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The traveling salesman problem, like many nonlinear optimization problems
with a large number of parameters, is typically solved using an approach that
utilizes randomness, rewards improved optimization, and allows for diversity in
possible solutions to reduce the chance of becoming stuck in a local minimum.
The model used in this case is a simulated annealing model, in which
perturbations are made to the salesman's path. Perturbations that improve the
optimization are automatically accepted, and perturbations that do not improve
the optimization are sometimes accepted at early stages in the optimization, but
less often accepted in later stages of the optimization. This can be thought of
as a "cooling" process, and indeed the parameter used to determine whether or
not to accept a perturbation that does not improve the optimization is called
the temperature. If one thinks of the optimization process as a simplex rolling
downward, a higher temperature would occasionally "shake things up", allowing a
simplex to pop out of a local minimum and possibly find a better global minimum.
Perturbations in this model can take one of many forms--a random
rearrangement of all cities, a random rearrangement of a few contiguous cities,
a swap of two random cities, a reversal of some number of contiguous cities--and
the optimization parameter in the model is the total length of the salesman's
The parallelization of this problem is not entirely trivial, as having 10
processes attempt 10 trials in parallel is not equivalent to having 1 process
calculate 100 trials. Each trial has the potential to improve the solution, but
if all processes improve by the same amount, having more processes participate
may or may not be helpful. The implementation that has been used in this problem
has P processes attempting N trials and then comparing to see who has the best
solution. Each process restarts using the best current known solution, and this
process is repeated M times.
This traveling salesman model is designed to run on a UNIX machine from a
command line, with X-Windows used for visualization. Parallelization of the code
has been done using MPI. | <urn:uuid:9545e281-c115-4d90-b1f8-ac3d672842e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shodor.org/refdesk/Resources/Models/TravelingSalesman/theory.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90617 | 452 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Pet Health Center
Common Intestinal Parasites in Cats and Dogs
Both cats and dogs can be infected by roundworms. They acquire them by ingesting soil/feces contaminated by eggs and larvae or by eating infected rodents, birds and insects. Puppies and kittens are often infected by the mother while still in the uterus. They can also be infected while nursing. Diagnosis can be made by finding eggs by microscopic exam of the feces or by seeing adult worms voided in the feces or vomit. Larval forms can migrate through the lungs and cause a condition known as verminous pneumonia. Adult roundworms live in the small intestines and can form in large enough numbers to cause intestinal blockage and death. They can also be transmitted to people and cause a serious illness known as visceral larval migrans and blindness caused by ocular larval migrans.
Hookworms are a serious para site of cats and dogs. Pets acquire them by ingesting infective larvae or by the actual penetration of larvae through their skin or feet. They can also be transmitted by the mother during pregnancy or through nursing. These parasites can only be found by microscopic exam of feces. Hookworms attach to the intestinal lining and feed off the blood of their host. They can cause severe enough anemia to cause sudden collapse and death, especially in young, weak and malnourished animals. Other animals may show a slowly progressive wasting disease. Weight loss, diarrhea and tarry or bloody stools frequently occur in animals with hookworms. Hookworms can also be transmitted to humans and cause a skin disorder known as cutaneous larval migrans or creeping eruption.
Whipworms are small, thin worms that live in the large intestine and cecum of dogs. It is extremely rare in North American cats. Dogs acquire them by ingesting eggs from contaminated soil/feces. These eggs are very resistant and can live in the soil for 5-7 years. Infection can only be detected by microscopic exam of the feces. Eggs are shed in low numbers, thus, it may take several stool sample exams to be detected. This can make diagnosing a whipworm infection difficult. Whipworms can cause diarrhea, bloody stools, weight loss and poor general health. Massive rectal bleeding occasionally occurs. Severe infection can result in electrolyte imbalances that will mimic a life-threatening disease condition known as hypoadrenocorticism.
There are several species of tapeworms. Both cats and dogs can be infected. The most common routes of infection are by eating small rodents/rabbits or by ingesting fleas which carry the infective stage. Tapeworms live in the small intestine with their head buried in the lining. They are relatively harmless to your pet, but can cause mild GI upset on occasion. Tapeworms can be difficult to diagnose on fecal exams as the eggs are often passed in the packets (segments). These segments can be seen in your pets feces or coming out from the anus. They usually are passed as short, flat, whitish objects around ¼-1/2" long. They will also sometimes stay connected and appear as a long, flat ribbon-like object. They will be moving if still alive. Dried out segments appear as yellow-gold rice like objects attached to the hair around the anus. People should not mistake maggots for tapeworms. Maggots are rounded and are not seen in freshly passed stool. Humans cannot acquire tapeworms from their pets. They can, however, acquire them by the same routes as their pets.
Coccidia are single celled organisms that infect the intestines of dogs and cats. They can only be detected by microscopic exam of your pet's feces. Your pet becomes infected by ingesting contaminated dirt/feces or intermediate hosts such as mice. This parasite is especially common in young and stressed animals. It causes bloody, watery diarrhea and sometimes death, especially in young animals. There are no products to kill the organism. Treatment is aimed at stopping reproduction of the organism so it is easier for the patient's immune system to take over and fight off the infection. Treatment usually lasts several weeks.
Giardia is a protozoal (one-celled) organism that parasitizes the small intestine of dogs and cats. It can also infect humans. Pets/people are infected by ingesting the cyst form of this organism from contaminated food and water. Diagnosis is made by microscopic exam of feces. It can be very difficult to detect. Symptoms of disease are chronic soft stools to profuse watery diarrhea. There is often mucous mixed in. Weight loss, lethargy, dehydration and anorexia may also occur. Treatment can be difficult as there is a high degree of recontamination of the patient and resistance to several drugs. Bathing the animal during treatment is recommended to help prevent reinfection by your pet licking cysts off of its fur while grooming.
Physaloptera (stomach worms)
Stomach worms are parasites of both cats and dogs. As the name implies, they live in the stomach. They are often treated for by your veterinarian if your pet has chronic vomiting. Eggs are not readily detected in stool samples. Your pet may occasionally vomit up a worm. Pets are infected by eating an intermediate host such as a cricket, cockroach or another animal which has ingested one of these insects. These parasites are also sometimes diagnosed by endoscopy. These parasites are not infectious to humans.
*You will get better fecal results by submitting fresh stool samples (less than 24 hours old). They should be kept refrigerated but not frozen.
**There is not one dewormer that will control all intestinal parasites. It is important that stool samples be checked frequently and that you consult with your veterinarian on the best treatment for your pet. | <urn:uuid:771f1c07-6fa1-4da3-a7f7-ffb6f134e3c7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vet.k-state.edu/vhc/services/phc/common-parasites.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963 | 1,204 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Introducing new technology into the classroom, especially iPads, can be overwhelming -- even daunting. When first getting started, the technology may seem like more of a distraction than a learning opportunity. So how do you begin?
Scott Meech (@smeech), Director of Technology for the Downer's Grove School District in Illinois, offers this perspective:
A lot of times, when technology is first introduced into the classroom, the technology becomes the target. You hear a lot of teachers saying, "I want to do an iMovie project [or another app]." . . . when technology becomes effective, the learning target is articulated as "I want students to . . . demonstrate knowledge or understanding."
Dr. Ruben Puentedura (@rubenrp) developed the SAMR Model for assessing and implementing new technologies. At the most basic level, new technologies are used as a substitution for something that could previously be achieved with an older tool -- for example, a typed report, a digital poster or a PDF worksheet. However, this is only the first step. As we progress from using technology as an enhancement to focusing on its power for transformation, we recognize the potential to redefine learning. Scott Meech revised the SAMR model image to add additional context: "Cement Foundation and Reach for Gold."
The SAMR Model
What technology can you use to get to redefinition? How do you start reaching for gold? Is there "an app for that"? Maybe.
One of the most valuable tools afforded by iPads is the ability to screencast -- to combine audio, images, drawing and text on a whiteboard to create a video. Given the multitude of outputs afforded by this one type of app, what if we focused on accelerating learning through a single tool?
Cement Foundation: Substitution & Augmentation
Whether you choose Screenchomp, Educreations, ExplainEverything or any other screencasting app, at the substitution level of SAMR, they all enable the production of PowerPoint-like videos to deliver lecture-based content. The paradigm is familiar and provides an opportunity to gain experience with iPad. However, the end goal should not be to simply create a screencast. To use Scott’s language, the learning target should be to make thinking visual.
Stepping toward the augmentation level, students may use screencasting to demonstrate solving a math problem, or labeling a process that focuses more on demonstrating their comprehension rather than presenting facts. They might leverage the drawing tools and audio recording to tell a story, provide additional context or explain their thought processes.
Jennie Magiera (@MsMagiera), Digital Learning Coordinator for Chicago's Academy for Urban School Leadership, displays her students' work at Magiera's Mathematicians. Here we can see how Brittany M., a fifth grader, used screencasting to create a video word problem. In watching her story, we see her problem-solving approach, know that she understands the concept of conversions, and also gain insight into how she constructs her understanding.
In leveraging the functionality afforded by a single type of app, a new learning context emerges.
Reaching for Gold: Modification & Redefinition
Shannon Soger (@shannonsoger), a 1:1 coordinator in Chicago, encourages teachers to teach above the line. The goal should be to consistently move toward transformation. Still working with screencasting, we can modify our concept of what is possible.
As Kristen Wideen (@MrsWideen) demonstrates with her mixed first and second grade class, screencasting bridges the gap between the physical and the virtual in order to extend the learning context. Through the use of the Explain Everything app, in conjunction with a paper-based project, she encourages meta cognition and provides students with a voice to explain their thinking. In a similar vein, consider the learning target of presenting knowledge, demonstrating understanding, and offering an explanation. Not only does the following example from MIT offer an exposition of structures, but it also incorporates persuasive writing skills and complex communication.
Referring back to Scott's original statement, the goal is to redefine the learning -- not the technology. Watch as Jenni Robertson's student articulates her strategies for solving an arithmetic problem. Screencasting captures her thoughts and allows us to witness a process that might otherwise have been missed.
Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards), creator of the Explain Everything screencasting app and Director of Educational Technology at Montclair Kimberley Academy, has researched the impact of screencasting on redefinition as part of his doctoral work:
The redefinition (what I consider the magic!) leveraged by student screencasting comes from unintended and unprompted activities, conversations, and artifacts of learning. For example, in the classrooms where I have been conducting research on student screencasting, one of the most remarkable and consistent unintended outcomes was that students, no matter how young or old, and no matter what discipline, intrinsically reflected, self-assessed, and adjusted their articulation of understanding. Even when the screencasts were being made for an audience of zero, this phenomenon occurred. None of the teachers involved in the study ever instructed students to play back their screencasts or make revisions. The students just did it.
Teaching Above the Line
What if the sole use for iPads during the first few weeks of school was to create screencasts? What if the focus was on "climbing the SAMR ladder" rather than on integrating a device? Imagine the learning targets that could be reached and the transformation that could occur. | <urn:uuid:5c658fd7-70f6-4e09-ab4b-bacdda6ec923> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.edutopia.org/blog/redefining-learning-through-screencasting-beth-holland | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931318 | 1,128 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Gastric tissue biopsy is the removal of stomach tissue for examination. A culture is a laboratory test that examines the tissue sample for bacteria and other organisms that can cause disease.
This article focuses on the laboratory test. For information on how the test sample is taken, see: upper endoscopy (or EGD).
Culture - gastric tissue; Biopsy - gastric tissue
The gastric tissue biopsy sample is removed during an upper endoscopy. For information on how this procedure is performed, see upper endoscopy (or EGD).
The health care provider sends the tissue sample to a laboratory where it is examined for signs of cancer, certain infections, or other problems.
Don't eat or drink anything for 6 - 12 hours before the biopsy procedure. For more information see upper endoscopy.
For information on how the biopsy procedure will feel, see: Upper endoscopy.
This test may be done to diagnose a stomach ulcer or the cause of other stomach symptoms. These symptoms may include:
A gastric tissue biopsy and culture can help detect:
Abnormal results may be due to:
The examples above are common measurements for results of these tests. Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different laboratories. Some labs use different measurements or test different samples. Talk to your doctor about the meaning of your specific test results.
A gastric tissue biopsy is normal if it does not show cancer, other damage to the lining of the stomach, or signs of Helicobacter pylori infection.
A gastric tissue culture may be considered normal if it does not show certain bacteria. Stomach acids normally prevent too much bacteria from growing
There are no risks associated with a culture. For information on risks related to the biopsy procedure, see upper endoscopy.
Peura DA, Crowe SE. Helicobacter pylori. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, eds. Sleisenger & Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2010:chap 50. | <urn:uuid:4973e3e4-038b-461a-8a38-9abae2916868> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.northside.com/HealthLibrary/?Path=HIE+Multimedia%5C1%5C003728.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.880529 | 441 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Today’s Smithsonian Snapshot looks at another method of mail delivery that dominated the early 20th century metropolitan landscape: the pneumatic mail container.
In the late 1890s, networks of pneumatic tube systems were installed under city streets to move the mail. Each pneumatic tube canister could hold up to 500 letters. The canisters, also known as carriers, were air compressed through the system, traveling in a spinning motion at an average of 35 miles per hour. At its peak productivity, 6 million pieces of mail traveled through the system daily at a rate of five carriers per minute.
In 1893, the first pneumatic tubes were introduced in Philadelphia; in 1897, the service started in New York City. Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis also eventually incorporated the system. By 1915, six cities (including Brooklyn) had more than 56 miles of pneumatic tubes pulsing under the streets.
During World War I, the Post Office Department suspended the service to conserve funding for the war effort. After the war service was restored in New York and Boston. By the 1950s, it became clear that the end of pneumatic tubes was in sight as increasing mail volumes and changing urban landscapes made it impractical. While post offices and businesses moved with relative ease, the underground pneumatic system did not. | <urn:uuid:60c46163-66cf-4006-9d45-3c822443e84d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.welovedc.com/2011/10/12/smithsonian-snapshot-pneumatic-mail-delivery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968013 | 271 | 3.765625 | 4 |
What happens when someone is arrested.
The Liberty website has a good general guide to what happens when someone is arrested and explains a person's rights.
The process of obtaining a DNA sample usually begins at a police station when an officer takes a tissue sample from a newly arrested person. The police first check the Police National Computer (PNC) to see if the individual's DNA profile is already on the NDNAD - a fresh sample is not taken if an existing profile is confirmed. Most often a sample is obtained via a mouth swab - a large cotton wool bud is rubbed inside the suspect's cheek to loosen and collect skin cells. Alternatively, ten hairs with roots can be removed from the head. The sample is then put into a small plastic tube which is sealed. The process is repeated so that there are two samples for each suspect.
Code D of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and its Codes of Practice (as amended 2005) stipulates when and how the police can take DNA samples from an individual. They only have a right to take both intimate (such as blood or urine) and non-intimate samples (such as hair or cheek swabs) 'only when justified and necessary for preventing, detecting or investigating crime'.
The police can take non-intimate samples if a person has been arrested for a recordable offence (this includes begging, being drunk and disorderly and taking part in an illegal demonstration). The DNA does not have to be relevant to the offence for which a person is being arrested and they do not have to be charged before the sample is taken. The police are not allowed to take more than one 'successful' sample from the same body part during the course of an investigation.
The police can take an intimate sample only with a person's written consent even if they have been arrested.
Once a DNA sample is taken, it is stored, processed and the person's profile is added to the National DNA database. This will happen irrespective of whether the person is charged and/or prosecuted. The legal power to do this is with the Chief Officers of each Constabulary. The law gives them the right to add a person's DNA to the database but does not oblige them to do so. This is the same for fingerprints and for entries on the Police National Computer (the PNC).
The information included on the National DNA Database is:
- the Arrest Summons Number (which provides a link to the record on the PNC)
- the person's name
- their date of birth
- their ethnic appearance
- their sex
- information about the police force that collected the sample
- information about the laboratory that analysed the sample
- the sample type (blood, semen, saliva etc.)
- the test type
- the DNA profile. | <urn:uuid:7e800d69-f797-4dc5-a804-8b23ff2172ae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.genewatch.org/sub-539483 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953945 | 571 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Once upon a time, people used to get something called “newspapers” delivered to their homes every day. And in these newspapers were something called “comic strips.” Unlike the cramped, minimalist things of today, these comics were large, elaborate, often full-page affairs. And in the early days of comic strips one of the most popular was Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay.
Nemo, who appeared in comic strips from 1905 to 1914, was a little boy who fell out of bed into adventures in the land of King Morpheus and his beautiful daughter, the Princess. Little Nemo was notable both for the gorgeous details of McCay’s drawings and for the lush and surrealistic landscapes. While some of the recurring characters he meets would be considered offensive ethnic stereotypes, no one can deny the beauty of McCay’s two-dimensional fantasy worlds.
Google is commemorating the 107th anniversary of artist Winsor McCay’s comic masterpiece with an animated Doodle (visible in a sneak peek via google.com/sg) that follows Nemo through several levels of adventures, Inception-style. That the strip is animated is especially appropriate given that McCay was an earlier popularizer of the art form. Unlike the computer-generated films of today, each frame of McCay’s cartoons were drawn by hand with pen and ink on paper. Even the backgrounds were redrawn, frame by frame.
McCay traveled around presenting live vaudeville shows in which he interacted with an onscreen drawing. Ironically, his drawings were so life-like that audiences refused to believe they weren’t seeing people in costumes. The artist addressed that objection by creating Gertie the Dinosaur, a brontosaurus who was definitely not humanoid. Gertie is considered the first animated character to exhibit her own personality — she plays with McCay on stage and reacts to his teasing.
McCay’s Nemo got an updated treatment in the 1989 full-length feature movie Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland written by Chris Columbus. However, that version didn’t preserve McCay’s almost delicate pen-and-ink style. A Blu-ray version is set for release this year. But to learn about and savor McCay’s original style, check out Winsor McCay: His Life and Art by Academy-Award-winning animator John Canemaker. | <urn:uuid:aabc9336-df82-48f0-a326-865a779f575f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://archive.wired.com/geekmom/tag/winsor-mccay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973866 | 507 | 2.53125 | 3 |
10 Guiding Principles
The architecture for the Hippocratic database concept is to be based on 10 guiding principles: purpose specification, consent, limited collection, limited use, limited disclosure, limited retention, accuracy, openness and compliance. The Hippocratic database and its components would work in the following way, according to IBM officials. First, metadata tables would be defined for each type of information collected. A Privacy Metadata Creator would generate the tables to determine who should have access to what data and how long that data should be stored. A Privacy Constraint Validator would check whether a sites privacy policies match a users preferences, and once this is verified the data would be transmitted from the user to the database.In the final step, a Data Retention Manager would delete any items stored beyond the length of their intended purpose. Audit trails of queries also would be kept to allow for privacy audits and to guard the database from suspicion that it has been misused. While IBM researchers are interested in eventually including the Hippocratic database concept into IBMs DB2 database, they also want to expand interest in the concept. Agrawal hopes the presentation of the concept will lead other vendors and university researchers to embrace and evolve it. "I wanted the database community to become cognizant of the issues," Agrawal said. "I personally think it will help if others participate in it."
A Data Accuracy Analyzer would test the accuracy of the data being shared. Once queries are submitted along with their intended purpose, the Attribute Access Control would verify whether the query is accessing only those fields necessary for the querys purpose. Only records that match the queries purpose would be visible thanks to the Record Access Control component. The Query Intrusion Detector then would run compliance tests on the results to detect any queries whose access pattern varies from the normal access pattern. | <urn:uuid:805d5c1a-31c7-4878-8041-2e44b8101814> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Database/IBM-at-Work-on-Hippocratic-Database/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940149 | 371 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Teen Driving is the Leading Cause of Teen Deaths
In American culture, getting a driver’s license at 16 is considered a rite of passage. But lately, it has grown from an exciting stage of growth to a death sentence for thousands of teens every year.
Tragically, motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 16 and 19 — they have the highest crash rate of any age group.
In fact, according to a study conducted by Safe Kids Worldwide and made possible by a $2 million grant from General Motors Foundation, more teens die in motor vehicle crashes than from any other cause of death. The toll is about 2,500 per year or 8 out of every 1,000 teens.
Because more teens obtain their driver’s licenses during the summer than any other season, their parents’ auto expenses also rise accordingly. With that in mind, Wallethub compared the driving conditions for teens in the 50 United States based on 16 key metrics. The data is broken down into categories that examine the safety conditions, economic environment, and driving laws of each state, to the average cost of car repairs and the number of teen drivers in each state, and even impaired-driving laws and teen driver fatalities.
Please see the interactive infographic attached below to see how your state ranks, as well as for state-by-state factoids about the best and worst states for teen drivers.
The financial implications of those statistics are staggering. Although young people aged 15 to 24 represent only 14 percent of the population, they account for about 30 percent of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries! | <urn:uuid:602ee736-f726-4229-9d3f-484a2445c034> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://m.blogher.com/teen-driving-leading-cause-teen-deaths | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944795 | 332 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Essential Reading - the course
High Beginner to Upper intermediate
Essential Reading is a unique four-level course aimed at university level students, taking learners from High Beginner to Upper intermediate level.
Essential Reading builds on the latest research into what good readers do. It includes explicit vocabulary work and fluency development - each book comes with a complete short story taken from the Macmillan Readers series.
- Both intensive and extensive approaches to reading
- A wide range of engaging topics such as Money, Sport, and Relationships
- A full range of skills-building activities
Each level contains 12 topic-based units consisting of two parallel texts and 12 review units.
Essential Reading Teacher's File provides additional photocopiable activities, cultural background notes, full answer keys and a CD Rom test generator.
Levels and Components
Essential Reading 4 Student Book
Upper intermediate - 9780 2300 20191
Essential Reading Teacher's File
9780 2300 20245 | <urn:uuid:d9b8f282-ae76-4929-8c86-26579eb2c895> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.macmillanenglish.com/essentialreading/courses.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.86837 | 203 | 2.71875 | 3 |
1945: Allied troops liberate Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26), Buchenwald (April 11), and Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there.|
1948: Life magazine makes American painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, "Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?"; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule.
1954: Raymond Kroc buys McDonald's franchise rights and begins the global proliferation of golden arches.
1962: Movie Actress Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills.
1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1965: The United States begins air raids in Vietnam, committing 190,000 U.S. troops there by year's end.
1977: The Centre National d'Art et de la Culture Georges-Pompidou (Pompidou Centre or "Beaubourg"), a Hi-Tech metal-framework building designed by Richard Rogers, is completed in Paris and proves immensely popular.
1977: American photographer Cindy Sherman, age 23, exhibits the first of her series of black-and-white "Untitled Film Stills," shots of herself in various disguises and costumes that resemble stills from Hollywood "B" movies.
1979: A U.S. Government agency, the General Services Administration, commissions American sculptor Richard Serra to create a public work for the federal office plaza in downtown Manhattan; installed in 1981, his "Tilted Arc" is removed in 1989, over protest from Serra, following prolonged public opposition.
1989: American artist Andre Serrano's work "Piss Christ" arouses the ire of U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, prompting him to introduce legislation barring federal support for what he terms "obscene" work; Congress votes to establish a panel to evaluate standards for judging if art is obscene.
1990: A Cincinnati jury finds that city's Contemporary Arts Center and its director not guilty of obscenity for exhibiting homoerotic work by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS the previous year at age 42; soon after his death, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., cancelled its Mapplethorpe exhibition in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid Congressional debate of federal funding for the arts. | <urn:uuid:31330d89-4f34-4032-8a87-966e78963c3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/timelines/timeline_e.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929462 | 518 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Whale Spotting in Google Earth
Thursday, 22nd March 2007 by James Turnbull
There are about 80 known whale species around the globe, the largest of which is of course the Blue Whale, which can measure up to a massive 30m long.
Such a giant beast should easily be visible on the aerial and satellite photographs of Google Earth, it’s just a matter of finding them…
To start with, there’s definitely a blue whale in this Japanese swimming pool, but I don’t think that counts.
Outside of UC Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory there’s an 85-foot long Blue Whale skeleton. The female whale was washed ashore of Pescadero Beach in 1979, after dying of unknown causes.
We’ve still not found any live whales though! Off the coast of Santa Barbara there’s a 10m long grey blob that could resemble a whale, or more likely a shark. Either way it would have to be very close to the surface to be seen so easily. I’m not convinced.
And finally, to Argentina, where there could just be real whales.
Thanks: The many people who thought they saw a whale, including: Jonathan_Tronson, FrequentFlyer, danescombe, bagabnoosh, kjfitz, Ralph Mettier, Nick, Jim Morton, Andrew, Rking, Yoshino, Barb, Caraurta, danescombe, Todd Pearson, Andrea from Italy, Nichole, James, A30 & John Hartnup | <urn:uuid:7f5bd572-6056-446f-a184-c433b34e4286> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/03/whale-spotting-in-google-earth/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00088-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915033 | 323 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Pronunciation: (brēd), [key]
—v., bred, breed•ing,
1. to produce (offspring); procreate; engender.
2. to produce by mating; propagate sexually; reproduce: Ten mice were bred in the laboratory.
a. to cause to reproduce by controlled pollination.
b. to improve by controlled pollination and selection.
4. to raise (cattle, sheep, etc.): He breeds longhorns on the ranch.
5. to cause or be the source of; engender; give rise to: Dirt breeds disease. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
6. to develop by training or education; bring up; rear: He was born and bred a gentleman.
7. Energy.to produce more fissile nuclear fuel than is consumed in a reactor.
8. to impregnate; mate: Breed a strong mare with a fast stallion and hope for a Derby winner.
1. to produce offspring: Many animals breed in the spring.
2. to be engendered or produced; grow; develop: Bacteria will not breed in alcohol.
3. to cause the birth of young, as in raising stock.
4. to be pregnant.
1. Genetics.a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans.
2. lineage; stock; strain: She comes from a fine breed of people.
3. sort; kind; group: Scholars are a quiet breed.
4. Offensive.half-breed (def. 2).
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease. | <urn:uuid:106e90df-9ffe-4c8b-b40e-981f0039bbea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dictionary.infoplease.com/breed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898798 | 354 | 2.796875 | 3 |
With more rain in the forecast for this week and the rising Choctawhatchee River, the American Red Cross urges residents to practice safe measures before, during and after heavy rainfall and the flooding that can accompany a storm.
Know What to Expect
Know your area's flood risk--if unsure, call your local Red Cross chapter, emergency management office, or planning and zoning department.
If it has been raining hard for several hours, or steadily raining for several days, be alert to the possibility of a flood.
Listen to local radio or TV stations for flood information.
Reduce Potential Flood Reduce Potential Damage By . . .
Raising your furnace, water heater, and electric panel if they are in areas of your home that may be flooded.
Consult with a professional for further information if this and other damage reduction measures can be taken.
Floods Can Take Several Hours to Days to Develop
A flood WATCH means a flood is possible in your area.
A flood WARNING means flooding is already occurring or will occur soon in your area.
Flash Floods Can Take Only a Few Minutes to a Few Hours to Develop
A flash flood WATCH means flash flooding is possible in your area.
A flash flood WARNING means a flash flood is occurring or will occur very soon
Prepare a Family Disaster Plan
Check to see if you have insurance that covers flooding. If not, find out how to get flood insurance.
-Keep insurance policies, documents, and other valuables in a safe-deposit box.
-First aid kit and essential medications.
-Canned food and can opener.
-At least three gallons of water per person
-Protective clothing, rainwear, and bedding or sleeping bags.
-Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batteries.
-Special items for infants, elderly, or disabled family members.
-Written instructions for how to turn off electricity, gas and water if authorities advise you to do so. (Remember, you'll need a professional to turn them back on.)
Identify where you could go if told to evacuate. Choose several places . . . a friend's home in another town, a motel, or a shelter.
When a Flood WATCH Is Issued . . .
-Move your furniture and valuables to higher floors of your home.
-Fill your car's gas tank, in case an evacuation notice is issued.
When a Flood WARNING Is Issued . . .
Listen to local radio and TV stations for information and advice. If told to evacuate, do so as soon as possible.
When a Flash Flood WATCH Is Issued . . .
Be alert to signs of flash flooding and be ready to evacuate on a moment's notice.
When a Flash Flood WARNING Is Issued . . .
Or if you think it has already started, evacuate immediately. You may have only seconds to escape. Act quickly!
-Move to higher ground away from rivers, streams, creeks, and storm drains. Do not drive around barricades . . . they are there for your safety.
-If your car stalls in rapidly rising waters, abandon it immediately and climb to higher ground.
Let your family know you're safe. If your community experiences a storm with flooding conditions, register on the American Red Cross Safe and Well Website available through www.RedCross.org to let your family know about your welfare. If you don't have internet access, call 1-866-GET INFO to register yourself and your family. | <urn:uuid:390c0261-7d32-45e3-8aa0-d1e9136ebe5e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wjhg.com/community/headlines/42210532.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00011-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930577 | 725 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The Queen of Sheba
Michael Wood’s first journey is inspired by a Bible story: the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon in Jerusalem. The Bible tales, which were written down in the Iron Age in the Near East, have had an extraordinary impact on western civilization, more so than perhaps any body of myths and stories. These stories have proved amazingly tenacious and enduring: they even provide the state myth for two of the modern countries on Wood’s itinerary, Ethiopia and Israel. The tale of the Queen of Sheba amounts to only a few lines in the Bible text, lines that have so far proven impossible to verify as history. The tale has spawned a vast body of later myth: Koranic, Jewish and Christian -- especially Ethiopian Orthodox Christian -- where the queen is viewed literally as the mother of the nation, whose son brought the Lost Ark of the Covenant back to Axum, where Ethiopians believe it still resides. Wood also pursues the fascinating references to the far-flung trade routes, to the Incense Coast, the Horn of Africa and the Yemen. Wood investigates the gifts that Sheba brought to Solomon: the rare incense and spices that were part of the opening of the world to long distance trade in the first millennium B.C. Thus Wood is off on the exploration of a myth, while also examining the real historical links which connect early Arabia and the Near East and Africa with two civilizations barely known to the outside world. Wood journeys to the sites of these ancient civilizations, traveling from Jerusalem around the Red Sea to the local civilizations of the Yemen (the first civilization of early Arabia) and of Axum (the first civilization of Black Africa).
Arthur: The Once and Future King
Wood next explores the great cycle of Celtic myths that have been nearly as influential in Western culture as those of the Greeks. The legends of King Arthur rose to prominence in the 9th century in Britain, but were already taking shape a few centuries before. These legends reached their full glory in the 12th and 13th, centuries, when in the courtly jests and romances in Europe Arthur and his warriors were transformed into the model of Christian knighthood, searching for the ultimately unattainable, mystical cup of Christ, the Holy Grail. This version of the myth has spread, in poems, books, novels, films ¾ a popularity that shows no signs of letting up. But where did the story come from? Was there a real Arthur? And why did the storytellers of Britain create him in the way they did? Wood finds that excavating one’s own culture can be extremely difficult, as he attempts to see his own culture with a foreigner’s eye. He finds that in Britain this tradition is almost gone. Yet Wood finds that just enough clues remain. On a journey through the culture and language of Celtic Britain and Ireland, searching back to the time when they were decimated by their English and Norman conquerors, driven to the fringes where the last bards still exist today. Even now, in 21st century Britain, just below the surface, the clues survive that point Wood to the Once and Future King.
Wood’s next adventure takes him in search of one of humanity’s greatest myths, the tale of an earthly paradise. But this journey was inspired by a modern myth: the tale of the lost paradise of Shangri-La. The tale first appears in the novel Lost Horizon, written by James Hilton in the 1930s as western civilizations rushed headlong into world war. Since then, through Hollywood, radio and countless books, the tale has exerted a tremendous hold on the imagination of the world; even the presidential retreat at Camp David was originally called Shangri-La. Wood believes the roots of the myth lie in the age-old yearning for the changeless in the face of inevitable change. The direct source of the story is a 1,000-year old legend still told among the Buddhists of India, of an untouched land somewhere beyond the clouds in Tibet, where human beings live in harmony with themselves and the world, free of war and violence. In the 16th century, when the Europeans first heard this story, they of course actually tried to get there. But was Shangri-La based on a real place? Who were its inhabitants? How does one get there? And what does the legend tell us about ourselves today? On this extraordinary journey, Wood goes through India and Nepal (avoiding Maoist guerrillas), then on to western Tibet. There he treks to Mount Kailas, the sacred center of the world for Hindus and Buddhists, then on to the most remote and least known lost city in the world.
Jason and the Golden Fleece
The final journey in the series was inspired by one of the most famous myths of the Heroic Age of ancient Greece. Among all the peoples of the world, the Greeks have handed down to us the greatest number of myths in world literature. This myth, of the hero’s quest, is one of the oldest on earth, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Knights of the Round Table right down to Star Wars. It is the tale of the hero, Jason, who sails into the unknown to fulfill an impossibly dangerous mission. It is a task that takes him into the realm of death itself, where he is only saved by love, in the shape of the priestess Medea and her magical arts. But, as always with Greek myths, the price for such a deal is high, and the power of love turns out in the end to be as destructive as it is life-giving. The story probably comes from the Bronze Age, 3,000 years ago. Setting out on this journey, heading from the holiday islands of the Aegean to today’s war-torn Caucasus, the questions confronting Wood were many: What was the original form of the tale? Where was the journey originally imagined? Indeed, was it a real journey at all? What is the meaning of the tale? And is there any historical truth in the legend’s picture of an archaic and ancient kingdom on the edge of the then known world? This was a world where women were the oracles, and where ram’s fleeces were hung in the sacred groves of the God of Death. The tale of the Golden Fleece takes us from the Aegean to the outer limits of the world -- and the imagination -- of the early Greeks, to the Black Sea and the mysterious land where the Sun rose on the shore of the great ocean: a land where, amazingly, living connections still survive today with the world of Jason and Medea. | <urn:uuid:e0779da6-ec55-4ea5-a026-916801498fe1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.weta.org/press/search-myths-and-heroes-episode-info | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959065 | 1,371 | 2.625 | 3 |
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin [official website] signed into law on Thursday a bill [H 464 materials] outlawing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking [JURIST news archive], making Vermont the first US state to ban the controversial technique used to extract natural gas from the ground. Fracking is the process of injecting a high pressured mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break through rock and release oil and natural gas. Most major oil companies [CNN report], including Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, employ this technique to obtain shale oil and gas. Proponents of fracking say that the practice could reduce US dependency on foreign oil by increasing energy production. At the moment there is no drilling [AP report] taking place in Vermont, and there is no evidence of a reserve of oil or gas in the state. Shumlin stated that:
This bill will ensure we do not inject chemicals into groundwater in a desperate pursuit for energy. It is a big moment. I hope other states will follow us. The science on fracking is uncertain at best. Let the other states be the guinea pigs. Let the Green Mountain State preserve its clean water, its lakes, its rivers and its quality of life.Those opposed to fracking worry that the practice may cause mild earthquakes and the chemicals used may pollute the groundwater.
Fracking has been a contentious issue both in the US and abroad. In January the New Jersey Legislature passed an amendment to a bill [JURIST report] that establishes a one-year ban on fracking. Legislators re-introduced the bill this year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed legislation last June that would have permanently banned fracking in New Jersey [JURIST report]. In October the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] announced plans to develop standards [JURIST report] for wastewater discharge from fracking. Last June New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the US government [JURIST report] for its alleged failure to study the risks of fracking. In May 2011 France's lower house approved a nationwide ban on fracking [JURIST report]. | <urn:uuid:9b9f6788-6cfe-4205-a3aa-71ff1757441c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2012/05/vermont-becomes-first-state-to-outlaw-fracking.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943367 | 430 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Acclaimed Evolution Expert, Family Activities Highlight Darwin Day
Allentown, Pa. (Feb. 18, 2011)—Nancy Moran, Ph.D., the William H. Fleming Professor of Biology at Yale University and an internationally recognized expert on evolution, will deliver the annual Darwin Day lecture at Cedar Crest College on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m. in Alumnae Hall auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Cedar Crest College Professor of Biological Sciences, Richard Kliman, said Moran is one of the most knowledgeable and respected evolutionary biologists in the world, and an ideal candidate to deliver the 2011 Darwin Day lecture.
“Nancy Moran is a leading figure in the interface of ecology and evolution,” said Kliman. “Her research on how different organisms become mutually dependent on each other and evolve together has profound implications on our overall study of the evolution of life.”
Moran is perhaps best known for her research on the symbiotic relationships that exist between organisms, for which she earned the highly coveted 2010 International Prize for Biology. There are many examples of symbiotic relationships in everyday life: for instance, flowering plants and birds, butterflies, and other pollinating animals; and the presence of microorganisms in the human gut, which aid in vitamin synthesis and help protect us against harmful bacteria. Research on the evolution of symbiotic relationships is, therefore, critical for our understanding of ecological relationships among organisms, including those that involve humans.
Among other things, Moran’s research shows that aphids (small plant-eating insects) and resident bacteria have become so mutually beneficial for each other that each has stopped producing genes for certain tasks the other organism is able to complete more efficiently.
Moran will discuss the implications this gene sharing could have on the current and future health and survival of the host species and the bacteria, as well as the evolutionary history behind the insect/bacteria relationship and the process by which this symbiosis occurs. She will also relate her research to evolution in the broader context.
Moran is a member of the National Academy of Science. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and while on the faculty at the University of Arizona (1986-2009), she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. She served as president of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 2002, and she has over 150 scientific publications, many of which have appeared in the most prestigious journals.
For information on the Darwin Day lecture at Cedar Crest College call 610-740-3791.
Family Darwin Day in the Lehigh Valley will be held earlier in the day at the Da Vinci Science Center, where various activities that are included in the regular price of admission are set from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Among these, faculty from area colleges and universities will give short presentations on various aspects of evolution. These 10-minute talks for all visitors will cover a variety of topics.
The participating faculty, along with Da Vinci Science Center staff, will be available to accompany visitors to related exhibits, demonstrations and hands-on activities. For information on activities at Da Vinci Science Center call 484-664-1002. | <urn:uuid:d09658c2-e362-4a81-9724-f3e5f4584a22> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cedarcrest.edu/ca/pressreleases/10-11/february182011.shtm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944374 | 667 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Networking in general with Linux is a wide field. It is one of those parts where the operating system is strong and offers lots possibilities. I would suggest different steps:
Getting an IP address
At first every computer in your network needs an IP address. Most home networks have some kind of (DSL) router which offers DHCP. That means you'll get automatically an IP from your router and don't have to worry about.
Avahi is another easy form to connect your computers in your home network. You need
avahi-daemon installed. Furthermore the package
libnss-mdns is needed. If the avahi daemon runs, you can connect to other computers in your network with
computername.local. They will assign an IP and use their hostname for connections (If you forget the hostnames, open a terminal and type
Fixed IP address
If the above is not the case the next easy solution (in my opinion) is to give every computer a fixed IP address. For me the easiest way is to edit
iface eth0 inet static
Those lines assign the IP 192.168.0.42 to the network interface eth0 on that computer. Other information like netmask, default router etc. can also be entered into that file.
Another possibility is to install an DHCP server. This is usually more complex. I will not cover this here.
Getting a name
Under normal circumstances only connecting via IP addresses is not nice. You have to remember all those numbers. So it gets easier with names. If you only have a few computers in your network, you can edit
The first entry is the IP address and the second is the name you want to use. Now you can use
images to connect to the computer with IP 192.168.0.65. This file has to be on every computer in your network.
If you don't want to distribute that file across your computers, you can use a DNS server like BIND. But setting this up is too complex for my answer. ;)
Now every computer has an IP address and a name. You can connect to them.
Nautilus allows you to share files. Just click right on a folder and choose it too be shared. Eventually Ubuntu will install some missing files. Choose a name and access rights for that share and you're done. If you use the
ahavi-discover it is easy to access the files.
A special application is giver. Every computer needs to run this software. With drag&drop you can share files between computers. Besides this you can also use Pidgin, an FTP server or Samba to access files.
Here we need Avahi again. Install
python-avahi and choose Pidgin as chat software (also Gajim is able to chat via Bonjour). Make a new account and choose Bonjour as communication protocol. If you start Pidgin and other Bonjour-users are active in your network, you'll see them and can chat.
As said before there are several other possibilities to chat. I chose only this. Furthermore you can configure those services in specific ways. If you have questions it would be the best to ask them in more detail. Have fun with your network. :-) | <urn:uuid:0d348af2-0aa4-4776-99e1-b564098f166a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://askubuntu.com/questions/1132/how-do-i-share-files-on-my-home-network | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926447 | 674 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Global Air Transport Continues to Expand
New Worldwatch Institute report examines the expansion of global air transportation
Washington, D.C.—In 2012, the number of people traveling on airplanes reached 2,957 million, which was 4.7 percent more than the previous year. Although this figure includes a substantial number of people who travel multiple times during the year, it is equivalent to 42 percent of the world’s population. The number of passengers is up 95-fold from 31 million in 1950, when flying was a luxury few could afford, and it is triple the 960 million passengers in 1986, when air travel was already quite common, writes Worldwatch Senior Researcher Michael Renner in the Institute’s latest Vital Signs Online trend (www.worldwatch.org).
The average length of a flight doubled from 903 kilometers in 1950 to 1,816 kilometers in 2000, but it has not changed much since then and stood at 1,827 kilometers in 2012. Longer flights and expanding passenger numbers generated a strong expansion of total passenger kilometers (pkm) traveled—up 193-fold from the 28 billion pkm in 1950 to 5.4 trillion pkm in 2012. The only pauses in an otherwise inexorable expansion came in 2001–02 (following September 11) and in 2008–09 (after the start of the world financial and economic crisis).
Like passenger air travel, air freight transport has expanded strongly. In 2012, some 49.2 million tons of goods were transported by plane worldwide. Even though this is down 1 percent from 2011, it is 71 percent more than in 2001.
The Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and North America dominate passenger and freight air transport, accounting for 84–86 percent of the world total, depending on the precise activity measured.
International flights account for the bulk of air transport movements. In 2012, some 39 percent of all passengers were on board international flights, but because of the generally greater distances involved in such flights, cross-border flights accounted for 62 percent of all passenger kilometers. In the same year, 66 percent of freight tonnage was transported on international flights, which accounted for an even more imposing 86 percent of total freight ton-kilometers.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the world’s commercial air transport fleet grew from 18,972 planes in 2003 to 25,252 in 2012, an increase of 33 percent. The largest fleet of aircraft by far is in the United States, which has about 6,000 planes in service, followed by China, with slightly less than 2,000. All other countries have fewer than 1,000 planes in service each. The bulk of the fleet is for passenger transport. The global airliner fleet is expected to grow considerably—reaching more than 36,500 planes by 2032 according to Airbus forecasts and more than 41,000 according to Boeing forecasts.
Aviation has a range of environmental and health impacts, including noise, land degradation, disturbance of wildlife and biodiversity, and emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the cumulative climate impact of aviation to date is equivalent to about 40 percent of all surface transport modes, even though motor vehicles are far more numerous than planes. Relative to all sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the sector is responsible for about 4 percent of climate change, and its role is rising rapidly.
ICCT finds that design changes doubled the efficiency of commercial aircraft since 1960, but that progress has been slow in the last 20 years. This has to do with low fuel prices for an extended period of time, as well as a tripling in the average age of aircraft since the late 1980s. The higher fuel prices of more recent years provide an incentive to reinvigorate efficiency efforts.
Still, fuel prices alone are an insufficient and unreliable driver. Government policy needs to provide a push for the development and use of more energy-efficient technologies, such as the global CO2 standard for new aircraft under development at the ICAO.
