyond families and communities: By enrolling just 10% more girls in school, a country can increase its gross domestic product by approximately 3%. In short, when you invest in girls there are ripple effects throughout society – and everybody wins.
According the World Bank’s latest report on the state of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research in Africa, African researchers produce only 1 percent of the world’s research.
As shown in this video, unlocking the talent of women and girls could improve the quality and quantity of scientific research and tech innovation in Africa.
On 22 July 2014, the UK and UNICEF co-hosted the first Girl Summit to mobilize domestic and international support to end child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) as well as female genital mutilation (FGM) within a generation. The connection between education and these two practices is critical in efforts to ending them.
The education a girl receives is the strongest predictor of the age she will marry. Child marriage is associated with lower levels of schooling for girls in every region of the world. FGM, likewise, is connected to education, albeit indirectly. FGM usually takes place before education is completed and sometimes before it commences. However, FGM prevalence levels are generally lower among women with higher education, indicating that the FGM status of a girl correlates with her educational attainment later in in life.
When it comes to helping young women in Africa with both economic and social opportunity, what does the evidence tell us? Broadcaster Georges Collinet sat down with researchers and policymakers to discuss the hard evidence behind two programs that have succeeded in giving girls a better chance at getting started in their adult lives.
“I wanted to become a doctor,” Thenmoli said. Her whisper echoed in the room which instantly fell silent. “There was no way even to get started when I was little.” Thenmoli pointed at her daughter, “Vijayalakshmi wants to become a doctor. She is only three. I will make sure she finishes school and goes to college.”
I was visiting a women’s group in Annathur village in Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu. This group had in the past been supported by the Pudhu Vaazhvu Project that also provided skills training for young people. I discovered that the group had mostly goat keepers, small dairy farmers, and vegetable growers. All women had managed to improve their lives with the support of the project. Yet our conversation was not about the women’s livelihoods. We only talked about how they could fulfil the dreams of their children.
“They choose computer training Sir…some of them nursing. All of them got a job after the training.” I was amazed, but then again Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest transforming states in India. “How about the boys?” I asked. “They chose driving, Sir, mostly light vehicles. The ambitious ones go for heavy trucks or forklifts.”
“So did any boy choose computer training?” I enquired. “No Sir, none of them did. But we did have one girl who chose driving. Girls are more ambitious!”
A multi-disciplinary art exhibition on the topic of gender based violence (GBV) is opening today at the World Bank in Washington, DC. The exhibition is entitled “1 in 3,” since an estimated one in three women worldwide will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. “1 in 3” includes art from around the world - photographs, paintings, drawings, sculpture; films and videos; posters from advertising campaigns against GBV, and performing art.
Sokha, a skinny orphan girl in Cambodia used to pick through garbage to survive. But thanks to series of events, she was able to enroll in school and excel. Her tale is one of the nine inspiring stories in Girl Rising, a documentary that aims to raise awareness about the plight of girls in the developing world.
On April 18, Girl Rising was screened at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. in an event to give a greater momentum to girls’ education and empowerment. President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Justine Greening, Secretary of State, International Development, UK, Holly Gordon, Executive Producer of Girl Rising, Frieda Pinto, an actress and Shabana Basij-Rasikh, Founder of SOLA, an organization hoping to expand education and leadership opportunities for Afghan women shared their thoughts on need of girls’ empowerment.
Watch the recap of the event: | <urn:uuid:5d58194d-af39-45d7-8de1-ddd122b01047> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://blogs.worldbank.org/category/tags/girls | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963103 | 2,168 | 2.625 | 3 |
This next tutorial is going to be on a figure that was also president of South Africa. Here is "how to draw Nelson Mandela", step by step. Nelson Mandela was born July 18, 1918 and was the eleventh president to South Africa. What he is most famous for is his aggressive protesting against apartheid which is basically racial segregation stemmed from political and economic discrimination towards non-Europeans of South Africa. Because of his protesting he was jailed for twenty seven years because the apartheid government classified him as a terrorist, instead of the hero that he was at the time. Nelson Mandela is viewed to be the main reason and cause to the end of apartheid. In 1993 Mandela was released from prison and at the same time he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. He is known to South Africans as being the grandfather of all of South Africa. Drawing Nelson Mandela is going to be fun and inspiring because he was a man that made a difference in the world as we know it. I shall return in a bit so stay tuned in. Peace out people, and be sure to comment, rate or fav. | <urn:uuid:cf1df94c-b082-4ccc-8247-b20af6d20ff6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/15665/1/1/how-to-draw-nelson-mandela,-nelson-mandela.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991505 | 219 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Dietary Intake Linked to Memory Loss in Seniors. By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M.
Grohol, Psy.D. on February 14, 2012 We all recognize that overeating can cause weight gain, but now new research suggests excessive calorie consumption can double the risk of memory loss in older adults. In a paper presented during the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual meeting, researchers report that consumption of between 2,100 and 6,000 calories per day may double the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older. XVIVO. Penn Medicine News: Deciphering Hidden Code Reveals Brain Activity. PHILADELPHIA – By combining sophisticated mathematical techniques more commonly used by spies instead of scientists with the power and versatility of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a Penn neurologist has developed a new approach for studying the inner workings of the brain.
A hidden pattern is encoded in the seemingly random order of things presented to a human subject, which the brain reveals when observed with fMRI. The research is published in the journal NeuroImage. Geoffrey K. Aguirre, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine, says “the same math that could break into your car can be used to crack the brain’s codes.” Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011. | <urn:uuid:38e8d624-59b8-4e9e-a42b-8e6bbbc89479> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pearltrees.com/tanna611/science/id4044969 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93036 | 289 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The differences of anaesthetic care in paediatrics compared to adults.
In the study of holistic perspectives in perioperative care the
following article focuses on the care required for paediatric patients
through the perioperative period. This incorporates an understanding of
the anatomical, physiological and pharmacological differences from adult
practice, acknowledging the most important principles of patient safety.
The planning, implementation, equipment adaptations and psychological
challenges associated with this group will be discussed in relation to
improving the overall perioperative experience.
KEYWORDS Paediatrics / Anaesthesia / Uniques
Pediatric anesthesia (Comparative analysis)
General anesthesia (Physiological aspects)
General anesthesia (Comparative analysis)
|Publication:||Name: Journal of Perioperative Practice Publisher: Association for Perioperative Practice Audience: Academic Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Health; Health care industry Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 Association for Perioperative Practice ISSN: 1750-4589|
|Issue:||Date: Sept, 2010 Source Volume: 20 Source Issue: 9|
|Geographic:||Geographic Scope: United Kingdom Geographic Code: 4EUUK United Kingdom|
As a second year student operating department practitioner (ODP), I
have selected the 2-5yr old child as the target patient group. Having
experienced a placement in an ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinical
environment, I felt this enabled me to incorporate any research
undertaken with direct reflection on practice.
It is important to acknowledge the underlying principles of safe paediatric anaesthesia encompassing the basics of anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, accentuating the differences between adults and children and how these will affect anaesthetic practice. I have considered how principles of adult anaesthesia are modified to suit paediatric anaesthesia, incorporating the equipment considerations and psychological challenges associated with this age group and their families.
Preparation for anaesthesia and the implication of anatomical and physiological differences
Physiologically, a higher metabolic rate and an increased oxygen consumption level are among the most important differences between paediatric and adult patients.
There are physiological adaptations in paediatric respiratory and cardiac systems to meet this increased demand (Brown 2000). The higher metabolic rate explains why induction and emergence from anaesthesia is much faster in children, also why a child may desaturate much faster than an adult (De Melo 2001). Additionally respiratory rates are faster due to paediatric lung immaturity and smaller lung volume reserves (Wolf & Jenkins 2005). Many older anaesthesia ventilators intended for adults cannot accurately supply the low tidal volumes and rapid respiratory rates necessary for small children. An inadvertently dispensed large tidal volume to a small child could damage the lungs due to too much inspiratory pressure (Simpson & Popat 2002).
Paediatric breathing equipment therefore needs to have a small deadspace and low resistance to breathing as children have less muscle to draw in gases (Paul 2006). The efficiency of breathing circuits is measured by the fresh gas flow required to eliminate CO2 rebreathing (Wolf & Jenkins 2005). The Ayres T-Piece with Jackson Rees modification system is valve-less, low resistance, simple and lightweight. It is classified as a Mapleson F circuit (Simpson & Popat 2002). It has a small dead space which is important to avoid rebreathing and reduced alveolar ventilation (Paul 2006). Because there are no valves and very little resistance to breathing it has proved very suitable for children less than 20kg (Simpson & Popat 2002 p351). A paediatric filter, angle piece and mask are then attached directly to the breathing circuit with the catheter mount omitted as this just increases the dead space and rebreathing.
Paediatric airway equipment is also prepared in advance ready for intubation and other airway maintenance techniques. Laryngoscopes are available in a choice of sizes and different blades, because in small children the larynx sits at a higher and more anterior position in the neck, around the level of the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae (Wolf & Jenkins 2005). A child's larynx is more conical in shape with the narrowest part of the airway at the level of the cricoid ring, unseen further down the airway and not at the level of the vocal cords as in an adult (Brown 2000). As a small child develops the cricoid ring increases in size faster than the trachea, therefore by eight to ten years of age the child's larynx has reached its adult pattern (Chamley et al 2005).
Because of the higher position of the larynx and the shape and size of the epiglottis, intubation may be easier in very small children using a straight bladed laryngoscope. For example, the Wisconsin, Robertshaw, Magill or Miller straight blades may offer a better view of the epiglottis (Booker 2000). A curved Mackintosh blade is generally easier once the child is slightly larger and this may be the personal preference of the anaesthetist (Wolf & Jenkins 2005). Care is taken with the child's teeth as they are often wobbly and it may be safer to remove a tooth than risk inadvertent aspiration (Booker 2000). During intubation the head should be level with the table as there is no advantage in flexing the neck until the child is at least six years old, due to the large occiput (De Melo 2001). The view of the upper airway may also be further narrowed by large tonsils and adenoids as seen in ENT surgery.
A young child's larynx is particularly susceptible to oedema formation (Black 2008), a potentially serious complication of intubation. This can manifest in significant narrowing and increased airway resistance even after mild trauma. Children, until approx ten years of age, are traditionally intubated using an uncuffed tube allowing a slight air leak with positive pressure ventilation. If the leak is too large it will compromise ventilation, consequently it is important to select the correct size tube, as one that is too large may cause oedema resulting in airway obstruction on extubation (Gwinnutt 2004). More recently, reviews Weber et al (2009), small cuffed tubes are increasingly used in children with studies now providing evidence of their safety. The presence of a cuff makes a better seal between the cuff of the tube and the trachea, enabling control of any leak by adding air in the cuff instead of reintubation with a different-sized tube (Weber et al 2009).
During preparation of paediatric airway equipment it is important to ensure that all appropriate tube sizes are available, particularly one size larger and smaller than the tube intended for use. In the 2-5yr old age group, the anaesthetist may be intubating with either an endotracheal tube (ETT), or for example in ENT surgery, a preformed RAE (Ring, Adair and Elwyn) tube (De Melo 2001).
The appropriate tube size (A) and length (B) may be estimated using the following age calculations for a potentially good fit (Figure 1) (Paul 2006, p57-58). However these calculations are only a guide and the tube size, length and position must be checked to avoid generally right endobronchial intubation, being further confirmed through the use of capnography and auscultation listening for bilateral air entry to the chest (Phillips 2004).
During shorter procedures a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) may be used with spontaneous or mechanical ventilation. The LMA is available in a number of sizes, and is selected according to a child's weight (Hall 2001). They are advantageous in paediatric anaesthesia, discusses Booker (2000), having less resistance than an ETT. The LMA provides a substitute form of airway management, but is not appropriate for controlled ventilation in small children (Gwinnutt 2004) because of the danger of gastric inflation.
Because paediatric patients can deteriorate rapidly, a specific paediatric intubation trolley is immediately available. This holds an extensive range of differently sized paediatric equipment (Oakley & van Limborgh 2005), such as small cannulae, paediatric sized tubes, guedels, nasal and oropharyngeal airways, stylet, bougie and Magill forceps ready for use. The paediatric trolley may also incorporate difficult intubation tools such as a fibre optic laryngoscope (Hall 2001). In the anaesthetic room suction apparatus should be instantly accessible, along with atropine and refrigerated suxamethonium, in case of unpredicted laryngospasm or other airway problems occurring causing hypoxia and bradycardia (Paul 2006).
Physiologically small children have a higher metabolic rate and greater oxygen requirement than adults and adapt their respiratory and cardiac systems to meet demands. Cardiac output is increased to carry the additional oxygen requirement around the body.
This is achieved by increasing heart rate as smaller children have less ability to increase stroke volume (Craft & Upton 2000). The circulating volume of a smaller child is approx '80'mls per kg, this then drops to '70'mls per kg as an adolescent (Tam 2006 p494). A child can only tolerate a blood loss of approximately ten percent. Although heart rate is faster and cardiac output is increased, the actual workload of achieving this is minimized by having a lower peripheral vascular resistance so that blood pressure is actually lower (Booker 2000). Both blood pressure and heart rate gradually reach an adult level on the approach to puberty (Craft & Upton 2000). Small children may be prone to bradycardia, this may be induced as a result of vagal stimulation, for example during laryngoscopy or squint surgery and the anaesthetist monitors heart rate whilst having anti-cholinergics ready (Brown 2000).
The increased metabolic rate of small children also results in a faster turnover of extracellular fluid. The interruption of normal fluid intake can lead to rapid dehydration, so replacement fluids must be determined hourly, based on the child's weight to provide maintenance fluid and cover ongoing losses (Wilson 2005, Tam 2006). Hartman's solution may be selected instead of saline because it is more physiological and hyperchloraemic alkalosis is avoided. It is important not to give too much intravenous fluid; this can be avoided through use of a burette or pump set to provide the required amount (Wilson 2005).
A child has a greater surface area to volume ratio than an adult so the potential for heat loss is greater, particularly by radiation (Simpson & Popat 2002). During anaesthesia the body's normal response to cold is lost, temperature can drop quickly because normal peripheral vasoconstriction is inhibited (Booker 2000). Smaller children need increased operating room temperatures as there may be insufficient body fat for insulation making it important to maintain a warm environment and minimise heat loss (Donnelly 2005). Heat losses may be further reduced by using a heating blanket and warming intravenous fluids (Craft & Upton 2000). The child's temperature should be monitored in theatre using a temperature probe, allowing it to be regulated accordingly (Smith 2005).
During the child's preoperative assessment clinic (POAC) appointment there is an opportunity for the child to play with and become familiar with any theatre equipment such as monitoring or masks etc. The POAC appointment normally occurs a few days prior to the theatre date and helps to accustom the child to the environment. Young children, discusses Romino et al (2005) , may become very distressed prior to the anaesthetic, consequently a parent or carer in the anaesthetic room is generally an advantage as it commonly lessens the level of anxiety in the child. However in cases of distraught or uncooperative children premedication may be used to ease apprehension for a smoother induction of anaesthesia (Simpson & Popat 2002). Midazolam can be given orally half an hour in advance of anaesthesia to give adequate sedation (Paul 2006). However the combined work of Dreger and Tremback (2006), O'Neill (2007) and Booker (2000) suggests that appropriate psychological preparation of the child, involving the parents in distraction techniques may completely remove the need for premedication. Additionally the routine use of a topical local anaesthetic agent, such as EMLA or AMETOP has revolutionized intravenous cannulation in children (Simpson & Popat 2002).
The anaesthetist will have met the patient and family pre-operatively, taken a full history and performed an examination concentrating on the airway and cardiorespiratory systems, and also prepared for any challenges presented by the child (Donnelly 2005). This is an appropriate time, discusses Colson (2006), to develop a relationship and build confidence with both the child and the parents and also to concentrate on any queries or fears. The anaesthetist uses this time to focus on the child involving them as much as possible, encouraging them to talk about their hobbies or discuss any toys they may have with them to build some degree of trust and rapport. The anaesthetist should also explain the planned approach, the method of anaesthesia induction and what to expect after the operation, so that both parent and child know what to expect (Donnelly 2005).
In the anaesthetic room
Prior to the child's arrival in the anaesthetic room all equipment and drugs should be prepared, suitable for the age and weight of the child, as a child may be small or large for the norm of their relative age group (Paul 2006). Therefore for drugs to be given accurately, detailed care and attention is needed when calculating the dose for children considering their age, weight and developmental stage (Dunn 2005). This is because children's bodies respond differently to medicines than do those of adults, and young children respond differently from older children (DH 2007). Bernius et al (2008) discuss that calculating weight-based drug doses, volumes, and endotracheal tube sizes for paediatric patients is complicated, with substantial error potential. Few safeguards currently avert paediatric drug dispensing errors, affirms Thomas (2005), and studies have documented a high rate of errors made when undertaking these drug calculations. Opportunities for error are exaggerated by several distinctive characteristics of paediatric emergency care, with the preparation of drugs, equipment size and fluid volume determination for resuscitation all dependent on the accurate weight of the child (Wong et al 2009).
While the dose of emergency medications is standardized in adults, discusses Kaji et al (2006), paediatric dosages are weight based. Adrenaline is the most repeatedly used resuscitation drug in children experiencing cardiac arrest or anaphylaxis. While there is little deviation in adrenaline dosages dispensed to adults in cardiac arrest, the appropriate paediatric dosage is based almost exclusively on weight. Administer too little and the drug is ineffective with failure to resuscitate, administer too much and there is a risk of intracranial haemorrhage and hypertension (Kaji et al 2006).
The potential risk of adverse events in the perioperative environment is increased further with the rising number of children being classified as overweight or obese (University of Michigan Health System 2008). The prevalence of overweight children having surgery presents challenges with an augmented risk of problems before, during and after surgery (University of Michigan Health System 2007). A new study from the University of Michigan found that obese children are much more likely to have problems with airway obstruction, difficult mask ventilation, oxygen desaturation or other airway problems during surgery. The study concludes that an increased awareness and identification of the risk factors these children face will be important in optimising their anaesthetic management during the perioperative phase (University of Michigan Health System 2008).
Once a child arrives in the anaesthetic room routine monitoring should ideally be attached (De Melo 2001). There is then a further opportunity to play games with the child, perhaps using the pulse oximeter to draw lines on the monitor and ease tension whilst they become familiar with their surroundings (Colson 2006). Routine monitoring, in addition to close observation by the anaesthetist, consists of an electrocardiogram (ECG), a blood pressure (BP) cuff and a pulse oximeter (Phillips 2004). All monitoring should be in place on induction of anaesthesia but is sometimes only fully applied once the child is asleep, along with capnography (Gomez & Gothard 2006). Romino et al (2005) maintain that in distressed or very small children, anaesthesia can frequently be induced with the child sitting on the parent's lap having a cuddle and playing games. The cannula may then be inserted in the child's hand behind the parent's back so that anaesthesia can be commenced and the parent leaves the anaesthetic room.
Induction of anaesthesia
There are two principal methods according to Wolf & Jenkins (2005) of inducing general anaesthesia in children: inhalational or intravenous. The inhalational method involves breathing a mixture of volatile anaesthetic agent and oxygen, with or without nitrous oxide, until loss of consciousness is achieved. If cannulation has been successful, intravenous induction occurs when an adequate dose of anaesthetic drug is injected to generate unconsciousness in the child (Mellor 2004). If the child has a difficult airway, as I have seen in practice, an inhalational approach may be used after successful intravenous access is secured. Nevertheless, the challenges associated with the small size of children and the psychological and behavioural issues due to immaturity, make induction of anaesthesia more challenging compared to the adult (Dreger & Tremback 2006). Inhalational induction is an excellent technique for the child that fears needles, is relatively uncooperative or where cannulation has failed (Macfarlane 2006).
A suitable volatile agent for inhalational induction is sevoflurane as this provides a rapid onset and offset of action (Black & McEwan 2004). When sevoflurane is used together with nitrous oxide, the speed of onset and depth of anaesthesia is augmented using the second gas effect. Consequently induction is both rapid and smooth and may be less upsetting for both parent and child (Hardcastle 2007).
Gas induction (Macfarlane 2006) is normally induced via a face mask held over the nose and mouth whilst inhaling the anaesthetic gases. When a child has been unhappy with a mask, the anaesthetist may remove the mask section and deliver the gas via a cupped hand held close to the face. The hand is then gradually positioned under the chin, controlling the head and finally substituted with the mask. It is however a two person technique. Once anaesthesia is obtained the ODP or practitioner may assist in airway maintenance and ventilation whilst cannulation is achieved (Macfarlane 2006). In some cases the ODP has cannulation skills and may perform the cannulation whilst the anaesthetist maintains the airway.
If the child has a cannula in place, then an intravenous induction can be commenced with an induction agent e.g. propofol, thiopentone or ketamine (Pardo & Sonner 2007) . Propofol is commonly used in anaesthesia and is coupled with speedy recovery and decreased nausea and vomiting (Lupton & Pratt 2008). It is therefore popular, according to McMillan (2005) for day case anaesthesia. Induction with propofol may be linked with pain on injection which can be avoided by mixing with lidocaine (Hardcastle 2007). Induction doses may also be associated with apnoea or lowered blood pressure, state Goel et al (2008), requiring careful monitoring of respiratory and cardiac function. A child may be small or large for the norm of their relative age group and must be weighed for drug doses to be accurately calculated (Paul 2006). The anaesthetist will therefore have pre-calculated all drugs including emergency drugs such as atropine for use if necessary.
Safe anaesthesia depends on the patient being fasted. Should this not be the case an intravenous modified rapid sequence induction may be required if possible with pre-oxygenation (Mellor 2004). Thiopentone is an appropriate induction agent and suxamethonium or rocuronium may be used as muscle relaxants to facilitate rapid intubation (Hardcastle 2007). Very small children require more relaxant on a body weight basis, compared to adults, to produce an equivalent level of muscle paralysis acceptable for intubation. If suxamethonium is selected an anticholinergic must be accessible in case of bradycardia e.g. atropine or glycopyrrolate (Mellor 2004).
Ketamine produces a dissociative anaesthesia and is a short acting general anaesthetic that may sustain blood pressure and spontaneous respiration, thus making intubation potentially unnecessary as it should not alter pharyngolaryngeal reflexes significantly (Philips 2004). Ketamine, according to Paul (2006), may therefore be ideal in emergency medicine, as airway reflexes are protected making the fasting state of the patient less crucial than with other agents. It is also an ideal sedative agent providing effective relief from anxiety, pain and memory of unpleasant procedures used for emergency medicine in paediatric patients. In certain poor risk situations and critically ill children, ketamine may be ideal for inducing anaesthesia due to the stimulating effect on the cardiovascular system (Paul 2006).
Ketamine additionally provides good analgesia, but a possible side effect is the emergence phenomena with delirium during the recovery period (Pardo & Sonner 2007). Benzodiazepines may reduce this risk, but in practice, a patient may need to be recovered in a quiet, possibly darkened environment to allow a less hallucinogenic recovery process (Oakley & Van Limborgh 2005). Mellor (2004) states that children require relatively larger doses of drugs than adults to achieve the same effect, this is because of their elevated metabolic rate and cardiac output, so drugs are more rapidly removed from their site of action, redistributed, metabolised and eliminated (Chamley et al 2005).
Children are generally recovered in a child friendly environment preferably away from adult patients. A specific paediatric recovery area has supplementary equipment to support the child such as a range of smaller non-invasive blood pressure cuffs, face masks, breathing systems, airways, laryngeal masks and tracheal tubes (De Melo 2001). The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (2002) and Donnelly (2005) recommend that staff should be specifically trained and qualified in the recovery of paediatric patients. Parents, confirms Paul (2006), are usually encouraged to be with their child in recovery to minimize any emotional trauma as soon as they are awake and suitably recovered.
As a student ODP I have attempted to emphasize an understanding of the underlying principles of safe paediatric anaesthesia. This has encompassed the differences that exist between adults and children, how these will affect anaesthetic procedures and the psychological challenges unique to this age group and their families. The areas deliberated have highlighted the understanding and skills required to plan, assess, implement and evaluate the care needed for the paediatric age group of 2-5yr olds for a safe journey through the perioperative period.
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About the author
Dip (HE) ODP
Operating Department Practitioner, Salford Royal in Neuro Anaesthetics
No competing interests declared
Dr A George MB ChB DA FFARCSI for his editorial assistance
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Provenance and Peer review: Unsolicited contribution; Peer reviewed; Accepted for publication May 2010.
Correspondence address: Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Stott Lane, Salford M6 8HD. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Figure 1 A) A tube size may be calculated based on age Age/4 + 4.5mm B) A tube length may also be calculated based on age Age/2 + 12cm
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Findings bolster theory that quantum fluctuations drive strange electronic phenomena
A new study by a team of physicists at Rice University, Zhejiang University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Florida State University and the Max Planck Institute adds to the growing body of evidence supporting a theory that strange electronic behaviors — including high-temperature superconductivity and heavy fermion physics — arise from quantum fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons.
The study, which appeared in the Jan. 20 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes results from a series of experiments on a layered composite of cerium, rhodium and indium. The experiments tested, for the first time, a prediction from a theory about the origins of quantum criticality that was published by Rice physicist Qimiao Si and colleagues in 2001.
