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- freely available
Mar. Drugs 2010, 8(5), 1567-1636; doi:10.3390/md8051567
Abstract: Chitin, the second most important natural polymer in the world, and its N-deacetylated derivative chitosan, have been identified as versatile biopolymers for a broad range of applications in medicine, agriculture and the food industry. Two of the main reasons for this are firstly the unique chemical, physicochemical and biological properties of chitin and chitosan, and secondly the unlimited supply of raw materials for their production. These polymers exhibit widely differing physicochemical properties depending on the chitin source and the conditions of chitosan production. The presence of reactive functional groups as well as the polysaccharide nature of these biopolymers enables them to undergo diverse chemical modifications. A complete chemical and physicochemical characterization of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives is not possible without using spectroscopic techniques. This review focuses on the application of spectroscopic methods for the structural analysis of these compounds.
Chitin, the second most abundant natural polymer in the world, functions as a natural structural polysaccharide . A major component of the carapaces, crusts and shells of crustaceans such as shrimps, crabs and lobsters, it is also an ingredient of cell walls in fungi and yeast . Its estimated production is 1010–1012 tonnes per year . Chitin is a linear polymer consisting mainly of β-(1→4)-linked 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranose units and partially of β-(1→4)-linked 2-amino-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranose. In this form, chitin is insoluble in water and common organic solvents, dissolving only in specific solvents such as N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc)-LiCl , hexafluoroacetone or hexafluoro-2-propanol . When the degree of N-acetylation (defined as the average number of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine units per 100 monomers expressed as a percentage) is less than 50%, chitin becomes soluble in aqueous acidic solutions (pH < 6.0) and is then called chitosan [6,7]. Thus, chitosan is a collective name for a group of fully and partially deacetylated chitins, but a rigid nomenclature with respect to the degree of N-deacetylation between chitin and chitosan has not been defined . The structures of “ideal” chitin and “ideal” chitosan, and the “real” structures of these compounds are shown in Figure 1.
According to the nomenclature proposed by the European Chitin Society (EUCHIS) , chitin and chitosan should be classified on the basis of their solubility and insolubility in 0.1 M acetic acid; the soluble material is named chitosan, whereas chitin is insoluble. Chitin and chitosan have a molecular mass of up to several million g/mol. Commercially available chitosan has an average molecular weight ranging between 3,800 and 500,000 g/mol and its degree of N-acetylation is 2% to 40% [8,10].
Chitin and chitosan are of commercial interest because of their high nitrogen content (6.89%) and their excellent properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity and adsorptive abilities [2,8,11]. These compounds are of very low toxicity: LD50 of chitosan in laboratory mice is 16 g/kg body weight, which is similar to that of sugar and salt. In rats, chitosan is safe up to 19% in the diet . As a material that is highly insoluble and has a low chemical reactivity, chitin has limited applicability. Recently, however, chitosan has come back into the spotlight because of its numerous and extensive applications–in biomedicine, waste water treatment, food, cosmetics and the fiber industry [7,8,11,13–17]. Most of the characteristic properties of chitosan are due to the high content of primary amino groups with a pKa of 6.3. At low pH, the positive charge on the-NH3+ groups converts chitosan to a water-soluble cationic polyelectrolyte; when pH increases to above 6.0 the positive charge on the amino groups is lost and chitosan becomes insoluble . The soluble-insoluble transition of chitosan occurs around pH 6.0–6.5 at the pKa of its primary amino groups. The pKa depends closely on the degree of N-acetylation (DA), hence the solubility of chitosan is dependent on DA and the method of N-deacetylation . The amino groups are also responsible for several straightforward chemical modifications of chitosan, which predisposes its ongoing development for many applications [19–22]. The improved solubility in water and organic solvents of chemically modified chitin and chitosan has been reported by many scientists [23–25].
Chitin is isolated from the exoskeletons of crustaceans, molluscs, insects and certain fungi, but the main commercial sources of chitin are crab and shrimp shells [2,26]. Depending on the source, chitin occurs in two allomorphs, the α and β-forms, and additionally as γ-chitin, which appears to be a combination of the α and β structures rather than a different allomorph . α-Chitin is by far the most abundant and is usually isolated from the exoskeleton of crustaceans, particularly from shrimps and crabs. β-Chitin can be extracted from squid pens, and γ-chitin from fungi and yeast . β-Chitin is easily converted to α-chitin by alkaline treatment followed by flushing in water .
Several techniques to extract chitin from different sources have been published [26,29–31]. Crustacean shells consist of proteins (30–40%), calcium carbonate (30–50%), chitin (20–30%) and pigments (astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, lutein or β-carotene). These proportions vary from species to species and from season to season . The most common method for chemically isolating chitin from crustacean shells involves a number of major steps: the washing, grinding and sieving of raw shells, followed by their demineralization (elimination of calcium carbonate in dilute acidic acid) and deproteinization in aq NaOH or KOH. The use of enzymatic hydrolysis for deproteinization and microorganisms for both demineralization and deproteinization has been also reported [29,33].
Industrially chitin is converted into the more readily applicable chitosan by partial or complete deacetylation of chitin in both the solid (heterogeneous process) and dissolved (homogeneous process) states under alkaline conditions or by enzymatic hydrolysis (using a chitin deacetylase). The source of natural chitin used to produce chitosan affects the production parameters and chitosan preparations. It has been shown that β-chitin is more reactive in N-deacetylation than α-chitin . The difference in the semicrystalline morphology of chitin means, for example, that chitosans obtained in a solid-state reaction have a heterogeneous distribution of N-acetyl groups along the molecular chains . Differences in the chitosan production process (e.g., temperature, alkali concentration, ratio of alkali solutions to the shells) also mean that chitosan preparations consist of a mixture of chitosans varying in molecular weight and degree of N-acetylation. Those produced from chitin may also contain impurities such as heavy metals, protein residues and acid/alkaline residues.
For most of the commercially available chitosans, parameters like weight-average molecular weight (MW), polydispersity (MW/MN), degree of N-acetylation (DA), pattern of acetylation (PA) and impurity content (protein, heavy metal) are usually unknown [32,36]. Knowledge of the microstructure of chitosan samples is thus essential for an understanding of the structure–property–activity relationships in them, and special emphasis in this respect is placed on the chitosans used in biomedical applications [32,36,37]. The complete structural characterization of synthesized, biologically active and/or water-soluble derivatives of chitin and chitosan is also very important.
The present paper reviews the applications of spectroscopic methods for the structural analysis and physicochemical characterization of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives. The most important techniques are X-ray spectroscopy, infrared (IR) and UV-Vis-spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). The usefulness of these methods for determining and confirming molecular structures, for monitoring reactions and controlling the purity of these compounds is discussed.
2. Application of Spectroscopic Methods for Analyzing the Structure and Determining the Physicochemical Properties of Chitin, Chitosan and Their Derivatives
2.1. X-ray spectroscopy
X-ray spectroscopy is unarguably the most versatile and widely used means of characterizing materials of all forms . There are two general types of structural information that can be studied by X-ray spectroscopy: electronic structure (focused on valence and core electrons, which control the chemical and physical properties, among others) and geometric structure (which gives information about the locations of all or a set of atoms in a molecule at an atomic resolution). This method encompasses several spectroscopic techniques for determining the electronic and geometric structures of materials using X-ray excitation: X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray Auger spectroscopy. Which type of X-ray spectroscopy is employed depends on whether the target information is electronic, geometric or refers to oxidation states: for instance, XAS (first developed by de Broglie) to probe empty states and the shapes of molecules or local structures , and XPS (first developed by Siegbahn) to investigate occupied electronic states . X-ray spectroscopy is thus a powerful and flexible tool and an excellent complement to many structural analysis techniques such as UV-Vis, IR, NMR or Raman.
2.1.1. Typical conditions of X-ray measurements
In an X-ray diffraction measurement, a crystal is mounted on a goniometer and gradually rotated while being bombarded with X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern of regularly spaced spots known as reflections . The two-dimensional images taken at different rotations are converted into a three-dimensional model of the density of electrons within the crystal using the mathematical method of Fourier transforms, combined with the chemical data obtained for the sample. If single crystals of sufficient size cannot be obtained, various other X-ray methods, like fiber and powder diffraction, can be applied to record less detailed information.
Clark and Smith in 1937 were the first to make crystal studies of chitin and chitosan using X-ray diffraction (XRD) . They carried out those investigations using a commercial copper-target diffraction tube operated at 30 kV and 25 mA as the X-ray sources, which generated principally Cu-Kα lines. The diffraction patterns were recorded on a flat film perpendicular to the beam with the sample 5.0 cm from the film. In later research, the conditions for X-ray measurements of chitin and chitosan were mostly modifications of the ones used by Clark and Smith . For instance, X-ray diffraction measurements were done at 100% relative humidity in a helium atmosphere to avoid the X-ray scattering that led to a “dirty” background on the X-ray film. Present-day X-ray analyses of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives are carried out on advanced X-ray diffractometers.
Apart from traditional X-ray diffraction (XRD), other X-ray techniques for determining chitin/chitosan and their derivatives have been applied: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the second most popular X-ray spectroscopy technique–for determining the bonding energies of C, O and N atoms on the surface of chitosan and its metal chelate, and for other chitin and chitosan investigations [44–49]; X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES)–perfect for studying the chemical bonding in chitosan and cross-linked chitosan derivatives ; X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS)–for determining the coordination number of Fe atoms in chitosan-metal complexes .
2.1.2. X-ray spectra of chitin and chitosan
Numerous X-ray spectroscopic studies of chitin and chitosan have yielded the diffractive patterns of these compounds [52–59]. However, different sources have characterised these patterns with differently indexed crystalline peaks: these can be labeled either using d, the centre-to-centre spacing of the crystallites, or Miller indices, e.g., (020). It is also very common to describe the diffraction pattern using the values of angles.
Typical spectra of chitin fiber and chitosan fiber are shown in Figure 2 . The spectrum of the former exhibits broad peaks at d = 0.34, 0.45, 0.50 and 1.09 nm with a shoulder at 0.71 nm; in the latter the spectral peaks are at d = 0.45, 0.88 and 2.93 nm.
The Miller indices of the diffraction peaks characteristic of chitin were (020), (110), (120), (101) and (130) [57,58], although Muzzarelli et al. reported the lack of a strong (020) peak for chitin. . In turn, the typical chitin diffraction pattern, given in angle form, showed strong reflections at 2θ around 9–10° and 2θ of 20–21° and minor reflections at higher 2θ values, e.g., at 26.4° and higher .
2.1.3. X-ray analysis of chitin and chitosan polymorphs
As already mentioned, the crystal structures of chitosan have been examined since the work of Clark and Smith in 1937 . A great number of diffraction experiments have been undertaken in an attempt to elucidate the molecular geometry of chitosan [42,61–71]. The first X-ray studies showed that the chitosan molecule can adopt at least two different conformations in crystals–a 2-fold [42,61–63] and an eight-fold right-handed helical structure [64,65]. Apart from these two helical conformations, other polymorphs of chitosan have been characterized [66–71]. In 1994 Yui et al. determined the detailed crystal structure of the anhydrous form of chitosan by combining X-ray diffraction analysis with a stereochemical model refinement . Chitosan chains crystallized in an orthorhombic unit cell of the following dimensions: a = 0.828 nm, b = 0.862 nm and c (fiber axis) = 1.043 nm. The X-ray diffraction pattern was recorded on the imaging plate, and the intensity of each reflection was estimated by two-dimensional measurement and subsequent background removal. The results showed that the chain conformation of this anhydrous form of chitosan was an extended two-fold helix stabilized by intramolecular O3···O5 hydrogen bonds and that the adjacent parallel chains were connected by O6···N2 hydrogen bonds.
At the same time Mazeau et al. examined the conformation and packing of a chitosan polymorph crystallized at a high temperature on the basis of diffraction data . In this kind of polymorph, the chitosan chains form orthorhombic crystals with a = 0.807 nm, b = 0.844 nm and c (chain axis) = 1.034 nm. This chitosan molecule adopted a two-fold helical conformation stabilized by two intramolecular hydrogen bonds, a strong one between O5′ and O3, and a weaker one between O5′ and O6. These two anhydrous forms of chitosan have relatively similar structures.
In 1997 Yui’s group published another paper on the X-ray fiber diffraction method used to determine the crystal structure of a hydrated form of chitosan . The results indicated that the hydrated form of chitosan molecules had a two-fold helical symmetry reinforced by a O3····O5 hydrogen bond with a repeating period of 10.34 Å; this is a structure typical of β (1→4) linked polysaccharides such as cellulose, mannan and chitin.
The following crystalline polymorphs of chitosan have so far been found using X-ray diffraction measurements: the most abundant “tendon-chitosan” [42,69], as well as the “annealed” , “1–2”, “L-2” , “form I” and “form II” and “8-fold right-handed” forms [64,65]. Apart from the last one, all the polymorphs of chitosan molecules have the extended 2-fold helix configuration; the 8-fold polymorph is unstable and is easily converted into the 2-fold helix .
Depending on the source, chitin can occur in the α-, β- and γ-forms. The differences among them depend on the arrangement of chains in the crystalline regions . The most abundant and stable form is α-chitin, which Minke and Blackwell studied in detail using XRD in 1978 . These authors determined the α-chitin structure on the basis of intensity data from deproteinized lobster tendon. They discovered that α-chitin chains form orthorhombic crystals with a = 0.474 nm, b = 1.886 nm and c (fiber axis) = 1.032 nm. Additionally, the chains form hydrogen-bonded sheets linked by C=O...H–N bonds approximately parallel to the a axis, and each chain is stabilized by an C(3′)O–H····OC(5) intramolecular hydrogen bond, as in cellulose. These data also indicated that a statistical mixture of CH2OH orientations was present, equivalent to half an oxygen on each residue, each forming inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonds. As a result, Minke and Blackwell found that the α-chitin structure contained two types of amide groups, differing in their hydrogen bonding. In addition, the inability of this polymorph to swell in the presence of water was explained by the extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The modes of hydrogen bonding in α- and β-chitin are illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 .
As mentioned above, the differences among chitin polymorphs are due to the arrangement of the chains in the crystalline regions: α-chitin has a structure of antiparallel chains , β-chitin has intrasheet hydrogen-bonding by parallel chains , and γ-chitin, being a combination of α- and β-chitin , has both parallel and antiparallel structures. Because of these differences each chitin polymorph has different properties specific to it. For example, β-chitin is more soluble in and more reactive towards solvents and has a greater affinity towards them; it is also more susceptible to swelling than α-chitin. β-Chitin is also more amenable to N-deacetylation than α-chitin. In this case, comparing the diffraction profiles of α- and β- chitin before and after N-deacetylation using X-ray spectroscopy seems to be a relatively good solution for distinguishing these forms of chitin. Abdou et al. used X-ray diffraction to study two chitin polymorphs, the α- and β-forms, obtained from different sources . The chitin samples were converted into the more soluble chitosan by steeping them in solutions of NaOH of various concentrations and for extended periods of time. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the α-chitin samples and the corresponding hydrolyzed chitosans showed strong reflections at 2θ around 9–10° and 2θ of 20–21° and minor reflections at higher 2θ values at e.g., 26.4° and higher. The chitin bands were sharper than the chitosan bands, even though there was only a slight decrease in the crystallinity percentage. In turn, the X-ray diffraction patterns of the β-chitin samples and their corresponding hydrolyzed chitosans showed that the band at 2θ = 9.9° decreased significantly after deacetylation, and that this was followed by a dramatic decrease in the crystallinity percentage. It was therefore concluded that β-chitin is much more amenable to N-deacetylation than the α-form. The X-ray diffraction patterns of α- and β-chitin and the corresponding hydrolysed chitosans make them easily distinguishable. The crystallinity index (CI) can also be calculated on the basis of X-ray diffractograms. This takes different values for different forms of chitin; for example, Lima showed that CI for α-chitin is 28.3% but that for β-chitin it is 20.8% .
Many other studies of chitin polymorphs have revealed differences in crystallinity peaks between α-, β- and γ-chitins obtained from various sources [52–55]. For example, Jang et al. found crystalline peaks at 9.6, 19.6, 21.1 and 23.7° for α-chitin, at 9.1 and 20.3° for β-chitin, and at 9.6 and 19.8° for γ-chitin . Similarly, Cárdenas et al. reported that WAXD patterns of α-chitin (chitins from shrimp, lobster, prawn and king crab) and β-chitin (chitin from squid) exhibited their major characteristic peak at 19.2–19.3° and 18.8° respectively. Kim found that β-chitin from squid pen exhibited crystalline peaks at 9.8° and 19.3°. Yen and Mau found that fungal chitin (γ-chitin) showed two crystalline reflections at 5.4–5.6° and 19.3–19.6°. Irrespective of their origin, the three types of chitin consistently display a major peak at ~19° in their crystallinity structure.
2.1.4. Physicochemical characterization of chitin and chitosan using X-ray diffraction
In 1937, Clark and Smith, in their pioneer X-ray diffraction studies of chitin/chitosan and their derivatives , were the first to investigate the physicochemical properties of chitin. They reported the action of hydrochloric acid, lithium thiocyanate and nitric acid on chitin. Their data showed that even at room temperature the ether linkages of chitin were hydrolysed in hydrochloric acid; concurrently, but more slowly, the amide groups were also hydrolysed. In addition, those authors investigated the dispersion of chitin in lithium thiocyanate; at a temperature of 200 °C chitin formed a definite addition compound with lithium thiocyanate, but at lower temperatures only intramicellar swelling was observed. In turn, chitin nitrate was roughly as soluble in hydrochloric acid as the original chitin–no substantial hydrolysis of the acetyl groups had occurred.
Subsequent studies revealed that the properties of chitin and chitosan depended mostly on the degree of N-acetylation, molecular weight, polydispersity and crystallinity . Commonly used to measure crystallinity, XRD is also applied to determine the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and chitosan .
In 1990, Focher et al. used XRD to study chitin and postulated the following equation for determining the crystallinity index (CI):
where I110 (arbitrary units) is the maximum intensity of the (110) peak at around 2θ = 19°, and Iam (arbitrary units) is the amorphous diffraction at 2θ = 12.6°. This expression had in fact been employed three years earlier by Struszczyk to determine the CI of chitosan . Currently this equation is routinely applied during investigations of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives [73,77,78]. In most cases, CI provides information about the crystal state, but it is also very useful for distinguishing α-chitin from β-chitin .
On the basis of X-ray powder diffractograms of chitin and chitosan with different degrees of N-acetylation, Zhang noted two maximum peaks of the following intensities: one at the (020) reflection and the other at the (110) reflection . He therefore postulated a crystallinity index (CI) expressed by two equations:
Further chitin and chitosan studies indicated that crystallinity could also be assigned from an X-ray diffractogram by dividing the area of the crystalline peaks by the total area under the curve (background area) [60,79,80]. In these calculations, the crystallinity percentage supplied information on relative crystallinity.
A lot of studies have been carried out in which X-ray measurements were applied to determine which parameters affect the crystalline structure of chitin and chitosan and how they do so. In 1991 Ogawa reported an increase in crystallinity with a decrease in the MW of chitosan . One year later,he also determined how chitosan polymorphism and its crystallinity in the membrane depended on the membrane preparation procedure and the molecular weight of the chitosan . XRD measurements demonstrated that when an acetic acid solution of chitosan was dried in air and then soaked in an alkaline solution, both hydrated and anhydrous polymorphs of chitin were present in the resulting membrane. On the other hand, when a highly concentrated solution of chitosan in aqueous acetic acid was neutralized with an alkaline solution, no anhydrous polymorphs were detected in the membrane because drying was incomplete. In another paper from 1993 , Ogawa compared the crystallinities of partially N-deacetylated chitin (PDC) and partially N-acetylated chitosan (PAC) samples with a similar degree of N-acetylation and their behavior by heating them in water. He discovered that the N-acetylation of pure chitosan is far superior to the solid-state N-deacetylation of chitin for producing a less crystalline sample, and in particular, for obtaining a less anhydrous crystal.
The effect of DA on solubility in relation to the crystal structure of deacetylated chitin was also discussed by Cho et al. in 2000 . Wide-angle X-ray diffractometry (WAXD) revealed that chitin with ca 72% DA retained the crystal structure of α-chitin with significantly reduced crystallinity and crystallite perfection. The water-soluble chitin with circa 51% DA had a new crystal structure resembling that of β-chitin rather than that of either α-chitin or chitosan, suggesting that homogeneous deacetylation converted the crystal structure of chitin from the α- to the β-form.
Using X-ray powder diffraction Zhang et al. also tried to look for a relationship between the crystalline state and DA of chitin. Figure 5 presents the XRD patterns of chitin and chitosan with different degrees of N-acetylation . These authors noted that the peak of maximum intensity at the (020) reflection diminished together with the decrease in DA and moved to a higher angle. The second intensive peak at the (110) reflection also diminished with the decrease in DA. Consequently, CI020 decreased linearly with the decrease in DA. This linear relationship between CI020 and the degree of N-acetylation suggested the possible use of XRD for determining DA of macromolecular chitin and chitosan.
As demonstrated, molecular weight and DA are the major parameters significantly influencing the crystal structure of chitin and chitosan, although it has also been reported that the crystallinity index depends on other factors. For example, Seoudi reported that CI decreased after chitin was treated with HCl and NaOH , and Wada and Saito found that when the biopolymer was heated from room temperature to 250 °C the α-chitin remained structurally stable. Moreover, the influence of alkali-freezing treatment on the solid state structure of chitin was examined by Feng . XRD revealed that during this treatment, the crystal space parameters of chitin changed, and the order of the hydrogen bonds in chitin was modified.
X-ray diffraction was used to measure the elastic moduli El of the crystalline regions of α-chitin and chitosan . This parameter provided important information on the molecular conformation in the crystal lattice and the mechanism of deformation in the crystalline regions. The data enabled the elastic moduli El of the crystalline regions in the direction parallel to the chain axis at 20 °C to be assigned as 41 GPa for α-chitin and 65 GPa for chitosan. These El values, which are low compared to those for cellulose I (138 GPa), were due to the contracted skeletons of α-chitin and chitosan in the crystal lattice. In addition, the elastic moduli calculated from X-ray data showed that the molecular chain of α-chitin in the crystal lattice was mechanically stable from − 190 °C to 150 °C.
2.1.5. X-ray analysis of chitosan salts
Chitosan has a regular distribution of aliphatic primary amino groups along its chain. These produce salts when the molecule reacts with inorganic or organic acids. Ogawa and Inukai used XRD to study several crystallized inorganic acid salts of chitosan . On the basis of X-ray fiber diffraction, these authors suggested that chitosan acid salts took up two different conformations. One, which they called “type I salt”, retained the extended two-fold helix of the unreacted chitosan molecule, although they were different crystals. The second one, the “type II salt”, had an eight-fold helical conformation in the crystal. The salts forming with HNO3, HBr and HI took up the former structure, and those with HF, HCl, and H2SO4 the latter one. Crystals of type I salts were anhydrous, whereas those of type II were hydrated. Despite the different anion sizes, all the type II salts gave fiber patterns that were very similar to each other. They crystallized in a monoclinic unit cell with a helical repetition of 4.073 nm. The chirality of the eight-fold helix was right-handed, since their fiber patterns were very similar to those obtained by Cairns et al. .
Apart from inorganic salts, chitosan can easily form organic salts, for example, when it reacts with L-ascorbic acid. In 1996 Ogawa carried out an X-ray study of the chain conformation of the ascorbic acid salt of chitosan . He determined that both l- and d-ascorbate chitosan salts retained the extended 2-fold helical conformation of the unreacted chitosan chain and that both crystals were anhydrous. In view of these results, he classified them as type I salts of the chitosan acid salts , although during the preparation of the l- and d-ascorbates of chitosan, that author discovered that d-ascorbic acid displayed a higher reactivity towards chitosan than the l-isomer. Those differences in reactivity between l- and d-ascorbic acids could be connected with the optical resolution of ascorbic acid.
Chitosan salts were also examined in 1999 by Kawada et al. . They studied the spontaneous water-removing action of acid by preparing chitosan salts of many different (monocarboxylic, inorganic and organic) acids, and examined their structures using X-ray diffraction. The results indicated that the temperature required for salt formation depended on the hydrophobicity of the acid; for instance, the chitosan formic acid salt could be prepared at room temperature, whereas the formation of the propionic acid salt had to be carried out at 4 °C. Moreover, type II salts of monocarboxylic acids, the hydrated crystals of chitosan, could be dehydrated even at room temperature without any loss of orientation or decomposition of the chitosan specimen.
2.1.6. X-ray analysis of chitosan derivatives
Chitin and chitosan are a family of polymers with highly variable chemical and physical properties. These compounds and their derivatives have at least 200 potential and current applications in the biomedical, food, biotechnological, agricultural and cosmetics industries.
Muzzarelli and co-workers found that chitosan exhibited good adsorption selectivity towards some transition and post-transition metal ions from aqueous solution . A chitosan-metal complex dissociates easily when the pH is lowered; therefore, chitosan is very often used in the recovery of useful transition metals from waste. Ogawa and Oka reported on the behavior of chitosan-metal complex formations examined by X-ray diffraction . The unit cells of all the salt complexes studied were orthorhombic, although the cupric salt complexes showed some unindexed reflections. Their lattice parameters and the number of water molecules in the cell depended on the counteranions of the metal salt and not on the metal ion. The ratio of glucosamine residues to metal salts was 2:1. On the basis of the fiber diffraction patterns of various chitosan-transition metal salt complexes, these authors postulated a coordination mode which they named the “pendant model”. This model had already been put forward by Ogawa et al. back in 1984, but unequivocal experimental evidence to support it was lacking . In this “pendant model” metal anions were coordinated to the amino groups of the chitosan chain like a pendant. Additionaly there was another contrasting model called “the bridge model”, in which metal ions were coordinated with four nitrogen atoms of the intra- and inter-chitosan chains . In spite of these differences, chitosan exhibits a high affinity for metal ions, a property that has been used to recover transition metals from waste water. At present, the adsorption properties of metal ions on chitin and chitosan derivatives are still routinely examined by X-ray diffraction [49,88–90].
The majority of current studies on chitin and chitosan are seeking to discover new derivatives with unusual properties and different potential applications [56,91–97]. X-ray measurements are still very often applied to characterize most of these new derivatives. For example, chitosan-based nanocomposite films, containing chitin nanocrystals as functional components, were successfully prepared and cross-linked using glutaraldehyde . XRD showed that chitin nanocrystals retained their crystalline morphology in the nanocomposites before and after cross-linking, and that chitosan also retained its amorphous characteristics in the nanocomposites. Another example, novel chitosan/gelatin membranes were prepared using a suspension of chitosan hydrogel mixed with gelatin . XRD studies showed that the chitosan and gelatin in these membranes are compatible and interact well with each other. In addition, the incorporation of gelatin reduced the crystallinity of chitosan. Finally, natural rubber/chitosan blends were studied by XRD analysis , the measurements indicating that vulcanization enhanced the crystallinity.
2.1.7. Other X-ray techniques used in chitin and chitosan analysis
As mentioned at the beginning of this section, X-ray spectroscopic techniques other than the traditional X-ray diffraction measurements have been successfully used to analyze chitin, chitosan and their derivatives.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is usually used to determine the bonding energies of C, O and N atoms on the surface of chitosan and its metal chelates, although this is not its only use [44–49]. For example Matienzo and Winnacker presented high-resolution C1s, N1s and O1s XPS spectra for a chitosan film coated on an Al-silicon surface. The films were treated in either an oxygen plasma environment or under UV/ozone irradiation. XPS data showed that hydroxyl and amine entities participated only minimally in the modification. In addition, deposition of chitosan films onto Al-coated silicon wafers produced films with a more ordered chitosan structure. Surface analysis of modified films by XPS also indicated that neither the hydroxyl groups nor the amine segments appeared to participate in surface degradation reactions by either UV/ozone or oxygen plasma during the exposure times chosen for those studies. XPS also provided information regarding the forms of species absorbed on the polymer . For example, a study of the interactions of Cu2+, Mo4+ and Cr3+ with chitosan beads, cross-linked chitosan beads and chitosan flakes revealed that the adsorption of Mo4+ and Cr3+ on chitosan flakes and beads was followed by reduction of the Mo4+ and Cr3+. Another, example of the use of XPS was presented by Veleshko et al. . They examined the complexation between the uranyl group U(VI) and chitosan by means of X-ray photoelectron spectra. The results showed that the interaction of chitosan with the uranyl group yielded complexes containing the nitrogen atom of the amino group and, very probably, oxygen atoms from the chitosan ring and free hydroxyl groups in the equatorial plane.
X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), also known as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XFS), is a very sensitive probe for examining the local electronic structure and chemical bonding of the emitting atoms. This X-ray technique was used by Kurmaev et al. in 2002 to study the chemical bonding in chitosan and chitosan cross-linked with ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE). These authors concluded that the changes in the width of resonantly excited O Kα XES were due to site-selective excitation of oxygen atoms belonging to different functional groups (OH and –O–). Comparison of the nitrogen Kα spectra of unmodified and cross-linked chitosan proved that the preferred structural model was the one according to which EGDE was linked via the hydroxyl group.
2.2. Infrared spectroscopy
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is one of the most important and widely used analytical techniques available to scientists working on chitin and chitosan. It is based on the vibrations of the atoms of a molecule. The infrared spectrum is commonly obtained by passing infrared electromagnetic radiation through a sample that possesses a permanent or induced dipole moment and determining what fraction of the incident radiation is absorbed at a particular energy . The energy of each peak in an absorption spectrum corresponds to the frequency of the vibration of a molecule part, thus allowing qualitative identification of certain bond types in the sample. An IR spectrometer usually records the energy of the electromagnetic radiation that is transmitted through a sample as a function of the wavenumber or frequency. Nowadays, the total spectrum is analyzed by an interference process and converted into the frequency or wavenumber range by means of a mathematical process known as the Fourier transform. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has dramatically improved the quality of infrared spectra and minimized the time required to obtain data [99,100]. Progress in modern infrared spectroscopy is reviewed in literature [101,102].
2.2.1. Typical conditions for the FTIR spectroscopic analysis of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives
FTIR spectra are usually recorded in the middle infrared (4000 cm−1 to 400 cm−1) with a resolution of 4 cm−1 in the absorbance mode for 8 to 128 scans at room temperature. The samples for FTIR analysis are prepared by grinding the dry blended powders with powdered KBr, often in the ratio of 1:5 (Sample: KBr) and then compressed to form discs. Spectra are sometimes measured using a deuterated triglycerinesulphate detector (DTGS) with a specific detectivity of 1 × 109 cmHz1/2 w−1 or on films using an attenuated total refraction (ATR) method in an IR spectrometer [104–106]. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier-Transform (DRIFT) spectroscopic analysis is also applied .
2.2.2. Physicochemical characterization of chitin and chitosan using infrared spectroscopy
As already mentioned, natural chitin occurs mainly as α- and β-chitin. The description and interpretation of the infrared spectra of these two forms of chitin have been published by many scientists [108–110]. By way of example, the spectra of α- and β-chitin, and the Ianthella basta scaffold after NaOH treatment and H2O2 purification are shown in Figure 6 .
The spectra of α- and β-chitin display a series of narrow absorption bands, typical of crystalline polysaccharide samples. The C=O stretching region of the amide moiety, between 1700 and 1500 cm−1, yields different signatures for α- and β-chitin. For α-chitin, the amide I band is split into two components at 1660 and 1630 cm−1 (due to the influence of hydrogen bonding or the presence of an enol form of the amide moiety [109–111]), whereas for β-chitin it is at 1630 cm−1 (Figure 6). The amide II band is observed in both chitin allomorphs: at 1558 cm−1 for α-chitin and 1562 cm−1 for β-chitin . Another characteristic marker is the CH deformation of the β-glycosidic bond. This band shifts from 890 cm−1 in β-chitin to 895 cm−1 in α-chitin. Infrared spectra of β-chitin reveal two additional bands for CHx deformations at about 1455 and 1374 cm−1 and a greater number of narrower bands in the C–O–C and C–O stretching vibration region (1200–950 cm−1) not observed in α-chitin. As shown in Figure 6, the FTIR spectrum of the chitin isolated from I. basta confirmed the finding that this chitin resembles α-chitin more closely than β-chitin , demonstrating that FTIR can be used to determine chitin allomorphs.
FTIR spectroscopy has been used to characterize not only isolated chitin but also the source of chitin, e.g., in two species of black coral, Antipathes caribbeana and A. pennacea . Although FTIR absorption spectra of the natural samples (without deproteinization) showed similar distribution patterns for both species of coral, and confirmed the presence of chitin in both species, small differences were observed (e.g., the intensity of the IR absorption bands in A. caribbeana was stronger). The absence of a free hydroxyl in the hydroxymethyl groups CH2OH in A. caribbeana (determined by FTIR analysis) indicated that the chitin chains were organized in sheets, where they were hydrogen-bonded to adjacent chains, a situation that favors a denser fiber packing of chitin. This means that the FTIR measurements permitted an explanation of why natural A. caribbeana coral was harder to pulverize and required a longer deproteinization time than A. pennacea. The presence of chitin in polyplacophoran sclerites was also confirmed by IR .
FTIR spectroscopy has also been used to compare the yield and purity of chitin isolated from pupae of the silkworm (Bombyx mori) using two methods of extraction: an open reactor and 1 h of an acidic reaction, and extraction in a closed reactor within 24 h of a basic reaction . The efficiency of chitosan production by the N-deacetylation of chitin was also investigated by IR in this work. During the N-deacetylation of chitin, the band at 1655 cm−1 gradually decreased, while that at 1590 cm−1 increased, indicating the prevalence of NH2 groups. The spectra of chitin and chitosan obtained from the N-deacetylation of chitin using a solution of NaOH (40 wt%) in the presence of NaBH4 for 5 h are presented in Figure 7.
The band at 1590 cm−1 displayed a greater intensity than the one at 1655 cm−1 and demonstrated the effective deacetylation of chitin. FTIR analyses were also used to find the optimal conditions for the N-deacetylation of chitin whiskers (the alkali concentration and the treatment time) using a microwave technique .
Prashanhi et al. applied IR spectroscopy to observe the changes occurring in the crystallinity and polymorphic nature of chitosan as a function of the N-deacetylation of chitin under different conditions: uncontrolled conditions (chitosan A), under an N2 atmosphere (chitosan B), and with thiophenol (chitosan C). The FTIR spectra of chitosans A, B, and C were similar to each other, but there were subtle differences in the absorption intensities. Apart from the expected decrease in the band at 1665 cm−1 (amide I), the vibrational mode of amide II at 1550 cm−1 for chitin appeared at 1604 cm−1, 1598 cm−1 and 1592 cm−1 for chitosan A, B and C respectively . In none of these spectra were there any sharp absorptions at circa 3500 cm−1, which confirms that the hydroxyl groups in positions C2 and C6 of the chitosans are involved in intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The region above 3000 cm−1 was centred at 3395 cm−1 in chitosan A, at 3407 cm−1 in chitosan B and at 3419 cm−1 in chitosan C; the shift to the higher frequency demonstrated a higher-order structure for these three chitosans. The CH2 stretching bands of chitosan B around 1425 cm−1 were more intense than those of chitosans A and C. Furthermore, the FTIR spectra exhibited a progressive weakening of the bands at 3265 cm−1 and 3100 cm−1 during N-deacetylation, and the A1382/A2920 cm−1 ratios of 0.65, 0.56 and 0.46 indicated a higher order structure of the chitosans prepared with thiophenol than those prepared under an N2 atmosphere. The ratio of the band intensities at 1379 and 2900 cm−1 was also used to estimate the crystallinity of chitin and chitosan by Focher et al. and Wu et al. , whereas Prashanth and Tharanathan used the sharp absorption peak around 618 cm−1 .
The impurities in chitosan preparation were determined by FTIR analysis . The FTIR spectra of control chitosan and low-molecular-weight water-soluble chitosan (LMWSC) prepared in this study were compared to establish the contaminants and prove the synthesis of LMWSC. In the LMWSC spectrum the carboxyl group absorption band derived from lactic acid and impurities formed during enzyme degradation disappeared or significantly decreased.
FTIR spectroscopy has been employed to measure the critical concentration of two chitooligosaccharides form a lyotropic liquid crystalline phase in formic acid (C1) . Strong interactions between sugar chains and solvent were revealed by the widening of bands attributed to the –OH, –NH, –NHCO– of the chitooligosaccharide, including the C=O of formic acid. FTIR measurements of the shift of seven bands–1. –NH2, –OH (3390–3418 cm−1), 2. C=O of formic acid (1716–1724 cm−1), 3. amide I (1626–1633 cm−1), 4. amide II (1520–1531 cm−1), 5. 6. C3–OH (double peaks, 1178–1189 cm−1 and 1148–1153 cm−1), 7. C6–OH (1073–1074 cm−1)–enabled the C1 values of these chitooligosaccharides to be established.
2.2.3. Determination of the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and chitosan using infrared spectroscopy
The degree of N-acetylation is one of the most important chemical parameters capable of influencing the performance of chitosan and chitin in many of their applications [2,7,121]. Of the various analytical techniques developed for DA determination , infrared spectroscopy is at the centre of attention. A convenient and relatively quick technique, it allows the DA values of chitin/chitosan to be determined on the basis of absorption ratios, also in the solid state . Several procedures using different absorption ratios have already been proposed for determining DA for chitin and chitosan samples [124–130]. A review article summarizing the latest literature information on DA determination by IR spectroscopy for chitin and chitosan was published by Kasaai . In that paper, various IR procedures were compared for their performances and limitations, advantages and disadvantages, and different factors affecting the experimental results were discussed, as were the validity data of DA measurements by FTIR spectroscopy. In view of this, the present review will discuss only general information on DA determination by IR.
DA can be determined by IR techniques in the following ways:
Determination of the AM/AR ratio, where AM is the intensity of the characteristic band of N-acetylation, which is a measure of the N-acetyl or amine content, and AR is the intensity of a reference band that does not change with different DA values. The DA parameter of unknown samples can be established by comparing the determined AM/AR values with similar ratios of a few reference samples of known DA.
Drawing a calibration curve by plotting the absorption ratio of chitin/chitosan samples of known DA versus their DA as established by IR or a reference method such as 1H NMR spectroscopy. The DA values of unknown samples can then be estimated from the calibration curve.
IR techniques require choosing an appropriate band measure, an appropriate reference band, and drawing a good base line, necessary for measuring the intensity of absorption. The amide I bands at 1655 cm−1 (sometimes together with the amide I band at 1630 cm−1) or the amide II band at 1560 cm−1 are used as the characteristic band(s) of N-acetylation. Among the postulated internal reference bands are the OH stretching band at 3450 cm−1 [125,133], the C-H stretching band at 2870–2880 cm−1 , the –CH2 bending centred at 1420 cm−1 , the amide III band at 1315–1320 cm−1 , the anti-symmetric stretching of the C-O-C bridge at around 1160 cm−1 , the skeletal vibrations involving the C-O-C stretching bands at 1070 or 1030 cm−1 [127,128] and the band at 897 cm−1 (C-O-C bridge as well as glycosidic linkage) . The different baselines suggested in the literature are presented in Figure 8.
Many different absorption band ratios, such as A1560/A2875, A1655/A2875, A1655/A3450, A1320/A3450, A1655/A1070, A1655/A1030, A1560/A1160, A1560/A897 and A1320/A1420, have been used to determine DA by FTIR spectroscopy . The different calibration curves proposed in the literature have different baselines and different characteristic bands for measuring the N-acetyl content. Moreover, the validity data of these calibrations depend on the absolute technique used to measure DA, and the conditions under which IR spectra are measured may also have a strong influence on the accuracy of DA values. The IR spectra (shown as absorbance) of α-chitin and β-chitin recorded using different sampling techniques are compared in Figure 9 .
The ATR spectrum recorded on the film is shown in Figure 9a. This revealed a very low resolution following the collection of 64 scans recorded in typical fashion. The amide I bands (doublet at 1655 and 1625 cm−1) could not be resolved as they were focused into a single band when compared to the standard transmission spectrum of α-chitin obtained in a KBr pellet (Figure 9d). Also, the characteristic band at 1320 cm−1 was of very low intensity. By contrast, DRIFT analysis of α-chitin (mixed with HBr) on powder produced a spectrum (Figure 9b) of much better resolution; the amide I band was split into two components. In the transmission spectrum of α-chitin film (Figure 9c) the amide band showed a well-defined peak at 1650 cm−1 with a minor shoulder at 1625 cm−1. Knowledge of the source of chitin/chitosan, its nature, water content and level of impurities is also important for the accurate calculation of DA values.
Near infra-red (NIR) spectroscopy has also been applied to determine DA [138,139]. The spectra were recorded from 9090–4000 cm−1 and second-derivative spectra were used to determine DA; d-glucosamine and d-glucosamine hydrochloride were chosen as model compounds. A reference curve was constructed by plotting the predicted DA value (using NIR data) versus DA determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy.
As shown here, choosing an appropriate method among the various IR procedures is a difficult task for researchers.
IR techniques are also employed for the quantitative evaluation of DA, for example, during the N-deacetylation of chitin by hot alkali , the formation of N-acetyl chitosan gel , the γ-irradiation of chitosan powder or the synthesis of organic-soluble acetylated chitosan .
2.2.4. FTIR analysis of chitin and chitosan derivatives
The growing interest in the chemical modification of chitin and chitosan to improve their solubility and applications [23–25] has meant that the most important application of IR spectroscopy in this respect is the structural analysis of chemically modified forms of chitin or chitosan. Typical structural analysis of chitin/chitosan derivatives by FTIR spectroscopy involves: (1) FTIR analysis of chitin/chitosan, (2) FTIR analysis of the chemical reagent(s) used in the reaction, (3) FTIR analysis of the chitin/chitosan derivative obtained, (4) identification of differences between the spectra, (5) interpretation of results.
An example of the application of FTIR spectroscopy in the structural analysis of chitin and chitosan derivatives is the FTIR analysis of chitosan-l-glutamic acid aerogel derivative, which is soluble over a wide pH range . The FTIR spectra obtained during these investigations are presented in Figure 10.
The following different characteristic bands were assigned from the FTIR spectra of chitosan, l-glutamic acid (l-GA) and chitosan-l-glutamic acid derivative (Cl-GA) (Figure 10):
▪ in the IR spectra of chitosan (Figure 10A): 3429 cm−1 (O-H stretching overlapping the N-H stretching), 2921 and 2867 cm−1 (C-H stretching), 1640 cm−1 (amide II band, C-O stretching of the acetyl group), 1592 cm−1 (amide II band, N-H stretching) 1485–1380 cm−1 (asymmetrical C-H bending of the CH2 group) and 1035 cm−1 (O bridge stretching) of the glucosamine residue.
▪ in the IR spectra of l-GA (Figure 10B): 2966 cm−1 (O-H stretching), 2855 cm−1 for (C-H stretching), 1690 cm−1 (C=O group) and 1523 cm−1 (N-H stretching of the amino group),
▪ in the IR spectra of Cl-GA derivative (Figure 10C): 3110 and 2966 cm−1 (axial OH group of chitosan and glutamic acid), 1685 cm−1 (amide linkage), 1556 cm−1 (N-H bending and stretching) and 1067 cm−1 (C-O-C bridge stretching) of the chitosan residue, 1466 cm−1 (the asymmetrical deformation of CH2).
The following changes were observed in the IR spectra of the chitosan derivative: the C-O adsorption peak of the secondary hydroxyl group enlarged and moved to 1067 cm−1, the intensity of primary alcohol 1035 cm−1 (C-O stretching vibration) became much smaller than in chitosan, and a new peak appeared at 2966 cm−1, indicating the incorporation of the l-glutamic acid moieties. These FTIR results provided evidence for the formation of an amide linkage between the COOH group of l-GA and the NH2 group of the main chitosan chain.
FTIR spectroscopy has been applied to confirm the chemical structure of (1) water-soluble chitosan derivatives such as ethylamine hydroxyethyl chitosan (EHCs) , N-propyl-N-methylene phosphonic chitosan , O-succinyl-chitosan , N-alkylated chitosan or methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-grafted chitosan ; (2) organic-soluble derivatives, e.g., acetylated chitosans [149,143]; (3) nanoparticle-chitosan composites [150–152]; 4) hydrogels [153,154] or chitosan-graft copolymers [155–157].
Furthermore, FTIR analyses enabled the interactions occurring between chitin/chitosan and the analysed compounds to be studied and explained [107,158–165]. This technique was applied, for example, in an attempt to obtain an explanation for the sorption mechanism of acid dyes [166–168], phenol and o-chlorophenol and fluoride [170,171]. FTIR spectroscopy has also been used to establish differences in structure and the degree of substitution of chitin, chitosan and dibutyrylchitin [172,173].
2.3. UV-Vis spectroscopy
Ultraviolet/visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy is useful as an analytical technique for two reasons. Firstly, it can be used to identify certain functional groups in molecules, and secondly, it can be used for assaying. Unlike IR spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy involves the absorption of electromagnetic radiation from the 200–800 nm range and the subsequent excitation of electrons to higher energy states. The absorption of ultraviolet/visible light by organic molecules is restricted to certain functional groups (chromophores) that contain valence electrons of low excitation energy. The UV-Vis spectrum is complex and appears as a continuous absorption band because the superimposition of rotational and vibrational transitions on the electronic transitions gives a combination of overlapping lines. Nowadays, the individual detection of electron transfers without superimposition by neighboring vibrational bands can also be recorded . With UV-Vis spectroscopy it is possible to investigate electron transfers between orbitals or bands of atoms, ions and molecules existing in the gaseous, liquid and solid phase. Analysis of solutions and crystals usually takes place in transmission, whereas powdered samples are often measured in diffuse reflection mode (Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy–DRS). Unlike IR spectroscopy, where Fourier transform techniques predominate, dispersive spectrometers are almost exclusively used in UV-Vis spectroscopy because of the large band widths. More details about UV-Vis spectroscopy and its application are presented in many papers and books [174–177].
2.3.1. Typical conditions of UV-Vis measurement
UV-Vis spectra of chitin/chitosan derivatives are usually recorded in aqueous acid (acetic acid, phosphoric acid, perchloric acid, hydrochloric acid) solutions in a 1.0 cm quartz cell at ambient temperature [160,178–180]. Sometimes water , an aqueous base or DMSO solutions are applied. The Diffuse Reflectance UV-Visible (DRUV) spectra of powdered or film samples are measured [107,112,183–185]. Analysis in the vacuum ultraviolet through the near-infrared range has also been applied [185,186].
2.3.2. UV-Vis spectra of chitin and chitosan
Chitin and chitosan include various ratios of two far-UV chromophoric groups, N-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) and glucosamine (GlcN); as a result, their extinction coefficients for wavelengths shorter than approximately 225 nm is non-zero. Because GlcNAc and GlcN residues show no evidence of interacting within the chitin/chitosan chain, the monomer units contribute in a simple, additive way to the total absorbance of these polymers at a particular wavelength . The UV spectra of mixtures of N-acetyl-glucosamine and glucosamine hydrochloride are quite similar to the spectra of chitosan, and the λmax is 201 nm in 0.1 M HCl solution (Figure 11) .
UV-Vis spectroscopy can be used for the optical characterization of the source of chitin . The optical spectra for two black coral species, Antipathes caribbeana and A. pennacea, showed a wide band from 300 nm to 500 nm, with small differences depending on the species. Additionally, the spectra confirmed the presence of Fe+3 in A. caribbeana and Mn+3 in both species.
2.3.3. Determination of the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and chitosan using UV-Vis spectroscopy
The first derivative UV method for DA determination was proposed by Muzzarelli and Rocchetti in 1985 . The principle of this method was based on the absorbance of the intensity of the N-acetyl group in chitin or chitosan. The absorbance of N-acetyl glucosamine (at maximum wavelength) was linearly dependent on its concentration in the 0.50–5.0 mg·L−1 range. The limit of detection of GlcNAc in 0.01 M acetic acid was found to be 0.5 mg·L−1. The DA values were determined in acetic acid solutions at 199 nm . The simplicity and convenience of this method were the best among the available methods, because it required very small amounts of sample and did not require expensive equipment. In addition, the first derivative of the spectra was less affected by background noise and impurities. Several modified first-derivative UV methods have been proposed to improve the convenience and accuracy of measurement [178,180,188–191]. Tan et al. compared the results of four methods (1H NMR, UV, ninhydrin assay and potentiometric titration) and suggested the first-derivative UV method as a standard method for the routine determination of DA of chitosan. Pedroni et al. analysed chitosan solutions in different solvents; 0.1 M HCl solutions turned out to be the best. Hsiao et al. suggested concentrated phosphoric acid as the UV-transparent solvent system. In this way, the UV determination could be validated across the whole DA range. Liu et al. employed two standards (N-acetyl-glucosamine and glucosamine hydrochloride) to determine the degree of N-acetylation of chitosan by UV spectrophotometry. Wu and Zivanovic plotted the first derivative UV values at those wavelengths against the concentrations of GlcNAc and found that the best linear regression was obtained at 203 nm (the range of 0–50 μg/mL, R2 = 0.996). Da Silva et al. put forward a new mathematical expression. This was derived in such a way that DA could be determined directly from the mass concentration of a chitosan solution and the first derivative of its UV spectrum at 202 nm, thus eliminating the need for the empirical correction of curves for highly deacetylated samples. A procedure was proposed for the accurate mass determination of the hygroscopic chitosan.
In summary, UV techniques for DA determination are more sensitive than IR, 13C NMR and 15N NMR spectroscopy, and they give a better accuracy than NIR, IR and NMR methods [122,192]. The first-derivative UV method is the most sensitive of the proposed techniques. The first derivatives of the spectra are less affected by impurities such as protein, and more accurate data can be obtained. In contrast to other techniques, it is possible to analyse the DA values of a chitin/chitosan sample with a high water content. The first-derivative UV methods are easy to carry out, and the equipment is available in most monitoring and research laboratories. These techniques were used to verify the validity of several methods of DA determination in different laboratories.
2.3.4. Application of UV-Vis spectroscopy to the analysis of chitin/chitosan based compounds
The steps in the structural analysis of chitin/chitosan derivatives by UV-Vis spectroscopy are very similar to those in the FTIR methodology (Section 2.2.4). The main difference is connected with the aim of these analyses. IR spectroscopy is used mostly for determining the molecular structure of chitin and chitosan samples, whereas UV-Vis spectroscopy is more often applied to the study of covalent and non-covalent interactions. Since certain functional groups present in organic molecules absorb light at characteristic wavelengths in the UV-Vis region, this technique is applied qualitatively to identify the presence of these groups in samples, supporting structural information obtained from other spectroscopic methods, especially IR.
As mentioned, one of the most important applications of UV-Vis techniques is the characterization of interactions between chitin or chitosan and the target compounds. For example, the analysis of the interaction between chitosan and cellulose, described by Urreaga and de la Orden , will be presented in greater detail. The UV-Vis spectra obtained during that study are shown in Figure 12.
The spectrum of chitosan-treated cellulose (Figure 12) showed the characteristic chitosan absorption below 220 nm revealing the presence of chitosan. Additionally, this spectrum showed very weak absorptions at λ > 230 nm, including weak but characteristic bands centred at circa 245 nm and 345 nm, which did not appear in the spectra of the starting materials (cellulose and chitin). This observation suggested the existence of chemical interactions between cellulose and chitosan. In order to verify the existence of the above chitosan–cellulose interactions, samples of pure chitosan, pure cellulose and chitosan-coated cellulose were heated at different temperatures and characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The spectrum of the chitosan-treated cellulose was more complex than those of chitin and cellulose and exhibited two new absorptions centred at circa 272 and 340 nm. The presence of the band at 272 nm was explained by the independent oxidations of chitosan and cellulose, but the appearance of the 340 nm band again indicated the existence of a chemical reaction in chitosan-treated celluloses, demonstrating that chemical interaction between cellulose and chitosan took place even at moderate temperatures. The new bands, which were observed in materials processed at room temperature, were assigned (also using FTIR and fluorescence spectroscopy) to conjugated imines, produced in the condensation reaction between chitosan amino and carbonyl groups. UV-Vis spectroscopy has also been employed, e.g., to characterize the interactions between chitosan and uranyl ions , chitosan and synthetic phospholipid membranes , β-cyclodextrin-linked chitosan and p-nitrophenolate and between chitosan and gelatin .
UV-Vis techniques were useful for determining the structure of many chitin/chitosan derivatives, for example, chitosan hydrogel membranes obtained by UV- and γ-radiation , substituted polyaniline/chitosan composites , chitosan-l-glutamic acid aerogel derivatives , fluorescent chitosan derivatives containing substituted naphthalimides and dendritic polyaniline nanoparticles synthesized by carboxymethyl chitin templating . They were also employed to determine the actual degree of substitution of fluorescent chitosan (DS parameter) and the concentration of the 9-anthrylmethylated unit in modified chitosan .
It should also be mentioned that UV-Vis spectroscopy is used to monitor chemical reactions [185,199,200] and the manufacture of complex multilayers, nanoparticles, nanocomposite or multilayer films [183,184,201–203].
UV-Vis spectroscopy is employed to determine the physicochemical properties of chitin/chitosan-based compounds such as the turbidity (optical dispersion, OD) of their solutions , the capacity adsorption of chitosan membranes , the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of a chitosan derivative copolymer solution in PBS or the optical properties of nanoparticles .
2.4. Mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a destructive analytical technique used for measuring the characteristics of individual molecules. The basic information obtained from mass spectrometric analysis is the molecular mass of a compound, which is determined by measuring the mass to charge ratio (m/z) of its ion. With the ionization method, full particulars about a molecule’s chemical structure can be found. MS can analyse chemicals with a wide mass range–from small molecules to complicated biomolecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, peptides or nucleic acids. The mass spectrometer is composed of three fundamental parts: an ion source, an analyser and a detector. First, the sample must be introduced to the heart of each mass spectrometer–the ion source. There are two possible ways of doing this: through a direct inlet (septum inlet, syringe, probe, etc.), or an indirect inlet (gas chromatograph, liquid chromatograph, or capillary electrophoresis column). In the ion source the sample molecules are ionized by one of a variety of methods (electron impact–EI, chemical ionization–CI, electrospray ionization–ESI, matrix assisted laser desorption ionization–MALDI, etc.). Next, the stream of ions is transferred to the analyser, where they are sorted and separated according to m/z. The most commonly used analyzers are quadrupoles, ion trap and time of flight. In tandem mass analysis (MS/MS, MSn) a combination of two or more analysers is used. The MS can be operated in three modes: full scan (scanning of a selected mass range), more sensitive SIM (selected ion monitoring = SIR - single ion recording), and the most sensitive MRM (multiple reaction monitoring). Finally, the ions reach the detector when their energy is converted to electrical signals that the computer can read. In the end, mass spectra are obtained, and identification of compounds is possible [207–209].
2.4.1. Typical conditions of mass spectrometric analysis of chitin/chitosan and their derivatives
Different types of mass spectrometer can be chosen according to the information required. Spectrometers with various combinations of inlet systems, ion sources and analysers are used for investigations into chitin, chitosan and their derivatives. In most cases the positive ion mode is preferred.
The first method used was pyrolysis-mass spectrometry . That was back in 1982, but combined with gas chromatography it is still a routine technique [211–215]. In GC/MS, the first sample is pyrolyzed (450–615 °C), after which the volatile pyrolysis products are separated on a capillary column (the temperature program from 35–50 °C with different rates to 220–300 °C). In GC/MS analysis, the full scan mode (m/z from 15–35 to 300–650) and the electron impact mode (70 eV) are commonly used. Products are identified on the basis of their GC retention parameters and their mass spectra [210–215].
GLC-MS is used for analyzing chitosan or its impurities. But first, all the target compounds have to be converted to volatile derivatives (hydrolysis, and reduction of chitin [216,217]; this is then followed by the extraction of impurities and trimethylsililation or acetylation). The products are separated using a GLC nonpolar or medium-polar capillary column with a gradient temperature programme (usually from ~60 °C to ~280 °C with different heating rates). For detection, MS with EI ionization is employed [216–218].
Most of the papers dealing with the mass spectrometric analysis of chitin and chitosan report that MALDI was the ionization method selected. This ion source is most often combined with a time of flight analyser (MALDI-TOF) [219–226]. For this type of analysis chitooligosaccharides were dissolved in water , MeOH-H2O (1:1) or 1% acetic acid solution . The matrix most often used is 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) [219,221–226]; sometimes it is 2-(4-hydroxyphenylazo)benzoic acid (HABA) dissolved in dioxin . To obtain monosodium and monopotassium carbohydrate adducts in the mass spectrum, NaCl and KCl can be added as a cationating agent . The MS ion source is equipped with a nitrogen laser emitting at 337 nm [225,226]. For these analyses an accelerating potential of 20–30 kV is used, and mass spectra are measured in positive ion mode [221,222]. A modified version of MALDI-TOF was introduced for chitin/chitosan investigations–MALDI-TOF PSD MS (postsource decay mass spectrometry) . Another MS technique with a MALDI source is tandem mass spectrometry, for which an ion trap analyser is very useful. One analyzer allows MS2 and also MS3 spectra to be obtained using a collision energy previously established experimentally . MALDI-TOF/TOF equipment can also be applied in chitin and chitosan analysis using tandem mass spectrometry. Precursor ions are accelerated at 8 kV, while their fragment ions are accelerated to 19 kV .
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is another method used during chitosan investigations. This type of spectrometer is equipped with a gallium primary ion beam operated at 15 kV. The secondary ions appearing are extracted (10 kV) and fly through the analyzer (TOF type) to the detector [230,231].
After MALDI, ESI (electrospray ionization) is the second most important ionization technique for chitin/chitosan analysis [219,232–238]. The ESI ion source is usually coupled to an ion trap analyser , but a quadrupole type of analyser can also be used . For sample measurements several parameters should be optimized, for example, the source voltage (3.5–4 kV), nitrogen sheath gas rate and capillary temperature. A syringe pump is used (3–4 μL/min) for direct sample injection [235,238]. Tandem mass spectrometry with ESI ionization is preferred for acquiring more structural information. If the triple quad system (QqQ) is used, the first quadrupole selects the precursor ions, the second quadrupole acts as collision chamber, and the third quadrupole analyses the ion products; argon is the neutral collision gas [239,240]. Sometimes, a combination of quadrupole and time-of-flight (Q-TOF) is found useful . Connecting a liquid chromatograph to the MS system is an additional advantage. Separating solutions containing chitosan products on a chromatographic column makes the analysis easier. LC-MS analysis is carried out using the same mass spectrometric modes (positive and negative ion detection, electrospray ionization, scanning and SIM mode, etc.). Ion source conditions usually are the same as in classic MS analysis that yields protonated products [M+H]+, sodium adducts [M+Na]+, etc. For HPLC separation a different type of column is used, and the mobile phase often consists of acetonitrile or water with added formic acid [242–245]. LC-MS is highly suitable method for investigating chitosan derivatives.
Fast atom bombardment (FAB) is another soft ionization method useful in chitin and chitosan investigations. For this purpose the following compounds can act as the matrix: thioglycerol [246,247], m-nitrobenzyl alcohol , glycerol [248–250], dithiothreitol , 2,4-dinitrobenzyl alcohol, or dithiothreitol-thioglycerol (1:1, v/v) . The mass spectrometer usually operates in positive-ion mode, most often producing [M+H]+ ions [246,248,249,252] but also [M+Na]+ [250,251] or [M+K]+ . The atom gun is operated at 6–8 kV with xenon as the bombarding gas [246,247,250,251]. This type of ion source cooperates with collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (FAB-CID) measurements [246,247,252]. To obtain FAB-CID-MS/MS spectra, the collision is caused by helium, and a 10 kV accelerating voltage is used [246,247].