Further highlights from the report:
Measured by revenue, 18 of the world’s 50 largest airlines in 2010 were from the Asia-Pacific region, 12 were from Europe (including Russia), 11 from North America, 4 each from Latin America and the Middle East, and 1 from Africa.
Boeing has delivered close to 11,000 planes in the last quarter-century, while its rival Airbus has sold close to 7,700.
In 2013, there were 41,821 airports in the world. The United States had by far the largest number (13,513), followed at a distance by Brazil (4,093), countries in the European Union (3,102), Mexico (1,714), Canada (1,467), Russia (1,218), and Argentina (1,138).
|PRINT/EMAIL||TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2013|
Notes to Editors:
About the Worldwatch Institute:
Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.
About Vital Signs Online:
Vital Signs Onlineprovides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. It is an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping our future. All of the trends include clear analysis and are placed in historical perspective, allowing you to see where the trend has come from and where it might be headed. New trends cover emerging hot topics—from global carbon emissions to green jobs—while trend updates provide the latest data and analysis for the fastest changing and most important trends today. Every trend includes full datasets and complete referencing. Click here to subscribe today to Vital Signs Online. | <urn:uuid:c8a63cdd-68af-4ed2-8755-0fcd21306595> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mailto:bnormander@worldwatch.org/global-air-transport-continues-expand | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943015 | 1,228 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Broom style Bonsai
The broom style is suited for
deciduous trees with extensive, fine branching. The trunk is straight
and upright and does not continue to the top of the tree; it branches
out in all directions about 1/3 of the way up the entire height of the
tree. In this manner the branches and leaves form a ball-shaped crown
which can also be very beautiful during the winter months.
Formal upright Bonsai style
The formal upright style is a very
common form of Bonsai. This style occurs often in nature, especially
when the tree is exposed to lots of light and does not face the problem
of competing trees. For this style, tapering of the upright-growing
trunk must be clearly visible. The trunk must therefore be thicker at
the bottom and must grow increasingly thinner with the height. At about
1/4 of the total length of the trunk, branching should begin. The top
of the tree should be formed by a single branch; the trunk should not
span the entire height of the tree.
Informal upright Bonsai style
The informal upright style is common in
both nature and in the art of Bonsai. The trunk grows upright roughly
in the shape of a letter ‘S’ and at every turn branching occurs.
Tapering of the trunk must be clearly visible, with the base of the
trunk thicker than the higher portions.
Slanting Bonsai style
As a result of the wind blowing in one
dominant direction or when a tree is in the shadow and must bend toward
the sun, the tree will lean in one direction. With Bonsai, the leaning
style should grow at an angle of about 60 - 80 degrees relative to the
ground. The roots are well developed on one side to keep the tree
standing. On the side toward which the tree is leaning, the roots are
clearly not as well developed. The first branch grows opposite the
direction of the tree, in order to balance it. The trunk can be
slightly bent or completely straight, but still be thicker at the
bottom than at the top.
Cascade Bonsai style
A tree living in the nature on a steep
cliff can bend downward as a result of several factors, like snow or
falling rocks. These factors cause the tree to grow downward. With
Bonsai it can be difficult to maintain a downward-growing tree because
the direction of growth opposes the tree’s natural tendency to grow
upright. Cascade Bonsai are planted in tall pots. The tree should grow
upright for a small distance but then bend downward. The crown of the
tree usually grows above the rim of the pot, but the subsequent
branches alternate left and right on the outermost curves of the
S-shaped trunk. These branchings should grow out horizontally in order
to maintain the balance of the tree.
Literati Bonsai style
In nature this style of tree grows in
areas densely populated by many other trees and competition is so
fierce that the tree can only survive by growing taller then all others
around it. The trunk grows crookedly upward and is completely without
branching because the sun only hits the top of the tree. To make sure
that it looks even tougher, some branches are “Jinned” (without bark).
When the bark has been removed from one side of the trunk, the trunk is
referred to as a “Shari”. The idea is to demonstrate that the tree
really has to struggle to survive. These trees are often placed in
small, round pots.
Windswept Bonsai style
The windswept style is also a good
example of trees that must struggle to survive. The branches as well as
the trunk grow to one side as though the wind has been blowing the
tree constantly in one direction. The branches grow out on all sides of
the trunk but will all eventually be bent to one side.
Double trunk style Bonsai
The double trunk style is common in
nature, but is not actually that common in the art of Bonsai. Usually
both trunks will grow out of one root system, but it is also possible
that the smaller trunk grows out of the larger trunk just above the
ground. The two trunks will vary in both thickness and length, the
thicker and more developed trunk grows nearly upright, while the
smaller trunk will grow out a bit slanted. Both trunks will contribute
to a single crown of leaves.
Multitrunk Bonsai style
In theory the multi trunk style is the
same as the double trunk style, but with 3 or more trunks. All the
trunks grow out of one root system, and it truly is one single tree.
All the trunks form one crown of leaves, in which the thickest and most
developed trunk forms the top.
Forest Bonsai style
The forest style looks a lot like the
multi-trunk style, but the difference is that it is comprised of several
trees rather than one tree with several trunks. The most developed
trees are planted in the middle of a large and shallow pot. On the sides
of the pot a few smaller trees are planted to contribute to one single
crown. The trees are planted not in a straight line but in a staggered
pattern, because this way the forest looks natural.
Growing on a rock Bonsai style
On rocky terrain, trees must search
for nurient rich soil with their roots, which can often be found in
cracks and holes. The roots are unprotected before they reach the
ground so they must protect themselves from the sun: a special bark
grows around them. With Bonsai the roots grow over a rock into the pot,
so caring for this tree isn’t really different from caring for any
Growing in a rock Bonsai style
In this style the roots of the tree are
growing in the cracks and holes of the rock. This means that there is
not much room for the roots to develop and absorb nutrients. Trees
growing in rocks will never look really healthy, thus it should be
visible that the tree has to struggle to survive. It is important to
fertilize and water this style often, because there is not much space
available to store water and nutrients. The rock in which the Bonsai
grows is often placed in a very shallow pot, which is sometimes filled
with water of very fine stones.
Raft Bonsai style
Sometimes a cracked tree can survive by
pointing its branches upward. The old root system can provide the
branches with enough nutrients. After a while new roots will start
growing, eventually taking over the function of the old root system. The
old branches which now point into the air develop into trunks with
multiple branchings as a result of the increased influx of nutrients.
These new trunks contribute to one single crown.
Shari Bonsai style
As time passes, some trees develop
bald or barkless places on their trunks as a result of harsh weather
conditions. The barkless portion usually begins at the place where the
roots emerge from the ground, and grows increasingly thinner as it
continues up the trunk. Intense sunlight will bleach these parts,
forming a very characteristic portion of the tree. With Bonsai the bark
is removed with a very sharp knife and the barkless spot is treated
with calcium sulfate in order to speed up the bleaching process. | <urn:uuid:58350eda-efe3-4367-a4ce-b7f334a4ef2b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thegardenmkt.com/Gardening/Bonsai/bonsai_styles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933223 | 1,606 | 3.09375 | 3 |
California City dwellers are worried their town may become a desert. No, this is not a joke.
It's called the Fremont Valley Preservation Project. When fully operational, it would combine a 1,008-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant - the largest in Kern County - with water banking and well water extraction systems that would pull vital H2O from the Fremont Valley groundwater basin, located north of the Antelope Valley's own main groundwater basin.
Residents and city officials from California City are nervous that the groundwater pumped out of Antelope Valley wells could end up being piped elsewhere.
The community is asking the Kern County Planning Department to hold off on approving the Fremont Valley Preservation Project until their own outside expert hydrologist has time to analyze the proposal and its potential impact on the city's water supply.
The Fremont Valley project has the potential to lower the underground water level. That could lead to drilling deeper wells and installing larger pumps. That would, in turn, increase costs to the city and run the risk of endangering the future supply of water to residents.
According to reports, the underground basin's capacity and the amount replenished through rain and melting snow is estimated at 10,000 acre-feet per year. An acre-foot roughly translates to about 325,851 gallons of water. That's enough to equal the yearly usage for 10,000 typical Antelope Valley households when you do the math.
But did the report also take into consideration the fact that California has suffered under drought conditions for years? If there's not enough rainfall and snowmelt to replenish the basin, where are they supposed to make up the shortfall? And what happens when you take what water is left out of the ground and ship it somewhere else?
The planning committee was scheduled to review the plans on Jan. 23. Not wasting a moment, the California City council, in a special meeting on Monday, ratified a contract with a hydrologist to get their independent analysis. City Manager Tom Weil engaged Wildermuth Environmental, Inc. for the task.
"We need to have this in place for the commission to consider," Weil told Valley Press staff writer Allison Gatlin.
California City has brought the Mojave Air and Space Port and the Indian Wells Valley Water District in to share the costs of hiring the hydrologist, a $20,000 maximum contract, according to Weil.
The city is also hoping to enlist support from the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency and the Mojave Public Utility District.
"As far as I'm concerned, this project will only last a couple years, because the water will be gone, Bee Coy, general manager of the Mojave Public Utility District and an opponent of the project, said.
The proposal actually covers four separate sites, with a total of 4,806 acres around Cantil, near where Highway 14 and Redrock-Randsburg Road meet.
A total of up to 114,000 acre-feet of native groundwater would be pumped out of the underwater basin annually - with a cap of one million acre-feet for the full extraction.
The kicker that's got so many residents and city officials feeling all wet: This extracted water would then be sold to users elsewhere in Kern County.
California City has around 23,000 home lots that are currently vacant but which have already been promised water service by city government. If measures aren't taken to ensure the underground basin isn't depleted by this project, those commitments could be threatened.
In other words, people won't move in to California City if they don't have water services. If they don't move in, the city can't thrive. You are left not with a desert oasis but a mirage.
A fourth generation Cantil resident summed up the general mood of the assembled citizens at a recent City Council meeting, calling the project "a good old-fashioned water grab," where a few get rich selling local groundwater while the rest of the community eats dirt.
And you thought this kind of intrigue was left to the pages of detective noir or big-screen Hollywood. Forget it, Jake, it's not Chinatown. It's California City. | <urn:uuid:84e4e04b-0cbb-418c-bbcd-417940138830> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.avpress.com/article-detail.php?articles_id=33085494 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953273 | 860 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Pictured here is the Four Courts situated on Inns Quay overlooking the River Liffey in North Central Dublin. It would be one of Dublin's most iconic buildings with its unique drum and shallow dome a noticeable part of the city skyline from many places.
The building is Irelands main court house, being home to the Dublin circuit court, the high court and the Supreme court. It was also home to the central criminal court until 2010 when a new criminal court was built in nearby Parkgate street.
The original designs of this building were by Thomas Cooley who designed it as the Public Records office of Ireland. After his death, the work passed to James Gandon, and the four courts is considered one of Gandon's greatest projects in the city, along with the Customs House and the Kings Inns.
Constructed between 1776 and 1786, its Neoclassical design has long been a much loved architectural icon in Dublin's landscape. When built the complex contained the courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Exchequer and Common Pleas which gave rise to the name of the Four Courts, but even though the courts system in Ireland has changed a number of times since, the name has remained.
The most eye catching element of the building is the central drum and shallow dome which is visible from many areas of the city center and is very prominent from many angles as you look down the river Liffey. At 64 feet wide, it is easy to spot and even featured on the old Irish 20 punt note before the introduction of the euro.
Before the dome stands an impressive portico with Corinthian columns. Standing atop this are three sculptures. Moses in the center with Mercy and Wisdom standing on either side. These sculptures are by Edward Smyth.
Like many of Dublin's finest buildings, the Four Courts saw great destruction due to the ravages of war. In 1922 the Irish civil war struck after the signing of the Anglo Irish agreement in 1921. This caused a split in the Irish Nationalist movement and those that opposed it took the four courts as their military headquarters in April of the following year. It became the HQ for those known as the rebels.
The Irish army began the bombardment of the courts on June 28th, and this marked the onset of the Irish civil war. The ensuing fires and artillery attacks on the building all but destroyed Gandon's original structure and it was essentially demolished. The worst loss incurred was that of the Records office housed here, and it is said that during the devastation, irreplaceable records of Irish history rained down on surrounding streets, still smoldering from the fires.
The drum however did survive and a team of architects spent 10 years rebuilding the iconic building. The Corinthian columns surrounding the drum had been shattered in the onslaught. It was found that because they stood independent of the dome and had been carved on all sides that they could be removed and rotated so that the damaged parts faced inwards, exposing to street view the still finely carved details from what was the back of them. The dome was rebuilt using cast concrete.
Although what we see from the outside today is perfectly true to Gandon's original designs, the interior of the building is what suffered most. Numerous statues and carvings of judges and famous lawyers were lost forever, and the detailed stucco work inside the dome has never been replaced.
Despite its violent history, the building still stands today as one of the finest on the River Liffey and is one well loved by Dubliners and visitors alike.
Some features of the building are very specific to Gandons work, and feature in many of his great buildings. Like the Customs House and the Kings Inns, the building features a dome, and blind arch windows. All were originally built facing water too, although the canal lock facing the Kings Inn has since been filled in and become a park.
Thanks for looking!
Critiques | Translate
cornejo (41685) 2013-12-23 9:46
Hi Noel, very good photograph of this beautiful and interesting winter view of this part of the city near the river, beautifully captured in this beautiful image with good sharpness, depth, light and color. Very good and interesting job well done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this beautiful work.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Good night and happy week.
Warm greetings from southern Spain.
rigoletto (34279) 2013-12-23 10:13
hi noel. i had read from the scripts in malgo's version, it is impossible to make a frontal view of this building, as there is a high wall over there. nevertheless, i like this diagonal perspective, giving a good depth. the top of the structure is interesting: it looks like a huge sphere sitting on stonehenge :P
carlo62 (47341) 2013-12-23 11:27
bellissimo lungo fiume, belle le architetture che si affacciano sull'acqua con le leggere sfumature dei riflessi.
Mi sto innamorando di questa città, dovrò visitarla un giorno.
SnapRJW (31629) 2013-12-23 11:40
Hello Noel - I am all behind with my critiquing so please forgive me for skipping straight to this one. My compliments on the quality here. I'm looking at it on the beta version and the detailing is quite fantastic. An excellent time of year to take this shot as the leafless trees tone in beautifully with the stonework and we can see through the delicate branches quite well. Lovely soft light and a fine composition and a shot to be proud of.
We both send our warmest wishes to you and yours for Christmas. Rosemary
fabbs99 (17135) 2013-12-23 19:48
Spectacular view of the The Four Courts on the Liffey . Nice image, sharp with good details, well saturated colors and nice composition. Well done.TFS.
Corry (4508) 2013-12-23 20:30
Une très belle perspective sur ces bâtiments et son énorme coupole avec une belle lumière qui éclaire sa façade. La rivière donne de la profondeur à l'image. Bien fait.
delpeoples (57590) 2013-12-23 22:38
Gidday dear Noel
Just aswell that I saw this as I was about to post almost the exact same POV in B&W (only exception being that as a short-a*se you can see the concrete wall running along the river ;)). And this one puts mine to shame. Again the slight bokeh effect gives this a really artistic bent, the colours are magnificent and the lack of leaves on the trees in front of the Four Court give us a much better view of the architecture. The depth of field is superb, again detailing the bridge nicely in the far right.
I've already wishes you a happy Christmas, so won't over do it, suffice to say that I hope Santy gives you something nice for your camera bag.
Slainte, buon natale, nollaig shona
jjcordier (79297) 2013-12-23 22:46
Une fois encore, un remarquable ensemble note-photo, parfaitement dans l'esprit de TE.
Bonnes fêtes de fin d'année.
krzychu30 (15512) 2013-12-24 0:10
the building looks really impressive when it comes to its size and beautiful when it comes to its architecture.
Probably it´s one of just few POV´s to capture it in whole its glory.Well done my friend!The river in the FG makes lovely scenery for the Four Courts building.
Wish You a Merry Christmas!
Subhogen (4067) 2013-12-24 1:49
What a setting for these old age architectural beauties.
Very good composition and well chosen POV to take this photo.
Magnificent architecture and location, I simple love it. You are correct the dome is the most beautiful part and it acts as an attractive focal point in your photo. Sad to hear the structure has faced such devastation but happy to read about the restoration efforts and the fact that it is still standing. Good inclusion of the bridge it adds to the old world mood of the photo. Excellent natural colors and clarity. Shared with such an informative note tracing the building from its origin to present times makes the photo all the more enjoyable. Thanks for sharing.
ourania (44938) 2013-12-24 2:11
a wonderful sweeping perspective that carries so much interest for the viewer. The architecture unfolds in a very attractive way, details and textures offer a fine impression of vividness. The light and the colours have exquisite quality. The atmosphere is romantic and delightful. I really like that I now know this important building from various points of view, its aspect and history have become so familiar. Congratulations and thank you!
All the best, have a very Merry Christmas,
snunney (98241) 2013-12-24 2:24
What a splendid riverside perspective with the court building rightly given pride of place at the forefront. The light is very appealing bringing out the colours and detail in the architecture to great effect. Ideal sharpness.
pajaran (60031) 2013-12-24 2:28
Interesantan i dobar tekst o staroj arhitekturi ...
Dobra kompozicija i perspektiva, lepa panorama.
Dobar rad, lepo pokazano mesto i arhitektura, lepe boje.
Lep trenutak sa svetlom koje je istaklo lepotu arhitekture.
Imajte lep i uspesan dan, sve najbolje.
An interesting and good article on the old architecture ...
Good composition and perspective, beautiful panorama.
Good work, nice place and demonstrated architecture, beautiful colors.
A nice moment with the light that is pointed out the beauty of the architecture.
Have a nice and successful day, all the best.
aleXundar (1256) 2013-12-24 2:53
It is just spectacular! The diagonal created by the buildings in midst of blues, is wonderful. Great pov with excellent details.
Wishing you a very happy Christmas,
photoray (13981) 2013-12-24 7:05
Very appealing panorama view of the Four Courts next to the rippling Liffey and distant arch bridge.
The architecture is impressive Romanesque from the romantic period, especially the central drum and ornate columns.
The timing of the seasons helps also, with the trees leafless to reveal the architectural details.
Warm regards and Cheers,
npecanhuk (75026) 2013-12-24 15:03
Hi! Very attractive urban environment and truly beautiful picture, with excellent sharpness, exposure, colors, horizontal format, chosen pov and composition! TFS! Merry Christmas! Neyvan
omid266 (6746) 2013-12-25 7:20
سلام نوئل عزیز
بسیار عالی بود
Salam Noel ,
Very well done !
All is OK in this foto ,
Good Luck !
Happy your Christmas ***
Omid ^ I.R.I
Miguel82 (27674) 2013-12-26 8:21
A wonderful shot, the four courts nearby Liffey river in North central Dublin, excellent resolution, good dof and pov, a remarkable monument, thanks, have a nice day
- Copyright: Noel Byrne (Noel_Byrne) (30980)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2013-12-21
- Categories: Daily Life, Ceremony, Architecture, Decisive Moment
- Camera: Canon EOS 60D
- Exposure: f/9.0, 1/80 seconds
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Date Submitted: 2013-12-23 9:07 | <urn:uuid:d5c6dbbe-4505-4f74-9ba8-649b3a56695a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo1445471.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92083 | 2,614 | 2.953125 | 3 |
[Previous] | [Session 106] | [Next]
S. A. Maene, J. S. Best (Shepherd College), P. D. Usher (Penn State)
In the sixteenth century, the bounded cosmological models of Copernicus (1543) and Tycho Brahe (1588), and the unbounded model of Thomas Digges (1576), vied with the bounded geocentric model of Ptolemy (c. 140 AD). The work of the philosopher Giordano Bruno in 1584 lent further support to the Digges model. Despite the eventual acceptance of the unbounded universe, analysis of over 100 modern introductory astronomy texts reveals that these early unbounded models are mentioned infrequently. The ratio of mentions of Digges' model to Copernicus' model has the surprisingly low value of R = 0.08. The philosophical speculation of Bruno receives mention more than twice as often (R = 0.17). The expectation that these early unbounded models warrant inclusion in astronomy texts is supported both by modern hindsight and by the literature of the time. In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" of c. 1601, Prince Hamlet suffers from two transformations. According to the cosmic allegorical model, one transformation changes the bounded geocentricism of Ptolemy to the bounded heliocentricism of Copernicus, while the other completes the change to Digges' model of the infinite universe of suns. This interpretation and the modern world view suggest that both transformations should receive equal mention and thus that the ratio R in introductory texts should be close to unity.
This work was supported in part by the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. | <urn:uuid:f26870f4-555c-499f-933d-e67ad75578da> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://aas.org/archives/BAAS/v31n5/aas195/396.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919331 | 348 | 2.90625 | 3 |
This glossary includes more than 300 solar terms, as well as hundreds of additional sustainable design and construction terms.A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
Definition 1: Below-ground earth ducts can be used to provide passive pre-heating and pre-cooling of fresh air. This is because the ground is generally at a constant temperature. Air passing through below ground ducts interacts with the surfaces of the ductwork and heat exchange occurs thereby reducing/increasing the temperature of the fresh air dependent upon the external temperature.
Definition 2: Earthtubes are low-tech, non-electric, passive geothermal solar heating and solar cooling systems underground. Earthtubing utilizes conventional, thin wall plastic sewer/drain/vent pipe to passively (zero-energy) pre-heat a building's fresh air intake. Filtered fresh air enters a series of non-porous pipes embedded around the interior of a building's foundation, absorbing energy from the surrounding soil, moderating the temperature of fresh air intake. | <urn:uuid:ffb4f4a0-7449-4991-b668-86bcd8e54c63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.solaripedia.com/186/894/glossary.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90262 | 224 | 3.296875 | 3 |
CHAPTER 1: CELIBACY - A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
In the current debate on celibacy, there is a considerable range of opinions about the origin and development of this charism in the Church. Some affirm that it became obligatory from the fourth century while, for others, the Second Lateran Council (1139) is the basic reference point. There is also disagreement as to its source, ranging from those who consider it to be of divine or apostolic origin, to the affirmation that it is merely a later expression of ecclesiastical discipline.
It is well known that the practice of the Latin Church, which requires of its priests an irrevocable commitment to celibacy, differs from the discipline of the Eastern Church. There is a commonly held belief that in the Eastern Churches (apart from special cases) no law of celibacy exists. There is also a perception that the Eastern tradition is the more ancient, and that the Latin discipline was imposed at a comparatively late date. In discussion about revising the tradition of celibacy in the West the discipline of the Eastern Churches is frequently offered as a point of reference.
Why is there a divergence in discipline between East and West, and how did this come about? How explain that the East insists rigidly on celibacy for bishops, but encourages a married clergy? Why in the East is it normal that there are married priests, but at the same time it was never permitted to a man to marry after he had been ordained?
That such a variety of opinion, and indeed contradictory affirmations, are the consequence of an inaccurate knowledge of the historical facts is confirmed by important publications in recent years on the history of ecclesiastical celibacy both in the Eastern and Western Church. In particular the detailed studies of Cochini, Cholij and Stickler open up new ground on the history and the theology of this charism and make a strong case for the apostolic origin of this discipline.
To understand the history of celibacy from today's perspective it is necessary to realise that in the West, during the first millennium of the Church, a large number of bishops and priests were married men, something which today is quite exceptional. However, a precondition for married men to receive orders as deacons, priests, or bishops was that after ordination they were required to live perpetual continence or the lex continentiae. They had, with the prior agreement of their spouses, to be prepared to forego conjugal life in the future.
Nevertheless, alongside the married clerics, there were always present in the Church, in varying proportions, many clerics who never married, or who lived in celibacy as we know it today. As time went on, the appropriateness of a celibate priesthood in the Western Church became clearer and the proportion of married men called to the priesthood decreased. With the institution of seminaries by the Council of Trent, the Church had sufficient candidates for a celibate clergy to meet all the needs of the dioceses. Accordingly, instances of married men being admitted to orders, through a dispensation of the Holy See, became less and less frequent.
In the early Church, as already indicated, ordination of married men was the norm. Sacred Scripture confirms this; St Paul prescribes to his disciples Titus and Timothy that candidates for ordination should only have been married once (cf. 1 Tim 3:2.12; Tit 1:6). We know that Peter was married and perhaps others of the Apostles. This seems to be implied in Peter's question to Christ - 'We have left our homes and followed you'. And Jesus replied, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life' (Lk 18:28-30; cf. Mt 19:27-30).
Here we see the first obligation of clerical celibacy, that is, continence in relation to the use of marriage after ordination. This was the original meaning of celibacy - the lex continentiae or absolute continence in relation to the generation of children. This is how it is defined in all the first written laws about celibacy, dating from the fourth and fifth centuries. Candidates for ordination could not commit themselves to live continence without the prior, express agreement of their spouses, since as a consequence of the sacramental bond they had an inalienable right to conjugal relations.
For several reasons, practical as well as ascetical, a preference developed in the Church for the ordination of celibate, unmarried men, a preference which subsequently became the normal requirement for all candidates for the priesthood in the Western Church. Hence, as has been pointed out, in the first millennium of the Church, celibacy meant either of two things: that ordained ministers did not marry, or, if those chosen to be ordained were already married, after ordination they had to commit themselves to a life of perpetual continence. The failure to distinguish between the lex continentiae and celibacy as we understand it today has given rise to a number of misunderstandings and misinterpretations about the history of this charism.
Up to recently, the general historical perception held that it was not until the fourth century that the Church articulated a law of celibacy. This view was established by Franz X. Funk, the well-known ecclesiastical historian, in the last century. However, Funk's judgement was erroneous because of basing it on a document that has since been proved to be spurious. In addition Funk was incorrect in one of his basic assumptions. If discourse on the question of celibacy is to advance scientifically from a theological and juridical point of view, there is a second fundamental presupposition which needs to be clearly understood. Historians of law have pointed out that it is a basic methodological error to identify the concepts of ius and lex, which is what Funk did.
All obligatory juridical norms, both those handed down orally and transmitted through custom, as well as those expressed in writing constitute the content of the idea of ius. On the other hand, law understood as lex is a narrower concept, since it refers only to dispositions which have been written down and legitimately promulgated. History confirms that all juridical ordinances began as oral traditions which were only slowly fixed in writing, as was the case, for example, with Roman and Germanic law.
The juridical constitution of the nascent Church consisted largely of provisions and obligations which were transmitted orally; all the more so since, during the first three centuries of persecution, it would have been difficult to have put any laws in writing. Certainly some elements of the primitive law of the Church were written down, yet St Paul also encouraged the Thessalonians to keep to the traditions which had been passed on orally (cf. 2 Thess 2:15). Funk made the basic error of dating the origin of celibacy from the first known written law about it, that is from the Council of Elvira. This is our starting point for a review of the significant developments in the Latin rite legislation up to the seventh century.
Celibacy in the Latin Church
The Council of Elvira (Spain) is of particular significance for the legislative history of celibacy. Held at the beginning of the fourth century (circa 305 AD), the purpose of its eighty-one canons was to renew the life of the Church in the western part of the Roman empire, to reaffirm ancient disciplines and to sanction new norms. Canon 33 contained the first known written law about celibacy, applicable to bishops, priests, and deacons, (that is 'for all clerics dedicated to the service of the altar'), which proclaimed that they ought to keep complete continence in relation to their wives, and that anyone who had broken this rule should be excluded from the clerical state. Canon 27 of the same Council prohibited women living with ecclesiastics, except for a sister or a daughter who was a consecrated virgin.
From these primitive and important legal texts, it can be deduced that most of the ecclesiastics in the Spanish church were viri probati, that is, men who were married before becoming ordained deacons, priests or bishops. All, however, were obliged, after receiving Holy Orders, to renounce completely the use of marriage, that is to live in total continence. Consequently Stickler can say that, in the light of the aims of the Council of Elvira, and of the history of law in the Roman empire, in no way can one see in canon 33 a statement of a new law. It was, on the contrary, a reaction to the extended lack of observance of a traditional and well-known obligation, to which at this time the Council added a sanction: either the delinquent ecclesiastics accepted the obligation of the lex continentiae, or gave up the clerical state. The fact that the legislation of Elvira was pacifically accepted confirms that no juridical novelty was being introduced, but that it was concerned primarily with maintaining an already existing normative discipline. This is what Pius XI meant when, in his encyclical on the priesthood, he affirms that this written law implied previous praxis. To suggest, therefore, that Elvira is the origin of the law of celibacy in the Church, and that there is, consequiently, a discontinuity in discipline between its introduction and what was the praxis beforehand, is, for the reasons already given, a fundamentally erroneous conclusion.
Council of Carthage
At the end of the fourth century, legislation of the Synod of Rome (386) and the Second Council of Carthage (390) confirmed the lex continentiae as a discipline practised universally from the beginning of the Church, and related it explicitly to the teaching of the Apostles. Canon 3 of Carthage stipulated that married clerics had to observe continence with their wives on the basis of a tradition originating with the Apostles:
This canon became known, through different collections, to all the dioceses of the Roman Church, and in the East the Quinisext Council of Trullo (691) would refer to it explicitly as a sure link with Tradition. The law that was promulgated in 390 was officially inserted in the definitive legislative record of the African Church, the Codex canonum Ecclesiae Africanae, completed and promulgated in 419, while Augustine was bishop of Hippo.
At that time most, though not all, of the clergy were married men. They are asked by the African Synod to give up all conjugal intercourse, because it is deemed that this would prevent them from carrying out simpliciter their mediatory function. The import of the canon is that those who by consecration have now become sacred persons should in future manifest by their lives this new ontological reality. To be effective mediators between God and man, and the commitment to service at the altar, are the specific reasons for the continence they are asked to observe.
Decretals of Pope Siricius
Three other documents issued by the Magisterium at the end of the fourth century claim apostolic origin for clerical celibacy and the perpetual continence required of ministers of the altar. These were the two decretals of Pope Siricius, dating from 385 and 386, and a canon of the Synod of Rome of about the same time.
In the first of these, the Directa decretal written in 385, the Pope is responding to news that clerics in major orders continued living with their wives and having children in violation of the traditional discipline, and that this was being justified with reference to the tradition of the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament. He replies that these priests were under the obligation of temporary continence when serving in the Temple, but that with the coming of Christ the old priesthood had been brought to completion, and by this very fact the obligation of temporary continence became an obligation to perpetual continence.
In the Cum in unum decretal, sent to the different ecclesiastical provinces in 386, Pope Siricius refers to the various Pauline texts (cf. Tit 1:15; 1 Tim 3:2; 1 Cor 7:7; Rom 8:8-9) as the scriptural foundation for the discipline of ecclesiastical celibacy, and in doing so gives an authoritative interpretation of the unius uxoris virum (man of one wife) text. If Timothy and Titus are to choose bishops, priests or deacons among 'men married once only', this does not mean that after ordination they can continue with their conjugal life. Rather it is seen as a requirement to guarantee the future continence (propter continentiam futuram) that the candidate for orders will be asked to practise. In other words, a man who had remarried after his first wife died could not be considered as a candidate for ordination, since the fact of his remarriage would indicate an inability to live the life of perpetual continence required of clerics in major orders.
The legislation of Pope Siricius in 385 and 386, and the canons of the Council of Carthage (390), claim apostolic origin for the lex continentiae. It is worth noting that these are not the claims of mere individuals but are the view of those who carried hierarchical responsibility in the Church. In Carthage it was the unanimous view of the whole African episcopate which declared 'ut quod apostoli docuerunt, et ipsa servavit antiquitas nos quoque custodiamus' (what the Apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavour to keep). In Rome Pope Siricius was conscious of placing himself in the line of the same living tradition with his predecessors as bishops of the See of Peter.
Later in the eleventh century the promoters of the Gregorian Reform drew on the Carthaginian canons of 390 for their most solid historical argument. After the Reformation, when the German princes wrote to the Pope requesting the authorisation of a married clergy, Pius IV's negative reply was grounded in the first place on the same Carthaginian canons.
As we have seen, the Latin rite legislation of the fourth century did not represent an innovation in the sense of imposing sexual abstinence on clerics for the first time. It was rather a response to a difficult situation in the Church when the general atmosphere of moral laxity was threatening a discipline which was regarded as a tradition, the infraction of which was sanctioned by severe penalties. In an unfavourable situation Church authorities would not have imposed on clerics the heavy burden of continence if they did not have the conviction of being accountable to apostolic tradition for the fidelity of their teaching.
Theologically, in the first four centuries of the Church's history, the validation of clerical continence is grounded on the Pauline teaching, linking it to availability for service at the altar and a greater freedom for prayer. Being permanently in God's presence, and because of the importance given to prayer, praise and adoration, the minister of the New Covenant does not have the leisure needed to fulfil the responsibilities of married life.
Nevertheless, the catechesis of St Cyril of Jerusalem (313- 86) had already affirmed that the discipline of clerical continence was anchored in the example of the Eternal High Priest, a living norm that was more convincing than all other justifications. By linking priestly continence closely to the virginal birth of Christ, in the mind of Cyril it is based on a foundation that goes far beyond mere historical conjecture.
For St Jerome (347-419) continence is above all a matter of holiness. In his Letter to Pammachius he justifies continence on the authority of Scripture and the actual witness of priestly chastity. This latter is not offered as an ideal to be pursued but as a fact admitted by all. Chastity, he claims, is also the rule for selection of clerics: bishops, priests and deacons are all chosen from one of the following: virgins (that is single men), widowers, or married men who, after ordination, will observe perfect continence.
It is also significant that Jerome in his defence of the traditional discipline does not feel called on to make any distinction between the witness of the Western, Egyptian, or Eastern Churches in this matter. In his polemic with one Vigilantius from Gaul (406), who saw continence as nothing but heresy and an occasion for sin, Jerome reaffirms the practice which he knows to be traditional: the Church of Egypt, the East and the Apostolic See never accept clerics unless they are virgins or continent men, or, if they were clerics who had a wife, accept them only if they give up matrimonial life. In affirming this discipline he is offering as testimony the experience of the greater part of the Church of which he, through his many travels, had firsthand experience. He also gives testimony to the apostolic origin of this discipline: 'The Apostles were either virgins or continent after having been married. Bishops, priests, and deacons are chosen among virgins and widowers; in any case once they are ordained, they live in perfect chastity'.
St Jerome, considering the role of Christ and his mother in the origin and institution of the Church, finds in them the living principles of virginity and priestly vocation. Now freely accepted by some, it is for priests the principle of the sanctity called for by their ministry, and at their level it is translated into the special demands of continence. The imitation of virginal purity, inaugurated by Christ and his mother, is from now on the rule of the new priesthood.
St Augustine participated in the Council of Carthage (419) where the general obligation to continence for major clerics had been repeatedly affirmed and traced back to the apostles and to a constant tradition. In his treatise De conjugiis adulterinis he asserted that even married men who were unexpectedly called to enter the ranks of the major clergy, and were ordained, were obliged to continence. In this they became an example to those laymen who had to live separated from their wives and who therefore were more liable to be tempted to commit adultery.
In the sixth century there were some significant pieces of legislation on celibacy. The Breviatio Ferrandi was a digest of Church legislation in Africa assembled about 550 which reaffirms earlier norms of priestly celibacy. In summary the main points were as follows:
It is worth noting that this was a period of merciless persecution for the Church in North Africa
when the Vandals invaded and eliminated the leaders of many of these Christian communities.
In Gaul in the sixth century, councils held under the reforming and energetic St Caesarius of Arles reaffirmed legislation for the restoration of priestly celibacy, a discipline which had suffered as a result of the Visigoth invasions during the previous century.
Attempts at Reform in the West from the Seventh to the Tenth Centuries
During the period of the early Middle Ages there were important historical factors which influenced the discipline of continence and celibacy. In the first place there was the gradual disintegration of the unity of the Roman Empire, giving rise to regional and national entities, which clouded the unity of vision of the various episcopates, and brought about a weakening of papal authority.
The new races of barbarians, who overran the boundaries of the old empire, were often converted en masse. This meant that the full demands of Christian morality encountered serious difficulties among poorly instructed peoples, and even among the clergy who had to be recruited from them. Because these young states based several of their institutions on close collaboration with the Church, the result was that many pastors became temporal princes. Hence the interest of the state in the choice of the holders of ecclesiastical office, which was the origin of investiture by the secular powers. This resulted in important Church positions frequently being occupied by men who lacked the necessary moral and religious aptitudes. In addition, the crisis which affected the papacy during the Middle Ages diminished the vigour and effectiveness of its interventions over a long period.
The lower clergy were affected by the bad example of their superiors, but the principal cause of laxity regarding the law of continence arose from the system of conferment of benefices and the setting up of many private churches. This arrangement compromised the clergy by tying their ministry to the totality of material resources of which the Church could in future dispose. The material advantages of ecclesiastical positions were frequently more attractive than the pastoral responsibility, which often resulted in unsuitable and unworthy candidates entering the priesthood. With the resulting financial independence, economic security and free disposal of revenues, the ministerial function itself, as Stickler points out, became largely independent of higher authority. This inevitably led to worldly life-styles, which contributed to a deterioration in the practice of continence and celibacy as these had broadly established themselves at the end of the patristic era.
What was the response of Church authority to this situation of decadent morals among the clergy? The historical evidence shows that a number of disciplinary norms were laid down, which took on board the most significant patristic texts concerning continence and celibacy. These are to be found in the conciliar rulings of the African Church, of Gaul and Spain, as well as in the important decretals of Popes Siricius, Innocent I and Leo I, most of which we have already reviewed. They made their way into countless small collections of disciplinary norms which had a wide distribution.
Among these collections the Penitential Books had a particular importance, containing as they did the whole of ecclesiastical discipline. They originated in Ireland and England and spread to the continent through missionaries from these countries. As regards the discipline of celibacy we read in one of these, dating from the second half of the sixth century, that a cleric who contracted marriage may not return to his wife after ordination and may no longer give her children, as this would be the equivalent of infidelity to the promise he had made to God. Another penitential collection with Irish connections, the Poenitentiale Bobiense, laid down that a cleric in major orders, who after ordination renewed conjugal relations with his wife, should consider that he had committed a sin the equivalent of adultery, with severe penances attached.
It is therefore true to say that, during those centuries of crisis for clerical morals, the Church never lost sight of the ancient tradition concerning the law of celibacy. From her memory she constantly affirmed the prohibition of marriage for clerics in major orders and the duty of a vow of perpetual continence for those married before ordination, even at times when these laws were being flagrantly violated. Apart from evidence in the collections of disciplinary norms, this commitment is also attested to by the efforts of regional councils and diocesan synods. In France, for example, the Council of Metz (888) forbade priests to keep a woman in their homes; the Council of Rheims (909), noting the decadence in clerical conduct as regards continence, urged that association with women should be forbidden, and also cohabitation with them, both norms being related to the precept of continence. In Germany, the Council of Mainz (888) recalled that the prohibition on cohabitation with women even included the wife whom the cleric had previously married, that is, it confirmed the prohibition of canon 3 of the Council of Nicea (325). In England, Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury, towards the end of the tenth century, made considerable efforts to reform the morals of the English clergy and restore the traditional discipline. His endeavours were resisted but he had no hesitation in replacing recalcitrant priests by monks.
During this period there were a number of papal rulings about celibacy despite times of decadence in the papacy itself. These consisted in instructions to bishops and princes of various countries, and decrees by Roman synods defending or restoring the tradition of celibacy. But it was not until the period of the Gregorian Reform in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that these instructions were given the canonical and disciplinary teeth necessary to be effective.
The Gregorian Reform
The Gregorian reform succeeded because it struck at the very root of the disorders which had become so widespread. The initiative for reform came from the monasteries and their objective was to re-establish the supreme authority of the papacy. The roots of the evil were not only recognised but eliminated. First there was a systematic attack against simony and Nicolaitism (the widespread violation of clerical celibacy), and this was followed by a courageous battle against the scourge of lay investiture. This led to a new era in the development of legislation concerning celibacy and, more importantly, its implementation. The basic inspiration of the Gregorian reform was not to innovate but rather to draw deeply on the wisdom of tradition and of the Fathers, and on the ancient and authentic discipline of the Church which it so desired to restore.
The ecclesiastical laws promulgated by Gregory VII (1073-85) reaffirmed the norms concerning continence of the clergy and the prohibition of marriage for clerics in major orders, as well as measures taken to forestall infringements, particularly in relation to cohabitation with women. Still, the programme for reform was not without opposition. The opponents of reform presented their own arguments, not only at the practical but also at the theoretical level. Their main argument was a scriptural one drawn from the Old Testament, which not only allowed priests to marry but mandated marriage to perpetuate the priestly caste. They also drew on the episode of Paphnutius whom, they claimed, opposed the idea of requiring absolute continence from married clerics at the Council of Nicea (325).
Ignoring all the historical documentation that supported the law of celibacy, they developed a whole series of supposedly moral and rational arguments against it. The renunciation of marriage, they claimed, could not be imposed but only recommended; it should be left optional. In any case the matter should be approached with benevolence and tact and not with Roman rigidity. Customs that the passage of time had made lawful should be accepted, and more charity and compassion shown towards human weakness.
They also made the point that an obligation as grave as that of continence could not be imposed universally as it did not come from God but from men, and presupposed in those who accepted it a charism which God only granted in individual cases. Thus, their argument continued, drawing on the Pauline admonition, it was better for a man to marry than to burn with impure desires. In any event, marriage was a sacrament instituted by Christ, hence something holy, and so marriage for a priest could not be described as wrong. It was therefore contrary to the holiness of matrimony to describe marital practice of priests lawfully united to a wife as fornicatio or adulterium. In the light of these considerations the opposition to the Gregorian reform deplored the new and severe measures decreed by Rome for infractions of the traditional discipline.
The promoters of reform answered each of the objections raised by its opponents and then went on to elucidate the reasons for the new legislation. They draw on the scriptural arguments for continence, but it is to the witness of tradition that the main thrust of their arguments appeal. In this context the historical value of the Paphnutius incident at Nicea is rejected with convincing critical reasoning, an event which Gregory VII rejected as a falsification at the Synod of Rome in 1077.
The partisans of reform strongly affirmed the primacy of the Roman Pontiff as the governing authority for the whole Church, with the competence to lay down laws in respect of all the bishops in matters of universal ecclesiastical discipline. Gregory VII worked ceaselessly to bring about the implementation of the traditional discipline. He did this especially by way of regional synods presided over by his legates in collaboration with the bishops, and through countless letters made the new dispositions known. Another important consequence of the reform was the regulation decided by the Second Lateran Council (1139) that a marriage attempted by a bishop, priest, deacon or sub-deacon was not only illicit but invalid. This led to the misunderstanding, still widespread even today, that celibacy for the higher clergy was introduced only at Lateran II. In reality the Council declared invalid something that had in fact always been prohibited. As Stickler points out, this new sanction actually confirmed an obligation that had in fact existed for many centuries.
From the time of Alexander III (1159-81) married men were not as a rule allowed to have ecclesiastical benefices, and a son of a priest was prohibited from succeeding to his father's benefice. Before the ordination of their husbands, young wives and the wives of bishops were to agree to enter a convent. Indeed, one of the factors which in the long run must have contributed to the ordination of unmarried men only would have been the assumption that the wife was not prepared to give up her marital rights.
In summary we can say that, during this period, although the traditional discipline had not changed in its main features and was not forgotten, it had in practice, as Stickler points out, ceased to be observed. The Gregorian reform must take the credit for a total commitment to eradicating the principal disorders which sullied the Church. Nevertheless the level of resistance encountered indicated that practices contrary to the ancient discipline had become so ingrained as to be regarded as lawful. The means used to restore order were primarily the implementation of severe sanctions for infractions of the discipline of clerical continence, and the intervention of papal authority against which there was no appeal. Immediately subsequent to the period of the Gregorian reform, there was a notable development in the science of canon law during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the implementation of which facilitated the return to the traditional discipline of celibacy. In this way was developed the theology and the law for the basis of the obligation of celibacy. We will discuss later the reasons for the inherent limitations of this theology and jurisprudence.