“Our theory was a surprise at the time because it broke with the textbook framework and suggested that a broad range of phenomena — including high-temperature superconductivity — can only be explained in terms of the collective behavior of strongly correlated electrons rather than by the more familiar theory based on essentially decoupled electrons,” said Si, a co-corresponding author on the new study and Rice’s Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
Experimental evidence in support of the theory has mounted over the past decade, and the PNAS study fills yet another gap. In the experiments, researchers probed high-quality samples of a heavy-fermion material known as CeRhIn5.
Heavy fermion materials like CeRhIn5 are prototype systems for quantum criticality. In these materials, electrons tend to act in unison, and even one electron moving through the system causes widespread effects. This “correlated electron” behavior is very different from the electron interactions in a common metal like copper, and physicists have become increasingly convinced that correlated electron behavior plays an important role in phenomena like superconductivity and quantum criticality.
Quantum critical points, near which these strange correlated effects are particularly pronounced, mark a smooth phase change, or transition from one state of matter to another. Just as the melting of ice involves a transition from a solid to a liquid state, the electronic state of quantum materials changes when the material is cooled to a quantum critical point.
The critical temperature of a material can be raised or lowered if the material is chemically altered, placed under high pressure or put into a strong magnet. In the new experiments, which were carried out using the high magnetic field facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and at Florida State University, researchers observed a magnetically induced quantum critical point at ambient pressure and compared it to the previously studied case of a pressure-induced quantum critical point.
The nature of the quantum critical point was probed by something called the “Fermi surface,” a sort of three-dimensional map that represents the collective energy states of all electrons in the material. When physicists have previously attempted to describe quantum phase transitions using traditional theories, equations dictate that the Fermi surface must change smoothly and gradually as the material passes through the critical point. In that case, most of the electrons on the Fermi surface are still weakly coupled to each other.
In contrast, Si’s theory predicts that the Fermi surface undergoes a radical and instantaneous shift at the critical point. The electrons on the entire Fermi surface become strongly coupled, thereby giving rise to the strange-metal properties that allow unusual electronic states, including superconductivity.
“We observed exactly the sort of a sharp Fermi surface reconstruction predicted by theory of unconventional quantum criticality,” said study co-author Frank Steglich, director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany, and also of the Center for Correlated Matter at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.
Zhejiang physicist Huiqiu Yuan, co-corresponding author on the study, said, “Our experiments demonstrate that direct measurements of a Fermi surface can distinguish theoretically proposed models of quantum criticality and point to a universal description of quantum phase transitions.”
Heavy-fermion metals and high-temperature superconductors are examples of quantum matter, and the new research is an example of the pathbreaking, collaborative research that Rice hopes to foster with the new Rice Center for Quantum Materials.
Si, who also directs the new center, said, “Our study exemplifies the kind of progress in quantum materials that can be made through collaborations among theory, materials synthesis and spectroscopic measurements. At the Rice Center for Quantum Materials, we seek to foster this type of synergy, both internally at Rice University and through collaborations with our domestic and international partner institutions.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Basic Research Program of China, the National Science Foundation of China, the German Research Foundation, the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, the State of Florida and the Robert A. Welch Foundation. | <urn:uuid:2007f08d-b14d-4479-bfda-0e922b29b83a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.rice.edu/2015/01/30/evidence-mounts-for-quantum-criticality-theory-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926829 | 1,044 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The IQ Paradox Resolved? A Critical Analysis
Alexandria K. Cherry Rochester Institute of Technology
The Flynn effect, or IQ paradox, is simply the rise in mean IQ scores during the 20th century. The paper first goes into some detail on what intelligence is and how it is measured. Then a critical review and analysis of the Flynn effect and the Dickens-Flynn (2001) models is discussed. The basic idea of these models is that environment, with hereditary, influences IQ and IQ in return affects that environment. The conclusion is that the model may be appropriate for explaining the rise in IQ scores in future years but there is still major work that must be done on it.
The IQ paradox is simply the large gains over time in intelligence test scores (Flynn, 1999). The Flynn effect is Flynn's explanation of the rise in mean IQ scores during the 20th century (Rowe & Rodgers, 2002). He and his colleagues were the first to notice this rise and it is now fairly accepted that there is one. It has been shown and is universally accepted that word knowledge has risen significantly in the last 20 years by about 5 verbal IQ points (Nettelbeck & Wilson, 2004).
The Dickens-Flynn models try to explain this rise and attribute it to a model incorporating both heritability and environment. The models are recursive models of IQ growth in which phenotypes and their supportive environments are correlated (Dickens & Flynn, 2001). The basic idea is that a person's environment affects their IQ and that IQ affects their environment. This suggests that small environmental influences produce large changes in IQ and that most environmental effects are short-lived. The consequence of this is that improving childhood IQ does not necessarily mean that children will have high IQ when they are adults.
Though the Dickens-Flynn models posses a very interesting explanation and may be proven as acceptable models in the future, there is not enough evidence to suggest that it should be accepted universally as the best explanation for rise in IQ with what is known about it currently. Although the models do an adequate job at explaining the effects of environment on IQ, there are too many unknowns in the theory. The most important criticism may be that this model lacks enough experimental validation (Rowe & Rodgers, 2002). There really have not been many recent studies done, so the data it is based on is outdated. The studies that have been done have had problems of their own with keeping basic statistical assumptions true (Mahlberg, 1997). There are also some flaws with the models themselves.
With all of this in mind it is clear that a stance on the subject can be taken. The Dickens-Flynn models while well thought out and apparently noteworthy, have some major flaws. The models as they are can not be accepted for major statistical and theoretical problems. Maybe once they address these problems, they can be accepted in mainstream science as a valid explanation and some day solve the IQ paradox.
Intelligence is defined as a general mental capability that involves the abilities to reason, comprehend complex ideas, plan, solve problems, learn quickly, think abstractly, and learn from experiences (Gottfredson, 1997). There are several issues that most scientists agree on and in 1994 the Wall Street Journal published an article, "Mainstream Science on Intelligence," which covered everything that has been universally accepted thus far, on intelligence and IQ tests. Heritability of intelligence ranges from .4 to .8 on a scale from 0 to 1. Unfortunately, there is little known about what brain processes are used in intelligence so there has been little advancement on being able to manipulate it to raise IQ permanently.
Background on Intelligence
IQ is also known to lie a long a bell curve, or normal curve. The average IQ is 100, where above 130 is giftedness and below 70 is retardation. IQ scores are an accurate measure for everyone regardless of socioeconomic class or race. The averages for these groups are not the same though (Williams & Ceci, 1997).
Intelligence is a broad reflection of the capability to comprehend a person's surroundings and in this form it can be measured (Neisser et al., 1996). The intelligence tests of today measure it very well. IQ tests measures intelligence so well, that these tests are among the most accurate, reliable and valid, in psychology. There are two kinds of intelligence tests, word and numbers, or shapes and designs. The words and numbers test is culture bound and expects certain knowledge of the culture such as vocabulary. On the other hand there is the shape and design test which only requires knowledge of universal concepts such as open vs. closed. Both of these tests measure the same thing though; what is commonly known as the 'g factor.'
There are still many different intelligence tests (Wainwright, Wright, Geffen, Geffen, Luciano, & Martin, 2004). The most current, universal, and widely accepted test is the Wechler's Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R) (Kaufman, 1990). In 1939, the Wechsler-Bellevue From I (W-B I) was created by David Wechsler. This test was redesigned and reformed in 1955 and became the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). This was also edited in 1989 to become the WAIS-R. This test is now the most widely used and accepted intelligence test. Some newer and not so well known tests are the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-R (WJ), the Standford – Binet Intelligence Scale, Form IV, and the Kayfman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT).
Now there needs to be some explanation of definitions so that the Dickens-Flynn models can be best explained. For this paper the environmental effects that are in the model are those effects that are "short-lived" (Dickens & Flynn, 2001). Most environmental effects decay over time. Attributes such as nutrition or socioeconomic class are the exception to this decay and are long term. These effects, in Flynn's eyes, rival the effects of genes and are not included under his idea of environmental effects. This means that when he argues that IQ affects environment and environment affects IQ, he is referring to the "short-lived" environment.
The Dickens-Flynn Models
The Dickens – Flynn models boldly try to explain the IQ paradox and attribute it to a model with both large heritability and environmental effects. The models are recursive models of IQ growth in which phenotypes and their supportive environments are correlated (Dickens & Flynn, 2001). The idea is that environment affects IQ and that IQ affects environment. This suggests that small environmental influences produce large changes in IQ and that most environmental effects are short-lived.
There are many interesting features that the Dickens – Flynn models allow. The first and most important feature is that the models allow for a large environmental effect while still maintaining heritability. This is done by the theory that the environment has an effect on IQ and then in exchange IQ has an effect on that environment. Remember that he is referring to short-lived environment.
The second feature is that the Dickens-Flynn models can account for other phenomena. As long as the trait in question matches itself to an environment, that trait will behave like the models. The other condition for this is that the environment effect can not accumulate over time. Even with this restriction this feature is a good one statistically. It means that in the future other things regarding environmental change can already be explained statistically.
The third feature explained in Flynn's theory is why a child's IQ does not determine the adult's IQ. This is because environmental effects decay over time. In order to have a child's high IQ last, it is suggested that programs should encourage the continuance of replication of lessons long after they are done with the program (Dickens & Flynn, 2001). Basically, when a child leaves a learning program, the parents or guardian should help the child continue with the practices they learned (i.e. organizational skills or study cards).
The criticism against the model is in many parts. The first is that there has been no explanation of the rise in IQ universally accepted (Rowe & Rodgers, 2002). The rise in IQ, the IQ paradox, is widely accepted and known, but what is causing that rise is in question. There have been several suggestions; Flynn's is just one of them (Uttl & Van Alstine, 2003). Since the publication of The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray in 1994, IQ has been in question by professionals and non professionals alike. So since the IQ paradox was formed there has been some debate on what affects IQ. This in tern creates tension between the different ideas on what has caused the rise in IQ thus providing no clear agreement on the solution of the IQ paradox.
The next criticism is that so far, experiments dealing with the Dickens – Flynn model have either had statistical problems or were unable to replicate (Nettelbeck & Wilson, 2003). This could mostly be due to the fact that Dickens and Flynn used less than current data to obtain their model and is no longer representative of the current population (Rowe & Rodgers, 2002). When evaluating whether or not the models would fit outside data there were other problems. Statistically speaking this is very bad.
The results could also be attributed to other factors, which is the third criticism. Most of the other factors are the long term environmental effects. Even though the Dickens – Flynn models allow for long term environmental effects, there may not be a significant enough allowance for change over time. An example of this is nutrition. America's nutrition, and most of the world's, has been improving for the past century. More people are eating more and better than they ever did.
The fourth is that the models do not specify a time line (Loehlin, 2002). Dickens and Flynn neglect to say if the change in IQ occurs during a person's life time or if these models are gauged to a broader population change. There are also no explanations for time gaps. An example of this is: suppose if a person learned to ride a bicycle and did so between the ages of 5 and 10. Then they stopped for 10 years. Would that person have to start over again to learn how to ride the bike or is the intelligence engraved in their mind? Dickens' and Flynn's models would say the person would have to relearn the skill, which does not seem logical.
The last and maybe the most important is that the model allows for large changes in IQ variance where historically there is no real change in variance at all (Rowe & Rodgers, 2002). This presents a very big and unwanted statistical blunder. There are two major things in statistics that most be accurate, the mean, and the variance. Since the variance increases over time the effect known as heteroscidasticity will occur. This basically means that at first the correlation between IQ and environment is constant and strong, but as time moves that correlation becomes weaker and eventually will become nonexistent. The conclusion is that the models are bad predictors and the heteroscidasticity must be solved before the models can be recognized as statistically sound.
For the most part, it is universally accepted that there has been a rise in IQ level. The real argument is what is causing this rise. There are arguments that range from a Freudian explanation of collective consciousness to genetic development and adaptation (Mingroni, 2004). The Dickens-Flynn models seem to be one of the most popular explanations thus far but are still a little rocky. From the analysis of the model there really seems to be too many statistical and theoretical blunders made in the development and implementation of the models. The fact that there are major statistical errors made in the models themselves is enough to discredit the theories.
Even though Flynn's theories about the IQ paradox seem appropriate on the surface, there are major theoretical issues. The first is the fact that the theory only allows for IQ to affect short-lived environmental effects. As far as that is concerned, long-term environment can be affected by IQ. An example of this is that IQ is known to correlate with socioeconomic status. Even though long term effects are in the Dickens-Flynn models it does not include it in the interaction between IQ and short-lived environment.
Even with these blunders these models could be the best explanation of the rise in IQ thus far. But like all statistical models it needs more time and studies to validate it and work out all of the kinks. If this model was reconsidered with some changes and major experiments, it may be the best theory to explain the IQ paradox yet.
Childhood Exposure to Technology May Increase IQ ScoresAllen J. Holmes
Rochester Institute of Technology
Flynn studied the IQ scores of separate generations of people. He discovered that, on average, IQ scores raised 3 IQ points over each decade. His studies were extensive. He analyzed data from 20 countries. Some countries displayed rapid intellectual increase of up to 20 IQ points per generation of people. This is a phenomenal increase, which suggests that the Flynn effect has probably not been occurring at all points in human history. It must be a relatively new phenomenon. If we were to assume that the Flynn effect has been occurring throughout human history, the statistical curve would suggest that the average person born only 100 years ago would be considered mentally challenged by today's standards. So what are the causes of the Flynn effect displayed in the Dickens-Flynn model?
The first cause may be food consumption. Western societies are extremely well off in food supply. The majority of people in Western culture have the choice of refusing food. This was not always true and is still not true for many non-Western peoples. Despite this fact, it seems that only severe malnutrition affects the IQ score of an individual.
Perhaps the tendency for couples to have fewer children has a direct effect on the IQ score of children. Parents with fewer children are able to spend more time with each child, thus stimulating their cognitive abilities at an early age, which is obviously beneficial to overall intelligence as well as psychological well-being. It is true that modern families have far less children than families from only 60 years in the past. I believe that this is a definite factor in the increase of IQ.
Another possibility that may increase the average IQ score over generations may be the effects of technology and the demand that technological devices impose on people. Comedians joke about how young children are able to teach their parents how to program a VCR. This is not unreasonable. Children are increasingly exposed to technology, which poses unique problems that may increase abstract problem solving ability and pattern recognition.
Elderly people often have difficulty learning how to use a personal computer, whereas a young person may find computers very intuitive and easy to operate. I have a theory for this. When a person is young, he or she has an increased capacity to learn new things. This has been shown in countless studies about the benefits of head start programs sponsored by government. Perhaps early exposure to technology-oriented interfaces increases a child's ability to adapt and understand complex and abstract problems.
Flynn's studies show that there is a much greater increase in non-verbal problem solving ability than word-oriented test scores. This would support my theory that childhood interface exposure increases pattern recognition and abstract problem solving ability. Complex interfaces are a problem with which only recent generations have had to deal. This would explain the reason for the Flynn effect's recent appearance.
As the everyday use of technology increases, it is reasonable to assume that the average IQ of an individual will increase as well. This will likely level off in the coming 50 years as the increase of incorporation of technology into everyday life reaches its high water mark.
The IQ Paradox: Is There an Answer?David J. Moulton
Rochester Institute of Technology
This paper raised the question of the IQ paradox, which is basically the drastic increase in IQ scores during the 20th century. This work is really just a critique of Flinn's explanation for why intelligence test scores have been increasing and therefore is not an answer to the question of why IQ scores are increasing.
The Dickens-Flynn model that was critiqued had many flaws. These were discussed briefly, but the author could have used more logic and explanation. For example, after briefly researching this model myself, I feel that it does not account for the content of IQ tests. That is, what the IQ tests are actually testing should be looked at. The paper lacks any discussion of this aspect of the problem. What about the fact that we live in the information age, and that a majority of people (in the USA) own or have access to a computer? Games and other special orientated activities can be done using this new technology and may have increased a person's intelligence in this area. The paper says that the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was last revised in 1989 to become the WAIS-R test. At that time, an average person may not know what a computer was; let alone what can be done with one. Computer technology has advanced at an extreme rate, and it seems as though IQ tests have not been revised enough to account for this. Since the paper says that the WAIS-R test is the most widely used one today, and its last revision was in 1989, an argument can be made from this as to why IQ has been on the rise. A lot has changed since 1989 because of the popularity of the computer. This is an environmental aspect which supports the Dickens-Flynn model, but was not discussed in the paper. As a final note on computer influence, computers have been woven into education today. Many homework and teaching techniques are facilitated by computer technology. Using a computer to do work is fairly abstract and ambiguous, but since people can come into frequent contact with they may get used to doing these abstract activities, which may translate to better performance with abstract questions on an IQ exam.
Another criticism to the Dickens-Flynn model that seems easy to make is that of an environment thousands of years ago. You could assume that our environment is much better than the environment that people lived in that long ago, yet people of that time were very intelligent. For example, the Greek civilization in view of many people was the creator of mathematics and discovered many scientific principals. Surely it requires a high level of intelligence to do these things yet, technology and other environmental factors as we know it did not exist then. How would the model explain that? Methods of education seem to have been left out of a discussion as to why IQ scores are on the rise. Could a rise in IQ be attributed to better teaching methods? Or maybe teachers are just teaching for the test itself because they know what is on it? If that were the case, then IQ test scores would increase, but this may be a false representation of real IQ since these people have been taught to answer test question and may have missed certain concepts that otherwise would have been learned through a normal method of teaching.
One last point that I disagree with is the statement that Americans are eating healthier than ever. Heart disease is still one of the most frequent causes of death in the United States, and frequently there is talk about a labeled "obesity epidemic" that is occurring. Clearly, a majority of American are not making the correct choices about what they eat. Furthermore, studies have shown that vitamins or supplements have had no impact on intelligence itself.
The IQ paradox was clearly defined and is a recognized problem. Clearly there is no clean cut answer to why IQ is increasing, but a discussion drawing from other aspects of the problem would be helpful in letting the reader realize the complexity of the question of the IQ paradox.
The Dickens-Flynn Model: A Contradictory ExplanationKyle R. Skottke
Rochester Institute of Technology
One of the major areas discussed in this paper is the Dickens-Flynn model. This model is supposed to provide an explanation for the rise in IQ scores during the 20th century. It is seemingly undisputed that intelligence is rising, based on comparing results from intelligence from past decades. Although the Dickens-Flynn model is supposed to help elucidate the mechanism by which intelligence seems to be rising across the board, there appear to be major flaws in the model which makes it unacceptable in my opinion.
One key point that the author makes is that old data was used to help design and test the model. While there might have been several reasons for using older, already gathered data, such as lowering the cost of research and shortening the time required to support their theory, it seems counterproductive in this case. In designing a model which represents a current population and how it is changing currently, it seems inappropriate to use data that are out of date.
I believe that the Dickens-Flynn model does not fully appreciate the importance of our increasing food supply and nutrition. One study (Berkman, Lescano, Gilman, Lopez, & Black, 2002) found that malnourished children, and children suffering from disease causing chronic diarrhea suffer a decreased cognitive ability. In many third world countries, malnutrition and diarrhoeal diseases were a big problem, but these are being corrected by modern medicine and through the use of better nutrition, such as golden rice. Although these problems have not been completely wiped out, there has been improvement.
The improvement of childhood nutrition in third world countries, and even improved health in western nations could explain the rise in IQ. I think this is a much more plausible explanation than the short lived environmental effects that the Dickens-Flynn model emphasizes. The long term nature of environmental effects like nutrition would also help to explain why IQ scores have consistently risen, instead of more sporadic results which might be expected with short term effects such as those described in the Dickens-Flynn model.
The author mentions that the data that Dickens and Flynn relied upon was out of date and no longer relevant, which brings into question the relevance of our IQ tests. If it is possible for the data that Dickens and Flynn were using to become obsolete in current times, it also seems possible that revisions could be made to intelligence tests to make them better fit the times. The WAIS-R was revised in 1981, making it over 20 years old and in my view, a prime candidate for further modernization. This is one area that the author does not consider in the paper, but one that I feel is relevant. Although it is important to have some sort of consistency so that validity and reliability can be ensured, I also believe that IQ tests would serve as a better measure if they were updated more frequently to match an ever changing society.
Although the Dickens-Flynn model does incorporate the ability of intelligence and the environment to interact and influence each other, I believe that there are too many statistical flaws and under-representations of important factors to consider this model valid. When designing the model, Dickens and Flynn relied on out-of-date data that does not represent the current situation. In addition to this, agree with others who criticize the model for not placing enough emphasis on the effects of long term environmental factors such as malnutrition in childhood. The focus of the model is instead on short term environmental factors which pale in comparison to malnutrition as far as the effects on cognitive ability. One more criticism I have with this model, in addition to those mentioned in the paper is that the intelligence tests that are in use today are over 20 years old. When the Dickens-Flynn model can be shot down by critics because of old data, I believe that old methods of IQ quantization are also fair game for criticism. I believe that part of the reason that IQ scores have increased is because the overall nutrition of the world has increased, as well as the need for updated tests that would present the same challenge in today's society as the WISC-R did in 1981.
Flynn and the IQ ParadoxAlexandria K. Cherry
Rochester Institute of Technology
The IQ Paradox has been a major topic for debate and attention for some time. What is causing this dramatic rise in IQ over the past century has not been fully explained. My paper, "The IQ Paradox Resolved? A Critical Analysis," looked at one theory proposed by Flynn to see how well it held up.
The first peer commentary, from Holmes, entitled "Childhood Exposure to Technology May Increase IQ Scores," is a very interesting take on the Flynn effect but does not really comment directly on my paper. It seems that Moulton, author of "The IQ Paradox: Is There an Answer?" did understand some basic theories of the IQ paradox. There is nothing in it that suggests that this phenomenon has persisted for the entire existence of humankind.
The last commentary, by Skottke, "The Dickens-Flynn Model: A Contradictory Explanation," did an excellent job relating new information with what had previously been stated. He recognized all my problem points and did a beautiful job adding something new and interesting.
Berkman, D. S., Lescano, A. G., Gilman, R. H., Lopez, S. L., & Black, M. M. (2002). Effects of stunting, diarrhoeal disease, and parasitic infection during infancy on cognition in late childhood: A follow-up study. Lancet, 359, 564-572.
Dickens, W. T., & Flynn, J. R. (2001). Heritability estimates versus large environmental effects: The IQ paradox resolved. Psychological Review, 108, 346-369.
Flynn, J. R. (1999). Searching for justice: The discovery of IQ gains over time. American Psychologist, 54, 5-20.
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence, 24, 13-23.
Kaufman, A. S. (1990). Assessing adolescent and adult intelligence. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Loehlin, J. C. (2002). The IQ paradox: Resolved? Still an open question. Psychological Review, 109, 754-758.
Mahlberg, A. (1997). The rise in IQ scores. American Psychologist, 52, 71.
Mingroni, M. A. (2004). The secular rise in IQ: Giving heterosis a closer look. Intelligence, 32, 65-83.
Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard, T. J., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., Halpern, D. F., Loehlin, J. C., Perloff, R., Sternberg, R. J., & Urbina, S. (1996) Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American Psychologist, 51, 77-101.
Nettelbeck, T., & Wilson, C. (2004). The Flynn effect: Smarter not faster. Intelligence, 32, 85-93.
Rowe, D. C., & Rodgers, J. L. (2002). Expanding variance and the case of historical changes in IQ means: A critique of Dickens and Flynn (2001). Psychological Review, 109, 759-763.
Uttl, B., & Van Alstine, C. L. (2003). Rising verbal intelligence scores: Implications for research and clinical practice. Psychology and Aging, 18, 616-621.
Wainwright, M., Wright, M. J., Geffen, G. M., Geffen, L. B., Luciano, M., & Martin, N. G. (2004). Genetic and environmental sources of covariance between reading tests used in neuropsychological assessment and IQ subtests. Behavior Genetics, 34, 365-376.
Williams, W. M., & Ceci, S. J. (1997). Are Americans becoming more or less alike? Trends in race, class, and ability differences in intelligence. American Psychologist, 52, 1226-1235.
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by R.C. Sproul
The next time you attend a prayer meeting, pay close attention to the manner in which individuals address God. Invariably, the form of address will be something like this, “Our dear heavenly Father,” “Father,” “Father God,” or some other form of reference to God as Father. Not everyone customarily addresses God in the first instance in prayer by using the title “Father.” However, the use of the term Father in addressing God in prayer is overwhelmingly found as the preference among people who pray. What is the significance of this? It would seem that the instructions of our Lord in giving the model prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” is emulated by our propensity for addressing God as Father. Since Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father,’” that form of address has become the virtual standard form of Christian prayer. Because this form of prayer is used so frequently, we often take for granted its astonishing significance.
The German scholar Joachim Jeremias has argued that in almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, He addresses God as Father. Jeremias notes that this represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition. Though Jewish people were given a lengthy number of appropriate titles for God in personal prayer, significantly absent from the approved list was the title “Father.” To be sure, the Jews would use the term “Father” indirectly by addressing God as the Father of people, but never by way of a direct address, in which the person praying addressed God in personal terms as “Father.” Jeremias also notes that the serious reaction against Jesus by His contemporaries indicated that they heard in His addressing God as Father a blasphemous utterance by which Jesus was presuming, by this term of address, a certain equality that He enjoyed with the Father. Jeremias goes on to argue that there is no record of any Jew addressing God directly as Father until the tenth century a.d. in Italy, with the notable exception of Jesus. Though Jeremias’ findings have been challenged in some quarters, it remains a matter of record that Jesus’ use of the term “Father” in personal prayer is an extraordinary use.