Sometimes less popular ionization methods are used for chitin/chitosan analysis. One of them is chemical ionization (CI) with the use of ammonia or acetic acid as the reactive gas. In both cases MS works in positive ion mode, generating [M + NH4]+ and [M + H]+, respectively [120,253]. Another ionization method is plasma desorption by the fission products of californium-252 in a time/flow biochemical mass spectrometer .
TC-EA/IRMS (high-temperature conversion-elemental analyser/isotope ratio mass spectrometer) is very rarely used in chitin/chitosan investigations. In this method the first step is the quantitative conversion of oxygen to CO and hydrogen to H2 at a high temperature. The gaseous products are separated by GC, transferred to IRMS where the ratios of the stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in chitin are determined [255,256].
Chitosan TG-MS (thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry) analysis begins with the very rapid heating of the sample from room temperature to 600 °C, after which the gaseous products pass into the mass spectrometer. Ions with m/z in the 40–130 range are analysed by MS with a quadrupole analyzer and Channeltron detector .
2.4.2. Mass spectrometric determination of the degree of polymerization of chitin and chitosan
Being a natural co-polymer of glucosamine and N-acetyl-glucosamine, chitosan possesses properties like antimicrobial and antitumor activity, and stimulates plant growth [222,238,258]. This activity is closely related to the molecular weight. This fact must be taken into consideration if one is planning to use chitosan in biological or pharmaceutical applications. Chitooligosaccharides can be obtained by depolymerization. This is done physically [226,238] chemically or enzymatically [244,250,259–262]. In each case, MS can be used to determine the degree of depolymerization of chitosan and to track the kinetics.
One of the physical methods for depolymerizing chitosan is sonolysis. It was found that after ultrasound treatment random depolymerization of chitosan occurred, producing many different chitooligosaccharides (COS). ESI-MS and MALDI-TOF MS (Figure 13) were used to detect the products. The primary chemical structure was found to have remained unchanged and that sonolysis was a good enzymatic or alternative chemical method for obtaining oligosaccharides for commercial use.
Depolymerization of chitin/chitosan can be achieved by classical chemical methods. The results of LC-MS analysis proved that hydrolysis of chitin from fungi with 6 M HCl yielded glucosamine monomers . Besides providing qualitative chitin composition, the method also makes it possible to track the kinetics of the reaction by 15N labeling of the glucosamine from the fungal chitin. For this purpose, acid-hydrolyzed chitin from the fungus P. chrysogenum growing on a minimal medium and on a medium containing added (15NH4)2SO4 (rich medium–Blakeslee’s formula) was analyzed by LC-MS. Then the analysis on the basis of the peak ratios in mass spectrum was performed (Figure 14) .
The enzymatic method of chitin/chitosan depolymerization is the most popular one, and mass spectrometry is often used to detect the products and the efficiency of this process. From MS studies it was found that immobilization of enzymes (papain , neutral protease ) enhanced depolymerization in the chitosan chain comparing with free enzymes [243,259]. The activities of enzymes isolated from different sources (commercial enzymes , isolated from living organisms: Vibrio harveyi , Serratia marcensces , Bacillus circulans , Amycolatopsis orientalis, Streptomyces sp. ) were tested by qualitative MS studies of obtained chitooligosaccharides. It is possible to study enzyme selectivity, and the mechanism of COS bonding to the enzyme. Knowledge of the influence of polymerization and the degree of acetylation is very important in the large-scale production of chitooligosaccharides, and in their use in enzymology or drug design. Table 1 shows a number of examples of the analysis of the degree of polymerization of chitooligosaccharides using mass spectrometry.
To prepare oligosaccharides, chitosan can be hydrolyzed by a mixture of different enzymes (cellulose, alpha amylase, proteinase). The products are analyzed by MALDI-TOF .
Mass spectrometry is a good method for the detection of chitooligosaccharides obtained not only by depolymerization, but also as a result of synthesis. FAB-MS and FAB-MS/MS were used to analyse chitinpentaose, chitintetraose, chitintriose and two modified chitin oligosaccharides produced by Rhizobium NodC protein in Escherichia coli .
2.4.3. Determination of the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and chitosan using mass spectrometry
The degree of N-acetylation is a factor that allows chitin and chitosan to be distinguished. Besides UV, IR and NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry is one of the spectral techniques used to establish the degree of N-acetylation of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives .
For this purpose, the pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (EI ionization) combination is used. From the EI mass spectra it is possible to identify volatile compounds obtained from chitin and chitosan. The peaks at m/z 60 and m/z 42 are derived from N-acetyl-glucosamine, while the ions m/z 80 and m/z 67 are from glucosamine. DA is established on the basis of the peak ratios 80:60, 67:60, 80:42, 80:125, 94:125, 80:110. These ratios increase with decrease in the degree of acetylation [122,211,212].
As in the case of investigations into the degree of polymerization of chitin/chitosan, the usual MS method is MALDI-TOF. The mass spectra of the series of oligosaccharides with DA from 25 to 90% obtained with this method are shown in Figure 15 .
As mentioned above, chitin and chitosan play a significant part in inducing defense responses in plants. Some properties are very selective: for example, chitin oligosaccharides can induce lignifications in wounded wheat leaves, while chitosan COS cannot. Mass spectrometry was used to establish DA in the stereocontrolled synthesis of the chitosan dodecamer (FAB-MS) , the synthesis of the chitosan tetramer derivative β-d-GlcNAc-(1→4)- β-d-GlcNAc-(1→4)- β-d-GlcNAc-(1→4)-d-GlcN (FAB-MS) , the synthesis of a series of oligosaccharides (MALDI-TOF) , and the synthesis of partially N-acetylated chitin oligomers using N-acylated chitotrioses as substrates in a lysozyme-catalysed transglycosylation reaction (MALDI-TOF, ESI-MS) . All of them are used in biological investigations. The degree of acetylation of enzymatic degradation products of chitin and chitosan is measured. For these investigations chitin deacetylase from Colletotrichum lindemuthianum was chosen (FAB-MS, MALDI-TOF) [221,249].
2.4.4. Analysis of chitin and chitosan derivatives using mass spectrometry
Some analytical methods based on mass spectrometry force the conversion of chitin and chitosan into the gaseous state. There are two cases when this is required: during analysis of thermal degradation products, and when GLC-MS is used.
The first example is a study of the thermal decomposition products of chitosan, which is done by TG-MS analysis. The chitosan is heated to different temperatures to be degraded, and the gaseous products are detected using a mass spectrometer. From this experiment it is possible to monitor the thermal behavior of chitosan .
In comparison with the previous method, using a combination of pyrolysis-gas chromatographymass spectrometry, it is possible to separate a mixture of chitosan or chitosan pyrolysis products. For qualitative analysis the deuterated analogue of N-acetyl-glucosamine is used as an internal standard. The main components of the pyrolysates (chitin markers) are acetamide, acetylpyridone and 3-acetamidofuran [213–215,217]. This method is used to confirm the presence of chitin in biological samples [215,255].
For the GLC-MS analysis of chitin and chitosan, these need to be converted to volatile derivatives. For this purpose the chitosan or chitin methanolysis/hydrolysis products are trimethylsilated or acetylated. The results allow the sugar composition of chitin and chitosan to be determined. For qualitative analysis, an internal standard is needed [216,217].
TC-EA/IRMS is a very interesting, but still rarely used method. It is useful in the palaeolimnological study of fossil chironomid head capsules. All organic compounds are converted to CO and H2. With the isotopic ratio mass spectrometer the ratios of stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes from chironomid larvae can be determined. Water and diet were also investigated in this experiment to test how the δ18O and δ2H in water and the diet influence the δ18O and δ2H of chironomid larvae [255,256].
Most of all, however, mass spectrometry, especially LC-MS and LC-MS/MS, is used to monitor the success of chitin and chitosan derivatization reactions. The chitosan is derivatized for different reasons, for example, to sequence mixtures of chitooligosaccharides. For this purpose the reducing end of hetero-chitooligosaccharides was treated with 2-aminoacridone (AMAC) by reductive amination. The products were analyzed using MALDI-TOF-MS (Figure 16), MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS/MS (Figure 17) , PSD (postsource decay) MALDI TOF MS . Chitosan sequence determination was a part of an investigation into the inhibition of a family of 18 chitinases. Besides AMAC, 3-(acetylamino)-6-aminoacridine is also used for the reductive amination of chitooligosaccharides. The sequencing information was taken from vMALDI (vacuum MALDI) ion trap MSn measurements .
Examples of other chitin/chitosan derivatives analysed by MS are listed in Table 2.
2.4.5. Application of chitosan in mass spectrometric analysis
Chitin and chitosan may be involved in an analytical process using mass spectrometry not only as an analyte. These polymers can play an indirect role in MS analysis; given the properties of chitin and chitosan, they can be used in pre-MS analysis treatment.
One example is the coating of capillaries for capillary electrophoresis with carboxymethyl chitosan. In contrast to uncoated capillaries, the results are more stable and repeatable. With this type of capillary for CE-MS, a very good separation efficiency, sensitivity and less interference can be achieved [267,268].
Inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is very commonly applied to determine the trace metals in different matrices like water samples. Chitosan-based chelating resins are the basis of the sample pretreatment method. These were tested for the collection and preconcentration of analytes (metals), for matrix elimination, and to find the best adsorption capacity. These novel resins could be:
▪ N,N′,N″-triacetate-type chitosan (EDTriA-type chitosan) ;
▪ Cross-linked chitosan with N-2-hydroxypropyl iminodiacetic acid groups (CCS-HP/IDA), and cross-linked chitosan with N,N- iminodiacetic acid groups (CCS-IDA) ;
▪ Cross-linked chitosan modified with catechol and salicylic acid ;
▪ Chitosan resin derivatized with 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (CCTS-DHBA) ;
▪ Chitosan resin with amino acids .
For the same purpose chitosan resin functionalized with histidine was used in a column in combination with an inductively-coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) . ICP-MS has been used for the meta-analysis of chitosan using samples based on chitosan Chitlacsilver nanoparticles but only to calculate the amount of silver .
2.5. NMR spectroscopy
NMR spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques for the structural and physicochemical study of organic compounds, both small molecules and polymers. It seems to be highly suitable for studying chitin and chitosan. However, the solubility of these compounds presents a serious problem. As stated earlier, chitin with a higher DA is practically insoluble in all solvents and mixtures of different ones, whereas chitosan is soluble in aqueous acidic solution. Its solubility depends on the degree of N-acetylation, the degree of polymerization, the degree of crystallinity, the distribution of GlcNAc and GlcN along the polymer chain, the ionic strength of the solvent and the pH and concentration of chitosan in the solution .
Different NMR techniques have been used to study chitin, chitosan and their derivatives, including 13C [277,278] and 15N [279,280] solid-state NMR, and 1H [281–283], 31P , and 13C liquid-state NMR. However, only 13C and 15N solid-state NMR can be used to study chitins with a high DA, as this technique does not require the solubilization of the polymer.
2.5.1. Description of NMR techniques
22.214.171.124. 1H NMR spectroscopy
The most important factor is to find a proper solvent, which should have good solubility properties towards the target material. When the sample is only partially soluble, no quantitative analysis is accurate and reproducible [280,286]. Moreover, the residual signal of the solvent should not overlap the signals of the sample. The most common solvents for liquid-state NMR spectroscopy are D2O/DCl, D2O/CD3COOD, D2O/DCOOD.
Before 1H NMR measurement, a sample should be freeze-dried 2–3 times from 99.99% D2O in order to remove the residual signal of HOD visible in the 1H spectrum. 1H NMR spectra are usually recorded in aqueous acidic solution (pD ~ 5) at a temperature of 30–80 °C; 8–128 scans are done, depending on the concentration of samples. A typical 1H NMR spectrum of chitosan is shown in Figure 18.
The spectrum shows two signals in the anomeric region, namely H-1 of GlcN (D) at δ ~ 4.9 and H-1 of GlcNAc (A) at δ ~ 4.6. They are shifted to higher values due to the neighboring glycosidic and oxygen atoms of the ring. The resonances of H-3–H-6 ring protons of GlcN and H-2–H-6 of GlcNAc are present in the middle of the spectrum (δ ~ 3.5–4.0), forming a group of broad, overlapping signals. The remaining H-2 ring protons of GlcN residues are shifted to characteristically lower values (δ~ 3.2) because of the adjacent amino group. The characteristic signal of the protons in the N-acetyl group (GlcNAc) is at δ ~ 2.1.
126.96.36.199. 13C NMR spectroscopy
There are two kinds of 13C NMR spectroscopy: liquid-state and solid-state. The first one has the same limitations as 1H NMR spectroscopy, namely, the insufficient solubility of most analyzed materials. Moreover, 13C NMR spectroscopy is much less sensitive than 1H NMR spectroscopy owing to the properties of the carbon nucleus and the only 1% abundance of the 13C isotope in nature. Liquid-state 13C NMR spectra are usually recorded from the same kinds of solutions as are used for producing 1H NMR spectra, but the number of scans has to be much higher–this can vary from several dozen to hundreds of thousands. Solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy is a much more powerful technique. Chitin can be analysed without any special solubilization of the polymer. This means that quite a large amount of sample can be used, which solves the problem of the low sensitivity of 13C NMR spectroscopy. The 13C NMR spectra of solid samples are generally recorded with magic-angle spinning (MAS) and cross-polarization (CP). MAS averages out dipolar interactions and chemical shift anisotropy, producing highly resolved spectra. CP considerably increases the sensitivity of the technique by reducing the relaxation delay due to the magnetization transfer from the 1H to the 13C spins. The intensities of the 13C NMR signals are influenced by the kinetics of the CP process: different contact times affect the intensities of 13C NMR resonances. Hence, it is very important to use the proper contact and relaxation delay times [287–289]. Duarte et al. optimized the relaxation delay (5 s) and the contact time (1 ms) during series assignments of the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and deacetylated chitin samples. Care should be taken to ensure that the CP build-up is similar for all the carbon atoms used in the quantitative calculation. Moreover, different chitin/chitosan materials often contain paramagnetic centres, which may distort the intensity of some 13C NMR signals in the spectrum .
A typical 13C NMR spectrum (Figure 19) of chitin/chitosan contains anomeric (C-1) signals of both monosaccharide residues (GlcN and GlcNAc) at δ ~ 102–105, C-3 and C-5 signals at δ ~ 73–75, C-6 signals at δ ~ 60, C-4 signals shifted to 81–85 due to glycosylation at position 4, and C-2 resonances shifted to δ ~ 55–57 due to the influence of the attached amino group. The remaining signals of the N-Ac group of GlcNAc are at δ ~ 23 and δ ~ 174 (methyl group and carboxylic carbon atoms respectively).
The sets of 13C chemical shifts for chitin samples isolated from different sources were found elsewhere .
188.8.131.52. 15N NMR spectroscopy
Solid-state 15N NMR spectroscopy, like solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, is a very useful technique, especially for studying insoluble chitin, but it is more time-consuming owing to the low natural abundance of the 15N nuclide (<0.4%). Even using high-field NMR spectrometers with large amounts of sample, measurement times are usually of the order of 12–24 h, which makes the technique very expensive. Watson et al. developed the 15N labeling of fungal chitin, which makes 15N NMR spectroscopy much more effective . The solid-state 15N NMR spectra for the natural abundance of 15N and for 15N-labeled chitin samples needed 60,000 and only 2,000 repetitions respectively. As with solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, care should be taken to ensure that CP build-up is similar for both N-acetylated and N-deacetylated nitrogen centres.
Two different nitrogen atom signals are present in the chitin/chitosan spectrum: one corresponds to the amine group (NH2 in GlcN; δ ~ 10), the other to the acetamide group (NH-CO-CH3 in GlcN; δ ~ 110).
184.108.40.206. 31P NMR spectroscopy
31P NMR spectroscopy is one of the more routine NMR techniques because 31P has an isotopic abundance of 100% and a relatively high magnetogyric ratio. Neither native chitins nor synthesized chitosans contain phosphorus atoms, so they cannot be analysed directly using solid-state 31P NMR spectroscopy. However, it is possible to characterize numerous soluble chitosan derivatives containing phosphorus atoms using both liquid-state and solid-state 31P NMR spectroscopy. Particular types of phosphorus compounds have characteristic chemical shift ranges and are very easily identified in the spectrum.
220.127.116.11. Two-dimensional (2D) NMR spectroscopy
2D NMR spectroscopy provides much more information about the molecule than 1D NMR and is very useful for studying complex molecules. Of the many 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques, COSY (DQF-COSY), NOESY and HSQC are the most common.
COSY (COrrelation SpectroscopY) and DQF-COSY (Double Quantum Filtered COrrelation SpectroscopY) allow one to determine which protons are spin-spin coupled. The signals of protons that are two or three bonds apart are visible. NOESY (Nuclear Overhauser Effect SpectroscopY) shows correlations of all protons which are close enough for dipolar interaction by coupling through space (<5 Å). 1H-13C HSQC (Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence) allows one to determine which protons are directly bonded with particular carbon atoms.
2.5.2. Determination of the degree of acetylation (DA)
As already stated, determination of DA of chitin and chitosan is very important from the applicative point of view. Apart from UV/Vis and FTIR, NMR spectroscopy is the most powerful technique for such a study. Review articles summarizing the literature to date on the DA determination of chitin and chitosan using NMR methods have been published by Kasaai [122,131,276]. The DA values of chitin and chitosan can be determined on the basis of integrals from different NMR spectra, i.e., liquid state 1H, and 13C (spectra decoupled from 1H during the acquisition time, without the NOE effect) , and solid-state 13C and 15N. For instance, for 1H and 13C NMR spectra, the DA can be calculated by comparing the integral of the methyl carbon/protons of the acetyl group to the integrals of other carbons/protons from the main chains. Many equations for the DA calculation have been put forward for different types of NMR spectroscopy. DA of chitosan can be calculated on the basis of proton integrals from 1H NMR spectra using several equations:
and the averaged value of three equations :
There are many reports on the use of different NMR spectroscopy methods for determining DA of chitin and chitosan. In 1990, Hirai et al. suggested using 1H NMR to study the degree of acetylation of chitosan with different DA (3–40%) . The proposed method was more effective, precise and simple compared to the conventional colloid titration and elemental analysis methods, which were also applied during the study. One of the first assignments of the 1H and 13C chemical shifts of chitosan using 1H, 13C, and COSY NMR spectra was also reported . In 1990, Pelletier et al. used solid-state 13C NMR to determine DA of chitin and chitosan products . The percentage of deacetylation was calculated by comparing the area of CH3 resonance to the resonances of the all the remaining carbons. Raymond et al. used the same approach to compare DA of chitosan obtained by 13C CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy and conductometric titration. Although both methods yielded similarly good results, the authors concluded that NMR was somewhat limited when DA was low, and likewise conductometric titration when DA values were high . Ottøy et al. investigated chitosans fractionated into acid-soluble and acid-insoluble fractions after heterogeneous alkaline deacetylation and obtained the DA values for both groups of fractions using 13C CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy. Comparison of these results with those from 1H NMR spectroscopy for the acid-soluble fractions showed them to be consistent.
One of the first applications of solid-state 15N NMR spectroscopy to the study of chitin and chitosan was described by Yu et al. . The authors used this technique to determine the degree of N-acetylation of chitin and chitosan, finding that solid state 15N NMR was the more reliable method, especially for the determination of the extent to which poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) was grafted onto chitosan; the drawback of this method is that it is more time-consuming owing to the low natural abundance of 15N. These authors noted that 15N NMR spectra were easier to analyse than 13C CP-MAS spectra, in which all the oxygen-bearing carbons of both chitin and chitosan overlap; this makes calculating DA more difficult .
In 2000 Heux et al. compared DA calculated from 1H liquid-state NMR, and 13C and 15N solid-state NMR in the whole range of acetyl content from 0 to 100% . The authors found that all three methods were in good agreement; nevertheless, the limitation of solid-state NMR was reliable detection at DA < 5% due to a small distortion of the spectrum baseline and signal broadening. They also found that 15N CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy was particularly powerful for calculating the acetyl content in complex associations of chitin and other polysaccharides . Sets of 13C and 15N CP-MAS NMR spectra are illustrated in Figures 20 and 21, respectively. The spectra were recorded using the following parameters: for the 13C spectra contact time = 1 ms, recycle delay = 4 s, and 10,000 scans were acquired; for the 15N spectra the corresponding values were 2 ms, 1 s and 100,000 scans .
Detailed descriptions of the determination of DA of chitin or chitosan using 1H NMR spectroscopy [128,178,212,282,290,292,293,296], and 13C CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy [130, 287–289,297] can be found elsewhere.
It should be mentioned that 1H NMR spectroscopy is the best choice for determining DA of chitosan. 1H NMR does not require previous calibrations and enables the accurate determination of even low DA values. Moreover, the importance of this method in the study of chitosan is also demonstrated by the fact that 1H NMR data are usually used as standards for calibrating alternative methods . Lavertu et al. validated the 1H NMR spectroscopic method for the determination of DA using equations 1, 6a, and 6b. DA values calculated using three different combinations of peak intensities were very close to each other, demonstrating that the technique is also internally consistent. Moreover, the authors discussed the precision, ruggedness, robustness, specificity, stability and accuracy of the technique . It was found to be simple, rapid and more precise than other known techniques like IR or titration.
2.5.3. Determination of the pattern of N-acetylation
Most properties of chitin and chitosan and further applications depend strongly not only on DA, but probably also on the pattern of acetylation (PA) . PA is a parameter describing the distribution of GlcNAc and GlcN residues along the polysaccharide chain and can be determined by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy using appropriate integrals. In the 1H NMR spectrum, the nearest neighbor effect on resonances is visible for the anomeric proton of GlcNAc (sequences AD and AA) and proton H-1 of GlcN (sequences DD and DA) (Figure 22). The rest of the signals in the 1H NMR spectrum are unsuitable for PA assignment as they overlap .
In general, PA in the chitosan samples can be calculated from the C-3, C-5 and C-6 carbon signals in the 13C NMR , although detailed inspection of 13C NMR spectra showed that the highest resolution with only low overlapping signals for the four diad frequencies (FAA, FAD, FDA and FDD) were achieved for the carbon C-5 signals (Figure 23). For the other carbon resonances diad, triad and tetrad peaks were superimposed on neighboring peaks, which precludes a quantitative extraction of signal areas.
where IAD, IDD, IAA and IDA are the respective intensities of signals AA, DD, AA and DA in the samples. In the above equation FAA (FDD) is the probability that two A(D) groups are adjacent to each other and FAD the probability that one group A has D as a neighbor, and vice versa. The data should be transformed into one parameter PA, which describes the acetylation pattern as described before [298,299]:
If the statistics are consistent with the Bernoullian model for polymers, the values PA = 0, 1 and 2 respectively indicate a perfect block, random distribution, and the alternating distribution of N-acetyl groups along the chitin/chitosan chain (Figure 24).
Determination of PA in a chitosan sample using NMR data requires spectra with sufficient resolution of the diad frequencies. In order to get well resolved spectra, the raw chitosan should be depolymerized by nitrous acid. Additionally, pD ~ 4 and higher measurement temperatures (60–80 °C) respectively improve the solubility of chitosan and the reduce viscosity of the solution.
Vårum et al. have reported methods for determining the nearest-neighbor (diad) frequencies FAA, FAD, FDA, and FDD of chitosans using 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy [282,297]. In the first paper, DA and PA of different chitosans obtained by the depolymerization of chitin under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions were determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Chitosan prepared by N-deacetylation under homogeneous conditions gave values for the diad frequencies that were roughly consistent with a random distribution of the N-acetyl groups. Samples prepared under heterogeneous conditions had a frequency of the AA diad slightly higher than that for a random (Bernoullian) distribution. This means that the GlcNAc units of chitosans prepared by N-deacetylation under heterogeneous conditions had a slightly more blockwise distribution than those prepared under homogeneous ones . 13C NMR spectroscopy results revealed that both groups of chitosans (N-deacetylated under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions) gave values for the diad and triad frequencies that were consistent with a random arrangement of GlcN and GlcNAc residues along the chitosan chain . Kumirska et al. compared the most frequently used methods for the PA determination of different chitosan samples . These authors proved that 13C NMR spectroscopy based on the analysis of carbon C-5 signals was clearly the most suitable method for determining PA. A number of validation parameters of that method were presented (specificity, sensitivity, repeatability and reproducibility) in that paper .
Weinhold et al. improved the chitosan pattern determination proposed by Vårum et al. through the implementation of a line-fitting procedure for 13C NMR spectra . The authors assigned PA (0.5–1.5) to 32 chitosans and did not find any evidence for the existence of a clear blockwise or clear alternating chitosan preparation, although the various samples were produced under different conditions. Moreover, it was shown for the first time that PA was exponentially correlated with DA:
Kumirska et al. applied a similar approach for the determination of PA of low-molecular-weight chitosans used in biomedical applications in order to assess the need for the initial depolymerization of the samples . PA values of low-molecular-weight chitosan preparations (<41 kg/mol) were estimated without initial degradation of the native samples, whereas for higher-molecular-weight samples (>41 kg/mol) limited degradation was recommended.
Martinou et al. implemented 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy to monitor the mode of action of chitin deacetylase from Mucor rouxii on fully water-soluble, partially N-acetylated chitosans . The chitosan was enzymatically deacetylated and the nearest-neighbor frequencies (FAA, FAD, FDA and FDD) were determined by 13C NMR spectroscopy, showing that the transition frequencies FAD and FDA were lower than expected from a random (Bernoullian) distribution in the further enzymatically deacetylated chitosans, while FAA and FDD were higher compared to the random distribution. Such a change in the frequencies associated with the enzymatic deacetylation of chitosans was qualitatively in agreement with an enzyme operating according to a multiple-attack mechanism (chitin deacetylase did not preferentially attack any sequence in the chitosan molecule) .
2.5.4. Study of chitin and chitosan derivatives
Chitin and chitosan derivatives can be characterized by all of the above-mentioned NMR techniques in both the liquid and solid states. Very often 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy are used together to study soluble compounds, and when phosphorus derivatives are involved 31P NMR spectroscopy is additionally invoked. For instance, 1H NMR spectroscopy can be used to assign the degree of substitution (DS) of chitosan by modifying groups. Tommerass et al. studied the N-alkylated trimer 2- acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranosyl-β-(1→4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranosyl-β-(1→4)-2,5- anhydro-d-mannofuranose (A–A–M) on a fully N-deacetylated chitosan using different NMR techniques. The authors used 1H NMR spectroscopy to assign the degree of substitution of chitosan (the DA<0.001) by the A-A-M group . The DS values (0.07, 0.23, 0.40) were calculated from the methyl resonance of the N-acetyl group at δ 2.1 compared to H-2 of substituted and unsubstituted chitosan residues at δ 3.0–3.4 (Figure 25).
1H NMR spectroscopy was used to characterize a number of chitin and chitosan derivatives, inter alia, glycol chitosan , hydroxypropyl chitosan , N-(4-bromonaphthalimide)-chitosan , acylated chitosan [143,173], N-alkylated chitosan , and various N-alkyl and N-benzyl chitosans . 13C NMR spectroscopy was applied to study many soluble derivatives of chitin and chitosan: 6-carboxychitin , 6-O-carboxymethyl-chitin and 3,6-O-carboxymethyl-chitin , and C-6 and C-3 sulphated chitosan . 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy were utilised to characterize N,N,N-trimethyl chitosan chloride , 2-N-(2-ethoxycarbonylethyl)chitin , O-succinyl-chitosan , chitin-graft-poly(ε-caprolactone) , N-carboxybutylchitosan and 5-methylpyrrolidinone chitosan , and chitosan derivatives with galactose groups . 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy were supplemented by DQF-COSY NMR spectroscopy for the study of the N-alkylated trimer 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranosyl-β-(1→4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranosyl- β-(1→4)-2,5-anhydro-d-mannofuranose on a fully N-deacetylated chitosan , and 2D 1H,13C HSQC NMR spectroscopy for chitins sulphated at C-3 and C-6 , as well as COSY and 1H,13C HETCOR (hetero-correlation spectroscopy) for the study of O,N-carboxymethylchitosans .
Solid-state 13C CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy was used to characterize O-hydroxypropyl chitin , chitin grafted with poly(acrylic acid) , derivatives of chitosan and crown ethers , dibutyrylchitin , and gels obtained by reacting chitosan with diethyl squarate and 1,1,3,3-tetramethoxypropane [318,319].
31P NMR spectroscopy in combination with other NMR techniques was used in the study of numerous chitin and chitosan derivatives containing phosphorus atoms: N-(diisopropylphosphono-thiooxomethyl) chitosan, N-(2-diethylphosphono-ethyl)-chitosan, and N-(2,2-diethylbisphosphono-ethyl)- chitosan , phosphorylated chitosan and chitin [321–323], phosphorylcholine chitosan , N-propyl-N-methylene phosphonic chitosan , 6-deoxy(diethyl phosphate)-chitin, , O-ethyl phosphonate chitosan , and diethyl phosphate chitosan .
2.5.5. Physicochemical characterization of chitin and chitosan
Tanner et al. were among the first to attempt to analyze α- and β-chitin polymorphs by NMR spectroscopy. Spectra of different α- and β-chitin were identified, but broad lines and distinct peak asymmetry made it difficult to interpret the spectra, to measure accurate values of chemical shifts, and to make useful comparisons between the spectra of those two polymorphs. In 2004 Jang et al. recorded solid-state 13C CP–MAS NMR spectra for α-chitin, β-chitin, and γ-chitin . The NMR spectra of α-chitin and β-chitin were clearly distinguished, but the γ-chitin spectrum was almost the same as that of α-chitin. In the β-chitin spectrum, a signal assigned to C3 and C5 appeared at δ 74, whereas in the α-chitin one, the C3 and C5 appeared as two sharply resolved signals at δ 73 and δ 75, respectively. This was attributed to the different configurations of C3 and C5 resulting from the hydrogen bonds formed. α-Chitin, having an antiparallel structure, has intersheet and intrasheet hydrogen bonding, but β-chitin, having a parallel structure, forms only intrasheet hydrogen bonding. A detailed explanation of the two kinds of hydrogen bonding in α-chitin using 13C CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy was published by Kameda et al. . The peaks corresponding to the C3 and C5 carbon atoms of γ-chitin were resolved at δ 73 and δ 75 because γ-chitin formed intersheet hydrogen bonding .
In a similar way, Cárdenas et al. characterized different polymorphs of chitins isolated from squid, shrimp, prawn, lobsters and king crabs .
2.5.6. Other applications of NMR techniques
NMR techniques can also be used to examine different chemical and physiochemical processes by the analysis of final or intermediate products. Toffey et al. used solid-state 13C-NMR spectroscopy to investigate the thermally-induced conversion into chitin of a water-soluble solid consisting of an ionic complex of chitosan, acetic acid and chitosonium acetate. They recorded the ratio of the signal at δ 179 (the carboxylic atom of the acetate group) and the signal at δ 173 (the carboxylic atom of the N-acetyl group) during the conversion.
Holme et al. studied the thermal depolymerization of chitosan chloride in the solid state by analyzing the products using 1H and 13NMR spectroscopy . The rate of acid hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond in chitosan solutions was found to be in the order A–A ≈ A–D >> D–A ≈ D–D.
Einbu and Vårum reported studies of the depolymerization and de-N-acetylation reaction using the chitin dimer (GlcNAc-GlcNAc) and the monomer GlcNAc as respective model substances. The rates of the reactions were determined as a function of acid concentration and temperature using 1H NMR data . In a subsequent paper, the authors described their study of chitin hydrolysis by concentrated and deuterated hydrochloric acid, which was a very suitable solvent for the direct characterization of the chemical composition of chitin by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The rate of hydrolysis of a glycosidic linkage following an N-acetylated unit was found to be 54-times higher than the rate of N-deacetylation and 115-times higher than the rate of hydrolysis of a glycosidic linkage following a N-deacetylated unit .
NMR spectroscopy can be utilized to study the enzymatic degradation of chitin. Martinou et al. used 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy to monitor the mode of action of chitin deacetylase from Mucor rouxii , while Sorbotten et al. studied the degradation products of chitosans using chitinase β from Serratia marcescens by 1H NMR .
NMR spectroscopy, molecular modeling (MM) and molecular dynamics (MD) are excellent tools for studying interactions between chitin/chitosan and proteins or peptides. Colombo et al. used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on NOE NMR to study the complex between hevein and N,N′-diacetylchitobiose and N,N′,N″-triacetylchitotriose. The results of the simulations showed that a carbohydrate oligomer was able to move on the surface of the relatively flat binding pocket of hevein, therefore occupying different binding subpockets . NMR spectroscopy and MD were also used for studying the interaction of a variety of modified hevein domains with chitooligosaccharides . Aboitiz et al. utilized NMR and MM to demonstrate that trisaccharides containing GalNAc and ManNAc residues were also recognized by hevein domains. Their observations indicated that the present nature of the modifications of chitotriose at either the non-reducing end (GalNAc instead of GlcNAc) or at the reducing end (ManNAc instead of GlcNAc) did not modify the mode of binding of the trisaccharide to hevein .
2.6. Other spectroscopic methods
Apart from the spectroscopic techniques commonly used in the structural analysis of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives, which have been described above, there are many other spectroscopic methods applied to the analysis of these polymers. They include Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM), Scanning Electron Spectroscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDAX), Scanning Electron Spectroscopy coupled with Transmission Electron Microscope (SEM-TEM system), Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy (CD) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy (ICP).
SEM is an extremely useful method for the visual confirmation of the morphology and physical state of the surface . SEM has been used, for example, for determining the surface morphology of fungi, and chitin and chitosan in crab shells [340–342], for examining the morphology of deacetylated chitosan powder and chitosan films , and for characterizing the surface of chitosan and various types of crosslinked deacetylated chitin before and after metal binding . Nowadays this technique is applied mostly to the determination of new chitin and chitosan derivatives, for example, to study the microstructure of chitosan(chitin)/cellulose biosorbents , to characterize the novel nanocomposite scaffold of chitosan and bioactive glass ceramic nanoparticles , to characterize the morphology of the surface and the cross-section of chitosan-silica hybrid membranes and to investigate the morphology of vulcanized natural rubber/chitosan blends .
Morphological analysis of chitin/chitosan and their derivatives has also been carried out using the SEM-TEM system, for instance, to reveal the structural features of a chitosan/hydroxyapatite nanocomposite or to observe the changes in morphology during the N-deacetylation of chitin nanowhiskers to a chitosan nanoscaffold .
EDAX is used, among other things, to determine the metal uptake mechanism on chitosan, a complex phenomenon involving nodule formation on the polymer surface, ion adsorption and ion absorption . This technique is also applied to determine the porosity of chitosan beads and membranes, and the diffusion of metal ions through them .
Another spectroscopic technique applied to chitin and chitosan investigations is Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy [ICP] . This has been used to determine the amount of metal ions adsorbed onto chitosan/chitin cellulose biosorbents. The adsorption capacity of these chitosan biosorbents was found to be Cu(II) (0.417 mmol/g) > Zn(II) (0.303 mmol/g) > Cr(VI) (0.251 mmol/g) > Ni(II) (0.225 mmol/g) > Pb(II) (0.127 mmol/g). Inductively-coupled plasma spectrometry was also used for the same reason by Gamage in 2007 .
CD spectroscopy measures differences in the absorption of left-handed polarized light versus right-handed polarized light that arise due to structural asymmetry . A CD spectrometer records this phenomenon as a function of wavelength. Kittur et al. used CD to investigate the degree of N-acetylation of low-molecular-weight chitosan (LMWC) prepared from pectolytic hydrolysates of chitosan. Circular dichroism spectra showed a decrease in the segment of N-acetylated glucosamine units in LMWC.
In general spectroscopic techniques are very useful and important in the structural analysis of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives, although we need to mention that there are many other non-spectroscopic analytical methods that are routinely used in such studies: viscosity measurements, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), cyclic voltamperometry, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC).
Chitin and chitosan are natural aminopolysaccharides with unique structures and interesting properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability; they are non-toxic, have a wide range of applications, and the raw material sources for their production are unlimited. Chemical modification of these polymers results in improved solubility in water or organic solvents, which enhances their biological activities and favors the continuous development of their applications as new functional biomaterials with excellent potential in various fields. In order to acquire a deeper understanding of the mechanism of these properties, it is necessary for chitin/chitosan and their derivatives to be structurally and physicochemically well characterized. Knowledge of the microstructure of these compounds is essential for an understanding of structure–property–activity relationships. Although spectroscopic methods are of great use to scientists working in the chitin/chitosan field, many researchers lack specialist knowledge of these techniques. This paper focuses on the practical aspects of using the five spectroscopic methods most often applied – X-ray spectroscopy, infrared (IR) and UV-Vis-spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR-spectroscopy) – in the structural investigation and physicochemical characterization of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives. The application of other spectroscopic methods is also discussed. This paper provides hands-on information about these valuable research tools, emphasizing practical aspects such as sample preparation or typical measurement conditions, their limitations and advantages, and interpretation of results. The usefulness of these methods in establishing and confirming molecular structures, determining physicochemical parameters such as the degree of N-acetylation, pattern of N-acetylation, degree of polymerization, molecular weight, crystallinity, the sequence or degree of substitution, as well as in monitoring reactions, controlling the purity of these compounds and in characterizing their intra- and intermolecular interactions, is discussed. It should also be mentioned that the structural analysis of chitin/chitosan and their derivatives is based on the application of at least a few different types of spectroscopic methods during the same study. The main reason for this is the possibility of obtaining different but compatible and complete information about the structure and physicochemical properties of these compounds, which is impossible using only one spectroscopic technique. Continuous improvements in sampling techniques, analysis software and instrumentation hardware, mean that spectroscopic methods have revolutionized the chemical and physicochemical characterization of chitin/chitosan samples, and are now routinely used by scientists working in the chitin/chitosan field.
The authors express their gratitude for the financial support provided by the Polish Ministry of Research and Higher Education under grant DS/8200-4-0085-10.
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|Enzyme||DP analysis MS method||Chitin/chitosan polymerization degree DP||Chitooligosaccharide applicability||Ref.|
|Papain||MALDI-TOF||DP 2–DP 8||Antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli|||
|Immobilized Papain||MALDI-TOF||DP 3–DP 7||Comparing the depolimerization efficiency between free and immobilized papain|||
|Pronaze||MALDI-TOF||DP 2–DP 9||Antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli|||
|Cellulast (Novozymes)||MALDI-TOF||DP 2–DP 8||Induction of defence response of Oryza sativa L. against Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.|||
|Isozyme of pectinase||MALDI-TOF FAB-MS||DP 2–DP 6||Antimicrobial activity Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli|||
|Chitinase||MALDI-TOF||Q1: DP 3–DP 8|
Q2: DP 2–DP 12
Q3: DP 2–DP 10
|Affect on fungal (alternaria alternate, Rhisopus stolnifer, Botrytis cinera, Penicillinum expansum) growth rate|||
|Chitosanase||MALDI-TOF||DP 2–DP 8||Investigations of prebiotic effect on the Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobaccillus sp.|||
|Chitinase||LC-ESI-MS||DP 2–DP 6||Studies of mechanism of bonding COS to enzyme helpful in the drug-screening program (for drugs in allergic asthma)|||
|Chitin and chitosan derivative||MS method||Chitooligosaccharide derivative applicability||Ref.|
|Copper-chitooligosaccharides complexes||ESI-MS, ESI-MS/MS (triple quadrupole, CAD –colision activated dissociation)||Metal-ligand associations studies|||
|Lipo-chitin oligosaccharides||ESI-MS (quadrupole), FAB-MS, CID-MS/MS (QTof)||Structural studies of lipo-chitin oligosaccharides isolated from bacteria and their role as signal molecules in symbiosis||[247,252]|
|Products of electrochemical reaction between caffeic acid and glucosamine||ESI-MS||Studies of chitosan–coated electrodes for bimodal sensing|||
|Methacrylated chitoligosaccharides||MALDI-TOF||Production of biodegradable biopolymers|||
|Chitosan/tripolyphosphate nanoparticles||ToF-SIMS||Studies of nanoparticles as drug delivery system|||
|Catechin-modified chitosan||ESI-MS||Creating polymers for technical applications|||
|Benzenesulfony chitosan, Dinitrobenzenesulfonyl chitosan||MALDI-TOF||Implications for drug detoxification|||
|Chitosan-g-PEG=X (where X-Man, cholesterol, coumarin, biotin)||MALDI-TOF||Producing copolymers used in active targeting and antiadhesive therapy|||
|Multilayers consisting of: chitosan, hyaluronan, and poyethyleneimine||ToF-SIMS||Bioactive coating of endovascular stent|||
|Dodecyl galate (DDG)-chitosan||FAB-MS, ESI-MS||Peroxidaze catalyzed production of biopolymers|||
© 2010 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). | <urn:uuid:2ce2bbd6-c5d6-4d87-9fa9-9a35aecf7812> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/8/5/1567/htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00143-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.856063 | 52,848 | 2.78125 | 3 |
An annual workshop offered by the Georgia Botanical Society is called “Aster, Asters, Asters” and it provides hands on learning about members of the Asteraceae family. Look for it every fall on their schedule – I have been twice now and learned just as much the second time. This post, despite having the same name, is about what gardeners call “Asters” – that is, those beautiful fall flowers that look like delicate daisies in the fall but come in shades of white, blue and purple.
|Late purple aster, Symphyotrichum patens|
Aster is a very convenient name, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. That’s why several years ago the taxonomists decided to change all that. Most of the fall blooming North American asters now reside in the genus Symphyotrichum with a few others scattered into other places (like Eurybia). Apparently DNA studies found that North American plants known as Aster were quite different from Eurasian plants known as Aster. Unfortunately Eurasian asters got to keep the old name! You can read more about the change here.
Asters in the genus Symphyotrichum bloom on wiry stems that probably look like weeds to many folks that have not witnessed their transformation in person. The leaves are either rough in texture or small in size - neither attributes designed to win the hearts of gardeners. However, once their blooms open up and reveal those beautiful flowers - every gardener will be wanting to make a place for them!
|Georgia aster, Symphyotrichum georgianum|
Compared to the Georgia aster, late purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens) - shown in the first picture - is slightly smaller, a lighter shade of purple, and has a yellow center. However, the foliage of the two species is very similar; I can't distinguish one from the other unless the plant is blooming.
|Eastern silver aster, Symphyotrichum concolor|
Another blue aster in my area is the eastern silver aster (Symphyotrichum concolor). The habit of this plant is different from the previous ones. Flower buds are closely held against a long stem as are many small leaves. The effect is quite beautiful when the blooms are open.
|Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'Raydon's Favorite'|
New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) is listed as native to Georgia but only sparsely; it is much more common in the mid-Atlantic and New England areas. However it is very showy, with large blue-pink blooms; it has been bred by nurserymen into a popular fall plant with a dense floral display. Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) and New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), which are not native to Georgia, are also showy. I found the cultivar Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'Raydon's Favorite' at a plant sale this weekend and people were snapping it up. It was also planted in the venue's gardens where it was doing quite well.
Aren't those blue and purple asters pretty? White asters, however, are the true workhorses of the local aster world. They are the ones popping up in strange places as well as dominating the side of the roads in their season. In fact they are so ubiquitous that people take them for granted. Let's take a few minutes to celebrate their floral awesomeness!
|Calico aster, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum|
I have both of these white asters in my garden, and this week, while taking pictures for this, I discovered a third one that is completely different. Maybe they are mutating!
You can see that the flower arrangement on these two is quite different. A contributing factor is the length of the stem holding the flower. The stem on S. dumosum is long, allowing each flower to stand out as an individual. The stem on S. racemosum is small so that the flowers appear more as a group, each held close to the branch. The flowers are also all facing in the same direction, presenting a very wand-like form (or a raceme, which explains how it got that species name).
Asters in the genus Eurybia have stems and leaves that are different from Symphyotrichum species in terms of shape and texture (that is, stems are not wiry and leaves are smooth, not rough). I suppose that it one reason why the two groups of aster now reside in different genera.
|White wood aster, Eurybia divaricata|
|Showy aster, Eurybia spectabilis|
The other member of this genus in my area is the showy aster, Eurybia spectabilis. The purple blooms are very attractive, and there are often multiple flowers blooming at once. The leaves are quite unlike the white wood aster; they are smooth, dark green and fairly narrow.
If you're looking for some input on asters to choose, I recommend reading this report created by the Mt. Cuba Center based on their garden trials. | <urn:uuid:0465259d-04a0-47a7-a2a1-c56a5c41dc42> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://usinggeorgianativeplants.blogspot.com/2012/10/asters-asters-asters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959739 | 1,100 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Orthodox Christians believe that the New Testament Church and the Christian faith itself appeared at a particular point in history because the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead. The cause behind the emergence of the Church and the Christian Faith was not a crucified, dead and buried Jesus. Rather, that very crucified, dead and buried Jesus was revealed to be both Lord and Christ following His Resurrection “on the third day.” God vindicated the messianic claims of Jesus when He raised Jesus from the dead “according to the Scriptures.” Contemporary Orthodox Christians readily agree with the Apostle Paul’s insistence on the absolute centrality of the bodily resurrection of Christ as the foundation of Christian faith in Jesus: ‘If Christ is not raised, then your faith is in vain and our preaching is in vain” (1 Cor. 15). Among all Christians this has been an overwhelming consensus since the initial witness of the apostles to the Risen Lord.
But since the emergence of critical biblical scholarship within the last two centuries or so, we find Christian scholars and those influenced by them questioning, reinterpreting or openly denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This process may be more accelerated today, or simply more prominent and public in its expression. A vivid – if not lurid - expression of this skeptical approach to the resurrection claims of the first Christians can be found in the work of the New Testament scholar Dom Dominic Crossan. In his reconstruction of events, the body of the crucified Jesus was discarded in a shallow grave, there to suffer the further humiliation of becoming the food of ravenous dogs. That is also the kind of counter-claim that will attract a good deal of publicity. This threatens to undermine a consistent and long-standing witness among all Christians that points to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ among the great “religious founders” within human history. That uniqueness was articulated by Prof. Veselin Kesich in the following manner in his book The First Day of the New Creation:
For the members of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, the resurrection of Christ was above all an event in the life of their Master, and then also in their own lives. After meeting Christ following his resurrection, they could have said with St. Paul that necessity was laid upon them to preach the gospel of resurrection (1 Cor. 9:16). Christianity spread throughout the Greco-Roman world with the proclamation that Jesus who died on the cross was raised to a new life by God. The message of Christianity is without parallel in religious history in its content and in its demand. (p. 15)
The Risen Christ spoke to His disciples about “belief” in His Resurrection even among those who did not “see” Him as those very first disciples did. This was in response to the Apostle Thomas’ movement from unbelief to belief when Jesus appeared to Thomas and offered him to probe the wounds in His hands and side: “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (Jn. 20:29). Clearly, the presence of faith is essential in confessing that Jesus has been raised from the dead: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (ROM. 10:9) However, in perhaps challenging a misconceived understanding of faith, this does not mean that believing that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead is an irrational leap into the unbelievable and indefensible.
On the one hand, the Resurrection is an overwhelming and awesome event that invokes “trembling and astonishment” in those who are presented with its reality – and perhaps initial silence because of its numinous quality (cf. MK. 16:8). On the other hand, Christians do not believe in the resurrection of Christ in the face of evidence that clearly contradicts or “disproves” that claim. It is not as if the first disciples of Jesus were confronted with His (rotting) corpse in the tomb, but then said: “Nevertheless, we still believe that He is risen!” The resurrection of Christ is not about the fate of the “immortal soul” of Jesus, which is quite irrelevant to the Christian claim that death has been overcome in the resurrected Christ. Resurrection is the claim that the body – and thus the whole person conceived biblically – has been raised and glorified to a new mode of existence in an eternal relationship with God. What many Jews believed would occur at the end of history, happened with Jesus within history. And that is why the Apostle Paul called Christ “the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
So, while we “see” the Risen Lord through the eyes of faith, we also claim that the historical investigation into the reliability of the evidence for the resurrection, narrated and developed in the New Testament, cannot refute that belief in any way. In Christianity, there exists a mutual interpenetration between theology and history. Thus, theology and history remain in an unbreakable bond of mutual support and clarification. Basically, Christians cannot make theological claims that are historically untenable or refutable. This is due to the foundational claim that God acts decisively on behalf of humankind and the world within the historical space and time of our created world. With this in mind, we can say that there are three essential components to the New Testament’s proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that together present a reasonable defense of that claim that is simultaneously consistent, coherent and convincing: 1) the discovery of the empty tomb; 2) the appearances of the Risen Lord to His male and female disciples; and 3) the transformation of the disciples into the apostles who boldly proclaim the Risen Christ to the world, and the beginning of the New Testament Church.
The Empty Tomb
Christians do not believe in the empty tomb. Yet Christians believe that the tomb of Jesus must have been empty for them to convincingly announce His resurrection from the dead. The empty tomb in itself simply revealed the fact that something happened to the body of the crucified Jesus. The empty tomb needed to be interpreted. Not expecting the resurrection of her Master, Mary Magdalene’s first reaction was to seek a “natural” interpretation for the empty tomb: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (Jn. 20:2). That the tomb of the dead Jesus was found empty on the “first day of the week,” following His crucifixion and burial, is now universally acknowledged as a sound historical fact. Even scholars who do not believe in the resurrection of Christ accept the account of the burial of Jesus and the discovery of the empty tomb. The former Roman Catholic and Jesus scholar, Geza Vermes, offers a good example of this basic consensus:
When every argument has been considered and weighed, the only conclusion acceptable to the historian must be that the opinions of the orthodox, liberal sympathizer and the critical agnostic alike – and even perhaps of the disciples themselves – are simply interpretations of the one disconcerting fact: namely that the women who set out to pay their last respects to Jesus found to their consternation, not a body, but an empty tomb.
And, of course, no one has ever claimed to have produced the corpse of Jesus. Whatever one may make of St. Matthew’s account in 27:62-66, it is clear that the Jewish propaganda concerning why the tomb of Jesus was discovered to be empty, presupposes the acceptance of the empty tomb in the first place. The counter-claim of the Jewish authorities – the “stolen” body of Jesus - was another appeal to a “natural” reason as to why the tomb was empty. But the appearance of the angel(s) within the tomb, recorded by all four evangelists, begins to point well beyond these natural explanations into the mysterious realm of God. For it is God Who acted in both an unexpected and also shatteringly decisive way by transforming the tomb into a womb from which emerges new and everlasting life.
It was the women disciples of Jesus who first heard the Gospel of new life from within the tomb. As prominent New Testaments scholars such as Raymond Brown, N.T. Wright, and William Lane Craig further point out, the discovery of the tomb by a group of women – the holy myrrhbearers – is a very convincing piece of evidence for the veracity of the canonical Gospels’ account of the initial discovery of the empty tomb. This is because the witness of women was not binding according to the Law in first century Judaism. The early Church would not have imaginatively given the privilege of discovering the empty tomb to witnesses who unfortunately were thought to be unreliable. In fact, according to LK. 24:11, the apostles initially thought that their words were “an idle tale.” (Did the apostles ever get anything right until they saw the Risen Lord and began to believe in Him?). With the kerygmatic proclamation of the angel from within the tomb, we are introduced into the Good News which has changed the world once and for all: “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” (MK. 16:6-7) This sets the stage for the appearances of the Risen Christ to His disciples.
The Appearances of the Risen Lord
The appearances of the Risen Christ provide the needed interpretation to the empty tomb. The tomb is indeed empty because Jesus has been raised from the dead as the angel proclaimed! This is the dawn of the “new creation” and the “death of death.” Each Gospel ends with at least one chapter (there are two in St. John) narrating one or more appearances of the Risen Lord to His female and male disciples. These appearances initially overwhelmed the disciples and we hear of different reactions: “gladness” (JN. 20:20), “worship” and even “doubt” (Matt. 28:17). In a marvelous expression in St. Luke’s Gospel, we even hear that the disciples “disbelieved for joy!” (Lk. 24: 41). There is also an initial non-recognition in some accounts (LK. 24:16; Jn. 20:14).
The sheer unexpectedness of the crucified, but now risen Lord, appearing to His disciples must account for some of these various reactions. Yet, regardless of these initial reactions, the disciples are completely convinced that it is Jesus raised to new life and now in their midst as their ”Lord and God” (Jn. 20:28). From our vantage point today, it is virtually impossible for us to comprehend this experience of the first disciples of Christ. The resurrection of Christ was (and remains) a mysterious, unprecedented and eschatological event. Perhaps this is what accounts for the lack of that narrative flow and continuity that we encounter in the narrative of the suffering, death and burial of Christ. The evangelists were hard-pressed to relate “the unrelatable” within the confines of our human language and images. At times, it seems as if language itself breaks down in its struggle to narrate the events of the appearances of Christ.
For we discover in the Risen Lord both “continuity” and “discontinuity.” It is the crucified, dead and buried Jesus Himself who is raised from the dead (“You seek Jesus of Nazareth”), a fact born out by His still visible wounds (JN. 20:20, 27); and that He even takes food together with His disciples (Lk. 24:42). Yet, there is a great deal of transformation in the Risen Lord: He appears and disappears at will; and closed doors are not obstacles to those appearances (Jn. 20:19, 26; Lk. 24:31). St. Mark even informs us that He appeared “in another form” (Mk. 16:12). When we take into account the complementary aspects of continuity and discontinuity revealed in the Risen Lord, then to speak of His “physical” resurrection can be misleading and open to skeptical dismissal.
This is because a “physical” resurrection can be misconstrued as a “mere” resuscitation – and hence resumption - of earthly existence as we experience it in the here and now of this world. And that was the case when Jesus raised to life the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Cain, and his dear friend Lazarus. They all died again, after being brought back to life by the restorative power of Christ. The Lord, however, was resurrected to undying and eternal life: “For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (ROM. 6:9)
For this reason, it is much more biblically sound to speak of the “bodily” resurrection of Christ, so as to maintain the essential distinction between resurrection on the one hand, and mere resuscitation on the other, that may be attached to the term “physical.” The term “bodily” will also serve to strengthen the reality of transformation that occurs in the resurrection, for the Lord is raised from death in a “spiritual body” according to the theologically-nuanced expression of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:42-50). Raised to life in a spiritual body, the Risen Lord reveals to us the glorified life of the Age to Come. In theological language, we refer to this as an “eschatological reality.” (This means an event reserved for the end of history being disclosed within history). And by grace, we will share this with the Lord in “the life of the world to come.”
What is being stressed here, however, is that the disciples know that it is Jesus once they see Him following His resurrection. This is all summed up by St. Luke in the second volume of his narrative history of Christ’s ministry and the beginning of the Church’s existence: “To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
The Transformation of the Disciples and the Beginning of the New Testament Church
Something has to account for the evident transformation of Christ’s disciples. They are portrayed in the Gospels in a painfully unflattering manner, based not only on their obtuseness during the ministry of Christ, but also on their cowardly failing to remain with Him in the hour of His suffering and death. They literally abandoned their Master, and Peter openly denied even knowing Him. But in a very short span of time, those very disciples were transformed into apostles who would carry the Gospel to the “ends of the earth.”
At the very heart of that Gospel was that Jesus had overcome death itself by His resurrection, thus inaugurating a new creation and the promise of eternal life with God: “But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Crushed by the brutal and “cursed” death of their Master, and together with Him of their hope that Jesus was the Messiah; fearful and hiding behind closed doors for “fear of the Jews” (Jn. 20:19); the messianic movement centered in Jesus was as dead as He apparently was lying in the tomb. A crucified, dead and buried Messiah was not only meaningless, but completely incoherent from the Jewish perspective.
Something of great significance must have happened to make any sense of the disciples’ newfound faith, boldness and, finally, willingness to give their own lives for what they would proclaim to the world. Conspiracies and/or collective hallucinations are inept explanations that are now treated as more or less eccentric theories. (Most of these “theories” cancel each other out, so one is left with one choice or another).
In their desire to maintain objectivity, but to also make some sense of the evidence provided to them, historians and scholars must face this historically unprecedented and baffling mystery of the origins of the Christian movement. For all of the “data” tells us that this movement should never have even started! When they carefully examine the evidence and try and come to some conclusions as to the foundational cause of this new faith centered in Jesus of Nazareth – a condemned criminal put to death by the authority of the Roman Empire in the relatively remote and insignificant area of first century Judea – these very historians and scholars must provide a convincing alternative theory if they are not willing to accept the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead.
A fair question then forms itself naturally: taking into account the beliefs of first century Judaism concerning the possibility of a crucified Messiah, issues of “life after death,” and the Jewish belief in the resurrection from the dead at the end of time; just how convincing are any of those alternative theories? Perhaps that is why some major New Testament scholars, such as E.P. Sanders, without committing themselves to an active faith in the resurrection of Christ, are at least conceding that the disciples of Christ were convinced that they saw Him alive following His death on the cross. And that they then acted on that conviction.
To return to an initial point, I do not believe that Christians should attempt to compel faith in Christ by a careful gathering of the evidence concerning Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This is not a courtroom trial. And Christian faith is not based upon the “jury’s” verdict. A commitment to Christ as the Crucified and Risen One who has “trampled down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life,” begins with faith, based on trusting the witness of the apostles of Christ. A witness that they were prepared to die for. This trust slowly begins to transform each Christian so that that faith is a living and personal faith. As that faith matures, all Christians may reach a point when they can make their own the words of the Apostle Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
Yet, the Christian claim is that God acts within human history. That God enters into the time and space of our world to create, sustain and redeem us as the Lord of history Who has prepared a glorious future for us. The ultimate manifestation of that divine activity within the world is revealed in the Incarnation of the eternal Son of God. And His death and resurrection from the dead fulfills the promises of God as He remains faithful to His faithless people throughout history. This historical aspect of our Christian faith means, to repeat this again, that any historical evidence that can disprove the resurrection of Christ would immediately and definitively undermine that faith. But no such evidence exists. On the contrary, it points us toward the genuineness and authenticity of those very claims – incredible and “unbelievable” that they may initially appear.
Fr. Steven C. Kostoff is the parish rector of Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit Orthodox Church in Cincinnati, OH. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he teaches in the theology department. | <urn:uuid:19fb2638-fdde-459f-960d-c78baf2f3451> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/view/kostoff-the-resurrection-of-christ-and-the-rise-of-christianity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964772 | 4,180 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Polycythemia vera is a disease where too many red blood cells are made in the bone marrow, which makes the blood thick. White blood cells and platelets may also increase and these extra blood cells tend to collect in the spleen causing it to swell. The increased number of blood cells can cause bleeding problems and form clots causing serious health problems such as stroke or heart attack. In patients older than 65 years, the risk of stroke and heart attack is higher, and polycythemia vera is more likely to become acute myeloid leukemia or chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis.
Early symptoms of polycythemia vera don’t often appear. The disease is sometimes found during routine blood tests. Symptoms may occur as the number of blood cells increases.
Symptoms may include: | <urn:uuid:b2eea648-6197-422d-8bec-b02c384b1dbf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.seattlecca.org/diseases/polycythemia-vera.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941882 | 169 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Health in an Age of Globalization
Disease has traveled with goods and people since the earliest times. Armed globalization spread disease, to the extent of eliminating entire populations. The geography of disease shaped patterns of colonization and industrialization throughout the now poor world. Many see related threats to public health from current globalization. Multilateral and bilateral trade agreements do not always adequately represent the interests of poor countries, the General Agreement on Trade in Services may restrict the freedom of signatories to shape their own health delivery systems, and it remains unclear whether current arrangements for intellectual property rights are in the interests of citizens of poor countries with HIV/AIDS. However, to the extent that globalization promotes economic growth, population health may benefit, and there has been substantial reductions in poverty and in international inequalities in life-expectancy over the last 50 years. Although there is a strong inverse relationship between the poverty and life-expectancy in levels, gains in life expectancy have been only weakly correlated with growth rates and, in the last decade, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has widened international inequalities in life expectancy. The rapid transmission of health knowledge and therapies from one rich country to another has led to a swift convergence of adult mortality rates among the rich of the world, particularly men. Globalization would do much for global health if transmission from rich to poor countries could be accelerated.
