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Guest Commentary by David Smith
The concept of the Constitution of the United States is not to award unlimited Powers to the Federal Government or to Congress. See also the ideas expressed in Col. Crockett’s speech from my blog, “Not Yours To Give” from a few days ago. The idea is that the States were free and independent States that were ceding Power, but only what Powers were enumerated within the Constitution.
Remember the Declaration of Independence?Details | <urn:uuid:5ee480c6-0bb6-4d0f-a06a-c8a74a35ef6f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2007/11/19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974546 | 99 | 3.046875 | 3 |
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) and Water Resources Research (WRR).
In this release:
- China's lakes changed dramatically in recent decades
- Climate commitment in an uncertain world
- New satellite data improve estimates of ocean circulation
- Reversals in Saturn's polar radio emissions
- Modeling an asteroid's giant impact crater
- Tectonic plates relocked after 2005 earthquake in northeastern Japan
- Links to rivers affect Arctic lake habitat diversity in Canada
- More accurate measurements of solar energy reaching Earth
Anyone may read the scientific abstract for any already-published paper by clicking on the link provided at the end of each Highlight. You can also read the abstract by going to http://www.
Journalists and public information officers (PIOs) at educational or scientific institutions who are registered with AGU also may download papers cited in this release by clicking on the links below. Instructions for members of the news media, PIOs, and the public for downloading or ordering the full text of any research paper summarized below are available at http://www.
1. China's lakes changed dramatically in recent decades
Significant changes have taken place in the number and size of China's lakes over the past several decades. To create a comprehensive picture of these changes over all of China, Ma et al. combined data from a wide variety of sources, including satellite imagery and maps. They compare data from the 1960s to the 1980s, before China's rapid development and industrialization, with data from 2005 and 2006. The authors find that during that time period, the total surface area of Chinese lakes declined by 13 percent, and the total number of lakes with an area greater than 1 square kilometer decreased from 2928 to 2693. In addition, 243 lakes vanished, mainly in the northern provinces, while 60 new lakes appeared, mainly in the Tibetan Plateau region.
Both climate change and human activity can affect lakes. For instance, glacial melting on the Tibetan Plateau and neighboring areas, which may be due to global warming, may have led to the creation of new lakes and the expansion of existing lakes, while human development likely affected lakes in southern China. The authors note that more detailed regional studies are needed to confirm these preliminary, large-scale observations.
Title: A half-century of changes in China's lakes: Global warming or human influence?
Ronghua Ma and Hongtao Duan: State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China;
Chuanmin Hu: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA;
Xuezhi Feng: Department of Geographic Information Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;
Ainong Li: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China;
Weimin Ju: International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;
Jiahu Jiang and Guishan Yang: State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Nanjing, China.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2010GL045514, 2010
2. Climate commitment in an uncertain world
The planet will continue to warm, even if humans immediately cease all emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, mostly due to thermal inertia of the world's oceans. This has been of interest recently for both scientists and policy-makers, because it provides a measure of the minimum climate change the planet will face due to human activity that has already occurred.
Several studies have looked at what would happen if human emissions of carbon dioxide were stopped, but these studies have overlooked the role of aerosols and other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, which Armour and Roe include in a new study. If human emissions stopped, atmospheric aerosols, which cool the planet by blocking light from the surface, would fall to preindustrial levels within weeks. However, other greenhouse gases would remain in the atmosphere for decades to centuries, and elevated levels of carbon dioxide would persist for millennia.
The authors find that the sudden loss of cooling from aerosols would cause abrupt warming of as much as 0.9 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above current temperatures in the decades following the cessation of greenhouse gas emissions. This could be followed by slight cooling or by further increased warming. Because there are large uncertainties in current observations of aerosol radiative forcing, there are large uncertainties in determining the amount of climate changes to which the Earth is already committed. The authors note that Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's models produce a narrower range of climate commitment than is allowed by constraints based on current observations.
Although there is large uncertainty, the authors find that fundamental constraints provide lower and upper bounds on climate commitment. Given these bounds, if all human emission stopped immediately, Earth would still not return to pre-industrial temperatures in the indefinite future, and we could already be committed to dangerous levels of warming.
Title: Climate commitment in an uncertain world
Authors: K. C. Armour: Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA;
G. H. Roe: Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045850, 2011
3. New satellite data improve estimates of ocean circulation
Ocean currents play a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate by redistributing heat and freshwater around the planet. Accurate knowledge of the subtle regional variations in Earth's gravity field is fundamental to the measurement of ocean currents. However, the challenge of mapping Earth's gravity in sufficient detail has previously limited scientists' ability to reliably determine the ocean's circulation. To address this problem, the European Space Agency launched the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite in October 2009, with the aim of mapping Earth's gravity field with unprecedented spatial resolution.
An initial assessment of the performance of GOCE uses the first data from the satellite to estimate the circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean, and shows the satellite is already returning data superior to measurements from previous systems. The North Atlantic findings are particularly interesting because this region contains the Gulf Stream, the world's strongest current and a key component of the global overturning circulation, since it carries heat from the equator to high northerly latitudes. In many places, the current speeds estimated from the GOCE data compare well with those obtained from field instruments, providing strong validation of the GOCE mission design. Accumulation of data as the mission progresses could lead to a more accurate and detailed map of the ocean's currents.
Title: An initial estimate of the North Atlantic steady-state geostrophic circulation from GOCE
Authors: R. J. Bingham: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK;
P. Knudsen and O. Andersen: Department of Geodesy, Danish National Space Center, Copenhagen, Denmark;
R. Pail: Institute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010 GL045633, 2011
4. Reversals in Saturn's polar radio emissions
Saturn emits intense radio emissions at kilometer wavelengths from its auroral regions. Observations in recent years found that the Saturn kilometric radiation (SKR) emission from the northern auroral region has a clocklike modulation with a period of about 10.6 hours, while the SKR emission from the southern auroral region has a period of about 10.8 hours. Analyzing more recent observations from the Cassini spacecraft, the researchers now find that the rotational modulation rates of the southern and northern components reversed shortly after Saturn's equinox on 11 August 2009, so that the southern hemisphere SKR now has the shorter rotation period. They also analyze data from the Ulysses spacecraft to show that a similar reversal occurred during the previous equinox, in November 1995.
The authors suggest that these reversals are driven by seasonal changes in solar radiation to the two hemispheres as the planet orbits the Sun. The changing solar radiation could affect the planet's upper atmosphere and how its magnetosphere slips with respect to its internal rotation. Alterations in the magnetosphere could cause the observed changes in the rotational modulation of Saturn's radio emissions.
Changes in the magnetosphere could also cause the location of Saturn's northern and southern auroral ovals to oscillate, as observed in a related paper by Nichols et al. (Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L24102, doi:10.1029/2010GL045818).
Title: The reversal of the rotational modulation rates of the north and south components of Saturn kilometric radiation near equinox
Authors: D. A. Gurnett, J. B. Groene, A. M. Persoon, J. D. Menietti, S.-Y. Ye, and W. S. Kurth: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA;
R. J. MacDowall: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA;
A. Lecacheux: LEISA, UMR 8109, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Meudon, France.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045796, 2010
5. Modeling an asteroid's giant impact crater
This summer, NASA's Dawn mission will orbit Vesta. The asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the largest rocky bodies in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of about 530 kilometers (329.3 miles). An enormous impact crater, with a diameter of about 460 km (286 mi) and a depth of about 13 km (8 mi), covers almost half of the asteroid's southern hemisphere. To provide a framework for interpreting some of the expected observations, the researchers model the formation of the impact crater, which was probably created by a collision with an object approximately 50 km (31 mi) in diameter traveling at about 5 km per second.
Their high-resolution three-dimensional simulation shows that the collision exposed deep strata within the asteroid and changed its center of mass. Because the asteroid spins rapidly -- it completes a revolution every 5.3 hours -- debris ejected by the collision would be deposited in sequences with variable shapes, multiple folds, and abrupt terminations. These deposit sequences could be confused with other geologic forms such as thrusts and folds, so this model should help in interpreting images of Vesta obtained from the Dawn mission.
Title: Mega-ejecta on asteroid Vesta
Authors: Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug: Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045517, 2011
6. Tectonic plates relocked after 2005 earthquake in northeastern Japan
In August 2005 a magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook northeastern Japan. The quake occurred on the boundary of the North American plate and the Pacific plate off Miyagi prefecture. Earthquakes with a magnitude of about 7.5 have been occurring in this area approximately every 37 years. Sato and his colleagues use seafloor geodetic observations from a combination of Global Positioning System (GPS) and acoustic measurements to detect seafloor movements during and after the earthquake. They focus on the movement of a seafloor reference point located about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) east of the epicenter of the 2005 quake. Their measurements indicate that some built-up strain was released by the 2005 earthquake. Then for about 1 to 2 years following the quake, there was erratic movement of the reference point, and at the end of 2006 constant strain accumulation began again. Since the end of 2006 the reference point has been moving about 5.7 cm (2.2 inches) per year toward the west-northwest. The results are consistent with other measurements and support the interpretation that the tectonic plates have been relocked since late 2006.
Title: Restoration of interplate locking after the 2005 Off-Miyagi Prefecture earthquake, detected by GPS/acoustic seafloor geodetic observation
Authors: Mariko Sato, Hiroaki Saito, Tadashi Ishikawa, Yoshihiro Matsumoto, and Masayuki Fujita: Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard, Tokyo, Japan;
Masashi Mochizuki and Akira Asada: Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045689, 2011
7. Links to rivers affect Arctic lake habitat diversity in Canada
The 45,000 lakes in the Mackenzie River delta, Canada, represent an especially diverse aquatic habitat compared to lakes in surrounding Arctic areas. River-to-lake connectivity could play a role in this diversity, as river water entering lakes replenishes nutrients and affects water transparency. Lesack and Marsh seek to better understand how river-to-lake connectivity affects biodiversity in the region. Using 40 years of data on water levels in the delta combined with a floodplain geometry model, they estimate the volumes of river water added to lake water during the annual flood peak for nine lakes at different elevations. They also estimate the connection time between the lakes and the river by counting the number of days each year when the river water level exceeded the highest elevation along the channel connecting the lake and the river. In addition, they consider interannual variability of the river-to-lake connectivity for each of the nine lakes. The results showed a broad range of connectivities. Lakes with short and variable connection times had greater individuality, whereas lakes with longer and less varying connection times were more similar to each other. The researchers suggest that the wide variation in river-to-lake connectivity could be a key to the distinctive habitat and biodiversity in the delta.
Title: River-to-lake connectivities, water renewal, and aquatic habitat diversity in the Mackenzie River Delta
Authors: Lance F. W. Lesack: Department of Geography and Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada;
Philip Marsh: National Water Research Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2010WR009607, 2010
8. More accurate measurements of solar energy reaching Earth
Radiation from the Sun is the dominant source of energy input to the Earth's climate system; even small variations in solar irradiance can produce noticeable climate changes on global and regional scales. Determining how much of the observed global change can be attributed to variations in the Sun's output and how much can be attributed to human or other influences requires an accurate record of solar irradiance.
Measurements of solar irradiance made by the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) on NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite give a value of total solar irradiance that is significantly lower than previously accepted values. Kopp and Lean show that this new, lower value is more accurate than measurements made using older instruments. They use laboratory studies and satellite calibrations to diagnose and quantify error sources on the TIM and other space-based solar radiometers and found that earlier radiometers measured higher values of solar irradiance because they included scattered instrument light in their signals, while the different optical design of the TIM radiometer reduces this spurious signal and acquires more accurate measurements. They also show that the high stability of the TIM gives improved agreement with models estimating solar variability, concluding that this new instrument provides the most accurate value of solar irradiance and helps improve estimates of the Sun's influence on climate.
An AGU press release about this paper that is available online at http://www.
Title: A new, lower value of total solar irradiance: Evidence and climate significance
Authors: Greg Kopp: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado, USA;
Judith L. Lean: Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D. C., USA.
Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045777, 2011
Phone (direct): +1 (202) 777 7524
Phone (toll free in North America): +1 (800) 966 2481 x530
Fax: +1 (202) 328 0566 | <urn:uuid:15115f05-422f-429f-93de-59a03aaeb42f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/agu-ajh012711.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896531 | 3,453 | 3.203125 | 3 |
MEPS Supplement 2004 - CPR Atlas - doi: 10.3554/mepscpr003
Continuous Plankton Records: Plankton Atlas of the North Atlantic Ocean (1958-1999). I. Introduction and methodology
ABSTRACT: The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey is one of the largest plankton monitoring programmes in the world. Data from this programme have been used to investigate many ecological issues such as biogeography, biodiversity and relationships between plankton and global change. A CPR Atlas on the geographical distribution of plankton in the North Atlantic Ocean was first published by the Edinburgh Oceanographic Laboratory (1973). This atlas, based on about 40000 CPR samples collected from 1958 to 1968, contributed greatly to our knowledge of the biogeography of ~260 species or taxa in the North Atlantic Ocean. The data of the CPR Atlas were updated in the last 30 years. In this introduction to the revised CPR Atlas, which is based on data for 1958-1999, new numerical procedures and features used in preparing the updated maps are described.
KEY WORDS: Continuous Plankton Recorder survey · Atlas · Plankton · North Atlantic Ocean
Full text in pdf format (250KB) | <urn:uuid:560283cf-dfcb-4a95-9f71-deeea45c4497> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.int-res.com/journals/meps/cpr-plankton-atlas-2004/meps-supplement-2004-cpr3-10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.864368 | 252 | 2.5625 | 3 |
International Observe the Moon Night
Oct. 8, 2011, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The second annual International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) will take place on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011. People around the world will celebrate by pausing to look up at Earth's nearest neighbor -- and learning about it too!
This year's theme focuses on cultural connections to the moon and connecting art to science, through the question: What does the moon mean to you?
The NASA Goddard Visitor Centers InOMN event will feature:
- Talks by NASA lunar scientists
- Moon stories from cultural groups
- Hands-on activities, such as Impact Paintings and Oreo Phases
- A ‘Science as Art’ gallery
- An art gallery featuring art YOU make at the event!
- 'Science on a Sphere' presentations
- Telescope viewing
- And more!
Anyone of any age who is excited about the Moon is welcome to attend.
For more information about InOMN, visit: http://observethemoonnight.org | <urn:uuid:a2a4048b-2fae-4a0b-ad7f-a0e26e69d86e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/events/observe-the-moon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906613 | 230 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Serbia's Great War, 1914-1918
Serbia's Great War, 1914-1918 (Hardback)
Mitrovic's volume fills the gap in Balkan history by presenting an in-depth look at Serbia and its role in WWI. The Serbian experience was in fact of major significance in this war. In the interlocking development of the wartime continent, Serbia's plight is part of a European jigsaw. Also, the First World War was crucial as a stage in the construction of Serbian national mythology in the twentieth century.
About the Author(s):
Andrej Mitrovic; is Chair and Professor of Modern History at the University of Belgrade. He has written widely on the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference, on interwar Europe, and is the author of books and articles on economic, social, and cultural history and on historiography. He received the prestigious Herder Prize from the University of Vienna and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation of Hamburg, Germany in 2001. In 2004 Germany's Southeast Europe Association awarded him the Konstantin Jiricek Medal | <urn:uuid:8ad11dab-4d4d-45ac-9222-b67df38e827b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/titles/format/9781557534767 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933275 | 225 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Force is a physics term that is defined as an influence that causes an object to change its rate or direction of movement or rotation. A force can accelerate objects by pulling or pushing them. The relationship between force, mass, and acceleration was defined by Isaac Newton in his second law of motion, which states that an object's force is the product of its mass and acceleration. If you want to know how to measure force, just follow these steps.
1Understand the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. The force of an object is simply the product of its mass and acceleration. This relationship can be defined by the following formula: Force = Mass x Acceleration. Here are a few other things to keep in mind as you measure force:
- The standard unit for mass is kilograms (kg).
- The standard unit for acceleration is m/s2.
- The standard unit for force is the newton (N). The newton is a derived standard unit. 1N = 1 kg x 1m/s2.
2Measure the mass of a given object. An object's mass is the amount of matter that it contains. The mass of an object never changes, no matter what planet it's on; while weight fluctuates depending on gravitational pull, your mass is the same on Earth and on the Moon.In the metric system, mass can be expressed in grams or kilograms. Let's say the object we're working with is a truck that has a mass of 1000 kg.
- To find the mass of a given object, place it on a triple beam or a double pan balance. This will calculate the mass in kilograms or grams.
- In the English system, mass can be expressed in pounds. Because force can also be expressed in pounds, the term "pound-mass" has been coined to distinguish its usage. However, if you find the mass of an object using pounds in the English system, it's best to convert it to the metric system. If you know an object's mass in pounds, simply multiply it by .45 to find the mass in kilograms.
3Measure the object's acceleration. In physics, acceleration is defined as a change in velocity, which is defined as speed in a given direction, per unit of time. In addition to the common definition of acceleration as speeding up, it also can mean an object is slowing down or changing direction. Just as velocity can be measured with a speedometer, acceleration is measured with an accelerometer. Let's say the acceleration of the 1000 kg truck we're working with is 3m/s2.
- In the metric system, velocity is expressed in centimeters per second or meters per second, and acceleration is expressed as centimeters per second per second (centimeters per second squared) or meters per second per second (meters per second squared).
- In the English system, one way to express velocity is as feet per second, so acceleration can be expressed in feet per second squared.
4Multiply the object's mass by its acceleration. This is the force's value. Simply plug in the known numbers into the equation and you will know the force of the object. Remember to state your answer in newtons (Ns).
- Force = Mass x Acceleration
- Force = 1000 kg x 3m/s2
- Force = 3000N
1Find mass if you know force and acceleration. If you know the force and acceleration of an object, simply plug them into the same formula to find the object's mass. Here's how to do it:
- Force = Mass x Acceleration
- 3N = Mass x 3m/s2
- Mass = 3N/3m/s2
- Mass = 1 kg
2Find acceleration if you know force and mass. If you know the force and mass of an object, simply plug them into the same formula to find the object's mass. Here's how to do it:
- Force = Mass x Acceleration
- 10N = 2 kg x Acceleration
- Acceleration = 10N/2kg
- Acceleration = 5m/s2
3Find the acceleration of an object. If you want to find the force of an object, you can calculate its acceleration as long as you know its mass. All you have to do is use the formula for finding the acceleration of an object. The formula is (Acceleration = Final Velocity - Initial Velocity)/Time.
- Example: A runner reaches a speed of 6 m/s in 10 seconds. What is his acceleration?
- The final velocity is 6 m/s. The original velocity is 0 m/s. The time is 10s.
- Acceleration = (6 m/s - 0 m/s)/10s = 6/10s = .6m/s2
- Mass can also be expressed in slugs, with a slug equal to 32.174 pounds-mass. A slug is the amount of mass that 1 pound-force can accelerate at 1 foot per second squared. When multiplying a mass in slugs by acceleration in feet per second squared, the conversion constant isn't used.
- Thus, a mass of 640 pounds-mass accelerating at 5 feet per second squared carries an approximate force of 640 times 5 divided by 32 or 100 pounds-force.
- Weight is the expression of a mass being acted on by the acceleration due to gravity. At Earth's surface, this acceleration is about 9.8 meters per second squared (9.80665), or 32 feet per second squared (32.174). Thus, in the metric system, a 100 kilogram mass weighs about 980 newtons, and a 100 gram mass weighs about 980 dynes. In the English system, mass and weight can be expressed in the same units, so 100 pounds of mass (or pounds-mass) weighs 100 pounds (pounds-force). Because a spring scale measures the pull of gravity on an object, it actually measures weight, not mass. (In common usage, there is no distinction, so long as the only gravity under consideration is that of Earth's surface.)
- Divide the result by a conversion constant if you're working with English units. As noted above, "pound" can be either a unit of mass or force in the English system; when used as a unit of force, it is called "pound-force." The conversion constant is 32.174 pound-feet per pound force second-squared; 32.174 is the value of acceleration due to Earth's gravity in feet per second squared. (To simplify the math here, we'll round to a value of 32.)
- Note that the relationship between force, mass and acceleration means that an object with low mass and high acceleration can have the same force as an object with high mass and low acceleration.
- A mass of 150 kilograms accelerating at 10 meters per second squared carries a force of 150 times 10, or 1500 kilogram-centimeters per second squared. (A kilogram meter per second squared is called a newton.)
- Forces may have special names depending on how they act on an object. A force that causes an object to speed up is called thrust, while a force that causes an object to slow down is called drag. A force that changes the way a rotating object spins around its axis is called torque.
- A mass of 20 grams accelerating at 5 centimeters (2.0 in) per second squared carries a force of 20 times 5, or 100, gram-centimeters per second squared. (A gram centimeter per second squared is called a dyne.)
Things You'll Need
- Balance or spring scale
- Pencil and paper or calculator
Sources and Citations
Categories: Classical Mechanics
In other languages:
Español: medir la fuerza, Italiano: Misurare la Forza, Deutsch: Die Kraft eines Objekts bestimmen, Português: Medir a Intensidade de uma Força, 中文: 测量力, Русский: рассчитать силу, Français: mesurer une force, Bahasa Indonesia: Mengukur Gaya
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Nelson Mandela is dead . . . so what?
Nelson Mandela has been hailed as the epitome of the suffering martyr who sacrificed mightily for his cause. And, what was that cause? To end Apartheid? Or, to gain power and control of South Africa for the communist cause?
Historian Professor Steven Ellis wrote “External Mission: The ANC in Exile 1960-1990", Hurst & Co. Professor Ellis proves that Nelson Mandela was a communist. Mandela was a senior leader in the South African Communist Party (SACP). He joined SACP to garner support for the coming revolution against white rule in South Africa. Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944.
After the Sharpesville massacre by police in March, 1960, who fired upon rioting black demonstrators that killed 69, Mandela asked for help from the communist powers to support an armed revolution against the government of South Africa, allegedly to end Apartheid. Apartheid was a repressive political system that segregated South Africa. As a long term solution to maintain control, Apartheid was not viable.
Nelson Mandela wrote a book on “how to be a good communist” that is sold as an e-book by Barnes and Noble today.
In the 1970s, the ANC was trained by the IRA, which considerably improved the ANC’s success in its bombing against civilian targets in South Africa.
Nelson Mandela was sentenced to prison for 157 acts of terrorism, shedding the blood of innocents rather than use the system to gain power. Further, Nelson Mandela did so as an avowed communist using the African National Congress as the vehicle for the violent overthrow of the government of South Africa. Mandela was offered his freedom by the South African government on several occasions on the condition that he renounced violence. He refused to do so. Mandela’s case was never supported by Amnesty International or any human rights organization, because of his conviction as a communist terrorist and his refusal to renounce violence.
South Africa’s agony began with the attack on Rhodesia from communist inspired and supported movements using neighboring communist controlled Angola as a safe haven. Great Britain, or what was left of the ‘great’ sold out Rhodesia instead of backing the white regime and supporting them militarily until a reasonable political settlement could be reached with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. Nkomo was the leader of the ZAPU party, and Mugabe was the leader of the ZANU-PF. In 1976, they joined forces as the Political Front. After the 1980 independence, Mugabe turned against Nkomo and his ZAPU faction. The Ndebele who supported Nkomo and the white Rhodesian government were persecuted and slaughtered by Mugabe’s Shona in post war Zimbabwe. The ANC supported Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The only group more persecuted than the Ndebele were the white Rhodesians.
Who were the protagonists of the Rhodesian civil war? ZAPU and ZANU-PF were communist along with the African National Congress (ANC) receiving training and indoctrination from the Peoples Liberation Army advisors in Angola. The Red Chinese was a major player in Africa’s civil wars, as was Russia.
Prior to the war (1964-1979), Rhodesia was the literal bread basket of Africa. After the war, the Rhodesian white farmer suffered virtual genocide under Mugabe, with lands confiscated, families brutalized, women and children raped and killed in front of husbands, all to drive the white farmers from their lands. The slaughter of whites and Ndebele in communist controlled Zimbabwe continues today.
Great Britain the west, including the United States, refused to support Rhodesia placing embargoes on the country’s military supplies and replacement parts for helicopters. You see, the Rhodesians were winning the war and that was unacceptable to the liberals in Westminster Palace and the White House. Africa, after all, is for black Africans, the white interlopers were not part of Africa. Just as the U.S. turned its back upon the Republic of Vietnam by ceasing supply of ammunition for weapons and spare parts for vehicles and aircraft, so did Great Britain turn its back on its former colony of Rhodesia and left it to the communists, thereby insuring the destruction of a vibrant, thriving economy that impacted Africa far beyond its borders through the export of food.
Now, Zimbabwe, the successor to Rhodesia, exports . . . misery.
Nelson Mandela’s ANC is moving forward with the same discriminatory, violent, criminal expunging of the white South African farmer from farmland that has been in some families for hundred’s of years. The Dutch first settled the Cape of Africa in 1652. The only black Africans in the area were the Khoisans, or Bushmen. The larger tribes that became the Zulu after being pushed south into present day South Africa by northern tribes came long after the Dutch had settled Cape of Africa.
Over 3,000 South African white farmers and their families have been killed, beaten, raped and driven off their lands with the ANC’s blessings. The current ANC leadership in South Africa has made it very clear that it supports Mugabe’s purge and wants the same for South Africa. The crime wave against the whites South Africa is one of the dirty secrets of the ANC, with daily home invasions that result in the slaughter of innocents, rape and, if lucky, only rape and severe beatings. Usually, family members are killed in front of each other, with the women and female children raped in front of husbands and brothers before they are all killed. There is a war in South Africa, and Nelson and Winnie Mandela were in on its planning and execution.
Bigotry, violence, death and deprivation, and the misery to come from the elimination of South Africa’s ability to feed itself are the legacies of Nelson Mandela and the ANC.
The guilt of the white liberal has allowed this monster to become a cause celebre, instead of his being recognized as the communist terrorist, despot that he was covered in the blood of innocents.
For more information: | <urn:uuid:294d39ef-3837-4096-8ce4-6cb07fbd0f61> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/nelson-mandela-s-legacy-not-what-you-think-it-is | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972729 | 1,279 | 2.625 | 3 |
With Chinese New Year just around the corner, we caught up with Wuon-Gean Ho, designer of The Royal Mint’s Shēngxiào UK Lunar Coin collection, to find out more about her Year of the Monkey coin design. This is now the third coin Wuon-Gean has designed for the Lunar coin collection, so we also took the opportunity to find out more about the lino cutting technique that she uses to create her designs.
The Chinese New Year is one of China’s oldest festivals, with records of it going back as far as the 14th century BC. As its date falls so differently to the New Year celebrated in the Western world, an explanation will help us to understand why that’s so. It’s believed that Emperor Huangdi introduced the lunar calendar, based on the lunisolar cycle. This observes the moon phases and solar years to determine the exact date that Chinese New Year falls on, which will always be between 21st January and 21st February. | <urn:uuid:4faad39c-c538-4b6a-9bad-f025ee526c9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.royalmint.com/tag/chinese-new-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963998 | 210 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Solar Entities Known as Rods
Tricks of Light and Optical Illusions
|Solar Entities Known as Rods
Tricks of Light and Optical Illusions
See evidence of a newly discovered and previously unknown life form that
currently exists on this planet.
Flying rods were believed to be a newly discovered species or a small UFO which were practically invisible to the human eye. These flying rods became popular in 1994 when Jose Escamilla claimed to be the first person to ever film a rod.
It is now widely believed that flying rods are nothing but an optical illusion created on cameras and the objects were actually regular moths and other ordinary flying insects.
Presented for the first time in this
program is stunning high quality video of "Rods" in flight taken by a
production company working for the Discovery Channel while taping cliff
jumpers in South America.
New methods are presented using the sun which
illuminates the phenomenon, providing incredible detail for analyzing
the anatomy of this life form.
Included in this program are comments by
renowned scientists as part of the process of authentication. Discover
new sky fishing methods for capturing this entity on film that you can
use with your own camera.
In cryptozoology, ufology, and outdoor photography, rods (sometimes known as "skyfish" or "solar entities") are elongated artifacts produced by cameras that inadvertently capture several of a flying insect's wingbeats.
Videos of rod-shaped objects moving quickly through the air were claimed by some to be alien life forms or small UFOs, but subsequent experiments showed that these rods appear in film because of an optical illusion/collusion (especially in interlaced video recording).
Various paranormal interpretations appeared in the popular culture, and one of the more outspoken proponents of rods as alien life forms is Jose Escamilla, who claims to have been the first to film them on March 19, 1994 at Roswell, New Mexico, while attempting to film a UFO.
Since then, Escamilla has made additional videos and embarked on lecture tours to promote his claims.
However, investigators have shown that rods are mere tricks of light which result from how images (primarily video images) of flying insects are recorded and played back. In particular, the fast passage before the camera of an insect flapping its wings has been shown to produce rodlike effects, due to motion blur, if the camera is shooting with relatively long exposure times.
On August 8/9, 2005, China Central Television (CCTV) aired a two-part documentary about flying rods in China. It reported the events from May to June of the same year at Tonghua Zhenguo Pharmaceutical Company in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, which debunked the flying rods.
Could it be, that some of the orbital extraterrestrials are indeed some kind of plankton like energy creatures, with the difference of relative size and makeup.
What if they are not flying saucers or mechanical spacecrafts flying in hyperspace, but in fact "primitive" energy beings gathering around an energy source - Planet Earth.
Surveillance cameras in the facility's compound captured video footage of flying rods identical to those shown in Jose Escamilla's video. Getting no satisfactory answer to the phenomenon, curious scientists at the facility decided that they would try to solve the mystery by attempting to catch these airborne creatures.
Huge nets were set up and the same surveillance cameras then captured images of rods flying into the trap. When the nets were inspected, the "rods" were no more than regular moths and other ordinary flying insects. Subsequent investigations proved that the appearance of flying rods on video was an optical illusion created by the slower recording speed of the camera. | <urn:uuid:45e0e96c-56cf-4f10-bc1d-38e756067ec3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://sites.google.com/site/paranormalzonex/UFOs/ufo-rods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959833 | 772 | 2.9375 | 3 |
SCIENCE IN PICTURES (Aug, 1945)
SCIENCE IN PICTURES
Mechanical “Wings” with which the inventor hopes he will be able to fly, are the work of 36-year-old Horace T. Pentecost of Seattle. In his right hand he holds the flight control stick: its handle is the throttle, regulated by turning. The “Hoppicopter,” as the inventor calls it, has a 2-cylinder, 20 hp. motor and weighs 60 pounds plus.
Precipitron an electrostatic air cleaner made by Westinghouse, cleans 23,000 cubic feet of air per minute in this room where lenses for naval optical instruments like periscopes are checked.
“General Pershing” is the name of America’s latest, biggest, and most lethal tank. Its high velocity 90 mm. gun can knock out enemy tanks at ranges of two miles or more.
Dam Model -Scaled at 1 : 60 feet, this model of the proposed Bridge Canyon Dam is being used by the Bureau of Reclamation’s hydraulic laboratory to eliminate “bugs” in the postwar project.
Rotary Snow Plow that can be converted into a lawnmower was built for $12 by A. A. Schwartz from an electric motor, a garbage pail, frying pan, stovepipe, two pulleys, and scrap metal.
“Comet”, Great Britain’s fastest and most heavily armored cruiser tank, is a descendant of the Cromwell. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, it carries a very hard-hitting 77 mm. gun equipped with a new gun-laying device that makes it the most accurate British gun yet. News of the “Comet” was withheld because none had fallen into enemy hands up to VE day.
New Engine is this large steam-turbine-electric locomotive to be used by the Chesapeake & Ohio. Engine is capable of speeds over 100 mph, the coal supply is carried in the head of the locomotive instead of the tender, the boiler is located in the center section behind the engineer’s cab, and the electric motors are in the rear.
Record Dive to 240 lbs. per sq. in., this was the pressure to which Jack Browne, 28-year-old president of a Milwaukee diving supply company, was subjected when he set a new deep sea diving record in a compression chamber in Milwaukee. He wears a helium-oxygen mask (to avoid ‘bends”) and a 50-pound diving suit.
Light Plane, latest model, is the British Miles Messenger, originally designed for specialized war duties, but well suited to postwar private flying. It’s shown here after having been test-flown into a net, throwing full shock of landing on the wings, without damage. A 3- or 4-seater, the plane can take off or land in 60 yards, is easy to fly. 140 hp. engine gives it 120 mph. speed.
“Droop Snoot” was the name given to tricky bombing missions flown by Lightnings carrying two tons of bombs apiece. Elongated nose of this lead plane contains bombardier-navigator compartment equipped with high altitude precision bombing apparatus. Leading formations of bomb-filled fighters, the “droop snoot” aimed and navigated for the group. This camouflaged bombing attack fooled the Nazis for over a year.
“The Runt” squats on the ground at the Douglas Santa Monica service training school and instructs mechanics in the fundamentals of the C-54 “Sky-master” cargo plane without leaving the ground. It consists of the outboard wing panel of the A-20 Havoc mounted on a full-scale forward section of the C-54. The instrument panel records all operations of the 4-1/2 hp. motors.
Sawdust Tires, made of sawdust—impregnated rubber, are really skid-proof, the inventors claim. The two outside tires in photo (left) are the new kind; the center tire is plain rubber.
“Selector” electric alarm clock will turn on the radio, toaster, or lights automatically, time roasting operations and refrigerator defrosting, time any electrical device that plugs into wall socket. Made by Telechron, it will sell for about $10.
Braking of mammoth aircraft tires is tested at Wright Field’s ATSC laboratory. Inertia braking machine spins 350,000 lbs. of steel plates at 3 miles a minute, then slams 3/4 of a ton of 110-inch tire against it. Dials register stress and strain.
2-Minute Chair that can be assembled by an amateur is demonstrated by designer Jules Gottschalk. It’s shaped to decrease weight of material while still giving adequate body support. Two legs instead of usual four lower production costs.
Cooked. Frozen meals that are served on disposable plates will be available to civilians after the War. Foods are partially cooked at the plant, placed on lacquered cardboard plates (right), and quick-frozen at 20° below zero (left above). Housewife cooks meal for 15 minutes in small, thermostatically-controlled oven (right above). Plates can be thrown away after food is eaten.
Insulation made in liquid form, developed for use by the armed forces, is now available to civilians. Called “PiB,” the new product is a penetrant, is absorbed by material treated instead of going on as a coating. In demonstration (left), car with water-soaked ignition started immediately after being treated with “PiB.”
Giant Tank with wheels 102″ high was found in this uncompleted state by American soldiers at a factory near the German town of Hillersleben. Only the chassis is shown, but the immense size of the vehicle is apparent.
Another Nazi mammoth tank was captured half-finished by American troops. The factory is scarcely large enough to hold it. The tank has an opening for a super-size gun turret, but the size of the gun, or guns, to be mounted, is not known. Tracks are 39 inches wide, armor 5 inches thick.
Model of an Essex-class, 27,000-ton, $70,000,000 carrier was constructed in wood at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and erected in the Sunken Plaza in Radio City to aid the Seventh War Loan Drive. Model was named “Fighting Lady.”
3300 Years Old were the seeds from which came the “parents” of these peas growing at the AAF Tactical Center at Orlando, Fla. Three peas found in the tomb of famed King Tutankhamen were planted, produced peas remarkable for growth, resistance to heat, and immunity from plant pests.
Movie Clouds are pain ted on glass by Carl Crouse, who works with his back turned because of the powerful light behind the glass (which is special heat-treated quartz). Arc lamp projects his work in terms of light and shadow on huge canvas backdrops to create illusion of outdoors within studio sound stages. | <urn:uuid:473c1c6b-71f7-4863-87d4-54aa569207f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.modernmechanix.com/science-in-pictures-3/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952697 | 1,496 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Grief" speaks about how each of us deal with grief. She states that deep-hearted men express it by silence, but refrains from telling specifically how others deal with it. However, Browning states that if the dead could cry, they would. Like most of Browning's writings, it's easy to tell that she was passionate about the subject matter. This poem is, most likely, a reference towards how she felt when her brother drowned.
"Grief" is a Petrachan sonnet that consists of fourteen lines with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBACDECDE.
Grief I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God's throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness, In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death-- Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet: If it could weep, it could arise and go. Published in 1844.
Next: To Flush, My Dog
Find out more information about this poem and read others like it.
Victorian, 19th Century
Grief, Death, Family, Relationship | <urn:uuid:2259d926-3b35-44ce-81cc-928070f4a94b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.poemofquotes.com/elizabethbarrettbrowning/grief.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00075-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902966 | 317 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Smartphones can make you lose sleep
In an April 2015 survey for Bank of America, 71% of Americans said they sleep with or next to their smartphones. That convenience could be shutting down their ability to get some shuteye.
Medical experts at Pennsylvania State University say that everyone should stop using electronic devices such as smartphones at least an hour before bedtime so the glow emitted by the devices doesn't disturb the ability to produce melatonin, a natural hormone that's vital to regulating our sleep cycles.
That's especially pertinent advice for the estimated 30% of American adults who suffer symptoms of insomnia. | <urn:uuid:c1df7eeb-5962-4437-943c-beed132be5c7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/smart-spending/reasons-not-to-buy-smartphone-4.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939532 | 121 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Lean Product Development Gets Its Due17 Jul, 2008 By: Jeffrey Rowe
While lean production methods get more notoriety, lean product development is starting to receive the attention it deserves as well.
Most of our readers are probably familiar with the terms and concepts of "lean manufacturing" or "lean production." These terms have been around for many years and their principles have been universally applied, but their greatest level of adoption has been in the automotive industry. What we in the United States now know as lean manufacturing is actually a generic term applied to the Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS combines management philosophy and practices to form an integrated social-technical system at Toyota. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers.
The main goals of the TPS are to design out and eliminate waste. While eliminating waste seems simple and clear, waste is often conservatively identified and inadequately addressed. TPS targets seven kinds of waste for improving the production process:
- overproduction (production ahead of demand)
- motion (people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing)
- waiting (waiting for the next production step)
- conveyance (movement of products that is not required to perform the processing)
- overprocessing (due to poor tool or product design)
- inventory (all components, work-in-progress, and finished product not being processed)
- correction (the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects with associated rework and scrap)
Although the TPS for manufacturing has received a lot of attention, just as important is how Toyota actually develops products, called Toyota's Product Development System (TPDS).
Functional engineering managers are the primarily teachers in TPDS. Authority is based on knowledge, especially technical knowledge. Engineers are judged on their knowledge and use of technical information, such as tradeoff curves. Instead of an elaborate set of detailed subschedules, a set of key integrating events, such as styling approval, tooling release, etc., are established with very specific target dates. At the subsystem level, engineers create multiple alternative solutions for each component, instead of designing one component variation to match a master solution. Over time, each alternative is evaluated against performance tradeoffs. Weak ones are eliminated and new ones are created, often from combining components in new ways. Redundancy is built into the system, thereby reducing risk.
The TPDS is described in great detail in an excellent book by James Morgan and Jeffrey Liker titled The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process and Technology. It is probably the most comprehensive book on the TPDS. In it, Morgan and Liker refer to the Lean Product Development System, but it is really Toyota's, not "lean" as practiced by other companies. The book is the result of research at the University of Michigan headed by the late Alan Ward and discusses 13 principles of lean product development. All the examples compare vehicle development between Toyota and North American car companies, but the principles can be applied to any type of product development.
The goal in lean production is to eliminate material waste through the entire supply chain. The analogy in product development is the waste-free flow of knowledge throughout the entire development supply chain all the way into production. Knowledge is the result of learning, and most learning is from what does not work rather than what does. This is the foundation of the TPDS and what lean product development is all about.
Knowledge-Based Product Development
While researching this article, I came across Targeted Convergence Corporation, a company that has championed the cause of learning and knowledge as the foundations of product development. I spoke with its founder and CEO, Michael Kennedy, about the significance of employing as much knowledge as possible during the product development process. He had several interesting insights as to what it is and how it is positively affecting companies that have adopted the philosophy.
Kennedy refers to Toyota's approach as knowledge-based product development (in which knowledge and technical expertise drive decision making), in contrast to "structure-based" development that is more typical at American manufacturers, where process structures, procedures, and controls drive decision making, with recommendations coming from nontechnical middle managers.
Automotive manufacturers are notoriously secretive about their design practices, so getting specifics is virtually impossible, but we know that in many automotive companies it's not uncommon to have a majority of the engineering workforce solving problems after a product is released to manufacturing. At Toyota, Kennedy estimates that this number is in the 5-10% range — a huge advantage.
According to Kennedy, Toyota doesn't believe it develops automobiles. Instead it continually develops knowledge about automobiles and applies it. He said, "Toyota's product development is all about consistent and planned knowledge from the subsystem level [brakes, interiors, etc.] up, not from the finished car down. If the knowledge part of the equation is addressed correctly, the cars will take care of themselves and emerge naturally from the interaction of gaining and applying knowledge."
Obviously, the product development process is quite a bit different from a manufacturing process, in that the core "material" is not physical objects, but knowledge and information that cannot be seen and touched. The opportunities for waste in the product development system are, however, quite similar to those found in manufacturing operations. Waste is possible with tangible things, such as physical materials, as well as intangible things, such as ideas and knowledge. Just as they are both possible, they are also both manageable, largely by technical and cultural changes within companies.
Test First, Then Design
Kennedy said that the typical product development paradigm is design and test. This paradigm involves first designing a product, testing to see if it works, then iterate until you get it right. This method is full of loop-backs and involves too many guesses for solving the design problem. Toyota finds this method fundamentally flawed and reverses the development paradigm with a sequence of test, then design. Testing first lets Toyota gain the knowledge it needs to eliminate design loop-backs, as well as understand where knowledge gaps are and resolve them.
According to Kennedy, Toyota developed the basic underpinnings of the TPDS from observing the Wright brothers and the "test before design" philosophy they employed while inventing the airplane. Before they ever built a physical airplane, they knew they had to eliminate knowledge gaps in the three fundamental areas for making an airplane fly: lift (wings), thrust (propeller), and control. They performed many tests and solved the problems in these three areas. Once solved, they felt their success was ensured, then they started building an airplane that eventually flew. This test before design philosophy is what Toyota basically still uses today, with great success.
In Kennedy's mind, the knowledge-based product development philosophy promoted innovation at the subsystem level that can be used across projects and a product portfolio and the knowledge it takes to create them. Knowledge-based product development is an interlocked system, not a collection of disconnected techniques. It does not concern itself with discrete projects, but rather, provides a continuum of knowledge that develops across projects.
With his past experience, Kennedy believes that knowledge-based product development works best at companies that continually make similar products, because they can create a continuous knowledge base that flows across all projects on an ongoing basis. And although knowledge-based product development can work at companies of all industries and scales, smaller companies seem to have an easier time adopting and adapting it. The reason is that smaller companies just don't have the administrative overhead (nontechnical middle management) of larger companies that can impede acceptance.
Knowledge Capture and Reuse
At Toyota, knowledge about various solutions sets that have been created, and their performance tradeoffs, is stored in a way that is accessible by all engineering team members. This knowledge management system dramatically reduces the waste of reinvention. It also encourages reuse of components on multiple Toyota automotive platforms. The key technical data associated with each design variation in the set system is tradeoff curves data that shows how variations perform against paired performance variables, such as weight versus size. All of the set solutions that were not used on one vehicle are now available for potential reuse on another vehicle project.
Kennedy said that Toyota has rejected the notion of designing a vehicle, then changing the entire design at once. The company tests and learns about a vehicle's subsystems first, then designs it to minimize and eliminate loop-backs.
In conclusion, Kennedy believes that if knowledge-based product development really catches on, as he truly expects it will, the companies that have adopted it will dominate those that have not. "Toyota is a good example of this domination, because they have gained and apply more knowledge than any other automotive manufacturer," he said. He also believes that in the next 10-15 years, knowledge-based product development will be the predominant means for developing products in an environment that will become increasingly competitive. Knowledge-based product development really is a different approach and one that we will continue to follow closely because of its significance and impact.
Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen guides you through a different AutoCAD feature in every edition of her popular "Circles and Lines" tutorial series. For even more AutoCAD how-to, check out Lynn's quick tips in the Cadalyst Video Gallery. Subscribe to Cadalyst's free Tips & Tools Weekly e-newsletter and we'll notify you every time a new video tip is published. All exclusively from Cadalyst! | <urn:uuid:3713c896-79c4-4cfa-bbd4-9bef2f2cae2f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cadalyst.com/testing-analysis/cae/lean-product-development-gets-its-due-11226 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960034 | 1,934 | 2.515625 | 3 |
President Obama signed legislation into law on Monday, August 16, that authorizes the United States Mint to strike 2012 Star Spangled Banner commemorative coins.
Public Law 111-232 was introduced as H.R. 2097 in the U.S. House by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger on April 23, 2009. It passed in the House on September 9, 2009, and in the Senate on August 2, 2010.
Entitled the Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coin Act, the new law authorizes up to 600,000 coins to celebrate the bicentennial writing of the Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key.
Key wrote the poem after a 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, during the War of 1812. The poem was named The Defence of Fort McHenry, with a note by Key saying that it should be sung to the tune of the British melody To Anacreon in Heaven. It was later renamed to Star-Spangled Banner and officially became the national anthem for the United States in 1931.
The Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coin Act permits up to 100,000 $5 gold coins and a maximum of 500,000 silver dollars for issue during the calendar year beginning on January 1, 2012.
The coin designs must be "emblematic of the War of 1812 and particularly the Battle for Baltimore that formed the basis for the Star-Spangled Banner," include the inscriptions of value, ‘2012’, ‘Liberty’, ‘In God We Trust’, ‘United States of America’, and ‘E Pluribus Unum’.
Each silver dollar will be composed of 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, weigh 26.73 grams and a diameter of 1.500 inches.
In contrast, each $5 gold coin will be made from 90 percent gold and 10 percent alloy, weigh 8.359 grams and have a diameter of 0.850 inches.
Surcharges for the bicentennial commemorative coins — $35 for the $5 gold piece and $10 for the silver dollar — will go to the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission to support bicentennial activities, educational outreach, and preservation and improvement activities pertaining to the sites and structures relating to the War of 1812. | <urn:uuid:2a8d8e0f-c67b-4fec-8536-9eed8af7ed52> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.coinnews.net/2010/08/24/star-spangled-banner-commemorative-coins-for-2012-bicentennial/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939919 | 486 | 2.625 | 3 |
A quiet historical coincidence happened in America's special year of 1776. The Scottish social philosopher and early economist, Adam Smith (1720-1790), published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In his pioneering work on economics, Smith identified a concept that he labeled "rational self-interest."
Smith perceived a correlation between an individual's economic prosperity and his moral behavior. He described how seeking self-interest within a set of moral obligations leads to prosperity. Smith's rational self-interest theory spoke to a person's desire to do the best possible in his own interest, a natural tendency and goal. What made virtue out of this seemingly egotistical and selfish vice was Smith's acknowledgement of a person's ability to confine their behavior within a set of moral obligations. For a potato grower, what might those moral obligations be, exactly?
Among the highest obligations a potato grower faces is protection of his family's equity. Equity is best protected-in fact is only protected-by profitability. Thus, ensuring his farm's profitability becomes a potato grower's moral obligation. But, how can a potato grower ensure profitability when everyone knows that growing potatoes can be a very risky business?
Smith's use of the term "rational" suggests that the term "irrational" can also apply. What would be an irrational approach to growing potatoes? How about growing them in an information vacuum? How about using hope as a strategy for growing open potatoes? How about failure to take into account all of the segments of the potato industry: dehydration, frozen process, fresh and seed? Like it or not, any segment at any time may affect another segment, especially when over- or undersupply happens.
Besides just examining his own unique situation when formulating a crop plan, how about a potato grower truly understanding consumer demand and how, when and where his production fits profitably into markets? Think about this: How many times has just one grower in your community made money on his potatoes while everyone else lost money on theirs? The answer: Rarely if ever.
Why would that be? Why is it so hard to show a profit on your potatoes when all of your neighbors are losing money on their potatoes? The answer: Like it or not, acknowledge it or not, making money as a potato grower is a team effort. Play the game however you will, winning or losing depends not only upon your decisions but also upon your teammates' decisions as well.
Is being linked to a `team of potato growers'-seed, process and fresh-necessarily a bad thing? Quite the opposite. Since all within a segment depend upon the same market, and since supply determines the market, managing supply manages the market. And here's the truly great part: Congress not only allows growers to manage supply, Congress hopes they will do it! Knowing that growers are always in a disadvantaged economic position, Congress leveled the playing field with the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922, which allows growers to engage in certain activities to support price by managing supply. Why? It only makes sense that growers not remain constantly disadvantaged. It only makes sense that rural economies, the ones forming the basis of the national economy, prosper.
Seeing the potato industry as a team effort, with each individual player on each special team doing his part, is unquestionably a rational route to dependable profitability for all players. What are your thoughts? | <urn:uuid:436b0fba-6c91-4126-b5cc-c9c94888e6fe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.potatogrower.com/2013/02/sustainable-profitability | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963961 | 698 | 3.421875 | 3 |
A person's vulnerability to nicotine addiction appears to have a genetic basis, at least in part. A region in the midbrain called the habenula (from Latin: small reins) plays a key role in this process, as Dr. Inés Ibañez-Tallon and her team from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now shown. They also shed light on the mechanism that underlies addiction to nicotine.
According to the World Health Organization WHO in Geneva, it is estimated that tobacco use kills more than five million people each year worldwide. Many of them die of lung cancer. "Two years ago, studies indicated that genetic variations in a specific gene cluster are risk factors for nicotine dependence and lung cancer," Dr. Ibañez-Tallon pointed out. She and her team, together with researchers from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, have now elucidated the mechanism underlying this dependence.
They investigated a specific receptor for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is activated by nicotine in smokers and is encoded by this specific gene cluster, consisting of three subunits, that is three genes. "Although this gene cluster is present in the DNA of every cell, the receptor is only expressed in a few restricted areas of the brain. One of them is the habenula in the midbrain," Dr. Ibañez-Tallon explained.
The MDC researchers investigated this receptor and its subunits in egg cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) and in transgenic mice. One of the three genes of the cluster is alpha5. "An important percentage of heavy smokers carry a single mutation in this gene. They are more prone to become addicted to nicotine and to develop lung cancer than individuals without this mutation," Dr. Ibañez-Tallon said.
Strong Aversion to Nicotine
A second gene in the gene cluster encoding this receptor is beta4. The MDC researchers demonstrated that transgenic mice expressing high levels of the beta4 gene have increased sensitivity to nicotine. These mice have a strong aversion to drinking water containing nicotine.
However, when the researchers expressed the mutated variant of the alpha5 gene via a lentivirus in the habenular brain region of these mice, after only two weeks the mice showed a preference for nicotine. Dr. Ibañez-Tallon and her colleagues conclude that only a balanced activity of these two genes can rein in nicotine use.
Neuron, May,12, 2011, Vol. 70, Issue 3, pp: 522-535; DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.04.013 | <urn:uuid:6e4c1d21-f711-47e9-a37b-876729a56f60> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-reining-nicotine-midbrain-habenula-region.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933359 | 566 | 3.046875 | 3 |
There is no question that Americans are on average considerably more religious than Europeans; the only major exception is Poland, which remains a bastion of Catholicism. Other major Catholic countries in Europe, such as Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Austria, have low levels of church attendance and adherence to church doctrines. Countries like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, and (above all) the Scandinavian countries, rank very low on the scale of religiosity. There is some suspicion, however, that the differences in religious observance between the United States and Europe are smaller than public opinion polls reveal, because Americans are reluctant to acknowledge that they don’t attend church regularly—but of course this is a clue to the hold that religion has over the American mind. No one could be elected President of the United States who did not profess to believe in God, whereas the question of religious belief does not arise for aspirants to become European heads of state.
The United States has a much higher level of religious belief than Europe as well as of church attendance and religious observance. More than 50 percent of Americans consider religion very important to their lives, a figure more than twice that in most European countries. Furthermore, while in general the religiosity of a country is inverse to its per capita income, the United States has a level of religiosity similar to that in much less prosperous countries. Finally, religious observance and belief have been declining in Europe since at least the 1960s but increasing in the United States during the same period, though recently there have been signs of reduced observance and belief in the United States as well. A loosening of the grip of religion in America is suggested by the rapidly increasing tolerance for cohabitation outside of marriage, of births out of wedlock, and of same-sex relationships and even same-sex marriage.
The prevalent economic explanation for American religiosity, which derives from eighteenth-century writings by David Hume and Adam Smith, is that established churches, like other monopolists, reduce output, though by a somewhat different route from business monopolists. An established church normally is supported in significant part by taxes, enabling church leaders and other church personnel to spend less time in proselytizing because they have a pecuniary advantage in competing with other churches. The “quiet life” theory of monopoly (John Hicks) is not widely accepted in regard to commercial markets because a monopolist that does not strive to minimize its costs is sacrificing profits, just like a competitive firm though with less dire consequences for survival. But because most churches, and certainly established churches, are not for-profit enterprises, profit maximization is not feasible and church leaders may take rents in the form of luxurious buildings and art, elaborate staff, and leisure, instead of in money.
Furthermore, whereas a commercial monopoly can offer a diversity of products or services, that is difficult for a religious organization to do—it can hardly offer one set of religious beliefs that allow parishioners’ pets to go to heaven and another set that reserves heaven for the souls of human beings, or a set that includes Satan and Hell and a set that eliminates those unpleasant features of conventional religion. Committed to a single set of rituals and beliefs, an established church is bound to lose the support of many people, who however may find only limited alternatives if competing churches are at a significant competitive disadvantage because of the established church’s governmental backing.