Since the science of comparative religion reached its zenith in the nineteenth century and liberal theologians sought to reduce the core essence of all religion to the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, it has followed from such liberal assumptions that to consider God as Father would be a most basic assumption in any religion. However, when we look again at the way in which the term functions in the New Testament and in the teaching of the apostles, we see that there is no doctrine of universal fatherhood of God in the Bible, except for His role as the creator of all men. Rather, the fatherhood of God has as its primary reference a filial (father/son) relationship that is restricted.
In the first and most important case, God has only one child, His only-begotten Son, the monogenēs, which restricts this filial relationship to Christ. We do not have the natural right to call God “Father.” That right is bestowed upon us only through God’s gracious work of adoption. This is an extraordinary privilege, that those who are in Christ now have the right to address God in such a personal, intimate, filial term as “Father.” Therefore, we ought never to take for granted this unspeakable privilege bestowed upon us by God’s grace. We note in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus instructs us that now when we pray, we are to refer to God as “Our Father.” Again the “ourness” of this relationship is grounded in the unique ministry of Jesus by which, through adoption, He is our elder brother and He gives to us those privileges that by nature belong only to Him. Now, by adopting us, He says that we may regard God, not only as His Father, but as our Father.
The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is found in the words, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” The opening address, “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” is simply that, an address. From that address, Jesus instructs His disciples to offer certain petitions in prayer. The first and chief of those petitions is that we pray that the name of God will be hallowed. This is also extraordinary in that as the prayer continues, we ask that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven and that His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. Both of these desires can only be met when and if the God of the kingdom of heaven and of earth is treated with supreme reverence, honor, and adoration. When we fail to observe the third commandment, when we fail to honor God as God, and use His name as a curse word, or in a flippant, careless manner, we fail to fulfill this first petition. Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in our culture than the expression that comes from people’s lips on many occasions, when they say simply, “Oh, my God.” This careless reference to God indicates how far removed our culture is from fulfilling the petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.
© Tabletalk magazine. For permissions, please see our Copyright Policy. | <urn:uuid:b1477f58-1d9d-4353-9600-c12b8199df51> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/our-father/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968846 | 1,215 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Pollan Highlights Pacific’s Sustainability Month With 'Sun Food Agenda'
April 26, 2010
"Environmental rock star" Michael Pollan, author of best-selling books The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules, offered a lively and entertaining lecture on "The Sun Food Agenda."
Arriving with a double quarter-pounder with cheese in hand, Pollan walked the audience through recent food history, noting that since the 1940's the U.S. has moved from a solar based food system to one based on fossil fuels - including chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the fuel for transport of animals and food commodities to central production facilities and distribution around the world. Using the quarter-pounder to drive home his point, he poured from a pitcher the amount of oil it took to produce the hamburger - 26 ounces.
Contrasting current fossil fuel-based agriculture, Pollan shared examples of organic farming systems, featured in The Omnivore's Dilemma, that were efficient and built "on a solar basis." He lauded the law school for starting its own community garden and encouraged others in the audience to do the same. Pollan concluded his presentation with his mantra for healthy eating: "Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
Pollan's presentation was the culminating event of the University of the Pacific's first "Sustainability Month," as well as the capstone of McGeorge's Earth Day observance, which also included dedication of the new McGeorge Community Garden, an Earth Day Sustainability Fair and Barbecue, and the announcement of a new Environmental Law Concentration and faculty approval of a new course, Special Topics in Environmental Law. | <urn:uuid:dce5f117-32b0-4258-a79d-7c5d686c08a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mcgeorge.edu/News/Pollan_Highlights_Pacific%E2%80%99s_Sustainability_Month_With_Sun_Food_Agenda.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961759 | 353 | 2.59375 | 3 |
How to do a Science
|One of the most interesting
activities that you do during your school years is doing a Science
Project. Some schools require only one Science Project when the students
are in the 8th grade. Some other school have at least one science project
In any way, a science project
is your best opportunity to face the challenges that you may face in real life
when you want to start your own business or get a job. Please note that
doing a science project is not inventing something. You must gather as much
information as you can and get as much help as you need. Following are some of
the resources that you may use:
Parents can help you in different
areas depending on their education and expertise. The parents presence, support and
supervision is an important part of any science project.
provides you with project guides and support by project advisors. Project guides
usually include background information, question, hypothesis, variables and
Encyclopedia.com and Wikipedia.com
provide you with general information about any subject.
you with project ideas, project kits and materials.
Local libraries provide you with
books and magazines about the subjects related to your project.
Local professionals or other
family members may have knowledge and expertise that can help you with your
project. Before you ask for this type of help, make sure your parents are
informed and agree with what you are doing.
Select a science project:
The first step in doing a science project is selecting a topic or a subject.
Most teachers allow you to select your own subject; however, they may need to
approve your idea before you start your project. Make sure you review your
school guidelines and requirements before selecting your science project. Choose
your project from the list of project ideas and see the introduction page for
any project that you might be interested in.
Projects are for students from 1st grade up to 4th grade. Most of
these are classified as observation and display projects.
projects are for 5th grade and 7th grade students. At this level
projects may be display or experimental projects.
projects are for 7th and 8th graders. Most of the projects in this
category are experimental projects or investigatory projects.
projects are recommended for 9th grade to 12th grade students. Most
of these projects are experimental projects.
All Science Project ideas in the
above categories may be selected as a Science Fair Project or as a classroom
project. You may even be able to perform other variations of such projects.
Propose a question or purpose:
What do you want to find out? Write a
statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and
questions to write the statement.
When you think you know what variables may be involved, think about ways to
change one at a time. If you change more than one at a time, you will not know
what variable is causing your observation. Sometimes variables are linked and
work together to cause something. At first, try to choose variables that you
think act independently of each other.
Write your hypothesis:
Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of
things affect the system you are working with. Identifying variables is
necessary before you can make a hypothesis.
Design an Experiment:
Design an experiment to test each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what
you will do to answer each question. This list is called an experimental
procedure. For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a
"control." A control is an additional experimental trial or run. It is
a separate experiment, done exactly like the others. The only difference is that
no experimental variables are changed. A control is a neutral "reference
point" for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does
by comparing it to not changing anything. Dependable controls are sometimes very
hard to develop. They can be the hardest part of a project. Without a control
you cannot be sure that changing the variable causes your observations. A series
of experiments that includes a control is called a "controlled
Write a list of material:
Write your experiment Results:
Experiments are often done in series. A series of experiments can be done by
changing one variable a different amount each time. A series of experiments is
made up of separate experimental "runs." During each run you make a
measurement of how much the variable affected the system under study. For each
run, a different amount of change in the variable is used. This produces a
different amount of response in the system. You measure this response, or record
data, in a table for this purpose. This is considered "raw data" since
it has not been processed or interpreted yet. When raw data gets processed
mathematically, for example, it becomes results.
Write a summary of your
Summarize what happened. This can be in the form of a table of processed
numerical data, or graphs. It could also be a written statement of what occurred
It is from calculations using recorded data
that tables and graphs are made. Studying tables and graphs, we can see trends
that tell us how different variables cause our observations. Based on these
trends, we can draw conclusions about the system under study. These conclusions
help us confirm or deny our original hypothesis. Often, mathematical equations
can be made from graphs. These equations allow us to predict how a change will
affect the system without the need to do additional experiments. Advanced levels
of experimental science rely heavily on graphical and mathematical analysis of
data. At this level, science becomes even more interesting and powerful.
Draw a Conclusion:
Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations,
try to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the
time to pull together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.
Related Questions and Answers:
What you have learned may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions
are related. Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing
experiments. You may now be able to understand or verify things that you
discovered when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to more
questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need to be tested.
If you did not observe anything different than what happened with your control,
the variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating. If you
did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your series of experimental
runs there may be experimental errors affecting your results. The first thing to
check is how you are making your measurements. Is the measurement method
questionable or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or maybe
the measuring instrument is working erratically.
If you determine that experimental errors are
influencing your results, carefully rethink the design of your experiments.
Review each step of the procedure to find sources of potential errors. If
possible, have a scientist review the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer
of an experiment can miss the obvious.
Write your References:
Write a bibliography to show your references in any form. Such information
include the form of document, name of writer, publisher, and the year of
Write an Abstract:
Many people will not have time to read
a long project report. An abstract is a brief description of your project
purpose, experiment method, result and conclusion. Although you write an
abstract at the last step of your project, you must place your abstract in the
beginning of your report. | <urn:uuid:db3528b7-b781-4aae-8e96-6717f60a3246> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://miniscience.com/How-to-do-a-scienceproject.asp?count=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924579 | 1,592 | 3.875 | 4 |
Timothy C. Hain, MD Page last modified: April 4, 2010
Orientation of the otolithic organs Function Turnover of otoconia
The utricle is one of two "otolithic organs" in the human ear, the utricle and saccule. On the diagram above, the utricle are located in the vestibule, between the semicircular canals (5), and the cochlea (9).
This figure shows a closeup of the inner ear. The utricle is contained within a swelling adjacent to the semicicircular canals, and the saccule is close to the cochlea. The black dots surrounding the utricle and saccule are the dark cells.
The otolith organs sense gravity and linear acceleration such as from due to initiation of movement in a straight line. Persons or animals without otolith organs or defective otoliths have poorer abilities to sense motion as well as orientation to gravity.
The schematic diagram above illustrates how they work. A set of hair cells are coupled to a mass of stones. When the stones accelerate, with respect to the hairs, they exert a shearing force on the hairs. This force is detected by the hair cells and sent to the brain via branches of the vestibular nerve. The utricle sends input to the brain via the superior division of the nerve, and the saccule, via the inferior division. There is considerably more complexity to the organization of the utricle and saccule, including different types of hair cells and detail to the sensory macule (patch of sensory cells) that we have omitted.
The otolithic organs sense motion according to their orientation. The utricle is largely horizontal in the head, and largely registers accelerations acting in the horizontal plane of the head (called the axial plane by radiologists). The saccule is largely vertical, actually parasagittal, in the head, and registers accelerations in the vertical plane (called parasaggital or coronal plane).
The motion sensation from the otoliths is used for a large number of reflexes:
Damage to the otoliths or their central connections can impair ocular and body stabilization (Lempert et al, 1997).
The bilateral symmetry of the otoliths may provide a method for adaptation to loss of angular rate sensors (the canals), as centrifugal force on the otoconia provides a second method of signalling rotation. It also seems possible that intra-vestibular conflict -- otolithic sensors suggesting that the head is turning at a different rate than the canals, might be the reason for some types of motion intolerance.
|Otoconia are made of limestone mixed together with a protein matrix (40% by volume).|
At the present writing, it is not entirely clear if otoconia turn over or if they degenerate over life. If they degenerate over ones lifetime, this might explain why balance inevitably worsens with time, and also explain why persons after head-injury never quite regain their former balance function. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that a highly vulnerable system like the otoliths would be designed without some method of repair. Lets review some of the data.
The otoconia are made of calcium carbonate (CaCo3) combined with a protein matrix protein (about 40% of the volume). Calcium carbonate is also a constituent of "limestone", so otoconia are essentially a mixture of stone and a protein - -something like concrete with straw mixed in. They have a hexagonal symmetry. In birds and mammals, the "calcite" form of calcium carbonate is used. The matrix protein in birds and mammals is called otoconin-90. Otoconia of humans are very small -- ranging in size from roughly 3 to 30 microns -- averaging about 10 microns. Without a high-resolution microscope, one would not be able to see the crystalline structure. Otoconia of fish may be much larger.
Otoconia are initially formed early in life during embryogenesis and their formation is completed in early postembryonic development. In mice, they are completely formed by post-natal day 7.
The outer, calcium containing part of the otoconia clearly turns over, but it is not clear if the inner part (the matrix) can be replaced in humans. This is important because the otoconia can fall off into the inner ear. When they do this, they are probably dissolved and reabsorbed by the "dark cells" of the labyrinth (Lim, 1973, 1984), which are found adjacent to the utricle and the crista, although this idea is not accepted by all (see Zucca, 1998, and Buckingham, 1999).
It is not clear whether or not otoconia that fall off are replaced by new ones, and it is also not clear whether or not there is any capacity to repair the otolothic membrane should a piece of it slough off.
Progressive degenerative changes of aging otoconia and also damage to otoconia mediated through ototoxic drugs such as streptomycin have been well documented (Ross et al, 1976). This is evidence against a repair process, as if one did exist, there should not be continued deterioriation.
Another bit of evidence suggesting that otoconia are not replaced is that VEMP's progressively worsen with age -- as VEMP's are mediated by the saccule, one way to explain this would be to postulate that otoconia are progressively lost over time. There are of course many other possible explanations.
Against this idea (that otoconia are never replaced) is a NASA study by Parker et al, in which Guinea pigs were centrifuged (to pull off their otoconia). Some of them were sacrificed acutely and others at 6 months. According to this study report (Parker et al, 1968; Parker et al, 1965) otoconia had regrown (in guinea pigs) at 6 months. It would be interesting to see this study replicated.
In Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) , a common vertigo condition, dizziness is thought to be due to debris, probably otoconial, which has collected within a part of the inner ear. Testing of the utricle has been reported abnormal in BPPV (Hong et al, 2008).
While otoconia are generally attributed in the literature as being the cause of BPPV, there is no particular reason why otoconial matrix, or fragments of other parts of the inner ear might not accumulate, but it would seem likely that such debris would be rapidly disposed, while small stones (otoconia), might persist.
Some controversy exists about disposition of debris as some authors (e.g. Zucca et al), feel that stones might dissolve rapidly. One would think that stones surrounded by a matrix would persist for years.
It seems likely that the same processes that damage the ear in general -- damage the otoliths. However, until recently, there was no method of measuring the damage. Some work is now being done using VEMP testing to quantify otolithic input (saccule). For example, Hsu et al (2008) reported that the saccule (VEMP) response exhibits a temporary threshold shift to noise, similar to cochlear hearing hair cells. It seems very likely to us that the saccule might be vulnerable to noise.
|© Copyright October 6, 2013 , Timothy C. Hain, M.D. All rights reserved. Last saved on October 6, 2013| | <urn:uuid:55298797-7dd0-4a65-aa51-7e07abb23853> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/otoliths.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946383 | 1,584 | 3.765625 | 4 |
About the exams
The exams in this class are where you will do most
of the learning. They can take far more than a weekend to write, so
you will want to plan ahead.
How the exams will work
There are three sections to each exam.
- Glossary. This portion is take home.
You will be provided with a list of terms that you must define.
Use no more than 2-3 sentences in your definition. This section is
graded on a binary scale.
- Short Essay. This is a short essay
question that you will receive at least one week before the test
is due. These will be graded on a point system that you will know
about at least three days before the due date. Your answer should
be a 1,000 word or less typed response. It should be formatted as
a one page paper with 1 inch margins on all sides. If you must use
two pages, print both front and back of the page. We want to
handle only one physical page. See the sample
essay we provide for the preferred
- Multiple Choice Items. There will be
two types of multiple choice items. Some items will cover general
background knowledge. Preparation of the glossary is an excellent
way to study for this portion of the exam. The other type involves
the application of the background knowledge to a case. These cases
will be available to students at least one week before the exam
date. Meeting in groups to discuss these cases is an excellent
approach to studying for this portion of the exam.
The links above provide access to a long list of
items for each exam from which the actual exam is guaranteed to be
taken. You should begin your studying using this superset.
Tips for how to approach the exams.
- Work alone and study in groups. These
exams are cooperative for a reason: they are very difficult to do
by yourself. Work alone to consolidate what you know and to be
able to bring something to your group. Share your ideas with other
students and take ideas from them. Ask other students who have
taken my intro class before. Ask other faculty. Some faculty
outside of psychology are good resources too (e.g. Gordon Marino
in Philosophy knows a lot about Freud).
- Be sure to ask questions in class. We
will spend much class time preparing for the exams. Take advantage
of this time to show your outline to others, or to ask me or the
student assistants a question. If you are too confused to ask a
question, tell us. We are good at helping you find out why you are
- Begin making an outline as soon as you know
the questions. Don't wait until the night you want to write
the essay. First, you won't be able to share your work with
others. Second, you need to try an outline of all the questions to
help you decide which one you want to do. You often don't know how
hard a question is until you begin to actually write down the
- Always work with someone else. Did I
mention this before? Students who work in groups almost always get
better grades than those who do not. For one thing, if you work by
yourself you can find your answer is "out in left field" compared
to what the majority of other students are doing. Remember that
other students talk to the teacher too, and they can pass on what
they have heard.
- Be creative, but be sure to mark the big
ideas. Exam answers can take many forms. Some students have
done scripts for Oprah or for 90210. Others have done arguments
between two theorists or a play. Most folks do the standard essay.
Do what feels best to you. But be sure, however you frame your
answer, to mark the main points of it so we can tell. Go back to
the question and check it against your answer to make sure you
have answered all of the points in the question. Check your paper
to make sure they main points of the answer are clear to the
- Don't assume the grader has seen your
earlier papers. Since there are four people doing the grading
for this course, you can not assume the person grading your paper
now has graded it in the past. In fact, we pass them out so that
we all get a chance at each student's papers. So make sure you
answer all of the question and don't assume that we know that you
know the answer. It has to be on the paper.
- Make sure to have someone proof-read your
exam. Please do this. Mispelled words, sentence framgents and
mistakes in tense and nuber is hard to red. It makes a bad
impression and makes more work for the grader. It makes it harder
for us to tell if you know what you are talking about.
How we grade the short essay portion
I couldn't do take home essay exams in a large
class students if I didn't get some help in grading. Graders for this
class are usually junior and senior psychology students, and are
selected from among the best students in the major. These folks
sometimes know more about a particular theorist than I do. Thus the
student assistants for this class are among the "best and brightest"
of the major.
When all the exams are turned in, we divide the
papers up among the graders.
We then, as a group, take about 2 hours to make
our outline of what we think a good answer is for each question.
First we sit down together and read about 3 papers each. This, plus
our conversations with folks in the class, gives us a good idea of
what people in the class think a good answer is. We then modify the
proposed grading scheme accordingly. We then grade together about 3
exams. This helps us to see places where we are disagreeing on the
point values for particular items in the grading rubric.
Finally, we each go grade our exams. Usually we
each read all our exams once, making comments as we go and assigning
points. We then skim each exam counting up the points. This
re-reading is designed to help us stay consistent in our grading over
the many papers we look at. If a student grader has any questions
about a particular paper we resolve those at a final meeting. When we
are finished with the grading, we then make a plot of each grader's
grades, again to check for inconsistencies in grading between
graders. Finally, we put the marked exams in students' boxes and make
public any changeswe made in the grading scheme.
Now comes your turn to grade your own paper. Take
the grading scheme and grade your paper, looking for where you would
assign points. If you think we missed something, please let me know,
I will be glad to look at your paper again (but I do reserve the
right to move your grade either up or down, depending on what we
find). Sometimes your brilliant essay won't match what we were
looking for in the grading outline. If you are convinced your essay
was a good answer, I'll be happy to talk with you about it. This is
what is good about essay exams. We can regrade your exam based on the
criteria you and I agree are important. | <urn:uuid:a220ac5f-e288-4588-bc0b-fef129e27d0a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/Intro/Exams.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94263 | 1,560 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Airport Cooperative Research Program
The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) was authorized in December 2003 as part of the Vision 100-Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act. In October 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) executed a contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, acting through its Transportation Research Board (TRB), to serve as manager of the ACRP. Program oversight and governance are provided by representatives of airport operating agencies. The ACRP Oversight Committee met and selected projects for the first program in January 2006.
NEED AND PURPOSE
Airports are vital national resources. They serve key roles in the transportation of people and goods and in regional, national, and international commerce. They are where the nation's aviation system connects with other modes of transportation and where federal responsibility for managing and regulating air traffic operations intersects with the role of state and local governments that own and operate most airports. Research is necessary to solve common operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the airport industry.
The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) carries out applied research on problems that are shared by airport operating agencies and are not being adequately addressed by existing federal research programs. The need for ACRP was identified in TRB Special Report 272: Airport Research Needs: Cooperative Solutions (March 2003), based on a study sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The ACRP undertakes research and other technical activities in a variety of airport subject areas including design, construction, maintenance, operations, safety, security, policy, planning, human resources, and administration.
The primary participants in the ACRP are (a) the ACRP Oversight Committee (AOC), an independent governing board appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation in October 2005, with representation from airport operating agencies, other stakeholder, and relevant industry organizations such as the Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA), the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), the Airport Consultants Council (ACC), and the Airlines for America (A4A) as vital links to the airport community; (b) the Transportation Research Board (TRB) as program manager and secretariat for the governing board; and (c) the FAA as program sponsor. The ACRP benefits from the cooperation and participation of airport professionals, state and local government officials, equipment and service suppliers, other airport users, and research organizations. Each of these participants has different interests and responsibilities, and each is an integral part of this cooperative research effort.
SELECTION OF RESEARCH
Research problem statements for ACRP are solicited periodically but may be submitted to TRB by anyone at any time. It is the responsibility of the AOC to formulate the research program by identifying the highest priority projects and defining funding levels and expected products.
The ACRP is managed using procedures modeled after those used by TRB in managing the National Cooperative Highway Research Program and the Transit Cooperative Research Program. Day-to-day program management includes the following tasks:
- Assisting the AOC in identifying and prioritizing research needs;
- Appointing and coordinating expert technical panels to guide research projects;
- Developing and distributing Requests for Proposals (RFPs);
- Processing and evaluating proposals to select the best qualified research agencies;
- Executing contracts with the selected researchers;
- Guiding the research;
- Reviewing research reports;
- Publishing and disseminating research reports; and
- Promoting the application of research results.
Each project is assigned to a panel, appointed by the Transportation Research Board, which provides technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. Panels include experienced practitioners and research specialists; heavy emphasis is placed on including members representing the intended users of the research products. The panels prepare project statements and select contractors based on evaluation of the proposals received; they guide the projects and review the reports. As in other TRB activities, ACRP project panel members serve voluntarily without compensation.
SELECTION OF CONTRACTORS
The process for selecting ACRP researchers has been used by TRB in managing cooperative research programs for more than 40 years. This open process allows all potential research agencies to compete on the basis of technical merit, and ensures that all proposers are treated fairly and that the program has access to the best talent available for each project. Proposals from potential research contractors are evaluated by the project panels. The evaluation considers the following: (1) the proposer's demonstrated understanding of the problem; (2) the merit of the proposed research approach and experiment design; (3) experience, qualifications, and objectivity of the research team in the same or closely related areas; (4) the plan for promoting application of results; (5) the proposer's plan for participation of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises--small firms owned and controlled by minorities or women; and (6) the adequacy of the facilities.
Selected agencies perform research under contract to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, guided by the Procedural Manual for Contractors Conducting Research in the Transportation Research Board's Cooperative Research Programs. Guidance for the preparation of final reports for submission to the ACRP can be found in Chapter 5 of the Procedural Manual.
The Vision 100-Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act authorized $10 million per year for the ACRP in Fiscal Years 2004 through 2007. Given the timing of the approval of the Act vis-à-vis the Fiscal Year 2004 appropriation process, no funds were appropriated for the program in Fiscal Year 2004. ACRP funding is determined by the annual federal appropriation process. The FAA provided a total of $13 million to carry out research in fiscal years 2005 and 2006; $10 million for fiscal year 2007 through 2010; and $15 million for fiscal year 2011 and thereafter.
Primary emphasis is placed on disseminating ACRP results to the intended end-users of the research: airport operating agencies, service providers, and suppliers. The relevant industry associations will play key roles in making research information available through their committee structures. The ACRP will produce a series of research reports for use by airport operators, local agencies, FAA, and other interested parties; industry associations may arrange for workshops, training aids, field visits, and other activities to ensure that results are implemented by airport-industry practitioners.
The ACRP started in October 2005, when a Memorandum of Agreement was executed by the cooperating parties, and FAA provided funds to begin the program. The ACRP Oversight Committee (AOC) was appointed by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and held its first meeting in January 2006 to establish operating procedures for the ACRP and to prioritize research needs. The AOC has met in January and July of each year since established. As of April 1, 2016, 470 ACRP studies have been authorized.
The ACRP undertakes research and other technical activities in a variety of airport-related areas, including operations, design, construction, engineering, maintenance, human resources, administration, policy, planning, environment, safety, and security. Problem statements in all of these areas may be submitted to ACRP by anyone at any time. In addition to the above general call for problem statements, ACRP RRD 5: Current and Emerging Issues Facing the Airport Industry compiles a list of 58 current and emerging issues facing the airport industry in 2010 and has since been updated by ACRP RRD 20: Taking Inventory of ACRP Research and the Next Challenges Facing the Airport Industry. Both publications are designed to represent the program’s strategy of matching research initiatives to current and emerging airport challenges. Problem statements submitted should identify the research topic addressed in RRD 5 or 20, if related.
Specific problem statements are requested where ACRP research can advance the airport industry’s knowledge of and effective preparation for a challenging and yet uncertain future.
The deadline for problem statements that will be considered for inclusion in the each Fiscal Year program is March 20th. Any Problem Statements received after that date will be included in the next available project selection process. It should be understood that problem statements are not proposals to conduct the research but are used to identify potential research needs only. Problem statements selected by the ACRP Oversight Committee will be the basis for Requests for Proposals that will be issued by TRB and used to select contractors based on competitive proposals. If you have a research need that you would like to submit for consideration, we request that you describe it in accordance with the Problem Statement Outline and submit it electronically by e-mail to ACRP@NAS.EDU.