Section Contents Copyright ©; Fr Thomas McGovern 1998-2000
This version: 17th January 2003 | <urn:uuid:8c106546-af82-43fb-a5da-45f58a30d4ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/mcgovern/celhist1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976977 | 6,309 | 3.03125 | 3 |
If you have any black women in your life, you know all about how severe their menstrual cycle can be. Unfortunately, the cause of this immense discomfort is uterine fibroids.
Doctors have long been perplexed about the origin of black women’s predisposition to fibroids. Studies have shown that the noncancerous growths, can be traced to “genetic alterations, hormones and even hair relaxers.” But researchers at the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University have also discovered “child abuse” is a factor.
The Black Women’s Health Study followed 9,910 premenopausal African-American women for the study. The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Lauren A. Wise, found that
“the incidence of uterine fibroids was increased by 16 percent among women who had been physically abused during childhood and by 34 percent among women who had been sexually abused as a child.”
According to Wise, this is the second study to make this association and she proposes that the “psychosocial stress” involved in these incidents of abuse is the culprit. It is also a fact that “sex steroid hormones” are a contributor to the growth of the uterine fibroids, which is why they are normally at their largest while women are pregnant.
Read more on the study here. | <urn:uuid:9bb8c472-0e97-4aee-9c99-b8dc967dbf50> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurthisnthat.com/2013/01/28/scientists-discover-link-between-childhood-abuse-and-fibroids-in-black-women/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967299 | 287 | 2.78125 | 3 |
In clinical practice, there are considerable differences in the timing of the start of kidney dialysis in patients in fifth stage of kidney disease. Traditionally, the treatment was started after the first appearance of signs and symptoms of uraemia.
Factors to consider when starting kidney dialysisWhen starting dialysis in patients with renal disease "end stage" is a important clinical problem that has only recently been addressed in a randomized clinical trial of sufficient size, the IDEAL ( initiating Dialysis Early And Late).
The main suggestions for clinical practice that emerge from this study are two:
- The uremic symptoms begin well before the filtrate is reduced to lower levels of 6 mL / min, and this phenomenon requires anticipation of the dialysis filtrate highest levels in the majority of patients.
- delay the onset of dialysis until the appearance of uremic symptoms approach is reasonably safe if you establish a good surveillance clinic.
From where to start?
- A periodic check of your doctor can help prevent the onset of disease symptoms or diagnose early presence. The final objective is still to slow the progression of the kidney disease and to delay as much as possible dialysis.
- If kidney disease is at an early stage it is possible to make the diagnosis of the type of kidney disease and begin a targeted treatment that may allow the recovery of renal function.
- If the cause of kidney failure is diabetes or hypertension, your doctor will tell you how to deal with and to better control the disease. The therapeutic measures are much more effective when they are taken early, before you have advanced kidney damage.
- Consider carefully what are your priorities in life: health should be one of them. Health should be put first even when you're at the table or you are doing your job. This is the first rule, especially for those already suffering from diabetes or hypertension, the two leading causes of kidney disease. | <urn:uuid:104e324c-8c75-4f4c-878c-612ed48930ab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kidneydiet1.blogspot.com/2013/08/when-should-you-start-kidney-dialysis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951427 | 386 | 3.0625 | 3 |
|Come and Hear™ to increase interfaith understanding http://www.come-and-hear.com|
This is one of more than 310 photocopy exhibits from Elizabeth Dilling's The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
|This exhibit is taken
from The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
by Elizabeth Dilling. The underlining and margin notes are Dilling's:
Holographically reproduced in her book, this page was taken from the Soncino Press 1936 publication of the Babylonian Talmud.
The full context of this exhibit (without marginal notation) can be found in the21 is of particular interest here, as it was to Dilling, because it makes clear that "He who gives of his seed to Molech" refers to a man who casts children into the idol's fire ("caused his son to pass through the fire"), and not merely semen, as might be inferred. This is further confirmed by Biblical references and Talmud text in Exhibit 68. | <urn:uuid:241d053c-516c-46b2-a023-eab5bbd945df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/67.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958145 | 202 | 2.625 | 3 |
Argan Oil: Too Much of a Good Thing?
|Examining the need to shift to a more sustainable production process.||Tweet|
|Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production|
|Agricultural Methods Reducing Drought|
|BY CAROL DREIBELBIS | MARCH 11, 2013|
(Photo Credit: Jane Alexander)
Most people have heard of the health benefits of using olive oil instead of butter or other saturated animal fats. The monounsaturated fats in olive oil have been shown to reduce levels of harmful cholesterol, and as a result nutrition experts have touted it and other aspects of the Mediterranean Diet as heart healthy.
But olive oil isn’t the only celebrated oil from that region of the world. In Morocco, argan oil has been consumed by the Berber people for centuries. Berbers add the deep yellow, toasty-flavored oil to couscous, serve it alongside bread, or eat it on its own. Argan oil has been shown to reduce cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, and recent research by France’s Institut Pasteur, Morocco’s Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory, and others suggests that it might contribute to the prevention of various cancers,cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.
Beyond the health benefits of consuming argan oil, there are also important environmental benefits associated with its production. The same deep root systems that make argan trees well adapted to heat and frequent drought in southwestern Morocco also protect the land against soil erosion and desertification. Meanwhile, argan trees provide shade and protection for crops or pastureland, presenting opportunities for agroforestry.
Arguably, however, the most noteworthy impact of argan oil production is social. This rare oil has captivated a global audience, primarily because of its use in cosmetics. As a result, market prices have been on the rise (making it the most expensive edible oil in the world), and argan oil producers—largely local Moroccan women—have been reaping the benefits.
Because the process of extracting argan oil is extremely labor intensive (it can take 50 kilograms of seeds to produce just half a liter of oil), the women who produce it by hand are frequently part of production co-operatives, such as the UCFA (Union des Cooperatives des Femmes de l’Arganeraie). Founded in 1999, this innovative co-operative produces and markets argan oil and is supported by the Moroccan government as both a conservation and development strategy. Today, the UCFA unites 22 smaller women’s co-operatives. The women who make up these groups gain status, a steady income, and, in some cases, an education through their work.
Yet the argan oil boom has been a double-edged sword. Argan trees and the area in which they grow are threatened by overuse and deforestation. A study by the University of California, Davis finds that “the boom has predictably made households vigilant guardians of fruit on the tree, but it has not incited investments in longer term tree and forest health.” While the development of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Morocco is a step in the right direction, it will be both economically and environmentally critical for the same non-governmental groups, development agencies, and government offices that supported argan oil production in the first place to keep sustainability in mind.
Carol Dreibelbis is a research intern with the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet Project. | <urn:uuid:e1cc8463-abca-43fe-92e3-bd1e2093f48a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.worldwatch.org/argan-oil-too-much-good-thing-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93772 | 728 | 3.03125 | 3 |
In November 284 the young co-emperor Numerian fell ill in Syria and died in rather obscure
circumstances: Diocles, the head of the imperial bodyguard, accused the prefect of the Praetorian guard of having poisoned the emperor and killed him.
Diocles was acclaimed emperor by the army and he took the more Latin name of Diocletianus (Diocletian).
Carinus, the other co-emperor and brother of Numerian, was defeated in the following year by Diocletian, who thus became the sole ruler.
The new emperor was aware of the weakness of his position: in the previous fifty years many emperors had been overturned after just a few years or even months of reign. Diocletian appointed as co-emperor (Augustus) Maximian, a general with a large support in the army, thus enlarging the base of his power.
Diocletian chose as his residence Nicomedia (today's Izmit), a town near the Bosphorus, from which he could closely follow and react to developments on the Danube and Persian borders and in Egypt, a country which was shattered by religion driven revolts. Maximian took responsibility for the western part of the empire and he usually resided in Milan, in northern Italy. Rome was no longer the residence of the emperors and its Senate had less and less say in state affairs.
Diocletian ruled for twenty years and he introduced radical reforms which had a lasting impact so that historians set at his time the beginning of the Late Empire, the last phase of the Roman Empire and even of the Middle Ages.
Slaves were the main energy source of the Ancient World: the economy of Athens, the birthplace of democracy, was supported by the work of 20,000 slaves in the silver mines of nearby Lavrio. The procession of slaves behind the chariot of a pharaoh or a consul meant good news for the economy and the expansionistic policies pursued by all the ancient empires were very much dictated by the need to acquire unpaid labour.
Diocletian realized that the Roman Empire had no longer the strength to conquer other nations; most of the slaves (or their descendants) had become freemen, although very often they had continued to work for their previous owners: because of repeated economic crises which had hit the empire in the IIIrd century many small farmers had been forced to sell their land: the agriculture had become based on latifundia, very large estates owned by a few families, which employed former slaves and former small farmers. Diocletian, by a mixture of fiscal and civil laws, laid the groundwork for the development of serfage, the feudal system where agricultural labourers were tied to working on their lord's estate.
The empire security had been based for centuries on the defence of its borders; Diocletian changed this strategy by reducing the troops along the border and by stationing some legions at a certain distance from it with the aim of creating a sort of task force which would intervene when circumstances required it. This new approach required a larger army and this increased the tax burden, so that Diocletian had to complete his reforms by developing a new monetary and fiscal system. He tried to stop inflation by fixing maximum prices for many commodities throughout the whole empire.
All these changes led to some reactions, but overall the stability of the empire brought about a period of economic development.
Terme di Diocleziano: (left) central hall (now part of S. Maria degli Angeli); (right)
circular hall used as a granary by the popes
Diocletian is remembered in Rome by the large baths built during his reign: as a matter of fact they were built by Maximian and dedicated to Diocletian, who visited Rome only once. They were larger than Caracalla's ones and so soundly built that most of their halls still stand. Through the centuries these halls have housed churches and granaries and more recently cinemas and restaurants.
Diocletian tackled the issue of ensuring an orderly transition of power
at the emperor's death by convincing Maximian that they should appoint
their successors choosing them outside their family circle and that they should allow them
to train for their future responsibilities by exercising power on a part of the empire.
In Diocletian's mind the empire was to be ruled by an imperial family composed by two
Augusti and by two Caesares. Every ten years the two Augusti would abdicate and be
replaced by the two Caesares who in turn would nominate two other Caesares.
This system was called Tetrarchy (four rulers) and it was first implemented in 293 when Diocletian chose as his Caesar Galerius Maximianus, (who married Valeria, Diocletian's daughter) and Maximian chose as his Caesar Gaius Flavius Valerius Constantius (known as Chlorus, the Pale, due to the whiteness of his face) who had married Maximian's step-daughter, after having renounced his first wife Helena.
This reform of the government structure which split the empire into four areas was accompanied by an overall redesign of the empire territory which was divided into twelve dioceses, which in turn were divided into smaller partitions (provinces). This pyramidal structure anticipated that known as the feudal system.
Diocletian introduced an elaborated ceremonial which was to be strictly followed by those who were admitted to his presence; they had to kneel down and kiss the lower part of his dress: they were not allowed to raise their eyes on the emperor who claimed to be a reincarnation of Jupiter.
Diocletian was eventually forced to persecute those who refused to consider the emperor as a divine monarch. In 296 he issued a decree against the Manichaeans, the believers in a faith of Persian origin, resulting in numerous martyrs in Egypt and North Africa. Manichaeism was based on radical dualism between Good and Evil and it did not assign any role to the emperor. In 303 a similar decree was issued against the Christians and again the persecution was particularly cruel in Egypt, to the point that the Coptic (Egyptian) calendar counts the years from Diocletian's accession to the throne.
Foro Romano (near the Arch of Septimius Severus): base of one of the columns erected to
celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Tetrarchy
In 303 Maximian, who had jurisdiction over Rome, erected in the Forum five columns to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Tetrarchy: four columns were dedicated to the tetrarchs and the fifth to Jupiter. The reliefs of the only remaining base of the columns show a poor quality, a clear sign that the prolonged lack of commissions due to the absence of the emperor had had a negative impact on the availability of talented sculptors in Rome.
In 305 Diocletian convinced Maximian that it was time
for them to abdicate: Galerius and Constantius Chlorus became the new Augusti and they
chose as Caesares two other generals: Severus and Maximinus.
Diocletian had in mind the adoption process which had granted the prosperity of the empire from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius and he forced the other tetrarchs not to nominate their own sons as successors. The system he had devised worked as planned and the new Tetrarchy was accepted by the army. There were however two men who felt the system was depriving them of their rights: Maxentius, son of Maximian, and Constantine, son of Constantius Chlorus.
In 306 Constantius died at Eboracum (York) and the troops that same day proclaimed Constantine Augustus; Galerius, the other Augustus tried to reach an accommodation and forced Severus to appoint Constantine as his Caesar. Galerius thought in this way to save the Tetrarchy, but just a few weeks later in Rome Maxentius, supported by the Praetorian guard, claimed for him the title of Augustus.
Severus tried to restore his authority in Rome, but his troops deserted and he surrendered himself to the rebels. At this point Maximian made an attempt to return on the scene with the support of Constantine, who was his son-in-law, and against his own son.
In 308 Diocletian, abandoning his retreat at Spalatum (today's Croatian town of Split), convened a sort of conference at the end of which Constantine was confirmed Caesar and a new man, Licinius, replaced Severus in the role of Augustus.
Maxentius was never recognized either as Caesar or as Augustus and the tetrarchs regarded him as an usurper; however they did not move to crush his rebellion and for some years Maxentius ruled over Rome and parts of Italy and Africa.
Tempio di Romolo:
detail of the entrance
Maxentius tried to acquire legitimacy by emphasizing the ancient role of Rome: he built a new temple (dedicated to his deceased son Romulus) and a large basilica in the Forum and even a new hippodrome near Via Appia. The decoration of these buildings was to some extent taken from other monuments: an obelisk was moved from the city to the hippodrome (and later transferred from here to Piazza Navona by Bernini). The fine portal of the temple to Romulus is most likely a work of the previous centuries.
In April 311 Galerius put an end to the persecution of the Christians and declared
religio lecita (legitimate religion) their faith.
A few days later he died: relations among the remaining three tetrarchs were very
tense: Constantine controlled the western part of the empire with
the exception of most of Italy, while Licinius and Maximinus ruled over its eastern part.
Constantine thought the time had come to move against his brother-in-law Maxentius. He laid siege to Verona, which was loyal to Maxentius and, after having conquered this fortified town, he descended the Italian peninsula towards Rome. Maxentius had strengthened the walls of Rome, but nevertheless he decided not to wait for Constantine to lay siege to the city and the two armies engaged on the Via Flaminia, north of Rome. After the first unfavourable skirmishes Maxentius tried to retreat to Rome, but he had to manoeuvre in a narrow space because Via Flaminia is flanked by the Tiber on one side and by hills on the other. The retreat became a rout at Ponte Milvio and Maxentius fell into the river and drowned.
In 315 an arch was erected by the Roman Senate to celebrate Constantine: its decoration was mainly composed of reliefs
taken from monuments to Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, but six reliefs portrayed the victorious campaign
of Constantine against Maxentius. The inscription of the arch
makes reference to a divine inspiration (ISTINCTU DIVINITATIS) which helped Constantine.
According to the Christian tradition, before the battle Constantine had the vision of a cross accompanied by a cloth with the words EN TOUTOI NIKA (Greek) - IN HOC SIGNO VINCES (Latin) (with this symbol you will win) and he placed a cross and Christ's monogram on his war emblems. The relief portraying the battle of Ponte Milvio is damaged: a flying character can maybe seen in its left side: this character (an angel or more likely a personification of Victory) is very clearly visible in the relief showing the siege of Verona.
It is interesting to note that the troops of Maxentius were represented wearing the uniform which (in Trajan's Column) identified the Sarmatians, a tribe living in southern Russia: the Senate chose to ignore that the battle of Ponte Milvio had been fought during a civil war, and not in a campaign against the empire external enemies. More than a thousand years later Maxentius and his soldiers were portrayed in Turkish clothes by Renaissance painters. In the lower relief Constantine appears to the right of the angel: his size is almost twice that of the other characters.
The image used as a background for this page shows a detail of Constantine's Vision by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Italians have a saying (parenti/serpenti - relatives/snakes) to mean that
often the worst conflicts develop within a family; in 313 a row broke out in the imperial family
designed by Diocletian: Licinius defeated Maximinus and became the sole ruler of the eastern part of the empire.
He and Constantine met that same year in Milan where they jointly issued the
Edict of Tolerance, by which they granted all citizens freedom in the exercise of
religion. Constantine ruled over the western part of the
empire where the ancient religion and the more modern faiths in Mithra and Sol Invictus
were still prevailing; by this edict he thought to gain the favour of Licinius'
subjects, many of whom had embraced the Christian faith.
The two Augusti did not trust each other and in the following years they had repeated clashes. However it was only in 324 that their confrontation evolved into open war. Constantine defeated Licinius at Adrianopolis (today's Edirne in European Turkey) forcing him to retreat to Byzantium. Crispus, Constantine's oldest son and Caesar, blocked the city by sea, while a storm destroyed Licinius fleet. Eventually Licinius surrendered and abdicated: he was initially treated as a sort of pensioner, but one year later he was executed. Constantine became the sole ruler of the empire.
|MARTI INVICTO PATRI
ET AETERNAE URBIS SUAE
IMP(erator) MAXENTIUS P(ius) F(elix)(*)
(*) erased line
FILIO DIVI PII
Constantine spent most of his life away from Rome: the government of the city was
entrusted to a Praefectus Urbi who was also responsible for the maintenance
of the imperial palaces. Many inscriptions and honorary columns dedicated to Constantine and other members of his
family are "signed" by this high officer.
It is interesting to highlight the use of new terms to define the emperor.
While the first emperors were divinized only after their death, Diocletian required
to be called dominus and deus (Lord and God) and the word dominus
in particular was frequently associated with the following emperors. Maxentius used
it in an altar dedicated to Mars, while the Praefectus Urbi used it with reference to the emperor.
In addition to the arch the victory of Constantine was celebrated by building new baths on the Quirinale hill on the site of today's Palazzo Rospigliosi; they were decorated with statues and reliefs taken from other monuments, with the exception of statues portraying Constantine and his son by the same name. The sculptor portrayed them in the typical attire and posture of many other previous emperors, but the face is void of expression: the naturalistic approach of classical art was gradually being replaced by a symbolic one.
In 330 Constantine renamed with his name the city of Byzantium
where he had defeated Licinius.
The monuments he built in Costantinopolis
reflect the ambiguity of the emperor's religious politics. He built temples to Castor and Pollux and to Tyche,
the local deity, and he placed at the top of a column a portrait of himself
wearing the symbols of Sol Invictus, the god of the Sun, who was very popular among his troops.
At the same time he allowed the Christian community to build large churches, in one of which (Aghia Apostoli - Holy Apostles - lost)
he was eventually buried.
He built an imperial palace which was not just a residence, but housed the large court which presided over the administration of the empire.
Constantine played a significant role in trying to iron out the growing differences among the Christians. The main contrast revolved around the figure of Jesus who, according to the Egyptian theologian Arius, was subordinate to God the Father. This view was challenged by other bishops and eventually an ecumenical council (meeting of all bishops) was convened at Nicea. The outcome of the council was a condemnation of Arianism which was regarded as heretical. The Arian Creed however continued to be preached and had a large number of followers including members of the imperial family and Ulfilas, a missionary who converted the Goths, a group of Germanic tribes living beyond the Danube.
The Edict of Tolerance allowed the Christians living in Rome to build their
first large churches: the traditional layout of the pagan temple was abandoned both
because it did not suit the Christian ceremonies and to mark a
difference from the old beliefs. The oldest churches of Rome had the rectangular shape of the
Roman basilicas and they were built on the tombs of saints and
martyrs, which were located outside the walls: this was the origin of S. Pietro,
S. Paolo fuori le Mura, S. Agnese fuori le Mura,
S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura and
SS. Pietro e Marcellino (which had a circular shape).
Owing mainly to the initiatives of Helena, Constantine's mother, who had converted to the Christian faith, other basilicas were built within the walls, although far from the Forum and the Campus Martis: S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Maria Maggiore and S. Croce in Gerusalemme.
With the exception of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, all these early basilicas were replaced by other buildings or were greatly modified in the following centuries.
The following external links show works of art portraying characters and events
mentioned in this page:
Statue of the Tetrarchs in St. Mark's - Venice.
Various paintings portraying Constantine in Sala di Costantino - Vatican Museums.
The Entry of Constantine into Rome by Peter Paul Rubens (1622) - it opens in a separate window.
XII - The End of Ancient Rome
I - The Foundation and the Early Days of Rome
II - The Early Republican Period
III - The Romans Meet the Elephants
IV - Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
V - Pompey and Caesar
VI - Augustus
VII - From Tiberius to Nero
VIII - The Flavian Dynasty
IX - From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius
X - A Century of Turmoil (180-285) | <urn:uuid:ea5e2023-e277-45eb-9e45-16f03bfec165> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.romeartlover.it/Storia11.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977456 | 3,916 | 3.625 | 4 |
The establishment of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in the late 1980s allowed hobbyists and musicians to experiment with sound control in ways that previously had been possible only in research studios. MIDI is now the most prevalent representation of music, but what it represents is based on hardware control protocols for sound synthesis. Programs that support sound input for graphics output necessarily span a gamut of representational categories. What is most likely to be lost is any sense of the musical work. Thus, for those involved in pedagogy, analysis, simulation, notation, and music theory, the nature of the representation matters a great deal. An understanding of the data requirements of different applications is fundamental to the creation of interchange codes.The contributors to Beyond MIDI present a broad range of schemes, illustrating a wide variety of approaches to music representation. Generally, each chapter describes the history and intended purposes of the code, a description of the representation of the primary attributes of music (pitch, duration, articulation, ornamentation, dynamics, and timbre), a description of the file organization, some mention of existing data in the format, resources for further information, and at least one encoded example. The book also shows how intended applications influence the kinds of musical information that are encoded.Contributors : David Bainbridge, Ulf Berggren, Roger D. Boyle, Donald Byrd, David Cooper, Edmund Correia, Jr., David Cottle, Tim Crawford, J. Stephen Dydo, Brent A. Field, Roger Firman, John Gibson, Cindy Grande, Lippold Haken, Thomas Hall, David Halperin, Philip Hazel, Walter B. Hewlett, John Howard, David Huron, Werner Icking, David Jaffe, Bettye Krolick, Max V. Mathews, Toshiaki Matsushima, Steven R. Newcomb, Kia-Chuan Ng, Kjell E. Nordli, Sile O'Modhrain, Perry Roland, Helmut Schaffrath, Bill Schottstaedt, Eleanor Selfrdige-Field, Peer Sitter, Donald Sloan, Leland Smith, Andranick Tanguiane, Lynn M. Trowbridge, Frans Wiering.
About the Editor
Eleanor Selfridge-Field is Professor of Music and Symbolic Systems at Stanford University and a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities.
—Gary Wittlich, Professor of Music Theory, School of Music; Associate Dean, Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, Indiana University
—Allen Forte, Battell Professor of the Theory of Music, Yale University
—Dave Cope, Professor of Music, Porter College, University of California | <urn:uuid:b7c833de-a74a-4fb4-861c-ba855efa7047> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/beyond-midi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.827949 | 557 | 2.890625 | 3 |
You can put WikiTree.com on your short list. This online collaborative genealogy project aims to create a single user-contributed, worldwide family tree. Started in 2008, it has more than 2 million profiles today. Contributors build pedigree charts, either one person at a time or by uploading a GEDCOM file, and can share memories, stories and photographs to create vivid descriptions of relatives and ancestors. Individual pedigrees are merged on a global family tree with the tree creators’ approval, but users control access to the profiles that they add. This enables a unique harmony between large-scale genealogical collaboration and private family history. You can keep information on living people and modern ancestors as private as you want it to be, shared only with family members of your choosing. | <urn:uuid:2d01aa8e-e34c-404e-9757-b63aaebe7a35> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/wikitree-tutorial | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935384 | 159 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center
Coastal and Marine Earthquake Studies
|Cascadia Earthquakes & Tsunami Hazard Studies
Volcanoes and Earthquake Hazards of Washington State
The Cascade Range is made up of numerous volcanoes such as Mt. Rainier pictured above and Mt. St. Helens pictured below. The magma that occasionally erupts is derived from melting of rocks pushed beneath the Earth's crust by the subduction process.
Learn more about Crustal Structure. | <urn:uuid:91311883-d10b-48e4-972f-0677459a3333> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/cascadia/volcanoes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891423 | 101 | 3.25 | 3 |
The Republic of Ireland is an island situated in north-west Europe inhabited by 4.6 million people, with 2.8% between 0 and 4 years of age with a disability (Central Statistics Office, 2012). The Irish Government funds the Irish health services, which, in turn, directly and indirectly funds disability services. Education and Disability legislation have developed in parallel, with an apparent increasing congruence with both moving toward a rights-based approach. Today, early intervention disability services are delivered by both statutory and nongovernmental agencies with wide variation and no national consistency in service provision. Some components of the Developmental Systems Approach can be discerned in Irish service provision, and these include screening, access, comprehensive interdisciplinary assessment, and early childhood programs. However, assessment of families, development and implementation, monitoring and outcome evaluation, and transition planning are not as identifiable. Guided by legislation and organizational restructuring, early intervention provision in Ireland is in a state of flux with an emphasis on developing national uniformity of family-centered early intervention services. | <urn:uuid:0c4b15f8-8bea-49f5-aa78-b0546fe3173a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://journals.lww.com/iycjournal/Abstract/2013/01000/The_Progression_of_Early_Intervention_Disability.3.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951417 | 210 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The reasons that countries around the world drive on either
the left side of the road or the right side of the road are outlined chronologically.
A table of countries lists every country and whether they drive on the left side of the road or the right side of the road. Some links have also been added to the references on the subject of the history of traffic lights.
|China, 1100 B.C.||[DOT] Australian historian M. G. Lay traced the first regulation of one-side-or-the-other to the Chinese bureaucracy of 1100 B.C. The Book of Rites stated: "The right side of the road is for men, the left side for women and the center for carriages." This Western Zhou dynasty rule applied only to the dynasty's wide official roads and was "more concerned with protocol than avoiding head-on collisions."|
Bryn Walters determined Romans drove on the left.
Walters found a track into the old Roman quarry at Blunsdon Ridge.
The track was only used for bringing stone from the quarry to a major Roman temple being built on the nearby ridge (near Swindon in England), and then fell out of use, so it is very well preserved. And since the carts went in empty and came out laden with stone, the ruts on one side of the road are much deeper than they are on the other. The conclusion: Romans drove on the left.
|Middle Ages||[Adams] Seven hundred years ago, everybody used the English system. In the Middle Ages you kept to the left for the simple reason that you never knew who you'd meet on the road in those days; you wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly.|
This custom was given official sanction in 1300 A.D., when Pope Boniface
VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that
pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left.
[Travel Library] Travel Library disputes this, saying that Kincaid found no records of this decree. Instead, he found evidence that in 1300, Pope Boniface VIII ordered pilgrims on the Bridge of St. Angelo en route to and from St. Peter's Basilica to keep to the right.
|U.S., France, 1700s||[Adams] The papal system prevailed until the late 1700s, when teamsters in the United States and France began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since you were sitting on the left, naturally you wanted everybody to pass on the left so you could look down and make sure you kept clear of the other guy's wheels. Ergo, you kept to the right side of the road.|
In small-is-beautiful England, though, they didn't use monster
wagons that required the driver to ride a horse; instead the guy sat on
a seat mounted on the wagon. What's more, he usually sat on the right side
of the seat so the whip wouldn't hang up on the load behind him when he
flogged the horses. (Then, as now, most people did their flogging right-handed.)
So the English continued to drive on the left... Keeping left first entered
English law in 1756, with the enactment of an ordinance governing traffic
on the London Bridge, and ultimately became the rule throughout the British
[Hamer] It extended the rule in 1772 to towns in Scotland. The penalty for disobeying the law was 20 shillings (£1).
According to [Amphicars], the UK Government introduced the General Highways Act of 1773, containing a keep left recommendation to regulate horse traffic. This became law as part of the Highways Bill in 1835.
|North America, 1800s||[Adams] The first known keep-right law in the United States was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and in the ensuing years many states and Canadian provinces followed suit. In 1792, Pennsylvania adopted legislation to establish a turnpike from Lancaster to Philadelphia. The charter legislation provided that travel would be on the right hand side of the turnpike. New York, in 1804, became the first State to prescribe right hand travel on all public highways. By the Civil War, right hand travel was followed in every State. Drivers tended to sit on the right so they could ensure their buggy, wagon, or other vehicle didn't run into a roadside ditch.|
|France, 1800s and it's influence||
In France, before the revolution the aristocracy travelled quickly on the left, forcing the peasantry over to the right.
According to [Amphicars], after the revolution aristocrats joined the peasants on the right.
A keep right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794.
Later Napoleon enforced the keep-right rule in all countries occupied by his armies, and the custom endured long after the empire was destroyed.
[Hamer] The revolutionary wars and Napoleon's subsequent conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain.
|Europe, Russia 1800s||[Hamer] The states that had resisted Napoleon kept broadly left - Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia and Portugal. Of these independent states, only Denmark converted to driving on the right (in 1793). This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations remained fixed for more than 100 years, until after the First World War.|
The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the
right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global
homogenization. Its former colony India remains a hotbed
of leftist sentiment, as does Indonesia, which was
occupied by the British in the early nineteenth century.
[Hamer] says the Dutch influenced Indonesia to go left before the British. Thanks to the Brits, Australasia and Africa also go left, with the exception of Egypt. Egypt had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency, and its traffic goes to the right.
The English minister to Japan achieved the coup of his
career in 1839 when he persuaded his hosts to make keep-left the law in
the future home of Toyota and Mitsubishi.
Interestingly, [Amphicars] says it happened in the 1850's. "... in the 1850's Gunboat diplomacy forced the Japanese to open their ports to the British and Sir Rutherford Alcock, who was Queen Victoria's man in the Japanese court persuaded them to adopt the keep left rule."
According to other sites, Alcock didn't go to Japan until his appointment in 1858. I believe [Adams], meant 1859 not 1839.
Until the Meiji Restoration (1867/1868), people traveled mainly on foot or horseback and did not use wheeled traffic.
When inventors began building "automobiles" in the 1890's, they
thought of them as motorized wagons. As a result, many early cars
had the steering mechanism-a rudder (or tiller), not a wheel-in
the center position where the side of the road didn't make any
difference. Lay points out that technical innovation created the
configuration we are familiar with in the United States:
"However, with the introduction of the steering wheel in 1898, a central location was no longer technically possible. Car makers usually copied existing practice and placed the driver on the curbside. Thus, most American cars produced before 1910 were made with right-side driver seating, although intended for right-side driving. Such vehicles remained in common use until 1915, and the 1908 Model T was the first of Ford's cars to feature a left-side driving position."By 1915, the Model T had become so popular that the rest of the automakers followed Ford's lead.
|Russia, Portugal, 1900s||[Hamer] Russia switched to driving on the right in the last days of the Tsars. Portugal changed to the right in the 1920s.|
|Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1900s||
The break up of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire caused no change; Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia and Hungary continued to drive on the left.
Austria itself was something of a curiosity. Half the country drove on the left and half on the right. The dividing line was precisely the area affected by Napoleon's conquests in 1805. Napoleon gave the Tyrol, the Western province of Austria, to Bavaria. It continued to keep to the right, although the bulk of Austrians drove on the left.
|Japan, 1900s||[2pass] In 1924, Japan passed a left-side driving law.|
|Austria, Czechoslvakia, Hungary, After 1938-9||
Nonetheless, the power of the right has been growing steadily. When
Germany annexed Austria in 1938, it brutally suppressed the
latter's keep-left rights, and much the same happened in Czechoslovakia
[Hamer] On 12 March 1938 Hitler invaded Austria, and the next day proclaimed Anschluss, the absorption of Austria into Germany. He ordered that the traffic should change from the left to the right side of the road, overnight. The change threw the driving public into turmoil, because motorists were unable to see most road signs. In Vienna it proved impossible to change the trams overnight, so while all other traffic took to the right hand side of the road, the trams continued to run on the left for several weeks. Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the last two states on the mainland of Europe to keep left, changed to the right after being invaded by Germany in 1939.
|Okinawa, 1945-1972||During U.S. occupation, Okinawa, Japan drove on the right side. Okinawa changed back to left side when it was returned to Japan.|
|China, 1946+||[Hamer] China changed to the right in 1946.|
|Korea, After WW II||[Dyer] Korea now drives right, but only because it passed directly from Japanese colonial rule to American (and Russian) influence at the end of the Second World War.|
|Pakistan, 1900s||[Hamer] Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the 1960's. The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers dozed. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change.|
"Since 1 December 1922 there had been a problem for
automobile drivers who crossed the border between Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick - on that date New Brunswick had switched to
driving on the right-hand side of the road, while Nova Scotia
remained with the left-side rule. For four and a half months,
drivers crossing the border in both directions had to remember to
change to the other side of the road, and even with the
relatively low traffic levels of that day there were some near-
misses resulting from this conflict."
The switch had an interesting effect on the beef industry: "In Lunenburg County, 1923 is still known as The Year of Free Beef; the price of beef dropped precipitously because oxen which had been trained to keep to the left could not be retrained — oxen are notoriously slow-witted — and many teamsters had to replace their oxen with new ones trained to keep to the right; the displaced oxen were sent to slaughter."
holdouts in mainland Europe, the Swedes, finally switched
to the right in 1967 because most of the countries they sold
Saabs and Volvos to were righties and they got tired of having to
make different versions for domestic use and export.
[Travel Library] '...Swedish government felt increasing pressure to change sides to conform with the rest of Europe. Anders Hanquist writes, "The problem with left-hand driving in Sweden was, of course, that all our neighbours already drove on the right side. There are a lot of small roads, without border guards, leading into Norway so you had to remember in which country you were. Another curiosity was that most of the cars running in Sweden were built for right-hand driving. That means that the steering wheel was on the left side. Even cars imported from Britain were built that way.'
[Sweden Tramcars] At the same time as cars switched, the Trams had to also:
"By 1962, there were 405 trams in Stockholm but Stockholm Tramways decided to withdraw all city's trams and almost 400 older buses rather than convert them to the standard Continental right-hand drive. On the 2nd of September 1967 the last tram ran in Stockholm’s inner city and only a few hours later the rule of the road was changed from the left to the right."
[Swedish Institute] Perhaps not causal, but along with the road change, Sweden began large scale road safety work. For example, instead of unrestricted highways, speed limits were imposed.
|New York Pedestrians, 1970's||
The discussion thread at
MG Cars Enthusiasts
"There is also an old tradition where the gentleman walks on the kerbside of the lady, whilst this is pretty much defunct these days,
it's origins date back to these times where a gentleman was supposed to be chivalrous and protect his lady.
And here we are back at the beginning again, with a gentleman walking on the left, his lady to his left and his sword arm
presented to any oncoming foes (or falling poes!)".
This reminded me that I was also told when I was young to walk curbside (The American form of kerbside) to protect a lady, and this was because being a New Yorker at that time, the threat was from muggers coming at you from between parked cars. At some point, in the 70's I think, I remember the guidelines changed and a gentleman walked on the other side of the lady. This was because muggers were now jumping out of building entrance ways.
The current battleground is the island of Timor. The Indonesians,
who own west Timor, have been whiling away the hours exterminating the
native culture of the east Timorese. The issue? Some say it's religion,
some say it's language, but I know the truth: in east Timor, they drive
on the right, in west Timor they drive on the left.
[Adams] is incorrect: East Timor drives on the left. U.S. Dept. of State East Timor - Consular Information Sheet August 12, 2002
|Samoa, Monday 2009-09-07 1700GMT (0600 local)||BBC News- Samoa switches to driving on the left Thanks to Tero Oinonen.|
|Here are corrections John P. Renouf sent to me.||"Sorry mate but East Timor drives on the left. Indonesia drives on the left too. Portugal, the original colonizer of East Timor drove on the left until the 1920s. The Netherlands drove on the left until Napoleon's time, but Dutch colonies (mostly) remained on the left as did Indonesia. Russia also drove on the left until WW1, many countries changed (mostly) to the right as traffic volumes increased. Look at Maritime Canada (4 provinces) and British Columbia which all changed to driving on the right between 1921 and 1947. Anomalous regions of left-driving countries drove on the right and had to change to the left for similar reasons as Canada did to the right."|
Why does Japan drive on the left?
[Adams] This web page was originally based an e-mail to the Unicode list. Unfortunately, I lost track of the author. There have been updates from other sources since.
Update! I looked up the mail in the Unicode archives, Tue Aug 19 1997 - 11:59:10 EDT. The source is cited as: Cecil Adams, "Return of the Straight Dope" (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), 21-23.
[Amphicars] Why do the English drive on the wrong side of the road? (Also mentions boats!)
[DOT] U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration On The Right Side of the Road by Richard F. Weingroff
The DOT page references the book:
Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and the Vehicles that Used Them (Rutger's University Press, 1992)
[Dyer] Is driving on the right right or wrong? by Gwynne Dyer
[Hamer] Left Is Right on the Road by Mick Hamer
[History Automobiles] History of Automobiles
[Swedish Institute] Swedish Institute - Fact Sheet on Sweden (PDF)
[Sweden Tramcars] Sweden - Tramcars
[Tex] Tex Texin, I18nGuy
[Travel Library] This page from the Travel Library is very comprehensive, but apparently no longer available: www.travel-library.com/general/driving/drive_which_side.html, titled: "Which side of the road do they drive on?".
The page recommends a book by Peter Kincaid on the subject: The Rule of the Road: An International Guide to History and Practice, Greenwood Press, 1986; 239 pages; ISBN 0-313-25249-1
|Other pages, references||
Why in Britain do we drive on the left?
Why do Britons drive on the left? (Did he make this up!)
Justin's Driving on the right or on the left
[HistJapan] History of Japanese Roads (Doesn't address left or right, but interesting nonetheless.)
Where did traffic lights come from? How did the colors for stop and go get chosen? Here is a little bit of history:
Why are traffic lights red, green and yellow instead of some other colors?
Differences of Indications between Road Traffic Signals and Railway Signals
History of traffic control in NYC
Country drives on the right
Country drives on the left | <urn:uuid:921a063c-7731-4120-95ef-e9b34765eb27> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.i18nguy.com/driver-side.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953874 | 3,816 | 2.984375 | 3 |
SAND LAKE, TX
SAND LAKE, TEXAS. Sand Lake is a community just north of State Highway 34 and twelve miles northeast of Ennis in eastern Ellis County. Between 1923 and 1931 Sand Lake had a general store and a post office. During the 1930s the town also had a school and a closely settled area of dwellings. Twenty-five residents were reported at Sand Lake in 1947, after which no census figures were available. A highway map from the 1980s still identified Sand Lake as a community.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Handbook of Texas Online, David Minor, "Sand Lake, TX," accessed June 29, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrs12.
Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:744300d7-35f3-4de3-995e-d28fdbd0cf59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrs12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951422 | 343 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the active chemical in cannabis and is one of the oldest hallucinogenic drugs known. There is evidence that cannabis extracts were used by the Chinese as a herbal remedy since the first century AD. Cannabis comes from the flowering tops and leaves of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa (shown in the picture on the right). For centuries this plant has been widely cultivated around the world for its fibres, and indeed the word canvas, which is a material made from woven hemp fibres, takes its name from cannabis. However, cannabis is more commonly known as the source of the marijuana drug, although the word marijuana applies both to the whole plant, and to the resin from it (although this is sometimes also called hashish).
Cannabis contains approximately 60 different psychoactive chemicals called cannabinoids, of which the most important one is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The mode of action of THC is still not properly understood, although it is known that of the two stereoisomers (mirror images), the (-)-form (the left-handed form of the molecule) is 10-15 times more potent than the (+)-form.
|THC - the active component of cannabis|
The cannabinoids belong to a class of chemicals called terpenoids, meaning terpene-like. These compounds occur as essential oils within many plants and some are involved in the formation of vitamins, steroids, pigments and odours. The perfume industry relies on compounds such as these, and they also find a variety of uses in the food and pharmaceutical industry as flavour and odour improvers. Terpenes can be linear (such as geraniol or citronella) or cyclic as in THC. Examples of some other simple cyclic terpenes are shown below.
(from the camphor tree)
The cannabinoids are basically non-polar molecules, with low solubility in water, so they are normally self-administered by smoking. The volatilised fractions are inhaled as a vapour and give rise to a number of physiological effects. These effects depend very much upon the expectations and mood of the user, the quantity taken, and the possible presence of other drugs (such as alcohol) in the body. Generally people experience a pleasurable state of relaxation, with heightened sensory experiences of taste, sound and colour. Repeated experiments have failed to show any short term dangers, although it hasn't been proven to be 'safe' in the pharmacological sense either. THC is non-addictive and there are no withdrawal symptoms. However, one of the side-effects of its use is to make the user drowsy, with reduced concentration and short term memory. As a result, it was made illegal in the UK for recreational use in 1928, although it is still legal in a number of other countries.
Apart from the recreational uses and abuses, THC does have some medical uses. Its anti-emetic properties (inhibits vomiting) are particularly useful in the treatment of cancer patients on chemotherapy. Also, as THC increases the appetite and reduces the vomit response, it is starting to be used in the treatment of anorexia and other eating disorders. | <urn:uuid:6c5e9ee4-ed69-45c8-9de3-41988434f985> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/vchemlib/mim/bristol/thc/thc_text.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963324 | 658 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Where did Disneyland come from?
Well, Disneyland began as a Dream. A young boy with a love of trains and fantasy who lived in a rural town; grew up to be the person everyone has heard of at one time or another: Walt Disney. Yes of course, Disneyland was his dream… and then his reality. Here is how Walt Disney got his beloved Disneyland started.
In 1923 Walt Disney and his brother Roy formed Walt Disney Studios.
In the early 1950's Walt got the idea for his very own Mickey Mouse Park. While the theme park was Walt's idea (and at times Roy thought he was crazy) they went on together with the plan although Roy never hesitated to make his feelings known. Roy simply didn't trust the project and was concerned about failure. It was Roy Disney, not Walt, who was able to make a deal with ABC television (they having their own problems at the time) to show the weekly television project Disneyland which allowed them to finance Disneyland.
Disneyland opened for the press, selected friends, and some family members on July 17, 1955 but there was a long hard road of work before opening day.
Walter E. Disney grew up in Marceline Missouri with a fascination for trains. That joy and wonder turned into a larger idea. Walt Disney decided that he wanted to build a theme park and call it Disneyland. While he began thinking about this before World War II even started, plans were put on hold until well after the war was over. During these years Walt Disney never let his dream die; he just expanded that dream to encompass his love of trains and his desire for a theme park.
In 1953 the search was on for the land needed for the planned Magic Kingdom, named Disneyland; which would include a railroad track, rivers, lakes, a ride for children with flying elephants, and a beautiful castle. Walt Disney's dreams were big but he was not an incredibly wealthy man; so needed to find land to encompass his dreams at a good price and the location had to be just right.
The site for Disneyland was finally found. A 160-acre Orange Grove in Anaheim California was for sal, and the price was something Walt Disney could afford. Unable to get financing because bankers don't finance dreams, Mr. Disney had to come up with alternate plan to help him make this dream possible. It was then that Walt turned to television. Using his new show 'Walt Disney's Disneyland' was a great way to showcase his plans and dreams for the future; at the same time getting financial support to make the dreams come true.