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w10669
Published: Collins, Susan and Carol Graham (eds.) Brookings Trade Forum. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2004.
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded these: | <urn:uuid:65ef250f-836e-4cd6-b647-82bce4dcdb94> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nber.org/papers/w10669 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939362 | 325 | 3.15625 | 3 |
The study, published in Developmental Cell, describes a number of routes to the formation of a microtubule spindle – the tracks along which DNA moves when a cell divides in order to make two genetically identical cells.
In order to understand the phenomenon, the authors, including Biosciences researchers Professor James Wakefield, PhD student Daniel Hayward and Experimental Officer in Image Analysis, Dr. Jeremy Metz, combined highly detailed microscopy and image analysis with genetic and protein manipulation of fruit fly embryos.
The innovative research not only describes how the cell can use each pathway in a complementary way, but also that removal of one pathway leads to the cell increasing its use of the others. The researchers also identified that a central molecular complex – Augmin – was needed for all of these routes.
The authors were the first to identify that each of four pathways of spindle formation could occur in fruit fly embryos.
It was previously thought that, in order for chromosomes – packages containing DNA – to line up and be correctly separated, microtubules have to extend from specific microtubule-organising centres in the cell, called centrosomes. However, this study found that microtubules could additionally develop from the chromosomes themselves, or at arbitrary sites throughout the main body of the cell, if the centrosomes were missing.
All of these routes to spindle formation appeared to be dependent on Augmin - a protein complex responsible for amplifying the number of microtubules in the cell.
Dr. Wakefield said of the project “We have all these different spindle formation pathways working in humans. Because the cell is flexible in which pathway it uses to make the spindle, individuals who are genetically compromised in one pathway may well grow and develop normally. But it will mean they have fewer routes to spindle formation, theoretically predisposing them to errors in cell division as they age.”
The group are currently investigating cancer links in light of these findings. | <urn:uuid:c7ffeb0d-0ae7-4e41-ae24-bf89b1c79c81> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/news.aspx?id=161102 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950215 | 399 | 3.734375 | 4 |
What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought, Keith E. Stanovich, Yale University Press, 2009.
Many prominent thinkers over the last few years have pointed out that IQ tests fail to test many abilities of the mind that are useful for making our way in the world. Most argue that there are types of intelligence other than what IQ tests measure, such as emotional intelligence. In his insightful book What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought, Keith Stanovich frames the problem differently. He argues that it is acceptable and even useful to limit the term “intelligence” to the abilities that IQ tests measure, but that in addition to Intelligence Quotient (IQ), a measure of algorithmic thinking, we should also assess Rational Quotient (RQ), a measure of reflective thinking. IQ fails to measure our ability to exercise good judgment and to make good decisions. Smart people often do dumb things. This is because there is almost no correlation between intelligence and our ability to think rationally, that is to avoid thinking errors that lead to poor judgments and the resulting bad decisions that undermine our best interests.
Testing IQ has become thoroughly integrated into American society and values. Stanovich points out that “In our society, what gets measured gets valued.” IQ, either measured directly or through proxy tests such as the SAT, has become the standard that determines academic and professional opportunities, yet it entirely fails to measure people’s ability to think rationally, which is every bit as important. In fact, because rationality has been so thoroughly ignored, we now have an American workforce that is sadly lacking in this critical ability. People throughout organizations, from the lowliest workers to the loftiest leaders, make bad decisions that undermine their interests based on irrational, error-prone assessments of the situations rather than rational consideration of available evidence. In his book Breakdown of Will (2001), George Ainslie describes the situation we find ourselves in today:
The prosperity of modern civilization contrasts more and more sharply with people’s choice of seemingly irrational, perverse behaviors, behaviors that make many individuals unhappier than the poorest hunger/gathers. As our technical skills overcome hunger, cold, disease, and even tedium, the willingness of individuals to defeat their own purposes stands in even sharper contrast.
That we focus so much attention on intelligence and value it so greatly is not the problem; the problem is that we focus on and value it so exclusively. It makes perfect sense to value intelligence, because life in the modern world has become increasingly complex. This is certainly true of business. Consider the world of banking. In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the local banker who lent money to familiar folks in his community could have managed with less intelligence than the bank executives of today who oversee dozens of departments that each handle a host of intricately complicated financial transactions. But back then and now, a high level of rationality has always been required. Its importance, nevertheless, has become under-appreciated.
Legal scholar Jeffrey Rachlinski points out a problem with the way professionals are trained today:
In most professions, people are trained in the jargon and skill necessary to understand the profession, but are not necessarily given training specifically in making the kind of decisions that members of the profession have to make.
On several occasions, I’ve written and spoken about this problem, especially as it relates to data analysis and presentation. Rather than learning the concepts and skills that are required, we put a software product on employees’ computers and assume that this is all they need. Software vendors have long promoted this line of reasoning in the way that they market their “intuitive,” “self-service” products.
The truth is, we need a full range of cognitive skills to face the challenges of the workplace and of life in general. As a culture, we must embrace rationality by promoting its value and supporting its development and use as thoroughly as we’ve embraced intelligence.
What does Stanovich mean by rationality?
To think rationally means adopting appropriate goals, taking the appropriate action given one’s goals and beliefs, and holding beliefs that are commensurate with available evidence.
Not everything in life requires rationality or even intelligence (that is, what IQ measures). Much of what we do is effectively managed through autonomous mental processes that involve neither. This is great, because it frees up the higher-order processes of cognition, which require conscious attention and greater energy, from being wasted on menial tasks. Walking and even driving are activities that are handled primarily by the autonomous mind. While the autonomous mind does a great job, we get into trouble when we let it handle situations that require higher-order cognition—intelligence and rationality rather than the automatic rules of thumb that the autonomous mind uses to make decisions. One of the important roles of the reflective mind is to interrupt autonomous processing when higher forms of thinking are required. To make better decisions, we need to value and develop the strengths of our reflective minds. Two important rational abilities, especially for data analysis, are the ability to reason logically and the ability to think in terms of probabilities. Unfortunately, relatively few people have been trained in these skills.
Stanovich explains how thinking works based on this tripartite model consisting of the autonomous mind, algorithmic mind, and reflective mind. He talks about the role, importance, strengths and weaknesses of each. He spends a lot of time describing the causes of errors in rational processing (what he calls dysrationalia) and how we can avoid them. And, thankfully, he gives us hope by showing that rational thinking, unlike most intelligence, can be learned. He’s on a mission to make this happen. If you believe in the importance of rationally informed decision making and agree that it’s lacking, I recommend that you read this compelling book. | <urn:uuid:7befa7ff-338c-4368-9f33-7b7d909fcdc5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=631 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957663 | 1,203 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Fire science previously used the Fire Triangle/Pyramid to represent the three elements (fuel, heat, and an oxidizing agent) that must be present for the combustion process to occur, but now a fourth element (an uninhibited chemical chain reaction between those three elements) has been added to form the Fire Tetrahedron.
Theory of Fire: The Fire Tetrahedron
The Fire Tetrahedron
Before you can understand how a fire is extinguished, you first need to understand the Theory of Fire.
Four elements must be present for a fire to occur:
- An oxidizing agent (usually oxygen)
- A chemical chain reaction
A fire is extinguished by removing one or more of these four elements from the combustion process.
The Chemistry of Fire
Fire is a redox (oxidation-reduction) chemical process of combustion involving rapid oxidation of a fuel source at an elevated temperature, accompanied by the release of energy and the production of heat and light and gaseous by-products. As an energy release mechanism, it is the exothermic reaction involving oxidation that produces heat.
Oxidation and reduction always occur in tandem in a redox process. If one substance gains oxygen (oxidation), then a second substance must also be present to lose oxygen (reduction). The first substance is the reducing agent (oxidised) and the second substance is the oxidising agent (oxidiser). Reducing agents remove oxygen from another substance, and oxidising agents give oxygen to another substance.
The combustion process begins when a fuel source is heated beyond its ignition temperature in the presence of an oxidant, with this molecular energy creating a self-sustaining chemical chain reaction of radicals when the energy it produces is greater than or equal to the energy needed for continued burning.
The Four Elements
Fuel is any substance that can undergo combustion. It exists in three states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. Solid and liquids do not burn. Instead, combustion occurs in a region of vapours above the surface of the fuel that is created by heating the solid or liquid above its ignition temperature in a process known as pyrolysis. It is these escaping vapours that burn. Unlike solid and liquids, gases do not require pyrolysis before combustion can occur.
An Oxidising Agent
Oxygen is the most common oxidising agent. Oxygen supports combustion but does not burn. Normal air contains 21% oxygen; and the higher the concentration of oxygen in the air, the more intensely a fire will burn. However, a fire can burn without the presence of oxygen if another oxidising agent is present, e.g. nitrates, peroxides, iodine, chlorine, etc.
Heat is produced by an exothermic reaction (a chemical reaction that produces more energy than needed for the reaction to occur, causing the excess energy to be released as heat). Heat transfers from an area of higher temperature to an area of lower temperature by three principal means: conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is the transfer of heat between substances that are in direct contact with each other. Convection only occurs in liquids and gases. Liquid and gas expand and become less dense as they are heated. This causes them to rise, being displaced by colder and denser liquid or gas. This is in turn heated and also rises. The risen liquid or gas cools and falls, with the resultant convection current occurring until a uniform temperature is attained. Radiation is the transfer of heat energy through electromagnetic radiation in the infra-red part of the spectrum, between substances that are not in direct contact with each other.
A Chemical Chain Reaction
See the Chemistry of Fire above.
The Extinguishing of Fire
Since four elements must be present for the combustion process to occur (fuel, heat, an oxidizing agent, and a chemical chain reaction), a fire can be extinguished by removing any one of these four elements.
In practical fire-fighting terms, this translates as starvation, cooling, smothering, and interference:
- Starvation is the process of depriving the fire of fuel, i.e. combustible materials.
- Cooling is the process of depriving the fire of heat, e.g. by applying a substance such as water that will absorb heat from the fire and thereby reduce the fire's temperature below the critical level needed to sustain the fire.
- Smothering is the process of depriving the fire of the oxygen needed to sustain the combustion process.
- Interference is the process of applying extinguishing agents to the fire that inhibit the chemical chain reaction at the molecular level.
All fire extinguishers operate on this principle, with their various extinguishing agents removing one or more of the four elements from the fire. For example, water fire extinguishers work by cooling and quenching a fire (removing the element of heat from it) and carbon dioxide fire extinguishers work by displacing oxygen at the source of the fire and replacing it with an inert gas (removing the element of oxygen from it) and they also have a limited cooling effect.
In addition to extinguishing a fire by cooling it or depriving it of oxygen, a fire can be extinguished by removing its fuel source or by applying extinguishing agents that inhibit the combustion process at the molecular level. | <urn:uuid:0748fe8c-987d-402c-b44b-1e0cf84a70a6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.firesure.ie/fire_safety_guidance/theory_of_fire.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928859 | 1,094 | 4.1875 | 4 |
The Amazon basin is one of the world's wondrous ecosystems, supporting massive amounts of life, both in kind and quantity. You might have thought about poison frogs or monkeys, but you've probably never stopped to wonder, "Where are all the nutrients that power this biotic explosion coming from?"
The answer is actually astonishing and delightful in that one-planet-one-love kind of way. As laid out in a 2006 paper that science writer Colin Schultz dug up, nearly half of the nutrients that power the Amazon come from a valley in the Sahara called the Bodélé depression. At 17,100 square miles, the area is about a third of the size of Florida or 0.5 percent the size of the Amazon basin it supplies.
"This depression is a unique dust source due to its location at a bottle neck of two large magmatic formations that serves as a `wind lens', guiding and focusing the surface winds to the Bodélé," the authors, an international team of geologists, wrote.
This is what that looks like.
But now let's zoom out. The dust storms that come swirling out of the Sahara can cover an area larger than the United States. That's the only scale that could deliver 40 million tons of dust from Africa to the Amazonian basin each year. | <urn:uuid:e10610c3-6699-4d5b-9700-0c4c9e389d4c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/today-in-astonishment-the-amazon-rainforest-gets-half-its-nutrients-from-a-single-tiny-spot-in-the-sahara/260655/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960895 | 264 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Sweden Bans Creation
There was a time, even in Swedish history, that private religious schools had the right to teach the idea that the Universe was created and designed by an intelligent Being. That time has come and gone. The Education Act of 2008 in Sweden prohibits the teaching of creation alongside evolution in biology classrooms. Swedish Education Minister Dan Björklund said that the prohibition against teaching creation is to “protect” the pupils from “all forms of fundamentalism” (“Creationism to be...,” 2007). Björklund commented that all religious activities need not cease. Schools could still open with prayer, but all religious teaching or activities would have to be completely separated from class teaching. Björklund also remarked that the Swedish National Agency for Education would be doubling the number of inspections at schools and instituting other measures that would “make it easier to close schools that were breaking the rules” (2007).
Implications surrounding this course of action by Swedish officials reek of big-brother-type censorship and civil rights violations. Björklund claims to be protecting the nation’s students from “all forms of fundamentalism.” Yet, the teaching of organic evolution is a form of fundamentalism that surpasses some of the most radical religious beliefs. The Swedish officials have in essence established a closed system in which only the fundamentalist teaching of evolution is allowed, and no open-minded evaluation of the evidence is permitted. This type of fundamentalist promotion can only lead to an educational system steeped in mindless recycling of unproven ideas based on tenuous evidence that have never been forced to face sustained analyses of critical thinking. The Swedish government knows that evolution cannot stand on its own merits when placed beside the superior ideology of intelligent design. Thus, instead of allowing the two ideas to “duke it out,” allowing the best one to win, Sweden has chosen to throw its official weight behind the faltering theory of evolution and disqualify intelligent design so that it cannot even step into the ring. One might expect this to occur in the public school setting, although the implementation of such a program would severely retard the educational growth of the system. But when such occurs in the private school sector, it becomes increasingly clear that strong-arm tactics of intellectual and religious suppression are at play.
From various outlets in the United States, it is becoming increasingly clear that school officials in the upper echelons of our democratic Republic would love to see, enacted in our country, similar legal action banning creation. We must realize that the atheistic evolutionary agenda will not relent until it maintains control of all teaching outlets, including both public and private schools. Those dedicated to teaching and defending creation must speak out against such tyrannical manifestations of dictatorial power. If we do not speak out now, there may come a time when we cannot. The thoughts attributed to Martin Niemöller concerning the Nazi regime during World War II ake the point with force:
First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
“Creationism to be Banished from Swedish Schools” (2007), The Local, http://www.thelocal.se/8790/20071015/. | <urn:uuid:9656876b-6e63-49b1-ba8b-0646e25c50f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=2292 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970454 | 743 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The right to know what’s in our food
Like many Vermonters, I took advantage of the fantastic spring weather last weekend and started to prepare my garden for the season. I cleaned up the asparagus bed, moved my blueberry bushes to a more favorable location and found my rhubarb patch under the tangle of weeds that had slowly invaded before the onset of winter.
For me, gardening is a form of meditation. I have time to think ó or not think ó when I am on my knees clearing away pernicious weeds from my food sources.
Iíve been thinking about the deeper connection we have to our food when we grow it ourselves. Knowing what went into the ground to help grow that asparagus, we can appreciate the taste even more when those spears snap in our mouths, fresh out of the ground.
We are fortunate to live where we can grow our own food, whether in our own backyards or in one of the many community gardens sprouting up around the state. We can also participate in a growing number of CSA shares with local farms or shop at farmers markets, thereby supporting those who make their living by growing the food we eat.
In 2009, the Legislature directed the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund to create a 10-year strategic plan to strengthen the stateís food system. As a result, Vermont has developed one of the most comprehensive plans in the country and is paving the way for a regional plan with the other New England states.
This work, which encourages sustainable agriculture and resilience to climate change, is being accomplished not only in our own backyards but statewide as well.
The goal of the plan is to expand Vermontís local food system ó specifically, to double the amount of food we eat that is grown here in Vermont by the year 2020.
Already the strategic plan has led to the creation of numerous farm-to-plate initiatives around the state. Schools, hospitals and other institutions have gotten involved. The farm-to-plate network has developed. The recently created Vermont Food System Atlas allows users to search for people and places in the stateís food system by keyword, food system category and location.
This momentum has now led Vermont to demand that we have a right to know what goes into the food we donít grow ourselves. Last week, the Senate voted 28-2 in favor of H.112, which requires mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically modified crops. This means that Vermont is on the way to becoming the first state to enact such legislation.
The strong Senate vote comes after review by three committees, with much of the work focused on crafting a bill that would withstand an expected lawsuit from the biotechnology industry and setting up a special fund for the Vermont attorney generalís office.
Monsanto has threatened a lawsuit, but other countries faced with that same threat have passed their own GMO-labeling laws.
In contrast to bills passed last year in Maine and Connecticut that require other states to pass GMO-labeling laws before they can be enacted, Vermontís law contains no such trigger clause.†
We should all thank our legislators for their courage in helping us strengthen our connection to our food. Not only have they have helped pave the way for a food security plan ó they have also set the standard for our right to know what others are putting in our food.
Now, if they could help me remove this goutweed from my raspberries, Iíd be delighted.
Bill Laberge, a solar consultant who lives in Dorset, can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:e233a134-2b3c-4e15-9418-98617ad928b1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20140427/OPINION06/704279911/0/BOB05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954882 | 740 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Bjorn Lomborg has found a new vocation. For years, the Danish doubter has been hectoring the scientific community about their shoddy understanding of climate science – a discipline he has never published a peer reviewed paper about.
Now he is championing the dangerous prospect of geo-engineering as his latest reason to ignore ballooning carbon emissions. Specifically he believes a fleet of 1,900 robotic ships patrolling the Pacific Ocean churning seawater into the upper atmosphere will negate the need to do anything about climate change.
This loopy prospect emerged from the Copenhagen Consensus - Lomborg’s personal climate conference where hand-picked attendees parrot his fringe notion that climate change is simply to expensive to deal with. Real economists around the world have come to exactly the opposite conclusion .
And now Lomborg finds himself at odds with actual experts yet again. The same week he was courting press attention for his robot ship solution, a gathering of independent scientists was warning the world about the dangers of relying on geo-engineering instead of emission cuts.
“Playing with the Earth’s climate is a dangerous game with unclear rules,” said Robert Jackson , director of Duke University’s Center on Global Change and organizer of a symposium on geo-engineering at the Ecological Society of America’s Annual Meeting.
“We need more direct ways to tackle global warming, including energy efficiency, reduced consumption, and investment in renewable energy sources. The bigger the scale of the approach, the riskier it is for the environment,” said Jackson.
Strangely, Lomborg’s fleet of robotic ships was not even a topic of discussion at the symposium. Instead researchers focused on the more plausible idea of injecting huge amounts of sulfur particles and other aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight.
While most scientists caution that geo-engineering should only be considered as an emergency response to catastrophic climate change, it might provide temporary reductions in global temperatures. However, they also warn that solar radiation management schemes would do nothing to reduce the ballooning carbon load in the atmosphere or the impending death of coral reefs worldwide due to ocean acidification.
Monkeying around with the world’s thermostat can have other unintended consequences such as endangering the planet’s critically important ozone layer.
“An increase in ozone depletion over the Arctic could lead to dangerous levels of ultraviolet light hitting the Earth’s surface,” said Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research . “In this case, the recovery of the ozone hole over the Antarctic could be delayed by decades.”
Other researchers warn of drastic and permanent changes to precipitation patterns around the world.
Another geo-engineering scheme involves dumping huge amounts of iron particles into the ocean to stimulate microbial uptake of carbon. The downside? Potentially enormous dead-zones where decay of phytoplankton blooms lead to oxygen-free ocean “deserts” that kill any marine life that swim into them. Researchers also warn that ocean fertilization schemes would only alleviate a fraction of the massive increase in atmospheric carbon from burning fossil fuels.
“Any large-scale fertilization could cause risks to ocean ecosystems as great as those of global warming itself,” warned Charles Miller of Oregon State University .
Meanwhile, in the faux ivory tower of the “Copenhagen Consensus”, Lomborg as usual is arguing that the only sensible course of action is to burn baby burn. His particular brand of celebrity and ignorance remains one of the most unhelpful voices in the urgent discussion of how to deal with climate change. | <urn:uuid:9a72443b-4285-40b8-85b2-367d7d5aef41> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.desmogblog.com/print/4006 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927107 | 757 | 3.046875 | 3 |
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An oscilloscope is an electronic tool used to graphically depict sound waves and environmental frequencies. This sort of tool is helpful in a number of different applications. Some of the most common include music, particularly radio frequencies and digital music remastering, but it can also be helpful in certain circuitry and engineering scenarios and in doing things like measuring seismic activity and certain other sounds in nature. Most devices are calibrated to not just depict the sound waves happening in one instant, but also to track them over time, noting changes and significant shifts. They’re usually fairly easy to control and manipulate, and users can calibrate them to achieve a number of different goals. Additionally there are many different models to choose from, often with a range of specifications. Some are basic and easy to use, whereas others are much more complicated and often require supporting software and other equipment. People looking to buy one of these tools are usually wise to research the available options and carefully consider their needs before making an investment.
A typical oscilloscope is a rectangular box with a small screen, numerous input connectors and control knobs, and buttons on the front panel. A grid called the graticule on the face of the screen helps with measurement. Each square in the graticule is known as a division. The signal to be measured is fed to one of the input connectors, which is usually a coaxial connector that uses an electrical cord or other cabling. If the signal source has its own coaxial connector, then a simple coaxial cable may be all that’s required; otherwise, a specialized cable called a “scope probe” may be required, though in these cases the probe usually comes with the device.
In its simplest and most basic mode, the device draws a horizontal line called the trace across the middle of the screen from left to right that relates to the sounds heard and absorbed. One of the controls, the timebase control, sets the speed at which the line is drawn. It’s usually calibrated in seconds per division. If the input voltage departs from zero, the trace is deflected either upwards or downwards. Another control, the vertical control, sets the scale of the vertical deflection and is calibrated in volts per division. The resulting trace is a graph of voltage against time, with the most recent past to the left, the less recent past to the right.
When the input signal is what’s known as “periodic,” it’s usually possible to get a simple trace by setting the timebase to match the frequency of the input signal. For example, if the input signal is a 50 Hz sine wave, then its period is 20 ms, so the timebase should be adjusted so that the time between successive horizontal sweeps is 20 ms. This mode is called continual sweep. The flaw with this is that the tool's primary timebase is not usually perfectly accurate, and the frequency of the input signal is not usually perfectly stable; as a result, the trace may drift across the screen, which can make measurements difficult.
These devices typically have a function called the “trigger” that helps provide a more stable trace. In essence, the trigger causes the scope to pause after reaching the right hand side of the screen, where it waits for a specified event before returning to the left hand side of the screen and drawing the next trace. The effect is a resynchronization of the timebase to the input signal, which prevents horizontal drift. Trigger circuits allow the display of nonperiodic signals such as single pulses, as well as periodic signals such as sine waves and square waves.
Types of trigger include:
Most devices also allow users to bypass the timebase and feed an external signal into the horizontal amplifier. This is called X-Y mode, and is useful for viewing the phase relationship between two signals, as might be done in radio and television engineering. When the two signals are sinusoids of varying frequency and phase, the resulting trace is called a Lissajous curve.
Some oscilloscopes have cursors, which are lines that can be moved about the screen to measure the time interval between two points, or the difference between two voltages. Most devices also have two or more input channels, which allows them to display more than one input signal on the screen at a given time. Usually they has a separate set of vertical controls for each channel, but only one triggering system and timebase.
A dual-timebase device has two triggering systems so that two signals can be viewed on different time axes. This is also known as a "magnification" mode. The user first traps the desired signal using a suitable trigger setting. Then he or she enables the magnification, zoom, or dual timebase feature, and can move a window to look at details of the complex signal.
Sometimes the event that the user wants to see may only happen occasionally. To catch these events, some oscilloscopes are "storage scopes" that preserve the most recent sweep on the screen. Some digital models can sweep at speeds as slow as once per hour, emulating a strip chart recorder. That is, the signal scrolls across the screen from right to left.
@Logicfest -- not entirely true. When stereo components were strictly analog, people were limited in what they could use to visualize their music. Choose an expensive oscilloscope or an inexpensive, effective decibel meter, see?
Now that visualization components are largely digital, you can choose all sorts of ways to "see" your music. And oscilloscopes are very popular options when it comes to seeing what your music looks like through a filter that measures it.
These came in vogue in the 1960s as part of stereos. An oscilloscope can easily trace the changes in signals called by music and adds quite a bit to the visualization of music -- a way to enhance the listening experience.
Unfortunately, those have largely been replaced by simple, cheap strength meters that measure decibels. They are effective, but the unique shapes caused when an oscilloscope measures music is lost.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | <urn:uuid:c6feccde-973c-4143-b51b-f42951b19c55> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-oscilloscope.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951567 | 1,301 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Still afraid of the dark? It's probably time to get over it. New evidence from Ohio State University found that a dim light at night — whether it comes from a night-light, or staying up late in front of a computer or TV — may be making you depressed. Here's what you should know:
What happened in this study?
University researchers exposed hamsters to a faint light when they went to sleep. Within a few weeks, the animals began to exhibit classic symptoms of depression. The hamsters spurned sugar water (normally, a reliable lure for hamsters) and were more lethargic than peers who slept in complete darkness. They performed poorly on behavior tests. Brain scans revealed changes in the hamsters' hippocampus typically associated with depressed people. "The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans," says study author Tracy Bedrosian.
What does artificial light do to the body?
Artificial light disrupts our natural circadian rhythms, which may in turn alter the body's hormone levels. "When people spend too little time in darkness, it seems that the body suppresses release of the hormone melatonin," says Laura Blue at TIME, which is thought to fight a myriad of conditions, including tumor growth and cancers. According to the American Medical Association, interrupting the body's circadian rhythm could also lead to obesity, diabetes, and reproductive problems.
So I should get rid of my night-light?
The team speculates that artificial light may be part of the reason depression rates have soared in recent decades. There is good news, however: When the afflicted hamsters were again allowed to sleep a full eight hours per night in the dark, their depressive symptoms disappeared completely. This offers gloomy night owls some hope, says Bedrosian. "People who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light." | <urn:uuid:1a880c55-b844-4d1d-a7ca-7d021daafb95> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://theweek.com/articles/473636/does-sleeping-nightlight-cause-depression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966731 | 410 | 3.328125 | 3 |
One of NASA's most celebrated programs relies on the transit method to find exoplanets. Since 2009, the Kepler mission's space telescope has been surveying 170,000 stars in a small patch of sky near the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Its main instrument, a photometer with a field of view of just 12 degrees, can detect stellar dimming caused by planets as small as Earth.
So far, its observations have rocked the scientific community and stirred the imaginations of space geeks everywhere. In all, the mighty Kepler has identified more than 3,000 potential and confirmed planets. Those that have been confirmed could be entries in an atlas of the "Star Wars" galaxy. For example, Kepler-16b is a Saturn-sized planet orbiting two stars, a la Luke Skywalker's home Tatooine. And the Kepler-11 system consists of six planets -- some rocky and some gas giants -- orbiting a single, sunlike star.
The most amazing discoveries, however, occur when astronomers confirm the existence of Earth-like planets, such as the two dubbed Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f. Both are terrestrial planets roughly the same size as our own inner planets. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, and 20f is slightly larger than Earth. Unfortunately, neither of these potential Earths lies in the Goldilocks zone -- both are burning-hot ovens -- so they're unlikely to harbor little green men, or even little green microbes. Kepler-22b may be more hospitable. Confirmed in December 2011, 22b is located 600 light-years away and orbits in the Goldilocks zone of a sunlike star. Astronomers believe the planet's radius is more than double that of Earth, but they haven't determined its composition.
Kepler isn't the only effort uncovering a bonanza of awe-inspiring exoplanets though. | <urn:uuid:0eb469a4-9760-4854-8384-0f61c8c6b0df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://science.howstuffworks.com/other-earth3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933578 | 389 | 3.625 | 4 |
How (not) to structure and phrase biograpical articles[fontem recensere]
The first sentence of a biographical article should be a succinct summary, needing only the person's (1) name, (2) years (or century), and (3) claim to fame. All the temporal information that's needed in the first line is the plain years in parentheses, e.g. "(1876–1954)." The details – including the exact dates and places of birth and death – should be added into the later section(s). (For some people, a short "Vita" – or "De vita" or "Biographia" – section will suffice; for others, the "Vita" section will break down into many subsections or new sections.).
Rationale: If a short biographical article is expected to grow (as 99.99% of them are), it should be structured ab initio to ease that growth. Putting full dates & places of birth & death in the first line will inconvenience later editors, who'll be obliged to spend extra effort removing full dates & places from the first line, often rewording them, and always putting them elsewhere. To organize the information in biographical stubs as if they were complete articles (which is what many writers have been doing) may give them the illusion of elegance, but it places a barrier in the way of writers who want to expand them.
Articles about persons should be put in categories so as to indicate:
- the profession of the person (or the activity that made him/her notable), e. g. Categoria:Politici and
- the nationality (or place of relevant activity), e. g. Categoria:Incolae Norvegiae, Categoria:Romani antiqui.
(These two pieces of information – profession and country – may be indicated using a "combined category", where such a category exists, e. g. Categoria:Reges Franciae.)
- the dates of birth and death, if these are known with reasonable certainty. These can always be added whether or not they result in bluelinks. For dates A.D. the format is [[Categoria:Nati 1215]] and [[Categoria:Mortui 1299]]; for dates B.C. the format is [[Categoria:Nati 434 a.C.n.]] and [[Categoria:Mortui 360 a.C.n.]]. | <urn:uuid:1af63619-23cb-42f6-8956-f9a26b552a5e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicipaedia:Biographia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.825539 | 522 | 2.734375 | 3 |
One of many small hollow spaces in the bones around the nose. Paranasal sinuses are named after the bones that contain them: frontal (the lower forehead), maxillary (cheekbones), ethmoid (beside the upper nose), and sphenoid (behind the nose). The paranasal sinuses open into the nasal cavity (space inside the nose) and are lined with cells that make mucus to keep the nose from drying out during breathing.
Last updated: 2016-05-18
Source: The National Cancer Institute's Dictionary of Cancer Terms (http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary) | <urn:uuid:8a1f84d7-c452-4e98-9a7c-af352ba5b547> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vicc.org/cancers/disease-info.php?xml=xml-files/glossaryterm/CDR0000518299.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.856898 | 128 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Forest owners now can enjoy annual income from their woodlands and still manage for high quality sawlogs and veneer logs. No, there haven't been any new super-growth hormones developed. However, foresters have begun to focus on non-traditional items that nature produces in and around forests every year--potential products that can be marketed for annual income.
Did you ever think about tree pollen as a product of your forest? Tree and shrub pollens of many species are harvested in hardwood stands beginning in early spring, when flowering starts. Generally, pollens are harvested by "producers" who pick the flowering structures when the pollen is "ripe." They contract in advance with landowners for pollen harvesting rights.
Prices for raw pollen vary from about $1 per gram for the most common species to over $20 per gram for species that produce little pollen or occur in a limited range.
Prices vary from year to year, but pollen processors distribute price lists containing the species they desire to purchase that year and the approximate amount they are willing to pay for material meeting their specifications.
Blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, huckleberries, wild strawberries, wild grapes or mulberries grow under a forest canopy. Landowners might allow people to pick wild berries for a fee or pick them themselves and sell the fruit to individuals or local businesses for further processing.
Persimmons, pawpaws, chokecherries and crab apples are used for specialty jams and jellies, confections and baked goods. May apples and crab apples are used in jellies and preserves as well as medicinal compounds. People are growing natural varieties of pawpaw, sometimes called the "Ozark banana," for more consistent fruit production, larger fruit size and smaller seeds. The pulp of the fruit is high in vitamin C. The twigs and leaves contain compounds used as natural pesticides and anti-cancer medicines.
AgriMissouri Buyers Guide, a publication of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, lists many processors and canners and markets for a wide variety of wild crafted products. This publication is as an excellent reference for landowners attempting to find existing markets for many special forest products in their local area.
If you have access to the Internet, visit <http://www.spoon.com> to see what a variety of gourmet products can be produced almost entirely from wild harvested fruits and nuts.
Black walnuts have been the major nut crop in Missouri for many years, thanks to Hammons Products Company of Stockton, the world's largest processor of black walnuts. In an average year this company purchases and processes over 20 million pounds of nuts. Most of this volume comes from wild trees and is delivered to market by landowners. For walnuts delivered to a "huller," producers are paid $10 per hundredweight after the green outer husk is removed.
Native pecans also are collected and sold, most of them directly to consumers at roadside stands or to commercial processors. Managing native pecan stands for nut production is increasing, but the market is still open.
Many of the "minor" nut species also have active markets. Hickory markets are expanding in the South and Midwest. In addition, the demand for butternut, chestnut and hazelnut normally exceeds supply.
Acorns are often overlooked as edible nuts in this country, but they have future potential in international markets, especially along the Pacific Rim.
Other edible products of forests include honey, mushrooms, maple syrup, herbs, spices, edible roots and flavorings. You can get more detailed information about any of these products in your local library or on the Internet.
Cones from coniferous species offer a variety of market possibilities. The most obvious markets for ripe cones are tree nurseries throughout the country.
Cone harvest often takes place in conjunction with a timber sale timed to take place when the cones are ripe. Cones can then be more easily picked from the remaining tops following removal of logs and pulpwood.
Cones that have opened also are in demand for various floral, wreath and potpourri products. Many nurseries now sell opened cones to craft markets. Almost any species of cones, from small fir cones to large ponderosa pine cones, are marketable. Cones are most often sold by weight but may also be sold by the bushel or be individually priced for large or unusual specimens. Prices average 30 to 60 cents per pound.
Hardwood seed crops can be handled in a similar manner. The market is growing for seed of both tree and shrub species for native plant nurseries.
Seeds from understory plants and shrubs are equally desirable, and seed from medicinal plant species may be marketed as grown in a cultured environment. A thorough inventory of all your forest plants would be a good idea to determine if you have potential for harvesting multiple seed crops.
Prices vary according to relative abundance of the species and the difficulty of harvesting the seed. Price lists are available from larger seed dealers and seed supply wholesalers. Landowners can harvest seed themselves or sell harvesting rights to a seed collection company.
Seed production is variable, even in local areas. For consistent income, landowners should focus on several different species and become familiar with the seed production requirements for each. You should also check special state regulations regarding the species being harvested, although there are few restrictions for harvesting on private land.
Unusual parts of trees, such as burls, conks, shelf fungus and dwarf mistletoe-infected branches, can be sold in most areas of the country. Distorted grain patterns, colors and textures lend appeal to wood turnings, veneer, carvings or sculpture.
Diamond willow walking sticks made from willow infected with canker are popular. In Missouri, oak, hickory, willow, red cedar, walnut, sassafras and staghorn sumac are harvested when 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter for walking sticks. Wholesale prices average $1 to $2 per 3- to 4-foot stick.
Cypress knees, fruitwood grafts, pine knots, knot holes and limb crotches can be marketed through hardwood lumber outlets, carving shops and specialty wood supply houses. A few specialty wood supply catalogs also list a variety of these products. Horticultural supply companies occasionally stock this type of material for bouquets, floral arrangements, bases, etc.
Oak, hickory and elm (with bark still attached) sticks in a diameter of .5 to 1.5 inches are required by manufactures of bent-wood or rustic furniture. Fresh 4-foot sticks sell for approximately 50 cents each. Longer sticks--up to 10 feet long--sell for more. Eastern red cedar also is used for similar products. You can ship sticks to manufacturers in small bundles.
Burls, figured wood, spalted wood or woods of unusual color also are in demand for turnings, wood pens, furniture panels, veneer and many other specialty uses. These are items that are relatively scarce and highly desirable, therefore it is not uncommon for them to be sold individually.
Spalted wood usually develops in logs or trees that have been lying on the ground long enough for the decay process to begin. Spalting usually occurs in the sapwood portion of the tree, leaving the heartwood still usable for lumber or other solid wood products. Old log decks sometimes are a good source of spalted wood.
Decorative woods generally are sold by weight. The price per pound is highly variable and depends on the species, rarity and quality of the item. It is not uncommon for items in this category to change hands many times before being processed into a consumer product. Global markets are active. The Internet is helpful in locating dealers and individual markets.
Medicinal compounds used for naturopathic remedies include a large number of herbs used to make teas and oils. These markets are well established and growing. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs also require specific chemical compounds contained in plants and trees.
Wild crafting or gathering these plants has historically provided income for many rural families.
Pharmaceuticals are not the only use for many of these plants. Some dyes, cosmetics, fungicides and insecticides also are derived from relatively common plants. Several botanical companies with headquarters in Missouri purchase and market botanical plant material throughout the world. All regularly publish price lists and specifications for the plants or plant parts they purchase.
Some of these plants are relatively rare and may actually be listed as rare or endangered. Landowners are advised to become familiar with harvesting regulations that might be applicable if these plants are marketed.
Bark is used for medicinal and "natural" food supplements.
Cottonwood bark is prized by wood carvers, who cut faces and caricatures from the thick plates. It is also used for bases for floral arrangements and crafts. It is softer than wood, but dense enough to maintain detail. Pieces 3 to 4 inches wide, 10 to 12 inches long and 2 to 3 inches thick would sell for $5 to $15 at craft and carving shows.
Bark with distinctive patterns (hackberry, winged elm, persimmon, etc.) or color may have a market in your area. The problem with harvesting bark products is that it usually kills the trees.
Use of private forest land for recreational pursuits offers private landowners potential for annual income. The landowner has almost unlimited options in this area, from doing almost nothing to intensive development.
The old real estate adage of "location, location, location," certainly is true here. If your land is located near population centers, your options are probably greater than if it is in a remote area. However, remoteness is a commodity that can be marketed also. Fee hunting and fishing have been sources of income in some areas of the country for many years. Urban families are willing to pay for places to enjoy nature photography, harvesting wild edibles, farm vacations, hiking, photographic tours, picnic areas and bird watching.
Allowing people access to your private property is not without risk. Liability insurance rates vary widely for recreational enterprises.
We've named only a few of the thousands of potential forest products. For the innovative landowner or entrepreneur, however, these brief descriptions will point the way to specific products and markets. To begin research, obtain a copy of Income Opportunities in Special Forest Products, Self Help Suggestions for Rural Entrepreneurs; USDA-Forest Service; Agricultural Information Bulletin No. 666, 1993. The initial printing has been sold out, but most libraries can obtain microfiche copies. For more specific assistance, contact the nearest Conservation Department office and talk with a resource forester.
Editor - Tom Cwynar
Assistant Editor - Charlotte Overby
Managing Editor - Jim Auckley
Art Editor - Dickson Stauffer
Designer - Tracy Ritter
Artist - Dave Besenger
Artist - Mark Raithel
Photographer - Jim Rathert
Photographer - Cliff White
Staff Writer - Jim Low
Staff Writer - Joan McKee
Composition - Libby Bode Block
Circulation - Bertha Bainer | <urn:uuid:2e2ca2b2-5f25-4ddf-95a2-4feb8e222993> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/1999/08/making-hay-your-forest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947868 | 2,296 | 2.59375 | 3 |
This study quantitatively analyzes the general equilibrium effects of declines in world demand for tobacco products. The study finds that tobacco exports and production in the three developing countries, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Turkey, would be badly hit if world tobacco prices fall due to the decline in tobacco demand. Moreover, for a given decrease in the world tobacco price, the more important the tobacco sector is in an economy, the worse the tobacco sector is hit. Tobacco is quite important to the Malawian and Zimbabwean economies as tobacco production and trade accounted for, respectively, 17% and 43% of agricultural GDP and tobacco exports accounted for 50% and 35% of national exports in these two countries. The negative effects of a decline in world tobacco prices on the Malawian and Zimbabwean economies are much larger than that on the Turkish economy. In the case of China, tobacco production, marketing, cigarette processing, distribution, and foreign trade are strictly controlled by the government and tobacco trade accounted for a small share of production and consumption. Thus, the decline in the world tobacco prices would hardly affect China’s tobacco sector. The study shows that it is highly risky for a developing country to highly depend on exports of a single agricultural commodity. To reduce such risk, a country has to create a more diversified and flexible export structure. | <urn:uuid:3db1cda9-6a74-4837-81ce-176b46b17c0f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ifpri.org/publication/assessing-impacts-declines-world-price-tobacco-china-malawi-turkey-and-zimbabwe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923195 | 266 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR): Safety Issues
Edwin S. Lyman
The Bush Administration has made the expansion of nuclear power generation a centerpiece of its domestic energy policy. However, the White House has not addressed the practical issue of how to overcome the nearly three-decade-long aversion among U.S. electric utilities to investing in new nuclear plants. In today's deregulating market, utilities will not build new nuclear power plants unless they are clearly competitive with fossil fuel plants (or receive substantial government subsidies). Compounding the difficulty are the nagging questions that continue to inhibit public acceptance of nuclear power: severe accident risk, non-proliferation, vulnerability to sabotage and nuclear waste disposal. To solve all these problems simultaneously will be a considerable challenge --- one unlikely to be met by the current generation of light-water reactors (LWRs), the only reactor type now used for power generation in the U.S.
Given this context, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. nuclear industry is hanging its hopes on a radically different type of plant known as the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR). The mega-utility Exelon has invested in a project of the South African state utility Eskom to develop and commercialize the PBMR, and is now engaged in detailed discussions with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in anticipation of submitting a license application for construction of ten 110 MWe PBMR modules in December 2002. Once construction approval is granted, Exelon hopes to build the first module in only 20 months.
Advocates of the helium-cooled, graphite-moderated PBMR argue that it is significantly safer than LWRs and should be exempted from a number of regulatory requirements that apply to the current generation of nuclear plants. If the NRC were to waive these regulations, these advocates claim that a PBMR could be developed with many of the characteristics that make gas turbines economically attractive: low capital cost, short construction time, high conversion efficiency and feasibility of modular production and distribution. Without these exemptions, however, the prospect of a commercially viable PBMR would become much less certain.
The nuclear industry has a long history of proposing new nuclear plant designs that sound great in theory but disappoint in practice, and the PBMR may be no exception. Some technical features of the PBMR are clearly improvements over LWRs, but others raise new safety concerns. Unlike LWRs, the PBMR does not have the benefit of thousands of reactor-years' worth of operating experience. Only a handful of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) have operated in the past, and the results have been decidedly mixed. Moreover, none of these reactors had employed the unique power conversion system proposed for the PBMR, in which the reactor coolant is used as the working fluid of a gas turbine to directly generate electricity.
Definitive resolution of the numerous open technical issues is likely to take quite some time. This is time that Exelon --- which hopes to obtain a license from NRC in only two-and-a-half years --- is not inclined to expend. The increased flexibility that utilities need to compete in a deregulated market limits their timelines for decision-making, and may well be incompatible with the caution and rigor that advanced nuclear reactor development requires.
PBMR Design and Safety Features
Although the general outlines of the PBMR are known, the design that Exelon plans to submit to the NRC has not been finalized, so the following description is subject to change. The reactor consists of an annular core surrounded by graphite blocks. The core consists of 330,000 "pebbles": softball-sized graphite spheres, each containing 15,000 fuel microspheres, and 110,000 graphite spheres containing no fuel. Each fuel microsphere is composed of a uranium dioxide pellet (enriched to 8% U-235), enclosed in a three-layer coating consisting of a layer of silicon carbide sandwiched by two layers of pyrolytic carbon. This so-called TRISO fuel has exhibited good fission product retention in German tests up to temperatures of about 1600 C. Fuel pebbles are continuously loaded at the top of the core, flow downward, and are discharged at the bottom. Because the PBMR is fueled while operating, shutdowns would be required only for maintenance purposes and would take place every six years. (In contrast, LWRs must be shut down for fuel reloading; currently this is done about every eighteen months.) Fuel burnups are intended to go as high as 80,000 MWD/MT, whereas NRC limits the maximum burnup of LWR fuel pins to 62,000 MWD/MT. (MWD/MT= megawatt-days per metric ton, a measure of the total amount of heat extracted from a fuel element.)
The temperature resistance of the fuel and the use of a single-phase, gaseous coolant enables the reactor to operate at a coolant temperature of about 900 C, considerably higher than the operating temperature of LWRs. The higher temperature alone allows the reactor to achieve a conversion efficiency of 39%. Use of the coolant in a direct gas turbine cycle (known as the Brayton cycle) further increases the efficiency to about 43%.
Because the PBMR is continuously refueled, the excess reactivity can be kept low. Also, the design has a more negative fuel temperature coefficient than LWRs, as the Doppler feedback is greater for the less-thermal neutron spectrum associated with a graphite moderator.* These features reduce the risk of reactivity accidents for most scenarios (but increases the risk for accidents involving core overcooling).
*Doppler broadening is a temperature feedback mechanism in which the absorption resonances of U-238 in the 6-100 eV range broaden as the temperature increases, resulting in greater resonant neutron absorption. As more neutrons are captured by U-238 atoms, fewer are available for U-235 fission at thermal energies (i.e. around 1/40 eV), reducing the reactivity. Since neutrons must undergo more collisions with carbon than with hydrogen to reach thermal energies, there are more neutrons in the resonant absorption range for graphite-moderated homogeneous systems than for water-moderated homogeneous systems, so the graphite system would feel the Doppler effect more strongly.
A major component of the PBMR safety basis is a low power density (an order of magnitude below that of an LWR) and large thermal capacity (as a result of the large mass of graphite in the core), together with the high-temperature resistance of the fuel. The maximum power rating of each module (265 MWth) and the high surface-to-volume ratio of the core were chosen so that in the event of a loss of coolant from the primary system, adequate cooling would be provided without the need for forced convection. PBMR designers claim that in the event of a total loss of primary coolant and no operator intervention, the core heatup rate would be slow and the maximum fuel temperature would not exceed 1600 C. Thus the design does not include conventional emergency core cooling systems, which are required for LWRs to provide emergency water sources in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident.
PBMR advocates are so confident in the safety of the reactor (some even call it "meltdown-proof") that they have proposed a drastic weakening of a number of safety requirements that apply to the current generation of U.S. nuclear plants. These proposals include (1) use of a filtered, vented confinement building instead of a robust containment capable of preventing a large release of radioactive materials in the event of severe core damage; (2) a reduction of the size of the emergency planning zone (EPZ) from 16 kilometers to 400 meters; (3) a reduction in the number of staff, including operators and security personnel; and (4) a reduction in the number of systems whose components must meet the most stringent quality assurance standards.
However, there is insufficient technical justification for these measures. The presence of a pressure-resistant, leak-tight containment and the maintenance of comprehensive emergency planning are both prudent "defense-in-depth" measures that could mitigate the impact of a severe accident with core damage. Defense-in-depth is the requirement that nuclear reactors should have multiple, independent barriers in place to prevent injuries to the public and damage to the environment. The presence of multiple barriers is a hedge against uncertainty and an acknowledgement that the understanding of the performance of any one barrier is incomplete.
PBMR promoters claim that a robust containment is unnecessary because the design-basis depressurization accident cannot cause damage to the PBMR fuel severe enough to result in a large radiological release. They argue further that such a containment would actually be detrimental to safety because it would inhibit heat transfer and interfere with the passive mechanism needed to cool the core in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident. However, a containment is needed not only to inhibit the relatively minor releases that would occur during the design-basis accident, but also to mitigate the consequences of a more severe accident. Containments can also help to protect the reactor core from a sabotage attack utilizing truck bombs or hand-held rocket launchers --- an ominous possibility that should not be discounted.
If one could predict with confidence that severe accidents or sabotage attacks were so unlikely as to be incredible, then protection against them might not be justified. However, in the case of the PBMR, significant uncertainties remain, both in the likelihoods of potential severe accidents and in the identification of every potential accident sequence. The PBMR designers have not yet carried out a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and do not even have estimates of the risks of more severe accidents.
Among the largest sources of uncertainty for the PBMR are the potential for and consequences of a graphite fire. The large mass of graphite in the PBMR core must be kept isolated from ingress of air or water. Graphite can oxidize at temperatures above 400 C, and the reaction becomes self-sustaining at 550 C (the maximum operating temperature of the fuel pebbles is 1250 C). Graphite also reacts when exposed to water vapor. These reactions could lead to generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, both highly combustible gases.
If a pipe break were to occur, leading to a depressurization of the primary system, it has been shown that flow stratification through the break can cause air inflow and the potential for graphite ignition. While the PBMR designers claim that the geometry of the primary circuit will inhibit air inflow and hence limit oxidation, this has not yet been conclusively shown.
The consequences of an extensive graphite fire could be severe, undermining the argument that a conventional containment is not needed. Radiological releases from the Chernobyl accident were prolonged as a result of the burning of graphite, which continued long after other fires were extinguished. Even though the temperature of a graphite fire might not be high enough to severely damage the fuel microspheres, the burning graphite itself would be radioactive as a result of neutron activation of impurities and contamination with "tramp" uranium released from defective microspheres. An even worse consequence would be combustion of carbon monoxide, which could damage and disperse the core while at the same time destroying the reactor building, which is not being designed to withstand high pressure. In contrast, the large-volume concrete containments utilized at most pressurized-water reactors can withstand explosive pressures of about 9 atmospheres.
Another important source of uncertainty comes from the complexity of the PBMR core, which is constantly in motion. A PBMR operator must be able to accurately compute the pebble flow, neutron flux and core temperature distributions without the benefit of in-core instrumentation (since there are no structures to support such instrumentation). Previous experience with the AVR test reactor in Germany, a precursor to the PBMR, indicates cause for concern. Experiments measuring the He coolant temperature in the AVR found numerous "hot spots" in the coolant that exceeded 1280 C, whereas the maximum predicted temperature was only 1150 C. After NRC staff highlighted these findings, Exelon raised the design maximum fuel temperature limit during PBMR normal operation from 1060 C to 1250 C. This is of concern because above 1250 C the SiC layer of the TRISO fuel coating will degrade as a result of attack by palladium isotopes produced during fission. It also calls into question the accuracy of the current generation of computer codes for PBMR core analysis.
PBMR Fuel Performance
The safety case for the PBMR places great emphasis on the ability of the fuel pebbles to contain radionuclides under design-basis accident conditions. In order to provide assurance that the fuel will perform as expected, several levels of confirmation are required.
First, the fundamental fuel behavior must be sufficiently well understood that a complete set of technical specifications for the fuel can be derived. It appears that this is not yet the case. There are numerous instances in which TRISO microspheres manufactured to identical specifications and irradiated under identical conditions exhibited drastically different fission product release behavior that could not be attributed to observed physical defects like cracking of the SiC layer. This indicates that there are technical factors affecting TRISO performance that have not yet been identified.
Second, when a complete set of technical specifications is finally at hand, the PBMR fuel manufacturing process will have to be reliable enough to ensure that the specifications are met. Because PBMR fuel is credited to a greater degree than LWR fuel for maintaining safety under accident conditions, and is less tolerant than LWR fuel to defects, PBMR fuel will have to be subjected to more stringent quality control. However, even if the requirements were no more stringent for PBMR fuel than for LWR fuel, inspecting the enormous microsphere flow with a high enough sampling rate to ensure an adequately low defect level would be a considerable challenge. The number of TRISO microspheres manufactured annually to support ten PBMR modules (1150 MWe total) would be on the order of ten billion, three orders of magnitude greater than the number of uranium fuel pellets needed to supply an LWR of the same capacity.
Finally, even if the above two criteria are satisfied, there must be assurance that the behavior of the fuel will not be significantly worse than expected if conditions in the core deviate from predictions --- that is, the fuel should "fail gracefully." It is on this count that the current TRISO fuel technology is clearly a loser. While past experiments have shown that the SiC layer of TRISO fuel limits the release of highly hazardous radionuclides like Cs-137 to below 0.01% of inventory up to 1600 C, the retention capability is rapidly lost as the temperature continues to increase. At 1800 C, releases of 10% of the Cs-137 inventory have been observed, which is on the order of the release expected during a LWR core-melt accident. Without a leak-tight containment present, the release into the environment would be comparable to the release from the fuel.
Thus in order to justify the absence of a leak-tight containment, Exelon needs to demonstrate that the PBMR maximum fuel temperature will not exceed 1600 C during the design-basis depressurization accident, and that more severe accidents that could cause higher fuel temperatures are so improbable that they do not need to be considered. However, given the uncertainties discussed in the previous section --- like a discrepancy between calculated and measured maximum temperatures of at least 130 C --- there are serious grounds for skepticism.
Nuclear Waste Disposal
PBMR proponents do not normally bring up the issue of final disposal of the reactor's spent fuel. There is a reason for this: the volume of the spent fuel produced by a PBMR is significantly greater than that of the spent fuel produced by a conventional LWR, per unit of electricity generated. This is because the uranium in the fuel spheres is diluted in a large mass of graphite.
One can estimate the volume of spent pebbles discharged per unit of electricity generated for the Eskom PBMR as follows. Each pebble has a radius of 3 cm and a volume of 113 cm^3. Eskom calculates that operating a 110 MWe unit continuously at full power for 40 years will require 13.8 full fuel loads. Since each fuel load contains 330,000 pebbles (not counting the pure graphite spheres), this means that 4.55 million will be required over the plant lifetime. The amount of electricity generated during this period is 1.61 million MWD, so the total volume of spent fuel produced is 320 cm^3/MWD.
A typical 1150 MWe PWR operating on an 18-month cycle will discharge about 84 fuel assemblies per outage, with each assembly having a volume of about 186,000 cm^3. The amount of electricity generated is 630,000 MWD. Therefore, the volume of spent fuel produced is 25 cm^3/MWD, a factor of 13 less than for the PBMR.
The greatest amount of experience worldwide with nuclear reactor technology has been with the LWR. Even so, many outstanding technical and safety issues with LWR technology remain unresolved, and new surprises in well-established areas, like metallurgy, continue to arise. The development needed to take a new and unproven technology like the PBMR to a point where one can have confidence in the workability of the design will be substantial. Fundamental issues associated with the relationship between fuel quality control and fuel behavior under normal and accident conditions will have to be resolved, probably through extensive testing. While it is hard to estimate the amount of time and effort that would be required to do a satisfactory job, it is clear that the schedule that has been proposed by Exelon is inadequate for the task.
To get over the high hurdle of public acceptance, new nuclear plants should be clearly safer than existing ones. This is not the case with the PBMR. This problem is compounded by Exelon's desire to reduce safety margins required for current plants. In the aftermath of Chernobyl, the U.S. nuclear industry tried to reassure the public that such an accident could not happen here because U.S. reactors were equipped with robust containments, unlike Chernobyl. This argument will make it more difficult for Exelon to justify its choice of PBMR containment to the public.
Edwin S. Lyman
Scientific Director, Nuclear Control Institute
1000 Connecticut Ave., NW St. 410
Washington DC 20036
- U.S. NRC, "Summary of June 8, 2001 Meeting with NII on UK Experience with High Temperature Gas Reactors," Memorandum from T. King to A. Thadani, June 25, 2001.
- A. Kadak et al., Advanced Reactor Technology Pebble Bed Reactor Project Progress Report, MIT/INEEL, 2000.
- For a detailed description of the role of graphite in the Chernobyl accident, see Z. Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl, W.W. Norton, New York, 1990.
- U.S. NRC, "Meeting with Exelon Generation Company, DOE and Other Interested Stakeholders Regarding the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor," Memorandum from T. King to A. Thadani, July 23, 2001, Attachment 5-b; International Atomic Energy Agency, Fuel Performance and Fission Product Behavior In Gas-Cooled Reactors, IAEA-TECDOC-978, Nov. 1997, p. 120.
- International Atomic Energy Agency, Current Status and Future Development of Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Technology, IAEA-TECDOC-1198, Feb. 2001, p. 230.
- K. Minato et al., "Fission Product Release Behavior of Individual Coated Fuel Particles for High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors," Nuclear Technology 131 (2000).
- IAEA-TECDOC-978, op cit., p. 137 | <urn:uuid:05545871-0d2e-42e7-8a25-88c3a71794db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/2001/october/a6oct01.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93811 | 4,212 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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ἓν μέγα . ἓν balances πολλά: we need but one regulation, ‘the proverbial one great thing, or rather not great, but adequate.’ J. and C. err in translating ἱκανόν “to a sufficient extent”; and Stallbaum in making λεγόμενον “quod dicebamus.” ἓν μέγα is illustrated by J. and C. from Pol. 297 A. εὖ παιδευόμενοι. Does this refer to the scheme of education already given, or is it a promise of the philosopher's training in Books VI and VII? Krohn takes the former view (Pl. St. p. 127), and (if we have regard only to the preceding discussion) it must be allowed that this is the natural interpretation of Plato's words. At the same time, it is not easy to see how the musical education of II and III would enable the guardians to grasp such a conception as the community of wives and children. And in the later books Plato expressly declares that the training necessary for the Rulers was inadequately discussed before: see VI 497 C ff., 502 D. For these reasons we must, I think, suppose that Plato when he wrote these words was thinking of the education still to be provided. Cf. also III 414 A. τήν τε τῶν γυναικῶν κτλ. is the first mention of communism in wives and children. According to an ingenious chorizontic theory, it was this sentence which inspired the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes, to whose caricature Plato replies in Book V (Stein de Ar. Eccles. arg. etc. and Brandt Zur Entwick. d. Pl. Lehre v. d. Seelentheilen, p. 6). See on the whole subject App. I to Book V. In γάμων and παιδοποιίας there is a kind of zeugma: for κτῆσιν suits only γυναικῶν. Plato marks the difference by placing τε after τήν and not after τῶν. γάμους (conjectured by Richards) would depend on διόψονται; but διόψονται γάμους καὶ παιδοποιίας is surely an impossible expression.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. | <urn:uuid:728603ff-c2df-4efb-8e6f-2eea9cc4813a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0094%3Abook%3D4%3Asection%3D423E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904625 | 677 | 2.875 | 3 |
Suggestions For A Happier Life – By Professor David G. Myers
|1.Realize that enduring happiness
doesn’t come from success.
People adapt to changing circumstances—even to wealth or a disability. Thus, wealth is like health: its utter absence breeds misery, but having it (or any circumstance we long for) doesn’t guarantee happiness.
2.Take control of your time.
Happy people feel in control of their lives. To master your use of time, set goals and break them into daily aims. Although we often overestimate how much we will accomplish in any given day (leaving us frustrated), we generally underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year, given just a little progress every day.
We can sometimes act ourselves into a happier frame of mind. Manipulated into a smiling expression, people feel better; when they scowl, the whole world seems to scowl back. So put on a happy face. Talk as if you feel positive self-esteem, are optimistic, and are outgoing. Going through the motions can trigger the emotions.
|4.Seek work and leisure that engages your skills.
Happy people often are in a zone called “flow”—absorbed in tasks that challenge but don’t overwhelm them. The most expensive forms of leisure (sitting on a yacht) often provide less flow experience than gardening, socializing, or craft work.
5.Join the “movement” movement.
An avalanche of research reveals that aerobic exercise can relieve mild depression and anxiety as it promotes health and energy. Sound minds reside in sound bodies. Off your duffs, couch potatoes.
6.Give your body the sleep it wants.
Happy people live active vigorous lives yet reserve time for renewing sleep and solitude. Many people suffer from a sleep debt, with resulting fatigue, diminished alertness, and gloomy moods.
|7.Give priority to close relationships.
