text stringlengths 199 648k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1
value | url stringlengths 14 419 | file_path stringlengths 139 140 | language stringclasses 1
value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 50 235k | score float64 2.52 5.34 | int_score int64 3 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The interpolating polynomial for a set of points
Constructs a polynomial that passes through a given set of points. Allows evaluation of the polynomial, efficient changing of the y values to be interpolated, and updating by adding more x values. For reasons of numerical stability, this function does not compute the coefficients of the polynomial.
This class uses a “barycentric interpolation” method that treats the problem as a special case of rational function interpolation. This algorithm is quite stable, numerically, but even in a world of exact computation, unless the x coordinates are chosen very carefully - Chebyshev zeros (e.g. cos(i*pi/n)) are a good choice - polynomial interpolation itself is a very ill-conditioned process due to the Runge phenomenon.
Based on Berrut and Trefethen 2004, “Barycentric Lagrange Interpolation”. | <urn:uuid:80d8b650-89c2-4b9e-a816-c16ff5dc8843> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy-0.8.x/reference/generated/scipy.interpolate.BarycentricInterpolator.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.846541 | 199 | 3.109375 | 3 |
- Pink-Eye Sickness
- What exactly causes pinkeye? There are various things that can cause one to have this sickness. The main things that causes it are bacteria, viruses, irritants, and allergies.
- WHAT'S GOING AROUND: Pink Eye
- Viral pink eye just has to run its course. Some cases are caused by allergens and can be treated with antihistamines. It's best not to wear contacts until the symptoms are gone, regardless of the cause.
- How to solve 'winter pinkeye'
- “Winter pinkeye” is caused when a burdock sliver gets into an eye and leads to inflammation and infection that may puzzle your veterinarian. That's because, unlike cheatgrass or foxtail, the microscopic burdock sliver is not easily seen.
- Mets' Curtis Granderson not yet convinced he has pink eye despite diagnosis
- PORT ST. LUCIE — Curtis Granderson may or may not have pink eye, but the Mets are taking no chances.
- What's Going Around: From stomach bugs to pink eye
- She says she's seeing a lot of ear infections and pink eye lately. Dr. Baumann-Blackmore says kids with ear infections will typically have ear pain and will be tugging or pulling on their ears.
Pinkeye is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Pinkeye books and related discussion.
Suggested News Resources
Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.
Related searchestautology examples of tautology
the amazing race route markers
fyodor dostoevsky short stories | <urn:uuid:7868a52d-6ae8-44b5-8bf8-15bdb89165f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.realmagick.com/pinkeye/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917228 | 389 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Suntech, the world’s largest manufacturer of solar PV modules, and the world-leading solar PV research team at the University of NSW have set a new world record for conversion efficiency for solar cells. The news was planned to be announced next week, but was revealed by Suntech CEO (and former UNSW researcher) Zhengrong Shi during the company’s earnings call on Thursday, when he said 20.3 per cent conversion efficiency had been achieved on a commercial p-type wafer suitable for mass production.
Renate Egan, the managing director of Suntech R&D Australia, a 20-strong team that works closely with the group at UNSW, says the record was achieved with the so-called “second generation” of the Pluto high-efficiency solar cells. It beats the previous record of 19.6 per cent. As efficiency increases, then the cost of production falls. According to a paper published by the research team in late February, they are now targeting an efficiency rate of up to 23 per cent.
The technology originates from the PERL solar cell design developed by the world-leading team at UNSW and Suntech in 2001, which has since been commercialized by Suntech as part of its Pluto high-efficiency solar brand. The technology offers improvements in the screen-printing processes,and reduces the amount of metal needed to form efficient contacts. Reducing the metal coverage allows more of the cell surface to be exposed to sunlight allowing more current to be generated. The second generation technology which has delivered this latest record, Egan says, have been focused on improvements to the rear-surface design.
The latest record was achieved late last year and documented in an academic paper published in late February. According to this document, the next stage of Pluto development will focus on advances – in minimising series resistance and keeping the the percentage of the metal/silicon area to around 1 per cent – which could deliver efficiencies of at least 21.5 per cent, “which when combined with expected further improvement in rear surface passivation, could take corresponding cell efficiencies to approaching 23 per cent.”
Suntech says that about 400MW of its total 2,400MW production in 2011 was in the high efficiency cells, and this is expected to double to around 800MW in the current year, when overall production will remain stable. Suntech, along with listed renewable energy developer Infigen Energy, has submitted an updated offer for the federal government’s solar flagships program. The venture plans to use the first generation Pluto cells for the project if it wins the tender.
Equity boost for FRV
Spanish group FRV, the major equity partner in the proposed 150MW Moree Solar Project, has received a funding after striking a deal with Denham Capital, a US-based energy focused private equity firm, to invest $US190 million in solar energy projects across the globe. FRV said the partnership will strengthen its ability to invest in the global solar market in Australia as well as South Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. The partnership will also consider acquisitions.