Now that things were coming together for Walt it was time the begin construction. July 21, 1954 as the start of the construction on what the world now knows as Disneyland.
After working nonstop for a year and dealing with setbacks such as a colorblind worker told to remove only the trees with red ribbons, long hours, and the California heat, finally Disneyland was ready to open.Continue With Disneyland History | <urn:uuid:0a98f9b4-b4c4-4086-a810-12f1a7b894e8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.disneymouselinks.com/disneylandhistory.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986781 | 605 | 2.671875 | 3 |
What are some of the key tests for lupus? I was looking at the symptoms last night, and I have almost all of them (go figure, yeah right).
The one, quite odd thing is that I have had an oval-shaped rash about the size of a nickel that has appeared, then disappeared 3 times since the middle of August. It is quite scaly with scales the size of BB's. The rash is partially on the nose, just above the bridge.
Anyway, I was wondering what my PCP has done to consider Lupus during this whole whacky ride.
People with Lupus will get a "butterfly rash" across their nose and cheeks. They can also have a positive RA factor because Lupus does joint damage.
Wonka is correct that it is difficult to diagnose in the beginning of the disease and you do have to meet 4 out of 11. Your levels (blood levels) will flucuate (becoming normal then abnormal when the disease is active).
An ANA is a standard test for Lupus but will also come up positive for other diseases. A Anti-dsDNA blood test is a specific test for Lupus. It will only come up positive for this disease. In the health pages...look under "Common Blood Test You'll See During The Diagnosis Process" and there are several listing of Lupus related blood test there. Anytime it says autoimmune..it's refering to Lupus, Sjogrens etc...
This is the criteria:
The "Eleven Criteria"
1.Malar rash: butterfly-shaped rash across cheeks and nose
2.Discoid (skin) rash: raised red patches
3.Photosensitivity: skin rash as result of unusual reaction to sunlight
4.Mouth or nose ulcers: usually painless
5.Nonerosive Arthritis (bones around joints do not get destroyed): in 2 or more joints with tenderness, swelling, or effusion
6.Cardio-pulmonary involvement: inflammation of the lining around the heart (pericarditis) and/or lungs (pleuritis)
7.Neurologic disorder: seizures and/or psychosis
8.Renal (kidney) disorder: excessive protein in the urine, or cellular casts in the urine
9.Hematologic (blood) disorder: hemolytic anemia, low white blood cell count, or low platelet count
10.Immunologic disorder: antibodies to double stranded DNA, antibodies to Sm, or antibodies to cardiolipin
11.Antinuclear antibodies (ANA): positive test in absence of drugs known to induce it
There is such a thing as drug-induced lupus. Have you considered that? Certain drugs that treat hypertension, heart disease, thyroid disease, & antibiotics have been know to induce lupus especially: procainamide (Pronestyl); hydralazine (Apresoline); and quinidine (Quinaglute).
I once thought that I had lupus because I had many of the symptoms. I even had some positive tests for lupus. However, the ANA test was never high in titer. To have active lupus, the ANA is usually high.
There is no one test to see if you have lupus. It is a clinical diagnosis, much like MS is. I thought I met the criteria, as outlined by slightlybroken, too. However, some of the lupus-like symptoms settled down for me, and the more neurological ones revved up.
Here are some tests that may contribute to a serious concern for having lupus if positive:
CBC--which reveals anemia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, or lymphocytopenia.
Urinalysis- reveals protein in the blood (kidney disease)
Antibodies to SM
A false-positive serologic test for syphilis
ESR- determines inflammatory disease
Blood chemistry screen- for creatinine levels, etc.
BUN- measures renal function
Anti-double-standed DNA antibodies
Anti-SSA/RO and ANTI-SSB/LA
Serum Complement Levels- people with lupus tend to have lower than normal complements levels
RF- 20% of lupus patients test positive
Skin biopsy- of rashes
Bone density/X-rays to reveal inflammation--lupus generally does not cause joint damage (but can). There is generally inflammation in joints.
Chest x-rays- lung problems
EKG- irregular heart beat/rhythm;
MRI/CAT scans- up to 50% of lupus patients have trouble in the CNS
Sorry for speed of response, just was about to log off and get on with work.
Where do you live?
I am about to have a full screening for lupus in a specialised centre in a few weeks so remind me if you like and I'll tell you what they did. A very common symptom is a worsening of all problems in heat or sunny weather. Vascular issues are common. Butterfly malar rash across both cheeks is another telltale sign.
ANA blood tests are positive in most SLE patients but not always. Are you talking about discoid lupus (skin only affected). or systemic? A history of eg Raynauds syndrome (google it?) is another pointer. ESR, a test for inflammation in the body is often raised, but again not always. My ESR was normal yet on an MRI my hip and leg muscles were very inflamed. With SLE rheumatoid arthritis is commonly a problem.
Also don't know your age but sometimes SLE symptoms present in early life apparently can recede as you get older, so I was told by a lupus nurse specialist. Really if you think this is the problem, apologies don't know your history, look into finding a specialist in your area. Most general doctors don't know enough about the condition and rely heavily on blood tests, which may miss the diagnosis as it is sometimes not evident in blood results.
Related condition is sjorgens syndrome, however it's spelt. Causes dryness of eyes and salivary glands and also joint problems. The presence of dryness of eyes can easily be tested by a doctor by putting blotting paper against the eye which should become damp in normal eyes.
You probably know but Lupus is an auto-immune condition of connective tissue, and at its worst can kill (rarely, do not panic!), at its mildest is more of a cosmetic problem (mild discoid version), with a whole range of variations in between. If that came out all wrong blame it on me being in a rush.
Like MS, lupus can be hard to diagnose and has many mimics. I'll know far more when I've had my investigations, so remind me if you want to know how they went.
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Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is one of the most devastating cerebrovascular catastrophes causing death in 40 to 50% of the cases. The most common cause of SAH is a rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. If the aneurysm is found, it can be treated before the possible rupture. However, some intracranial aneurysms will never rupture – the problem is that the doctors don’t know which aneurysms will and which will not. So, they don’t know which patients should be treated and who can safely be left untreated.
A long-term, population-based Finnish study on SAH, which is based on the FINRISK health examination surveys, and published in PLOS ONE on 9th September, shows that the risk of SAH depends strongly on the combination of certain risk factors. The SAH incidence was shown to vary from 8 up to 171 per 100 000 person-years, depending on whether people had multiple risk factors for SAH – such as smoking, hypertension and female sex – or not.
Such an extreme risk factor -dependent variation in the incidence of any cardiovascular disease is exceptional, and may have significant clinical implications, says one of the main authors, Associate Professor Miikka Korja from the Helsinki University Central Hospital and Australian School of Advanced Medicine.
If smoking women with high systolic blood pressure values have 20 times higher rate of these brain bleeds than never-smoking men with low blood pressure values, it may very well be that these women diagnosed with unruptured intracranial aneurysms should be treated. On the other hand, never-smoking men with low blood pressure values and intracranial aneurysms may not need to be treated at all.
In this largest SAH risk factor study ever, the study group also identified three new risk factors for SAH: previous myocardial infarction, history of stroke in mother, and elevated cholesterol levels in men. The results revise the understanding of the epidemiology of SAH and indicate that the risk factors for SAH appear to be similar to those for other cardiovascular diseases.
We have previously shown that lifestyle risk factors affect significantly the life expectancy of SAH survivors, and now we have shown that the same risk factors also affect dramatically the risk of SAH itself. Thus, it appears quite clear that especially smoking cessation and hypertension treatment are important in preventing SAH and increasing life expectancy after SAH, clarifies one of the study group members, Academy Professor Jaakko Kaprio, from the University of Helsinki and National Institute for Health and Welfare, referring to their previous publication on cause-specific mortality on SAH survivors (Korja et al., Neurology, 2013).
The study group members have previously published also the largest twin study to date, confirming that heritability for SAH is very low (Korja et al., Stroke, 2010), and the first study on the incidence of SAH in type 1 diabetes, showing that the rate of non-aneurysmal SAHs in type 1 diabetes is unusually high (Korja et al., Diabetes Care, 2013).
Many of the previous studies on the epidemiology of SAH have relied on retrospective and single-center databases, which are unfortunately not very reliable data sources. Due to the unique health care system and common academic interest among doctors in Nordic countries, it has been possible to conduct high-quality and unbiased studies on SAH. We hope that our studies truly help doctors and patients, and are not only of interest in coffee tables on university campuses, says neurosurgeon Korja, and rushes to continue his working day in the operation room in Macquarie University Hospital, Sydney, which is one of his current appointments.
Notes about this neurology and epidemiology research
Contact: Dr. Miikka Korja – University of Helsinki
Source: University of Helsinki press release
Image Source: The middle cerebral artery bifurcation aneurysm image is credited to Miikka Korja and is adapted from the University of Helsinki press release.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Risk Factors and Their Combined Effects on the Incidence Rate of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage – A Population-Based Cohort Study” by Miikka Korja, Karri Silventoinen, Tiina Laatikainen, Pekka Jousilahti, Veikko Salomaa, Juha Hernesniemi and Jaakko Kaprio in PLOS ONE. Published online September 9 2013 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073760
Abstract for “Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Type 1 Diabetes: A prospective cohort study of 4,083 patients with diabetes” by Miikka Korja, Lena M. Thorn, Stefanie Hägg, Jukka Putaala, Ron Liebkind, Valma Harjutsalo, Carol M. Forsblom, Daniel Gordin, Turgut Tatlisumak, Per-Henrik Groop, and the FinnDiane Study Group in Diabetes Care. Published online July 22 2013 doi:10.2337/dc13-0260
Abstract for “Genetic Epidemiology of Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Nordic Twin Study” by Miikka Korja, Karri Silventoinen, Peter McCarron, Slobodan Zdravkovic, Axel Skytthe, Arto Haapanen, Ulf de Faire, Nancy L. Pedersen, Kaare Christensen, Markku Koskenvuo, Jaakko Kaprio, and the GenomEUtwin Project in Stroke. Published online September 16 2013 doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.110.586420 | <urn:uuid:da02f715-e1e0-4997-a297-81d5bab5c430> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://neurosciencenews.com/neurology-hypertension-smoking-sah-392/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878623 | 1,229 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|Oracle® Database SQL Language Reference
11g Release 2 (11.2)
Part Number E17118-03
A query is an operation that retrieves data from one or more tables or views. In this reference, a top-level
SELECT statement is called a query, and a query nested within another SQL statement is called a subquery.
This section describes some types of queries and subqueries and how to use them. The top level of the syntax is shown in this chapter. Refer to SELECT for the full syntax of all the clauses and the semantics of this statement. | <urn:uuid:d23d9e15-3be7-4c2c-9bbe-9dc312bfffb5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18283_01/server.112/e17118/queries001.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.847511 | 121 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Gastric cancer is a disease in which malignant cells form in the lining of the stomach. Age, diet, and stomach disease can affect the risk of developing gastric cancer.
Robotic Surgery Advances
UC San Diego surgeons here performed the region's first robotic gastrectomy, a potentially lifesaving procedure to remove a section of the stomach after a gastric cancer diagnosis. Read more.
Possible signs of gastric cancer include indigestion and stomach discomfort or pain. The prognosis (chance of recovery) and treatment options depend on the stage and extent of the cancer (whether it is in the stomach only or has spread to lymph nodes or other places in the body) and the patient’s general health.
When gastric cancer is found very early, there is a better chance of recovery. Gastric cancer is often in an advanced stage when it is diagnosed. At later stages, gastric cancer can be treated but rarely can be cured.
Our patients with gastric cancer are treated at the Moores Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit. See the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit for more information.
You can also review the tabs at top of this page for information on gastric cancer types, symptoms and risks, diagnosis, and treatment.
Types of stomach cancer
The stomach has five layers; as a cancer grows deeper into the layers, the outlook for survival lessens. Most stomach cancers start in the mucosa layer where stomach acid and digestive enzymes are made. Under this is the submucosa, which is surrounded by muscle called the muscularis. The subserosa and serosa are the two outermost layers of the stomach.
The types of stomach cancer are:
- Adenocarcinoma (about 90 to 95% of malignant stomach cancers)
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST)
- Carcinoid tumors
Cancers starting in different sections of the stomach may cause different symptoms and spread in different ways.
Symptoms may include:
- Indigestion and stomach discomfort
- A bloated feeling after eating
- Mild nausea
- Loss of appetite
In more advanced stages of stomach cancer, there may be:
- Blood in the stool
- Weight loss
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
- Ascites (a build up of fluid in the abdomen)
- Trouble swallowing
The risk of developing stomach cancer is slightly higher in men than women. Although there is no one risk factor directly related to stomach cancer, physicians recommend a diet without heavily smoked or salted foods, and one rich in fruits and vegetables. In addition to diet, older age and stomach disease (such as helicobacter pylori infector or chronic gastritis) may predispose an individual to stomach cancer.
A variety of tests are used in screening for stomach cancer, including:
- Medical history and physical exam
- Blood tests
- A double-contrast barium radiograph (also called an upper GI
- Visualization with an endoscope
UCSD is a leader in endoscopic procedures. Dr. Thomas Savides, Director of the UCSD Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) program, says EUS can be used to tell if superficial cancers are amenable to endoscopic resection (removal), a procedure also known as EMR. EUS also helps determine the depth of invasion before surgery.
Stages of stomach cancer
- Stage IA: Cancer has spread completely through the innermost mucosal layer of the stomach wall
- Stage IB: Cancer has spread completely through the mucosal layer and is found in up to six lymph nodes near the tumor, or it has spread to the muscularis (middle) layer of the stomach wall
- Stage II: Cancer has spread completely through the mucosal layer and is found in seven to 15 lymph nodes near the tumor, or it has spread to the muscularis layer and is found in up to six lymph nodes near the tumor, or it has spread to the serosal (outermost) layer but not to lymph nodes or other organs
- Stage IIIA: Cancer has spread to the muscularis layer and is found in seven to 15 lymph nodes near the tumor, or to the serosal layer and is found in one to six lymph nodes, or to organs next to the stomach but not to lymph nodes or other parts of the body
- Stage IIIB: Cancer has spread to the serosal layer and is found in seven to 15 lymph nodes near the tumor
- Stage IV: Cancer has spread to organs next to the stomach and to at least one lymph node, or to more than 15 lymph nodes or other parts of the body.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of specific symptoms, many stomach cancers are found in an advanced stage at diagnosis. At UCSD, medical oncologist Dr. Tony Reid is exploring innovative treatments, such as immune therapy that boosts the body’s ability to fight cancer.
Surgery offers the best option for cure with stomach cancer. In many instances, UCSD surgeons with expertise in minimally invasive procedures will be able to perform laparoscopic surgery, allowing you a faster recovery time.
You may need to have all of your stomach removed in a procedure called a total gastrectomy. After the operation, your esophagus will be joined to your small intestine. If the tumor is fairly small, a partial gastrectomy (surgical resection of a portion of your stomach) can be performed. If the tumor has grown outside the stomach, other organs, such as the spleen, may need to be removed.
In nearly all patients, chemotherapy (drugs) and radiation therapy are also recommended. Chemotherapy options include the use of cis platinum, Oxaliplatin, 5-FU, Xeloda and Taxanes. In addition, novel combinations with agents that choke off the blood supply to the tumor and that specifically home in on tumor cells are being explored at UCSD. See clinical trials for additional options. | <urn:uuid:ca20fb7b-5d18-4f8b-ade3-42616b5ea238> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.cancer.ucsd.edu/care-centers/gastrointestinal/Pages/stomach.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931481 | 1,235 | 3.125 | 3 |
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|For information about BirdLife Species Champions and Species Guardians visit the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme.|
This species is very poorly known, but it appears to have an extremely small range which is severely fragmented and likely to be declining owing to habitat destruction. It is therefore classified as Critically Endangered. However, it probably remains extant because some suitable habitat remains and searches have not been adequately extensive.
Dowsett, R. J.; Forbes-Watson, A. D. 1993. Checklist of birds of the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions. Tauraco Press, Li
Sibley, C. G.; Monroe, B. L. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.
15 cm. Small, olive-and-yellow forest greenbul. Drab olive above, dull yellow below with olive wash across breast. Yellow spots on tips of secondaries and secondary coverts diagnostic. Similar spp. Very similar to Icterine Greenbul (P. icterinus), but has yellow spots on wings. Much smaller than Yellow-spotted Nicator (Nicator chloris) and has yellow, not greyish, underparts. Voice Unknown. Hints Reported to move through the lower storey whilst flicking, partly opened wings.
Gatter, W. 1985. Ein neuer Bulbul aus Westafrika (Aves, Pycnonotidae). Journal of Ornithology 126: 155-161.
Gatter, W.; Gardner, R. 1993. The biology of the Gola Malimbe Malimbus ballmanni Wolters 1974. Bird Conservation International 3: 87-103.
IUCN. 2015. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015-4. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 19 November 2015).
Molubah, F. P.; Garbo, M. 2010. Liberian Greenbul - Phyllastrephus leucolepis Survey Report, July 2010. Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL).
Phalan, B., Fishpool, L.D.C, Loqueh, E.M., Grimes, T., Molubah, F.P. and Garbo, M. 2013. Liberian Greenbul expedition 2013: Final report. Unpublished report to African Bird Club and RSPB. Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Text account compilers
Bird, J., Ekstrom, J., Shutes, S., Starkey, M., Symes, A. & Wright, L
Fishpool, L., Rainey, H. & Robertson, P.
IUCN Red List evaluators
BirdLife International (2016) Species factsheet: Phyllastrephus leucolepis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28/06/2016. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2016) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28/06/2016.
This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.
To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife
To contribute to discussions on the evaluation of the IUCN Red List status of Globally Threatened Birds, please visit BirdLife's Globally Threatened Bird Forums.
|Current IUCN Red List category||Critically Endangered|
|Species name author||Gatter, 1985|
|Population size||250-999 mature individuals|
|Distribution size (breeding/resident)||99 km2|
|Links to further information|
|- Additional Information on this species| | <urn:uuid:1b26f33a-e5b8-4530-bace-190fb0c706cb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22712975 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.686896 | 907 | 2.890625 | 3 |
- In graph theory, a graph shows a set of connections between objects. Each object is a vertex. Each connection, between two vertices, forms an edge, or arc.
- Edge (also the Edge) is the nickname of U2 member David Howell Evans.
- Edge is also the stage name of Canadian professional wrestler Adam Copeland.
- EDGE is also an acronym for "Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution".
- EDGE is a major improvement in GSM technology that allows consumers to use cellular handsets, PC cards, PDAss and other wireless devices to connect to the Internet at data rates up to four times faster than existing GSM and GPRS wireless devices.
- Edge is the name of a multi-format computer games magazine published by Future Publishing in the UK. It is extremely well known and well regarded due to its sensible mark scheme of 5 for average, unlike many others whose average is beyond 70%.
This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page. | <urn:uuid:b689b5c5-9dd7-4f0a-aa1b-cf0cc561ce70> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://july.fixedreference.org/en/20040724/wikipedia/Edge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938129 | 246 | 2.828125 | 3 |
When the British government cut the maximum package size for OTC drugs that contain acetaminophen to 32 tablets, a dramatic reduction in deaths and acute liver failure cases attributed to the drug followed, researchers said.
After the legislation went into effect in September 1998, the average number of deaths in England and Wales from acetaminophen poisoning -- including suicides, accidental overdoses, and cases of unknown intent -- fell to 31 per quarter-year, compared with rates of 46 to 53 per quarter projected to have occurred on the basis of rates seen prior to the law's enactment, according to Keith Hawton, DSc, of the University of Oxford and colleagues.
They estimated that the legislation prevented some 765 deaths, they reported online in BMJ.
Hawton and colleagues also estimated that cases of acetaminophen-related acute liver failure leading to registration for liver transplant declined by 61%, although actual transplants did not appear to decrease.
"The effect of the 1998 legislation on pack sizes of paracetamol [the British term for acetaminophen] is likely to reflect the fact that many people who intentionally overdose with paracetamol take what is available in the household, especially if the overdose is impulsive," Hawton and colleagues wrote.
But they noted that acetaminophen poisoning continues to occur in Britain. "The benefits [of reduced package sizes] should therefore not lead to complacency," they cautioned.
Other measures that might be undertaken to limit overdoses further could include even stricter limits on package size and lower doses per pill, as well as better enforcement of the current restrictions.
Acetaminophen has come under increasing scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic because dosages not much in excess of recommended levels can lead to acute liver failure, albeit rarely -- especially when the drug is combined with alcohol. It is the most common cause of acute liver failure.
In 2011, the FDA cut the maximum acetaminophen dosage in multi-ingredient products to 325 mg per tablet or capsule, specifically because of the liver-failure risk.
However, acetaminophen-only tablets can still be 500 mg, and bottles of 100 or more are commonplace.
Hawton and colleagues explained that the 1998 U.K. legislation was a reaction to a wave of overdose cases. Interviews with survivors indicated that the overdoses were "often impulsive and involved use of drugs already stored in the home," the researchers wrote.
Limits of 32 tablets for packages sold over the counter in pharmacies and 16 tablets for packages sold elsewhere were set. They applied not only to acetaminophen-only products but also to those containing other ingredients along with acetaminophen.
Total deaths attributed to acetaminophen poisoning in England and Wales averaged 5,081 annually from 1993 to 1998. From 1999 to 2009, the average was 4,773. These data and others used in the study excluded cases involving products that combined acetaminophen with other medications. Acetaminophen with alcohol was included, though.
Hawton and colleagues used a statistical method known as segmented regression analysis to project the rate of acetaminophen-caused deaths that would have occurred without the legislation. In their basic analysis, it adjusted for trends in suicide deaths overall and those involving drugs of all kinds except acetaminophen.
The actual number of deaths was adjusted similarly.
They also made a conservative projection of deaths occurring without the legislation in which the rate was assumed to be the same as it was just before the package restrictions were implemented.
For acetaminophen overdose deaths of all types (suicide, accident, and unknown intent), Hawton and colleagues estimated in their basic analysis that, without the legislation, an average of 53 deaths would have occurred per quarter. Their conservative projection was 46 deaths per quarter.
In both cases, the adjusted actual death rate, 31 per quarter, was significantly lower -- by 22 with the basic projection (95% CI 14 to 30) and by 15 with the conservative projection (95% CI 7 to 23).
The researchers performed similar calculations for liver transplant registrations and actual transplants, with the adjustments focusing on rates of all liver transplant irrespective of cause.
With the basic projection of pre-legislation rates, they estimated that 18 registrations would have occurred per quarter, whereas the adjusted actual registration rate was 7 per quarter (difference 11, 95% CI 1 to 20).
The conservative projection, however, was only 11 per quarter, rendering the actual rate of 7 not significantly lower.
Adjusted actual transplants per quarter were lower than either the basic or conservative projections, but not significantly so.
Among the study's limitations were the exclusion of data on cases involving combination products, as well as the possibility that individuals attempting suicide may simply substitute other means when acetaminophen is too difficult to find. Hawton and colleagues noted that total suicides did not change significantly during the study period.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Health Research. Some individual authors were supported by the National Health Service.
Study authors declared they had no relevant financial interests. Several indicated that they serve on government advisory committees related to pharmacovigilance and suicide prevention.
- Reviewed by F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE Instructor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner | <urn:uuid:7d1f0322-7a0f-4170-b92b-2f386cbc977c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medpagetoday.com/Gastroenterology/GeneralHepatology/37250 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960196 | 1,092 | 2.609375 | 3 |
May 6, 2009 > Compost Awareness Week May 3 - May 9
Compost Awareness Week May 3 - May 9
Submitted By Lori Marra
The U.S. Composting Council is celebrating International Compost Awareness Week, May 3-9, 2009. International Compost Awareness Week (est. 1995) is the world's largest environmental education event for composting, and focuses on broadening the understanding of compost use.
This year's theme is "Compost! Recycling The Way Nature Meant It To Be".
Compost has many beneficial uses: it can be used as mulch, it is used to add nutrients and moisture back into the soil, and helps reduce the need for artificial fertilizers. Composting organic material reduces the amount of methane produced if that material were thrown away into a landfill. Reducing the production of methane helps reduce the effects of climate change. Composting yard trimmings and food scraps allows these valuable resources to be recycled and returned to the earth.
Innovative composting programs have improved community sustainability and promoted the use of renewable resources in landscaping, horticulture and agriculture. In Fremont, restaurants may subscribe to a composting service for food scraps that costs less than regular garbage service. Residents can place yard trimmings and food scraps in their green carts. Allied Waste collects this material and delivers it to the Newby Island Landfill facility for composting. Stickers are available to remind residents that food scraps can go in the green cart, contact the Environmental Services Division for more information.
At the annual Compost Giveaway in March, over 7000 bags of compost made from the residential green cart program were distributed. However, it is not necessary to wait until next spring to get compost. StopWaste.Org provides a home compost bin at a discount to Alameda county residents and offers classes and workshops on Bay-Friendly gardening and landscaping. For more information on upcoming classes or to purchase a compost bin, visit www.bayfriendly.org.
The U.S. Composting Council (USCC) is a national non-profit organization dedicated to the development and expansion of the composting industry in the U.S. For more information about the composting industry and membership in the USCC, visit www.compostingcouncil.org.
StopWaste.Org is the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board operating as one public agency dedicated to reducing the waste stream. | <urn:uuid:4d3953fd-bb02-47a5-bbe9-2d4615bde57b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tricityvoice.com/articlefiledisplay.php?issue=2009-05-06&file=Compost.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93463 | 518 | 2.9375 | 3 |
I recently came across an article claiming that the population of rhinoviruses—the primary viruses that causes the common cold—is about one billion trillion. That rhinovirus number is so amazingly huge, that I had to put it into context to even comprehend it:
- There are about 150 billion rhinovirus particles for every person on the planet.
- If you took the 2012 US national debt and multiplied it by the 2011 US national debt, it would still be less than the number of rhinovirus particles.
- There are an estimated 6000 stars that can be seen in the sky on a moonless night away from city lights. If everyone in the world looked up and saw every star every night, it would take almost two millennia to see as many stars as there are rhinovirus particles.
- If you took all of the rhinoviruses and stacked them on top of each other, they would reach the sun and back over 3 million times. Consider that a rhinovirus is about one-third of one 100-millionth of a meter long. Oh, and those 3 million stacks of rhinoviruses would make a pillar of about a centimeter wide.
Even More Staggering Rhinovirus Numbers
Now, let’s couple those stats with even more numbers. There are over 100 different types of rhinoviruses. So, if you were exposed to one different type or rhinovirus a year, you would have a cold just about every year of your life. When you sneeze, there can be as many as 40,000 droplets expelled at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Those droplets can contain up to 1000 rhinovirus particles per mL (of course, the size of a droplet is much, much less than one mL). Finally, it appears that exposure to one rhinovirus particle is enough to produce a cold. So, cover your sneeze please!
With so Many Rhinovirus Threats, So Why Aren’t We Constantly Sick?
Given these numbers, you would expect everyone would always have a cold, which (fortunately) is not the case. Why don’t we have a cold all the time? Well, because of our immune systems. Rhinoviruses infect the lining of the nose and upper throat and our bodies have a way to protect against this. Over time, our immune systems have developed a number of systems to help us ward off the repeated exposure from rhinoviruses. We produce mucous, which acts a physical barrier to keep viruses from reaching the cells that they infect. We sneeze, which helps clear out particles from our nose. We also have antibodies in the mucous, which bind to the viruses and prevent them from infecting a cell.
If viruses get through these barriers and we do get infected, then our bodies produce an immune response to try and clear the infection. This immune response is often what we think of as “a cold”. The sore throat, runny nose, and cough are all actually caused by the immune response to viral infection. If we get a slight fever, this is also the work of our immune system. So, we can thank our immune systems for making us feel lousy. Of course, it beats the alternative—an unchecked viral infection.
Fortunately, most colds are just a nuisance and are not a serious medical threat. That’s no consolation when we have one, but at least we will almost certainly survive. And this is good for the remaining one billion trillion viral particles, since that leaves one more person around to infect.
Limited Time Immune System Boosting Offer!
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Note: *$10 offer is for first time users only | <urn:uuid:d66f4908-526c-4cf6-85b2-3723ed36fec3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.delimmune.com/2013/02/when-it-comes-to-the-rhinovirus-we-are-outnumbered/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961273 | 807 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Hosting a DB server
So I've been playing around with DB's and I had a few questions that I couldn't get the right answer from google.
What is the difference between a relational database management system and relational model database server,(I'm looking at MySql and Microsoft SQL Server 2008)
So I just wanted to try and host a database from my home computer and access it through a java program from another computer. Could this be done with MySql or Microsoft SQL Server?
My initial thoughts: MySql is used to manage a database, but isn't an actual server, and to start a server you would need a program like Microsoft SQL Server. But can Microsoft SQL Server also be used to manage the database?
I'm downloading Microsoft SQL Server right now, I just wanted to get my questions sorted before I dig into it.
Both of them are databases, and can be set up to be accessed from other machines.
There's no major difference in that respect. | <urn:uuid:74866dde-46d6-4ce3-867c-137fe390a35b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.java-forums.org/jdbc/42361-hosting-db-server-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940458 | 205 | 2.671875 | 3 |
|Linux||whole operating system|
command-line and/or GUI
command-line and/or GUI
|Windoze||whole operating system|
command-line and/or GUI
Linux is a PC flavor of Unix. It is a 'free' OS and comes with a C++ compiler (g++). You can download it as either individual files or CD images (ISO images) which you can burn onto a CD-R (if you have access to a CD-R or CD-RW drive). You can also buy it at many stores (the bookstore on campus, WalMart, etc.).
In the past, I've recommended Mandrake for its security features and ease of use. [Un]Fortunately...Mandrake has merged with Conectiva. I've not experienced the new product, but it has good roots from which to grow. And there is still a download page (under Individuals|Products|...; you'll have to choose which of the desktop variants you prefer. Although I couldn't find any compilers except in the PowerPack variants...*shrug*).
Some might prefer RedHat for its stability, or even Slackware or Debian. Heck, there are thousands of 'em!
Using Linux requires that you either dual-boot your machine (set it up to boot either WinXX or Linux), set up a virtual machine, or dedicate a machine (must be a 386 or greater) to Linux. If any of this scares you or doesn't make sense, just try one of the DOS/WinXX compilering options below.
Further resources for Linux can be found at:
The C++ compiler on Linux, as I said, is g++. Here, though, is a script that emulates the CPP program you use here on campus. Simply save the file as "CPP" in your login directory. (You can save from your Web browser by holding down while right-clicking the link; one option will be to Save the Link.) Then go to a terminal prompt and execute:
$ su -c'cp ./CPP /usr/local/bin' $ su -c'chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/CPP'
If you are on an Ubuntu-like system, you'll need to do sudo instead of su -c and you won't need the single quotes. On any system, it will most likely ask you for your password. But on different systems it will ask for the root/admin password or your own user password — pay attention to the prompt!
You'll need to have perl 5.6.0 (or higher) installed. To check on this, execute the following:
$ perl --version
As long as the version number is greater than or equal to 5.6.0, you're fine.
In addition, it will work best if you have the latest version of the GNU C++ compiler installed. To check this, execute the following:
$ g++ --version
As long as the version number is greater than or equal to 3.0.1, you're fine.
BTW, to execute your programs, you'll have to do so with:
The './' is the same standard security measure in Unix systems that you use here on campus.
Feel free to script your programs from Linux, if you like!
If you do, though, please follow the pwd command with this one:
$ CPP --version
That'll remind me that you are running on your own Linux box and not to expect your warning/error messages to be just like ours on mars. (Your compiler will be newer/better, after all...and this command will even tell me which version you have!)
You'll also have to make sure to install enscript and ps2pdf to make the standard script instructions work as they do on our campus *nix box.
Here are links to free C++ compilers/compiling environments for Windows. I've not used some of these. But, not only do I use both CygWin and Quincy regularly, but I've even heard recommendations for both of them from a respected programmers' journal (Dr. Dobbs Journal). That being said, any of them are still "use at your own risk":
command-line or GUI
CygWin is like having Linux as a desktop application under WinXX. Make sure that when you install you choose the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc and g++ are the most important parts). If you want to use CPP — like here in the lab, make sure Perl was selected for installation (it should be automatic, since much of the system requires perl scripts to run, but it can't hurt to make sure...).
Let me 'splain...no, there is too much...let me sum up:
If you want to have a nicer/friendlier environment for editing (like the nedit we have here in the lab, for instance), want to play with the graphics mentioned at the end of Chapter 2 (yes, the evil sections), or want to have a nice-like debugging environment, then you can proceed with the next list. Otherwise, just jump down to finish the install.
Once you've selected all the packages you'd like to have available (but don't worry! you can install more and/or update these at any time by simply running the "setup.exe" again), click "Next" and let it install for a while... (You'll also probably need to tell it to include lots of other things on which these main packages depend. There are more and more of these as time goes on. Each package tries to take on more responsibilities and needs more help doing it and...it's a vicious cycle.) It must download all the files, install them to your drive, and then run some 'post-install' chores.
Finally, decide if you want a desktop icon or a startup menu entry and you're ready to go!
The basic setup let's you click that desktop icon or go through the "Start|All Programs|Cygwin|Cygwin Bash Shell" menu location to get a terminal/command prompt. It should look somewhat like the one you have for your Unix account here (on mars) — ending with a nice "$ ", at least. *smile*
Now you can go on to learn how to edit your files within the Cygwin environment.
If you don't install X (all those files marked xorg...), then you'll just have vi or nano like in a Putty window here. (To use these, you'll have to have installed one of them. If you want nano's cousin pico, you'll have to install the email system "pine" — see how it says "It includes Pico" off to the right?)
If you did install X, then you can use gvim (a more graphically-oriented version of vi; in fact, you can actually go to vim.org to get gvim for WinXX if you like...*smile*) or Nedit. Both of these have nice features for programmers — like indenting multiple lines of code that you've just decided to put inside a loop or branch.
You can, though, always use Notepad to edit your program — make sure you put a .cpp or .C extension on it or Notepad always attaches a .txt. Your files for Cygwin are located in C:\cygwin\home\_____\.... The _____ is your WinXX login name and the ... is any subdirectories you've created for your programming projects (& labs).
To use the CPP script, you need to save that link as 'CPP' in your CygWin login directory (the one that opens when you open a CygWin window; probably c:\cygwin\home\???? with the ???? filled in with your Windoze account name). Open CygWin and type:
$ chmod a+x CPP
That will make it executable. Now all you'll have to do to compile your programs is:
$ ~/CPP hello
Assuming hello.C or hello.cpp is in the directory with you when you do that.
Or, to use the latest compiler (version 4), type this instead:
$ ~/CPP --compiler=g++4 hello
The '~/' on the CPP above is saying to run the command found in my (well, your, ...you get it, right?) login directory. That way you can run them even if you are storing your programs in subdirectories (i.e. subfolders).
Or, to not have to type that ~/ all the time, you could do this before you compile:
$ cp CPP /usr/local/bin
Now that you've compiled the program, you can execute it by typing:
That will run the program. (The './' tells CygWin to run the program that is in the current directory. Recall that this is a standard Unix security measure.)
If you want to run your scripts in CygWin, you may. Add the following steps to your CygWin setup (or any subsequent update).
Go to the "Utilities" group and make sure that "util-linux" is selected. (This allows you to run 'script' itself.)
Go to the "Text" group and make sure that "enscript" is selected. (This allows you to run 'enscript' for the PostScript transformation.)
Go to the "Graphics" group and make sure that "ghostscript" is selected. (This allows you to run 'ps2pdf' for the PS to PDF transformation.)
All the other commands we use to make a script are already installed by default with CygWin. *smile*
Once those are installed, feel free to script your programs from Cygwin, if you like!
If you do, though, please follow the pwd command with this one:
$ CPP --version
That'll remind me that you are running on your own Cygwin box and not to expect your warning/error messages to be just like ours on mars. (Your compiler will be newer/better, after all...and this command will even tell me which version you have!)
If anything doesn't work, just copy/paste your errors into a [plain text] email and I'll help you 'debug' it.
Copy/Paste for a Cygwin terminal window is in the Edit submenu of the Right-Click menu of the bar across the top of the terminal window — the title bar of the window. Or the Edit submenu found by Left-Clicking the Cygwin icon in the title bar. To copy, you have to Mark with the mouse what you want to copy. Then either go back to the Edit submenu and choose Copy or just hit Enter. Then, you can go to your email program and Paste there as you normally do. (BTW, to Paste in a Cygwin terminal window, you need to go through the Edit submenu and choose Paste. *shrug*)
If you are running X, however, and need to copy/paste from an xterm or rxvt, you can just use the mouse to Mark what you want copied — and it automatically is! (Kinda like in a Putty window...) Then, again, you can Paste in your email program as you normally do. (BTW, to Paste in an xterm or rxvt you can simply Middle-Click, Wheel-Click, or click both Left and Right buttons at once — depending on what type of mouse you have.)
MinGW is just a compiler. This is actually a port of the GNU Project's GCC's g++ compiler (for C++) to WinXX. It would be run from a DOS/CMD window. (Kinda like we run our compiler here at school in a terminal window.)
There is another VERY nice front-end (IDE) originally based on the MinGW backend (compiler). It was developed in a series of DDJ articles by Al Stevens. He made several versions since then (Quincy99, Quincy 2000, and Quincy 2002). All are available from Al's Quincy page (of all places!).
After Al left computing to return to his music career (*shrug*), some folks at CodeCutter took over the project.
This new version has seemed pretty stable when students used it in the past. And they've just recently released an update (Feb 2008). The new maintainers have dubbed it Quincy 2005 (although it's getting a little long in the tooth for that...*grin*).
To configure Quincy, make sure to do the following things (all are under Tools|Options):
In the Build tab, paste into the Compiler options line (near the bottom) part of the longest line from our CPP script. The part you want starts with -ansi and ends just before -fmessage-length=0. Oh, heck, here:
-ansi -Wall -W -Wfloat-equal -Winline -Wunreachable-code -Wredundant-decls -Wconversion -Wwrite-strings -Wcast-qual -Woverloaded-virtual -Weffc++ -fno-gnu-keywords -pedantic
Next go to the Editor tab and change the radio buttons to use Space characters instead of those evil tabs.
Finally, you can fix up the Editor settings otherwise as you'd like them to be: indent/tab size, colors for various parts of the language, etc.
You can also find resources for this IDE at:
command-line and GUI?
Watcom (who is an old and well-respected name in the compilers business) has apparently gone open-source! That means free compilers for us...yea!
GUI IDE for g++
Bloodshed Software also has several free compilers — including one for C++. (Don't let the name frighten you. *grin*) (Okay, so it's just a free IDE for the MinGW port of g++. It's still another option!)
My only beef with the Bloodshed folks is that they require you to add special code to a program to 'pause' the display of a console program at its end. Quincy pauses the console display automatically. It would be awesome if the Bloodshed folks would look through some old DDJ issues for the Quincy development articles or at the Quincy source (which is on the site or the Quincy CD) to see how that worked... (*nudge* *wink* Say-no-more...eh?) Of course, I'm sure they'd check with Mr. Stevens to make sure it was okay to borrow it first...*grin* (I think it is allowed in the license, actually, but it's been a while since I read it...*shrug*)
The command-line tool DJGPP works with the pseudo-GUI front-end RHide. (This is actually a DOS port of the g++ compiler, but will work in a DOS window. Note that RHide is also available for Linux — and Cygwin? — as an IDE for the real g++.)
There are many alternatives to these environments, most are based around the GNU g++ compiler or its MinGW variant (although there are other free compilers — avoid 'interpreters'!). Here is a site with a convenient list of IDEs and/or editors that are programmer-oriented. (Thanks TheFreeCountry!) | <urn:uuid:67f43d60-5372-4253-a422-bec434d8b90a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://home.earthlink.net/~craie/C++/free.compilers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923847 | 3,249 | 2.75 | 3 |
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 15th, 2010
Marc Miller is shown in the lower lefthand corner of this photograph, during one of his Yeti explorations of Nepal. The following is his October 27, 2008 article on the Buru.
Marc Miller is a psychologist with a practice in Lancaster, Ohio, and he has practiced neuropsychology for many years. He is a cryptozoologist, one who studies legendary animals, and has explored the world. This is his 30th year of expeditions, and he is sharing his latest adventure with local residents….
Miller is married to Fran, a real estate agent. His third book “Adventures in Cryptozoology” was published in 2008.
While I was sitting on the dock of my pond, reading Loren Coleman’s book, “Cryptozoology A to Z”, I came across a description of a prehistoric type of reptile in North India called the Buru.
Coleman is probably the most well-known current cryptozoologist. He has made many field expeditions, done extensive research and written several books.
The Buru is a large, unknown lizard thought by some to have lived in the remote valleys of the Himalayas of Assam in the northeast corner of India. Coleman further mentioned that the reptile was approximately 15 to 20 feet in length, aquatic by nature, and emitted hoarse bellowing calls. He mentioned that the journalist, Ralph Izzard, among others, had led an expedition in 1948 in search of the Buru.
Ralph Izzard is shown above with his book, “The Hunt for the Buru”, actually the now easily-obtainable 2002 edition, which contains a new introduction by Loren Coleman.
Izzard’s journal was later published as “The Hunt for the Buru” in 1951. Coleman also stated that they had failed to uncover any solid evidence of the creature. However, there was enough testimony from earlier encounters to persuade the father of cryptozoology, Bernard Heuvelman, that these lizards might be only recently extinct.
After reading about the Buru, I was excited to learn more, so I Googled the term. Wikipedia identified the Buru as an aquatic reptile living in the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Peradesh in Northeastern India. Professor Christopher Von Furer-Haimendorf was the first Westerner to be told about this reptile. It was thought at the time that Buru might have already gone extinct in the valley.
According to the Apatani elders, when their forefathers migrated from Tibet to the Ziro Valley, the valley was primarily a marsh that was populated by many Burus. The Apatani people decided to settle in the valley because of its fertility and good climate. However, on occasion, confrontations with the Burus presented a problem. As a result, the Apatani Indian tribe drained the marsh of its water and apparently might have eliminated the Burus. Most of the Burus died because of the drainage and many supposedly went underground into the springs.
The last Buru was reported by a young woman who sighted it in a spring one night while she was drawing water. It startled her and she told her father of the incident. The next day the whole village helped fill the spring with stones and clay.
There has been speculation that the Buru was an unidentified member of the crocodilia. However, the description of the Buru is more like a monitor lizard, with its characteristics, such as elongated neck and a forked tongue. The native name for the Komodo dragon is Land Crocodile.
Cryptozoologists, Bernard Heuvelman and Roy Mackal, regard the Buru to be a large Komodo dragon-like monitor lizard. There are fossils of such creatures to be found in the Indian subcontinent. This reptile was supposedly living in the dense forests and swamps of the Himalayas. Swamps certainly do not come to mind when thinking of this mountain range.
The Himalayas, overall, are tall, long and wide, forming a broad, continuous arc of nearly 16,000 miles along the northern fringes of the Indian subcontinent. They are divided into three parallel zones that differ greatly in topography.
First are the Great Himalayas, then the Middle Himalayas, and finally the Sub Himalayas. The Greater Himalayas consist of huge lines of snowy peaks, while the Middle Himalayas are primarily high ranges composed of pine trees.
The Sub Himalayas consist of foothills and long flat-bottomed valleys, known as duns. The home of the Burus was one of the valleys. The Apatani Valley is located in one of the world’s most isolated and seldom visited areas. In this swampy, spongy, isolated valley, rimmed by towering Himalayas, in the farthest reaches of Northeast India, these creatures lived and tales about them have been told by the Apatani and Dafla tribes living in the region. The tribes have handed down these tales in travel lore for generations.