Although the United States had quasi-established churches in New England at the founding of the nation, the First Amendment to the Constitution (1787) forbade the federal government to establish a church, and the state establishments soon crumbled as well. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) was eventually interpreted to forbid states to establish churches, and the Supreme Court continues to enforce a high degree of “separation” between church(es) and state even today, despite the nation’s increased religiosity. As a result, there is vigorous competition among religious sects in the United States, notably including competition in observances and doctrines. As a result of this greatly increased religious variety (compared to Europe, which has long had, and continues to have, established churches in most of its countries), there is a much greater likelihood of a given individual’s finding a religious sect that is to his liking in the United States than in Europe.
It does seem also that Americans are more credulous on average than Europeans—less matter of fact, less inclined to accept the authority of science (notably in regard to evolution, and geological phenomena related to evolution, such as the age of the earth), more superstitious. But it is unclear whether this is cause or consequence of the greater religiosity of Americans compared to Europeans. What seems more clearly causal is Americans’ individualism and spirit of independence. The vast majority of American Catholics reject Catholic doctrine on contraception (that only the unreliable “rhythm” method is permissible) while considering themselves good Catholics and continuing to attend church and make donations. And Americans are continually breaking away from existing sects and joining or founding new ones.
Another plausible causal factor in American religiosity is the size of the United States and the mobility of its population. A church provides a locus for forming community ties in a new city or suburb to which a family has moved. There is less population mobility within European countries, let alone among those countries, so less need to be a member of a community that exists everywhere that one might move to.
Finally, an interesting and at first sight paradoxical aspect of American religiosity is the very high level of tolerance for other people’s religions. There are two major exceptions. There is limited tolerance for Islam because of the strongly Muslim character of al Qaeda and related terrorist movements. And there is a surprisingly strong antipathy to Mormonism—public opinion polls show that while only a few percent of respondents would be reluctant to vote for a Jewish candidate for President, 20 percent would be reluctant to vote for a Mormon. This reluctance appears to be attributable in part to a lingering association in many people’s minds of Mormonism with polygamy, and in part to Mormon beliefs that other Christians consider deeply heretical, such as the belief that Jesus Christ visited North America during his lifetime and that human beings after death eventually become gods, and the rejection of the Trinity. Indeed some Mormons while venerating Christ do not consider themselves Christians. | <urn:uuid:85a9a1d6-bc05-4392-b186-96ebb6741ec7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2012/06/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967278 | 1,299 | 2.53125 | 3 |
-- for Abstraction
-- for Problems
-- Emotion Patterns
AIPatterns.Org is a collection of information about artificial
Anyone that would like to comment, criticize, challenge, question,
correct, or make contributions is urged to contact Brian Marshall
Definition of AI Patterns
An AI pattern is a design for a relatively simple, independent
technique or object that can be used in software to add an aspect
of intelligence to decision-making, projection/estimation, pattern
recognition or problem-solving.
General AI Patterns
In its general form, pandemonium consists of an object that owns a
a set of shrieking demons and uses the information being shrieked to
make decisions. Each demon monitors its input for certain conditions.
If the conditions are observed, the demon shrieks. The volume of a
shriek is based on the degree to which the input matches the conditions
and/or the importance the demon attaches to the conditions. Pandemonium
can be used to...
- monitor a situation and trigger an action when required;
delegate the requirement to watch for a condition.
- implement abstraction - ex. to turn sensations into perceptions
or to turn perceptions into conceptions.
- make decisions, solve easy problems, explore the solution
space of hard problems.
- project the state of a system into the future; generate multiple
possible projections of system state.
An emotion object maintains a goodness-value that, possibly in
conjunction with other emotions, is used to make a decision. The
goodness-value of an emotion changes as a result of evaluations
of events that have occurred. An emotion can also be used to evaluate
hypothetically how good/bad and event would be (without having major
effect on the stored goodness-value). Emotions can be used to...
- make decisions where the number of considerations would make
hard-wiring the logic difficult. For example, it is easier to
hard-wire the reasons a deer should be afraid, and to run away
when the fear is great enough, than it is to hard-wire when a
deer should run away.
- perturb the process of repeatedly attempting to find a
solution to a problem so that, in different attempts, different
possible solutions will be tried.
- perturb the process of repeatedly projecting the future state
of a system so that different possibilities are projected.
This could be useful in conjunction with Monte Carlo methods. | <urn:uuid:8d868fa9-a1e9-474b-a488-a4c5eb948471> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.agt.net/public/bmarshal/aipatterns/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.874526 | 520 | 3.75 | 4 |
JOB A REAL PERSON.--It has been supposed by some that the book of Job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, both before and after his trials; his three friends sit down with him seven days and seven nights; both before and after his trials he had three daughters. So also the number and form of the speeches of the several speakers seem to be artificial. The name of Job, too, is derived from an Arabic word signifying repentance.
But Ezekiel 14:14 conjunction with "Noah and Daniel," real persons. St. James ( James 5:11 he would not have been likely to do had Job been only a fictitious person. Also the names of persons and places are specified with a particularity not to be looked for in an allegory. As to the exact doubling of his possessions after his restoration, no doubt the round number is given for the exact number, as the latter approached near the former; this is often done in undoubtedly historical books. As to the studied number and form of the speeches, it seems likely that the arguments were substantially those which appear in the book, but that the studied and poetic form was given by Job himself, guided by the Holy Spirit. He lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, and nothing would be more natural than that he should, at his leisure, mould into a perfect form the arguments used in the momentous debate, for the instruction of the Church in all ages. Probably, too, the debate itself occupied several sittings; and the number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, and each was allowed the interval of a day or more to prepare carefully his speech and replies; this will account for the speakers bringing forward their arguments in regular series, no one speaking out of his turn. As to the name Job--repentance (supposing the derivation correct)--it was common in old times to give a name from circumstances which occurred at an advanced period of life, and this is no argument against the reality of the person.
WHERE JOB LIVED.--"Uz," according to GESENIUS, means a light, sandy soil, and was in the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates, called by PTOLEMY (Geography, 19) Ausitai or Aisitai. In Genesis 10:23 ; 22:21 ; 36:28 ; 1 Chronicles 1:17 1 Chronicles 1:42 a man. In Jeremiah 25:20 ; Lamentations 4:21 in Genesis 22:21 different person from the one mentioned ( Genesis 10:23 Shem. The probability is that the country took its name from the latter of the two; for this one was the son of Aram, from whom the Arameans take their name, and these dwelt in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Compare as to the dwelling of the sons of Shem in Genesis 10:30 of the East" ( Job 1:3 Assyrian inscriptions, states that "Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the mouth of the Euphrates." It is probable that Eliphaz the Temanite and the Sabeans dwelt in that quarter; and we know that the Chaldeans resided there, and not near Idumea, which some identify with Uz. The tornado from "the wilderness" ( Job 1:19 view of it being Arabia-Deserta. Job ( Job 1:3 greatest of the men of the East"; but Idumea was not east, but south of Palestine: therefore in Scripture language, the phrase cannot apply to that country, but probably refers to the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine, Idumea, and the Euphrates. So the Arabs still show in the Houran a place called Uz as the residence of Job. | <urn:uuid:e6c4c39b-7bf5-498a-a493-24d5788eab33> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.christianity.com/bible/bible-study-tips/an-introduction-to-job-11567871.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977667 | 826 | 3.125 | 3 |
Located primarily in southern Africa, the chacma baboon has a wide variety of social behaviors, including a dominance hierarchy, collective foraging, adoption of young by females, and friendship pairings. These behaviors form parts of a complex evolutionary ecology.
In general the species is not threatened, but human population pressure has increased contact between humans and baboons. Hunting, accidents and trapping kill or remove many baboons from the wild. This has reduced baboon numbers and disrupted their social structure.
Due to hybridization between different baboon (Papio) populations across Africa, authors have occasionally grouped the entire radiation as a single species, the hamadryas baboon, Papio hamadryas. Arbitrary boundaries were then used to separate the populations into subspecies. Other authors considered the chacma baboon a subspecies of the yellow baboon, Papio cynocephalus, though it is now recognised as a separate species, Papio ursinus. The chacma baboon has two or three subspecies, depending on which classification is followed. Grubb et al. (2003) listed two subspecies, while Groves (2005) in Mammal Species of the World listed three. This article follows Groves (2005) and describes three distinct subspecies. In the Grubb et al. (2003) paper, P. u. raucana was believed to be synonymous with P. u. ursinus.
- Papio ursinus ursinus Kerr, 1792 – Cape chacma (found in southern South Africa)
- P. u. griseipes Pocock, 1911 – Gray-footed chacma (found in northern South Africa to southern Zambia)
- P. u. raucana Shortridge, 1942 – Ruacana chacma (found from Namibia to southern Angola)
The chacma baboon is perhaps the longest species of monkey, with a male body length of 50–115 cm (20–45 in) and tail length of 45–84 cm (18–33 in). It also one of the heaviest; the male weighs from 21 to 45 kg (46 to 99 lb). Baboons are sexually dimorphic, and females are considerably smaller than males. The female chacma weighs from 12 to 25 kg (26 to 55 lb). It is similar in size to the olive baboon and of similar weight to the more compact mandrill, which is usually crowned the largest of all monkeys. The chacma baboon is generally dark brown to gray in color, with a patch of rough hair on the nape of its neck. Unlike the males of northern baboon species (the Guinea, hamadryas, and olive baboons), chacma males do not have a mane. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this baboon is its long, downward-sloping face. The canine teeth of male chacma baboons have a mean length of 3.86 ± 0.30 cm at the time they emigrate from their natal troop. This is the time of greatest tooth length as the teeth tend to wear or be broken thereafter.
The three subspecies are differentiated by size and color. The Cape chacma is a large, heavy, dark-brown, and has black feet. The gray-footed chacma is slightly smaller than the Cape chacma, lighter in color and build, and has gray feet. The Ruacana chacma generally appears to be a smaller, less darkly colored version of the Cape chacma.
Habitat and distribution
The chacma baboon inhabits a wide array of habitats including woodland, savanna, steppes, and subdesert, from the grassy alpine slopes of the Drakensberg to the Kalahari desert. During the night the chacma baboon needs hills, cliffs, or large trees in which to sleep. During the day water availability may limit its range in arid areas. It is found in southern Africa, ranging from South Africa north to Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique. The subspecies are divided across this range. The Cape chacma is found in southern South Africa; the gray-footed chacma, is present from northern South Africa, through the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique (south of the Zambezi), to southwest Zambia; and the Ruacana chacma is found in northern Namibia and southern Angola.
The chacma baboon is omnivorous with a preference for fruits, while also eating insects, seeds, grass, smaller vertebrate animals, and fungi (the desert truffle Kalaharituber pfeilii). It is generally a scavenger when it comes to game meat, and rarely engages in hunting large animals. One incident of a chacma baboon killing a human infant has been reported, but the event is so rare, the locals believed it was due to witchcraft. Normally, chacma baboons will flee at the approach of humans, though this is changing due to the easy availability of food near human dwellings.
A dominant male baboon calls to his pride
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The chacma baboon usually lives in social groups, called troops, which are composed of multiple adult males, adult females, and their offspring. Occasionally, however, very small groups form that consist of only a single adult male and several adult females. Chacma troops are characterized by a dominance hierarchy. Female ranking within the troop is inherited through the mother and remains relatively fixed, while male ranking is often in flux, especially when the dominant male is replaced. Chacmas are unusual among baboons in that neither males nor females form strong relationships with members of the same sex. Instead, the strongest social bonds are often between unrelated adult males and females. Infanticide is also common compared to other baboon species, as newly dominant males will often attempt to kill young baboons sired by the previously dominant male. Baboon troops possess a complex group behavior and communicate by means of body attitudes, facial expressions, vocalizations and touch.
Morning dispersal patterns
The chacma baboon often sleeps in large groups on cliffs or in trees at night to avoid predators. The morning dispersal from the sleeping site is synchronized, with all members leaving at the same time. In most cases, dispersal is initiated by a single individual, and the other members of the group decide whether or not to follow. At least five followers must be recruited for a successful dispersal initiation, and not all initiation attempts are successful. Surprisingly, the initiator's dominance status shows little correlation with successful initiation of departure; more-dominant individuals are no more likely to lead a successful departure than subordinate individuals. One study has shown that while the success rate of dispersal initiation attempts is relatively constant across all sexes, male are more likely to attempt initiation than females, and lactating females are less likely to attempt initiation than females without dependent offspring. A separate study has achieved slightly different results. While dominance hierarchy does not play a significant role in initiating the morning dispersal, social affiliation does. Chacma baboons that play a more central role in the group (as measured by grooming behavior and time spent with other members) are more likely to be followed during the morning dispersal. This study concluded that group members are more likely to follow the behavior of individuals with which they are closely affiliated.
Dominance does play a role in group foraging decisions. A dominant individual (usually the alpha male) leads the group to easily monopolized resources. The group usually follows, even though many subordinate members cannot gain access to that particular resource. As in morning dispersal, the inclination of group members to follow the leader is positively associated with social interactions with that dominant individual.
Collective foraging behavior, with many individuals taking advantage of the same resource at once, has also been observed. However, this behavior can be chiefly attributed to shared dietary needs rather than social affiliation. Pregnant females, who share similar dietary needs, are more likely to synchronize their behavior than fertile females. Foraging synchronization decreases in areas with lower food density.
Adoption behavior has been observed in chacma baboons. Orphaned baboons whose mothers have disappeared or died are often too small to care for themselves. In one study of nine natural orphans and three introduced orphans, all but one orphan were adopted by another member of the group. The individual that was not adopted was 16 months old, four months older than the next oldest orphan, and was old enough to survive on its own. Adoption behavior includes sleeping close to the orphaned infant, grooming and carrying the orphan, and protecting it from harassment by other members of the troop. Both males and females care for infants, and care does not depend on the infant's sex. Additionally, all caregivers are prereproductive, only four or five years of age. The two major theories explaining this behavior are kin selection, in which caregivers take care of potentially related orphans, and parental practice, in which young caregivers increase their own fitness by using an orphan to practice their own parental skills.
Males and female chacma baboons often form relationships referred to as "friendships". These cooperative relationships generally occur between lactating females and adult males. The females are believed to seek out male friendships to gain protection from infanticide. In many baboon species, immigrant alpha males often practice infanticide upon arrival to a new troop. By killing unrelated infants, the new male shortens the time until he can mate with the females of the troop. A female with dependent offspring generally does not become sexually receptive until she weans her offspring at around 12 months of age. However, a mother usually becomes sexually receptive shortly after the death of her offspring.
This protection hypothesis is supported by studies of stress hormones in female baboons during changes in the male hierarchy. When an immigrant male ascends to the top of the male dominance hierarchy, stress hormones in lactating and pregnant females increases, while stress hormones in females not at risk of infanticide stay the same. Additionally, females in friendships with males exhibit a smaller rise in stress hormones than do females without male friends.
The benefits of friendship to males are less clear. A male is more likely to enter into friendships with females with which he has mated, which indicates males might enter into friendships to protect their own offspring and not just to protect that female's future reproductive success. These friendships may play a role in the mating system of chacma baboons. A female will often mate with several males, which increases the number of potential fathers for her offspring and increases the chances she will be able to find at least one friend to protect her infants.
Female chacma baboons have been observed to compete with each other for male friends. This may be the result of one male having a high probability of paternity with multiple females. These competitions are heavily influenced by the female dominance hierarchy, with dominant females displacing subordinate females in friendships with males. Generally, when a more-dominant female attempts to make friends with an individual which is already the friend of a subordinate female, the subordinate female reduces grooming and spatial proximity to that male, potentially leaving her offspring at higher risk of infanticide.
Relationship with humans
The chacma baboon is widespread and does not rank among threatened animal species. However, in some confined locations, such as South Africa's Southern Cape Peninsula, local populations are dwindling due to habitat loss and predation from other protected species, such as leopards and lions. Some troops have become a suburban menace, overturning trash cans and entering houses in their search for food. These troops can be aggressive and dangerous, and such negative encounters have resulted in hunting by frustrated local residents. This isolated population is thought to face extinction within 10 years.
The chacma is listed under Appendix II of CITES as it occurs in many protected areas across its range. The only area in South Africa where they are monitored is in the Cape Peninsula, where they are protected.
Observations by those working hands-on in South Africa's rehabilitation centers have found this species is damaged by human intervention; troop structures are influenced, and over the years a significant loss in numbers has occurred. Because they live near human habitats, baboons are shot, poisoned, electrocuted, run over, and captured for the pet industry, research laboratories and muthi (medicine). Despite this, assessors working for the IUCN believe there are no major threats that could result in a range-wide decline of the species.
In popular culture
In 2011, the British Television Channel ITV1 aired an eight-episode miniseries, hosted by popular British comedian Bill Bailey. The series followed the lives of three different family groups of chacma baboons in South Africa. The series focuses on the baboons' abilities to adapt to human settlement and their complex social lives. It is generally structured within a narrative, with each adult baboon having a name and being treated as an 'actor' in the story. The three families of baboons have each developed their own ways of life; the 'Smitz' group spends most its time trying to rob food from tourists along a coastal highway, the 'Tokai' group has remained in a more natural forest area, and the 'Da Gama' group lives on the rooftops of an apartment complex. The program is the second attempt by Bailey to produce a semiserious nature documentary, and it received generally favourable reviews.
- Fred (baboon)
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- King, A. J.; Sueur, C.; Huchard, E.; Cowlishaw, G. (2011). "A rule-of-thumb based on social affiliation explains collective movements in desert baboons". Animal Behaviour 82: 1337–1345. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.09.017.
- King, A. J.; Douglas, C. M. S.; Huchard, E.; Isaac, N. J. B.; Cowlishaw, G. (2008). "Dominance and affiliation mediate despotism in a social primate". Current Biology 18 (23): 1833–1838. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.10.048. PMID 19026539.
- King, A. J.; Cowlishaw, G. (2009). "All together now: behavioural synchrony in baboons". Animal Behaviour 78: 1381–1387. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.09.009.
- Hamilton, W. J.; Busse, C.; Smith, K. S. (1982). "Adoption of infant orphan chacma baboons". Animal Behaviour 30: 29–34. doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(82)80233-9.
- Engh, A. L.; Beehner, J. J.; Bergman, T. J.; Whitten, P. L.; Hoffmeiers, R. K.; Seyfarth, R. M.; Cheney, D. L. (2006). "Female hierarchy instability, male immigration and infanticide increase glucocorticoid levels in female chacma baboons". Animal Behaviour 71: 1227–1237. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.11.009.
- Beehner, J. C.; Bergman, T. J.; Cheney, D. L.; Seyfarth, R. M; Whittens, P. L. (2005). "The effect of new alpha males on female stress in free-ranging baboons". Animal Behaviour 69: 1211–1221. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.08.014.
- Moscovice, L. R.; Di Fiore, A.; Crockford, C.; Kitchen, D. M.; Wittig, R.; Seyfarth, R. M.; Cheney, D. L. (2010). "Hedging their bets? Male and female chacma baboons form friendships based on likelihood of paternity". Animal Behaviour 79: 1007–1015. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.013.
- Clarke, P. M. R.; Henzi, S. P.; Barrett, L. (2009). "Sexual conflict in chacma baboons, Papio hamadryas ursinus: absent males select for proactive females". Animal Behaviour 77: 1217–1215. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.02.003.
- Palombit, R. A.; Cheney, D. L.; Seyfarth R. M. (2001). "Female–female competition for male 'friends' in wild chacma baboons, Papio cynocephalus ursinus". Animal Behaviour 61: 1159–1171. doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1690.
- Busse, C. (1980). "Leopard and lion predation upon chacma baboons living in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve". Botswana Notes & Records 12: 15–21.
- "Darwin Primate Group". Retrieved 9 December 2012.
- ITV1 (28 March 2011). "Baboons with Bill Bailey". itvWILD. ITV. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
- Hall, J. (8 April 2011). "TV review: Baboons with Bill Bailey". Edinburgh Evening News. Retrieved 9 June 2011. | <urn:uuid:187a255c-7583-43c9-93db-a0dd862da8fc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://eol.org/data_objects/27099278 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.88549 | 4,592 | 3.6875 | 4 |
One of the great frustrations and blessings of Mormon History is operating within a remarkably deep well of sources and evidence. Thus, new discoveries regularly remind one of one's own relative ignorance. Depending on the day, I refer to this as the curse or blessing of D&C 21:1 ("Behold, there shall be a record kept among you..."), which adorns the wall above the entrance into the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.
Recently, the Church History Department published the second of three annotated volumes of journals kept by Joseph Smith, his clerks, and -- in this case -- Eliza R. Snow, a teacher living in Smith's home who became one of the prophet's plural wives in June 1842.
Much of the discussion of this volume has centered around Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, first firmly documented with his marriage to Louisa Beaman (one of my favorite women in LDS History) in April 1841. That marriage came slightly before the first journal in this volume; Smith married approximately fifteen additional women by April 1843, when this volume ends. The pages of Smiths' journals provide precious little information about these marriages, but the subject comprises the heart of the editors' introduction to this volume. Those pages do not constitute what most scholars would consider a frank examination of polygamy, but they do affirm that some of the marriages were consummated and that some of the women involved were already married. Most notably, the editors document that Smith married Marinda Hyde, already the wife of Mormon apostle Orson Hyde. The editors (Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Richard Lloyd Anderson) conclude that the "polyandrous marriages ... were primarily a means of binding other families to his [Smith's] for the spiritual benefit and mutual salvation of all involved." While Smith's practice of plural marriage certainly involved more than lust and sex, in my mind that conclusion (which rests on Richard Bushman's analysis in Rough Stone Rolling) reaches beyond the very fragmentary and contested evidence. Despite a small mountain of scholarship on Mormon polygamy, we know relatively little about how most of its earliest practitioners -- including Joseph Smith -- understood it at the time.
Readers interested in such matters can readily find full treatments elsewhere. The value of this volume lies in the journals themselves, the annotations, and the remaining scholarly apparatus. All reflect the resources and talent that the Church History Department continues to devote to this venture.
I was quickly struck by the passage for December 27, 1841: "Joseph. was with. Brigham [Young], Heber C [Kimball], Willard [Richards]. & John [Taylor] of the twelve, at his office. instructing them in the principles of the kingdom." The annotation for that sentence references Wilford Woodruff's journal: "I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM," the seer stones that Joseph Smith used during his translation of the Book of Mormon. I had never put those passages together, but I found it noteworthy that Brigham Young probably saw them for the first time on that date as well. Any student of Mormon History will encounter such nuggets throughout the volume.
The chronology, outstanding maps, biographical directory, complex charts of church officers, and bibliography will all also be of great use to anyone active in Mormon Studies. Any instructor with students who might write research papers on Mormon topics should have their libraries buy the (not inexpensive) volumes of the JSP. At this point, it is frustrating not to have access to the index, but it evidently will be available on the JSP website in teh near future. The JSP website also has a number of high-resolution scans of sources available on its website. | <urn:uuid:f956c7af-8ab5-490b-89b5-3d2a685ccf3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2011/12/joseph-smith-journals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964906 | 765 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Twice the team saw the bonobos capture, kill, and eat their monkey prey.
"The second I read this, I thought: Oh good, finally!" said primatologist Elizabeth Lonsdorf of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
"Bonobos being so peaceful never sat well with me," said Lonsdorf, who was not involved with the study.
"We see all species of captive apes, including bonobos, hunting animals, like squirrels, that wander into their enclosures. I was just waiting for something like this to come up," she said.
Primatologist Frans de Waal at Emory University in Atlanta said the research "changes our perception of bonobo social organization."
"This is a milestone finding," said de Waal, who also was not involved with the study.
"Now that actual observations have been made, [it] changes our perception of bonobo social organization," he said.
The scientists, funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, were intrigued to find that some female bonobos hunt just as well as the males. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
Among chimpanzees, females rarely hunt and have not been seen taking active roles in hunting parties.
But female bonobos launched themselves up trees and attacked their monkey prey just as effectively as the males, Hohmann and Surbeck reported.
"That females are hunting at all came as a surprise, but a few of them are truly excellent hunters," Hohmann said. "We just did not expect that."
Previous studies have found bonobo communities to engage amicably with monkeys they meet.
Bonobos have been observed "borrowing" baby black-and-white colobus monkeys and playing with them as if they were toys. They have also been seen engaging in grooming behavior with red colobus monkeys.
The Chicago zoo's Lonsdorf said playmates can easily become food if conditions change.
"I've seen adult chimpanzees hunt baboon babies that their offspring were playing with just days earlier," she said. "The same could easily be true of bonobos."
Emory University's de Waal said, "We are seeing in bonobos what happened a few decades ago for chimpanzees: field studies begin to report great variation from population to population."
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES | <urn:uuid:fa356986-496d-45c2-9553-3f13692b59eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081013-bonobos-attack-missions_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97576 | 495 | 2.875 | 3 |
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
© WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angewandte Chemie International Edition ,
May 10, 2010
Wood in the Tank
Valeric fuels: a new generation of biogasoline and biodiesel from lignocellulose
One of the most pressing problems of our time is the increasing demand for energy in the face of decreasing oil and natural gas reserves, which is also tied to the increasing release of the greenhouse gas CO2. Biofuels could be part of the solution to this problem. Jean-Paul Lange and his co-workers at Shell in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Cheshire (UK), and Hamburg (Germany) have now developed a highly promising new generation of biofuels based on wood. As the scientists report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, modern vehicles could use it without modification, and the existing network of fueling stations could be used for distribution.
The first generation of biofuels was based on sugars, starch, and oils derived from plants. However, because these raw materials are primarily used for food, they could not be supplied in the quantities required by the transportation sector. One potential alternative is lignocellulose (latin lignum = wood), which makes up the cell walls of woody plants. This material is more widely distributed and cheaper, and its use can be produced more sustainably. However, until now lignocellulose has required complex and expensive processing for conversion to biofuels.
There is one compound that is claimed to be obtained from lignocellulose through a simple acid hydrolysis: levulinic acid, a product otherwise produced from glucose and used as an additive in the cosmetics, plastics, and textile industries. However, to date, it has not been possible to convert levulinic acid into any fuels with satisfactory properties.
Lange and his co-workers have now found the right trick: they hydrogenated levulinic acid in a newly developed process to make valeric acid, which they then esterified to make valerates (some valerates are used as artificial flavors). This produces a new family of fuels, known as valeric biofuels. Depending on the reactants used in the esterification, the fuel may be in the form of biogasoline or biodiesel, and can be mixed with other fuels currently available. Modern cars can use them without any modification to their motors; similarly, the existing network of fueling stations could be used for their distribution.
The new fuels have passed a long list of exacting tests. In one road test, ten current types of vehicle, new and used, were fuelled exclusively with a mixture of normal gasoline mixed with 15 % by volume of the vareric biogasoline, and were sent out on the road to cover 500 km a day. After a total distance of 250,000 km, no negative impacts were found in the motor, tank, or fuel lines. | <urn:uuid:ea0f325d-ebd1-453e-8d2b-289d28a88ff7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3773/homepage/press/201017press.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945718 | 629 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Wildlife officials say the annual count of a major elk herd that migrates between Yellowstone National Park and Montana was unable to be completed this year.
But scientists from the park and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks say a related study suggests the population size remains similar to the 3,915 elk counted in 2013.
Officials said Monday that weather problems prevented completion of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd survey when it was attempted in February.
The herd peaked at about 20,000 animals in 1992. That was just a few years before gray wolves were reintroduced to the Yellowstone area from Canada after being absent from the region for decades. | <urn:uuid:ec1b8a23-50b7-46b2-948a-3d61f93b14a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/yellowstone-elk-count-marred-by-weather/25487682 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965349 | 131 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The last decade was all about the web. The Internet itself used to be a scientific dream; to transmit data and messages from one computer to the next, and share information, until it became what it is today. Billions of people are now online using the technologies we pioneered in the last century for business transactions, entertainment, communication, and all sorts of things that were not possible before.
Few would argue against the fact that the Internet is transforming modern life, allowing us to have access to an unlimited amount of information, while being able to instantly communicate through long distances.. This in turn sparked new movements and groups, allowing ideas to flow between people in a far easier way than before. At least, that’s the philosophical view of the Internet.
Of course, in reality, not everyone uses the web to consume legally provided content, or talk to their family and friends about topics that any American would be proud of speaking about in public. This same technology allowed underground sites to distribute Hollywood movies and music illegally at an unprecedented rate. Any group who opposes a government or organization can instantly get together and share rebellious thoughts. And those who want to harm others can plan their crimes using the anonymity provided by these very protocols.
As a result, there is rarely a month goes by without some report about cyber espionage, web sites being breached and user information stolen, criminal organizations releasing new attack tools, botnets reaching new heights, or Washington lobbyists pushing for new laws to protect intellectual properties while brushing away our rights. The government implemented spying networks, able to collect, analyze and store emails in real time. Backdoors have now become a common source of worry in networking equipment, and special cyber squads were invented to try and hack into the enemy systems before they could get into ours.
The Internet has become a battleground in more ways than one, and both the “good guys” and “bad guys” are fighting virtually regardless of which side you deem good or bad. Now, we’re about to see the whole process repeat itself in a completely different yet parallel way with the use of drones. To understand where we are, it is vital to know how we got here.
Drones are hardly new technology, just like the web was not new in 2000. However, just like with the dot com bubble of the early 21stcentury, drones are now entering the spotlight because they are no longer a scientist’s toy or experiments of what the future could be like. Drones are now here in a big way, causing many privacy concerns among citizens. In the military alone, some estimates show that the US Air Force will be training more drone pilots than actual pilots this year. Their experience shows that it only takes 6 months for a new recruit to be able to pilot the biggest armed drones out there, and they do a better job at it if they have no previous piloting experience – meaning anyone off the street could learn the needed skills.
Quadcopters have now become the preferred type of civilian RC drones because they are trivial to control, much more stable, and have a much greater ability to be expanded. One of these expansions is the ability to turn them into fully automated systems using open source code. This means that unlike a remotely controlled device, an Arducopter can be created with around $500 worth of gear and they provide the same piloting abilities as the military drones do, minus the weapons, of course.
You can input GPS coordinates and tell them exactly where to go, what to do once there, what height to stay at and whether they should hover in place, with a precision of just a few feet. Along with a good battery and a high resolution camera, you could have an inexpensive drone roaming a city and taking photos from any angle in the sky.
The possible uses are truly endless. From news gathering of events, to the monitoring of crops in farms as well as surveillance, drones are being applied to new uses all the time. Quadcopters are now being sold in a size that fits in the palm of your hand, making the mention “like a fly on the wall” into a plausible scenario. Corporate meeting rooms beware!
So is anyone surprised that the government is literally in panic mode? Several states and local governments have been scrambling to tackle this issue. The irony is that the argument politicians used in the past decade were that new laws had to be passed in order to stop criminals and protect us against things such as child pornography, even if it meant less personal privacy. This time, however, the arguments are the complete opposite.
A new bill in New Hampshire would ban aerial photography from drones or any type of flying device, unless you’re its government-sanctioned, citing privacy concerns. Meanwhile, the town of Charlottesville, Virginia banned the purchase of drones for two years for local authorities, again citing privacy concerns. Of course, we already know that the federal government makes extensive use of drones. They are not only used in foreign countries to spy on enemies and, but the US Customs and Border Protection agency uses drones on the Canadian and Mexican borders as well. Here we’re talking about full-on predator unmanned vehicles, able to carry missiles, not simple quadcopters.
In many ways, what we see happening now with drones reflect what happened with the web. We have military technology that was developed to help wage wars get into civilian hands who then broaden the uses of this same technology. This quickly gets followed by governments and spying agencies attempting to keep control of the situation, and making an even greater use of that same technology in order to do that.
So the question is, now that we know what the online landscape is, a decade after the real cyber battles started, what will our airspace look like in 10 years? It highly depends on what happens in the coming years, and what we do about it. The reason why online spying programs are allowed to exist is because of early laws that were passed to allow such a thing.
We can talk about the PATRIOT Act, which was voted on almost unanimously in 2001, yet turned out to be one of the most devastating laws for those who enjoy online privacy. This act allowed NSA, FBI and other US authorities to expand all of their spying programs, and gave them much broader rights than they used to have.
Now we have two different futures in front of us when it comes to drones. In one scenario, we have a heavy use of military and law enforcement drones in order to watch our every moves. Thanks to a new camera technology called ARGUS, authorities already have the ability to use a single drone to monitor a very large area, with the ability to zoom in and see individual people thanks to a network of tiny cameras used in unison.
Just recently, we learned that 34 US colleges have asked for permission to use unmanned drones to provide a full time air-based surveillance of dorms and buildings to catch any potential criminal activity. So if this is already where we are, there is no doubt a decade from now surveillance drones will be everywhere, and the idea that any of us would have a camera pointed at us from high in the sky the instant we step outside will not be foreign.
Meanwhile, as mentioned before, laws are starting to be written to prevent civilians from using drones. In a typical governmental fashion, the authorities know best, and control can only be guaranteed if the same activity is prohibited to normal citizens. Yet, as we’ve seen with the war on drugs, illegal guns, or of course cyber-attacks, laws do not prevent criminals from doing what they want. The technology is out there and it is not going back in Pandora’s box.
Already, we’ve seen one case of a drone forced to land in hostile territory and being captured by potential enemies. If someone is flying a helicopter to provide surveillance from high in the air, it would be pretty hard for someone to take control of it. But an unmanned drone could get hijacked and used for a number of purposes, from spying to crashing it somewhere else.
Still, it’s not like anyone will argue the skies should be wide open for everybody to use. We have the FAA monitoring planes to ensure security, and when the sky is filled with drones, civilians or not, then obviously, the last thing anyone would want is a mid-air collision, or drones being used for criminal purposes. There should be regulations, but those regulations should be reasonable, and they should apply to both civilian drones and those of the authorities.
From a technology standpoint, it’s hard to say what the typical drone of 2020 will look like, but just think what the web was like a decade ago. We had no iPhone, which means the mobile web was all but nonexistent. Google was just beginning and no one knew what Facebook or Twitter was. Most of us had dialup or low speed cable modems, and e-commerce was a concept only hip Silicon Valley startups really believed in.
Things have changed so much in 10 years that we can expect unmanned vehicles to be completely different in a decade. Research is still going at full speed on quadcopters and drones, and already these devices can do amazing acrobacies. While right now most drones allow you to set GPS waypoints and navigate terrain to go to specific locations, the military is working on technology that would allow their drones to take decisions based on unplanned events. It won’t be that long before unmanned vehicles are able to stay for hours in the air, monitor for specific actions, and then act.
So this is where the technology stands, and these are the types of laws people came up with so far. We are still in the early days, and things will only grow exponentially from here. The question that remains is what that future will be like. Are drones going to get to a point where the government decides that nobody can have them unless they are registered, tracked and monitored, or will it be a free market for drone, where people can do things such as protect their homes from burglars? The technology is limitless, what might limit us is what we do with it, and what we allow the government to regulate. | <urn:uuid:b4ea102d-7baf-4d16-8937-68e55d77d3cc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/op-ed-drones-will-be-the-technological-battleground-of-the-decade/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962349 | 2,079 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Direct effects of the tide
One of the most obvious effects of the tide is the regular replenishment of the soil water across the whole area. The soil of the salt marsh is usually quite wet. Where the soil is sandy with little organic matter, it tends to be free draining and the water table follows the tide downwards so that the surface layers are left damp but not waterlogged however where the soil is high in organic matter (mainly in the areas occupied by the mangroves) the soil is permanently waterlogged. Where waterlogging occurs, the soil rapidly becomes anoxic and takes on the typical sulphide smell of the mangrove swamp. This is a natural phenomenon due to the restriction of oxygen supply by waterlogging and the presence of bacteria which carry out anaerobic forms of respiration where sulphur is the final electron acceptor and is not due to pollution or environmental degradation.
When mangrove and other swampy soils are drained, for example, for farming or other development, the oxidation of these sulphides leads to the formation of 'acid sulphate soils' and the leaching of acid into waterways. The pH of the water can drop to between 2 and 3 causing fish kills and releasing toxic elements such as aluminium into the waterways. | <urn:uuid:4bc89862-0f26-49ba-9be4-81a0715b2fb7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sydney.edu.au/science/biology/learning/plant_form_function/mangroves/direct.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945731 | 258 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Homonyms Part 2
There are so many pairs or groups of words that are often mistaken for each other. In my last post I talked about several of the common ones, and I’m continuing to do so in this post. But whenever you are in doubt about what word to use in your writing, or wanting to use a neat word but you’re not 100% sure of the meaning, look it up! If you don’t have a hard copy of a dictionary, google it! You can save yourself a LOT of embarrassment by double-checking. Anyway, that’s the end of my lecture. On to the homonyms!
(I have been seeing this mix-up all over the place, especially on ‘Sneak Peak’ pictures)
Peak = the tip of something. The view from a mountain peak is breathtaking!
Peek = a quick look. I often take quick peeks at my sleeping baby.
Aloud = out loud. I sometimes lecture aloud about the misuse of homonyms.
Allowed = permitted to, or given permission to. You are allowed to comment on this post.
All ready, Already
All ready = fully prepared. Are you all ready to keep reading?
Already = before a specified time, or as early as now. What do you mean, your brain hurts already?
All together, Altogether
All together = in a group. I try to keep my notes all together.
Altogether = totally, completely. Poorly written status updates are altogether awful.
All right, alright
Okay now, this set is a little sticky. Major grammar sources don’t like it, but ‘alright’ has been creeping into our written language for quite some time. It means the same thing, but it’s just a ‘lazy’ way of spelling it. If you want to get an english geek hot under the collar, bring up the ‘all right vs. alright’ debate.
All right = okay, satisfactory, good. Let’s just say that if you’re wondering whether (not weather) to say ‘alright’, just…don’t. All right?
Are there any other common pairs or groups I missed? Are there any misused words you see that drive you bonkers? | <urn:uuid:c1420092-cac4-4c7c-aeae-57e4c15667d7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thinkingoutsidethesandbox.ca/am-i-aloud-to-post-this-all-ready/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939045 | 491 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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Rogers 3 Core Conditions
Carl Rogers (an American psychologist) was largely responsible for the development of the person-centred approach in the 1940s and 1950s. This form of therapy creates a relationship which fosters the client’s innate tendency to develop as a unique individual -a process known as self-actualization- whilst respecting their capacity for self -determination. Three specific, therapeutic conditions create a climate conducive to growth and therapeutic change: congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy. I should like to examine each of these in turn, while drawing on my own experience of them.
The first, congruence, is one of the three characteristics that form an integral part of every successful therapeutic relationship. In person-centred counselling, relating and engaging with the client has much more relevance than utilising any specific skills or techniques. It is important that we relate in a genuine, transparent way. We must try to link our own inner experiencing with our outward behaviour whilst without hiding behind a professional façade. Sustaining this is no mean feat – but the dividends are enormous. Instead of assuming trust- as in many other disciplines - we must try to earn it. Thus establishing an equal relationship. By being entirely genuine, it is possible, using personal resonance (being open to my own experiencing of the client’s events) to give an alternate, critical perspective on his phenomenological reality. Moreover, by showing how we have arrived at this outcome, the client’s faith in the relationship should grow: they need not be concerned about a therapist’s possible personal agenda and this should foster an increasingly open dialogue, thereby encouraging further self-disclosure.
Furthermore, it is essential for a therapist to be open to similar scrutiny. We must acknowledge our own beliefs, prejudices and values – self-awareness is vital. In fact, a therapist’s ability to admit her own frailties can... | <urn:uuid:d74ef6df-2e58-487b-abcb-b36f1debc097> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cyberessays.com/Term-Paper-on-Rogers-3-Core-Conditions/57184/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938698 | 435 | 2.5625 | 3 |
This problem is not hard. Please look at it as soon as possible. The
assignment will focus on the use of Math.random() and
arrays. Familiarity with this problem will help you on the next exam.
Write a program that demonstrates random walk in one dimension using char line, that is, line is an array that contains characters. Your program should include four methods beside the main method. These are: generate(char line), print(char line), pause(), and initialize(char line). If the x "falls off" the line at each end, it should appear at the other end. This is called wrap-around.
In order for your program to display just one line, insert in the pause() a loop that executes a println() 20 times. | <urn:uuid:7261e51b-20db-4ade-a98a-4ad119f53d82> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring06/V22.0002-001/hw7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904878 | 161 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper
[Black gram, Urd bean, Black matpe] SEED
To Japanese version
- <The situation in Japan and information from the NIAS genebank>
- Black gram has neither been grown nor used in Japan. Recently, black
gram is imported to Japan mainly from Thailand and Myanmar to make "moyashi"
- Black gram is considered to bave been domesticated in India from its
wild ancestral form (V.mungo var.silvestris Lukoki, Marechal
& Otoul). Center of genetic diversity is found in India (Zeven and de Wet. 1982). Natural distribution
of V.mungo var.silvestris ranges from India to Myanmar (Tateishi. 1996).
- Black gram belongs to the subgenus Ceratotropis in the genus
Vigna. The genus Vigna, together with the closely related
genus Phaseolus, forms a coplex taxonomic group, called Phaseolus-Vigna
complex. Verdcourt (1970) proposed a very restricted concept of Phaseolus,
limiting it exclusively to those American species with a tightly coiled
style and pollen grains lacking course reticulation, hence, promoting significantly
the concept of Vigna. According to his proposal, black gram and
its relatives (which is now recognized as the subgenus Ceratotropis)
were transferred to the genus Vigna from the genus Phaseolus.
Marechal et al. (1978) followed Verdcourt and presented a monograph on
the Phaseolus-Vigna complex. Their taxonomic system is generally
Taxonomic treatment of black gram and mungbean (V.radiata)
has been confused. Verdcourt (1970) proposed that these two species should
be treated as a single species. However, Marechal et al. (1978)
considered these two as distinct species and his proposal was supported
by many taxonomists. Two botanical varieties were recognized in V.mungo.
V.mungo var.mungo is the cultivated form (black gram), var.silvestris
is the wild ancestral form of black gram (Lukoki et al.1980). 2n=22.
- Black gram is an annual food legume. It shows both erect and crawling
growth habit. There are several distinct characters between black gram
and mungbean. Flower color of black gram is bright yellow, while that of
mungbean is pale yellow. Pocket on the keel, which is a characteristics
of the subgenus Ceratotropis, of black gram is longer than that
of mungbean. Pod of black gram is shorter than that of mungbean. Pod of
black gram attaches upright to the peduncle, while mungbean pod attaches
sideward or downward to the peduncle. In most cases, seed color is dull
black. However, shiny black and shiny green seeded black gram is also cultivated
in Nepal. The area of traditional cultivation of black gram is confined
to the South Asia and adjacent regions (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh
- Black gram is cooked as "dhal soup" (split dehusked bean
soup) in the South Asia and adjacent regions.
- Lukoki,L., R.Marechal and E.Otoul. 1980. Les ancetres sauvages des haricots cultives: Vigna radiata (L.)Wilczek et V.mungo (L.)Hepper. Bull. Jard. Bot. Nat. Belgique. 50: 385-391.
- Marechal,R., J.M.Mascherpa and F.Stainer. 1978. Etude taxonomique d'un
groupe complexe d'speces des genres Phaseolus et Vigna (Papilionaceae)
sur la base de donnees morphologiques et polliniques, traitees par l'analyse
informatique. Boissiera 28 : 1-273.
- Tateishi,Y. 1996. Systematics of the species of Vigna subgenus
Ceratotropis. In "Mungbean Germplasm : Collection, Evaluation
and Utilization for Breeding Program" JIRCAS Working Report No.2.
pp.9-24. Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Science (JIRCAS),
- Verdcourt,B. 1970. Studies in the Leguminosae - Papilionoideae for
the "Flora of Tropical East Africa" : IV. Kew Bulletin 24 : p.559.
- Zeven,A.C. and J.M.J. de Wet 1982. Dictionary of cultivated plants
and their regions of diversity. Centre for Agricultural Publication and | <urn:uuid:eaaee6bd-f060-4e9f-a82e-b0196b5a0157> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gene.affrc.go.jp/htbin/plant/image/get_logo_e?plno=54261009 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.775469 | 1,034 | 2.765625 | 3 |
While watching an old episode of Absolutely Fabulous last night, I was struck by the way a British character pronounced the Spanish wine rioja. In Spanish orthography, the j represents a velar fricative (the guttural consonant in Scottish ‘Loch‘). The character on Ab Fab, however, pronounced the word as if it had a /k/: riˈɒkə (ree-OCK-uh).
Americans invariably Anglicize this sound as /h/. The inconsistency exemplifies English speakers’ confusion over whether /x/ (the velar fricative) is more properly closer to /k/ or /h/ (we pronounce “loch” with the former but “Hanukkah” with the latter). It’s likewise possible that the /k/ in “rioja” approximates Spanish dialect(s) nearer to the UK: /x/ (the velar fricative) is somewhat more common in Spain, while Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries tend more toward /h/.*
But riˈɒkə also suggests that the way that Britons Anglicize Spanish differs from the way Americans do. I’ve been similarly startled by British chefs pronouncing “paella” with a very English /l/ (paɪɛlə), and Gordon Ramsey’s pronunciation of “cojones” (“bollocks”) as if it nearly rhymed with “honest.” We’re not as accustomed to such broad Anglicizations of Spanish here in the States (unless we’re talking about place names like “Amarillo“).
Of course, Americans have no qualms about stripping foreign words of their phonetic origins (just listen to a local New Orleanian describing French-named suburbs). But we seem to make an exception for Spanish, America’s more or less de facto second language. On this side of the Atlantic, we pronounce “paella” with a /j/, use the vowel in “goat” for the second syllable of “cojones,” and pronounce “rioja” as if it rhymed with “aloha.”
A decade ago, I wondered if British Anglicization of Spanish language might not evolve due to many Britons emigrating to the Iberian’s sunnier climes. One of the interesting side-effects of such a cultural shift might be evident from my side-note about “rioja:” were Spanish to became a commonly spoken language in the UK, you would end up with a situation in which Britain and the US would be separated by two common languages, since each country would likely adopt a “standard” dialect typical of the nearest native-speaking country (Spain vs. Latin America).
Alas, this seems increasingly unlikely given Spain’s beggared economy. Still, with the British-born population of Spain in the hundreds of thousands, it will be intriguing to see if the language develops a stronger presence in the British consciousness.
*The /x/ vs. /h/ thing is fairly complex in the Spanish speaking world, though: Mexico, for instance, is split between the two. | <urn:uuid:255c0bf6-d7d8-4688-b0c0-51b29765e7d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dialectblog.com/2013/06/18/anglicized-spanish-british-vs-american/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939413 | 695 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Question: "What is the grace of God?"
Answer: Grace is a constant theme in the Bible, and it culminates in the New Testament with the coming of Jesus (John 1:17). The word translated "grace" in the New Testament comes from the Greek word charis, which means “favor, blessing, or kindness.” We can all extend grace to others; but when the word grace is used in connection with God, it takes on a more powerful meaning. Grace is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us as our sin deserves. It is His benevolence to the undeserving.
Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves." The only way any of us can enter into a relationship with God is because of His grace toward us. Grace began in the Garden of Eden when God killed an animal to cover the sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). He could have killed the first humans right there for their disobedience. But rather than destroy them, He chose to make a way for them to be right with Him. That pattern of grace continued throughout the Old Testament when God instituted blood sacrifices as a means to atone for sinful men. It was not the blood of those sacrifices that cleansed sinners; it was the grace of God that forgave those who trusted in Him (Hebrews 10:4; Genesis 15:6).
The apostle Paul began many of his letters with the phrase, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:7; Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:3). God is the instigator of grace, and it is from Him that all other grace flows. Grace can be easily remembered by this simple acrostic: God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
God shows both mercy and grace, but they are not the same. Mercy withholds a punishment we deserve; grace gives a blessing we don't deserve. Consider this illustration: you were stopped in your old clunker for going 60 mph in a school zone. The ticket is high, and you can't pay it. You appear before the judge with nothing to say for yourself. He hears your case and then, to your surprise, he cancels your fine. That is mercy. But the judge doesn't stop there. He walks you outside and hands you the keys to a new car. That is grace.
In mercy, God chose to cancel our sin debt by sacrificing His perfect Son in our place (Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21). But He goes even further than mercy and extends grace to His enemies (Romans 5:10). He offers us forgiveness (Hebrews 8:12; Ephesians 1:7), reconciliation (Colossians 1:19-20), abundant life (John 10:10), eternal treasure (Luke 12:33), His Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), and a place in heaven with Him some day (John 3:16-18) when we accept His offer and place our faith in His sacrifice.
Grace is God giving the greatest treasure to the least deserving—which is every one of us. | <urn:uuid:a8cc4a58-2912-4b78-a16b-772e5b596fdd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gotquestions.org/Printer/grace-of-God-PF.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952469 | 673 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This policy memo explores some of the questions frequently raised around immigration in the United States and provides facts drawn from publicly available data sets and the academic literature.
The Hamilton Project believes it is important to ground the current immigration debate in an objective economic framework based on the best available evidence. In this policy memo, we explore some of the questions frequently raised around immigration in the United States and provide facts drawn from
publicly available data sets and the academic literature.
Most Americans agree that the current U.S. immigration system is flawed. Less clear, however, are the economic facts about immigration—the real effects that new immigrants have on wages, jobs, budgets, and the U.S. economy—facts that are essential to a constructive national debate.
Read the Full Introduction
These facts paint a more nuanced portrait of American immigration than is portrayed in today’s debate. Recent immigrants hail from many more countries than prior immigrants; they carry with them a wide range of skills from new PhDs graduating from American universities to laborers without a high school degree. Most recent immigrants have entered the United States legally, but around 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently live and work in America; the majority of these unauthorized workers settled here more than a decade ago. Each of these immigrant groups affects the U.S. economy in varied ways that should be considered in the current debate around immigration reform.
Immigrants now comprise more than 12 percent of the American population, according to recent estimates, approaching levels not seen since the early 20th century. Today’s controversies over immigration echo arguments made a century ago during the last immigration peak. While the demographics of U.S. immigrants have shifted dramatically, the concerns voiced about the social and economic impacts of immigration strike a familiar chord.
A major economic concern is how immigrants influence the wages and employment prospects of U.S. workers. The economic impacts of immigration vary tremendously, depending on whether immigrants are unskilled agricultural laborers, for example, or highly skilled PhD computer scientists. Although their consequences are often conflated, it is constructive to examine the impacts of low-skilled and high-skilled immigrants independently.
Another point of controversy in today’s debate involves the impact of unauthorized immigrants on our economic wellbeing. The best estimates suggest that 28 percent of the total foreign-born population could be unauthorized. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly 60 percent of these unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico. (However, unauthorized immigrants make up only about 21 percent of U.S. residents of Mexican heritage.) When possible, we try to differentiate the figures to more closely understand the different effects—positive or negative—that unauthorized workers may have on the economy.
Of course, there are many factors at play and the economic evidence is only one piece of the puzzle. These facts are designed to provide a common ground that all participants in the policy debate can agree on. In the months and years ahead, The Hamilton Project will return to the issue of immigration as we offer policy recommendations on the economic issues facing the United States.
Fact 1: Today's immigrants hail from more diverse backgrounds than they did a century ago.
America’s immigrants are more diverse than they were a century ago. In 1910, immigrants from Europe and Canada comprised 95 percent of the foreign-born population in the United States. Today’s immigrants hail from a much broader array of countries, including large populations from Latin American and Asia. Not surprisingly, the single largest home country of today’s immigrants is Mexico. All told, immigrants from Latin American and the Caribbean make up 53 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population.
Fact 2: Immigrants bring a diverse set of skills and educational backgrounds.
Immigrants are both better and worse educated than U.S.-born citizens. At one end of the spectrum, more than 11 percent of foreign-born workers have advanced degrees—slightly above the fraction of Americans with post-college degrees. Even more striking, more than 1.9 percent of immigrants have PhDs, almost twice the share of U.S.-born citizens with doctorates (1.1 percent).
At the other end of the spectrum, however, immigrants are much more likely than U.S.-born citizens to have less than a high school education. Roughly 30 percent of immigrants lack a high school diploma, nearly four times the figure for U.S.-born citizens.
Fact 3: On average, immigrants improve the living standards of Americans.
The most recent academic research suggests that, on average, immigrants raise the overall standard of living of American workers by boosting wages and lowering prices. One reason is that immigrants and U.S.-born workers generally do not compete for the same jobs; instead many immigrants complement the work of U.S. employees and increase their productivity. For example, low-skill immigrant laborers allow U.S.-born farmers, contractors, or craftsmen to expand agricultural production or to build more homes—thereby expanding employment possibilities and incomes for U.S. workers. Another reason is that businesses adjust to new immigrants by opening stores, restaurants, or production facilities to take advantage of the added supply of workers; more workers translate into more business.
Because of these factors, economists have found that immigrants raise average wages slightly for the United States as a whole. As illustrated in the chart below, estimates from opposite ends of the academic literature arrive at this same conclusion, and point to small but positive wage gains of between 0.1 and 0.6 percent for American workers.
But while immigration improves living standards on average, the economic literature is divided about whether immigration reduces wages for some groups of American workers. In particular, some estimates suggest that immigration has reduced the wages of low-skilled workers and college graduates. This research, exemplified by the purple bars in the chart below, implies that immigrant workers may have lowered the wages of low-skilled workers by 4.7 percent and college graduates by 1.7 percent. However, other estimates that examine immigration within a different economic framework (the light blue bars in the chart) find that immigration raises the wages of all U.S. workers—regardless of their level of education.
Immigrants also affect the well-being of U.S. workers by affecting the prices of the goods and services that they purchase. Recent research suggests that immigrant workers enhance the purchasing power of Americans by lowering prices of “immigrant-intensive” services like child care, gardening, and cleaning services. By making these services more affordable and more widely available, immigrant workers benefit U.S. consumers who purchase these services.