FRV and Australia’s Pacific Hydro were forced to lift their equity contributions to the Moree Solar project after the withdrawal of BP Solar, and the failure to secure financing for the project. The tender for a government grant under the Solar Flagships program was re-opened, and Moree Solar, along with three other consortium, have resubmitted their bids. It is thought that Moree have cut the capital cost of project, which was orginally $930 million, and the other bidders have also reduced their cost estimates following the sharp slump in the cost of solar PV modules in the past year.
FRV says it has participated in the development, construction and financing of more than 350 MW of solar energy plants currently operational in the United States, Spain and Italy and since its inception in 2006, and has a pipeline of more than 1.5GW. Denham Capital will become an anchor investor in the projects, alongside Spanish private equity firm Qualitas Equity Partners and FRV’s founding members.
RenewEconomy Free Daily Newsletter | <urn:uuid:0c0793ab-9429-48e6-ba94-207167779a0b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/mixed-greens-suntech-sets-solar-cell-efficiency-record-36634 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964826 | 857 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Xara Xtreme: Filling in Color with the Color Editor
While working in Xara Xtreme with objects that can be filled with color, you can change the fill color using one of two ways — the fill tool and the Color Editor. This tutorial will show you how to change the fill color with the color editor. For this tutorial, you should have some kind of shape drawn beforehand to try out the steps yourself.
Step 1: Select Your Shape
Once you have drawn a shape, select it with the normal selector tool and look towards the lower left corner of the software window. You will see that the current fill color is indicated by a square area of the same color. Click on this area to bring up the Color Editor.
Step 2: Working with the Color Editor
The Color Editor is a normal color palette tool that allows you to select the exact shade of color that you are looking for. You will have various color modes to choose from, such as HSV, RGB and CMYK. But, for general purpose use, all you have to do is slide the horizontal color strip to the main color that you are looking for and then customize the lightness/darkness of the color on the larger square area on top of the horizontal strip. Your selected shape will reflect the changes made in the color editor as soon as they are made to help you choose your color in one go.
Step 3: Using Color Editor in Advance
You can also choose your fill color before the shape is drawn. To do this, make the color change in the color editor as described in step 2 but do it right before your draw your shape. Then, the new shape will be filled with the new color as your draw it. | <urn:uuid:4a5cd31b-92d0-4ca8-894c-712c5e0746ab> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photo-software/xara-xtreme-filling-in-color-with-the-color-editor.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924649 | 354 | 2.5625 | 3 |
BULGARIAN MILITARY OPERATIONS
While Greece and Servia were scattering, capturing, or destroying the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia, and closing in on that province from north and south like an irresistible vise, it fell to Bulgaria to meet the enemy’s main army in the plains of Eastern Thrace. The distribution of the forces of the Allies was the natural result of their respective geographical location. Macedonia to the west of the Vardar and Bregalnitza Rivers was the only part of Turkey which adjoined Greece and Servia. Thrace, on the other hand, marched with the southern boundary of Bulgaria from the sources of the Mesta River to the Black Sea, and its eastern half was intersected diagonally by the main road from Sofia to Adrianople and Constantinople. Along this line the Bulgarians sent their forces against the common enemy as soon as war was declared. The swift story of their military exploits, the record of their brilliant victories, struck Europe with amazement. Here was a country which only thirty-five years earlier had been an unknown and despised province of Turkey in Europe now overwhelming the armies of the Ottoman Empire in the great victories of Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, and Chorlu. In a few weeks the irresistible troops of King Ferdinand had reached the Chataldja line of fortifications. Only twenty-five miles beyond lay Constantinople where they hoped to celebrate their final triumph.
THE COLLAPSE OF TURKEY
The Great Powers of Europe had other views. Even if the Bulgarian delay at Chataldja—a delay probably due to exhaustion—had not given the Turks time to strengthen their defences and reorganize their forces, it is practically certain that the Bulgarian army would not have been permitted to enter Constantinople. But with the exception of the capital and its fortified fringe, all Turkey in Europe now lay at the mercy of the Allies. The entire territory was either already occupied by their troops or could be occupied at leisure. Only at three isolated points was the Ottoman power unsubdued. The city of Adrianople, though closely besieged by the Bulgarians, still held out, and the great fortresses of Scutari in Northern Albania and Janina in Epirus remained in the hands of their Turkish garrisons.