Our preference is for you to include the statement in Microsoft Word format as an attachment to an e-mail message. The problem statement may also be submitted in the text of an e-mail message. Please note that problem statements need not be lengthy; 1-2 pages should be sufficient to describe the research topic in the requested format.
To submit a research problem statement or to request further information on ACRP, email or call:
Michael R. Salamone, Manager
Airport Cooperative Research Program
Transportation Research Board | <urn:uuid:3ee633ff-c9aa-43d0-bd54-8b8cbb922a95> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.trb.org/ACRP/ACRPOverview.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93453 | 1,884 | 2.578125 | 3 |
IMPACT OF EARTH LAUNCH VEHICLES ON THE OZONE LAYER
Hydrogen chloride gas (HC1) produced from the exhaust of the Space Shuttle booster motor (see fig. 4-29) dissociates to produce free chlorine which, in turn, reacts to remove ozone from the stratosphere by the following catalytic reactions:
One-dimensional models of HC1 deposition, vertical transport, and chemical production and removal of participating trace stratospheric constituents (OH, O, O(l D), 03 , CH4, H2, and NO) have been used by NASA to simulate ozone depletion (refs. 45, 46). Steady-state solutions were obtained simulating 60 shuttle launches per year given that the emissions were spread uniformly in the horizontal over a hemisphere and over a 1000-km wide zone. The levels of ozone reduction computed were about 0.3 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. More recently, Whitten has revised the ozone depletion calculation for the hemisphere downward to less than 0.1 percent (personal communication, July 1975). Launch rates that might be anticipated for the initial colonization program are shown in table 4-18.
TABLE 4-18 (gif format)
|Year from |
|Space Shuttle |
The reduction in ozone concentration in the upper levels of the atmosphere allows the molecular oxygen dissociating radiation to penetrate lower before producing ozone; hence, a primary effect is a downward shift in the ozone distribution. A reduction in the total ozone concentration, which would appear to be very minor, results only as a secondary effect
Advanced launch vehicles using liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen (LOX-LH 2) propellants above 30 km would eliminate the emission of hydrogen chloride into the stratosphere; however, there are also potential problems with hydrogen fuel which produces water. Water is dissociated as:
However, compared to the 2 ppm of water in the stratosphere, increases due to hydrogen combustion may be negligible. Further study of the problem is required (R. Whitten, NASA Ames Research Center, personal communication, August 1975).
Return to Chapter 4
Table of Contents | <urn:uuid:35dd8e00-6865-411a-9d1e-25cd284ff88f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nss.org/settlement/nasa/75SummerStudy/4appendN.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.838938 | 436 | 3.65625 | 4 |
William and Sarah Bell landed at Alki Point with the Denny party in 1851. The following year they settled in today's Belltown, well north of the larger Pioneer Square settlement. Growth was slowed by the steepness of Denny Hill, which sat between the Bells' property and Pioneer Square. Population pressure after the 1897 Gold Rush forced the city northward.
Denny Hill was regraded (flattened), primarily by using hydraulic jets to sluice the soil into the bay. In 1898 the first of three regrades lowered First Avenue between Pike Street and Denny Way by 17 feet. The area west of First Avenue was not regraded, and its steep slope kept it largely industrial. The second regrade, between 1908 and 1911, leveled the land between Second and Fifth avenues, from Pine to Cedar streets.
The city regraded only the streets. Building owners had to hire their own contractors, so many pinnacles of land stood for years. The final regrading phase took place between 1928 and 1930, from Fifth Avenue east to Westlake Avenue, between Virginia and Harrison streets. The Depression halted the expected development, and much of the area remains parking lots today.
First Avenue and Virginia Street (1.9mb mp3)
Second Avenue and Blanchard Street (922kb mp3)
Find this building on our walking tour map. (680kb pdf)
This site is dedicated to the history of Seattle's downtown and waterfront, especially the State Route 99 / Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor. It was developed by the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration as an educational resource and as part of a Memorandum of Agreement for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (pdf 1mb).
Copyright 2011 Washington State Department of Transportation | <urn:uuid:14d7ad9d-6289-4337-8453-f93c943fecdc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://viaducthistory.com/neighborhood/DennyRegrades.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00030-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958625 | 371 | 2.796875 | 3 |
A Brief History...
As proclaimed by Resolution of the Florida Legislature, Florida Statute 683.23, the “first ever” Florida Missing Children’s Day was held on Monday, September 13, 1999.
Each year parents, children, law enforcement officers and citizens gather to remember Florida's missing children who are still missing and those who will never come home again. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and FDLE’s Commissioner are invited as speakers.
The objective of this day is to raise awareness of Florida’s currently missing children, to educate the public on child safety and abduction prevention, and to recognize those individuals and law enforcement officers who have made outstanding contributions in the missing children issue.
2014 Florida Missing Children’s Day Video
View the ceremony from the 2014 Florida Missing Children's Day
The Florida Channel | <urn:uuid:686dd31c-1bea-4b7f-ac84-1814117bc516> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fmcdf.org/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950395 | 172 | 3.03125 | 3 |
A new collection of fourteen “artist’s books,” featuring captivating poems and magnificent artwork, highlights the rich culture of Jewish communities in Latin America, thanks to the efforts of Stephen Sadow, professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Northeastern University.
Sadow recently returned from Argentina, where he cohosted an exhibit of these books at the Museo Judio de Buenos Aires (the Jewish Museum of Buenos Aires).
In creating the books, Sadow selected 14 poems, and then he and his Argentinian colleagues, Perla Bajder and Irene Jaievsky, chose 14 Jewish artists from across Latin America. Each artist was asked to take one poem and create a unique piece of art based on his or her interpretation of the poem. Handmade in Buenos Aires, each book includes the poem in Spanish; an English translation of it by Sadow and his co-translator, J. Kates; the artwork; and bilingual biographies of the poet and artist.
The poems deal with Jewish identity, mysticism, Old Testament themes, the Holocaust and the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina, among other related topics. The artwork features a wide spectrum of techniques, from watercolor to digital images.
“The idea was to have a confluence of the poetry and art of that culture,” Sadow said. “There would be a Jewish poem, and then another Jewish artist would understand it and reflect it in art. Not only did we want to see the artwork, but how that artwork emerges from the poetry.”
In June, Sadow showcased the collection at the Latin American Jewish Studies Association conference in Arizona. He is now planning an exhibit at Northeastern.
Sadow’s work involving Latin America Jewish culture spans the last 30 years, and includes scholarly articles, literary translations, and trilingual (Spanish, English, Portuguese) anthologies. His “King David’s Harp: Autobiographical Essays by Jewish Latin American Writers” was awarded the 1999 National Jewish Book Award.
“I want to discover and promote the work of a subculture in Latin America that has been totally ignored by rest of the world, and is itself quite fragmented,” said Sadow, who noted that there are an estimated 400,000 Jews living throughout Latin America.
Sadow recently completed a 200-page “open source” anthology that brings together the work of 13 Latin American Jewish poets from the 1960s to the present and includes his and Kates’ translations of those poems into Spanish. Selected publications, including this anthology, can be found in the Northeastern Library’s digital archive.
“I want these poets to read each other’s poetry and the public to realize this kind of cultural work is being done throughout Latin America,” Sadow said.
View selected publications of Stephen Sadow in IRis, Northeastern’s digital archive. | <urn:uuid:176bd747-fd03-45f8-a38a-65315b8b73b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2011/06/sadow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951302 | 611 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Brief SummaryRead full entry
IntroductionMacropanesthia rhinoceros, the Australian rhinoceros cockroach is also known as the litter bug or giant burrowing cockroach.Endemic to Australia Macropanesthia rhinoceros is the heaviest cockroach species on earth. Macropanesthia rhinoceros, lives in burrows that it carves out itself.They hiss when disturbed, when courting and when fighting. Fighting is commonest between adult males. Each male lowers his pronotum, the plate above his head, and then butt each other. The loser often gets turned over. | <urn:uuid:c94a34ca-e1f0-4306-983b-c7c8b6b75c20> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eol.org/pages/1076004/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913969 | 134 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Edward Teller, RIP
The Controversial Life of the Father of the H-Bomb
Before the first test of the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert in July 1945, the senior scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project were bused to prearranged locations to observe the explosion. Edward Teller, then 37 years old, was among the scientists at Compania Hill, twenty miles northwest of ground zero. Although the observers were supposed to lie on the ground with their backs turned to the blast, Teller disobeyed — he looked directly at the bomb. Protected with welder’s glasses and sunscreen, Teller watched the atomic flash: “It was as if I had pulled open the curtain in a dark room and broad daylight streamed in.”
The rest of Teller’s life was dominated by the power of the atomic nucleus — its immense physical power, which Teller helped to leash and unleash, and also its daunting political power, which gave shape and urgency to the Cold War.
Teller was a giant of science, and he mingled with the greatest minds of twentieth-century physics. Born in Budapest in 1908, by the time he graduated from high school Teller was already friends with fellow Hungarians Eugene Wigner (who would win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963), John von Neumann (one of the pioneers of computer science), and Leo Szilárd (one of the fathers of the atomic bomb). To escape religious persecution of Jews, he left Hungary for Germany, where he studied with Werner Heisenberg, one of the originators of quantum mechanics. Then, to escape ethnic persecution of Jews, he left Germany for Denmark, where he studied with Neils Bohr, another eminent quantum physicist. Following a stint in London, Teller settled ni the U.S. in 1935.
After some teaching, and some important research on radioactivity, Teller became an American citizen in 1941. That was also the year he joined the Manhattan Project. As Teller moved west, following Enrico Fermi from New York to Chicago to Los Alamos, he also moved from pure to applied physics, and permanently left behind theory. “After the war,” he said, “I tried to find my way back to the simpler life of a scientist and a teacher. I never succeeded.”
No, indeed: Teller’s life became far more complicated after the war. While most of the other scientists involved in fission research during the war came to advocate strict limits on atomic weapons, Teller believed that the United States should undertake an intensive program to create a fusion bomb, a device far more powerful than the original fission bombs used on Japan. As the leading lights of physics, from Einstein to Oppenheimer, came to oppose the bomb in the name of peace, Teller’s was almost the only voice calling for a more aggressive approach to military preparedness — especially after the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949.
In the years that followed, Teller contributed to the theoretical research for and the practical development of fusion weapons, and he shepherded the research from its earliest days — earning the nickname “father of the H-bomb.” He also remained an outspoken supporter of nuclear power generation, thermonuclear weapon development and stockpiling, and even the use of small nuclear devices for demolition projects and other peaceable purposes. Many opponents of nuclear arms came to view Teller as a lunatic lusting after power and destruction. This mad caricature — which may have been the basis for the character of Dr. Strangelove in the eponymous film — has always conveniently overlooked the fact that no one has ever been killed by a hydrogen bomb.
Left-leaning scientists also came to blame Teller for his role in ending the career of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. “Oppie,” who had headed up research at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, was later a vocal opponent of the plans to build a hydrogen bomb. In the early 1950s, Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance after a review board determined he had too many ties to communists. Some people came to believe that Teller, in testimony before that board, smeared an innocent Oppenheimer. Although the actual transcript of the hearing doesn’t support that conclusion, Teller’s anticommunist views were enough to convince Oppenheimer’s defenders — and the bitter feelings against Teller never fully abated.
In fact, if anyone was smeared, it was Teller himself, especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when student agitation against the Vietnam War peaked. Teller was falsely accused of wanting to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam; his house was vandalized; he couldn’t give public lectures without getting shouted down; several radical groups accused Teller of “war crimes,” tried him in absentia, marched on his home, and burned him in effigy.
The leftist enmity for Teller only worsened in the 1980s, when he became the most prominent scientific proponent of a ballistic missile defense system. Teller actually began concentrating on the problems of missile defense as early as 1961, and it was he who first introduced then-Governor Ronald Reagan to the concept in 1967 when Teller was at the Livermore labs. Although Teller sometimes threw his support behind defensive technologies that even today seem more science fiction than science fact — like lasers that can shoot down missiles — his motivation for supporting those defensive systems has always been valid: the U.S., and the rest of the world, are vulnerable to missile attacks.
By the time of Edward Teller’s death on September 9, 2003, he seemed to have moved from reviled to relic — becoming a dusty reminder of an earlier era. The names of Teller’s friends, enemies, and projects have long ago migrated from the newspapers to the history books. Most people who think of him nowadays almost certainly recall him as a “shill” for conservative ideas, or as a scientist who alienated his colleagues. But throughout his life Teller was also that man in the New Mexico desert — facing the future without flinching, bringing his gaze and his tremendous intellect to bear on those things no one else had the courage to see.
The Editors of The New Atlantis, "Edward Teller, RIP," The New Atlantis, Number 3, Fall 2003, pp. 105-107. | <urn:uuid:f8f96795-29b7-4312-9502-acd2a9e389dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/edward-teller-rip | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97582 | 1,337 | 2.96875 | 3 |
"Preliminary estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the number of Americans diagnosed with Lyme disease each year is around 300,000. The preliminary estimates were presented Sunday night in Boston at "...
(Generic versions may still be available.)
Reye's Syndrome may develop in individuals who have chicken pox, influenza, or flu symptoms. Some studies suggest a possible association between the development of Reye's Syndrome and the use of medicines containing salicylate or aspirin. DISALCID (salsalate) contains a salicylate and therefore is not recommended for use in patients with chicken pox, influenza, or flu symptoms.
Patients on treatment with DISALCID (salsalate) should be warned not to take other salicylates so as to avoid potentially toxic concentrations. Great care should be exercised when DISALCID (salsalate) is prescribed in the presence of chronic renal insufficiency or peptic ulcer disease. Protein binding of salicylic acid can be influenced by nutritional status, competitive binding of other drugs, and fluctuations in serum proteins caused by disease (rheumatoid arthritis, etc.).
Although cross reactivity, induding bronchospasm, has been reported occasionally with non- acetylated salicylates, including salsalate, in aspirin-sensitive patients,8,9 salsalate is less likely than aspirin to induce asthma in such patients.10
Plasma salicylic acid concentrations should be periodically monitored during longterm treatment with DISALCID (salsalate) to aid maintenance of therapeutically effective levels: 10 to 30 mg/100 ml. Toxic manifestations are not usually seen until plasma concentrations exceed 30 mg/l00 ml (see OVERDOSAGE). Urinary pH should also be regularly monitored: sudden acidification, as from pH 6.5 to 5.5, can double the plasma level, resulting in toxicity.
No long-term animal studies have been performed with DISALCID (salsalate) to evaluate its carcinogenic potential.
Use in Pregnancy
Pregnancy Category C: Salsalate and salicylic acid have been shown to be teratogenic and embryocidal in rats when given in doses 4 to 5 times the usual human dose. The effects were not observed at doses twice as great as the usual human dose. There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. DISALCID (salsalate) should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus.
Labor and Delivery
There exist no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Although adverse effects on mother or infant have not been reported with DISALCID (salsalate) use during labor, caution is advised when anti-inflammatory dosage is involved. However, other salicylates have been associated with prolonged gestation and labor, maternal and neonatal bleeding sequelae, potentiation of narcotic and barbiturate effects (respiratory or cardiac arrest in the mother), delivery problems and stillbirth.
It is not known whether salsalate per se is excreted in human milk; salicylic acid, the primary metabolite of DISALCID (salsalate) , has been shown to appear in human milk in concentrations approximating the maternal blood level. Thus, the infant of a mother on DISALCID (salsalate) therapy might ingest in mother†s milk 30 to 80% as much salicylate per kg body weight as the mother is taking. Accordingly, caution should be exercised when DISALCID (salsalate) is administered to a nursing woman.
Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established. (See WARNINGS)This monograph has been modified to include the generic and brand name in many instances.
Last reviewed on RxList: 12/8/2004
Additional Disalcid Information
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Get the latest treatment options | <urn:uuid:5a1b78a2-adae-42e0-9f9e-9814d0bde242> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rxlist.com/disalcid-drug/warnings-precautions.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91212 | 871 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The necropolis of Abu Rawash (Abu Rowash, Abu Roash, Abu Roach) lies around eight kilometres north of Giza. It is the location of the northernmost pyramid in Egypt (known as Lepsius Number One), the pyramid of Djedefre (also known as Radjedef) and around fifty mastabas (located one and a half kilometres from Djedefre's pyramid).
Djedefre was the only pharaoh of the fourth dynasty to choose to build his pyramid there. We do not know why he made this decision but it is possible that there was an ideological reason for him abandoning Giza in favour of Abu Rawash. It is suggested that there was a feud between Djedefre and his father Khufu and that his successor and brother, Khafre, took the side of Khufu in returning to Giza to build his pyramid. However Menkaure (Khafre's son) completed restoration work on the pyramid of Djedefre and there is no evidence to support the existence of a feud. Another more likely explanation is that the site was chosen because of its proximity to Heliopolis - the centre of the cult of Ra.
Mastabas of Abu Rawash
Unlike the fourth dynasty mastabas of Giza which sit very close to the pyramids and seem to have been built to a plan in advance, the fourth dynasty necropolis at Abu Rawash (cemetery F) lies some distance from Djedefre's pyramid and the mastabas seem to have been built to order and laid out in a more haphazard manner.
Unfortunately the site has suffered a great deal of damage in antiquity and excavations in the early twentieth century were poorly organized and failed to leave adequate records so although much has been recovered from the site it is not fully cataloged and our knowledge is patchy to say the least.
Most of the mastabas are composed of external walls composed of large blocks layered around a bedrock core with the upper sections filled in with loose masonry. On the east side there is a cult niche to the north and a L shaped chapel to the south. Some of the southern chapels have brick annexes to extend them. Many of the tombs are anonymous but some to bear the names of their owners and some artifacts have been recovered also bearing these names; for example an alabaster offering table dedicated to Hornit.
- F7: Nikaudja - "greatest of the ten of the South"
- F13: Hornit (Hor-Neith) -"king's son of his body"
- F15: Nikau-Djedefre (Nykau Radjedef) - "king's son of his body, sole companion of his father, director of the Palace"
- F19: Hekaf - "royal chamberlain, herdsman of the rekhyt (people), judge, boundary official"
Some tombs (such as F37) have inscriptions confirming that the owners were the sons of the king (or at least high officials or prominent nobles given the epithet "King's son" as an honorific title) but unfortunately the name of the deceased is damaged or missing. Other mastabas confirm that the inhabitants were high officials, such as "director of the personnel in phyle" who was buried in F48, but again their names are unknown.
copyright J Hill 2010 | <urn:uuid:f64d8045-43df-4705-afc4-8285ad7077c3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/abu-rawash.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973942 | 718 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Electromagnetic fields and public health: mobile phones
- Mobile phone use is ubiquitous with an estimated 6.9 billion subscriptions globally.
- The electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones are classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as possibly carcinogenic to humans.
- Studies are ongoing to more fully assess potential long-term effects of mobile phone use.
- WHO will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radiofrequency fields exposure by 2016.
Mobile or cellular phones are now an integral part of modern telecommunications. In many countries, over half the population use mobile phones and the market is growing rapidly. In 2014, there is an estimated 6.9 billion subscriptions globally. In some parts of the world, mobile phones are the most reliable or the only phones available.
Given the large number of mobile phone users, it is important to investigate, understand and monitor any potential public health impact.
Mobile phones communicate by transmitting radio waves through a network of fixed antennas called base stations. Radiofrequency waves are electromagnetic fields, and unlike ionizing radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays, can neither break chemical bonds nor cause ionization in the human body.
Mobile phones are low-powered radiofrequency transmitters, operating at frequencies between 450 and 2700 MHz with peak powers in the range of 0.1 to 2 watts. The handset only transmits power when it is turned on. The power (and hence the radiofrequency exposure to a user) falls off rapidly with increasing distance from the handset. A person using a mobile phone 30–40 cm away from their body – for example when text messaging, accessing the Internet, or using a “hands free” device – will therefore have a much lower exposure to radiofrequency fields than someone holding the handset against their head.
In addition to using "hands-free" devices, which keep mobile phones away from the head and body during phone calls, exposure is also reduced by limiting the number and length of calls. Using the phone in areas of good reception also decreases exposure as it allows the phone to transmit at reduced power. The use of commercial devices for reducing radiofrequency field exposure has not been shown to be effective.
Mobile phones are often prohibited in hospitals and on airplanes, as the radiofrequency signals may interfere with certain electro-medical devices and navigation systems.
Are there any health effects?
A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.
Tissue heating is the principal mechanism of interaction between radiofrequency energy and the human body. At the frequencies used by mobile phones, most of the energy is absorbed by the skin and other superficial tissues, resulting in negligible temperature rise in the brain or any other organs of the body.
A number of studies have investigated the effects of radiofrequency fields on brain electrical activity, cognitive function, sleep, heart rate and blood pressure in volunteers. To date, research does not suggest any consistent evidence of adverse health effects from exposure to radiofrequency fields at levels below those that cause tissue heating. Further, research has not been able to provide support for a causal relationship between exposure to electromagnetic fields and self-reported symptoms, or “electromagnetic hypersensitivity”.
Epidemiological research examining potential long-term risks from radiofrequency exposure has mostly looked for an association between brain tumours and mobile phone use. However, because many cancers are not detectable until many years after the interactions that led to the tumour, and since mobile phones were not widely used until the early 1990s, epidemiological studies at present can only assess those cancers that become evident within shorter time periods. However, results of animal studies consistently show no increased cancer risk for long-term exposure to radiofrequency fields.
Several large multinational epidemiological studies have been completed or are ongoing, including case-control studies and prospective cohort studies examining a number of health endpoints in adults. The largest retrospective case-control study to date on adults, Interphone, coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), was designed to determine whether there are links between use of mobile phones and head and neck cancers in adults.
The international pooled analysis of data gathered from 13 participating countries found no increased risk of glioma or meningioma with mobile phone use of more than 10 years. There are some indications of an increased risk of glioma for those who reported the highest 10% of cumulative hours of cell phone use, although there was no consistent trend of increasing risk with greater duration of use. The researchers concluded that biases and errors limit the strength of these conclusions and prevent a causal interpretation.
Based largely on these data, IARC has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), a category used when a causal association is considered credible, but when chance, bias or confounding cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence.
While an increased risk of brain tumors is not established, the increasing use of mobile phones and the lack of data for mobile phone use over time periods longer than 15 years warrant further research of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk. In particular, with the recent popularity of mobile phone use among younger people, and therefore a potentially longer lifetime of exposure, WHO has promoted further research on this group. Several studies investigating potential health effects in children and adolescents are underway.
Exposure limit guidelines
Radiofrequency exposure limits for mobile phone users are given in terms of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) – the rate of radiofrequency energy absorption per unit mass of the body. Currently, two international bodies 1, 2 have developed exposure guidelines for workers and for the general public, except patients undergoing medical diagnosis or treatment. These guidelines are based on a detailed assessment of the available scientific evidence.
In response to public and governmental concern, WHO established the International Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Project in 1996 to assess the scientific evidence of possible adverse health effects from electromagnetic fields. WHO will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radiofrequency fields exposure by 2016. In addition, and as noted above, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a WHO specialized agency, has reviewed the carcinogenic potential of radiofrequency fields, as from mobile phones in May 2011.
WHO also identifies and promotes research priorities for radiofrequency fields and health to fill gaps in knowledge through its research agendas.
WHO develops public information materials and promotes dialogue among scientists, governments, industry and the public to raise the level of understanding about potential adverse health risks of mobile phones.
1 International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Statement on the "Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic and electromagetic fields (up to 300 GHz)", 2009.
2 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). IEEE standard for safety levels with respect to human exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz, IEEE Std C95.1, 2005. | <urn:uuid:54afc1e0-093a-4830-86f6-92aa3ece62a2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs193/en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931292 | 1,439 | 3.65625 | 4 |
While Congress did not have the power to end the international slave trade, it did have the power to regulate it, and starting in 1794, it did just that.
In March, Congress prohibited the use of any U.S. port or shipyard for the purpose of fitting out or building any ship to be used for the introduction of slaves. The law also prohibited ships sailing from U.S. ports from trafficking in foreign countries. Ships sailing from the United States to Africa, even if of foreign registry, were required to "give bond with sufficient sureties, to the treasurer of the United States, that none of the natives of Africa, or any other foreign country or place, shall be taken on board... to be transported, or sold as slaves in any other foreign place, within nine months thereafter." Penalties under the law included fines ranging from $2,000 for outfitting a ship to $200 for an individual working on such a vessel. The act provided that the ships could be confiscated, and half of all fines given to any informants, thus providing an incentive for ship captains and mariners to monitor the activities of anyone they suspected of being involved in the illegal slave trade.
Until 1800 none of the states had reopened the African trade, which had been effectively closed since the Revolution. Before 1800 all introductions into the U.S. were thus illegal, even if the slaves were brought in by foreign ships. After 1800, however, Georgia and South Carolina reopened their international slave trade, and in the next eight years, these two states would introduce about 100,000 new slaves from Africa.
With the trade legally reopened in the Deep South, Congress sought to strengthen the prohibitions on American participation in it. In 1800 Congress amended the 1794 act by dramatically increasing fines for illegal American participation and by giving informants a right to the entire value of any ship condemned under the law. In addition to not allowing American ships to participate in the trade, the new law prohibited any American from having any interest in a ship involved in the trade. Thus, Americans could no longer invest in the transatlantic slave trade, even if carried on legally by non-U.S. ships.