Fact 4: Immigrants are not a net drain on the federal government.
Taxes paid by immigrants and their children—both legal and unauthorized—exceed the costs of the services they use. In fact, a 2007 cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office found that a path to legalization for unauthorized immigrants would increase federal revenues by $48 billion but would only incur $23 billion of increased costs from public services, producing a surplus of $25 billion for government coffers. According to the Social Security Administration Trustees’ report, increases in immigration have also improved Social Security’s finances.
Many government expenses related to immigrants are associated with their children. From a budgetary perspective, however, the children of immigrants are just like other American children. The chart below compares the taxes paid and expenditures consumed by the children of immigrants and by the children of U.S.-born citizens over their lifetimes. Both the immigrant children and children of U.S.-born citizens are expensive when they are young because of the costs of investing in children’s education and health. Those expenses, however, are paid back through taxes received over a lifetime of work. The consensus of the economics literature is that the taxes paid by immigrants and their descendants exceed the benefits they receive—that on balance they are a net positive for the federal budget.
However, it is important to recognize that some of these budgetary costs are unequally shared across state and local governments. Education and health services for immigrant children are generally state liabilities and are concentrated in immigrant-heavy states like California, Nevada, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, and Arizona. While the federal government is a winner in terms of tax revenues, these states may be burdened with costs that will only be recouped over a number of years, or, if children move elsewhere within the United States, may never fully be recovered.
Fact 5: Both immigration enforcement funding and the number of unauthorized immigrants have increased since 2003.
The United States has dramatically raised immigration border security and enforcement funding to $17 billion over the past decade in an effort to improve national security, as well as to stem the flow of unauthorized immigrants entering the country. A secure border is required for national security and to enforce legal and customs requirements. As a tool of immigration policy, however, the available evidence suggests that this increased spending is unlikely to have had a major effect on the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. Indeed, the number of unauthorized immigrants continued to rise between 2003 and 2007. The decrease in unauthorized immigration since 2007 is likely due to the Great Recession.
One reason that increases in border patrol have had modest impacts on the number of unauthorized immigrants is that most arrived before the enhanced security measures were implemented after 2001; according to estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, more than half of unauthorized immigrants arrived here before 2000. In addition, some research suggests that increased security has resulted in unauthorized immigrants staying in the United States longer rather than risking detection by visiting home.
Fact 6: Immigrant do not disproportionately burden U.S. correctional facilities and institutions.
Immigrants are institutionalized at substantially lower rates than U.S.-born citizens. Looking at Census data covering correctional facilities and mental hospitals, U.S.-born citizens are more than five times more likely than immigrants to be institutionalized. (One study estimated that as many as 70 percent of the institutionalized population are housed in correctional facilities). This evidence suggests that immigrants impose fewer costs on taxpayers from crime and institutionalization than do U.S.-born citizens.
Some groups are concerned that recent immigrants choose not to integrate and assimilate into American social and economic life, in contrast to previous generations of immigrants. The data suggest this is not true. Recent waves of immigrants and their children are integrating into the U.S. economy, just as previous immigrant families did. This is true also for immigrants from Mexico and Central America, where firstgeneration immigrants have tended to concentrate in sectors like construction, food preparation, and agriculture. As seenin the chart below, the children of these immigrants engage in occupations more closely resembling those of U.S.-born citizens than the occupations of their parents.
Not only do immigrants assimilate into U.S. economic life, but they also integrate in other ways. In addition to being vital to gaining employment, speaking English is a measure of social assimilation into the United States. More than 90 percent of the children of recent immigrants speak English, regardless of their country of origin, according to the U.S. Census.
Fact 8: The skill composition of U.S. immigrants differ from that of other countries.
Compared to countries like Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, the United States has a greater proportion of lowskilled immigrants. About 30 percent of immigrants in the United States possess a low level of education and only 35 percent possess a high level of education. In Canada, only 22 percent have a low level of education (equivalent to less than high school in the United States) while more than 46 percent have a high level of education (roughly equivalent to an associate’s degree or higher in the United States).
Countries like Canada attract a greater influx of immigrants with higher education levels and specialized skills through immigration policies that specifically favor visa applicants with advanced degrees or work experience. The composition of U.S. immigrants is the result of our immigration policies, which place more emphasis on family relationships and less consideration on skill or education than many other countries when granting permanent residence.
Fact 9: Immigrants start new businesses and file patents at higher rates than U.S.-born citizens.
Today’s immigrants possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, immigrants are 30 percent more likely to form new businesses than U.S.-born citizens. Furthermore, evidence shows that foreign-born university graduates are important contributors to U.S. innovation—among people with advanced degrees, immigrants are three times more likely to file patents than U.S.-born citizens. Such investments in new businesses and in research may provide spillover benefits to U.S.-born workers by enhancing job creation and by increasing innovation among their U.S.-born peers.
Fact 10: America is issuing a declining number of Visas for high-skill workers.
With its top-level universities, dynamic business environment, and wide-ranging economic opportunities, the United States has a history of attracting high-skill workers. However, a recent study suggests that this trend may be waning; many of today’s international students either plan to leave the United States or are uncertain about remaining, raising the potential for a reverse brain‐drain of the skilled workers who contribute to U.S. global competitiveness. As seen in the graph below, the number of high-skill visas has also declined somewhat since 2000. In 2009, 270,326 visas for high-skill workers were available, down from 301,328 in 2000. | <urn:uuid:15e574cd-a61d-4343-aeef-3beb9755a57d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/ten_economic_facts_about_immigration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959287 | 2,742 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) say they have discovered a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, believed to be key to the formation of stars, planets, and life.
The announcement was eagerly anticipated because confirmation of the particle could endorse decades of work in theoretical physics and current understandings of fundamental workings of the universe.
"It's a historic milestone today, but we are only at the beginning," CERN Director-General Rolf-Dieter Heuer told a gathering of scientists at a CERN auditorium in Geneva. "Now, a lot of work is ahead of us. It is a milestone. I think we can all be proud, all be happy, but it is at the beginning, and I think also it has global implications for the future, and it comes at the right time, and I think we can be very, very optimistic."
The boson is known by some as the "God particle" because of its theoretical importance.
Finding the Higgs boson would vindicate a theory of the cosmos called the Standard Model, devised in the 1970s, which identifies the building blocks for matter and the particles that convey fundamental forces.
The new particle was reportedly uncovered by two research teams working independently, with each claiming to have seen evidence of the would-be Higgs boson in experiments inside the Large Hadron Collider at CERN's laboratories in Geneva.
The particle is named after Peter Higgs, the British researcher who in 1964 laid much of the conceptual groundwork for the boson, although other scientists were reaching similar conclusions at the same time.
Higgs was among the prominent physicists invited by CERN to attend the July 4 gathering, and attendee and "Discover Magazine" live-blogger Sean Carroll said
Higgs appeared "visibly moved at the final result."
During the CERN announcement, University of Manchester lecturer Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox
) interpreted the CERN assertion through Twitter, saying, "In simple language, CMS have discovered a new boson, and it behaves like the Standard Model Higgs."
In decades of work, scientists have been unable to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, which is thought essentially to give all matter in the universe mass, size, and shape.
"It was in these kinds of [experiments] that we're looking for one of the rarest particles ever made," CERN spokesman Joe Incandela, who is leading one of the teams searching for the Higgs boson, said in Geneva. "So, keeping that in mind, this is a very, very preliminary result, but we think it is very strong. It's very solid, otherwise we wouldn't present it."
The announcement had been eagerly awaited, with physicists all over the world gathered or tethered electronically to the CERN auditorium.
"Discover Magazine's" Carroll described "a rock-concert vibe in the air" at the venue, adding that "folks have been camping out for a while to get into the auditorium" ahead of the press conference.
Based Reuters, AP, and RFE/RL reporting | <urn:uuid:cd4d9464-f1dc-46c5-a76a-86281b337a3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rferl.org/content/cern-higgs-boson-particle-may-have-discovered/24634591.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964516 | 646 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Variation in Food Selection Among Lambs: Effects of Basal Diet and Foods Offered in a Meal
Journal of Animal Science
American Society of Animal Science
Scott, L. L., & Provenza, F. D. (1999). Variation in food selection among lambs: effects of basal diet and foods offered in a meal. Journal of Animal Science, 77(9), 2391-2397.
In studies of behavior and nutrition, we typically determine nutritional needs and formulate diets for the average member of the herd, not for specific individuals within a herd. Nevertheless, variation among individuals could affect productivity of the group if the diet diverges too much from what individuals at the extremes prefer to eat. Thus, it is important to determine the degree to which individuals within a group vary in their food preferences when offered alternatives. Our first objective was to determine the degree to which lambs differed in preference for foods high in energy (barley) or protein (alfalfa) (Exp. 1). When we offered lambs barley and alfalfa for ad libitum consumption for 25 d, individuals varied in the amounts of barley (range: 221 to 991 g/d) and alfalfa (range: 51 to 558 g/d) they consumed (P < .0001). At one extreme, individuals preferred a diet of 6% alfalfa and 94% barley; at the other extreme, individuals preferred a diet of 70% alfalfa and 30% barley. Our second objective was to determine whether lambs from Exp. 1 compensated, when fed a basal diet that was lower in alfalfa than they preferred, by ingesting foods higher in alfalfa when offered a meal (Exp. 2). Lambs were ranked according to the percentage of alfalfa (range from 6 to 70%) and barley (range from 94 to 30%) they ate during Exp. 1 and then assigned alternately to two treatments: 1) basal diet with similar proportions of alfalfa and barley consumed ad libitum (preferred diet) or 2) basal diet with 10% less alfalfa than consumed ad libitum (low-alfalfa diet). We then conducted three trials in which lambs fed the different basal diets were offered a meal for 15 min/d for 2 d of two foods that differed in barley and alfalfa. During Trial 1, when we offered barley and alfalfa, lambs in both groups preferred barley (138 g) to alfalfa (46 g) (P < .05). During Trial 2, when the test foods (barley and alfalfa) were diluted with grape pomace (20%), lambs fed the preferred basal diet ate more barley (116 vs 64 g) and less alfalfa (48 vs 87 g) than lambs fed the low-alfalfa basal diet (P < .05). During Trial 3, when we offered a food high in barley (80% barley and 20% pomace) and a food high in alfalfa (70% alfalfa, 14% cornstarch, and 16% pomace), lambs fed the preferred basal diet ate more of the high-barley food (124 vs 73 g) and less of the high-alfalfa food (45 vs 98 g) than lambs fed the low-alfalfa basal diet (P < .05). Collectively, these results illustrate that lambs varied greatly in their preferences for foods that differ in energy (barley) and protein (alfalfa), and that when their preferred basal diet was altered, lambs compensated by ingesting food that complemented their basal diet during a daily meal. The addition of grape pomace in Trials 2 and 3 reduced the protein content of the high-barley and high-alfalfa foods such that the high-barley food was only marginally adequate to meet needs compared with the high-alfalfa food. Lambs fed the low-alfalfa basal diet compensated by eating more of the high-alfalfa food than lambs fed the preferred basal diet. | <urn:uuid:101166e3-53d0-4711-a82d-13b7f000fab6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/behave/73/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911767 | 862 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The shift to clean energy is producing huge economic gains, but Canada risks being left behind if the federal government doesn’t get on board, a new report warns.
That’s the message from energy and climate think tank Clean Energy Canada, which paints a picture of a world increasingly embracing – and investing in – green energy alternatives.
Clean energy is now “business as usual, it is not boutique any more,” said Merran Smith, director of Clean Energy Canada. “This is where the puck is going … The world has changed and there is no going back.”
The report, to be released Monday on the eve of the United Nation’s global climate summit in New York, says that thanks to government support and dramatic increases in private investment, “companies, countries and whole economies are steadily reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and embracing clean and renewable energy.”
It cites China, for example, where new renewable energy plant construction has now surpassed investments in coal generation. The country has embarked on an enormous effort to build solar and wind power generating facilities, along with a massive electrified high-speed rain network.
At the same time individual corporations – including some big players such as Google Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Apple Inc. and Ikea AB – have jumped on the bandwagon, investing in renewable energy projects in order to cut their own greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, almost 6.5 million people now work in the renewable energy sector around the globe.
Over all, private investment in green energy is growing dramatically, the report says. In 2013, $207-billion (U.S.) was invested in clean energy deployment, not far below the $270-billion invested in fossil fuel power generation. While China, the United States and Japan lead the way, Canada ranks seventh among G20 countries with $6.5-billion in clean energy investment in 2013.
While carbon-based fuels will still be important for a long time, “for the first time in more than a century, multiple signs suggest that their dominance is beginning to wane,” the report said.
While there is push back against subsidies to the clean energy industry, prices have dropped so significantly that financial support is now far less important, Ms. Smith said, and subsidies are being removed in many jurisdictions. “Renewables can compete with fossil fuel … and that is only going to become increasingly so.”
Still, she said, governments need to put in place policies to encourage more renewable energy. In Canada individual provinces have stepped up to the plate – through British Columbia’s carbon tax and Quebec and Ontario’s pro-renewable policies, for example – but the federal government has dropped the ball, she said.
It should set renewable energy targets, for example, and join international climate change bodies that it has avoided up to now, she said.
“We are ignoring the signs that this clean energy economy is taking off, [and that] our major trading partners like the United States, the European Union and China, are investing in the clean energy economy and embracing this new direction,” she said.
While setting a price on carbon would help level the playing field with other forms of energy production and accelerate its uptake, the revolution is going to happen with or without that step, she said.
The Clean Energy Canada report comes on the heels of other recent reports that suggest green energy is helpful to the economy. A report last week from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate said that all countries can build economic growth while reducing climate change risks. Another from the International Monetary fund said carbon pricing is practical and valuable for countries that put it in place.Report Typo/Error | <urn:uuid:3ecaad57-131d-4ebb-8d1f-54da512d78c3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/canada-risks-being-left-behind-as-green-energy-takes-off/article20714118/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949673 | 768 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The ability of scientists to tailor the structure of materials at the nanoscale paves the way for novel multifunctional and more durable materials. These 'nanomaterials' can benefit various industrial sectors, but they need to be better understood if we are to truly take advantage of this cutting-edge science.
© Fotolia, 2012
Nanotechnology is beginning to permeate every facet of our lives, from computing and cosmetics to drugs and health care. Advances in the manipulation of matter at an atomic and molecular scale have opened up a whole world of opportunities across a range of industrial sectors.
Electron microscopy is one of the techniques that have made such advances possible. It enables scientists to study materials at the nanometre scale, and thus to gain a better understanding of them. Continuous improvement in electron microscopy is key to making further progress in this field.
Catalyst for change
This is the objective behind the EU-funded Al-Nanofunc project which aims to design and install an advanced laboratory for the analysis of novel functional material at the nano-scale. Novel nanomaterials and devices for developing new integrated functions is a cutting-edge and potentially highly lucrative sector. Consequently, the EU wants to establish a well-positioned laboratory in Southern Spain that will be integrated at the European level within a network of some of the leading research laboratories in this field.
The upgrade will include updated facilities for high-resolution analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM), based on the latest generation of electron microscopy equipment. "This is an essential tool if we are to achieve breakthroughs in topics of high interest here," explains project coordinator Prof. Asunción Fernández at the Materials Science Institute of Seville in Spain.
"We are especially interested in researching material applications for solar cells, hydrogen storage, sustainable energy applications and nanostructured photonic materials. However, we need to know the microstructure of these new materials if we are to develop new products."
It is expected that the new laboratory will also act as a catalyst to improve research and innovation capacities in the Andalucian region, and in Europe as a whole.
Three fields of research have been identified as being of special interest: nanomaterials for sustainable-energy applications; protective and multifunctional nanostructured coatings; and nanostructured photonic materials and sensors. Being able to manipulate microstructural design gives scientists the possibility of tailoring the properties of composite materials.
For certain nanostructured coatings, for example, the distribution of elements at the nanoscale are the key factor in determining their hardness and resistance to oxidation. New analytical high-resolution electron microscopy techniques being pioneered by the Al-Nanofunc consortium are giving researchers the opportunity to better visualise these microstructures, helping them to develop new and improved coatings for solar cells and photonic materials, too.
"New developments are also already being achieved for energy and environmental applications like hydrogen storage, photonic materials and catalysts for removing pollutants," says Prof. Fernández.
Indeed, progress on the project has been impressive. Prof. Fernández and her team have carried out collaborations and exchanges with partner institutions in Europe and the Maghreb region, and a workshop on the advanced microstructural characterisation of nanomaterials was organised recently. Sharing and disseminating findings is a crucial component of Al-Nanofunc.
Another important characteristic of the project is the fact that the consortium is working closely with European industry. The idea is to provide feedback and know-how on possible new high-performance materials. The aim is to strengthen European knowledge in this field, help in decision-making and to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of this burgeoning sector for decades to come. | <urn:uuid:51fff0f6-f34d-494d-89ae-597a9b6e9b3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-al-nanofunc&calledby=infocentre&item=Research%20policy&artid=27993&caller=SuccessStories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923117 | 783 | 2.609375 | 3 |
It wasn't just food that was rationed during World War II. Clothing also became scarce.
Clothes rationing began on June 1, 1941, two years after food rationing started. Clothes rationing ended on 15 March 1949.
Clothing ration book - Can you spot the two books for children?
There was a shortage of materials to make clothes.
People were also urged to "Make do and mend" so that clothing factories and workers could be used to make items, such as parachutes and uniforms, needed in the battle against Germany.
Everyone was given a Clothing Book with coloured coupons in it. Every item of clothing was given a value in coupons. To buy clothes people handed over their Clothing Book to the shopkeeper. who cut out one of the coupons. They then handed over money to the shopkeeper to pay for the clothes.
The coupon system allowed people to buy one completely new set of clothes once a year.
The government gave every person a clothes ration book full of coupons.
Each page of coupons was a different colour to stop people using up all their coupons at once. People were only allowed to use one colour at a time. The government would tell people when they could start using a new colour.
Coupons from one colour could be saved and used with the next colour.
Each person was given 60 coupons to last them a year. Later it was reduced to 48 coupons.
Children were allocated an extra 10 clothing coupons above the standard ration to allow for growing out of clothes during a year.
The two images below show how many coupons you would need to buy different items of clothing.
What would you buy with your 60 clothes coupons to last you a year?
What do think would happen if you grow during the year and your clothes don't fit you anymore? | <urn:uuid:99e15d78-29f9-4b0b-b6e3-26395b4baef5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/war/rationing3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987941 | 371 | 3.5 | 4 |
A leap year occurs every four years, when February has an extra day (today). This day is called a leap day or intercalary day. Dr. Mary Singleton, St. Columba's College physics teacher explains the reason for this extra day.
A year in astronomical terms is the time taken for the earth to complete one full orbit of the sun. This time is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 sec. This means that by having a year of 365 days, we are getting out of step by 5 hours 48minutes and 46 seconds each year. While this might not seem like much the result would be that over the course of a century the difference between the solar year and the calendar year would amount to 25 days, so relatively quickly the accepted seasons would get out of kilter. In order to avoid this situation an extra day is added to the calendar every four years, thus accounting for the overshoot.
However this is not completely correct. In fact by doing this the calendars are still out by 11 minutes 14 seconds. This would mean that every 128 years we would have gained an extra day. To correct for this an extra rule was introduced, that a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400! | <urn:uuid:de1dd80e-57d2-480e-9c82-1b979dbb5c92> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.frogblog.ie/2012/02/why-do-we-have-leap-years.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979912 | 257 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Construction workers installed bright green bike lanes at three conflict points along Ludlow Avenue yesterday. The new green bike lanes are a first for Cincinnati as it continues to work towards making city streets safer for area bicyclists.
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), experimentations with specially colored bike lanes first took place in the mid-1990s. Then, between 1997 and 1999, the City of Portland worked with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to mark 10 conflict areas with blue coloring and accompanying signage. Since that time, the FHWA has determined that green is a more appropriate color for bike lanes on public streets, so as not to be confused with accessibility parking.
The City of Cincinnati used NACTO’s standard design for a truncated bike lane through an intersection as the basis for its green bike lanes on Ludlow Avenue. The installation makes Cincinnati the first Ohio city with green bike lanes.
Green bike lanes have begun to appear in cities throughout North America in recent years to not only mark areas of conflict, but also delineate entire bike corridors. In the Midwest, Chicago has led the charge using green bike lanes for entire cycle track corridors, bike boxes at traffic signals, and at special conflict points.
According to city officials, Cincinnati’s first application of green bike lanes will mark Ludlow Avenue where it intersects with Old Ludlow Avenue, Central Parkway and a driveway entrance to Cincinnati State (map). City planners also say that there will be additional green bike lanes to come.
“We are considering using green markings where the Gilbert Avenue bike lane will intersect with the right-turn lane into the casino,” explained Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) planner, Melissa McVay.
McVay went on to say that City is using NACTO’s design guidelines and specifications for these projects, and that going forward, green bike lanes will be considered at all high conflict areas where motorists must cross a bicycle path.
The idea behind the green markings is to improve the visibility of bicyclists, and in the process, improving safety.
“In this [Ludlow Avenue] case the green lanes help negotiate cars desiring a right hand turn through a bike lane that continues straight ahead,” said Frank Henson, President, Queen City Bike. “By giving the bicycle lanes a different color, motorists realize that, in making their turn, they are crossing into another travel lane reserved for cyclists, and that they must yield to bicycle traffic in order to complete the turn.”
The City of Cincinnati Bicycle Transportation Program has installed 35.8 miles of bicycle facilities to-date, with an additional 289.9 miles planned in a citywide bicycle network.
And when asked about what could be done to continue to improve safety for Cincinnati-area bicyclists, Henson concluded that, “The best thing the City of Cincinnati can do to improve safety for street cycling is to continue to carry out the Cincinnati Bike Plan, improving the network of bike routes, lanes, trails, and paths in the area. Better education and enforcement of traffic law for both cyclists and motor vehicle operators is also necessary.” | <urn:uuid:4673db39-6ece-4139-b556-471e4a883e07> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.urbancincy.com/2012/11/cincinnati-becomes-second-ohio-city-to-install-green-bike-lanes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944874 | 652 | 2.515625 | 3 |
eso0209 — Science Release
VIMOS - a Cosmology Machine for the VLT
13 March 2002: One of the most fundamental tasks of modern astrophysics is the study of the evolution of the Universe . This is a daunting undertaking that requires extensive observations of large samples of objects in order to produce reasonably detailed maps of the distribution of galaxies in the Universe and to perform statistical analysis. Much effort is now being put into mapping the relatively nearby space and thereby to learn how the Universe looks today . But to study its evolution, we must compare this with how it looked when it still was young . This is possible, because astronomers can "look back in time" by studying remote objects - the larger their distance, the longer the light we now observe has been underway to us, and the longer is thus the corresponding "look-back time." This may sound easy, but it is not. Very distant objects are very dim and can only be observed with large telescopes. Looking at one object at a time would make such a study extremely time-consuming and, in practical terms, impossible. To do it anyhow, we need the largest possible telescope with a highly specialised, exceedingly sensitive instrument that is able to observe a very large number of (faint) objects in the remote universe simultaneously. The VLT VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) is such an instrument. It can obtain many hundreds of spectra of individual galaxies in the shortest possible time; in fact, in one special observing mode, up to 6400 spectra of the galaxies in a remote cluster during a single exposure, augmenting the data gathering power of the telescope by the same proportion. This marvellous science machine has just been installed at the 8.2-m MELIPAL telescope, the third unit of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the ESO Paranal Observatory. A main task will be to carry out 3-dimensional mapping of the distant Universe from which we can learn its large-scale structure. "First light" was achieved on February 26, 2002, and a first series of test observations has successfully demonstrated the huge potential of this amazing facility. Much work on VIMOS is still ahead during the coming months in order to put into full operation and fine-tune the most efficient "galaxy cruncher" in the world. VIMOS is the outcome of a fruitful collaboration between ESO and several research institutes in France and Italy, under the responsibility of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (CNRS, France). The other partners in the "VIRMOS Consortium" are the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, and Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France, and Istituto di Radioastronomia (Bologna), Istituto di Fisica Cosmica e Tecnologie Relative (Milano), Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (Milano) and Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte (Naples) in Italy. | <urn:uuid:a09d9035-bcbe-4474-9474-12b4e90c3beb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://vacchile@eso.org/public/news/archive/year/2002/list/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91542 | 664 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Bacteria are generally classified as either helpful or harmful. Bacteria can be found everywhere, and appear on every surface and every part of the human body. The helpful bacteria are those commonly found in yogurt and in the making of cheeses, and are good for the intestinal tract. On the other hand, the harmful bacteria are those that you may be more familiar with, and are the very things that cause disease and infection. Here are 5 harmful types of bacteria that can be found in the world today.
Type #1: Streptococcus Pyogenes
The streptococcus pyogenes is the bacteria responsible for many of the common human diseases seen today, including mild skin infections and sore throats. The bacterium is spherical shaped, growing in chains and existing in the human body where the temperature is right for its growth. The streptococcus pyogenes is responsible for serious conditions such as multiple sepsis, otherwise known as toxic shock syndrome, where the body reacts severely to a protein produced by the bacteria. This type of bacteria responds to penicillin treatment, and is relatively easy to treat in cases where the infection is minor.
Type #2: Escherichia Coli
Commonly known as E. Coli, this bacteria is the cause of gastrointestinal diseases, diarrhea and symptoms associated with food poisoning. This bacterium exists in various strains, and naturally exists in the body’s intestines. The harmful strain releases a protein that causes the body to react negatively, and in the body’s attempt to purge the toxin produced by the bacteria, it reacts by vomiting and diarrhea. The best way to prevent the condition is to avoid undercooked and raw food.
Type #3: Vibrio Cholerae
The vibrio cholerae is the bacteria responsible for the outbreak of cholera, killing many people throughout the course of history. Although cholera is now less common in the developed world, it still poses a problem for those who travel often to less developed areas. The disease is marked with symptoms similar to the common cold, including high fever, runny nose, vomiting and diarrhea. The body naturally purges the bacteria, and hydration is often sufficient to recover, although antibiotics are available to combat the disease as well.
Type #4: Enteritis Salmonella
Enteritis salmonella is the most common cause of food poisoning in the developed world. This strain does not usually affect adults since the gastric juices kill the bacteria and prevent its spread. It does, however attack children and infants, causing serious dehydration and vomiting. This can be treated by a course of antibiotics, and with infected children and infants, medical help must be sought immediately after symptoms begin to surface.
Type #5: Salmonella Typhi
Another type of salmonella, this strain is responsible for typhoid fever and is uncommon in developed countries, but a huge killer in underdeveloped ones. This form of bacteria releases toxins that affect the stomach and intestinal area, resulting in vomiting, diarrhea, high fever and bloody stools. Typhoid fever is very dangerous, and can be fatal for those who do not seek medical treatment after symptoms begin to appear. | <urn:uuid:01ff5226-a049-4c6a-a30a-af9b7cac3fc9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.3fatchicks.com/5-harmful-types-of-bacteria/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94941 | 652 | 3.234375 | 3 |
October 20, 2009
Children’s Blood Lead Levels Linked To Lower Test Scores
Exposure to lead in early childhood significantly contributes to lower performances on end-of-grade (EOG) reading tests among minority and low-income children, according to researchers at Duke University and North Carolina Central University.
"We found a clear dose-response pattern between lead exposure and test performance, with the effects becoming more pronounced as you move from children at the high end to the low end of the test-score curve," said lead investigator Marie Lynn Miranda, director of the Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment."Given the higher average lead exposure experienced by African-American children in the United States, our results show that lead does in fact explain part of the observed achievement gap that blacks, children of low socioeconomic status and other disadvantaged groups continue to exhibit in school performance in the U.S. education system, compared to middle- and upper-class whites," Miranda said.
The study, published online in the peer-reviewed journal NeuroToxicology, linked data on blood-lead levels from the North Carolina Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program surveillance registry to EOG reading test scores for 4th graders in all 100 of the state's counties.
Researchers used innovative methods, including the use of a statistical approach called quantile regression, to measure the contribution of lead exposure to declining levels in children's EOG scores.
Their analyses revealed that early childhood exposure to lead, the family's poverty status and parental education all account for test-score declines. On average, exposure to lead accounts for between 7 percent and 16 percent of the decline, with the larger declines associated with higher blood-lead levels.
By comparison, they found the family's poverty status, as indicated by enrollment in a free or reduced-price school lunch program, accounts for 25 percent to 28 percent of EOG declines.
And parental education accounts for the largest portion of the drop in test scores, between 58 percent and 65 percent of the total.
"This demonstrates the particular vulnerabilities of socioeconomically and environmentally disadvantaged children," said Miranda, an associate professor at the Nicholas School and Duke Medical School's department of pediatrics. "Children who experience these cumulative deficits are especially disadvantaged when they enter the school system."
The team's analysis showed that children already at the low end of the test-score curve were more greatly affected by lead exposure "“ the greater the exposure, the greater the impact on their scores. However, downward shifts were also documented in exposed children at the high end of the EOG curve. This is important, the study noted, because EOG scores are used to place students into advanced and intellectually gifted (AIG) programs at schools across the United States.
"Our findings show that even low-level lead exposure can push some children out of the score range that would make them eligible for these special programs," Miranda said. "To the extent that low-income and minority children are systematically exposed to more lead, AIG programs become less economically and racially diverse."
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:f32c5215-f907-44c2-ab8f-22072f6a97b6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1772394/childrens_blood_lead_levels_linked_to_lower_test_scores/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953864 | 635 | 3 | 3 |
Reestablishment of Traditional Womanhood in “The Gilded Age”
Women, speculation, and politics are all bound up in Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s The Gilded Age. When dealing with the politics of the novel, Twain and Warner satirize the corruption found in Washington, exposing the need for reform and progress in the form of economic accountability and honesty. While espousing such progressive ideals, however, they deny the need for progress when it comes to gender roles. Although the authors seem to be endorsing what would soon be called “the new woman” by creating strong, nontraditional female characters, they ultimately reestablish traditional gender roles by twisting the character development and plot of each main female character in the novel in order to show that a woman’s place is in the home rather than out in the “masculine” arenas of speculation and politics.
Women are traditionally seen as moral guardians of the home, but Ruth Bolton doesn’t fall under this category. Twain and Warner seem to be setting this character up as an example of a woman who successfully breaks free from traditional and what appears to be unreasonable societal binds. Ruth feels all of the constraints that her sex places on her and resents such constraints. Alone with her father, she expounds vehemently upon the place of women in society, “What a box women are put into, measured for it, and put in young; if we go anywhere it’s in a box, veiled and pinioned and shut in by disabilities. Father, I should like to break things and get loose” (102-103). Ruth is a realist and doesn’t want to be dependent upon men all her life. Therefore she beats “her young wings against the cage of custom” (103) by beginning a career in the male dominated field of medicine. Her mother has misgivings about her daughter entering such a field and argues, “But thy health and strength, child; thee can never stand the severe application” (101). The sentiment expressed by Ruth’s mother conforms to the traditional notion that women’s bodies are inherently weak. If women’s bodies are inherently weak, and as popular notions of the time suggested, dominated by their reproductive organs, than it only makes sense for Ruth to turn from the strenuous task of doctoring and turn toward something womanly such as love. Ruth, however, does not do the expected and is instead determined to prove her mother wrong by successfully entering her chosen field and proving that she has the willpower to make her professional dreams become a reality.
Ruth immerses herself so fully in her studies that she seems to shun the idea of love and this concerns her friend, Philip. Philip sees career and family as an either/or decision and asks Ruth, “do you think you would be happier or do more good in following your profession than in having a home of your own?” (356). Ruth, however, sees the possibility for both to coexist and answers “What is to hinder having a home of my own?” (356). Her mother has the same concerns as Philip and approaches her daughter with the subject of marriage, asking her daughter if she has met anyone whom she could “live with always”. Ruth answers, “Mother, I think I wouldn’t say ‘always’ to any one until I have a profession and am as independent as he is. Then my love would be a free act, and not in any way a necessity” (186). She wants to be relatively self-sufficient, and this desire will lead her into unchartered waters as she begins her studies at Fallkill Seminary. Once at school, Ruth experiences a life of greater independence, and this experience is a new and fresh one for her. As Ruth strikes out on her own she becomes a speculator in the land of her chosen profession.
The idea of speculation is prevalent throughout the novel, and the plot with Ruth mirrors the speculation fervor. Ruth is venturing out on her own hoping to strike a rich vein of newfound freedom and ultimate independence from family. Day by day Ruth diligently digs her mine by working hard in the field of medicine, and as the book proceeds, Ruth seems to be drawing closer to the striking of her rich vein; but ironically about the time that Philip strikes it rich in his coal mine, Ruth loses in the digging of her own “mine”. “Ruth felt that she was of less consequence in the household, now that Philip had found coal, and perhaps she was not sorry to feel so” (363). The biggest clue that this character has been shaken is at the end of the sentence: “perhaps she was not sorry to feel so.” This statement shows that Ruth’s feminist determination is withering as she caves into society’s expectation of her feelings. The authors build this character up by showing her to be a hardworking and independent heroine who won’t settle for less than she started out to get. Toward the end of the book, however, Ruth’s character has shifted and a marked change in her character development begins to appear.
Even though Ruth starts out very independent, seeming to succeed in her endeavor to free herself from traditional constraints, in the end her work is too much for her and her mother is proved right. Ruth becomes gravely ill, and the doctor attending Ruth “told Philip that the fever had undoubtedly been contracted in the hospital…and would be little dangerous if Ruth were not so worn down with work” (461). The authors create a twist to the character and plot of Ruth, showing that ultimately she’s not strong enough for the man’s work she’s adopted. When men work they’re invigorated. When women work, however, they’re simply worn out. Becoming dependent is ultimately Ruth’s only salvation, and Philip’s strength becomes her cornerstone. “Philip so yearned to bring her back to life, he willed it so strongly and passionately, that his will appeared to affect hers and she seemed slowly to draw life from his” (461). Ruth is not used to being placed in such a submissive and helpless state. “It was new for Ruth to feel this dependence on another’s nature, to consciously draw strength of will from the will of another” (461-462). This is a new experience that Ruth discovers she likes.
The feelings of romantic love eventually come to Ruth and they are shown to be the only true feelings of a woman. “Perhaps she saw that her own theories of a certain equality of power, which ought to precede a union of two hearts, might be pushed too far. Perhaps she had felt sometimes her own weakness and the need after all of so dear a sympathy and so tender an interest confessed, as that which Philip could give” (374). Ruth drinks in Philip’s tenderness “with the thirst of a true woman’s nature” (374). Now that her stubborn nature has been curbed by her illness, the authors suggest that Ruth has finally come to her senses and does what is expected of her all along. Her speculation in the field of medicine has not turned out the way she’d hoped for, therefore Ruth turns toward something safer and a bit surer, Philip’s love.
Just as Ruth attempts to break from a traditional role and joins the field of speculation, Laura Hawkins goes against the concept of traditional womanhood and speculates in the field of politics and men’s hearts. Laura begins as a sentimental character but doesn’t remain that way for long due to her sham marriage with Col. Selby. After this incident there is a shift in Laura’s character and the authors cast a dark light on her by saying that she “was not much changed. The lovely woman had a devil in her heart. That was all” (138). As a result of the cruelty Laura experiences in the arena of love, she turns with full force to manipulating men through the use of her female charms. “It was keen delight to Laura to prove that she had power over men” (143). As Ruth searched for power by proving she’s not dependent upon men, Laura proves her power by dominating them.
The need to dominate men becomes an obsession with Laura. Indeed she gets caught up as a lobbyist in Washington simply because she wants to test her powers of captivation. As a result, she begins living a nontraditional fast-paced life filled with coquetry and bribery. Laura has gained a new sense of freedom and power in this new lifestyle which obliterates the need for dependency on anyone other than herself. Like Ruth, Laura yearns for self sufficiency. Ruth’s desire, however, sprang from a feeling of suppression whereas Laura’s desire sprang from rejection and therein, suggest the authors, lies her weakness. Laura has refused to be the outcast tainted woman, but Col. Selby still holds emotional sway over her as evidenced in her meetings with him in Washington. The rejection she experienced has left her determined never to be placed in such a position again, and she tries to secure safety by maintaining strict power over the men in her life. Only as she succeeds in this area can she remain strong, and when Col. Selby arrives and she is confronted with the one man who rejected her, Laura’s tower of strength crumbles. Her outer image of beauty and stoic self sufficiency seems only to be a façade for her inner turmoil, and when confronted by the initial cause of that turmoil, Laura’s carefully wrought veneer begins to crack. “My God,” she cried...“How I hate him. And yet I loved him. Oh heavens, how I did love that man. And why didn’t he kill me? He might better. He did kill all that was good in me” (278). Ruth was reluctant to let love into her life, but Laura was only too ready and was scorched early on, turning her into a hardened woman. The example which Twain and Warner give of a nonconformist woman only turns on the woman in the end. When women don’t fit the mould, their end has the potential of disaster, and Laura is an example of what disaster a woman can come to if given too much independence.
Fairly early on, Laura realizes “this is a desperate game I am playing in these days—a wearing, sordid, heartless game. If I lose, I lose everything—even myself” (273). She has a sense that she is playing in deep and unchartered waters, and when Laura has become a thoroughly broken woman she finally realizes, like Ruth, that “Love…was a woman’s first necessity: love being forfeited, there was but one thing left that could give a passing zest to a wasted life, and that was fame, admiration, the applause of the multitude” (441). Laura tried to divorce herself from the need for love by filling the void Col. Selby left with power she seized in the political capital, but Laura is eventually cornered and forced to recognize the centrality of love to a woman’s existence, thus reinforcing the stereotypical notion of women being good for nothing except marriage. The authors build Laura’s character up in similar fashion to Ruth’s character by showing her to be a hardworking and independent heroine. Once again, however, the authors introduce a shift in character development toward the end of the novel which suggests that women, no matter how strong they seem, are ultimately dependent upon male love. Ruth succumbs to this love, and Laura realizes in the absence of it that she no longer has a reason to live.
When it comes to traditional womanhood versus radical independence, Alice Montague is a more complex character. She seems to be thoroughly domesticated and any mention of her is always in connection to her home. Philip can always count on her because she never seems to go anywhere and apparently never changes. As a result, Philip takes her for granted. “He had known her so long, she had somehow grown into his life by habit, that he would expect the pleasure of her society without thinking much about it” (369). In a sense, Alice has become invisible but doesn’t resent this fact like Ruth or Laura would.
Unlike Ruth and Laura, Alice is not a speculator. She never ventures further than the theatre, and doesn’t appear to risk anything or strive for anything. Indeed Ruth wonders “what her (Alice’s) object in life was, and whether she had any purpose beyond living as she now saw her. For she could scarcely conceive of a life that should not be devoted to the accomplishment of some definite work” (155). At one point, Alice does seem to show some sense of revolutionary spirit when Philip smilingly suggests that women will have to vote. “Well, I should be willing to, if it were a necessity, just as I would go to war and do what I could, if the country couldn’t be saved otherwise” (371). Although this seems like a progressive statement, Alice is only putting women in the category of the last resort. Alice’s passions are hidden and border on being passive. She’s lacking Ruth’s active ambition and Laura’s manipulative fascination, and it’s her tendency towards passivity that enables Philip to use her. He pours all of his concerns regarding Ruth into Alice’s ready ear without considering how it affects her feelings. “If he ever wondered that Alice herself was not in love and never spoke of the possibility of her own marriage, it was a transient thought” (369). Such careless treatment of this character would seem to be a statement against traditional womanhood, showing that it leads to emotional heartache and abuse, but instead Twain and Warner applaud Alice, saying, “the world never knows how many women there are like Alice, whose sweet but lonely lives of self-sacrifice, gentle, faithful, loving souls, bless it continually” (463-464). Indeed the whole novel ends in a culmination of her praise, ultimately reinforcing the vision of traditional womanhood.
Twain and Warner reestablish the concept of traditional womanhood in The Gilded Age by showing what comes of women who go out speculating. Women are to stay at home, like Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Hawkins, and Mrs. Sellers, while their husbands do the speculating, and when women take the role of speculator upon themselves, whether it’s in a career like Ruth or in the political arena like Laura, they end up losing. Women are to be the enablers by maintaining the home front while the men are away investing in numerous dubious schemes and speculations. Laura comments to Harry Brierly, “You men must enjoy your schemes and your activity and liberty to go about the world” (142). When Laura tries to do the same, however, she utterly fails.
Twain and Warner seem to be setting up strong female characters who go against the grain of society. Ultimately, however, these strong female characters encounter roadblocks which alter their pathway to freedom. For Ruth, the roadblock is the illness that she contracts due to her beloved work showing that her plans for an independent and nontraditional lifestyle backfired on her. For Laura, the roadblock is the reappearance of Col. Selby in her life, showing that her goal of escaping the remnants of her love life has not succeeded. In the end it is Alice who is praised, for even though she’s a single woman with no husband to back up, she takes on the traditional role of enabler by standing by Philip even as he uses her with no thought to her feelings. Alice, who never ventured to speculate, is the one praised at the end of the novel. Twain and Warner are sending the message that when women strive to reach beyond their prescribed boundaries, disaster or eventual surrender can be the only results, and thus the authors are ultimately reestablishing the concept of traditional womanhood rather than promoting the image of a liberated sex. | <urn:uuid:f3741e05-3d56-42bc-a59b-900bce29b59e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mckendree.edu/academics/scholars/issue11/belmonte.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975095 | 3,388 | 3.046875 | 3 |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration by an act of the US Congress on July 29, 1958. But it officially went into business on October 1, 1958.
Looking back after 50 years, one can distinguish several eras of human spaceflight at NASA. The first era can be broadly termed the Apollo moon race era.
Following the Soviet Union's launch of Yuri Gagarin in April 1961, and driven by Kennedy's challenge, the United States launched its own astronauts in capsules with the mythical names of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
The suborbital flights of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom in 1961, the first orbital flight of John Glenn in 1962, and the subsequent one-man flights of project Mercury proved that humans could survive in space. Click to read more...
Image: Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He launched aboard his Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket named Freedom 7--the suborbital flight lasted 15 minutes.
Text & Photographs: NASA
|1 of 13|| | <urn:uuid:081d071b-4f4a-40ae-b06d-d3847099d8ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/30slide1.htm?zcc=rl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00196-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932036 | 206 | 3.875 | 4 |
JONES, TEXAS. Jones was at the juncture of Farm Road 1255 and State Highway 110, eleven miles northeast of Canton in northeastern Van Zandt County. In the 1870s it had a church and school. Around that time four Jones brothers started a cemetery on the survey of H. W. Jones. The local school reached an enrollment of thirty-eight in 1906, and the 1936 county highway map showed a business, a church, a school, and several dwellings near the Texas Short Line Railway. In 1965 the town had a business and the church, but by 1981 only the Jones Cemetery and several dwellings by the highway remained.
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Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:8d5f2980-63d8-47cc-92cc-4cac81aa3938> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrj13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949073 | 370 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Brillouin Energy Corporation (BEC) technology uses the hydrogen in ordinary water in a nuclear process that produces no hazardous waste. The process stimulates a Controlled Electron Capture Reaction (CECR) in a catalyst. This process creates low energy neutrons. The neutrons generate heat as they are captured, building heavier elements.
BED is using a process with some similarities to Rossi energy catalyzer. They are not getting as much energy gain (a little more than double right now, but are targeting getting more than triple as they improve the current system). They are working at a few hundred watts (so about ten times less than what Rossi is claiming).
As for the nature of the experiments at a government lab, I [Robert Godes] only learned of them late in the day on Friday July 1 2011 and [scientist] was on his way out on a trip. He told me the experiment used 2 meters of .1mm Pd wire and 10A pulses. Started with high purity D and produced "lots of tritium."
Robert Godes sent him the following
I am looking forward to helping with the [lab] replication of BEC experiments. It would be helpful if you could send me an email with information about the experiments you have already performed and results with current pulses and gas loading.
His reply yesterday July 8 2011
I will do, but first we have to get a (classification review).
[scientist] at [government lab] was able to demonstrate nuclear reactions using a test he put together based on the brillouin energy PPT.
Also from Robert Godes -
The Widom Larsen theory lacks a viable explanation for the source of low energy neutrons. This lack of explanation means they have no idea how to drive the reaction. I think they draw attention away from these facts by delving into excessive formalism.
Do you think your research will be badly impacted if Rossi's device is a scam?
Research - No. Funding - Yes. What Rossi is doing is real but IMHO not practically scalable. I don't "know" that he changed from 125 x 10Kw units to 300 4.5Kw units for the 1MW system, but I would guess it was due to process variability. Some of the 10Kw units produced 30-50Kw and others only did 5Kw. He found that smaller units had less variability but now he has to juggle 300 instead of 125. If he understood the reaction he would not be on the path he is on. If he asks BEC for help getting into production I know how to solve many of the problems he is having. I am sure we could work out some sort of licensing agreement.
Pressure of Brillouin Steam
The pressure vessel is running at ~1500 right now. No steam, we are using Mobiltherm 603 as the heat transfer fluid. T1 is post boost pump and just after the positive displacement flow meter. T2 is at the exit of the heat exchanger. We are using mass flow and delta T to calculate heat transfer.
How far from commercial product
That depends largely on how long it takes to get the capital necessary to complete development. If we were to obtain $5M today products would likely start to hit the market in 3 to 5 years. Could be a lot sooner if every thing goes exactly as planed, but then there is reality.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks | <urn:uuid:79d62fab-f7de-4728-82f5-b5b0014f4204> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/robert-e-godes-explains-brillouin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961791 | 727 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Public health • Officials, providers collaborate to improve state's already better-than-average showing in March of Dimes report.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah received a B grade for its efforts to reduce premature births last year.
Some 5,500 babies in the state were born too early, or 10.9 percent. The national rate was 11.7 percent, giving the nation a C.
Still, that's the fifth consecutive year the U.S. rate has dropped, according to the March of Dimes, which releases the annual report card. Its goal is to reduce the rate to 9.6 percent by 2020.
Most states are inching toward that by agreeing to a short-term target of reducing the rate by 8 percent by 2014. That would mean 500 fewer preterm births in Utah.
The goal was set a couple of months ago by the March of Dimes and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
As part of its efforts, Utah held a Prematurity Symposium this week with health department, hospital and health insurance officials along with specialists, including OB-GYNs and neonatologists, to create a perinatal quality collaborative.
Julie Drake, director of program services for the Utah chapter of the March of Dimes, said the goal is to standardize the treatment of high-risk pregnant women. It will look at "how pregnant women are taken care of, when they get started in the system, are they getting in the system early enough, are they being identified as high-risk?" she said.
The group hopes to get legislative funding for its work, though the costs aren't known yet.
The report card pointed to areas where the state could improve:
• Getting more women insured so they have timely access to care. The report showed nearly 19 percent of women ages 15 to 44 are uninsured in Utah, compared to 17 percent the year before.
• Urging women to quit smoking. The report says nearly 11 percent of women of childbearing age smoke.
• Utah has made improvements in reducing late preterm births, babies born up to six weeks early. Those births dropped to 8.2 percent last year, from 8.7 percent in 2010.
Some early births are unavoidable because the life of the mother or child is in danger. But some are due to the convenience of the mother or doctor.
Health organizations says it's best to remain pregnant until at least 39 weeks because the lungs and brain are still developing. A typical pregnancy last 40 weeks.
Read the report card
O Find the analysis for Utah and other states. > http://bit.ly/urElS6 | <urn:uuid:f8aaa8f8-acb5-41e5-8c28-5836a2dc8471> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=55268654&itype=cmsid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976758 | 579 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Anonymous, a male from the Internet asks on January 30, 2000,Who REALLY discovered oxygen? According to an National Public Radio program, in the 1850s 3 men at the same time discovered oxygen and its use. They named this new gas, but never got recognized for their discovery.
viewed 22319 times
The discovery of oxygen happened in the 1770s, not the 1850s. It is normally credited to Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), an English clergyman and self-taught chemist. In those days chemistry was more like alchemy, or it was called apothecary. Nobody really knew what anything was made of. They thought everything was made of air, earth, water, and fire. There was no such thing as the periodic table of elements. The concept of "elements" was still evolving. Same with the idea of a gas. In 1774, during an experiment, Priestley noticed that mercuric oxide (they used to call it "mercury calx") when heated, yielded a "special air" that made a candle burn much faster, and that it would support respiration or life. He put a mouse in a vessel with his "special air" and it lived four times longer than with regular air, and was revived afterwards. Priestley published these experiments and observations in 1774.
A couple years before, in 1772 Karl W. Scheele, a Swedish apothecary discovered oxygen in a similar way, but never published his findings until 1777.
It was shortly after Priestley's discovery that he went on a trip to France and met Antoine Lavoisier, a French lawyer who was conducting scientific experiments trying to figure out what air was made of. Priestley told Lavoisier of his experiments, and this was the key Lavoisier needed to make sense of his own findings that ordinary air was made up of two major components in a ratio of about 3 to 1. Lavoiser named Priestley's special air “oxygen,” which comes from the Greek word roots that mean “acid-former.”
In summary, oxygen was probably first discovered by Scheele, but first reported by Priestley. It was not named until a bit later by the Frenchman Lavoisier. Who should get the credit?
A good explanation of the story is available at the website of the American Chemical Society although they focus on Priestley as he eventually moved to the United States and became an American.
Note: All submissions are moderated prior to posting.
If you found this answer useful, please consider making a small donation to science.ca. | <urn:uuid:67502e21-60d7-4bd0-9fda-9f7ce8edfb59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.science.ca/askascientist/viewquestion.php?qID=127 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985184 | 542 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Fountain Of Youth Isn't In Florida, It's In The Naked Mole Rat
Oct 01, 2013 01:35 PM EDT
Naked mole rats are known for having envious life spans, and they tend to remain healthy right up until the end; now researchers are discovering their secrets.
New research suggests the bald rodents can owe their 30-year-long lifespan to "better constructed proteins," a University of Rochester press release reported.
Proteins take part in almost all cell functions and are essential for all organisms. The proteins must fold into the appropriate shape in order to serve their purpose.
"While this is basic research we hope our findings encourage further studies on better protein synthesis," Vera Gorbunova, one of the study leaders, said.
The researchers looked at the naked mole rat's ribosomes, which serve as the creation point of the proteins. Gorbunova and her partner Andrei Seluanov worked with the RNA (rRNA) of the animal. They applied dye to their samples and looked at them under ultraviolet light. They saw three dark bands, which were different concentrations of rRNA molecules. Most animals only have two bands.
The finding suggested the rDNA had a "hidden break" that could affect the quality of the protein.
"Ribosome RNA strands act as scaffolds on the ribosome, a protein synthesis machine. Changing the shape of the scaffold can have a profound effect on the organization of the ribosome parts," the press release stated.
Gorbunova and Seluanov found the "scaffold" was unique, The rRNA strands "split at two specific locations and discard the intervening segment."
Instead of going off in separate directions, the two segments stick close together and work in tandem to create a functional ribosome.
When the ribosome connects amino acids together to form the proteins sometimes an incorrect amino acid is inserted. The team noticed the naked mole rat's cells were an impressive 40 percent less likely to contain one of these mistakes.
"This is important because proteins with no aberrations help the body to function more efficiently," Seluanov said.
Researchers hope to split rRNA the same way in mice to see if it will extend their lives and prevent the same problem.
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June 2007 -- Monitoring vegetables while they are growing is crucial in the
prevention of contamination of fresh produce with harmful bacteria such
as E. coli and Salmonella, say plant pathologists who are members of
The American Phytopathological Society (APS).
There have been
outbreaks of E. coli and Salmonella for at least the past decade, and
the incidences of vegetable contamination are increasing in frequency.
"We've studied plant pathogens on plants for a long time, but haven't
studied human pathogens on plants until recently," said Jeri D. Barak,
research microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Albany, Calif.
"What we've found up to this point is that most contamination is
occurring while the plants are still growing in the field," said Barak.
"The most successful way to prevent contamination of fresh produce is
to intervene before the harvest, not after," she said.
research has shown that pathogens like Salmonella use specific genes to
colonize plants, creating an active interaction with the plant surface.
"When this happens, the bacteria become almost inseparable from the
vegetable," she said.
Barak and other APS members will present
their latest food safety research and describe future research needs at
a symposium titled "Cross Domain: Emerging Threats to Plants, Humans,
and Our Food Supply" on Monday, July 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. These experts
from across the United States will discuss the environmental biology of
bacteria in fresh produce and the link between plants and bacteria
associated with human infections, such as the recent E. coli outbreaks
from California spinach.
The symposium will be held during the
joint meeting of The American Phytopathological Society (APS) and the
Society of Nematologists (SON). The meeting will take place July 28 -
August 1, 2007, at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in
San Diego, Calif.
A news conference on plant diseases and issues
that are of importance to the California economy and agriculture,
including the latest food safety information, will be held during the
meeting on Monday, July 30 at 11 a.m.
Source : American Phytopathological Society | <urn:uuid:2d6679b2-429a-475a-b289-904e8e01bd32> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biology-online.org/articles/food-safety-begins-vegetables-grow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940207 | 491 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Honorius, Emperor of Rome, became the first emperor of the Western Roman Empire at the age of eleven, upon the death of his father, Theodosius I (d. 395). He was educated monastically and was later completely controlled by his surroundings. During his childhood the church acquired its great influence on legislation. Only two months after he assumed the reign the bishops were given jurisdiction over ecclesiastical affairs and heresy was declared a civil crime. Severe measures were undertaken to suppress the Manichaeans and Pelagians (Buchberger, 2016).