Intimate friendships with those who care deeply about you can help you weather difficult times. Confiding is good for soul and body. Resolve to nurture your closest relationship by not taking your loved ones for granted, by displaying to them the sort of kindness you display to others, by affirming them, by playing together and sharing together. To rejuvenate your affections, resolve in such ways to act lovingly.
8.Focus beyond the self.
Reach out to those in need. Happiness increases helpfulness (those who feel good do good). But doing good also makes one feel good.
9.Keep a gratitude journal.
Those who pause each day to reflect on some positive aspect of their lives (their health, friends, family, freedom, education, senses, natural surroundings, and so on) experience heightened well-being.
10.Nurture your spiritual self.
For many people, faith provides a support community, a reason to focus beyond self, and a sense of purpose and hope. Study after study finds that actively religious people are happier and that they cope better with crises. | <urn:uuid:ca0dfe76-bb39-4ff6-89b6-66c06fc2e334> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.asiafireworks.com/ec/?p=373 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946059 | 629 | 2.875 | 3 |
Definitions of president
n. - Precedent. 2
a. - Occupying the first rank or chief place; having the highest authority; presiding. 2
n. - One who is elected or appointed to preside; a presiding officer, as of a legislative body. 2
n. - The chief officer of a corporation, company, institution, society, or the like. 2
n. - The chief executive officer of the government in certain republics; as, the president of the United States. 2
n. - A protector; a guardian; a presiding genius. 2
The word "president" uses 9 letters: D E E I N P R S T.
No direct anagrams for president found in this word list.
Words formed by adding one letter before or after president (in bold), or to deeinprst in any order:
a - pedantries pedestrian e - predestine i - pteridines l - splintered o - interposed terpenoids r - rinderpest s - presidents
All words formed from president by changing one letter
Browse words starting with president by next letter | <urn:uuid:1bcc8066-bc1e-4b8a-8607-365ba404e3b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.morewords.com/word/president/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897692 | 240 | 2.96875 | 3 |
As I mentioned in my original post, Exploring Excel 2013 as Microsoft’s BI Client, I will be posting tips regularly about using Excel 2013. Much of the content will be a result of my daily interactions with business users and other BI devs. In order to not forget what I learn or discover, I write it down … here. I hope you too will discover something new you can use. Enjoy!
Using Color Scales
In the last tip we covered using conditional formatting with Data Bars. Next up is Color Scales.
What Are Color Scales?
Color Scales are a conditional formatting feature that can be applied to cells in Excel. Color scales “color” the cell based on the data that the formatting is applied to. The color scale feature works with pivot tables and standard cells in Excel. Our focus will be on using color scale with pivot tables.
You will find the option to add data bars on the Conditional Formatting button on the HOME ribbon as shown below.
First starting with a single column, we can use use Quick Analysis or the Ribbon to apply our Color Scale rules. While the data bar used size to highlight the differences in the data, color scales will, obviously, use color. The most common color scale to use is to use Red for lower numbers to green for higher with yellow or white in the middle. Let’s apply that to our column of data.
This is particularly effective when working with percentages or other values where red can mean “bad”. Keep in mind that you can change the order of the color scaling so that a higher number can be red as well. You can also use two color scales when that is all that is needed. I have used two color scales in cases where only two values are present such as a Boolean value.
When setting up the formatting, you may notice a “box” in the corner. This can be used to tell Excel how to apply the formatting.
This works great when you pick the first cell in question then use this short cut to set the formatting based on how you want to apply the changes. The only rule type that applies in this scenario is the “Format all cells based on their values” which options are shown in the shortcut.
While a very simple visualization technique it can be to highlight differences in a compelling way.
Next tip will cover Icon Sets. See you then. | <urn:uuid:0ac8dda3-0c3b-4890-bf00-ceb0074ef7e0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/dataonwheels/2013/08/28/exploring-excel-2013-for-bi-tip-11-color-scales/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879673 | 495 | 3.15625 | 3 |
27 of the deepest canyons you can explore [PICs]
Note: All depths listed are maximum canyon depths.
1. Glen Canyon, near Page, Arizona, US
Within Glen Canyon National Park, which is over 1.2 million acres area-wise, Horseshoe Bend is a spot along the Colorado River where the river bends so sharply, it almost completes a circle.
2. Sumidero Canyon, Chiapas, Mexico
In some places, Sumidero’s vertical canyon walls reach 1,000 meters. The Sumidero Canyon National Park gets 300,000 visitors every year for waterfall sightseeing, hiking, swimming, fishing, mountain biking, and spelunking.
3. Coyote Buttes, between Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona, US
“The Wave” in the Coyote Buttes North Area of Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area is a section of multicolored carved sandstone that looks like it was taken out of a page of Dr. Seuss’s Oh the Places You’ll Go.
4. Kali Gandaki Gorge, Nepal
Because all canyons and gorges are different, from the slope of their walls and their rim height above sea level, it’s difficult to determine a list of the “deepest” canyons in the world. Kali Gandaki Gorge, in the Himalayas, is proclaimed as such, if the depth is the measured by highest peak of the mountains on either side minus the elevation of the river — a depth of over 19,000 feet.
5. Bryce Canyon, Utah, US
Bryce Canyon’s iconic landscape is composed of pillars of sedimentary rock called hoodoos. Bryce has the highest concentration of hoodoos in the world. The is also a really good for stargazing, with a 7.4 magnitude night sky, meaning the sky is so clear, you can see on average 7,500 stars. (For comparison, LA and New York have 2 magnitude night sky ratings).
6. Cheile Turzil, near Turda, Romania
This canyon is 2,900 meters long, in some points 300 meters high, and is home to over 1,000 species. Cheile Turzil is one of the most popular spots for climbing in Romania.
7. Colca Canyon, near Arequipa, Peru
The Colca Canyon is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, at a depth of 13,650 feet.
8. Blyde River Canyon, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Blyde River Canyon is 16 miles long and 2,500 feet deep, the second largest canyon in Africa.
9. Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, Texas, US
The second largest canyon in the United States, the “Grand Canyon of Texas” is 120 miles long with depths up to 997 feet. Georgia O’Keefe often visited and painted the canyon when she taught at West Texas State Normal College.
10. Fish River Canyon, southern Namibia
At 100 miles long and up to 1,800 feet deep, Fish River Canyon is the largest canyon in Africa and the second largest in the world. It’s a popular tourist attraction in Namibia — check the 53-mile Fish River Hiking Trail, which takes 3-5 days to hike.
11. Waimea Canyon, Kauaʻi, Hawaii, US
Waimea Canyon is 10 miles long and 3,000 feet deep, formed initially by a volcanic collapse and then by erosion. Waimea means “reddish water” in Hawaiian, for the color of the canyon’s soil.
12. Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), Chihuahua, Mexico
Copper Canyon is actually six canyons formed by six different rivers that eventually empty into the Sea of Cortez. Its traditional inhabitants are the Tarahumara (or Rarámuri). The total area covered is 25,096 square miles, with depths of over 6,000 feet.
13. Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas, US
Santa Elena Canyon is one of the most popular spots in Big Bend National Park — you can hike above the Rio Grande and/or paddle the river. There are 31 known species of snakes in the park, so you’ll probably never see me hiking there.
14. Fjaðrárgljúfur, Südosten, Iceland
At 328 feet deep and just over 1 mile long, Fjaðrárgljúfur isn’t a huge canyon, but there’s a hiking trail along one rim that leads down to the base. The nearest landmark to the canyon is Heiðarsel, a deserted farm.
15. The Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, US
The Grand Canyon runs 277 miles long, up to 6,000 feet deep, and 18 miles wide. It’s the largest (longest) canyon in the world. Theodore Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon Game Preserve in November 1906, and it became a national park in 1919.
16. Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, Tibet
The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is also considered by some the deepest in the world. It’s most extreme depth is 19,714 feet. Hydropower lobby groups who’d like to harness the power of the Yarlung Zangbo River were disappointed this year when the Chinese government earmarked money to develop the area for tourism.
17. Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona, US
Antelope Canyon is on Navajo Land near Page, Arizona. It can only be visited with a permit and a guide from the Navajo Nation. It’s one of the most photographed slot canyons in the US.
18. Eldgja (Fire Gorge), near Landmannalaugar, Iceland
Eldja is called Fire Gorge because it’s a volcanic canyon. At 270 meters deep and 600 wide, it’s the largest such canyon in the world.
19. Zion Canyon, Utah
Zion is home to the world’s largest arch: Kolob Arch, with a span of 310 feet. Wildlife you can see there includes golden eagles, mule deer, and mountain lions.
20. Itaimbezinho, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Located in Aparados da Serra National Park, Itaimbezinho is 5.8 kilometers long and up to 2 kilometers wide and 700 meters deep. In the Tupi-Guarani language, “ita” means “stone” and “aimbe” means “cut.”
21. Buckskin Gulch, Utah, US
Also located in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, Buckskin Gulch is the deepest slot canyon (narrow canyon) in the Southwest US. Permits are required for day hiking and backpacking overnight. Because only 20 overnight permits are issued each day, they’re often booked months in advance.
22. Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan
Close to the Chinese border, Charyn Canyon reaches depths of up to 300 meters. Like many of the canyons on this list, it’s inside a national park. Charyn National Park is one of the newest, created in 2004.
23. Gorge du Verdon, France
25 kilometers long and 700 meters at its deepest, the Gorge du Verdon is named for the turquoise river that runs through it. Tourists from the nearby French Riviera can kayak, hike, or rock climb some of Verdon’s multi-pitch routes.
24. Nine Mile Canyon, eastern Utah, US
Nine Mile Canyon is actually 40 miles long — it’s named for a creek that runs through it. The canyon has over 1,000 rock art sites containing 10,000 images. In more recent history, fur trappers, ranchers, and now natural gas developers have occupied the land in Nine Mile Canyon.
25. Canyon De Chelly, Arizona
This canyon has been inhabited for around 5,000 years and is the longest uninterrupted stretch on the Colorado Plateau. It became a National Monument in 1931 and sits within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.
26. Mides Canyon, Tunisia
Mides Canyon might look familiar if you’ve recently seen The English Patient (they filmed the desert scenes there). The Tunisian canyon system covers over 5,000 square kilometers.
27. Dadès Gorge, Morocco
Located between the Atlas Mountains and Anti-Atlas range, the gorge valley is home to many Berber villages. The Berbers — an indigenous ethnic group of North Africa — originally settled the area for defensive reasons. | <urn:uuid:13b42df6-bf6f-4122-a2fe-bcef4d710b6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://matadornetwork.com/trips/27-of-the-deepest-canyons-you-can-explore-pics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913992 | 1,859 | 2.609375 | 3 |
>Hi Glenn, you wrote:
>>Dick Fischer wrote:
>>>So we all draw our lines and defend our positions. You do it. And
>>>I do it. But if we are honest, somehow we need to account for the data.
>>Of course we do. So where is the evidence, the geological evidence of a
>I don't know whether the Mesopotamian flood was similar in nature to
>the flood of 1993 which inundated the upper midwest for over 3 months,
>or if it was the result of a geological event.
If it was similar to the Mississippi Flooding of 1993 it didn't last a
year and while destructive, didn't require an ark and had one been built it
would have gone into the Gulf of Mexico, not to Canada. My point is that
such riverine floods simply don't match the account given in Genesis. I
have no doubt that there were many riverine floods in Mesopotamia both
before and after 3000 bc. That leaves us with two options: either the
account in Genesis is so highly distorted as to be worthless as relating
any history, or it describes something else.
> The consensus date for
>the flood layers found at Kish, Shuruppak, Uruk (biblical Erech),
>Lagash, and the early layer at Ur are around 2900 BC.
>History books use 2900 BC as the start of the Early Dynastic period
beginning >with the post-flood rulers at Kish.
>As I stated in my book, if we use the Septuagint genealogies (my choice),
>and set the date of the Exodus to coincide with the reign of Raamses II,
>preferred by many Old Testament scholars today, that would yield a date
>of 2978 BC for the flood. If the Exodus took place in the reign of
Amenhotep >II, the biblical date for the flood would be 150 years sooner,
>or around 3128 BC.
>This time frame may (I repeat may) coincide with either volcanic action
>or a comet or a meteorite impact. I include here without comment just
>a few references that point in that direction.
>W. Bruce Masse is an environmental archaeologist with the U.S. Air Force
>and is affiliate graduate faculty at the University of Hawaii. In a
>paper he presented at a recent SIS conference he said:
>"Planetary scientists and astrophysicists recently have begun to model
>the potential hazards on Earth from impact by asteroids and comets. These
>models suggest that 2030 at least locally catastrophic impacts likely
occurred >in various portions of the world during the past 6,000 years,
during which >time occurred the major developments of modern human
civilization. This paper >uses these cosmic impact models, coupled with
>data from archaeology, paleoenvironmental studies, and the systematic
analysis >of cosmogonic mythology and other literary traditions, in order
>to identify previously unknown catastrophic Bronze Age cosmic
catastrophes, >the most significant being a globally catastrophic oceanic
comet impact >estimated at between 105 and 106 megatons that occurred in
Do you have a reference for his source of information about the 2030
impacts? I find that hard to believe. In 1991 there were only 130 impact
craters known on earth. (Richard A. F. Grieve, "Terrestrial Impact: the
Record in the Rocks" Meteoritics 26(1991):175-194) In this century the
only locally catastrophic impact I am aware of is Tunguska. The rate that
your friend cites is 2030/6000 or 1 every 3 year. Thus we should have seen
on average 33 such impacts this century and yet I know of only one. Until
you can check up on this guys source I would suggest that you be careful
with that data. There should be craters everywhere but there aren't that many.
Secondly, what does a meteoritic impact in 2807 B.C. (assuming it actually
exists) have to do with a flood in 3150 BC??????
A comment about the data listed below. It is not good scientific procedure
to simply list events which occur on or around the time of the flood you
are advocating. To support your case, you really need to show a causal
link between a Mesopotamian flood and the events you list below. I see no
link but you might be able to clarify what the causal links are.
>Abrupt change in sedimentation rate of Lake Van in Turkey indicative of
rapid >climatic fluctuation at (varve) dates of 5200 BP in Palaeo, 122
>(1996) p 107)
>Dead Sea levels peaking at 300 ft. above present levels at 5.0 and
>8.0K BP. Frumkin et al, The Holocene, 1 3 191200 (1991).
Both of the above could be due merely to a temporarily wetter climate. and
5000 years before the present is about 150 years too late. 200 years ago
the southern end of Lake Malawi was dry. Yet today it is filled.
"Even faster rates of speciation were suggested by the finding
that the southern end of Lake Malawi was arid only two centuries
ago and is now inhabited by numerous endemic species and 'color
morphs'. These are believed to have originated during the last
200 years!"~Axel Meyer "Phylogenetic Relationships and
Evolutionary Processes in East African Cichlid Fishes," Trends in
Ecology and Evolution, 8:8(1993), p. 284
I would suggest that unless you can tie the dating down closer than 150
years, you can't claim the Dead Sea as evidence for your flood.
The Sahara also was once very wet and rock drawings of hippos and giraffes
are found in the middle of the Sahara. But that doesn't mean that the
flood occurred when it was wetter in the Sahara anymore than this means
that Noah's flood was associated with the lake Van and Dead Sea lake level
>Greenland Dye 3 oxygen isotope ratio. Minimum value between 2000
>and 8000 cal yrs BP occurs just before 5.0K yrs BP. Data from National
>Snow and Ice Data Center. A large acid peak at 3150 BC is suggestive
>of a volcanic event. Fisher et al, The Holocene 5, 1, 19, (1995).
Yes there is a volcanic event at 3150 BC. That is clear from the Camp
Century Ice Core and other cores. (see C. U. Hammer, et al, "Greenland Ice
Sheet Evidence of Post-Glacial Volcanism and its climatiec Impact" Nature,
1980, p. 231)
But so what? No one knows where that volcano was located. Can you point
to volcanic ash deposits in the Mesopotamian basin to link it with your
flood? I know of no ash evidence there at that time. That volcano could
have been in Alaska, Indonesia, or even the Western US (My suspicion is
that it was in the Pacific because that is the best place it could remain
unidentified. But to conclude there is NO evidence connecting this
volcanic event with Mesopotamia. All you are doing is listing things that
occurred in a given time frame and expecting everyone to believe that there
is a causal connection.
I was born in April 1950. North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950. Am
I responsible for the Korean war? Am I the cause of all those deaths?????
I certainly don't think so!
>Sulfate in GISP2 ice core; curve is a low tension robust spline of
>sulfate concentrations with average about 30 ppb. The cause of the
>150 year peak at 5.2K yrs BP is not known, but the authors suggest
>the possibility of an anomalous nearby temporary body of open water
(polynya) >which generated marine biogenic sulfate. Zielinski, GA et al,
>in Nature, 264 948 (1994).
Considering that Mesopotamia is nowhere near Greenland or Antarctica, the
two sites of ice coring, how exactly do you connect this with the floodwaters?
>Atmospheric methane from GRIP ice core with lowest value 580 ppbv at
>5.2K yrs. BP followed by rapid increase of 40 ppbv over 200 years;
>variously attributed to clathrate or permafrost outgassing, decrease
>in tropospheric oxidation, or abrupt increase in low latitude wetlands.
>Blunier, T, et al, in Nature, 374 47 (1995).>
So, how is the methane content of the atmosphere connected to Mesopotamia?
Clathrate outgassing would not cause a flood. (for those who don't know,
clathrates are a methane/ice mixture which is found beneath the sea floor
over wide areas) It would be bubbles of methane coming to the surface of
>Proxy paleoclimatic data from sediment cores in the Santa Barbara basin
>off the coast of California, sediment bioturbidity and snail form,
indicating >a discontinuity, possibly abrupt cooling, at 5.2k yrs BP.
>Ref: Kennett, J P and Ingram, B L, "A 20,000 yr record of ocean
>circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara basin" in
>Nature v 377 p 510 12 Oct 95.
This was the first issue of Nature I got after I started getting it. I see
nothing unusual about the 5000 year BP data in these cores. What are you
suggesting is the evidence connecting Santa Barbara to Mesopotamia? And by
the way N. pachyderma is NOT a snail. It is a foraminifera which is a tiny
marine animals which paleontologists in the oil industry use. There is
really no change in sinestral test form at 5200 BC in spite of your claim.
Sinestrally coiled tests are a very small percentage of the total N. pachs
throughout that interval. The major change in test coiling was at 17,000
years BP not 5200 BP. Take another look at that article.
>>But your assumption, that all the original names were recorded in the
>>original documents is just that an assumption.
>No, the names, places, and events line up with the recorded history of
>>Nowhere does the Bible itself say that "These are the
>>complete and total list of all descendants of Adam and none are left out".
>Nor does it say, "These patriarchs are a representative sampling of
>thousands of descendants who were too numerous to mention." There are
>a lot of things the Bible doesn't say.
>>Assuming what you say is true that the Flood was in 3000 BC (Origins
>>Solution p. 329), then there is a real problem with your chronology. David
>>lived about 1000 B.C. In Luke 3 there are 42 names between Jesus and
>>David. This is an average of 23 years per generation. Given that in
>>pre-industrial times, the average lifespan was about 30 years, this is
>>probably not too far wrong although I would say it is slightly too high for
>>the average generation. If Abraham lived at 1800 B.C. there are only 13
>>names between David and Abe giving an average 61 year generation time.
>The first three patriarchs take up most of that time. Abraham lived
>175 years and begat Isaac at 100 (Gen. 21:5). And Isaac was 60 at the
>birth of Jacob (Gen. 25:26). Judah was Jacob's forth and last son by
>Leah. "Then she stopped bearing" (Gen. 29:33). We don't know how old
>he was at the birth of Judah, but he "sojourned" for 130 years (Gen.47:9).
I don't doubt that there is an occasional old man who has a child. Look at
Tony Randall. But to have an entire lineage of geezers getting young women
in the family way seems odd, especially in a day and age in which few lived
>>Are you willing to say here and now that post flood Sumerians lived
>>on average more than 100 years and gave birth to their children when the
>>old geezers were 100 years of age?
>No. The Sumerians are another culture altogether. They spoke an
>unrelated language, and appeared to be racially distinct from the
>Accadians, who came from Accad (Gen. 10:10), and spoke a language
>precursor to Hebrew.
Ok, are you willing to say that the Accadians were living past 100 years
old between 7000 to 4000 BC? You avoided the question but didn't answer the
>>>So if the first ten patriarchs are literal father and son relationships
>>>why should the next ten be any different?
>>Because this requires that the 100-year-old geezers had the sexual prowess
>>of oxen and the enthusiasm of bonobos.
>Glenn, I really don't know how to respond to that one.
bonobos are very promiscuous.
>>You say 20 generations between Adam and Abe. Fine. 3000/20=150 years. So
>>are you suggesting that the average generational time in 7000 BC was 150
>>years? Why are there no skeletons showing that extreme age at that time in
>I don't think we have dug up any Accadians yet. Woolley found his
>skeletons in Sumerian Ur. We do have a little historical data though.
>Gilgamesh sought out Utnapishtim (Noah's parallel) because he was reputed
>to be immortal and survived the flood. His name means "He who found long
I find this extremely difficult to believe. Akkad was from 2350 BC to 2000
BC. At this time we find numerous cemetaries everywhere. Cities, especially
ones as big as Akkad require cemetaries for the disposal of the bodies. Do
I need to search through the literature to find info on Akkadian bodies?
>From the Lagash King list, Jacobsen noted that the post-flood kings
>of Lagash (Semites probably) not only lived extraordinarily long,
>they also lived extraordinarily "slowly."
>In those days a child spent a hundred years
> In diapers (lit. "in <bits> of the wash")
>After he had grown up he spent a hundred years
> Without being given any task (to perform)
>He was small, he was dull witted
> His mother watched over him.
>>Whatever you want to say, the genealogies are not complete, even the more
>>recent ones are not complete.
>Maybe there is just enough ambiguity in the Scriptures to give us
>something to talk about. What do you think?
Well, if you are willing to say that the people in 2350 BC were living to
more than 150 years old, then I would have to agree. I just don't see any
evidence of that.
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information | <urn:uuid:f79d938a-5f5e-4d7d-9941-078b5eb9b4d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/asa/199806/0132.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950661 | 3,306 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Lymphedema is an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the tissues that causes swelling of a body part, most often the extremities. It can also occur in the face, neck, abdomen, or genitals. Lymphedema is classified as either primary or secondary. Primary lymphedema is the result of missing or impaired lymphatic vessels. It may be present at birth, but it more often develops later in life without obvious cause.
Secondary lymphedema is much more common and is the result of lymph vessel damage or lymph node removal due to cancer therapy or after trauma/infection. Secondary lymphedema can present immediately, such as after surgery, or it can occur weeks, months, or even years later.
Symptoms of Lymphedema
Signs and symptoms of lymphedema are as follows:
- A sensation of pressure or tightness of the skin of limb tingling
- Heaviness of limb(s)
- Decreased motion in the extremities
- Increased susceptibility to infection
- Skin tissue changes
- Impaired wound healing
If there is persistent swelling, it is very important that immediate medical advice is sought. Early diagnosis and treatment improves both the prognosis and the condition.
Staging of Lymphedema
Lymphedema may be classified in three stages, from mild to severe. In stage I, the swollen tissues indent and hold the indentation when pressed. Elevating the limb can temporarily reduce the swelling. If untreated, the lymphedema can cause a progressive hardening of the affected tissues with a spongy consistency. This is considered stage II lymphedema.
Stage III lymphedema is characterized by a tremendous increase in swelling, the skin hardens, and tumors or outgrowths develop, such as warts and polyps. Swelling does not respond to elevation in stages II and III. Infections such as cellulitis or lymphangitis frequently develop in those suffering from lymphedema.
Treatments for Lymphedema
Lymphedema treatments offered in the United States are:
Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD) – a gentle manual technique.
Complete Decongestive Therapy (CDT) – a combination of MLD, bandaging of the affected areas, remedial exercises, skin and nail care, and compression garments.
Surgical procedures are sometimes suggested.
Our Certified Lymphedema Therapists can help identify which treatment best suits your personal needs.
Certified Lymphedema Therapists
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If you believe you or someone you know would benefit from Lymphedema treatment, please contact your physician and ask for a referral. If you have any questions, please contact our Department at (207) 779-2620.
For more information on Lymphedema:
National Lymphedema Network (NLN)
Lymphology Association of North America (LANA)
Klose Training & Consulting
Maine Lymphedema Network | <urn:uuid:60ebf1b5-3fe8-4944-b7b3-70005267dea7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fchn.org/fmh/services/rehabilitation/lymphedema | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883433 | 654 | 3.484375 | 3 |
In the Year of Our Lord 452 A.D. there came a terrible host of Saxons from their lands to the south, sailing up the River Colne from the Great River. They were led by a leader, Sidic, the wolf of the southern strands and notorious seafarer of the Grey Waters.
In Sidic’s host was a champion, Wulfstan, who the men of Verulamium greatly feared for he was cruel and mighty. Sooner would his flesh become food for ravens than he would approach an altar and bow before our True Lord.
Before the gates of Verulamium the host of Sidic stopped. The walls remained after the Romans had left. This masonry was still wondrous; fates had not yet broken it. The works of giants had not yet decayed. Under the columns stood the leader of Verulamium, Maxim Boice. Armed he was in the noisy combat. Amber wreaths encircled his brow and a purple cloak comforted his shoulders. Large was his retinue, the men of Verulamium, laughing as they moved, although fearful of a gloomy disaster before the Saxon foes.
Great was the quantity of spears who watched Wulfstan ford the dark waters of the Colne, preparing food for the ravens, slaughtering as he stalked. Splintering the shield of his enemies, women wept as he passed. None in the Verulamium host could stop him until a soldier of Britain, Mullard ap Artur shattered his shield.
There was food for ravens, and for the raven there was profit as Wulfstan fell in the Colne, his head severed by Mullard ap Artur’s sword. Furious were the Saxons. To drinking of mead they fell in gloomy despair. Black fury became anger as the words of their fell priest came to their ears
Silent the men of Verulamium watched. Of their leader, Maxim Boice came little but words of high pitch, reedy and soft. His words of battle were lost as the sound of Saxon arrows filled the air on eagles feathers, keening for prey.
Battle-mad with the death of Wulfstan burning their eyes, Sidic’s host marched with speed, regaled with mead; great was their design. Retreat was their poison, battle their desire. No mother’s son nurses them.
A conflict on all sides befell the bitter field. Saxon and Briton fell together in violent slaughter. Punishment the Saxons sought on their enemies, but the wall of shields of Maxim Boice stood fast. Sword and spear shattered upon wood and iron.
A violent thane, Brytnoth the Saxon, led his men first, eager in battle with eyes of a serpent. Under the helmet of his terror, his men died impaled on bright spears.
Sidic came to his aid, blood draped his cloak from many winters of fighting. With a bold shout he pierced the wall of Maxim Boice, the lion of Verulamium.
Blessed conqueror, Maxim Boice, of temper mild, the bone of the people, with his battle streamer displayed was victorious. There was grief and sorrow upon the Saxons as they went back to their boats. Those boat pirates who meddled with the mane of a lion did not return until the next summer.
So, there you have it. One of the forgotten battles of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recreated in all its glory at the Fleetville Community Centre, St Albans, England last night. It was the first game my local wargames club has done set in the Dark Ages and it was really entertaining. Especially fun was the way in which each side's forces had to be inspired to take the field through a mixture of excessive alcohol, the revealing of good (or bad) omens and through encouraging (or, as proved to be the case from Maxim Boice, downright awful) speeches.
It’s much too early to say much about the rules we were
Lard-Thane, Richard Clarke, has also posted a far more erudite look at the challenges and rewards of wargaming Dark Age England at Lard Island News. For those interested in the period, I highly recommend you have a read at Richard's blogpost here.
We’ve scheduled a follow up game for next week in 453 A.D., so stay tuned! | <urn:uuid:3208c480-f037-41e1-86e6-cf6e915551d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-year-of-our-lord-452-ad.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982355 | 933 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Portland, Ore. -- IBM Corp. has found a way to electrically control the deposition rate of materials--the ink--from a dip-pen lithography system without lifting it from the substrate on which it is writing, thereby enabling molecular-scale nanolithography.
"Our approach works like an inkjet," said IBM fellow H. Kumar Wickramasinghe. "Every time you pulse it, you deposit a metered amount of material--in principle you could put down single molecules. Right now we are at 10 molecules, but we have not really pushed it yet." Wickramasinghe performed the work with researchers Kerem Unal and Jane Frommer at IBM's Almaden Research Center (San Jose, Calif.).
Dip-pen lithography harnesses an atomic-force microscope (AFM) to ink virtually any chemical compound onto a substrate with nanometer control. The method has proven "very useful," Wickramasinghe said, "but there was no way to control the deposition rate, because the molecules were deposited on a surface by diffusion--like a quill pen." The only thing that could be controlled was the speed at which the tip was scanning, and the only way to stop and start deposition was to lift and touch the pen to the substrate--a lengthy and error-prone procedure.
IBM's trick was to add a reservoir to the AFM's tip at the place where it connects to a cantilever. Thus, the new cone-shaped tip directly ties into a material reservoir that can convey molecules up or down to a substrate with an electric field of a million volts per meter. By changing the strength and duration of the field, IBM has demonstrated millisecond-level control of deposition--a thousandfold faster than today's best methods.
Like all dip-pen approaches, IBM's electronically controlled, direct-writing meth- od uses AFM positioning accuracy to define complex patterns in a variety of materials with features down to 10 nm. That's five times smaller than today's e-beam lithography equipment and 10 times smaller than photolithography. The twist lies in adding control by an electric field, and in setting up the right conditions to make that work.
"If you apply an electric field normally, nothing happens--that's why no one has thought of this before," said Wickramasinghe. "But we found that if you put a dip pen in a humid environment, so you have a few monolayers of water on the tip's surface, then you can make molecules go up and down it with an electric field. You can suck up material and put it in a reservoir at the base where the tip meets the cantilever, then move the tip to where you want it and pulse the material back out in metered amounts."
Besides use in nanoscale lithography for electronic circuits, IBM predicts the method will enable nanoscale-size microfluidic devices, such as those that perform electrophoresis assays for everything from DNA fingerprinting to routine blood tests. Electronic control and faster processing speeds, enabled by the nanoscale dimensions of devices, could speed any medical test that depends on the separation of biological molecules with electrophoresis, according to IBM. Measured electrophoresis tests were found to perform in milliseconds what traditional electrophoresis does in hours, since IBM used a million-volt/ meter electric field to propel molecules up or down the 11.2-micron length of the AFM tip, rather than thousands of volts along the millimeter-wide, centimeter-long tubes used in a traditional electrophoresis test.
"IBM's method works like normal electrophoresis, just unbelievably smaller," said David Garfin, president of the American Electrophoresis Society. "Today, electrophoresis tubes are millimeters wide and typically take minutes or even hours to work. IBM's very clever use of atomic-force microscopy has the potential to provide much, much faster results that are also ultrasensitive."
IBM's approach also holds the potential of directly writing to wafers with parallel millipede-like arrays of hundreds or thousands of AFM tips attached to a single cantilever (go to www.eetimes.com and search for article ID: OEG20000913S0061). The massively parallel tip arrays on a single cantilever resemble their namesake, the multilegged insect.
Massively parallel arrays of tips posed a problem for traditional dip-pen lithography, since they required a corresponding array of nanoscale inkwells to hold each tip's material. But with electrical control of ink from an external supply, IBM can pump in materials from a single reservoir to all of the tips on a cantilever, then directly write arrays of devices on a wafer simultaneously.
"Something we want to do next is have an ink supply come in from the cantilever side with several reservoirs containing different materials, which you then turn on and off electrically as you like," said Wickramasinghe.
Parallel arrays of tips also have the potential to speed traditional medical testing and even gene sequencing. "Next we want to characterize how many DNA bases we can go to," said Wickramasinghe. "Today we have only done 16 bases, but a typical gene might have a thousand bases."
To demonstrate its dip-pen system's current capabilities, IBM wrote a 3.3 x 8.8-micron logo in DNA using lines that measured 49 to 79 nm wide--enabling more than 300 to be fit on a line the width of a single human hair. IBM has traditionally drawn its logo as small as possible to prove its prowess with atomic-force microscopy, which it invented and continues to develop (see story below). Wickramasinghe himself is credited with the technique now universally used by atomic-force microscopy worldwide.
"The work I did with my team [at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center] on the vibrating-mode AFM is the second most widely cited in the scanning-probe field, after the work of [Nobel prize winners] Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer," said Wickramasinghe. | <urn:uuid:db0112c5-3d58-4910-84ee-3fd70445b766> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1161189 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937522 | 1,277 | 3.0625 | 3 |
From Backyards to Backwoods: Getting kids into nature is easy with a camera
In his book, "Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder," Richard Louv begins by quoting a fourth grader from San Diego: "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."
The author goes on to discuss how the current generation is not connected to nature with the same intensity as previous generations. He explains that part of the reason is due to technology. Televisions, computers, video games, and other electronic gadgetry are keeping kids from discovering their natural world.
One baby-boomer said, "When I was a kid, my parents had to almost drag me back in the house. Now I have to almost drag my kids out of the house." Therefore, this week's column is dedicated to the parents, grandparents, teachers, scout leaders, 4-H leaders, mentors, and all the others who help kids make connections with nature.
I have nothing against technology. I watch television (sometimes more than I should) and I spend time on my computer (sometimes more than I should), but I never let either one get in the way of my 'nature time.'
We can all help young people experience their natural world in a variety of ways. Activities can include biking, hiking, hunting, fishing, or just getting outside to throw a football or baseball.
Maybe because we live in a natural area and many of our families have hunting and fishing traditions, we are already doing a good job of connecting our kids to nature. Some of you, however, might still see technology as being a force that is keeping kids inside too much of the time.
My solution is, "If you can't beat them, join them." We can use their interest and expertise in technology to get them outside through digital photography.
Last year Olympus, America sent us twenty-four digital cameras to be used with students. We also received funding from a University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Partnership grant that enabled us to work with two pilot schools - Park Rapids and White Earth.
Our goal was to place the cameras into the hands of 200 students during our first year. We actually worked with over 650 students and adults. This year our grant has been renewed. We will continue to work with our two pilot schools while expanding to additional schools. My partner in the project is Joe Courneya - a U of M Extension Educator with American Indian Youth. Our backgrounds make for an interesting combination of skills.
Some of the columns this year will deal with our "Through the Lens of a Camera" project. In the meantime, check out what Richard Louv says in his book about the positive affects that nature has on test scores, on students with ADHD and autism, and on our physical and mental health.
Let me know your thoughts and concerns. In the meantime, go on a photo hike and help a child learn about the environment through the lens of a camera.
To contact me, e-mail email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:635b1921-9e67-4260-984d-3c187dc65609> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/content/backyards-backwoods-getting-kids-nature-easy-camera | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965621 | 631 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is one of Australia's most high-profile tourist destinations. Each year, approximately 400,000 tourists visit the national park; around half are international visitors. From a Western perspective, Uluru is well known as Australia's most famous natural attraction; 348 metres in height and 3.6 kilometres in length, it is popularly regarded as the world's largest rock. From an indigenous perspective, Uluru-Kata Tjuta and the surrounding areas are of enormous cultural and spiritual significance to Anangu, the Aboriginal traditional owners of the land. The Western and indigenous perspectives are internationally recognized in the listing of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park as a World Heritage Area for both its natural value and cultural significance. This chapter examines the history of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, focusing on the contestations involved in the construction of this destination as an attraction for tourists. This chapter argues that this symbolic tourist site is a contested space where multiple layers of meanings are embedded, particularly in relation to the often conflicting discourses of Western tourism and indigenous culture. While Uluru-Kata Tjuta is owned by Anangu, these areas are leased back to the Australian Government as a national park and, thus, visitor access to this highly significant and iconic site is ensured. The chapter highlights that the contradictory discourses of tourism and Aboriginal culture, and the tensions between them, are exemplified in the popular tourist activity of climbing Uluru. Further, the contested usage of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park as a tourist destination reflects the tensions that are implicit in the joint management structure.
Tourism and National Parks: International Perspectives on Development, Histories and Change p. 128-140
Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility | <urn:uuid:068eb961-f7cd-40ba-a0b2-7f471425a7f2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8672?exact=title%3A%22'Welcome+to+Aboriginal+land'%3A+the+Uluru-Kata+Tjuta+National+Park%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922962 | 371 | 3.234375 | 3 |
As each new year rolls around, we are inclined to make a “new year’s resolution,” and decide that this is the year that we will actually stick with it. Resolutions normally consist of weight loss goals, exercising, eating healthier, or quitting bad habits such as smoking or drinking. While these resolutions are certainly important, why not make a second resolution, one that not only impacts you, but your family, work place and community? This year, do something different. Make a resolution not only with yourself, but with others to practice crime prevention and personal safety in your community.
Making a safety resolution is not only a great way to get yourself in the habit of practicing crime prevention, but also a way to make others aware of it as well. Whether you decide to practice safety at home, on the computer, or in your community, incorporating safety tips into your everyday routines will help to make crime prevention a regular part of your daily life.
So how will you decide to stick to your new year’s safety resolution? Here are a few ideas to get your started:
Home and Personal Safety
- Always be aware of your surroundings
- Always make sure all doors and windows are locked in your house and car
- Try to park in well-lighted areas with good visibility close to walkways, stores, and people
- Consider an alarm system, some alarms may be purchased for as little as $100
- Always keep your passwords private
- Avoid giving out your personal information
- Only order things online from websites you know and trust
- Avoid opening e-mails or visiting websites that don’t seem trustworthy, they could contain a virus that may harm your computer
- Start or join a neighborhood watch groupin your area
- Organize neighborhood clean-up days to pick up litter, paint over graffiti, plant flowers or repair broken equipment in playgrounds
- Always ensure walkway and streets are well-lit
- Get to know your neighbors-work together to keep your neighborhood safe
For more ideas on how to kick-off your safety resolutions for 2010, visit www.ncpc.org. | <urn:uuid:d1dba107-be90-487a-a031-de25c49e349b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ncpc.typepad.com/prevention_works_blog/2010/01/how-can-you-make-the-new-year-safer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952079 | 439 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Eight centuries after his death, the heart of Richard the Lionheart has revealed a sinful royal secret to forensic scientists.
When embalmed after his death in April 1199, the heart of King Richard I was soaked in frankincense – suggesting that the monarch feared that his many acts of treachery and brutality might exclude him from the kingdom of heaven.
Philippe Charlier, a celebrity French pathologist who specialises in the coldest of cold cases, led a team of scientists which studied a fragment of the mummified heart of King Richard preserved in Rouen, Normandy.
“We found many interesting things,” he said. “But the most interesting was the presence, in substantial quantities, of frankincense, which has never been found in any other embalming. It is unique. This suggests that Richard, and those around him, knew of episodes in his life which had a bad smell... Frankincense, linked to Christ’s story, may have been intended to make him smell like a saint and therefore to ease his passage to heaven.”
Although Richard has gone down in popular history as a good and noble king, his 41 years were stained with treacherous revolts against his father, King Henry II, and with massacres of Muslims during the Crusades and of English Jews. He is also believed by historians to have had a number of homosexual love affairs – something then regarded as unnatural.
Last year, Mr Charlier – who the French call the “Indiana Jones of the graveyards” – was allowed to remove two of the 60 grams of crumbled remains of King Richard’s heart which have been preserved in Rouen. His team’s findings were published in the American online journal, Scientific Reports.
Mr Charlier told a press briefing at the University de Versailles that there was “no shadow of doubt” that the powdered heart in Rouen belonged to Richard, who was king of England from 1189 to 1199. He said that there was documentary evidence authenticating the remains going back to the 12th century.
King Richard died of septicaemia or gangrene 10 days after he was shot in the shoulder with a crossbow while besieging the castle of Chalus-Chabrol in Limousin in April 1199. There has long been speculation that the arrow tip may have been poisoned or that the king may have been poisoned by his entourage. Mr Charlier said that his study had found “no evidence” whatsoever of poison.
The studies showed that the heart had been preserved with an elaborate combination of products, including mercury, creosote and lime and stuffed with plants including myrtle, mint and daisies. But the real surprise, he said, was the presence of substantial traces of frankincense.
“We have no other example of frankincense being used in the preservation of a body, however noble or royal,” he told The Independent. “There is one possible explanation. In the 10 days of agony before he died, Richard and his companions had time to brood on the many dark episodes in his life. The frankincense was intended to give him a smell of sanctity.” | <urn:uuid:7eb1d57d-6067-438f-a58e-8052f914e5d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brutal-richards-is-lion-heart-was-soaked-in-holy-balm-to-ease-his-passage-into-heaven-8515669.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981943 | 666 | 2.84375 | 3 |
What's the Latest Development?
Step aside double rainbow. The massive tsunami which struck Japan in March was a 'double tsunami', a rare phenomenon that occurs when two waves merge, doubling their power. NASA satellites that happened to be flying overhead captured the merger of two powerful waves into a single double-high wave. "As it traveled towards land, ocean ridges and undersea mountains pushed the wave fronts together, keeping the tsunami stable even as it hurtled towards the coast."
What's the Big Idea?
The 9.0 earthquake triggered under the Pacific Ocean last March killed 16,000 people and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the long term effects of which are still unclear. Scientists hope their new knowledge of the double-tsunami will help them better predict where, when and how severe tsunamis will hit. While Japan already has the world's most advanced tsunami warning system, the new data could more easily benefit poorer coastal nations.
Photo credit: shutterstock.com | <urn:uuid:cbd7b435-a59d-472a-acf1-b1ad04b169f0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/double-tsunami-caused-fukushima-disaster | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945909 | 205 | 3.796875 | 4 |
Does Soda Pop Cause Cavities?
Mountain Dew-20 oz is the
worst pop, it contains 19 tsps of sugar and 93 milligrams of
caffeine.......nearly equivalent to adult dose of NoDoz.****
is sweetened, acidic,
often caffeinated carbonated drink. There is "regular" pop that
is sweetened with different kinds of sweeteners and "diet" pop that is
sweetened with artificial sweeteners. 45 gallons of pop is consumed
per person/per year by the average American. Even adults are
just as prone to decay even though they have fairly good
enamel and well-calcified enamel.
trouble for teeth. It's not just sugar that's bad for
teeth, but the acids included in many popular
drinks are said to "eat" away enamel and make
teeth more prone to . The pH of regular and
diet pops ranges from 2.47-3.35. The PH in our mouth is normally about 6.2
to 7.0 slightly more acidic than water. At a PH of 5.2 to 5.5
or below the acid begins to dissolve the hard enamel of our
teeth. Phosphoric and citric acids contribute to
the acidity of pop. Below is a look at how some soda pops compare to water
as well as to battery acid.
American today drinks over 600 servings of pop a year.***
per 12 oz
|Diet Dr. Pepper
|Hawaiian Fruit Punch
|Orange Minute Maid
Dental Association *
pH for enamel dissolution is 5.5.
Regular pop is potentially
cavity causing due to its high sugar content. Diet pops do not contribute
to cavities. However, the acid in regular and diet pop has the potential
to contribute to enamel breakdown and when combined with sugar can contribute to
Regular pops provide
between 150-180 calories per 12oz can. Current dietary recommendations for
added simple sugar are 10% of total energy.
One can of regular
pop per day contains the maximum recommended intake of sugar a day!
Excessive intake of
regular pop can contribute to excessive calories leading to obesity and/or
decrease intake of foods that have a high nutrient value leading to deficiencies.
The actual effects of pop on
oral health are a direct result of: Quantity-rapid
drinking of any quantity of regular pop, particularly with meals is unlikely to
affect your risk toward cavities.
All Day Get Decay interactive website for teens about pop
and decay, click on the Sip All Day icon on the upper right
side of the page.
Drinks in Schools
"Root beer appears to be the "safest" for health of dental
Recommendations to reduce
the affects of sugar and acid on your teeth:
Pop should be consumed at meals to limit your teeth's
exposure to sugar and acid.
Limit regular pop to 1 can per day
Neither regular nor diet pop should replace
nutrient dense foods or beverages.
Excessive intake of pop is detrimental to
Drink pop through
straws to reduce the direct contact to the teeth.
Rinse your mouth
with water after consuming pop. It is important
to do this prior to brushing your teeth after you
just drank a pop. Rinsing first will help to
neutralize the acids. Brushing in a high acid environment
will erode tooth enamel.
Select pop cans over
re-sealable bottles. This limits the consumption of
the pop to one sitting rather than sipping bottles and
re-sealing them over a longer period of time.
Include bottled water and
fruit juices in vending machines.
The use and the abuse of
acidic drinks may damage dentin and increase the risk for
[J Periodontol 2003;74:428-436.]
By Teresa Marshall, Marsha Cunningham from Iowa
Dental Journal, July 2000 as published in NDA 01/01.
Kids and Obesity
(Click on this topic above
to learn more)
Diet Soda Drinkers
Drinking carbonated soft drinks regularly can contribute to
the erosion of tooth enamel surfaces.
Soft drinks, which contain sticky sugars that break down into
acids, adhere easily to tooth surfaces.
These acids can soften
tooth substance and promote formation of plaque, which erodes
Enamel breakdown leads to cavities.
spreads beneath the enamel into the dentin, pain and sensitivity
Which may result in root canal surgery.
Because saliva helps neutralize acids and wash your teeth
clean, the worst time to drink soda pop, ironically, is when you
are very thirsty or dehydrated due to low levels of saliva.
The larger the volume of intake, the more impact
has on your teeth
sodas are part of the problem. Women especially like to drink
them throughout the day and between meals because they have no
calories, yet the higher frequency and volume is putting their
teeth at risk."
Drink soda pop only with a full meal.
Be sure to
brush and floss soon after drinking and/or eating.
to quench your thirst with water.
If you drink pop alone or
between meals, chew sugarless gum afterward to increase your
Beverages Can Erode Exposed Root Surfaces, New Study Claims
Soda, apple juice and other acidic drinks can erode exposed root
surfaces, according to research presented at the 2006
AmericanAssociation of Dental Research meeting in Orlando.
The new laboratory study, conducted by researchers from
theUniversity of Iowa, evaluated the erosive potential of five
acidic beverages on enamel and root surfaces of extracted tooth
samples.For this evaluation, the extracted teeth were coated
with fingernailpolish, and small "windows" (1 x 4 millimeters)
of enamel or rootsurface were left exposed for microscopic
analysis. The preparedtooth samples were submerged for 25 hours
in one of five popular
beverages—Gatorade®, Red Bull®, Coke®, Diet Coke® or apple
juice—and then sectioned into thin slices to measure the
Although the study did not replicate real-life exposure to
softdrinks (due to the length of time of exposure), it did
reporterosion to the root surfaces of the extracted tooth
samples.Previous studies have found that acidic beverages can
soften dentalhard tissues (enamel), and similar dental erosion
(based on leveland extent of acidic exposure) would be expected
for the thinner,more soluble root surfaces.
Dental erosion may be caused by intrinsic and extrinsic
factors(e.g., environment, diet, medications), and the erosive
process isnot solely dependent on soft-drink consumption. While
there is a growing body of evidence linking acidic food and
drinks to dental erosion, biological modifying factors, such
as low salivary flow, bulimia, acid reflux disease and other
gastrointestinal conditions, can also affect tooth erosion.
Saliva plays a protective role by diluting and neutralizing
potentially erosive agents, especially the phosphoric and citric
acids that contribute to the acidity of soda. In this way,
saliva may serve as a natural defense to reduce exposure to the
acids that can demineralize enamel and root surfaces.
Dentists are encouraged to monitor patients for observable tooth
erosion and to educate parents, caregivers and children about
the potential risks of prolonged acidic exposure to the
dentition. Proper oral hygiene instruction should be offered to
all patients for the promotion of good oral health. At-risk
patients (e.g., individuals with bulimia, binge-eating disorders
and related conditions) may require referral to physicians or
professionals for assessment, treatment and counseling.
1 Mundell EJ. Popular drinks eat away at tooth enamel. HealthDay
News. March 9, 2006. Availabl at: "http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=531449
." Accessed March 10, 2006.
2 DeNoon D. Gatorade tough on teeth? WebMD. March 9, 2006.
Available at: "http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/119/113482.htm?
Accessed March 15, 2006.
Sodas in Schools: A Sticky
First, the health problems
associated with soft drinks, sports beverages, and juice drinks
extend far beyond the elementary school years. Obesity isn’t the
only concern. Osteoporosis and tooth decay are also related to
nutrient-poor food and beverage choices, so preventive
strategies must extend throughout childhood and adolescence...to
read more see:
Sodas In School. 3/06
Influence of drinking patterns of carbonated beverages on dental
As a hard tissue dental disease, dental erosion
has a multifactorial etiology. The majority of dental erosion
that originates from extrinsic sources is the result of dietary
intake, particularly acidic beverages. Several preventive
means have been proposed to minimize the damage to the
dentition, including a reduction in the consumption of causative
beverages and the adoption of a specific method of drinking,
utilizing a straw instead of a cup.
General Dentistry Mohamed A. Bassiouny, DMD, MSc, PhD Jie Yang,
DMD, MMS, MS June 2005
Study Indicates That Popular Sports Beverages Cause More
Irreversible Damage to Teeth Than Soda
While sports and energy drinks help
athletes re-hydrate after a long workout, if consumed on a
regular basis they can damage teeth. These beverages may
cause irreversible damage to dental enamel, potentially
resulting in severe tooth decay.
This study revealed that the enamel damage
caused by non-cola and sports beverages was three to 11 times
greater than cola-based drinks, with energy drinks and bottled
lemonades causing the most harm to dental enamel.
The study continuously exposed enamel from
cavity-free molars and premolars to a variety of popular sports
beverages, including energy drinks, fitness water and sports
drinks, as well as non-cola beverages such as lemonade and ice
tea for a period of 14 days (336 hours). The exposure time
was comparable to approximately 13 years of normal beverage
The study findings revealed that there was
significant enamel damage associated with all beverages tested.
Results, listed from greatest to least damage to dental
enamel, include the following: lemonade, energy drinks, sports
drinks, fitness water, ice tea and cola. Most cola-based drinks
may contain one or more acids, commonly phosphoric and citric
acids; however, sports beverages contain other additives and
organic acids that can advance dental erosion. These organic
acids are potentially very erosive to dental enamel because of
their ability to breakdown calcium, which is needed to
strengthen teeth and prevent gum disease.
We encourage you to try altering or limiting
the intake of soda and sports drinks and choosing water or low
fat milk instead, to preserve tooth enamel and ultimately
protect teeth from decay.
January/February 2005 issue of General
Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry 's J. Anthony
von Fraunhofer, FRSC, FADM, lead author, Professor of
Biomaterials Science at the University of Maryland Dental
A high percentage of people consume soft drinks
that contain sugar or artificial sweeteners, flavorings, and
various additives. The popularity of sports (energy) drinks is
growing and this pilot study compares enamel dissolution in
these and a variety of other beverages. Enamel blocks
(approximately 7.0 x 5.0 x 2.5 mm) were
sectioned from sound extracted human premolars and molars,
measured, weighed, and immersed in the selected beverages for a
total of 14 days. The pH of all beverages was measured. The
enamel sections were weighed at regular intervals throughout the
immersion period with the solutions being changed daily; all
studies were performed induplicate. The data were subjected to
one-way ANOVA with post hoc Scheffe testing.
Enamel dissolution occurred in all the tested beverages, with
far greater attack occurring in flavored and energy (sports)
drinks than previously noted for water and cola drinks. No
correlation was found between enamel dissolution and beverage
pH. Non-cola drinks, commercial lemonades, and energy/sports
drinks showed the most aggressive dissolution effect on dental
enamel. Reduced residence times of beverages in the mouth by
salivary clearance or rinsing would appear to be beneficial.
Operative Dentistry -
JADA 2005 Jan/Feb Effects of sports drinks and other beverages
on dental enamel
J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, MSc, PhD Matthew M. Rogers, DDS
Beverages Cause More Irreversible Damage to Teeth Than Soda
New Study Indicates That Popular Sports Beverages Cause More
Irreversible Damage to Teeth Than Soda
While sports and energy drinks help athletes re-hydrate
after a long workout, if consumed on a regular
basis they can damage teeth. These beverages may cause
irreversible damage to dental enamel, potentially resulting in
severe tooth decay according to a study reported in the
January/February issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of
This study revealed that the enamel damage caused by non-cola
and sports beverages was three to 11 times greater than
cola-based drinks, with energy drinks and bottled lemonades
causing the most
harm to dental enamel. A previous study in the July/August
issue of General Dentistry demonstrated that non-cola and canned
iced teas can more aggressively harm dental enamel than cola.
The study continuously exposed enamel from cavity-free molars
and premolars to a variety of popular sports beverages,
including energy drinks, fitness water and sports drinks, as
well as non-cola beverages such as lemonade and ice tea for a
period of 14 days (336 hours). The exposure time was
comparable to approximately 13 years of normal beverage
The study findings revealed that there was significant enamel
damage associated with all beverages tested. Results, listed
from greatest to least damage to dental enamel, include the
following: lemonade, energy drinks, sports drinks, fitness
water, ice tea and cola. Most cola-based drinks may contain one
or more acids, commonly phosphoric and citric acids; however,
sports beverages contain other additives and organic acids that
can advance dental erosion. These organic acids are potentially
very erosive to dental enamel because of their ability to
breakdown calcium, which is needed to strengthen teeth and
prevent gum disease. It is recommend altering or limiting
the intake of soda and sports drinks and choosing water or low
fat milk instead, to preserve tooth enamel and ultimately
protect teeth from decay.
of soft drinks and tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste
on the wear
A study of the combined effects of soft drinks
and tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste on the wear of
The aim of this study was to measure loss of dentine produced by
soft drinks alone and combined with tooth brushing with and
without toothpastes. Groups of flat human dentine specimens were
exposed for 10 min and then 30 min to orange juice (OJ),
carbonated cola (CC) or modified blackcurrant (MB) drinks alone
or after the exposures brushed with a fluoride toothpaste for 10
s. Further groups were exposed to OJ as before but brushed with
water or non-fluoride toothpaste or placed in slurries of
fluoride paste. OJ and CC produced similar erosion and
significantly more than MB. Compared with drinks alone,
dentine loss was reduced by fluoride toothpaste brushing but
increased by water and non-fluoride toothpaste brushing.
Fluoride toothpaste slurry had no significant effect on soft
drink erosion. It is concluded that fluoride toothpaste
could provide protection, albeit
small, against erosion. The data again support the concept
of brushing before meals.
[Ponduri S, Macdonald E Addy M A study in
vitro of the combined effects of soft drinks and tooth brushing
with fluoride toothpaste on
the wear of dentine International Journal of Dental
Hygiene 2005;3 (1):7.]
of modified acidic soft drinks on enamel erosion
From each of 144 bovine incisors one enamel
sample was prepared. Labial surfaces of the samples were ground
flat, polished and covered with adhesive tape, leaving an
exposed area. The samples were distributed among four
groups for treatment with A: Coca-Cola, B: Sprite; C: Sprite
light, D: orange juice. Either 1.0 mmol l1 calcium (Ca) or a
combination (comb.) of 0.5 mmol l1 calcium plus 0.5 mmol l1
phosphate plus 0.031 mmol l1 fluoride was added to
the beverages. Samples of each group were subdivided into three
subgroups (-original; -Ca and -comb.) for treatment with
original and modified drinks. Surface loss of the specimens was
determined using profilometry after test procedure.In all
subgroups, loss of enamel was observed. The enamel loss
recorded for the samples rinsed with original Sprite and
original orange juice was significantly higher compared with all
Modification of the test soft drinks with low
concentrations of calcium or a combination of calcium, phosphate
and fluoride may exert a significant protective potential with
respect to dental erosion.
Impact of modified acidic soft drinks on enamel erosion
T Attin, K Weiss, K Becker, W Buchalla, A Wiegand 2/05
soda better for teeth
11/10/04-Dark soda better for teeth (AGD News)
According to J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, MSc, PhD, of the
University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School, light colored
soda and canned ice teas are worse for the teeth than its
darker colored competitors. According to his study,
non-cola soft drinks caused two to five times
the damage to tooth enamel as darker drinks. Dr. von
Fraunhofer believes the cause is the citric acid content
in the beverages that can leave heavy drinkers at greater
risk for cavities and decay. The average person in the U.S.
drinks about 16 ounces of soft drinks daily, according to Dr.
von Fraunhofer. The study appeared in the
July/August issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed
journal of the Academy of General Dentistry.
Sugar and acidity can be lethal to teeth!
Sweetened drinks harm the protective enamel
around teeth. Over time, exposing dental enamel to
carbonated beverages weakens and permanently destroys enamel.
This new study found that non-colas and canned iced tea were
especially harmful. They contain flavor additives, such as
malic, tartaric and other organic acids which are more
aggressive at eroding teeth.
Root beer, contains the least amount of
flavor additives was found to the the "safest soft drink to
safeguard dental enamel".
In 1977 12-19 year olds consumed 16 oz of soda
1996 12-19 year olds consumed 28 oz a day
In 1970 22.2 gallons of cola per person per
year consumed by Americans.
In 1996 44 gallons of cola per person per year
consumed by Americans.
In 1999 56 gallons of cola per person per year
consumed by Americans.
Soda consumed at meal times is less
injurious than when consumed alone and continuous sipping is
more harmful than the whole drink taken at one time.
Drinking soda thorough a straw may help reduce the amount
of soda that comes into direct contact with your teeth.
Also rinse your mouth out with water after drinking and
use toothpaste that contains fluoride.
Dentalnotes pg 1 Summer 2004
Soft drink and bones
----------------------------------- Carbonated soft drink intake
is linked with lower bone mineral density in adolescent girls, .
There was found a significant inverse relationship between
total carbonated soft drink intake and bone density for
girls only. This association was confined to non-cola and diet
drinks. Reference: J Bone Miner Res. 2003
The link between consumption of
soft drinks - particularly sweetened soft drinks - and dental
caries is well established 1.
Nutritionists have also raised
concerns that excess soft drink intake could displace milk and contribute
to calcium deficiency, and that the `empty calorie’ sugar
in soft drinks is a factor in the rapidly worsening problem
of overweight and obesity in our children 2.
Other potential problems
related to specific constituents of soft drinks include the calcium
leaching effect of phosphoric acid 3 and the impact of
excess caffeine in cola drinks (e.g. in possibly contributing to
raised blood pressure) 4 .
A recent paper has proposed that
high fructose corn syrup (used to sweeten most soft drinks) has
specific metabolic consequences that favored obesity 5, whilst
other evidence shows soft drinks can cause sharp insulin
One thing of which there is no
doubt is that soft drink intake amongst children is increasing.
Recent US estimates, for example, are that consumption
doubled over the last two decades and now adds 188 kcal/day
to the energy intake of children who drink them 7, 8.
Whatever the current status
of research on the precise health effects of soft drink
consumption, we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic amongst
children. It is hard to reasonably deny the need to take steps
in schools to make healthy, nutrient-dense foods more available
and `empty calories’, including both high fat snacks and
sugary soft drinks, less easily available 17.
Arbor Clinical Nutrition May 04. 1. Gen Dent.
2003 Jan-Feb;51(1):30-6. 2. Pediatrics. 2004 Jan;113(1 Pt
1):152-4. 3. Rev Invest Clin. 1998 May-Jun;50(3):185-9. 4. Arch
Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004 May;158(5):473-7. 5. Am J Clin Nutr.
2004 Apr;79(4):537-43. 6. Eur J Cancer Prev. 1999
Aug;8(4):289-95. 7. J Am Diet Assoc. 2003 Oct;103(10):1326-31.
8. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Dec;78(6):1068-73. 9. Arch Pediatr
Adolesc Med. 2000 Jun;154(6):610-3. 10. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004
Feb;23(1):18-33. 11. J Pediatr. 2003 Jun;142(6):604-10. 12. Br J
Nutr. 2003 Mar;89(3):419-29. 13. J Nutr. 2001 Feb;131(2):246-50.
14. J Am Coll Nutr. 2003 Dec;22(6):539-45. 15. Lancet. 2001 Feb
17;357(9255):505-8. 16. J Am Diet Assoc. 1999 Apr;99(4):436-41.
17. JAMA. 2002 Nov 6;288(17):2181.
Help patients understand these alarming soda | <urn:uuid:2894c050-f337-46ce-86ea-dca0a0e94f6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/diet_soda.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.873752 | 5,087 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Explore black history with self-guided tour
CHARLES TOWN — Twenty-four historical sites are explored in the self-guided Black History Tour created by the Jefferson County Black History Preservation Society Inc. (JCBHPS).
These sites played major roles in the African-American community and include little-known information about local churches, homes, schools and the hanging site of John Brown.
A brochure outlining the tour describes the chronology of the public and private segregated educational system for blacks, the establishment of religious institutions and how some of the oldest properties in the region were acquired and retained. The brochure also pays homage to the courage and determination of the infamous Brown and his 21 followers at Harpers Ferry.
The JCBHPS created the tour to help people gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the struggles black citizens faced in the county in the 1800s through the mid-1900s.
The tour begins with the Locke House,î one of the oldest stone structures in Charles Town, built on land purchased from Charles Washington in 1791. Visitors will also stop at Green-Copeland American Legion Post #63, which was organized by World War I veterans returning to the county. The all-black unit was granted a charter in 1929.
Other highlights of the tour include a stop at Page-Jackson High School, named after black educators. Now the Jefferson County Board of Education, the school was built in 1951 to provide a public education for blacks in the county. Payne's Hotel and Rooming House has long been demolished, but was the only hotel or rooming house for black visitors to Charles Town. Legendary music figures Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday stayed there while performing at the Orchard Inn Night Club. The Second Baptist Church, now the Zion Baptist Church, was organized by former slaves. Although destroyed by fire in 1918, it was eventually rebuilt and reopened. John Brown's hanging site, towards the end of the tour, marks the spot where Brown and six members of his army where hanged for the raid on Harpers Ferry. The tour concludes at the Jefferson County Courthouse, built in 1837 and still standing today. Brown and his raiders were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in this courthouse.
According to George Rutherford, treasurer of the JCBHPS, the tour was created about three-and-half years ago and has been very popular.
CU GalleriesView All Galleries » | <urn:uuid:d997273d-6035-4317-8924-4ac8efd03b2c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.journal-news.net/page/category.detail/nav/5036/Black-History.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973782 | 493 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The new school year always brings challenges and opportunities for our Ball State University students. One of the challenges that not only concerns students but can impact the University as well is the improper use of intellectual property (IP). What is intellectual property? Cornell University has this definition of IP: "Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce." It follows then that intellectual property refers to music, lyrics, videos, and images including photographs. As defined by the U.S. Copyright Law, IP has a bundle of legal rights for all things that people create. More often than not, these creations are called works. These legal rights for works are defined in Section 106 of the Copyright Law. The person who owns the copyright has the following five rights guaranteed by the Copyright Law that apply to their creation, their work: 1. The right to allow reproduction 2. The right to allow distribution 3. The right to allow public performance 4. The right to allow public display 5. The right to allow derivative works
The Copyright Law allows the owner of a work to say Yes or No to any of these 5 rights. Anyone wanting to reproduce a work, distribute it, perform or display it, or create a derivative work from the original needs permission from the owner of these five rights.
Peer-to-peer [P2P] file sharing services like BitTorrent, Azureus, BitComet, BitTornado,Limewire and Shareaza, while in and of themselves are not illegal, can be used to abuse intellectual property rights. These abuses are called infringements. By far, the most common types of infringements on all campuses throughout the United States are illegal downloading and sharing of audio and video files. This type of illegal file sharing infringes the first two of the owner's rights of saying yes or no to reproduction and saying yes or no to the distribution of their work. There can be very serious consequences for infringing these rights. The Ball State Community has a number of resources to assist students with the proper use of someone else's intellectual property:
Student Rights and Community Standards, Code of Conduct, 5.2.3
Information Technology Users Policy, Appendix E
Copyright © 2016 Ball State University 2000 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306
800-382-8540 and 765-289-1241 | <urn:uuid:5c79ef26-cf50-49ea-8bd4-e492c3814ae3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/Libraries/CollectionsAndDept/Copyright/IntellectualPropertyRights.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925171 | 493 | 2.640625 | 3 |
FIVE years ago this week, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing 269 people and provoking worldwide outrage. In the last two years, critics have asserted that the United States misused the KAL affair, made Soviet behavior seem worse than it was, and needlessly brought US-Soviet relations to the danger level.
These critics have focused on statements that senior US officials made soon after the shootdown, and not on the package of measures the US adopted in response to the Soviet action. Yet the US response was far more moderate and measured than the critics assert. At the time, the US measures subjected the Reagan White House to a barrage of complaints from its traditional conservative supporters. But the package represented far more effective diplomacy than that used in answer to previous Soviet actions.
To understand the government's response to the shootdown, one must go back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In reaction to that move, then-President Carter announced a wide range of economic and political sanctions. These included withdrawal of the SALT II Treaty from the ratification process, a US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, a partial embargo on US grain sales to the Soviets, and suspension of Aeroflot flights to New York City. The US then tried to rally its allies behind this package and encouraged them to adopt similar measures. This campaign had little success. It had the unfortunate result of focusing public opinion on the bickering among the Western allies instead of on the Soviet invasion.
This pattern was repeated after martial law was declared in Poland in 1981. President Reagan slapped a series of new sanctions on the Soviets, including bans on certain export licenses, suspension of talks to renew the expiring bilateral maritime agreement, postponement of talks on a new grain agreement, an end to Aeroflot flights to Washington, and non-renewal of several science and technology agreements. Again, the US tried to rally its allies behind the sanctions package; and once again, their refusal to go along became a major news story.
Thus, when the KAL shootdown occurred, US officials decided that the US response should meet several criteria. It should be attractive to the allies, so that public opinion would focus on the Soviet misdeed and not on Western intramural debates; it should be related directly to what the Soviets had done; it should be aimed at getting the Soviets to take corrective action, rather than simply serve as some sort of punishment; and it should not be something difficult to undo when the time came.
The official response set forth by Mr. Reagan largely fitted the bill. Because the Soviet misdeed was in the field of civil aviation, the response was concentrated there. The US pressed the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate the incident and sought UN Security Council condemnation of the Soviet action. Aeroflot offices in New York and Washington were closed. The US supported efforts by airline pilots' groups and other organizations to restrict flights to the USSR and press the Soviets for compensation. Links between Aeroflot and US carriers were cut, the bilateral transportation cooperation agreement was allowed to expire, and talks to renew cultural and scientific exchanges were suspended. Japan and the US pressed the Soviets to set up a joint flight-monitoring system in the North Pacific, something the Soviets had resisted, to ensure that such a mistake would not recur.
What the administration did not do is significant, too. Despite heavy pressure from Capitol Hill and from elements of the news media, Reagan did not break off arms control talks, reinstate the partial grain embargo, recall Secretary of State George Shultz from a scheduled meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko a few days later, or reduce US-Soviet diplomatic relations.
The administration's response to the shootdown had mixed success but was still more effective than the Afghanistan and Poland sanctions. Soviet efforts to turn the affair into merely another superpower dispute were thwarted. The international community took coordinated action. The airlines of more than a dozen nations launched an unprecedented 14-day boycott on flights to and from Moscow. Only a Soviet veto prevented UN Security Council censure. The ICAO conducted as thorough a probe as possible at the time, and voted to condemn the Soviets for destroying the plane.
The greatest achievement of the US package, however, was the negotiation in 1985 of the US-Japanese-Soviet North Pacific Air Safety Agreement. This pact established communications links among the Anchorage, Tokyo, and Vladivostok air traffic control centers so that airliners straying from commercial flight routes into restricted territory could be identified and redirected to avoid repeating the KAL tragedy. This made possible the resumption of US-Soviet commercial air travel in 1986.
The KAL sanctions did not significantly harm US-Soviet relations. Those relations entered a temporary lull related to the shootdown, the deployment of US Pershing 2 missiles, and Soviet leader Yuri Andropov's illness. But the improvement in relations that predated the KAL incident resumed with Reagan's conciliatory Jan. 16, 1984, speech. The stage was being set for the Geneva summit.
Lawrence J. Goodrich recently joined the Monitor's national news staff after 11 years in the US Foreign Service. His most recent postings were in Moscow and Leningrad. | <urn:uuid:d10bc614-dbef-44a3-9a56-f66f646937de> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0901/eshoot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959936 | 1,067 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Over the years, the debate has raged about how much children’s behavior is influenced by parents. Some studies suggest that parents have little influence over the genetic predispositions of their children. When parents hear this, they say “hogwash,” and I agree.
According to a review of studies (“Contemporary Research on Parenting: A Case For Nature and Nurture,” American Psychologist, February 2000), heredity counts for less than 50 percent of the variability in children’s behavior. It is a key factor in fundamental personality and behavioral attributes, but 55 percent of your child’s behavior is influenced by your choices.
Some parenting styles activate certain characteristics in children and contribute to the creation of debilitating behaviors; other forms of parenting minimize the impact of genetic predispositions and allow children to develop healthy, adaptive behavior patterns.
Each Child is Unique
As every parent knows, children have different temperaments from the early stages of infancy. Some infants are calm, while others seem to “come out kicking and screaming.” Children who have difficult temperaments as infants may have difficulties later in life. When children are impulsive, irritable, and easily distracted, they tend to externalize their difficulties by acting out and alienating themselves from others. Conversely very inhibited and shy infants may develop anxiety-related disorders when they’re older.
What is the effect of parents on children who display difficult or challenging temperaments early in life? In many cases, the child’s behavior evokes certain types of parent behaviors. These parent behaviors then worsen the child’s predispositions, provoking stronger responses from parents and then further escalating the temperamental difficulties of the child.
For example, irritable, difficult infants tend to evoke hostility, criticism, and coercive discipline from parents. Some mothers are less playful with such infants, which produces a tremendous amount of insecurity and ambivalence in the infant. The child is uncertain about security and love, which exacerbates his or her temperamental difficulties. In another set of studies, impulsive and overactive children elicited harsher forms of parenting in their toddler years. This harsh parenting was associated with more acting out when the children were adolescents. In these studies, it was the parenting style rather than the temperament of the child that predicted acting-out behavior.
The bottom line is that although some kids are born with difficult temperaments, the quality of parenting can moderate the extent to which these temperaments lead to problems later in life. Children’s vulnerabilities for mental health problems can be activated by certain triggers, such as poor parenting. On the other hand, their strengths can be activated by effective parenting. Good parenting allows children to explore and use their innate abilities.
What About Peer Groups?
Peers unquestionably influence our children, especially as they traverse the teenage years. However, because teenagers tend to select peers who are similar to themselves, the extent of peer influence is often overstated. A number of studies suggest that while peers influence day-to-day behavior, parents have much greater influence on enduring personality traits and values. (Isn’t that really cool to know!!!)
When parents are coercive, controlling, and punitive, children often become more aggressive, their school performance deteriorates, and they seek out antisocial peer groups. The choices parents make early on have a direct effect on the choices adolescents make in their peer groups. Parents need to use their influence thoughtfully and intentionally when children are young.
After years of research, psychologists can now definitively state what parents have been saying all along: Children are inherently different. Their temperaments are different, and thus they present different challenges. What is critical is how parents respond to those challenges.
Parenting is especially important when dealing with a difficult child. Parenting also plays a tremendous role in activating a child’s unique talents. The quality of parenting unquestionably makes a difference. Happy, healthy children are not simply the product of good luck or fortune.
Different child temperaments place different demands on parents. Setting children on a responsible path is easier for some children than others. This fact is easy to see. However, what is not so easy to see is how more “strong-willed” children respond to highly effective parenting. I often remind parents: “When kids are easy kids, you can get by with ‘average’ parenting skills. But when you have a challenging child on your hands, you can’t get by with average skills…these kids demand that you ‘show-up’ with better parenting. If you…it will get ugly.”
Even with kids who do not present with significant early challenges, your parenting will powerfully shape all of the following to a great extent:
- Patterns of responsibility
- Artistic interests
- Development of talents
- Patterns of activity & exercise
- Social involvement
- Volunteer activity
- Beliefs about what is possible
- Eating patterns
- Comfort with uncertainty
- Optimism or pessimism
All of this leads to me to conclude that every moment of energy you invest in becoming a better parent is worthwhile. You can imagine that your every thoughtful action as a parent is like dropping a seed into the garden of time…you don’t exactly know where and how it will grow…but it likely will blossom…and the ultimate beauty that seed brings to the garden can never be fully known. Yet, the more care and attention you give to your parenting…the more likely your thoughtful and effective nurturing translates into joyful and healthy lives for your kids.
All my best,
Randy L. Cale, PhD | <urn:uuid:f29547c4-4514-41cd-9110-93c1ff22c652> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://terrificparenting.com/parent-nature-vs-nurture-htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951252 | 1,163 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Current Affairs Josef Lada's paintings an enduring symbol of Czech Christmas
For many readers around the world, Josef Lada's illustrations of the Good Soldier Svejk are inextricably linked to the famous character created by Jaroslav Hasek. But Josef Lada did far more than illustrate Hasek's novel, and his idealized paintings of carol singers and family gatherings are for many in this country an enduring symbol of Czech Christmas.
Josef Lada was born just outside Prague in 1887, in the tiny village of Hrusice. His father was a cobbler and the family were poor, and little Josef lost an eye when he fell out of his cradle and landed on one of his father's knives. But Lada seems to have had a happy childhood, and loved Christmas. Years later he recalled with relish the traditional foods his family prepared, and said he loved their small and modestly decorated Christmas trees more than wealthier boys whose trees reached the ceiling.
Josef Lada was sent to Prague to be an apprentice, but art was his passion, and he was paid the princely sum of 20 crowns when, at just 17, his first illustrations were published by a magazine called Maj.
Two years later he had his fateful first meeting with Jaroslav Hasek. Decades later, Hasek's "The Good Soldier Svejk and his Fortunes in the World War" would be most people's first introduction to Lada's distinctive art, at least outside the Czech Republic.
In this country, however, many people associate Josef Lada with his wonderful Christmas paintings, many of which have been appearing on Czech Christmas cards for generations. Typical images include large families in simple but cosy rooms; the men smoke pipes, while rosy-faced children marvel at Nativity scenes.
Other typical Lada Christmas figures include carol singers, and children building snowmen or sledging. Invariably there is snow all around, and while it may be dark the village looks calm and pretty, and the wooden houses warm and welcoming.
Lada's Christmas paintings remained popular during the Communist era, but sometimes the authorities censored their Christian imagery. His grandson, also called Josef, says in the 1970s there were Lada calendars in which religious figures were removed and replaced by for instance a bowl of apples.
Now, however, all of his wonderful Christmas illustrations are exactly as he painted them. And the chances are that if you receive a Christmas card from the Czech Republic it may well feature one of Josef Lada's timeless images. | <urn:uuid:7366dfe0-a455-4d66-8a87-26f2d277fce9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/josef-ladas-paintings-an-enduring-symbol-of-czech-christmas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987335 | 535 | 2.75 | 3 |
Death of a Salesman Major Characters
Willy Loman: Main character of the play. Willy Loman is a traveling salesman who grew up inspired by the success of his craftsman/salesman father who left his family for Alaska. His older brother, Ben, who also left when Willy was young, and made a fortune in the diamond mines of Africa when he was only 21 years old, is another measuring stick for Willy. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked, and he instilled this belief in his sons, Biff and Happy, who were his brightest hopes in life. Although Willy encouraged their success, he neglected to instill any sense of integrity or morality in the boys, and it leads to their ultimate failure in his eyes. As Willy grows older and realizes that he has failed to meet his own expectations as a salesman, his life seems wasted. His sons are mediocre bums; he’s no longer able to provide for his family; no one knows him anymore, and he feels like a failure. He decides that the best thing he can do for his family is to award them the money from his life insurance policy by killing himself.
Linda Loman: Willy’s wife, mother of Biff, and Happy. Linda is Willy Loman’s link to reality. She sees what her husband is going through, and she supports him and loves him despite his many failures and weakness. She realizes that Willy is just an ordinary man, but she doesn’t fault him for it. If anything, she loves him more because of it. She protects him when Biff fights with him, defends him to her sons who think he’s going crazy, and she respects him enough to pretend she doesn’t know that he’s trying to kill himself and that he’s lost his salary. Linda tries to protect Willy from himself, but her efforts are in vain.
Biff Loman: Willy’s oldest son. Biff is Willy’s pride and joy. As the oldest son, Biff is the personification of all of Willy’s dreams, and as a teenager, he worshipped his father. Biff was everything Willy wanted him to be -- star athlete, popular with the girls, well liked all around. Willy ignored his petty thefts because he was a hometown hero. Being well liked wasn’t enough to help Biff graduate from high school; failing his math class was the beginning of his adult failures, and his inability to hold a job. When Biff went to Boston to tell his father that he wasn’t graduating, and ask him to talk to his Math teacher, he found Willy with another woman. This crushed Biff’s image of his father; Willy’s successful life has been only been a lie. Their relationship falls apart. As an adult, Biff drifted from job to job, a failure in Willy’s eyes; after Biff comes home and ruins another opportunity at success, he realizes that his life has been a lie; he no longer wants to try to become something he‘s not. Biff does not want to end up like his father.
Happy Loman: Willy’s youngest son. Happy was often ignored by his parents while growing up. Growing up in Biff’s shadow, Happy was always vying for Willy’s attention, but never really got it. As an adult, Willy and Linda seem to brush him off in much the same way they did when he was younger. Although Hap grows up to become more financially successful than his older brother, his father still focuses his attention only on Biff. Hap is a salesman who seduces the fiancees of store executives and takes bribes from manufacturers. He has his own apartment, car, and plenty of women, and yet he is still unhappy. He insists on fighting his way through the business world as a way to honor Willy, even though he may never go further than his current position as an assistant’s assistant.
Charley: Willy’s neighbor and long-time friend. Charley is a businessman who has lived next door to Willy for a long time. Although Willy is condescending to him, Charley is willing to help Willy through a rough spot. When Willy loses his salary, Charley loans him money every week so that Linda won’t know what’s happened. Charley offers Willy a job, but Willy is too proud to take it. Charley is an honest man who warns Willy about the consequences of his boys’ behavior: stealing supplies from construction sites, etc. Willy thinks Charley is ignorant because he is not well liked. Charley turns out to be the only friend Willy has.
Ben Loman: Willy’s older brother. Ben left the family to search for his father in Alaska when Willy was almost four. Ben ended up in Africa and got rich off of the diamond mines by the time he was twenty-one. He only visited Willy twice (briefly) on his way to and from Alaska. He encouraged Willy to keep teaching the boys to steal and to be fearless, but acts condescending towards Willy, because he is an unsuccessful salesman. Willy remembers Ben as a missed opportunity because Willy didn’t go to Alaska with him. Ben is a symbol of all that Willy could have been but missed out on.
Bernard: Charley’s son. Bernard is the nerdy neighbor who helped Biff study and gave him the answers on tests. Bernard kept warning Biff that he wouldn’t graduate if he didn’t study for his math test, but Biff and Willy both ignored him and made fun of him for being nerdy. Willy insisted that because Bernard was not well liked, he would not do well for himself when he grew up. But when Willy runs into Bernard as an adult, Bernard is a successful lawyer who is arguing a case before the Supreme Court, while Biff, who was well liked, is a bum.
The Woman: Willy’s out-of-town mistress. The Woman was a secretary for a store that Willy sold to, and she would put him through to see the buyers. Willy bought her silk stockings when he saw her, and seeing Linda mending her own because it is too expensive to buy a new pair, racks Willy with the guilt of his infidelity. It was after Biff discovered Willy with the Woman, that Willy and his son grew apart. Willy’s infidelity to his mother crushed Biff, and after realizing his dad was a fake, Biff gave up on summer school and the University of Virginia.
Howard Wagner: Willy’s boss. Wagner was the son of Willy’s original employer, and because he does not have a position for him in New York, Willy had to drive to New England. He later demotes Willy, who must work strictly on commission like a beginning salesman. Willy goes to Wagner to request a salaried position in New York, and Wagner fires him.
Bill Oliver: One of Biff’s old employers. Biff believes he was a salesman for Oliver a long time ago, but he quit because Oliver suspected that he stole a carton of basketballs. When he left, Biff claims that Oliver told him to come see him if he ever needed anything, and so years later, Biff expects that Oliver will loan him ten thousand dollars to start a sporting goods store. When Biff meets with him, Oliver doesn’t even remember Biff because Biff was only a shipping clerk, and Biff, unable to control himself, steals Oliver’s fountain pen and runs out of the office. It is this moment that makes him realize his whole life has been a fraud.
Willy’s Father: Willy’s father made and sold flutes across the country; he would take his family with him when he traveled by wagon to sell his flutes. One day he abandoned them and went to Alaska. Ben, Willy’s older brother, went after him, but ended up in Africa. Willy feels as if he’s missed out on a great deal because he never talked to his father. He makes his father into a myth of courage and success and measures himself against those imagined standards, but always seems to fall short.
Dave Singleman: Dave Singleman was an 84-year-old traveling salesman who made sales from his hotel room because he was so well known and well liked. When he died, buyers and salesman from all over New England attended his funeral. This is the life Willy wishes for. Singleman was his inspiration for being a salesman and this dream was the reason he went into sales and didn‘t leave for Alaska when his brother urged him to.
The Girls: The girls are two women (one a covergirl) Hap picked up at Frank’s Chop House, where he and Biff took Willy for dinner. While Willy was in the restroom, Biff took off and Hap and the girls followed him, leaving Willy alone and abandoned in the restaurant. Linda considered the boys abandoning their father at the restaurant the final straw, and when they came home, she told them both to leave and not to come back. | <urn:uuid:d0b5e933-3b74-4fd2-b6e6-45f5388ebc63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/notes/das/chr.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990426 | 1,978 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In Idaho, new tillage for a new crop.
Crop yields (Research)
|Publication:||Name: Agricultural Research Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office Audience: Academic; General Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Agricultural industry; Biotechnology industry; Business Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 U.S. Government Printing Office ISSN: 0002-161X|
|Issue:||Date: August, 2011 Source Volume: 59 Source Issue: 7|
|Topic:||Event Code: 310 Science & research|
|Product:||Product Code: 2871000 Fertilizers; 8520110 Scientists NAICS Code: 32531 Fertilizer Manufacturing; 54171 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences SIC Code: 2873 Nitrogenous fertilizers; 2874 Phosphatic fertilizer industry; 2879 Agricultural chemicals, not elsewhere classified|
|Geographic:||Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States|
Southern Idaho is known for its prodigious yields of potatoes and
sugar beets, but the state's growing dairy industry is also
supporting the production of a different crop--corn. So David Tarkalson
and David Bjorneberg, who work at the ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils
Research Laboratory in Kimberly, Idaho, conducted a 2-year study to see
whether farmers who use conventional methods of tillage and fertilizer
application could increase corn yields by banding fertilizer with strip
Farmers using strip tillage make just one pass through fields before planting. When they use strip tillage, they remove residue from a 6- to 12-inch-wide strip and till the soil 6 to 8 inches deep with a knifelike shank, which can also inject fertilizer.
Tarkalson and Bjorneberg studied corn yields from one field in 2007 and one in 2009, both of which had been planted with alfalfa the year before. (Research was not conducted in 2008 because a field was not available for study.) In both years, one of the study areas was located at the top of an eroded slope, and the other was located at the bottom of a slope, where soils eroded from higher elevations had accumulated.
The scientists used either conventional tillage or strip tillage and applied nitrogen and phosphorus to the fields either by broadcast application or by subsurface injection with the strip-till shank.
The scientists found that using strip till-age to place fertilizers 6 to 8 inches directly below the seed increased corn grain yields on the nutrient-depleted eroded area by 12 percent in 2007 and 26 percent in 2009, compared to the other fertilizer-placement treatments. This translated into yield increases of 11 to 26 bushels per acre.
Though band placement of nitrogen and phosphorus on higher slopes was especially beneficial to boosting yields, at lower elevations the technique resulted in the same yields as broadcast fertilizer applications. These findings suggest that Pacific Northwest corn growers who apply fertilizer in bands with strip tillage could help lower production costs by reducing tillage while maintaining or increasing yields.--By Ann Perry, ARS.
David Tarkalson and David Bjorneberg are with the USDA-A RS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, 3 793 North 3600 East, Kimberly, ID 83341; (208) ,4233-6503 [Tarkalson], (208) 423-6521 [Bjorneberg], firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com.
|Gale Copyright:||Copyright 2011 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.| | <urn:uuid:2f00d777-a172-41f4-9908-e4eb1b1bb2ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biomedsearch.com/article/In-Idaho-new-tillage-crop/270895840.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883168 | 770 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Choose the Right View for Your Fashion Figure Faces
Before you can start drawing a fashion face, you first have to draw a head with a face grid. When you’re ready for your face, you can adjust the guide lines on the face grid to reflect various views of the face as it slowly turns. When you draw a profile, for example, the center front line moves all the way to the side.
Other than keeping the fashion figure head small, there’s not much difference between drawing a forward-facing head on a figure drawing and drawing one on a fashion model.
Of course, you can’t always draw faces that look straight ahead in the front view. Nor would you want to, when you have so many fabulous angles to choose from!
Subtle and sassy: Drawing faces in the three-quarter view
A face in a three-quarter view is more subtle than the front view. When a face is seen from the three-quarter view, it lends some mystery to the fashion figure.
Here’s how to draw a face in the three-quarter view:
Start with an oval like the one shown.
Use your face grid for feature placement. The vertical line marks the center front of the face. The horizontal line that appears halfway down the oval marks the eye level.
To turn the face, move your center front line slightly to the right.
Moving this line moves the figure’s facial features — eyes, nose, and mouth — slightly to the right as well. Curving the guide lines slightly adds dimension.
Map out the placement of the eyes, nose, and mouth.
Notice that the side of the head facing you is more pronounced; the far side of the face slides to the back with less obvious features so that the fashion figure’s left eye is barely visible. As the head turns, you also start to see the back of the head as well as where the ear will eventually be.
You’re your own best model when studying facial features. Try this exercise: Look at yourself in the mirror and slowly turn your head to your right side. Notice how your features change and fall into various three-quarter positions. One side of your face becomes more noticeable as the other recedes. Pay attention to models in photographs and how their heads turn to further explore various views of the face.
Profiles are used frequently in fashion drawing because they convey an elegant, haughty look.
You can create a perfect profile for women, men, and children by following these steps:
Start by drawing an oval and a face grid.
Sketch in the forehead, eye, nose, and lips from the side view. Draw the top and back of the head, curving in as you approach the neck.
Place the eye slightly above the center horizontal line and the nose a little below it. The nose in a profile view is just a slanted angle shape.
Draw the lips in profile outside the oval, about halfway between the middle horizontal line and the bottom. The top lip curves up toward the nose, and the lower lip curves down toward the chin. Keep the lower lip slightly fuller than the upper lip. The lips protrude slightly from the face.
Form the chin, making sure you dimple in the skin just under the lip.
Keep the chin more rounded for women and children, and present a square look for the guys.
Add the ear by sketching in a C shape around where the guide lines cross. Lightly sketch in the jaw by continuing the line from the chin to the ear.
The top of the ear lines up near the eyes.
A woman’s jawline generally angles up toward the ear. A man’s jawline is flatter, which gives him a rugged look. | <urn:uuid:c337c2c3-3c46-4647-bd12-6556b843d9de> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choose-the-right-view-for-your-fashion-figure-face.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935778 | 784 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Addition and Subtraction
To add or subtract radical expressions, simplify each radical term and then combine like terms. A simplified radical term consists of a coefficient and a radical, under which there is a radicand. Can you believe you understand now what all these crazy words mean? It's like you can speak a secret language.
In the term , the coefficient is 5 and the radicand is 7.
In the term , we need to rationalize the denominator to find .
To put this in the form we need, it could be rewritten as:
So the coefficient is and the radicand is 35. We still haven't gotten rid of the fraction line, but at least it isn't combined with the square root symbol any longer. That many weird symbols consorting together makes us nervous. It feels like they're up to something.
Two radical terms are considered like terms if they have the same radicand. This makes them "term twins." You'll be able to tell, because they're always finishing each other's sentences.
Be careful: It's important to simplify radical terms before combining like terms. Sometimes two terms can be rewritten as like terms, but we can't see it until we simplify. It's the same way you can't switch one kid out for another without their parents noticing until you've first made sure that they're twins. Otherwise, it's called kidnapping.
Radical expressions may contain variables either outside or inside the radicands. After simplifying, we can combine like terms in the same way we did when only numbers were involved. Except now it's more fun, because we can use variables!
...we'll keep telling ourselves that until it feels true.
Now that we know how to figure out which terms can be combined, we'll combine some. How about that.
This is similar to adding or subtracting variables. In the same way that 3x + 4x = 7x, so does .
To add or subtract like radical terms, we add or subtract the coefficients. We don't do anything to the radicands, which is why we made sure they were the same in the first place.
We keep the radicand the same, and add the coefficients 3 and 8:
First, simplify each radical. Then we can rewrite the problem as:
We can simplify the first radical term and rewrite the problem as:
We can't combine these terms since the radicands aren't the same, so that's our final answer.
We can also do this sort of thing with expressions that have variables. Variables and numbers have sort of an "anything you can do, I can do better" relationship, or at least an "anything you can do, I can do equally" one. | <urn:uuid:fc5b09f6-2794-418e-87f8-46ddeebd5cc2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/squares-square-roots/adding-subtracting.html | 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 | 0.957093 | 570 | 4 | 4 |
Lesson 14: Drawing Reflections
- Add a gray mirror behind the cube. Put it at an angle of 30 degrees with respect to the x-y plane, so that it is parallel to the y axis.
- Have the cube move up and down as it is spinning. (A little nauseating. It gives you an idea of what the life of a die must be like.)
Next is "Lesson 15: Fog". | <urn:uuid:58c44b5d-cdd6-4b5c-b440-ed72a9020312> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.videotutorialsrock.com/opengl_tutorial/reflections/exercises.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9016 | 90 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Burning River Baseball has a general focus on the current edition of the Cleveland Indians, but it is really about glorifying the entire history of baseball in the city of Cleveland. The least remembered of those teams was likely the Cleveland Buckeyes and other members of Negro League Baseball. While the Lawrence D. Hogan book, Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball is not exclusively about any one NLB team, it is a unique, detailed account of the entire history of Negro League Baseball, spanning from the 1870’s through 1960.
In general, not much is known about the Negro Leagues by the general public outside of Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and in Cleveland, Larry Doby. This book tells the story of those players, but more importantly, goes back much further to those unlucky enough to play before desegregation. There are uncountable amazing players from almost 100 years of baseball, many of whom have been otherwise forgotten, that have been immortalized in Shades of Glory.
The most depressing part of the book and the story in general is the fact that the Negro Leagues never should have existed. Prior to the 1900’s, black players were allowed to play in professional white leagues and did with “…33 black players between 1878 and 1899 on the rosters of clubs in organized white baseball, not counting the wholesale importation of black teams to represent cities in otherwise white leagues.” Unfortunately for the good of baseball as a whole, the people involved and America, Major League Baseball used the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 to bar people darker than a certain shade of skin color from playing in professional baseball.
Continuing on the though of skin shade, this brings up another interesting point. It was only skin color, not heritage that kept players out of the white Majors as some Cuban players were allowed to play, while others were forced to play in the Negro Leagues. There were even players that started out in NLB, but were fair skinned enough to have a Major League career afterward. All this goes to show how arbitrary the decisions on who was allowed to play for Major League teams was.
While they never should have been necessary, the multiple incarnations of the Negro Leagues did happen and there were almost as many stars as in the actual Major Leagues. Unlike the Major Leagues, however, there were not accurate standings or statistics kept at the time, so it is very difficult to know what happened exactly and, rather than work through the limited numbers, most of the players have been forgotten. Shades of Glory digs deep to bring you the stories and statistics of these long forgotten athletes. Just as importantly, it brings up the team owners and league organizers that made the Negro Leagues possible.
Like any good historical book, Shades of Glory brings an unbiased look at the movers of the age, showing both sides of people like Rube Foster, the architect of the first organized leagues and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who may have been the one man in Major League Baseball keeping integration from happening a decade before it actually did.
If there is one negative about the book, it is the primary focus is always on the best teams of the time with little known about the rest of the league. Of course it was a lot of years to cover and a lot of teams, but relatively little is mentioned about teams like the Cleveland Buckeyes or any other team to play away from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Kansas City or New York. The Southern leagues are almost completely ignored as is much of the middle years (from 1920-1940), instead with the focus, as it rightly should have been, staying on the formation of the league and the desegregation of the league in the late 1940’s.
Ignorance is no excuse and these stories should be known by every single person who calls themselves a baseball fan. Read this book and learn about the players who would have been Major League All-Stars, if only they had been allowed to try. | <urn:uuid:d030bddb-21ea-4bde-b9c2-033feb7a8a36> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://burningriverbaseball.com/articles/bookclub/shades-of-glory-the-negro-leagues-the-story-of-african-american-baseball.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978966 | 823 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Xenarthrans radiated in South America during the Tertiary, when that continent was isolated by sea from other continents. The group currently includes armadillos, 2-toed sloths, 3-toed sloths, and anteaters, placed in four families containing 29 species. These animals are mostly insectivores and herbivores of small to medium body size (up to around 60 kg). In the past, however, xenarthrans were much more diverse and numerous. They radiated into around a dozen families, including not only the groups known today, but also such animals as giant ground sloths, some of which were larger than elephants; glyptodonts, reaching 3 m in length and the most heavily armored vertebrates that ever existed; and a large number of smaller grazing and browsing forms. Several groups of xenarthrans successfully crossed the Central American land bridge to North America when it formed in the Pliocene; these included a number of kinds of ground sloths and armadillos. Only one species, however, an armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), is still alive today.
Xenarthrans lack incisors or canines, and if present, their molars and premolars are simply cylinders without the covering of enamel that is found on the teeth of most other mammals. These teeth have a single root. Xenarthrans have small brains, and some have an unusually long and cylindrical braincase. Their tympanic bone is ring-shaped. The most notable feature of their postcranial skeleton are the special articulations ( xenarthrous processes) on the lumbar vertebrae. These are found in no other mammals. The number of cervical vertebrae varies from five to nine, depending on the species; this degree of variation is extremely unusual in mammals (almost all other mammals have seven). The forefeet have five toes (with a few exceptions), but two or three predominate and have long, sharp, curved claws. Xenarthrans also have a clavicle and an unusually well-developed coracoid process.
Xenarthrans can be found throughout Central and South America, ranging northwards to the central United States. They are sometimes referred to as edentates (order Edentata). Their fossil record extends to the Paleocene.
Click on a term below to find out more about that family:
Family Dasypodidae (armadillos)
Family Myrmecophagidae (anteaters)
Family Bradypodidae (sloths)
Family Megalonychidae (sloths)
Literature and references cited
Barlow, J. C. 1984. Xenarthrans and pholidotes. Pp. 219-239 in Anderson, S. and J. K. Jones, Jr. (eds). Orders and Families of Recent Mammals of the World. John Wiley and Sons, N.Y. xii+686 pp.
Paradiso, J. L. 1975. Walker's Mammals of the World, Third Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Savage, R. J. G. and M. R. Long. 1986. Mammal Evolution, an Illustrated Guide. Facts of File Publications, New York. 259 pp.
Vaughan, T. A. 1986. Mammalogy. Third Edition. Saunders College Publishing, Fort Worth. vii+576 pp.
Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder. 1993. Mammal Species of the World, A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 2nd edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. xviii+1206 pp.
Phil Myers (author), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
uses touch to communicate | <urn:uuid:cb469564-ea30-4c3c-838c-4f55305d017b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pilosa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908557 | 940 | 3.828125 | 4 |
The eagle with extended wings as if in the act of flying, has always, from the majestic character of the bird, been deemed an emblem of imperial power
The eagle symbolized strength, courage, farsightedness, and immortality. It is considered to be the king of the air and the messenger of the highest Gods. Mythologically, it is connected by the Greeks with the God Zeus, by the Romans with Jupiter, by the Germanic tribes with Odin who shapeshifted into an eagle, and with the Druids as a symbol of the Supreme God ..
By the Judeo-Christian scriptures with God, and in Christian art with Saint John the Evangelist.
The Eagle was an ensign of the ancient kings of Persia.
It was a bird sacred to the Sun in Egypt, and in Greece it was the emblem of Jupiter.
Marius, the Consul of Rome, 102 B. C., ordained that the Eagle should be the sole designation of the legions as their ensign, and allowed other emblems to designate the cohorts. The single headed Eagle thereby became the emblem of the imperial power of Rome ever afterwards.
After the division of the Roman Empire into the East and the West, the emperors of the West used a black Eagle, and those of the East a golden one, since which period Austria, Prussia, Russia, France, and also Poland, when a nation, have also used the Eagle as their royal emblem.
The double headed Eagle signifies a double imperial power, and was for the use of emperors who claim to be the successor of the Caesars of Rome ; Thus the Eagle of the Eastern Empire united with that of the West, typifying the Holy Roman Empire, and is where we see the use of this double head.
Charlemagne was the first to make use of the double headed eagle when he became the head of the whole German Empire by adding the second head A. D. 802, thereby denoting the union of Rome and Germany.
After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the double-headed eagle was retained by the Austrian Empire, and served also as the coat of arms of the German Confederation.
The symbol of the double headed Eagle was first known to Masonry in 1758, upon the establishment of a body calling itself Emperors of the East and West.
Eagle and Double Headed Eagle Symbolism in Freemasonry. As a symbol the Eagle more prominently appears in the 18th, 30th, 32nd and 33rd degrees, the first being an Eagle of one head, and the others double headed.
The double headed Eagle of Kadosh, that is of the 30th, 31st and 32d degrees, is a white and black Eagle. The head, neck, legs, and tips of the wings are of white feathers, while the body and wings are black. In brief, the bird should be in its natural colors, its wings extended yet drooping. The black symbolizing decay and the white sublimation, or the approching gradual change to the incorruptible, the becoming pure, holy, Kadosh, immortal. In the claws is a naked sword; one talon of the right claw clinching the hilt of the steel blade of serpentine shape, the left claw grasping the blade. The white ribboned motto pendent from the hilt to the point of the sword contains the words " Spes Mea in Deo Est" in black. | <urn:uuid:e24b78ea-38f1-4bf4-a0aa-ff86d5ba45b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gnosticwarrior.com/eagle-images-symbols-and-meanings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949848 | 711 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Passphrases are nothing but long-lines or sentences that are used in the place of passwords. Some applications that requires authentication allow people to type passphrases, instead of passwords. Example. PGP [Pretty Good Privacy] asks for passphrases for an user to authenticate the usage of his private key to decipher/decrypt the encrypted message. Is a passphrase more secure than a password? Well, everything is relative. What we mean by relative is that, a password that is highly randomized with alpha-numeric and special characters could be stronger than a passphrase with 2 words (all in lower case with no space). Does this mean passwords are more secure than passphrases? The answer is "its relative". I mean, there are good and bad passwords, and good and bad passphrases. The advantage of a passphrase over a password is that, simple sentences that are easy to remember are hard to guess due to:
Pass-phrases has its advantage over passwords, in terms of simplicity. Even though it is really simple to remember, it is relatively hard to crack. Let us consider an example:
In the above three steps, we saw how to pick a sentence and change it. If the example that we chose in Step 1 is used as the real-world passphrase, that by itself is good enough. We just wanted to make it more complicated in Step 2 by changing all the starting letters to CAPS. In Step 3, we make it even more complicated by sprinking/adding numbers and special characters. The reason for us to use the word "sprinkle" is because if you "append" the numbers and special characters at the end, the distribution is not done really well or across the passphrase. Hence, in essence it is good to spread the random special-characters and numbers across the passphrase, instead of accumulating it at the beginning or in the end. Passphrase is one good example for "Easy to remember, hard to guess" concept, which is why we decided to talk about passphrases in Password Analytics. | <urn:uuid:3187e283-9e96-47e2-8492-95af1488af37> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.passwordanalytics.com/theory/passwords/pass-phrase-101.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96106 | 430 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Jan 22, 2013
REIGNED 558-529 B.C.
The early life of Cyrus the Persian, like that of many another famous conqueror, is lost in a cloud of fable. According to Herodotus, to whom we owe the earliest account, Astyages the King of Media was warned in a dream that some danger threatened the kingdom from the offspring of his daughter Mandane, who as yet was unmarried. In order to remove the danger, whatever it might be, as far as possible from his throne, Astyages married his daughter to a Persian named Cambyses, who took her with him to his own country. But after his daughter’s marriage Astyages had another dream, which was interpreted by the priests to mean that his daughter’s child was destined to reign in his stead. Alarmed by this prophecy he sent for his daughter, and when in course of time she bore a son, he ordered his trusty lieutenant Harpagus to carry the child to his own house and kill it. Harpagus took the infant as he had been ordered to do, but moved by the pleadings of his wife he determined to commit the rest of his bloody instructions to other hands. He therefore called one of his herdsmen, and ordered him to expose the child on the bleakest part of the mountain and leave it to perish, threatening him with the most terrible penalties in case of disobedience. But the herdsman and his wife were no more proof against pity than Harpagus and his wife had been, and while they stood swayed between their wish to save the child and their fear of disobeying Harpagus, fortune happily provided an escape for them. The wife of the herdsman brought forth a dead child, and this they determined to substitute for the living infant, and to bring up the grandson of Astyages as their own. The exchange was accomplished, and after some days the servants of Harpagus, sent to inquire if their master’s commands had been obeyed, were shown by the herdsman the body of a dead child exposed on the rocks and still wearing the rich clothes and ornaments in which it had been brought to his house. Harpagus was thus enabled to assure Astyages that he was safe from the threatened danger, and might enjoy his throne in peace.
When the child of Mandane was ten years old an accident brought him to the knowledge of the king, and restored him to his birthright. One day he was playing with the children of his neighbors, and in a certain game where it was necessary to make one of the players king, Cyrus was chosen, and all the others, as his subjects, promised to obey his commands. But one of the boys, the son of a rich noble of the court of Astyages, refused to do as he was bid by Cyrus, and according to the rule of the game, he had to submit to a beating at the hand of the boy-king. Angry at this treatment, he complained to his father, who, indignant in his turn, went to Astyages, and reproached him with the blows his son had received at the hands of the son of one of the king’s slaves. Cyrus was brought before the king; but when he was asked how he had dared to treat the son of a nobleman in such a way, the boy, nothing daunted, answered that he had done only what was right: the rules of the game were known to all who had joined in it: the other boys had submitted to the penalties: the son of the nobleman alone had refused, and he had been punished as he deserved. “If any wrong has been done by me,” he said, “I am ready to suffer for it.” Struck by the boldness of the lad, and by something in his looks, Astyages dismissed him for a time, and promised the nobleman that he should be satisfied for the insults offered to his son. He then sent for the herdsman Mitridates and wrung from him a confession of what he had done; and learning how Harpagus had deceived him he acquitted Mitridates, and turned all his vengeance upon Harpagus as the chief offender. How cruelly he punished him must not be told here, for pity, but it was such a barbarous revenge as could never be forgiven; and though Harpagus pretended to make light of it, yet it was only that by keeping fair with the king he might bide his time, and repay cruelty with cruelty.
But now, as Cyrus in our story has grown to man’s estate, and is ready to show the world of what stuff he is made, it will be well to explain in a few words, what was the state of things in that part of the world where he was to play his part.
The mighty Kingdom of Assyria in its greatest estate had stretched from the Indus on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west. But when Nineveh, the capital and chief city of the empire, had been destroyed by the Medes—a subject people living on the north-eastern borders of the kingdom, but who had risen in rebellion against their rulers—Assyria was broken in pieces, and several minor kingdoms rose on her ruins.
Of these the chief were Media and Babylonia in the east, and Lydia in the west. Babylonia rose to a great height of power and splendor under Nebuchadnezzar… The Medes, a brave and warlike people, never attained to so high a degree of civilization as the Babylonians, nor did they ever have a monarch whose fame equaled that of Sardanapalus, the King of Assyria; of Nebuchadnezzar; or of Crœsus, King of Lydia; but under a succession of astute and hardy warriors, who held the throne for something over one hundred and fifty years, their dominion was gradually extended until it stretched from the Indus to the centre of Asia Minor. Their greatest achievement had been the destruction of Nineveh in B.C. 606.
Lydia, the remaining province, touched the Median kingdom on the east, and on the west was only separated, in the beginning, from the Mediterranean by the narrow strip of territory occupied by the Greek colonies, which for a time acted as a bar to the encroachments of the Lydian monarchs and their conquerors.
When Cyrus came to manhood, these kingdoms, the successors of the Assyrian monarchy, were all flourishing in wealth and power. Media was ruled by Astyages, his grandfather—to accept the legendary history as it has come down to us; Babylonia the greatest of the three was governed by Nebuchadnezzar, while Lydia was ruled by Crœsus, a monarch wise above his peers, whose name has long been a synonym for unbounded wealth, and whose story, though not beyond the bounds of credibility, reads more like a fable of romance than a tale of sober fact.
Crœsus was the brother-in-law of Astyages, and in close alliance not only with the Medes, but with the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks; and he was at the height of his power and was looking forward to still greater increase of his dominions, when in an evil hour he struck against the growing greatness of Cyrus, and was crushed in the encounter. Had he been less arrogant, the doom he wrought for himself might have been delayed, but it could not have been wholly averted. Nothing could have long withstood the greed of Cyrus for universal dominion.
We have seen what good cause Harpagus had to hate Astyages. But he nursed his revenge with crafty wisdom, and knowing himself powerless to act openly and alone, he tried what stratagem might do to bring about his aim, which was no less than the overthrow of Astyages by means of the tyrant’s grandson, Cyrus. He did not take open measures until he knew he had allies enough at his back, and could strike with a sure aim. He worked with the great Median chiefs in private, stirring them up against Astyages by appeals of all sorts: to their ambition, their greed, their discontent, their private wrongs; and when he had secured the consent of enough nobles to his plans, he called upon Cyrus, as one who had chiefly suffered from the tyranny and cruelty of the king, to lead the proposed revolt in person. He knew that Cyrus had been gradually strengthening his own kingdom of Persia in preparation for the ambitious schemes of conquest he was nursing, but there was danger in correspondence with one who stood to Astyages in the double relation of a feared and hated grandson, and the chief of a rival people; and if we may believe Herodotus, Harpagus had recourse to a strange expedient to communicate his design to Cyrus. Disemboweling a dead hare, he inserted a letter in the cavity, and sent the animal to Cyrus as a present. When the letter came to the hands of Cyrus he eagerly accepted the offers it contained of leadership in the proposed revolt, and joined his forces with those of the disaffected Medes. Astyages was overthrown and his kingdom taken possession of by Cyrus. Herodotus draws a striking picture of the exultation of Harpagus over the success of his revengeful projects, and of the disdain with which Astyages reproached him for having called on another to do what, trusted and confided in as he was by his monarch, he might have accomplished for himself, and reaped the harvest which he had surrendered to another. Cyrus had the wisdom to spare the life of Astyages, and to attach him to his person as councillor and friend. Harpagus he made his lieutenant, and much of his success was owing to this man’s wisdom and bravery. After the defeat of Astyages, Cyrus advanced against the lesser tribes that had owed allegiance to the Median king, and having reduced them one by one to submission, the power of the once mighty empire of the Medians passed to the inheritance of the Persians in the year 559 B.C.
When Crœsus heard of the overthrow of his brother-in-law by the hands of Cyrus, and of the setting up a great new monarchy on the ruins of the fallen kingdom, his own ambitious projects were blown into fresh activity by the desire for private revenge. Misled by his own interpretation of the oracle he consulted as to the likelihood of success in an expedition against the Persians, he advanced to withstand the conquering march of Cyrus; and his first success was against the Syrians of Cappadocia, a people subject to Cyrus, as having formed a part of the Median Kingdom. Cyrus, with a powerful army, came at once to the assistance of his new subjects, and meeting the forces of Crœsus on the plain of Cappadocia, a fiercely fought, but indecisive battle took place, which resulted in the retreat of Crœsus to his capital, Sardis, to seek the assistance of his allies and prepare to meet Cyrus with a larger force. In overweening confidence in his own success, he dismissed his mercenary troops, and sent messengers to Babylon, to Egypt, and to Sparta, calling on them to come with troops to his assistance within five months. No sooner had he shut himself up in Sardis, and dismissed his mercenaries, depending upon his own forces until assistance should come from his allies, than Cyrus advanced against him so swiftly that there was no escape from a battle. Crœsus, believing in his fortune, and trusting to the excellence of his cavalry, boldly took the field; but Cyrus, using stratagem where perhaps courage would not have availed, put his camels in front of his line, and massed his own horsemen behind them. The horses of Crœsus, maddened by the unaccustomed smell of the camels, refused to advance; but the Lydians, dismounting, fought so bravely on foot with their spears, that it was not until after a long and fierce combat that they were forced to retreat and seek safety within the walls of Sardis. The army of Cyrus invested the city, but it was so strongly fortified on all sides but one as to be impregnable by assault and the side left unprotected by art was supposed to be amply protected by nature, since it abutted on the very edge of a steep precipice. But, after the siege had lasted fourteen days, a Persian sentinel saw one of the garrison descend the precipice to recover his helmet that had rolled down; and no sooner had he thus unwittingly showed the way, than the sentinel followed with a number of his fellow-soldiers and, reaching the top of the cliff in safety, attacked the guards, all unsuspicious, and gained an entrance to the city. The gates were opened to the Persians, and Crœsus with all his vast store of treasure became the prey of the conqueror. The fall of Sardis and the Lydian monarchy was followed by the subjection of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, a task which Cyrus left to the hands of Harpagus, while he himself turned eastward to pursue his conquests in Upper Asia and in Assyria. His greatest achievement in this quarter was the taking of Babylon. This he accomplished in the reign of Belshazzar, one of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps his son, by turning the Euphrates, which ran through the middle of the city, out of its course; and when its bed was dry he entered the city by this road and captured it with little resistance.
Cyrus was now the sole master of the vast Assyrian Kingdom, once more in his hands brought back to something like the unity it had before the great Median revolt. But he was not content, nor was it perhaps possible for him to rest in the enjoyment of power and possessions extorted by force, and dependent on force to hold. The new empire, like the old one, was destined to break in pieces by its own weight. Cyrus was kept in constant activity by the necessity of resisting the inroads on his empire of the tribes in the north and farther east; and it was in endeavoring to repel invasion and to maintain order in the regions he had already conquered, that he met his death. After a reign of thirty years he was slain, in 529 B.C., in battle with the Massagetæ, a tribe of Central Asia. He left his kingdom to his son Cambyses. | <urn:uuid:515aa9e5-41eb-4862-9196-1303b9d6f4d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.creatinghistory.com/cyrus-the-great/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992312 | 3,053 | 3.484375 | 3 |
It’s been a busy last few days. In an exciting voyage, the Planetary Lake Lander sailed the 3 kilometers across Laguna Negra to the mooring at the base of Victoria Cascade, the location where it will stay for the next year. With Liam at the helm, the Intelligent Robotics Group tested the satellite, meteorological station, and other coms on route to, and from the mooring location. The entire voyage, installation, and return took over 8 hours.
Another milestone for the PLL team as the lander was transferred to its permanent mooring place at Victoria Cascade.
The first data has been sent to Ames, as it would in a real mission. Instead of using the Deep Space Network, however, the Lander is using orbiting communications satellites. Because we are still in monitoring mode, we have not restricted the bandwidth to mimic a real mission, and will probably continue at this level throughout the summer.
The lander is already probing the water column at a rate of one profile per hour. This is providing real-time data on the physics of the lake, where the thermocline is, and data for the biological team.
We have spotted areas of interest between 10 and 25 m depth; differences in water temperatures and in the amount of light that goes through. One hypothesis is that the water that comes into the lake from Echaurren Glacier and sinks because it is so dense to that level, and contains a lot of nutrients that support life there.
The intriguing thing is that we see the same sort of behavior 6 km away from the inlet. Could this current continue so far away from where it enters the lakes? There are interesting physical and biological implications of this hypothesis. | <urn:uuid:641c6dde-866e-45f4-9a7e-948f1821bf52> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pll.seti.org/?p=636 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945421 | 353 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Perceptions of childhood
Constructing childhoodFollowing Rousseau, and in the hands of Romantic poets such as William Blake and William Wordsworth, childhood came to be seen as especially close to God and a force for good. In children’s literature, this idealised version of childhood became and remained enormously influential throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, though its Christian origins grew less pronounced. In children’s books (and other kinds of literature and art too) childhood innocence, goodness, frankness and vision regularly restore the moral wellbeing of adults and society. This is particularly obvious in 19th-century Evangelical tales about urchins in city slums who bring about the salvation of others. A typical example is Hesba Stretton’s Jessica’s First Prayer (1867), but the same motif is at work in less overtly religious works such as Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885), in which a young boy, raised in the poor part of an American city, effectively redeems and restores the antiquated and decaying British social structure.
Just as there are many real childhoods at any given time, so multiple ideas or constructions of childhood co-exist in writing for children. In the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, not everyone subscribed to Rousseau’s theories about the nature of childhood. A few children’s writers such as Mary Martha Sherwood still held to the doctrine of original sin, while many saw childhood as the raw material from which adults were made rather than an ideal state to be valued and preserved.
Perpetual childhoodSome, however, did not see childhood as a state to be hurried through in order to achieve adulthood. The 19th century saw the development of what is sometimes called the Cult of Childhood, with adults exultantly celebrating childhood in texts and images. The connections with the Romantic ideal of childhood are clear, but many writers of the ‘Golden Age’ of children’s literature (beginning in the 1860s with Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies, 1863, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865) went further, even expressing a longing themselves to be children once more. As Carroll put it in his poem ‘Solitude’,
I'd give all the wealth that years have piled,
the slow result of life's decay,
To be once more a little child
for one bright summer day.
But perpetual childhood is impossible, and there is a notable tendency in some of the best-known Victorian fantasies for child characters to die in this world in order to be reborn (as in Kingsley’s Water-Babies) or to stay children forever elsewhere (George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind, 1868). The Cult of Childhood persisted into the 20th century, reaching its height in J M Barrie’s Peter Pan (who first appeared in a play of 1904), who famously refused to grow up.
The text in this article is available under the Creative Commons License. | <urn:uuid:f5596c1a-7518-48ff-bc0f-987215ee5775> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/perceptions-of-childhood | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954302 | 642 | 3.1875 | 3 |
It is impossible to imagine science without laboratories. Our concept and image of science is fundamentally defined by those special buildings in which experts utilize vast technical resources to investigate natural phenomena and processes. A whole iconography exists, depicting the laboratory scientist in the midst of extremely complex and precise instruments examining an object in his hand or a model next to him, or looking at a brightly illuminated screen. However, the concept of the laboratory on which this iconography is based is being called into question by current developments in scientific practice. In particular, the large research centres for particle physics, such as Fermilab near 1or CERN in the , and the large scientific projects of current biological research, such as the Human Genome Project, have contributed to the expansion of the laboratory into a network, which bears little resemblance to the traditional image of table-top experiments in an enclosed space. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the architecturally delimited laboratory – like the factory, the railway station or the department store – is an exemplary site of modernity.
During the last third of the 19th century in particular, buildings specially designed and equipped for the purpose became central institutions of scientific endeavour. Being involved in this endeavour no longer involved striving for the formation of individual character and personality, as was the case in the Romantic period. On the contrary, work in modern laboratories was increasingly carried out by demystified professionals who applied professional methods for creating innovations. As the workplace of the chemist, the physicist and the biologist – and subsequently also of other specialists, such as the psychologist, the archaeologist and the linguist, for example – the laboratory was transformed in this period to a space of knowledge which was primarily used for establishing new scientific facts. In turn, this special form of knowledge production was subject to an economic regime which was guided by the principles of specialization, mechanization and standardization. In the laboratory, the activities of the scientist assumed some of the characteristics of work at the conveyor belt. According to the frequently repeated expectation – and in some case the fears of the historical protagonists of the late-19th century – novel facts could be produced by the dozen in the laboratory.2
It is not surprising, therefore, that the laboratory reflected the often contradictory tendencies of an increasingly industrialized society. Like a metropolis in miniature, the laboratory was a site where combinations and confrontations of human and machine, body and technology, organism and mechanism occurred, the effects of which were registered, measured and calculated. The multifarious materials of the laboratory environment and its products were a counterpoint to the idealism of scientific categories and values, and the increasingly divided nature of the research process contrasted with the ascription of discoveries and achievements to individuals – on the level of individual people, but also on the level of nations. Additionally, the routinization of work processes continuously conflicted with the principle of being open to the unexpected, a principle which is particularly characteristic of the activity of the modern scientist. The activity of the scientist became work in the sense of labour. At the same time, however, the scientist had to be prepared at all times to break with his routine in order to allow time and space for new and surprising developments. Thus, in the context of a society which regarded itself as progressive, the laboratory can be viewed as one of the sites where that society is "condensed". This applies to the production of that which is new, but also with regard to the problem of its representation. It is not sufficient to discover a new scientific fact; that fact must also be communicated to the public in a suitable manner.3
It is therefore surprising that a comprehensive history of the laboratory has not yet been produced. As a consequence, a comparative history dealing with different national and cultural traditions of laboratory research or local aspects of the "laboratory revolution" in different disciplines is nowhere in sight. Not even overviews regarding the history of the laboratory such as exist for other spaces of knowledge – like the clinic or the observatory – have been produced.4 The interest in researching day-to-day life in laboratories from an ethnological perspective, which has primarily been awakened by current trends in the sociology of scientific knowledge, has in recent years prompted a number of science historians to focus on individual laboratories. For example, detailed studies of the history of the physiological laboratories in , and exist. Relevant information about the founding and expansion of laboratories in individual national contexts has also been collected for other disciplines, such as, for example, physics in the German-speaking territories and also – though less comprehensively – ecology, ethology and evolutionary biology in the .5 Thus far, however, no overall picture emerges from these contributions. And while these studies are quite varied, they almost always attempt to draw analogies between the laboratory and the factory, between scientification and industrialization, without expressly allowing room for the emergence of differences. As a result, the aspect of production is emphasized above the aspect of representation in a way which does not seem justified by historical events. Viewed from a perspective of historical proximity, the laboratory has never just been a space of knowledge production; it has also always been a place of illustrating, recording and documenting.6 As we shall see, even the history of the knowledge of laboratories has been heavily dependent on drawings and other forms of graphical representation.