If convicted, an American was subject to a fine that was double the value of his investment in the vessel and also double the value of any slaves in whom he had an interest. The 1800 amendment explicitly prohibited any American citizen or resident alien from voluntarily serving "on board any foreign ship or vessel . . . employed in the slave trade." It no longer mattered if the ship was U.S., or even if it left an American port. American sailors found on slavers were now subject to a $2,000 fine. The law authorized all "commissioned vessels of the United States, to seize and take any vessel employed" in the trade contrary to the law, with the crew receiving half the value of the ship when it was sold. This provided an enormous incentive for American ships to police the trade.
With the trade legal in some states and illegal in others, in 1803 Congress provided new fines for people who brought newly imported slaves into states that banned the international slave trade. The law applied to any "negro, mulatto, or other person of color" introduced as a slave, whether from Africa or the Caribbean. The language was apparently used to prevent people who might bring in Africans by claiming they were not slaves but servants or indentured servants, or claim that they were not actually African but Caribbean.
All three of these laws had been designed to limit American participation in the transatlantic slave trade, but they could not be used to stop the trade itself. Significantly, all of the laws passed before 1807 focused on ships, sailors, and investors. None of the laws had any provision for what should happen to slaves illegally brought into the United States. Indeed, while the 1794 law provided for the sale of a ship and its "tackle, furniture, apparel and other appurtenances" of a slaver, it did not mention what should happen to the slaves or any cargo on the ship. Presumably, they too would be sold for the benefit of the United States, the informant, or any other claimant under the three laws.
In his annual message to Congress in December 1806, Thomas Jefferson, who had long opposed the trade (but not slavery itself), reminded the nation that on January 1, 1808, the constitutional suspension of congressional power on this issue would finally expire. He took a moment in his address to "congratulate" his "fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe." He noted that any law passed by Congress could not take effect until January 1, 1808, but he urged Congress to act quickly "to prevent by timely notice expeditions which can not be completed before that day." Congress readily complied with legislation to absolutely ban all importations of slaves after January 1, 1808. | <urn:uuid:8bf52ef0-8b51-4393-8eac-bf2a4d26340f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://abolition.nypl.org/essays/us_constitution/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973078 | 1,064 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Percocet is a drug that has gained a lot of popularity in the market as a reliable pain medication. It is used to relieve both moderate pain as well as severe pain in both children and adults. Percocet has become the pain relieving medication of choice due to its unique composition as a combination drug that optimizes the effects of two individual potent drugs.
The first of these two drugs that are found in Percocet is oxycodone. This is a strong narcotic pain reliever and is the more potent of the components. It is responsible for the distinguishing characteristics of Percocet. The other component drug found in Percocet is acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is also a pain relieving medication, but is not as potent as oxycodone. It main function therefore is to potentiate the effects of the oxycodone.
There are a number of side effects that have been reported by the people who use Percocet as part of their medication. A vast majority of the side effects of Percocet are rather mild and they do not normally require medical attention since they eventually fade off on their own most of the time. it is only in the are event that they last for longer that the time expected without disappearing or showing any sign of diminishing should they be reported to your doctor. You should also report them any time they get severe.
This said, there are however a number of additional side effects that are associated with the consumption of Percocet that are deemed to be a lot more deadly. The list below provides that details of 5 dangerous side effects of Percocet. it is important to take note of the fact that even though this list only cover 5 dangerous side effects of Percocet, this should not be taken to mean that out of all the side effects of the drug, only these five are dangerous.
There are many more side effects that can be very deadly but which are not included in this list of five because only the most commonly reported of the side effects are listed here.
- Confusion – The users of the drug may at times become very confused. The confusion is manifested in unusual behavior or thoughts.
- Seizures – The person using the drug may experience seizures or convulsions. The seizures can be life threatening if they are not attended to in time.
- Urinary Problems – Sometimes the patients taking Percocet medication may experience some problems with urination, such as irregular patterns of the same.
- Fainting – The patients sometimes may begin to feel very light headed and most of the time when this happens, fainting may be the result. in order to avoid fainting, keep off any strenuous activities while under the influence of the drug.
- Shallow Breathing – This is often accompanied by reduced heart rate on the part of the users of Percocet. This side effect can be particularly very dangerous if precautionary and treatment measures are not put in place in good time and may turn out to be fatal in the long run. | <urn:uuid:d12c4f4e-6739-4e68-a3c0-9d36faf4bc96> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sideeffectsofpercocet.com/5-dangerous-side-effects-of-percocet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96816 | 629 | 2.5625 | 3 |
It turns out I was misinterpreting what I was seeing. The documents weren't shrunk, but were universally smaller than the scanning platen sized for 8.5" by 11" "Letter" sized paper. That's because back in 1921 two different Federal committees came up with two different paper standards .
Not until World War I or shortly after was a standard paper size agreed to in the United States. Interestingly enough, within six months of each other, two different paper sizes were set as the standard; one for the government and one for the rest of us.
1. In 1921, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget established an interagency advisory group with the President's approval called the Permanent Conference on Printing which established the 8" x 10½" as the general U.S. government letterhead standard. This extended an earlier establishment made by the former President Hoover, the Secretary of Commerce at the time, who established the 8" x 10½" as the standard letterhead size for his department.
2. Now, during the same year, a Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes consisting of printing industry representatives was appointed to work with the Bureau of Standards as part of Hoover's program for the Elimination of Waste in Industry. This group came up with basic sizes for all types of printing and writing papers. The size for "letter" was a 17" x 22" sheet while the "legal" size was 17" x 28" sheet. The later known U.S. letter format was these sizes halved (8 ½" x 11" and 8 ½" by 14").
I vaguely recall coming across the idea of a minuscule size difference between "government" paper and regular paper before, but I wrote it off as an urban legend or waggish commentary on government efficiency. Personally, I'm not going to get too bent out of shape that my few reproductions of Federal paper are slightly oversized. It's a legitimate concern for anyone worried about the absolute authenticity of prop documents in the classic era. For casual game use the hassle of resizing document templates and hand trimming paper to size is too much effort for too little reward. | <urn:uuid:97b79715-c387-42cc-9ac2-f668b2a34f8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/06/size-matters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974257 | 443 | 2.53125 | 3 |
- pet (n.1)
- "tamed animal," originally in Scottish and northern England dialect (and exclusively so until mid-18c.), of unknown origin. Sense of "indulged child" (c. 1500) is recorded slightly earlier than that of "animal kept as a favorite" (1530s), but the latter may be the primary meaning. Probably associated with or influenced by petty. As a term of endearment by 1849. Teacher's pet is attested from 1890. Pet-shop from 1928.
Know nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch warm'd a bear.
While man exclaims, 'See all things for my use!'
'See man for mine!' replies a pamper'd goose:
[Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man"]
- pet (n.2)
- "peevishness, offense at feeling slighted," 1580s, in phrase take the pet "take offense." Perhaps from pet (n.1) on a similar notion to that in American English that gets my goat, but the underlying notion is obscure, and the form of the original expression makes this doubtful. This word seems to have been originally a southern English term, while pet (n.1) was northern and Scottish.
- pet (v.)
- 1620s, "treat as a pet," from pet (n.1). Sense of "to stroke" is first found 1818. Slang sense of "kiss and caress" is from 1920 (implied in petting). Related: Petted. | <urn:uuid:bb209720-2c49-4685-98e6-ddb6366ed544> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=pet&allowed_in_frame=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950835 | 335 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Cabe, so you mean the basic physics definition. I still think that the usefulness of the robot's motion in the particular application is just as important as the physics in the abstract. This has become especially clear as I've been working on a nautical robots slideshow, where designs can be wildly different depending on end-usage--or wildly different to achieve the same basic purposes.
CLMcDade, I agree about the project being inspiring as well as the article. The field of Biomimicry has no boundaries and limits to creating magnificent machines. I'm really impressed with the waterproof material protecting the electronics and the graceful movement of Cyro's legs. Nice work as usual Ann!
Cabe, "most efficient" defined how? I've written about several different swimming robots, modeled after tuna, sea turtles and jellyfish. Each of these was described as highly efficient and/or with an optimum size or function(s) for the tasks it was designed for--and they weren't all the same set of tasks. Most robotics R&D is past the stage of fundamental research and is now applied to a specific end-use. OTOH, there are also some competing designs for similar uses.
Clinton, thanks for your comments (and for using the correct plural of a Greek word: nemesis, pl. nemeses). You bring up an interesting point that some other commenters have mentioned: what about predators thinking that a realistic robot is potential food? This jellyfish is bigger than most, if not all, sea turtles, but a killer shark could be a problem.
What a great piece of engineering, it certainly mimicks a real jellyfish in motion. My question is about directional control and how does it steer, which are not so very obvious. But I can see that it could run for quite a while, since it does not need to run to stay afloat.
The Industrial Internet of Things may be going off the deep end in connecting everything on the plant floor. Some machines, bearings, or conveyors simply donít need to be monitored -- even if they can be.
Wind turbines already are imposing structures that stretch high into the sky, but an engineering graduate student at the University of Notre Dame wants to make them even taller to reduce energy costs and improve efficiency.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies.
You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived.
So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience. | <urn:uuid:0ce40ac8-f948-49fc-9560-1b4ab4420df3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=262067&image_number=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962403 | 529 | 2.515625 | 3 |
As I understand right shift does sign extension, thus signed negative numbers leave 1s, signed positive and unsigned numbers leave 0s in the upper bits.
Some test code:
For me it seems that there is still no need for a mask, because there is an unsigned cast in the macro definition: (DWORD)(a). So, why the need for the mask '& 0xFFFF' when we already have an unsigned cast?
typedef unsigned long DWORD;
typedef unsigned short WORD;
#define LOWORD(a) ((WORD)(a))
#define HIWORD(a) ((WORD)(((DWORD)(a) >> 16) & 0xFFFF))
int a=-1; // signed numbers are stored in two's complement, so this equals 0xFFFFFFFF
printf("a >> 16 == %X\n",a >> 16); // FFFFFFFF
printf("(DWORD)(a) >> 16 == %X\n",(DWORD)(a) >> 16); //FFFF
//upper bits are sign extended -> int a : signed
printf("a >> 16 == %X\n",a >> 16); // FFFFABCD
//no sign extension -> (DWORD) is an unsigned cast
printf("(DWORD)(a) >> 16 == %X\n",(DWORD)(a) >> 16); //ABCD | <urn:uuid:4704b774-6579-444e-a025-e586e769d817> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/c-programming/109984-hiword-loword-macros.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.734772 | 297 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Who was Nebuchadnezzar?
Question: "Who was Nebuchadnezzar?"
Answer: Nebuchadnezzar II, sometimes alternately spelled Nebuchadrezzar, was king of Babylonia from approximately 605 BC until approximately 562 BC. He is considered the greatest king of the Babylonian Empire and is credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned by name around 90 times in the Bible, in both the historical and prophetic literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. Nebuchadnezzar receives the most attention in the book of Daniel, appearing as the main character, beside Daniel, in chapters 1–4.
In biblical history, Nebuchadnezzar is most famous for the conquering of Judah and the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem in 586 BC. Judah had become a tribute state to Babylon in 605 BC but rebelled in 597 BC during the reign of Jehoiachin and then again in 588 BC during the reign of Zedekiah. Tired of the rebellions, and seeing that Judah had not learned its lesson when he invaded, conquered, and deported Judah in 597, Nebuchadnezzar and his general, Nebuzaradan, proceeded to completely destroy the temple and most of Jerusalem, deporting most of the remaining residents to Babylon. In this, Nebuchadnezzar served as God’s instrument of judgment on Judah for its idolatry, unfaithfulness, and disobedience (Jeremiah 25:9).
Secular history records Nebuchadnezzar as a brutal, powerful, and ambitious king, and the Bible, for the most part, agrees. However, the book of Daniel gives additional insight into his character. Daniel chapter 2 records God giving Nebuchadnezzar a dream about what kingdoms would arise after his own. In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar was a “head of gold” on a statue, with the descending parts of the body, comprised of silver, bronze, iron, and iron mixed with clay, representing the less powerful kingdoms that would come after him. Nebuchadnezzar demanded the astrologers and wise men to interpret his dream without him telling it to them and, when they were unable to, Nebuchadnezzar ordered all of the astrologers and wise men to be killed. Daniel spoke up and, through a miracle from God, interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king then promoted Daniel to be one of his most influential advisors. Interestingly, when Daniel interpreted his dream, Nebuchadnezzar declared, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47).
In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar created a gold statue of himself and required all the people to bow down to it whenever the music played. Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused, and the king had them thrown into a blazing furnace. Miraculously, God protected them, and when they came out of the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way” (Daniel 3:28–29).
In Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar is given another dream by God. Daniel interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar and informed him that the dream was a warning to the king to humble himself and recognize that his power, wealth, and influence were from God, not of his own making. Nebuchadnezzar did not heed the warning of the dream, so God judged him as the dream had declared. Nebuchadnezzar was driven insane for seven years. When the king’s sanity was restored, he finally humbled himself before God. In Daniel 4:3, Nebuchadnezzar declares, “How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.” Nebuchadnezzar continued in Daniel 4:34–37, “For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’ … “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
The exclamations of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in the book of Daniel have led some to consider the possibility that Nebuchadnezzar became a believer in the one true God. History records Nebuchadnezzar being a follower of the Babylonian gods Nabu and Marduk. Is it possible that Nebuchadnezzar renounced these false gods and instead only worshipped the one true God? Yes, it is possible. If nothing else, Nebuchadnezzar became a henotheist, believing in many gods but worshipping only one God as supreme. Based on his words recorded in Daniel, it definitely seems like Nebuchadnezzar submitted himself to the one true God. Further evidence is the fact that God refers to Nebuchadnezzar as “my servant” three times in the book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6; 43:10). Was Nebuchadnezzar saved? Ultimately, this is not a question that can be answered dogmatically. Whatever the case, the story of Nebuchadnezzar is an example of God’s sovereignty over all men and the truth that “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will” (Proverbs 21:1).
Recommended Resources: The Great Lives from God's Word Series by Chuck Swindoll and Logos Bible Software.
What should we learn from the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
What is the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2?
Who was Belshazzar?
Who was Cyrus in the Bible?
What is the significance of the Babylonian Empire in biblical history?
Who was Nebuchadnezzar? | <urn:uuid:3c23a98b-3246-4725-bdfc-7e734721c528> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gotquestions.org/Nebuchadnezzar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962491 | 1,507 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Projects vary but generally consist of four basic kinds of activities:
The design of learning materials
The implementation of learning technologies (e.g., web-based courseware)
The assessment of learning interventions
Outreach activities (for example, to middle school students)
Many projects may involve more than one of these activities (for example, both designing and implementing online courseware) while prioritizing one central focus. You may indicate on your application form which of these areas you are most interested to work in. Please note however that while these interests guide selection, no guarantees of placement in any area can be made.
Within each project, students and faculty mentors will work together to tailor the work so that it is suited to the individual student’s interest and knowledge base within the domain. REU students can obtain assistance from learning scientists, learning technologists, and assessment experts as needed, depending on their projects.
The following are representative examples of projects in each of these areas. Please note that these are meant to serve as examples only, and not all will describe projects currently available this coming summer.
Design of Learning Materials
Mentors Cynthia Paschal and Duco Jansen, 2011, Vanderbilt:
This project developed and updated material for the biomedical module of an introductory engineering class at Vanderbilt University. Past students of this class expressed a desire for hands-on activities in the class. With a theme of LASIK and the eye as an optical system, we added new hands-on activities to help engage students. The first of these activities is a functional eye model. This model can be used to project images onto the “retina” of the model in addition to demonstrating myopia, hyperopia, and presbyopia. Our other addition is a surgery of a gelatin eye. Students will use heated objects to shape a gelatin cornea to correct the refractive ability of this cornea. In addition to new interactive activities, we also added new material. Developments in refractive surgeries are constantly being made, making it necessary to introduce different methods for fixing refractive errors. What needs to be done to fix refractive errors is also an important topic, leading us to develop new lens exercises to help students practice with lens equations and diagrams.
Learning Technology (CAPE/eLMS )
Mentor David Schneeweis, 2011, Northwestern University
Some new graduate students in the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience PhD Program (NUIN) struggle with material that is quantitative in nature, as these students come into the program from undergraduate majors, such as biology, that did not emphasize quantitative methods. In the past, traditional pencil and paper homework problems have been assigned to students, but these do not provide much feedback while they are being worked. This project was to develop new online homework sets that would provide active guidance to students, including hints to a student if he or she answers incorrectly. It is hoped that the new online homework sets will be effective in helping students grasp difficult quantitative concepts. Three modules on basic electrical circuits were created using the CAPE/eLMS system: a general introduction, including Ohm’s law; parallel RC circuits; and membrane resistance models. The experimental Learning Management System (eLMS) is used to deliver the content to the learners which has been created using CAPE (Courseware Authoring and Packaging Environment). The eLMS interface provides web based functionality and has been integrated with Blackboard to allow instructors to view individuals’ grades, and assign homework.
Learning Science and Assesment
Mentors Rob Linsenmeier and Jennifer Cole, 2010 and 2011, Northwestern University
Mathematical modeling is defined as a mathematical representation of a process, device, or concept by means of a number of variables defined to represent the inputs, outputs, and internal states of the device or process, and a set of equations and inequalities describing the interaction of these variables. Modeling is a very important tool for engineers, since it could save time and money by replacing expensive and/or time consuming experiments that could be ruled out by proper modeling. This project was to analyze engineering students’ mathematical modeling abilities during capstone design. In particular, the aim of this project was to find the stages where the students struggled during the process of modeling, and ultimately gain insight about what can be changed in instruction in order to improve their ability to model. The assessment of the capstone projects involved a few steps. First, a rubric was developed to assess the projects. This rubric had several criteria. Each criterion was guided by one of Gainsburg’s six steps. In 2010, a lecture on modeling was added to the capstone course. The 2011 REU project then looked for evidence of additional improvement as a result of this while repeating and refining the analysis of modeling skills with a new cohort.
Mentors Tony Petrosino and Christina White, 2011, University of Texas at Austin
This project had the student serve in a variety of outreach contexts, including as a mentor to underprivileged middle school students during a two-week summer robotics camp called Beyond Blackboards. Through guided inquiry, the REU student helped them design, build, and program aquatic robots from a LEGO Mindstorm kit while teaching them the principles of engineering and engineering design. The REU students also served as a mentor to K-12 teachers who were going through professional development training in engineering design under the DTEACh program. Like the students, the teachers also designed, built, and programmed robots for various functions. These teachers would later go on to teach the same design principles to their students, incorporating them into their everyday lectures, and/or lead their school’s LEGO League club in competition. Finally, the REU student also assisted in starting up the Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) at the University of Texas, in which the college students enrolled will spend their undergraduate careers performing research and engineering design around one of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges. The REU student helped to create a variety of curricular materials as well as recruitment strategies for the program. | <urn:uuid:710fa110-dc97-499d-bb8e-e93a3bc71ffa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ber-reu.northwestern.edu/projects/projects.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95421 | 1,248 | 2.828125 | 3 |
North Uist or Uibhist A Tuathis is an island in the Outer Hebrides, north of Benbecula and south of Harris, with a total population of only about 1,200 people, yet is about 20 miles from north to south. It is generally flat and covered, especially in the north and east, by a very large number of lochans, or small lakes. It has no large built up settlements, having a dispersed population scattered mainly over its western side, where the machair provides grazing for crofting. Despite this its history and culture is fascinating, and there are facilities for back-packing, camping and cycling. Ferries arrive at Lochmaddy, a small settlement with a harbour, a couple of decent hotels, an information office, and one or two simple shops. The arts centre Taigh Chearsabhagh is to be found here.
North Uist, like the rest of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, has a long history of neglect by its landlords, and suffered from waves of clearances of the native population, as well as suppression of its native Gaelic language and culture. Gaelic, however, is still commonly spoken as well as English, and place-names and other signs are now usually by default in the Gaelic. A more sympathetic approach to the island's culture and language from the Scottish Government indicate that the island is showing signs of a revival in its fortunes. Unlike South Uist this is a predominantly Protestant island and the Sabbath is observed seriously here, and visitors should be aware of this, although North Uist is a little more relaxed than the more northerly islands of Harris and Lewis, where Sabbath observation can be very strict.
By boatCaledonian MacBrayne operate a number of routes to the Outer Hebrides:
All of the above ferries convey foot passengers and vehicles. Both Berneray and South Uist have road and bus connections to North Uist via causeways.
In the Outer Hebrides, there are airports in Stornoway in Lewis, Benbecula and Barra. These airports provide direct flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. The nearest to North Uist is Benbecula
North Uist is linked by causeway to Benbecula to the South and Berneray to the North. On route south to Benbecula the causeway first links to Grimsay, a small island worth exploration for its rugged coast and inlets, fishing harbour, and a number of archaeological sites.
Buses link North Uist with Berneray, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay. As part of the Western Isles Overland Route combination of bus and ferry, you can travel in under a day from Stornoway or Castlebay on Barra.
Cars will need to be transported by CalMac ferry or hired from one of the companies on Benbecula. With the exception of the causeways and part of the Carinish (Cairinis) to Lochmaddy road, all roads are single-track with passing places. It's important to learn the etiquette of driving on these roads, as well as taking special care.
There are reasonable bus services during the day Mon - Sat, but little in the evening and no buses on a Sunday .
In Lochmaddy, Leave your vehicle in the parking space just before the road turns left to the Uist Outdoor Centre. Take the track next to the house on the right which leads towards the sea on the right. Continue following the track past the high fences. It leads you to the small suspension bridge, and over the bridge, take the track down to the right towards the sea and you will reach the stone-built chamber. This is well worth a visit and you may be able to spot otters in the vicinity if you are patient.
The information office, near to the harbour, will provide information on bed and breakfast and camping as well as hotels. Mainland tourist information centres will also book ahead for you.
Bed and Breakfasts
Some can be found on the tourist board website , but many are no longer listed due to the changes and "hassle".
Renting a house for a week or more is a popular option. Such places are generally let from Saturday to Saturday. Some of these can be found on the tourist board website . | <urn:uuid:36450d24-f7e8-45b3-b2f0-76a0d73d8826> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wikitravel.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=North_Uist&oldid=1973122 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953516 | 897 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Political pioneer, tough leader, crime fighter, reformer: These are some of the words that describe Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of San Francisco and United States senator from California since 1992.
The eldest of three daughters, she was born on June 22, 1933, to Dr. Leon Goldman, a surgeon and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and Betty (Rosenburg) Goldman. Both of her parents came from Russian immigrant families. The Goldmans were proud of their heritage and could trace their family tree back for generations. Sam Goldman, Dianne’s paternal grandfather, helped to found several temples in California, while his son Leon became a prominent donor to San Francisco’s Mount Zion Synagogue. Dianne’s mother’s family, the Rosenburgs, had a more distant relationship with Judaism. Some of them belonged to the Russian Orthodox church.
While growing up, she was greatly influenced by her paternal uncle. Morris Goldman, in contrast to his Republican-minded brother Leon, was a populist who worked in the city’s garment district and who introduced Dianne to the idea of the working class. He took her to San Francisco’s City Hall to watch a meeting of the Board of Supervisors, sparking her interest in politics early on. By observing her father and her uncle, she learned to weigh both sides of an argument and to think about the complexities of an issue.
She attended a Jewish religious school, but later enrolled at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a prestigious private Catholic high school, in accordance with her mother’s wishes. At that time she met California Attorney General Edmund (Pat) Brown, the father of a classmate. The teenaged Feinstein impressed Brown with her interest in political life. After Brown was elected governor of California, he sought out Dianne and gave her a job as an advocate for prison reform.
After graduating from Sacred Heart (the first Jew to do so), she entered Stanford University, where she excelled academically and became actively involved in politics. She was vice president of her class and joined the Young Democrats. She graduated in 1955, and then worked as an intern in public affairs for the Coro Foundation. In 1956, she eloped with Jack Berman, now a San Francisco superior court judge, but the marriage ended in less than three years. Feinstein and Berman disagreed fundamentally over the role that a woman should play. Berman wanted his wife to be a wife and a mother to their daughter, Katherine (who was nine months old at the time of divorce). She saw herself in this role, but also wanted a professional career in the public sector.
In 1962, she married Bertram Feinstein, a distinguished neurosurgeon who was a colleague of her father and twenty years her senior. Their marriage, which lasted until Bertram’s death in 1978, gave Feinstein the freedom to pursue her political career. In 1980, she married Richard Blum, a successful investment banker who advises her and helps in her political campaigns.
Governor Brown appointed Feinstein a member of the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole in 1960, where she gained her first experiences in criminal reform. In 1968, she served on the San Francisco mayor’s committee on crime and committee on adult detention. A year later, she became the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Her success and popularity in this capacity won her reelection for two additional terms.
The 1970s saw San Francisco torn apart by political strife. After the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and board colleague Harvey Milk in 1978, Feinstein decided to run for mayor. She won the election in 1979 and instituted tough legal and social reforms. In 1983 she was reelected to a second four-year term. City and State magazine named her America’s Most Effective Mayor in 1987.