A law passed in 413 in the reign of Theodosius II of the Eastern Roman Empire, who succeeded his father on 1 May 408 as a seven-year-old, forbidding rebaptism, was used by the Protestant theologians of the 16th century to suppress the Anabaptists. In their official opinions to the rulers the German reformers advocated punishing Anabaptists with death; this was done by Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and Cruciger in their opinion of Landgrave Philip of Hesse, on 5 June 1536 (Hochhuth, 563), and Urban Rhegius on the same occasion (Hochhuth, 575); also Dr. Eisermann at the diet at Cassel, 7 August 1536.
The decree of the two emperors specifies, "If anyone is denounced or seized in baptizing again any of the servants of the Christian Church, he shall be punished with death together with the one who has carried out this criminal act, in so far as the one who was persuaded is by his age capable of crime." Thus there was no consideration of a universal punishment of a repetition of baptism. Johannes Brenz had as early as 1528 in his Unterricht Philips Melanchthon widder die leere der Widderteuffer stressed that this imperial decree did not have reference to all Christians who were baptized a second time, but only to servants of the church; the regulation was merely intended to prevent a repetition of baptism in those cases where the baptism already administered was beyond doubt. This was assumed as certain in the case of church officials. That many members of the church at that time were uncertain whether or not they had actually been baptized in infancy is seen in the discussions of the fifth council of Carthage in 401. It was decided here that all who did not definitely know that they had been baptized should be baptized again (Sachsse, 37).
A regulation similar to that of Honorius and Theodosius had already been issued by the emperors Valentinianus (died 375) and Gratianus (died 383), which specified, "We hold as unworthy of the priestly office the bishop who has improperly re-baptized" (Brenz). But the terrorizing method of capital punishment was not yet employed.
Buchberger, Michael. Kirchliches Handlexicon: Ein Nachschlagebuch über das Gesamtgebiet der Theologie und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften. Munich: Allgemeine Verlag, 1907.
Codex Theodosianus, Book 16, chap. 6 (Ne sanctum baptismaiteretur).
Hartmann, J. Johann Brenz. Hamburg, 1840: 304.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: II, 343 f.
Hochhuth, K. W. H. "Mitteilungen aus der protestantischen Secten-Geschichte in der hessischen Kirche," in Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie, 1858.
Sachsse, Carl. D. Balthasar Hubmaier als Theologe. Berlin: Trowitzsch & Sohn, 1914.
Sohm, Walter. Territorium und Reformation in der hessischen Geschichte 1526‑1555. Marburg: N.G. Elwert (G. Braun), 1915.
Cite This Article
Hege, Christian. "Honorius (384-423)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 30 Jun 2016. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Honorius_(384-423)&oldid=121138.
Hege, Christian. (1956). Honorius (384-423). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 30 June 2016, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Honorius_(384-423)&oldid=121138.
©1996-2016 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:1b1401a5-1753-495c-af2c-87c2d0d44bbf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Honorius_(384-423) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923099 | 1,033 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Date: November 11 2013
It was the sight of a small boy sitting on a swing that inspired ShanShan Wang to design a lightweight oxygen cylinder for children.
The boy was being gently pushed by his mother while breathing from a canister the height of a bar fridge.
Ms Wang, an industrial design student at the University of NSW, was moved by how restricted he was and surprised that no one had updated such unwieldy equipment for children with respiratory conditions. She decided to bring ''19th-century technology into the 21st century''.
She spoke to children, staff and patients at St Vincent's Hospital, developing a sleek, portable oxygen cylinder she called Roam.
The device, designed for her thesis project, has had international recognition and serious commercial interest.
Ms Wang took home a prize from Singapore's prestigious Red Dot awards and was a finalist in the IDEA Awards in the US. The Australian winner of the James Dyson Award, she was shortlisted for the international prize.
Ms Wang, 22, who graduated on Friday, said the accolades simply ''re-emphasise the fact that the area needs innovation''.
Oxygen therapy is given to children with conditions including lung disease, severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and congenital heart disease. The smallest oxygen canisters need changing as often as every 20 minutes.
Roam, which uses liquid oxygen and digital technology, is the size of a drink bottle, is 45 per cent lighter than conventional tanks and provides enough oxygen for two to three hours.
Kumud Dhital, a cardiothoracic surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital, is arranging for a group of specialists to speak to Ms Wang and hopefully assist with clinical trials for Roam.
''I think it's a real innovative breakthrough for ambulatory oxygen therapy for children,'' Dr Dhital said.
''It would afford these children [the chance] to go out for several hours and know that they've got a decent [oxygen] supply that they can carry with them and they're going to look OK with it out there.''
Dr Dhital said Ms Wang's design could be used for adolescents as well as adults.
Ms Wang said she tried to ''humanise'' the product for children.
''I wanted to design something that was not just unobtrusive but that they'd be proud to have around - something they can show off to the other kids,'' Ms Wang said.
''It's trying to find that sweet spot of designing things that people can better their lives with.''
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Gage Martindale, who is 8 years old, has been taking a blood-pressure drug since he was a toddler. “I want to be healthy, and I don’t want things in my heart to go wrong,” he says.
And, of course, his mom is always there to check Gage’s blood pressure regularly with a home monitor, and to make sure the second-grader doesn’t skip a dose of his once-a-day enalapril.
These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such drugs, based on the company’s database figures for 2009.
Doctors and parents warn that prescribing medications to children can be problematic. There is limited research available about many drugs’ effects in kids. And health-care providers and families need to be vigilant to assess the medicines’ impact, both intended and not. Although the effects of some medications, like cholesterol-lowering statins, have been extensively researched in adults, the consequences of using such drugs for the bulk of a patient’s lifespan are little understood.
Many medications kids take on a regular basis are well known, including treatments for asthma and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder….
Reported by Anna Wilde Mathews
The Wall Street Journal
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The early history of Israel is taken from the Bible, with the beginning of the nation's history starting with the Biblical Abraham of Ur, Mesopotamia, who lived in the region around 1900BC. Abraham had 8 sons named Isaac, Ishmael, Midian, Jokshan, Zimran, Ishbak, Shuah and Medan. Isaac had a son named Jacob, who had 12 sons, which is said to have governed the 12 tribes of Israel.
In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Israel, followed by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 583 BC, who conquered the Babylonian Kingdom, which included the region of Israel.
The Roman Empire arrived and invaded Israel in 63 BC, forcing the Jews to leave the region between 132 to 135 AD, when it was named as Palestine.
The Arabs came in 635 AD, conquering and ruling Israel for over a thousand years.
In 1516, the Ottoman Empire conquered the region and remained as rulers until the First World War, when the British took over. The 1900's began the intense conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews, which led to the United Nations' 1947division of the region into the Arab and the Jewish state.
On May 14, 1948, the "State of Israel" was founded. The next decades after Israel's independence has been filled with conflict between them and Palestine, as well as their Arab neighbors. Conflict over ownership of the land considered holy by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, have resulted to ongoing regional wars in the region.
More Israel Maps
Israel is located in Western Asia, south-east of the Mediterranean Sea. Its borders are Lebanon to the north, Jordan to the east, Syria to the northeast, the Palestine territories of Gaza Strip and West Bank to the southwest and east, and Egypt and the Aqaba Gulf to the south.
The Israeli Coastal Plain, which is found on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, is home to 57% of the population. The entire region is characterized by a variety of geographical features. Fertile land is found in the Jezreel Valley, while mountain ranges are found in Galilee, and the south covered in desert, where the Negev desert is found.
The State of Israel is a representative democratic country. It has a parliament system, with the Prime Minister as Head of Government and Head of Cabinet. A 120-member parliament called Knesset is the country's legislative body.
The President of Israel acts as Head of State but duties are very limited and largely ceremonial.
Tourism is 1 of Israel's major sources of national income. Over 3.5 million people from all across the world visited Israel in 2013.
The country is popular for its historic and religious sites first and foremost, with beach resorts and archaeological sites coming in 2nd.
Among the most visited sites in Israel is Jerusalem's Western Wall or Wailing Wall. Located in the Jerusalem Old City area, at the foot of the western part of the Temple Mount, the wall is a famous site of pilgrimage and prayer for the Jews. Considered sacred and holy, it is common practice for people to place prayer notes in between the cracks of the wall.
The Masada is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 2nd most visited site in Israel next to Jerusalem. It used to be a fortress and a palace, which was built by Herod the Great. Perched on top of an isolated rock plateau on the Judaean Desert, the ruins are a popular attraction for many foreign tourists.
Tel Aviv is the country's 2nd largest city, with its collection of Bauhaus architecture protected by the UNESCO. It has a thriving nightlife scene, and is a cosmopolitan, cultural, and financial global city.
Jerusalem is the most visited city in the country. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is known for its historical, archaeological, and religious sites.
Israel's literacy rate is at 97.1% of the population. Israel ranks as number 3 in the globe in terms of the number of university degrees per capita - which is 20% of the population.
Israel's State Education Law was established in 1953, establishing 5 types of schools: state religious, state secular, ultra orthodox, Arab schools, and communal settlement schools. The largest group is the state secular, attended by majority of Israel's student population.
The top institutions in the country are Tel Aviv University &The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
- They have the highest standard of living in the Middle East.
- They have the highest life expectancy in the world - which is 82 years old.
- Israel banknotes have braille markings so the blind can identify the bills.
- The cellphone was developed in Motorola's largest location, which was in Israel.
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Karen Collins, MS, RDN, CDN
American Institute for Cancer Research
Q: My friend says that spot reducing exercises can’t really target fat at particular areas of the body. Is that true?
A: Exercises that focus on particular body parts can be very effective at strengthening the specific muscles involved and may lead to a more toned appearance, but they do not reduce the amount of fat in that particular area of the body. Depending on the specific muscle an exercise works, it can help you maintain good posture, thus reducing or avoiding lower back pain; promote better balance, thus reducing risk of falls; improve performance in sports, including cycling, tennis and golf; and improve your ability to keep up with life activities like climbing stairs, gardening or carrying suitcases and groceries. What’s more, research is looking at how exercising a muscle may activate signaling in cells that controls hormones involved in blood sugar control and other important health functions
Exercise does burn calories, so as long as you don’t make up for the extra calories burned by eating or drinking more, exercise should help reduce body fat over time. Individuals differ in where body fat tends to decrease first, and where it’s harder to reduce. For many men and post-menopausal women, fat around the waist is the most difficult to trim, while for other women, especially before menopause, the hips and thighs seem to be the last areas to lose excess fat.
The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is the cancer charity that fosters research on the relationship of nutrition, physical activity and weight management to cancer risk, interprets the scientific literature and educates the public about the results. It has contributed over $100 million for innovative research conducted at universities, hospitals and research centers across the country. AICR has published two landmark reports that interpret the accumulated research in the field, and is committed to a process of continuous review. AICR also provides a wide range of educational programs to help millions of Americans learn to make dietary changes for lower cancer risk. Its award-winning New American Plate program is presented in brochures, seminars and on its website, http://www.aicr.org. AICR is a member of the World Cancer Research Fund International.
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The media is almost as infatuated with the idea of large, hands-on, scientific collaborations as it is with the idea of cooperative, hands-on learning in the classroom. We see this most recently in a front-page article in a recent New York Times Science Section: a puff piece on the career of Eric Lander, who went from the "monastic" world of esoteric mathematics to the collaborative world of molecular biology, medicine, and genomics.*
Of course, there's a connection between these two objects of media infatuation. One of the most commonly cited justifications for group projects in K12 classrooms is the increasingly collaborative world of STEM. And one of the most common critiques of my book is that it overlooks the purported fact that most of today's professionals work in groups.
I take pains in my book to lay out (twice) the key distinction between collaboration and cooperation--a distinction so essential that I also included it as an index entry ("collaboration vs. cooperation") and will once again excerpt some of the relevant passages here:
There's an important difference, people forget, between cooperation and collaboration. Yes, many modern mathematical and scientific puzzles are large enough that multiple scholars attack them simultaneously. But they do so not by divvying up the pieces, working independently, and only reconvening to present and tweak one another's solutions. They collaborate, but they mostly work separately, not cooperatively. (p. 42; italics as in the book).
In more cooperate settings, a single person is typically in charge, assigns specific tasks, and sends people back to their cubicles. Indeed, it's the cubicle, not the conference table, that predominates in most offices. (p. 194).In the group activities that predominate in today's classrooms, in contrast, students are supposed to sit together, work together, and help each other out throughout the entire process--not just during periods of brainstorming or of combining their respective results.**
There are other key differences between the K12 ideal and the professional reality. The former is a mixed-ability group assigned by the teacher in which all the students get the same grade. As blogger and economics professor Bryan Caplan points out in a recent post entitled How to Fix Group Projects:
If we really wanted to use group projects to prepare students for the world of work, then, we'd totally change the incentive structure. Away with equal status, equal rewards, and democracy! Instead:
1. The teacher would begin by selecting the best students to be team leaders.
2. Team leaders' grades would be based on their group's performance.Such an incentive structure, Caplan argues, will result in grades that (like real-world raises and bonuses) reflect performance:
3. The team leader, not the teacher, would grade his own team members, using a budget of points based on his group's overall performance.
Since the team leader wants to maximize group performance, he has a strong incentive to reward performance and punish its absence.Moreover:
To improve the system further, the teacher would demote underperforming leaders to the ranks, promote the best-performing non-leaders to leadership roles, and allow quits and firing.Caplan acknowledges that not everyone will cotton to his scheme:
Many people will object that team leaders might "play favorites." Clearly some would. But at least they'd pay the price: Team leaders who reward incompetents will get lower grades themselves - and have trouble retaining talent (and their leadership positions!) if there's repeated play. In any case, if we're trying to teach people about the real world, isn't learning how to handle and cope with favoritism a vital skill?
Another objection might be that team leaders would be uncomfortable giving unequal grades to fellow students. Fair enough. But at least leaders would pay the price for their own squeamishness. And once again, they learn a vital skill: to put your feelings aside and judge people on their merits.But, thinking again in terms of real-world incentives, Caplan acknowledges that teachers have "less than zero incentive" to teach these particular real-world skills via these particular real-world protocols.
*A key exception to this trend is this past NYTimes Weekend Edition's front-page article on Groupthink, which I will be writing about later this week.
**The Groupthink article suggests that, at least at certain companies, the collaborate-by-divvying-up model is shifting towards the cooperative-by-sitting-together one. While I'm guessing that the collaborative model still predominates (especially in academia, where people do still have rooms of their own and bosses can't force them to "inhabit open office plans"), were I rewriting my book in light of this article, I would acknowledge the trend and specify that the most effective of today's workplace collaborations involve "divvying up the pieces, working independently, and only reconvening to present and tweak one another's solutions." | <urn:uuid:e41dc414-0231-4526-b092-e80384d81f26> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oilf.blogspot.com/2012/01/group-projects-in-real-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961451 | 1,027 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Is Our Experience a Construction of the Apparatus of our Brain?
1. “Color phi.” If two closely spaced dots are alternately and
briefly lighted in rapid succession, a single spot is seen to move between the
two. If the two spots are different colors, a moving spot is seen that suddenly
changes its color at the halfway point. (The two spots are lit for 150 msec
each, with a 50 msec gap between them.)
How do we know suddenly to change the color before the second flash occurs?
2. The “cutaneous rabbit". A person’s arm is mechanically tapped in different places (e.g. 5 taps on the wrist, then 2 near the elbow, then 3 more on the upper arm). The person reports that the taps seem to travel in a regular sequence over equally spaced points up the arm, as if a little animal were hopping along the arm. (Nasa diagram)
How do we know that after the 5 taps on the wrist, there were going to be some taps near the elbow? (If only the wrist is tapped then all of the taps are felt at the wrist.)
3. A person’s left cortex is
stimulated before his left hand is stimulated. We expect that he will feel two
tingles: first his right hand (cortically induced), and then his left hand (due
to the additional distance, close to a meter, the nerve impulses must travel
from the hand to the brain.) In fact, however, the person reports exactly the
opposite: "first left, then right."
4. Subjective delay of consciousness of intention. A person is asked to make a "spontaneous" decision to flex one hand at the wrist while noting the position of a clock. The reported time of the conscious decisions lagged up to 350 - 400 msec behind the onset of a "readiness potential" recorded from scalp electrodes.
Diagram adapted from Carver, Rita,
5. “Precognitive carousel.” A person looks at slides and presses
a button when she wants to see the next. The button is a fake - what moved the
slides was electrical activity in the brain’s cortex. Subjects reported that
they were surprised when the slides moved just as they were "about to" push the
6. A person is instructed to push a button upon feeling a touch upon his arm. 200 msec after being touched, the person pushes the button, then apologizes for accidentally pushing the button. Due to normal reaction time, he pushed the button 200 msec after being touched. But 300 msec later, his brain’s sensory cortex was electrically stimulated to mask the conscious perception of the touch. He responded properly to a stimulus he did not perceive.
Does decision-making occurs prior to consciousness with conscious intent at most having an "executive veto" role in decision making? (Note: the “veto” has its own readiness potential!)
How does the brain’s apparatus construct our conscious experience? See Dennett and Kinsbourne for their two models:
The Cartesian Theater (CT). All sensory information converges to one point in the brain from which our stream of consciousness is generated.
The Multiple Drafts Model (MDM). There is no central point. Localized discriminations in different areas of the brain are not represented for a more central discriminator (thus avoiding a homunculus). Our stream of consciousness is a number of parallel streams of conflicting and continuously revised contents (drafts) where no single one is the true version. Also the objective temporal properties of particular states do not necessarily determine the temporal properties of subjective experience.
What does this have to do with free will?
In Mapping the Mind, Rita Carver states, “When we look inside the brain we see that our actions follow from our perceptions and our perceptions are constructed by brain activity. In turn, that activity is dictated by a neuronal structure that is formed by the interplay of our genes and the environment.”
Carver, Rita, Mapping the Mind, University of California Press, 1998.
Carver, Rita, Exploring Consciousness, University of California Press, 2002.
Dennett, Daniel and Kinsbourne, Marcel, “Time and the Observer: The Where and When of Consciousness in the Brain,” in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1996) [available at http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/04/50/ ]
Dennett, Daniel, Consciousness Explained, Little Brown & Company, 1991.
Gazzaniga, Michael S., The Mind’s Past, University of California Press, 1998.
Gazzaniga, Michael S., "The Split Brain Revisited," Scientific American, July 1998.
Kornhuber, H. H., "Cerebral Cortex, Cerebellum, and Basal Ganglia: An Introduction to Their Motor Functions," in The Neurosciences, Third Study Program, eds. F. O. Schmitt and F. G. Worden (Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973), pp. 267-80.
Pickover, Clifford A., Time: A Traveler’s Guide, Oxford University Press, 1998.
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Q: Skills for Success is a six-level series with two strands, Reading and Writing and Listening and Speaking. Q: Skills for Success uses an essential question in every unit to connect critical thinking, language skills and learning outcomes. The series provides students with the language skills needed to achieve academic success. Q is a result of an extensive development process involving thousands of teachers and hundreds of students around the word. Their views and opinions helped shape the content of the series. Q is grounded in teaching theory as well as real-world classroom practice, making it the most learner-centered series available. Clearly identified learning outcomes focus students on the goal of instruction. Thought-provoking unit questions provide a critical thinking framework for each unit. Explicit skills instruction builds language proficiency. Q Online Practice provides new content and practice activities for every unit.
Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jenni Currie Santamaria , Margot F Gramer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions: Width: 20.50cm , Height: 0.70cm , Length: 25.40cm
ISBN 10: 0194756297
Publication Date: 13 May 2011
Audience: ELT/ESL , Primary & secondary/elementary & high school , ELT General
Publisher's Status: Active
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(March 6, 1997, Gazette)
Have a burning question pertaining to science, engineering, medicine, the arts, music, humanities, social sciences, physical education, or any other field? Let us know; we'll do our best to find the answers for you, drawing upon the expertise of members of the university community.
Joyce MacKinnon of the Division of University Relations' Publications Office wonders how certain flavors and colors become connected. She sent this question via the Internet:
"If vanilla beans/pods are dark brown, why do we represent the vanilla flavor with the color white -- as in ice cream, jelly beans, candy, et cetera? And, if the end product of vanilla is 'white,' then why bother adding brown color to artificial vanilla flavoring (the stuff you use when baking)? Why not filter out the color from pure vanilla extract?"
Dr. Fereidoon Shahidi, Biochemistry, knows a great deal about how foods are processed, and he provided the answer:
"Vanilla is an extract obtained from unripe fruit of Vanilla planifolia. The main flavor-active component in vanilla is vanillin," he explained. "Vanillin itself is a white-beige colored powder with a pleasant aroma. However, the extracts available in supermarkets -- which are generally alcohol-based, have a brown color, and this is due to the co-extraction of resinous material from the beans into the solvent. The extract may be used in foods like ice cream, or vanillin itself may be added to the formulation. At any rate, the amount required to impart the specific flavor of vanilla to products is minute. So, it is the dominance of the white color of milk in vanilla ice cream that makes our judgement blurred, even if a brown extract was used."
We welcome questions of all flavors! Send yours to MUNsolved Mysteries, Gazette, Arts and Administration Building, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Nfld., A1C 5S7; e-mail email@example.com, or fax 709-737-8699. Please include your name and telephone number. | <urn:uuid:b92e7df2-90e0-4d77-ba16-6c3629a2d001> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mun.ca/gazette/1996-97/Mar.6/m-munsol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894417 | 452 | 2.5625 | 3 |
|Dragon King’s Daughter |
(Gohonzon #22, Eight Great Dragon Kings)
Dragons have filled our myths, legends, history and imaginations for centuries. The Scandinavians described swimming dragons and the Vikings placed dragons on the front of their ships to scare off the sea monsters and myths containing dragons date back to 4000 B.C.
Marco Polo wrote of his travels to the province of Karajan and reported on huge serpents, which at the fore part have two short legs, each with three claws.
Records of the Greek historian Herodotus and the Jewish historian Josephus describe flying reptiles in ancient Egypt and Arabia, and in art, dragons appear on ancient pottery in China as late as 202 A.D.
o In some cultures dragons have major spiritual significance.
o In many Asian cultures dragons represented the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe.
o They are associated with wisdom and often said to be wiser than humans.
o They are often associated with wells, rain, and rivers.
o In some cultures they are also said to be capable of human speech
o European dragons are usually depicted as evil.
o Chinese dragons do not have wings but have very long tails. They are benevolent and can take on human form. The Imperial Dragon is the combination of four benevolent spiritual animals, the other three being the phoenix, the unicorn and the tortoise.
o Japanese dragons are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water.
o Persians believed a dragon's baby would be the same color as the mother's eyes.
o Scottish dragons have two tails.
Courtesy of :
The Dragon - Italy
The Dragon and the Prince - Serbia
The Dragon and His Grandmother - Germany
The Dragon of Ghent - Belgium
The Dragon of the North - Estonia
The Four Dragons - Asia
The Lambton Worm - England
The Serene Dragon - This incredible site is sure to slay you! Over 544 dragon tales listed by country and region, with origins, and articles; you will be breathing fire in no time at all. http://www.theserenedragon.net/home.html
How the Dragon Came to Be - China
Story-Lovers.com – As always, Jackie Baldwin is ahead of the pack, or in this case, the dragon’s lair. Books, stories and more, all related to those amazing mythical creatures.
The Golden Dragon of the Boringue on page 188 and Turk, Turban, Tulip and Dragon, page 166 both in Belgian Fairy Tales by William Elliot Griffis, 1919. To read these tales and download the book for free go to http://tinyurl.com/5w5dog7
CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES
Activity Village – Lots of crafts and printables as well.
Survivor Dragon Island – From the California Summer Reading Collaborative Program http://tinyurl.com/6jsnved
Chinese Dragon Puppet – Makes a great bookmark as well.
Dragon Coloring Pages - http://www.coloring.ws/dragons1.htm
Fantastic Adventures with Dragons, Gods and Giants – Grade 3
San Diego Zoo - The Lifestyle of the Komodo Dragon - For grades 4 – 6; facts, activities and more on this interesting and ancient creature.
Draconian.com - The history of dragons in various cultures, short legends about dragons and more.
Songs for Children - For songs on dragons and more go to http://www.ccplonline.org/kids/songs4tots.html#royaltyandfantasy
Karen Chace 2011 ©
This blog post was painstakingly researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at firstname.lastname@example.org. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog or newsletter via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity. | <urn:uuid:35ac80c6-81a0-4fb2-b107-c13f03771873> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2011/05/dragons-mythical-mystical-magical.html?showComment=1306000005626 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.842123 | 850 | 2.625 | 3 |
Indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) within the normal range correlated with significant declines in human decision-making performance, results of a small clinical study showed.
As the median CO2 concentration increased from 600 to 2,500 ppm, performance on seven of nine scales of decision-making decreased significantly (P<0.001), Mark Mendell, PhD, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., and colleagues reported. A post-hoc pairwise comparison showed that performance deteriorated significantly between CO2 concentrations for all seven scales.
The magnitude of CO2-associated deterioration in decision-making performance ranged from 11% to 94%, the researchers wrote online in Environmental Health Perspectives.
"While the modest reductions in multiple aspects of decision making seen at 1,000 ppm may not be critical to individuals, at a societal level or for employers, an exposure that reduces performance even slightly could be economically significant," the authors wrote. "The substantial reductions in decision-making performance with 2.5-hour exposures to 2,500 ppm indicate ... impairment that is of importance even for individuals," they added. "These findings provide initial evidence for considering CO2 as an indoor pollutant, not just a proxy for other pollutants that directly affect people."
Typical indoor concentrations of CO2 exceed those in the outdoor environment. Indoor CO2 concentrations increase as ventilation decreases. As a result, peak indoor CO2 concentrations have been used to estimate outdoor-air ventilation rate per indoor occupant, the authors noted.
Efforts to reduce energy consumption have the potential to reduce ventilation rates, increasing indoor CO2 concentration in the process.
Previous studies of the health effects of CO2 have focused on concentrations that far exceed those found in normal indoor settings. Concentrations greater 20,000 ppm can lead to deeper breathing. Visual disturbances and tremors have been reported in association with indoor CO2 levels greater than 100,000 ppm, and death can occur at CO2 concentrations greater than 250,000 ppm.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends a maximum indoor CO2 concentration of 5,000 ppm for an 8-hour workday, the authors continued.
Several studies have shown that indoor CO2 concentrations at the upper limits of normal are associated with perceived poor air quality, increased acute health symptoms, decreased work performance, and increased absenteeism. However, the associations usually have been attributed to higher levels of indoor pollutants resulting from decreased outdoor ventilation.
"Thus, CO2 in the range of concentrations found in buildings (up to 5,000 ppm) has been assumed to have no direct impacts on occupants' perceptions, health, or work performance," the authors wrote.
Mendell and colleagues conducted a controlled clinical study involving 22 adults, primarily college students.
To assess the possible effects of indoor CO2 concentration on decision-making, investigators used the Strategic Management Simulation (SMS) test, a computer-based instrument that provides data on individuals' decision-making performance under different conditions.
According to the authors, the SMS measures complex behaviors required for effectiveness in workplace settings. The test system assesses basic cognitive and behavioral responses to tasks, as well as cognitive and behavioral components of executive functioning. The study assessed decision-making performance on nine SMS scales.
The study was conducted in a chamber facility that allowed manipulation of the indoor environment, including ventilation. Each participant completed three study sessions on separate days. During each session, participants the SMS and a questionnaire about health symptoms and perceived air quality.
Participants completed one session during which indoor CO2 was maintained at 600 ppm, one at a concentration of 1,000 ppm, and one at a concentration of 2,500 ppm.
Compared with the 600 ppm condition, performance on seven of nine SMS scales declined as CO2 concentration increased (basic activity, applied activity, task orientation, initiative, information usage, breadth of approach, and strategy).
As compared with the 600 ppm condition, performance during the 1,000 ppm condition deteriorated by 11% to 23% across the seven scales and by 44% to 94% during the 2,500 condition.
Additionally, the authors found a performance decrement of 35% to 93% between the 1,000 ppm and 2,500 ppm conditions.
In contrast to the other scales, scores for the "focused activity" scale increased with the CO2 concentration in the test chamber. "Focused activity is important for overall productivity, but high levels of focus under non-emergency conditions may indicate 'over-concentration,'" the authors explained.
"The direct impacts of CO2 on performance indicated by our findings may be economically important, may disadvantage some individuals, and may limit the extent to which outdoor air supply per person can be reduced in buildings to save energy," the authors wrote.
They concluded that the causality of the observed effects was clear, but that this study in college students many not apply to the general population.
"Replication of these study findings, including use of other measures of complex cognitive functioning and measures of physiologic response such as respiration and heart rate, is needed before definitive conclusions are drawn," they said.
The study was supported by the Environmental Protection Agency via Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation.
The authors reported no conflicts on interest.
- Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner | <urn:uuid:bab85b6d-3d5b-4b67-bf86-f645ef979be8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/34967 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940789 | 1,108 | 3.015625 | 3 |
In the example, both medications and psychotherapy are being used in combination to treat this patients recurrent major depressive episode. Combined treatment refers to the combination of both of these modalities and does not refer to the use of 2 or more psychotropics. Combined treatment also is known as collaborative treatment, concurrent treatment, shared treatment, and parallel treatment.1 Combined treatment can be carried out using a split treatment arrangement, with one provider prescribing medication and the other performing the psychotherapy, or via an integrated treatment arrangement in which the same practitioner provides both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. In this example, the PCP provides the SSRI and the mental health provider the IPT, constituting a split treatment arrangement.
- Combined treatment and split treatment.
1. Riba MB, Balon R. The challenges of split treatment. In: Kay J, editor. Integrated treatment of psychiatric disorders. Washington (DC): American Psychiatric Publishing; 2001.
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Seminars in Medical Practice
Hospital Physician Board Review Manuals
Copyright © 2009, Turner White Communications
Updated 1/04/08 kkj | <urn:uuid:c2ef6e6b-f33e-4b98-8a55-4883199ca614> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.turner-white.com/saq/psych/saq_oct03_psyc_ans01.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875195 | 230 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Blackfoot, or Siksika is an Algonquian language with about 8,000 speakers in the US state of Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta.
The Blackfoot syllabary was devised by John William Tims (1857-1945), an Anglican missionary from England who spent 12 years from 1883 to 1895 among the Blackfoot people in the North-West Territories of Canada (now Alberta). Tims based his Blackfoot syllabary on James Evans' Ojibwe syllabary and used it to produce a dictionary of the Blackfoot language and translations of a number a biblical texts.
Nowadays the syllabary is rarely used as the Latin alphabet is prefered.
Aamohka nitaayakitsinikatawahka kiaayaowahka ki omahka kipitakiwahka anistawa Ksistsikomaaki. Iitoisiyihk. Iiksipihtsi omii otsitotoispima miini.
Further information about the Blackfoot syllabary
Blackfoot Language - details of the phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, etc
Blackfoot words and phrases with audio
Official site of the Blackfoot Nation | <urn:uuid:0830c051-c30e-413f-8b9f-cb2796a979c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://omniglot.com/writing/blackfoot.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.662664 | 257 | 2.984375 | 3 |
How much faster? The robot working with silicon can build a semi-conductor on a six-inch-square plate of glass, plastic or flexible metal in about 35 minutes. It pivots and dishes like a point guard, sifts like a master chef, analyses like a forensics expert and does it all while maintaining a vacuum seal on the entire process.
Simultaneously, it can analyse glitches and measure light absorption, while preparing the next half-dozen plates.
"It used to require us to go to, let's see, one … two … three … four … five labs to do the same thing," NREL scientist Ingrid Repins said.
And the silicon robot is one of just 6 such robots in 6 bays in NREL's Process Development and Integration Laboratory (PDIL), the place where industry is starting to turn to test their newest cells.
The bay that uses silicon as the semiconductor for solar cells was the first to begin operating and holds all the speed and performance records so far.
Next to go on line were bays devoted to stand-alone characterisation, integrated characterisation and atmospheric processing.
The latest bay to start operating is the one that uses Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) as the semi-conductor in solar cells. Still being installed is the final bay, which will work with cadmium-telluride cells.
In each bay, the central transfer robot is the hub, operating like a jukebox, delivering the plate to chambers that can deposit micron-thin layers of chemicals to build the semi-conductors, or test and measure the growth of the crystals that make the cells.
Solar companies can test samples, use their own tools
Solar companies will be able to hook their own tools to the central robot and discover how their newest formulas compare. A vacuum transport tool can take the sample plates to the different, yet compatible, bays to see how an unusual process might bolster the power of a cell.
Solar companies know how to make solar cells in a dozen different ways — as shingles, as windows, as fanny packs, as attachments to space vehicles — but they constantly are searching for ways to lower costs and gain efficiency.
"The whole goal is dollars per watt," Repins said.
President Obama has set a goal that solar energy become cost-competitive with coal and other fossil fuels by 2015.
"The gap is closing," Repins said. "We're getting closer. Already, First Solar is saying that for a large installation in southern California where electricity prices are relatively high, they are at parity now."
NREL scientists are hoping their PDIL facility will help industry close that gap sooner by bringing lab-like precision to industrial-type processes.
R&D agreement with Climax Molybdenum
For example, NREL last month signed a cooperative agreement with Climax Molybdenum of Empire, Colorado, which wants the lab to help test a new process of building sodium into the molybdenum layer of solar cells and then sputtering that sodium onto the CIGS layer.
Traditionally, the sodium leaches into the solar cell from the glass plate, but that's not really a good way to do it because there is little quality-control in the glass-making procedure, Repins said.
For Climax Molybdenum, NREL will measure how well the company uses its tools to sputter the sodium from the molybdenum into the semiconductor, and how precisely it gets there.
"The assumption is that there will be more control getting sodium from the molybdenum than from the glass," she said.
If it's perfected, that's another step toward lowering the cost of solar energy.
Solar cells are like mini-batteries, with three layers of thin films representing the two terminals and the current in between. The three layers together are about one-seventh the thickness of a human hair.
The middle layer, which absorbs the sun's rays and acts as the current, is where the action is.
Some companies are sure CIGS will emerge as the best semi-conductor; others pin their hopes on cadmium telluride or the venerable silicon.
World record; Now, how to transfer it to industry?
NREL two years ago set a world record for the efficiency of a thin-film solar cell, when its CIGS cell was able to convert to electricity 20% of the energy it absorbed from the sun. The record for a cadmium-telluride cell is 16.8%.
Today's roof-top solar panels typically are able to convert about 10 or 11% of the sun's energy, although there is a large range of between 8% and 20% efficiency.
Now, the challenge is to be able to layer a film of CIGS on commercial-sized solar panels without dropping down much from that 20% pinnacle.
Repins envisions that with the 20% formula as the template, in a few years companies can roll out kilometre-long sheets of solar cells and still achieve 16% efficiency — even as they strive to use the least expensive materials and put an emphasis on speed.
The difference between 11% and 16% is huge, because the cost savings multiply on each other, she said.
It means solar panels can be smaller and generate the same amount of energy, and that means lower materials costs, lower factory costs and lower installation costs.
Getting there — to reach a 16% efficiency level while making miles of thin-film cells a day — is the goal of the one-of-a-kind testing facility at NREL.
Sensors can read how cells are growing
In the brightly lit PDIL on NREL's campus in Golden, Colorado, scientists simulate the processes industry will use. The goal is to answer previously unanswerable research questions, while controlling and characterising the surfaces of the cells, developing new techniques and devising new structures.
"The old way we used to do things, each layer required a different machine," Repins said. "We would take out the substrate and put it into another machine." Each time the plate was removed, humidity could weaken the cell and there were issues of cleanliness and contamination.
Now, the goal is a process that is seamless, spotless and transparent.
In each bay, lasers shine light on the cells and sensors can read how the cells are growing.
PDIL's ultra-high-vacuum environment lets researchers study the role of impurities and defects, said NREL senior scientist Miguel Contreras. "We can do basic R&D at the material level. We can also develop analytical tools on site to test new plates and to test for quality."
What combination of heat, metals, chemicals and time can grow the crystals to form the perfect cell? At one step excess copper is needed; at another, just enough sodium needs to leach into the middle layer.
The goal of all the depositing, analysing and measuring is to be able to tell industrial partners why the cell isn't growing as well as it should and what can be done about it.
"We do a post-mortem," Repins said. For example, "'We got 14% efficiency with these materials, why are you only getting 12%?'"
Companies want to know how they can turn the knobs to get the ultimate performance out of the cells. "This helps take that step toward telling them what to do in the process," she said. "We can tell them, 'this is what the sodium content should look like,' for example. It's one more clue."
Bill Nemeth, a scientist in NREL's PDIL facility, says he doesn't have to wear a lab coat at work "because everything revolves around maintaining a vacuum," and the researchers never come into direct contact with semi-conductors.
"We have the capability that no other place can duplicate," Nemeth added. "This encourages cooperation."
Goal: Fewer impurities, better efficiency, better yield
The CIGS PDIL tool also was designed to do basic research and development on materials. The ultra-high vacuum environment allows scientists to study the role of impurities and defects, as well as what happens when the metals are deposited at the fast rate demanded by industry. That knowledge will help researchers develop analytical tools for quality control and to test for new plate materials.
"The system was designed to allow us to do things we could not do before, such as get a better look at impurities and the quality of materials, the different layers that compose the CIGS cell," Contreras said. "It's helping us understand better what is limiting our efficiencies, as well as learning how to improve industrial productivity.
"This gives us more insight into the physics and materials science of CIGS-based solar cells," Contreras added. The fundamental research will "lead to better solar cell efficiency, process control, improved uniformity and improved yield." | <urn:uuid:ac37f5f1-cf2b-47fb-a498-a68dc766689e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/8568/nrels-new-robots-scrutinise-solar-cells/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951031 | 1,875 | 3.3125 | 3 |
LearnLanguageswith Us!Start Learning!
Communication doesn’t have to mean a long and intense discussion. Just knowing how to say “hello” and “thank you” in another person’s language can completely change your relationship with that person.
Decades ago, when I was hitchhiking around the world (OK, yes, some buses and ships too), I would exchange handwritten phrase lists with other travelers making their way in the opposite direction. Hello, thank you, excuse me, where, how much. You can communicate a lot with those, some gestures, showing fingers for numbers, pointing for direction, things like that.
In Transparent Language Online and Rapid Rote, we’ve shown many times that basic words and phrases can be learned, including pronunciation, in about one minute per item. Hello. That’s one minute. Thank you. Excuse me. Where? How much? Five minutes.
Obviously, greater mastery of a language takes longer. I’m familiar with one language proficiency scale in which level 2 is labeled “Limited Professional Proficiency.” At this level, someone is expected to be able to converse socially and handle most workplace interactions successfully to a limited extent. How long does that take? One prominent language school estimates that for a relatively easy language, such as Italian, achieving Limited Professional Proficiency might require 750 classroom hours. For a more difficult language, such as Chinese or Arabic, reaching the same level of proficiency might require 1,800 classroom hours.
But here’s the thing. People who enjoy languages spend their entire lives getting better and learning more. Certainly no one I know has ever learned all of the English language. We’re all still working on it. Think of yourself as a user and learner your chosen language, and you’re just like everyone else.
You never finish learning a language. But how long does it take to learn enough of another language to make a difference? Five minutes. A word or two can make bring a smile, make a sale, help you find your way, and bridge distrust.
With hello and thank you mastered, you now know more of your chosen next language than most people on earth. After that, it’s just about having fun and getting a little better at it every day.
– Michael Quinlan, CEO, Transparent Language, Inc. | <urn:uuid:a34a8a23-09b7-4812-933f-d9b56f60cc04> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.transparent.com/language-news/2013/08/19/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-a-language/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938156 | 498 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Opinion 5.05 - Confidentiality
The information disclosed to a physician by a patient should be held in confidence. The patient should feel free to make a full disclosure of information to the physician in order that the physician may most effectively provide needed services. The patient should be able to make this disclosure with the knowledge that the physician will respect the confidential nature of the communication. The physician should not reveal confidential information without the express consent of the patient, subject to certain exceptions which are ethically justified because of overriding considerations.
When a patient threatens to inflict serious physical harm to another person or to him or herself and there is a reasonable probability that the patient may carry out the threat, the physician should take reasonable precautions for the protection of the intended victim, which may include notification of law enforcement authorities.
When the disclosure of confidential information is required by law or court order, physicians generally should notify the patient. Physicians should disclose the minimal information required by law, advocate for the protection of confidential information and, if appropriate, seek a change in the law. (III, IV, VII, VIII) | <urn:uuid:8532531c-d185-414f-8b16-7040dbf3a600> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion505.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927773 | 222 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Title - Clear, Concise
Introduction - Need, Importance, Rationale, Situation
(approximately one paragraph)
Problem - Why is this study needed?
Purpose - What is this study going to do about the problem?
Objectives - What specifically must be accomplished to achieve
the purpose? (research questions or hypotheses may be used)
Review Of Literature - Which topical areas of the literature
will be searched?
Methodology - How will the study be conducted? (approximately a
sentence each describing population and sampling, instrument development, data gathering
method, data analysis, statistics, and design of the study)
List Of References - Two or three primary references (use APA or
the bibliographic format for your study)
Instrument - Draft copy (develop the instrument as far as
possible to determine if it will accomplish the objectives) | <urn:uuid:9faee40c-9f76-4bd6-81b7-a4d1fd3a2f6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.okstate.edu/ag/agedcm4h/academic/aged5980a/5980/mini.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.827076 | 180 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The Long Island Sound Study released an update this month as a remedy. “What we’re trying to do,” Mark Tedesco EPA’s director of the LIS office said, “is see how climate change can affect really everything we do — to try to integrate into our thinking and planning, whether it’s controlling nutrient runoff that could change with more intense storms,” or protecting coastal wetlands, a critical buffer between ocean and homes during storms.
Long Island Sound
A new management and conservation plan for Long Island Sound identifies six problem areas that should be addressed by governmental agencies and environmental and university groups.
A new 20-year plan to protect Long Island Sound while addressing problems created by global warming and rising sea levels calls for protecting or relocating key coastal facilities like oil tanks and power stations, among other measures. The draft proposal was released Monday by the Long Island Sound Study, a coalition of local, state and
A new report says nitrogen pollution discharged into Long Island Sound continues an overall decline. That’s good news for marine life because too much nitrogen can fuel the growth of algae, which dies, settles on the ocean floor, and decays, using up oxygen in the process.
Oily water separators are used on tanker ships to figure out whether or not oily waste is clean enough to dump in the ocean. In this case, investigators received a tip hours before a 577-foot tanker called the Bow Lind pulled into port in New Haven.
Malloy joins with Connecticut’s congressional delegation, members of New York’s congressional delegation and many stakeholders who also have asked Secretary Vilsack to designate Long Island Sound a critical conservation area.
A team of Yale researchers will lead a five-year, $3 million study to determine whether an increase in extreme rain events is affecting the transport of dissolved organic matter through the Connecticut River watershed, a phenomenon they say could alter the chemical composition and water quality of the watershed and Long Island Sound.
New Haven-based Long Island Sound advocacy group Save the Sound says Westchester’s sewage treatment plants are doing a good job removing nitrogen before discharging into the Sound but have to do more.
You may also submit testimony and comments in support of the Blue Plan Advisory Committee via email to ENV.email@example.com no later than 8 a.m. on Friday. You can use model testimony as a guide. (click for more information.) Sign-up for speaking at the hearing will begin at 11 a.m. in the LOB atrium. Click on this Environmental Headline for more of this story.
Why parts of the Sound where hypoxia is worst have low transfer efficiency rates of nitrogen pollution discharge from wastewater treatment plantsJan 3rd, 2014 | By Environmental Headlines -- CT environmental news
When you look at the map of transfer efficiencies, you notice that the efficiency generally gets higher from east to west, and from north to south.
Wastewater treatment plants closer to Western LIS and the Narrows, where hypoxia is worst, have the highest transfer efficiencies, which makes sense.
But some of the biggest plants which discharge into LIS are those serving New York City, which when combined, discharge just over 1,000,000,000 (yes, one billion) gallons of treated sewage per day. By volume of discharge and total nitrogen load, the impact of these plants dwarfs the impact of surrounding facilities.
Click on this Environmental Headline for more of this story from Long Island Sound Study.
While Long Island Sound stretching 113 miles from New York to the Rhode Island border, there is no umbrella organization to connect the various parts together into a single entity to promote its identity and appreciation. Some hope this isn’t the case for much longer.
Problems such as pesticide contamination, algae blooms and declining lobster populations imperil Long Island Sound, elected officials and environmentalists from New York and Connecticut said Wednesday.
long-island-sound-fishing-boat-cjzurcherOfficials, meeting in Port Jefferson at the second annual Bi-State Long Island Sound Roundtable, discussed strategies for protecting the estuary — a source of jobs and recreation for residents of both states.
Click on this Environmental Headline for more of this story.
Save the Sound, an organization dedicated to the preservation and upkeep of the Long Island Sound, posted an article on its blog on July 29 naming bacteria as the cause of the closures. “We urge all Westchester residents to contact their local elected officials and let them know that fixing the sewers and cleaning up
“For several years we have listened to the experts who told us that these pesticides could not harm the lobster population — last year, however, we learned that the experts may have been wrong,” said Mr. Shaban, ranking member of the Environment Committee. “This measure will give the benefit of the doubt to the people who have been working these waters for their entire lives, and will help restore a lucrative local industry.”
New York and Connecticut scientists are studying wetlands along the Long Island Sound to evaluate the potential impact of rising sea levels.
As the horseshoe crab population fluctuates, Mattei of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and other researchers are trying to better understand their numbers and their role in a web that includes fish, long-distance-migrating shorebirds and life-saving biomedical research.
In a first for Long Island Sound, 120 pounds of kelp farmed in waters near the Thimble Islands has made its way to the plates and soupbowls of New York City restaurants. Click on this Environmental Headline for more on this story from The Day.
N.Y. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Reps. Steve Israel and Connecticut’s Rosa DeLauro have announced the introduction of bipartisan legislation to protect Long Island Sound. The Long Island Sound Stewardship and Restoration Act will advance the protection and restoration of this key estuary. They were joined by local environmental groups, including the New York and Connecticut Audubon Societies, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, the Nature Conservancy NY, the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, the Long Island Sound Study Citizens Advisory Committee and Save the Sound. Click on this Environmental Headline for more on this story.
Save the Sound & Cornell University Cooperative Extension Partner to Restore the Sound’s Submerged Fish HabitatMay 7th, 2013 | By Environmental Headlines -- CT environmental news
Last week, Save the Sound partnered with the Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County for our third third event engaging volunteers in restoring the Sound’s submerged aquatic vegetation – eelgrass. Friday’s event took place at the Clinton Town Marina.
The Sea Grant programs of Connecticut and New York, with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Long Island Sound Study program, announced today that they will fund research grants that will help efforts to improve water quality and adapt to climate change.
The two projects, totaling $708,308, involve teams of researchers in three states, making it a truly collaborative effort. | <urn:uuid:d4e01e0d-6c43-46d2-85cd-46fd42f4a8ca> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://environmentalheadlines.com/ct/subjects/water/long-island-sound/?poll_archive_page_no=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928869 | 1,469 | 2.53125 | 3 |
U.S. Drought Monitor Update for May 13, 2014
According to the May 13, 2014 U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional covers 38.1% of the contiguous United States, a decrease from last week’s 40.1%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) also decreased slightly from 14.5% last week to 14.0%. Slow-moving weather systems in an elongated upper-level circulation pattern dropped beneficial precipitation across parts of the western and Great Plains drought areas, resulting in contraction of drought this week.
In addition to Drought.gov, you can find further information on the current drought as well as on this week’s Drought Monitor update at the National Drought Mitigation Center. See their recent news releases.
The most recent U.S. Drought Outlook is available from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agriculture Outlook Board provides information about the drought’s influence on crops and livestock. | <urn:uuid:b069851b-affb-429a-9ace-1adcf266b925> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/us-drought-monitor-update-may-13-2014 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909967 | 213 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Real-Life Message-in-a-Bottle Story Captures Public Imagination
Who was it who said the best stories are reality? Whoever it was, they were right. And who can resist a story about a message in a bottle?
Imagine stuffing messages - essentially RSVP cards - into three hundred thousand empty bottles. You'd have to be driven by an incredible passion and dedication.
Dr. Dean Bumpus was. Between 1956 and 1972, sometimes with the help of government funding, sometimes without, he bought unused bottles and gathered the "dead soldiers" of Woods Hole - rinsed out beer, whiskey, wine and champagne bottles - and filled them with cards promising a fifty cent reward for information about where the bottle was found (actually, his son Peter says he filled a good number, driven by his father's enthusiasm). He then enlisted volunteers and boats of all sizes and stripes - Navy, fishing, Coast Guard, and research ships - to drop those bottles overboard.
Now, imagine walking along a beach and finding such a bottle laying at the foot of the dunes. You'd probably be overcome with an intense curiosity about where that bottle came from, who sent it, and why.
So far, only ten percent of Bumpus' bottles have been reported found, many of those in the months and years immediately after they were deployed. But one was found just over a month ago in the dunes of Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. The scientist who found it figured the fifty cent prize was a long shot, but he was curious to know the bottle's story. So he got in touch with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and, subsequently, Dean Bumpus' family.
Bumpus' son, Peter, says the bottles have always captured people's imaginations. A message in a bottle is just irresistable, and that was part of the point. Bumpus' main objective was scientific - he wanted to better understand coastal ocean currents. But inspiring public interest in the oceans was also part of Dean Bumpus' driving passion.
Oceanographers continue to use floats, or drifters, to track the movements of the ocean, and thousands of them can be found in the ocean today. Of course, technology has advanced significantly. But Dean Bumpus' bottle program was groundbreaking for its scope, and for a deliberate public outreach component that was well ahead of its time. | <urn:uuid:25c13566-fe5b-4829-843c-e482fac429a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://capeandislands.org/post/real-life-message-bottle-story-captures-public-imagination | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976768 | 495 | 2.890625 | 3 |
People with diabetes have an increased risk of blindness, yet nearly half of the approximately 23 million Americans with diabetes do not get an annual eye exam to detect possible problems.
But it appears that cost-effective computerized systems to detect early eye problems related to diabetes can help meet the screening need, University of Iowa analysis shows.
The UI team compared the ability of two sets of computer programs to detect possible eye problems in 16,670 people with diabetes. Each of the two programs (known as EyeCheck and Challenge 2009) are based on technology developed at the UI and performed equally well, achieving the maximum accuracy theoretically expected. The study was published online April 16 by the journal Ophthalmology.
The systems require a trained technician to use a digital camera to take pictures of the retina, located inside the eye. The images are then transferred electronically to computers, which can automatically detect the small hemorrhages (internal bleeding) and signs of fluid that are hallmarks of diabetes damage.
"It is an important question: whether a computer can substitute for a human to detect the initial signs of diabetic eye disease," said Michael Abràmoff, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and an ophthalmologist with UI Hospitals and Clinics.
"Our analysis shows that the computerized programs appear to be as accurate and thorough as a highly trained expert in determining if these initial signs of an eye problem are developing in someone with diabetes. Once the initial problems are found, an eye specialist can treat the patient," added Abràmoff, who also is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the UI College of Engineering.
To explain the system's efficiency, Abràmoff said that among a group of 100 patients with diabetes, 10 people would likely have diabetes-related eye problems. An ophthalmologist (eye doctor) would have to check the eyes of all 100 patients to find out who had problems. The computer programs, when given photos of the eyes of the same 100 patients, flag on average 20 people as possibly having diabetes-related eye problems. Thus, an ophthalmologist would need to see only the 20 people prescreened by the computer program instead of the original 100.
"The computerized programs are accurate and allow ophthalmologists to spend time on patients who actually need care and provide better care to those patients. Also, through this technology, people with diabetes can have an opportunity for screening that they might not otherwise have," Abràmoff said.
Abràmoff noted the study had some limitations. For one, the images were prescreened to ensure the computers could analyze them. However, his research group has already developed the tools to automatically ensure adequate image quality before proceeding.
In addition, the number of people in the study who actually had diabetes-related eye problems was lower than what might be seen in other populations, such as people whose diabetes in not under control. Thus, Abràmoff said, it will be important to test the systems in other, larger groups. Last, the computer-based assessments were compared to assessments done by only one human reader at a time, which may not reflect a comparison to assessments by multiple readers.
"A computer alone will never be a substitute for the care of a good doctor, but it's exciting to think that computers can be partners in finding the patients at risk of blindness who should see an ophthalmologist," said study author Vinit Mahajan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences.
"In the United States alone, between 40 and 50 percent of people with diabetes are not getting the eye screening exams they need. We think these detection programs can meet this critical need very cost-effectively," Mahajan added.
Abràmoff holds a patent, as well as patent applications, on the technology used in the study, and is one of the owners of the EyeCheck project. Study authors Meindert Niemeijer, Ph.D., UI research scientist, and Gwénolé Quellec, Ph.D., UI adjunct research scientist, hold patent applications on this technology, as well. | <urn:uuid:ab6b6631-37a8-4fc1-8596-977ec71e5395> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/uoi--cce051210.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96061 | 883 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing! is an experiential education program currently touching the lives of 3,500 girls across North America.
The program uses Jewish teachings and practices — in a five-year cycle of curricular materials — to give girls a place to feel safe, articulate their deepest concerns, consider the impact of gender on their daily lives, have fun, and be ‘real’ with their peers.
Moving Traditions partners with synagogues, schools, and JCCs to operate the program. We train adult group leaders to facilitate Rosh Hodesh groups, which meet monthly for girls of one grade — for girls between the ages of 11-18.
Through discussion, arts & crafts, creative ritual, games, and drama, the girls and their leaders draw on Jewish values and a gender lens to explore the issues the girls care about most, such as body image, friendship, relationships, family, competition, and stress.
- a majority of girls drop out of Jewish communal life after bat mitzvah.
- girls’ self-concept plummets as they enter adolescence.
Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing! was developed by educators, rabbis, social workers, and psychologists to address the real needs of teen girls within a rich Jewish context. It was the first program to draw on Jewish teachings and traditions to keep girls healthy and whole, instilling in them the ability to counter narrow views of gender in popular culture.
Today, over a decade later, with 340 groups now meeting — some of whom for their third, fourth and even fifth years — and more than 1,000 women trained as group leaders, the program has touched the lives of more than 12,000 girls. | <urn:uuid:38abbafa-76a0-4019-a74f-823b040af94b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://movingtraditions.org/programs/rosh-hodesh-its-a-girl-thing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953672 | 366 | 3.15625 | 3 |
General Insect Category
All sucking insects that feed on xylem sap may be vectors ofXylella fastidiosa. Vectors acquire the bacterium by feeding oninfected plants. The
bacteria appear to adhere to the foregut (betweenthe needle-like
mouthparts and the stomach) and are then transmitted byinfective
vectors to other plants. Vectors remain infectiveindefinitely after
picking up the bacteria with the exception that theyno longer are able
to transmit after they shed their external skeletonby molting. After
molting, insects must feed again on an infected plant before they can
transmit the bacterium.
All known vectors of X. fastidiosa
belong to the insectsuborder Homoptera. The main vector groups are
leafhoppers (familyCicadellidae) in the subfamily Cicadellinae. Many of
these are commonlycalled sharpshooters. Spittlebugs or froghoppers
(family Cercopidae) arealso vectors. Cicadas (family Cicadidae) are
also xylem feeders but sofar there are no published reports of their
being tested as vectors.
Return to vector page...
Return to main page... | <urn:uuid:62777898-8d37-41fc-aa06-35ea2722f478> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nature.berkeley.edu/xylella/insectVector/geninsct.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.839649 | 266 | 3.296875 | 3 |
A great summary of recent studies on green jobs
Clean energy, a job-creation engine already generating impressive performance, will rev up to even higher levels in coming years. A comprehensive new fact sheet (PDF) from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute strongly documents these trends with capsule summaries of dozens of recent studies on the topic.
In the last several years, numerous studies have validated the emergence of renewable energy and energy efficiency as a major new economic and employment driver. EESI — a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that educates Capitol Hill on energy issues and the general public on energy legislation — has created this invaluable fact sheet to survey many of the major national, state, and industry studies. Here are a few samples:
- Energy efficiency now employs 8 million, and renewable energy 450,000, in the U.S.
- Renewable energy creates more jobs per megawatt of power installed, unit of energy produced, and dollar invested than fossil energy.
- Generating 20 percent of U.S. electricity from new renewable energy by 2020 will add 185,000 new jobs, while cumulatively reducing utility bills $10.5 billion and increasing rural landowner income by $26.5 billion.
- A national light vehicle efficiency standard of 35 mpg by 2018 will create 241,000 jobs, including 23,900 in the automotive sector, while saving consumers $37 billion in 2020 alone.
- The Massachusetts clean energy sector employs 14,000 and will soon be the state’s 10th largest economic sector.
- Washington state’s 15 percent renewable energy standard will result in a net increase of 1,230 jobs in-state.
- California’s Million Solar Roof Initiative will generate 15,000 jobs there.
- Germany employs 214,000 in renewable energy, including 64,000 in wind.
- Denmark’s wind industry employs 20,000 and Spain’s 35,000.
- U.S. wind power was responsible for 16,000 direct jobs and 36,800 total jobs in 2006.
Clean energy is a dynamic economic sector rich in new jobs, and these studies prove it. They also indicate that the sector is growing most strongly where public policies build a market framework that encourages adoption of new technologies. Leading states and nations are demonstrating how public policy leadership and private sector innovation can effectively partner to meet the need for cleaner energy while generating powerful economic benefits. EESI’s new fact sheet provides a quick and useful summary of the literature.
This post was created for Climate Solutions Journal. | <urn:uuid:5903d7c4-0edd-4e84-8f92-6fefbb6ffa27> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://grist.org/article/the-mother-of-all-green-jobs-fact-sheets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893789 | 528 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Easy Riding Versatile Breed Developed in the Ozarks
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse was developed in the rugged Ozark hills during the 19th century by settlers who needed easy riding, durable mounts that could travel long distances at a sure-footed, ground consuming gait.
Missouri achieved statehood in 1821 and the pioneers who poured across the Mississippi River and settled in the Ozarks came largely from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Naturally they brought along saddle horses popular in those areas. It soon became apparent that horse able to perform the easy, broken gait called the Fox Trot were the most useful in the rocky, forest covered hills of the Ozarks and selective breeding for the Fox Trot gait began.
Easy gaited stock imported to our nation's shores during the Colonial era left their genetic imprint on the Fox Trotting Horses of the Ozarks, the American Saddle Horses of Kentucky, and the Walking Horses of Tennessee. Some 19th century standouts such as the Canadian born stallion, Tom Hal, made sizable contributions to the easy gaited horses of all three regions.
The distinguished characteristic of the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse is the Fox Trot gait; the horse walks with the front feet and trots with the hind feet. This extremely sure footed gait gives the rider little jar since the hind feet slide into place. The Fox Trot is a rhythm gait and the horse can maintain it for long periods of time with little fatigue. The Missouri Fox Trotter also performs a rapid flat foot walk and a delightful canter.
Fox Trotters became the using horse of the Ozarks. They were the favorite mounts of cattlemen, country doctors, sheriffs, and tax assessors before improved roads and cars appeared on the scene.
Missouri ranks number two in the nation in cow-calf operations and Missouri Fox Trotting Horses are historically tied to the grazing cattle industry of the Ozarks. When automobiles made horses almost obsolete in the everyday lives of most Ozarkians, Missouri Fox Trotting Horses survived largely because the cattlemen of the region continued to use and breed them. Old Fox, one of the breed's most influential sires, was a chestnut stallion that spent his adult life trailing cattle in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas early in this century.
Stamina, soundness, and gentle disposition were serious considerations in the breeding of Fox Trotting Horses by pioneer families in the Ozarks.
Missouri Fox Trotters make excellent mounts for children and beginning riders because of their quiet dispositions and willingness to please. Their smooth gaits eliminate the "bouncing" that inexperienced riders suffer when riding hard trotting breeds.
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association was founded in 1948 at Ava, Missouri by fifteen men concerned with preserving this unique breed. After a number of horses were registered in the Douglas County area, a fire destroyed the secretary's home along with the stud book and records.
Increasing interest in Missouri Fox Trotters as show and pleasure horses brought about a reorganization of the breed association in 1958. Today there are more an 42,283 registered Missouri Fox Trotters located in the United States and Canada.
Trail riders across the nation who participated in treks through mountain ranges are rapidly discovering what U.S. Forest Rangers have known for years; Missouri Fox Trotters have no equal when it comes to delivering an easy, sure-footed, willing ride on hazardous terrain.
The breed's national headquarters and Hall of Fame are located on a beautiful 67 acres showground nestled in the hills just outside of Ava, Missouri. The breed association annually hosts a Three Year Old Futurity Show in June and the six-day Celebration Show in the Fall. The Celebration, which crowns the champions of the breed, has been an exciting annual event since 1959.
Characteristics of the Fox Trotting Horse
The Missouri Fox Trot gait is basically a diagonal gait. The horse will perform this gait by walking in front and trotting behind with reach in each stride He may disfigure or overstep his track, provided he travels straight on all four legs and does a true Fox Trot. The Fox Trotting Horse is not a high stepping horse, but an extremely sure-footed one; and, because of the sliding action of the rear feet, rather than the hard step of other breeds, the rider experiences little jarring action and is quite comfortable in the saddle for long periods a time. The head and tail are slightly elevated, giving the animal a graceful carriage; and the rhythmic beat of the hooves, along with the nodding action of the head, give the animal an appearance of relaxation and poise. The ideal characteristics of the Fox Trot shall be that the animal will travel with animation, Fox Trot rhythm, and style. The horse will travel in a collected manner. The Fox Trot should carry with it rhythm. The head should nod, the ears should indicate the step and the tail should be part of the rhythm. The step should be springy, consistent and smooth. The up and down motion should not be noticeable, but rather a smooth gliding gait without swinging.
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse should stand 14 to 16 hands in height, be of good conformation, and able to carry weight. The animal should stand well on its feet, be erect, wide awake and alert. The neck should be graceful, in proportion to length of body, and well-joined to body. The Fox Trotting Horse should have a neat, clean, intelligently-shaped head; pointed ears that are well-shaped; good, large, bright eyes; and a tapered muzzle. The back should be reasonably short and strong; the body deep and well-ribbed. The flank should be full; and the chest deep and full. The shoulders should be properly sloped and well-muscled. The legs should be muscular and well-tapered. The foot should be well-made, strong and in proper proportion to size a horse. The hair should be soft and silky.
Performance of the Horse in Fox Trot
The Fox Trot will be performed in stylish collected manner by walking in front and trotting behind with reach in each stride (front and rear). The back feet must exhibit a sliding action in order to keep beat of the gait. The horse will carry its head slightly elevated having as much rhythmic head motion as possible. This head motion should always be in time with the movement of the feet. The ears should be relaxed. The tail will be carried naturally elevated and should be in rhythm to the Fox Trot beat. The natural rhythm of the horse starts at the tip of the nose and goes back to the tip of the tail in one continuous motion.
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse
"The Winning Combination"
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse is known best for the comfort if affords its rider. Loved as a trail horse, 90 percent of registered Missouri Fox Trotters are owned by people who use them for trail riding, competition and endurance riding, and pleasure riding. Acclaimed as a show horse the Missouri Fox Trotting horse is also recognized for its beauty and style in the show ring.
Used by hunters and forest rangers for it's endurance and surefootedness in rugged terrain, by ranchers for it's versatility and intelligence, and on Hollywood movie sets for its gentle nature the breed has quickly earned its reputation as a horse for all situations.
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse has three naturally gaits: the long and easy-going flat foot walk, the smooth and comfortable fox trot characteristic of its name, and the "rocking horse" canter. No special shoeing or training is required for these horses to perform their gaits and their good disposition and trainability are among their many desirable characteristics making them one of the most versatile and loved of horse breeds within the equine registries.
Developed from horses in the Ozarks, the breed is characterized by a gentle disposition and an easy, fluid 4-beat diagonal gait. Bloodlines can be traced from early settlers coming into the Missouri Ozarks from neighboring states of Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Their horses were depended upon for their surefootedness in this mountainous region and their ability to do whatever was needed around the homestead, ranging from plowing, hauling logs, and working cattle, while at the same time able to double as a stylish buggy horse or riding horse for the family. Whatever the need this using horse from the homestead which eventually became known as the Missouri Fox Trotter proved capable and adaptable.
By 1948 a Breed Association was formed for this talented horse and in 1958 the Missouri Fox Trotter Horse Breed Association, located at Ava, MO was reorganized and reincorporated. Since then breeders have worked to develop this multi-talented breed of horse into the much sought after pleasure horse and show horse of today.
Surefooted in mountainous terrain, gentle in disposition, and smooth of gait for the comfort of both horse and rider the Missouri Fox Trotter Horse Breed motto today is "Every rider's pleasure horse".
For further information, contact the:
Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association
P.O. Box 1027
Ava, Missouri 65608
WHAT ARE FOX TROTTING HORSES
|What makes a horse a gaited horse?|
To understand the definition of a gaited horse one must first know a little about the way horses move. The trot is the most common gait of the horse other than a walk. Horses preform the trot as a diagonal gait, moving a front foot and the opposite rear foot simultaneously. This action produces a jarring motion that is found in all non-gaited breeds. A horse that is trotting has two feet on the ground at a time, but is not supported at all almost one third of the time. The jar felt when riding a trotting horse is caused by the free fall of the horse and the rise needed to carry the horse from one step of the trot to the next step. A gaited horse does not have free fall or the jar caused by the trot, because the gaited horse has a broken gait that allows at least one foot on the ground at any given time. This creates the smooth ride of a gaited horse because the horse is always supported and never in free fall.
A gaited horse is much more efficient than a non-gaited horse because there is no energy wasted fighting gravity and free fall. This is one reason the gaited horses seem to have more natural stamina than his rough trotting counter part. The smooth ride produced by the gaited horse is another advantage of these efficient movements.
Some gaited horses have lateral gaits, i.e., they move the front foot and then the rear foot on one side and then the front foot and the rear foot on the other side. The Walking Horse and the Racking Horse are two of the most common gaited horses having lateral gaits. The only diagonal gait of the gaited horses is the Fox trot. The Fox Trotting Horse was developed in the Ozarks because of the need for a sure-footed, smooth-riding horse for transportation. The Fox Trot is a diagonal gait with the leg support on opposite corners and therefore is a more sure-footed movement than a lateral gate.
The distinctive Fox Trot Rhythm is created by the front foot touching the ground a split second before the opposite rear foot. This time lapse between the front foot touching and the rear foot touching is the time that a non-gaited horse trotting at the same speed would be in free fall. A Fox Trotting Horse traveling on a gravel or chat surface can be distinguished by the sound of the broken trot. The sliding action of the rear feet also helps the ride be smooth. The Fox Trotting Horse gives the illusion of a horse walking in the front and trotting in the back.
Before the registry books of the MFTHBA were closed many of the horses were crossed with walking horses to both widen the gene pool and to develop a longer stride on the horses. The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse of today has a longer stride than its ancestors of years ago, but the Rhythm of a True Fox Trot has not changed.
Several people that have been around fox trotting horses for years say they can remember the perfect horse. However, the breed as a whole has not explained the traits possessed by the ideal foxtrotter in a way that a novice or newcomer can understand and relate to. The judges look at the horses and can tell what their weak and strong points are. Nevertheless, each of the great horses that have won in the last ten years had their faults as well as their strengths. An individual should be able to watch the horse show and know why the judge placed each horse. This means more than just saying, "I just like that horse better." If an individual or a judge can't tell you why he likes the horse, he still needs to be better informed. Missouri Fox Trotting horses have many traits that are desired and bred for.
The walk, trot, canter, and conformation are the main categories, but each of these consists of many subdivisions previously unmentioned in our judging process. Each person can be taught to notice each of these subdivisions.
The Fox Trot
The most important gait of fox trotting horses is the Fox Trot. Within the fox trot many traits need to be considered: rhythm, back end, front end, and animation. Each trait of a fox trot also has finer points that must be considered for a proper evaluation.
The most defining trait of the fox trot is rhythm. The fox trot is a broken diagonal gait that has a defining sound. The sound of this rhythm is produced by one front foot touching the ground a split second before the diagonal rear foot, and then a pause followed by the other front foot and then the other rear foot a split second later. This rhythm has been described as having the same cadence as "a chunk of meat and two potatoes".
Other trots shown in the breed need to be examined. A square trot, which all have seen, is a diagonal gait but it is not a broken gait. A running walk is a broken gait, but it is not a diagonal gait. A flat pace is neither broken nor diagonal.
The real problem is in deciding how much of a break is needed in the broken part of the fox trot standard. While impossible to define in words alone the rhythm is between a running walk and a hard trot. A horse can have a longer break in its trot than the standard, which would make it closer to a running walk or "slick," and still be fox trotting. Likewise, a horse can have a shorter break in its trot, which would make it closer to a square trot or "trotty" and still be fox trotting. Nevertheless, a horse having the ideal rhythm is desired over one that is either slick or trotty.
After the rhythm of the standard we can look at some the fine points of the fox trot. The back end of a horse is the second most important part of the fox trot. When a horse is fox trotting correctly, the hocks will have a definite break over as the foot is picked up. A horse that is not breaking over in the hocks is gaity in the back end. When a horse is setting down the rear foot, the motion should be a smooth sliding action that is low to the ground. A horse that carries its foot forward but hesitates before setting it down either is being trotty or has a tight stifle. The amount of over stride is another consideration, but not as defining. A fox trotting horse should over stride. However, a horse with a large over stride in the trot may be over striding its natural ability. If this is the case that horse is gaity in the rear end and will have a side to side motion in its tail. Nevertheless, a large over stride with all other things equal is a plus.
The next thing to look at is the way a horse handles its front end. The two most important things are shoulder movement and length of stride. A horse should lead its front end motion with the shoulder. The front foot should move forward in a smooth motion and be set down as the completion of an extension of the shoulder and front leg. Horses that do not get a full extension of the leg and shoulder and have wasted up and down motion in the knees are said to be racky. Some horses will have more knee action than others, but the thing to remember is a horse should not have wasted motion and should have a full extension. A horse that is hard trotting will appear to have a "big lick" front end, but such a horse will be penalized for not having the correct rhythm.
Finally the animation of the horse should be considered. A horse's animation is the head shake and tail movement. First, a horse that is shaking its head without regard to the rhythm of its feet is not in time with anything and probably is not even fox trotting. A horse that is fox trotting will use his head as a counter balance to his back end with the saddle setting on the pivot point. This is one reason a fox trot should be smooth. Slow motion film of a horse with the right rhythm, will show that the head motion is in time with the rear feet. The illusion is the front feet and the head are in time together, but that is true only when the horse is square trotting. This is because in a square trot the front and rear feet are moving together, so the head which is in time with the rear feet is now also in time with the front feet. Some horses express their rhythm throughout their body, and others express it with all the motion in the neck and head. While both, if in time with the fox trot, are acceptable, the horse showing rhythm throughout its body gives a smoother ride and should be preferred. Some horses can shake their head harder in the hard trot. Extra head shake is a plus but not if it is at the expense of the correct rhythms of the horse.
The tail carriage of a horse that is fox trotting will bounce when the rear foot passes the break over point. A horse that is to trotty will not have the same bounce in its tail as a fox trotting horse. The tail of a hard trotting horse will bounce with the back end of the horse instead of slightly before the back end. If a horse does not have a pronounced bounce in its tail, check to see if the hocks of that horse are breaking over.
The fox trotting horse is shown with as many variances in the walk as in the trot. Terms like fox-walk, trot-walk, running walk, and pace-walk, are used to describe the walk of many horses. The flat foot walk is not a broken gait nor is it a two-beat gait. The correct flat foot walk is a lateral four-beat gait of an even cadence.
There are several common mutations of the walk. The pace is a two-beat lateral gait in which a horse moves both right feet and then moves both left feet. In a pace the front and rear foot are picked up and then set down simultaneously making only one beat. A pacing horse will move its head side to side to counter the motion of its feet. The pace-walk is a lateral four-beat gait in which the horse will pick up both the front and rear foot simultaneously, then moves the rear foot faster than the front foot and sets the rear foot down before the front foot. This allows the pace-walker to have an up and down head shake, and have a four-beat cadence. The pace-walk is much closer to a flat foot walk than a pace, having both a head shake and a four beat cadence.
The fox-walk or trot-walk is also a four-beat gait with a head shake. In the trot-walk the horse appears to be trotting in slow motion the gait looks diagonal but may sound like a walk. Again the difference is on the timing, a trot-walking horse will have a snappy back end and will break over in the hocks and have a bounce in its tail.
A true flat foot walk is a lateral four-beat gait in which each foot is picked up and set down in an even cadence. The rear end movement should be smooth and close to the ground without any snap or pop. Each stride should reach forward and slide in as it is set down, over striding the track of the front foot. The tail should set still and flow. If the tail is moving from side to side, the horse is pacy. If the tail is bouncing, the horse is trotty. The front foot should move forward in a smooth motion and be set down as the completion of an extension of the shoulder and front leg. Horses that do not get a full extension of the leg and shoulder and have wasted up and down motion in the knees are said to be racky. The head shake is in time with the rear feet and should be smooth. Again all other things being equal the more head shake and over stride the better.
The canter is a broken three-beat gait, and should be preformed in a collected manner. There are several things that should be considered when judging the canter. The horse should be relaxed and under control, should not crossfire, and should be in the correct lead. The two most common mutations of the canter are a lope and a gaity four-beat canter. In the lope a horse moves with a low flat motion and has little rocking motion. The lope is a faster gait than the canter. The lope is like a slow gallop. In the canter the outside rear foot hits the ground first, the inside rear and the outside front feet hit the ground simultaneously, and the inside front foot hits last. This produces the broken three-beat cadence. Because of the rocking motion of the canter, the saddle should move smoothly without surging or bouncing. This rocking chair canter allows the horse to have a showy head movement as the head is used as a counter balance to the broken gait. The head will reach its highest point when the outside rear foot hits the ground, and its lowest point when the inside front foot hits the ground. The horse gathers itself of the off beat and takes another step. The speed of the canter should be near that of the flat foot walk. The gaity four-beat canter is slower and the feet hit one at a time.
The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse has become one of the most beautiful horses alive today. When judging conformation do not just pick the fattest horse, pick the one that is the most correct. If a horse does not have the correct conformation to be a top performance horse then that horse is not the model of the fox trotting breed. To judge the conformation of a horse one must look at the different parts of the horse before looking at the whole. The parts of the horse that should be looked at are the feet, legs, chest, barrel, hind quarters, neck, head, and the over all proportions.
While being judged, the front leg should be set so that the front of the foot is directly under the point of the shoulder. The horse's rear leg should be set so the leg will be vertical from the hock down to the rear ankle. The horse's head should be high enough that the point of the nose is level with the top of the withers. The feet of the horse should be centered under its ankles, and should point straight ahead. The legs should be straight when looked at from the front and the rear. The knees, when looked at from the side, should not be bent nor bowed.
The shoulders of the horse should be well defined with the neck joining just above the points of the shoulders. The slope of the shoulder is measured from the point of the shoulder to the top of the withers, and should be near forty-seven degrees. The neck joins over the shoulders and should have some arch to it. The head should taper and not be narrow and long. The bridge of the horse's head should not dish nor bow out. The bridge should be straight and the muzzle should be tapered. The eyes should be set wide on the sides of the head, and the teeth should meet evenly.
The chest of the horse should be well defined showing muscle extending down the inside of the legs. The withers should be over the girth and as high as the top of the rump. The back of the horse should be flat with a small crease down the center. The barrel of the horse should be the deepest at the girth and should taper up slowly to the flank. The flank should extend back past the start of the rump. This makes a horse "short on top and long underneath." The hips of the horse should be full, and muscle should extend down the inside of the rear leg. The croup line, measured from the hip bone to the muscle just over the hock, should be long. The rear legs should have some crook, but not so much as to prevent the horse from having an easy break over. If the hind quarters are correct, a vertical line touching back of the hock and ankle will just touch the point of the hip.
On a balanced horse, the neck, from the pole of the head to the top of the withers, the back, from the top of the withers to the start of the rump, and the croup, from the point of the hip to the lower end of the muscle above the hock, will be of the same length. The finer points of proportions can be shown pictures and diagrams.
Rt 1 Box 513
Elkins, AR 72727 | <urn:uuid:67ed1136-3a62-4c77-bfa5-1c96f5373947> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hiddentrails.com/general/breeds/missouri_fox_trotting_horse.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952209 | 5,447 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The date was January 23, 1961. Three days earlier, John Kennedy had been sworn in as the thirty-fifth president of the United States. Americans on the East Coast were going about their days not realizing that they had come close -- shockingly, seriously, terrifyingly close -- they would come to being the victims of a nuclear explosion the likes of which the world had never witnessed.
The most shocking and serious and terrifying thing? Had it happened, it would have been an accident -- friendly fire of the worst and most destructive kind.
It went like this, The Guardian reports. An American B-52 bomber had taken off that late-January day from the Seymour Johnson Air Force base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. It was to be a routine flight along the Atlantic seaboard: a 24-hour "Coverall" airborne alert mission. All was going normally when the aircraft developed a leak in its right wing during a refueling rendezvous. The plane, suddenly, went into a tailspin.
The problem -- the problem even bigger than the fact that a human-crewed plane was spinning toward the earth -- was the plane's payload. The bomber was carrying what its name suggested it would: bombs. Hydrogen bombs, in this case -- Mark 39s. The plummeting plane had a payload of four megatons – the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT -- and each bomb was capable of delivering a force that would be 260 times more deadly than the ones that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki 17 years before. The plane spun, then broke up in the air. The five crew members ejected. The bombs the plane was carrying were suddenly flying on their own. They were, at that point, plummeting to the ground with no plane to guide them.
To recap: two hydrogen bombs, detached from their vehicle, heading toward North Carolina.
There were, of course, failsafes. These bombs, both despite and because of their destructive capacities, were designed for this very eventuality: Built into each were four safety mechanisms meant to prevent accidental detonation. The bombs were also attached to parachutes.
One of the bombs fell onto a tobacco field near Faro, North Carolina, its parachute, ultimately, tangled in the branches of a tree. The other one fell onto a meadow, the impact burying it into the ground. Neither, obviously and fortunately, exploded.
What's remarkable, though, is how close one of them did come to exploding. According to Parker Jones, a senior engineer at the Sandia National Laboratories and one of the men responsible for the mechanical safety of nuclear weapons, "One simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe." Writing in 1969, eight years after the accident, Jones found that the bombs that dropped over North Carolina were inadequate in their safety controls. While one bomb's failsafes worked as they were supposed to, the other's -- the Faro bomb -- didn't. On that bomb, as its trigger mechanisms engaged, one switch failed. Then another. Then another. The only switch that ended up working, according to Jones's report, was the final of the four. One tiny little switch standing between what we know and what could have been.
"The final switch that prevented disaster," The Guardian notes, "could easily have been shorted by an electrical jolt, leading to a nuclear burst." Or, as Jones put it, understatedly: "It would have been bad news – in spades."
Jones's report, obtained by the journalist Eric Schlosser through a FOIA request as research for his new book on the nuclear arms race, has been published by The Guardian. And it reveals just how close we came to being the victims of our own technological ingenuity. Schlosser uncovered more than 700 -- 700! -- "significant" accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons. And that was between 1950 and 1968 alone.
Jones's report -- and Schlosser's subsequent reporting of its existence -- conflicts with the U.S. government's longstanding message about Goldsboro and about hydrogen bombs in general: which was that they were built to prevent accidental detonation and never put American lives in jeopardy. "The US government has consistently tried to withhold information from the American people in order to prevent questions being asked about our nuclear weapons policy," Schlosser told The Guardian. "We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here's one that very nearly did."
Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia -- and could have extended as far north as New York City. The devastation, and loss of life, would have been almost unimaginable. Even during a time preoccupied with the consequences of the world's new weapons of mass destruction.
Jones's report is, of course, simply one take on an incident that remains shrouded in mystery. But, at the very least, it sheds new light on old suspicions. In Eureka, North Carolina -- 12 miles from Goldsboro and 3 miles from the Faro field -- residents have placed a plaque. It reads, "NUCLEAR MISHAP." And in smaller letters, below: "Widespread disaster averted." | <urn:uuid:c09fbb61-0111-4387-a075-5c3bcdbea4ab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/the-single-switch-that-saved-the-east-coast-from-nuclear-disaster/279916/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981224 | 1,076 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Near the northern tip of South Dakota's Stronghold Table, where wind-whipped buffalo grass gives way to the Badlands' chasms and pinnacles, stands a hogan hammered from plywood and chipboard. Ten summers ago, Keith Janis, a rowdy, long-haired Oglala Lakota Sioux, roared out here in his truck, hooting and gesturing at the gray-shirted park rangers. This is Lakota land, he thought. The National Park Service has no business here. He pounded two cedar posts into the high prairie and defiantly strung a hammock beneath the stars. A Colorado couple helped him finish the hogan before winter.
Janis, now in his 50s, sought to reclaim 133,000 acres of tribal land that the National Park Service had controlled since 1968. Earlier, the U.S. Air Force had used it for bombing exercises. But to the Lakota, the Stronghold, at the southern end of Badlands National Park and the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, has long been a place of both protest and prayer. In 1890, Ghost Dancers gathered here to escape U.S. Army troops, which had recently arrived on the reservation after being alerted about "wild and crazy" dancing Indians. It's believed that the last Ghost Dance of the 1800s was performed here, just weeks before the Army slaughtered more than 200 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, 30 miles south, in one of the darkest chapters in American history.
Soon, Janis' encampment held around 30 people, who quickly became as involved in tribal conflicts as in righting a historic wrong. Janis wanted his family's plot of land back. His blood cousin, George Tall, who declared himself the occupation's spokesman, wanted the land to be conserved and managed by the tribe. The Two Bulls family wanted to ensure that nobody, Park Service or not, confiscated the fossils they collected and sold on the black market.
A decade later, none had achieved their goals. Nevertheless, the protest had an unintended consequence: It catalyzed the creation of what could become the country's first Tribal National Park. Last June, John Yellow Bird Steele, then Oglala Lakota president, and the National Park Service agreed on a management plan that would return control of this region, known as the South Unit, to the tribe. Essentially, it will remain in the park system and comply with all the federal laws that apply to national parks, yet be managed entirely by the tribe. The Park Service and the tribe are already laying the groundwork for the management transfer, though an act of Congress will be required to formalize it, a process that could take several years. At least one Lakota has suggested renaming it "Wankankil Makoce Ki: The Awesome Land."
For all the symbolic heft of the pact, tribal members remain torn about the details and confused about what effect it will actually have on their daily lives. So last summer, I spent a week at the South Unit, trying to find out if the new park had a chance of succeeding amid the infighting, corruption, crime and desperation that have long plagued Pine Ridge. Park boosters expect it to bring in tourism dollars, and say it represents one of the best economic development opportunities the tribe has seen in years. Plus, it would create a nationally known landmark that the entire tribe could rally around. "I don't mean to be melodramatic, but it could change lives," says Steve Thede, deputy superintendent of Badlands National Park, adding, "I don't think for a minute it's going to be easy."
If you look at the official map, you'll see that Badlands is really two parks linked by an umbilical cord of land. About a million visitors a year visit the North Unit, which has paved roads, a year-round visitor's center, hiking trails, a café and two campgrounds. Bison, bighorn sheep and antelope are abundant, along with prairie dog metropolises and endangered black-footed ferrets.
Although fewer than 2 percent of tourists make it to the South Unit, it survives on a small infusion of cash from the north. The largest hunk of land is the Stronghold Unit. Another part, Palmer Creek, is completely separate -- an island surrounded by private ranches and three strands of barbed wire. Although the geology of the South Unit rivals anything in the north, much of it is remote and accessible only by four-wheel-drive. It serves mostly as a place for locals to poach fossils and graze cattle. There are no bison or marked trails, and the land harbors unexploded ordnance left over from its Air Force days. Visitors are warned not to pick up suspicious objects; they might explode.
Driving through the Pine Ridge Reservation (population 28,787), I was struck by its beauty: the low, chalky buttes and fissures in the rolling prairie packed with gnarled trees. The landscape was easy to romanticize. But then the next charmless town would appear, with its potholed roads, lopsided mobile homes, and gas stations with bars over their windows. One of the first things many locals told me was whether or not they had diabetes. They usually did.
The best jobs on the reservation are with the tribe or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, followed by Prairie Winds Casino, Taco John's and Subway. The poor soil means that ranchers need vast grazing allotments, such as those inside the South Unit. Only a fraction of the reservation is suitable for farming, and the tribe's flagship agricultural experiment -- industrial hemp cultivation -- was quashed by the Drug Enforcement Agency in the early 2000s. Some members earn an income from the South Unit and other tourist sites, leading hunts or horseback trips, running guest houses, or selling dreamcatchers by the side of the road. But the county's average per capita income is only $7,772, and the tribe's unemployment rate usually hovers around 80 percent, making this one of the country's poorest regions.
Although alcohol is banned, just south of the reservation is Whiteclay, Neb., a town of 10 that sells 4.9 million cans of beer each year. Fetal alcohol syndrome and drunk driving accidents are rampant on the reservation. In 2011, tribal police reported 2,011 cases of child abuse or domestic violence, 2,561 fights or assaults, and one homicide. Just 49 police officers patrol Pine Ridge's 3,159 square miles. Rapid City, by comparison, has twice the officers and gets fewer calls.
The Oglala Lakota trace their decline to the breaking of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which gave them and other Sioux tribes land stretching east from the Black Hills through most of South Dakota and into neighboring states. Peace lasted six years. Then, Lt. Col. George Custer came to the Black Hills to establish a fort, and civilians struck gold. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull took up arms and killed Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn. One year later, Crazy Horse was stabbed in the back after he surrendered in Nebraska. The Great Sioux Reservation was splintered into five smaller reservations, and further whittled away through shady land deals. The Sioux tribes won a 1980 Supreme Court case over the broken treaty, but have refused settlement money. They're holding out for the return of the Black Hills. | <urn:uuid:2c2199e2-a70d-499d-89ac-ea0e3604ec58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.4/45.2/will-the-badlands-become-the-first-tribal-national-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964664 | 1,538 | 2.765625 | 3 |
How do I track down the genealogy of a person who used to live in Minnesota ?
Answer:While the University Libraries is unable to provide individualized research services for genealogists, we would like to draw your attention to a few alternatives. RESOURCES AT THE UNIVERSITY
- Genealogy Resources Available at the University of Minnesota Libraries
- This site outlines resources and collections available at the University Libraries, including links to subject-specific genealogy guides. It also includes a list of other collections of interest to genealogists.
- The Immigration History Research Center
- This University resource is used by genealogists who wish to make use of its manuscript and archival collections of records of selected ethnic groups and organizations from throughout the United States. For Minnesota genealogists, its Finnish and South Slavic collections may be of special interest. For the most part, its holdings are not listed in MNCAT. Contact the Center before taking a trip to use its materials.
- NOTE: The IHRC does not maintain certain types of records commonly associated with genealogical research on immigrants, such as ship manifests and naturalization records. The collection's primary focus is on the experiences of the immigrants. It generally consists of documentation they themselves generated, as opposed to information recorded by government officials or others involved in processing newcomers through American ports or assigning them in citizenship. Nevertheless, the Center's holdings have proven useful to numerous researchers attempting to identify immigrant ancestors or wishing to learn more about the lives and legacy of millions of Americans who came from other lands. The collections span the period between the mid-1800s to the present, reflecting more recent migration activity and manifestations of ethnicity as well as the mass migration period. Materials include the written records of American-born generations as well as immigrants. The collection is national and international in scope, with strengths of geographic coverage relating closely to concentrations of immigrant settlement.
RESOURCES BEYOND THE UNIVERSITY
- The Minnesota Historical Society, has the best collection of sources on Minnesota genealogy. Located at the Minnesota History Center are the Minnesota State Archives; a newspaper collection of approximately 5,000 Minnesota newspaper titles; an extensive manuscript collection; and more than 500,000 books, pamphlets, periodicals, and government publications. The Research Center also holds sound and visual collections, oral histories, and maps.
- The Minnesota Historical Society offers an online tutorial called Family History Research, which you may find useful in developing your search strategy.
- Minnesota Genealogical Society should also be contacted for help with Minnesota research. | <urn:uuid:ad7ca72c-b382-4717-b566-e02fec1f6973> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.lib.umn.edu/faq/182 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942455 | 519 | 2.5625 | 3 |
PLANO, Texas — In January 2010, security experts discovered that the crown jewels of U.S. information technology computer codes may have been stolen in a highly sophisticated case of cyberespionage. In April, China hijacked an uncountable amount of Internet data.
In August, the Stuxnet virus shocked the same experts. The malware that infected Siemens operating systems was orders of magnitude beyond anything they had seen in terms of sophistication.
The year 2010 may prove to be a watershed for cyber-security. The three incidents: the Aurora operation; the hijacking of data and the Stuxnet virus were all stunning new developments, said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security firm.
“Most of the days we feel like we really don’t have a chance,” he told National Defense. “The threats are escalating at a pretty significant pace, defenses are not keeping up, and most days attackers are succeeding quite spectacularly.”
The year that may go down in infamy in Internet security circles began when the Aurora attack was discovered in January. The operation came to light when a student in California involved in human rights in China realized that someone was inside her Google G-mail account. That revealed a much larger operation that had targeted about two dozen U.S. information technology companies.
Using a “social networking,” or a spear-phishing, operation, hackers sent emails to top officials at U.S. companies with high levels of access to their company’s computer systems. The emails appeared to come from close friends or colleagues, and would ask the targeted person to link to some pictures. The link would go to a blank screen, but by the time they were there, malware taking advantage of a zero-day vulnerability had already been installed.
A “zero-day vulnerability” is an undiscovered security flaw in software. Cyber-criminals and spies pay large amounts of money to hackers who have ferreted out these flaws. Hundreds of thousands of dollars can exchange hands in the black market, Alperovitch explained.
Within seconds of the Aurora malware being installed, hackers were standing by and ready to exfiltrate data, he said.
“They had people at the keyboard ready to jump on the moment the computers beaconed out and said they were infected,” Alperovitch said.
“The most interesting thing is that they went after intellectual property such as source codes,” he added. They used the first computer to establish a beachhead in a company, and spread the malware from there. The operation set up backdoors in software programs that could be exploited later. The campaign was first launched in late 2009. The malware had infiltrated about 24 companies for several months before it was discovered. Google is one of the few companies that has come forward and admitted that it was a victim. Other companies are major suppliers of services to the U.S. government. These organizations have thousands of desktops. Discovering which computers have been infected is like finding a needle in a haystack, he said.
Source codes are the “crown jewels” of information technology companies, he noted. Once they are known, they can be used to exploit additional vulnerabilities, he added.
Spying on human rights activists turned out to be a secondary operation. The organization that launched the campaign was after much bigger fish, and going after dissidents may have been a huge misstep. The operation may not have been detected for another six months, he noted.
Google accused China of instigating the Aurora attack, which country officials denied. A U.S. diplomatic cable revealed on the WikiLeaks website cited an unnamed source inside the China who said the attack originated in the Chinese government.
As always, finding a smoking gun in such operations is nearly impossible, Alperovitch said.
The hijacking of 15 percent of the Internet’s routes in April could definitely be attributed to China, Alperovitch said. For 18 minutes in April, the state-controlled telecommunications company China Telecom Corp., redirected some of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies. A “route” in web-terms is akin to a postal code, he said.
This incident initially received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for most outside the cyber-security community to grasp, said Alperovitch.
In short, the Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications — including emails and instant messaging — manipulated data passing through their country, or decrypted messages, Alperovitch said.
Nobody outside of China can say, at least publicly, what happened to the terabytes of data after it entered China.
“This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen.” And it could happen again, anywhere and anytime. It’s just the way the Internet works, he explained. “What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows.”
The telephone giants of the world work on a system based on trust, he explained. Machine-to-machine interfaces send out messages to the Internet informing other Internet service providers that they are the fastest and most efficient way for data packets to travel. For 18 minutes last April, China Telecom told about 15 percent of the ISPs of the world that its routes were the best paths to send traffic.
For example, a person sending information from Arlington, Va., to the White House in Washington, D.C. — only a few miles away — could have had his data passed through China. Since traffic moves around the world in milliseconds, the computer user would not have noticed the delay.
This happens accidentally a few times per year, Alperovitch said. What set this incident apart from other such mishaps was the fact that China Telecom could manage to absorb this massive amount of data and send it back out again without anyone noticing a disruption in service. In previous incidents, the data would have reached a dead end, and users would not have been able to connect.
Also, the list of hijacked data just happened to include preselected destinations around the world. The incident affected traffic to and from U.S. government and military sites, including the Senate, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, the office of the secretary of defense, NASA, the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “and many others,” said a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
China Telecom has said that the rerouting of traffic was accidental.
“Why would you keep that list?” Alperovitch asked.
The amount of data included in all these packets is difficult to calculate, he said.
The data could have been stored so it could be examined later, he added.
“Imagine the capability and capacity that is built into their networks. I’m not sure there was anyone else in the world who could have taken on that much traffic without breaking a sweat,” Alperovitch said.
The report, quoting Danny McPherson, chief security officer at Arbor Networks, an Internet security firm, said the data could be diverted to a computer where a user didn’t intend to go, for example, a “spoofed site” that could be used to trick him or her into downloading data. The massive diversion of traffic could have “been intended to conceal one targeted attack,” the report said.
McAfee has briefed U.S. government officials on the incident, but some weren’t alarmed. They said their Internet communications are encrypted.
However, encryption also works on a basis of trust, McAfee experts pointed out. And that trust can be exploited.
Internet encryption depends on two keys. One key is private and not shared, and the other is public, and is embedded in most computer operating systems. Unbeknownst to most computer users, Microsoft, Apple and other software makers embed the public certificates in their operating systems.
Among the certificates is one from the China Internet Information Center, an arm of the China’s Ministry of Information and Industry.
“If China telecom intercepts that [encrypted message] and they are sitting in the middle of that, they can send you their public key with their public certificate and you will not know any better,” he said.
The holder of this certificate has the capability to decrypt encrypted communication links, whether it’s web traffic, emails or instant messaging, Alperovitch said.
“It is a flaw in the way the Internet operates,” said Joris Evers, director of worldwide public relations at McAfee.
No one outside of China can say whether any of these potentially nefarious events occurred, Alperovitch stressed. It is not defined as a cyberattack because no one’s sites were hacked or shut down. “But it is pretty disconcerting.”
The sophistication of the Stuxnet virus, however, was several magnitudes in sophistication beyond any other cyber-security incident, Alperovitch said.
McAfee experts believe the operation took about 12 experts working for more than a year and a budget of at least $10 million to carry out.
It targeted Seimens supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems, which are used to control power plants and other industrial machinery.
“If you look at the cyber-security experts in the world, you can probably count on one hand the number of people who are proficient in malware and also have deep inside knowledge of a SCADA system like this,” Alperovitch said.
What floored analysts was the exploitation of five “zero-day” vulnerabilities.
“Typically one zero-day vulnerability as part of an attack indicates some level of sophistication,” he said. “When you have five, this is through-the-roof type of sophistication.”
One of the vulnerabilities was found in every version of Microsoft Windows since 1995, meaning it would work on any of the company’s software released during the last 15 years, and had gone undiscovered by hackers for that amount of time.
The attacker initially used a USB drive to infect a Siemens system. SCADA systems are normally walled off from the Internet. As soon as he did that, it automatically triggered that vulnerability.
“The user doesn’t have to click on anything, he doesn’t see anything. It is completely stealth, and on every Windows version since 1995.
“If that was all that Stuxnet had, it would probably be the most sophisticated worm we had ever seen before. But that was only 10 percent of its capabilities.” It embedded itself deep in the operating system where it could hijack various capabilities.
Meanwhile, it came with two legitimate public encryption keys signed and verified by Microsoft. These keys came from two different companies located in the same technology park in Taiwan, Alperovitch said. Since these keys are never kept on computer networks, and are the type of codes that are normally locked away in safes, that means someone had to physically break in to steal them. Or it could have been an insider job, he noted.
McAfee Labs Research and Communications Director Dave Marcus said, “It hides the malware under a legitimate shell. It’s making it look like a legitimate application and that’s exceptionally dangerous.”
McAfee analysts believe that the attackers were not reaching their original target after they first launched the operation. Between January and March this year, they allowed the virus to spread from computer to computer in hopes that it would be installed in the intended computer system.
“At some point they made the decision that stealth was just not worth it because they were not getting to the target they were intending to hit,” Alperovitch said.
Most of the infected computers are in Iran, and a Belorussian Internet security company on contract with that nation first detected it. There has been speculation that the attack was targeting Iran’s nuclear power program. The evidence is circumstantial, Alperovitch said.
He could say that there was no financial motivation for the attack.
“The sophistication here is way beyond any individual or cyber-crime group.
No one person has the capability to do all these things — SCADA knowledge, discover zero-day vulnerabilities, steal encryption certificates and sign them.
“Einstein couldn’t do that,” he said. | <urn:uuid:5b16027d-30f4-4887-a329-15365c62db08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/January/Pages/CyberattacksReachingNewHeightsofSophistication.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966718 | 2,661 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Several women, some in traditional American Indian dress, others in jeans and T-shirts, danced around a garden filled with newly planted corn. Men banged drums slowly and sang a Lenni Lenape prayer song while tobacco leaves burned in a small fire.
"Turn to the east," commanded Sauts. "And pray through the 12 levels of light to our creator."
Sauts, the chief of the Wolf Clan of the Lenni Lenape Tribe, led opening prayer of the 13th annual Corn-planting Festival yesterday at the Museum of Indian Culture on Fish Hatchery Road, Allentown.
The prayer asked the sun to enrich the earth, and the earth to grow her hair.
"The women must dance to mix the prayers of all the people together. And the fire sends our prayers to the creator," said Sauts, who was named after an old-time warrior. His name means "bat" in English.
The Corn-planting Festival is the first of three yearly Lenni Lenape celebrations centering around corn, which is a symbol for sharing cultures. In August, the Lenni Lenape will hold the Roasting Ears of Corn Festival, followed by the Thanksgiving celebration in October.
"This marks the begining of our new year," said Carla Messinger, a Turtle Clan member, who officially founded the museum and the Lenni Lenape Historical Society in 1981.
"Native Americans think in circular terms, not on a time line like other Americans. Our year begins with Spring," she said.
The museum sits on land that has a long history of human habitation, Messinger said. Now owned by the city of Allentown, the land is believed to have been the site of a Lenni Lenape village long before Europeans arrived.
Following the opening prayer, festival participants told stories, performed traditional dances and patronized several craft booths.
A stroll through the craft market revealed a rare deer-antler scrimshaw and handcrafted jewelry and paintings. Poco, a member of the Turtle Clan, was selling hand-ground corn meal.
"If you buy it for yourself, it brings you good luck," she said. "If you buy it for someone else, it is a token of friendship."
Lenni Lenape were celebrating more than the corn festival yesterday. It was also Saint Tammany's day, Messinger said.
In the 1700s, the Lenape Sakima Tammany became the first American Indian saint. He was adopted as patron saint of Quakers because he granted them fishing rights.
Also, this year's festival comes two days after President Clinton held a historic meeting at the White House with more than 300 American Indian leaders.
Clinton Friday signed two executive memoranda establishing procedures for safeguarding Indian autonomy on tribal lands and protecting the use of eagle feathers for ceremonial purposes.
Sauts seemed skeptical about Clinton's historic gesture.
"Seeing is believing," he said. "The white man has broken written promises before." | <urn:uuid:d49600f4-d4cf-481b-8597-52c0b6e00ad5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.mcall.com/1994-05-02/news/2979546_1_corn-festival-corn-planting-american-indian | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963983 | 614 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Meat Emergency
ABUNDANCE YET SCARCITY
By ROY F. HENDRICKSON, Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Administration
Delivered before the National Association of Retail Meat Dealers, Inc., Chicago, Ill., August 17, 1942
Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. VIII, pp. 681-683.
IT has been only a little over eight months since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet in that relatively short time American warships have been in combat in the Pacific, in the Atlantic, in the Arctic, and in the Indian Oceans. It is a matter of public record that our troops are now stationed in Britain, the Near East, and the Far East—and in South America, Greenland, Iceland, Bermuda, and Trinidad. Our warplanes have been in actual combat over all the oceans and all the continents. The immense military job the United States has tackled has no parallel in history. We have no illusions about the fact that this is going to be a long job—and a tough one.
We can gain some idea of how tough that job is by taking stock of the present situation. Japan is still master of the Far East and has gained a foothold on the Aleutian Islands. Germany, disregarding fearful cost of life, has driven deep into the heart of the Russian Caucasus and has captured part of its vital oil fields. Closer to home, we are suffering tremendous losses of shipping through submarine warfare. Today we face a peril such as we have never faced before.
On the production front there is much that is encouraging. The smoke from factory chimneys, the red gleam of steel mills against night skies, the hum of industrial activity that pervades all the land, is indication that we are turning out the ships, tanks, planes, and guns needed to arm us against the enemy. But even on this front, we can't afford to be complacent. From time to time we hear disturbing news of shortages that are slowing down the war effort—shortages of steel, shortages of rubber, shortages of fabricating facilities. These hindrances to war production are becoming more frequent and more acute.
The situation in agriculture is very similar. This year farmers will produce more food than ever before. We have large stocks of many foods on hand. Yet we are faced with a squeeze on our food supply. Already farmers are finding it more and more difficult to get crops grown and harvested. The armed forces and industry are drawing increasingly large numbers of workers from farms; the farm labor shortage isvery real. Farm machinery is hard to get, and in the days ahead it will be even scarcer. Farm transportation, which depends so much on trucks, is gradually becoming a problem as rubber tires wear out. There are other shortages—fertilizers, insecticides, tin, and burlap—that threaten to complicate the production picture. Shortages breed shortages.
Only a year ago we heard people say, "Well, there's one thing we don't need to worry about and that's our food supply." I hope those people have abandoned their complacent attitude. From the standpoint of our total food supply no one will go hungry—but we are certain to run into more shortages of individual items than we have thus far. The current shortage of meat is only a forerunner of things to come—and the sooner that is realized the better.
This meat shortage has puzzled many people, because all the statistics on livestock production have been unusually favorable. The number of cattle on farms January 1 of this year totaled over 74 million head—a new high record. Sheep numbers totaled 56 million head—also a new high record. Hog numbers totaled over 60 million head—12 percent more than a year earlier. The 1942 spring and fall pig crops combined may total over 105 million head—by far the largest of record.
Secretary of Agriculture Wickard can be thanked for perceiving, as early as December, 1940, that meat supplies would be short unless farmers increased production. It took real courage for Secretary Wickard to ask farmers to build up livestock numbers at a time when prices were disastrously low—hogs were selling for $6.00 at that time. But he sounded the call and patriotic American farmers responded.
The bumper livestock crop of 1942, when translated into terms of meat, is expected to total 21.7 billion pounds. That figure compares with an average of 16.3 billion pounds for the 5 years from 1932 to 1936 inclusive, and with an average of 17.8 billion pounds for the 5 years from 1937 to 1941 inclusive. Production in 1941 reached the high total of 20.0 billion pounds.
But how can we reconcile this unusually favorable production record with the current meat shortage. That's a question that deserves a fairly complete answer, and we don't have to look very far for that answer. Briefly the overall reason for the meat shortage is the keen wartime demand for meat. This demand comes from three directions: From the armed forces, from our allies and from civilians here at home.
Meat, one of the best sources of protein, has always been the foundation of the soldier's diet. Alexander the Great invaded India while subsisting on livestock taken from the Medes and Persians. Julius Caesar told of arrangements with local tribes to provide his men with meat and grain. One of the earliest rations of the United States Army provided for about a pound of meat per day per man. Soldiers still get about a pound a day and to meet their current and reserve needs during the year beginning July 1, the armed forces are expected to buy a tremendous quantity of meat—most of it beef. We want them to keep on buying meat—all they need.
Our Russian and English allies will require even more meat than our armed forces. And who can begrudge it to them? They are fighting our fight—they are fighting for their existence just as we are. It is important to remember, when considering meat shipments to our allies, that soldiers as well as civilians receive the products of our farms and randies. The meat that is going to Russia—where the fighting is most active now—is the most important meat on earth. The meat that is going to Britain will fall into the same category when the second front opens. During the year that began July 1, 1942, we shall ship these two fighting allies of ours about 3.2 billion pounds of meat—most of it pork.
Since March 15, 1942, when the Agricultural Marketing Administration started its expanded buying program, through June 30, 1942, the following meat products were purchased, primarily for Britain and Russia: Lard, 715 million pounds; canned pork, 709 million pounds; cured pork, 531 million pounds; frozen pork loins, 58 million; and other pork products, 6 million pounds. Beef purchases totaled only about 15 million pounds. The combined total of all meat and meat products to July 1, 1942, comes to about 2.0 billion pounds.
For evaluating the reasons behind the meat shortage, however, it is better to stick to prospective figures. And they are rather startling. The combined total of requirements for the armed forces and for our allies during the year that began July 1, 1942, is equivalent to about 35 percent of our federally inspected meat production or about 25 percent of total meat production.
I think I have made it clear that the armed forces and our allies come first in our calculations—they must come first— but we ought to examine the way in which these enormous drains on our meat supplies affect our civilian requirements. After taking into account purchases for the armed forces and for our allies, the quantity of federally inspected meat remaining for civilian consumption during the year that began July 1, 1942, will be about 11 billion pounds. This is about equal to the average domestic consumption of federally inspected meat during the 1931-40 period. But there will be a shortage of 3 billion pounds of meat in relation to the quantity of meat civilian consumers would buy at ceiling prices.
That is the third basic reason for the meat shortage, then—domestic consumer demand. National income this year is expected to total about 115 billion dollars, compared with around 90 billion dollars in 1929, the year we have always looked back on as a good one. The big income in prospect this year is a sure indication that most people are working and drawing good wages. They are spending part of theirmoney for meat—and they would spend much more if the meat—at ceiling prices—were available.
Any analysis of the meat shortage must make it clear that there are inequities in the price ceilings as between areas. Thus packers have the natural inclination to market their meat in the areas where they can get the highest return, and some areas, such as New England, which has relatively low price ceilings, have tended to be passed up in favor of the areas where higher price ceilings prevail. The Office of Price Administration is taking steps to correct these inequities.
A seasonal angle also is involved in the current situation. Slaughter of cattle and hogs is always light during July and August and the early part of September. In ordinary years we don't notice this falling off in supplies; but this year, with the armed forces and shipments to our allies taking a large part of our total output, the drop is more apparent, despite the fact that our slaughter at this season is the highest on record for the season. A large increase in meat supplies will be forthcoming by late October, however, and this will provide temporary relief.
Until livestock marketings pick up in the fall, the Department of Agriculture has put into effect two programs aimed at relieving the current pinch. First, purchases for our allies have been reduced temporarily to make more meat available for domestic consumption. Second, prices paid for the meats still being purchased for shipment abroad are below the OPA ceilings specified for AMA purchases.