Finally, in the 20th century, these tales came to the first Westerners. The name of the creature was called the Buru. It was said to be approximately 15 to 20 feet in length, with smooth skin and three rows of short blunt spines running down its sides and back. It has stumpy short legs about a foot and a half in length. The feet, which are heavily clawed, resemble the forefeet of a burrowing mole. It also has a lengthy powerful tail. The areas where this reptile was located are in remote northeast India, bordered by the nations of Bhutan, Tibet and Burma. This is a subtropical climate with extremely heavy rainfall. Much of the terrain is covered with dense, tropical forests of bamboo.
Professor Hainendorf, an anthropologist, who wrote about the Apatani tribesman and their isolated location in 1947, noted despite the altitude, their valley was swampy and thick-forested. The bottom of the valley, according to local tradition, was once a marshy swamp, inhabited by a lizard-like monster.
The first venturer into this remote part of the world to seek the Buru was a British zoologist named Charles Stonor. He made the first detailed report of the Apatani Valley in 1948, and it is still considered to be the best source of information about the area. Stonor wrote detailed accounts of the Apatani people – their land, their legends and the Buru. He interviewed approximately 30 tribesmen who described in very close detail the peculiar reptile. They also related a few stories at that time of human attacks. One included a hunter who, after threatening the Buru’s young, had been drowned when the mother stung him with its powerful tail.
After obtaining Izzard’s journal, I attempted to follow his exact expedition along with Stonor, starting in Assam and going up into Arunachal-Pradesh, India, which was once part of the large area of Assam. When Izzard initiated his expedition, all northeast area was considered to be Assam.
Izzard had many cryptozoological friends from his early school days. He was a lifelong friend of Ivan Sanderson, who was a very famous cryptozoologist. Sanderson had led expeditions in some of the most remote parts of the jungles in the world and had many interesting tales of a wide variety of animals. He was also a childhood friend of Gerald Russell, who was an explorer and cryptozoologist in the 1930s to the 1950s. They were both in Africa and came across a large creature later known as Mokele-Mbembe, which was considered a long necked dinosaur.
Izzard hoped that he would be able to return from his expedition with actual evidence or capture of the Buru. Other sightings of similar reptiles as the Buru have been seen in Bhutan, where the king had claimed to have actually seen something like a Buru many years ago. Heuvelmans noted during the 1980s the current sightings described animals similar to the Buru in another region of India. Loren Coleman, probably one of the most famous living cryptozoologists, thought the Buru might still be living near the same valleys that Izzard searched more than a half century ago.
Izzard mentions in his journal that, in 1948, news came of an extinct reptile that had been moving along the Himalayan border. After reading the accounts of Izzard’s journal, I was interested in finding information about the Sacred Brass Plates in the Apatani village. His expedition members were never permitted to view the plates.
“The search for the Buru and the Sacred Brass Plates” by Marc E. W. Miller, Eagle-Gazette, October 27, 2008.
Brent Swancer adds:
I tend to agree with the speculations of Heuvelmans and Mackal concerning the Buru being a type of large monitor lizard that has developed aquatic tendencies.
It seems to me that perhaps the Buru could be a type of monitor lizard that has developed a type of giganticism. This has happened before in many isolated species including monitors such as the Komodo dragon, which is an example of a process called island giganticism. Animals in an island ecology will typically evolve to be larger or smaller depending on certain ecological factors (this is known as Foster’s Rule). In situations where there is an absence of predators or significant competition in an island habitat, and especially when there are plentiful food resources, some animals can become significantly larger over time (In contrast to island dwarfism).
The impression I get from reading the article is that the valley the Buru is said to inhabit is very isolated, and surrounded by mountains. This is interesting to me because as far as island biogeography is concerned, any ecology isolated and surrounded by unlike ecologies can be considered an island. If this is the case with this valley, we could be essentially seeing island giganticism at work, and a similar situation to what happened in the evolution of the Komodo dragon. Also, since the Buru is said to be aquatic in nature, this would allow it to become even larger since its greater body weight would be supported by water.
The one thing that is still curious is the presence of those wicked digging claws. This seems more fitting with a predominantly terrestrial animal that does a lot of burrowing, digging, or things like rooting through tree stumps for grubs.
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. | <urn:uuid:c8e92a84-0676-48f0-bc1b-bb5f7ceda855> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/miller-buru/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977616 | 2,479 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Scientists have uncovered the mechanism that controls whether cells that are able to suppress immune responses live or die. The discovery of the cell death processes that determine the number of "regulatory T-cells" an individual has could one day lead to better treatments for immune disorders.
Regulatory T-cells are members of a group of immune cells called T-cells. Most T-cells actively respond to clear the body of infections. By contrast, regulatory T-cells are considered to be immune suppressing cells because they can "switch off" an immune response to a particular molecule. This immune suppression is important for preventing inappropriate immune attack of the body’s own tissues, which is the underlying cause of autoimmune diseases such as lupus and type 1 diabetes.
A shortage of regulatory T-cells is linked with the development of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, while some people with higher than normal numbers of regulatory T-cells cannot fight infections properly.
Dr. Daniel Gray and Antonia Policheni from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Molecular Genetics of Cancer and Immunology divisions made the discovery about how regulatory T-cell numbers are controlled as part of an international team of researchers jointly led by Gray and Dr. Adrian Liston, who is head of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) Laboratory for Autoimmune Genetics at the University of Leuven, Belgium. They found that regulatory T-cells are constantly being produced in the body, but their numbers are held steady by a process of cell death. The findings are published in the journal Nature Immunology.
Cell death, or apoptosis, is important in many immune cell types for the removal of excess, defective or damaged cells. The decision of these cells on whether to live or die is controlled by a family of proteins called the "Bcl-2 protein family." This includes proteins that can either promote cell survival or trigger cell death, in response to many different stimuli.
Gray says the team had discovered that Bcl-2 family proteins were important determinants of regulatory T-cell numbers. “Regulatory T-cell death is highly dependent on the activity of two opposing Bcl-2 family proteins, called Mcl-1 and Bim,” he says. “Mcl-1 is required for regulatory T-cell survival, allowing them to suppress unhealthy immune responses, while Bim triggers the death of regulatory T-cells. Without Mcl-1 activity, regulatory T-cell numbers fall, provoking lethal autoimmune disease. Conversely, if Bim activity is lost, regulatory T-cells accumulate in abnormally high numbers.”
Liston says the finding was exciting, because it opened up new ways to control regulatory T-cell numbers in disease. “Already, there is considerable interest in a new class of agents, called ‘BH-3 mimetics’ that target Bcl-2-like molecules including Mcl-1,” he says. “If agents that can influence regulatory T-cell survival can be developed, we could see new ways to suppress autoimmune disease, by boosting regulatory T-cell numbers, or to enhance beneficial immune responses, by silencing regulatory T-cells.”
The research was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the Victorian government, the European Union, the Belgian Government, and the VIB.
Source: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute | <urn:uuid:73a2b435-34cb-442e-a288-2990df140ddb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/07/kill-switch-controls-immune-suppressing-cells | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945859 | 695 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Heart Disease Center—Angina and CAD
is a disease marked by brief paroxysmal attacks of chest pain precipitated by deficient oxygenation of the heart muscles.
Coronary artery disease
, also called coronary disease or coronary heart disease, is a condition (as sclerosis or thrombosis) that reduces the blood flow through the coronary arteries to the heart muscle.
Diagnostic and Surgical Procedures
Preventing Angina and CAD
Achieving and maintaining a healthful weight
Never mind the fad diets, weight-loss pills, and zany herbal remedies—it all comes down to a balanced diet and a regular exercise program.
Eating a diet low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol
A high level of cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack. Learn about the different kinds of fats and how you can make better food choices.
Start a regular exercise program
Exercise helps keep your body healthy and your tissue and organs working properly. In keeping your body in good working order, exercise also helps ward off many diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and many others.
Preventing Angina and CAD (Continued)
Tips for reducing stress in your life
Many people feel stress often; some even feel it as a part of their daily lives. Stress has been implicated as a possible cause of—or at least exacerbating some of the symptoms of—numerous conditions, including coronary artery disease.
Tips to help you stop smoking
Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. If you have thought about quitting but haven’t been able to, here are some reasons why you should and some ways to do it.
Natural and Alternative Treatments (By Condition)
American Heart Association National Center
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute | <urn:uuid:e346d9fb-f0ff-4126-8e7b-70dc8ec79e85> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=33732 | 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 | 0.917601 | 399 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Why rice is really nice
Rice is an annual that is related to grass plants such as wheat, oat and barley. It is a sub-aquatic green grassy plant that grows 50-100cm tall. Each plant has many heads of tiny rice grains that become a golden colour when ready to harvest. The rice grain has three main layers.
The hull, a hard outer shell is inedible and removed when the grain is milled. Rice bran is the layer underneath this that is the bran and germ layer. This remains on the grains for brown rice giving it its brown colouring. The endosperm is the final white grain that is hard and contains lots of starch.
Rice is carbohydrate rich, meaning it is high in energy. It is low fat, gluten free, low in salt, cholesterol and sugar. It has no additives or preservatives.
There are three types of rice that separate the varieties. These are short grain, medium grain and long grain.
- Short grain – This is soft , has a sticky texture when cooked and appears glossy. It is perfect for cooking desserts and puddings and for foods that require the rice to stick together. Varieties of short grain rice are Japanese style and pearl.
- Medium grain– Medium grain rice still has a tendency to stick together but it is not as sticky as short grain rice. It produces moist tender grains when cooked and you can find in either brown or white rice. Varieties of medium grain rice are Calrose and Arborio rice. The Calrose is a very adaptable variety while the Arborio rice is chalky and suitable for Risotto and Paella as it absorbs flavours very well.
- Long grain – Long grain rice has a firmer texture and a less sticky consistency. It has an off-white colour and is bland in taste. Varieties of long grain rice are Long, a firmer texture rice that is suited to savoury flavours, Fragrant which is jasmine style rice suited to Thai cuisine and lastly Basmati that elongates when cooked and is specific to Indian cuisine.
How to select and store rice
Choose rice that is devoid of stones or other debris and that is uniform in colour so as not to contain mould. You need to store in a dry cool place in a container with a tight fitting lid.
Best ways to cook rice
Rice is suitable for sweet and savoury dishes. You can use both the boiling or absorption method to cook rice. This can be done on the stovetop, oven or in the microwave. Once it is cooked you can fry, bake and sauté it into other dishes.
How to cook rice
On the stovetop – in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid, using 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of cold water, bring it to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Leave the lid on pan, turn the heat off and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
In the microwave – Place 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of cold water. Then microwave on high for 12 minutes. Increase the cooking time if you increase the volume by 3 minutes for each extra cup of rice.
If you want the grains to separate easily after cooking you should wash your rice until the water runs clear. This removes the starch from the outside of the grains. | <urn:uuid:38ba13d9-4808-40a6-82b8-3d116fc37b65> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kidspot.co.nz/recipes-article+3654+62+Family-eating+Why-rice-is-really-nice.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944769 | 686 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.01.38
Kyle Harper, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. xiv, 611. ISBN 9780521198615. $140.00.
Reviewed by Juan P. Lewis, The University of Edinburgh (firstname.lastname@example.org)
This study of Roman slavery spans the period roughly from Diocletian until the end of the reign of Honorius. Nonetheless, it would be of great interest to both the specialist on Roman slavery in the classical period and the early medievalist. The central thesis of the book is that during the long fourth century, the Roman Empire was still a slave society. The last three decades of research have undermined the theory that slavery decayed and was replaced by other forms of unfree labour after the third-century crisis. However, no alternative explanatory model has been proposed. Harper aims to construct that model “from the ground up” (p. 21). His main argument is that slavery was an integral component of the Roman imperial system, an exceptionally complex and integrated world-economy not seen anywhere else in pre-modern times.1 Harper rejects the idea of transition to serfdom and feudalism. Instead, he replaces it with a simpler model in which the key variables are supply and (most importantly) demand. Accordingly, when the empire collapsed in the west, both demand for slaves and the supply chain that provided them were disrupted. Slavery then gradually vanished and “became less prominent in precisely the two sectors that made Roman slavery exceptional” (p. 66), namely the lower echelons of the elite and agriculture. Between the fifth and seventh century, the slave society of the late unified empire was replaced by more primitive and less integrated independent kingdoms where slavery persisted, but in which slavery no longer held the central position in the economy, culture, and law that it had in the past.
The book is divided into three parts of four chapters each. Part I deals with the economic organization of slavery. Its aim is to challenge the prevailing narrative of conquest and transition that has cemented the idea that late Antiquity was a time of crisis plagued by the contradictions of a declining slave mode of production. Drawing upon Scheidel’s “bottom-up” approach, Harper identifies the social groups that owned slaves and calculates a “plausible range of slaves an owner could have owned” (p. 39). He subsequently discusses the mechanisms that kept the slave supply constant during the whole period, such as breeding, self-sale, child exposure, abduction, and slave imports. He digs up the literary record to show how important slave labour still was in the household, the basic economic unit in ancient society. The discussion centres on not only menial domestic tasks performed by unskilled slaves, but also administrative jobs and business activities in which literate slaves played a major part and textile production in which female slave labour was pervasive. Finally, he closes with a long discussion of the conditions for and advantages of using slave labour in agriculture in both the eastern and the western part of the empire. He rejects the idea of a dominant mode of production and instead focuses on the interaction of a series of variables such as the differentiated costs of free and slave labour, the role of legal institutions, the variegated nature of ancient agriculture, and the dynamics of estate management.
Part II is directed towards the social facets of slavery. The target narrative is the amelioration thesis, which claims that Christianity improved master-slave relations. Instead, Harper shows that the Church accommodated to the slave system and "Christian and Roman ideologies became enmeshed" (p. 212). First discussed are masters’ strategies to secure their slaves’ submission by the combination of the permanent threat of violence and incentives such as promotion, the granting of a peculium (a fund slaves controlled independently), and manumission. Then, the focus turns towards the active role played by slaves in their everyday experience of exploitation. Individual reactions such as shirking and disruption of work, theft, physical violence against masters, and flight are profusely attested in late antique sources of all types. More difficult to unearth is the family life of slaves, which is seen by Harper as "a way to repudiate the dehumanizing force of slavery" (p. 265). Slave unions, however, were fragile and at the total mercy of masters during the whole period. Harper successfully dispels the view that Christianity promoted a more stable family life among slaves, and instead shows how little the Church innovated in that respect. The discussion of slave responses to exploitation closes with a survey of the power dynamics created by the existence of both horizontal and vertical loyalties within the slave community and how the segmentation of slave labour prevented the consolidation of class solidarity between slaves. Another central theme of Part II is the sexual exploitation of dishonoured women, i.e. slaves and prostitutes, which was intrinsic to the organization of Roman slavery. The sexual freedom enjoyed by young men shaped Roman gender relationships and secured the preservation of free women’s purity and honour. Traditional Roman sexual mores were still prevalent in the fourth century, but they gradually started to collude with Christian insistence on sexual exclusivity and monogamy. The last chapter of Part II is dedicated to the experience of mastery, both for the pater and the mater familias.
Part III focuses on the legal fabric of status and slavery. Its aim is to undermine the “merger” of the lower classes narrative, which insinuates that slaves and the free poor became almost undistinguishable after the third century AD. Harper also disputes that the late antique emperors’ feverish legislative work on status reflects the impending collapse of the slave system. Apart from a series of inscriptions from Leukopetra, which attest the new geographical reach Roman private law acquired after AD 212, the bulk of the discussion deals with imperial rescripts on status, adultery laws and manumission. Diocletian’s numerous legal pronouncements on slave status are reinterpreted as “the apogee of legal classicism” (p. 389) and as part of a process of consolidation of the Roman state and slave system. Constantine’s laws sanctioning the enslavement of free-born foundlings are regarded as a pragmatic innovation, an attempt to solve the contradictions created by the expansion of Roman citizenship and the slave system’s need to maintain the slave supply with internal sources. Study of imperial constitutions on marriage, adultery and inheritance shows how late Roman laws “reflect old rather than new sexual values” (p. 430). The analysis of the laws of manumission and the new powers granted to the Church to free slaves close the discussion and show that Christianity failed to serve as an effective liberating force.
The conclusion is in fact a postscript. It briefly summarises the changing socioeconomic conditions of the fifth and sixth centuries that precipitated the gradual retraction and eventual demise of the slave system, both in the west and the east. Two appendices follow. One discusses the word oiketes, which Harper argues meant "nothing other than slaves" (p. 516). The other gives a list of passages from the Codex Hermogenianus that mention slaves.
Nothing illustrates better how necessary this book was than the secondary literature on ancient slavery Harper mostly draws upon and debates with. For the most part, they are either specialists on the classical period of Roman slavery, like Roth or Scheidel, or mediaevalists, like Wickham. It is only when he discusses more specific issues such as the slave body or the technicalities of legal sources that the experts in late Antiquity come to the fore. It is as if fourth- century slavery had been of little interest to scholars. This is not for lack of material. Aided by computer databases, Harper has collected an impressive body of evidence, most of it unknown by the majority of slavery scholars. He makes extensive use of the writings of Church fathers, particularly John Chrysostom and Augustine, pagan authors like Libanius, Egyptian papyri, some key inscriptions, and late antique law compilations. Harper rightly warns the reader about the limits of the extant evidence. Nonetheless, careful examination shows that, despite being impressionistic and insufficient, late antique sources on slavery are as good as, and sometimes even better than, anything that has survived from the high empire, which nobody would hesitate to call a slave society.
When evidence is too fragmentary or lacking, Harper makes good use of models. One example is the parametric model that shows that the demographic structure of the slave population ensured that the system could reproduce itself through breeding (p. 69-74). Another one is when he discusses the dynamics of agricultural slavery and the variables that made the use of slave labour in agriculture desirable. Likewise, when he uses the concept of ‘community of honour’ to explain varied but interrelated phenomena such as the preservation of free women’s respectability through the sexual exploitation of slaves, the role of the pater and the mater familias in the household, and the evolution of adultery and status laws.
Harper moves with ease in the realm of traditional source-based historical research, but he is also a competent social and cultural historian who discusses Roman law with insight and expertise. He is an accomplished translator as well. He manages to render ancient texts into fluid contemporary English whilst capturing the nuances and style of the original (I particularly liked his rendering of adultera meretrix as "slutty prostitute" on p. 310).
I have some minor quibbles. In his zeal to be thorough, Harper sometimes tries to cover too much. I have found some paragraphs that interrupted the flow of the argument without adding much to the main thesis, as when he touches on the idea that the "race-based justification for slavery [of black people] existed already in the late Roman empire" (p. 91). The claim is unsatisfactorily supported and not explored any further, even though it contradicts everything known about the colour-blindness that characterised Roman slavery and Harper’s own attestation that the slave trade was supplied with people of every race and origin during the whole period his book covers. Occasionally, he can overdo a point and repeat phrases unnecessarily. There are also some debatable claims, as when he states that "in late Roman art [...] the simple tunic was a clear advertisement of slave status" (p. 334); or his suggestion that slaves were useful in harvest work because of the risk of hiring seasonal labour (p. 137), although Roman agricultural writers like Varro recommended the employment of free peasants during the harvest (RR 1.17). I do not understand how he justified the use of the Babylonian Talmud as a source for the history of Roman slavery either, unless he was doing it for comparative purposes (pp. 264, 266, 287 n. 36, 293, 335). Finally, the organization of the section on slaves’ individual responses to exploitation (pp. 252-261) owes much to Bradley’s discussion of slave resistance.2 I find it somewhat bizarre that Harper did not acknowledge it, as he clearly knows Bradley’s work well and quotes him profusely in the rest of the book.
Notwithstanding these minor flaws, Harper makes his case successfully. He has established solid grounds to open a whole new area of research into a subject, late antique slavery, that has been barely studied, if not neglected. He has also built new bridges for interdisciplinary collaboration between experts on two periods that do not usually converse with each other. From now on, there will be no excuse to keep treating fourth-century Roman society as substantially distinct from that of the previous centuries. Slavery in the Late Roman World is certainly poised to become not only the main scholarly introduction to a specific topic, but also a milestone in slavery studies and Roman history in general.
1. Maybe with the exception of China, which was not strictly speaking a slave society.
2. Bradley, K. (1994) Slavery and Society at Rome. Cambridge, chapter 6. | <urn:uuid:edf13db6-6754-4898-bcec-434b8b974da3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012-01-38.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952073 | 2,507 | 2.796875 | 3 |
A Glossary of Heart Failure Terms
Beta-Blocker: A drug that slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure, controls angina, and protects patients with prior heart attacks from future heart attacks.
Bicuspid Valve: A valve with two leaflets (cusps) instead of three.
Biopsy: Removal and analysis of a tissue sample.
Blood Pressure: The force exerted in the arteries by blood as it circulates. It is divided into systolic (when the heart contracts) and diastolic (when the heart is filling) pressures.
Body Mass Index (BMI): A number that reflects body weight adjusted for height. Normal values are 18.5-24.9. Values of 25-29.9 are considered overweight. Values of 30 or higher are considered obese.
Bradycardia: A slow heart rate.
Bundle Branch: Part of the electrical pathway of the heart that delivers electrical impulses to the ventricles of the heart.
Bundle Branch Block: Normally, the electrical impulse travels down both the right and left bundle branches at the same speed and the ventricles contract at the same time. If there is a block in one of the branches, it's called a bundle branch block. A bundle branch block causes one ventricle to contract just after the other ventricle, reducing the overall efficiency of contraction.
Calcium-Channel Blocker: A drug that reduces spasm of the blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, and controls angina; it acts by selectively blocking the uptake of calcium by the cells.
Capillaries: Tiny blood vessels connecting arteries to veins. These blood vessels carry oxygen and nutrients to individual cells throughout the body.
Carbohydrate: An organic compound, found in food substances such as sugar, cereal and other grain products, fruits, and vegetables, which provides fuel for the body.
Carbon Dioxide: A gas created during metabolism, when the cells use oxygen to burn fat and release energy. The lungs release carbon dioxide when you breathe out.
Cardiac Arrest: When the heart stops beating suddenly and respiration (breathing) and other body functions stop as a result. Without immediate treatment the affected person will die.
Cardiac Catheterization: A heart procedure used to diagnose heart disease. During the procedure, a catheter (inserted into an artery in your arm or leg) is guided to your heart, contrast dye is injected, and X-rays of the coronary arteries, heart chambers, and valves are taken. | <urn:uuid:5db4df07-b8ff-423d-afe8-6839db1568e9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/glossary-words-associated?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885165 | 519 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Herbs & Botanical » C » Cuscuta
Cuscuta (tu si zi)
What is cuscuta? What is it used for?
Cuscuta is a leafless plant with branching stems, which can reach a height of approximately five feet. It is a parasitic plant: cuscuta has no chlorophyll and cannot make its own food through photosynthesis, so it grows on other plants and uses their nutrients for its own means. As such, it is considered a destructive weed, and is especially harmful to valuable crops like alfalfa, beans and potatoes.
In traditional Chinese medicine, cuscuta seeds have been used for thousands of years. The seeds are described as having a neutral nature and a pungent, sweet taste. They are associated with the kidneys and liver, and are often used in formulas that help balance both yin and yang deficiencies, depending on the patient's condition.
Specifically, cuscuta seeds are used in conjunction with other herbs to treat a wide range of conditions, ranging from impotence, premature ejaculation and frequent urination, to blurred vision and dry eyes. Because of its ability to reduce the loss of fluids from the body, cuscuta was once considered a "longevity herb."
How much cuscuta should I take?
Typically, herbalists recommend a patient take between 9-15 grams of cuscuta seed, but this dosage can vary, depending on the condition(s) being treated.
What forms of cuscuta are available?
Whole, dried cuscuta seeds can be found at Asian markets. Some stores also sell cuscuta seed powder.
What can happen if I take too much cuscuta? Are there any interactions I should be aware of? What precautions should I take?
There are no reports of adverse effects associated with cuscuta, provided the herb is used in the doses normally prescribed. As of this writing, there are no known drug interactions with cuscuta seeds. However, it should not be taken by patients suffering from constipation, or by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
As always, make sure to consult with a licensed health care professional before taking cuscuta seeds or any other herbal remedy or dietary supplement.
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Date Last Modified - Monday, 27-Jul-2009 08:56:02 PDT | <urn:uuid:7d3207fe-3fe5-4945-9bd7-ca3d3696323f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.naturopathydigest.com/nutrition_herbs/herbs/cuscuta.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00196-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941471 | 520 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Between 367 B.C. and 347 B.C., Plato, as the teacher, and Aristotle, as the student, formalized and legitimized the Form and Substance of Reasoning by . In doing so, they essentially realized a shift of consciousness from a chaotic, mysterious universe to an ordered, predictable world of cause and effect. All of Western Civilization is a corollary to this event.
In 429 B.C., plague killed at least one-third the population of Athens. In turn, the good citizens of Athens lost their fear of their Gods and Goddesses, because
There is a brief chronology of other events which immediately preceded the discussions of Form and Substance. With the memory of the plague clearly in mind, the citizens began to seek a real understanding of how things worked. It was a matter of life and death!
Towards this end, Plato postulated a "World of Ideas", independent of any gods or goddesses. At the time, such independence implied an absolute quality that neither God nor Goddess could change, now or forever.
In later the later years, Aristotle argued on the genesis of , and discussed various Categories of . His teachings were highly regarded and inspired much research and understanding after his death in 322 B.C.
Unfortunately, this focus on absolute permanence ultimately lead to 1500 years of paralysis under the dominion of the Vatican. However, even with a price tag of 1500 years, Plato's work must be appreciated as only the first cut at freeing humanity from the arbitrary whims of supernatural forces.
As we now know, Aristotle was "wrong" about a lot of things, but, hey, that was almost 2500 years ago and syllogisms were the hi-tech of the day. To get a flavor for the consciousness of the Form and Substance of Objects, consider the following chronology of events in Ancient Greece, for the 100 years, or so, immediately before Plato and Aristotle held their discussions:
In 407 B.C. Plato became a pupil and friend of Socrates. In 387 B.C., after living for a time at the Syracuse court, Plato founded the most influential school of the ancient world, The Academy, near Athens, where he taught until his death.
His most famous pupil there was Aristotle. Plato's extant work is in the of epistles and dialogues, divided according to the probable order of composition.
The early, or Socratic, dialogues, e.g., the Apology, Meno, and Gorgias, present Socrates in conversations that illustrate his major ideas—the unity of virtue and knowledge and of virtue and happiness. They also contain Plato's moving account of the last days and death of Socrates.
Plato's goal in dialogues of the middle years, e.g., the Republic, Phaedo, Symposium, and Timaeus, was to show the rational relationship between the soul, the state, and the cosmos.
The later dialogues, e.g., the Laws and Parmenides, contain treatises on law, mathematics, technical philosophic problems, and natural science.
Plato regarded the rational soul as immortal, and he believed in a world soul and a Demiurge, the creator of the physical world.
He argued for the independent reality of Ideas, or s, as the immutable archetypes of all temporal phenomena and as the only guarantee of ethical standards and of objective scientific knowledge.
Virtue consists in the harmony of the human soul with the universe of Ideas, which assure order, intelligence, and pattern to a world in constant flux.
Supreme among them is the Idea of the Good as an to the sun in the physical world. Only the philosopher, who understands the harmony of all parts of the universe with the Idea of the Good, is capable of ruling the just state.
In Plato's various dialogues he touched upon virtually every problem that has occupied subsequent philosophers; his teachings have been among the most influential in the history of Western civilization, and his works are counted among the world's finest literature.
Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. at Stagira, a Greek colonial village on the Aegean Sea near the Macedonian border. In 367, Aristotle entered the Academy at Athens. At the time, Plato was sixty-one years of age, and began a friendship that lasted for twenty years until Plato's death in 347.
After Plato's death, Aristotle left the Academy and later studied natural history and marine biology for two years on the island of Lesbos until 344. He then returned to the Macedonian court to tutor Alexander The Great from 342 to 339. When Alexander later made his expedition to the East, he appointed men to collect materials and specimens to further Aristotle's scientific research.
In 335 he opened a school, called The Lycaeum, in Athens. The great body of extant Aristotlean treatises probably represent the lectures which Aristotle delivered at The Lycaeum.
In 330 B.C., also addressing the of matter, the atomic theory of the Greek philosopher Democritus says that all matter is composed of tiny atomic particles. Nothing happens through chance or intention, says Democritus; everything happens through cause and of necessity. All change is merely an aggregation or separation of parts, nothing which exists can be reduced to nothing, and nothing can come out of nothing. Democritus distinguished between vertebrate and invertebrate animals, both of which he dissected.
During the anti-Macedonian agitation after Alexander's death in 323, Aristotle fled to Chalcis, where he died a few months later in 322.
In his philosophical system, theory following empirical observation, and logic based on syllogisms, is the essential method of rational inquiry. He profoundly influenced Western thought and his extant writings, largely in the of lecture notes made by his students at The Lycaeum, include:
An archive of his complete works is available. Robin Smith of Texas A&M University Philosophy Department is a leading authority on his works.
Aristotle held philosophy to be the discerning, through the use of systematic logic as expressed in syllogisms, of the self-evident, changeless first principles that the basis of all knowledge.
He taught that knowledge of a thing requires an inquiry into causality and that the "final cause" — the purpose or function of the thing — is primary. The highest good for the individual is the complete exercise of the specifically human function of rationality.
Aristotle's work was lost following the decline of Rome but was reintroduced to the West through the work of Arab and Jewish scholars, becoming the basis of medieval Scholasticism.
Today, on the Web, you can visit the modern day Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Afterwards, this wave of discovery and rationality propagated throughout the known world and saw that:
[Middle English silogisme, from Old French, from Latin syllogismus, from Greek sullogismos, from sullogizesthai, to infer : sun-, syn- + logizesthai, to count, reckon (from logos, reason).] | <urn:uuid:d80547bc-7d58-4623-a55e-b27db7e9bf8c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://xenodochy.org/formal/greece.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959695 | 1,469 | 3.6875 | 4 |
The population of the wood duck has increased a great deal in the last several years. This increase has been in large part due to the work of many people locating wood duck boxes and conserving vital habitat for the wood ducks to breed.
The following information is provided to help with the design, construction and placement of wood duck nest boxes. More free wood duck birdhouse plans can be downloaded here.
Nest Box Design
Nest boxes should be constructed of a weather-resistant wood, but not wood treated with weather resistant chemicals. Generally, cedar or cypress are good choices for wood duck boxes. The exterior of the wood can be painted or treated, but only on the outside, as interior finishes can harm the nest occupants and render the box unusable. The entrance hole should have a 4-inch diameter or be an oval that is 3 inches high and 4 inches wide. Mesh hardware cloth can be mounted to the inside of the box under the entry hole, or grooves can be cut into the wood to function as a ladder for the ducklings. A layer of wood shavings can be placed at the bottom of the box to serve as nesting material. The lid or one side of the box should be removable for nest monitoring and nesting chamber cleaning. All wood duck boxes should be fitted with a galvanized sheet metal predator guard. The predator guard should be placed 6 to 12 inches below the bottom of the box.
Locate nest boxes in relatively secluded areas within timber stands where natural cavities are found. Wood ducks carefully select their nest sites to minimize exposure to predators and competition from other wood ducks. Nest boxes can be placed either on land or over the water. If located over the water, they should be placed at least 4 feet above the high water level and the entrance hole should face the open water rather than the shoreline.
Because of ease of access by predators, installation of nest boxes directly on trees should be avoided. Nest boxes placed on land should be located from 30 to 150 feet away from the shoreline. Boxes placed directly on the shoreline appear to be more likely frequented by nest predators.
Since the hen must lead her ducklings to water soon after they hatch, the area between the nest box and the water’s edge should be free of any major obstacles such as roads or fencing. Nest boxes placed on poles over water are generally more easy to monitor than those placed in trees. Regardless of whether the box is placed over the water or land, the entrance should be clear of obstructions to provide easy access for the ducks.
It is generally recommended that nest boxes should be placed at least 600 feet apart and should not be visible to one another. When placing nest boxes in isolated locations, consider ease of access for monitoring purposes.
Below is a layout for cutting three predator guards from a 3 ft x 8 ft sheet of 26-gauge galvanized metal. Commercial predator guards and baffles are available. When installing the guard, overlap the cut edge to the dotted line. To facilitate cutting, follow the sequence of numbers. Make circular cuts in counterclockwise direction. To make initial cut on line A-B, make a slot at A with a wood chisel, use tinsnips, and wear leather gloves.
Nest Box Monitoring
Old nests and those of invasive species such as European starlings must be cleaned out regularly if the boxes are to be used more than once during a nesting season. Boxes should be checked least once before the beginning of the nesting season, and should be checked monthly during the nesting season if multiple use of nest boxes per nesting season is desired. Boxes should remain out during the winter to provide winter cover sites for screech owls and other resident birds. Nest box cameras can also be installed to provide a up close view of the nesting birds. | <urn:uuid:ef15e6a4-f877-4d9f-b838-6d75dfac6449> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.newenglandbirdhouse.com/backyard-birding/free-plans-wood-duck-bird-house/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931034 | 781 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Through a thick blanket of smog (London’s special mixture of fog, soot and smoke), it is hard to make out the bridge reaching across the Thames and the sun shining weakly above it.
Equally unclear is where the artist, Claude Monet, stood to create the painting, one of the “London series” knocked out by the great impressionist during his time in the British capital between 1899 and 1901.
Now scientists claim to have solved the puzzle of Monet’s vantage point, using computerized records of the sun’s movement, ordnance survey maps of London and historical weather records. Together they reveal the exact spot where Monet stood on a balcony of the Savoy Hotel.
Monet was drawn to London at the turn of the century to paint the extraordinary effects of smog on sunlight. The combination of soot and fog caused the lighting conditions to change dramatically throughout the day, a phenomenon that was captured by Whistler in earlier etchings.
Diaries and other documents place Monet at the Savoy for his paintings, but historians have disagreed on which rooms he may have stayed in.
Researchers led by John Thornes, an applied meteorologist at Birmingham University, England, measured the position of the sun in the sky in Monet’s paintings and cross-checked it with solar records. They then took further measurements of features in the paintings, such as the obelisk, Cleopatra’s needle.
Putting all of the details together, Thornes’ team traced Monet’s position for his paintings of Charing Cross Bridge (now called Hungerford Bridge) to the balconies of rooms 610 and 611 on the sixth floor in 1900 and rooms 510 and 511 in 1901. All of his paintings of Waterloo Bridge were from a balcony on the fifth floor of the hotel.
“Smogs fascinated Monet in the way they changed the light. He spent nearly six months in the end living at the Savoy, gazing out across the Thames, but sometimes the visibility was so bad he couldn’t even see the river and the bridges,” Thornes said.
“Most art historians have got it wrong. They think Monet was in the corner suite of the Savoy, where Whistler stayed a few years beforehand, but he was more to the middle of the building,” he said.
The paper is due to be published in the Royal Geographical Society journal, Area. | <urn:uuid:4a0dec7c-bf6e-4853-a4c4-6b6d87d64696> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2010/06/05/2003474689 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967857 | 516 | 3.375 | 3 |
(HealthDay News) -- Kidney stones are small, hard formations of
various materials that can be found in the urine. By making some
changes in your diet, you may be able to reduce the risk of kidney
The U.S. National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information
Clearinghouse lists these dietary changes that may help: Drink 2 to 3 liters of fluid (preferably water and some citrus
drinks) a day.Cut back on salt in your diet.Limit the amount of animal proteins you consume.Reduce your intake of oxalate-rich foods, such as wheat bran,
nuts, rhubarb and spinach.Get plenty of dietary calcium through foods or
NewsCopyright © 2013
All rights reserved.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:b7b36388-2653-406c-aaec-1035bb80d2f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.svmh.com/health/content.aspx?chunkiid=852107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.887068 | 260 | 2.875 | 3 |
PARIS—Scientists on Monday said they had evidence that plain packaging for cigarettes diminishes the appeal of smoking, as anti-tobacco campaigners suggest.
European countries are considering whether to follow Australia, which last year became the first country in the world to sell cigarettes in plain packets.
In Australia’s case, the cigarettes are sold in identical olive-green packets bearing the same typeface, in addition to health warnings.
Researchers questioned 536 smokers in the Australian state of Victoria during the transition phase, when both branded and plain-pack products were on sale. Nearly three-quarters of those interviewed were smoking from plain packets, and the others from branded packets.
Plain-pack smokers were 66 likelier to think their cigarettes were of poorer quality compared with a year earlier, and were 70 percent likelier to say they found them less satisfying.
They were also 81 percent likelier to have thought about quitting at least once a day during the previous week and to rate quitting as a higher priority in their lives compared to smokers using brand packs.
The study, published on BMJ Open by the British Medical Journal, did not follow up these smokers, to see what they thought or did after the transition period.
But, it says, the “early indication” is that drab packaging takes the gloss off cigarette brands.
“Plain packaging is associated with lower smoking appeal, more support for the policy and more urgency to quit among adult smokers,” it says. | <urn:uuid:a38e1b75-c497-438d-9cf7-0890d6b2246a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://business.inquirer.net/133923/plain-packaging-reduces-allure-of-cigarettes-study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00096-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981212 | 306 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Bug of the Week
Corn Eaters (Family Noctuidae)
Corn was developed in the hot and humid climes of Central America more than 5,000 years ago. By the time the Pilgrims claimed New England, some 4 ½ millennia later, the parent plant’s inch-long seed head with its individually-husked kernels had been genetically engineered by Native American plant breeders into 18-inch-long blue corn that could grow in the arid American Southwest, field corn that tolerated the short growing seasons of the Northeast, and a bunch of other variations in between. Corn, along with squash and beans, was one of a trio of staples that tribes of the Iroquois Nation called the Three Sisters. The Native Americans taught their pale, new neighbors how to plant it using the water-conserving Mound system. In recognition of the competition, the Settlers planted four seeds in each mound – “One for the Blackbird; one for the Crow; one for the Cutworm; and one to grow.” The stars of today’s BOTW like corn.
The “dingy” in Dingy Cutworm Moth (Feltia jaculifera) refers to appearance of its drab caterpillar http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/lepidoptera/dingy/212.89dingycw.html, not to the spiffy adult. The BugLady is blithely calling this a DCM , though there is a complex of at least a half-dozen species that blend into each other across the continent and are well nigh impossible to tell apart. In one study, scientists used Electroantennography (!) to analyze male response to female courtship pheromones across Canada. Although the moths themselves are indistinguishable to our eyes, female DCMs in overlapping populations produce distinct pheromones which only “their” males respond to. See a male DCM’s jagged antenna at http://bugguide.net/node/view/610790/bgimage . At this point, Feltia jaculifera is considered a single “species.” As the great biologist William T. Keeton used to say, all this taxonomy stuff is fascinating only to us – the plants and animals already know who they are.
DCMs, which are also called Bent-line Darts and Bright-striped Darts, are in the Owlet Moth Family Noctuidae. These moderately-sized moths (1 ½” wingspan) occupy gardens, grasslands and other open spaces from sea to shining sea and well into Canada.
Adult DCMs fly at night throughout summer and fall, resting and nectaring on flowers in the aster/daisy/composite family (or under porch lights). DCM eggs are laid by late August on clovers, dock, members of the aster family, and a number of agricultural crops like alfalfa, tobacco, wheat and corn. DCM larvae are generalists. The larvae feed, spend the winter as larvae in a state of diapause (suspended animation), and wake to eat some more in spring. They eventually rest for a while in a cell they create underground and then pupate there.
DCMs are a minor crop nuisance and are often linked in Agricultural Bulletins with the more pestiferous Black Cutworm Moth; both have population booms and busts. The cold-intolerant Black Cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon) migrates north with the spring annually; its caterpillar hangs out just above or below the soil surface (depending on the soil moisture); there it feeds by severing the young, growing corn stalk. The resident/non-migratory DCMs are primarily leaf feeders that do some damage in early spring when the caterpillars reemerge, but plants are often able to recover without any loss in yield.
Picture-Winged Flies, on the other hand, prefer their corn on the cob. The BugLady thinks this is Chaetopsis massyla, a common PWF of fresh water wetlands, a fly with no common name.
PWF larvae eat decaying plant material. Here in God’s Country, Chaetopsis massyla is a secondary invader of the stems of cattail, sedge and other wetland monocots – “secondary” because the PWF larva moves in and feeds on rotting tissue (and probably on microscopic decomposers in the plant tissues) after the stem has been breeched by another larva (the caterpillar of one of the Owlet moths). Congregations of as many as 40 larvae have been found in the same stalk. Not only do the larvae occupy decaying plant stems, the female also oviposits in moth-damaged stems, and the larvae pupate there.
Deep in the American Southeast, however, Chaetopsis massyla has been found to be a corn pest. Other kinds of PWFs in corn were not unknown (they are sometimes called, collectively, Corn Silk Flies), but Chaetopsis massyla’s role has only recently been discovered. Although it prefers getting an assist from a primary invader, Chaetopsis massyla is now known to initiate damage, ovipositing in undamaged corn silk and leaves as well as in holes made by other insects. Its caterpillars feed on and damage the silk and the kernels of sweet corn and field corn. It can survive on a variety of crops and weeds while it waits for corn to reappear in a field. PWF adults seem to eat decaying/bruised/fermented vegetation, too. Adults and larvae are eaten by the usual suspects – spiders and carnivorous insects like ants, beetles, and earwigs.
PWFs are pretty flies, shy and active, that like to flick their wings frequently. They run sideways when they are alarmed. The larvae are said to move out of sight quickly by, arching, grasping the tip of their abdomen with their mouth hooks and quickly releasing, causing them to whip along.
PWFs are in the fly Family Ulidiidae (or Otitdae, if you’ve got an old Bug Book). There are seven species of Chaetopsis north of the Rio Grande plus two more species that are waiting to be described.
The Bug Lady | <urn:uuid:1d2d1404-6925-4856-9beb-c7804892921f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/corn-eaters.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00117-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949914 | 1,338 | 3.53125 | 4 |
In recent years much attention has been paid to the amount of Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSB’s) consumed by youth and young adults and the role it is playing in the high rates of obesity within this population. It is estimated that nearly 20% of their diets consist of empty calories provided from these types of drinks. This should create additional concern since the artificial colors in these beverages have also been linked to behavioral issues.
If you have watched television within the last year or the last week for that matter there is a high probability that you have you seen one of those commercials for Sonic that advertise some impossibly complicated food combination. These commercials have some kind of mojo that even make a lacto-ovo vegetarian crave one of their Bacon Double cheeseburgers with sweet potato tots!
In this particular commercial one of the actors is ordering a chocolate, cherry, grape cola. It is guaranteed to cost 99 cents as long as it is ordered before 10 a.m. Where is Mayor Bloomberg when you need him!
With the popularity and advancement of technology youth are spending more and more time engaging in many obesogenic behaviors such as playing computer games and surfing the web. It is estimated that young people on average spend 3 hours a day watching television.
It is plausible to say that young people are being bombarded with media encouraging unhealthy eating habits, possibly on a daily basis. According to the Harvard School of Public Health,’ In 2010, for example, preschoolers viewed an average of 213 ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks, while children and teens watched an average of 277 and 406 ads, respectively.
A large fountain drink at this restaurant can contain 300 calories. For arguments sake let’s tack on one of their Breakfast Burritos, which contain a mere 500 calories (sarcasm intended). This one meal totals a staggering 800 calories! This can constitute 40% of a person’s daily caloric intake before 10 a.m. With 10 more hours left in the day and at least two more meals to go (plus snacking), it is safe to say the potential to overeat is high.