Laboratories in the Early Modern Period
The Latin term laboratorium (from the Latin term labor, meaning exertion, effort or work) was already in use in the medieval period. However, it was only in the late-16th century that the term assumed the meaning which it retains – in modified form – in modern languages today. In the 14th century, the term laboratorium meant simply a task or work. Around 1450, the first usages of the term relating to workshops can be detected in the context of monasteries. The term was apparently used parallel to terms such as scriptorium (copying room for scribes in medieval monasteries) and dormitorium (dormitory). In the 16th century, laboratorium primarily denoted workshops of alchemists, apothecaries and metallurgists, and subsequently came to refer to all accommodation in which natural phenomena and processes were explored by means of tools and instruments.7
The modern generalization of the term "laboratory", with its focus on science, only occurred around the turn of the 20th century. As defined in the German encyclopedia Brockhaus, for example, in present-day German the term describes a "workspace for scientific and technical experiments, measurements, evaluation tasks, controls, etc., with the furnishings and equipment required for these tasks". In a similarly general fashion, the current Oxford English Dictionary defines "laboratory" as a "building set apart for conducting practical investigations in natural science".8
Due to the focus on gaining knowledge by practical material means, the history of the laboratory should be regarded as closely connected to the history of the anatomical theatre, of the cabinet of curiosities, of botanical gardens, of the observatory and of other knowledge spaces. In fact, one of the first laboratories for which detailed information exists was housed in Uraniborg, the research centre which was built and equipped in the late-16th century for the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). Brahe's castle-like building on the island of in the was divided into three parts: The upper floor contained astronomical equipment and was used for observing the sky; underneath this was the mathematical laboratory with tables for maps and calculations; and the cellar contained the laboratory of the alchemist. This division and arrangement reflected Brahe's basic assumption that the microcosm and the macrocosm correspond to one another: "By looking up, I see downwards; by looking down, I see upwards." Astronomy corresponded with alchemy and vice versa, though the particular type of alchemistic activity involved was not specified.9
There are no explicit references to astronomy in the engravings and woodcuts from the 16th century depicting laboratories. In the case of Hans Weiditz (ca. 1500–1536), for example, or Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525/1530–1569), the laboratory appears as a jumbled workspace around which numerous vessels and instruments are strewn. In the midst of like-minded others, the alchemist goes to work at a fireplace with his bellows, test tube and similar devices in a manner which remains vague.10 In contrast, the depiction of Brahe, and also of the chemists' house of Andreas Libavius (1555–1616), show spacious accommodations in which the instruments are place in an orderly fashion, as though waiting to be used in a precisely controlled manner.11
An image from the same period depicts the basic components of the alchemistic laboratory which Count Wolfgang II of Hohenlohe (1546–1610) had constructed at Castle. Similar to Weiditz and Brueghel, Paul van der Doort (around 1600) depicts a fireplace with a vent in this copper engraving, but he arranges the test tubes and other vessels neatly on ledges, shelves and window-sills. Also, the alchemist is not at work handling equipment in this depiction. Instead, he is facing the books in a respectful pose.12 Similarly static – though not as bright or as neat – are the paintings of David Teniers the Younger (ca. 1610–1690), who painted the motif of the "Alchemist in the Laboratory" in multiple variations during the 17th century. However, the depictions in these paintings are highly conventionalized and owe more to the genre paintings and still lifes on which they were based than to the reality of contemporary laboratories.13
Around the end of the 17th century, the laboratory of the alchemist became the first anchor point for a new type of science. The aim of this science was to discover useful facts about nature by concrete actions and, in doing so, to contribute to a renewal of the world. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and Robert Boyle (1627–1691) promoted the view that human craft should "challenge" nature, in order to "subjugate" it for the sake of truth and usefulness. Boyle in particular, who conducted experiments in chemistry and physics in his own laboratory, established a practice in which experiments were performed before a learned audience and were then published in a manner designed to be easily understandable so that others could repeat them. This new, active method of "philosophizing" was also the aim of the first scientific academies: the Academia dei Lincei in (1603), the Academia Naturae Curiosorum (later Leopoldina) in (1652), and the Royal Society in (1660).14
There was a good reason why the early iconography of the laboratory frequently displayed books along with instruments. In this way, a new synthesis of manual and textual knowledge was represented visually, defining the laboratory not only as a place of manual work, but also as a space of reading and writing.
Perhaps this constitutes the defining change in the modern history of the laboratory. Workshops as such had existed for a long time. However, the intention to use such spaces to discover scientific knowledge by means of physical activity, as well as to record this knowledge on paper, was new.
This interaction between scholarly and artisanal cultures during the Renaissance is the most important source for the transformation of values that led to the legitimation of bodily labour in a specially designed space as a means of producing scientific knowledge.15
Indeed, one could say that it was only through this interdependency of science, handicraft and writing that the term "laboratory" received its ultimate meaning: the production site of scientific knowledge.
However, even in the late-18th century this concept of laboratory had still not gained dominance. In spite of developments in chemical science – driven in particular by Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) – the laboratory remained primarily a workshop, a place of material production. Even in the 1770s, the perception of the laboratory focused on the aspect of an increasingly rationalized activity in the developing area of chemical production. Thus, the laboratory is described in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1771) as "the chemist's work-house", as the place where pharmacists and pyrotechnicians do their work.16 The Encyclopédie (1765) of Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783) defines the term in a similar way as a "lieu clos & couvert, salle, piece de maison, boutique qui renferme tous les ustensiles chimiques qui sont compris sous les noms de fourneaux, de vaisseaux, & d'instruments & dans lequel s'exécutent commodément les opérations chimiques".17
However, the accompanying illustration enriched the iconography of the laboratory by adding a new aspect: the organized division of labour. As in previous depictions, the room is dominated by a fireplace and a vent hood. The bellows for the smiths is also reminiscent of considerably older pictures of alchemists by Weiditz and Brueghel, and the ledge of the chimney contains a carefully arranged row of vessels, some of which had already been used for alchemy. However, the room is populated by a collective which appears strikingly modern. Its members perform different tasks at different positions in the room: a chemist sitting at the table discusses the production of solutions with a physicist; on the left, a laboratory assistant brings coal from the cellar; and on the right, another laboratory assistant washes vessels. This is the first depiction of a laboratory which includes a principle of organisation that would subsequently become a fundamental aspect of scientific laboratories in the modern period.
The Laboratory Revolution of the 19th Century
In the early-19th century, there were two factors driving the development of the laboratory. Firstly, the reform of existing universities and the founding of new universities was an important stimulus. After 1800, universities were no longer only places for the collection and ordering of knowledge; they increasingly became places of scientific and technical research. Of fundamental importance in this context was the foundation of the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (1810), which quickly attained international renown. Secondly – and more importantly – the success of individual private teaching and research laboratories contributed to a dynamically expanding and widely distributed system of laboratories. Initially set up and directed by highly motivated university teachers on their own initiative, some of these private laboratories quickly developed a strong pulling power and were then integrated into the reformed universities.
A typical example of this is again a chemical laboratory: namely the one which was set up by Justus Liebig (1803–1873) in the 1820s at his home university in after returning from a research trip to . Liebig's laboratory was a prime example of the endeavour to establish comprehensive teaching based on experiments, in which there was no longer a contradiction between science and handicraft. Indeed both were now complementary aspects of a single activity whose primary goal was the gaining and transmission of knowledge. A famous drawing by Wilhelm Trautschold (1815–1877) and Hugo von Ritgen (1811–1889) shows Liebig's laboratory as it was at the beginning of the 1840s. With their Innere Ansicht des Analytischen Laboratoriums in Gießen (Interior View of the Analytical Laboratory in Giessen), Trautschold and von Ritgen show for the first time the laboratory as a vibrant place of teaching. They break with the static orderliness of the Encyclopédie and show a space where students and teachers from various countries work as a collective.18
Significantly, instead of Liebig himself, the laboratory assistant, who – among other things – was responsible for supplying the basic chemicals and the glass and porcelain vessels, is at the centre of the drawing. The principle of the division of labour is also reaffirmed and highlighted. The laboratory does not only appear as a workshop, as a manufactory, but also as a kind of exchange or transit point of discourses, concepts and recipes, where ideas and physical materials could be confronted with each other and combined in increasingly new ways. Additionally, one of Liebig's interior architectural innovations is shown in the drawing. In older laboratories, the experimentation tables were usually placed against the wall, with one free-standing table placed in the centre. Liebig's contribution to the rearrangement of the laboratory was to distribute the experimentation tables throughout the entire room. This arrangement meant that more students could be accommodated and more experiments could be performed simultaneously, while the laboratory director still had a good overview and could easily move from one table to the next.19
Building on Liebig's groundwork, the establishment of modern chemistry in the German-speaking territories is regarded as one of the great success stories of science in the 19th century. Around 1850, another teaching and research laboratory for chemistry was established in Robert Bunsen (1811–1899). It led development internationally, not least because teaching there was enriched by impressive demonstrations of experiments. In addition to the rooms for work and practise, the weighing room, the stores and the library, the lecture theatre together with its preparation chamber at the back thus became an important component of laboratory buildings. In the 1860s, completely new institutes for chemistry came into existence in , Berlin and elsewhere. These were quickly recognized throughout Europe as being exemplary with regard to their exterior and interior architecture, as well as their technical equipment.20under the direction of
The "laboratory revolution" occurred somewhat later in other disciplines. The first physics laboratory in the modern sense of the word was opened in 1833 by Wilhelm Weber (1804–1891) at University. Previously, only physics "cabinets" had existed, that is, individual rooms in which collections of instruments were kept. In 1843, Heinrich Gustav Magnus (1802–1870) set up a physics laboratory in Berlin. Franz Neumann (1798–1895) followed suit in in 1847. However, both were "private laboratories which were located in the living accommodation of the founders and were thus only accessible to others with the special permission of the founders".21 Only in 1846 was a (teaching) laboratory opened at Heidelberg University. In 1874, a newly built laboratory was completed in Leipzig. In subsequent years, similar teaching and research laboratories followed in Berlin (1878), (1879) and (1882). The Technisch Physikalische Reichsanstalt (Imperial Physico-Technical Institution)22 opened in Berlin in 1887 and remained the biggest laboratory complex for engineering and physical fundamental research in the world up to the First World War.
The laboratory revolution took a similar path in another important area of science in the 19th century: the area of experimental physiology. The first physiological laboratory in the German-speaking territories was the institute in Jan Purkinje (1787–1869) officially directed from 1839. Inspired by the sensualistic pedagogy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Purkinje practiced a form of experimentation teaching based on Anschauung ("visual perception"). However, until the 1870s, this ideal was only rarely put into practice due to a lack of appropriately equipped physiological teaching and research laboratories, as well as the cost of the appropriate instruments. Thus, the institute of Johannes Müller (1801–1858), which produced many important physiologists of the 19th century, prescribed participation in practical experiments in physiology, but could not provide the instruments required for this purpose. Instead, the students themselves had to make or buy them, and bring them to class. Additionally, around 1840 it was not at all uncommon for physiologists such as Theodor Schwann (1810–1882) or Emil Du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896) to experiment at home or in a hotel room. Modern laboratories for physiology only came into being later: in 1869 in Leipzig,23 in 1872 in ,24 in 1877 in 25 and Berlin,26 in 1885 in Strasbourg,27 and so on. The importance of demonstration lectures for the teaching of experimental knowledge is demonstrated by the fact that Johann N. Czermak (1828–1873), a former student of Purkinje, had a spectatorium erected at his own expense for the teaching of physiology in the early 1870s in Leipzig.28 This spectatorium subsequently served as an example for the building of similar viewing theatres at university institutes.29, which
It is only in the context of these developments, i.e. the emergence – particularly in the German-speaking territories – of specific laboratory cultures in chemistry, physics and physiology, i.e. biology, that the term "laboratory" acquired the breadth of meaning which we are familiar with today. In the dictionaries and encyclopaedias of the 19th century, "laboratory" is almost universally equated with "chemical laboratory". This prevailing definition was only revised in 1898 when the expression was described as "generally" applying to a room "in which chemical, pharmaceutical, physical or technical work is performed".30
The iconography of the laboratory had also changed noticeably by that time. On the one hand, the laboratory appears as the background in paintings depicting eminent scientists, such as Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), as geniuses working largely alone, thereby harking back to earlier depictions of alchemists. On the other hand, laboratories appear as anonymous architectural plans and photographs of interior rooms which are usually empty of people.
From the 1870s, detailed descriptions of laboratories also appeared in scientific journals. Generally, such descriptions were produced by the directors of the institutions in question. Besides floor plans, such descriptions often presented various views, cross-sections and drawings of individual details such as experimentation tables, cupboards or darkening facilities in the lecture theatre. From the end of the 1880s, similar depictions can also be found in construction journals and architecture handbooks.
Laboratory Interactions Around 1870
In this period, knowledge of laboratories was increasingly disseminated by such books and articles. However, publications did not represent the only source of such knowledge: in particular, travel – study trips and research trips – served to spread it. In fact, besides articles and books, it was primarily visits and sojourns abroad, and increasingly – from the 1910s and 1920s – international collaborations and exchange programmes which led to communication between laboratory workers in various countries within Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850), Louis Jacques Thénard (1777–1857) and other chemists. In the early 1840s, however, chemistry students from and other countries attended experimentation lessons in Liebig's laboratory in Giessen. Among those students were Victor Regnault (1810–1878), Jules Pelouze (1807–1867) and Adolphe Wurtz (1817–1884).31and to interactions between different laboratory cultures. Liebig had travelled to Paris in the first third of the 19th century to witness the experimentation teaching of
Wurtz subsequently became the director of his own laboratory for organic chemistry at the medical faculty in Paris. Having been promoted to Dean, he campaigned in the 1860s for the setting-up of appropriate teaching and research facilities for students of medicine. To this end, in the late 1860s he visited a number of laboratories at German-speaking universities which were considered as leaders in this respect. This journey was undertaken in an official capacity. The education minister Victor Duruy (1811–1894) had entrusted Wurtz on June 5th, 1868 with the task of "viewing and studying" scientific facilities at German-speaking universities, in particular, those in Göttingen, , Berlin, Leipzig, , , , Würzburg and Heidelberg. According to Duruy's instructions, Wurtz was to pay particular attention to laboratories, scientific collections, clinics and institutes for physiology and pathology. The motive was not only scientific, but also explicitly political. Duruy requested that Wurtz collect all the information about the scientific institutions in the neighbouring country which could be used for the benefit of "national education" in France.32
The report of the trip, which Wurtz published in 1870, concentrated on descriptions of laboratories. The first part contained descriptions of chemical laboratories; the second part dealt with laboratories of physiology; while the third and last part was dedicated to the institutes for anatomy and pathological anatomy. Particular importance was given to drawings. In 17 illustrations, Wurtz reproduced detailed floor plans of the laboratories he had visited. Additional illustrations in the text gave views and cross-sections of the respective laboratory buildings. In Wurtz's opinion, combining these illustrations with the descriptive texts (that elucidated the principles governing laboratory operation as well as the financial situation of the teaching and research institutions Wurtz had visited) was the best way of fulfilling the task entrusted to him. According to Wurtz, the report presented his impressions and memories in a balanced fashion: It avoided any uncalled for enthusiasm, which might have caused him to overstate the "glorious endeavours" of a foreign nation, as much as it avoided a weakness which would have caused him not to recognize these endeavours and to remain silent about them.33
As the physiologist Claude Bernard (1813–1878) began his lectures on general physiology in the summer term of 1870, he made reference to Wurtz's report. Bernard began with a brief overview of the history of his subject while emphasizing that not only "new discoveries and ideas" had been decisive in the development of physiology. According to Bernard, the "materials of work" and the "culture" of the discipline were also decisive factors.34 What Bernard was referring to was the institutional context and technical equipment of physiological research. Given that three years earlier he himself had compiled an officially-commissioned report on the progress of general physiology in France, he was particularly familiar with these considerations.
Speaking only a few weeks before the outbreak of war with Carl Ludwig's (1816–1895) "Physiological Institute", which opened in 1869 in Leipzig and was the first institution of its kind to be fitted with a steam-engine as a central power source. But Bernard did not limit himself to a verbal description. He used visual aids to portray Ludwig's laboratory:, Bernard contrasted in his lectures the poor state of physiology in France with the "installations splendides" available to physiologists in the neighbouring country. To demonstrate the contrast, he described the building and equipment of a top-class laboratory to his audience. The laboratory in question was
Je mets sous vos yeux le plan d'un de ces laboratoires, c'est celui de Leipzig dirigé par Ludwig ... Je veux que vous voyiez par cet exemple la richesse de ces installations scientifiques dont nous n'avons pas même l'idée en France.35
The floor plan mentioned is the one included in the report by Wurtz. The horseshoe shape of the Leipzig laboratory building is immediately evident in the drawing. Contained within the horseshoe-shaped building were the workspaces for performing experiments in vivisection, biophysics and biochemistry, as well as rooms for spectroscopy, microscopy and work with mercury, in addition to a library. In the centre was the lecture theatre with space for an audience of around 150. The institute also contained living accommodation for the director and a mechanic, while the animals required for experimentation were kept in the garden. Rabbits, birds and frogs were kept in stalls, cages and aquariums which were erected opposite the opening of the horseshoe.
Bernard emphasized in particular this differentiation in Ludwig's laboratory. He found the division between different types of workspaces particularly important: "Il est très important pour une bonne économie expérimentale", he declared, "d'avoir des pièces séparées pour les expériences qui reclament une instrumentation spéciale. On évite ainsi toutes les pertes de temps qu'exigerait une nouvelle installation et la réunion de materiaux quelquefois très difficiles à rassembler. Cette disposition, qui n'est au fond qu'une bonne administration du temps, pourrait d'ailleurs s'étendre à tous les travaux scientifiques."36
Here the laboratory not only appears as an exemplary space of knowledge. Simultaneously, this space becomes the embodiment of a particular time regime which is also a regime of scientific work. "Time is space" is the paradoxical phrase coined by Bernard regarding activity in the modern laboratory while holding the report of Wurtz in his hand.
However, the Wurtz report of 1870 did not result in the direct transfer of the foreign model to France. The considerable array of institutions in the German-speaking territories described above, which increased even further after the foundation of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften (Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science) in 1911, greatly outnumbered the corresponding institutions in France, which only included the laboratories of Wurtz at the Ecole de médicine and of Bernard at the Collège de France until Étienne-Jules Marey's (1830–1904) Station physiologique and the Pasteur Institute were added in the 1880s. Visits by German physiologists to laboratories in France were accordingly rare in this period.
One of the few examples of such visits was the "scientific journey" to Paris, Maximilian von Frey (1852–1932), who worked in Leipzig at that time. In his short report, von Frey only mentions the laboratories of Marey and Pasteur in Paris and otherwise limits his descriptions to technical details of physiological instruments, such as the respiration apparatuses of Auguste Chauveau (1827–1917) and Félix Jolyet (1841–1922) and the calorimeter of Arsène d'Arsonval (1851–1940).37und undertaken by the physiologist
This further demonstrates the fact – mentioned above with regard to physiological laboratories38 – that the spread of modern laboratory cultures within Europe was not a uniform and one-dimensional process which can be adequately described using terms such as "rationalization", "mechanization" or "industrialization". On the contrary, it was a multi-faceted process of transportation and transfer, of adaptations to local contexts and traditions, but which also contained individual examples of counter-transfers. Even in cases where an explicit attempt was made to follow the example of German-speaking institutions, translations occurred on the most varied of levels – the level of texts, of instruments and of experimentation procedures – and the information transferred was changed in the process.39
A further result of these processes of transportation and translation can be seen in the emergence of "industrial laboratories" at the turn of the 20th century. In the European context, this development was linked to the rapid growth of the dye industry, which in turn must be viewed in the context of the history of modern chemistry. Heinrich Caro (1834–1910), who in 1868 assumed a leading position at the recently founded Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF), and Eugen Lucius (1834–1903), a co-founder of the company which was subsequently known as Hoechst, had both trained as chemists. Lucius had even been a student of Bunsen. In the 1870s and 1880s, companies such as Hoechst, Agfa and Bayer began to employ chemists in large numbers, in some cases in laboratories specially built by the companies. Similar developments occurred in the USA at the same time, albeit in other branches of industry. In 1875, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company set up its own research laboratory, followed by East Man Kodak in 1886 and General Electric in 1900. As in Europe, the goal of these laboratories was to produce useful knowledge which could be employed in the struggle for commercial advantages. Instead of publishing articles in scientific journals, the researchers in these laboratories were interested in getting patents recognized so as to have commercial control of the processes and products involved in their research. To a degree, they resembled the alchemists in their laboratories: They produced results in a very deliberate fashion, and the means by which these results were obtained was only shared with other insiders.40
Another result of the processes of transportation and translation which the laboratory experienced at the turn of the 20th century was the emergence of large-scale laboratories, usually in military complexes. Typical of this development was the restructuring of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin by Fritz Haber (1868–1934) during the First World War. At the end of 1918, this institute had 1,450 employees. Most of them were engaged in the development of gas weapons and means of protecting against gas weapons. The research institutions which emerged during the Second World War were even larger. One of the most famous was the National Laboratory founded by the government of the USA in 1943, in which the atomic weapons programme of the United States was initiated as part of the Manhattan Project. Employing at one time more than 120,000 people, this project marked the irreversible entry into the era of "Big Science", in which the growth of science is no longer exclusively measured by the number of publications or patents, growth in the numbers of scientific personnel, or the level of state funding devoted to research, but also by the exponential increase in the energy usage of particle accelerators.41 The 20th century saw the intensification of the founding of industrial laboratories and the emergence of large-scale laboratories, which increased the worldwide competition affecting private and public laboratories of all types and sizes. Simultaneously, the "dispersal of the laboratory" which is characteristic of the present time began.
Laboratories are exemplary sites of modernity. However, they do not only function as passive reflectors of an increasingly globalized culture and society, but also as active examples, as forces for change whose influence is by no means limited to science. Besides new knowledge and technologies, laboratories produce personalities. They train scientists and researchers, who learn to strive with all their being for high ideals and, as part of a collective, to enter into a performance-related competition which is supposed to be governed by transparent rules and fair behaviour. In this and other regards, it is not possible to draw direct analogies between the laboratory and the factory. As a site of education and practice, comparisons between the laboratory and, for example, the gymnastics hall or the sports field are just as valid. In fact, this parallel is drawn particularly in US universities in order to demonstrate to a fast-growing number of students the guiding principles of academic institutions which subscribe to the principle of the unity of research and teaching according to the European example. Not only the university becomes "a laboratory where everyone is busy, and where enthusiasm in study is the predominant characteristic",42 as the founder of the Johns Hopkins University put it in 1883. In the programmatic view of Daniel C. Gilman (1831–1908), the whole world is "a great laboratory, in which human society is busy experimenting".43 This view of an "experimentation society" is another aspect of the opening and subdivision of the laboratory which has fundamentally changed our concept of what science means. | <urn:uuid:0249e84c-b0d6-4405-adf8-83f2048f903a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/crossroads/knowledge-spaces/henning-schmidgen-laboratory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958022 | 7,428 | 3.125 | 3 |
During your menstrual period, estrogen and progesterone, the female reproductive When a woman ovulates, an egg is released by a mature ovarian follicle. levels will continue to rise, which means that your breast soreness will get worse. Breast soreness, aside from a pregnancy, can and does happen during Source:http://www.ehow.com/about_5348559_do-breasts-sore-ovulating.html
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Its probably just ovulation! The pain during ovulation is called mittelschmerz (German term meaning middle pain) which may last a few hours! Ovulation marks the release of an egg! An unfertilized egg will eventually disintegrate or dissolve!If the pain is persistent, seek medical help!
If your ovaries hurt does that mean you could be pregnant? Improve. In: Pregnancy, Pregnancy Symptoms categories]
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According to the co-Chair of the Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist Dr Mike Raupach, 7.9 billion tonnes of carbon were emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide in 2005 and the rate of increase is accelerating.
"From 2000 to 2005, the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions was more than 2.5 per cent per year, whereas in the 1990s it was less than one per cent per year," Dr Raupach says.
He says this indicates that recent efforts globally to reduce emissions have had little impact on emissions growth. "Recent emissions seem to be near the high end of the fossil fuel use scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). On our current path, it will be difficult to rein-in carbon emissions enough to stabilise the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at 450 ppm."
Dr Raupach's figures show that while China demonstrates the highest current growth rate in emissions, its emissions per person are still below the global average and its accumulated contribution since the start of the industrial revolution around 1800 is only five per cent of the global total. This compares to the US and Europe which have each contributed more than 25 per cent of accumulated global emissions.
Dr Raupach says that the amount of emitted carbon dioxide remaining in the atmosphere fluctuates from year to year due to natural factors such as El Niño. However, he says that on average, nearly half of all emissions from fossil fuel use and land-use changes remain in the atmosphere, with the rest being absorbed by the land and oceans. "When natural variability is smoothed out, 45 per cent of emissions have remained in the atmosphere each year over the past 50 years," he says.
"A danger is that the land and oceans might take up less carbon dioxide in the future than they have in th e past, which would increase the rate of climate change caused by emissions."
The latest findings on greenhouse gas emissions are supported by measurements of the subsequent concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Dr Paul Fraser, also from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, says that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide grew by two parts per million in 2005, the fourth year in a row of above-average growth. "To have four years in a row of above-average carbon dioxide growth is unprecedented," Dr Fraser says.
Dr Fraser says the 30-year record of air collected at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's observation station in Cape Grim, showed growth rates of just over one part per million in the early 1980s, but in recent years carbon dioxide has increased at almost twice this rate. "The trend over recent years suggests the growth rate is accelerating, signifying that fossil fuels are having an impact on greenhouse gas concentrations in a way we haven't seen in the past."
Drs Raupach and Fraser presented their latest findings last week during the Annual Science Meeting at Tasmania's Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, which is managed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to monitor and study global atmospheric composition in a program led by CSIRO and the Bureau.
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11. Marine bacterium suspected to play role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles | <urn:uuid:edc90709-9796-46cd-8601-6f2a0388da6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news/Increase-in-carbon-dioxide-emissions-accelerating-3706-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941699 | 800 | 3.65625 | 4 |
U.S. National Institutes of Health Awards Grants to Fund Development of Tissue Chips to Help Predict Drug Safety
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded 17 grants aimed at creating 3-D chips with living cells and tissues that accurately model the structure and function of human organs such as the lung, liver and heart. The grants were announced in a July 24th NIH news release (available on the NIH website by clicking on the link above). Once developed, these tissue chips will be tested with compounds known to be safe or toxic in humans. Data from these tests will help identify the most reliable drug safety signals, ultimately advancing research to help predict the safety of potential drugs in a faster, more cost-effective way. The initiative marks the first interagency collaboration launched by the NIH's recently created National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
More than 30 percent of promising medications have failed in clinical trials because they are determined to be toxic despite promising preclinical studies in animal models. Tissue chips, which are a newer human cell-based approach, may enable scientists to predict more accurately how effective a therapeutic candidate would be in clinical studies. Tissue chips merge techniques from the computer industry with modern tissue engineering by combining miniature models of living organ tissues on a transparent microchip. Ranging in size from a quarter to a house key, the chips are lined with living cells and contain features designed to replicate the complex biological functions of specific organs.
NIH's newly funded "Tissue Chip for Drug Screening" initiative is the result of collaborations that focus the resources and ingenuity of the NIH, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. NIH's Common Fund and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke led the trans-NIH efforts to establish the program. The NIH plans to commit up to $70 million to the program over five years.
Tissue chips are an example of innovative tools and methodologies that can be used to identify whether substances are likely to be safe or toxic to humans. In its draft 2013-2017 Five-Year Plan, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) identifies "Promoting the Application and Translation of Innovative Science and Technology" as one of its core strategies to support the development of predictive alternative test methods. Innovative testing approaches such as tissue chips have the potential to more accurately and efficiently identify substances that may present human health hazards, while reducing and ultimately replacing animal use for this purpose. | <urn:uuid:a124803b-0439-4762-967d-f3f1ba03635b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.iivs.org/news-events/news/us-national-institutes-of-health-awards-grants-to-fund-development-of-tissue-chips-to-help-predict-drug-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939007 | 517 | 3.125 | 3 |
The Evolution of Warfare
By Anita Stratos
By Anita Stratos
Ancient Egyptians were very conservative when it came to weapons: old stone weapons were retained along with newer metal weapons, as long as they continued to serve practical purposes. However, it is this conservatism that kept Egyptian weaponry inferior to that of neighboring territories. The design of these weapons changed very little between the Archaic Period and the Middle Kingdom, a span of some 1300 years.
As far back as predynastic times, throw sticks were used for marsh hunting and war dances. By the Old and Middle Kingdoms, slings and bows were used for long distance warfare and for close combat soldiers used clubs, daggers, axes, maces, and spears. These weapons were made of either stone or hammered copper with wooden handles. Eventually, axe blades were shortened and the edges became narrower, while arrows were later made from reed with bronze arrowheads. Bronze weapons were still being used far into the Iron Age, in part due to the fact that Egypt had no natural iron deposits, but also because of their continued resistance to change. It was these factors that gave iron-rich Assyria, with its powerful new iron weapons, the ability to conquer Egypt.
Evidence of axe usage during combat was found in a tomb at Deir el-Bahri, where the remains of sixty mutilated Egyptian soldiers were discovered, many with fatal axe wounds in the tops of their skulls. An axe wound is also evident in the skull of the mummy of Theban ruler Seqenenre Tao II (circa 1575 BC, 17th Dynasty), who helped drive the Hyksos out of Egypt.
Shields made of turtle shells were also used in predynastic times; later these evolved into rectangular shields made from wood covered with leather. The curve at the top of the rectangular foot soldiers shield shows the influence of predynastic shell shields.
The end of Hyksos domination brought many advancements to Egyptian military equipment. Besides adopting Hyksos chariots to their arsenals, other Hyksos weapons were also copied and later improved to suit Egyptian needs. (It should be noted that the Hyksos had adopted some of their weapons from other territories. In addition, a debate continues as to whether the horse-drawn chariot was actually introduced by the Hyksos or by Canaanites.) Along with this new weaponry, Egyptian battle tactics and military organization also improved. The New Kingdom saw improvements to standard weaponry as well as the addition of new weapons such as the khepesh (a sickle sword similar to Asiatic curved swords), which temple scenes show being presented to the king by the gods with a promise of victory.
Body armor also improved. Early leather triangular aprons worn over short kilts were replaced by coats of mail in the New Kingdom in the 18th Dynasty, mail was only worn by the king. In the 19th Dynasty, soldiers began wearing leather or cloth tunics with metal scale coverings. It appears that helmets were not generally worn before the Late Period except by Sherden mercenaries. Egyptians felt that allowing foreign mercenaries to use their native weapons and equipment improved their chances of victory in battle.
The Egyptian Navy
Supporting the army was the Egyptian navy, whose prime purpose was long distance transport of troops and supplies, or mobile military operation bases. Occasionally the navy did engage in warfare, but even then, sailors acted as soldiers at sea rather than as a separate force. Promotions from the army to the navy and from the navy to the army were common, since the two were seen as one single force. Many naval ships were actually built in Byblos; the Gebel Barkal stela shows that ship makers in Byblos built ships annually, then sent those ships to Egypt along with other tributes. This provided the Egyptian navy with a steady influx of high quality vessels.
egypy developed coastal bases in other territories, as well as creating a naval center near Memphis called Perw-nefer. This dockyard was most likely the most important port and naval base in the 18th Dynasty under Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep II. Outside Egypt, Tuthmosis III took over harbor after harbor in Phoenicias coastal cities, acquiring supplies for his troops from each in order to proceed to the next. These harbors were inspected and equipped regularly so they could provide necessary support for the kings attacks against the Mitannians.
Naval recruits, called ww, mainly served on warships and most were the sons of military families who became professional sailors themselves. They began in a standard-bearers training crew of rowers, then moved on to become part of a ships crew. Sailors received promotions to either larger ships or to higher ranks. According to naval officials biographies and the Nauri Decree, naval rankings probably were as follows:
Crown prince, commander in chief
Overseer, chief of ships captains (commanded several ships)
Ship captain (navigation)
Captains mates (navigational support)
Commander of troops (older men with land-based duties)
Commander of rowers
New Kingdom sailors shared in the distribution of booty; they were further compensated with exemption from taxes, income from their estates, and for bravery they received royal rewards of gold. This helped to make up for the fact that some texts indicate that sailors endured difficult physical conditions and other hardships. Similar to the army, the navy was made up of both professionals and foreign mercenaries.
The Police Force
Egypts police force, on the other hand, was not an extension of the army. It was established to enforce the gods orders and protect the weak from the strong in the general society. The police maintained order by bringing guilty parties to justice. Even so, the police were not looked upon as a hostile body, but rather as the guardians and protectors of generally law-abiding communities.
Rural police forces protected farmers from theft; they banished troublemakers from their community and convinced peasants to pay taxes through whatever means were necessary, including persuasion and physical force. Nonpayment of taxes or attempting to cheat on taxes brought corporal punishment, wherein the guilty were laid prostrate on the ground and then beaten by police. There were also police who patrolled desert frontiers with trained dogs: their duty was to track down problematic nomads and escaped prisoners.
Nubian nomads, called the Medjay, became part of the Egyptian police force in the 18th Dynasty. Perhaps because the Medjay had already established a history of serving in the Egyptian army, they now blended easily into Egyptian society and had the responsibility of protecting towns in western Thebes as well as being responsible to its mayor.
The Medjay also served as tomb guardians during the construction of the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina. In this capacity, Medjay police had many responsibilities including ensuring the tombs safety, inspecting the tomb, guaranteeing good behavior on the part of the workers, protecting workers from any dangers (including threats by invaders), and occasionally assisting the workers and moving blocks of stone. Some of their other obligations included acting as messengers, interrogating thieves, being witnesses for administrative functions, and inflicting punishments.
Egypts periods of expansion pushed its boundaries beyond those original areas of natural protection; therefore, various types of fortresses and forts needed to be built for defense. Frontiers were protected by high, thick-walled fortresses, desert hills had smaller forts built upon them, and other buildings served as combination prisons and surveillance posts. The power of the pharaoh over his conquests is shown in temple depictions of prisons, in which rows of "fortress cartouches", each containing the name of a conquered people, are topped by the head and shoulders of bound prisoners. Attached to each cartouch is a rope, and all of the ropes are being held by the conquering pharaoh.
Besides covering their weak defense points with these artificial fortifications, most of which were made from mud brick, Egyptians also needed to stem the flow of outsiders into their country. This is evident in a translation from the Prophesies of Neferti:
One will build the Walls-of-the-Ruler to bar Asiatics from entering Egypt; They shall beg water as supplicants so as to let their cattle drink. Then Order will return to its seat while Chaos is driven away.
An interesting mud brick wall with wood beam reinforcements was built in the Middle Kingdom by Senusret III to protect the irregularly shaped Semna half way up the wall, its angle suddenly changed 20 degrees in order to prevent the enemy from using scaling ladders to penetrate the line of defense. This strategy was also incorporated into the walls of a fortress depicted in a Middle Kingdom tomb at Beni Hasan.
Middle Kingdom fortresses were also equipped with balconies, parapets, and occasionally ramps and ditches. King Amenemhet I built a castle east of the Delta called "Wall of the Prince" which was always guarded by soldiers. However, once Egyptians came across Asian fortifications during the New Kingdom, they promptly copied some of these style differences. These fortifications, called "migdols", were made of stone and included battlements on the outer wall, turrets, moats, and a keep.
The Ramesseum contains depictions of the Battle of Kadesh that Ramesses II fought against the Hittites. Among these pictures are illustrations of the camp enclosure set up by the Amun division: soldiers shields were lined up side by side creating a four-cornered enclosure that had one entrance. The enclosure was protected with barricades and patrolled by four infantry divisions. In the center of the enclosure was the kings large tent surrounded by smaller tents of officers. Soldiers, animals, war chariots, and baggage wagons were housed between the officers tents and the outer walls.
But even the most strategically designed fortifications can eventually be penetrated. The thick, high wall surrounding Semna with its slope changes and reinforcements still didnt stop the enemy an existing part of the southern wall shows a breach between two ramparts.
Last Updated: August 8th, 2011
Who are we?
Tour Egypt aims to offer the ultimate Egyptian adventure and intimate knowledge about the country. We offer this unique experience in two ways, the first one is by organizing a tour and coming to Egypt for a visit, whether alone or in a group, and living it firsthand. The second way to experience Egypt is from the comfort of your own home: online. | <urn:uuid:13dae782-d7dd-45a8-84c7-76b6f5e4c99b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/war2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981445 | 2,154 | 3.75 | 4 |
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This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
The state of food and nutrition in Africa, 1970s-1980s-1990s
The problem of food and nutrition in Africa
The report summarized here describes the situation as a deteriorating human tragedy with protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), that is, children weighing less than 80% of standard weight for age, affecting about 30% of children under five years of age. Fifteen countries show areas with PEM prevalence over 50%. PEM is also manifested in starvation caused by drought, social conflict, and other factors. Apart from reducing work output, PEM in pregnant and lactating women leads to low birth weight infants and poor growth in children. PEM of the deficiency type was reported in all the African countries, but obesity is now attaining a significant level in a number of countries. Next to PEM, and of equal magnitude, is anaemia, with a prevalence rate of 30% to 50% in pregnant women and lactating mothers, and 20% to 30% in children under five years. Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and vitamin A deficiency, apart from retarding growth and causing blindness, respectively, also worsen the effect of PEM and anaemia, and increase mortality and morbidity. Only eight African countries, mainly islands, are unaffected by IDD, while vitamin A deficiency was reported in 22 countries.
Other relevant areas highlighted in the report include: high infant mortality rates, high maternal death rates, poor environment and water supply, fast-growing urban and general populations, deteriorating agriculture, increasing food imports, poor food quality, inequitable land policies, and lack of agricultural inputs (seed, fertilizer, insecticide, and other chemicals).
Energy availability compared to requirements has always been on the low side, but between 1978 and 1979 energy production declined by 4% and remained about the same until 1985, when it began to rise. Several factors such as land tenure and land care, seasonal variation, human labour and skills for agriculture, low farm inputs, lack of farm security, and communication underlying the poor food production are discussed. A 3% annual increase in population as compared to a mean annual food production increase of 2% increases the food deficit much more. Although there have been successful community projects, none are large enough to counter the present trend of low food availability among most African communities.
The concept of the causes of hunger and malnutrition
Although there are several ways of looking at the problem, the report uses the concept of three levels of causes immediate, intermediate, and basic with an added dimension of actors as the individual, the household, and the community as a whole (table 1). These causes can also be seen as the remedies to the problem.
The report discusses many factors regarding hunger and malnutrition. Each of these needs attention if the problems are to be solved, but since resources are so limited it is necessary to focus on recommendations that are likely to have a high multiplier effect.
The report emphasizes the importance of united action as the most effective way of solving the food and nutrition problems in Africa, but also notes that some workers believe that concentration on individual country action would be more effective. The desire to unite food and nutrition workers into one organization began during the early 1970s in west Africa, culminating in the 1st African Nutrition Congress in 1975. Intercountry communication and cooperation increased in 1979 when representatives from five countries of eastern, central and southern Africa (ECSA) met in Gaborone, Botswana. The meeting became the start of an ECSA cooperation in food and nutrition activities. Today ECSA covers 16 countries and has a full time coordinator at the Commonwealth Regional Health Secretariat.
A second congress was held in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1983. This congress also ended without a formal agreement as to how the African scientists could cooperate, but since ECSA was fairly well organized by the mid-1980s, an African group attending the 1985 IUNS congress in Brighton, UK, met and requested ECSA to host the 3rd Africa Food and Nutrition Congress in Zimbabwe in 1988. This congress stressed that special priority be given to training and manpower development, food and nutrition policy for Africa, organization and cooperation of food and nutrition workers and the formation of the Africa Council for Food and Nutrition Sciences (AFRONUS).
The formation of AFRONUS may have marked the beginning of a continent-wide cooperation and action on food and nutrition. At present, Africa, as individual countries or as a continent, is completely unable to meet the demands of the food and nutrition problem. External assistance is required each time the problem worsens. At the "normal level," a token government service by a few people is provided by national nutrition units or institutes. Some of Africa's nutrition units were started as early as the 1940s, and to date they have not come near solving the food and nutrition problems, mainly because of their limited mandate and lack of resources. However, many units have pointed out the defects in the African food system. The report also highlights the vital role played by external agencies in the control of food and nutrition situations. Were it not for UN agencies and some NGOs, many more Africans would have died.
Africa must have its own way of dealing with the problem, and it is this aspect AFRONUS wants to explore most. The plan emphasizes organization and management of food and nutrition activities by local people. To start with there may be many failures, but eventually they will learn from their own mistakes.
Another weak aspect of food and nutrition programmes is the dependence on external planners and financiers. It is true that Africa is poor, but it is difficult to understand the inability of people to feed themselves due to poverty even where there are vast areas of unused arable land. The plan aims at developing an African internal capability to feed itself.
In this new approach Africans must volunteer first and foremost and, to set an example, the food and nutrition scientists and workers in Africa are challenged to contribute to the programme fund; African contributions may be small, but they are essential.
TABLE 2. Specific strategies for achieving the general objective of the plan
To join the African food and nutrition workers into one professional body to allow combined thought and action.
To work out and initiate solutions to hunger and malnutrition in Africa on a larger scale and on a more permanent basis, with particular attention to advocacy, education, and food production.
To create cooperation and harmony between the African food and nutrition workers and external agencies.
To create policy instruments through working jointly with OAU and individual African governments.
General objective of the plan
The general objective is to significantly lower the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition in Africa. It is not possible to fix a time limit, but each country should try to state its target for the year 2000. Strategies and activities for achieving this objective are listed in tables 2 and 3.
The advocacy campaign
The campaign called "Africa without Hunger" is a series of video education materials linked to the rest of the programme for eliminating malnutrition. The intent of the campaign is to produce a series of nine educational films aimed at decision makers at all levels. Such a series will require significant financing. Therefore, the first film will be produced when finances are available from donors. The films will be made in such a way as to attract viewers (as educational entertainment) and donors who will be asked to purchase most of the copies, so as to pay for the production of the other eight films.
This campaign is essential because the success of the whole food and nutrition programme depends on the actions of political and government leaders, university and school teachers, researchers, and the senior business community. Although some very important steps in this direction have already been taken, it is not enough to convince a few top leaders. A critical mass of convinced executive leaders is essential. Efforts should therefore be made to convey similar information to as many leaders as possible. A small study conducted by AFRONUS in 1990 indicated that even in countries where there is no television service most of the leaders own television and video sets and they purchase and watch video films for pleasure and educational benefit. Where there is a television service the films can be shown to all viewers. The nine film themes suggested include:
AFRONUS has solicited technical assistance from a number of experts, particularly the Educational Broadcasting Services Trust, UK, who have expertise in preparing such films and have free access to the BBC archives and others. Efforts have also been made to solicit African experts on film-making in French and English.
Fund-raising and country group meetings and plans
Activities have to start at the national level, but as this continues AFRONUS has to concentrate on fund-raising. Donations for the Africa Fund for the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition in Africa have to be raised through various professional methods applicable to Africa. Methods similar to those applied by SCF (UK) or any other suitable organizations could be used. Without some degree of success in the advocacy campaign and the fund-raising project, it is not possible to pursue the rest of the programme.
Monitoring and evaluation
Indicators for monitoring the progress of some of the projects are shown, but it is not possible to specify impact indicators before getting details of the national plans. Once every four years the AFRONUS Secretary-General, with the help of evaluation teams, will report on the state of each project.
AFRONUS has to take responsibility for raising funds from any sources, but with emphasis on contributions from Africa. The mechanism for doing this has not been developed and AFRONUS will appreciate advice from anyone.
TABLE 3. Specific activities for achieving the general objective of the plan
Form AFRONUS subregions and country committees (to date two of the five subregions have been formed). Register and establish an AFRONUS office, staff (initially voluntary), create a fund at council, subregion, and country levels, and establish relations with relevant research bodies in Africa.
Conduct meetings to review the situation, select priorities, and assign duties at all three levels.
Publish regular reports of the food and nutrition status and activities at country, subregional, and regional levels, and circulate them to other equivalent levels (e.g., country to country). Such reports should include a list of all food and nutrition institutes and experts.
Encourage food and nutrition research, and at the same time start subregional training centresone postgraduate and one for training intermediate cadres of country trainers in each subregion.
Monitor food and nutrition status; explore the use of mass media, e.g., one or two broadcasting stations capable of reaching most of Africa.
Reorient institutes of learning, researchers, and educators on food and nutrition through educational literature. Develop food and nutrition textbooks for schools, colleges, and universities.
Work towards specific goals set for each country, particularly on food production, reduction of malnutrition, and incorporation of food and nutrition programmes into national plans.
Create a consultative body of AFRONUS consultants to work with the various agencies involved in food and nutrition and facilitate cooperation and support for national action groups. Where necessary the consultative body can work with any African government in examining the country problems and formulating solutions using AFRONUS experts.
Request and use already compiled agency data as a starting-point.
Monitor food aid, food imports, production, IMF activities, and other food and nutrition related activities.
Join the OAU food and nutrition commission and, if possible, work with OAU in establishing a technical secretariat or department of food and nutrition.
Develop African food and nutrition policy guidelines. Initial steps should aim at developing guidelines for nutrition workers, i.e., what should nutrition workers do in their countries?
With the help of the IUNS and other nutrition research organizations, collect, publish, and disseminate useful past survey and research data and results for the purpose of application. Many very useful papers are published outside Africa, but little is available to African workers even at university level.
Encourage young researchers in schools and universities to embark on food and nutrition studies.
Identify food and nutrition activities in progress and determine neglected areas in every country.
Compile food production data for each district or province and identify deficit and surplus areas. A map showing provinces or districts is essential.
At the country level compile PEM prevalence data per province or district. This may prove very difficult, but it has to be done. Small sample surveys using students or junior staff in each district may be enough to start with. Without these data the food production data are not of much use. Where maternal and child health (MCH) services are widely spread and child growth records kept, samples of the cards will provide data which, although biased, are better than nothing.
Assess food and nutrition training needs and facilities. Subregion 1 (ECSA) has conducted an initial survey and circulated its report to all subregions.
Start and strengthen the Africa Fund for the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition.
Convene an Africa Food and Nutrition Congress once every four years.
Comment on the effect of, e.g., food aid and or structural adjustment policies on the nutrition status of Africans. Studies and comments can be limited to, e.g., SAP policies and food price or food availability; SAP policies and food imports and exports; food aid effect on farmer prices and food imports; food aid in inducing change of palate; food aid and the saving of lives in emergencies; misuse of food aid; UN agency programmes on food and nutrition. The studies can be conducted in several ways, such as interviewing beneficiaries of a programme.
Compile and distribute an African directory of food and nutrition experts, institutions, industry, and related institutions outside Africa. All concerned (i.e., specialists in food science and technology, food scientists, nutritionists, dietitians, and other related and interested African scientists) are requested to send their details to the AFRONUS Secretary-General, P.O. Box 20265, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The 1992-1996 manuscript is ready for printing.
Once every four years AFRONUS is to consider and adopt a document on the regional food and nutrition status and the plan of action for the following four-year period. This means updating this IUNS report every four years.
AFRONUS will participate in determining and implementing activities of the UN Food and Nutrition Decade for Africa.
The role of the IUNS
Research, training, and formation of AFRONUS are the areas of greatest need now and IUNS can be of great assistance in any of the three areas.
The report was compiled by T. N. Maletnlema, with contributions from the following:
»IUNS Working Group II/3, on Food and Nutrition in Africa members: Marie-Therese Basse (Senegal), Leslie Burgess (UK), Frits van de Haar (Netherlands), Gladys Martin (Cameroon), Nago C. Mathurin (Benin), Richard Orraca-Tetteh (Ghana), Alex P. Vamoer (Zambia), Zwodie Worlde-Gabriel (Ethiopia), T. N. Maletnlema (Tanzania);
»IUNS Committee 1/10, on Food and Nutrition in Africamembers: 1. Semega-Janneh (Gambia), Safia Giama (Somalia), C. Nago Mathurin (Benin), R. Orraca Tetteh (Ghana), Leslie Burgess (UK), Frits van de Haar (Netherlands), Tsire Maribe (Botswana), Estefanos Tekle (Ethiopia), T. N. Maletnlema (Tanzania);
»other contributors of data: Elizabeth Morris Hughs (FAO, Rome), K. Gobotswang (Nutrition, Botswana), Osman M. Galal (USA), Beverley Carlson (USA), Kenneth Vernon Bailey (WHO, Brazzaville), R. Andrianasolo (Madagascar), Godwin P. Kaaya (ICIPE, Kenya), Katagile (ILCA, Zimbabwe).
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Name and Position/Title:
Dr. Kris Kohl NW Field Specialist – Agricultural Engineering
Fiscal Year Submitted:
POW Title and Number:
105 Post harvest management and storage
181 Farm Safety and Bio-security
Solving a corn storage crisis at livestock farm
Issue (Who cares and Why):
The owner discovered that a 450,000-bushel bin of corn was heating and spoiling at the farm in December. The farm had another 2.2 million bushels in storage that was at risk of spoiling when they called their ISU Extension Ag Engineer to determine why that bin spoiled and how to prevent the rest from spoiling. After the first visit it was determined that there was a very high safety risk in removing the grain from the spoiled bin because it would no longer flow and that 1.8 million of the other stored corn was at high risk of spoiling because of a broken grain cleaner.
What Did You Do?
As a result of the farm visit a plan was devised to safely unload the spoiled bin with everyone involved knowing the high risk and need for lockouts on the unloading equipment when personal were inside the bins. A plan was also devised to core all the problem bins to prevent the core from spoiling on 4 out of 5 bins that were at high risk of spoiling and a second follow up visit was planned. The follow up visit revealed that the corn was in much higher risk of spoiling because it was improperly assembled.
The spoiled corn was successfully unloaded without anyone getting killed or injured. The grain cleaner was properly assembled and used to clean the remaining corn and get it cooled to prevent spoilage saving the producer an estimated 1.8 million dollars. The producer has adopted the recommendations of ISU to check and the corn and to keep the personal safe during a very stressful crop storage season. The changes made have prevented a similar problem for the 2011 crop.
Page last updated:
July 19, 2011
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August 13, 2008
Parents Affect Child’s Eating Habits
Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler's eating patterns for his or her lifetime.
To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions "” teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips."We know that parents have tremendous influence over how many fruits and vegetables their children eat," says Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. "When parents eat more fruits and vegetables, so do their children. When parents eat and give their children high fat snacks or soft drinks, children learn these eating patterns instead."
Haire-Joshu and researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health tested a program that taught parents in their homes how to provide preschool children easy access to more fruits and vegetables and examined whether changes in what the parents ate affected what their children consumed. The study was published in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.
"This research shows that it's important to communicate with parents in real world settings," Haire-Joshu says. "They control the food environment for their young child. This environment is key to not only what children eat today but how they will eat in the future."
Past research has shown that diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of obesity. Previous studies also have established that children learn to like and eat vegetables at a young age "” before they turn five years old.
In this five-year study in rural, southeast Missouri, 1,306 parents and children between the ages of two and five participating in Parents As Teachers, a national parent education program, were randomly assigned to two groups. One group enrolled in the High 5 for Kids program, and the other group received standard visits from Parents as Teachers. In the High 5 for Kids group, parents first completed a pretest interview about fruit and vegetable consumption.
Parent educators then visited the home four times, providing examples of parent-child activities designed around nutrition, such as teaching the child the names and colors of various fruits and vegetables and having the child select a variety of fruits and vegetables for breakfast. At each visit, parents also received materials and informational handouts with suggestions for improving feeding practices and the food environment in the home. Many of these materials were tailored to the individual patterns of that parent, with suggestions for how to improve his or her specific intake and that of their child.
Additionally, children were given four High 5 for Kids sing-along-stories with audiocassettes and coloring books.
The same parent interviewed before the intervention completed a telephone survey to determine changes in the number of fruits and vegetables eaten and behaviors of both the preschool children and parent. The average time between the before and after intervention survey was seven months.
Parents in the High 5 for Kids group ate significantly more fruits and vegetables, and a change in the parent's servings of fruits and vegetables predicted a change in the child's diet, too. An increase of one fruit or vegetable serving per day in a parent was associated with an increase of half a fruit or vegetable serving per day in his or her child. These parents also reported an increase in fruit and vegetable knowledge and availability of fruits and vegetables in the home.
Although the High 5 for Kids program was effective in improving fruit and vegetable intake in children of normal weight, overweight children in this group did not eat more of these foods. "Overweight children have already been exposed to salty, sweet foods and learned to like them," says Haire-Joshu, who also holds an appointment at the School of Medicine as a professor. "To keep a child from becoming overweight, parents need to expose them early to a variety of healthy foods and offer the foods many times."
Haire-Joshu says many children today are taught patterns that lead to obesity. "We want families to provide their child with an environment in which they not only learn how to eat healthy but have the opportunity to practice what they learn," she says. "And by partnering with Parents As Teachers, we now can disseminate this program to their sites nationwide. This further impacts healthy eating patterns in parents and their preschool children."
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:e4867b84-9e35-4692-a8c8-162e69877a3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1520287/parents_affect_childs_eating_habits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975976 | 904 | 3.84375 | 4 |
2005: Samuel Alderson, inventor of the automotive crash-test dummy, dies. His creation saved countless lives … and amused millions along the way.
Alderson graduated from high school at age 15, but the realities of the Great Depression repeatedly interrupted his college education: He needed to help his father run the family’s sheet-metal business in Southern California. As a result, he studied at various times at Reed, Caltech, Columbia and the University of California at Berkeley. Alderson returned to Berkeley and started work on a Ph.D. in physics under J. Robert Oppenheimer and Ernest O. Lawrence, but left without finishing his dissertation.
Alderson worked on servomotors for missile-guidance systems during World War II. He founded Alderson Research Labs in 1952 and built dummies for the military to test jet-ejection seats and parachutes. He also engineered one for NASA to test the safety of the Apollo lunar-command-module splashdown.
The dummies matched the size, shape and weight of pilots and astronauts, had joints to mimic human biomechanics, and contained scientific instruments to measure acceleration and impact forces. Alderson tried adapting one to test automobile safety in 1960, but was a few years ahead of his time.
Ralph Nader’s 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed and the subsequent National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 created a market for a high-quality automobile-test dummy. Automobile engineers had for decades tested their cars using cadavers, but the research results were unsatisfactory: The stiffs were, well, stiff. Also, no two cadavers were alike, and after a couple of tests they degraded rapidly (to say the least). That made it difficult to generate consistent and reproducible results.
Alderson’s first auto-test dummy to go into production was the VIP model in 1968. It featured a steel ribcage, articulated joints and a flexible spine. Engineers at General Motors combined elements of Alderson’s dummies with those from rival Sierra Engineering to create a dynasty of Hybrid dummies. Today’s Hybrids include men, women, children and infants.
The dummies are used to test seat belts, air bags and other safety features. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates those devices have saved more than 300,000 lives since 1960.
Alderson’s obituary in The New York Times listed his surviving family and went on to note: “His cultural legacy includes Vince and Larry, the ubiquitous dummy stars of highway safety advertisements in the 1980s and ’90s; the television cartoon Incredible Crash Dummies and the pop group Crash Test Dummies.” The dummies also spawned toys and a videogame.
In case you’re wondering, Alderson, like the inventor of the three-point seat belt, died of natural causes. He was 90 and suffering from myelofibrosis and pneumonia.
Source: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times
Photo: Crash-test dummies have to be repaired and prepared for the next crash test. This one is readied for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany, 1973. (Lothar Schaack/German Federal Archive)
This article first appeared on Wired.com Feb. 11, 2009.
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- Feb, 11, 1939: Lise Meitner, 'Our Madame Curie' | <urn:uuid:fdb7b98a-d7b5-472d-8280-8f7c7c2c3ff9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wired.com/2011/02/0211sam-alderson-crash-test-dummie-inventor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923535 | 884 | 3.203125 | 3 |
WMO Releases Provisional Statement on Status of Climate 2013
13 November 2013: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its provisional statement on the 'Status of the Global Climate 2013,' which confirms that 2013 is currently on track to be among the top ten warmest years on record, and that global sea level reached a new record high due, in part, to melting ice caps and glaciers.
In contrast with 2012, when the US, in particular, observed record high annual temperatures, the statement indicates that warmth in 2013 was most extreme in Australia. However, surface temperatures are only part of the wider picture of climate change, as its impact is already being felt on the planet's water cycle in the form of floods, extreme precipitation and droughts. The statement provides a snapshot of regional and national temperatures, and includes details on precipitation, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, ice cover and sea level.
As the statement was released, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said: temperatures so far this year are about the same as the average during 2001-2010, which was the warmest decade on record; and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012, and are expected to reach unprecedented levels in 2013.
He also underscored that Typhoon Haiyan, which wreaked havoc in the Philippines, is the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to hit the country and one of the most intense ever recorded anywhere. He emphasized that, although individual tropical cyclones cannot be directly attributed to climate change, higher sea levels are already making coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges, and adding that, although the relationship between climate change and the frequency of tropical cyclones is a matter of much research, their impact is expected to be more intense.
The provisional WMO statement was released to inform negotiators at the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Warsaw, Poland. Final updates and figures for 2013 will be published in March 2014. [WMO Provisional Statement on Status of the Climate in 2013] [WMO Press Release] [UN News Centre Press Release] [WMO Website] | <urn:uuid:7e605a05-536a-4606-b725-dc7817ea9187> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/wmo-releases-provisional-statement-on-status-of-climate-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949824 | 429 | 3.03125 | 3 |
|Pope Gregory VIII|
AKA Alberto de Morra
Birthplace: Benevento, Italy
Location of death: Pisa, Italy
Cause of death: unspecified
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Executive summary: Roman Catholic Pope, 1187
Gregory VIII, Roman Catholic Pope from the 21st of October to the 17th of December 1187, a native of Benevento and Praemonstratensian monk, successively abbot of St. Martin at Laon, cardinal-deacon of San Adriano al foro, cardinal-priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina, and chancellor of the Roman Church, was elected to succeed Urban III. Of amiable disposition, he hastened to make peace with emperor Henry VI and promised not to oppose the latter's claim to Sicily. He addressed general letters both to the bishops, reminding them of their duties to the Roman Church, especially of their required visits ad limina, and to the whole Christian people, urging a new crusade to recover Jerusalem. He died at Pisa while engaged in making peace between the Pisans and Genoese in order to secure the help of both cities in the Third Crusade. His successor was Pope Clement III.
Roman Catholic Pope 21-Oct-1187 to 17-Dec-1187
Roman Catholic Cardinal 1155
Religious Mission: Papal Crusade
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Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile
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Learning to color Easter eggs the natural way--using vegetables, plants and spices as dye and design materials--can change your family's annual egg-dipping ritual.
This year, instead of dissolving commercial dye tablets, set out pans of boiling water and fill them with stain-producing foods such as spinach, beets, saffron and paprika.
Using the following tips from the Pratt Center in New Milford, Conn., you can experiment with making and mixing food-induced dyes and designing imprints with ferns, leaves, clovers and pine needles.
"The longer you let the material boil or sit in the water, the more color comes out into the water," says Jean Dougherty, the nature center's environmental educator.
Materials and Equipment
* Food-staining vegetables
* Spices or plants for dying and making imprints
* Pots, water and spoons
* Nylon stockings or cheesecloth cut into 5- to 6-inch lengths
* Rubber bands or twisties
* Alum (found in supermarket spice racks) or white vinegar to set color
* Salad oil
* Paper towels or soft cloths.
* Red onion skins: pale blue.
* Yellow onion skins: yellow to golden hue.
* Saffron or tumeric: bright yellow.
* Red cabbage: shades of blue.
* Spinach leaves: pale green.
* Paprika: rusty brown.
* Frozen blueberries: pale gray-blue.
1. Prepare eggs by cleaning carefully with a solution of 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of water.
2. Cut up vegetables or prepare spices used for dying. Place several cups of vegetables or teaspoons of spices in their own enamel or glass pots and cover with at least three inches of water. Add one teaspoon of alum or white vinegar to each to set the dye. Boil for at least one hour to extract color. For more intense colors, use more vegetables or spices and boil longer.
3. Prepare designs on eggs by placing ferns, clovers, flowers or pine needles on the surface of the egg. Attach by wrapping eggs in cut-up nylon stockings or cheesecloth, secured at either end by twisties or rubber bands. The twisties will leave little star imprints.