While these measures will ease the situation to some extent, we must not lose sight of the fact that we have a shortage of 3 billion pounds of meat—that consumers would like to buy 14 billion pounds of meat at ceiling prices instead of approximately 11 billion pounds that will be available. Well, what would happen if the ceilings were taken off? Prices would immediately seek their own level—they would rise to the point where many consumers would not be able to purchase meat—a very undesirable situation. Undesirable because, in a manner of speaking, millions of consumers would be "rationed" out of the picture. And it would be the low-income groups—the workers who need meat most of all—who would be left out.
Furthermore, price ceilings have definitely slowed down the upward spiral of inflation—an inflation that would greatly increase the cost of the war and that eventually would harm every citizen in the country—and farmers most of all. I am quite sure that consumers, if given a choice, would choose shortages of certain items to the inflation that might follow removal of the price ceilings.
It is well known to all who have studied the subject that there is an inevitable association of price ceilings and rationing. To most students of the present situation it appears that rationing of meat might be one of the logical steps to solve the meat problems growing out of the war. It also appears entirely logical pending the time rationing might be instituted, that meatless days each week might be requested of the public by an appropriate governmental authority.
In Britain, consumers get two ounces of ham or bacon a week. They can also buy a shilling two-pence worth of fresh meat—equivalent to about 25 cents' worth in this country. Canned meat is handled under the "point" system— a system whereby most foods are weighted in accordance with their importance in the diet and with their relation to the total food supply.
However, there are some important differences in the situations in Britain and the United States. In Britain, the government controls the meat supply and regulates distribution at each step of the marketing process; our government doesn't. Also, more of Britain's meat supply is imported thanhere; farm slaughter is smaller; and the population is less. These factors make meat rationing somewhat easier to handle in Britain than it would be in this country.
Neither meatless days nor rationing nor any other steps of that nature are likely to eliminate the "squeeze" that packers and distributors have been complaining of lately. Many packers tell us that they are losing money on their hog operations and to some extent on their cattle operations; the prices they pay for live animals, they say, have been exceeding the amount of money they have been able to obtain from the processed meat. Retailers also are being squeezed; the prices they are receiving from consumers for meat under the maximum prices established by OPA allows them, they state, only a very small margin over what they pay wholesalers.
Since prices of live animals are the only unregulated part of the meat price system, some packers and distributors are inclined to lay the blame for the price squeeze on the lack of ceilings on prices of live animals. With hog prices advancing more than $2 since the pork ceilings became effective last March, it is obvious that either profits then were very large or that they are very small now for the average concern.
We must realize that ceiling prices on live animals would be extremely difficult to administer. In the case of cattle, we have a farm product that shows an extremely wide variation in quality. No two animals are alike. As cattle are sold in the market today, the buyer evaluates each animal on the basis of such characteristics as age, weight, size, shape, breeding, and flesh condition. Since there are innumerable variations of these characteristics, it would be difficult to devise price ceilings that would take all of the variations into account. Hogs are more nearly alike than cattle, but there are other difficulties. If ceiling prices were established for live hogs—with hogs in light supply relative to demand as they are now—a system of allocation inevitably would haveto be established. Under such a scheme, packers might pay much below the price ceilings and still get hogs, with the result that packers' margins would be widened considerably. Thus, if ceiling prices are established for hogs, there must also be some provision for hog price support at a level that will prevent packers' margins from widening unduly.
I am pointing out these difficulties—and they are only a few of the difficulties—not to show that price ceilings should not be applied to live animals, but to show in part why there has been no rush to do it.
In the meantime, the Department of Agriculture is formulating plans whereby packers facing the necessity of suspending operations may continue to operate by entering into a processing contract on foods purchased for our allies. This plan is necessary as a stop-gap measure if several small packers are to continue in business until the large volume of hogs begins to be marketed this fall, when our processing capacity will begin to be heavily taxed.
As I see it, the entire meat situation at the present time might be summarized under three headings:
1. We need to keep livestock production at high levels to provide meat for our armed forces, our allies, and our civilian consumers.
2. We need price ceilings on wholesale and retail meat prices to avoid inflation.
3. We need some system—perhaps rationing, meatless days, a combination of the two, or something else to assure equitable distribution of what will be a short supply of meat.
The meat situation is unusually complex, and to cope with it, all of us—producers, processors, distributors, and consumers—are going to be called upon to make sacrifices. But if it means helping our armed forces and our allies—helping us all to win the war—then we will all be glad to make these and many more sacrifices. Compared with the danger we all face they are trivial. | <urn:uuid:eaba153c-6c0b-4d94-940e-73e360328739> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1942/1942-08-17a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968435 | 3,245 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Comparing the Effects of Teacher-Directed Homework and Student-Centered Homework on Return Rate and Homework Attitudes
By: Susan Kogan and Robert Rueda
Purpose of study
Homework is an important educational tool. It helps students learn materials presented in class and it helps parents maintain a connection with a student and what is happening at school. Homework is most often defined as a practice and preparation activity assigned by teachers.
Students with LD are often homework resistant. Students with LD are often more likely to drop out of school and to be under or unemployed in adult life. Ogbu (1987) notes that there is often a disproportionate number of minority children in special education classes.
The researchers wanted to know if a more student-centered model of homework would increase the likelihood of assignment completion. The student-centered model believes that learning develops from interactions with others. For learning to be real this model believes assignments must relate to real world needs. Rather than memorize a list of words for a spelling test, for example, a student would write a letter to a friend that included those words.
The researchers hypothesized, or thought, that students in the student-centered homework group would produce more homework of better quality than students in the traditional homework model.
40 students (70% male) identified with learning disabilities were in the study. They attended a large public high school in Los Angeles. 87% were African American, 10% Hispanic and 3% Caucasian. 90% of the students gave English as their first language. 87% were enrolled in special education classes for most of the school day.
Baseline homework completion rates were calculated for all students.
Following a four-week baseline period students were randomly assigned to the teacher-directed or student-directed homework model for the next 12 weeks.
The researchers then had students complete homework surveys and gathered other qualitative data from the students, teachers and parents.
Students seemed to benefit from the student.
- Results were analyzed according to high or low baseline homework completion rate and homework method-teacher or student-centered.
- Students seemed to benefit from the student-centered approach. Low baseline homework completion students benefited increased homework production more in the student-centered approach than high baseline homework students.
- Qualitative data analysis also indicated that students preferred the student-centered approach.
Results are from a relatively small sample. Statistically significant differences between the teacher and student-centered approaches are not identified.
Results do suggest, however,that homework assignments that are more related to real world events may work better for students with LD. This concurs with evidence gathered about homework and students in general education programs as well.
A preferred model of homework is identified- especially for low baseline homework completion students. The data, however, does not demonstrate that increased homework production leads directly to improved academic achievement for either group of students.
Roundtable Paper Presentation for the 1997 AERA Convention, Susan Kogan, Ph.D and Robert Rueda, Ph.D.
Summarized by Kathleen Ross-Kidder, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:555d26d5-613d-4503-940b-15a5ed7a8f68> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ldonline.org/article/Comparing_the_Effects_of_Teacher-Directed_Homework_and_Student-Centered_Homework_on_Return_Rate_and_Homework_Attitudes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96667 | 631 | 3.4375 | 3 |
- freely available
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2013, 10(12), 7083-7109; doi:10.3390/ijerph10127083
Abstract: Climate change is likely to have significant implications for human health, particularly through alterations of the incidence, prevalence, and distribution of infectious diseases. In the context of these risks, governments in high income nations have begun developing strategies to reduce potential climate change impacts and increase health system resilience (i.e., adaptation). In this paper, we review and evaluate national-level adaptation planning in relation to infectious disease risks in 14 OECD countries with respect to “best practices” for adaptation identified in peer-reviewed literature. We find a number of limitations to current planning, including negligible consideration of the needs of vulnerable population groups, limited emphasis on local risks, and inadequate attention to implementation logistics, such as available funding and timelines for evaluation. The nature of planning documents varies widely between nations, four of which currently lack adaptation plans. In those countries where planning documents were available, adaptations were mainstreamed into existing public health programs, and prioritized a sectoral, rather than multidisciplinary, approach. The findings are consistent with other scholarship examining adaptation planning indicating an ad hoc and fragmented process, and support the need for enhanced attention to adaptation to infectious disease risks in public health policy at a national level.
Climate change has been identified as the biggest global health threat this century, with a variety of direct and indirect impacts projected . Changing temperature and precipitation regimes are expected to increase the probability, duration and severity of extreme weather events (e.g. flooding, storms), to increase the risk and incidence of some infectious diseases (e.g., malaria), and to affect food and water security [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. These impacts will be exacerbated by social, economic, demographic, and other environmental stressors, including poverty, water and air pollution, land use change, economic development, population growth, and changing migration patterns [9,13,14,15,16], with the elderly, children, and other socially and economically disadvantaged populations particularly vulnerable . While developing nations, particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), are widely believed to have the highest vulnerability to climate change, high income nations are also vulnerable, a fact evident in morbidity and mortality documented during recent climate-related disasters (e.g., the 2003 European heat wave, hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, record-breaking Australian wildfires, Alberta flooding) [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24].
In light of the risks posed by climate change, and existing vulnerabilities to climate-related health outcomes, adaptation has emerged as a key focus of climate policy. Adaptation refers to policies, measures and strategies designed to reduce climate change impacts and foster resilience, a concept analogous to the population health notions of primary, secondary and, at times, tertiary prevention [13,19,23,25]. Within a climate change adaptation context, primary prevention would imply reducing potential community exposures linked with climate change, such as eliminating potential mosquito breeding sites to reduce the vector’s range expansion potential, while secondary prevention would consist in the detection and treatment of existing disease before substantial morbidity or mortality is incurred (e.g., the application of biocides to limit disease transmission in high risk areas, as defined by integrated surveillance data). Potential adaptations are hence diverse and range from specific interventions to address a known disease risk to building adaptive capacity, which is defined as the potential of a system to respond to change. Such actions may be undertaken at various scales, and may be reactive or anticipatory in relation to climate change impacts .
The majority of research and policy debate on health adaptation has focused on identifying risks posed by climate change, estimating their magnitude and extent, describing potential patterns of exposure and vulnerability, and highlighting priorities for intervention [12,27,28]. In some cases, nations have developed strategic priorities for adaptation [29,30]. While some studies have evaluated these adaptation plans as part of regional-scale analyses of the current status of adaptation in general , few studies have examined national-level adaptation planning specifically with respect to their adequacy in managing climate-related health risks. Thus for infectious diseases—an area of particular concern for public health professionals in a changing climate [12,31]—while there is a large and growing body of scholarship assessing vulnerability to future impacts, our understanding of how adaptation is being prioritized is limited [32,33]. However, such assessments of adaptation are important if we are to identify gaps in problem framing in order to pave the way towards a more robust practice of adaptation strategy development .
In light of an absence of research examining how adaptation figures in health policy, this paper evaluates national-level planning for adaptation with regards to infectious disease-related impacts of climate change in OECD nations. Specifically, we identify the types of adaptations proposed in adaptation plans of national agencies and governments, and examine whether there are gaps in current public health planning by comparing with recommendations for infectious disease adaptation in the peer reviewed literature. Our focus on national-level planning reflects the role of national governments as a central pivot for adaptation, whether it be by catalyzing interest in adaptation, determining policy priorities, or allocating resources and support [32,34,35].
2.1. Scientific Literature Selection
To identify best practices proposed within the scientific literature to respond to climate change-related infectious disease risks, an assessment of peer-reviewed literature was conducted. Five databases were searched (PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Knowledge, Scopus) using database-specific search strategies (see Supplementary Materials for the full search process). Reference lists were scanned for additional citations. Searches were last updated on 17 April 2013, with no time limit set on the search. All available peer-reviewed literature in English, French and Spanish proposing public health adaptations to infectious disease risk of climate change was reviewed, with 54 articles retained for full review (see Supplementary Materials). Articles addressing climate change impacts on infectious disease dynamics were excluded if they exclusively addressed risks, or recommended adaptations, in relation to developing-country or middle-income country settings. These articles were excluded due to potential limited relevance to OECD-settings.
2.2. Adaptation Plan Selection
To assess adaptation planning by OECD nations for infectious disease risks, national adaptation plans, as well as official Public Health and Health Ministry reports addressing adaptation or public health response to health threats of climate change, were selected and analyzed for a sample of fourteen OECD-member countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Selection sought to capture a diversity of nations for whom information was available in languages spoken by the research team (English, French and Spanish). The OECD-country sample was based on the availability of national-level planning documents published in the abovementioned languages. To be included in the review, plans and official documents had to: substantively focus on adaptation, either through the promotion of specific interventions to minimize threats from infectious diseases or description of approaches to build adaptive capacity in the health sector; have climate change as an overarching rationale; focus on the national scale; and specifically address risks from infectious diseases, which were defined as any zoonotic, vector-borne, food-borne or waterborne diseases which may be directly impacted or exacerbated by climate change (see Table 1).
|Disease type||Disease||Environmental factors impacting disease dynamics||Countries likely to be affected|
|Mosquito-borne diseases||Malaria||Increased average temperatures||Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Southern Europe|
|West Nile Virus||Increased average temperatures, drought||USA, Southern Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile|
|Dengue, Chikungunya fever, Yellow fever||Increased average temperatures||New Zealand, Mediterranean region (coastal areas in Spain, Portugal and France), Chile|
|Tick-borne diseases||Lyme borreliosis, tick-borne encephalitis,||Increased daily precipitation, humidity, changed patterns of seasonal precipitation, Increased average temperatures, extreme heat||Northern Europe, Canada, USA|
|Waterborne diseases||Sewage and sanitation:|
Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio cholera, E.Coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella,
Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Yersinia, Legionella
|Increased rainfall and storm frequency, flooding, landslides, increased average temperatures, extreme heat episodes||All countries|
|Food borne diseases||Salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis||Extreme rainfall, flooding, increased average temperatures, increased frequency of extreme heat, changed seasonal patterns||All countries|
National-level plans and official documents were identified through a web-based search of official public health agency and governmental websites using search terms and inclusion criteria presented in Table 2. The search was supplemented through country-specific Google searches, document reference and citation tracking, and key word searches in specialized policy databases, including: Bandolier, Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, National Health Services (NHS), University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO). We used the method of Furgal et al. , advanced in a climate change context by Poutiainen et al. , to manage the large number of hits obtained through Google, with each of the first 30 hits for a single search reviewed for inclusion in the study. After 30 hits, each second result was reviewed until twenty consecutive irrelevant results were found, at which point the search was stopped. Typically, this led to the review of the first one hundred hits.
|1. Key Word Search||Terms used:|
|1.1 English||“climate change”, “global warming” AND/OR “infectious disease”, “communicable disease”, “zoonos*s”, “waterborne disease”, “food*borne disease”, “vector*borne disease”|
|1.2 French||“changement climatique”, “réchauffement climatique” AND/OR “maladies infectieuses”, “maladies à transmission vectorielle”, “maladies émergentes”, “maladies diarrhéiques”, “maladies d’origine hydrique”, “intoxications alimentaires”, “maladies d’origine alimentaire”, “zoonoses”|
|1.3 Spanish||“cambio climatico”, “calienmente global” AND/OR “enfermedades transmisibles”, “enfermedades infecciosas”, “zoonosis”, “enfermedades de transmisiόn vectorial”, “enfermedades transmitidas por el agua/ por los alimentos”, “enfermedades emergentes”|
|2. Inclusion Criteria||Exclusion Criteria|
|English, French, Spanish documents||Non-English, French, Spanish|
|Technical documents, Adaptation Plans, National Reports, Adaptation Assessments, Vulnerability Assessments containing recommendations.||Editorials, Meetings and Conferences, Abstracts|
|Human Adaptation to Climate change||Natural and/or biodiversity focus, focus on climate change mitigation|
|Practical focus (detailing adaptation activities or actions)||Enumeration and assessments of vulnerabilities only, description of the problem and potential hazards only, conceptual documents only.|
|OECD Nations||Non-OECD Nation|
The assessment of peer-reviewed publications was qualitative in nature: we aimed to identify and list specific adaptations recommended. This list was subsequently compared to adaptation policies proposed within national adaptation planning documents to identify gaps between needs identified within the literature and the policies proposed at the national-level. By listing, comparing, and contrasting adaptations this way, we aimed to assess whether and to what extent recommendations formulated in the literature were integrated into national adaptation plans.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Infectious Disease Adaptations Proposed in the Literature
Adaptations to infectious disease risks proposed in the peer-reviewed literature are summarized in Table 3, and can be classified in six overarching categories: reduction of occupational health risks, adaptations to risks from vector-borne, waterborne and food-borne diseases, improved monitoring and surveillance, and capacity-building.
|Occupational Health||Identify vulnerable professional groups |
|Develop suitable protective clothing and gear [39,40]|
|Heighten workplace awareness of infectious disease risks |
|Waterborne Disease||Ensure adequate water supply and quality [18,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49]|
|Increase drinking & recreational water quality monitoring in relation to specific climate and weather patterns (e.g.,: increased precipitation) [42,45,50,51]|
|Create advisory platforms and improve outreach [42,43]|
|Improve watershed protection and management [18,40,42,46,52]|
|Develop new drug therapies for waterborne diseases |
|Develop membrane filters to address cyanotoxicity [43,53]|
|Consider water-pathogen source placement (e.g.,: cattle farms) [18,49]|
|Improve wastewater disposal and municipal water systems |
|Involve nursing staff in community microbiological water testing |
|Food-borne Disease||Enforce appropriate food production, monitoring and handling standards [48,50,54,55,56,57]|
|Provide public education campaigns to promote good practices in food preparation [42,54,55]|
|Increase monitoring of preparation practices within institutions |
|Develop a national integrated system of food tracking from farm to fork [45,54]|
|Incentivize the local production of food |
|Intensify existing food safety programs during warmer periods and optimize food disinfection protocols [43,58]|
|Provide freezer programs for hunting communities |
|Vector-borne disease||Develop vaccines for human and animal host-species [1,18,40,42,59,60,61,62]|
|Link human health and veterinary sciences in public health practice |
|Create or strengthen animal and wildlife sentinel surveillance systems [45,57,59]|
|Implement preventive strategies for sustainable livestock production |
|Harmonize case reporting across regions and national boundaries |
|Improve vector control [1,18,40,42,55,57,60,61,64,65,66]|
|Strengthen preparedness and response to extreme weather events |
|Encourage individual level adaptations such as the use of mosquito nets [1,40,47,55,57,60,62,64,67,68]|
|Domestic water tank screening, urban runoff capture and improved urban drainage systems [18,54,60]|
|Incorporate fly screens in construction norms |
|Implement adequate goods-importation laws and monitoring |
|Supplement current surveillance programs with additional surveillance sites for monitoring [56,62]|
|Surveillance||Further develop genomic surveillance |
|Develop novel disease and vulnerability indicators [39,56,61,67,70]|
|Expand disease tracking surveillance programs [1,18,42,50,52,56,57,61,66,71,7273]|
|Surveillance||Collect data on environmental risks to perfect integrated monitoring and forecasting systems [1,18,41,51,54,56,61,62,63,64,67,69,72,74,75,76,77,78,79]|
|Collect data on vulnerabilities and identify vulnerable populations [18,41,42,54,61,72,75,80]|
|Perfect early-warning and syndromic surveillance systems integrating environmental, ecological, veterinary and epidemiological data [18,41,42,55,57,61,62,64,70,81,82]|
|Ensure adequate data collection and data quality [1,47,57,64,65,70,72,74,81]|
|Develop the use proxy measures and interpolation when data may be unavailable |
|Develop spatial analysis technologies with greater integrative analysis capabilities than current GIS software [52,57,67,73,75,79]|
|Increase the ability to share data and information across jurisdictions [42,57]|
|Improve the timeliness of access to laboratory testing and its results |
|Integrate multidisciplinary knowledge in surveillance and risk assessments [47,56,57,61,67,72]|
|Integrate community participation in surveillance [19,61,70]|
|General Strategies, and Capacity Building||Provide education about ID risks of CC, individual adaptation measures and/or mainstreaming in existing health promotion programs [1,41,47,51,57,61,64,66,83]|
|Provide regular (and updated) workforce training [41,42,57,73,84]|
|Prepare health care workers and public health professionals to potential ID risks of CC [39,42,61,80,81,82,84]|
|Incorporate ID risks of climate change in medical and university training curricula and create new training programs [1,41,42,50,59,61,81,85,86]|
|Develop and validate new diagnostic tests protocols [18,59,69]|
|Involve stakeholders and the media to increase awareness and identify alternative adaptation options [19,54,59,73]|
|Build capacity by increasing infrastructure and research capabilities, the provision of adequate funding, equipment and trained staff [57,59,64,73,80,81]|
|Focus adaptation efforts to vulnerable communities [18,52,57,64,80]|
|Improve vaccination coverage and public immunization campaigns [57,60,61,64,67]|
|Cooperate with relevant sectors : meteorology, environment, urban planning, hydrology, agriculture [56,61,64,78,79,80]|
|Emphasize adaptive management, constant monitoring and evaluation, and the implementation no-risk options [54,61]|
|Improve access to preventive and primary care [1,42,50,57,61,80]|
|Improve laboratory infrastructure and testing capabilities |
|Conduct cost-effectiveness analyses of proposed adaptation strategies |
|Improve forecast modeling [55,62,78,82,87,88,89]|
|Assess stakeholder conceptualizations and approaches to health [72,90]|
|Evaluate opportunities for policy intervention (effectiveness, desirability, feasibility, urgency, equity, durability) with the use of scenarios |
|Create community and stakeholder partnerships, encourage social involvement and foster social networks. [19,61,72,90]|
It is noteworthy that some recommendations were applicable to health risks of climate change in general, and were presented as such within the reviewed publications: they were included here because of their specific relevance to infectious-disease risks.
At a general-level, emphasis is placed on the unequal distribution of impacts and consequent need to identify and target vulnerable populations through coordinated outreach campaigns within all six adaptation categories e.g., [18,39,42,43,47,52,54,55,56,57,61,64,67,70,80]. Such campaigns may be aimed at incentivizing individual-level responses, such as the wearing of protective clothing outdoors, the adequate cooking and washing of food products, and the use of bed nets; or to educate individuals and communities more generally with regards to disease etiology and potential symptoms. The necessity of individual-level adaptations and, more broadly, the use of low-cost and low-technological solutions such as mosquito nets and water filters, as effective public health measures to respond to hazards associated with climate change has been recognized as “tried and tested” best practice from the very beginnings of public health adaptation research .
While individual adaptations remain crucial, the need for the community-based adaptations to health risks of climate change, as well as for the fostering of sustainable stakeholder partnerships, has been increasingly highlighted in the literature . The creation of multidisciplinary teams of health professionals and the integration of knowledge from a variety of research areas and applied sciences in public health practice has also emerged as an essential component of recommendations for fostering long-term sustainable adaptation. These trends reflect a growing recognition in the infectious-disease literature of the complex nature of risks related to climate change—which may themselves be considered outcomes of ecological, epidemiologic, and socio-economic interactions—and of a need for multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation [18,41,42,55,61,62,64,70,81,82].
The need for trans-disciplinary collaboration is increasingly apparent within sectors aiming to develop novel approaches for the elaboration of integrated surveillance systems. Emerging threats from vector-borne diseases have required public health professionals to increasingly move away from of conventional conceptualizations of pathogen-human-host transmission scenarios and incorporate advanced notions of ecology, entomology and veterinary sciences to evaluate risks of disease spread. The development of methods to assess potential impacts of mosquito-borne disease [64,91] is a recurring example of potential multi-sectoral challenges brought forth by climate change. The need for integrated surveillance systems is highlighted in the scientific literature by clear research needs and information gaps which would be impossible to tackle without substantial data and knowledge sharing across disciplines and geographical boundaries.
3.2. National-Level Adaptation Planning for Infectious Disease Risks of Climate Change
The majority of the policy documents reviewed here focus broadly on adaptation to climate change across different public sectors (Table 4), with some technical reports targeted at a single sector or organization undertaking the implementation or coordination of adaptation strategies. Primary examples of the latter include adaptation planning documents from the United Kingdom and the United States. The official documents reviewed were supplemented by information available online, to account for potential plan updates and revisions. Ireland, Slovenia and Luxembourg have not yet published their respective adaptation plans, but have indicated that they will be publically available in 2013/14. A preparatory workshop on health system adaptation needs is available on the Climate Change office of the Republic of Slovenia website. Likewise, a draft of the adaptation plan for Luxembourg could be found, though the official version is not yet available for public consultation. These preliminary documents were not included in this review as they are still undergoing modifications and may not be representative of the nation’s official policy position.
|Country||Adaptation Plan||Drafting Body|
|Australia||National Climate Change Adaptation Framework |
National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan: Human Health (Update: 2012) [93,94]
|Council of Australian Governments
National Climate Change
Adaptation Research Facility
|Belgium||Plan National Climat de la Belgique 2009–2012 ||Commission Nationale Climat: Groupe de Travail Politiques et Mesures|
|Canada||Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: A Canadian Perspective |
From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007
|Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Directorate
Government of Canada
|Chile||National Climate Change Action Plan 2008–2012 ||National Environmental Commission
Gobierno de Chile
|France||L’adaptation de la France au changement climatique |
Plan national d’adaptation de la France aux effets du changement Climatique 2011–2015
|Observatoire national sur les effets du réchauffement climatique
Ministère de l'écologie, du développement durable, et de l’énergie
|Spain||Cambio Global España 2020/50. Cambio climático y salud ||Centro Complutense de Estudios e Información Medioambiental & Instituto Sindical de Trabajo, Ambiente y Salud &
Sociedad Española de Sanidad Ambiental
|Switzerland||Adaptation aux changements climatiques en Suisse: Objectifs, défis et champs d’action Premier volet de la stratégie du Conseil fédéral du 2 mars 2012 |
Les changements climatiques et la Suisse en 2050: impacts attendus sur l'environnement, la société et l'économie
|l’Office fédéral de l’environnement
ProClim—Forum for Climate and Global Change
|UK||Department of Health: Climate Change Plan |
Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK 2012
Current evidence, recommendations and research gaps
The National Adaptation Programme
|Central Office of Information for the Department of Health
Health Protection Agency
|USA||Climate Change and Health program website
Progress Report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force: Recommended Actions in Support of a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 5, October, 2010
HHS Climate Change Adaptation Plan
|Centers for Disease Control
The White House Council on Environmental Quality
Department of Health & Human Services
The majority of documents reviewed contained at least one suggestion for potential adaptation that may be undertaken in relation to changing infectious-disease dynamics with climate change (Table 5). However, the specificity of the proposed adaptations varied substantially between plans. Some only broadly outlined public health principles for adaptation: for example, current recommendations in Switzerland’s adaptation plan largely focus upon the importance of multidisciplinarity in tackling climate change-related health risks, sharing of data and information across sectors and the integration of “new risks” in current public health strategies. The adaptation plan does not, however, describe any detailed objectives that must be attained to support the realization of these principles. Specifically, it does not mention how professionals within different scientific disciplines, or governmental bodies, ought to be cooperating to optimize knowledge sharing. Interestingly, the document doesn’t explicitly name infectious agents or diseases which may become an emerging or amplified threat in relation to climate change (though it mentions threats brought forth by the propagation of certain vectors), and does not detail current gaps in public health strategies to address such risks. A broad assessment of potential future infectious disease risks in relation to climate change is available in another national-level risk assessment . In contrast, other plans, such as that proposed by the Australian government , go considerably further in planning development and identify the ministries, organizations and stakeholders which are to carry out and evaluate the proposed strategies; all of these aspects are of key importance in creating readiness for adaptation [35,109].
Wide variations in the nature of adaptation planning for infectious diseases are evident across the 14 countries analyzed, even in cases where countries are situated within neighboring regions facing similar impacts. For example, despite the fact that the South Pacific region is likely to be strongly impacted by changing vector ranges and environmental conditions [110,111], New Zealand’s national adaptation plan only outlines broad suggestions of methods to alleviate future health risks of climate change and focuses primarily on the benefits of mitigation. For example, New Zealand’s adaptation plan presents “walking, cycling and taking public transport” as individual-level “adaptations” meant to increase physical activity and diminish one’s carbon footprint. In general, scientific publications classify such measures as health co-benefits of mitigation strategies . Though the plan includes a section examining New Zealand’s vulnerabilities to infectious diseases (e.g., increasing incidence of Dengue and Ross River virus), none of the proposed adaptation measures directly address the risks related to evolving infectious disease dynamics. In contrast, Australia has created the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility to support adaptation science and complement a regularly updated Human Health Adaptation Plan, in which priorities for action are revised in light of emerging evidence and highlighted needs.
European countries are also far from homogenous in their approaches to tackling infectious disease risks. However, they benefit from the overarching support of the European Center for Disease Control, which has played an important role in information sharing and the creation of multidisciplinary support structures and professional networks (ex: VBORNET) . This is reflected in the planning of several EU states. Spain’s adaptation plan, for instance, comprises an in-depth discussion of potential infectious disease hazards and lists several suggestions to reduce future threats, such as conducting spatial assessments of risk, the development of early-warning systems and vector monitoring, increased surveillance (particularly in areas of high circulation, such as airports), the training of national climate change and entomology expertise, vector control, and the provision of educational outreach campaigns for health professionals and the general public. This adaptation strategy is rooted within a national public health context that place significant emphasis on developing mosquito-borne disease surveillance, and is hence familiar with the complexities inherent to such a process. Similarly, the French adaptation plan also discusses specific health risks of climate change, and comprises broader strategy recommendations, such as the establishment of a new climate change adaptation research group. Additionally, concrete actions are proposed to aid in the integration of spatial analysis in current methods of vector and pathogen reservoir surveillance, as well as to improve food refrigeration and water treatment, among several others. Each adaptation is accompanied by a target year of implementation and a list of ministries and partners involved in its deployment and coordination, a process substantially more advanced than that of countries such as New Zealand. Lastly, the Australian government has created a Department of Climate Change to facilitate the coordination of activities at the national level . This highlights a potentially worrisome contrast in climate change planning: countries with more experience in implementing adaptation strategies may be more aware of existing vulnerabilities, and may hence be more likely to prioritize remediating to known deficiencies in current national policy development.
|Country||Awareness of CC Impact on ID Dynamics||Evidence for Adaptation Strategies/Plans in PH||Infectious Disease-Specific Adaptation Measures|
Canada stands-out in terms of breadth and completeness of qualitative national reports, in particular in relation to the 2008 national assessment of vulnerability and adaptive capacity in the health sector, led by Health Canada . This report details area-specific health hazards of climate change and identifies potential needs for adaptation. As it is the case for Australia, the heightened quality of the work made available by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada may be directly related to the department’s emphasis on the assessment and production of rigorous scientific publications investigating the links between policy, climate and health [42,84]. Additionally, information regarding potential adaptation research funding (grants) offered by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada for climate change adaptation is advertised and easy to find on the agency’s official website. Over the period from 2011 to 2016, Canada has allocated $149 million to support adaptation implementation and capacity building . Nonetheless, Canada has yet to publish a national-level adaptation plan. Similarly, American initiatives, though supported by an Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a CDC climate adaptation initiative, remain primarily on a state by state basis. An overview of adaptation planning activities occurring in American states can be found in Smith et al. and Bierbaum et al. [114,115].
3.3. Classification of Adaptation Options and Between-Plan Comparisons
National adaptation plans are meant to be frameworks or guidance documents for individual agencies to structure the prioritization of their adaptation needs. The inherent goal of public health adaptation, and adaptation planning by proxy, is the reduction of specific vulnerabilities to the potential effects of climate change. In order to ensure that vulnerabilities are indeed being addressed, the need for mechanisms to evaluate the degree of rigor associated with adaptation planning and tracking adaptation planning outcomes has become apparent .
To assess the comprehensiveness of adaptation planning, the selected documents (Table 4) were assessed and classified using a typology presented by Preston et al. (2011) , focusing primarily on the planning processes by which adaptation actions may be selected for subsequent implementation. This typology aims to address the lack of systematic indicators illustrating the range of potential activities that might be expected from robust adaptation planning documents, or the aspects that ought to be considered when creating guiding frameworks for future adaptation actions. It broadly groups the planning processes in two overarching objectives of adaptation planning: the building of adaptive capacity and the delivering of adaptation actions .
Within the scope of this review, the typology proposed by Preston et al. (2011) was used to facilitate comparison between plans with respect to the broad adaptation planning processes adopted within them to detect preferences and emphases in conceptualizations of health adaptations among national institutions. This classification allowed for an analysis of overarching themes and approaches to problem framing within individual adaptation plans to identify potentially unaddressed (or under-developed) aspects of adaptation planning (Table 6). These unaddressed aspects were further informed by best-practice measures proposed in peer-reviewed scientific literature (see Section 3.1.).
It becomes immediately apparent, through the use of this classification typology that proposed adaptations are primarily concerned with sectoral (90%), rather than integrated, multidisciplinary adaptations implicating different agencies, jurisdictional levels or stakeholders. For example, Switzerland’s proposed plan explicitly divides the objectives of the adaptation plans in broad sectors (“Adaptations Sectorielles”): water management, natural disaster management, agriculture, forestry, energy, tourism, biodiversity, health, territorial development. However, this plan makes explicitly clear that single impacts of climate change (ex: heat waves) will impact multiple sectors at once (Figure 2.1., page 8 of the plan, and throughout Section 2 which details the country’s potential vulnerabilities to climate change), and that different governmental bodies will need to work “hand in hand” (page 9) to tackle them. It is not specified how this will be achieved, nor are these linkages revisited in section 3, which details the proposed sectoral adaptation strategies.
|Adaptations Proposed||Classification of Adaptation strategies||Consideration of Vulnerable Populations||Sectoral or Holistic||Initiative or Mainstreaming||Nation Proposing|
|Ensure that existing surveillance systems are sensitive and efficient enough to detect new threats in a timely manner||Avoiding or reducing the risks||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||UK, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Australia, Switzerland|
|Strengthen surveillance systems which currently lack the capacity to integrate zoonotic and environmental data in disease detection||Avoiding or reducing the risks||No||Holistic||Mainstreaming and Initiative if development of new knowledge||UK, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Australia, Chile|
|Ensure that surveillance systems have the capacity to detect vector-borne diseases whose range is suspected to change (integrate epidemiological and environmental data)||Avoiding or reducing the risks||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||UK, USA, Chile, France, Spain, Canada, Australia|
|Increase awareness of potential effects of climate change within the public health surveillance, public health planning, infectious disease and medical communities||Creating supportive social structures||No||Holistic||Mainstreaming||Chile,|
|Integrate climate and precipitation data in forecast and predictive models for the purposes of public health intervention & Use the growing scientific evidence base to inform the preparedness and responsiveness||Gathering and sharing of new information & exploiting new opportunities||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||Chile, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Australia,|
|Increase the capacity for or continue to ensure appropriate water sanitation and water quality monitoring||Avoiding or reducing the risks||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||New Zealand, UK,|
France, Canada, Australia,
|Conduct water-consumption hygiene outreach campaigns||Avoiding or reducing the risks||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||France,|
Chile, Belgium, Australia,
|Strengthen food quality regulation and monitoring||Avoiding or reducing the risks & creating a supportive institutional framework||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||France,|
|Invest in strategies for vector control||Bearing the risk||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||Chile, Canada, Australia, Spain|
|Increase networking between sectors and jurisdictional levels||Creating supportive social structures||No||Holistic||Mainstreaming||Chile, UK,|
USA, Canada, Australia,
|Increase education and public outreach campaigns||Gathering and sharing of information||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||New Zealand, Spain,|
UK, France, USA, Canada, Australia,
|Improve resilience to climate effects for the most vulnerable in society||Bearing the risks||Yes||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada, Australia,|
|Carry out an economic assessment of preventive measures, as well as infrastructure and personnel needs||Gathering and sharing of information||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||Chile, Canada, Australia,|
|Strengthen the capabilities of health personnel to address prevention and care of adverse effects caused by climate change||Gathering and sharing of information & Creating supportive social structures & Institutional framework||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||USA, Canada, Australia, Spain, France|
|Create a multidisciplinary expert group for planning, evidence assessment and the formulation of recommendations||Exploiting new opportunities & Gathering and sharing of information & Creating supportive social structures||No||Holistic||Innovative (though not a new concept, it is a new body)||France, USA (BRACE), Australia|
|Explicit statement regarding the need to evaluate implemented strategies||Gathering and sharing of information||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||USA, Canada, Australia,|
|Fostering international cooperation||Gathering and sharing of information & Creating supportive social structures||No||Sectoral||Mainstreaming||Canada,|
Indeed, cooperation between government bodies (national and local levels, between ministries) was not explicitly highlighted in the majority of reviewed plans. This was unanticipated prior to the assessment of documents, as the need for formal coordination mechanisms across ministries and organizations dealing with environment, water, agriculture, urban planning and health care is widely highlighted in scientific literature on infectious disease adaptation , and adaptation more generally . Such coordination mechanisms require involvement of multiple stakeholders from government and industry at all phases of adaptation planning and assessments, in an iterative fashion which allows policymakers to determine which strategies are working, which could be improved and the appropriateness of select measures in addressing changes in incidence and spread of infectious diseases .
The importance of local government participation in public health adaptation planning, as a complement to national policy, as well as the need for local integrated vulnerability assessments, have been explicitly highlighted within the Australian National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan for Human Health, the Canadian From Impacts to Adaptation document, the French, American and Spanish Plans. The UK Adaptation Programme most explicitly addresses the question of local governance, by situating the concept within the national legislative framework: “An important framework for managing health risks to the local population is defined by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which places an important focus on local planning and decision-making, led by Directors of Public Health”. As the importance of local adaptation and capacity-building has long been highlighted in climate change literature [27,35,62], this type of explicit policy framing ought to become standard practice in subsequent national planning endeavors.
A similar proportion of plans (90%) were primarily concerned with mainstreaming, defined as the integration of climate change into ongoing public health projects and priorities focusing on health promotion and protection [32,62]. Hence, the framework used within the majority of national documents for prioritizing adaptation policies and programs to control hazards of climate change situates adaptation planning within existing basic public health functions such as surveillance, outbreak investigation and response, education, research, and trend analysis. The obligation to “upgrade” the scope of existing core public health functions to account for projections of changing climates and infectious disease dynamics is highlighted in nearly all of the reviewed documents [61,116]. This clear need for better surveillance and monitoring methodology is hence a central aspect of both the national adaptation documents reviewed, and the peer-reviewed literature. Within Preston et al.’s typology for classification of adaptation processes, such strategies would fall primarily under the purview of gathering and sharing information, though they may also entail the avoidance or reduction of risks through upgrades to existing surveillance infrastructure. This is primarily true of arthropod-borne disease surveillance which may require the installation of mosquito trapping devices, sentinel surveillance systems, and more.
Additionally, the need to integrate environmental, ecological and veterinary variables into surveillance is widely recognized. Though most experts agree that spatial analysis will be important herein, increasing our ability to account for temperature, precipitation and water quality data in analysis and forecasting, few countries explicitly acknowledge the need to develop this resource. Across planning documents reviewed, a strong emphasis is placed upon the improvement of current surveillance systems. Very few plans however, specify how such improvements would be achieved (for example, by improving GIS software capabilities or through the integration of environmental and wildlife data to surveillance processes). It is also noteworthy that while waterborne and food-borne diseases are believed to pose the greatest risk in relation to climate change impacts in developed nations [28,58,117], limited emphasis is placed in adaptation plans upon adaptation measures in relation to such pathogens. At the very least this is a deficiency in the “gathering and sharing of information” planning process, a strategy otherwise widely prioritized within planning documents. This may reflect an inherent lack of awareness of potential effects of climate change on food and waterborne diseases amongst those drafting adaptation planning documents.
As noted above, the majority of proposed adaptations were concerned with the gathering and sharing of information, as well as with risk avoidance (e.g., the development of forecast models and surveillance systems, vector control, improved water sanitation). Traditionally, these are public health strategies developed to maximize prevention and preparedness to uncertain disease risks: it is therefore logical that they are at the forefront of a planning process aimed at managing stochastic and complex disease dynamics. We must note, however, that though most plans broadly addressed the complex nature of environmental, ecological and epidemiological factors impacting infectious disease risks of climate change, the implementation of holistic approaches explicitly recognizing the need to integrate zoological, entomological, ecological, geographical and environmental sciences in health policy development is limited.
It is noteworthy that only five of the reviewed adaptation plans/documents (UK, Spain, Canada, Australia, USA) explicitly addressed the needs of vulnerable populations, while two explicitly highlighted the need to consider a vulnerable population approach in policy development without specifying how this would be achieved, despite the importance given to developing an understanding of the differential distribution of infectious disease impacts and of targeting interventions to the most vulnerable in the infectious disease literature . Though we recognize that more resources need to be invested in the development of surveillance and monitoring tools as well as in health-related climate risk assessments to strengthen the capacity of the health system to respond to future stressors , this limited perspective on adaptation may prove inadequate without investments in initiatives to promote active community involvement in resource and knowledge building, and without explicit considerations for vulnerable populations such as the elderly and local indigenous populations . In response to recent studies in public health adaptation, the focus of the expert and policy dialogue has increasingly shifted towards community-based approaches to adaptation and vulnerability assessments in health .
In this paper, we have examined the extent to which national planning for adaptation is addressing the risks posed by climate change on infectious diseases, focusing on 14 OECD nations. Reviewing national-level adaptation plans and governmental public health reports, the study is one of the first to specifically focus on how infectious diseases are being addressed in adaptation, contributing to a rapidly growing scholarship identifying and characterizing the current state of adaptation more generally [29,32,33,118]. We acknowledge that the findings are preliminary, and represent a snapshot of adaptation activities at the national level. As such, our analysis does not capture adaptation planning taking place at lower levels of governance or that which is not reported on publically, and focuses on a limited number of nations because of practical nature of our sample. Though we limited our analysis and review of policy documents to those nation’s whose plans were published in English, French and Spanish, the documents selected for in-depth analysis correspond to a wide range of policy documents, which are representative of current adaptation planning across developed nations. Despite these caveats, the work raises a number of important points about the current status of adaptation planning for infectious diseases.
The comprehensiveness, extent and framing of adaptation planning within the OECD-nations examined are not homogenous and vary among jurisdictions. This is well illustrated, for example, by significant discrepancies on infectious disease adaptation planning between countries with similar risk profiles such as Australia and New Zealand. Despite the fact that New Zealand is likely to experience a change in the spread and incidence of infectious disease in coming years, the national adaptation plans only tangentially addresses the topic. In contrast, within a similar context, Australian adaptation planning documents present thorough, periodically revised guidelines to address the specific needs of their population. This reflects the government’s commitment to support local infectious disease adaptation, and interest in pursuing the climate change policy agenda, and illustrates the importance of government leadership in directing adaptation [119,120]. Differences in plan comprehensiveness and quality may furthermore be explained by findings in a recent study by Lesnikowski et al. , where the authors found that progress on adaptation is significantly related to policy commitments to engagement in international and national environmental governance.
While this review primarily evaluates adaptation plans against peer-reviewed infectious disease literature with the goal of identifying gaps in current public health adaptation planning, in so doing it also raises deeper governance challenges. For example, where climate change adaptation is addressed in national level adaptation planning documents, the measures are typically “mainstreamed”, embedded within pre-established programs that were not originally constructed with climate change in mind. The most notable is the strong emphasis on the development and improvement of surveillance programs; a strategic priority rose both within select adaptation plans and peer-reviewed publications. Though mainstreaming through improved surveillance is appealing, the integration of environmental and social data in surveillance and forecasting requires more extensive departmental, organizational and disciplinary cooperation and coordination than the construction of traditional surveillance systems . The mere information technology considerations necessary for cost-effective data sharing may be substantial. This difficulty is not explicitly addressed within the national adaptation plans reviewed.
Undeniably, adaptation through mainstreaming is central in creating a pathway for the integration of climate change considerations into ongoing policy processes [123,124]. However, in the absence of innovative change and capacity building, mainstreaming may also diminish impetus for investing in targeted actions designed specifically to address climate change-related ID risks, whose effects will be progressive and with long term impacts. Indeed, a unilateral focus on mainstreaming may reflect a perception that climate change impacts on infectious disease dynamics will be minimal in contrast to other drivers, or that that health-related vulnerabilities will be low . For example, within Europe, only nine of 27 (33%) countries surveyed in 2010 had or were conducting a national assessment of potential health impacts of climate change . The majority of experts interviewed indicated that their country had monitoring and surveillance programs capable of addressing the threats of climate change. This is particularly surprising when considering that the most emphasized recommendation in the infectious disease adaptation literature was the strengthening of current surveillance systems, a concern echoed in all national adaptation plans analyzed for the purposes of this review, and may indicate a dissonance between the spheres of public health research and practice.
Moreover, we must note that both within the scientific literature and national adaptation planning, best practice guidelines to adapt to infectious disease risks of climate change are at the first stages of development. Indeed, few formal assessments of the feasibility and appropriateness of proposed adaptations have been conducted as of yet. However, location and sector-specific risk assessments ought to be conducted prior to the drafting of adaptation plans, in order to determine whether or not proposed adaptations will be effective in reducing climate change-induced infectious disease morbidity and mortality, and whether they truly address existing vulnerabilities .
Heterogeneity in national level planning for adaptation suggests that adaptation assessments will be key in guiding future adaptation policy in the coming years, by highlighting unaddressed needs, as well as gaps in problem framing. Such assessments aim to “identify modifications to current and planned programs, and opportunities for new policies and measures” to ensure an optimal reduction of future infectious-disease risks. Evaluations of policy documents, such as the work presented here, can help guide the future expansion of existing adaptation planning, as well as keep climate change at the forefront of the policy debate.
Our thanks to Ellie Stephenson for her constructive and insightful comments.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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The Modern Ashkenazi Jews are Descendants of the Jewish Male Prisoners in 70 CE with the Female Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel in Europe
One of the key premises in Judaism is that to be a Jew your mother must be a Jew. This tribal standard was decreed by Ezra the Scribe when the Jewish people began their historical return to Jerusalem after their seventy year exile in Babylon and Persia. This decree was a critical fact in the preservation of the tribal and national identity of the Jewish people over the next 2,300 years.
Yet, as shocking as it may seem, it will be the theme of Destination Yisrael that guided by the hand of the Divine, this cleric decree was instituted in order to preserve the Jewish people, when once again they were again threatened with extermination when the Temple of Herod was destroyed in 70 CE. The Roman military forces under the command of the Roman General Titus sacrificed the Jewish mothers and children in a massive genocide and extermination and the Jewish fathers of military age were taken into captivity to Italy and their capital, the City of Rome.
In Part One of this series, we learned of a new genetic DNA study published in Nature Communications that postulated that 80 percent of the Ashkenazi maternal lineages came from European origins rather than Jewish mothers from the Near Eastern regions of the Roman Empire. According to Dr. Martin B Richards from the University of Huddersfield in England, four of these European lineages were assimilated into the Jewish communities that later became the Ashkenazi populations in northern Europe. As revealed in the Destination Yisrael article, titled, “Modern Ashkenazi Jew’s ancestral Matriarchs were not Jews but ancient European Women”, we read:
Destination Yisrael – “The Ashkenazim have four major female founding lineages that make up of 40% of the Ashkenazi mtDNA variations seen in ancient and prehistoric Europe rather than was assumed earlier to have come from the Near East or the regions of the Caucasus.
Even then, the remaining minor genetic foundational gene pools all shared a deep European ancestry, so as the scholars agreed upon, the maternal lineages did not come from the region of the Levant where the Land of Israel is today and all have concluded, came from woman that had assimilated and were part of the indigenous populations within Europe up to hundreds and thousands of years prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The conclusion of the scholars made an amazing and profound discovery as it may seem to be; to be a Jewish person and part of the Nation of Israel and a people’s of the G-d of Israel, one cannot also count on having a mother that is a Jew.
Yet as with all the premises of the ancient Torah law and their halakhic implications, to be a Jew, one must also agree to become part of the Jewish family of G-d and convert to Judaism. In the ancient days, 2000 years ago, as it now appears, the G-d of Israel scattered the Jewish fathers across the Europe and out of their loins, the vibrant Ashkenazi communities were founded by European and Italian matriarchs who chose Judaism as their spiritual life. Out of this came some of the most prominent Jewish rabbanim of Judaism in the last two millenniums.
The discoveries of these genetic lineages that became the foundational lineages of the Ashkenazi Jews today came by decoding the entire mitochondrial genomes of the people from Europe and the Near East surrounding the land of Israel today. It was an earlier DNA research that discovered that the Jewish communities that were scattered around the world were founded by Jewish men whose Y chromosomes bore the DNA patterns are were part of the larger gene pool found in the Near East.
Yet, it was the same geneticists, when they came to analyze the mitochondrial DNA, or the genetic elements that are separate from the main human genome and transferred through the female lineages, unlike the Y chromosomes of the male, the female mitochondrial DNA did not share a common pattern as the male Y chromosomes. The male Y Chromosomes were of Near Eastern origins but the mitochondrial DNA of the females came from European origins. This then suggested that the migration pattern of the Jewish males who entered Rome, Italy and then further to the north in Gaul (Europe) were not the same. It also depicted that the female lineages came from the indigenous population that were antecedent to the arrival of later male Jewish population.”
The Redemption and Restoration of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel
The historical documentation is overwhelming by the Orthodox Jewish Researcher, such as Yair Davidiy with Brit Am, with his numerous books and publications. His books and research collaborated with the Restoration and Redemption Vision of Kol Ha Tor in Israel; founded by Rabbi Avraham Feld and OvadYah Avrahami. This was highlighted in Rabbi Feld’s article titled, “Tracing the Lost Ten Tribes and preparing for their return”. Both rabbi and scholar are in agreement, plus numerous other scholars that there was an exile of the Northern Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, and that they virtually lost their identity that they fought each other as separate peoples, yet began to wander and move in massive migrations and multiple invasions from the east towards the continental lands in Europe to the north and west of Jerusalem. There at the time of the end, they would be living “in the land of their habitations” until a day in the future during an era of great crisis and catastrophic upheavals they would be “returned back” to the lands of their forefathers in the Land of Israel by the same great hand of G-d that took them out of captivity and oppression 3,600 years earlier in Egypt.
This Biblical evidence is astounding in the data collection alone of the biblical texts affirming such an exile as testified in Kol Ha Tor’s article titled, “Biblical Confirmations of the Return of the Tribes of Israel.” The clues are abundant in the regions of Central and Northern Europe called Gaul and in the Balkans called Galatia, that these tribes were so feared by the Romans for every time they encountered them on the battlefield, the Romans lost.
Here in the region of Gaul, a land that was virtually not inhabited became inhabited by peoples before the founding of Rome; at least by the 8th century BCE, and possibly as early as the 15th century BCE. They were the Lost Tribes of Israel and that the G-d of Israel was on a historical rescue mission that would take another 2000 years before the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel could be reclaimed, redeemed and restored back into fellowship with their ancient Jewish brothers and sisters of the House of Judah.
The traces of any other peoples outside of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel living in the ancient land of Gaul in Central and Northern Israel are scanty at best. The robust genetic and physical evidence of these early Israelites through the 12 tribal descendants of the Patriarchs Jacob is abundantly clear. These facts are also part of the historical traditions of the Jews, Christians and Muslims alike over the ages.
When we began to research the wanderings of the Lost Israelites, it is as if a veil began to evaporate before our eyes. As the Lost Tribes were sent into exile by the Assyrians to the region of the land of Media by the Assyrians, they lived, except for a remnant, for a small time in the land of their exile called the Land of Khurasan. During this time, they were the prime invasion force under Cyrus the Great, a lost Pasargadae Israelite, with his top general, Gobryas, a king of the Guti, from the Tribe of Gad. Yet the primary lands of their exile were located in the northeastern regions of Persia/Iran today plus eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan.
We could imagine that the Lost Ten Tribes should look like peoples far different than we are today. But that is not necessarily so. When we take two photographs of two individuals, one an Afghani girl and the other a Golistan (Gaulistan) Iranian woman, we are faced with a shocking revelation.
Here is a picture of what was called the “Tora Bora Girl” who lived the Afghanistan mountainous regions of the “Tora Bora Mountain Range” where the American military and air force sought to snuff out Afghani mountaineer followers of Osama ben Laden. Osama and his fighters were trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to be the American front line military forces to counter the Russian bid to take control of the Nation of Afghanistan.
The picture, taken by the National Geographic photographer, Reza, is a mere depiction of how the G-d of Israel has planted His people, the Lost Tribes of Israel and imbedded them within the nations of the earth. Change their clothes and put a different attire upon them, and they would fit into many of the northern European countries and America today, yet they are Lost Israelites.
And then we have the people classically known as the “red haired” Irish, British and Scottish in the western regions of modern Europe. They are also found in the eastern regions of Europe today; the major homeland of the Ashkenazi Jews. About 1% to 2% of the human populations across the globe have red hair. It occurs more frequently (between 2% and 6% of the population) in the descendants of the Northern and Western Europeans. It’s even scarcer in other regions around the world.
Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a change in the MC1R protein. It is associated with those people with fair colored skin, and then associated with freckles, and hyper-sensitivity to ultraviolet light. These peoples include the ancient Cymrics on the Isle of Britannia plus the Scottish and the Irish. They also included the Celtic peoples as the red haired Gaulish tribes of the Germanic and the Belgic people. They have all been identified as the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.
In the year of 278 BCE, the Gaulish Lost Israelite settlers living in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in a royal dynastic struggle with his brother for control of the throne. Over 10,000 Gauls plus their women and children were divided into three tribes called the Trocmi, Tolistobogii, and the Tectosages. They fought against the Seleucid King Antiochus I Soter (Savior) in 275 BCE when they used Seleucid war elephants and shocked the Israelite Galatian warriors.