With the” trend” of sedentary lifestyles and physical inactivity weight gain is almost inevitable. Water is free on the menu, but how likely is it that a 16-year-old will choose this as a beverage to wash down their supersized #2?
With all the “cheap food tactics” employed by fast food establishments that promote unhealthy eating, it is all the more important for parents and young people to be knowledgeable about and make smarter food choices. | <urn:uuid:881cb6bd-3279-4f65-bb64-395107fdc157> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/the-power-of-cheap-food-tactics-are-they-making-our-children-fat-2?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958948 | 536 | 2.875 | 3 |
This course is an introductory survey of Ancient World History to 1600 C.E. It explores how human societies developed an increasingly complex set of socio-economic and political systems in response to physical and cultural challenges. It begins with the development of agriculture as a key event and then focuses on the nature of early world civilizations. The course then studies the civilizations of representative cultures from all areas of the world including the Americas, Africa, East and South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, demonstrating the way each society addressed key problems through its economic, political, and religious institutions.
3 credits (3 lecture hours) fall semester
This course satisfies the Liberal Arts and Sciences requirement and the SUNY General Education Requirement for Other World Civilization.
Students may not receive credit for both SOCS 103 and HIST 151 | <urn:uuid:c23a5d74-5d14-462a-b219-af01befc49b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.morrisville.edu/Banner/Courses/coursedescription.aspx?prefix=HIST&coursenum=151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901114 | 162 | 2.78125 | 3 |
FEL Applications - Micromachining
The images above are 12-micron, micro-optical Fresnel Lens components created by laser-micromaching. They show that laser light can fashion micron-scale structures with nanometer-scale control.
A free-electron laser can be used for to fabricate three-dimensional mechanical structures with dimensions as small as a micron — one ten-thousandth of a centimeter — and with features that are smaller still. Examples of this micromachining with FELs are ultrahigh-density CD ROM technology and improved micro-optical devices.
Ref.: Kelley, M. J.: An FEL for the Polymer Processing Industries. SPIE Int'l Society for Optical Eng., 1997, SPIE 2988, pp. 240-244. | <urn:uuid:e185d504-7387-4060-bc1f-f8a1ce4b2d94> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.jlab.org/FEL/micro.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.847345 | 169 | 2.578125 | 3 |
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You're on the Team: Help for Providers
Time required. Shared decision-making requires time for discussing the patient’s concerns, exploring options and negotiating decisions. This may not fit into a single appointment, at least initially. However, productive decisions can be made quickly once good two-way communication has been established. The video also demonstrates how a decision aid—the checklist that the patient filled out before the appointment—can help a patient organize their thoughts and quickly inform the doctor of concerns and goals. The promise of shared decision-making is that any extra time invested will result in better communication, more effective treatment and greater adherence.
The doctor’s role. A willingness to incorporate the patient’s goals and preferences into treatment decisions broadens the doctor’s role from medical expert to advisor and negotiator. It also requires a sharing of power. However, it does not diminish the doctor’s expertise and skill, or responsibilities. It facilitates one of those responsibilities, providing enough information about options, risks and benefits to make informed consent possible.
Shared decision-making makes room for the agendas of both provider and patient, which could be very different. For example, is the purpose of treatment to bring a mental health condition under control or to reduce those symptoms most troubling to the patient? Are doctors responsible for deciding what is medically “best” for the patient? Suppose the patient wants to try alternatives to medication? The patient may be concerned with the potential risks of treatment while the doctor may be concerned about the risks of uncontrolled behavior. If the patient prefers an option that seems medically naïve or unproven, what is the doctor’s responsibility?
While talking about such disagreements can be uncomfortable, shared decision-making creates an environment for negotiating mutual decisions.
See My doctor and I can’t agree for a step-by-step approach for working out differences.
How much do patients need to know about the possible risks and side effects of treatment? Is laying out a variety of options helpful or confusing? How much responsibility do patients want to shoulder? Does giving patients control set them up for disappointment?
Preparing patients. For the patient, shared decision-making might look risky as well as attractive. Doctors have authority and may hold power over patients when their housing and services are contingent on adherence to treatment (see power and coercion, below). Clients in the public mental health system have learned that it is safest to go along and keep a low profile. Patients also may feel they are up against prejudice about their competence, credibility and worth because they are deemed mentally ill. Unless they are assured that the doctor is willing to share decision-making and tolerate differences of opinion, they may be reluctant to open up, discuss reservations or make independent choices.
Shared decision-making assumes that patients have autonomy and as consumers have the right to choose and decide. These distinctly American values may collide with a patient’s own cultural beliefs, for example, their respect for authority figures, reluctance to speak up, their understanding of mental health conditions or shame. Understanding the benefits of the process may help them overcome their reluctance.
Patients may need coaching and support to assume their assertive role in shared decision-making. They need to prepare for appointments by thinking about their likes and dislikes, preferences and values in relation to treatment, and to voice them. Peer specialists and recovery coaches can be used to teach their peers about the process and support them in using it. These peer providers are being increasingly used in public mental health agencies as well as peer-operated programs.
Shared decision-making places more responsibility on the patient than passively accepting a doctor’s decisions, because they are faced with treatment options that need to be understood and selected, they are exposed to information about potential risks as well as benefits and they share responsibility for decisions with the doctor. Some patients will not want to assume this responsibility.
Preparing caregivers and mental health providers. Family members or other caregivers may fear that allowing a patient to actively participate in treatment decisions is risky. They may fear that the patient will take unnecessary risks, get sicker or lose control of their behavior. Case managers and other mental health service providers may have similar concerns. They need to understand that shared decision-making can lead to greater engagement, decisions that work better for the patient, and better adherence to treatment.
Competence. Are people with mental illness competent to take part in decision-making and make good decisions about their care, especially when they are very “ill” or “symptomatic?” The Institute of Medicine’s 2006 report on Improving the Quality of Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditionschallenged the presumption of incompetence:
“It is inappropriate to draw conclusions about individuals’ capacity for decision-making solely on the basis that they are mentally ill, or even whether they have a particular mental illness, such as schizophrenia.Many people with mental illness, indeed many with severe mental illnesses, are not incompetent on most measures of competency.” (page 98)
If a person appears to have diminished competence or rationality, do they lose their right or ability to decide? Shared decision-making assumes that individuals are competent and provides a mechanism for negotiating compromises when patient and doctor disagree. If patients are making decisions that place them at grave risk of harm to themselves or others, physicians can intervene to assure that safety is maintained. Competence, therefore, is assumed to be the rule until threshold behaviors endanger the patient or others.
The use of a psychiatric advance directive can enable a person to influence treatment decisions during times when a they have diminished competence or are determined to lack competence. Created when a person is well, a psychiatric advance directive documents their treatment preferences and specify treatments they do and don’t want. It also names a trusted person to act as a health care agent or surrogate. About half of states have legalized some form of psychiatric advance directive. Treatment providers are required to consider the preferences expressed and to consult with the health care agent when the patient is declared incompetent. See myplanmylife.com for more information.
Can a person who rejects a diagnosis or does not believe they have a mental illness engage in shared treatment decisions? Even when the patient and doctor have conflicting values or viewpoints, shared decision-making provides a way to negotiate compromise and agreement about what steps to take.
Credibility. Patients have another concern: that their credibility is questioned in medical treatment. They may feel they are not heard, respected or believed, once it is known that they have a psychiatric diagnosis. They find that legitimate concerns they report are interpreted are artifacts of their illness and dismissed. This can include reports of adverse experiences with medications and side-effects.
Power and coercion. Shared decision-making is a partnership between provider and patient. Can it work well when one partner has power over the other? The patient may feel unequal to the doctor in terms of expertise, education, social status and income. Also, the patient may depend on the doctor’s cooperation when they receive services that are contingent on their psychiatric treatment. For example, one may be in a housing program that requires compliance with treatment, and another may fear losing custody of her child.
Is it possible to truly share decision-making when coercion is present? For example, some people are under orders for involuntary outpatient commitment, while others are involved with mental health courts that require treatment. Patients in psychiatric hospitals face degrees of coercion. Take-downs, restraints and seclusion may be practiced. Some patients may be involuntarily committed by a court or magistrate, or sentenced to treatment in a criminal trial.
Even in circumstances where coercion is a factor, shared decision-making can be helpful to doctor and patient, improving communication and trust, making the patient feel heard and respected and empowering them to take part in decisions. Successful application of these techniques can ultimately reduce the need for and or the perception of coercion, thereby increasing engagement and trust.
Using Decision Aids
Decision aids are sometimes used to support shared decision-making. Decision aids are tools that help people become involved in decision making by providing information about the options and outcomes and by clarifying personal values. They can play a role by educating patients about unfamiliar treatments, educating them about the pros and cons of preference-sensitive decisions, helping them clarify values and preferences or helping them work through a difficult decision. Decision aids can take the form of pamphlets, videos, workbooks, worksheets, or web-based tools.
Decision aids have been developed and used far more widely for general health care than for mental health care. One of the better developed aids in mental health treatment is the computer based decision support tool for CommonGround. Clients use it in the waiting room before appointments. A supportive peer specialist is present to help them.
Aids such as forms or questionnaires can help patients prepare to take part in decision-making and use appointment time efficiently. Patients can use the downloadable checklist on this website to prepare by noting their symptoms, health status, self-help actions, short-term goals, and immediate needs. They can share the form with the doctor or use it to focus their thoughts during the appointment.
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute: Pateint Decision Aids, http://decisionaid.ohri.ca/
Shared Decision-making in Mental Health Care: Overview and Current Status. Celia E. Wills, Melody Reifer, Carole Schauer, and Paolo del Vecchio. In Shared Decision-Making in Mental Health Care: Practice, Research and Future Directions, p. 96. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2007 | <urn:uuid:cc575a82-3f0b-48f7-adb4-8111b22a9583> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/youre-team-help-providers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949037 | 1,976 | 3.359375 | 3 |
|The Lower Merrimack River||Report to the General Court|
The Merrimack River is the second largest river in New England, draining a total area of 5,014 square miles extending from the White Mountain region of New Hampshire to east-central Massachusetts. The river, which bisects the lower third of New Hampshire, begins at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers in Franklin. It flows for 116 miles before entering the Atlantic Ocean in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
A segment of the river, known as the Lower Merrimack, is one of two on the river designated under the NH Rivers Management and Protection Program in June 1990 protecting nearly 45 river miles. The segment begins at the Merrimack-Bedford town line and flows for approximately 15 miles through the communities of Merrimack, Litchfield, Hudson, and Nashua before entering Massachusetts.
The Lower Merrimack River flows through a region of rapid population growth and development that is heavily influenced by the Boston metropolitan area. Notably, it provides drinking water to the city of Nashua and surrounding towns as well as to downstream communities in Massachusetts, including the cities of Lowell and Lawrence.
The Merrimack River played a pivotal role in the settlement and subsequent development of the region. Native American sites, cellar holes, cemeteries and the remains of a canal navigation system are included among the prehistoric and historic sites which offer additional historic knowledge of the river and its corridor. Of particular interest are the Naticook Islands, just downstream of the Depot Street public access in Merrimack, which are said to have been the summer home of the great Native American Chief Passaconoway. Another historical highlight of the area are the locks at Cromwells Falls, renowned by The American Canal Society as the best remaining specimen of the Merrimack River Navigation System. In Litchfield, two archaeological sites have been deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places: the Thebodeau site north of Chase Brook and the Danforth Archaeological District in south Litchfield.
Wildlife and Plant Resources
Though located in a region of rapid land development, the Lower Merrimack River is a safe haven of critical habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, including the federally-listed threatened bald eagle. The river corridor provides the necessary elements of eagle wintering habitat: perch or roost sites and open waters for fishing. Perch sites -- large open branched trees -- on the river's bank provide the eagles with good viewing areas from which to locate food. At night, the eagles move to more sheltered inland areas, usually conifer stands, that offer protection from the wind and cold temperatures. The Audubon Society of New Hampshire, which records eagle sightings in New Hampshire, has found that the level of winter eagle activity on the Merrimack River is second only to that on Great Bay, a tidal estuary system on New Hampshire's coast. As one of New England's major north-south running rivers, the Lower Merrimack River also serves as a key migratory route for waterfowl and songbirds.
The New Hampshire Natural Heritage Inventory has identified several state-listed threatened plant species within the river corridor, including the wild lupine. In addition, the river corridor supports two exemplary natural communities: Southern New England lake sediment/river terrace forest and Northern New England level bog. One state threatened reptile, the eastern hognose snake, is also believed to live in the river corridor.
Current boating activities on the Lower Merrimack River include canoeing, kayaking, rowing and power boating. The river provides both quickwater and flatwater experiences for canoeists and kayakers and is one of the largest surface water bodies in the region for power boating. The Merrimack River Watershed Council sponsors a variety of canoe trips on the Merrimack and its tributaries throughout the spring, summer and fall for beginner and intermediate paddlers.
Just north of the designated segment, boaters can access the river at three public access sites in Manchester. Kayakers and whitewater canoeists may be lured to Arms Park, a city recreation area, located off North Commercial Street, as a whitewater slalom course exists at the site. In Merrimack, there is access at Depot Street (off Exit 12 on the Everett Turnpike) at Reeds Ferry. This is a suitable put-in for motorboats, as the river slows from the rocky rapids upstream. At the north end of Greely Park in Nashua, there is a paved ramp which also allows access to boaters.
Efforts are underway to obtain easements for a hiking trail that would become part of the New Hampshire Heritage Trail, stretching from the Massachusetts border, north along the Merrimack, Pemigewasset and Connecticut Rivers, to the Canadian border. Several trail sections are complete along this part of the river. In Bedford, the trail begins at Moore's Crossing Road and follows the river north for one mile. Another section of the trail begins at Merrill Park off Maple Avenue in Hudson, and continues along the river south into Massachusetts. Trail users also have the option to travel west into Nashua to explore that city's historic district and a section of the Nashua River, a major tributary to the Merrimack.
Anadromous fish species are beginning to return to the Lower Merrimack River as the result of a cooperative state-federal restoration program that began in 1969. New and improved fish passage facilities and on-going research efforts are directed toward the return of the native Atlantic salmon to waters as far north as the Pemigewasset River. The completion of a fish passage facility at the Pawtucket Dam in 1986 has allowed American shad to move upstream to Manchester after more than a century's absence. Important game species sought by anglers on the Lower Merrimack River include small and large mouth bass as well as rainbow and brook trout which are stocked by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Access can be gained to the river at various points in Nashua, Merrimack and Manchester. | <urn:uuid:296da2ee-baf1-499b-bf78-ec2c5652dddc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/rivers/merri_river_lower.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945091 | 1,268 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The Frilled Dragon
The frilled dragon (Chlamydosaurus kingii) is arguably the most recognizable of all lizards and for good reason. The expanse of the skin flap around its neck can reach dinner-plate proportions, and when the lizard is threatened, the vibrant colors within the frill explode to life. It’s a sharp contrast to the overall earthy brown and gray tones the lizard generally possesses when it’s calm. A large, bright-white to yellow, open mouth with fanglike teeth measuring one-eighth inch are also part of this defensive display, which deters potential predators by making the lizard look too big — or scary — to swallow.
Photo by Scott Corning
Frillies are peaceful lizards once established.
If this technique doesn’t work, frillies can take off on their hind legs and boogie down to the nearest tree. They’ve also been known to calmly bipedal around when searching for food or mates. Who wouldn’t want one of these lizards?
Frilled Dragons are Peaceful Tree-Huggers
From the beautifully red variations in the Northern Territory to the more silvery lizards of Queensland, frilled dragons occur throughout the northern top-third of Australia. However, the most commonly imported lizards are from southern New Guinea, which tend to be about one-third smaller and generally more subtly marked and colored than Australian frillies.
The tail comprises about two-thirds of the animal’s overall length, and mature males have much larger, broader heads and usually longer frills, making it quite easy to visually determine the sex of older lizards. Females have a thicker abdominal area and measure about one-third smaller than the males.
Photo by Scott Corning
Frilled dragons require quality basking lights and UVB bulbs.
Frillies are peaceful lizards once established. They love to assume a tree-hugging position, and if they’re nervous, they’ll squirrel around the backside of the trunk to avoid being seen. After settling in, they appear quite intelligent and readily take food from their keepers. They are also easy to scoop out of their enclosures for inspection or handling once trust has been established.
Some Like It Tall
Frilled dragons attain larger proportions than many common pet lizards, so they require more space and individual attention to meet their needs. Keeping a watchful eye on their behaviors and tweaking any issues they may have within their enclosures is important for their survival.
An arboreal species, frillies benefit from a tall cage with solid walls. It is OK, however, to have a front-viewing area. For juveniles up to 1 foot long, a tall 20-gallon aquarium or similar enclosure with the sides papered over would work fine for raising around three young dragons.
Photo by Scott Corning
The expanse of the skin flap around its neck can reach dinner-plate proportions, and when the lizard is threatened, the vibrant colors within the frill explode to life.
When housing lizards together, it is important to observe how they interact. Healthy captive-born juveniles are quite easy to raise together, but wild-caught or farm-raised animals may need separation due to stress and parasites they may have accrued during importation. Lizards may look like they get along fine (they might sit or sleep on each other), but if one hogs the basking area while the other lies around most of the time, mental stress is likely hurting the more submissive lizard, which could weaken and die if it isn’t separated from more dominant cagemates. Another option is to introduce both to a larger enclosure with more than one basking area.
Once your lizard reaches 1 foot long, it needs a larger enclosure. Depending on how many lizards you have and the space available for future enclosures, you may want to set up a medium-sized cage, or just go ahead and build or buy the larger adult cage. A basic intermediate enclosure, which is also the absolute minimum for an adult, measures 3 feet long, 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall. This would work for a single lizard or possibly a pair of New Guinea frilled dragons because they don’t get as large as the Aussies. A more ideal adult cage for a pair or trio of Australian or New Guinea animals measures 4 feet long, 21⁄2 feet wide and 5 feet tall. If cage height is an issue, placing the enclosure on a stand or table provides the lizard with an elevated view, which helps the lizard feel more secure.
Wood, glass or acrylic-plastic cages all work fine, and the top should have metal screen or wire mesh. This way a clamp lamp or other light source can rest on top, and light and heat can filter through. If the top is of solid construction, install a few air vents on the topside walls for circulation, and mount the lights within, preferably on swivel fixtures for good light-beam positioning. Mount lights in a place where the lizard cannot touch the bulbs and burn itself.
Provide frilled dragons with climbing branches, but make sure crossing branches don’t touch because you don’t want the lizard’s tail or limbs to get pinched in between them. Pinched appendages may lead to necrosis in the fingers, or the tail may pop off, and these appendages don’t regenerate.
These sun worshippers require quality basking lights and UVB bulbs. The basking temperature should be around 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and ambient daytime temps should be in the low to mid-90s. Nighttime temps should decrease to the mid-70s on average. Create a daytime light cycle of 12 to 14 hours a day. Using inexpensive appliance timers makes this a hassle-free process for the lizardkeeper and maintains the animal in a timely circadian rhythm.
Set up branches at the right distance from the basking light. An enclosure with branches in many directions allows these lizards to choose their favorite spots for thermoregulation. Place a heat lamp above a branch on one side of the enclosure for a basking site, and on the other side place a quality UVB fluorescent. You could use a mercury vapor bulb, which provides heat and UVB, if the enclosure is large enough to maintain the correct environmental parameters.
Frilled Dragon Localities and Differences
- Size: Males typically measure between 24 and 26 inches, and females are between 16 and 22 inches.
- Body: Larger New Guinea frilled dragons seem to have a less distinct body pattern than some Australians.
- Neck Frill: Although colors vary, many New Guinea dragons have a yellow-and-black-speckled frill sometimes intertwined with a rust or maroon color.
- Personality: Seem shyer than Australian frillies.
- Availability: More common but often wild caught.
- Size: Males average 30 to 36 inches and might grow larger, and females measure between 22 and 28 inches.
- Body: Many Australian frilled dragons have some form of small-to-large whitish cheek patch, which is more noticeable when their frills are extended. Some larger males also have a much darker head. The body pattern may have some tight banding or muted blotches.
- Neck Frill: Although colors vary, Australians may have more intense coloration within the frill. Much less black and more color is mixed in for a bolder show when the frill is extended.
- Personality: Seem bolder than New Guinea frillies.
- Availability: Only available when bred in captivity. Australia does not export its animals.
Humidity plays an integral role in a frilled dragon’s life. In the wild their life cycle is mediated by heavy seasonal rains. During the dry season they’re dormant, bounding back to life when the rains begin. This is also a time when the whole food chain springs to life, so plenty of food is available for the onset of the lizard’s reproductive cycle.
In captivity misting frilled dragons daily is essential. Using either a spray bottle for a few minutes or a misting system to simulate the rain effect is fine. Ideal humidity ranges between 50 and 70 percent.
Substrate also plays an important role in maintaining humidity. Commercial reptile barks work fine, but I use equal parts of coco-fiber, potting soil or cypress mulch, and play sand. Check the label on the potting soil to make sure it’s either organic or free of pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. Maintaining a substrate at least 2 inches thick along with daily mistings help retain humidity.
A shallow water pan in the enclosure for bathing is a good idea. Frilled dragons typically drink when sprayed, but some lizards may come down for a drink in the bowl, and they may defecate in it, too. Be sure to keep their water fresh.
Fodder for the Frill
Young frillies grow fast and consume a variety of mostly live foods. Wild lizards are known to eat caterpillars, locusts, other lizards, small mammals and other arthropods.
Photo by Scott Corning
Young frilled dragons grow fast. Dust live insects with a high-quality calcium and vitamin D3 supplement.
In captivity a well-rounded diet is highly recommended. This can include cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, superworms, caterpillars, Phoenix Worms and any other nonpoisonous, pesticide-free insect. Adding an appropriately sized mouse every two weeks rounds out the diet and provides extra calcium to larger individuals, especially during the breeding season. You may also experiment with a good salad or fruit mixture once a week, but if live food is gut-loaded, fruits and veggies aren’t really necessary. My frillies don’t eat them.
Dust insects with a high-quality calcium and vitamin D3 supplement. Do this daily for juveniles and gravid females, and every other feeding for yearlings to adults.
Memorable Now and Later
Frilled dragons make interesting, unforgettable pets, and they are fairly easy to keep when their needs are met. Perhaps, between the several Australian bloodlines now bred in captivity and the work various hobbyists are doing with New Guinea dragons, in the future some great color morphs will be available. REPTILES
SCOTT CORNING owns DragonAttack and SailfinDragon.com in central Florida, and he focuses on captive propagation of rare agamid lizards and other unique animals. With more than 20 years experience keeping and breeding reptiles and insects, he has also managed two reptile stores, and he enjoys writing articles and photographing nature. | <urn:uuid:8dcce9c7-ec4c-445d-a341-6701c6e1f41b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/The-Frilled-Dragon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933936 | 2,242 | 2.84375 | 3 |
An asthma attack (also called an acute asthma episode, flare-up, or exacerbation) is a sudden worsening of asthma symptoms, including shortness of breath, chest tightness, wheezing, and coughing.
Although asthma attacks may seem to occur suddenly, they can occur after several days of symptoms getting worse. Symptoms may be mild, moderate, or severe. Episodes can be brief (about an hour) or can last for several days.
Asthma attacks can be serious. But they can usually be treated at home by using quick-relief medicine and an increased dose of controller medicine. For severe asthma attacks, you may need to contact a doctor or seek emergency care.
eMedicineHealth Medical Reference from Healthwise
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2014 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | <urn:uuid:c2abe0b9-bd7e-47a5-9398-512acdfe0822> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=137673&ref=128519 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929924 | 194 | 3.390625 | 3 |
The recent news of flesh eating bacteria incidents has heightened the awareness of the general public regarding their susceptibility to being infected with this deadly disease. It’s a frightening prospect: the idea that a simple scratch or minor injury can trigger the onset of life threatening circumstances.
Is our public health care system prepared to handle a flesh eating bacteria epidemic or something similar if there was an outbreak? It’s an important question in this age of health care reform and debates over the future of our stresses public health system. Lost in the political back and forth is a real conversation on whether or not we’re prepared. But, general public nervousness about our system’s ability to really handle such outbreaks could result from public anxiety over political gridlock in Washington.
Flesh eating disease is also known as necrotizing fasciitis. It is a rare, but severe group A streptococcus (GAS) bacterial infection. It can destroy the muscles, skin, and underlying tissue. The word “necrotizing” refers to something that causes body tissue to die. And about 20% of patients with necrotizing fasciitis die.
A variety of bacteria can cause this infection. Necrotizing soft tissue infection develops when the bacteria enters the body, usually through a minor cut or scrape. The bacterium begins to grow and releases harmful substances (toxins) that kill tissue and affect blood flow to the area. As the tissue dies, the bacterium enters the blood and rapidly spreads throughout the body.
Most notable is the case of Aimee Copeland, a 24 year old graduate student currently fighting for her life due to complications from the flesh-eating bacteria. She received a cut on her left calf when a homemade zip line she stopped to ride along the river broke.
The type of bacteria causing her infection was an organism named Aeromonas hydrophila. It invaded her body through the cut causing doctors to amputate her left leg. She was later told that her hands and remaining foot would need to be amputated in order to improve her chances of survival.
Aeromonas hydrophila is a species of bacterium that is present in all freshwater environments and in brackish water. Humans may acquire infections through open wounds or by ingestion of a sufficient number of the organisms in food or water.
By now, many people may be wondering how likely it is for them to get the disease.
Persons with impaired immune systems are more susceptible to getting infected. They include diabetics, intravenous drug users, infants, the elderly, and individuals suffering from leukemia, cirrhosis of the liver, and those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
The risk increases for pregnant women in the postpartum period if the mother has diabetes and with procedures such as cesarean section or episiotomy. Visible infections to the skin, hair, and nails are more likely to be noticed and treated than some deep infections. Deep infections to the muscle, bone, and joints are less noticeable and have a higher risk of becoming life threatening.
Most cases of flesh eating bacteria have been sporadic rather than associated with large outbreaks. But, there are increasingly more reports from clinical centers. The disease is difficult to treat and immediate treatment is needed to prevent death.
For this reason, the public health system’s ability to contain a flesh eating bacteria epidemic or similar outbreak remains questionable in the minds of many.
The discovery of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and the emergence of other diseases such as SARS have highlighted the important role that diagnostic tools can play in improving the surveillance of infectious disease threats at the population level.
Experiences with these events have shown that recognition of outbreaks, management of epidemics, and development of countermeasures can depend heavily on having access to highly specific surveillance information that is typically obtained from testing clinical specimens.
Consequently, the rising threat of emerging diseases and concern about biological weapons has led to an emphasis in governments on improving laboratory and diagnostic capacity in order to improve global bio-surveillance for infectious diseases.
Bio-surveillance is the technique of tracking communicable diseases such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and streptococcal infections. Using special software, doctors, hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms all report individual cases of any communicable disease.
The program requires information on the patient such as location, age, gender, race, and other specifics designed to create a demographic portrait of the current victim and potential victims. In 2009, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) identified enhanced disease surveillance, detection, and diagnosis as priority goals that the United States government (USG) should work toward. This was done for the purposes of improving national security and improving the ability to report any public health emergency of international concern.
The Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative includes efforts to promote the development and acquisition of infectious disease diagnostic tools. A robust and strong regulatory process is necessary to ensure that diagnostic tests produce accurate and reliable results. Data Mining is another indicator that could be used to predict epidemics before they spread based on mass behavior. Use of this technology could help prepare first-responders and other health professionals for emergencies.
For example, the National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM), tracks transactions of over-the-counter healthcare items from 21,000 outlets across the United States. The purchasing information of these items assists health care officials with preliminary trends in illness transmission.
Furthermore, Data from the NRDM show that sales of over-the-counter products like cough medicines and electrolytes actually spike before visits to the emergency room do. The lead time can be significant in the case of respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. In this scenario, it was about two and a half weeks, according to one paper.
Public health components have been incorporated into the National Response Framework and the National Incident Management System. Public health bodies at the local, state, and federal levels now routinely use this system to ensure that everyone has the same focus, whether responding to daily incidents or major disasters.
Although preparedness and response capabilities for public health emergencies have been difficult to determine and measure, reports from the CDC and the Trust for America’s Health have documented substantial improvements. Public health departments are now better equipped to identify health threats rapidly and have improved their abilities to respond e¬ffectively and communicate emergencies. For example, 48 of 50 states (96%) have shown their ability to activate staff¬ and their emergency operations centers.
One sign of progress is the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile which ensures the availability of key medical supplies. 100% of states have plans to receive, distribute, and dispense these assets. The effectiveness of responses is judged by accurate communications of emerging health threats in addition to response and health outcomes.
Another sign of progress is the CDC’s secure, web-based Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X) which allows state and local public health officials to access and share health surveillance information about illnesses.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also developed a program for granting Emergency Use Authorization for devices and medicines that are likely to be needed during public health emergencies.
Finally, what would be the response to high risk communities or low income communities with limited access to health care?
Distribution and rationing decisions for vaccination and treatment should be based on the goal of minimizing the detrimental health effects of an epidemic or pandemic. Public health measures must not be based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
However, some would argue it can be based on age or disability when there is good reason to believe particular groups are either at much higher risk of death or have a much higher likelihood of spreading the disease if not vaccinated or treated.
More emphatically, there are special obligations to those in custody who should be a priority regarding vaccination and treatment. Consideration and advance planning should take place for high risk populations with physical or mental conditions and socio economic disparities. | <urn:uuid:d58c2ead-6507-4a79-94e9-11b51c37729e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://politic365.com/2012/05/20/can-we-handle-a-flesh-eating-bacteria-outbreak/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944936 | 1,641 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Pep1 was isolated from the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which is a species favored by investigators for attributes that facilitate experimentation, but the same molecule is found in crop species such as canola, soybean, potato, tomato, rice, and poplar. Therefore, further work on Pep1 and its receptor could lead to a general increase in the resistance of crops to pathogens, which could greatly benefit farmers. Already, the researchers have used the Pep1 gene to increase the resistance of Arabidopsis plants to a fungal pathogen called Pythium irregulare.
These findings will be presented July 20, at 11:20 at the ASPB meeting at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, WA.
The abstract, #9183, is below:
Presenter: Huffaker, Alisa
Authors: Huffaker, Alisa (A) firstname.lastname@example.org; Pearce, Gregory (A) email@example.com; Ryan, Clarence, A (A) firstname.lastname@example.org;
Affiliations: (A): Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University
Title: A novel peptide signal, AtPep1, regulates pathogen defense in Arabidopsis
AtPep1 is a 23 amino acid peptide that was isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana (G. Pearce, A. Huffaker, C.A. Ryan, submitted). The peptide is encoded by a gene at the locus At5g64900 and is derived from the carboxyl terminus of a 92 amino acid precursor, proAtPep1, a scenario commonly found in both animal and plant peptide precursors. No physiological role was known for At Pep1, and a function was sought in Arabidopsis by incubating plants under a variety of conditions and monitoring expression of the proAtPep1 gene. Cold and dehydration stress and exposure to ABA or MeSA did not affect the expression of proAtPep1, but wounding, exposing plants to methyl jasmonate (MeJA), or supplying plants with the AtPep1 peptide through cut petioles induced expression of the gene. Also expressed in response to AtPep1 were the PDF1.2 gene (a plant defensin) and the PR-1 gene, (a pathogenesis-related gene). Two wound-related genes, LOX2 and VSP2, were not induced by AtPep1. Supplying AtPep1 to jasmonate-deficient fad3-2 fad7-2 fad8 mutant plants did not induce the proAtPep1, PDF1.2 or PR-1 genes, indicating that AtPep1 signaling involves the octadecanoid pathway. AtPep1 induction of defense genes in excised Arabidopsis leaves was inhibited by DPI, implicating the generation of H2O2 in the signaling pathway. Constitutively overexpressing the proAtPep1 gene in Arabidopsis induced a constitutive activation of PDF1.2, PR-1, and tyrosine amino transferase (TAT3) genes, but not the expression of LOX2 or VSP2 genes. The transgenic plants were more resistant toward the oomycete root pathogen Pythium irregulare than wild-type plants, evidenced by a more robust leaf and root growth upon infection. ProAtPep1 belongs to a seven member gene family in Arabidopsis with tissue-specific paralogs that exhibit differential expression profiles. Orthologs of the proAtPep1 gene have been identified in important crop species including canola, soybean, potato, tomato, rice and poplar. | <urn:uuid:1056589b-3e43-418e-b9d1-68a297de0a85> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news/A-new-molecule-discovered-in-the-battle-between-plants-and-disease-1150-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924503 | 783 | 2.828125 | 3 |
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Jungle Joe is on the lookout for the mysterious pyramid. Can you help him out by filling in the missing numbers? Kids get practice writing and counting three-digit numbers as they complete this fun-filled printable.
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FAIRY TALES BOOK IN ENGLISH
ORIGINAL AND MADE UP STORIES
The exhibition of the short stories for kids allows us to comment about the characteristics, elements and characters of each story or tale.
The book Fairy Tales for Children includes the introduction to the cited above main elements and characteristics of bedtime stories.
The new theories of Molwickpedia book collection have a strong scientific nature and are supported both by experiments and studies which have been already carried out and by proposals of new possible experiments.
Since it is difficult to accept so much globalization and scientific revolution, a collection of short tall tales, with a higher difficulty, has been added to the book Nocturnities for kids in order to just imagine the possibility of their relation to reality.
Despite the seriousness of the proposals, due to globalization, the scientific revolution, paradigm and culture shifts and everything else that said theories may involve; those who do not agree with them and whose sense of humor and constructive criticism is not fully developed are kindly invited to read the online horror story called The Sly ones of the Inquisition in the 17th and subsequent centuries. | <urn:uuid:a92de806-1a62-47c5-8fa8-340fbb93bb83> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.molwick.com/en/ebooks/fairy-tales.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944754 | 229 | 3.234375 | 3 |
In honor of National Parks week last month, NASA created a gallery of satellite images of ten national park lands. These picturesque views remind us why national parks are so special - and why similar places need to be protected.
Take a peek at the awe-inspiring aerial views below, all courtesy of NASA:
1. Yosemite National Park, California
In 2011, NASA’s satellite took this image of Yosemite Valley. White peaks and roadways are visible, as well as the landmarks known as Half Dome and El Capitan.
2. Colorado National Monument, Colorado
In western Colorado, Colorado National Monument lies across the interstate from the growing city of Grand Junction where watered lawns contrast with concrete. The dry climate is apparent in the lands to the west, as well as the monument’s network of canyons, captured in 2002.
3. Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
In 2013, a satellite produced this image of the smallest national park: Hot Springs. The park is also distinct because it closely borders a city, as shown below.
4. Redwood National Park, California
This 2003 image is of the southern end of Redwood National Park, which includes Lady Bird Johnson Grove and Tall Trees Grove. The park is heavily vegetated with some beige rocks. Klamath River and Redwood Creek have carved visible gorges through these mountains.
5. White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
The image below is of the southeastern portion of this monument in 2009. Its glistening white dunes are shifting toward the northeast, portraying their grand movements - up to 30 feet per year.
6. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
In the fall of 2010, the forests of Shenandoah were in the midst of their annual season of color. This image shows popular destinations like Skyline Drive and Old Rag Mountain. as well as the high peak of Hawksbill Mountain. What’s not visible here, however, is the quintessential Appalachian Trail, which runs parallel to Skyline.
7. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
The central portion of Grand Staircase-Escalante is known Kaiparowits Basin, where rock layers date back to the Mesozoic Era. Canyons once carved by rivers have been dry for millions of years and look like branches in this 2005 image. The Cockscombridge divides Triassic Navajo Sandstone from the Cretaceous Wahweap and darker Kaiparowits, where fossils from new dinosaur species were found in 2010.
8. Joshua Tree National Park, California
What looks like a typical dry desert is actually the unique convergence of three distinct ecosystems: the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Desert and the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The five rare oases in the western part of the park can only be found by visitors on the ground, however.
9. Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon and Idaho
This 2002 image shows America’s deepest river canyon - Hells Canyon at the border of Oregon and Idaho. The Imnaha River and Snake River come together at the northern part of the canyon, where creek-side vegetation and dry grasslands are visible as well.
10. Big Bend National Park, Texas
Despite its arid landscape, pictured here in 2002, Big Bend hosts more kinds of cacti, birds and bats than any other national park. Rock formations include the limestone walls of Boquillas Canyon, dark volcanic structures in the Rosillos and Chisos Mountains, and the southern tip of the Rockies: Mariscal Mountain. | <urn:uuid:59121fb6-08ea-4768-9fb8-ca240b9b8e68> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wilderness.org/blog/satellite-images-reveal-aerial-beauty-national-parks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910884 | 738 | 3.609375 | 4 |
The Boys and Girls Club feeds breakfast and lunch to 165 children a day.
Director Zandra Gilley says all of the children are on free or reduced lunches during the school year, but many of them might not get a good meal during the summer months if it weren’t for this program.
Gilley says, “Exactly, and this gives them an opportunity to at least receive one or two meals per day that’s nutritious and will provide them the stimulation they need for a healthy lifestyle.”
Now thousands of additional children will have access to free summer meals like a boxed lunch of a sandwich, juice, milk and fruit. Legislation recently signed into law requires every school district to enact a summer nutrition program by 2006.
Most of Florida’s counties have some kind of summer meal program, but more than 800,000 kids don’t have access to summer meals. The new law changes that. The new law requires meal sites within at least 10 miles of every elementary school where half the children are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Rep. Ron Greenstein sponsored the bill.
Greenstein says, “People who live in affluent areas don’t realize these are the kids who are going to be our future, and if we feed them during the summer, there’s a better chance they’ll be ready for school when the fall starts.”
There’s a financial incentive too. Florida will now be eligible for more than $100 million in federal funds to make sure kids have at least one good meal a day next summer. | <urn:uuid:d81dcc2b-ec75-4bdc-bada-85014c543888> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/1638061.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957263 | 328 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The dollar has taken a beating from many observers, as they loudly proclaim the future irrelevance of this storied currency, and as more robust and emerging economies jockey to replace its status in the world economy. Here are seven facts about the dollar that might surprise you. (For further reading, see Forex Articles and Insight.)
TUTORIAL: Introduction To The Forex Market
Many investors decry the debasement of the U.S. dollar today, making it especially difficult to believe that the United States didn't even issue paper currency for the first time until 1861 as the government sought to finance the cost of the Civil War. These first "demand notes" were issued to the public in August, 1861, and become known as greenbacks due to the green ink used by the U.S. Treasury. From that inauspicious beginning 150 years ago, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced paper currency with a face value of $974 million every day in the latest fiscal year.
2. Change Anyone?
The highest U.S. currency denomination ever printed was the $100,000 gold certificate, series 1934, which has a portrait of Woodrow Wilson on the front. The $100,000 gold certificate was printed for only a three-week time period in 1934 and 1935, and was never circulated among the general public. The note was used to settle transactions between various Federal Reserve Bank branches.
Other high-value U.S. currency notes that were printed over the last century include the $10,000, $5,000, $1,000 and $500 bills. These notes were officially discontinued in 1969 by the government, but are still in circulation, although rarely seen. If you do stumble across one of these bills, they may be worth more than the face value to a private collector.
3. Gold and Silver Certificates
Silver certificates of various denominations were first issued in 1878, and were redeemable for silver dollars until Congress changed the law in the 1960s. The last date that a bearer could exchange a silver certificate for silver dollars was June 24, 1968.
Gold certificates were first issued by the government in 1865, and were redeemable for gold bullion until the early 1930s. An executive order issued by President Roosevelt in 1934 and the passage of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 made it illegal for U.S. citizens to hold gold certificates, coin or bullion, and required private holders of gold certificates to turn them into the government by January 17, 1934. This restriction on private ownership of gold certificates lasted until April, 1964.
Gold and silver certificates are still in circulation, are legal tender and can be spent like regular currency. However, like the high denomination noted discussed earlier, these notes may have a higher value to a collector. (Add some sparkle to your portfolio by getting in on this classic commodity. Read Getting Into The Gold Market.)
4. Famous Women
The only woman ever to appear on U.S paper currency was Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington. She appeared on two issues of silver certificates printed in 1886 and 1891, and with her husband on a note issued in 1896. Pocahontas appeared on paper currency from the late 1800s, but as part of a group of other figures in a painting, entitled "Introduction of the Old World to the New World."
5. Counterfeit or Reproduction
Making counterfeit copies of U.S. currency is considered counterfeiting, as per the Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992. Creating counterfeit currencies is subject to a maximum fine of $5,000, 15 years of imprisonment, or both.
6. Mutilated Currency
Did you find a cash hoard buried in your backyard, only to find that it is a mass pulp of muddy green paper? There might be hope yet, as the government has a procedure to exchange new currency for bills that are in a mutilated condition. The general policy is that more than 50% of the currency note must be present to qualify for an exchange, unless the holder presents supporting evidence that the missing portions have been totally destroyed. Holders of mutilated currency can make a claim with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which handles approximately 30,000 claims per year.
7. Legal Tender?
Despite the familiar phrase "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" on the front of U.S. currency, there is currently no federal law that requires a business to accept currency in payment for goods or services. The Coinage Act of 1965 states that coin and currency as defined in the statute can be legally offered as payment for goods and services, but says nothing about a creditor accepting this payment.
The Bottom Line
Although the dollar is under assault by economists and rival currencies, there is still much that we don't know about this ubiquitous currency that is still used all over the globe. (Stick to your budget every day with these 15 simple tips. Check out Squeeze A Greenback Out Of Your Latte.) | <urn:uuid:5762148f-8663-4137-b8d9-3ffbc4c9bc20> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/7-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-greenback.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969302 | 1,035 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Tropical Storm Dora was just a depression yesterday. Since then, NASA satellite imagery has watched Dora continue to strengthen as thunderstorm cloud tops have grown much colder. Dora is now stirring up high seas in the eastern Pacific and beach goers in southwestern will encounter warnings because of high surf Dora is kicking up. Warnings are also posted for three western Mexican states.
Dora reached tropical storm strength at 2 p.m. EDT yesterday, July 18 and is now nearing hurricane strength. The National Hurricane Center expects Dora to strengthen into a hurricane later today.
That forecast coincides with infrared satellite imagery coming from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies on NASA's Aqua satellite. AIRS captured an infrared image of Dora's cloud top temperatures on July 18 at 1929 UTC (3:29 p.m. EDT/12:29 PDT) and it revealed a large area of very cold cloud top temperatures on thunderstorms surrounding Dora's center.
On the morning of July 18, AIRS infrared imagery showed that the strong convection (rapidly rising air that creates the thunderstorms that power the tropical cyclone) have increased near the center of the tropical storm.
Those cloud tops were so high into the troposphere that the temperatures were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius). AIRS infrared imagery also revealed that Dora has the signature "comma" shape of a hurricane.
As a result of the power of Dora's increasing winds, large ocean swells are expected to begin affecting the southern coast of mainland Mexico today. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
The Mexican Weather Service has posted weather warnings for the Mexican states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. Residents in those states can expect heavy rains, gusty winds, and some local flooding. According to weather reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oaxaca was already reporting rain at 9 a.m. EDT on July 19. Winds were from the east-northeast near 5 mph (4 knots) and it was 62 degrees Fahrenheit (17C). For weather advisories in Spanish from the Mexican Weather Service, go to: http://smn.