Feinstein’s top priority during her nine years as mayor was public safety. She fought crime by increasing the strength of San Francisco’s police department and by cutting down the response time for major emergencies from eight minutes to two. Fiscal responsibility and boosting the local economy were two other important concerns to her. She made sure that the city’s budget was balanced in every year that she held office, and she developed relationships with major trading cities in Asia, Europe, and Africa. During her tenure, the famous San Francisco cable car system was rebuilt, city streets were repaved, and the sewer system was upgraded.
Her long and distinguished political career has been marked by a series of firsts. In 1984, she was considered by the Democratic Party for nomination for vice president of the United States. In 1990, the Democrats selected her as their first female candidate for California governor, a bid that was unsuccessful.
When California senator Pete Wilson left that office to become governor of the state in 1992, Feinstein was elected to finish his unexpired term in the Senate. As a freshman senator, she wrote the California Desert Protection Act, which protects some three million acres of national park land.
In 1994, she was reelected for a full six-year term. As a senator, she has been as actively engaged in criminal reform as when she was mayor of San Francisco. She introduced and saw the passage of the Gun-Free Schools Act (1994), requiring public schools to expel for one year any student who brings a gun to school. Both the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Handgun Control organizations have recognized her efforts to legislate gun control. Her Hate Crimes Sentencing Enforcement Act (1993) increased the minimum sentences given to those convicted of hate crimes in a federal court. She also introduced the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act, passed in 1996, which limited access to the precursor chemicals needed to make the drug and increased the penalties for smuggling, drug possession, and possession of specialized equipment for making methamphetamine.
As a member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Feinstein is involved in legislative activities aimed at stopping illegal immigration. She was instrumental in the debate and drafting of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act and helped to block the controversial Gallegly Amendment that would have expelled more than three hundred thousand children of illegal immigrants from the public school system.
In addition, Feinstein takes an active interest in health and medical issues. Her amendment prohibiting health insurance discrimination on the basis of genetic information is now law as part of the Kassebaum-Kennedy health bill. She also worked to pass and increase the funding for the Ryan White AIDS Care Act. As cochair of the Senate Cancer Coalition, she presided over hearings that helped to win much-needed funds for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute and for a study by the National Institutes of Health on the high incidence of breast cancer rates in the San Francisco area.
Feinstein is a member of the Centrist Coalition, a bipartisan group of twenty-two moderate senators, which has proposed a seven-year balanced-budget plan to preserve Medicare and Medicaid while making fair and sensible reductions to them. The Centrist budget plan was narrowly defeated in the Senate but the coalition plans to reintroduce its proposal in the near future.
In response to the victims of the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, Feinstein secured passage of a bill to provide federal disaster relief funds of approximately $11 billion. Her interest in foreign relations has gained her positions on various Senate subcommittees overseeing the Middle East, African affairs, and East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Feinstein was elected to a second full term in 2000. She plans to run again in 2006.
In recognition of her public service, she has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of San Francisco, Mills College, the University of Santa Clara, and Golden Gate University, and various awards, including the American Medical Association’s award for “outstanding contributions” to the betterment of public health. In 1984, French president François Mitterrand bestowed upon her the Légion d’Honneur, one of France’s highest honors.
Other awards recognize Feinstein’s role as a Jewish woman in public office. The American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gave her the Scopus Award for outstanding public service in 1981. She received a distinguished public service award from the Los Angeles Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in 1984, the brotherhood/sisterhood award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1986, and a public service award from the American Jewish Congress in 1987.
Feinstein, Dianne. Printed material from the office of the senator; Morris, Celia. Storming the Statehouse (1992).
How to cite this page
Leiman, Sondra. "Dianne Feinstein." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on June 30, 2016) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feinstein-dianne>. | <urn:uuid:acc08d9c-e724-4cdd-92b2-81dff6773707> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feinstein-dianne | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97427 | 1,819 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The Physics Factbook
Edited by Glenn Elert -- Written by his students
An educational, Fair Use website
|Cutnell, John D. & Kenneth W. Johnson. Physics -Third Edition.New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1995: 190.||"When a 0.045 kg golf ball takes off after being hit, its speed is 41 m/s. (a) How much work is done on the ball by the club? (b) Assume that the force of the golf club acts parallel to the motion of the ball and that the club is in contact with the ball for a distance of 0.010 M. Ignore the weight of the ball and determine the average force applied to the ball by the club."||3,800 N|
|Surprising Golf Facts.||"During a collision between the ball and driver, peak force applied to the ball can be as high as 4000 pounds."||18,000 N|
|Haake, Steve. "The Physics of Golf." Science Spectra. Number 13 (1997).||"The normal force rises to approximately 2,000 lbs. (9 kN) during the half-millisecond of impact."||9,000 N|
|"Figure 1: Typical forces experienced by a golf ball during impact with a golf club. [Graph ranges from 0 lbs to 2,000 lbs in 0.5 milliseconds]"||0–9,000 N|
|Unit 2 163 Your Turn Solutions. Glenbrook South Physics Team, 28 August 1997.||"F = ma = (45 g)(1 kg/1000 g)(500 m/s) = 22.5 N [sic]"||22.5 N|
While most players would like to believe that it is their natural talent that enables them to be great golfers, the laws of physics are what govern the game of golf. From the moment the golf ball is at rest on the tee to the the time it spends rolling along the putting green, the movements of the ball can be predicted and calculated due to the laws of physics. The force of the club hitting the ball is the leading factor in the distance the ball travels. The distance the ball travels is directly related to the force that is applied from the head of the golf club, the angle at which the force is applied, gravity, as well as air and wind resistance. The force of the club head on the ball causes the ball to compress and apply an equal amount of force on the club. The impact of this equal and opposite force has little effect on the continuation of the swing. This initial force of the club causes the ball to project off the club head.
The United States Golf Association regulates the mass of golf balls to keep it at a constant 45.9 g (1.62 oz.). Once the ball is in flight, several forces act upon it. Some of these forces include: gravity, aerodynamic drag, and aerodynamic lift. Each force acts independently on the moving golf ball. For a greater distance to be achieved, one needs to increase the acceleration of the ball by increasing the force with which the ball is struck or swinging the club faster. The golf club only comes into contact with the ball for approximately 1/200 of a second. The face of the club is grooved so that during contact with the ball it can grip the ball and create backspin which enables aerodynamic lift.
While searching for a measurement of the force of a golf club on a golf ball I found four different measurements. Three of the measurements ranged from 3,000 N to 18,000 N. However, one reference stated that the force of a golf club on a golf ball is 22.5 N. This reference consisted of review questions on topics that the author probably did not research. [Editor's note: The fourth entry in this table is definitely wrong. Force is the product of mass and acceleration, not mass and velocity as this source suggests. The irony is that this computation looks like it was a part of an answer key to some long vanished problem set. I hope this didn't foul up anyone's grade.]
Emily Accamando -- 2001
External links to this page:
Author, Illustrator, Webmaster
Chaos, E-World, Facts, Get Bent, Physics
No condition is permanent. | <urn:uuid:8e879f4d-f983-4601-b9b1-cf02f17bd2ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/EmilyAccamando.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931192 | 881 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Tolkien and the Great Tale
J. R. R. Tolkien’s fame as a founder of modern fantasy and as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century is assured. But he is still often not recognized as a member of the Catholic literary revival, as Richard Griffiths’s recent omission of him from a putatively plenary prosopography of that movement indicates. Yet Tolkien declared in 1958 that one of the “really significant” facts about himself was that “I am a Christian . . . and in fact a Roman Catholic,” something that “can be deduced from my stories.” A decade of scholarship has confirmed Tolkien’s claim for The Lord of the Rings and The History of Middle-earth; but any Christian dimension to The Hobbit has been largely neglected. Devin Brown seeks to fill this lacuna, arguing that “The Hobbit is a fundamentally Christian work where we can see Tolkien’s faith reflected in his fiction.” Brown’s study, though, is a less a close reading of The Hobbit than a series of meditations on religious themes in Tolkien’s oeuvre; The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s letters are also invoked copiously. The Christian World of The Hobbit therefore provokes broader reflection on how Tolkien’s religion shaped his work, particularly its opposition to many of his day’s predominant cultural trends, as well as on the implications, and complications, for Tolkien criticism of considering him as a Christian author.
Brown asserts that a key reason for Tolkien’s vast popularity is that his fantasies not only delight readers but also simultaneously instruct them in principles like the good life, heroic virtue, and the elevation of language that are relatively ignored in other modern genres. Although such ideals have “universal appeal,” Brown demonstrates that Tolkien’s belief in them was grounded in orthodox Christianity, making knowledge of its tenets and ethics essential to a full comprehension of his mythos. For instance, Tolkien uses the term “luck” frequently in his legendarium, but Brown reveals that he connotes not random good fortune but the traditional Catholic understanding of Providence: God (Ilúvatar in Middle-earth) has established a good final end for his creatures, but they have free will; he uses the substance of their choices—even evil ones—to shape history to its ultimate, joyous telos. The preeminent manifestation of this process in Tolkien’s tales comes when Frodo opts to keep the Ring, is assailed by Gollum who reclaims it and, while exulting in his perfidy, precipitates himself and the Ring into the Crack of Doom, triggering Mordor’s destruction. Two instances of individual willfulness are thus transformed by the economy of grace into instruments of collective salvation. To Tolkien, then, the theological virtue of hope was integral to the dynamics of history.
In addition to affirming generally the final triumph of good amid apparently ascendant evil, Tolkien’s stories suggest specifically that Christian norms have subversive resilience in a secular society. At the outset of The Hobbit, for example, Bilbo is depicted as idolizing comfort and respectability. Tolkien’s portrait rebukes a bourgeois complacency that allows material ease and reputation to desensitize one to suffering and evil beyond the domestic sphere. Only once Bilbo has experienced pain and malevolence on his journey with the dwarves is his enslavement to the genuine joys of Bag-End broken, enabling him to resume them later with a newfound compassionate generosity. In Augustinean terms, he has learned to use created goods wisely rather than enjoy them disproportionately. The Edwardian gentleman has yielded to the Christian steward.
Bilbo’s movement from worldly hoarding to Catholic hospitality is microcosmic of a wider literary struggle against greed: “the most pervasive problem set by Tolkien within the moral landscape of The Hobbit is the excessive desire for wealth.” This inordinate love of mammon is not only a deadly Christian sin, but is also a species of the passion for possessive dominance that is the cardinal sin of Tolkien’s Ring-cycle, and a vice he thought afflicted the real world in an industrial capitalist age, as adversions in The Hobbit to “rich folk that have more than they can enjoy” attest.
Tolkien’s cure for this “dragon-sickness” was a Chestertonian wonder at, and gratitude for, every manifestation of Being as a gift from a beneficent Creator. As voiced most cogently in “Leaf by Niggle,” Tolkien felt that so seeing reality as a divine favor would encourage admiration of it for its quiddity, not its quantity, and a greater willingness to share one’s portion of that bequest. As Alison Milbank has noted, this moral critique is gesturing toward a Christian economics based on gift-exchange instead of competitive acquisition that shares crucial deep structures with Chesterton’s distributism. Similarly, Tolkien’s hobbit tales focus regard for this “sacramental ordinary” on the pastoral, particularly trees, as he contrasts an enlivening love of rural life with the corrupting coveting of gold and silver that such sylvan lands must be despoiled to obtain.
Ultimately, Tolkien roots this ethic of appreciation in what Chesterton deemed the uniquely Christian virtue of humility. The hobbits’ esteem for the distinctively cooperative, charitable, and organic culture of the Shire strengthens them to sacrifice themselves and to renounce the Ring. Sauron’s proud power-lust cannot comprehend this voluntary disavowal of might, and he hence ignores them fatally, not unlike those who scoffed at One who eschewed a legion of angels because his kingdom was not of this world. As Brown concludes, “Tolkien wanted to tell a story where the weak and lowly are used to confound the mighty and strong, and in doing so to share this key aspect with the gospel story.”
Tolkien’s belief in the “ennoblement of the ignoble” through forswearing earthly power further spurs him to recast heroism in moral and Christian, rather than physical and military, terms. Contrary to a widespread misinterpretation, Tolkien’s fantasies do not glorify war; Bilbo, for instance, avers that even “victory” is a “very gloomy business.” In fact, Bilbo is portrayed as courageous for showing mercy to Gollum and for pursuing peace between armed rivals by bringing the Arkenstone to Bard. In becoming a mercy-giver and a peacemaker, Bilbo enacts two of Christ’s beatitudes. These precepts therefore outline for Tolkien the traits of a different kind of hero for Christendom, one especially appealing to a survivor of the Somme.
Tolkien’s Christian desire to replace what seemed his era’s degrading materialism and jingoism arose in part from a spiritually informed sense of human identity and worth. Unlike many twentieth-century literati, Tolkien retained what Graham Greene called “the religious sense,” and thus presented persons as both natural and supernatural actors whose fate is eternal and whose decisions have everlasting ramifications: Frodo passes into the West for following his calling, but he must go forth wounded because of his failure at Mt. Doom. This Christian humanist imagination hence offers a larger picture of man’s nature and dignity than is common in post-Christian modernity: “In a century that saw the image of what human beings are destined for become smaller and smaller, Tolkien celebrated their purpose and potential. . . . Tolkien’s stories remind them that the virtuous life is not dry, dull, or out of date—but high adventure.” In upholding the added sempiternal facet of life professed by Christianity, then, Tolkien (like Greene) created narratives whose characters have “the solidity and importance of men with souls to save or lose.”
In what sense is it thus appropriate to use of Tolkien a designation often applied to Greene: the “Catholic writer”? Like Greene’s, Tolkien’s religion was an “absorbed Catholicism” that molded his characters and themes fundamentally without degenerating into the pious propaganda that Christian literature frequently indulges. But whereas Greene’s novels are regularly populated by overt Roman Catholics who openly engage the Church’s doctrines and ethics, Tolkien’s faith remains much more deeply embedded in his fiction, even more so than in the Christian fantasies of his fellow fabulist, C. S. Lewis. As Brown notes, Tolkien’s more subtle permeation of his creed into his tales may make them more credible and accessible to irreligious audiences. Yet Tolkien’s myth has also become a surrogate scripture for numerous secularists in a way that Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia have not, and probably could not. The aesthetic advantages of a more tightly crafted secondary world hence carry with them a correspondingly greater risk of thematic misapprehension. Equally deft scholarship that elucidates the Christian unconscious of Middle-earth is therefore essential to forestall misconceptions of its sagas from multiplying as readers (and viewers) of them do.
The TLS opined in 2012 that “the notion of the ‘Catholic novelist’ seems quaint now.” Yet the mid-twentieth century was the heyday of such authors in Britain, and J. R. R. Tolkien should be remembered among their ranks. Indeed, by recognizing the formative part his religion played in writings that still attract millions, the idea of Catholic literature may seem more vital. Limning the relationship between Tolkien’s theology and mythology fosters a more accurate, textured grasp of his legendarium while revealing some of the sources of his protest against prevailing mores and of his hopes for cultural renewal. If less obvious in expressing those connections and inspirations than many of his peers, he felt them no less deeply. Keen criticism of the role of Christianity in Tolkien’s moral imagination will consequently help refine understanding of his art and also prompt consideration of how Catholic novels can remain resonant in post-Christian civilization. For the greatness of Tolkien’s tales is inseparable from the really significant fact that his muse always maintained full communion with the Great Tale itself.
Adam Schwartz is author of The Third Spring: G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones (The Catholic University of America Press, 2005). An associate professor of history at Christendom College, his scholarly interests are in the Catholic literary revival and the Inklings.
Posted: February 24, 2013 | <urn:uuid:1a33125d-c9ee-497c-b8dc-7c5eabee4660> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/tolkien-and-the-great-tale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955326 | 2,227 | 2.8125 | 3 |
- The FDA is launching a campaign aimed at preventing teen smoking
- About 90% of regular smokers first smoked as teenagers
- The CDC also unveils new "Tips From Former Smokers" ads
Every day, more than 3,200 kids under the age of 18 smoke a cigarette for the first time. About 700 of those become daily smokers.
Those are two reasons, the Food and Drug Administration says, why it has launched a national education campaign aimed at preventing those between the ages of 12 and 17 from trying cigarettes or -- for those already experimenting -- from becoming regular smokers.
"The Real Cost" campaign seeks to educate these "at-risk" teenagers by spotlighting the health hazards of smoking in a series of television, radio, print and online ads. These ads show the costs of smoking, from skin damage to gum disease and from tooth loss to a loss of control over their lives because of from addiction.
About nine of 10 regular smokers had their first cigarettes by the time they were 18, said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.
Because teenage brains are still developing, they are more susceptible to nicotine addiction, the FDA said.
"We know from research that there is a group of of youth -- 12 to 17 -- who are more vulnerable, partly because of the nature of their lives -- you know, chaotic lives, lots of stress, lack of control," Hamburg said.
Some live with smokers, "which dramatically increases the risk, and so we're hoping that we can potentially interrupt a deadly cycle," she said.
"We can help these teens understand the real consequences of smoking, the real costs of smoking to them, so that they won't take up smoking if they're on the cusp and will stop smoking if they've already started."
Smoking as an adolescent can stunt growth, stain teeth and cause premature wrinkles, health officials say, and smokeless tobacco can cause mouth, esophagus and pancreas cancers. Studies have estimated that every cigarette smoked shaves 11 minutes off your life.
In 2009, the Tobacco Control Act became law, giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products to protect public health, including manufacturing, distribution and marketing.
The law looks to prevent and reduce smoking by kids under 18, the legal age to buy tobacco products. These new ads are the first of several planned education campaigns, but it's not the only effort.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing its "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign with a new set of anti-smoking ads.
One of the more striking ads features Terrie Hall, who had her larynx (commonly called the voice box) removed as a result of the ravages of oral and throat cancers. Hall, who had started smoking as a teen, died in September at 53 from complications of smoking.
RJ Reynolds, the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S., runs a youth tobacco prevention program called Right Decisions Right Now: Be Tobacco Free.
Company spokeswoman Jane Seccombe said she could not comment on on the FDA's new campaign until she saw the ads. But she says Right Decisions Right Now has been up and running for more than 20 years and is used by more than 20,000 middle schools and community groups like the Boy Scouts of America and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
"RDRN is part of our company's long-term initiative to transform the tobacco industry," said Laura Leigh Oyler, a public policy director at the company. "Over the past 20 years, youth tobacco prevention efforts and programs have had a big impact on reducing teen smoking, now at a historic low, and we are actively working on ways to accelerate the decline in youth tobacco use."
But "the tobacco industry has very aggressively been advertising for years, for decades, including to youth," Hamburg said. "We think we can make a difference, because we have targeted messages that will resonate."
The initial response from teens who participated in focus groups to evaluate the ads for effectiveness, she says, has been positive. The agency plans to conduct a study following 8,000 kids between the ages of 11 and 16 and will do face-to-face interviews gathering data on adolescents' awareness, attitudes and beliefs about smoking tobacco.
Over the next two years, the FDA will launch additional campaigns targeting specific groups including multicultural, rural and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youths. Its goal is to reduce the number of teenage cigarette smokers by 300,000 over the next three years.
"We will make an important contribution to reducing the toll of preventable death, disease and disability from cigarettes and tobacco use. It is astounding how the burden of tobacco continues to take a toll on the American people." Hamburg said.
"Every year, some 480,000 people die an early, premature death because of tobacco use. It costs the health care system over $289 billion and also lost productivity costs, according to a recent estimate. And our youth are at risk. ... So if we can reach them and stop them, we can prevent a life-long addiction and all of the concomitant disability and disease and early death." | <urn:uuid:5e3d6328-682f-4dec-93a4-e671ae931638> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/health/fda-smoking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962489 | 1,054 | 3.171875 | 3 |
World War 2 was the deadliest conflict to occur in human history resulting in between 50 to 70 million fatalities world-wide. It was the most widespread war to occur in human history with having more than 100 million people serve in military units and was conducted in a state of total war amongst the participating countries. A common question that arises amongst students of the war today is when did World War 2 end? Just like other facts regarding the war, the answer is a bit involved; however, when Japan formally signed surrender documents on September 2nd, 1945 World War 2 was formally at an end.
Highlights of the End of World War 2
April 29, 1945 – German forces in Italy surrender.
May 7, 1945 – German forces in Western Europe surrender
May 8, 1945 – V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
May 11, 1945 – German Army Group Centre in Prague surrenders
July 11, 1945 – Postdam Conference
August 15, 1945 – Japan surrenders (August 14th in the United States). UK observes August 15th as V-J day (Victory over Japan Day), while the United States observes September 2nd.
September 2, 1945 – Japan signs surrender documents onboard the USS Missouri officially ending the war.
December 31, 1946 – U.S. President Truman officially declares an end to hostilities with Presidential Proclamation no. 2715, 61 Stat 1048.
1951 – Formal peace treaty with Japan signed.
1990 – Formal peace treaty with Germany signed.
World War 2 Map (End of War)
End World War 2 Video
Surrender of Fascist Italy and German Forces in Italy
During the onset of World War 2, Mussolini decided to keep Italy non-belligerent, but declared formal support for Hitler. In this timeframe, the Italian government worked with the Germans to plan on annexing significant portions of the Middle East and Africa to include in the Italian colonial empire. Mussolini kept the Italians out of the war until Germany invaded France and entered the war on the side of the Axis powers on June 10, 1940 to fulfill their obligations under the Pact of Steel.
Throughout Italy’s alliance with the Nazi regime, the Italians increasingly were subordinated to Germany to include their campaign in
North Africa and Greece. By 1942, the Italian economy was faltering after failing to adapt to the conditions that the “Total War” environment of World War 2 required and the country’s cities were increasingly bombed by the Allies. With the defeat at the Battle of El Alamein, the Italians were on the verge of collapse. Entering 1943, Italian forces were losing on all fronts and the Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943.
Mussolini found himself removed from power on July 25th by the Great Council of Fascism, and arrested on order of King Victor Emmanuel III. The King subsequently banned the fascist party and signed an armistice with the Allies. After this, Italy formally joined the Allied side in the war against Germany.
Shortly after Mussolini was removed from power, German commandos successfully rescued him during Operation Eiche (Oak). Once rescued, Mussolini was established in northern Italy where he setup the Italian Social Republic while the Allies continued to advance in the south. The Allies did not achieve final victory over the Axis powers in Italy until they breached the Gothic Line on May 2nd, 1945. Between September 1943 and April 1945 historians estimate that approximately 50,000 German and 60,000 Allied soldiers died contesting Italy.
Mussolini would ultimately be captured on April 27, 1945 by Italian communists near the Swiss border during an escape attempt from the country. The group executed him for high treason on the subsequent day. The bodies of Mussolini, a number of other Fascists, and his mistress were put on display after this in Milan.
When Did World War 2 End in Europe?
World War 2 was declared final or at its end on Victory in Europe Day on May 8th, 1945 (May 9th in Russia based on the time zone differences. The timeline for the end of World War 2 in the European Theater:
April 25, 1945 – German forces in Finland are expelled
April 27, 1945 – Benito Mussolini captured and subsequently executed on April 28, 1945
April 29, 1945 – Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta.
April 30, 1945 – Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Führerbunker along with his new bride of 40 hours (and long-term mistress) Eva
May 1, 1945 – Joseph Goebbels who had been appointed as the new Chancellor of Germany (Großadmiral Karl Dönitz) in Hitler’s will committed suicide leaving Großadmiral Karl Dönitz who had been appointed President by Hitler (Reichspräsident) as the only leader of Germany.
May 2, 1945 – German forces in Italy surrender after unauthorized negotiations with the Allies (Operation Sunrise) conducted by SS General Karl Wolff and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group C, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff. The unconditional surrender was directed to take place on May 2nd, 1945.
May 2, 1945 – German forces in Berlin surrender officially ending the Battle of Berlin. General of the Artillery Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, unconditionally surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of the Soviet army.
May 4, 1945 – British Field Marshal Montgomery took the unconditional military surrender from Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, and General Hans Kinzel, of all German forces in northwest Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
May 5, 1945 – Großadmiral Dönitz directed all German U-Boats to cease operations and General Johannes Blaskowitz, the German commander-in-chief in the Netherlands, surrendered to Canadian General Charles Foulkes in the small Dutch town of Wageningen in the presence of Prince Bernhard who was acting as the commander of the Dutch Interior Forces.
May 5, 1945 – General Hermann Foertsch surrendered all forces between the Bohemian mountains and the Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers, commander of the American 6th Army Group.
May 5, 1945 – The Soviets launched the Prague Offensive.
May 7, 1945 – German forces in Western Europe surrender. At 0241 at the SHAEF HQ in Reims, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to the Allies. General Franz Böhme announced the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway on 7 May, the same day as Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document. It included the phrase “All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945.”
May 8, 1945 – Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other German OKW representatives traveled to Berlin, and shortly before midnight signed a similar surrender document to the Soviet forces , in the presence of General Georgi Zhukov
May 8, 1945 – V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
May 8, 1945 – German forces on the Channel Islands surrender.
BBC Announcement of Hitler’s Death
German Forces Who Ignored the German Surrender
Although most of the German military commanders obeyed the order to surrender issued by the German High Command, the largest group of forces to ignore the order was the Army Group Centre located in Prague. The forces were under the command of Feldmarshal Ferdinand Schörner who had been promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army on April 30th in Hitler’s will. Schörner promptly deserted his command on May 8th, while the Soviets sent overwhelming force again the Germans who were forced to surrender on May 11th and 12th. By May 13th, 1945 the Soviet army ceased offensive operations in Europe.