4. Place unboiled eggs into dye pots; boil for at least 20 minutes, turning often to prevent spotting.
5. Remove eggs and allow to dry, again turning often to prevent spotting. When dry, remove netting and plant materials and lightly buff with soft cloth or paper towel soaked in salad oil. | <urn:uuid:7e864a16-df9e-4fdf-801e-c1b3a7cfa8d6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-18/home/hm-432_1_natural-dye-job | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901333 | 542 | 2.875 | 3 |
Indian-origin scientist identifies chemicals to fool blood-thirsty mosquitoes
Washington, June 2 : Female mosquitoes hunt their human blood meals by detecting organic substances such as carbon dioxide exhaled by the host.
But soon, mosquito bites could become nothing more than a bad memory, as a study led by an Indian-origin researcher has identified three types of odor molecules that disrupt the carbon dioxide-sensing machinery of mosquitoes.
One molecule switches the mosquitoes'' olfactory nerves "on" for prolonged periods, one turns the olfactory nerves "off" and a third type mimics carbon dioxide.
According to Anandasankar Ray of the University of California, Riverside, the finding could lead to a new generation of repellents and lures that might help prevent mosquito-borne human diseases such as yellow fever and West Nile virus as well as malaria and dengue. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:43175575-d0dc-46cc-97fa-4414e0e277ed> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.topnews.in/healthcare/content/22364indian-origin-scientist-identifies-chemicals-fool-blood-thirsty-mosquitoes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944306 | 182 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Using cards for a effective communication strategy
Test your Communication Skills
A greeting is warm message that convey's heart felt feelings .
Given the context that it requires skill, craft and adeptness.
ingredients for writing a greeting card: A good visualizer and a communicator with skills in graphic design , jingle or slogan writing.
solicitate all concern with an apptitude and enthusasim to contribute.
It is to be noted the owner or moderator intends to exploit or use the contributions in modified or derived or unaltertered for any purpose or choice ,
commercial or non commercial usage , solicitate your attention to
Express your self ...entries to for any occassion/context/theme are welcome
Idle format of expression:
Slogan or Jingle :
Visual theme or cover:
suitably ...apportion or appropriate a theme
Ravi Shankar kv | <urn:uuid:ef54cadc-daf6-421a-a35c-aa17e46d7d8b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/hi-there-a-great-place-to-test | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.77812 | 185 | 2.515625 | 3 |
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
Mind-body medicine focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior, and the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect health. It regards as fundamental an approach that respects and enhances each person's capacity for self-knowledge and self-care, and it emphasizes techniques that are grounded in this approach.
Definition of Scope of Field
Mind-body medicine typically focuses on intervention strategies that are thought to promote health, such as relaxation, hypnosis, visual imagery, meditation, yoga, biofeedback, tai chi, qi gong, cognitive-behavioral therapies, group support, autogenic training, spirituality, and prayer.a The field views illness as an opportunity for personal growth and transformation, and health care providers as catalysts and guides in this process.
A Certain mind-body intervention strategies listed here, such as group support for cancer survivors, are well integrated into conventional care and, while still considered mind-body interventions, are not considered to be complementary and alternative medicine.
Mind-body interventions constitute a major portion of the overall use of CAM by the public. In 2002, five relaxation techniques and imagery, biofeedback, and hypnosis, taken together, were used by more than 30 percent of the adult U.S. population. Prayer was used by more than 50 percent of the population.1
The concept that the mind is important in the treatment of illness is integral to the healing approaches of traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, dating back more than 2,000 years. It was also noted by Hippocrates, who recognized the moral and spiritual aspects of healing, and believed that treatment could occur only with consideration of attitude, environmental influences, and natural remedies (ca. 400 B.C.). While this integrated approach was maintained in traditional healing systems in the East, developments in the Western world by the 16th and 17th centuries led to a separation of human spiritual or emotional dimensions from the physical body. This separation began with the redirection of science, during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, to the purpose of enhancing humankind's control over nature. Technological advances (e.g., microscopy, the stethoscope, the blood pressure cuff, and refined surgical techniques) demonstrated a cellular world that seemed far apart from the world of belief and emotion. The discovery of bacteria and, later, antibiotics further dispelled the notion of belief influencing health. Fixing or curing an illness became a matter of science (i.e., technology) and took precedence over, not a place beside, healing of the soul. As medicine separated the mind and the body, scientists of the mind (neurologists) formulated concepts, such as the unconscious, emotional impulses, and cognitive delusions, that solidified the perception that diseases of the mind were not "real," that is, not based in physiology and biochemistry.
In the 1920s, Walter Cannon's work revealed the direct relationship between stress and neuroendocrine responses in animals.2 Coining the phrase "fight or flight," Cannon described the primitive reflexes of sympathetic and adrenal activation in response to perceived danger and other environmental pressures (e.g., cold, heat). Hans Selye further defined the deleterious effects of stress and distress on health.3 At the same time, technological advances in medicine that could identify specific pathological changes, and new discoveries in pharmaceuticals, were occurring at a very rapid pace. The disease-based model, the search for a specific pathology, and the identification of external cures were paramount, even in psychiatry.
During World War II, the importance of belief reentered the web of health care. On the beaches of Anzio, morphine for the wounded soldiers was in short supply, and Henry Beecher, M.D., discovered that much of the pain could be controlled by saline injections. He coined the term "placebo effect," and his subsequent research showed that up to 35 percent of a therapeutic response to any medical treatment could be the result of belief.4 Investigation into the placebo effect and debate about it are ongoing.
Since the 1960s, mind-body interactions have become an extensively researched field. The evidence for benefits for certain indications from biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral interventions, and hypnosis is quite good, while there is emerging evidence regarding their physiological effects. Less research supports the use of other, more clearly CAM approaches, like meditation and yoga. The following is a summary of relevant studies.
Mind-Body Interventions and Disease Outcomes
Over the past 20 years, mind-body medicine has provided considerable evidence that psychological factors can play a substantive role in the development and progression of coronary artery disease. There is evidence that mind-body interventions can be effective in the treatment of coronary artery disease, enhancing the effect of standard cardiac rehabilitation in reducing all-cause mortality and cardiac event recurrences for up to 2 years.5
Mind-body interventions have also been applied to various types of pain. Clinical trials indicate that these interventions may be a particularly effective adjunct in the management of arthritis, with reductions in pain maintained for up to 4 years and reductions in the number of physician visits.6 When applied to more general acute and chronic pain management, headache, and low-back pain, mind-body interventions show some evidence of effects, although results vary based on the patient population and type of intervention studied.7
Evidence from multiple studies with various types of cancer patients suggests that mind-body interventions can improve mood, quality of life, and coping, as well as ameliorate disease- and treatment-related symptoms, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea, vomiting, and pain.8 Some studies have suggested that mind-body interventions can alter various immune parameters, but it is unclear whether these alterations are of sufficient magnitude to have an impact on disease progression or prognosis.9,10
Mind-Body Influences on Immunity
There is considerable evidence that emotional traits, both negative and positive, influence people's susceptibility to infection. Following systematic exposure to a respiratory virus in the laboratory, individuals who report higher levels of stress or negative moods have been shown to develop more severe illness than those who report less stress or more positive moods.11 Recent studies suggest that the tendency to report positive, as opposed to negative, emotions may be associated with greater resistance to objectively verified colds. These laboratory studies are supported by longitudinal studies pointing to associations between psychological or emotional traits and the incidence of respiratory infections.12
Meditation and Imaging
Meditation, one of the most common mind-body interventions, is a conscious mental process that induces a set of integrated physiological changes termed the relaxation response. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to identify and characterize the brain regions that are active during meditation. This research suggests that various parts of the brain known to be involved in attention and in the control of the autonomic nervous system are activated, providing a neurochemical and anatomical basis for the effects of meditation on various physiological activities.13 Recent studies involving imaging are advancing the understanding of mind-body mechanisms. For example, meditation has been shown in one study to produce significant increases in left-sided anterior brain activity, which is associated with positive emotional states. Moreover, in this same study, meditation was associated with increases in antibody titers to influenza vaccine, suggesting potential linkages among meditation, positive emotional states, localized brain responses, and improved immune function.14
Physiology of Expectancy (Placebo Response)
Placebo effects are believed to be mediated by both cognitive and conditioning mechanisms. Until recently, little was known about the role of these mechanisms in different circumstances. Now, research has shown that placebo responses are mediated by conditioning when unconscious physiological functions such as hormonal secretion are involved, whereas they are mediated by expectation when conscious physiological processes such as pain and motor performance come into play, even though a conditioning procedure is carried out.
Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning of the brain is providing evidence of the release of the endogenous neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain of Parkinson's disease patients in response to placebo.15 Evidence indicates that the placebo effect in these patients is powerful and is mediated through activation of the nigrostriatal dopamine system, the system that is damaged in Parkinson's disease. This result suggests that the placebo response involves the secretion of dopamine, which is known to be important in a number of other reinforcing and rewarding conditions, and that there may be mind-body strategies that could be used in patients with Parkinson's disease in lieu of or in addition to treatment with dopamine-releasing drugs.
Stress and Wound Healing
Individual differences in wound healing have long been recognized. Clinical observation has suggested that negative mood or stress is associated with slow wound healing. Basic mind-body research is now confirming this observation. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), whose expression can be controlled by cytokines, play a role in wound healing.16 Using a blister chamber wound model on human forearm skin exposed to ultraviolet light, researchers have demonstrated that stress or a change in mood is sufficient to modulate MMP and TIMP expression and, presumably, wound healing.17 Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympathetic-adrenal medullary (SAM) systems can modulate levels of MMPs, providing a physiological link among mood, stress, hormones, and wound healing. This line of basic research suggests that activation of the HPA and SAM axes, even in individuals within the normal range of depressive symptoms, could alter MMP levels and change the course of wound healing in blister wounds.
Mind-body interventions are being tested to determine whether they can help prepare patients for the stress associated with surgery. Initial randomized controlled trials--in which some patients received audiotapes with mind-body techniques (guided imagery, music, and instructions for improved outcomes) and some patients received control tapes--found that subjects receiving the mind-body intervention recovered more quickly and spent fewer days in the hospital.18
Behavioral interventions have been shown to be an efficient means of reducing discomfort and adverse effects during percutaneous vascular and renal procedures. Pain increased linearly with procedure time in a control group and in a group practicing structured attention, but remained flat in a group practicing a self-hypnosis technique. The self-administration of analgesic drugs was significantly higher in the control group than in the attention and hypnosis groups. Hypnosis also improved hemodynamic stability.19
Evidence from randomized controlled trials and, in many cases, systematic reviews of the literature, suggest that:
Mechanisms may exist by which the brain and central nervous system influence immune, endocrine, and autonomic functioning, which is known to have an impact on health.
Multicomponent mind-body interventions that include some combination of stress management, coping skills training, cognitive-behavioral interventions, and relaxation therapy may be appropriate adjunctive treatments for coronary artery disease and certain pain-related disorders, such as arthritis.
Multimodal mind-body approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, particularly when combined with an educational/informational component, can be effective adjuncts in the management of a variety of chronic conditions.
An array of mind-body therapies (e.g., imagery, hypnosis, relaxation), when employed presurgically, may improve recovery time and reduce pain following surgical procedures.
Neurochemical and anatomical bases may exist for some of the effects of mind-body approaches.
Mind-body approaches have potential benefits and advantages. In particular, the physical and emotional risks of using these interventions are minimal. Moreover, once tested and standardized, most mind-body interventions can be taught easily. Finally, future research focusing on basic mind-body mechanisms and individual differences in responses is likely to yield new insights that may enhance the effectiveness and individual tailoring of mind-body interventions. In the meantime, there is considerable evidence that mind-body interventions, even as they are being studied today, have positive effects on psychological functioning and quality of life, and may be particularly helpful for patients coping with chronic illness and in need of palliative care. | <urn:uuid:d4e562f7-900a-47c4-8cb0-5f30d0f1e992> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthinfoforyou.com/an/6bl1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941457 | 2,521 | 3.015625 | 3 |
What is the Amoebiasis?
Amoebiasis is an intestinal parasitic illness which is caused by a single-celled microscopic parasite called Entamoeba histolytica. Parasites are micro or macro organisms which live or depend on other living organisms for their survival or food or both.
How does Amoebiasis spread?
Amoebiasis usually occurs by consumption of contaminated water or food that contains the cysts of entamoeba. Most often it spreads by house flies and cockroaches.
What are the symptoms of Amoebiasis?
Children with amoebiasis present with loose motions with blood and mucus, foul smelling flatus and uneasiness. Chronic infection may lead to weight loss and malnourished children. There is pain in lower abdomen especially on passing a bowel motion. If infection period is long it can involve liver and other body organs also leading to a condition called as amoebic abscess.
What are the causes for Amoebiasis?
Even though there is constant spread of infection, (within a family or in a hotel) some people are resistant to amoebiasis. Even if infected, some are only carriers and do not suffer from it. This shows that the ultimate cause of suffering is hidden than the exposed causative factor i.e. amoeba.
Amoeba infects in two ways.
- Taking contaminated food or drinks
- Taking vegetables and fruits which have been contaminated by the soil
- Taking non-veg foods (meat and intestines of animals - goat, pig, beef, etc.)
As with trophozoites
- From pets
- From human carriers directly to others thro' food contamination, sharing towels, etc.
- Unhygienic conditions and poor sanitation - especially after using the toilet.
What are the complications?
Complications usually develop after the trophozoites enter the blood stream to infect other organs. They especially invade the liver, which purifies blood
- Anemia due to blood loss in stools
- Septicemia due to abscesses in intestines, liver, lung, brain, spleen, etc.
- Perforation of intestines and peritonitis which lead to shock or septicemia
- Jaundice due to spread in liver (with liver abscess)
- Constant infection leads to appendicitis or stricture of intestines
- Constant foul smelling stools due to infected ulcers caused by amoeba
- Intestinal damage or scarring which restrict normal absorption of nutrients
- Fits or epilepsy due to spread in brain as brain abscess or cysts in brain
How is diagnosis of Amoebiasis made ?
Amoebiasis is diagnosed by examination of stool and isolating the cysts of the entamoeba.
How is Amoebiasis treated ?
Amoebiasis is a 100% treatable disease and specific antibiotics such as metronidazole or nitazoxanide may be used for the treatment under a doctor’s prescription. If the disease is advanced and has lead to formation of abscess then the abscess may need to be removed by surgery.
How can Amoebiasis be prevented?
Practice good sanitary conditions. Make servers or chefs wear gloves while preparing or serving food to avoid food contamination
- Take care of drinking water.
- Either opt for mineral water or water boiled for 20 minutes
- Wash hands before food and after using the toilet
- Cut and keep your nails clean
- Wash vegetables and fruits well in flowing water before intake or cooking
- Avoid sharing towels with infected persons
Avoid alcohol for preventing intestinal complications while having amoebiasis.
- Taking food contaminated with cysts causes more risk than foods contaminated with trophozoites since cysts are resistant to gastric acid juices.
- Being close to the sufferer or to asymptomatic cyst passers carries more risk due to constant infection or re-infection. | <urn:uuid:21a7ac3e-1130-4db1-a542-a242664cdf94> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthcaremagic.com/articles/Amoebiasis-in-children/7213 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00165-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919607 | 836 | 3.609375 | 4 |
OF THE IDEA OF RACE
by Audrey Smedley
Anthropology Newsletter, November 1997
Contemporary scholars agree that "race" was a recent invention
and that it was essentially a folk idea, not a product of scientific
research and discovery. This is not new to anthropologists. Since
the 1940s when Ashley Montagu argued against the use of the term
"race" in science, a growing number of scholars in many disciplines
have declared that the real meaning of race in American society
has to do with social realities, quite distinct from physical
variations in the human species. I argue that race was institutionalized
beginning in the 18th century as a worldview, a set of culturally
created attitudes and beliefs about human group differences.
Slavery and the Coming of Africans
Race and its ideology about human
differences arose out of the context of African slavery. But many
peoples throughout history have been enslaved without the imposition
of racial ideology. When we look at 17th century colonial America
before the enactment of laws legitimizing slavery only for Africans
and their descendants (after 1660), several facts become clear.
1). The first people that the English tried to enslave and
place on plantations were the Irish with whom they had had hostile
relations since the 13th century.
2) Some Englishmen had
proposed laws enslaving the poor in England and in the colonies
to force them to work indefinitely.
3) Most of the slaves
on English plantations in Barbados and Jamaica were Irish and
4) Many historians point out that African servants
and bonded indentured white servants were treated much the same
way. They often joined together, as in the case of Bacon's Rebellion
(1676) to oppose the strict and oppressive laws of the colonial
In the latter part of the 17th century the demand
for labor grew enormously. It had become clear that neither Irishmen
nor Indians made good slaves. More than that, the real threats
to social order were the poor freed whites who demanded lands
and privileges that the upper class colonial governments refused.
Some colonial leaders argued that turning to African labor provided
a buffer against the masses of poor whites.
Until the 18th
century the image of Africans was generally positive. They were
farmers and cattle-breeders; they had industries, arts and crafts,
governments and commerce. In addition, Africans had immunities
to Old World diseases. They were better laborers and they had
nowhere to escape to once transplanted to the New World. The colonists
themselves came to believe that they could not survive without
When some Englishmen entered slave trading directly,
it became clear that many of the English public had misgivings
about slave-trading and re-creating slavery on English soil. It
was an era when the ideals of equality, justice, democracy, and
human rights were becoming dominant features of Western political
philosophy. Those involved in the trade rationalized their actions
by arguing that the Africans were heathens after all, and it was
a Christian duty to save their souls. By the early part of the
18th century, the institution was fully established for Africans
and their descendants. Large numbers of slaves flooded the southern
colonies and even some northern ones. Sometimes they outnumbered
whites, and the laws governing slavery became increasingly harsher.
A New Social Identity
Toward the end of the eighteenth century,
the image of Africans began to change dramatically. The major
catalyst for this transformation was the rise of a powerful antislavery
movement that expanded and strengthened during the Revolutionary
Era both in Europe and in the United States. As a consequence
proslavery forces found it necessary to develop new arguments
for defending the institution. Focusing on physical differences,
they turned to the notion of the natural inferiority of Africans
and thus their God-given suitability for slavery. Such arguments
became more frequent and strident from the end of the eighteenth
century on, and the characterizations of Africans became more
From here we see the structuring of the ideological
components of "race." The term "race," which had been a classificatory
term like "type," or "kind," but with ambiguous meaning, became
more widely used in the eighteenth century, and crystallized into
a distinct reference for Africans, Indians and Europeans. By focusing
on the physical and status differences between the conquered and
enslaved peoples, and Europeans, the emerging ideology linked
the socio-political status and physical traits together and created
a new form of social identity. Proslavery leaders among the colonists
formulated a new ideology that merged all Europeans together,
rich and poor, and fashioned a social system of ranked physically
distinct groups. The model for "race" and "races" was the Great
Chain of Being or Scale of Nature (Scala Naturae), a semi-scientific
theory of a natural hierarchy of all living things, derived from
classical Greek writings. The physical features of different groups
became markers or symbols of their status on this scale, and thus
justified their positions within the social system. Race ideology
proclaimed that the social, spiritual, moral, and intellectual
inequality of different groups was, like their physical traits,
natural, innate, inherited, and unalterable.
Thus was created
the only slave system in the world that became exclusively "racial."
By limiting perpetual servitude to Africans and their descendants,
colonists were proclaiming that blacks would forever be at the
bottom of the social hierarchy. By keeping blacks, Indians and
whites socially and spatially separated and enforcing endogamous
mating, they were making sure that visible physical differences
would be preserved as the premier insignia of unequal social statuses.
From its inception separateness and inequality was what "race"
was all about. The attributes of inferior race status came to
be applied to free blacks as well as slaves. In this way, "race"
was configured as an autonomous new mechanism of social differentiation
that transcended the slave condition and persisted as a form of
social identity long after slavery ended.
Humans as Property
slavery was unique in another way; that is, how North American
slave-owners resolved the age-old dilemma of all slave systems.
Slaves are both persons and things----human beings and property.
How do you treat a human being as both person and property? And
what should take precedence, the human rights of the slave or
the property rights of the master? American laws made clear that
property was more sacred than people, and the property rights
of masters overshadowed the human rights of slaves. Said Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney in the famous Dred Scott case of 1857,
"Negroes were seen only as property; they were never thought of
or spoken of except as property" and "(thus) were not intended
by the framers of the Constitution to be accorded citizenship
In order to transform people solely into property,
you must minimize those qualities that make them human. Literature
of the early nineteenth century began to portray "the negro" as
a savage in even stronger terms than those that had been used
for the Irish two centuries earlier. This was a major transformation
in thought about who Africans were. Historian George Fredrickson
states explicitly that "before 1830 open assertions of permanent
black inferiority were exceedingly rare" (The Black Image in the
White Mind, 1987). By mid-century, the ideology of "negro inferiority"
dominated both popular and scholarly thought.
Science and the Justification for "Races"
What is so striking about
the American experience in creating such an extreme conception
of human differences was the role played by scientists and scholars
in legitimizing the folk ideas. Scholarly writers began attempting
to prove scientifically that "the Negro" was a different and lower
kind of human being. The first published materials arguing from
a scientific perspective that "negroes" were a separate species
from white men appeared in the last decade of the eighteenth century.
They argued that Negroes were either a product of degeneration
from that first creation, or descendants of a separate creation
American intellectuals appropriated, and rigidified,
the categories of human groups established by European scholars
during the eighteenth century, but ignored Blumenbach's caution
that human groups blend insensibly into one another, so that it
is impossible to place precise boundaries around them.
Dr. Samuel Morton in the 1830s initiated the field of craniometry,
the first school of American anthropology, proponents of race
ideology received the most powerful scientific support yet. Measuring
the insides of crania collected from many populations, he offered
"evidence" that the Negro had a smaller brain than whites, with
Indians in-between. Morton is also famous for his involvement
in a major scientific controversy over creation.
existence of a scientific debate over whether blacks and whites
were products of a single creation, or of multiple creations,
especially in a society dominated by Biblical explanations, seems
anomalous. It indicates that the differences between "races" had
been so magnified and exaggerated that popular consciousness had
already widely accepted the idea of blacks being a different and
inferior species of humans. Justice Taney's decision reflected
this, declaring, "the negro is a different order of being." Thus
slave-owners' rights to their "property" were upheld in law by
appeal to the newly invented identity of peoples from Africa.
collaborated in confirming popular beliefs, and publications appeared
on a regular basis providing the "proof" that comforted the white
public. That some social leaders were conscious of their role
in giving credibility to the invented myths is manifest in statements
such as that found in the Charleston Medical Journal after Dr.
Morton's death. It states, "We can only say that we of the South
should consider him as our benefactor, for aiding most materially
in giving to the negro his true position as an inferior race"
(emphasis added). George Gliddon, co-editor of a famous scientific
book Types of Mankind, (1854) which argued that Negroes were closer
to apes than to humans and ranked all other groups between whites
and Negroes, sent a copy of the book to a famous southern politician,
saying that he was sure the south would appreciate the powerful
support that this book gave for its "peculiar institution" (slavery).
Like another famous tome (The Bell Curve, 1995) this was an 800-page
book whose first edition sold out immediately; it went through
nine other editions before the end of the century. What it said
about the inferiority of blacks became widely known, even by those
who could not read it.
During discussions in the U.S. Senate
on the future of "the negro" after slavery, James Henry Hammond
proclaimed in 1858 "somebody has to be the mudsills of society,
to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life." Negroes
were destined to be the mudsills. This was to be their place,
one consciously created for them by a society whose cultural values
now made it impossible to assimilate them. In the many decades
since the Civil War, white society made giant strides to "keep
the negro in his place." Public policies and the customs and practices
of millions of Americans expressed this racial worldview throughout
the twentieth century.
These are some of the circumstances
surrounding the origin of the racial worldview in North America.
Race ideology was a mechanism justifying what had already been
established as unequal social groups; it was from its inception,
and is today, about who should have access to privilege, power,
status, and wealth, and who should not. As a useful political
ideology for conquerors, it spread into colonial situations around
the world. It was promulgated in the latter half of the 19th century
by some Europeans against other Europeans and reached its most
extreme development in the twentieth century Nazi holocaust.
anthropologists should understand that "race" has no intrinsic
relationship to human biological diversity, that such diversity
is a natural product of primarily evolutionary forces while "race"
is a social invention.
Fredrickson, G. M. 1987. The Black Image in the White Mind.
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
Smedley, A. 1993 (1999). Race in North America: Origin and
Evolution of a Worldview. Boulder: Westview Press.
Stepan, Nancy. 1982. The Idea of Race in Science. London:
Audrey Smedley is a professor of anthropology at Virginia
Commonwealth University. She is author of the American Anthropological
Association's position paper on 'race,' and the new millennial
edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on 'race.'
<BACK TO TOP | <urn:uuid:e9da5af3-7d68-42b4-ae08-e1efce947dd8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-02-09.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955727 | 2,748 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Panthera tigris altaica
The Amur tiger (formerly known as the Siberian tiger) is found only in the mountain forests of eastern Russia, with a small population ranging across the border into China. This tiger subspecies is adapted to the region's high latitude, harsh climate, and long winters.
The life of an Amur tiger
Amur tigers are the largest cats in the world. They can grow up to 15 feet long from head to tail, and stand up to 3 feet tall. Males weigh between 300 and 675 pounds and are larger than the females, which weigh 160 to 300 pounds.
Like human fingerprints, the striped pattern on each Amur tiger's fur is unique to that individual. They have fewer, paler stripes on their coats than other tigers, which become even lighter in winter. To protect them from the cold, their fur grows thicker than other tigers' fur, and they have manes. Thick fur on their paws keeps their feet warm, allows them to walk silently as they stalk prey, and makes their feet behave like showshoes as they move through the snow. Their long claws are retractable, which allows them to run easily and quickly.
Amur tigers live alone, marking their scent on trees to keep other tigers away. When hunting they rely more on sight and hearing than smell. They hunt for elk, boar, and deer, stalking them until they are close enough to pounce. They drag their kill to a secluded area before devouring the meat.
Because of naturally low numbers of prey animals in eastern Russia, Amur tigers have large hunting areas. Females range up to 12 square miles, while males patrol areas more than twice that size. With such large territories, an area about the size of Arizona is needed to support a healthy population of several hundred Amur tigers.
Female Amur tigers have cubs every 2 to 4 years. Pregnancy lasts 3 to 3 ½ months for a litter of 2 to 4 cubs, each of which weighs 2 to 4 pounds. The female teaches them to hunt, and the cubs make their first independent kill at about 7 months. By the time they are two years old, the young tigers can kill large prey on their own, but they often stay with their mother for another year or more before leaving to establish their own territory.
Amur tigers live 10 to 12 years in the wild. In captivity they can live up to 20 years, but their average life expectancy is 14-16 years.
Amur tiger conservation
About 400 Amur tigers are left in the wild, and they are listed as endangered. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching of both tigers and their prey, as well as tiger-human conflict and infectious diseases. Most of the 150 Amur tigers in North American AZA facilities are part of conservation breeding programs, including the Species Survival Plan in the United States.
Amur tigers at the Oregon Zoo
The Oregon Zoo's Amur tiger lives in the Amur Tiger exhibit near Steller Cove. | <urn:uuid:5f1e5f19-d8cd-4b91-bd06-34af75339ad9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oregonzoo.org/discover/animals/amur-tiger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970105 | 622 | 3.609375 | 4 |
I know some “facts” presented in the articles are repeated over and over.. but that can also mean many people know about them.. and I also have the picture of "telor goreng daun mungga"(fried egg with moringa leaves) from one of the blog (with permission)
The Moringa Oleifera Plant which grows mainly in the Asian regions. It has been used as a good healer of many diseases the last two thousand years and more. It was mostly used by the earlier medicine men of many countries and races. It is believed that it can cure and prevent more than 300 diseases. Today Given the right nutrition our body will and can heal itself .
The Moringa leaves are the most nutritious part of the Moringa tree. Enormous nutrient supplement helps in curing 300 different diseases, which increases the importance of Moringa in our day to day life. Moringa is a tremendous source of bio-available vitamins and minerals which are the partners of enzymes and co-enzymes. Vitamins activate enzymes and without vitamins, enzymes could not carry out their work, and we could not live. Moringa, with 90+ nutrients, is the best source to nourish the body with the essential nutrients. Dried Moringa leaves contain 4 times the Vitamin A in carrot, 17 times the calcium in milk, 15 times the potassium in Banana, 0.5 times the Vitamin C in Orange and 25 times the Iron in Spinach. Moringa has Vitamin A Beta Carotene, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pyrodixine, Biotin, Ascorbic Acid, Cholecalciferol, Tocopherol and Vitamin K.
(please note the numbers do not tally as the picture is from different article)
Vitamin A is needed to prevent night blindness, promotes healthy skin, and fights infections. Vitamin C is needed to maintain healthy gums, assists in healing wounds, and helps the body use iron. Vitamin E will protect your body against free radical damage to cells. Calcium and Vitamin D are essential to maintain strong bones and teeth. Moringa is rich in vitamin to the extent that it is one of the richest plant sources of Vitamin. The list of Minerals present in Moringa is abundant and few of the main minerals include Calcium, Copper, Iron, Potassium, Magnesium, Manganese and Zinc.
All these minerals are needed for the proper functioning of the body. These vitamins and minerals present in Moringa makes the Moringa tea a healthy drink. Various parts of this plant such as the leaves, roots, seed, bark, fruit, flowers and immature pods act as cardiac and circulatory stimulants, possess antitumor, antipyretic, antiepileptic, antiinflammatory, antiulcer, antispasmodic, diuretic, antihypertensive, cholesterol lowering, antioxidant, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, antibacterial and antifungal activities, and are being employed for the treatment of different ailments in the indigenous system of medicine.
Scientifically speaking, Moringa sounds like magic. It can rebuild weak bones, enrich anemic blood and enable a malnourished mother to nurse her starving baby. Ounce for ounce, it has the calcium of four glasses of milk, the Vitamin C of seven oranges and the potassium of three bananas. Moringa has triple the iron of spinach. Both Moringa and the common carrot are diamonds in the roughage department, but Moringa has quadruple the beta carotene, which is good for the eyes and effective against cancer.The Bethesda, Md.-based International Eye Foundation is using Moringa in Malawi because it’s loaded with Vitamin A, the lack of which causes 70% of childhood blindness. Its medicinal qualities also are tantalizing. The seeds and roots contain an antibiotic that Guatemala’s University of San Carlos found to be as effective against skin infections as neomycin.
In recent years, studies published in the journal Phytotherapy Research and Hort Science have found different Moringa parts to be effective in lowering blood sugar, reducing swelling, healing gastric ulcers,lowering blood pressure and even calming the nervous system.
One amazing true to life testimony on the benefits of Moringa is the case of Awa Diedhou ( from Africa ), an infant born weighing 3 pounds, 5 ounces. Her mother couldn’t produce sufficient milk and the child was given little chance to survive. On a Moringa supplemented diet, the child quickly grew “quite fat,” and the mother began producing milk.
Beri beri, rickets and scurvy are among the diseases caused by the lack of nutrients that are abundant in Moringa. Three spoonfuls of Moringa leaf powder contain 272% of a typical toddler’s daily Vitamin A requirement, along with 42% of the protein, 125% of the calcium,, 71% of the iron and 22% of the Vitamin C. It contains a full complement of minerals and all the amino acids of meat .
It could be said without any doubt that from the pure Moringa Tree Leaf we can get very good benefits for the health, which are very much reported in studies of the leaf. It is the organic, natural, endurance and energy supplement of health. According to the annals of the ayurveda, India’s old tradition of medicines, the leaves of the Moringa Tree could treat at least 300 diseases.
Written below are the benefits of the Moringa Leaf:
Increases the Natural Defenses of the body
Provides nourishment to the eyes and the brain.
Promotes metabolism with bio-available ingredients
Promotes the Cell structure of the body
Promotes natural Serum cholesterol.
Lowers the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.
Promotes the normal functioning of the liver and the kidney.
Beautifies the skin
Promotes proper digestion
Acts as an antioxidant
Takes care of the immune system of the body
Promotes healthy circulatory system
It is anti-inflammatory
Gives a feeling of general wellness
Supports the normal sugar levels of the body.
Moringa leaf boosts your energy in a natural manner, and is a remarkable source of nutrition. This energy promotion does not happen because of sugar, so it lasts for a long time. Individuals ingesting it say that their ulcers are healed, tumors restricted, there are reduction in the arthritis pains and inflammations, controlled blood pressure, the skin problems are restored, and finally they have stronger defenses against diseases.
here is another article..
2008/2009 - GHANA MORINGA PLANTATIONS AND NURSERIES
In the year 2008 Paul Yeboah dreamt about Nature’s Medicine Cabinet called "Moringa oleifera". In many African languages called "Never Die". Moringa is not new, it has been known for centuries by people living in tropics areas of the world. Moringa tree has proven itself as a powerful indigenous resource for fighting against hunger and malnutrition.
In the year 2008 Paul Yeboah started doing communities Moringa plantations in one of the regions of Ghana called "Brong Ahafo Region" and now has three thousand farmers (3000) and three hundred communities are into this project and the project is ongoing.
Paul Yeboah is given moringa seeds free to communities into groups and associations and holding workshops/training and seminars for these communities about cultural practices and the numerouse uses of the tree "MORINGA"
Moringa promises relief from the devastating diseases and malnutrition and hunger that are so rampant in the Africa and Africa American communities such as:
1. Diabetes and complications leading to kidney diseases.
2. Obesity brought on by malnutrition (over fed - under nourished).
3. High blood pressure, stroke and heart diseases.
4. Tumor and cancer.
5. Lupus, Arthritis and other Auto immune diseases.
6. Glaucoma - Blindness.
7. Skin Diseases
8. Prostate enlargement and prostate cancer.
9. Hepatitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Irritable bowel syndrome.
Moringa is best known as an excellent source of nutrition and a natural energy booster. It is loaded with nutrients, Vitamins and Amino Acids.
Moringa is not a hyper intense sugar - based energy source. As it helps reduces blood pressure gives you good night sleep.
Moringa leaves are good animal fodder.
Moringa is good for alley cropping and good to replenish degradable lands to arable crop land.
The seeds are good water purifier for communities at the rural areas suffering from water born diseases like (Guinea worm and Bulili urcer).
In the so-called developing world, moringa leaves, pod or leaf powder have become very successful as a nourishment for small children, pregnant or nursing women. Moringa has been known to bring relief from HIV and AIDS, Malnutrition and diseases caused by bad water, bad food and environmental toxins.
Moringa is timely chosen by Paul Yeboah in Ghana as a project running by Permaculture in Ghana and being pledged in the year 2008 in the UNEP billion tree planting campaign for 30,000 trees planted and given IPS GHANA recommendation letter for Donor Support and legally to use their LOGO in addition to IPS logo as well.
You can also look here for more info
Moringa has been promoted as a life line to the poverty stricken .. a miracle tree, yours truly are also praying for a life-line to my agro friend efforts.. a miracle of some sort..
Hopefully this is of benefit to you, have a good day. | <urn:uuid:cdabfed5-1d2d-4b69-9c84-c683ddbb21ed> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://minyakgaz.blogspot.com/2010/11/moringa-miracle-tree-life-line.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924462 | 2,052 | 2.703125 | 3 |
1774 - Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.
1790 - The U.S. Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.
1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.
1876 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for a second time.
1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.
1883 - "Ladies' Home Journal" was published for the first time.
1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.
1889 - Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.
1907 - In Monongah, WV, 361 people were killed in America's worst mine disaster.
1917 - More than 1,600 people died when two munitions ships collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1917 - Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.
1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State was created as a self-governing dominion of Britain when an Anglo-Irish treaty was signed.
1923 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio.
1926 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.
1947 - Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by U.S. President Truman.
1957 - AFL-CIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters were readmitted in 1987.
1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.
1960 - Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds were granted the Los Angeles Angels baseball franchise by the American League.
1973 - Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice-president of the United States after vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned.
1982 - 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed when a bomb exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. The Irish National Liberation Army was responsible for planting the bomb.
1983 - In Jerusalem, a bomb planted on a bus exploded killing six Israelis and wounding 44.
1985 - Congressional negotiators reached an agreement on a deficit-cutting proposal that later became the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law.
1989 - The worst mass shooting in Canadian history occurred when a man gunned down 14 women at the University of Montreal's school of engineering. The man then killed himself.
1989 - Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.
1990 - Iraq announced that it would release all its 2,000 foreign hostages.
1990 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle was enshrined in the Little League Museum's Hall of Excellence.
1992 - Germany's primary political parties agreed to tighten postwar asylum laws.
1992 - In India, thousands of Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque. The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting resulted in at least 2,000 people being killed.
1993 - Former priest James R. Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Porter had admitted molesting 28 children in the 1960s.
1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became the largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.
1997 - A Russian Antonov 124 military transport crashed into a residential area in Irkutsk, Russia, shortly after takeoff. 70 people were killed.
1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.
1998 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.
2002 - Winona Ryder was sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution.
2002 - Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park. | <urn:uuid:7916696c-7287-4089-a128-f17aed6a3d55> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec06.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969217 | 907 | 3.15625 | 3 |
As much as they resemble the classic NES Power Glove controller, the robotic gloves depicted in the video above aren’t an attempt to bring the unwieldy peripheral back into vogue. Rather they’re the result of General Motors teaming up with NASA engineers to create equipment that will help reduce repetitive stress injuries in both astronauts and auto workers. Called the Human Grasp Assist system, it utilizes modern technology to help you keep a grasp on a tool or other small object without having to exert so much pressure.
Coming out of the research that has been conducted by GM to create the Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot helper currently on board the International Space Station, the gloves utilize pressure sensors to tell when you are trying to grip something. Once they detect you flexing your hand, they go to work constricting metal “tendons” that are in each finger. The effect of this is that it reduces the work your hands have to do. They don’t make you super strong or faster then a normal human, but they will help you hold a drill for three straight hours. The gloves are powered by a lithium-ion battery that is attached to the wearer’s belt.
Workers who have been wearing the system have reported that doing their jobs was definitely easier, which confirms the tests conducted by the project’s engineers that show the gloves provide 50% of the strength needed to get repetitive tasks done.
Having already created two versions of the system, GM is now busy working to make the third generation of the assistance device less bulky and cumbersome. The second version of the gloves, pictured above, weighs about two pounds making them a tad unwieldy. The goal is to eventually make the technology available to workers on the factor floor to ease their work day.
Perhaps if GM and NASA had teamed up to create the original Power Glove back in 1989 it wouldn’t have sucked so much? | <urn:uuid:a3ee91dd-20d2-4c3c-9693-ef3e3f0c635d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.geek.com/news/human-grasp-assist-robotic-gloves-1476027/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962345 | 396 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Welding Helmets and Goggles Information
Welding helmets and goggles provide personal and facial protection against intense light, weld spatter, and hot debris. They consist of a filtering light medium and a protective head and/or eye covering. Welding helmets are protective headgear that is worn to protect a welder’s eyes, face, and neck from flash burn, ultraviolet light (UV), sparks, and heat. Often, these welding helmets are worn during arc welding operations. Welding goggles are a form of protective eyewear that encloses or protects the eye socket from particulates, water, or chemicals. Both welding helmets and goggles are used to prevent welder’s eye or arc eye, a painful medical condition where the cornea becomes inflamed.
Welding helmets and goggles differ in terms of features. Auto-darkening products sense the presence of high or low intensity light, and adjust their filter level to keep the welder comfortable. Welding helmets and goggles with so-called “independent air” are designed to provide breathable oxygen to users in a closed-loop system. Typically, they are used in hazardous environments. Integrated light products have a built-in light source. Integrated radio products have a transmitter and receiver for two-way communication. Prescription / bifocal products offer a user-specific feature authorized by the user's medical doctor, such as lens correction, to assist the welder in performing work.
Some welding helmets and goggles are sanitary or hygienic. Others are ventilated. Sanitary or hygienic products are designed to protect welders against biological contamination. Typically, sanitary welding helmets and goggles are used in cleanroom, environmental remediation, and pharmaceutical applications. Ventilated welding helmets and goggles are also available. There are two basic types: passive and powered. Both offer open-system breathing through the inclusion of perforated holes or air channels to outside air. Powered ventilation uses a built-in (e.g. battery) energy source to move air, and can operate small cooling fans to produce forced-air for more-comfortable breathing.
Welding helmets and goggles may comply with or conform to various voluntary or regulatory standards. For example, ANSI compliant products meet or exceed one or more of the standards set by the American National Standards Institute. OSHA compliant products meet or exceed the requirements of the U.S. government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. CSA-approved products meet or exceed one or more of the standards set by the Canadian Standards Association, and carry the internationally-recognized CSA logo. Welding helmets and goggles that bear the CE mark are also available. | <urn:uuid:94ba35f0-41fb-4297-8182-2e4e6e98685f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.globalspec.com/learnmore/manufacturing_process_equipment/safety_personal_protective_equipment/welding_helmets_goggles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926043 | 551 | 3.3125 | 3 |
A hawklike owl with a small head and long tail.
- Family Strigidae: three genera, including Ninox (several species in Asia and Australasia) and Surnia.
- It seems odd that the hawk owl should emerge as a vole specialist at all, given the owl's strong physical resemblance to birds that prey on other birds.
- The northern hawk owl, a rare sight in the wild, pinned its yellow eyes on me and let out a sibilant screech that nearly made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
- Some of the most common birds of prey here, the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, and osprey, are fish-eaters, though the hawk owl is not.
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Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:94ee8039-1b80-40cd-9c2a-d464cdf01906> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/hawk-owl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913467 | 208 | 2.953125 | 3 |
There was some confusion last week about a recent Brookings Institution study that calculated the carbon footprints of 100 metropolitan areas in the United States. Mainly, it revolved around the news that metro Atlanta had shown improvement in 2000-2005 and actually lessened its impact on the environment whereas other metropolitan areas did not. This was surprising because the region hasn't expanded its public transit system, made sweeping advances in energy-efficiency, or seen drastic changes in land-use planning.
After the jump, view the methodology with emphasis added.
Sent by Brookings:
To produce comparable carbon footprints for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, the authors examined national databases for passenger and freight transportation and for energy consumption in residential buildings. These estimates are as current as data sources will allow across metro areas, yet at the same time they are incomplete. Major omissions are the carbon emissions from commercial buildings, industry, and other modes of transportation such as planes, transit, and trains. These sources account for roughly half of national emissions. For this reason, results for any particular metropolitan area should be treated with caution. Still, the majority of commercial buildings are powered by electricity derived largely from coal, and their spatial arrangement would be expected to follow the general compactness and density characteristics of residential developments in a metro area. Thus, their footprints are likely to resemble those reported here for residential buildings, although this remains to be seen.
Personal and freight transportation. Information on the amount of energy used for transportation is unavailable at the metropolitan level. Instead, the authors derived estimates based on VMT data from the Highway Performance Monitoring System for both personal and freight transport. They followed a three-step process:
- Estimate the annual VMT within each metro area using highway traffic count data
- Convert these VMT estimates to gallons of fuel consumed, by major fuel types, but principally gasoline and petro-diesel
- Convert this fuel consumption into a) its equivalent energy content, and b) its equivalent carbon content
The results estimate the energy and carbon footprint created by each metro areas auto and truck travel.
Residential buildings. The authors obtained data on electricity sales from Platts Analytics, including the total residential electricity sales and the total number of residential customers of utilities whose service territories include all or a portion of the 100 metropolitan areas. They followed a five-step process:
- Estimate the average electricity consumed per residential customer of each utility serving the metropolitan area
- Estimate the number of households each utility serves within the metropolitan area by mapping the utilities service districts at the ZIP code level
- Adjust county estimates to account for landlord electricity payments, based on county-specific data on types of housing and region-specific data on how utilities are paid by housing type
- Sum the final estimates by county across all of the counties within each metro area to produce metrowide estimates
- Convert to carbon emissions estimates using statewide averages of the carbon content of electricity generation
The authors also estimated the magnitude of residential fuels (natural gas, fuel oil, kerosene, liquid propane gas, and wood) consumed in residential units in each metropolitan area, using the Energy Information Administrations (EIA) state data on fuel consumption in the residential sector and EIAs Residential Energy Consumption Survey data on fuel-specific consumption of different types of housing. The results estimate the energy and carbon footprint created by each metro areas stock of residential buildings.
The authors also generated combined but partial carbon footprints for all 100 metro areas by summing the transportation and residential buildings footprints. Appendix A includes full data tables by metro area, with ranks, and Appendix B discusses limitations of the available data.
The lady cave
I want to know more about the lawsuit as well. I was promised help getting…
I have been HIV positive for 7 years and long for the day to be…
The drill should be called Andrew Jones, and the hole called the Gold Club.
I am curious, Mr. Driskell by what you said about Fulton County's General Fund. It…
I thought Kasim Ream was the name of Arthur's Johnson. | <urn:uuid:93824aff-46e4-430d-b323-5228c4312c46> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2008/06/02/metro-atlanta-carbon-footprint-study-methodology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935115 | 827 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Ancient people came from across Britain in their thousands to build Stonehenge and celebrate the winter solstice, researchers have said.
Experts suggested the gatherings were something like "Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time", as people spent periods of time each year constructing the site and celebrating massive communal feasts.
The findings overturn the belief that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical calendar or observatory, Professor Mike Parker Pearson from University College London said.
It suggests the act of building monuments was key to those who constructed the site, uniting people from across the island of Britain.
The findings come after a decade of research which included excavations, laboratory work and the analysis of 63 ancient human remains.
Researchers said meetings were like "Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time"
The most startling discovery was the scale of the settlement at nearby Durrington Walls, which Prof Parker Pearson described as the "largest Neolithic settlement in the whole of northern Europe", which would have had about 1,000 houses.
This has led the team, whose findings are being revealed in a Channel 4 documentary, to conclude 4,000 people would have gathered at the site - a huge number given that Britain's population is estimated to have been only tens of thousands at the time.
By testing cattle and pig teeth found among 80,000 animal bones at Durrington Walls, Prof Parker Pearson and his team discovered people travelled with their livestock from as far away as the Scottish Highlands to Stonehenge.
They have also established that there was a peak in killing the animals around nine months after their spring births, which points to the winter solstice being a time of mass feasting.
A second, smaller peak in the slaughter of the animals occurred around the summer solstice, showing people also celebrated then.
The site is still used as a tourist attraction and by pagans
Prof Parker Pearson said he believed that people would have gathered from around the country for a burst of activity to work on constructing the site around the solstices, particularly in winter, and then dispersed again.
Evidence of annual repairs and the digging of pits for new plaster for the houses suggests that, as these were not done more than 10 times, Stonehenge was built over a very short period of time, probably only a decade.
Prof Parker Pearson said: "What we have discovered is it's in the building the thing that's important. It's not that they're coming to worship, they're coming to construct it.
He added: "It's something that's Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time. It's not all fun, there's work too."
The team's decade-long work has confirmed there were two Stonehenges, with the first a large circular structure constructed around 500 years before what we know of as the site, which was a cemetery for high-class families.
As a result of the scientific analysis they have concluded the second Stonehenge was built slightly earlier than previously thought, 4,500 years ago rather than 4,300 years ago.
This gives a clue to the decline of Stonehenge, as it means it was built before the arrival of the "Beaker people", who arrived in Britain from the continent around 4,300 years ago.
The Beaker people brought metal, the wheel and a less centralised political culture to Britain, bringing an end to the mass monument building of the Ancient Britons.
Prof Parker Pearson said his research would now focus on looking at the sources of the stones used at Stonehenge, exploring both the local site and the west Wales area where stone was brought from. | <urn:uuid:64143296-f445-4a9e-b3d6-9d0fc47020eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/09/stonehenge-winter-solstice_n_2842597.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979923 | 754 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Fish oil omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA may not be indispensable
A new study suggests as long you get enough intake of plant-derived linolenic acid or ALA, your system will synthesize sufficient amounts of n–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. In other words, fish oil is not something indispensable.
Fish oil omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are known to be beneficial to the health. These omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, have some protective effect against cancer.
Ailsa A. Wlech and colleagues from University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom surveyed 14,422 men and women aged 39 to 78 years from the EPIC - Norfol cohort for 7-day dietary data and measured plasma phospholipid fatty acid in 4,902 participants.
For the study, the researchers measured intake and status of n-3 PUFAS and calculated ratio of dietary ALA to circulating n-3 PUFAS.
They found the major dietary source of EPA and DHA was fish. For meat-eaters, the major source was meat and for vegetarians, the major source of EPA and DHA was spreading fats, soups and sauces.
In comparison, fish eaters had 57 to 80 percent higher intake of n-3 PUFA than non-fish eaters. But the difference was considerably small. Women had higher ratio of ALA to n-3 PUFA than men. Non-fish-eaters had greater ratio than the fish eaters.
The findings were reported in the Sept 22, 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
ALA is found high in plant oils like canola, pumpkin seed, perilla, kiwi seed, walnut and soybean oil, flax and other seeds, and leafy greens like spinach, Brussels, sprouts and purslane. | <urn:uuid:f91c769f-01b7-4a22-a647-47ce4c814d85> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/mobile/Nutrition/Food/fish_oil_omega-3_fatty_acids_dha_and_epa_1611100728.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957418 | 408 | 2.703125 | 3 |
In a few short weeks, parent-teacher conferences start. Interestingly, both parents and teachers are anxious about them! Parents worry about whether their child is performing well enough and behaving in class. They worry about whether their children are being treated fairly and whether they have friends. Teachers worry about whether they can meet the needs of every child in their classroom. They also worry that parents will judge them unfairly and verbally abuse them during the conference. Both need to realize that children thrive when parents and teachers work together for the good of the child. This is especially true when a student is struggling in school. Here are some suggestions that might help make conferences more productive.
- Spend some time thinking about what you want for your son. One of my favorite educators, Michael Thompson, suggests that parents think about their “hopes and fears for their child” and communicate them to his teacher. This helps his teacher understand both you and your son better.
- If your daughter is struggling in school, communicate that to her teacher. Realize, though, that teachers cannot fix everything at once. It is best to work on one major issue at a time. Read my earlier blog Small Steps Can Improve Student Skills for a more thorough explanation. You and her teacher can decide what needs to be top priority. Together you can make a plan for what needs to happen at school and how you can support the efforts at home.
- Remember that failure is a normal part of life. When your child fails a test or even a larger unit of study (like the whole quarter), it is not the end of the world. You and his teacher can work together to make a plan for how he can still find success.
There are a lot of resources here at SchoolFamily.com about making parent-teacher conferences productive. You can find links to them in the Parent Teacher Conferences Article Archive. Keep in mind that your child benefits most when you and her teacher work together for her benefit. Communicate concerns, of course, but also celebrate small improvements together by letting her teacher know when you see them. | <urn:uuid:d9f9f023-0f15-4d29-b0da-23080ab1cfb9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.schoolfamily.com/blog/2013/10/10/parent-teacher-conferences-help-develop-the-school-home-relationship | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977753 | 423 | 2.703125 | 3 |
We should hasten the enfranchisement of this generation, born between 1980 and 1995, by lowering the voting age to 16.
Age thresholds are meant to bring an impartial data point to bear on insoluble moral questions: who can be legally executed, who can die in Iraq, who can operate the meat cutter at the local sub shop. But in a time when both youth and age are being extended, these dividing lines are increasingly inadequate.
Legal age requirements should never stand alone. They should be flexible and pragmatic and paired with educational and cognitive requirements for the exercise of legal maturity.
Driving laws provide the best model for combining early beginnings and mandatory education. Many states have had success with a gradual phasing in of driving rights over a year or more, starting with a learner’s permit at age 16. The most restrictive of these programs are associated with a 38 percent reduction in fatal crashes among the youngest drivers, according to a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Similarly, 16-year-olds who want to start voting should be able to obtain an “early voting permit” from their high schools upon passing a simple civics course similar to the citizenship test. Besides increasing voter registration, this system would reinforce the notion of voting as a privilege and duty as well as a right — without imposing any across-the-board literacy tests for those over 18.
And why stop at voting? Sixteen is a good starting point for phasing in adult rights and responsibilities, from voting to drinking to marriage. In reality, this is already when most people have their first jobs, their first drinks and their sexual initiations. The law ought to empower young people to negotiate these transitions openly, not furtively.
We know driving laws reflect reality; whoever heard of the scourge of under-age driving? On the other hand, studies have shown that three-fourths of high school seniors have drunk alcohol. Surveys show that teenagers who drink at home with their families go on to drink less than those who sneak beers with friends. Imagine 16-year-olds receiving a drinking permit upon passage of a mandatory course about alcoholism. The permit would allow a tipple only at family gatherings or school functions for two years — until you graduate or leave home.
The phasing in of credit cards at 16 could work with firm restrictions. A parental co-signer should be required until young applicants have made a year of on-time payments from their own wages. The most important requirement would be passing a mandatory financial literacy test. The applicant would define “compound interest,” correctly decipher the fine print on a credit card agreement and argue with a robotic customer service representative over a mysterious fee. Surely this graduated system would be safer than handing young people a $2,000 line of credit just as they leave home for the first time.
The more we treat teenagers as adults, the more they rise to our expectations. From a developmental and vocational point of view, the late teens are the right starting point for young people to think seriously about their futures. Government can help this process by bestowing rights along with responsibilities.
Tying adult rights to cognitive requirements could also smooth the path to dealing with a much bigger age-related social problem. Demographically, those over 85 are our fastest-growing group. By 2020, the entire nation will be about as silver-haired as Florida is today. We need to be able to test Americans of all ages, to make sure they’re still qualified to drive and to help them avoid financial scammers. From a public health point of view, the silver tsunami poses more of a threat than marauding teenagers ever did. | <urn:uuid:dbfb0502-376e-4b33-bcad-039ffab61a03> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://anyakamenetz.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-can-young-people-do.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963866 | 753 | 2.84375 | 3 |
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORBUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
National Historic Trails Interpretive Center
1849 & 1850
Several emigrant parties that included both whites and members of the Cherokee Nation journeyed to California in the first two years of the Gold Rush. Starting in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, they blazed the first wagon trails through the Rocky Mountains that didn't use South Pass.
The 1849 wagon trains chose a route across the Laramie Plains and the Red Desert that closely parallels present Interstate 80, connecting with the Oregon-California trail at the junction of Hams Fork and Blacks Fork rivers.
The 1850 parties pioneered a completely different route that hugged the Wyoming-Colorado border until reaching Fort Bridger. Some combination of both routes would be used to create Ben Holladay's Overland Trail in 1862.
The Cherokee Trails are not well marked. They involve private lands as well as National Forest and BLM public lands. | <urn:uuid:ba512bb5-935e-4b05-8feb-a8dd1c0803e7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/nlcs/Historic_Trails/map/cherokee.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929076 | 197 | 3.84375 | 4 |
The Purpose of the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) is to promote the protection of cultural propery (as defined in the Hague Convention) against threats of all kinds an to intervene strategically with decisionmakers and relevant international organisations to prevent and to respond to natural an man made disasasters.
Following the Second World War, UNESCO adopted the Hague Convention (1954) which created rules to protect cultural goods during armed conflicts. This Convention was the first international treaty aimed at protecting cultural heritage in the context of war and which highlighted the concept of common heritage.
The Blue Shield is the symbol used to identify cultural sites protected by this Convention. It is also the name of the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) that works to protect world cultural heritage threatened by natural and human-made disasters.
ICBS works for the protection of the world cultural heritage by coordinating preparations to meet and respond to emergency situations as well as post-crisis support. And it promotes good standards through risk management training and awareness-raising campaigns for professionals and the general public. Its unrivalled body of expertise allows the organisation to collect and share information on threats to cultural property worldwide, thus helping international players to take the appropriate measures in case of armed conflict or disaster.
ICBS intervenes as an advisor and cooperates with other bodies including UNESCO, ICCROM and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICEC). Finally in emergency situations, ICBS encourages the safeguarding and the restoration of cultural property, the protection of threatened goods, and helps the professionals from the affected countries to recover from disasters.
- To promote the ratification and implementation of the Hague Convention and its protocols, with the emphasis on advocating ICBS's philosophy and principles.
- To encourage safeguarding and respect for cultural property especially by promoting risk preparedness.
- To train experts at national and regional level to prevent, control and recover from disasters.
- To act in an advisory capacity for the protection of endangered heritage.
- To consult and co-operate with other bodies including UNESCO, ICCROM and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
It achieves this by:
- Collecting and sharing information on threats to cultural property world-wide.
- Raising public awareness about damage to cultural heritage.
- Promoting good standards of risk management among those responsible for cultural heritage at all levels, from institutions to national governments.
- Working to make decision makers and professional staffs aware of the need to develop prevention, preparedness, response and recovery measures.
- Providing professional expertise to help meet emergencies.
- Identifying resources for disaster prevention and for rapid intervention in emergencies.
- Encouraging the establishment of national Blue Shield committees.
The Second Protocol to the Hague Convention agreed upon in April 1999 gave a new impetus to ICBS's role and that of its associated organisations. Indeed, ICBS is recognised as an advisory international organisation to the inter-governmental Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
A Professional Committee, an International and Independent Organisation, The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) covers museums and archives, audiovisual supports, libraries, and monuments and sites. It brings together the knowledge, experience and international networks of the following non-governmental organisations dealing with cultural heritage:
CCAAA Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations
ICA International Council on Archives / Conseil international des archives
ICOM International Council of Museums / Conseil international des musées
ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites / Conseil international des monuments et des sites
IFLA International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions / Fédération internationale des associations de bibliothécaires et des bibliothèques
The ICBS is constituted by the chief executive officers of the participating international organisations with a rotating Chair.
The chair provides a secretariat for core ICBS functions only, with support from the organisations as appropriate. | <urn:uuid:3eea6db4-67d6-43ad-9dcb-4a62ec5916f0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ancbs.org/cms/en/about-us/about-icbs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884087 | 825 | 3.375 | 3 |
Can you describe God in one sentence?
How do you summarise the creator of everything?
God is bigger than you think
The first thing to say is that God is much ‘bigger’ than us in every sense. So we can never completely describe him or understand him. It would be like a slug trying to understand Einstein’s theories to expect us to understand God.
We do know something about God, but we are dependent on him revealing himself to us. He has done that through the Bible and through his Son, Jesus.
God is a living personal Spirit
He is not an impersonal force, but a living being who acts (Psalm 115:3-7). God is personal with his own characteristics. He is Spirit who exists apart from this world and is above and beyond it.
God is three distinct persons in one
Mysteriously but wonderfully, God is Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit. He is three-in-one. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinguishable persons within the Trinity and have different functions, yet they are perfectly united in the being of God. It is true in God’s case that 1 + 1 + 1 = One.
At the heart of the Trinity is love. God is completely self-fulfilled as a person. He didn’t create us because he was lonely or needy in any sense. No, he created out of his generosity and kindness.
God is perfect
Some things about God only apply to him, other aspects of God we share in as beings who were created in his image.
God is glorious, majestic perfection and utterly different to us in this way. He is infinite, without beginning or end or any limitation at all. He is self-existent, not dependent on anyone for anything. He is consistent and unchanging, so always remains dependably the same as he relates to us.
God is sovereign
He rules over all and is the final cause of all that happens in his universe. He is everywhere and knows everything.
God is holy
He is utterly pure and perfect and therefore utterly against evil, deceit, injustice and wrong doing. Because God is perfectly righteous he judges and punishes all that is wrong.
God is good
He is loving, merciful and compassionate.
God is revealed in Jesus
Jesus, the Son of God, reveals God to us perfectly.
God is love
In him we see compassion as he cares for the lost and needy. We also see his anger against hypocrisy and false religion. We see in Jesus' death the very moment when God’s justice against wrongdoing meets God’s mercy for those who need forgiveness.
What other ways does the Bible describe God? Leave your thoughts below...