The power of Turkey had collapsed in a few weeks. Whether the ruin was due to inefficiency and corruption in government or the injection by the Young Turk party of politics into the army or exhaustion resulting from the recent war with Italy or to other causes more obscure, we need not pause to inquire. The disaster itself, however, had spread far enough in the opinion of Europe, and a Peace Conference was summoned in December. Delegates from the belligerent states and ambassadors from the Great Powers came together in London. But their labors in the cause of peace proved unavailing. Turkey was unwilling | <urn:uuid:606b4d74-2cd4-4e0f-87ec-6443d3f47880> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/11676/28.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97081 | 588 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Blood pressure-lowering treatment could harm some patients with diabetes
These findings were reported by at Umeâ University, Sweden. People with diabetes are more likely to have higher blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, so researchers Mattias Brunström and Bo Carlberg investigated how antihypertensive treatment affected diabetic patients with different blood pressure levels.
The blood pressure targets set by NICE for people with diabetes vary slightly depending on diabetes type. People with type 1 diabetes should aim to keep their blood pressure below 135/85 mm Hg; people with type 2 diabetes should aim for below140/80 mm Hg, but this target drops to below 130/80 mm HG if you have diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease) or two signs of metabolic syndrome.
The researchers collected data from 49 published and unpublished studies involving nearly 74,000 participants, most of whom had type 2 diabetes. They found that the effects of antihypertensive treatment depend on patients' blood pressure levels before treatment - specifically, systolic blood pressure.
If a patient had systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mm Hg before beginning treatment, they experienced a decreased risk of death, stroke, heart attack and heart failure. However, these benefits did not apply to patients whose systolic blood pressure was below 140 mm Hg. These patients actually had a 15 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular death.
Brunström clarified that because the majority of patients had type 2 diabetes, no conclusions can be made regarding people with type 1 diabetes or patients with diabetes and normal blood pressure levels.
Brunström explained: "In practice, it is important to remember that undertreatment of high blood pressure is a bigger problem than overtreatment. At the same time, [�] blood pressure-lowering treatment is crucial for the majority of people with diabetes whose blood pressure measures above 140.
"Many treatment guidelines, both Swedish and international, will be redrawn in the next few years. It has been discussed to recommend even lower blood pressure levels for people with diabetes - maybe as low as 130. We are hoping that our study, which shows potential risks of such aggressive blood pressure lowering treatment, will come to influence these guidelines."
The authors added that blood pressure treatment aims should be handled less aggressively among people with diabetes, and doctors should use caution when prescribing treatment.
The study was published in the BMJ. | <urn:uuid:267429fe-46a7-4528-8ac2-e23c1b52223a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2016/feb/blood-pressure-lowering-treatment-could-harm-some-patients-with-diabetes-91859839.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940728 | 491 | 3.3125 | 3 |
“Survival of these noteworthy places is crucial in preserving the great diversity of New York’s communities,” said Rose Harvey, Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. “Placing these landmarks on the State and National Registers of Historic Places will offer well-deserved recognition along with tools to help them last into the future.”
Listing these properties on the State and National Registers can assist their owners in revitalizing the structures, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.
The State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures, districts, landscapes, objects and sites significant in the history, architecture, archeology and culture of New York State and the nation. There are 90,000 historic buildings, structures and sites throughout the state listed on the National Register of Historic Places, individually or as components of historic districts. Property owners, municipalities and organizations from communities throughout the state sponsored the nominations.
Once the recommendations are approved by the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the National Register.
STATE REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS
Cattaraugus Commercial Historic District, Cattaraugus – The district encompasses the historic commercial corridor of the village after it was rebuilt following a devastating fire in 1888 with less flammable, brick buildings, maintaining its importance as a commercial and social hub.
Leon Grange, Leon – Constructed in 1903, the modest two-story building served for decades as the primary meeting place for the local farming community and members of the local grange – and is now home of the Leon Historical Society.
James Keith House and Brown-Morey-Davis Farm, Newport – The two properties are both notable as distinctive limestone residences, built ca. 1815, which reflect how local craftsmen took advantage of the Kuyahoora Valley’s abundant limestone to build fashionable residents as the region’s farmers prospered after the American Revolution.
New York Navy Yard (Brooklyn Navy Yard), Brooklyn – Established in 1801 and in operation for 160 years, the navy yard is one of the nation’s six original federal shipyards and represents seven distinct periods of naval history. At its height during World War II, it was the world’s largest shipyard, employing over 75,000 workers, who built three battleships, two floating workshops, eight tank landing ships, five aircraft carriers, countless barges and lighters, as well as converted more than 250 ships for war duty.
Jewish Center of Coney Island, Brooklyn – Built between 1929 and 1931, the Renaissance Revival/Semitic style center is significant for its association with the development of Brighton Beach as a new, middle-class residential neighborhood with a substantial Jewish population in the 1920s.
Kismet Temple, Brooklyn – The 1909 Moorish Revival style building is thought to be the oldest Freemason Shriners’ mosque still intact as well as the first in New York City.
Carter-Feasel House, Henrietta – Built around1866, the Carter-Feasel House is a rare example of plank construction in Monroe County. The residence was also home to two Civil War veterans, David Carter, who was wounded during the siege of Petersburg, and Florendin Feasel, a German immigrant who was extremely proud of his service to his adopted homeland and hosted several reunions of his regiment at the property.