When Did World War 2 End in the Pacific?
World War 2 ended in Asia or the Pacific Theater on August 14th, 1945 when Emperor Hirohito announced the decree on the radio. (August 15th in local time based on time zone differences). The formal surrender by the Japanese occurred on the USS Missouri on September 2nd, 1945 and is considered to be the Victory over Japan (or VJ) Day by the United States. The Japanese surrender would come just three months after the end of the war in Europe. A short timeline of the end of World War 2 in the Pacific:
July 26, 1945 – Allied Postdam Declaration to Japan (Demanding unconditional surrender).
August 6, 1945 – The United States dropped the atomic bomb, named Little Boy, on Hiroshima from the Enola Gay (B-29). This was the first use of an atomic weapon in combat.
August 8, 1945 – Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
August 9, 1945 – The second atomic bomb, named Fat Man which was more powerful than Little Boy, was dropped on Nagasaki from the Bockscar (B-29)
August 9, 1945 – The Red Army invades Manchuria.
August 10, 1945 – The 38th Parallel is agreed upon as the demarcation line for the USSR and US occupation zones in Korea.
August 14, 1945 – Emperor Hirohito’s decree to surrender to the Allies is announced over the radio.
August 14, 1945 – Gen. Douglas MacArthur is appointed to head the occupation forces in Japan.
August 17, 1945 – Japanese IGHQ issues formal cease-fire in Manchuria.
August 18, 1945 – Soviet Army invades southern Sakhalin.
August 18, 1945 – Soviet amphibious landings in northern Korea.
August 19, 1945 – Kwantung Army HQ transmit capitulation order to Japanese troops in Manchuria.
August 25, 1945 – Japanese surrender in South Sakhalin
August 29, 1945 – U.S. forces land near Tokyo to begin the occupation of Japan.
August 30, 1945 – The United Kingdom reoccupies Hong Kong.
September 2, 1945 – Formal Japanese surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Officially declared as VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
September 3, 1945 – The Japanese commander in the Philippines, Gen. Yamashita, surrenders to Gen. Wainwright at Baguio.
September 4, 1945 – Japanese troops on Wake Island surrender.
September 5, 1945 – British land in Singapore.
September 8, 1945 – MacArthur enters Tokyo.
September 8, 1945 – U.S. forces land at Incheon to occupy Korea south of the 38th Parallel
September 9, 1945 – Japanese in Korea surrender.
September 13, 1945 – Japanese in Burma surrender.
October 25, 1945 – Japanese in Taiwan surrender to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
September 8, 1951 – San Francisco Treaty signed marking an end to the Allied occupation of Japan.
April 28, 1952 – San Francisco Treaty goes into effect and Japan becomes an independent country again. | <urn:uuid:0034d716-ce5d-4829-b9c4-767e6573ceda> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.worldwar2facts.org/when-did-world-war-2-end.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951044 | 2,307 | 3.8125 | 4 |
There was a time when no amusement park or playground was complete without a carousel ride. Children and even adults could take pleasure in a whimsical ride atop an array of horses and other fanciful creatures carved by the most skilled artisans of the day. Though quality examples of these nostalgic masterpieces come few and far between on the market, that doesn’t seem to deter the demand for these magnificent figures.
The carousel reached its golden age in early 20th-century America, and lasted until the Great Depression of 1929. This roughly 25-year period saw the creation of carousel rides that rivaled, and in most cases surpassed, their European counterparts. With no money for life’s essentials, much less a carousel ride, many of these hand-carved wonders were abandoned and fell into disrepair, or were demolished. By the time the Depression ended and the public was ready to enjoy these treasured amusements once again, carousel figures had become mass-produced, cast metal versions of their former selves.
Renewed interest in the carousel art form began in the 1970s, when enthusiasts began uncovering these lost American treasures and appreciating the tremendous skill and imagination they embodied. This particular example from the renowned Philadelphia Toboggan Company is one of the rarest American carousel horses. The realism of the wind-swept mane, life-like musculature and expressive eyes, this “golden age” example is an outstanding example of American wood working at its highest. Many carousel figures were made into other imaginative creatures, like this Carousel Rabbit by Dentzel. Created by the company’s head carver, Salvatore Cernigliaro, this English hare worked perfectly with the popular “jumping” mechanisms that made the rider feel as if their figure had come to life. Such inventive forms by Dentzel are some of the most desired on the market.
Whether horse or hare, there is no denying the charm of the carousel. Each majestic figure embodies not only the skill of its craftsman, but also the most innocent and carefree moments of our lives, when a break from the real world was just a spin away. With incredible examples like the above emerging from private collections, the desire for these once-lost childhood memories is greater now than ever.
To view M.S. Rau Antiques’ selection of carousel figures, click here. | <urn:uuid:782000a0-86a4-4d6e-a7b9-159cecf54a90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rauantiques.com/blog/2012/01/05/hot-to-trot-collectibles-antique-carousel-horses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965707 | 502 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The Horn of Africa is one of the most food-insecure regions of the world. In the seven countries of the region 1 that are members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), out of a total population of almost 160 million, some 70 million people (around 45 percent) live in areas that have been subject to extreme food shortages and the risk of famine at least once every decade over the past 30 years. Some 13 million people are currently judged to be in need of relief assistance 2 and are the target of a US$378 million interagency appeal for emergency relief, which resulted from an assessment carried out by the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Greater Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme's Executive Director, Ms Bertini in April 2000. During the past three decades, while on a worldwide basis there has been ample food for all people, major famines have occurred in the Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. In 1984/85, people in all countries of the region experienced life-threatening famine, and the two major famines in the 1970s in Ethiopia and Eritrea led to massive loss of human and livestock life. In East Africa as a whole, 42 percent of the population is undernourished, and the figures for Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia are among the highest in the world. Chronic undernourishment is reflected in a very high incidence of stunting among children and in low life expectancies. Child undernutrition, especially among those aged between six and 24 months, is particularly damaging in that it results in a life-long reduction in physical and cognitive abilities.
Drought and conflict are the main factors contributing to vulnerability to extreme food insecurity. Apart from the southern areas of Uganda and Kenya, the highlands of Ethiopia and parts of equatorial Sudan, most of the region has low and unreliable rainfall. Some 350 million ha, or 67 percent of the total land area, is classed as hyper-arid, arid or semi-arid. While drought and other natural disasters, such as floods, locusts or contagious human and livestock diseases can predispose people to food insecurity, they need not necessarily lead to large-scale undernourishment. This is caused by a failure to ensure "access by all people at all times to sufficient food, in terms of quality, quantity and diversity, for an active and healthy life without risk of loss of such access"3 . It is the contention of this report that, through the combined efforts of the people of the region, the concerned governments and the UN system, it should be possible to eliminate famine and bring about significant reductions in all manifestations of food insecurity.4 This will, however, be a challenging and complex process because it implies tackling the many underlying and interacting causes of food insecurity
It is the poor, who generally have least access to natural resources, entitlements, employment opportunities and income, who are the most chronically food-insecure. They are also the people who are most vulnerable to acute food insecurity when external shocks, such as droughts, floods or migratory pests result in shortages and concomitant food price rises, exacerbating the poor's already precarious situation.
Acute food insecurity is usually triggered by more or less widespread catastrophic events that tip large numbers of already poor and chronically food-insecure people into a situation in which there is little or no food available for them. Seed stocks are eaten and wild plants may be the only source of food until relief supplies arrive. In pastoral areas, drought decimates herds and, because of a collapse in livestock prices, people are confronted with reduced capacity to trade with those selling grain at inflated prices.
In four of the countries of the region,5 average per capita dietary energy supply (DES) is substantially less than the minimum energy requirement, with Somalia estimated as meeting only 74 percent of its requirements (1996). Since 1974-76, there has been a downward trend in the availability of food supplies in the region. For example, in 1995-97, the supply of pulses was only half its 1974-76 level. Despite advances in national food production, and some productivity gains in the higher rainfall parts of the countries, the incidence of food insecurity has not declined and it is estimated that around 42 percent of the people in the region are undernourished. It is because chronic undernourishment is so widespread that even relatively small drops in food production can have devastating effects. Even in the worst famine years (1972/73, 1984/85 and 1999/2000), many observers believe that aggregate national production was not reduced by more than 6 to 7 percent on the long-term average. Health and nutrition indicators confirm this broad impression of chronic undernourishment in the region, even in years when there is not a drought. For example, the mortality rate among children under five years of age is more than 200 per thousand in Somalia, while in Ethiopia there has been a deterioration in nutritional status, with the incidence of stunting among children increasing from 60 to 68 percent between 1983 and 1995/96.
The 1999/2000 crisis has demonstrated the fact that pastoralists 6 - who amount to between 15 and 20 million people altogether - are particularly exposed to drought risks. In such situations, they stand to lose a large part of their main productive assets - their livestock. In Ethiopia, most victims of the crisis are pastoralists, who have lost an estimated 50 percent of their cattle and 20 percent of their sheep. In Somalia some 60 to 70 percent of pastoralist communities have been affected, and there have also been heavy losses of livestock among the pastoral people of northern Kenya.
Although the acutely food-insecure can be identified and mapped,7 as each crisis occurs, it is more difficult to pinpoint those who are chronically food-insecure (see Map 1). They are to be found scattered across the region, their dire situation caused by different factors in each country and even among and within households. The old, infirm and very young, as well as women in general, tend to be disproportionately affected by food shortages, both acute and chronic. Many of the small, resource-poor farmers living on the edge of subsistence in the higher rainfall parts of the region, and are far greater numerically than the pastoralists, are chronically food-insecure and also vulnerable to external shocks. Their vulnerability is caused by rapid population growth, which has placed extreme pressure on scarce land resources, and a lack of access to the assets and technologies that are needed for intensifying production. Such vulnerability is also to be found in remote areas where there is limited access to markets for inputs or outputs.
Areas with chronically food-insecure population
While the majority of the food-insecure live in rural areas, food insecurity is also emerging as a growing urban phenomenon in the major cities of the region. Rural-urban migration, itself fuelled by rural deprivation and conflict, has led to a breakdown in traditional coping mechanisms and to widespread unemployment. Social services are often minimal with high death rates from preventable diseases. There is a high incidence of single-parent families, and poverty and hunger drive social problems such as street children, prostitution, child workers, substance abuse, crime and violence. Although it is often difficult to obtain precise estimates of the numbers involved, it has been estimated that more than 50 percent of the population of Nairobi (2 million people) is food-insecure, while the 2 to 3 million long-term displaced people in and around Khartoum are in constant need of food aid, and there are similar numbers of urban poor in Addis Ababa.
The impact of famine and food insecurity can be looked at from both the humanitarian and the economic standpoints. It results in many human beings having shortened life spans and living in a state of life- and health-threatening deprivation, constantly on the brink of disaster. The economic growth of the countries of the region is also being seriously constrained because large proportions of their populations are unable to contribute their full potential to economic activities as a result of the cognitive and physical disabilities resulting from chronic undernutrition.8 When famines occur, they contribute to a massive depletion of natural assets (especially livestock) and divert resources away from potentially more productive uses.
1 For the purposes of this report, the term "region" means Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda.
2Figures from the mission of the UN Special Envoy to the Greater Horn of Africa indicate the following numbers: Ethiopia 7.8 million, Kenya 2.7 million, Eritrea 0.4 million, Djibouti 0.1 million, Uganda 0.2 million and Somalia 1.2 million.
3 Food security has been defined in these terms in the Plan of Action of the World Food Summit.
4Food insecurity can be transitory, at times of crisis, seasonal or chronic, when it occurs on a continuing basis.
5 Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
6People who derive more than 50 percent of their income from livestock.
7 For example, using WFP's Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM)..
8 J.-L. Arcand. 2000. Malnutrition and growth: the efficiency costs of hunger, draft paper for FAO, July 2000. | <urn:uuid:5709cecc-ae26-462e-acbd-c36b19193e9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x8406e/X8406e01e.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95743 | 1,892 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Although most athletic skills and events depend upon a variety of physical qualities, speed strength (also called power) certainly rates among the most important. Whenever you need to accelerate yourself (as in running, cycling, swimming, skating, or skiing), an external object (such as a ball, a barbell, a javelin, or another person), or both (such as pushing a bobsled or driving through an opposing lineman in football), your ability to generate force with speed will be a primary determinant of your success.
As the duration of the event or skill becomes reduced, the need for speed strength (I’ll abbreviate it as “SS” from this point on) increases. However, even triathletes rely heavily upon explosive strength as they sprint to the finish line. It’s not a matter of whether or not you need to develop SS, but to what degree you need to prioritize it in your training.
SS is also a vital quality during emergency situations, such as when it becomes necessary to quickly dodge a car when walking across the street, or duck to avoid being hit by a stray ball. In fact, SS is the body’s preferred method of force generation— the last time you had to lift a heavy object from the floor to a high shelf, did you accelerate the load to make the task easier, or did you make a concerted effort to lift the object with a constant speed?!
For bodybuilders, SS training methods are immensely valuable for their ability to improve intramuscular coordination (the ability to recruit high threshold motor units), which has significant payoffs during later training phases utilizing lower intensity loads. In other words, a two week training phase emphasizing accelerative training techniques will potentiate the ability to lift greater loads during a subsequent phase utilizing more “traditional” bodybuilding lifting technique (i.e., constant tension, avoiding joint lock-outs, etc).
Strength: the Multi-faceted Motor Quality
Of course, SS is simply one expression of force output, and strength as a bio-motor ability has many expressions. The following list briefly describes the types of strength available to athletes:
Absolute Strength (maximal strength)
Absolute strength is defined as the amount of musculoskeletal force you can generate for one all-out effort, irrespective of time or bodyweight.
This form of strength can be demonstrated or tested in the weight room during the performance of a maximal, single repetition lift. While only powerlifters need to maximize and demonstrate this type of strength in competition, all athletes need to develop absolute strength as a foundation for other bio-motor abilities such as SS, strength endurance, agility, and others.1 For this reason, absolute strength is brought to high levels in the preparatory period, and then “converted” to more event-specific forms of strength later in the macrocycle. Absolute strength can be displayed through three types of muscular actions:
1) Concentric Strength: the ability to overcome a resistance through muscular contraction, i.e., the muscle shortens as it develops tension.
2) Eccentric Strength: displayed when a muscle lengthens as it yields to a resistance. Eccentric strength is normally 30-50% greater than concentric strength, meaning that you can lower significantly more weight in good control than you can actually lift. This may be the result of increased intra-muscular friction (a concept not yet validated by science) during the eccentric portion of a lift. In eccentric muscular encounters with external resistances, there are two possible scenarios which can occur:2
a) The resistance encountered is less than one’s maximal isometric strength. In weight training applications, this applies to any load less than 1RM.
b) The resistance encountered is more than one’s maximal isometric strength. In weight training applications, this applies to any load more than 1RM (commonly called “eccentric training”).
3) Static Strength: muscular contraction which does not cause external movement of the resistance, either because the athlete has chosen to produce exactly enough force to prevent the resistance from lowering, but not enough to lift it; or because the external resistance is immovable. Static strength is also observed during the momentary pause between the eccentric and concentric portions of a movement.
Absolute Strength Forms the Basis for Speed Strength
Despite the current preoccupation with plyometrics, specialized shoes, and the like, improving absolute strength remains the most efficient way to improve SS.3
In fact, Romanian strength & periodization specialist Tudor Bompa suggests that “No visible increments of power are possible without clear gains in maximal (absolute) strength.”4
To appreciate the importance of absolute strength on SS, imagine a rocket weighing 1000 pounds, with an engine capable of 1200 pounds of thrust.
This rocket has only 200 pounds of reserve force to propel itself. The same rocket, when equipped with an engine rated at 3000 pounds of thrust, will have 2000 pounds of reserve thrust that can be used for propulsion.
Now back to the gym: a 200 pound man capable of squatting 250 pounds for a single rep will have a mere 50 pounds of reserve strength available to propel his body upward during a vertical jump. Contrast this with a 200 pound elite-class powerlifter capable of squatting 600 pounds. Now we’ve got 400 pounds of strength reserve available, and all things being equal, will have a vastly superior vertical jump compared to the novice squatter.
Whereas absolute strength refers to strength irrespective of bodyweight, relative strength is a term used to denote an athlete’s strength per unit of bodyweight (his or her “pound for pound strength”). It can be used as a modifier for other categories of strength, such as speed strength or strength endurance. So, if two athletes of different bodyweights can power clean (a display of SS) 275 pounds, they have equal speed strength for that lift, but the lighter athlete has greater relative speed strength.
Athletes who compete in weight-class events depend heavily on relative strength, as do athletes who must overcome their bodyweight to accomplish a motor task (i.e., long jump, sprinting, etc.). Further, sports which have aesthetic requirements (figure skating, gymnastics, etc.) demand the development of strength without a commensurate gain in bodyweight.
As a side note, in the World of sport, lighter athletes have better relative strength than heavier athletes, whereas the heavier athletes get the nod for absolute strength. In Olympic weightlifting for example, elite-level athletes in light weight classes have lifted triple-bodyweight from the floor to an overhead position. World-class competitors in the superheavyweight division are unable to lift even double-bodyweight; however, the absolute poundages they lift are far greater than that of their lighter peers.
Since strength training targets the neuro-muscular system, strength can be developed through two very different means— by applying stress either to the muscular or to the neural aspect of the system. The former method is usually accomplished through the application of “bodybuilding” methods (repetitions between 6-12 to exhaustion, using continuous tension techniques), and results in strength gains through an increase in muscle cross-section. The latter method employs higher intensity training (repetitions between 1 and 5 using accelerative technique and full recoveries between sets), and increases in strength are the result of the body’s improved ability to recruit more of its existing motor unit pool.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, athletes who depend upon relative strength or SS should not completely avoid bodybuilding methods, which, when used judiciously, can be used to facilitate recovery between periods of intensive nervous system training. And, as you might expect, I strongly recommend that bodybuilders keep an open mind with regards to SS methods as well.
Now to the topic du jour: SS is defined as work divided by time, where work is defined as force x distance. Therefore, SS is defined as force x distance, divided by time. SS is characterized by three distinct components:
- Starting strength: Defined as the ability to recruit as many motor units (MU’s) as possible instantaneously at the start of a movement.4 Common examples include the lunge in fencing, coming off the line in football, and the start in short sprints.
- Explosive strength: This quality refers to acceleration or rate of force development. In other words, once you’ve recruited a maximal number of MU’s, how long can you keep them recruited? In his seminars, Dr Fred Hatfield, co-founder of the and the first man to officially squat 1000 pounds, compares starting strength to the flash bulb of a camera, and explosive strength as a flash that stays on and becomes brighter and brighter the longer it stays on.
With regards to above distinctions, different sporting skills and events can be classified as either starting or explosive strength events, depending on the relative proportion of speed and strength required. The javelin event in track and field would be classified as a starting strength event because the implement is very light, which permits the athlete to impart a great degree of speed during the throw. Conversely, the shot is relatively heavy, which means that less speed can be achieved. This makes the shot put an explosive strength event. Thus, it logically follows that starting strength athletes emphasize relatively lighter weightloads in strength training than do explosive strength athletes.
- Stretch Shortening Cycle (Reactive Strength): Although traditionally classified as a component of SS, reactive strength is more accurately thought of as an independent motor quality.5 It involves the storage of potential kinetic energy during the eccentric portion of a movement, which is then converted to actual kinetic energy during the subsequent concentric phase— much like stretching and releasing an elastic band.
During many skills (jumping rope, for example), the working muscles attempt to maintain static contraction, with force output being provided by the storing and release of elastic energy through the tendons. Since static muscular activity requires less energy than dynamic muscular activity, reactive strength is an extremely energy-efficient way of moving— you can do more work with less calories. This is why novice exercisers can always be seen doing exercises in the easiest possible manner, using quick, choppy movements, whether it’s on the bench press or the stair climber. Reactive strength is also the method of choice when someone who is tired and/or weak gets up out of a chair: instead of simply standing up, they will actually lean back first, and then quickly reverse this action, springing out of the chair. If you ask someone to rise out of a chair using pure concentric movement, it looks very unusual. To appreciate the effect of reactive strength on force production, perform a vertical jump in a normal manner, where you first crouch, and then rapidly switch and jump upwards as explosively as possible. Next, crouch, but pause for five seconds (this pause will dissipate most if not all of the stored potential kinetic energy), and then jump upward. You’ll find that the jump where the crouch (or eccentric phase) was IMMEDIATELY followed by the jump results in a more successful attempt. The key to preserving as much potential kinetic energy as possible is to switch from eccentric to concentric as rapidly as possible.
How Muscles Produce Force
1) MU recruitment (intramuscular coordination): All muscle fibers are one component of what physiologists call “motor units.” A MU is defined as a motor neuron (or nerve cell) and all the muscle fibers it innervates or “recruits.” Without going into excruciating detail, there are several essential bits of information that athletes and coaches should understand about the functioning of MU’s:
- All the fibers of a MU tend to have the same characteristics.5 When all the fibers are type II, the motor unit is said to be a high threshold or “fast” MU. If the fibers are Type I, it is a low threshold or “slow” MU. See for an in-depth description of fiber types.
- The all or none principle: When an action potential is sent from the cell body to the muscle fibers, one of two events will occur. If the action potential is strong enough, all the fibers of that motor unit will contract maximally. If the action potential is not strong enough, nothing will happen. In a nutshell, muscle fibers either contract all the way, or not at all. When the body needs to apply more force, it simply recruits more MU’s. Generally, untrained people have limited ability to recruit high threshold MU’s because they are unfamiliar with high-tension efforts.
- The size principle: MU’s are recruited in order of size— small to large. This explains why we can use the muscle to pick up something light (a pencil) or heavy (a dumbbell). As resistance increases, the body recruits more MU’s.
2), eloquently describes the benefits of Olympic lifting and its derivatives for athletes:8
1) Olympic lifts teach an athlete how to explode (to activate a maximum number of motor units rapidly and simultaneously).
2) Olympic lifts teach the ability to apply force with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequence (i.e., from the center of the body to the extremities). This is a valuable technical lesson for any athlete who needs to impart force to another person or object.
3) Olympic lifts teach how to accelerate objects (including other people) under varying degrees of resistance.
4) Olympic lifts teach how to effectively receive forces from another moving body.
5) The actual movements performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and fundamental in sport.
6) The Olympic lifts are commonly used to measure an athlete’s force output capabilities.
If you are unfamiliar with the Olympic lifts and their derivatives. I strongly suggest that you find either an, or a in your area who can assist you with these exercises. These lifts, though not beyond the capabilities of most athletes, are more complex than the majority of strength training exercises.
Although “plyos” are overused by many athletes in their quest for the “magic pill” solution to their training problems, plyometric drills performed with bodyweight, weighted jackets, light resistances such as medicine balls, logs, sand sacks and gymnastic equipment can be a valuable component of a SS development program.
Plyometric training programs must be designed with sufficient recovery periods to ensure that fatigue does not take the “elasticity” out of the athlete’s movements, since it is this repeated elastic neuromuscular control of impact which provides the training effect.
Testing Your Speed Strength: The Max Jones Quadrathlon.9
Few athletes are aware of this unique and very useful testing implement created by the English track & field coach of the same name. The MJQ can be used to regularly monitor your level of speed strength, and can also used as a fun competition several times a year. This test is very easy to administer (you’ll need to do this at your local high school or college track) and involves only a tape measure and a stop-watch. One note of caution, however: The four test drills, although relatively simple, will take a toll on your body (particularly your hip flexors) if you have never done them before, or if it’s been years since you’ve done them. If you fall into this category, I strongly suggest you practice these drills for before going at them “full bore.” Start with very low volume (just a few repetitions of each drill) and progress gradually over a series of 4-6 sessions.
The test drills are as follows:
Three Jumps: Feet together, hop three times and land in a long jump pit. Measure from your starting position to the closest disturbance of the sand where you landed.
Standing Long Jump: Standing at the edge of a long jump pit, with toes slightly over the edge of the board, perform a standing long jump into the pit. Measure from the lip of the board to the closest disturbance of the sand where you landed.
Thirty Meter Sprint: Using starting blocks (you may also have a partner place his or her foot behind your lead foot to simulate a block), start on the command of a timer at the finish line. The timer starts the watch when your back foot makes contact with the ground on the first step, and stops it when you break the finish line.
16lb Overhead Shot: Standing on top of a shot put stopboard (your back to the pit), dip down (much like the preparatory crouch for a vertical jump), swing the shot between the legs, and then extend and throw the shot overhead backwards. It is not necessary to remain on the stopboard. Measure from the lip of the stopboard to the first point of impact.
Please seefor the quadrathlon scoring tables. Simply convert your scores into the numerical scores provided, and total for your MJQ rating.
A Periodized Training Program for SS Development: The Rule of Thirds
Since fatigue is specific to the motor quality being trained, when microcycles with different objectives and varying demands follow each other, it promotes enhanced recovery, allows for maintenance of maximal strength and body composition during periods devoted to SS (and vice versa), and protects against “overuse” types of injury. The “rule of thirds” is a planning concept which partitions each mesocycle into thirds— the first two thirds are spent training the targeted motor ability; the final third is spent training a complementary motor ability to provide recovery and balance to the program.
In this program, maximal strength is the targeted motor ability for the first six weeks, while SS is the focus of the final six weeks.