Seven generations later, the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes IV was now ruler of the Seleucid throne. He took control of the Judean province, desecrated the Temple of Zerubabbel, forbad circumcision and the reading of the Torah in order to break the back of the Jewish people in the land of Israel called Judea in those days. The days of Antiochus IV Epiphanes were soon numbered when the fiery zeal of the Jewish Maccabee warriors took down the army of the Greek Seleucids. To this day, the Jews celebrate the Festival of Chanukah on the 25th day of Kislev; celebrating the day of their deliverance when they restored and rededicated their temple in Jerusalem and relit the new menorah with one day of Holy Oil that continued to light the menorah lamp for seven full days.
As a relic of the past, the dark red or reddish-tinged hair identified in other Caucasian populations can now be seen because of the war of the Lost Israelite Galatians in the year of 275 BCE, and today the modern State of Turkey have populations that have red hair and green eyes.
Then we have to consider the harbinger of threats of genocide to the Jews coming from the region of Iran today. This was especially from the former Jewish Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And then we remember that in the northeastern regions of Iran, the region of Khurasan where in the land of Media, this region became the homeland of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In that same region live the “Galesh” people who live in the Province of Golestan (Gaulistan) or the “Land of Gol or Gaul”.
The Ancient Land of Khurasan or Khorasan (Ancient Media) in Northeastern Iran to the West of Afghanistan where the Lost Tribes of Israel were relocated in the 8th century BCE – the region of Golestan (Gaulistan) is located to the west of Northern Khorasan, northeast of Tehran on the Southeastern border of the Caspian Sea
The Guidance of the Hand of G-d assisting the Lost Israelites as they moved to a New Homeland
It was in the year of 2009, BibleSearchers Reflections, in researching the Lost Tribes of Israelites wrote the following article titled, “Finding a New Home for the Lost Tribes of Israel.” In this article, we learned that the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel who were part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in Samaria were taken captive and transported to the region of Khurasan in Northern Iran, Eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan in the 8th century BCE. The remnants of these Lost Tribes who have become Islamic are living still there today, and known as the Pashtun tribes living still in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their heritage and legacy has also been carefully preserved
As BibleSearchers Reflections was beginning its research on the Lost Tribes of Israel, an amateur Orthodox Jewish researcher on the Lost Tribes of Israel, Howard Bahr wrote to BibleSearchers the following:
Howard Bahr – “As you know, the re-unification of the "10 hidden tribes" with normative Jews is in fact a Scriptural teaching. The prophets allude to this re-unification. Here is an observation. I believe this will happen before the Revelation of Messiah.
According to Chazal (Sages of Judah), there is a well known teaching agreed upon by all Jewish Scholars and Expositors. There will be no converts to Judaism after the appearance of Messiah. Conversion will not be an option at that time. For that reason, it would appear that the "hidden tribes" will be re-united with normative Jews before the Redemption, i.e appearance of Messiah.
There would be a modified, abbreviated conversion process, perhaps similar to the process underwent by the black Jews, the Falashas. It would be somewhat different than the conversion process which gentiles undergo, i.e. for an authentic orthodox conversion. I am absolutely certain, though, there will be some sort of conversion process. Obviously, if such people in the millions were declared Jews, it would provoke unimaginable controversy…
The prophet Elijah is suppose to appear just before the Revelation of Moshiach, or to confirm his identity. Christianity utilizes this teaching by having John the Baptist, "baptising Jesus" and declaring him Messiah. Another function of Elijah will be to declare all authentic Jews from non-authentic people claiming to be Jewish. It would appear that this weighty mission of Elijah would have a direct impact on the authenticity of the hidden Jews who would have already emerged.”
In a separate communication with Rabbi Avraham Sutton, one of the Jew’s most revered rabbis with an understanding of the hidden knowledge of the Torah and Mystical Judaism once wrote:
Rabbi Avraham Sutton – “All Mankind will be elevated to the level of Yisrael, I emphasize that this will not be done by any force other than G-d Himself. Please understand that this elevation of the nations is a spiritual transformation. I am not talking about physical DNA. It isn’t to your benefit to believe that you are physical descendents of Israel.
The only way that you can honestly claim before G-d that you are “Israel,” at this point in history, is to dissociate from any and all idolatrous beliefs, go through Orthodox conversion, and enter Clal Yisrael (All Israel) as Jews, who are the only recognizable, verifiable remnant of the ancient tribes of Yehudah and Yisrael…There are three levels to the lost tribes.
- Those who went north (and then east or west), and became assimilated into the various nations and cultures of Asia and Europe.
- Those who re-incorporated back into Yehudah; such that although Yehudah is only one tribe, it is a microcosm, and therefore representative of the entire Israelite nation in and of itself.
- Those who live in another dimension which our tradition describes as "on the other side of the Sambatyon." It is this third group that has retained Prophecy, Kehunah (“Service” like Avodah or the priestly service in the temple), and Physical Prowess once had by all Israel.
We dream of the day when Mashiach ben Yoseph will return physically at the head of this third group. In the meantime, their souls are whispering into ours now. They are our connection to the upper worlds; a connection which is unknown to most Jews living today. At any rate, on a positive note, you need to know that, from the true Torah perspective, the powerful current of “connecting to Judaic roots” that is sweeping through the Xian (Christian) world at this time is FROM HASHEM. No question about it. It’s just that, if you continue to look at it thru the Xian mindset, you can’t help but distort it.
The Talmud says that one of the reasons for Israel being exiled to the four corners of the world was for the elevation of the nations. The fullness of the elevation of the nations will be fully manifested only when Hashem decides. Our job in the meantime is to live according to His Torah to the best of our abilities.”
The Exile of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel
As we have seen in this series, the ancient Lost Tribes of Israel were spread out over the ancient lands of the Medes and the Persians. They eventually, as our research continued, migrated in mass between the Caspian and Black Seal corridor as they traveled northwards from Uratu, the ancient homeland of Noah and Shem surrounding the mountains of Ararat up and through the land mass between the Caspian and the Black Sea where the State of Georgia today was once ruled as a Jewish state by Prince and Princess of King David.
The Lost Tribes then traveled over the Caucasus Mountains towards the land of the Sarmatians along the Volga River and under the Black Sea from Turkey, across the Bosphorus Strait through the Balkans and into European Gaul and the Isles of the West beyond. There they became known as the Celtic and Cymric peoples.
In the hiatus of merging and reemerging out of this amalgamation of Lost Tribes there rose a new people identified as the ancient Scythians, the horsemen of the North. The powerful horsemen and horsewomen of the North gilded their bodies and their horses with gold and eventually ended up populating the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland in the Northern regions of Europe.
The Lost Tribes as the “Great Wanderers”
It is well known and accepted that the Jews including all the Israelites called the Hebrews, as a people were as ancient as the people of China. The question, we have to ask, why are the Jews not a billion strong as the Chinese? As also well known, of all the nations of the world, it was the Israelites and then the Jews that were hunted and murdered by pogroms, holocausts, genocide and ethnic cleansing, plus assimilated by coercion, enticement or expulsed into exile.
This is the same question we are impelled to ask today. The genetic DNA study published in Nature Communication postulated that 80 percent of the Ashkenazi maternal lineages came from European origins and that the four European lineages, according to Dr. Martin B Richards from the University of Huddersfield in England, were assimilated into the Jewish communities that later became the Ashkenazi populations in northern Europe.
Scholars for the last two centuries have been pouring over the ancient leads to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. They also were not a people satisfied with the divine judgment given to them by the Almighty One of Israel. The Beni Israel (children of Israel) peoples each settled according to each Israelite tribe and today, the Pashtun royalty trace their Israelite royalty lineage to the loins of King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. It was soon after they began to wander across the landscape of the earth, some to the east, and most to the west and hence became one of their names; “Great Wanderers”.
As good research has testified, a majority of the Lost Ten Israelites arrived in the European continent in the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE, first by the early migrations of the Tribe of Dan, whose tribal homeland today is the Nation of Denmark (Danmark) and later the Germanic Tribes of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and the Vandals, who invaded Europe in the 3rd to the 5th century CE, toppled twice the city of Rome and left their legacy upon the early revolt of Protestant Christianity against the oppression of the Inquisition of Papal Rome.
The Tribe of Dan as identified by numerous authors escaped earlier than the Assyrian Exile and followed the pathway of an even earlier migrations of the Children of Israel who scattered from the land of their oppression in Egypt about 1585 BCE during that year of long apocalyptic catastrophes that brought Moses, the Prince of Egypt to the international limelight.
These catastrophes destroyed the Imperial Nation of Pharaonic Egypt that precipitated the Great Exodus of the Children of Israel. Yet, during this year of plagues, dark days when earth stood still when the rotation of Planet Earth came to a screeching halt, numerous Lost Israelites fled to the north and west towards the Bosphorus Straits and beyond to Europe. According to many historians the Danites became participants in the famous Battle of Troy, from thence they continued to migrate into Europe.
The Legendary Hu the Mighty (Hu Gadaru Hysicion)
One of these most ancient of legends was centered upon the mysterious and legendary Hu Gadaru Hysicion, called Hu the Mighty, where “Hysicion” also meant Isaac’s Son (Isaacson). The legends of Hu the Mighty go all the way back to the year of 1800 BCE when Hu Gadaru Hysicion led the first of the Cymric peoples from the city of Defrobane that stood across the Bosphorus from where Constantinople later stood, and with his tribal peoples traversed across the Baltic Region towards the western coast of the Isle of Britannia called Wales.
But Hu the Mighty was more than a mighty warrior for in the Welsh Triads, he “mnemonically systemized the wisdom of the ancients of these peoples whom he led from “Summerland” in the Land of Israel. As the Welsh traditions account, Hu Gadaru was the originator of the use of memorization in what was called the “culture of the intellect.”
To Hu Gadaru, poetry was the “vehicle of memory” and today is remembered as the inventor of the Celtic Triads. This form of learning is still alive and well in the Orthodox Jewish Synagogues across the world, for it is the Orthodox Jew who treasures the pearls of great wisdom imbedded in the Torah that stimulates a young Jew to memorize the complete Torah by his or her twelfth birthday. So also the ancient Cymric from the Isles of the West increased their intellect by honoring HaShem’s creation of creating man in the “image of G-d.”
Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site
To other 19th century Lost Israelite antiquarians, Hu Gadara was also the architect of Stonehenge and through his great wisdom, established the Assembly of the Druids and Bards. His legendary mystique attributes him to the invention of glass-making plus the writing of the Ogham character scripts. Yet, it was Hu Gadaru, whose “standard” was also the representation of the “Ox” which was the tribal “Standard” of the Tribe of Ephraim, known for as one of the four “Chief Tribes” of the Children of Israel as they camped at the base of the Mount called Sinai in the four cardinal points of the globe surrounding the Sanctuary of the Dwelling.
At the time of the Great Revelation of HaShem (God of Israel), when the Torah was given upon the Mount called Sinai, the tribes of Israel, twelve in number were organized into the “Israelite Nation”. When encamped surrounding the “House of the Lord” called the “Wilderness Tabernacle” at the time of the Great Revelation of HaShem (G-d of Israel), when the Torah was given upon the Mount called Sinai, the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, were organized into a national force.
Numbers 2:2 – “Every one of the Children of Israel shall camp by his own standard, beside the emblems of his father’s house; they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting.”
A Large Portion of the Children of Israel in Goshen escaped before the Great Exodus from Egypt
From the traditions in Jewish lore, we today know that a large portion of the Israelites escaped on their own, fleeing northwest from Egypt during the midst of the plagues against the Pharaoh of Egypt. Analyzing the chronology of the Exodus, we appeal to the work of the Australian Astronomer, Barry Setterfield, in his historical analysis of the dating system of the ancient world in reference to atomic time (my) and historical or dynamical time (years) we discover that Moses was born during the reign of Pharaoh Palmanothes. His daughter Merris (‘Beloved’) adopted a Hebrew child by the name of Mousos, a prince of Egypt. Princess Merris married Pharaoh Khenephres (Kha’neferre meaning ‘Ra’s glory shines on the horizon’) whose personal name was Pharaoh Sobekhotep IV, meaning “Sobek is satisfied” (Sobek was the crocodile-headed god of the Egyptians) and became the 24th ruler of the 13th Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.
The Great Library in Alexandria, Egypt founded by Ptolemy I which held the largest collection of ancient texts from around the world was destroyed in a conflagration of fire. According to Setterfield, fortunately the Jewish historian Artapanus from the 3rd century BCE recorded portions of these texts of which portions of his texts are still extant. This gave us relevant dates to the era of the Great Exodus from Egypt at 1585 BCE. The entry into the Land of Canaan by the Children of Israel under Joshua the Mighty Warrior of G-d could now be determined as being about 1545 BCE +/- 6 years when they began conquering the key Canaanite cities at the close of the Middle Bronze IIC Age which ended about the year of 1550 BCE.
With this dating of the ‘Exodus’ in the year of 1585 BCE +/- 6 years, a Prince of Egypt called Mousos (Moses) led the Children of Israel out of Egypt in an era of great catastrophes. As such the birth of the Jewish Egyptian Prince Mousos (Moses) would have been about 1665 BCE, when he was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh Kha'neferre (Sobekhotep IV), Princess Merris, an after an illustrious career as the prince regent heir to the Egyptian throne fled after he killed an Egyptian in defense of a Jew at the age of 40 in 1625 BCE. This was near to the close of the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (see 'Atlas of Ancient Egypt', op. cit., p. 36). As Barry Setterfield wrote in the article, titled, “Creation and Catastrophe Chronology”, we read:
Barry Setterfield – “This is an interesting record from Artapanus. A Pharaoh in the mid to late 13th Dynasty is what the chronology presented above would suggest. But there are two things that make this a more positive identification of the Pharaoh to whom Moses (Mousos) was a prince. First, the only other record of a Kha’neferre is a mention of this name on an isolated fragment from the 10th Dynasty, and there is no other evidence for this particular king. In any case this is far too early, being in the Old Kingdom. There is certainly no other Pharaoh with the throne-name Kha'neferre in the Middle Kingdom, let alone in the 13th Dynasty: it is unique.
However, there is a second point of key interest. Artapanus writes that this Pharaoh appointed Prince Mousos to administer the land on his behalf. Even more importantly, Artapanus states that Prince Mousos led a military campaign against the Ethiopians to extend the frontiers of the Egyptian Empire into Upper Nubia. The records available to us reveal that, of all the Pharaohs of the 13th Dynasty, Kha'neferre was the only one to launch such an expedition. Indeed, a stela in the British Museum tells of this 13th Dynasty Campaign into Nubia in Kha'neferre's reign. The identification is therefore certain. Artapanus knew what he was writing about.
The outcome of the Campaign was interesting. According to Artapanus' understanding of ancient sources, Mousos was victorious against the Nubians. He extended Kha'neferre's jurisdiction at least 200 kilometers further south than any other 12th or 13th Dynasty ruler. This fact caused Egyptologist J. H. Breasted to label Kha'neferre (Sobekhotep IV) as the greatest Pharaoh of that era. At Kerma, beyond the 3rd Cataract of the Nile, a governor's residence was established to administer the province with a statue of Kha'neferre outside. Artapanus concludes his account by saying that this victory brought Mousos such popularity that Kha'neferre became jealous and forced Mousos to flee to Arabia. Then, after Kha'neferre was dead, Mousos returned to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Amazingly archeologists discovered a parallel Egyptian Papyrus called the 'Ipuwer Papyrus – Leiden 344'. Here we see a parallel document from the close of the Middle Kingdom of the 13th dynasty of Egypt and the utmost chaos that led to the 2nd Intermediate Period just before the Hyksos (Amalekites) came and took over the country as foreign rulers. It was in early 19th Century that a papyrus dating from the end of the Middle Kingdom, was discovered in the land of Egypt. The Papyrus was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland and there in the year of 1909, A.H. Gardiner interpreted the meaning of the papyrus and to their shock appeared to be a parallel document recording the same events as recorded in the Book of Exodus.
Today, the complete papyrus can be found in the book “Admonitions of an Egyptian from a heiratic papyrus in Leiden”. Here in graphic detail, the papyrus describes violent upheavals in Egypt, that included starvation, drought, death throughout the land plus the escape of slaves who left along with the wealth of the land of Egypt. The author of the papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer. Today it is known as the Ipuwer Papyrus and it appears to be an eyewitness account of the effects of the Exodus plagues from the perspective of an average Egyptian.
A Celtic Helmet decorated with Gold “Triskeles” discovered in Amfreville-sous-les-Monts in France (400 BCE). At the National Archeological Museum de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines).
As the Egyptian Empire began to crumple from the Ten Apocalypses upon the Land of Egypt, it doesn’t take any imagination to suggest that a part of the oppressed Egyptian Israelite slaves could have chosen to flee during the year that the great catastrophes fell upon the Land of Egypt and the Pharaonic Egyptian empire was devastated for their animal gods were helpless against the strong arm of the G-d of Israel.
Does this suggest that in this year of global holocausts that the ancient ancestors of the Celts and Cymric fled early from the Egyptian delta known as the Land of Goshen? That fact appears in part to be true, for later they left their “footprints” across the terrestrial landscape from Egypt to Gaul for others to follow. What we do know is that many of these ancient Israelites went directly to Britain, Scotland and Ireland in the Isles of the West and also fanned out over the continent of Europe and settled in the unknown and feared region which the Romans called the land of Gaul. This was the land in which the Romans feared to trod.
Hu Gardarn as Joshua the Mighty who chased Fleeing Canaanites to Cymric Regions of Western Wales (Welsh Cambria) on the British Isles
In the Welsh Triads, there is recorded the story about a mysterious man who was called Hu the Mighty. He led a group of Danites across the Hazy Sea from the Sumer Country to the Isles of the West in Britannia. He was the first of three chieftains who were to establish colonies at the furthest land to the west. Known as Hu Gardarn, he was known as a descendant of Abraham and as such, very early in earth’s history fulfilled the promise of the G-d of Israel to the Patriarch Yaakov (Jacob) when he departed from Beer-sheba and went to Haran. If so, then Hu Gardarn was the first Hebrew fulfill this promise given to of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when he later led their descendants in a migration earlier to the Isles of the West in Britain, Scotland and Ireland:
Genesis 18:13-15 – “I am HaShem, G-d of Abraham your father and G-d of Isaac; the ground upon which you are lying, to you will I give it to your descendants. Your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out powerfully westward, eastward, northward, and southward; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and by your offspring. Behold, I am with you; I will guard you wherever you go, and I will return you to this soil. For I will not forsake you until I will have done what I have spoke about you.”
As the Welsh Triads read, the Cymry known as the Cambrians, were the first who came with Hu Gardarn to Ynys Prydain (Isle of Britannia). According to the Triads of Britain as translated by Iolo Morganwg and translated by William Probert we read in the 4th and 5th Triads:
A Celtic Belt made of 2.8 kg (6.2 lbs) of Pure Gold in Guînes, France from the era of 200 years before or during the Era of the United Kingdom of Israel with Kings David and Solomon (1200-1000 BCE) - At the National Archeological Museum de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines).
4th Triad of Britain – “There are three pillars of the nation of the Isle of Britain. The first was Hu the Mighty, who brought the nation of the Cambrians first to the Isle of Britain; and they came from the Summer Country, which is also called Defrobani; and they came over the Hazy Sea to the Isle of Britain, and to Armorica, where they settled. The second was Prydain the son of Aedd the Great, who first organized a social state of sovereignty in Britain; for before that time there was no justice but what was done by favour; nor any law, except that of superior force. The third was Dyvnwal Moelmud, for he first made arrangements respecting the laws, maxims, customs, and privileges of the country and tribe. And on account of these reasons, they were called the three pillars of the nation of the Cambrians.”
5th Triad of Britain – “There were three social tribes on the Isle of Britain. The first was the tribe of the Cambrians, who came to the Isle of Britain with Hu the Mighty, because he would not possess a country and lands by fighting and pursuit, but by justice and tranquility. The second was the tribe of the Lloegrians, who came from Gascony, and they were descended from the primitive tribe of the Cambrians. The third were the Brython, who came from Armorica, and who were descended from the primitive tribe of the Cambrians. These were called the three peaceful tribes because they came by mutual consent and tranquility; and these tribes were descended from the primitive tribe of the Cambrians, and all three tribes had the same language and speech.”
“Gardarn” in Gaelic means “Mighty”, and “Hu” was a shortened form of the Celtic name Hesus, whose Hebrew name was Joshua which in Hebrew was Yehoshua (YHVH is salvation). So, was the famous Israelite general, Joshua of the Tribe of Ephraim the same person as Hu Gardarn, later known as “Joshua the Mighty”? The colonization of Hu Gardarn to the land of Britannia preceded by over 420 years by the migration of Brutus of Troy to Britain in 1149 BCE after the famous city of Troy was destroyed. Strange as it may seem, the Aegean attackers have later been identified as being part of the Lost Israelites and Brutus’ name became the namesake for the land of Britain.
“Hu” was a shortened form of the Celtic name Hesus, whose Hebrew name was Joshua; or Yehoshua (YHVH is salvation). So Hu Gardarn could have been the famous Israelite warrior, Joshua the Ephraimite, who was chosen by Moses to finish the mandate of HaShem to “conquer the land of Canaan". Hu Gardarn could now have been one of the same; Joshua the Mighty. As the Welsh Triads record, in his later years, Hu Gardarn peaceable settled Israelite colonists in the British Isles.
When in later years the Welsh Cambrians did migrated to the European continent in the west, they became subject to the German Cymry who were descendants of the German king Cimbrus (1679-1635 BCE) (Reference: Compendium of World History. Pasadena, CA: Ambassador College, 1963. Pp. 48-49). It was later recorded in the third year of Romus (son of Testa and King of Spain) a man known as "Liber Pater" or Bacchus (Iacchus) conquered Spain and brought it under his sway. "He was from the East and his title belonged to "Hesus the Mighty". He pursued the Canaanites and drove them out of Western Europe in 1430 B.C. (See volume II of the Compendium of World History).
Now, if the Exodus was in 1585 BCE; and not including the year it took to get to the Jordan River when the Twelve Spies went on surveillance of the Land of Israel and ten of the spies gave an evil report to stop the invasion. Because of the lack of faith, in spite of the upbeat and valiant reports by Caleb and Joshua, the Children of Israel revolted and for their lack of faith had to continue to wander throughout the wilderness for another 40 years.
If the dating of the Exodus by the Australian Astronomer Barry Setterfield is correct, then the crossing of the Jordan and the attack on Jericho would have been in the year of 1444/45 BCE, only 110 years different to the above statement in the Compendium of World History. After conquering the major cities in the Land of Israel, could now the legendary Ephraimite General “Joshua the Mighty” could have takes a coalition of tribal military warriors and pursued the Canaanites all the way to Spain and driven the “Canaanites” out of Western Europe. It is not impossible!
- Was it Hue the Great who began the great Cymric exodus from Egypt, while Moses with the remaining Israelites headed towards the Promised Land?
- Was the Legendary Hu Gadaru Hysicion an Ephraimite Israelite as the famous Hebrew general, Joshua the Ephraimite, who led in the battles to conquer the Land of Israel.
- Or was Hu Gardarn a Danite Israelite who did migrated to the Isles of the West with a colony of the Children of Israel who included also tribal members of the Tribes of Dan and Ephraim?
These questions we still ponder today! One of the more astute researchers of the Lost Tribes of the House of Judah is the Orthodox Jewish researcher of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, Yair Davidiy, who in his commentary on the “Book of Zechariah” wrote:
Yair Davidiy – “Welsh tradition claimed that their ancestors the Cymry (i.e. "Cimmerian") led by Hu Gadaru of the Sons of Dan had come across the "Lazy Sea" (i.e. Mediterranean) to the British isles from Defrobane which they said was just opposite Byzantium. In other words Defrobane stood on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus in the place where the port of Defen was reported to be. Defrobane may be some kind of linguistic derivation of Daphne.
The British Welsh who came from DEFROBANE opposite Byzantium called themselves CYMRY and the Scandinavian peoples contained an underlying ethnic stratum from the similarly named CIMBRI of Celtic culture. In Scandinavian mythology one version (reported by Saxo Grammaticus) concerning the origins of their ancestral gods said that they too came from the area of Byzantium, and that one of their ancestors ruled over a city in the nearby Hellespont called Dana!
In Celtic Britain the region of southern Wales, Devon, and Cornwall was referred to as Defenia and from this name comes the modern day appellation of "Devon"! This region of Defenia on Ptolemy's map of Britain is called Damnonia which is similar to the ethnic name Damnonii in Scotland within whose region was the northern Don River. There was another (second) Don River in Scotland further south and to the east upon his banks stood the city of Danum. Defenia (Damnonia) in the south was also known as Daunonia and as Dannonia. Defenia also encompassed or adjoined the Deni. Hu Gadaru who led the Cymry over the seas to Britain was descended from the Children of Dan who paralleled the Tribe of Dana in Irish legend.”
Here we are witnessing the great hand of the L-rd as He cast his wayward peoples out across the nations of the world. The Tribe of Dan was proud of its accomplishments as a global trader with his own fleet of ships along with those of the Tribe of Issachar as they migrated so far that they placed their name across the face of this planet from the Middle East to the Isles of the West in Britannia, Scotland, and Ireland. So does Yair Davidiy point out the obvious; Hu Gadaru was of the Tribe of Dana (Dan) and led the Tribe of Dan from the area of the Bosphorus Strait, near also to the ancient site of Troy, but was Hu Gadaru truly of the Tribe of Dan?
Others suggest that “Hu Gadarn” was of the Tribe of Ephraim. This would seem reasonable as it was Hu Gadarn, whose “standard” was already identified as an “Ox” which was later identified as the tribal “Standard” of the Tribe of Ephraim. His was one of the four “Chief Tribes” of the Children of Israel as they camped at the base of the Mount called Sinai in the four cardinal points of the globe surrounding the Sanctuary of the Dwelling. After the death of Moses, it was Joshua (Yehoshua) ben Nun who was Moses’ chief assistant that was anointed by Moses to became the leader the Children of Israel whose mission was to conquer the land of the Canaanites, and transform it into the land of Israel, for a people who would live the life of Torah and eventually become the “light to the world.”
As we witness now the migrations of the Lost Tribes of Israel, can we envision the Tribe of Ephraim migrating from the lands where the Assyrians displaced them to the Isles of ancient Britannia to the West, with Tribe of Manasseh continuing this migration to the farthest west into the wilderness of the Americas and evolve into the United States, Canada, and Mexico? Can we image the Tribe of Benjamin, who remained loyal to Judah from the apostasy of Dan, and eventually claim her inheritance from Bethlehem to the west of the Temple and Jerusalem towards Gaza and the Great Mediterranean Sea?
Can we also envision the Tribe of Dan, the great apostate, settling upon land surrounding the Seat of Satan at Pergamum to the north and become the prototype of apostasy through modern Rome and the Vatican? Were it not the Danites, who led with the apostasy of the “Golden Calf” with the Ten Northern Tribes? This worship of other gods was later transplanted into the Northern Kingdom of Israel with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, a Princess from Phoenicia with the worship of Baal.
Yet, we see the traces of the Tribe of Dan as they migrated to the farther reaches of the north as the Tuatha Danan in Ireland, and leaving the legacy of their name in D(a)nmark in Scandinavia and to the outer reaches of the Danube and the D(a)nieper River to the north in the region of the Holy Roman Empire upon the European continent. Can we envision the Tribe of Reuben migrating from their lands of dispossession by the hands of the Assyrians conquerors and heading south of Jerusalem to Egypt, with the tribal remnants of Simeon and Gad through the gateway into the heartland of the South Continent of Africa?
This still does not answer the questions about the legendary identity of Hu Gadaru Hysicion coming to Britain during the years around 1800 BCE. It is easy to suggest that the ancients did not know their dating systems well and that a little over 215 years later, around the year of 1585 BCE, the plagues fell down over Egypt and precipitated the Great Exodus. Yet, is their still another Hu Gardarn even more ancient that could have led a group of the Tribe of Ephraim and escaped from bondage, left out of Egypt and headed to Britain? But why did they head to the Isle of Britannia on the other side of the visible “then known world?”
Hu Gadaru Hysicion as the Guardian of the Spiritual Life Culture of the Patriarch Seth
It was R.W. Morgan in the book titled, “St. Paul in Britain” who identified Hu Gadaru as associated with the Biblical Seth, the Melchizedek. The Patriarch Abram paid a tithe of the booty recovered from his defeat of the five kings from the East who raided Sodom and captured his nephew, Lot and his family. Yet Morgan added a new dimension. According to him, Hu Gadaru, took “Druidism”, the spiritual life system of the Patriarch Seth and his father, the Patriarch Noah, and established primitive Druidism as a worship of the Almighty Creator in the Isles of the far west in its most primitive and spiritual form. As Morgan wrote:
R.W. Morgan – “Druidism was founded by Gwyddon Ganhebon, supposed to be the Seth of the Mosaic genealogy, in Asia, in the year when the equinox occurred in the first point of Taurus, or the constellation of the Bull…When the Druidic system was founded, the equinox on the 1st of May, occurred in the first point of Taurus, which first point is now, on the 1st of May, 80 degrees from this solstitial point. It requires 72 years to recede one degree. Eighty degrees multiplied by 72 gives 5,760, the exact date when Druidism commenced, i.e., 3,903 years before the Christian era, 181 years after the creation of man, and 50 years after the birth of Seth.
The astral bull of milk-white hue, its horns crowned with golden stars, became the symbol, or visible sacrament, of Druidism. In process of time the symbol, as usual, superseded in the East the thing signified, and Druidism became a tauric religion which gave the Crimea the appellation of the Tauric Chersonese.
Extending thence, this corruption became the religion of Mithras in Persia, of Baal in Syria, of Brahma in India, of Astarte or the Dea Syria in Syria, of Apis in Egypt, and in later ages, transferred from Egypt, of the two “Apis” (or calves as they are rendered in our version of the Scriptures) of the kingdom of Israel.
In all these religions the bull, or Taurus, was the sacred animal, and the symbol was preserved free, as far as we can judge, from idolatry by the Gomeridae of Britain. The bull was the sign and represented the great Druidic isle, and the name still, in common parlance, continued to indicate a Briton of Britain as distinguished from the rest of the world.” (R.W. Morgan, “St. Paul in Britain”, reprint from 1869 edition, pg. 12-13)
The Minotaur of the Labyrinthine Temple on the Island of Crete - Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete
According to Morgan, Hu Gadaru, the Mighty, was a contemporary of Abraham, during the patriarchal era. in which the Patriarch Shem, the son of Noah, lived so long that he lived to see, visit, and counsel Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (Israel), the 12th generation from their primal Patriarch, Noah. It was Hu the Mighty who took the spiritual life system of Druidism and transported it from the Middle East all the way to the Isles of Britannia. Druidism in Britain was perpetuated by its successors; Plannydd, Goron, Alawn, and Rhivon. It was instituted as both an ecclesiastical as well as a civil governance and the constitution of the island. (R.W. Morgan, “St. Paul in Britain”, reprint from 1869 edition, pg. 13)
The spiritual life system of the Patriarch Seth spread around the entire world. The traces of Druidism and the animal symbol of the bull and its eventual corruption were revealed in the Menw-tarw or Menw-bull found on Crete with the Minotaur in the Temple of the Labyrinth, the worship of the Bull in Baal of Phoenicia, the dual Golden Calves of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Golden Calf at Sinai, the sacred bull in Brahmanism, plus the Apis bulls at the Seraphim at Memphis Egypt. Yet to some scholars, corruption filtered into the spiritual life system of Shem, yet the purist remnant was found in Cymric Druidic Britain.
Is it not significance that Hu Gadaru, whose standard was the “Ox” could have been a tribal leader of the Tribe of Ephraim. Is it of any wonder that the land of Britain that lays to the west of Jerusalem is where Hu Gadaru took his Cymric exiles? Today, the Great Britain on the Isle of Britannia is noted as the land that is most identified with the identity of the Tribe of Ephraim. It was the famous English antiquarian, Isabel Hill Elder who in researching about the Druids of the Isles of the West wrote these words:
Isabel Hill Elder – “The truth about the Druids, to be found amongst fragments of literature and in folk-memory, is that they were men of culture, well-educated, equitable and impartial in the administration of justice. These ancient leaders of thought and instruction in our islands had lofty beliefs as to the character of the one God, Creator, and Preserver, and of man’s high origin and destiny. There is reason to believe that this doctrine included the need of atonement for sin (Yom Kippur) and the resurrection of the body…
It was the Druidic religious way of life that gave ancient Britain certain qualities not seen in any other place upon this earth. Their reverence for the Divine One was supreme, their abstinence from evil was meritorious and their ability to behave valiantly gained the admiration, envy and fear of every nation upon this planet, including Rome. Justice and patriotism were on the same page of their lives, because their lofty codes of moral behavior created and influenced in a profound way their national character. This character was inscribed in the motto of the Druids, “The Truth against the World”. Yet, the scholars bemoan that the history of the Druids was too scarce and obscure due to the paucity of literary manuscripts that proved the “wisdom of the teachers and the docility of the people.” (Isabel Hill Elder, “Celt, Druid, and Culdee” pg. 51- 52)
The Celt and the Cymric as written about in the Destination Yisrael article titled, “The Jewish Nazarene Culdee Ecclesia and the British Cymric Druids” were some of the earliest Israelites that settled in the Welsh region of the Isle of Britannia. There is no doubt that their educational system was the most advanced and far-reaching academic university system in the world. It was where the academic elite sent the crème of the Roman children to be educated for up to twenty years. With the understanding that the Druidic academic system was a Hebrew based scholastic system of education, we can begin to understand why. As written:
Destination Yisrael – “It was Adam Rutherford, in his 1934 book, published in London called “Anglo-Saxon Israel, or Israel-Britain”, he documented succinctly the fact that the first colonization of Britain came from people who wrote and spoke Hebrew. Scattered across the landscape of this ancient isle, Hebrew inscriptions have been found, both in England and Ireland. Rutherford, citing the studies by Jacob Tomlin, titled, “A comparative Vocabulary of Forty-Eight Languages, comprising One Hundred and Forty-Six Common English Words, with the Cognates in other Languages showing their Affinities with the English and Hebrew” demonstrated that early Cymric literature written in Britain was largely a modified version of ancient Hebrew. Even in our modern times, a traveling Jew, arriving in England and Ireland can communicate with a certain ease to native Brits who still speak the ancient Cymric language. As cited on the website called, “The Origins of our Western Heritage Category”, in the article titled, “The Westward Movement), we quote:
Origins of our Western Heritage Category – “The Welsh language, even today, closely resembles Hebrew. According to Rutherford, it is difficult to adduce a single article or form of construction in Hebrew grammar, but that the same can be found in Welsh. Many whole sentences of the two languages have exactly the same words. Rutherford notes that Dr. Davies, the author of a Welsh grammar book, says almost every page of the Welsh translation of the Bible is replete with Hebraisms in the time, sense, and spirit of the original. The Welsh is so close to Hebrew that the same syntax might serve both (Rutherford, 40). Historians place the arrival of the Hebrews in Ireland prior to the Exodus (ibid, 32-33, fn, cited on Origins of our Western Heritage Category, article, The Westward Movement)."
We then have to ask, were the early Cymric tribes with their ancient Israelite Druidic religion, albeit corrupted from their Hebrew Sinai Torah roots, actually a remnant of the pre-Sinai ancient Israelites? Or, did the Druidic roots come from greater antiquity, when they knew the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but were clueless of the revelations of G-d as the Torah from the mount called Sinai? Were not the Jewish people destined to be the “remnant” of the greater Hebrew national movement who destinies were tied to the Torah revelation at Sinai?
Was it possible that the Welsh Cymric peoples were actually a “remnant” of the ancient tribes of Jacob who fled early before the Great Exodus? This was during the final end of the Egyptian slavery and oppression of the Hebrews as the Egyptian Imperial Pharaonic rule was weakening and crumbling from the vast destruction that was destroying the entire agrarian culture and imperial rule of the Egyptian pharaoh?
Were the Druids rather a remnant of the apostate priests that stayed with the Golden Calf religion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, while amalgamating the Phoenician Baal worship imported by the Phoenician princess, Queen Jezebel during the rule of King Ahab in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This was during the days of the Prophet Elijah and later they were sent into exile by the Assyrians for their corruption and rebellion against the Davidian rulers, the Temple of Solomon priestly worship and with their arrogance that said to the G-d of Israel; “We know best"!
Yet, the G-d of Israel already was instituting a spiritual reclamation program to eventually bring the Israelites back home to their Hebrew Torah roots. Yet, it would take over two thousand seven hundred years into their future to reach their spiritual elevation so that the Divine One of Israel could bring the final redemption of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel home, to participate as one family with the Jews in the “World to Come?” According to Isabel Hill Elder:
Isabel Hill Elder – “The primitive mind of the Brit was in the worship of the L-rd of hosts, who was the Creator of the Greater of the Great Lights, the Sun and the Moon. They used these two solar bodies, not as forms of worship but with the realization that through nature we learn about the G-d of Creation. Viewing the universe in the heavens was a source of spiritual inspiration from the Divine. There in the crisp day and nights, the sun and the moon were their reflection and inspiration. To view the starry heavens was to them the voice of the Almighty One. Like their ancestral forefathers whom they had lost contact, they knew not even their ancestral identity, even though each one of them knew their ancestral genealogies for nine generations.
They used the movements of the heavenly bodies to fix the order of their festivals and set the dates for their agricultural yearly calendar. It was Strabo who in his observation saw that the worship of the Supreme Being was exalted amongst the British nation. (Isabel Hill Elder, “Celt, Druid, and Culdee” pg. 61)
There are no historical traditions of any other peoples that carry such the volume of legends and legacies that can we matched out with hard archeological facts on the ground, that have been preserved over the centuries except about the role of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. It was they who wandered across the nations from Pakistan and India over and under the Black Sea until they wandered into the dense and virgin forests of central and northern Europe called Gaul. It was a swathe of land that was virtually unpopulated and ready, prepared by the hand of G-d for the final settling place of the Lost Ten Tribes.
According to the prophets, they would continue to live there until the era of man was over. Then they would reclaimed by G-d as His own, redeemed and restored by the spirit of HaShem with an elevated state of consciousness. This time in their restored state, Israel the “Battle Axe” will become one in alliance with the Jews as a coalition of nations seek to assalt the State of Israel in what will be the final GogUMogog war. This time they will seek to take possession of Jerusalem, G-d’s “Solar Rex” capital of our sun’s solar system for the dark forces of HaSatan.
Yet the evidence is still incomplete for larger and more powerful tribal migrations were still in the making, preparing the Northern Europe to become the new home of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. At the same time, the G-d of Israel was also making preparations for the restoration of the future Ashkenazi Jews in Europe whose “mothers of Judah” and families and children were slaughtered en mass by the Roman legions during the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple of King Herod in the decades after 70 CE and the later Bar Kokhba revolt. The last of the Jewish freedom fighting patriots went to their death by suicide rather than surrender in the “Last Stand” while sheltered in King Herod’s Palace at Masada overlooking the Dead Sea.
Even though, everything looked hopeless, it was the Prophet Jeremiah who gave them the words of hope, for the final redemption of Judah would also be the final redemption of the Lost House of Israel.
Jeremiah 3:14-18 – “Return, faithless people," declares HaShem, "for I am your Husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own Heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares HaShem, "men will no longer say, 'The Ark of the Covenant of HaShem.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of HaShem, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of HaShem.
No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the House of Judah will join the House of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your forefathers as an inheritance…"
Destination Yisrael invites you to Read the Series:
“Modern Ashkenazi Jew’s ancestral Matriarchs were not Jews”
The G-d of Israel claimed that there are only two groups of people who will be restored back into covenant with Him, the Jews of the House of Israel and the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. Both families, the Jews and the Israelites were scattered across the face of the earth and would become HaShem emissaries incognito sent to elevate the 70 nations of the world, so that even Righteous Gentiles would become part of the covenant. Even those children of Ishmael will be assimilated into the Jewish culture when deep in their hearts they are “safe to save” and willing to live in peace with their brothers, the descendants of Abraham. Only the G-d of Israel knows who they are.
We are quickly polarizing a world in which there will be only two choices; we are either for the Hebrew Israelites; both now part of the Jews of the house of Judah and the Lost Israelites of the House of Israel or we will be against them. This comes to one sobering conclusion, if you are a descendant of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel and you still despise your brothers, the Jews, you will be left cohabitating with peoples who will have a genetic hatred to you even though you think you want to be a part of them.
So today, the G-d of Israel is whistling for you to come back home to the brotherhood of Klal Yisra’el (All Israel). To learn more about this redemptive process, you are Welcome to Contact “Kol Ha Tor”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Vision to bring awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United). This super Event of all Times will entail establishing in the region of Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness into a new homeland for the Return of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel when All Israel will finally be redeemed.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, Visit – “Shomron Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost Tribers of the House of Israel. | <urn:uuid:c14a4443-17dc-4fd9-b213-8a14e878b74e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://destination-yisrael.biblesearchers.com/destination-yisrael/native-american-hebrew-nation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96669 | 13,810 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Scientists Discover Gene Linked To Widespread Kidney Disease
Published: June 17, 1994
Scientists have found the gene responsible for most cases of a potentially lethal disorder that progressively disables the kidney with hundreds of cysts.
The illness, polycystic kidney disease, affects at least a half million Americans. It is one of the most common hereditary disorders and has no cure.
Experts said the discovery would help scientists learn how flawed versions of the gene caused disease. That knowledge could lead to treatments.
The gene's discovery should also aid in diagnosing the disease early, before symptoms appear. That could alert doctors to watch for complications, like high blood pressure and kidney infections, that can be treated, experts said. People with the disease are typically in their 30's before they start noticing symptoms like pain in the back or side.
Although the kidney disease also comes in a very rare form that kills children, the vast majority of cases are diagnosed in adults. About half the people who get the adult form develop potentially deadly kidney damage and require dialysis or kidney transplants. Egg-Sized Cysts
The disease leads to the growth of hundreds of kidney cysts, which are filled with fluid and can be as large as an egg or even larger. The cysts can crowd out normal cells and make the kidney fail. If that happens, the kidney can swell from the size of a fist to that of a football or larger.
The newly found gene accounts for about 85 to 90 percent of the cases of the adult form of the disease, said Dr. Peter Harris of the Medical Research Council Molecular Hematology Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. No gene has yet been identified as a cause of the rest of the cases, he said.
Dr. Harris and his colleagues, along with scientists in Wales and the Netherlands, report the finding of the gene in today's issue of the journal Cell.
The chairman of the Polycystic Kidney Research Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., Dr. Jared Grantham, said in a statement that the gene discovery was "a great step forward."
Another scientist who studies the genetics of the disease, Dr. James Calvet, said the discovery was "very significant because it will allow researchers all over the world to focus on the gene to determine its function." Dr. Calvet is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. Variety of Defects
The gene is an unusually large one on chromosome 16. Researchers have so far found four kinds of defects in the gene, and other kinds undoubtedly exist, Dr. Harris said yesterday in a telephone interview. No flaws in the gene have been found in people who do not have the disease, he said. To find the gene, the scientists studied about 300 patients from 300 families, Dr. Harris said.
The gene tells kidney cells how to make a protein, but scientists do not yet know the protein's function. Nor do they know whether flaws in the gene cause disease by preventing the production of the protein or by leading to a defective protein, Dr. Harris said. Answering those questions will be the next step toward understanding the disease, he said. | <urn:uuid:a5dc9ce8-7600-4ae9-b13f-3343769a8258> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/17/us/scientists-discover-gene-linked-to-widespread-kidney-disease.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957518 | 658 | 2.75 | 3 |
Have you ever been concerned about a situation and wanted to help…but didn’t? You’re not alone. This situation is more common than you might think, and is known as the bystander effect. That’s why we’re launching the Step UP! Bystander Intervention Program.
Step UP! is a comprehensive program that teaches students to be proactive in helping others. Learn about 10 different topic areas and more importantly, learn action steps and how to Step UP! and help.
STEP UP 5 DECISION MAKING STEPS
1. Notice the event.
2. Interpret the event as a problem — investigate!
3. Assume personal responsibility.
4. Know how to help.
5. Implement the help: Step UP!
Explore the 10 Topics and know your action plan and your resources for additional help when you find yourself in that situation where you can Step UP and help! | <urn:uuid:5f59184e-5c54-48d3-8f94-4bc602f0ce32> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://laverne.edu/step-up/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90674 | 191 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Open to the Public
Hiking, Birding View All
Bring hiking boots, binoculars, camera View All
Located just west of Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Pogue Creek Canyon is an ecological and geological jewel of the northern Cumberland Plateau with features reminiscent of America's canyons of the Southwest. Pogue Creek's natural features include immense, multicolored sandstone bluffs, mesas, arches, waterfalls and caves as well as the winding creek itself and its deep surrounding gorge.
Fentress County, adjacent to Pickett State Park, on its west side.
Visit the new public trail at Pogue Creek Canyon!
Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Tennessee's State Wildlife Action Plan has ranked the northern Cumberland Plateau as among the highest priority wildlife habitat in the state. In addition to its outstanding natural features, Pogue Creek Canyon contains more than 300 kinds of native plants as well as an abundant variety of birds, aquatic animals, amphibians and cave species.
Rare animals in the area include the bald eagle, Swainson's warbler, the Eastern slender glass lizard and the green salamander. Because of its unusual sandstone formations, the area harbors a number of rare plant varieties, such as Cumberland sandwort and Lucy Braun's white snakeroot. The Conservancy acquired the property in 2005 before turning it over to the state of Tennessee in 2006.
What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Conservancy has been sponsoring extensive biological surveys of the property to identify the area's plant and animal species. In 2006, the state of Tennessee purchased Pogue Creek from The Nature Conservancy and designated it as Pogue Creek Canyon State Natural Area.
You can hike the 1.5 mile loop trail to a scenic overlook of the canyon. The hike is moderate in difficulty.
The 1.5-mile loop trail to the scenic canyon overlook is a moderate hike, but there is some change in elevation. Hiking boots are recommended. Bring binoculars and camera, which you will want when you reach the overlook.
Directions: Proceed to State Route 154 and look for the gravel parking area and trailhead for the Pogue Creek Canyon State Natural Area on the left (or north) side of the road. The trail is easily found from the trailhead. | <urn:uuid:ce57c771-d3ef-438f-8d46-ec61c4228344> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/tennessee/placesweprotect/pogue-creek.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924905 | 483 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The Balanced View of the Vestibular System
We all know that the neck bone is connected to the backbone and the knee bone is connected to the leg bone. All the other bones in our bodies are interconnected with each other as well to form flawless pathways of bones large and small known as a skeleton. Without it, we would collapse into a heap of, yes, scattered bones.
The skeleton example goes to show that nothing in the human (or animal) body is haphazard; instead, we are a collection of finely tuned systems programmed to work harmoniously together.
What does this cohesiveness of body systems have to do with your ears or sense of balance? A lot!
Vestibular system – from head to toe
Did you know that the first sensory system to fully develop by the sixth month after conception is the vestibular system, a series of fluid-filled canals in the inner ear that serve a multitude of very important functions? It is just as well, because without this system firmly in place, we would be unable to function.
|The vestibular system allows humans to maintain balance and walk upright|
Just as all the bones of the skeleton have to be connected to each other in order for all the body movements to be coordinated, the vestibular system too is an important part of the overall equation.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders defines the vestibular system as being “responsible for maintaining balance, posture, and the body's orientation in space. This system also regulates locomotion and other movements, and keeps objects in visual focus as the body moves.”
But its job description doesn’t stop there. This system also controls muscles and joints, sensation in fingertips, palms of the hand and soles of the feet, and even adjusts heart rate and blood pressure.
So as you can see, in many ways this all-important system influences nearly everything we do.
All systems a go
Here’s another example of the interconnectivity of body functions. You probably never thought about the link between your eyes, ears and brain, except perhaps that all five sit in (or on) your head.
Think about it this way: in all probability, you experienced a bout of dizziness at least once in your life, but you may not have analyzed how this phenomenon occurred. You might know it has something to do with your ears, but that’s only a part of the answer.
In fact, our balance is maintained thanks to the interaction between the visual and vestibular systems. How? The visual system makes us aware of the position of our bodies in relation to our environment, and the vestibular system detects various motions such as walking, stopping, turning, or head movements.
And that’s where the brain kicks in – figuratively speaking, of course. When we move our heads, the fluid within the vestibular system is set in motion, generating an electrical impulse that is carried to the brain for interpretation.
When the brain recognizes the impulse as a head movement, it signals our eyes to move in a way that will maintain clear vision during the motion. The brain also signals our muscles to ensure good balance, regardless of whether we are sitting, standing, lying down or moving.
A dizzying experience
Ideally, the vestibular systems in both inner ears must work equally well sending uninterrupted signals to the brain; otherwise our sense of balance will be disrupted.
When that happens, you will experience dizziness, lightheadedness, or vertigo. You may feel unsteady on your feet, woozy, or have a sensation of spinning or floating (even when you are sober!) At the root of those decidedly unpleasant symptoms may be Meniere’s disorder, resulting from an abnormality in the way fluid of the inner ear is regulated.
See, we told you that well-being is a collaborative effort. It really drives home the point of “united we stand, divided we fall.”
A stint in rehab
Say your vestibular system is out of whack, affecting your balance and coordination.
Fortunately, there’s something you can do to remedy the situation. Sometimes surgery may be required to correct an inner ear/vestibular problem; most of the time, however, a stint in rehab will be just what your doctor orders.
Relax: we’re talking about Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT), which retrains the brain to process signals from the vestibular system in coordination with information received from the visual one. This approach desensitizes the balance system to movements that provoke dizziness and other unpleasant symptoms.
If you are experiencing vestibular issues your physician will more than likely refer you to an Otolaryngologist. If he or she feels further testing should be performed you may be referred to an audiologist for vestibular testing. Based on the findings of the vestibular testing your Otolaryngologist may recommend VRT.
A qualified therapist will review the vestibular tests and will assess your posture, balance, movement, and compensatory strategies. Based on the findings, he or she will then devise a personalized treatment plan of head –eye-body movement exercises intended to strengthen your muscles and get the brain used to interpreting the new pattern of movements.
The good news is that if you do your exercises regularly and diligently, the dizziness will decrease or, in the best-case scenario, disappear completely.
And you’ll be left to marvel at how the neck bone is connected to the backbone, and how the vestibular system in your inner ear works in unison with your brain and eyes to ensure that you can walk a straight line without falling. | <urn:uuid:eee1da42-7644-444c-b206-b6b3713a7abf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/articles/Research/Dizziness/32684-Balanced-view-vestibular-system | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934703 | 1,192 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Facts about Kenya
This page has been written by 4th Class NDNSP. They put questions for P6 in Gilnahirk Primary on the NINE website and these are the answers to the questions.
Jambo is Hello in Swahili which is the language spoken in Kenya.
In Narobi, Kenya, they have the same pizza and hamburger places as we have.
There are lots of skyscrapers in Kenya.
The top fifth of the people in Kenya earn 20 times more money than the bottom fifth people in Kenya.
Mount Kenya is the largest mountain in Kenya and Mount Kilamanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa.
There are probably more buses in Nairobi than there are in Belfast.
Cillian, in the NDNSP, went to Kenya and he said that the ground looked quite yellow.
Kenya has lots of modern buildings.
Most people in Kenya are either very rich or very poor. There aren't many people in the middle.
There are lots of shops that sell computers, games, videos, dvd's and things like that in Kenya.
The capital of Kenya is Nairobi.
Swahili is the language spoken in Kenya.
Kenya is developing very fast and is one of the most important countries in Africa. Everybody in Kenya is not very poor.
About 97 per cent of Kenya's people are Africans and 30 per cent of people in Kenya can now read and write.
There are rich and poor people in Kenya.
Here is a Kenyan song.
Mo kari bishwa
Kappa kenya yeytu
Kappa kena yeeytu
They use schillings and dollars in Kenya.
Parts of Nairobi are as modern as Belfast and Dublin.
Kenya is famous for many safari parks.
Nairobi is the capital of Kenya.
Kenya's official name is The Republic of Kenya.
Masai is the name of a group of people who live in Kenya.
Kenya is not the biggest country in Africa. We think Niger might be the biggest country in Afria.
The population of Kenya is 29.4 million.
There are not only mud huts and grasslands in Kenya. There are also large cities.
Asante means goodbye in Swahili.
The area of Kenya is 582,646 sq klm.
Kenya was a British colony from 1895 to 1963.
There is a dish that they eat in Kenya called 'egain'. It is a maize dish.
The main cities in Kenya are: Nairobi (the capital), Mombassa, Kisumu, Eldorte, Nakuru.
There are giraffes, elephants, leopards, rhinos, buffalo, lions and cheetahs in Africa.
In Africa there is a place called Shelbyville.
There are lots of schools in Kenya.
There are cars in Kenya.
This project is being managed by Mandy McClune and Alan Boyd in Belfast and Jennifer O'Connell in Dublin.
Back to the introduction
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Forklifts are the workhorses of industry. They’re essential to efficient material-handling operations. But forklifts are also big, dangerous, and potentially deadly pieces of equipment. To protect employees, you need strict rules and a comprehensive training and evaluation program. Preventing forklift accidents is within the reach of any forklift safety program.
What you need is:
• A strict and consistently enforced policy that clearly states that no unauthorized worker of any age is allowed to operate a forklift
• Comprehensive training, evaluation, and certification for those who are authorized to drive forklifts
• Emphasis during training on safe operation as well as on what could go wrong and how to prevent problems that can lead to accidents
• Close supervision of forklift operations
You also have to design a program specifically for your facility that includes:
• Establishing safe speed limits and traffic rules
• Assigning and marking forklift lanes
• Posting warning sign
• Requiring drivers to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and to sound their horn at intersections, corners, etc.