John White House, Brockport – Built sometime after 1821 and owned by five generations of the White family, the house was enlarged to accommodate successive generation of the family and to reflect the later owner’s increased prosperity.
Adams-Chadeayne-Taft Estate, Cornwall-on-Hudson – The property includes an 1844 brick Italianate style house built for industrialist and inventor Nathaniel Adams, an earlier ca. 1800 frame house, and the ruins of the Clark Stoneware Works, a pottery factory operated at the site as early as 1793.
Neversink Valley Grange No. 1530, Huguenot – Built in 1934, this grange chapter served as a valuable social and educational center for many Deerpark citizens and offers a tangible link to the agricultural history of the Neversink Valley in the 20th century.
Kingsford Historic District, Oswego – The residential neighborhood developed during the second half of the 19th century and reflects the City of Oswego’s growth during this period, when it became a thriving commercial and industrial center. The district is named for the Kingsford family, founder of the Oswego Starch Factory, a major driver of industrial development in Oswego.
Theta Xi Chapter House, Troy – The 1931 Tudor Revival style building embodies the fraternity house type, with its various social spaces, its industrial kitchen, and its large number of small bedrooms – and continues to look and function much the way it did when completed.
Searle Gardner & Company Collar & Cuff Factory, Troy – Built 1898-99, in response to increasing demand and growing competition within Troy’s the collar-and-cuff industry, it is a characteristic example of “mill construction.”
St. Lawrence County
Hopkinton Green Historic District, Hopkinton – The district includes the public green that Hopkinton’s founder, Roswell Hopkins, deeded to the town in 1808 “in the consideration of his good will and respect” for his fellow citizens and as well as the Town Hall, built in 1870, and the Congregational Church, built in 1892.
Guastavino House, Bay Shore – The elaborately tiled 1914 home was the residence of Rafael Guastavino Jr., an innovator in the architecture and building techniques of fireproofing and structural tile in America; it is also the site where he experimented with different glazing and firing techniques in the onsite detached garage.
Noah Hallock House, Rocky Point – A classic example of an 18th-century “Cape Cod” type dwelling, significant for its association with the eighteenth-century settlement of Rocky Point by the Hallock family and the contributions of five subsequent generations of Hallocks, who contributed to the evolution of the community through their public service, farming and maritime practices.
Riverside Cemetery, Appalachin – As an active cemetery created in 1802 by European settlers arriving in the region after the American Revolution, Riverside reflects the changing styles of tombstone design and funeral art over more than two centuries of continuous use.
Brooklyn & Queens Transit Trolley No. 1000, Kingston – The Art Deco style trolley was built with a sleek modern look to appeal to commuters at a time when the popularity of trolley transportation was declining due to competition from automobiles and buses and served New York City’s transit system from 1937 until 1956. It is a very rare example of its type.
St. James Episcopal Church, Lake George – Built in 1866-67 to replace an edifice which collapsed during a storm, the stone church is a highly intact example of Gothic Revival ecclesiastical architecture.
Irvington Historic District, Irvington – The village reflects the transportation, shopping patterns and architectural styles of the late 19th century and was shaped by many prominent citizens who resided in the area, including George Morgan, a founder of JP Morgan, Alexander Hamilton’s son James, and Washington Irving, the distinguished writer for whom the village is named. | <urn:uuid:1bd67e80-3855-48bf-8dd8-bffab820ded9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2013/09/23/20-nominations-made-for-nys-national-registers-of-historic-places/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950585 | 1,584 | 2.875 | 3 |
usanias, "colonies were sent to Croton, and to Locri at Cape Zephyrium, by the Lacedaemonians" (3.3um there is a spring, called Locria, where the Locri first pitched camp. The distance from Rhegium to Locri is six hundred stadia. The city is situated on the brow of a hill called Epopis.
The Locicily again to resume his government; for the Locri broke up his garrison, set themselves free, ane Tarantini on his behalf—earnestly begged the Locri to release the prisoners on any terms they wis his mention of the written legislation of the Locri which was drawn up by Zaleucus from the Cretant the Thurii, who later on wished to excel the Locri in precision, became more famous, to be sure, roduce their song. And people used to show in Locri a statue of Eunomus, the cithara-bard, with a , and is seven hundred stadia in length.
After Locri comes the Sagra, a river which has a feminine ltars of the Dioscuri, near which ten thousand Locri, with Rhegini,The Greek, as the English, leave[1 more...] | <urn:uuid:354e0cd8-e3d7-4e65-9126-7ede6b0f557a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/nebrowser?query=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198&id=perseus%2CLocri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975 | 274 | 2.734375 | 3 |
"According to modern evolutionary theory, our planet originated from the accumulation of hot, gaseous material ejected from the sun, and the Precambrian granites were among the first rocks to form during the cooling process."(Gentry (1986, p. 1) [Note that Gentry claims "modern evolutionary theory" (whatever that is in this context) holds that Earth's elements originated from the sun by ejection.]