At 5 a.m. EDT (2 a.m. PDT), Tropical Storm Dora's winds were near 65 mph (100 kmh) and are expected to continue strengthening today. It was located about 300 miles (485 km) south of Puerto Angel, Mexico near 11.4 North and 95.9 West. It was moving to the west near 16 mph (26 kmh). Tropical storm-force winds extend out 125 miles from the center, making the storm about 250 miles in diameter.
Dora is expected to continue tracking off-shore from western Mexico and strengthen to hurricane status later today. | <urn:uuid:8485c38f-88ca-45d6-94c4-0107f5160f30> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/nsfc-tsd071911.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967558 | 583 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Health Physics Questions and Answers - Question 400
Question 400: NRC Form 5 (Item No. 10B) includes the symbol "V", which is not defined in Regulatory Guide 8.7, Revision 1.
(a) Does the "V" signify "vapor" as used in Federal Guidance Report No. 11?
(b) If so, how is this lung clearance class to be applied in operational air sampling and internal dosimetry programs?
(a) "V" in Item 10B of Form 5 is an abbreviation for the lung clearance class "vapor" in Appendix B to 10 CFR 20.1001 - 20.2401. "Vapor" is listed as a lung clearance "class" for only two elements, sulfur and nickel. (However, the "water" inhalation class for hydrogen-3 indicates water vapor.)
(b) The "vapor" inhalation class should be used when the radionuclides are present in the form of a vapor in the air and the associated air sampling should be appropriate for sampling the radionuclides in this form.
(References: 10 CFR 20.2106, 10 CFR 20.2206, Regulatory Guide 8.7) | <urn:uuid:be1ec182-ca2e-43ac-90de-bda5fda1f2d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/protects-you/hppos/qa400.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.850663 | 252 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Purdue extension Corner
Recently, several poultry producers and 4-H’ers have contacted the Purdue Extension Offices in Clay & Owen counties concerning loss of chickens due to an insect called buffalo gnats. These gnats are commonly referred to as “black flies.” They are blood sucking flies that can cause anaphylactic shock, toxemia, blood loss, and suffocation in livestock. Some species of buffalo gnats can transmit a bloodborne parasite which affects poultry, called leukocytozoon. Not only do they impact livestock, but they can cause pain, itching, and swelling to humans when bitten.
Buffalo gnats lay their eggs in running water. Adults emerge in late spring to early summer. The good news is that once water temperatures reach 66-75 degrees Fahrenheit, the larva will die. This will help put an end to their destruction and hopefully will occur within the next three weeks.
To help control the impact of buffalo gnats on your poultry flock, you should bring all birds indoors and put fans on them. Try to keep them indoors in a darkened barn during the day. To protect yourself from buffalo gnats, try to avoid being outside during the day. If you must go outside during the day, wear light colors and long sleeves. You can also utilize insect repellants containing DEET, however they only have limited success with controlling buffalo gnats.
No commercial reproduction without written consent.
Electronic reproduction of any kind forbidden without written consent. | <urn:uuid:ff5abad0-e34d-4427-9fdf-f451a424c76a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spencereveningworld.com/news/2011-05-25/Columns/Purdue_extension_Corner.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933487 | 307 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Drones are taking flight: Britain is at forefront of aerospace technology
Drone is a dirty word in Whitehall. Ministry of Defence and Royal Air Force officials avoid using the description for the squadrons of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – also known as remotely piloted air systems – increasingly being used by British forces.
American-built Reaper UAVs have already been in service for several years with the RAF in Afghanistan, while Thales is building its Watchkeeper system for the British Army to replace the Hermes 450, an unarmed surveillance machine.
In fairness, ‘drone’ doesn’t do justice to the technological sophistication of the new generation of pilotless aircraft employed for everything from dropping laser-guided bombs on insurgents in Afghanistan to gathering intelligence about Islamic State movements in crisis-torn Iraq.
And although these machines do not have aviators, they are operated by skilled people, albeit mostly hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away.
It’s a far cry from the popular misconception that UAVs fly around dropping bombs at will on innocent bystanders.
In fact, manufacturers claim the UAVs have even less autonomy than the average passenger jet, where – thanks to increased automation – commercial pilots are likened to systems monitors who rarely fly ‘hands-on’.
Today most UAVs are unarmed. But BAE Systems’ Taranis, a so-called ‘unmanned combat aircraft system’, is designed to demonstrate what could one day become routine for the military – using UAVs to fly and fight within hostile airspace instead of sending manned combat jets.
Independent defence analyst Howard Wheeldon says: ‘UAVs won’t replace fast jet military aircraft in the foreseeable future but in the role that they undertake they can and do greatly enhance military battlefield capability.
‘Certainly they are changing the way that military aircraft are used in combat missions and their use can only but increase in the years ahead.’
It’s not just the military that is set to benefit. Unmanned systems such as Global Hawk, made by US defence giant Northrop Grumman, are already in use gathering intelligence from disaster areas and can even take a role in search and rescue missions such as during the hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner.
China this month used drones to search for survivors of the earthquake which killed more than 600 people in Yunnan. And Global Hawks were used during the Haiti earthquake response.
British industry is also investing heavily. Besides BAE other companies involved in Taranis – billed as the most technically-advanced aircraft Britain has ever produced – include QinetiQ, GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce.
Professor John Louth, senior research fellow at military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, says: ‘Taranis is a good example of what the UK is able to do by itself. The technology is very much cutting edge.
‘I’ve been very impressed by the [young] age of some of the scientists and engineers. There’s a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles and that generation will be part of their development going forward.’
Britain and her allies are already flying UAVs in a variety of roles. UK forces could soon purchase the high altitude Global Hawk, which has already been ordered by Nato in a deal worth $1.7billion.
Andrew Tyler, boss of Northrop Grumman in the UK and Europe, says that for every hour of every day there are on average 2.3 Global Hawks flying.
The US is currently the only country that operates Global Hawk and has notched up 125,000 flying hours with them over the battlefield in Afghanistan.
Tyler says: ‘Everyone has warmed up to the idea and it will be called in years to come a “must have” for a nation that has got significant terrain to monitor or significant international interests, such as the UK.’
Within hours of news breaking about Taranis’ maiden flight in 2013 more than 100,000 people were reported to have watched a YouTube video of the event
At the time Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of BAE Systems’ programmes and support business, described it as ‘a major landmark for UK aviation’.
He added: ‘It also represents the culmination of a decade of investment in technology and risk reduction throughout the UK aerospace and defence industry.
‘It brings together the very best of British engineering and UK manufacturing capability.’
So perhaps the biggest opportunity for UK industry is the prospect of home-grown UAVs.
‘The greatest significance of Taranis is that the project is living proof Britain remains at the forefront of aerospace and defence technology,’ Wheeldon adds.
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We are no longer accepting comments on this article. | <urn:uuid:10b6c50d-7373-4fe9-b6a2-f9f7a77e7a8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2731260/Drones-taking-flight-Britain-forefront-aerospace-technology.html?ITO=1490 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954248 | 1,032 | 2.734375 | 3 |
NEA shares strategies to improve education for students with autism
Unveils online resource during Autism Awareness Month (April)
WASHINGTON - April 07, 2010 -
The National Education Association (NEA) is offering a free online workshop to share strategies to improve education for students with autism. The 90-minute video gives educators and parents information they need to identify the characteristics of autism. It also suggests techniques to work successfully with children who have the disability.
Autism affects one in every 110 children and one in 70 boys. April is Autism Awareness Month, a time for the public to learn more about what experts call an urgent and growing public health crisis.
“As a long-time math teacher, I am very familiar with numbers,” said Dennis Van Roekel, president of NEA. “Considering the statistics, we know that people in every community, neighborhood and public school will likely be affected by autism at some point. That’s why NEA believes it is crucial to equip parents and educators with the information and tools necessary to help students with autism succeed.”
The 90-minute video:
- Provides strategies that educators can use to create positive educational and social experiences for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD);
- Explains the disability and common autistic characteristics;
- Suggests effective classroom strategies for improving the communication, sensory, social and behavioral skills of children with ASD.
The video workshop is based on The Puzzle of Autism guide, a collaborative effort between NEA, the Autism Society of America, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the National Association of School Psychologists. The workshop is presented by two special education experts and includes PowerPoint presentations, handouts and other resources. It is available for free to educators or parents who want to learn more about autism and steps they can take to support children with ASD.
“NEA has special education experts who travel across the country to conduct this presentation for educators who ask for help,” said Van Roekel. “This new online workshop will expand our reach with just a few keystrokes. We understand the challenges surrounding autism and want to provide resources for parents and educators so they can effectively help students with ASD.”
Additional resources are also available from the IDEA Partnership, a federally-funded group focused on building collaborative relationships among those who work with students with disabilities. NEA members helped the Partnership develop several resources that are now available as part of their Autism Collection.
# # #
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.
CONTACT: Ramona Parks-Kirby (202) 822-7823, firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:7993c1df-a209-4787-a129-98c5694e5661> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.nea.org/home/38852.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948061 | 582 | 3.578125 | 4 |
What is in this article?:
- Major Alabama crops now a billion dollar industry
- Corn yields a good example
• The combined value of the state’s principal crops — wheat, corn, cotton, soybeans and peanuts — has increased almost 23 percent between 2011 and 2012.
• At Auburn University, Max Runge, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System economist, cites a number of reasons for the improved fortunes.
Corn yields a good example
Corn yields remained relatively flat at approximately 30 bushels an acre between 1860 and 1940, Lemme says. The advent of hybrid corn, developed by land-grant university researchers, changed that.
“With the advent of this new corn, which was introduced to farmers through Extension programs and 4-H clubs, yields have increased by almost 2 bushels an acre each year,” he says.
Like Runge, though, Lemme stresses that the greatly enhanced fortunes of row-crop agriculture reflect advances over a broad front.
“Advances in soil nutrition, pest management, soil tillage, seed genetics and precise variable application rate equipment not only have changed how crops are grown, but have also reduced the input costs associated with crop production even as yields have increased.”
Cotton-insect control is an especially conspicuous example how technological advances undertaken more than a generation ago work together to improve yields.
“If you look back to those 6 or 7 years before boll weevil eradication got under way in Alabama, producers were spending about the same amount of money per acre to control insects as they are today,” says Tim Reed, an Alabama Extension entomologist.
“But the big difference today is that yield losses associated with pest damage are significantly less — only about 2 percent an acre.”
Reed attributes much of this gain to the adoption of transgenic varieties, which were first introduced into Alabama in 1996.
Cultural practices and a few chemical control methods developed over the last few decades also have reduced damage to wheat caused from the Hessian fly.
“Across the crops spectrum, yield losses are the least they’ve ever been because we’re able to manage our insect problems through a combination of cultural practices, transgenic cropping systems and crop protection chemicals,” Reed says, adding that this holds especially true for cotton.
Similar progress has been made with disease control in another principal crop: peanuts, says Austin Hagan, an Alabama Extension plant pathologist and Auburn University professor of plant pathology.
“Much of it stems from the superior varieties we’ve developed within the last generation,” Hagan says.
“Tomato-spotted wilt has disappeared as a factor in peanut production, even though it was considered a real issue 10 years ago. Also, the varieties we have in the market now are more resistant to some diseases — tomato-spotted wilt and white mold — and, in the case of another major peanut disease, leaf spot disease, at least less susceptible to yield loss.”
As with any other facet of farming, challenges remain. Hagan points to the persistent cotton yield losses associated with root-knot and reniform nematodes as a case in point.
“We haven’t solved all the problems yet,” he says. “We can’t deal with that problem effectively with the technologies we currently have in hand.”
Three of Alabama’s principal row crops — peanuts, soybeans and corn — posted significant increases in value in 2012. Peanuts underwent the biggest increase from almost $144 million in 2011 to about $295 million in 2012.
Cotton incurred the biggest loss, dropping from $303 million in 2011 to about $242 million in 2012. The value of wheat also declined from $98 million in 2011 to about $75 million in 2012.
Global economic factors also have contributed to this uptick in production, Lemme says.
“The spike in global demand for grain crops both for food and industrial production certainly played a role, as did the drought, which sparked worldwide shortages [of grain commodities] last year,” he says.
He says Alabama farmers deserve credit too for seizing on these opportunities and planting significantly larger acreages of wheat, soybeans and corn.
Want access to the very latest in agriculture news each day? Subscribe to Southeast Farm Press Daily.
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What does high blood pressure mean? How to reduce blood pressure? As the name implies, it is higher pressure of blood flow. In this condition, the blood flowing through the arteries and veins provide excessive pressure on its walls. As this pressure is unusual for the arteries and veins, it may get hardened and lead to certain complications in the blood flow and the working of the heart. Hypertension is something that would be a part of everyone’s life but a long term hypertension is not good for your health. High blood pressure has become a common disease these days but though being common today, it is a chronic illness and requires instant and proper treatment. Here are some easy suggestion that you can follow in your daily routine if you experience signs and symptoms of blood pressure.
Tips to Reduce Blood Pressure
Walking: Walking keeps your blood pressure in control. Going through 4 to 5 times of cardio-conditioning in a year may keep you healthy.
Deep Breathing: There are some apathetic breath and brainwork techniques that can bring good effect in your blood pressure. Practice deep breathing in and out every morning. You can accompany it with some yoga exercises too.
Meal Planning: Have foods that include more of fruits and vegetables. Avoid foods that are rich in saturated fats and cholesterol. Having a healthy heart will keep your blood pressure in control.
Salt and Sodium: Salts are always considered as unhealthy for blood pressure patients. The reason behind is that salts contain sodium which assists in blood pressure rise. When buying groceries make sure to read the label of ingredients so that you can keep your sodium intake into limit. As per the U.S. guidelines, you must not take more than 2,400 mg of salt each day. When buying canned and processed foods, buy those products that are low in sodium content. Use less salt with food, initially you may feel your food less tasty but as you on with the habit, you will get accustomed to it. Fast food are known to have lot of salt and sodium. Have fast foods that are low in sodium and salt.
Alcoholism: Alcohol is not good for blood pressure patients. If you are in habit of drinking, you can try to reduce the amount as well as the frequency of your drinks. As per the guidelines provided by the U.S, a normal man should not have more than 2 drinks of alcohol in a day. For women the quantity is to be 1 drink per day.
Smoking: Smoking brings sudden rise in your blood pressure. Smoking leads to contraction of the blood vessels and thus leads to unnecessary strain on heart. Although this rise is not a permanent one and may not lead to any long term effect, it is advised to reduce your smoking habits. Moreover, it has been observed that smoking is accompanied by alcoholism which is more dangerous for health.
Exercising: Regular exercising is helpful in lowering your blood pressure. Exercising also helps in weight loss which is indirectly associated with rise in blood pressure.
Dash Diet: A special type of diet known as dash diet is formulated for people suffering from high blood pressure. It stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. As per this diet you are advised to eat less sweets, more fruits, vegetables, less red meat, more whole grains and foods that are high in cholesterol.
Natural ways to lower blood pressure
A 30 minutes of daily exercise can help you to lower your blood pressure as it brings you mental and relaxation and keeps you free from stress. You can even skip a day or two in a week and stay relaxed at home. The sedentary lifestyle that we follow today is one of the reasons for greater number of cases of high blood pressure and obesity as both these is interrelated. Following some aerobic exercises for half an hour everyday is said to lower your blood pressure (top points by three to five and the bottom points by two to three). The exercise you do is not as important as which exercise you like. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that it should be an aerobic exercise. Some of those exercises include running, walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, skipping, etc.
Salts are not good for blood pressure patients as it contains sodium into it. Another compound, sodium has a characteristic of bringing a counter effect on the action of sodium. As per the dietary guidelines for people in America, it was advised to include more of potassium in their diet to reduce hypertension. An adult should have about 4,700 milligrams of potassium in their daily diet. Some good sources of potassium include banana, baked potatoes, orange juice, low fat yogurt, etc.
Salt is responsible for increasing your blood pressure. So, you should try to limit the intake of it with your diet. As per the dietary guidelines, if you are suffering from moderate or severe hypertension issues, you should have not more than 1,500 milligrams of salt in a day. Processed food contains more of sodium, so try having more of whole food. If the food that you buy has nutritional values printed over it, try giving some time to it and select proper food for you.
Smoking increases the chances of getting hypertension. The nicotine content in tobacco and cigarettes may bring a temporary surge in your blood pressure but it does not lead to chronic hypertension. The condition becomes vigorous when smoking is accompanied with alcohol consumption and lack of exercises. However, saying no to cigarettes would surely pull down your BP to a certain extent.
Weight gain and high BP are correlated to each other. It has been found out that losing a few pounds of fat from your body may help you lower your blood pressure. Having excessive fat stored in your body makes your heart to work harder to pump blood and this leads to hypertension. As you lose weight your heart works under less stress and lightens your cardiovascular workload. Cardiovascular exercises and some healthy weight loss diet can help you lose weight.
This is a guest post by Aidan Bertie from aboutbloodpressure.ca.If you are also interest to write for HealthResource4u, Please check our guest posting guidelines at write for us. | <urn:uuid:2ac665d2-2156-4225-a6f2-4674e30e7523> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthresource4u.com/naturally-lower-blood-pressure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963458 | 1,242 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Undergraduate Learning Goals and Objectives
Student learning at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University is based in the mission statements of each institution and the coordinate mission statement. It is represented by the integrated system of learning goals articulated below.
- Graduates will be able to analyze the influence of the Catholic and Benedictine traditions on the human condition.
- Graduates will be able to integrate knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences as they explore the human condition.
- Graduates will be able to integrate the liberal arts and sciences with the skills, values and depth of knowledge specific to a major field of study in preparation for further professional development.
- Graduates will be able to apply clear thinking and communication skills to the exploration of fundamental questions of the human condition.
- Graduates will be able to establish patterns of life-long learning to seek and integrate knowledge of self and the world.
- Graduates will be able to provide leadership and service in community to improve the human condition.
- Graduates will be able to communicate sensitivity to and understanding of gender and cultural differences in order to improve the human condition.
Note: Number in parenthesis denotes complementary academic learning goal.
Graduates will be able to understand and practice Benedictine values as a way of life and this will be demonstrated by their ability to:
- Initiate, organize and be responsible for their own ongoing learning. (2)
- Develop the skills necessary to succeed in the world of work. (3)
- Practice inclusive dialogue, problem solving and written and verbal communication skills. (4)
- Integrate physical, emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual and occupational aspects of their development. (5)
- Develop a capacity for shared ethical leadership and become agents of social change. (6)
- Develop the capacity for life long service to community. (6)
- Create true partnerships between men and women which are based on equity, integrity and respect. (7)
- Seek and value diversity in every aspect of their lives. (7)
- Develop the capacity to create global community. (7)
- Develop the capacity to reflect on the nature of one's purpose for existence through the process of spiritual reflection.
College of Saint Benedict
- Through living and learning in both separate and co-educational environments, graduates of the College of Saint Benedict will be able to:
- Know and value herself as a woman.
- Work for equity and justice for herself and others.
- Understand the wholeness of life and her connection to community.
- Take risks and challenge herself to learn, grow and thrive throughout her life.
- Develop healthy behaviors which create emotional and physical well being.
- Develop confidence and self-esteem.
- Claim and act on her own authority.
Saint John's University
Through living and learning in both separate and co-educational environments, graduates of Saint John's University will be able to:
- Know and value himself as a man.
- Risk the inner journey of mindfulness, sensitivity and vulnerability.
- Develop confidence, self-esteem, emotional maturity and humility.
- Build community by forming lasting relationships.
- Challenge the prevailing confining/limiting expectations of gender and culture to foster mutuality.
- Work for non-violence, equity and justice in the home and community.
- Practice healthy lifestyles which foster the achievement of individual potential. | <urn:uuid:eeb905cd-7e57-4506-bfe6-89079537157c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.csbsju.edu/academics/academic-catalogs/2009-2011-catalog/goals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916224 | 700 | 2.609375 | 3 |
How many man-made satellites are currently orbiting the Earth?
Well, that depends on how you define satellite! If you take the broad definition of the word satellite, a body that orbits a body of larger size, then the answer is millions! This definition of a satellite includes actual spacecraft, and any man-mad
e debris that has been generated by the past 30 years of space exploration.
Our space environment is only getting more and more cluttered. People have called this clutter "space junk". "Space junk" orbits at a speed of roughly 7.5 kilometers/second. That is close to 17,000 miles/hour! Think of the damage even a small speck of
paint could do to the space shuttle if impact occurred at such high speeds!
The more narrow definition of satellite, a manufactured vehicle intended to orbit the Earth, lessens the count significantly. This definition includes only spacecraft. The Goddard Space Flight Center's Satellite Situation Report updated on June 11, 1997
lists 2,271 satellites currently in orbit (2,386 more satellites have already fallen into decayed orbits where they disentegrated while falling through the Earth's atmosphere). Russia has the most satellites currently in orbit, with 1,324 satellites, fol
lowed by the U.S. with 658.
Submitted by Carol (Nashville, TN, USA)
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Learn about Earth and space science, and have fun while doing it! The games
section of our online store
includes a climate change card game
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If that is so, the energy released during the Big Bang must have created many such black holes. Therefore most of the Energy of the Big bang must have disappeared in that form. Then how did the Universe...more | <urn:uuid:7f574b52-befd-4b6c-98be-d915bea43788> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.windows2universe.org/kids_space/sat.html&edu=high | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933126 | 608 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Physicist proposes simple experiment to detect foam-like structure of the universe
Prominent physicist Jacob D. Bekenstein, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has proposed a simple experiment in a paper he's uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, that he says could be used to measure quantum foam. Instead of looking to ever faster particle accelerators, he proposes using an ordinary block of glass, a laser and a detector.
Quantum foam is a term used to describe the non-smooth nature of the universe. It was coined by John Wheeler who in the 1960's noted that according to quantum mechanics, certain properties of spacetime have some degree of uncertainty related to them. Later researchers have expanded on the idea, suggesting that on a quantum scale, the universe is made up of individual units which are thought to be rife with very small black holes that pop in and out of existence, resulting in foam-like images for those who try to imagine what it might look like.
Until now, trying to measure, or prove that theories about quantum foam are true have failed due to the extraordinarily small scale of the particles involved, 1.6 × 10^-35, known as the Planck length. In his paper, Bekenstein proposes an entirely new way to approach the problem. He says all that needs to be done is to fire a single photon through a block of glass and then measure how much the block moves. | <urn:uuid:1cd905f3-f09a-4683-877c-e69951ba3648> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.democraticunderground.com/122812755 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9627 | 291 | 3.0625 | 3 |
By David Swanson
After two world wars with a depression in between, none of which Americans had submitted to voluntarily, President Harry S Truman had some bad news. If we didn't set off immediately to fight communists in Korea, they would shortly invade the United States. That this was recognized as patent nonsense is perhaps suggested by the fact that, once again, Americans had to be drafted if they were going to go off and fight. The Korean War was waged in supposed defense of the way of life in the United States and in supposed defense of South Korea against aggression by North Korea. Of course it had been the arrogant genius of the Allies to slice the Korean nation in half at the end of World War II.
On June 25, 1950, the north and the south each claimed the other side had invaded. The first reports from U.S. military intelligence were that the south had invaded the north. Both sides agreed that the fighting began near the west coast at the Ongjin peninsula, meaning that Pyongyang was a logical target for an invasion by the south, but an invasion by the north there made little sense as it led to a small peninsula and not to Seoul. Also on June 25th, both sides announced the capture by the south of the northern city of Haeju, and the U.S. military confirmed that. On June 26th, the U.S. ambassador sent a cable confirming a southern advance: "Northern armor and artillery are withdrawing all along the line."
South Korean President Syngman Rhee had been conducting raids of the north for a year and had announced in the spring his intention to invade the north, moving most of his troops to the 38th parallel, the imaginary line along which the north and south had been divided. In the north only a third of available troops were positioned near the border. Nonetheless, Americans were told that North Korea had attacked South Korea, and had done so at the behest of the Soviet Union as part of a plot to take over the world for communism.
Arguably, whichever side attacked, this was a civil war. The Soviet Union was not involved, and the United States ought not to have been. South Korea was not the United States, and was not in fact anywhere near the United States. Nonetheless, we entered another "defensive" war. We persuaded the United Nations that the north had invaded the south, something the Soviet Union might have been expected to veto had it been behind the war, but the Soviet Union was boycotting the United Nations and took no interest. We won some countries' votes at the United Nations by lying to them that the south had captured tanks manned by Russians. U.S. officials publicly declared Soviet involvement but privately doubted it.
The Soviet Union, in fact, did not want a war and on July 6th its deputy foreign minister told the British ambassador in Moscow that it wanted a peaceful settlement. The U.S. ambassador in Moscow thought this was genuine. Washington didn't care. The North, our government said, had violated the 38th parallel, that sacred line of national sovereignty. But as soon as U.S. General Douglas MacArthur got the chance, he proceeded, with President Truman's approval, right across that line, into the north, and up to the border of China. MacArthur had been drooling for a war with China and threatening it, and asked for permission to attack, which the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused. Eventually, Truman fired MacArthur. Attacking a power plant in North Korea that supplied China, and bombing a border city, was the closest MacArthur got to what he wanted.
But the U.S. threat to China brought the Chinese and Russians into the war, a war that cost Korea two million civilian lives and the United States 37,000 soldiers, while turning Seoul and Pyongyang both into piles of rubble. Many of the dead had been killed at close range, slaughtered unarmed and in cold-blood by both sides. And the border was right back where it had been, but the hatred directed across that border greatly increased. When the war ended, having accomplished no good for anyone but weapons makers, "people emerged from a mole-like existence in caves and tunnels to find a nightmare in the bright of day."
An excerpt from the just published book "War Is A Lie" http://warisalie.org by David Swanson
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Most Read News | <urn:uuid:4da44cbf-b811-4c79-9352-7fcee2f2648a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.modernwriters.org/focus/politics/6787-korean-war-began.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985854 | 894 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Why would our immune system turn against our own cells? This is the question that the combined Inserm/CNRS/ Pierre and Marie Curie University/Association Institut de Myologie have strived to answer in their "Therapies for diseases of striated muscle", concentrating in particular on the auto-immune disease known as myasthenia gravis. Through the project known as FIGHT-MG (Fight Myasthenia Gravis), financed by the European Commission and coordinated by Inserm, Sonia Berrih-Aknin and Rozen Le Panse have contributed proof of the concept that a molecule imitating a virus may trigger an inappropriate immune response, causing muscular function to deteriorate. These results have been published in Annals of Neurology, accessible on line.
Myasthenia, a rare auto-immune disease
Myasthenia gravis is a rare auto-immune disease (5,000 to 6,000 patients in France) that produces muscular weakness and exhaustion. It generally affects the facial muscles first, and may then become generalised through the muscles of the limbs or the respiratory muscles, causing respiratory distress.
This is due to the production of circulating auto-antibodies that block the acetylcholine receptors (RACh), these neurotransmitters being necessary for transmitting the motor nerve signal to the neuro-muscular junction.
Could a viral infection be the origin of myasthenia?
Myasthenia is a multi-factorial disease in which environmental factors seem to play a key triggering role. Viral infections are suspected but it is hard to prove the role of a virus in triggering the condition. In fact, diagnosis of myasthenia is often made months, or even years, after the actual start of the illness when the virus is no longer detectable, even though the signature left by the virus is visible long after the infection.
Proof of the concept of a viral origin contributed by researchers
Under the European FIGHT-MG project, the team of researchers managed to decode the trigger for the illness by using a molecule that mimics the RNA double viral strand (Poly(I:C)).
To do this, they concentrated on the organ that plays a central role in the disease the thymus. It is in this gland located in the thorax that the T-lymphocytes mature, these being the key players in immune response that are normally programmed to avoid the development of any auto-immunity.
The researchers were thus able to show in vitro that the Poly(I:C) was capable of specifically inducing an over-expression of RACh through thymal epithelial cells, while activating three proteins (the "toll-like" receptor 3 (TLR3), the protein kinase R (PKR) and interferon-beta (IFN-)); it is this last that produces inflammation in the thymus.
At the same time, they analysed pathological thymus glands of myasthenia sufferers in whom they observed over-expression of these same three proteins in the immune system, characteristic of a viral infection.
Finally, the researchers also managed to identify the same molecular changes in the thymus glands of mice, after they had been injected with Poly(I:C). After a prolonged injection period, they also observed a proliferation in the mice of B anti-RACh cells, the presence of auto-antibodies blocking the RACh receptors and clinical signs synonymous with the muscular weakness found in myasthenia. These original results show that molecules that mimic a viral infection are capable of inducing myasthenia in the mouse, something that had never been demonstrated before.
This set of papers published in the Annals of Neurology provides proof of the concept that a viral infection can cause inflammation of the thymus and lead to the development of auto-immune myasthenia.
The next stages of the research will consist in determining which exogenous virus this may be or whether it is a case of the abnormal activation of an anti-viral response by endogenous molecules.
FIGHT-MG (Fighting Myasthenia Gravis) a European collaboration making giant leaps forward
The FIGHT-MG project seeks to determine the genetic and environmental risk factors associated with the occurrence of the illness and its development. The project aims also to identify the key immunological molecules associated with its appearance, and to study the pathogenic mechanisms at the neuromuscular junction, establish new diagnostic tests, as well as new treatments (cellular treatments, immuno-regulatory treatments, immuno-absorption of pathogenic auto-antibodies and other pharmacological treatments).
"When one is working on a rare disease, it is essential to work through networking, so as to be able to share our facilities and resources to promote fundamental and clinical research. It is also crucial to communicate permanently with patient associations. It is this combination that enables us to take giant steps in the treatment of rare conditions," explains Sonia Berrih-Aknin.
|Contact: Rozen Le Panse |
INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale) | <urn:uuid:650793c0-47e4-4d8d-b45a-cf104cea4bdf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Auto-immune-disease-3A-The-viral-route-is-confirmed-96942-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92742 | 1,066 | 3.078125 | 3 |
For questions on arithmetic functions, a real or complex valued function $f(n)$ defined on the set of natural numbers.
In number theory, an arithmetic, arithmetical, or number-theoretic function is a real or complex valued function $f(n)$ defined on the set of natural numbers (i.e. positive integers) that "expresses some arithmetical property of $n$."
To emphasize that they are being thought of as functions rather than sequences, values of an arithmetic function are usually denoted by $a(n)$ rather than $a_n$.
There is a larger class of number-theoretic functions that do not fit the above definition, e.g. the prime-counting functions. | <urn:uuid:524168c5-fb6c-438d-a2b6-258a45a75a2f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://math.stackexchange.com/tags/arithmetic-functions/info | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.848455 | 159 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Sierra Leone is a country recovering from a decade long armed conflict and there are vivid evidences of this in the fabric of society and in the state of the country's infrastructures. Sierra Leone still finds itself almost at the bottom of the UN Human Development index. Moving "from post-conflict to development", the country continues to benefit from ongoing large scale international support to which the EU is by far the largest contributor.
Rehabilitation of Priority Infrastructure is one of the focal sectors under the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) and the National Indicative Program (NIP) covering the years 2008-2013. The Infrastructure Section of the EU Delegation manages the EU project portfolio and pipeline interventions in the fields of roads and transportation, mining and energy, while at the same time following up the infrastructure related sector development in the country.
Roads and Transportation
The state of basic infrastructure remains a major obstacle to the development of the country. After a decade-long break in maintenance and rehabilitation, the road network is in a deplorable condition. Sierra Leone's road transport system consists of a network of about 11,200 km, of which some 8,200 km were functionally classified in the National Road System and the remaining make up the local networks and unclassified roads and tracks. The EU has either been funding or made commitments for providing the following support to the Sierra Leonean road sector:
- Rehabilitation and maintenance of selected road networks based on the prioritization made by the Government of Sierra Leone.
- Refurbishment of selected sections of the Trans West African Highway (Masiaka-Taiama-Bo Highway and Rogbere-Farmoreah section of the Freetown-Conakry Highway.
- Rehabilitation of 650 km rural roads in four districts.
- Technical Assistance is provided for institutional strengthening and capacity building of SLRA.
The ongoing project portfolio amounts to 90 M€, with 20-25 M€ in the pipeline.
Power supply in Sierra Leone is still restricted to the major towns, and even there, supply is erratic. Less than 10% of Sierra Leone's population has access to electricity. The exceptionally high electricity prices are due to inefficient and costly energy production with generators. The need to develop the energy sector in a main priority of the Government's Poverty Reduction Strategy. The EU has traditionally been involved in the power sector. A 2 M€ intervention for emergency rehabilitation of the transmission and distribution system in Freetown was finished in 2004. In the 9th EDF Sierra Leone was attributed one project under the EU Energy Facility I with a funding of 4,7 M€.
Freetown Development Plan
Freetown was planned like a colonial town. From 1944 to the 1969 three consecutive planning exercises took place. None of them was implemented.
The Freetown Improvement Act, Chapter 66, 1960 is the urban planning law currently in force in Sierra Leone. It has the forms and contents of a colonial ordinance which nowadays obstructs urban development. It is moreover limited to Freetown and the urban development issues country-wise are largely neglected.
In 2004 the Law on Decentralisation (Local Government Act) devolved many urban management functions to the Freetown City Council (FCC), including Urban Planning. The FCC could not immediately cope with such a difficult and complex matter given a lack of planning instruments and legal framework, lack of qualified personnel and the lack of resources for outsourcing these activities.
In this context, the Government approached the EU in 2007 to fund a comprehensive study setting out a Freetown Development Plan including all urban services, such as urban roads, markets, industrial areas, water and sewage, energy distribution, etc. | <urn:uuid:09ef2f32-2f68-4793-9587-3c7d14605adf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/sierra_leone/eu_sierra_leone/tech_financial_cooperation/infrastructure/index_en.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932494 | 751 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Acupuncture as an Aid in Recovery
by Kirk Layfield, PhD EMT-P
A month or so ago I talked about a broken clavicle I sustained in October of 2013 practicing at a local track (read about it here). While things were progressing nicely for my left shoulder (The broken Clavicle), things turned south on my right shoulder. An injured rotator cuff from the past reared its ugly head and sent me back under the knife. Everything at this time is once again on the right path as I am completely recovered from the left shoulder injury and roughly 12 weeks out on a 16 to 24 week recovery on the right. During my down time I implemented some acupuncture treatments to help speed the healing and recovery process and wanted to share some information that may be beneficial you. Acupuncture is not just used as a post surgical procedure but is also a great tool for all competitive athletes to improve their training and performance. Let’s get educated on acupuncture. Credit goes to The University of Maryland Medical Center for providing the source of our education.
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a treatment based on Chinese medicine -- a system of healing that dates back thousands of years. At the core of Chinese medicine is the notion that a type of life force, or energy, known as qi (pronounced "chee") flows through energy pathways (meridians) in the body. Each meridian corresponds to one organ, or group of organs, that governs particular bodily functions. Achieving the proper flow of qi is thought to create health and wellness. Qi maintains the dynamic balance of yin and yang, which are complementary opposites. According to Chinese medicine, everything in nature has both yin and yang. An imbalance of qi (too much, too little, or blocked flow) causes disease. To restore balance to the qi, an acupuncturist inserts needles at points along the meridians. These acupuncture points are places where the energy pathway is close to the surface of the skin.
How does acupuncture work?
The effects of acupuncture are complex. How it works is not entirely clear. Research suggests that the needling process, and other techniques used in acupuncture, may produce a variety of effects in the body and the brain. One theory is that stimulated nerve fibers transmit signals to the spinal cord and brain, activating the body’s central nervous system. The spinal cord and brain then release hormones responsible for making us feel less pain while improving overall health. In fact, a study using images of the brain confirmed that acupuncture increases our pain threshold, which may explain why it produces long-term pain relief. Acupuncture may also increase blood circulation and body temperature, affect white blood cell activity (responsible for our immune function), reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and regulate blood sugar levels.
What is acupuncture good for?
Acupuncture is particularly effective for pain relief and for nausea and vomiting after surgery or chemotherapy. In addition, both the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health recognize that acupuncture can be a helpful part of a treatment plan for many illnesses. A partial list includes: addiction (such as alcoholism), asthma, bronchitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, facial tics, fibromyalgia, headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, polycystic ovarian syndrome, low back pain, menopausal symptoms, menstrual cramps, osteoarthritis, sinusitis, spastic colon (often called irritable bowel syndrome), stroke rehabilitation, tendinitis, tennis elbow, and urinary problems such as incontinence. You can safely combine acupuncture with prescription drugs and other conventional treatments, but it is important for your primary care physician to be aware of and monitor how your acupuncture treatment may be affecting your conventional therapies.
The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture also lists a wide range of conditions for which acupuncture is appropriate. In addition to those listed above, they recommend acupuncture for sports injuries, sprains, strains, whiplash, neck pain, sciatica, nerve pain due to compression, overuse syndromes similar to carpal tunnel syndrome, pain resulting from spinal cord injuries, allergies, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), sore throat (called pharyngitis), high blood pressure, gastroesophageal reflux (felt as heartburn or indigestion), ulcers, chronic and recurrent bladder and kidney infections, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), infertility, endometriosis, anorexia, memory problems, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, sensory disturbances, drug detoxification, depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders.
What to Look for in an Acupuncturist
When you are looking for a qualified acupuncturist, make sure that he is certified by the NCCAOM. This organization ensures that the practitioner has completed the required coursework and internship, and that he has passed the exam. Without this certification, you cannot be sure of the practitioner’s level of training.
Before you decide to make a stop at your local acupuncture practitioner, give your insurance company a call. Some insurance policies don’t cover alternative treatments like acupuncture. Other times, they’ll cover only certain types. Check with your insurance and acupuncturist to find out how much of your treatment will be covered.
How many treatments do I need?
The number of acupuncture treatments you need depends on the complexity of your illness, whether it's a chronic or recent condition, and your general health. For example, you may need only one treatment for a recent wrist sprain, while a long-term illness may require treatments for several months to achieve good results.
I used a total of 6 treatments at the time of this article for my shoulder injuries/surgeries and have had a great deal of success in generally increasing my range of motion much quicker and being about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule in the healing process. All riders/athletes should have an arsenal of options in their training, rehabilitation and sports medicine tool box, consider adding acupuncture to yours.
That’s it for this contribution to Racer X Virtual Trainer. Stayed tuned for a special feature on Privateer Fitness coming soon. Feel free to email me with your questions or comments and please visit our website for all your fitness and nutrition needs.
Related Article: Acupuncturist Treats 40 N.F.L. Players in 4 Cities (New York times)
That's it for now, until next time, good luck with your training and remember, if you have a question, log on to the Virtual Trainer Expert Forum and have your question answered by a panel of experts. In addition, be sure and check out the Racer X Virtual Trainer archive section. Your complete one-stop information zone for motocross fitness. | <urn:uuid:24c35c6e-552f-4023-ad72-10e09132baee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.racerxvt.com/article/acupuncture-as-an-aid-in-recovery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91974 | 1,396 | 2.53125 | 3 |
|Prev: Color Example||Next: Dir Lights per Vertex I|
Lighting is essential in computer graphics. Scenes without lighting seem too flat, making it hard to perceive the shape of objects. In here we will explore the basic lighting and shading models.
A lighting model determines how light is reflected on a particular point. The perceived colour on that point depends on a number of parameters, for instance, the light direction, the viewer direction, the properties of the material, to name a few.
A shading model is related to how lighting models are used to lit a surface. For instance, we can compute a single colour value per triangle, Flat shading; compute the colour for the vertices of a triangle and interpolate the colour values for points inside the triangle, Gouraud shading; or even compute the colour for every surface point, Phong shading.
Lighting is deeply related to colour. When an object is lit we observe colour, otherwise, if no light reaches an object looks completely black.
Colour in CG is composed of several terms, namely:
- diffuse: light reflected by an object in every direction. This is what we commonly call the colour of an object.
- ambient: used to simulate bounced lighting. It fills the areas where direct light can’t be found, thereby preventing those areas from becoming too dark. Commonly this value is proportional to the diffuse colour.
- specular: this is light that gets reflected more strongly in a particular direction, commonly in the reflection of the light direction vector around the surface’s normal. This colour is not related to the diffuse colour.
- emissive: the object itself emits light.
The next figure shows the effect the first three color component when an object is lit. To define an object’s material we define values for each of the above components.
Figure: From left to right: diffuse; ambient; diffuse + ambient; diffuse+ambient+specular
Lights come in many packages as well. The most common light types, and easier to implement, are: directional, point, and spotlights.
In a directional light, we assume that all light rays are parallel, as if the light was placed infinitely far away, and distance implied no attenuation. For instance, for all practical purposes, for an observer on planet earth, the light that arrives from the sun is directional. This implies that the light direction is constant for all vertices and fragments, which makes this the easiest type of light to implement.
Point lights spread their rays in all directions, just like an ordinary lamp, or even the sun if we were to model the solar system.
Spotlights are point lights that only emit light in a particular set of directions. A common approach is to consider that the light volume is a cone, with its apex at the light’s position. Hence, an object will only be lit if it is inside the cone.
Figure: Light types. From left to right: directional, point, and spotlights.
There are many approaches to compute the light that is reflected by an object towards the camera, or eye. To compute this value for a particular point we need to know where does the light come from, what is the angle between the light vector and the surface normal (a vector perpendicular to the surface), where is the camera, and some other settings. The equation that allows us to compute the colour, or reflected light for a particular point dictates which settings will be used and how.
As mentioned before our options are not limited to the lighting equation. Considering a triangle we can compute the lighting for each vertex, and then use interpolation for each fragment inside the triangle. Or we can interpolate all the available vertex data, send it to the fragment shader and then compute the colour per fragment. These shading models are orthogonal to the lighting equations, in the sense that we can combine any equation with any of the above shading models to lit our scene.
When fixed functionality was available, no need to write shaders, lighting was computed per vertex. The colour of each vertex was then send to the rasterization and interpolation phases where the colour was interpolated for each computed fragment. The fixed functionality was an implementation of the Gouraud shading model. The results were not that great since interpolation is not the best way to compute lighting which can vary in a multitude of ways inside a polygon. Imagine a spotlight hitting the centre of a triangle, but none of its vertices. The result would be a unlit triangle, which is clearly incorrect.
Gouraud shading made sense back when we typically had a lot more pixels than vertices, and way less computing power. Nowadays we have a lot more computing power, which in turn allows us to use larger and larger numbers of polygons in a scene. These two features combined with the poor results of lighting per vertex led to the current prevalent trend of performing lighting per pixel, i.e. the Phong shading model.
All the above concentrates on the point being lit, the light sources and the camera position. But what about shadows? That would imply testing if any other object is in the path from the point being lit to each light source. And why can’t other objects act as light sources themselves, reflecting the light that hits them towards our point, thereby contributing to its final colour? And refractions? Lighting is a very complex issue, some may even say that lighting is THE issue in computer graphics.
Anyway, we have to start somewhere, so we are sticking with the simple assumption that we are lighting a point, without considering any interaction with the remaining geometry, only the camera and the light sources. In the next sections we’re going to see how to write shaders to simulate all the above mentioned types of lights, both per vertex and per pixel.