(this article originally published on Christianity.net.au)
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Got a question about Christianity? Ask Fervr. | <urn:uuid:7ce6a5a5-3aca-434c-81d7-0e3a1ecf972d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fervr.net/bible/can-you-describe-god-in-one-sentence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973309 | 601 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Combining fertile soils, vital trade routes, and a coveted strategic location, the islands and surrounding continental lowlands of the Caribbean were one of Europe’s earliest and most desirable colonial frontiers. The region was colonized over the course of five centuries by a revolving cast of Spanish, Dutch, French, and English forces, who imported first African slaves and later Asian indentured laborers to help realize the economic promise of sugar, coffee, and tobacco. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples offers an authoritative one-volume survey of this complex and fascinating region.
This groundbreaking work traces the Caribbean from its pre-Columbian state through European contact and colonialism to the rise of U.S. hegemony and the economic turbulence of the twenty-first century. The volume begins with a discussion of the region’s diverse geography and challenging ecology and features an in-depth look at the transatlantic slave trade, including slave culture, resistance, and ultimately emancipation. Later sections treat Caribbean nationalist movements for independence and struggles with dictatorship and socialism, along with intractable problems of poverty, economic stagnation, and migrancy.
Written by a distinguished group of contributors, The Caribbean is an accessible yet thorough introduction to the region’s tumultuous heritage which offers enough nuance to interest scholars across disciplines. In its breadth of coverage and depth of detail, it will be the definitive guide to the region for years to come.
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Rent The Caribbean 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by Stephan Palmie. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by University of Chicago Press.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:c4867380-3f41-4bcf-a032-ddb30a8aec30> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/the-caribbean-1st-edition-9780226645087-0226645088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926321 | 361 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Watch this animated video to see if it's possible to make a black hole
Black holes seem to occur in the Universe in two distinct types. First, there are those formed when some massive stars collapse at the end of their lives in supernova explosions. The resulting black holes that are produced have a mass of typically ten times that of the Sun, and are referred to as 'stellar mass black holes'.
Although we can’t see them directly, astronomers have good evidence that they exist in certain binary star systems where an unseen massive object appears to be pulling material off its companion star. Several dozen such systems are currently known within our Galaxy.
The second type are referred to as 'supermassive black holes' and they lie at the centres of many (if not all) large galaxies, including our own Milky Way Galaxy. The supermassive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy is calculated to have a mass of more than four million times that of the Sun.
Astronomers see stars in the centre of the Galaxy rapidly orbiting around this invisible object, and although it’s not ‘feeding’ at the moment, any stars that come too close to the black hole will be torn apart before being swallowed.
The supermassive black holes in the centres of other galaxies have masses up to many billions of times that of the Sun, and not all of them are as dormant as the one in our Galaxy. When astronomers look at very distant galaxies, they are looking back in time, because the light from them has taken millions, or even billions, of years to reach us.
Some of these distant galaxies, seen at a time when the Universe was much younger than now, are intense sources of X-rays, radio waves, and other radiation. These are so-called 'Active Galaxies' and are believed to be galaxies in which the central supermassive black hole is feeding on material that strays too close to it.
As the material falls towards the black hole and is torn apart, it will end up in a flattened structure surrounding the black hole, known as an accretion disc. Then, as this disc material circles the black hole prior to being swallowed, frictional forces in the disc cause it to heat up to millions of degrees, such that it emits X-rays.
For reasons that are not fully understood, some active galaxies also produce enormous jets of material, which are presumed to be emitted perpendicular to the accretion disc, and which can extend for millions of light years into space. Radio waves emitted from these jets can be detected, allowing the jets to be mapped in great detail.
Because more active galaxies are seen in the distant (early) Universe that in the nearby (present day) Universe, it is possible that the active galaxy behaviour is simply an adolescent phase that most large galaxies go through at some point in their lives. By the time galaxies reach middle age, like our own Milky Way, their supermassive black holes have quietened down somewhat!
Question: How might an Active Galaxy appear if the radio jets were pointed directly towards us? | <urn:uuid:9b0dd029-6c48-40da-841d-8bbffa5a96f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/black-holes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955278 | 626 | 4.34375 | 4 |
NSFNET was a network for research computing deployed in the mid-1980s that in time also became the first backbone infrastructure for the commercial public Internet. Created as a result of a 1985 National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative, NSFNET established a high-speed connection among the five NSF supercomputer centers and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and provided external access for scientists, researchers, and engineers who were not located near the computing centers.
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Broad access was necessary for a widely dispersed and frequently changing community of users. NSFNET became part of a hierarchical series of networks. Meanwhile, NSF supported the development of regional networks that could carry traffic from individual organizations, such as government agencies and universities, to the national backbone service. NSF commissioned Merit Network, MCI, IBM, and the State of Michigan to manage the NSFNET backbone project.
It was during this critical time that Al Gore entered the picture. Gore was roundly mocked in the press after he claimed that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" during a 1999 broadcast interview. In fact, during the late 1980s, Gore did give political support to a funding drive aimed at expanding NSFNET. Although Gore's "creation" claim was -- to put it mildly -- an exaggeration, the subsequent expansion helped spur the development of the modern-day Internet.
By the early 1990s, as commercial networks began to build their own backbone infrastructures and their own routing mechanisms, the public service furnished by NSFNET's backbone was turned over to the newer backbones and NSFNET was shut down. The scientific and research network continued as vBNS and, more recently, Internet2.
Continue Reading About NSFNET
- Merit Network provides an article about "Retiring the NSFNET Backbone Service: Chronicling the End of an Era." | <urn:uuid:3aa96853-6798-4d68-8bf8-6e05e46d1c04> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/NSFNET | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971474 | 425 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The caption for the same photo in reads "Benjamin D. Wood, center left, and staff members of the Columbia University Statistical Bureau in the early 1930s operating IBM machines donated by Thomas J. Watson Sr." You can see some non-IBM desktop calculators (probably National or Burroughs) at lower left and middle right. A 285 tabulator is at left center. In the extreme lower right is a non-electric IBM Type 001 key punch.
The Statistical Bureau began after Columbia University Statistics Professor Benjamin D. Wood wrote to Watson in 1928 describing his ideas for an automatic test-scoring machine. In their first meeting, Wood also discussed his futuristic ideas for electronic data processing in education; Watson liked the cut of Wood's jib and ordered three truckloads of tabulating, card-punching, sorting, and accessory equipment dispatched to the space Wood had procured in the basement of Hamilton Hall. The Statistical Bureau opened for business in June 1929.
This lab served many of Columbia's researchers, most notably Astronomy professor Wallace Eckert (until Eckert opened his own lab), who later remarked :
I remember going there soon after it was set up and watching the machines. For an astronomer who had been doing computations the hard way it was a great experience to see an accounting machine adding quantities in different counters at the rate of 150 a minute and printing the results, and sorting going on at a rate of about 20,000 cards an hour.
Unfortunately, records of the Statistical Laboratory have vanished, so we don't know what other work was done there. I would be surprised, however, if the pioneering work of Franz Boas in debunking racial myths through massive collections of numerical data did not rely on Wood's machines for data reduction and analysis. Brennan says the Bureau also served external clients: the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations, publishers, economists, and other universities including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, and the University of California.
As powerful as the Bureau's machines were for their day, they were not well suited for the higher-level statistics that Wood needed. In 1930 he convinced Watson to have IBM build a "supertabulator" capable of the "difficult mathematical processes necessary for the analysis of educational and psychological tests" (i.e. SUBTRACTION¹, and some additional counters ). The result was a unique device called the Difference Tabulator and informally known as the Columbia Machine.
Later Wood would work with IBM yet again to develop the world's first automated test-scoring machine, the IBM 805, announced in 1937.
Here's another photo of the Statistical Bureau from the 1935 Baehne book :
Equipment includes an intepreter (left foreground); key
punches (center and right). The large object with its back to us,
right center, is an IBM 285 tabulator. Another 285
appears in the left middle ground with the roll paper.
(the 1 carried out of the high-order position is added back to the result,
giving the proper result, 673).
1432 - 759 = 0000001432 + 9999999240 = 10000000672
(the 1 carried out of the high-order position is added back to the result, giving the proper result, 673).
Last Updated: Wed Apr 29 16:44:10 2009 | <urn:uuid:bdfc4177-b2cf-400f-a356-a3b7b8fdc10f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/statbureau.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00136-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947548 | 696 | 3.078125 | 3 |
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the
land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me."
Itís been said,
ďGod made man in his own image, and then man kindly returned
A good working
definition of an idol is anything that is loved or feared more
than God. It is a
substitute or replacement for true worship.
Idols are entreated
for the protection, power, & blessing of individuals and
nations. From ancient times, and continuing today,
civilizations have been creating & then worshipping false
gods through the images, icons, and statues.
Temples, priesthoods, and elaborate systems of worship
shower them with honor.
God severely condemns this practice in scripture, since
He is Creator of all things and due all of mankindís
gratefulness for our existence and the world He has given us
to live. God
alone can give mankind the love, protection and blessing that
we desperately need.
Consider below the
Godís Word through Isaiah the Prophet:
LORD ,Not Idols "This is what the LORD says-
Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first
and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who
then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay
out before me what has happened since I established my ancient
people, and what is yet to come- yes, let him foretell what
will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not
proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses.
Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I
know not one." All who make idols are nothing, and
the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak
up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.
Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him
nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen
are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their
stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the
coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the
might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he
drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a
line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with
chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form
of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a
shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or
oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted
a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for
burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a
fire and bakes bread But he also fashions a god and worships
it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he
burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his
meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says,"
Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he
makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He
prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god."
They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes
are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed
so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has
the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used
for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat
and I ate. Shall I make a
detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a
block of wood?" He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart
misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not
this thing in my right hand a lie?" "Remember these
things, O Jacob for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made
you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins
like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed
you." Isaiah 44:6-22
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of
heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything,
because he himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else." Acts 17:24,25
superstitions of idol worship were not created without help.
Scripture teaches that idol worship is empowered by
fallen spirit world offers magic, threatens retaliation, and
gives the manifestations necessary to establish false
religious worship. Once
established, shame and honor codes, ethnic pride, and fear of
family, neighbors and government are enough to sustain the
must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols
or demons to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a
lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'
They sacrificed to demons, which are not God- gods they had
not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did
not fear. Deut:
They sacrificed their sons and their
daughters to demons. Psalm 106:37
I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything,
or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans
are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be
participants with demons. 1Cor. 10:19,20
In the Western
world, we have our list of things that we love or fear more
than God, and we can make idols without using a graven
Here is a short
list of things we love or fear more than the One True
Ourselves: Narcissism, our way, & our desires must
The opposite sex, the pursuit of romance.
The opposite sex was to be manís second most
important relationship, but it has become the first.
Money, and the pursuit of material blessings can keep one
from a relationship God for entire lifetime.
No matter how much you have, it is never enough.
Power & control can be an attempt to receive personal
Material possessions, homes, cars, boats, jewelry.
Chemicals that synthesize the fullness and joy that God
Causes that we can devote and entire lifetime to, in place
of a devotion to the living God and His cause.
The list is
created thing can become an idol.
Manís root problem is the disconnection from his Holy
and Powerful Creator. The
bible tells us that the willful sin of the human race has
separated us from the Lord and we are blinded to Him.
As a beautiful rose picked from itís stem, soon we
wither and fade. We
need to be rooted and grounded in Godís love.
We are isolated, empty, angry, fearful and needy.
Without a relationship to God our innate desire to
worship leads us to godís of our own making.
All of our attempts to worship anything other than God
turn out to be very disappointing and leave us empty, violated
Lord has not left us in this desperate state, destined to
spend our lives in pursuit of false gods that will never
the Messiah, has paid the ultimate price for our sin and
Godís sacrifice on our behalf, somehow, God has satisfied
the demands of His own Holy Nature for perfect justice.
We can come home.
We can worship the One True God.
We can begin a new life.
Say ďYesĒ to
Godís provision for you and come home to His love.
Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 2"Father,
the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
you. For you granted him authority over all people that he
might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now
this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John | <urn:uuid:93f0dad4-0aad-4bb5-ac7a-db9bc61d4a87> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bible-history.com/past/dagon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94831 | 1,813 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Learning to recognize hazards and establishing a low risk tolerance is the first and, perhaps, most important step toward instilling a culture of safety and reducing costs associated with poor safety performance.
What’s your Risk Tolerance? Does your team know how to recognize and correct hazards on the job site? Unsafe work behaviors are increased by inattention as a result of repetition and/or becoming complacent and overconfident with the job task. The result is an increase in unsafe behaviors that cause work-related injuries.
Hazard recognition requires daily practice. Teaching workers to evaluate every task or situation over the course of a project can have a tremendous impact on safety awareness and performance. Encourage workers to get used to asking and answering these questions:
- Am I physically and mentally ready to perform this task?
- Do I understand the task I have to complete?
- Do I have correct knowledge and safety procedures/equipment to complete this task?
- Do I have the right tools to complete the task?
- What could go wrong if performed incorrectly?
- How severe is that result?
Hazard recognition does NOT equal risk tolerance: One may recognize the hazard but disregard the risk.
Risk Tolerance can be simply defined as working with known unsafe behaviors, or, how much risk will I take before an injury or incident is certain.
A low risk tolerance ensures work is performed in a safe manner. Below are tips for recognizing hazardous behaviors and strategies for reducing risk:
Overestimating Capability / Experience
Hazard Recognition: I can lift 300 pounds in the gym, but that doesn’t mean I can do it here.
Low Risk Resolution: Acknowledge that despite your ability, the exposure/hazard/risk is still there. Pushing beyond physical limits only increases risk of injuries.
Familiarity with the Task / Complacency
Hazard Recognition: I have done it 500 times before, but I still need to pay attention and do it right.
Low Risk Resolution: Approach every task as though you’re doing it for the first time. Do you do it by the book or have you just been lucky?
No Consideration for Seriousness of the Outcome
Hazard Recognition: This could result in a major injury, or worse.
Low Risk Resolution: Always evaluate at the potential impact of high risk behaviors and find a safer way. Not all accidents involve only minor scraps or bruises.
Overconfidence in Protection
Hazard Recognition: I may be wearing my PPE, but that doesn’t mean I am indestructible.
Low Risk Resolution: Understand the limitations of protection (PPE) and think of it as the “Last Line of Defense” against injury, instead of a license to act recklessly.
Following Role Models Who Take Risks
Hazard Recognition: Just because they can do that, doesn’t mean I should.
Low Risk Resolution: Correct the high-risk behavior and lead by example.
So, where are you on the risk taking scale? | <urn:uuid:287821af-d918-4e1c-9d1f-db97f7a91577> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.modspace.com/2012/10/11/understanding-and-evaluating-hazard-recognition-and-risk-tolerance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936217 | 637 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Broadcasting in the
to Home Page]
"Sparks" Gaal at KUP,
the Examiner station.
Radio broadcasting as an experimental concept had an early start in the San Francisco Bay area with the activities of Doc Herrold in San Jose. Herrold's station which started broadcasting on a regular basis in 1912, eventually became KQW and then KCBS.
Apart from these early activities, however, widespread broadcasting did not begin to flourish until 1920. By 1922 it had very definitely arrived. A flurry of small stations would come on the air for several months and then suddenly go off the air, to be replaced as quickly by other short- lived stations. These weren't really like the radio stations we know today; rather, they stood with a foot in the world of broadcasting and a foot in amateur radio. The purpose of the stations was often experimental, or to promote the activities of the business that operated it. The foundation of advertising revenue that provided stability for radio in its later years had yet to develop, and so there was nothing to financially sustain the stations' activities. Equipment failures were frequent, and the programming itself was of secondary importance. What was important was just being on the air.
To the listener of that time, radio was a new discovery. Again, programs didn't matter. It was the sheer enjoyment of listening to voices and music being pulled out of the air with a home-built crystal set. Within the course of two years, radio went from a means of point-to-point communications for commercial purposes, plus the activities of a small group of radio "hams", to everybody's hobby, and wire antennas stretched across the back yards of more and more households. Young boys found radio particularly exciting, and children across the country were winding wire around oatmeal boxes to build their own crystal radios. The "San Francisco Examiner" noted the sudden rise in radio's popularity when it reported in 1922, "Radio, the virulent malady which has swept the East, is rapidly spreading to the coast. Once bitten by the germ, there is no cure for the delighted victim."
In the ensuing years, radio would quickly transition from a hobbyist pastime to become an important source of family entertainment. Radio receivers would mature from crude devices into fine pieces of furniture, suitable for placement in the finest living rooms. Before long, families would be spending their nights gathered around the radio, listening to elaborately produc6UV, a tiny station operated by the Radio Telephone Shop at 175 Steuart Street, near the San Francisco waterfront. 6UV, a tiny station operated by the Radio Telephone Shop at 175 Steuart Street, near the San Francisco waterfront. 6UV (later KYY) was a tiny station operated by the Radio Telephone Shop at 175 Steuart Street, near the San Francisco waterfront. A. F. Pendleton, the store's owner, operated the station. He was on the air from 8 to 9 PM every Tuesday and Friday night on 425 meters. 6UV first went on the air about March or April, 1920, and operated only for about two years.6UV (later KYY) was a tiny station operated by the Radio Telephone Shop at 175 Steuart Street, near the San Francisco waterfront. A. F. Pendleton, the store's owner, operated the station. He was on the air from 8 to 9 PM every Tuesday and Friday night on 425 meters. 6UV first went on the air about March or April, 1920, and operated only for about two years.KSL was operated by the Emporium Department Store in San Francisco. The radio room was on the seventh floor, where there was also a studio large enough to hold a small orchestra. The station was operated by Harold R. Shaw, a former KDN engineer, along with Harrison Holliway (later of KFRC). . KSL went on the air on April 3, 1922, and lasted only a year. The call letters were later re-assigned to the well-known station in Salt Lake City. KSL was operated by the Emporium Department Store in San Francisco. The radio room was on the seventh floor, where there was also a studio large enough to hold a small orchestra. The station was operated by Harold R. Shaw, a former KDN engineer, along with Harrison Holliway (later of KFRC). . KSL went on the air on April 3, 1922, and lasted only a year. The call letters were later re-assigned to the well-known station in Salt Lake City. ed shows. If you were an interior decorator or home advisor, you would certainly need to include the radio as an essential item of any home's decor.
However, during these early years, radio programs consisted almost entirely of phonograph records, with only occasional news reports, crop reports or live music programs. Programs did not have the polished, produced sound of later years. For example, KUO, the "Examiner" station, announced its programs, "Hello; hello; this is the San Francisco Examiner's radio broadcasting station, KUO -- K - U - O. Receivers will kindly give us a check. Thank you, thank you."
6XW/AG1Another of the early broadcast operations was carried on by none other than the U. S. Army. The Army Signal Corps in the San Francisco Presidio operated an amateur station to communicate with local amateurs and other Army bases, and also broadcast music and information programs to the general public. Known first as 6XW (the 'X' in a call letter indicated an experimental license), then later by the call letters AG1, this station was operated by Sgt. Richard C. Travers. In an article appearing in 1921 in "Radio" Magazine, Sgt. Travers described the purpose of the operation:
The most prominent recollection of those who remember tuning in to 6XC is that it broadcast on an extremely low frequency. Early broadcasts were on 1450 meters, but this was soon changed to 1260 meters.
de Forest employed a full-time station operator to broadcast the concerts. Mr. C. Logwood, who had been an assistant to the early San Francisco radio experimenter Francis McCarty in 1905. Logwood operated the transmitter and audio equipment during the frequent concerts. Weekdays there would be three half-hour concerts per day, plus the Heller Orchestra concerts every Sunday morning. To pick up the music of the orchestra, a microphone was attached to the end of a large loudspeaker horn, and the entire assembly was hung from the ceiling in the back of the theater.
This station was notable for many reasons, in addition to the fact that it was established by de Forest. 6XC began operations over six months prior to KDKA in Pittsburgh, and it broadcast regularly scheduled programs composed entirely of live music, in a time when all of the few "radio concerts" on the air consisted entirely of phonograph records. In addition, while most broadcast transmitters of the time operated at between five and fifty watts, de Forest had installed a thousand watt transmitter, though it seldom operated above half its capacity.
6XC continued to broadcast its daily programs from the California Theater until late 1921. At that time, the Atlantic-Pacific Radio Corporation became the Western representative for the de Forest Radio Telephone and Telegraph Company, and it was determined that Oakland would be a better location for radio transmission. Thus, after broadcasting over 1,500 separate programs from the California Theater, the station was moved to Ocean View Drive in the Rock Ridge area of Oakland, and the station became KZY, "The Rock Ridge Station", operated by the Atlantic-Pacific Company.
The installation of the station in Oakland set something of a record for its time. The station was put in the home of Henry M. Shaw, President of the company, located in the hills above Oakland. Shaw desired to have the station on the air Christmas Day, which gave the crew just over a week to complete the installation. The antenna was to be 135 feet long, suspended between two tall masts. Because Shaw's property was not big enough to accommodate both masts, it was decided to put the other on a neighbor's property, directly up the hill. This property, it was found, was owned by a Santa Barbara man; telegrams to Santa Barbara uncovered that the owner was on vacation and could not be reached. In desperation, Shaw sent Fred Anderson to Santa Barbara, where it was learned the owner was vacationing in Los Angeles. Anderson drove on to there the same day, found the man and had him sign an agreement for the use of the property. He returned December 18th and construction was begun the same day. The first tests were made just four days later, and the station went on the air at midnight, Christmas Day, 1921. The initial program consisted of several hours of Christmas carols, and closed with an official announcement of the opening of the station.
KZY's facilities were quite elaborate, by 1921 standards. The radio room, which housed the DeForest transmitter and a receiver, opened onto a large music room where concerts of large groups could be held.
KZY, the Rock Ridge Station, became one of the best-known coastal stations of the period. It had a large and loyal following in the Bay Area, and could be received clearly at night across all of the Western states. Live and recorded music programs were supplemented by news reports supplied by the "San Francisco Call" and the "Oakland Post-Enquirer".
On March 24, 1922, KZY made national history when the station's receiver picked up broadcasts from WGY, Schenectady, New York, marking the first time radio signals had been transmitted across the continent.
The Rock Ridge station's programs continued for only about a year before the company lost interest in maintaining the station and it ceased operation. The City Council of Oakland considered the possibilities of obtaining the station and establishing an Oakland "municipal station". They had hoped to establish it as a publicity agent for the city, as well as to broadcast descriptions of criminals at large to police departments of other cities. But, the concept apparently never took hold, and KZY passed quietly into oblivion after a brief but colorful history.
The Meyberg operation was established by Sheldon Peterson, Manager of the company, and Gerald M. Best, a phone company engineer. It was situated in a small wooden shack on the roof of the Hotel, right next to the time ball that was used to signal ships. Equipment consisted of a home-built five- watt transmitter, a Victor phonograph for music programs, and a player piano. A flat-top antenna was strung between two fifty-foot poles on the roof.
6XG went on the air in June, 1921. It was first operated by the Meyberg staff, but this soon became difficult, and the company hired a young radio operator who had just returned from sea. His name was Alan Cormack, later to be Chief Engineer of KFRC and KCBS. Cormack recalled his task was to go to the Sherman-Clay music store daily and pick out records for the programs that evening. These would be borrowed from Sherman-Clay in exchange for mentioning the store as the source of the music. After selecting his records, he would go to the Meyberg offices on Market Street where he would pick up the weather and market reports, "mostly butter and egg prices". He would then go to the station and put the program on the air.
All programs went on the air through the single telephone-style carbon microphone connected to the transmitter. Besides announcing into the microphone, Cormack would hold it up to the phonograph to pick up records, winding it occasionally to keep the music up to speed. Or, he related, "I used to hang the microphone at the back of the piano, put on a roll, and sit down and pump it." Programs of this nature were on the air between one and two hours daily.
After a while, the station began receiving calls from listeners requesting different types of programs, and KDN started branching out. Some notable special programs broadcast on KDN include a broadcast by a quartet from the Scotty Grand Opera Company, September 29, 1921. This group was staying in the Hotel, and accepted an invitation to sing over KDN. Cormack led them up the tiny wooden stairs to the roof, where they sang into a microphone rigged to the end of a phonograph horn. Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, an internationally-known opera vocalist of the time, also sang over the KDN microphone one evening. Cormack recalled that she was "big, hefty, very German, and very emotional. She was pretty much overcome that her voice was going over the air, to the point where she shed quite a few tears."
Another incident Cormack recalled is the night a small orchestra played for the KDN microphone. As there was not enough room in the operator's shack for the orchestra, they stationed themselves on the roof while Cormack positioned his microphone in the doorway. Just as the broadcast got under way, it began to rain. But, the show must go on, and the little group played its entire concert in the downpour, although, as he recalled, the violins sounded a bit "soggy" towards the end.
At one point in the station's history, Mayor James Rolph and several officials of the Matson Line visited the station. A new luxury cruise ship was beginning its maiden voyage that date, and the men's' speeches were picked up by the ship and piped to the passengers through the P. A. system.
In later years, KDN broadcast regular programs of Rudy Seiger's Fairmont Orchestra through a line that had been installed down to the hotel's ballroom for remote pick-ups. In February of 1922, the station built a 50 watt transmitter, and the old five-watter was relegated to standby use. However, the station was still mainly a vehicle for phonograph records and news reports.
Several things finally brought about the demise of KDN. The first was the death of Sheldon Peterson, the driving force behind the station. Mr. Meyberg, the company President, was an older gentleman whose primary interest was in the sale of lighting fixtures and associated electrical equipment. He had little real interest in the station, and lost the desire to operate it after Peterson's death. In addition, a new station, KPO, had installed a remote amplifier to pick up the orchestra programs from the Fairmont, and KPO's 500 watts would provide reception of the Rudy Seiger broadcasts over a larger area than KDN could provide. So, KDN quietly left the air in early 1923.
KLP, known earlier as 6XAC, was operated in 1921 and 1922 by the Colin B. Kennedy Company, manufacturer of the well- known Kennedy line of receivers. The station itself was located in the home of Emile A. Portal, the Treasurer of the company, in Los Altos. Portal was a radio experimenter of many years' experience, having been one of Doc Herrold's foremost students in San Jose in 1912. Originally, 6XAC was meant to be strictly an experimental station used in connection with the tests of Kennedy receivers. However, response to the unscheduled programs resulted in the company obtaining the KLP license for commercial broadcasts. Portal sent out weekly post cards to listeners that gave the program schedule for that week. Programs consisted entirely of phonograph records.
Before there was ever a KSL in Salt Lake City, those call letters were assigned to a station operated by the Emporium Department Store in San Francisco. The operating room was on the seventh floor, where there was also a studio large enough to hold a small orchestra. The station was operated by Harold R. Shaw, a former KDN engineer, along with Harrison Holliway (later of KFRC). KSL went on the air with much local heraldry on April 3, 1922, but lasted only a year.
KUO's studios were officially completed the following month. They consisted of a large "acoustically-perfect" studio with the transmitting equipment sitting in one corner, and a special battery room. The antenna stood 150 feet above the twelve-story building. The KUO transmitter, nicknamed "Big Bertha", was the most powerful in the area at the time, rivaling only KLX in Oakland for signal strength.
"Sparks" Gaal was the operator and sole member of the KUO staff during its entire existence. The station began with a full head of steam, but like many others, began to lose interest after about a year. By 1924, it was broadcasting programs on an irregular basis, consisting largely of weather and farm reports, news, sports and stock quotations. The Examiner began to quietly phase out its broadcast operations, and by September, 1924, had taken the KUO schedule off its own radio page. However, KUO continued to operate until 1927, sending mainly weather and marine information to the San Francisco pilot boat.
KFDB began construction in May of 1922 near the summit of Telegraph Hill, where Lombard Street turns and begins its ascent toward Coit Tower. The bank constructed three separate buildings for the station: a concrete transmitter house and wood-frame studio and artists buildings. A fifty- watt transmitter was constructed by Chief Engineer Ralph Heintz and his assistants, and a power amplifier was used to boost the output to a maximum power of 1,500 watts. This was one of the first times a linear amplifier was used by any station. Underneath the floor of the transmitter building was a battery room containing over 300 six-volt batteries, all connected in series to provide the necessary 2,000 volts plate voltage for the transmitter. Motor generators were used in turn to charge the batteries.
The KFDB antenna system was suspended between two hundred-foot spruce poles that had been floated down from the Northwest on a log raft. It consisted of three fourteen-inch "cage" elements, with a ground element suspended below it that could be raised or lowered for best effectiveness. A system of counterpoise wires was arranged in a fan-like pattern, stretching from the roof of the transmitter building.
The studio was an 18-by-24 foot building, acoustically draped and decorated with wicker furniture, a piano and a phonograph. The microphone was mounted on a flower vase pedestal and covered with a drapery arrangement to hide it from the view of nervous performers. The entire apparatus was affectionately called "Julius" by the staff.
KFDB began operation on an experimental basis in August under the call letters 6XB. During this period, the fifty-watt transmitter was used late at night to test the equipment for sound quality and coverage. The staff was quickly pleased with the results of the test: on the night of October 28, their tests were answered by CFCN in Calgary, Alberta, and were picked up by listeners several hundred miles north of there. On November 2, they were heard clearly by several receivers in Hawaii.
Finally, KFDB began broadcasting on a regular schedule November 1. During the daytime, programming was devoted to agricultural news and market reports, with hour-long reports broadcast at 10 AM and 2 PM. These were transmitted on 360 meters, the only frequency allocated by the government for broadcasting at that time. All area stations shared time on this one frequency. However, the government also authorized a limited number of stations to broadcast agricultural information on a separate frequency, 485 meters. KFDB held this license in the Bay Area, and received its market information via Morse code from a Department of Agriculture station and rebroadcast it at 6:30 PM daily.
In addition to all of its farm programs, KFDB broadcast a daily concert from 9 to 10 PM. This was arranged for the station by the Pacific Radio Trade Association, an organization of radio retail merchants and broadcasters that acted as the governing board of Bay Area radio. (The P. R. T. A. also arranged the time schedules for the area stations broadcasting on 360 meters and operated a yearly radio exposition in San Francisco.) The KFDB programs were a direct result of comments made by some of the smaller stations at a P. R. T. A. meeting. They complained they could not endure the heavy expense of operating a station, and that the P. R. T. A. should pool its efforts and produce a single high-powered station with first-class programs, instead of coordinating the activities of several mediocre stations. KFDB offered time over its new station to test this method of joint programming, and President Arthur Halloran agreed to put it on an initial one-month test.
KFDB's concert hour commenced November First. This program was referred to as a "community broadcast center" and was entirely programmed by the P. R. T. A. under the direction of Mrs. Ada Morgan O'Brien. The best musical talent in the Bay Area was hired to perform on this daily program, and the performers were personally escorted to the station by Mrs. O'Brien in a shiny new limousine! No expense was spared to make these broadcasts the best.
Public reaction to the concert hour was very favorable, and, although the proposed P. R. T. A. station never materialized, the program was extended well beyond its initial test period.
Despite KFDB's high standards of operation, the station soon followed the route of so many of its predecessors and ceased broadcasts. There were several factors that eventually led to its demise; first of all, the station did not have the coverage its owners had hoped for. Although it could be received over most of the Western States as hoped, reception was sporadic and the truly dependable reception area was much smaller. Although KFDB had regular listeners in the San Joaquin valley and a few branches of the bank were opened there, it was not the publicity and expansion agent they had hoped for.
Secondly, equipment failures were frequently. The fault lay, not in the station's construction or operation, but in its basic concept of design. The state of the art in electronics had simply not advanced enough to perfect the linear amplification system used by KFDB. As a result, the transmitter broke down on the station's opening broadcast, and it was quite a regular occurrence for it to be off the air because of equipment failure. Evidently the bank decided that, because of these problems, the high cost of operating the station did not justify the few publicity benefits that were reaped. They finally shut the station down November 30, 1923. KFDB, the great innovator and one of the most elaborate stations of its era, had lasted hardly more than a year.
The selection of stations on the radio dial in San Francisco stayed relatively stable for a few years, but 1925 saw the onslaught of a second "wave" of new stations almost as great as 1922. Seven new stations took to the airwaves within a ten month period, and only three of them lasted more than a few years.
At that time, unless an applicant requested specific call letters, they were chosen for the applicant by the government, and assigned in alphabetical order. For this reason, many of the stations had similar call letters, resulting in considerable confusion with the listeners.
KFUS relied heavily on religious programming. Dr. Sherman gave free time to many of the churches in the area without regard to denomination. In fact, he built a small church himself just a year later, and his son became the pastor. It was located on Havenscourt Road near E. 14th Street, and the station was moved there in 1926. The antenna was strung over the church, between two metal towers. One of these towers was still standing in the 1970's. It was at the Havenscourt Community Church, the successor to Dr. Sherman's church. The tower held the letters "Jesus Saves".
The station's license was revoked by the Federal Radio Commission in 1928, on the grounds that it had often drifted too far from its frequency and had not been on the air often enough to warrant the additional congestion of the airwaves. However, in its short history it was notable as having been the first radio station to carry the voices of Luther Burbank and Earl Warren (then Deputy District Attorney of Alameda County - later U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice).
Then there was KFQH, which was licensed to San Mateo Union High School, but located at the Radio Service Company, a Burlingame radio shop. The license was later acquired by the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce, which changed the call letters to KFOB. It too bit the dust after just over a year of operation.
1925 was a year for church stations. KFWM went on the air October 15, operated by the Educational Society of Oakland, also known as the Watchtower Society (aka Jehovah's Witness), and headquartered in a church on Eighth Avenue in East Oakland. The transmitter and studio were located in a separate building on the church property, and the antenna was strung between two wooden poles. The station shared its frequency with KGTT, a station operated by the Glad Tidings Temple on Ellis Street. This latter station debuted November 30 with 50 watts, and was operated by the Pastor, Robert J. Craig, who also served as Station Manager and announcer. By 1930, KFWM had become KROW and KGTT had been sold to the Golden Gate Church and was known as KGGC.
The last new station to make its debut in the San Francisco market went on the air January 22, 1926, and was the only one of these late comers that attempted to air any high caliber radio entertainment. The company called itself Radio Entertainments, Inc., and it was licensed as KFWI. Thomas Catton, one of the original founders of KFRC, became Manager of the station and continued a program called "The Tom Cats" which he had originated on KFRC. The studios were in the Wiley B. Allen building on Van Ness Avenue, with the 500 watt transmitter atop Twin Peaks. KFWI broadcast on a frequency of 1200 kc (later 1120).
KFWI started out with great plans and made a serious attempt at becoming a first class station, operating with a large and varied program schedule. But it seems to have been beset from the start by internal turmoil. Catton resigned the following year, along with Vice President Ernest Walcott. KFWI went through several more managers in the next few years. Studios were moved to the Marshall Square Building at Eighth and Market in 1927, and later to the Bellevue and Pickwick Hotels. In the latter location, it occupied studios built for KTAB that had been vacated after the stock market crashed forced that station's ownership into bankruptcy. A Federal Radio Commission reassignment of frequencies in 1928 had forced KFWI to share time on 930 kc. with KFWM in Oakland, which limited the station's potential. Further, like many, the station suffered financial setbacks in the depression. KFWI was able to struggle for a few more years before going broke. By 1933, KFWI was off the air.
For a complete story about KFWI's financial and regulatory woes, see this article.
Just as radio was about to be rendered totally useless in all of the confusion, the Federal Radio Commission was organized. This was an independent government agency that had been given the authority to effectively regulate broadcasting. It quickly took charge and immediately made sweeping changes. The frequencies of 129 stations were re-assigned on Nov. 11, 1928, and it was made known that any deviation from these frequencies would result in a loss of license. The F.R.C. also gave notice to 164 stations that they were not judged to be serving in the public interest, and that their licenses had been suspended pending hearing. Most of these notices were received by stations in the East and Midwest, where the greatest congestion problems were being felt. Only five stations on the West Coast were notified, and none of them was in the Bay Area. In the end, 109 stations were forced off the air by this notice.
The coming of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927 marked the official end of radio's "childhood". It had sewn the last of its wild oats, and had finally become a mature mass medium. Within a few years, the last of the little "shoestring" stations in the Bay Area would be gone, and only twelve stations would remain on the dial: KQW, KFRC, KTAB, KGO, KPO, KLS, KLX, KRE, KYA, KROW, KJBS, and KGGC. These were the only stations heard in San Francisco from 1933 until the end of World War II, and all of these remain on the air to this day. The future for radio lay in the big broadcast networks, and radio was finally settling down to the task of becoming the greatest entertainment medium in the nation. | <urn:uuid:21ac7518-4060-403f-ac7c-be75d2714258> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theradiohistorian.org/early.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00002-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985426 | 5,994 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Definitions for constructkənˈstrʌkt; ˈkɒn strʌkt
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word construct
concept, conception, construct(verb)
an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
construct, build, make(verb)
make by combining materials and parts
"this little pig made his house out of straw"; "Some eccentric constructed an electric brassiere warmer"
manufacture, fabricate, construct(verb)
put together out of artificial or natural components or parts
"the company fabricates plastic chairs"; "They manufacture small toys"; He manufactured a popular cereal"
draw with suitable instruments and under specified conditions
"construct an equilateral triangle"
create by linking linguistic units
"construct a sentence"; "construct a paragraph"
create by organizing and linking ideas, arguments, or concepts
"construct a proof"; "construct an argument"
reconstruct, construct, retrace(verb)
"reconstruct the events of 20 years ago"
Something constructed from parts.
The artwork was a construct of wire and tubes.
A concept or model.
Bohr's theoretical construct of the atom was soon superseded by quantum mechanics.
To build or form (something) by assembling parts.
We constructed the radio from spares.
Similarly, to build (a sentence or an argument) by arranging words or ideas.
A sentence may be constructed with a subject, verb and object.
To draw (a geometric figure) by following precise specifications and using geometric tools and techniques.
Construct a circle that touches each vertex of the given triangle.
to put together the constituent parts of (something) in their proper place and order; to build; to form; to make; as, to construct an edifice
to devise; to invent; to set in order; to arrange; as, to construct a theory of ethics
formed by, or relating to, construction, interpretation, or inference
Within the world of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, construct is a type of creature, or "creature type". Constructs are either animated objects, or any artificially constructed creature. Most construct are mindless automatons, obeying their creator's commands absolutely, which makes them unbribable and absolutely trustworthy, although some of them are very literal-minded about the execution of their duties, obeying orders to the letter without any concern for their intent. There are exceptions to this rule, however. Certain constructs, such as Inevitables, are every bit as intelligent as mortal creatures. As they lack a metabolism, constructs have a wide array of immunities to frailties and effects that would affect creatures of flesh and blood, such as poison, fatigue, exhaustion, disease or various special attacks and magical effects related to draining a creature's life energy. As most constructs lack functional internal organs they are immune to critical hits and forms of damage targeting a creature's weak spots. Constructs are almost always created by an intelligent creator, typically a wizard, sorcerer or cleric, though some are created by other character classes or spellcasting monsters. Creating a specific kind of construct begins with the creation of body, made by either the creator himself or a hired craftsman. Construct bodies can be made from wildly different materials, from clay to copper and bone to cadavers. The next part of the process is a ritual requiring the casting of specific spells to bind a spirit of some kind into the body and imbuing it motion and special abilities.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
kon-strukt′, v.t. to build up: to compile: to put together the parts of a thing: to make: to compose.—adj. constructed.—adjs. Construct′able, Construct′ible, able to be constructed.—ns. Construct′er, Construct′or; Construc′tion, the act of constructing: anything piled together, building: manner of forming: (gram.) the arrangement of words in a sentence: interpretation: meaning.—adjs. Construc′tional, pertaining to construction; Construct′ive, capable of constructing: not direct or expressed, but inferred.—adv. Construct′ively.—ns. Construct′iveness, the faculty of constructing; Construct′ure.—Construct state, in Hebrew and other Semitic languages, the state of a noun depending on another noun, which in Aryan languages would be in the genitive case—e.g. House of God—house being in the construct state.—Bear a construction, to allow of a particular interpretation. [L. construĕre, -structum—con, struĕre, to build.]
British National Corpus
Rank popularity for the word 'construct' in Verbs Frequency: #442
The numerical value of construct in Chaldean Numerology is: 1
The numerical value of construct in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7
Sample Sentences & Example Usage
In business school classrooms they construct wonderful models of a nonworld.
That is one of things that concerns us, how well do they design, construct and then conceal.
At the moment, it looks like it's very hard to construct a majority( in government) without them.
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
We will construct temporary learning centers for schools because reconstruction of old buildings will take time.
Images & Illustrations of construct
Translations for construct
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- пабудаваць, канструяваць, сканструяваць, будавацьBelarusian
- строя, построявам, концепция, конструкция, градя, съставямBulgarian
- sestavit, sestrojit, konstruovatCzech
- bygge, konstruereDanish
- bauen, konstruierenGerman
- ehitama, koostamaEstonian
- سازه, ساختمان, ساختنPersian
- מבנה, דגם, קומפוזיציה, קונסטרוקציה, הרכיב, מודל, בנהHebrew
- շինել, կառուցել, սարքելArmenian
- コンストラクト, 築く, 概念, 建設, 建てるJapanese
- konstruować, zbudować, budować, skonstruowaćPolish
- montar, constructo, construir, montagemPortuguese
- констру́кция, строить, сконструировать, построить, конструировать, составить, концепция, составлятьRussian
- збудувати, зконструювати, будувати, конструюватиUkrainian
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Select another language: | <urn:uuid:1d923b01-3afb-4a1b-bb1b-5e73e5d9b78c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/construct | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.823187 | 1,742 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Perhaps one of the most distinctive and studied geographers of the twentieth century, Carl O. Sauer (1889-1975) had influence that extends well beyond the confines of any one discipline. With a focus on historical and cultural geography, Sauer's essays have garnered praise from poets, natural historians, and social scientists alike who continue to explore Sauer's work. In Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape, editors William M. Denevan and Kent Mathewson have compiled thirty-seven of Sauer's original works, including rare early writings, articles in now largely inaccessible publications, and transcriptions of key oral presentations that remain little known.
A student of the relationships between land and life, people and places, Sauer helped establish landscape studies in cultural geography and paved the way for paradigmatic shifts in the scholarly assessment of Native American history. By strongly advocating a land ethic, "a responsible stewardship of the sustaining earth," for his own and for future generations, Carl Sauer supplied an esthetic rationale and a historical perspective to the environmental movement.
The volume opens with two extended essays on Sauer's critics and his works. Essays by prominent geographers and other authorities on Sauer introduce each section of the book, adding a contemporary element to the presentation and interpretation of Sauer's life and scholarship in areas such as soil conservation, man in nature, and cultivated plants. A complete bibliography of his publications and an extensive compilation of commentaries on his life and work make this an indispensable reference.
Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape sheds new light on Sauer's contributions to the history of geographic thought, sustainable land use, and the importance of biological and cultural diversity--all of which remain key issues today.
Found an Error? Tell us about it. | <urn:uuid:e8914bb7-8276-44d4-82f4-2043d235e4cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lsupress.org/books/detail/carl-sauer-on-culture-and-landscape/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933249 | 362 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Pronunciation: (men'shu-vik; Russ. myin-shi-vyēk'), [key]
—pl. -viks, -vik•iPronunciation: (-vik"ē, -vē"kē; Russ. -vyi-kyē'). [key]
a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' party in opposition to the Bolsheviks: advocated gradual development of full socialism through parliamentary government and cooperation with bourgeois parties; absorbed into the Communist party formed in 1918. Also,men'she•vik.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease. | <urn:uuid:70704a0d-4dfa-4342-a478-4fdf9a4138e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dictionary.infoplease.com/menshevik | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.863715 | 139 | 2.546875 | 3 |
(15) Isaac Norman ( 5 Oct 1682 - 7 Apr 1748)
(14) Joseph Norman (1708-16 Feb 1784)
(13) Isaac Norman II (1735 - 1776)
He lived his whole life in Culpeper, VA, though the name of the town was first Fairfax, Culpeper County, VA. And the county even changed it's name in early Virginia as it became necessary to divide the original counties up into smaller ones.
In 1795, the town received a post office under the name Culpeper Court House, although most maps continued to show the Fairfax name. The confusion resulting from the difference in official and postal names, coupled with the existence of Fairfax Court House and Fairfax Station post offices in Fairfax County, was finally resolved when the Virginia Assembly formally renamed the town Culpeper in 1869.
American Revolutionary War, the Culpeper Minutemen, a pro-Independence militia, formed in the town of Culpeper, in 1775, and fought in at least 2 battles against the British (Hampton and Battle of Great Bridge) in that year before its members joined the Continental Army.
Note: Joseph would have been too old to fight in that war, but I imagine some of his sons did. I haven't looked into their history at this time, but my ancestor Isaac Norman II apparently died in 1776. At least one of his brothers did die after serving in the Revolution, as substantiated by his wife having received a pension.
The Museum of Culpeper History gives this time line:
A band of German immigrants establish the first European settlement near Culpeper, not far from the confluence of the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers. Their community comes to be known as Germanna.
May 18, 1749
An act of the Virginia General Assembly establishes Culpeper County.
July 20, 1749
George Washington, 17 years old, arrives in Culpeper to survey the new county.
February 22, 1759
An act of the General Assembly establishes the county seat, officially known as the town of "Fairfax". It is more commonly called Culpeper Court House.
Daniel Boone establishes a residence near present-day Stevensburg. He later explores Kentucky.
This museum site (HERE) also shows a photo of the oldest house in town, the Burgendine House, a log structure with clapboard over it, standing already in 1749.
|With permission from Museum of Culpeper History|
Son of Isaac Norman and Frances Courtney
Joseph Norman (Isaac2, Joseph1) was born Abt. 1708 in Culpeper County, VA, and died November 20, 1783 in Culpeper County, VA. He married (1) Mary Read Bef. 1732, daughter of John Read and Winifred Favior. He married (2) Sarah Everett Bef. 1750. She was born Abt. 1723, and died Aft. 1783.
Notes for Joseph Norman:
There is documented proof of Joseph's parentage in the Deed of Gift which he received from his parents in 1740.
In Orange County, Va Deed book 4, page239, in a deed dated September 25, 1740, Isaac Norman and Frances Norman, his wife, conveyed to their son, Joseph Norman 100 acres, part of the tract of land on which Isaac then lived bounded by the land of James Turner, Nathaniel Hillen, John Roberts and Flat Run. This land was described as being on the south side of Flat Run.
Joseph Norman's second wife was named Sarah and according to the family traditions her last name was Everett. They were married in 1751, or earlier as Sarah's name appeared on a deed with Joseph on September 19, 1751. She was also named in his will dated November 20, 1783.
Joseph's will mentioned his wife Sarah and eleven children as well as his deceased son Isaac's wife Sarah and their son Isaac.
Copy of the will of Joseph Norman, Culpeper County, VA, Recorded in Culpeper County Circuit Court, Will Book C, Page 117.
The children of Joseph Norman were all mentioned in his will of 1783 but apparently not according to age. We cannot be sure which of the children belonged to the first marriage except James who was the oldest son, and Mary who was named in her grandfather John Read's will in 1765. It is very likely that the children who were living at home in 1783 were of the second marriage.
Land grant: November 1, 1752, Culpeper Co., VA Thomas Lord Fairfax granted 238 acres to Joseph Norman in the Little Fork of the Rappahannock River near Hickman's Mtn.
I published an excerpt of Joseph's will HERE, when talking about his grandson.
The children of Joseph were (as given on Ancestry at this time) | <urn:uuid:2766ce41-75b4-4720-872d-2de1b2e4b1dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://boardwalkbarb.blogspot.com/2014/04/joseph-norman.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980009 | 1,019 | 2.625 | 3 |
A growing threat for food-borne illnesses comes attractively packaged, is stunningly convenient and is increasingly popular with shoppers looking for healthy meals: ready-to-eat leafy greens that make putting together a green salad as easy as opening a bag.
Though beef and poultry are a more frequent source of food-related outbreaks than produce, the number of outbreaks tied to lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, whether fresh-cut or whole, has been rising over the last two decades, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest.
On Tuesday, researchers with the group called leafy greens the riskiest food regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, with 363 outbreaks linked to those foods from 1990 to 2006. (Meat is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)
The largest and most severe of these outbreaks came in September 2006, when bagged baby spinach tainted by E. coli bacteria sickened some 200 people and left three dead in 26 states. Last month, salmonella detected in testing prompted the recall of 1,715 cartons of bunched spinach sent to a dozen states, including Illinois.
"For a long time, produce was considered a safe item," said Jim Prevor, editor in chief of the food safety blog perishablepundit.com. "But that's not really the case anymore."
Hoping to ensure greater safety and cut the number of food-related outbreaks, the USDA has launched hearings around the country aimed at developing national production and handling rules for leafy greens and other vegetables.
Although consumers can reduce their risk, such as by washing greens, experts say preventing outbreaks requires action by farmers and producers to avoid bacterial contamination at the source or during processing.
Greens are especially vulnerable for several reasons, including that they are grown so close to the ground -- unlike, say, fruit from trees -- and can be tainted by water runoff, a persistent source of contamination when it carries animal waste.
What makes fresh-cut greens more susceptible is also what makes them convenient: the cutting and bagging that eliminate much of the work of salad preparation. That processing allows pathogens to get into the leaves, where they can flourish. The machinery used and the mixing of greens from various farms contribute to those dangers, not unlike the risks associated with processing ground beef.
Even greens put through a chlorine wash can be contaminated.
"These items are grown outdoors in fields with dirt. It's probably impossible to grow them without contact with a food-borne pathogen," said Craig Hedberg, a professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.
That such healthy foods can cause illness when tainted should give urgency to efforts to improve the nation's food safety system and better eradicate contamination, advocates said.
"Consumers shouldn't change their diets to avoid these foods," said Sarah Klein, a staff attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "The bottom line is that consumers need help from the food industry and the FDA if they want to eat nutritious and safe foods -- which is why these products need to be safe when they arrive in consumer and restaurant kitchens."
The center's researchers found that six outbreaks of disease and 598 illnesses were linked to greens in 1990. In 2006, the most recent data available, there were 49 such outbreaks and 1,279 illnesses.
The 2006 E. coli outbreak prompted growers and handlers of leafy greens in California, where most of the nation's lettuce and spinach is grown, to adopt a voluntary plan calling for tougher safety rules and regular inspections. Arizona, second to California in greens production, followed.
Now, a similar safety agreement may be crafted for green handlers nationwide.
"What we're seeing right now is a response to what happened in '06," said William Marler, a Seattle lawyer who is a leading plaintiff's attorney in food-borne illness cases.
Among those stricken in that outbreak was Mary Ann Westerman of Mendota, Ill. After eating bagged spinach tainted by E. coli, she got sick with vomiting and diarrhea, suffered kidney failure and, three years later, still struggles with related health issues, said her daughter, Martha Porter-Fiszer.
"I had no idea what could happen when it's a serious pathogen," said Porter-Fiszer, of Park Ridge. "We ought to be able to have food without bacteria reach our store shelves."
Whether the safety moves in place in California and Arizona will work is open to question. Skeptics say they are little more than a public relations effort by an industry trying to battle bad publicity as the market for fresh-cut salads and fixings grows.
In addition, critics note that the mid-September spinach recall involved a company that has signed on to the California agreement. | <urn:uuid:0eac1b09-9398-42ee-a8b6-6489def34467> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-10-07/news/0910060302_1_leafy-greens-food-borne-bagged | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963621 | 974 | 2.84375 | 3 |
By Steve Moyer
When Charles Willson Peale painted former enslaved African American and Georgetown resident Yarrow Mamout in 1819, he was interested in his storied longevity. But as flames engulfed the Georgetown Branch of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in April 2007, Jerry McCoy, curator of the Peabody Collection, was interested in longevity of a different sort, hoping to save and preserve, in addition to a later likeness of Yarrow, the invaluable collection of photographs, maps, land plats, and general ephemera for posterity.
Within a day, a disaster recovery team removed the items, which were then vacuum frozen. An estimated 90 percent of it was salvaged, comprising four hundred boxes placed on thirteen pallets and shrink-wrapped, weighing over nine thousand pounds. An NEH grant will help with the recovery and preservation of the materials, along with development of a disaster plan for the library and its special collections.
That the Yarrow canvas survived shouldn’t come as a surprise. The portrait of an African American painted at this time in U.S. history was rare, and it had caught the attention of James H. Johnston of Washington, who researched Yarrow’s story for three years and wrote about him in the Washington Post.
According to Johnston’s 2006 Post article, Yarrow himself was a survivor, having amassed a hundred-dollar nest egg for his retirement. Twice, merchants who held the money for him lost it when their businesses failed. Yarrow scraped and saved a third time, putting aside two hundred dollars, which he used to buy shares in Georgetown’s Columbia Bank, finally allowing him to support himself in retirement with the interest from his investment. | <urn:uuid:cb694e8d-03d6-4d18-be89-ffbb8d892d0a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.neh.gov/print/2004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974001 | 353 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The horror debate has been going on for many years, and in recent years there have been a number of cases where horror films have been cited as possible causes for violent crimes committed by young people.
The film industry has a classification system that is designed to prevent young people from being exposed to material that might have negative effects on them. These classifications are the PG, 12A, 15 etc that you see on film posters at the cinema and onDVD and video boxes.
Do you think that you are influenced by the films that you see at the cinema or at home?
Do you think that the government should have the power to control what you are allowed to watch, or do you think it is the responsibility of your parents/carer?
Do you think you should have the choice to watch whatever you want?
In today’s society, it is not only films that have ratings on them. Video games also come with a classification if they contain violence, crime re-enactments and/or scenes of gore. There has also been controversy over bands and artists in the music industry who use bad language in their songs or images of sex or violence in their videos, and warnings often appear on CD covers. One example of this is the singer Marilyn Manson, who has come under attack from many groups for his use of bad language in his lyrics, and his horror inspired image. His name is even inspired by that of a notorious serial killer, Charles Manson.
Do you think that the use of this sort of material by artists is offensive and irresponsible?
Do you think that it is possible to use this sort of content in a positive way?
Do you think they are setting a good or bad example to young people? | <urn:uuid:8a1dcc11-3458-4952-b414-97fd6edf62c5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mylearning.org/the-censorship-of-horror-comics/p-938/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984871 | 352 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Over the past few years, there has been an ongoing debate in the country over the use of fluoride. This chemical is found in most toothpastes, and many communities throughout the U.S. add fluoride to their public water supplies to help enhance their residents' dental health. However, some people have argued that there should not be added fluoride in water and that it is bad for people's health.
Recently, researchers from the American Chemical Society shed some light on how fluoride works to protect the teeth. This may encourage some people who have been hesitant about this chemical in the past to change their opinions.
How does it work?
According to the researchers, fluoride helps harden the enamel on the teeth that protects them from acids and bacteria. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that fluoride penetrates and hardens an even thinner layer of enamel than previously thought. In this most recent study, the researchers found that fluoride also seems to make it more difficult for bacteria to stick to the teeth and produce the type of acid that causes cavities. Thanks to this, it makes it easier for people to brush the bacteria away when they are participating in their daily dental care routines.
Recently, the Portland Tribune has been writing articles on the fluoride debate in Oregon. In the latest article, the author called fluoride "a safe, effective and affordable public health option" and encouraged Portland residents to call to have it added to the water.
The news source explained that half of all kids in Multnomah County have cavities, and those from poorer families are at a greater risk than others. Furthermore, children in Portland have 40 percent more decay than children in Seattle, where the drinking water is fluoridated.
The Portland Tribune article added that people who are concerned about the safety of fluoridation shouldn't be, because there have been more than 3,700 studies on the safety and effectiveness of fluoridation. Furthermore, communities have been adding fluoride to their water for years, and more than 70 percent of Americans drink water with fluoride in it on a daily basis. Portland is the largest city in America that does not have community water fluoridation and children in the area may be suffering as a result.
Residents of Portland should research fluoride for themselves so they can make an informed decision.
© 2013 Brafton Inc. | <urn:uuid:86c8bded-8274-4171-9a0b-610ab3e2bb7d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dentalplans.com/dentalhealtharticles/58461/does-fluoride-really-help-the-teeth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967667 | 467 | 3.3125 | 3 |
"Flipperpithecus" was the name of the "humanoid species" arising from a fossil find that is most likely part of dolphin's rib. The name "Flipperpithecus" was given by anthropologist Dr. Tim White and reported in Science News.
The science magazine New Scientist reported:
|“||A five million-year-old piece of bone that was thought to be a collarbone of a humanlike creature is actually part of a dolphin rib according to an anthropologist at the University of California-Berkeley. ||”|
Dr. Tim White, anthropologist at the University of California-Berkeley likened the incident on par with the "Nebraska man" and "Piltdown Man" incidents. Dr. White stated regarding the fossil find, "Seldom has a bone been hyped as much as this one." Anthropologist Dr. Noel Boaz from New York University who made the original classification of the fossil has countered, "I have not gone any further than the evidence allowed." Dr. Boaz described the fossil find and defended his stance regarding the fossil find in the journals Nature, the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and Natural History. However, at a meeting of physical anthropologist his fellow anthropologist were skeptical of the find some stating that at first glance the bone looks nothing like a collar bone. Dr. White stated that "to be a clavicle, the specimen should have an S...curve, but it does not. Dr. White also stated the blunder may force a rethinking of theories among evolutionary theorists on when the line of man's ancestors separated from that of apes. Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Alan Walker stated that there is a long history of misinterpreting various bones as humanoid clavicles and that it is a amorphous bone and scientist should be very judicious in interpreting it.
Dr. White added "The problem with a lot of anthropologists is that they want so much to find a hominid that any scrap of bone becomes a hominid bone."
- W. Herbert, Science News. 123:246 (1983)
- Ian Anderson, "Hominoid collarbone exposed as dolphin's rib", New Scientist, 28 April 1983, page 199. | <urn:uuid:da15f270-5e93-4af0-acb9-7e8117ebb8ab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.conservapedia.com/Flipperpithecus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949708 | 465 | 3.765625 | 4 |
, Thuc.: where the older editions have Καϊκινός
), a river of Bruttium, in the territory of Locri, between that city and Rhegium.
It is mentioned by Thucydides (3.103
), in relating the operations of Laches with an Athenian fleet on the southern coast of Italy in B.C. 426, when that commander defeated on its banks a body of Locrian troops.
It is also referred to by Pausanias, who tells us that it was the boundary between the territories of Locri and Rhegium, and mentions a natural phenomenon connected with it, which is referred by other writers to the neighbouring river HALEX:--that the cicadae (τέττιγες
) on the Locrian side were musical, and chirped or sang as they did elsewhere; but those in the Rhegian territory were mute. (Paus. 6.6.4
.) Both Pausanias and Aelian relate that the celebrated Locrian athlete Euthymus disappeared in the stream of the Caecinus, in a manner supposed to be supernatural. (Paus. l.c.; Ael. VH 8.18
.) Local antiquarians suppose the small stream called on Zannoni's map the F. Piscopio,
which flows by Amendolea,
and enters the sea about 10 miles W. of Cape Spartivento,
to be the ancient Caecinus; but there is no authority for this, except its proximity to the Halex, with which it appears to have been confounded. (Romanelli, vol. i. p. 137.)
The Caecinus of Pliny (3.10. s. 15
), which he places N. of Scyllacium, is a false reading of the early editors for Carcines or Carcinus, the form found in the MSS. both of Pliny himself and Mela (2.4).
It is evident that the river designated is wholly distinct from the Caecinus of Thucydides. | <urn:uuid:778e7ca9-0352-4e16-8488-4a4b13c49319> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:alphabetic%20letter=C:entry%20group=1:entry=caecinus-geo&toc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DC%3Aentry+group%3D7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958743 | 451 | 3.421875 | 3 |
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