During the last 100 or so years, a great deal of work has been carried out on the Precambrian Canadian Shield. Many contemporary geologists divide the Shield into seven distinct geological "Provinces." Ontario, where Gentrys samples came from, includes three of there provinces. The Superior, situated in northern Ontario, is the oldest (all isotopic ages from the Superior are greater than 2,500 Ma and hence, the province is of Archean age), both radiometrically and structurally, and consists of many types of metasediments and several types of metavolcanics intruded by a variety of igneous bodies. The Southern Province, which rests unconformably (with a fossil soil) on the Superior, consists mostly of folded metasediments intruded by some granites and is middle to early Proterozoic in age (all isotopic ages are between 2,500 and 1,800 Ma). The Grenville, located in southern Ontario, is the youngest of the three Provinces and is late Proterozoic (all isotopic ages are between 1,500 and 900 Ma). It consists mostly of deformed metasediments in the north, a large metamorphosed intrusive gneiss complex (called the Algonquin Batholith) in the middle, and the Grenville Supergroup in the south. The Grenville Supergroup, which contains Gentry's locations. consists of metasediments (mostly limestone which has been metamorphosed into marble) and metavolcanics all intruded by igneous bodies of various types.
Figure 5 diagrammatically shows the geological relationships of part of the Shield and the location of Gentrys Faraday samples. Let me emphasize that these relationships are not based primarily on some ill-defined "uniformitarian principle" but on hard-won field observations over more than 100 years of work by hundreds of geologists. At the bottom-left of the figure is a block diagram of Figure 4. The pegmatite dikes in the area cut a gabbro (shown at the bottom right), which cuts different types of metasedimentary rocks. In the Madoc area south of Bancroft (middle block), the metasedimentary rocks can be shown to rest in a complex way on metavolcanics. The supergroup, in turn, rests unconformably on the metamorphosed Algonquin Batholith, which intrudes the deep- and shallow-water metasediments to the north (top block), which abuts (by a major fault) and partly rests on the metasedimentary column of the Southern Province, which rests unconformably on the "greenstone" metasediments and metavolcanics intruded by granites, which abuts the metasedimentary and gneissic belts to the north in the Superior Province. So, if Gentrys claim of created granite is valid, then the entire sequence also must have been instantly created -" in just three brief minutes." This is not science, but merely a monumental example of the Omphalos argument.
What is also interesting is that Gentry has been told in the past, in a general way, that granites are intrusive rocks and that the oldest rocks on Earth are sedimentary and volcanic (Awbery, personal communication, 1987, Dalrymple, personal communication, 1986; and letter to Gentry, April 1987). Gentry has invariably shrugged off the comments or claimed he had an answer (but one which has never been given).
In his book Gentry talks of "pristine sedimentary" created rocks which look as though they were intruded by granites. When Gentry phoned me (unfortunately, Gentry has never responded to my letters in any manner other than with phone calls) after I sent him a copy of this paper in preliminary form, I asked him about these sedimentary rocks. He claimed that metasedimentary rocks show no clear origin because of their recrystallization. Because his response was so patently false, I told him that many of these metasedimentary rocks show clear and unambiguous sedimentary features, like clastic grains, cobbles, ripple marks, mudcracks, bedding plains and, most important, stromatolites. He had no answer.
In the phone conversation I had with Gentry in March, he claimed that all of the rocks of the Shield could have been formed on the first day of creation. Here are some excerpts from his book on this point.
" only a few minutes elapsed time from nucleosynthesis to the formation of the solid earth.... a virtually instantaneous creation at the earth." (1986, p 49)
"These [Po containing] granites would have been created instantly and yet still show the characteristic of rocks that crystallized from a liquid or melt." (p. 129)
"...the primordial Earth being called into existence on Day 1 of creation week about 6000 years ago ... The Precambrian granites show evidence of an instantaneous creation..." (p 184)
"... the Precambrian granites are identified as rocks that were created almost instantly as part of the creation event recorded in Genesis 1:1." (p. 280)
Since his dikes are demonstrably the last rocks to form in the Shield then, by his reasoning, the entire Shield must have been "instantly created." Omphalos again. | <urn:uuid:c9a9e79b-7ff4-4316-b972-835b4047b4a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/gentry/precambr.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966156 | 1,193 | 3.640625 | 4 |
IPng - IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6)
IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) is also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) and it is the newest version of the Internet Protocol (IP) reviewed in the IETF standards committees to replace the current version of IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4).
The official name of IPng is IPv6, where IP stands for Internet Protocol and v6 stands for version 6.
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is the successor to Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 was designed as an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol and will, in fact, coexist with the older IPv4 for some time. IPv6 is designed to allow the Internet to grow steadily, both in terms of the number of hosts connected and the total amount of data traffic transmitted.