• Insisting that operators wear seat belts
• Training forklift operators to stay at least three truck lengths behind another lift truck
• Requiring drivers to slow down for turns, be especially careful on inclines, and stay away from ramp or platform edges
• Teaching procedures to be followed in the event of a tip-over
• Training drivers how to raise and lower loads correctly, and how to position loads when traveling
• Teaching nonoperators to work and move safely around forklifts
Of course, no forklift safety program is complete without a strong training component that makes sure only well-trained, safe drivers ever get behind the wheel of a lift truck.
OSHA’s forklift training requirements (29 CFR 1910.178(l)) specify that operator training must:
• Be conducted by trainers who have the requisite knowledge and experience to train operators and evaluate their performance
• Consist of a combination of formal instruction and practical training
• Teach operators about forklift-related topics such as operating instructions, vehicle inspection, lifting capacity, and other operating limitations
In addition, you must evaluate forklift operator performance at least once every 3 years and retrain if:
• An operator is involved in an accident or near-miss
• An operator has been observed driving unsafely
• An evaluation has determined the operator needs additional training
• An operator is assigned to use a different kind of forklift
• There are changes in the workplace that could affect safe forklift operations. | <urn:uuid:41bd3ee1-3cb9-42cf-9177-ae536bd47184> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shastabe.com/ebulletin/2009/10/14/your-forklift-operators-adequately-trained/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943189 | 533 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In the northern hemisphere, birds now return from their winter migrations sooner. Yet, ornithologists don’t know exactly how the birds adapted to return earlier. One possible explanation holds that individual birds changed their behavior to return sooner.
However, recent research observed that individual birds haven’t changed their schedules. Instead, the results of a 14-year-long study of a migratory shore bird species suggested that early-born birds get more worms and can migrate sooner.
In the study, an international network of more than 2,000 volunteer birdwatchers recorded sightings of Icelandic black-winged godwits (Limosa limosa islandica) migrating from Portugal and Spain to Iceland between 1999 and 2004. The citizen scientists observed that individual birds returned on nearly the same date each year. As these birds returned each year to find an earlier greening of Iceland, the monogamous mated pairs of godwits could nest and hatch eggs sooner. The new generation of birds matured and began their migration cycle earlier.
These early travelers could then stake out prime over-wintering locations. Having an early winter refuge then primed the birds to return to the land of their birth sooner. After a few generations of this process, whole populations of birds arrived sooner on average, although each bird kept the same yearly schedule.
“Because we have been following the same birds for so many years, we know the exact ages of many of them,” said lead author Jenny Gill of the University of East Anglia in a press release. “We found that birds hatched in the late 1990s arrived in May, but those hatched in more recent years are tending to arrive in April. So the arrival dates are advancing because the new youngsters are migrating earlier.”
The study focused on the Icelandic subspecies of black-tailed godwit. This bird migrates a relatively short distance which allows it to arrive several weeks before the breeding season begins. This window of time may allow the bird to nest sooner if an early spring provides enough insect food and vegetation for nest building.
Gill and her colleagues suggested that one reason long-distance migrating bird populations have declined more in recently years could be that these travelers have shorter windows of time between their return north and the start of nesting season.
The Proceedings of the Royal Society B published the results of the godwit study.
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Electronic cigarettes have 1.3 million users in the UK so how will the Welsh Government proposals to ban the use of them in public places and places of work affect them? CARYS THOMAS looks into the argument for and against the ban of e-cigarettes in Wales.
SMOKERS have been banned from lighting up their cigarettes in public places since 2007 but now the Welsh Government wants to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in enclosed public places, citing concerns of their impact on the enforcement of the smoking ban.
Professor Mark Drakeford, health minister, announced the proposal as part of a White Paper bill on public health last week which is currently undergoing consultation.
He said: “I am also concerned their use in enclosed public places could normalise smoking behaviour. E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, and I want to minimise the risk of a new generation becoming addicted to this drug.
“The proposals in the White Paper are based on good prudent healthcare principles – taking proportionate and preventative action to improve public health and reduce the likelihood of individuals becoming dependent on costly treatment later in life, when it might also be too late to make a lasting difference to their health.”
Electronic cigarettes use liquid nicotine with a vaporiser which produces steam. The majority of e-cigarettes contain propylene glycol or vegetable glycol.
The amount of nicotine can vary between zero mg and extra strong at 24 mg. While there are numerous opposing studies, the long term effects of e-cigarettes on public health are not yet known according to a report by the European Commission.
One study suggests the amount of carcinogens and toxicants in vapour from electronic cigarettes is less than that in tobacco cigarettes according to the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Wales (RPS Wales) supports the proposals to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes in enclosed public spaces.
Jocelyn Parkes, director for RPS Wales, said: “It’s right that the Welsh Government has drawn our attention to the highly addictive nature of nicotine. Unless we act now there’s a risk of a new generation becoming addicted to this drug.
“It’s deeply worrying that a product is being marketed and advertised, before it is properly regulated. We don’t know what’s in each brand.”
She added: “The official position of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is there have been limited rigorous peer reviewed studies to support their use as a safe and effective nicotine replacement therapy. We believe that currently e-cigarettes should not be sold or advertised by pharmacies.”
The European Union has included e-cigarettes in their Tobacco Products Directive which will come into effect in 2016. This means the levels of liquid nicotine will be capped at 20 milligrams which they say has been shown to be ‘adequate for the majority of smokers’ as a substitute for smoking.
E-cigarette users will only be allowed to purchase higher concentration levels if it is approved under a pharmaceutical framework.
Nathan Edwards, 25, campaigner for e-cigarettes, said: “If this does happen I will more than likely be penalised for trying to improve my own health. I use 30 to 36 milligrams. If e-cigarettes are taken away from me I will more than likely return to tobacco cigarettes.
“I think it’s diabolical that the Welsh Government wants to ban e-cigarettes in public places. It is a safer and healthier alternative to cigarettes. I don’t think the ban would make more people go back to tobacco, I think they will just find another area to do it.”
Mr Edwards has accompanied MEPs with the European Free Vaping Initiative to the European Parliament in Brussels.
He said: “I am nicotine dependent, not a smoker. I started on 18 milligrams of nicotine but the content was too low. With the cost of a pack of cigarettes up to £10 for 20 you can vape for around £5 a week – financially using an e-cigarette has saved me thousands of pounds.”
“I used to smoke 20 to 30 cigarettes a day. I tried therapy, went to my doctor and tried NiQuitne products, I tried them all but nothing works. I started using the e-cigarette in 2009 and haven’t touched tobacco since.”
The e-cigarette market has grown year on year since it began in the late noughties. Retailers of the product believe the ban to be an ‘overreaction’ on the Welsh Government’s part.
Lee Woolls, 44, managing director of Cigg-e, the electronic cigarette shop on Commercial Street, said: “E-cigarettes are an aid to quit smoking, personally it was a way for me to quit smoking four years ago, I’ve been using e-cigarettes ever since.
“We offer zero nicotine products. The vapour that is exhaled is steam, it doesn’t harm anybody. It’s up to the individual and the business owners to decide whether to allow e-cigarettes on their premises not the Welsh Government. I think it’s a complete overreaction by them, based on what evidence?”
Andrew Payne, 48, commercial director of Socialites, a UK wide e-cigarette company, said: “Why would you ban e-cigarettes which massively benefit people? There is no odour, no passive smoking and no carcinogens.
“It’s going to get people who are using e-cigarettes back onto tobacco. It isn’t smoking, it’s vaporising, there is no smell, no odour and no side effects.
He added: “If e-cigarette users will have to stand out in the rain they will be with tobacco smokers, passively smoking.”
The Welsh Government are concerned that e-cigarettes could be a gateway for younger people to take up smoking. The UK government announced that it would introduce age of sale restrictions for all nicotine products including e-cigarettes making it an offence to sell them to anyone under 18-years-old or by proxy purchase of nicotine products in England and Wales.
Mr Payne said: “Our customer base are all ex-smokers, we don’t sell the product to under 18-year-olds. E-cigarettes are used by ex-smokers to reduce their tobacco intake and also save on money.”
James Fisher, owner of Dragon-10, e-cigarette retailer on Commercial Street, said: “The Welsh Government are just scaremongering. We’ve had customers who’ve had throat cancer come to us and thank us for getting them to stop smoking – people stop smoking straight away with the e-cigarette, we offer a seven day guarantee or you get your money back.”
The Welsh Conservatives believe the proposed ban would be a step backwards for people who have quit smoking.
Darren Millar AM, Welsh Conservative shadow minister for health, said: “We should be giving people a helping hand to quit – not yanking them backwards. Anything that stigmatises those working hard to improve their health should be very carefully examined.”
Elin Jones, shadow health minister for Plaid Cymru, said: “Plaid Cymru would want to see clear evidence on the need to ban e-cigarettes in public places and the Minister needs to present that evidence to us. E-cigarettes are used widely by people who are trying to give up smoking, so we should be very careful not to halt that trend.”
Pubs and restaurants at the moment can decide whether to allow people to use e-cigarettes on their premises.
Uri Gagarin, manager of Ye Olde Murenger House, on High Street, Newport, said: “We don’t allow the use of e-cigarettes in the pub at the moment, it’s company policy. The smokers just go outside, it’s not an issue and this will be even less of an issue.”
The Pen and Wig said that they allow the use of e-cigarettes but it is a rarity for people to ask to use the e-cigarettes indoors.
Views are sought through a public consultation which closes on June 24. The ‘Listening to you: Your health matters’ is available at bit.ly/Od4lha | <urn:uuid:88bb5483-f7f8-4421-bf7e-206891047c10> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11133329.BEHIND_THE_HEADLINES__Should_e_cigarettes_be_banned_in_public_places_/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945617 | 1,771 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The Challenge of Food Allergens: An Update
By Kathy Gombas and Ellen Anderson, Ph.D.
The presence of allergens in food is a serious public health safety concern that has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to undertake a number of initiatives, two of which—on manufacturing and labeling—are described here. As background, each year the FDA receives reports of consumers who experience adverse reactions following exposure to allergenic substances in foods, and allergen-related national recalls of food products have increased steadily since 1990.
Food allergies are abnormal responses of the immune system, especially the production of allergen-specific IgE antibodies, to naturally occurring proteins in certain foods that most people can eat safely FDA’s current allergen efforts are focused on the eight foods that most frequently cause serious allergic reactions in sensitive individuals and account for more than 90% of all food allergies: peanuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, fish, crustacea, tree nuts and wheat. Most consumers are aware of their specific sensitivities and rely on the food label to avoid foods that might result in an allergenic reaction. However, adverse reactions often occur when an allergen-sensitive consumer consumes an allergenic substance that has not been declared on the food label.
A recent report described a study in which FDA officials and state inspectors from Minnesota and Wisconsin conducted a joint study on peanut and egg allergens and cross-contact during manufacturing (“cross-contact” describes a situation in which traces of an allergen might end up in a product that does not normally contain the allergen). The study, conducted between September 1999 and March 2000, involved 85 small- to medium-sized bakery product, ice cream and candy manufacturing operations. If an investigator identified a labeling or cross- contact issue during an investigation, samples were collected for egg and peanut protein analysis. Eighteen of the 73 samples taken, or 25%, of the ice cream, bakery and candy food product samples tested positive for peanut allergens, although peanuts were not listed on the labels for these products. Investigators found that companies unintentionally introduced food allergens into other foods through poor cleaning and production scheduling or improper cleaning of utensils. The inspectors also found that just over half of the manufacturers checked their products to ensure that the labels accurately reflected all of the ingredients.
Everyone—government, industry, and consumers—agrees that these findings illustrate a problem that needs fixing and a number of activities by the interested parties are in progress. FDA initiatives include publication of a compliance policy guide, the recent issuance of guidance material for investigators on how to conduct food allergen inspections, satellite training for federal and state regulatory personnel, and a public meeting on allergen labeling. The guidance, discussed in detail below, presents labeling and cross- contact issues that may occur during the manufacture of food products and result in undeclared allergens. The public meeting, also discussed here, explored allergen labeling issues.
MANUFACTURING: FDA ALLERGEN INSPECTION GUIDANCE
In August 2001, the agency announced the availability of guidance for investigators and other FDA personnel entitled “Guidance on Inspections of Firms Producing Food Products Susceptible to Contamination with Allergenic Ingredients.” By familiarizing themselves with the guidance currently used by investigators, food manufacturers will have a clearer concept of the potential problems of which to be aware and how to address undeclared allergen issues.
Current regulations require that all added ingredients be declared on the label, yet there are a number of issues that have arisen in connection with undeclared allergens that are not clearly covered by label regulations. This guidance covers the following problem areas:
1. Products that contain one or more allergenic ingredients, but the label does not declare the ingredient in the ingredient statement;
2. Products that become contaminated with an allergenic ingredient due to the firm’s failure to exercise adequate control procedures, e.g., improper rework practices, allergen carry-over due to use of common equipment and production sequencing, inadequate cleaning;
3. Products that are contaminated with an allergenic ingredient due to the nature of the product or the process; e.g., use of common equipment in chocolate manufacturing where interim wet cleaning is not practical and only dry cleaning and product flushing is used;
4. A product containing a flavor ingredient that has an allergenic component, but the label of the product only declares the flavor, e.g., natural flavor. Under current regulations, firms are not required to declare the individual components of flavors, certain colors and spices. However, firms are encouraged to specifically label allergenic components/ingredients that are in spices, flavors and colors;
5. Products that contain a processing aid that have an allergenic component, but the label does not declare it. processing aids that contain allergenic ingredients are not exempt from ingredient declaration under the incidental additives regulation (21 CFR 101.100 (a)(3)), and thus, must be declared.
The guidance that will be used by investigators to conduct allergen inspections covers the following areas:
Product Development. Determine if the firm identifies potential sources of allergens starting in the product development stage. For example, do they identify for each product all ingredients, ingredient components, processing aids, rework, processing steps, environmental conditions, and product carry-over due to use of common equipment? Are potential sources of allergen contamination identified at each step? Determine whether the products contain allergenic ingredients. For the most frequently produced products, request formulas. If formula information is refused, construct formulations by observing production.
Determine if the firm has assessed whether the packaging material used in direct contact with the product contains an allergen; e.g., foil coated with wheat ingredient as releasing agent. Does the firm use processing aids in the manufacture of the food? If so, do the processing aids contain allergenic ingredients? If so, what are the allergenic ingredients?
Does the firm use spices, flavors or colors that contain allergenic components? If so, do these spices, flavors or colors contain allergenic ingredients? If so, what are the allergenic ingredients?
Receiving. Determine whether the firm uses allergenic ingredients. Determine how these allergenic ingredients are handled at receiving and how they are identified and/or segregated in raw material storage. Determine if the firm stores any of these allergenic ingredients in bulk tanks. If yes, how are the contents of the bulk tanks identified? Determine what the firm’s procedure is for receiving ingredients into the bulk tank and what controls are in place to ensure proper product identity at all times. Determine if the firm receives any raw materials that are labeled with a statement, such as “this product was processed on machinery that was used to process products containing (allergen)” or “may contain (allergen)”. If so what ingredients? How are such statements reflected on the label of the firm’s finished product? Determine whether a label from each incoming lot of finished product labels is visually checked, either upon receipt or during production, to ensure the ingredient statement is correct for the intended product and that it is not a carton of mixed labels.
Equipment. Try to inspect the equipment before processing begins and document the adequacy of clean up. For example, is there a build-up of residual materials or pockets of residue in corners that may contain an allergen from previous runs? What is the condition of the conveyor belts? Is there any product build-up above processing zones? Also observe whether the firm checks the processing lines for cleanliness prior to production and whether they maintain a record of the check. Is this simply a visual check or does the firm use another method?
Determine whether the firm uses a Clean-In-Place (CIP) system for cleaning fixed lines, e.g. pipelines and tanks. If so, how do they ensure that the interior surfaces of the welds in the lines are smooth and will not entrap material during operation? Are the pipes free from dents? Determine if equipment is cleanable; e.g. stainless steel, accessible for cleaning. Determine if the firm has a written procedure for cleaning. Does the cleaning procedure include how to and at what frequency the equipment is cleaned? Describe the procedure. Determine if equipment and production lines are shared to process different products. Determine if any shared equipment is cleaned in between production of a product that contains allergens and one that does not; e.g. frill clean-up with detergent and water.
Processing. Determine what control measures, if any, are used by the firm to prevent the contamination of products that do not contain allergens? ‘What control measures does the firm employ? At what steps in production are the control measures instituted? Determine how the firm separates the production of those products that contain allergens from those that do not contain such ingredients. Is cross-contact likely to occur; e.g., airborne food particles, dust, allergen product residues from equipment, etc.? Determine if unpackaged, exposed product on the processing line is handled in a way that protects it against contamination. Determine if shared processing lines (equipment) are used. If yes, is allergen-containing product processed first or last?
Determine what is done with the portion of the product that is a mixture of the non-allergen product and allergen product; e.g., is it sent to waste or for animal feed or reworked? Determine whether the firm reworks product, and if they only rework like products. How is rework controlled? Is rework inventory reconciled at the end of the day? Determine how product to be reworked is stored and identified. Are rework containers clearly labeled? Determine how such rework holding vessels and containers are cleaned and stored.
Final Product Testing. Determine if the firm performs final product testing for the presence of allergens in products not intended to contain allergens. If so, for which allergens, and how is the testing documented? Determine what method of analysis is used and the sensitivity of that method. Determine if the testing is routine or periodic.
Investigators should use these questions solely for information gathering purposes. If the firm asks if FDA has methods for detecting allergens, the response should be that agency has not yet designated any method of allergen testing for regulatory purposes. There are, however, several commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) kits for food allergens available in the marketplace. Currently, FDA is evaluating some of these kits and is also cooperating with kit manufacturers to conduct international collaborative studies to evaluate the performance of some of the ELISA-based methods.
Labeling. Determine if finished product label controls are employed; e.g., how are labels delivered to the filling and/or packaging area? Determine if product labels with similar appearances but different ingredients are controlled to ensure that the correct label is applied to the correct product. Determine if finished product packages are inspected prior to distribution to ensure that an allergen-containing product is labeled properly, or that labels are inspected during production. Is that inspection documented?
Determine if secondary ingredients are incorporated in the final product ingredient statement; e.g., the raw material mayonnaise, which contains eggs, oil and vinegar. Determine if the firm uses a statement such as “this product was processed on machinery that was used to process products containing (allergen)” or a statement such as “may contain (allergen)” if the firm uses shared equipment for products that contain and products that do not contain allergens. Any other such statement? Ask the firm why they believe they have to use the advisory statement. Determine if the finished product label reflects any advisory statements that were on the raw material labels; e.g., “this product was processed on machinery that was used to process products containing (allergen)”. Determine if the firm has a system to identify finished products made with rework containing allergenic ingredients. Does the final product label identify the allergens that may have been in the reworked product?
Any comments and suggestions regarding the guidance should be submitted to the Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Please refer to Docket No. 01D-0316.
THE CHALLENGE OF LABELING FOOD ALLERGENS: FDA PUBLIC MEETING
Held in Washington, DC, on August 13, 2001, the public meeting provided an opportunity for an information exchange. Specifically, the agency wanted to determine what additional actions might be warranted to further assist consumers with food allergies in identifying products containing food allergens and to support manufacturers in producing foods that are safe for consumers with food allergies by eliminating processing practices that result in the unintended addition of allergens to foods.
The agency requested written and oral comments in three topic areas relating to food allergens. The three focus areas were: (1) source or plain English labeling; (2) advisory labeling (e.g., “may contain” [name of allergen]); and (3) labeling of ingredients exempted from declaration (i.e., common or usual names of flavorings, spices and colors; incidental additives). A written transcript of the public meeting is available at www.fda.gov/ ohrms/dockets/dockets/oop_1322/00pl322tr.html. A complete overview of the queries posed by the agency for public comment has been published in the Federal Register. The following is a summation of most of the published queries.
Source or Plain English Labeling. FDA recognizes that many of the common or usual names for ingredients listed in the ingredient statement are not understood by consumers to be derived from food allergens (e.g., “caseinate” or “whey” derived from “milk” and “albumin” derived from “egg”). The agency is considering whether additional labeling of food products is warranted in some instances to ensure that allergenic consumers are informed about the presence of food allergens.
Questions about source labeling include: What plain English terms would be understandable for the eight most common food allergens? What source or plain English labeling format or formats would be most informative to consumers? Are multiple formats confusing to consumers, and if so, is there a single format that would be preferable? If so, why? Should source or plain English labeling be voluntary or mandatory for the eight most common food allergens?
Advisory Labeling. Advisory labeling includes statements on food packaging labels such as “may contain peanuts” or “made on shared equipment.” FDA’s current position is that advisory labeling should not be used in lieu of adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) because adhering to GMPs is essential for effective reduction of adverse reactions. Food that contains an undeclared allergen due to cross-contact or other sources may he considered adulterated under section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (the act) (21 U.S.C. 342(a)(4)), because it has been prepared, packed or held under insanitary conditions that may render the food injurious to health. Thus, FDA believes advisory labeling should not be the norm, and manufacturers should strive to eliminate the presence of allergenic materials that are not intentionally added to a specific food product.
However, FDA recognizes that advisory labeling is an attempt by manufacturers to inform consumers of the possibility that cross-contact may have occurred such that the product contains an allergenic substance. FDA is considering whether, and if so, under what circumstances advisory labeling should be permitted when appropriate manufacturing controls are not sufficient to guarantee the absence of allergenic substances in a particular food product.
The agency asks the following questions: Under what circumstances, if any, should advisory labeling statements be permitted, and what impact would those circumstances have on manufacturers and on consumers? Are there better alternatives for advisory labeling than the type of wording that currently exists (e.g., “May contain [name of specific allergen],” “Made on shared equipment,” “Manufactured in a facility that also processes [name of specific allergen]”)? Do such statements adequately inform consumers of possible cross-contact with allergenic materials? How do consumers interpret the wording of such labeling? Should advisory labeling statements be prescriptive (i.e., one or more specific statements) or flexible? And finally, where should advisory labeling statements be located on the food label? How prominent should advisory labeling statements be on the label? Should the location and prominence of advisory labeling statements be prescribed?
Labeling of Ingredients Exempted From Declaration. The collective naming of flavors, spices, and certain colors is one of the exemptions to the requirement for the complete labeling of ingredients (section 403(i) of the act). This exemption permits these ingredients to be listed collectively in the ingredient statement without naming each by its common or usual name. Food labels with collectively named flavorings, spices, and colors may not adequately inform individuals who wish to avoid allergenic substances, particularly when the allergenic substance is not specifically identified.
FDA believes that the declaration of allergenic ingredients in individual flavorings, spices, and colors is necessary for consumers to adequately protect themselves from exposure to food allergens. On a case-by-case basis, FDA has used notice-and-comment rulemaking to require the declaration of individual allergenic flavorings, spices, and colors, and is now considering whether continuing to address allergenic flavorings, spices and colors on a case-by-case basis is the best approach available to the agency.
Questions for public comment relate to the alternatives available to the agency and include, for example: Should the agency continue to address the labeling of individual allergenic flavorings, spices, and colors on a case-by-case basis, or should there be a generally applicable policy? Should the information on allergenic components of flavorings, spices, and colors be included in the ingredient list? Is there a better location or format for this information? Explain. For individual flavorings, spices, or colors that contain one of the eight most common allergens, should listing the common or usual name of the individual flavoring, spice, or color on the product labeling be voluntary or mandatory?
The labeling of incidental additives is also being discussed. Incidental additives include substances that are present in a food at insignificant levels and have no technical or functional effect in the finished product, such as, processing aids and substances that may migrate to the food from equipment or packaging. FDA has stated that because very small amounts of some allergenic substances can cause serious allergic responses, allergens that cause serious allergic reactions cannot be considered to be present at an “insignificant” level in the food. The agency has stated that all allergenic substances introduced as ingredients or as the result of manufacturing processes do not qualify as incidental additives and must be declared in the ingredient statement on the label of a food product.
Questions about this relate to gathering information and exploring educational alternatives to increase manufacturer understanding. What, if any, minor ingredients would manufacturers be unlikely to recognize as containing food allergens and therefore not include on the label, and what kinds of manufacturing processes would manufacturers be unlikely to recognize as unintentionally introducing food allergens? When products that contain food allergens will be further processed or repacked, is food allergen labeling sufficient on such intermediate products or is it necessary to have clearer labeling on intermediate products to ensure that food allergens are appropriately declared on the retail packaging of the final product? Should the agency codify its policy to specifically state that incidental additives that are food allergens are not exempt from labeling and must be declared in the ingredient statement on the label?
The agency is encouraging food manufacturers and other interested parties to submit detailed responses to these questions by Oct. 29, 2001. You may do so by mail (Attn: Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305), FDA, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852); by e-mail (FDAdockets@oc.fda.gov). Please refer to Docket No. 00P-1322.
Kathy L. Gombas is the deputy director of the Division of HACCP Programs, CFSAN, FDA. Her division provides technical expertise and leadership in areas of food safety programs and HACCP to support the development of agency policies, regulations, standards and training.
Ellen M. Anderson, Ph.D., is a chemist in the Division of Standards and Labeling Regulations, CFSAN, FDA. Her division provides guidance and establishes policies for regulating food standards and product label statements on foods and dietary supplements.
1. Falci, Kenneth, Kathy Gombas and Elisa Elliot. Allergens: An FDA priority. Food Safety Magazine, (7)2. February/March 2001.
2. Formanek Jr., Raymond. Food allergies: When food becomes the enemy. FDA Consumer. July/August 2001.
3. Federal Register. 66 FR 42869. August, 15, 2001. (www.fda.gov/phrms/dockets/98fr/08150lc.pdf).
4. Federal Register. 66 FR 38591. July 25, 2001. (www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr010725.html).
Common Symptoms of an Allergic Reaction to Food
Only about 1.5% of adults and up to 6% of children younger than three years old in the U.S.—about 4 million people—have a true food allergy, according to researchers who have examined the prevalence of food allergies.
It’s critical for people who have food allergies to identify them and to avoid foods that cause allergic reactions. Some foods can cause severe illness and, in some cases, a life-threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) that can constrict airways in the lungs, severely lower blood pressure, and cause suffocation by the swelling of the tongue or throat.
An estimated 150 Americans die each year from severe allergic reactions to food, says Hugh A. Sampson, M.D., director of the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and a food allergy expert. Symptoms typically appear within minutes to two hours after a person has eaten the food to which he or she is allergic: tingling sensations in the mouth; swelling of the tongue and throat; difficulty breathing; hives; vomiting; abdominal cramps; diarrhea; drop in blood pressure; loss of consciousness; and death.
—Source: FDA Consumer, August 2001Categories: Contamination Control: Allergens, Chemical; Process Control: Intervention Controls, Packaging; Regulatory: FDA, Guidelines | <urn:uuid:951e3a79-6637-4294-b3b6-d0e0c98ac9a5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/octobernovember-2001/the-challenge-of-food-allergens-an-update/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924034 | 4,821 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Creating Graphs in Google Spreadsheets
Graphs can help you understand all kinds of information. Whether you're using Google Spreadsheets to track sales performance, business expenses, or stock market trends, Google Docs lets you add the type of graph you need to best illustrate your data.
1. Log into your Google Docs account
2. Select the Spreadsheet you want to work with, or start a new one.
3. Click on Insert in the toolbar.
4. Select Chart... from the drop down menu.
5. Select the type of chart you want by clicking on the picture of the appropriate chart.
6. Enter the cells the chart should incorporate into the text box. Cell information is entered by typing the coordinates of starting cell followed by a colon (:), and the coordinates of the ending cell. Example: A2:E21
7. Select Rows or Columns to specify how the data should be grouped. This tells the chart what the relationship between the data is.
8. Specify where chart labels come from. You can use either Row 2 or column A, or both to label your chart by clicking on the correct box.
9. Type your Chart title in the text box
10. Specify a label for the horizontal axis by typing the name for it in the text box.
11. Label the Vertical axis by entering its name in the text box.
12. Using the Legend drop down menu, set the location of the chart's legend. You can also choose to omit the legend.
13. Double check the chart preview and hit Save chart to save your settings, and embed your chart into the spreadsheet.
Once your chart is saved in the spreadsheet, you can move it around by clicking on the chart, so the gray border appears. Then, move your mouse over the gray border so the finger appears. Click and drag the chart to your desired location within the spreadsheet.
That's all there is to it. | <urn:uuid:6cc05428-40cb-4421-9ef9-b96e97bef9bb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.brighthub.com/internet/google/articles/5747.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.849555 | 405 | 3.0625 | 3 |
5 Things to Check for Grammatical Perfection
Looking over a piece of writing before you sign off on it is a good habit to form. Remember to check these common spots that attract trouble:
Verbs: Are they in the correct tense, shifting only if the meaning requires a change? Do they agree with the subject (singular with singular, plural with plural)?
Pronouns: Do they agree with the word they represent (a singular pronoun replacing a singular noun or another singular pronoun, a plural pronoun standing in for a plural noun or pronoun)? If a pronoun is a subject, does it agree with the verb? Is the pronoun in the proper case (subject, object, possessive)?
Descriptions: Are they located near the word they describe? Have you attached adjectives to nouns and pronouns and adverbs to verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs?
Comparisons: Have you checked irregular forms? Are all your comparisons complete and clear?
Mechanics: Are capital letters in the right place? Does every sentence include an endmark? Have you placed quotation marks and commas where they're needed? Have you removed apostrophes from plurals and possessive pronouns (where they don't belong) and inserted them in contractions and possessive nouns (where they do)? | <urn:uuid:d5b3f696-df7f-4521-9e26-3f8eb0f7905a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/5-things-to-check-for-grammatical-perfection.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939326 | 269 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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- A paragraph or two that summarizes an article, book, website or other information source. Online periodical indexes often provide abstracts of articles that are not available full-text. The authors of research articles in scholarly journals write their own abstracts in which they provide important keywords and results of their research.
- Bibliographic Record
- The online catalog is a database that contains information about materials in a collection. Each item has it's own record. The information about the item on the record is referred to as the bibliographic record. Often used synonymously with record, but the bibliographic record refers specifically to the information that describes the item.
- Bibliographic Citation
- The defining characteristics of an information source, like books, articles, videos, and government documents. For a book, the minimum information is: author, title, city of publication, publisher, and date of publication. For an article, the basic information is: author of article, title of article, title of publication, volume/issue, date, page number.
Information about the source should be arranged consistently, following an established style found in Style Manuals.
- The list of works cited by an author at the end of an article, paper, book, or other research-based writing. There are also specialized subject bibliographies, published separately as books.
- Books: Many types, here are two types:
- Academic/Scholarly books: Written by scholars, cover academic/scholarly topics, published by an academic/scholarly press. Always include a bibliography, and frequently include other features such as chronology, glossary, resources. College and university libraries purchase primarily academic books. As a rule, for college-level work, students should use academic books.
Popular Press Books: You know what these are! May focus on a specific topic but in a lighter manner than academic books. Author may or may not have academic credentials. There may or may not be a list of sources. Popular press books may or may not be appropriate for college-level work; it really depends on your topic.
See also, Reference Books.
- Boolean Operators
- Search modifiers used to connect keywords in a database search. The most common Boolean operators are and, or, not. Some databases use and not instead of not; some databases use a + sign instead of and. Read database search tips to get the most out of your searching.
- Desktop software that allows you to view web pages. Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Mozilla's Firefox are example of browsers.
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- Call Number
- The letters and numbers assigned to a book to give it a unique location in the library. Two common systems for call numbers are Dewey Decimal, which is used by public libraries and some colleges, and The Library of Congress, which is the system used by most college and university libraries.
- Catalog (Library Catalogs) Also called Catalogs, Book Catalogs, OPACs, Online Catalogs.
- A database that contains records for items that a library owns, such as books, videos, reserve materials, reference books, and government documents. The catalog is searchable by a variety of fields, including keyword, author, title and Library of Congress Subject Heading. Online Library catalogs usually include a "Your Record" feature that allow users to log in and see what they have checked out, renew their materials, etc.
- This means that the item may be checked out. Some Reserve items and videos circulate only within the library.
- Check Out Desk (Also called Circulation Desk)
- Located just inside the library's main door, the circulation desk is where you go to check out and return books, videos, and reserve materials; pick up items borrowed from Summit or interlibrary loan, ; look for lost-and-found items; borrow white board erasers and markers for use in the study rooms; and more.
- Information given in an index or catalog that provides specific and unique information about an item. The citation may include the article title, periodical title, book title, place of publication, publisher, volume, pages, and date. Citations are formatted following a specific set of rules or styles, such as MLA, APA, or CBE.
- Citing Sources
- A hallmark of using information ethically, citing sources refers to giving credit to authors whose work you use. Citations are usually written following standard format from a style manual, such as MLA.
- In computing terms, a client is a the computer requesting something from a remote location. In other words, your PC, connected to the internet, is a client. Your client PC requests things -- login, web pages, images, files, from servers on the internet. This activity is know as a client/server relationship.
- "An architecture in which one computer can get information from another. The client is the computer that asks for access to data, software, or services. The server, which can be anything from a personal computer to a mainframe, supplies the requested data or services for the client." (http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/)
- Controlled Vocabulary
- Uniform language useful for performing more specific searches in online databases. The Library of Congress Subject Headings is an example of the controlled vocabulary used specifically for Library Book Catalogs. Compare with natural language.
- A copyright establishes ownership of information. Copyrighted information is often stamped with the copyright symbol, but not always. Always assume that information belongs to someone and give credit to the original author by citing the source.
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- A searchable collection of information, usually in electronic format. Each unique item in a database is stored in a record, which have one or more searchable fields. Records in a database often have something in common with each other. For example: The Library Book Catalog is a database of records for items that are owned and located at a specific library. Research Library Complete, a periodical index, is a ProQuest database containing records of articles in newspapers, magazines and journals.
- Deep Web
- See invisible web.
- Dewey Decimal System
- A method or organizing books in public school libraries, public libraries and some college libraries. Dewey Decimal System call numbers start with numbers, like this: 658.409 F862g 2004 The first line of numbers represents the subject of the books.
Another organization system used in university and college libraries is the Library of Congress Classification System.
- A book that gives the definition of words. Dictionaries are usually located in the reference collection. Dictionaries may be general (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary) or focused on a specific subject (Dictionary of Economics). Some dictionaries are available in online databases: Oxford English Dictionary Online is a subscription database available to Clark College students. Merriam Webster's Online is an example of a free web-based encyclopedia.
- A compendium, or collection, of information. Like dictionaries, encyclopedias can be general (Encyclopedia Britannica) or focused on a specific subject (Encyclopedia of Life Sciences). Some encyclopedias are available online in online databases: Encyclopedia Britannica is a subscription database often available from through your library's web site; The Columbia Encyclopedia is an example of a free web-based encyclopedia.
- In a database, information on records is organized into individual sections, or fields. In the online catalog, fields include author, title, subject headings, and contents.
- Finding Tools
- Refers to tools commonly used to locate information sources. Common types of Finding Tools are: Catalogs, Periodical Indexes, and Web Search Tools.
- Floppy disk
- Hard-cased 3.5" disk used for storing and carrying digital information. The disk goes itno the "A:" drive of desktop computers. See also USB Flash Drive.
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- Acronym for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the set of "rules" used by the internet to move files from web servers and make them readable in a web browser (such as Internet Explorer). All Web pages have addresses that begin with http://, but most browsers put in the http:// automatically. For example, http://www.clark.edu/Library is the same as www.clark.edu/Library.
- A secure version of http, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.
- Index, Periodical Index
- An index can be a couple of things. An index in the back of a book gives you access to the contents of a book. Similarly, a Periodical Index provides access to the contents (articles) in magazines, journals and newspapers.
A periodical index usually provides access to several hundred or thousands of different titles of periodicals. Some periodical indexes are general, meaning they provide access to periodicals on a variety of topics. EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier and ProQuest Research Library Complete are examples of general periodical indexes. Other periodical indexes are subject-specific, meaning they focus on a single subject. Medline (medicine) and ERIC (education) are example of subject-specific periodical indexes.
All periodical indexes provide the bibliographic citations for articles; some also include the abstracts. Other indexes provide the full-text of some (but usually not all) of the articles. EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier and ProQuest are examples of full-text periodical indexes.
- Information Literacy
- There are several definitions of information literacy, but they all basically mean the same thing: the ability to identify, access, and evaluate various types of information sources, and be familiar with the issues involved in using information in an ethical manner.
- Interlibrary Loan
- A service provided by libraries for borrowing books and articles from other libraries.
- The term used to describe the look and feel of a search tool, such as a library catalog or periodicals index. Interface features include navigation aids, search boxes, placement and size of text, color, and overall ease of use.
- The world-wide system of computers, linked through networks, that provides information transfer through a common set of protocol and standards. The internet provides data transfer for services such as email, file transfer, World Wide Web, and newsgroups.
- Invisible Web
- Information that resides on the Internet but cannot be searched by search engines because of layers of protocol or passwords. Most information in the invisible web is contained in databases, such as ProQuest Research Library Complete and EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier. Some estimates say there may be as much as 500 times as much information in the invisible web as in the visible web.
- Journal, Scholarly
- see Scholarly Journal
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- Major words in the title, abstract or text or an information source. In databases, keyword is also a search feature that searches all the fields in a record. Keywords are also associated with natural language.
- Library of Congress Classification System (LC)
- The system of letters and numbers used by many college and university libraries to organize materials by assigning call numbers. The letters on the first line of a call number represent the subject of the book. To see a list of the letters and what they mean, check out this LC List.
- Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
- A thesaurus, LCSH collects keywords and designates specific terms to use for searching by Subject in the online catalog. You can also use LCSH to find broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms for your subject. More information about the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
- Magazine, Popular
- see Popular Magazine
- Refers to microfiche (flat rectangular sheets) and microfilm (roll) formats whereby print text is transferred onto film for preservation. Usually, older issues of periodicals are transferred to microform.
- Natural Language
- Often used interchangeably with keywords. Natural language are words you'd think of to use to search for information in databases. Compare natural language with controlled vocabulary, which are the "official" words designed by a thesaurus for searching subject fields in a database. For example, the Library of Congress Subject Headings designate specific words to use in the Subject search of the online catalog. (But you can also use the controlled vocabulary terms as keywords in other database.)
- Refers to accessing information, often a database, using a remote computer using a PC and an internet connection. The Cannell Library online catalog is one example of an online database.
- Oversize Books
- Reference to books that are too tall to fit on the "regular" shelves. You will often see this designation in library book catalogs.
- Pearl Growing
- The concept of using one source to lead you to many sources. For example, say you find an article in a journal that's right on your topic. Scan the references at the end of the article (might also be called the Bibliography, Work Cites, Sources, etc.) If you find interesting books or articles in the list, you can use the library's resources to locate those books or articles. If your library doesn't have the source, you can use Interlibrary Loan to obtain it.
- Peer-Reviewed Journal
- See Scholarly Journal
- Information published on a regular basis, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Scholarly Journals, Popular Magazines, and Newspapers are all periodicals. The term periodicals is often used interchangeably with the word serials. This image shows the relationship between all these terms:
- Black's Law Dictionary defines plagiarism as the "act of presenting another's works or ideas as your own." Put simply, plagiarism occurs when you use information and fail to provide information about the source of the information.
- Popular Magazine
- A periodical, usually written for a broad audience. Articles are on a variety of subjects. Articles are usually short, are written by journalists, and rarely (if ever) include a bibliography. Popular magazines include lots of advertisements and color photos. Examples are Time, Newsweek, Mother Earth News. Contrast with scholarly journals.
- Primary Source
- A first-hand account, or the first appearance of information in print. For example, personal letters, diaries, and interviews are primary sources. Also, an article appearing in a scholarly journal reporting on the results of a research project or study is also a primary research study. Compare with secondary source.
- Ink on paper; not electronic. A book is a print resource. The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature in book form is a print index.
- Proximity Indicators
- When searching online databases, proximity indicators take the place of Boolean operator and by appolwing you to specify how close together you want the two words to be. For example: chocolate and deforestation will retrieve records where both those words appear anywhere in the record searched; chocolate w/5 of deforestation literally means "find with word chocolate within 5 words of the word deforestation." The number can be any number: w/1, w/20, etc. Syntax changes from database to database, so check the Search Help for the exact format.
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- Details about unique items stored in a database. For example, the library catalog (a database) provides information (records) about each item in the library. Records have many fields, such as the author field, the title field, the subject headings field. A collection of records is a database.
- Refereed Journal
- See Scholarly Journal
- The process of answering the questions of library patrons about research or finding information; the section of the library in which this interaction takes place.
- Reference Book
- Include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, statistics sources, etc. Reference books may be general, which means they cover a variety of topics, like the World Book Encyclopedia, or they may be focused on a specific subject, such as the Dictionary of American History, or the CQ Researcher. Some reference books are also available in online databases; CQ Researcher Online is an example. Reference books cannot be checked out. See also books.
- Reference Librarian
- A faculty member who has studied the field of library science at the graduate level. A librarian is skilled in using print and electronic resources and is the person to ask for research assistance in the library.
- Diligent and thorough inquiry and investigation into a subject. Research is a process that includes grasping the scope of the topic, using appropriate print and electronic sources, asking the reference librarian for help, and making use of bibliographies given by other authors.
- Research Process
- A systematic method for locating information in a variety of sources. The research process includes Defining your purpose, collecting background information, locating and evaluating resources, andproperly citing your sources.
- Reserve Materials
- A collection of materials for use by all students in a class. Any type of material that a professor deems appropriate may be put on reserve. Use the Library Catalog to find out what is on reserve and to get the call number.
- Scholarly Journal
- A periodical in which the articles are written by scholars, for other scholars. Articles are often lengthy, report on original research, and include a list of work cited. Scholarly journals are devoted to a specific subject, such as Journal of the American Medical Association, or Political Science Review. There are no or few advertisements because journals are usually sponsored by a non-profit agency, such as university or an organization. Because the decision about what gets published is made by other scholars in the field, scholarly journals are often referred to as refereed or peer-reviewed.
- Search Engine
- In common usage, a web tool that examines the contents of web pages (and possibly other types of internet sources) stored in a database. Web pages are added to the databases by spiders, or search bots (programs) that automatically search the internet for new web pages. There is no interaction or evaluation of sites by people.
- Search Strategy
- The combination of keywords and Boolean operators designed to get the best results from a database.
- Secondary Source
- As compared to primary source, a secondary source does not include first-hand account. For example, a diary is a primary source. A biography based on information in the diary is a secondary source.
- A synonym for periodicals.
- Computers on the internet that provide information requested by other computers. For example, if you follow a web link on your PC, your PC is a client, and a computer on the internet serves -- or transfers -- the files for that web page to your PC. This activity is also known as client/server relationship.
- Style Manual
- A book that provides instructions for formatting a paper, with regard to footnotes, bibliographies, pagination, citing sources, etc. Ask your instructor which style manual you are to use. The most commonly used style manuals are the following:
* A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Also called Turabian)
* MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
* Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Also called APA)
- Subject Directories
- A database of web sites usually sharing a common theme, compiled (and sometimes evaluated) by people.
- Summit Catalog
- Summit is a library catalog that provides a single database for searching the combined collections from more than 40 academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest and requesting items to borrow. Borrowed items are delivered in 2-3 days.
- Used to increase retrieval in a database, truncation refers to locating the root, or stem, or a word, and adding a symbol, such as an * . For example, genetic* will look for genetic, genetically, genetics. Truncating is often used interchangeably with the words stemming and wildcards, but in many databases these three things perform different functions. Check the Search Help screen in each database to determine what symbol to use and how to use it effectively.
- URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
- On the World Wide Web, a URL is the "address" of a web page. In the example below, the URL for Cannell Library is shown in the address box of a browser window:
- USB Flash Drive
- Small, portable memory device for storing and carrying digital information. The deice is inserted in a USB port of a PC tower, keyboard, or monitor. Flash drives are also known as thumb drives, jump drives, memory sticks, and many other names. Less expensive flash drives hold 128 megabytes of information; more expensive ones can hold as much as 16 gigabytes.
- Web Search Tools
- Include search engines, web directories, meta-search tools, web portals and specialty searches.
- World Wide Web
- Information residing on the internet that is based on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to provide a common protocol and interface. One of the defining features of WWW is the use of hyperlinks to navigate between pages and information sources.
back to top | <urn:uuid:3ac9688f-5f19-4ed7-bff0-c25f3b6693a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.clark.edu/Library/iris/glossary/glossary_home.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897478 | 4,392 | 3.953125 | 4 |
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How does your parathyroid affect your bone health? Find out about the link between hyperparathyroidism, calcium, and osteoporosis.
Osteomalacia makes a body bend and break. Learn more about this “soft bone” disease.
WebMD answers your questions about bone health and preventing osteoporosis.
WebMD explains bone weakness, or osteoporosis, in men.
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Are you at risk for osteoporosis, or weakening of the bones? Learn more from WebMD about causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention of the condition.
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WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information. | <urn:uuid:bd060a20-dcc5-4142-ade7-85aac9d6c670> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/medical-reference-index | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887442 | 511 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Twinkl is a colourful site that helps with phase 1 – 5 of ‘Letters and Sounds’.
Learning and Teaching Resources
Twinkl offer a selection of resources that can be downloaded for use in the classroom if ‘Letters and Sounds’ is being followed as the school’s preferred synthetic phonics programme in the Early Years Foundation Stage and English Key Stage 1.
Phases 1 to 5 of Phonics Learning
There are teaching resources that cover Phase 1 of ‘Letters and Sounds’ through to Phase 5 phonics. Phase 1 resources include word mats, phoneme frames, alphabet mats and CVC word cards. For Phase 2, letter tracing activities can be found and these are useful in linking letters, sounds and handwriting.
High Frequency Word Bingo
High frequency word bingo can be found on the website and this is a great way of making sure children learn these in a fun way. For other phases of ‘Letters and Sounds’, similar resources exist. However, it is strongly advised that teachers have a thorough browse as there are several pages of resources to be explored for each phase! These phonics teaching resources can be used to add variety and interest within phonics lessons.
For teachers thinking about phonics interventions at Key Stage 1, many of the resources are ideal for use in this capacity.
There is also a whole section dedicated to teaching ideas for ‘tricky words’. Teacher resources for phonics games appropriate to Reception classes and Key Stage 1 can be found on this site.
Supporting Interactive Phonics Teaching
Twinkl has more than ample resources for supporting interactive phonics teaching. The teaching materials for phonics are linked to ‘Letters and Sounds’, but teachers may still find them a useful tool for phonics teaching with schemes that mirror the sequential introduction of grapheme-phoneme correspondence in the DfES document. Not only can the resources be used in phonics lessons, but they may be helpful in developing a Key Stage 1 phonics display in the classroom. | <urn:uuid:ccbedd58-6631-4d4b-b7c2-8e6367d510f2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.free-teaching-resources.co.uk/teacher-resource/twinkl/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928991 | 428 | 3.390625 | 3 |
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
Economic historians ask: How natural were American natural resources?
Gold and silver are not the produce of North America, which has no mines.In its brief history, the United States has been called both mineral poor and mineral rich. Two Stanford economic historians suggest either characterization hides an important fact the value of the earth's natural endowment of elements on the periodic table is partly manmade.
The United States started to become rich after the Civil War with mining, say Paul David and Gavin Wright, both Stanford professors. It quickly became the world's leading mineral producer, which fueled its industrial growth. But this success was based in part on adaptive new technologies that made its natural endowment grow bigger.
Their recently published thesis challenges the thinking of many economists and conservationists who visualize a country's natural resource endowment as something fixed and given by nature alone.
"The idea of thinking of a natural resource base as something that is given and fixed in extent has to be qualified," David said. "The economically relevant resource base can grow as a result of new discoveries and through improved technologies of extraction and refinement or processing. Access to better scientific understanding and engineering knowledge applied in those areas and institutions that effectively channel market incentives toward exploration and commercial utilization can be just as important if not more important than a country's 'natural' geological endowment."
Mineral poor at first
In Benjamin Franklin's day, colonial settlers thought they had an abundance of land but virtually no mining potential, David and Wright say in their brief history of American mining, published last summer by Stanford's Center for Economic Policy Research.
After the Civil War, mining exploded not just in the newly settled West but in the original colonies, and the United States became known as an especially mineral-rich country. Well into the 20th century, America's growing manufacturing prowess was based upon increasingly intensive use of natural resources, and this was reflected in the rising resource content of the country's manufactured exports during the period 1880-1929. That trend was first identified in 1970 in a doctoral thesis by Mary Locke Eysenbach, a graduate student who worked with David. Eysenbach was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in economics at Stanford in 75 years. Building on her pioneering study, Wright confirmed this feature of America's industrial success in a widely-recognized article published by the American Economic Review in 1990.
Intrigued by the question of what conditions underlie abundant supplies of mineral resources, David and Wright began to search old and new geological reports. When they tallied up the globe's confirmed and suspected mineral deposits, including ones that had been mined out in the United States by that time, they discovered that the country wasn't well endowed with minerals compared to many other countries. Today, for example, it is believed the United States has just 8 percent of the world's iron ore, whereas in 1910, a quarter of the world's known iron ore reserves were in the United States and 70 percent of the estimated potential reserves were also thought to be here.
Many other countries had significant mineral endowments but they remained unknown because those countries weren't as quick to discover or use them, Wright said. Until the 1960s, for example, Australians accepted a number of rationalizations for why they had found so few minerals. In hindsight, he said, it looks as though "Yankee optimism" a cultural factor was "as important as hard rock" to U.S. natural resource development.
The Spanish explorers, of course, were optimistic too, without nearly the same success. "The Spanish were fixated on finding precious metals and seem to have had the idea they would be obvious when they did find them," Wright said.
Maps to buried treasure
The American approach was different, according to David and Wright. Early in the 19th century, Americans began to take the view that geologists and topographers held "maps to buried treasure" and they were easy to convince that public money should be spent on geological mapping. By 1860 nearly every state had sponsored a geological survey, and the United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879, became the most productive governmental research agency of the 19th century. "The payoff to its early topographical and metallurgical work had a lasting impact on popular appreciation of the practical benefits of scientific research," David and Wright have written.
American experts found many mineral deposits that weren't economically valuable at the time. Some had no known uses, others were too remote from markets or too low in quality.
The anthracite coal fields in eastern Pennsylvania weren't considered a valuable resource, for example, until someone figured out how to burn anthracite in place of higher grades of coal, David said. Uranium wasn't seen as valuable until relatively recently.
Even the value of the South's softwood forests grew, David noted, after it was discovered that timber could be treated with creosote, a coal tar, to make the wood resistant to weathering, so it could be used for railroad ties and telephone poles.
In this way, David said, "there has been an enormous expansion of the world's resources even though we know they are being depleted."
"The more you look for things and the more you are mining them in a particular area, the more resources you discover in those areas. There are increasing returns not forever but for a period and that's a counter-intuitive way of thinking about natural resources."
In some ways, it seems obvious that more looking leads to more finding, but economic literature has not grasped this point about natural resources, Wright said, and neither did the great British mining industry that preceded America's.
"British leadership in coal goes back to the 16th century, and they built up great expertise in mining and a transportation system," he said. But as late as 1947, the British government had just 58 experts in geology stationed in its far-flung empire.
"The British built up a great working knowledge of coal, mainly stored in the heads of coal men. That sort of knowledge can be very useful, but it was not codified, not written down in a form that lends itself to teaching others in a classroom," Wright said.
The first U.S. mining experts were educated in Europe but Columbia College in New York opened a school of mines in 1864 and more than 20 U.S. schools were granting mining degrees by 1890. By 1903, the University of California boasted that, with 300 mining students, it was "without doubt the largest mining college in the world."
Herbert Hoover, perhaps the world's most famous mining engineer and an alumnus of Stanford, was "the epitome of the American approach" to mining, Wright said, mixing business skills with engineering knowledge. While the Europeans trained mining engineers to serve as inspectors and regulators, American engineers increasingly assumed managerial and executive roles within large firms.
Self-educated American miners and prospectors resisted the college influence, but attitudes changed when geologists came up with quicker ways to locate petroleum, David and Wright say. "Certain people on the earth science faculty at Stanford have been responsible for more sophisticated theories about how to locate oil," David said. "As this type of knowledge allows you to reduce the costs of exploration, the amount of known reserves expands."
In essential respects, he and Wright say, "the minerals economy was an integral part of the emerging knowledge-based economy of the 20th century." In an absolute sense, natural resources are determined by geologic and climatic conditions still beyond human control, but a comparative history of their use in countries would show great variability in their economic value, they say.
"The value of those resources and even the resources that are known to exist as economic assets are really determined by a combination of society's access to ecological knowledge, its endowment of human skills and trained people, and the institutional structure and legal systems that create incentives to use them," David said.
Lessons for other countries
For countries such as those of the former Soviet Union, which are now attempting to build a market economy, there are some important lessons, he said.
"The mineral assets of Russia are being exploited now in a way that is very export-oriented. They are controlled by a relatively small clique of former members of the state apparatus and since this is a large source of foreign exchange, it is also the basis for these groups getting their hands on a lot of assets."
They are using those assets, he said, to take control of the domestic banking industry, rather than plowing the earnings into domestic industrialization.
Americans exported minerals but they also invested in developing new ways to process them for manufactured goods. "They sold not only crude oil but built an organic chemistry industry that was designed to use petroleum" at a time when Germany dominated the chemical industry using coal tar derivatives, he said.
If countries don't take that approach, he said, their natural resource wealth eventually is used up or the market shifts to reliance on another resource.
Copies of David and Wright's paper, titled "Increasing Returns and the Genesis of American Resource Abundance," are available from the Center for Economic Policy Research, (415) 725-6668.
By Kathleen O'Toole
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