Note: Before initiating this training program, complete the MJQ and record your score. At the completion of the program, re-take the quadrathlon to assess the effects of the training.
Citius, Altius, Fortius!
4) Bompa, T. O. (1993). . Toronto: Veritas Publishing, Inc.
5) Hatfield, F.C. (1989). . Chicago: Contemporary Books.
6) Zatsiorsky, V.M. (1995). Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign: Human Kinetics Publishers.
7) Kraemer, W.J., & Newton, R.U. Muscle Power. Muscular Development, March, 1995
8) Drechsler, A. (1998). The . Flushing, NY: A is A Communications.
9) Dunn, G.D., & McGill, K. (1994). The Throws Manual (2nd. Ed.), Mountain View, CA: Tafnews Press | <urn:uuid:3323968a-ef92-4bd3-bac4-08d26e79bab3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thinkmuscle.com/training/guide-to-speed-strength-training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936219 | 3,905 | 2.546875 | 3 |
"They are living things, they are precision machines"
Excerpt from "The Breeze Comes Filling the Valley," Spring & Asura, Poems of Kenji Miyazawa, Translated by Hiroaki Sato, Chicago Review Press (1973).
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT holds "KOME : The Art of Rice" Exhibition starting February 28, 2014.
Rice (kome) is a very immediate part of lives in Japan. It is an integral aspect of everyday life. Many facets of Japan's culture evolved in conjunction with the history of rice cultivation, and dietary culture became increasingly rice-based. That said, one question that may be posed is : How much do we know about rice apart from as a food?
The paddies in which rice plants bear grains are ecosystems that take on and nurture diverse forms of life. They also help preserve natural cycles, functioning as water storage systems and mechanisms that prevent environmental warming. The typical bowl of tasty boiled rice served as part of a meal consists of roughly 3,000 grains of rice, which is the yield of three bundles of rice stalks. Each one of those grains represents the tireless work and ingenuity of generations upon generations of people who have been involved in the cultivation of rice, as well as storing stocks of the Earth's vast, cyclical energy.
"They are living things, they are precision machines." In the course of his own labors in cultivating rice, the poet Kenji Miyazawa succinctly captured the essence of rice with this phrase. In Japan, rice is a hub that links real staples of life with culture. The intricate environmental systems that make possible rice and its associated elements of culture possess many clues that bring us closer to the essence of design, clues from which we should learn. These clues will doubtlessly lead to many new forms of aesthetic "sustenance" that will define new futures.
As we enter a transitional period marked by volatile changes in the global environment, individual life style and collective values, and as rice's position as the key staple food in the Japanese diet teeters, this exhibition aims to take a fresh look at rice as the foundation of Japanese culture. Therefore, the goal is to engage exhibit visitors, compel them to take a new look and rethink rice as an important subject of Japanese society as a whole, and to get them to think about the future of rice.
The directors of this exhibition are Taku Satoh, a 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT director and graphic designer, and cultural anthropologist Shinichi Takemura. We hope that the direction by these two professionals from different backgrounds treating the same subject matter contributes to your enjoyment of the "KOME : The Art of Rice" exhibition.
- Exhibition "KOME : The Art of Rice"
- February 28 - June 15, 2014
- Tuesdays (Except April 29, May 6)
- 11:00 - 20:00 (Entrance until 19:30)
*Along with the ROPPONGI ART NIGHT program, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT will be opening until 24:00 on April 19(Sat). (Entrance until 23:30)
- General ¥1,000 / University Student ¥800 / High and Junior High School Student ¥500 / Ages 12 and under may enter for free
*¥200 discount for a group of over 15 people
*With a certification of disability, admission is free as well as that of an accompanying care-giver.
Click here for more discount information
- Organized by:
- 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, THE MIYAKE ISSEY FOUNDATION
- In association with:
- Agency for Cultural Affairs; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; MINATO CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION
- Special Sponsor:
- Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
- Supported by:
- Okagesama Farm, Canon Marketing Japan Inc., SATAKE CORPORATION, Suzunobu, Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives, National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, NARO Institute of Crop Science (NICS), Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, Masuki Co., Ltd., YAMAHA CORPORATION(in random order)
- Exhibition Directors:
- Taku Satoh, Shinichi Takemura
- Planning Associates:
- Mitsuhiro Miyazaki (AXIS), Fumie Okumura
- Graphic Design:
- Taku Satoh Design Office
- Space Design Support:
- Lui Igarashi
- Yusuke Nishibe
- Film Production:
- Yu Yamanaka
- Participating Artists:
- AXIS, Daisuke Abe, Kensuke Arakawa, Takeshi Ishiguro, imaginative inc., Azusa Kawaji, KOTOHOKI PROJECT, CSO PEACESEED, studio note, Perfektron, Sakura Hirai, Kentaro Hirase, Naoto Fukasawa, Shunichi Miki (Bunkyo Zuanshitsu), WOW (Daihei Shibata)
- 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Directors:
- Issey Miyake, Taku Satoh, Naoto Fukasawa
- Associate Director:
- Noriko Kawakami
- * This exhibition is being held with the aide by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
- * The content above is subject to change without prior notice. | <urn:uuid:4b7de9d3-0ffa-461b-8ddb-dbc4bbe3739a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.2121designsight.jp/en/program/kome/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919427 | 1,139 | 2.671875 | 3 |
DES MOINES, Iowa – Companies relying on farmers for the raw materials in their products must take a more active role in ensuring the crops are grown in a way that minimizes damage to water, soil, and environment, a report released Wednesday said.
In its report, Ceres — a Boston nonprofit network of investors, companies and public interest groups — focused on climate change's effects on corn production. It said farmers and the companies they supply must deal with drought and other weather extremes; an increase in groundwater-depleting irrigation; and more fertilizer use.
"Climate change and pressures on water supplies pose financial risk to our agricultural industry but it's not just the Corn Belt's problem," said Brooke Barton, water program director at Ceres and co-author of the report, which argues that increased corn production has depleted land and water resources in some areas and contributed to increased water pollution from fertilizer runoff.
"Companies that depend on U.S. corn have a big role to play in sending market signals that these issues matter," she said.
Food giants working with Ceres include General Mills and Unilever, both of which have adopted sustainability programs suggested by the organization that set specific goals for suppliers and farmers.
The report calls for the establishment of corporate policies for goals to reduce the environmental effects, procurement contracts that require sustainably grown crops, and efforts to identify areas of high water stress, groundwater pollution and overuse of fertilizer.
Ceres also recommends that companies substitute other grains for corn where environmental benefits are well-demonstrated, and disclose to investors the company's exposure to climate and water-related risks in its agricultural supply chain.
General Mills, the maker of Cheerios, Wheaties and Green Giant vegetables, increasingly has been involved in providing money and support to improve the use of water and fertilizer since it began a sustainability program in 2005.
In the Root River region of southeastern Minnesota, the company contributed $300,000 to help vegetable farmers incorporate new conservation practices to reduce erosion into the river.
Corporations are taking on the additional expense to ensure future supplies, but also because of customer demand, said Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer for General Mills.
"More and more consumers are looking at what companies are doing in this area because that really demonstrates the care that a company takes with the ingredients which are the thing that a consumer cares most about in a food product," Lynch said.
Ray Gaesser, who farms 6,000 acres of corn and soybeans in southwest Iowa, uses no-till farming, terraces on sloping land to prevent soil erosion, and has grass waterways to slow water runoff. The farm is testing cover crops that help hold the soil in place and retain nutrients.
Most farmers, he said, are willing to adopt new measures if they are shown to be beneficial to the land and water and do not reduce productivity.
"They want to be sure it's being done for more than just marketing reasons or to position a company to be in a better light with their consumers," Gaesser said. "It needs to be a sincere effort."
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:5753a098-a190-4c05-af0a-e566ca2e8b12> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/life/2014/06/13/food-companies-work-farmers-sustainability/10352515/?from=global | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958969 | 656 | 2.671875 | 3 |
NOAA Spuuports NASA's HS3 Global Hawk Hurricane MissionsNASA's Global Hawk departs for its mission out of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Va. (Photo credit: NASA)
NOAA hurricane scientists are expanding their observations this summer, working with NASA’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission and its innovative Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles to push the boundaries of hurricane operations. NASA looked to NOAA’s hurricane experts to augment its HS3 science team, supporting their five-year mission to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin.
The Hurricane Research Division at AOML has a long history of using NOAA’s P-3 Orions and the G-IV jet hurricane hunter aircraft to observe the inner core and environment of these storms, studying the dynamics of structure and intensity change. The P-3’s often fly right through the eye of hurricanes to collect observations, where small parachuted instruments called dropsondes are deployed to collect temperature and pressure data and measure wind-speed. AOML pioneered the use of these instruments in hurricanes and are world experts in the requisite data processing and real-time transfer of data to operational modeling centers and NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.
NASA worked with NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and its engineering partners at the National Center for Atmospheric Research to re-design and implement as autonomous dropsonde system for the Global Hawks platform. Hurricane researchers at AOML process data obtained from the dropsonde system and with 26 hours of flight time per mission that can mean up to 89 drops per flight.
Each HS3 flight averages three times the length of a traditional hurricane hunter flight, allowing the aircraft to fly further and much higher than the flight path of the NOAA P-3’s. This expanded flight track allows the Global Hawks to directly sample regions of the Atlantic typically only observed via satellites. One type of large-scale feature that is of particular interest is Saharan dust storms.
These dust storms bring a massive layer of very dry air out over the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Saharan Air Layer, or SAL. Scientists believe that this injection of extremely dry air into the birthplace of Atlantic hurricanes inhibits storm development. A SAL has been present in the eastern Atlantic since July and continues to interact with nascent tropical waves rolling off of Africa.
This summer NOAA and NASA scientists will coordinate Global Hawk flights along with NOAA’s hurricane hunter aircraft to observe the convection that drives intensification within the core of hurricanes, as well as the broader environment that may influence track as well as intensity.
Follow the NOAA and NASA field missions on Twitter: @HRD_AOML_NOAA | <urn:uuid:c6b73254-d844-44fb-af55-8b6d9a9daa34> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/keynotes/keynotes1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915762 | 563 | 3.109375 | 3 |
China’s aluminum stockpiles are the highest in two years.
The nation’s property developers and car makers need less of the stuff, but production is soaring anyway.
Almost a million tons of unnecessary aluminum has piled up in warehouses. And the glut is likely to keep building. Provincial governments in China often turn to aluminum production to keep people in jobs. This has little to do with commercial demand. Aluminum smelters are huge employers, requiring armies of workers to build and then operate them. Officials tend to encourage the building of new smelters by offering subsidized power contracts and favorable tax treatments.
“This is all part of the wider financial stimulus that is ongoing in China as governments move to protect industry from the economic slowdown” says Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at the school of management and finance at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
In China, there is something political about aluminum. To keep people in jobs, governments raise production when the economy slows. China’s aluminum industry is run along Russian Soviet-era lines.
China accounted for 119 of the 133 aluminum smelters built globally between 1985 and 2005, according to the London Metal Exchange.
China-based aluminum consultancy AZ China said in a June report that 25% of the nation’s output of the metal is state subsidised.
New smelters usually defy commercial reality. Last year, the province of Xinjiang in China’s far northwest invested $13.6 billion in new aluminum capacity. China’s industry regulator the National Development and Reform Commission has told the province to stop.
But as Paul Adkins of AZ China said in an October 21 blog post about his recent visit to one of Xinjiang’s aluminum smelter construction sites, “the reality is that the expansion program in Xinjiang is set to continue.”
He questioned the practicalities of Xinjiang’s projects, noting that the main source of demand for aluminum in China is in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in the southeast, meaning finished metals will be sent along “about the longest diagonal line,” away from Xinjiang. He noted, however, that Xinjiang’s producers believe they can still make a profit from government power subsidies.
Reuters also writes today: “Production in the southwestern province of Guizhou, the seventh-largest aluminium producer in China, may also rise, as the provincial government is helping cut power costs. Sources at smelters said the Guizhou government was letting local aluminum smelters build direct transmission lines and set prices with nearby power generation plants in a move that could cut smelters’ production costs by about 7% to 8%.”
The bendy metal is already becoming a flashpoint in China’s relations with almost every other major world power.
In good times, China gobbles up most of the aluminum it produces. But it may start dumping state-subsidised product on world markets, hurting international competitors.
As Bloomberg has noted, the increased inventories of aluminum “may force smelters around the world to cut output further.”
In 2010, the Obama Administration ruled Chinese aluminum suppliers were dumping state-subsidized product on the US market and putting American producers out of business. The EU is looking into a similar case. And Australia’s customs authority ruled earlier this year that Beijing government-backed Chinese miner Chalco was dumping there too, though Chalco is appealing the ruling.
The likes of Alcoa, which reported lackluster third-quarter results, or Norway’s Norsk Hydro, which is now money-losing and has been closing plants, have not blamed the Chinese government for their recent struggles. After all, they each rely on Chinese companies, many of which are state-owned, to buy products their aluminum is used to make, from soda cans to trucks. But it is possible that the world’s aluminum majors have lobbied governments to take these anti-dumping stances.
If China cannot dump its excess product, stockpiles will get bigger.
If the EC and Australia move further to restrict Chinese aluminum imports, expect the warehouse stockpiles to get even larger. As an aluminum industry representative told Bloomberg:
“Unless there are huge stimulus policies coming after the party congress in November, inventories will rise to a new record.” The biggest stockpile ever recorded in China was 1.2 billion tons in May 2010. | <urn:uuid:693bdb9c-8438-42c2-bcb4-83d198a05b3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://qz.com/20209/it-is-tin-hat-time-for-aluminum-company-shareholders-china-has-a-glut-of-the-stuff-and-cannot-stop-producing-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953934 | 921 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Roman Vishniac (Wischniak) is born to a prosperous Russian Jewish family in Pavlovsk, near Saint Petersburg, and is raised in Moscow.
On his seventh birthday, Vishniac receives his first camera and microscope.
Between 1904 and 1914 Vishniac studies biology and zoology, and experiments with camera lenses and magnification, documenting his results on film.
The Bolsheviks seize power in the Russian Revolution.
Between 1917-19, Vishniac’s family emigrates from Russia to Germany. He remains in Moscow to pursue graduate studies in biology and zoology at Shanyavsky Institute and becomes an avid amateur photographer.
Vishniac and Luta Bagg, a Latvian Jew, are married at a border town on the way from Moscow to Riga. They immigrate to Weimar Berlin.
1920s Vishniac is an active member of several Berlin camera clubs. He builds a fully equipped photo-processing lab in his Berlin apartment in the Wilmersdorf district, a neighborhood heavily populated by affluent Russian Jews. He continues to pursue scientific research and microscopy while becoming an accomplished street photographer.
Luta and Roman Vishniac's first child, Wolf, is born in a Berlin clinic.
Luta and Roman's second child, Mara, is born in the same Berlin clinic as her brother Wolf.
1934-38: Vishniac takes photographs of German Jewish relief and community organizations operating under the Nazi regime in Berlin.
The Nuremberg Laws are instituted in Germany and widespread antisemitic restrictions are imposed upon German Jews. Jewish businesses are boycotted in Germany, inspiring similar antisemitic actions throughout Poland.
Ca. 1935-38, Vishniac is commissioned by the European headquarters of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Paris, the world’s largest Jewish relief organization, to photograph impoverished Jewish communities throughout eastern Europe.
1935-44 American photographers Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and others are hired by Roy Stryker, director of the Farm Security Administration’s Information Division, to document the plight of poor sharecroppers in the Depression-era South.
Vishniac is commissioned by the JDC to photograph thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Germany in the Polish border town of Zbaszyn.
The JDC commissions Vishniac to photograph the Werkdorp Wieringen, an agrarian training camp in the Netherlands where young German Jewish refugees learn agricultural and vocational skills in preparation for immigration to Palestine and other countries.
In November, coordinated attacks on Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues throughout Germany take place (Kristallnacht). Following this incident, approximately 30,000 Jews are arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Vishniac is in Berlin during Kristallnacht but is warned by a friend in the police force to avoid his apartment and to go into hiding.
Vishniac’s photographs of Jewish communities in eastern Europe are exhibited in the JDC offices in New York. This is the first time that his work is exhibited in the U.S.
Vishniac shoots moving film footage depicting Jewish life in Carpathian Ruthenia for the JDC. Some material is sent to the JDC in New York; other footage, identified by Vishniac as "outtakes," resurfaces in Paris after the war.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop mutual nonaggression pact. Germany invades Poland on September 1; two days later, Britain and France declare war against Germany and World War II begins. The first Nazi ghetto is established in Poland.
Vishniac works as a freelance photographer in western Europe, traving briefly to London and settling in France, while Luta remains in Berlin and struggles to secure immigration visas and affidavits for her family. Mara Vishniac is sent to safety in Sweden, where she is later joined by her brother Wolf.
Vishniac travels to the South of France, where he makes a promotional film for the JDC documenting an ORT (Jewish Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor) vocational training school in Marseille. This is his last JDC assignment until he returns to Europe in 1947.
The Vichy regime is established in France, July 1940.
In Paris, Vishniac entrusts his negatives to friend Walter Bierer, who promises to transport them to the U.S.
Vishniac is arrested and imprisoned for a month in the Camp du Ruchard internment camp in France.
Vishniac reunites with Luta, Wolf, and Mara in Lisbon. They embark for New York on S.S. Siboney. The family arrives in New York on New Year's Eve.
Germany invades the Soviet Union. Japan attacks the United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor. Germany declares war on the U.S. Germany begins mass deportations of Jews to Poland.
Vishniac’s parents begin living in hiding in the South of France. Vishniac's mother, Manya Wischniak, dies, July 30, 1941.
Vishniac opens a portrait studio in his family’s Upper West Side apartment and works to establish himself as a science photographer. Over the next decade, he undertakes several commissions for Jewish relief, social service, and community organizations in the U.S.
The Wannsee Conference is held to implement and coordinate the Final Solution, a plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Germany implements a policy of total destruction of European Jewry.
Walter Bierer brings Vishniac’s negatives from France via Cuba to the U.S., where they are confiscated by Customs. After a lengthy struggle, the negatives are released to Vishniac, and he immediately begins to exhibit and publish them.
A selection of Vishniac's eastern European photographs is exhibited in Life Everywhere, a show at New School for Social Research on view from October 19-November 1. Through this exhibition and others like it, Vishniac sought to raise awareness of the plight of European Jewry as the war raged.
An exhibition of Vishniac’s photographs, Children of Want and Fear: Europe Before the War, is held at the Teachers College Library, Columbia University.
In January 1945 YIVO mounts a second large-scale Vishniac exhibition, Jewish Life in the Carpathians.
Germany surrenders on May 7, 1945. The Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated by Soviet troops. Japan surrenders in September and World War II ends.
Vishniac becomes an American citizen. Vishniac and Luta divorce.
Vishniac returns to Europe on assignment for the JDC, the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), and The Forward to document Jewish Displaced Persons camps. While there, he photographs his demolished former hometown, Berlin.
Vishniac’s first monograph, Polish Jews: A Pictorial Record, is published in New York.
Vishniac reconnects with Edith Ernst, whom he marries in Berlin. They return to New York together, settling on the Upper West Side.
Vishniac begins an enduring friendship with Cornell Capa, who later establishes the International Center of Photography (ICP).
Broadcast premier of an NBC special on Vishniac's work, "The Big Little World of Roman Vishniac" in May.
Vishniac's photographs are used to illustrate Isaac Bashevis Singer's A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw, winner of the 1970 National Book Award for Children's Books.
Vishniac’s book of color photomicroscopy, Building Blocks of Life: Proteins, Vitamins and Hormones, is published.
Cornell Capa’s International Fund for Concerned Photography presents the exhibition Concerns of Roman Vishniac at the Jewish Museum in New York.
Wolf Vishniac, son of Roman Vishniac and noted microbiologist and professor, dies on a research expedition in Antarctica.
ICP publishes a monograph on Vishniac, published by Grossman Publishers in New York. The text is a reprint of Eugene Kinkead’s two-part New Yorker profile from 1955.
A large selection of Vishniac’s photographs documenting Jewish life in eastern Europe is published to international acclaim in A Vanished World, which wins the National Jewish Book Award.
A Vanished World Roman Vishniac; with forward by Elie Wiesel New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1983, 179 pages
An exhibition by the same name, organized by ICP, tours the U.S. and internationally through 1988.
Vishniac dies at the age of ninety-two.
Mara Vishniac Kohn becomes the executor of Vishniac's estate. Howard Greenberg Gallery begins its twenty-year representation of Vishniac's photographic work.
To Give Them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac, edited by Marion Wiesel, is published by Simon & Schuster in NY.
Vishniac’s daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, coedits the publication Roman Vishniac: Children of a Vanished World featuring Vishniac’s 1930s photographs of children in eastern Europe. A related exhibition of Vishniac’s photographs of children tours the U.S. | <urn:uuid:9e417a60-fd19-465c-ad05-9fb3532ca377> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://vishniac.icp.org/chronology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940471 | 1,976 | 3.015625 | 3 |
December 3, 1996
Johnson Space Center
NASA engineers at JSC are designing and flight-testing a prototype spacecraft that could become the first new human spacecraft to travel to and from orbit in the past two decades, a spacecraft developed at a fraction of the cost of past human space vehicles.
The most immediate application of the innovative project, designated the X-38, is to develop the technology for a prototype emergency crew return vehicle (CRV), or lifeboat, for the International Space Station. But the project also is aimed at developing a crew return vehicle design that could be modified for other uses, such as a possible joint U.S. and international human spacecraft that could be launched on the French Ariane 5 booster. And the goal is to develop the vehicle with an unprecedented eye toward efficiency, taking advantage of available equipment and already developed technology for as much as 80 percent of the spacecraft’s design.
"Using available technology and off-the-shelf equipment can significantly reduce costs," said X-38 Project Manager John Muratore. "The original estimates to build a capsule-type CRV several years ago amounted to more than $2 billion in total development cost. The X-38 concept could develop and build four operational CRVs, vehicles that are more capable and versatile than earlier designs, for less than a quarter of that."
In the early years of the International Space Station, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft will be attached to the station as a CRV. But, as the size of the crew aboard the station increases, a return vehicle like the X-38 that can accommodate up to six passengers will be needed.
The X-38 design uses a lifting body concept originally developed by the Air Force’s X-24A project in the mid-1970s. Following the jettison of a deorbit engine module, the X-38 would glide from orbit unpowered like the Space Shuttle and then use a steerable, parafoil parachute, a technology recently developed by the Army, for its final descent to landing. Its landing gear would consist of skids rather than wheels.
"Just because it is off-the-shelf technology doesn’t mean it is old technology. Many of the technologies we are using have never before been applied to a human spacecraft," Muratore said. "We are out to prove that we can produce a highly versatile human spacecraft for significantly less cost than has ever been done before."
The X-38 flight computer is commercial equipment that is already in use in aircraft, and the flight software operating system is a commercial system already in use in many aerospace applications. The video equipment being used on the atmospheric test vehicles is existing equipment, some of which has already flown on the Space Shuttle for other NASA experiments. The electromechanical actuators that are used on the X-38 come from a previous joint NASA, Air Force and Navy research and development project. A special coating that had already been developed by NASA is planned to be used on the X-38 thermal tiles to make them much more durable than the tiles used on the Space Shuttle. The X-38’s primary navigational equipment, the Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System, is a unit already in use on Navy fighters.
Although the design could one day be modified for other uses such as a crew transport vehicle, the X-38 would strictly be used as a CRV in its current design. It is baselined with only enough life support supplies to last about nine hours flying free of the space station in orbit. The spacecraft’s landing will be totally automated, although the crew will have the capability to switch to backup systems, control the orientation in orbit, pick a deorbit site, and steer the parafoil, if necessary. The X-38 CRV has a nitrogen gas-fueled attitude control system and uses a bank of batteries for power. The spacecraft will be 28.5 feet long, 14.5 feet wide and weight about 16,000 pounds.
A small, in-house development study of the X-38 concept first began at JSC in early 1995, and, in the summer of 1995, early flight tests were conducted of the parafoil concept, dropping platforms with a parafoil from an aircraft at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona. Early this year, a contract was awarded to Scaled Composites, Inc., of Mojave, California, for the construction of three full-scale atmospheric test airframes. The first vehicle airframe was delivered to JSC in September, where it is now being outfitted with avionics, computer systems and other hardware in preparation for drop tests next year at the Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California. A second vehicle is scheduled to be delivered to JSC in December.
Full-scale, unpiloted flight tests are planned to begin in February 1997 at DFRC with "captive carry" flights in which the vehicle will remain attached to the NASA B-52 aircraft. Free-flight drop tests, also unpiloted, from the B-52 are planned to begin in May 1997.
Further testing could include an unpiloted space flight test in early 1999, and the new century could see the CRV attached to the International Space Station. It is estimated that the total projected cost of the X-38’s development through the completion of two space test vehicles could be less than $80 million.
About 100 people are currently working on the project at JSC, at DFRC and at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. This is the first time a prototype vehicle has been built-up in-house at JSC, rather than by a contractor, an approach that has many advantages.
"By building this ourselves, we are going to have a better understanding of the problems contractors experience when they build vehicles for us, and we will have a detailed set of requirements for the contractor. Using civil servants is among the most efficient ways to perform a small project like this, as well," Muratore said. "This gets NASA back to its research and development roots, the type of hands-on work that was done when it was NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, before the space age began."
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