IPv6 is an Internet Protocol (IP) for packet-switched internetworking that specifies the format of packets (also called datagrams) and the addressing scheme across multiple IP networks. In comparing the two protocols IPv6 expands upon the addressing and routing capabilities of IPv4 in a number of ways including:
Increasing the IP address pool was a major factor in the development of IPv6. The biggest benefit of IPv6 is that it will replace the IPv4 32-bit address scheme with a much longer 128-bit address scheme. The IPv4 32-bit address scheme allows for a total of 2^32 addresses while IPv6 allows for 2^128 total addresses.
IPv6 also offers additional technical advantages such simplified headers in seven fields (instead of the 13 fields in IPv4) as well as improved security with the addition of two new extension headers (authentication header and encapsulating security header).
The IETF standards committee, The IPv6 Operations Working Group (v6ops) is responsible for developing the guidelines for the operation of a shared IPv4 and IPv6 Internet. The group also provides operational guidance on how to deploy IPv6 into existing IPv4-only networks as well as into new network installations.
Stay up to date on the latest developments in Internet terminology with a free weekly newsletter from Webopedia. Join to subscribe now.
Webopedia's student apps roundup will help you to better organize your class schedule and stay on top of assignments and homework. Read More »List of Free Shorten URL Services
A URL shortener is a way to make a long Web address shorter. Try this list of free services. Read More »Top 10 Tech Terms of 2015
The most popular Webopedia definitions of 2015. Read More »
The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model defines a networking framework to implement protocols in seven layers. Use this handy guide to compare... Read More »Computer Architecture Study Guide
Webopedia's computer architecture study guide is an introduction to system design basics. It describes parts of a computer system and their... Read More »What Are Network Topologies?
Network Topology refers to layout of a network. How different nodes in a network are connected to each other and how they communicate is... Read More » | <urn:uuid:3eafec4e-435a-42cc-ac8c-a96f116d8023> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/IPng.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866206 | 636 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Ibizan hound (ēbēˈzŏn, ĭbˈə–) [key], also called Ibizan Podenco, breed of tall, swift dog of ancient origin now found chiefly in the Balearic Islands and other areas of Spain. It stands from 22 to 28 in. (55.8–71.1 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 42 to 50 lb (19.1–22.7 kg). Its short coat is usually red with white markings, but it may also be solid red or white. It is generally believed that the Ibizan is a modern survivor of the ring-tailed, prick-eared greyhound of ancient Egypt, although similarities to both the afghan and the basenji suggest the possibility that the breed was originated by other people prior to its development in Egypt. Introduced into the United States in 1956, it is exhibited in the miscellaneous class at dog shows sanctioned by the American Kennel Club. See dog.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:aa8928f7-3945-4de1-90d3-44b49f09d7ea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/science/ibizan-hound.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954374 | 228 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Seven Northeastern states are finalizing a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plan, which will affect hundreds of fossil fuel-burning power plants in the region, beginning in 2009. But will the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative mean higher electricity costs for consumers and businesses? How far can renewable energy sources and energy efficiency go toward meeting proposed emissions cuts? And is the RGGI effort compatible with emerging climate policies in other states? During today's OnPoint, Judi Greenwald, director of innovative solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, weighs in on what is happening in the Northeast.
Brian Stempeck: Hello and welcome to OnPoint. I'm Brian Stempeck. Joining me today is Judi Greenwald. She's the director of Innovative Solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Judy thanks a lot for being here today.
Judi Greenwald: Thank you for having me.
Brian Stempeck: Now we said a number of states in the Northeast announced the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. This is a cap-and-trade plan for this kind of region of the country affecting power plants. Explain for us, real broadly, just how this plan is going to work.
Judi Greenwald: Well broadly, a cap-and-trade program, any cap-and-trade program, sets an overall emissions constraint on a group of emission sources. Each source doesn't have to necessarily emit a certain amount. But if they want to emit more they have to hold more what are called emission allowances. And if they can emit less and they have extra emission allowances they can sell them to others. So the idea is you have a group of sources that can overall have to emit at a lower level. But some can emit more and some can emit less. So that those who have the most cost effective opportunities to reduce emissions will do so. So it's a way to meet an emissions constraint at the lowest possible cost.
Brian Stempeck: Now this plan, it starts in 2009, kind of capping current emissions and gradually moves down from there reducing by about 10 percent over the next few years. So if I'm the CEO of Con Edison in New York, what are my options in terms of reducing emissions that RGGI would basically lay out for me?