Source code for all the light types, and shading models, is available: L3DLighting. The zip file includes a Visual Studio 2010 project. To try the different light/shading model combinations see function “setupShaders”.
|Prev: Color Example||Next: Dir Lights per Vertex I| | <urn:uuid:3b464566-1d73-48b4-bedd-79f6de74efbc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lighthouse3d.com/tutorials/glsl-tutorial/lighting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916807 | 1,269 | 4.1875 | 4 |
Of course we all know that Labor Day is a day set aside to honor workers but if I was put on the spot that is all the information I would tell you. The United States Department of Labor has plenty of information about it on their web page which I copied:
Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Labor Day Legislation
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
And of course in many parts of the U.S. today is a reason to cook out. While there are many different recipes out there, to me cookout says hamburger or chicken. Looking for recipes I came across a interesting one. Not that I am recommending it but it is different. I have never heard of sticking a beer can inside a chicken. Of course some people say that any recipe that calls for the cook to drink ½ of a beer can’t be wrong. So from myrecipe.com here it is:
- 1 (12-ounce) can beer
- 1 cup hickory wood chips
- 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 (4-pound) whole chicken
- Cooking spray
- 1/2 cup cola
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon instant onion flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon instant minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons steak sauce (such as A-1)
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Open beer can; drink half. Carefully pierce top of beer can with “church-key” can opener several times; set aside. To prepare chicken, soak wood chips in water 1 hour. Combine salt, sugar, paprika, and pepper; set aside.
To prepare grill for indirect grilling, place a disposable aluminum foil pan in center of grill. Arrange charcoal around foil pan; heat to medium heat.
Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Rinse chicken with cold water; pat dry. Trim excess fat. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat.
Rub 2 teaspoons spice mixture under loosened skin. Rub 2 teaspoons spice mixture in body cavity. Rub 2 teaspoons spice mixture over skin. Slowly add remaining spice mixture to beer can (salt will make beer foam). Holding chicken upright with the body cavity facing down, insert beer can into cavity.
Drain wood chips. Place half of wood chips on hot coals. Coat grill rack with cooking spray. Place chicken on grill rack over drip pan. Spread legs out to form a tripod to support the chicken. Cover and grill 2 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into meaty portion of thigh registers 180°. Add remaining wood chips after 1 hour and charcoal as needed.
Lift chicken slightly using tongs; place spatula under can. Carefully lift chicken and can; place on a cutting board. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently lift chicken using tongs or insulated rubber gloves; carefully twist can and remove from cavity. Discard skin and can.
To prepare sauce, combine cola and remaining ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 6 minutes. Cool. Serve with chicken.
Anyone ever try something like this? If so how does it work? No matter what you cook I hope you have a great day!
– Leigh AAR | <urn:uuid:ab287d5d-7ba7-4975-baf6-f6921ec63025> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.likesbooks.com/aarafterhours/?p=5944&cpage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923814 | 939 | 2.75 | 3 |
This is the first of four photographs of an approaching thunderstorm to help visualize the difference between gust front outflow "push" and wall cloud inflow "pull." To the distant west-southwest, note the suspicious cloud lowering at the south flank of an isolated severe thunderstorm. Is it a wall cloud or a portion of a shelf cloud?
Photograph by: Doswell
A subtle, but important clue is that the lowering slopes downward away from the rain area, rather than into the rain. This is the slope that a shelf cloud usually takes. As cold air is "pushed" out of the precipitation area by the downdraft, warm air slides up and over the gust front forming the concave-shaped shelf cloud. | <urn:uuid:744fc9d9-161a-484a-b78e-a9073bea5de2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/wwhlpr/shelf_cloud.rxml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924737 | 150 | 2.90625 | 3 |
A MiddleWeb Blog
• Of the 20 fastest growing occupations projected for 2014, 15 of them require significant mathematics or science preparation to successfully compete for a job.
• Our nation has a shortage of qualified math/science/STEM teachers
• Our students’ math and science skills are simply inadequate.
Of course, none of that is really news. It’s more like a recipe for disaster. Businesses and industry have been asking for a better prepared workforce for years, and volatile 21st Century workforce demands compel us to hone in on knowledge and skills our students really need.
One particularly good question to think about: How can we ask teachers to prepare lessons in subjects in which they lack background knowledge? It’s an important question, of course, but it is often where many STEM initiatives start and stop. They focus on the short-term professional development needs.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg according to my friends on Mobile, Alabama’s Engaging Youth through Engineering (EYE) staff. Preparing teachers is but one part of a much bigger STEM solution, and we must work this problem from every angle. A complex curriculum innovation that seeks to integrate engineering design strategies into science, mathematics and technology requires community wide support, and that means leadership development that scales from the classroom to the executive suite.
A STEM leadership academy
Imagine you are partnered with a large school district that plans to implement a STEM program in 17 middle schools, and it’s your job to help that happen. That’s the situation with the Engaging Youth through Engineering (EYE) program. EYE has far less staff than needed to successfully implement and support STEM programs in that many schools. But Dr. Susan Pruet, Director of EYE, has a well-researched plan.
In Mobile, STEM is viewed as part of a K-12 workforce and economic development strategy, and implementing STEM requires support and leadership at all levels. With a grant from the Toyota USA Foundation, Pruet has established the EYE on STEM Leadership Academy. In the summer of 2012 this unique Academy began preparing both the business and education communities to provide ongoing STEM leadership and support.
The Leadership Academy works with four tiers of STEM leaders, and each group is critically important.
1 • Business and Industry
A STEM initiative needs a core of respected business leaders who understand the feasibility of STEM education and can talk the talk. Empowering the business community to do this is one component of the Leadership Academy. Business leaders are generally agreeable – even enthusiastic – about supporting STEM, but they must be knowledgeable advocates.
These leaders know that students need to be able to apply the math and science they are learning to solve real-world problems. They know that these future employees need experience in being innovative problem solvers, team players, and communicators. But do they know that most districts have not allotted time for this in the curriculum? Basic STEM skills are difficult to teach to an employee after graduation. Who better that employers to affirm that this learning needs to take place throughout the education process? Business leaders are also the link to getting volunteers to help students during classroom STEM projects.
2 • District and School Administrators
A well-developed STEM program has a transformative effect on the entire education process in a school and a district. Accordingly, a variety of district-level leaders, including school principals, are involved in the EYE on STEM Leadership Academy. In addition to the usual players, such as the Division of Curriculum and Instruction, leaders from other divisions – instructional technology, career tech, and special education for example – are drawn into the circle.
Certain things must continue on after the initial groundwork is done to ensure that the STEM initiative goes beyond project status and becomes an established way of doing business. A district can develop leaders, but these STEM leaders must have an established and ongoing way of supporting STEM. If a district has STEM specialists, how is the district going to use them? District and school leaders in the Academy work together around a common vision to make these decisions.
3 • STEM Specialists
These are out-of-classroom experts who work with teachers. They are being trained as STEM specialists through the Leadership Academy — learning the What, Why and How of STEM so they can do a better job of integrating STEM into their work as they develop educational programs for teachers, students and the community. This group includes organizations such as the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI), the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the GulfQuest Maritime Museum, the Environmental Studies Center, the Gulf Coast Exploreum, as well as retired educators, college staff and others. These emerging STEM specialists are part of a broad, informal educator population who will help provide an all-important ongoing STEM support network for K12 teachers.
4 • Classroom Teacher Leaders
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. This fourth tier of Leadership Academy participants consists of practicing teachers nominated by leaders from a variety of areas. Nominees attend an information session, then receive an application. Of those who seek to participate, 18 are selected to become part of the Academy’s STEM Teacher Leader Program. Through this program they will learn to serve as STEM teacher leaders and change agents for implementing and integrating STEM into the required curriculum in the Mobile area. These teachers will serve as school-based leaders and grade level STEM experts able to provide critical support for colleagues, including online coaching and assistance.
As an FYI, the Academy has ambitious goals for these STEM teacher leaders. The teacher curriculum involves three strands: Applied STEM Content, integrated-STEM (i-STEM) Practices, and (the all-important) Leadership Skills. The two-year program for teachers consists of specially designed institutes, workshops, reflection seminars and practicum experiences. Participation will not only help these teachers understand how to use engineering design challenges as an instructional strategy, it will deepen their own content knowledge and develop the leadership skills needed to support other teachers as they implement STEM reform.
The ultimate goal
The ultimate goal of the EYE on STEM Leadership Academy is to have STEM-savvy community leaders and a staff of knowledgable and fully supported math and science teachers in each school, with STEM experts in place at each grade level.
Stepping back from Mobile and thinking more broadly about the nation’s STEM education needs, Dr. Pruet argues that wherever people are trying to implement STEM curriculum, they must figure out what it is the education system needs to accomplish, how STEM will help them do that, and what STEM will look like for their community. Communities must have a common vision and leaders who are on the same page.
The goal for Mobile and every community, she believes, is “to develop a community with a common vision of STEM so we can all join our collective talents, energies, and work to reach a goal of STEM success for all students.” | <urn:uuid:90ec3321-21e6-4728-8e16-676a2a28a0ed> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.middleweb.com/6188/creating-more-stem-leaders/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958635 | 1,419 | 2.84375 | 3 |
This factsheet has been developed to assist those interested in apples and their products. Scientific interest in apples has grown due to research into potential health benefits of the fruit and juice as well as the increasing number of individuals who are allergic to apple.
A History of Apples
Apples originated in the Middle East more than 4000 years ago; fruit have been grown in the UK as a cultivated crop since the Roman occupation. Specially cultivated apple varieties spread across Europe to France, arriving in England at around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066; and the Crab-tree apple or the Wild Apple Tree (Pyrus malus) may be a descendant of these early varieties. The demise of rural areas and apple growing, commencing in the 13th Century with the Black Death, the War of the Roses and repeated droughts, was reversed by Henry VIII who instructed his fruiterer, Richard Harris, to establish the first large scale orchards at Teynham in Kent. Scouring the known world for the best fruit, the majority were pippin varieties or eating apples.
For the next 300 years most produce for the luxury market was sold in London. Old English, recorded in 1204, was the main dessert apple in England well into the 18th Century, being grown alongside its culinary counterpart Costard; the salesman for the crop being known as a costermonger. The Victorian explorers found new varieties from all over the world and brought them to Brogdale in Kent, which was developing its orchards and gardens.
The word ‘apple’ has many origins. The Latin for apple is Pomum but this word was also used in ancient days to describe all fruit before it progressed to Malum, literally translated into Greek meaning melon in the 4th Century. The sacred island mentioned in the tales of King Arthur, Avalon or Abalon, translates as “apple orchard”.
The Celtic word for apple, Abhall, persists in many place-names, and some towns and cities have particular associations with fruit trees; Norwich was described in Tudor times as 'either a city in an orchard or an orchard in a city' and in 1893 George Cadbury planted an apple tree in his workers gardens in Bournville.
Brogdale now houses the UK National Fruit Collection - more than 3500 varieties - with over 30 acres of orchards, and the largest collection of apple varieties in the world (more than 2300 dessert, culinary and cider). One of the earliest-flowering dessert apples at Brogdale is Vista, which is in bloom from early May; Idared, Discovery, Jonagold and Cox's Orange Pippin follow in mid-May. The latest flowering varieties include Worcester Pearmain and Gala. The maturation dates for fruit span more than 100 days. Cox's Orange Pippin accounts for over 50% of the UK acreage of dessert apples. It has an unknown parentage but is thought to be an 18th Century seedling, which originated in Colnbrook, Berkshire, related to Ribston Pippin, raised from seed by the brewer Richard Cox, at Knaresborough Hall in Yorkshire.
The Apple Market
The UK apple market is worth around £115 M (2007) but only 31% of the eating apples sold in the UK are home-grown. The UK is the only country that grows apples especially for cooking. As of 2007, Cox is the UK’s most popular apple, followed by Bramley. In total 147,698 tonnes of apples were produced in the UK with roughly 42% of them being Cox apples. Orchard land has decreased by roughly 31% between 2001 and 2007, but the quantity and value of the UK’s exports has increased by 57% and 21% respectively (1997-2007). Imports of apples to the UK have also risen by approximately 17% from 446,400 tonnes to 522,100 tonnes.
In 2001 The Independent reported that Britain’s favourite apple was the Cox’s Orange Pippin, displacing the popular Braeburn. Other favourites include Royal Gala, Jonagold, Fiesta and the more acidic Granny Smith. However, only the Braeburn and the Cox’s Orange Pippinare grown in the UK, the next highest selling British apple is the Egremont Russett, which is favoured by older consumers.
Research in the 1990s at IFR showed that there was a market-gap for a UK-bred apple that would be more acidic than anything grown currently in the UK. The main need for growers is for fruit with extended storage seasons, although there is an interest in the possibility of apples as 'functional foods' - those containing elevated levels of health-protecting chemicals.
Apples in Science
Extended storage of apples is achieved by controlled atmosphere storage - a technique pioneered by IFR scientists; fruit is sealed in gas-proof refrigerated chambers maintained at the desired temperature with in-store concentrations of gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen) kept at specified levels.
Controlled Atmosphere storage reduces fruit respiration, delays ripening and minimises losses due to a variety of disorders and shrivelling. Early-ripening apples such as Discovery store less well than later-maturing varieties such as Granny Smith. Bramley apples can be kept ‘fresh’ virtually all year round using this technique. Modified Atmosphere Packaging, another technique developed by IFR scientists, uses permeable plastic films chosen to provide ideal gas concentrations around the fruits.
Fruit-breeders are still working to improve flavour, resistance to storage disorders, and 'long storage' characteristics in apples. To conform to EC grading criteria, apple growers have to produce fruit matching required standards of size, colour, shape, and freedom from skin blemishes but there are no criteria for 'smell' and 'flavour'.
The amount of sugars and malic acid in each variety determines the balance of sweetness and tartness in the fruit; the more malic acid and fewer sugars present, the stronger the flavour and the greater the likelihood of the flavour being retained when the apple is cooked. Bramleyapples have a low sugar-acid ratio, giving a characteristic tangy flavour, which is strong enough to be retained during the cooking process.
Although acidity plays a part in the prevention of browning of cut fruit, it is mainly vitamin C in the lemon juice that many people squeeze over the fruit during preparation that acts as an antioxidant, slowing down the enzymic process that causes discolouration. The primary products of the oxidation of apple phenolic compounds are o-quinones, and the resulting colour of the cut fruit surface will depend on the type of phenol oxidised. Use of a short heat treatment (70-90°C) to inactivate the enzymes, or ultrafiltration to remove the o-quinone products, are two ways in which discolouration can be minimised in commercial products.
Research at IFR has shown how the texture of apples depends on the way the plant tissue ruptures when the flesh is broken by eating. This in turn is dependant on the chemistry of the cell walls of the fruit. The cell wall comprises the 'dietary fibre' component; tissues that rupture across the cell wall resulting in cell breakage are crunchy whilst soft, (mealy) apples rupture across the middle lamella resulting in cell separation.
One of the ways in which scientists can check quality in a batch of apples is to carry out instrumental tests. The Instron Universal Testing Machine applies a force to any food product, or a sample cut from it, and provides information about hardness and strength as indicators of texture. Scientists at IFR have used the Instron to measure the texture of many food products including dairy products, meat, biscuits, and fruit , and the method is routinely used by UK producers, wholesalers and retailers.
Eating varieties of apples contain up to 20% more dry matter than the Bramley, which means Bramley apples give a moist and airy 'melt-in-the-mouth' texture when cooked but cooked eating apples have a chewy, dissatisfying texture.
Apple aroma results from subtle blends of the 250 volatile esters, alcohols, aldehydes and essential oils present in the fruit whilst the colour of the pulp comes from traces of chemicals such as chlorophyll, carotenoids and anthocyanins.
Apples contain dietary fibre in their skins and core. About 10% of an apple is made up of carbohydrate and 4% of an apple is made up from a variety of vitamins and minerals. The rest of the apple, more than 80%, is water. A medium-sized eating apple contains about 40 calories; one Kilogram (2.2 lb) of fresh apples provides approximately 2100kJ (500 kcal) of energy. Excluding the peel and core of apples from the diet halves the amount of vitamin C and dietary fibre consumed but makes very little difference to the sugar intake.
Washing the skin to remove any contaminants is advisable. Apple pips taste a little bitter, like almonds, and contain traces of cyanide but not enough to be harmful!
Fruit and vegetables are an important part of a balanced diet. Health advisory organisations recommend we eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to help reduce cancer risks and improve heart health, and one medium-sized apple constitutes a portion. Apples are a good 'snack' food and are easy to eat fresh. From food intake questionnaires returned to the IFR we know that women in Norfolk, between the ages of 24-34, eat most apples – with an average of one per day. Young adult men, on the other hand, eat very few apples. Figures for older adults vary between 4-6 apples a week, with little difference between men and women.
Apples and Health
Research before 2008 suggested that the role of flavonoids, the largest class of polyphenols, on human health was inconclusive largely because of a lack of evidence from epidemiological studies. However, a paper published in 2008 by Tribolo et al stated that low doses of flavonoid in the diet lowers the risk of heart disease and subsequent studies have focused on the main flavonoid found in apples, onions and red wine, namely quercetin. Consuming quercetin-rich foods, including apple peel, may help prevent chronic inflammation, which could lead to cardiovascular disease, by the action of quercetin on the cells lining the blood vessels.
Apples, eaten raw with the skin, contain the vitamins C and E and also the compound beta- carotene, which contributes to the colour of the apple skin. These compounds are also found in other citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges. A study conducted in 2000 by Butland et al. showed there was a positive correlation between lung function and the number of apples eaten per week. Eating five or more apples a week was linked to better lung function, but the paper also suggested that the number of apples consumed may simply reflect a healthier lifestyle.
Some research suggests that quercetin can protect the lungs from atmospheric pollutants such as cigarette smoke by reducing the number of harmful free radicals found in such chemicals that can damage the exposed inside tissue. Researchers in Australia also showed apple consumption may have a role in lowering the risk of asthma in young adults (28- 42 years of age).
It has been suggested by Tchantchou et al. (2005) that mice fed concentrated apple juice (equivalent of 2-3 cups of apple juice per day) performed better when placed in a maze and their brains had less oxidative damage. This could be due to the number and amount of antioxidants found in apple juice, preventing oxidative damage caused by free radicals. The oxidative stress was also reduced in mice that had a poor diet but were still fed the apple juice. In humans, higher intake of vegetables and fruit, such as apples, has been shown to reduce the risk of degenerate conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
There are two types of apple allergy. People with an allergy to birch pollen can be allergic to apple as well as other fruits and vegetables. Symptoms occur 5-15 minutes after eating raw apple and include itching and inflammatory of the mouth, tongue and throat. The allergen causing this response does not survive cooking or pasteurisation, which means some allergic people can drink pasteurised fruit juices and cooked apple dishes such as apple crumble.
Not all allergic reactions to apples are associated with allergy to birch pollen. The second type of allergy to apples and other fruits and vegetables, especially peaches, can be more severe and symptoms may also include abdominal pain and vomiting, asthma and a rash. The allergen survives pasteurisation and cooking, and individuals react to purees, nectars and juices, and must avoid all products containing apples including non-food products such as soap, shower gels and shampoos.
The amount of allergen found in apples can vary between varieties, the degree of maturity of the fruit and storage conditions. Allergen levels are highest in apples that have been freshly harvested unless associated with birch pollen in which case allergen levels increase with duration of storage.
Birch-pollen-related apple allergy is most frequently found in adolescent or adult females in Mediterranean areas such as Spain, Italy and Israel where around 5% of people are allergic.
We eat apples in many forms other than the raw fruit including juice. Premium juice with the distinct flavour of English apples is processed as little as possible after the apples have been pressed. The juice is flash-pasteurised, which means it is heated to between 71 and 74 °C for about 15-30 seconds. This kills spoilage micro-organisms making the product safer and giving it a longer shelf-life (up to two years). Pasteurisation also maintains colour and flavour of the juice; if unpasteurised the juice may ferment to produce cider.
Apple juice is a mixture of sugars (primarily fructose, glucose and sucrose), oligosaccharides and polysaccharides (e.g. starch) together with malic, quinic and citromalic acids, tannins (i.e. polyphenols), amides and other nitrogenous compounds, soluble pectin, vitamin C, minerals and the diverse range of esters (e.g. ethyl-methyl-butyrate and iso-butyl acetate), which give the juice a typical apple-like aroma. The relative proportions depend on the apple cultivar, growing conditions, maturity of fruit at the time of pressing, physical and biological damage (e.g. mould and other rots), and, to a lesser extent, the efficiency with which the juice was pressed from the fruit. Apple juice is versatile in cooking; it can form the basis of syrup or it can be added to a sauce. It can also be used instead of apple purée for mousses, ices and jellies.
Cider is manufactured from cider apple varieties. These are harvested and pressed, and yeast, malic acid and sugar added to juice to create the right environment for fermentation to occur. Fermentation is carried out at low temperatures (4-16°C) to slow the process down, and allow the cider to keep its aroma. Before the fermentation process consumes all the sugar, the cider is removed or ‘racked’ to a new vat. Dead yeast and undesired products are left in the old vat for disposal. The more a cider is ‘racked’ the less cloudy the final product is, and often extra sugar is added to the maturing product to prevent carbonation occurring. Cider can be drunk after three months of fermentation but it is more commonly left in a sealed vat for up to three years.
Some varieties of apple, often with higher acid and tannin contents than dessert apples, are grown especially for hard cider production. Traditional varieties include Dabinett or Michelin. The fermentation of apple juice to produce an alcoholic beverage dates back at least 2000 years, and cider is recorded as a common drink during the Roman invasion of England in 55 BC. In the 4th Century, St Jerome used the termsicera to describe drinks made from apples; this may be the word from which 'cider' is derived.
Significant commercial cider production began in the UK in the late 19th Century. As of 2008, there are 5000 hectares set aside for growing cider apples; the industry valued at £4.5 billion per year.
Cider can be obtained on draft (both keg and cask-conditioned) or pre-packaged in glass or polyethylenetetraphlate bottles and in cans. Products range in alcoholic strength from less than 0.5% to 8.5% ABV, often higher in English ciders, and in sweetness from very dry to sweet. Appearance is classified from 'white' (i.e. decolourised) to 'black' (a blend of cider from fermented, malted barley). Cider may be made from a single apple cultivar (e.g. Kingston Black) or mixed, but those made from a single variety from one crop may be sold as a defined year vintage like wine.
When tasting cider, Bulmers™ recommends a cider with a clean, fruity nose. The tannins (plant polyphenols) should leave a slightly sharp or bitter taste on the gums and cheeks but the taste should be clean and appley with no unpleasant after-taste. If very acidic the cider may catch sharply at the back of the throat.
Apples can also be dried, preserved as apple jam, cooked down in sweet and savoury dishes or made into compote.
- Amoit-Carlin, M.J. et al (2007) Flavonoids in Food and Wine, Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables, Acta Horticulturae, Issue 744, Pages 107-116.
- Butland, B.K. et al (2000), Diet, Lung Function, and Lung Function Decline in a Cohort of 2512 Middle Aged Men, Thorax, Vol. 55, Issue 2, Pages 102-108
- Dai, Q. et al (2006) Fruit and Vegetable Juices and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Kame Project, The American Journal of Medicine, Vol.119, Issue 9, Pages 751- 759.
- Jarvis, B. et al (1995) Factors Affecting the Development of Cider Flavour, Journal of Applied Bacteriology Symposium Supplement, Vol. 79, Pages 5S-18S
- Shoji, T. et al (2005) Procyanidin Trimers to Pentamers Fractionated from Apple Inhibit Melanogenesis in b16 Mouse Melanoma Cells, Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, Vol. 53, Issue 15, Pages 6105-11.
- Tchantchou, F. et al (2005), Apple Juice Concentrate Prevents Oxidative Damage and Impaired Maze Performance in Aged Mice, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Vol 8, Issue 3, Pages 283-287.
- Tribolo, S. et al, (2008) Comparative Effects of Quercetin and its Predominant Human Metabolites on Adhesion Molecule Expression in Activated Human Vascular Endothelial cells, Atherosclerosis, Vol. 197, Issue 1, Pages 50-56.
- Wach, A. et al (2007), Quercetin content in some food and herbal samples, Food Chemistry, Vol. 100 , Issue 2, Pages 699-704.
- Woods, R.K. et al (2003) Food and Nutrient Intakes and Asthma Risk in Young Adults, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, Issue 3, Pages 414-421.
Apple Games And Customs Common Ground, London ISBN 1-870364-12-0 BAKER H A (1991)
“This book will help you sip from a huge wassail bowl of games, customs, sayings and stories which remind us of the importance and meaning which the apple has in our culture.
The Apple Source Book Common Ground, London ISBN 1-870364-10-4
“Recipes from 52 chefs, food writers and gardeners are complemented by information about apple identification, orchards, wild life, specialist nurseries, suppliers of fruit, blossom routes, Community Orchards as well as ideas for Apple Day, wassailing, juice pressing, cider making and a 40 page county by county gazetteer of where varieties originated”
The Book of Apples MORGAN J & RICHARDS A (1993) Ebury Press
“A comprehensive single resource for the history of apples.”
Encyclopaedia Of Food Science, Food Technology & Nutrition MACRAE R, ROBINSON R K & SADLER M J (2005) Academic Press
“EFST concentrates more on the processing technology and engineering of food”
The Common Ground Book of Orchards Common Ground ISBN 1-870364-21-X
“[this book] explores how orchards continue to shape local culture from custom to kitchen and urges [individuals] to value old orchards of tall trees for their delicate ecology and local distinctiveness”
Bramley Apples - www.bramleyapples.co.uk
A cookery website containing recipes, the history of this cooking apple and its health properties.
Brogdale Collections - www.brogdalecollections.co.uk
The website of Brogdale Farm; home to the national fruit collection with information about visits, festivals and recipies.
Common Ground - www.commonground.org.uk
Charity working to encourage people to value and enjoy their own familiar surroundings. Orchards Campaign is part of the Local Distinctiveness Campaign. Common Ground publishes books and leaflets about apples and co-ordinates National Apple Day in October.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - www.defra.gov.uk
This website gives information and statistics on the apple market in the UK, including imports, exports and market value.
East of England Apples and Orchards Project - www.applesandorchards.org.uk
The East of England Apples & Orchards Project aims to enthuse, inspire and inform the public about the rich heritage of orchards and orchard fruit which is unique to the east of England. It is working to ensure a long-term future for these local orchard fruit varities and their orchrd habitat.
English Apples and Pears - www.englishapplesandpears.co.uk
Represents and promotes the apple and pear industry in England.
ENZA Foods - http://www.enzafoods.co.nz/latest/
A New Zealand-based company supplying apple concentrate and apple ingredients for the international food and beverage industry, some information on the health benefits of apples.
Internet Symposium on Food Allergens - www.food-allergens.de/symposium-vol1(3)/data/apple/apple-abstract.htm or www.food-allergens.de/
An allergen database containing the science and symptoms behind the different apple based allergies.
John Innes Centre – Apple Breeding - www.jic.ac.uk/corporate/media-and-public/current-releases/081021Apples.htm
Information on apple breeding was carried out from 1948 to the 1970’s, an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Natural Hub - www.naturalhub.com/grow_fruit_cultivars_apple.htm
A webpage database of different varieties of apple and where in the world they are grown, it also has descriptions of the different varieties and some information on the taste of the apple.
Orange Pippin - www.orangepippin.com
Website which describes the flavours of apples and the origins of different apple varieties.
Stanford Medicine – Cancer Centre - https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-clinics/cancer-nutrition-services/reducing-cancer-risk.html
A website with information on the different compounds found in foods such as apples that could help prevent cancer.
The World’s Healthiest Foods - http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=15#descr
A website run by the George Mateljan Foundation to promote healthy foods and healthy eating. A fact page with information on nutritional information to recipes.
Tullen’s Fruit Farm - www.tullens.co.uk/Apples.htm
An English orchard business with information on some of the more traditional varieties that are still grown in the UK.
University of Illinois - http://urbanext.illinois.edu/apples/
A website set up to encourage apple growing and consumption. It cointains information on varieties, nutrition and uses for apples.
A large database of information concerning apples and apple products; however caution should be exercised when using this website as a reference as any person can edit the contents.
Further Information and Addresses
Acknowledgements and thanks are due to a number of organisations for their assistance in compiling this handout. Their names, and further reading ideas, are given below:-
52A Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BE
Tel: 020 7052 8951
Fax: 020 7052 8889
Brogdale Farm, Brogdale Road, Faversham, Kent ME13 8XZ
Tel: 01795 536250 Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Open winter(November – Easter): 10.00am to 4.30pm
summer(Easter – End of October): 10.00am to 5.00pm 7 Days a week (Closed over Christmas & New Year period)
Programme of special events covers exhibitions, demonstrations, talks, day schools and workshops. Organised groups, schools and tour parties by appointment.
Gold Hill House, 21 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JE
Tel. 01747 850820
English Apples & Pears Limited
Bradbourne House, East Malling, West Malling, Kent, ME19 6DZ or Forest Lodge, Bulls Hill, Walford, Ross-On-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 5RH
Represents the industry and promotes English Apples and Pears
Tel. 01732 529781
M. J Amoit-Carlin et al (2007) Flavonoids in Food and Wine, Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables, Acta Horticulturae, Issue 744, Pages 107-116.
Tribolo, S. et al, (2008) Comparative effects of quercetin and its predominant human metabolites on adhesion molecule expression in activated human vascular endothelial cells, Atherosclerosis, Vol. 197, Issue 1, Pages 50-56.
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Researchers say mothers milk makes for even-keeled kids,,
FRIDAY, Aug. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Breast-feeding offers a host of benefits to both mother and baby, including a stronger immune system for the baby and faster weight loss for mom. There are even some known psychological benefits from breast-feeding, such as a stronger parent-child bond.
But British researchers have recently discovered another mental bonus -- children who are breast-fed seem to cope with stress and anxiety more effectively when they reach school age.
In a group of almost 9,000 children between the ages of 5 and 10, children who weren't breast-fed and whose parents were getting divorced or separated were 9.4 times more likely to be highly anxious when compared to other children. But, children who were breast-fed as infants whose parents were getting divorced were only 2.2 times as likely to be highly anxious, the study found.
"Breast-feeding is associated with resilience against the psychosocial stress linked with parental divorce/separation," the study's authors concluded in a recent issue of the Archives of Diseases in Childhood.
The authors theorized that the physical contact between mother and child in the first few days of life could help form certain neural and hormonal pathways that affect a person's ability to cope with stress later in life.
Breast-feeding experts have long been aware of the mother-baby bond that occurs during breast-feeding. "There's a lot less verbal communication, but lots of tactile communication and eye contact that promotes positive physiological responses," said Liz Maseth, an outpatient lactation consultant at Akron's Children's Hospital in Ohio.
"Breast-feeding does seem to suppress stress responses in babies, and it does seem that there's a protective effect," she said.
"In terms of the biological possibility, breast milk is pretty amazing stuff, and the tactile interaction that goes along with breast-feeding does have an influence on the development of neurons," explained Judy Hopkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics in the section of nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Hopkinson added that babies who aren't breast-fed may be able to reap similar benefits with lots of holding and touching.
The study authors also suggested that the bond created during breast-feeding might affect the way the child and the mother interact, and that effect might be long-lasting.
Hopkinson pointed out that mothers who are successful at breast-feeding often have a supportive social network, which could also help lessen a child's stress in times of crisis.
Whatever the reason for the association, it was clear that children who had been breast-fed were less stressed.
Both Maseth and Hopkinson said it's very important to try to begin breast-feeding as soon as possible after birth -- no more than one hour. Maseth said this is because the breasts contain glands that release the same scent as amniotic fluid, a scent that babies will recognize.
"For most mothers, breast-feeding doesn't come naturally. If the baby doesn't latch on, it can lead to feelings of failure and concern about whether or not the baby is getting enough milk. Women need lots of encouragement and education," Maseth said.
"Don't give up, though, seek help" she advised, adding that your baby's pediatrician will likely have information on what local breast-feeding resources are available.
"Breast-feeding is something for mothers and babies to enjoy. A time for them to cherish and nurture each other," said Hopkinson. For women who can't breast-feed, she said, that skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby can also help build a similar bond.
The National Women's Health Information Center has more on breast-feeding.
SOURCES: Liz Maseth, R.N., outpatient lactation services, department of maternal-fetal medicine, Akron Children's Hospital, Ohio; Judy Hopkinson, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; Aug. 15, 2006, Archives of Diseases in Childhood, online
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Pakistan in pictures
Flag of Pakistan
Map of Pakistan
Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: The Founder of Pakistan
Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal: National Poet, Philosopher,Thinker
National Anthem of Pakistan
National Anthem of Pakistan ( in Urdu )
National Anthem of Pakistan in English
Pakistan's National Monument was built in the Shakarparian Hills, at the west viewpoint overlooking the capital city Islamabad, Pakistan. Built with expensive red granite marble the shape is that of a blossoming flower, with petals. The four main petals of the monument represent the four provinces of Pakistan: Balochistan, North West Frontier Province, Punjab, and Sindh. In the large view you can see some murals of famous monuments which are located in the respective provinces. And the three smaller petals represent the Northern areas, Kashmir and the country’s tribal areas.
Minar-e-Pakistan is a tall minaret in Iqbal Park Lahore, built in commemoration of the Pakistan Resolution. The minaret reflects a blend of Mughal and modern architecture, and is constructed on the site where on March 23, 1940, seven years before the formation of Pakistan, the Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan), demanding the creation of Pakistan. This was the first official declaration to establish a separate homeland for the Muslims living in the South Asia. Pakistan now celebrates this day as a national holiday each year.
Mazar-e-Quaid (Urdu: مزار قائد) or the National Mausoleum refers to the tomb of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It is an iconic symbol of Karachi throughout the world. The mausoleum completed in the 1960s, is situated at the heart of the city.
Khyber gate: Entrance to Khyber pass and Torkham border of Afghanistan from Peshawar, North Western Pakistan.
Ziarat, Balochistan, Pakistan
Jasmine: National flower
Cedrus deodara: National tree
Peregrine Falcon is the state bird of the country recognized as "Shaheen" and officially the military iconic symbol of the PAF
Chukar: National bird (official)
Asiatic Lion: National animal (unofficial)
Markhor: National animal
Indus Dolphin: National Mammal; is only found in the Indus River in Pakistan
National Game: Field hockey; Pakistan is 4-time world champion (1971, 1978, 1982, 1994 )and 3-time Olympics champion (1960, 1968, 1984) while Pakistan also won Champions Trophy for 3 time ( 1978 , 1980, 1994 ).
Cricket: Pakistan 1992 World Champion
Pakistan: ICC T20 World Cup 2009 winner
Shahid Khan Afridi: currently holds the highest career strike rate in the history of international cricket and the world record of Fastest Century
Wasim Akram: a former Pakistani Cricketr. Widely regarded as one of the finest fast bowlers ever, Akram holds world records for the most wickets taken in both ODIs and Test matches. Recently Wasim has been inducted in ICC Hall of Fame.
Shoaib Akhtar: Fastest bowler in the world. He set a world record by clocking 100mph
Jahangir Khan: is a former World No. 1 professional Squash player from Pakistan, who is considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the game. During his career he won the World Open six times and the British Open a record ten times. Between 1981 and 1986, he was unbeaten in competitive play for five years. During that time he won 555 matches consecutively. This was not only the longest winning streak in squash history, but also one of the longest unbeaten runs by any athlete in top-level professional sports.
Jan sher Khan: is a former World No. 1 professional Squash player from Pakistan, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest squash players of all time. During his career he won the World Open a record eight times, and the British Open six times.
Badshahi Mosque - Lahore
Food street - Lahore
National Stadium - Karachi
Baltoro glacier - Pakistan
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) (Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, Chinese: 喀喇昆仑公路) is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 m/15,397 ft as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple GPS readings. It connects China's Xinjiang region with Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan and also serves as a popular tourist attraction. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the "8th Wonder of the World."
The Karakoram Highway
Beautifully painted Pakistani trucks along the Karakoram Highway, Pakistan. The Karakoram Highway connects northern Pakistan with far north-western China via the Khunjerab Pass (4693m) and is the highest international road in the world.
Bualtar Glacier, Hoper, Pakistan
Hunza Valley - Pakistan
The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and one of the largest mosques in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 to 1993 when overtaken in size by the completion of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabia during the 1990s relegated Faisal Mosque to fourth place in terms of size. It is conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan.The Faisal Mosque is named after the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who supported and financed the project.
The Badshahi Mosque (Urdu: بادشاھی مسجد) or the 'King's Mosque' in Lahore, commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in 1673, is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.
It is capable of accommodating 5,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 95,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.
The mausoleum of Sheikh Rukn-i-Alam. Multan, Pakistan
Hanna Lake (Urdu: حانا جھيل) is a lake near Quetta city in Pakistan and is one of the main attractions in the city. The lake is located a little short of the place where the Urak Valley begins and 10 km from Quetta. Golden fish in the lake comes swimming right up to the edge of the lake.
Lake Saif-ul-Malook, Nothern areas, Pakistan
Shandur Polo festival, Pakistan
Mahodand Lake, Kalam, Pakistan
Pakistan’s M2 motorway: For sheer spotlessness, efficiency and emptiness there is nothing like the M2 in the rest of South Asia
Motorway connecting Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan
M2 Motorway from Lahore to Islamabad, Pakistan
M1 Motorway from Islamabad to Peshawar, Pakistan
Shangrila Lake, Pakistan
Neelum Valley, Pakistan
Typical Neelum Valley village, Pakistan
Pakistani Girls In Traditional Dress: Pakistani girls representing the four provinces of Pakistan seen here in traditional garb. Such costumes are often seen on the 14th of August or the 23rd of March on Independence Day celebrations in Pakistan. The application of face paint indicates that they are dressed up as either Pakhtun or Baluchi women, while the girl on the left is from the eastern Indus Valley region of Sindh or Punjab. (From left to right: Sindhi dress, Pakhtun and Baluchi dress)
Kalash People of Pakistan
Kalash Valley, Pakistan
Sunflower fields in Khanewal, Punjab, Pakistan
Tent pegging, A passion of Punjabi and a thrilling game, very famous in central Punjab, Pakistan.
Murree (Pakistan) in winter. Road blockade due to land sliding
Glowing Fountain and Oyster Rocks in arabian sea, Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi: An aerial view of Pakistan's port city of Karachi, the city of lights. Copyright Mohsin Hassan
Karachi - The City of Lights, Pakistan
Miani Horr, Balochistan, Pakistan
Shogran in the Kaghan Valley, NWFP, Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan - sunset at Blue Area
7th Avenue Islamabad- Bird's eye view, as seen from Daman-e-Koh (Margallah Hills), Islamabad - Pakistan
Rawal Lake located in the outskirts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, is considered to be a paradise on earth that one must not be miss. Rawal Lake is an artificial reservoir in Pakistan that fullfills the water demands for the cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. This artificial lake covers an area of 8.8 km². Rawal Lake is located within an isolated section of the Margalla Hills National Park.
Heavenly View at Khanpur Lake...Some 50 kilometers north-west of Islamabad, on the road from Taxila to Haripur. One can indulge at this place away from city life.
Tarbela Dam- The world's largest earth-filled dam on one of the world's most important rivers - the Indus - is 103 km from Rawalpindi. The dam was completed in 1976 at a cost of Rs.18.5 billion. Over 15,000 Pakistani and 800 foreign workers and engineers worked during its construction. It is the biggest hydel power station in Pakistan having a capacity of generating 3,478 MW of electricity. Its reservoir is 97 km long with a depth of 137 meters while total area of the lake is 260 sq.km.
Mangla Dam- World's third largest earth-filled dam is only 115 km south-east of Rawalpindi.
Mangla Dam Water FLow
Kallar Kahar Lake, Pakistan
Rama Lake- Near Astore, Northern Pakistan
Satpara Lake, Sakardu, Pakistan: One of the largest fresh water lakes of the country.
Banjosa village is around 3 and a half hours drive from Islamabad and a 30 min drive from Rawalakot, district headquarter of Poonch District, in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan
Banjosa , Azad Khasmir, Pakistan
Toli Peer Meadow, Northern Pakistan
Shyokh Valley near Kaphalu, Karakoram Range, Pakistan
Walking upwards through the Gasherbrum II Icefall, Karakoram Range, Pakistan
Shandur Valley - Vertorama, Pakistan
Sword Dance: The Pashtuns are known for dancing with their guns and/or swords. Also known as Khyber sword dance.
A popular Sindhi folk dance usually done when somebody returns home victorious
Balochi Folk Dance: Baloch people give a great importance to the occasion of birth. The occasion is celebrated by music, singing and dancing.
Bhangra: folk dance of Punjab is the bhangra which is described as being like rock and roll and which is always done at the beginning of the harvest season.
Wakhi Dance: Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Wakhi children dance at Wakhi Cultural Festival at Lok Virsa, Islamabad, Pakistan.
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How does one look, sound, walk, act, dance, sing or even show charisma to be considered cool?
Some say, it is an evolution, which began in the black community with Jazz and caused crossover to the whites in speakeasies of the roaring 20’s. However, others will say “cool” was not official until the early 40s.
If anyone is seeking an answer as to what is meant by “Cool,” there are 100 photographic portraits of Americans, whose image will help to define “American Cool” portraits at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
The exhibition itself gave credit to the individual who coined to term of “cool.”
“The legendary jazz saxophonist, Lester Young disseminated the word and concept of cool into jazz culture in the early 40s, and it quickly crossed over as a rebel masculine sensibility.
"When Young said, “I’m cool,” he meant first, that he was relaxed in the environment and, second, that he was keeping it together under social and economic pressure as well as the absurdity of life in a racist society.”
Prohibition seemed to be the beginning of Americans, who were rebelling against our government, which appear to be regulating morality. The 50s “Beat” writers and abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollack rebelled against traditional art, literature and movies, which created unique standout styles of the individual.
The 60’s actually emerged as a decade of social “Revolution,” and the word “cool” a sorts of password of the Hippie type groups and all other protests groups against the old norms existing. Those norms were challenged through social movements by blacks, women, war protesters, and those for individualism.
Attend the exhibition, to see the major players who define, "American Cool." | <urn:uuid:1148ced6-d715-4550-bf0f-b6b9e6f41425> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/american-cool-one-way-or-another-she-s-gonna-get-you-through-sept-7?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976519 | 392 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Resistance & Resistors
Resistors are those tiny components within any electronic devices which are so common that we normally ignore them. Let us understand what are these interesting devices and how can they be best used in our circuits.
If you have already studied “Electricity Tutorial”, then you should be familiar with Voltage, Current and Resistance. Else, I suggest you to go back and brush up your knowledge on electricity and resistance before you proceed.
We know that conductors let electricity flow through it, while insulators do not. (Although high voltage might make an insulator to conduct) What we understand from this is Conductors has a low resistance towards the flow of electricity where as insulators have a high resistance. These nifty components called resistors help us by presenting controlled amounts of resistance in any circuits. In other words, Resistors are those devices which control the flow of electricity in a circuit.
Resistors are passive devices (do not posses any source of power) made using different materials. The common ones use Carbon or Metal Oxide which is wound around a ceramic core and two copper leads are inserted at both ends of the resistor. The ratio of Carbon/Metal oxide to ceramic core determines the actual resistance of the resistor. When connected in a circuit, these resistors obstruct the flow of electrons resulting in a voltage drop.
Resistor is symbolized as a rectangular box or a zig-zag line in schematic or electrical drawings. However, zig-zag line is an older method and newer drawings prefer the rectangular box. The figure shows two different methods of representing resistor.
Resistor value can be calculated using Ohm’s Law. We know that Ohm’s law states that V=IR, where V is the voltage, I is Current and R is resistance. Hence this equation can be rewritten as R=V/I.
Due to the size limitation, the value of resistor is not printed on it. However, resistor manufactures have a unique color code to specify the value and tolerance, where tolerance is the accuracy of the resistor to the defined value. However, do note that not all color coded components are resistors. They can be capacitors, or inductors which use the same color coding scheme (although they have their numeric values printed on them). | <urn:uuid:b39a8a88-2e3b-4925-848c-06da7ea2f0a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.robotplatform.com/electronics/resistor/resistor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93578 | 469 | 4.375 | 4 |
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