Judi Greenwald: Well, I can reduce emissions at my own plants. If I have a coal-fired power plant I could make that plant more efficient. I could switch to natural gas. I could shift around to other fuels like nuclear power, which also don't emit any greenhouse gases. Renewables are non-emitting in terms of greenhouse gases. So there are lots of things that folks can do. A big piece of this plan, and that a lot of folks are hoping are going to play a big role in lowering costs and also getting some other benefits, is energy efficiency. To the extent that all of us can be more efficient in appliances, in the way we design buildings and there'll be less demand for any kind of electricity. And that's, in a way, the easiest way to reduce our emissions. But all of those options for the utility. And the utility, if it decides that it doesn't have good opportunities or it doesn't like the opportunities it's facing to reduce its own emissions, can go out into the marketplace and buy emission reductions from other folks who have found ways to reduce their emissions more cheaply.
Brian Stempeck: A lot of these utilities are going to be looking to new options, more natural gas, liquefied natural gas, renewable energy projects. At the same time though, in the Northeast, we've seen a lot of opposition to those projects. New LNG terminals have encountered a lot of resistance. The Cape Wind wind farm in Massachusetts also a lot of resistance there. Do you think there's kind of going to be a push that goes hand-in-hand with RGGI? Basically saying the Northeast is going to be more open to different kinds of energy projects as we try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Judi Greenwald: I think there'll be some of that. But again I think this energy efficiency is going to be a key part of the solution because with energy efficiency you don't need to build new power plant. So you don't have those same issues. But certainly we're going to need power no matter what we do and we're going to have to build things somewhere. And I think it's going to have to be a public discussion about what are the kinds of sources that have the least impact on the environment and we'll try to focus on those. And I think there are a lot of people who may have trouble with wind power in certain areas, but might be okay with them in other areas. And I think we're going to have to have a conversation about where the best sites are for these different kinds of plants, as well as a good debate about what should be put where and what are the best choices for the region.
Brian Stempeck: The governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island are two of the states that basically dropped out of this plan, saying that they felt the economic costs were going to be too high on the consumers and their businesses. What's your opinion on that? I mean how high are we going to see electricity rates go once this plan goes into effect in 2009?
Judi Greenwald: We think the impacts are going to be quite modest. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative folks did extensive modeling work. The price forecasts that they have for any kind of increase are quite insignificant. At the most, their base case forecasts or their most, their average set of forecasts, they think it will be less than a penny a kilowatt hour difference. But I think there's sort of a range of costs and there are some who believe that under certain circumstances the price increases might be higher. There are others who think that actually you might get some household savings if the efficiency piece works as many think it will. That the prices of your electricity might go up a little bit, but you actually are going to save money because you'll be using less energy. So there is some indication that we're actually not going to see much impact at all. And in fact it might actually be a positive impact. So we think that from the economic side that there isn't really a big impact expected. But the plan actually assumes a number of, or includes a number of flexibility mechanisms that will keep costs down. And also has some mechanisms that if costs go higher than we thought that there'll be solutions. So for example, if prices hit a higher level than people think they will, then we'll actually wind up bringing in more what are called emission offset projects. This is an important part of the RGGI proposal. That you not only can get emission reductions at power plants, but also you can bring in emission reductions from projects outside the sector. For example afforestation, SF6, which is a very, which is a gas that has a very high global warming potential. And there's a lot of optimism that we'll bring in these projects and that we'll be able to achieve reductions more cost effectively and they'll be brought into this trading market, which as I mentioned earlier, utilities will be able to access that to reduce their emissions.
Brian Stempeck: At the same time though some of the business groups who have been lobbying in this proposal say they think the electricity costs could go up by as much as about 23, 24 percent. I mean isn't that a disincentive to people who are locating a business? I mean the Northeast also already has some of the highest home heating costs and electricity costs in the country. Every year we see members of Congress talking about more money for home heating because of high electricity, high energy bills there. Even if you're only talking about a 5 percent or 7 percent, whatever the estimate is, isn't that going to add to a problem that we already have in the Northeast?
Judi Greenwald: Again, it depends on how big the changes are. Certainly our view is that the changes from this program are going to be small compared to other kinds of changes. Also it's going to drive energy efficiency, which is going to help on all these fronts. So we actually don't see these big impacts. Also the Northeast has prospered despite having relatively high electricity rates. And certainly Governor Pataki and many of the other governors in the region see a future for themselves which is based on a green kind of economy using efficiency, renewables, various kinds of technologies and strategies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. So we don't see this as being a negative economic impact on the region. We see it as being positive and a way to have a future that's green in both senses, the way that GE starts to talk about this, that green is green. That you actually can both be economically prosperous and environmentally green.
Brian Stempeck: What about the concept of leakage? This is another one of the problems that's been raised with kind of a regional plan. The idea that a lot of these utilities could import power from other states, some of the Midwest states produce power and are already shipping it out, so it's basically towards the Northeast. Isn't that a problem that, you know, if I'm utility owner and I say well it's going to cost me a certain amount of money to build a wind farm. Aren't I better off just importing more from a coal generating plant in the Illinois that isn't subject to this?
Judi Greenwald: Again, it depends on the costs. If you can keep the costs down, which we believe RGGI is going to be successful in doing, then the difference, or the benefit of going outside the region is not very big. So if there's a very slight differential in prices, which is what we expect, you're not going to have much of an incentive to go outside the region. And RGGI has done its best to try to keep those costs down. So they are cautiously optimistic that they're not going to have a big leakage problem. However they're not sure, it's a complicated issue. And they have a plan now to study what's going to be going on with leakage. They're going to track power imports and power movements around the region. And they're going to come up with a set of possible options to deal with it if it turns out that it's a bigger problem than they thought. But the key is how big an economic impact you think this program is going to have? If it has a very large impact there's more of an incentive to import more power. If you think the impact is going to be modest, and certainly the RGGI folks have done their best to try to keep that impact modest, then there shouldn't be a lot of leakage. The flexibility of just a basic cap-and-trade program, where you can do or reduction at the lease cost. You can trade among various sources. The use of offsets which we think have a lot of cost effective opportunities that will become available. The efficiency piece. There's all kinds of reasons to be optimistic that the cost will not be prohibitive and certainly not be enough to incentivize movements of power that you wouldn't see otherwise.
Brian Stempeck: Couldn't somebody argue though that this plan kind of unfairly targets the utilities and the power companies? I mean I imagine there's going to be a lawsuit on this at some point. And what the utilities will probably say is why not go after the transportation sector? And why not go after some of the factories, the steel mills, the other major producers of greenhouse gases? Isn't that a major flaw in the program?
Judi Greenwald: Certainly if we want to solve climate change we're going to have to go after all of these sectors. Climate change is a very big problem. It's a big complicated problem. It comes from thousands of different kinds of sources. Certainly also the electricity sector is a big contributor. It is the sector that is the biggest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions. So certainly one might consider biting off all the sectors at once and trying to go after everything at once, but it's not unreasonable to try to figure, well, I'll try this one sector at a time. And so the utility sector is not a bad place to start. Almost all of the states in the region that are working on this initiative are also poised to adopt the California Greenhouse Gas Standards for Vehicles, if they survive court challenge. So certainly these states are thinking about other sectors and utilities and transport, those are the two biggest. So certainly if you're going to try to go after this problem you want to start there. So I think the states are trying to do the best they can to go after the two biggest sectors initially. Also most of the states have fairly aggressive programs on energy efficiency in buildings. And buildings are also a big piece of the problem. It doesn't fall out nicely in terms of comparing to transport and electricity because a lot of electricity is used in buildings. The buildings are a very big component of this problem. So if you can have a program that addresses those three sectors you've gotten a big chunk of the problem. And so certainly starting there is not bad, but yes, we cannot only reduce emissions from the utility sector and solve this problem. It's going to have to be a broader program ultimately.
Brian Stempeck: How do you see the RGGI tying into some of the other state efforts? As you mentioned there's the West Coast plan in California to reduce emissions from cars and trucks. Other states, Washington and Oregon, have talked about reducing emissions. New Mexico now. Do you envision kind of other states basically taking on the RGGI approach as well? Is that the general idea here?
Judi Greenwald: Certainly there's a lot of interest in other states in either joining RGGI or doing a program of their own or approaching things somewhat differently. I think there's a diversity of views around the country in terms of how to go about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But we think that what RGGI is doing is an important model and potentially an important way to get some lessons learned that will help these other states who are thinking either along those lines or different lines. We've talked about the California Greenhouse Gas Standard for Vehicles. We think this RGGI program is quite important. A couple of the other things are going on around the country that are important is that a number of states are starting sort of from square one where they're looking at all of their emissions. And looking at all of their opportunities and going through sort of a logical process and trying to see, well, can I do this? Can I do that? So there are a lot of states around the country who are looking at cap and trade, but also looking at other options for how they can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. So you're going to get some tailored solutions around the country. And that's probably fine. The other thing that's going on that's very interesting is a lot of states have renewable portfolio standards, as do many of the states in the Northeast, but also around the country. There's quite a few of these, 22 states plus the District of Columbia have these. Those are generally not enacted just about climate change, but they have co-benefits for climate change and that's very important. They're going to push renewables in the electricity sector. So there's quite a bit going on around there. In the western part of the country, the Western Governors Association has something called the Clean and Diversified Energy Initiative where they're pushing renewables and other clean energy sources over the next decade. And that's going to be a pretty major initiative that they're working on now and they expect to announce their joint recommendations later this year, in just a few months actually. And then you have a lot of folks working on energy efficiency in a variety of ways, green buildings. A lot of states require their buildings to be what's called lead certified, which is a voluntary system of very high performing buildings that are highly efficient. A lot of states are upgrading their building codes. There's just quite a bit going on when we look around the country and we think all of it will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And we'll hopefully produce lessons learned for other states who want to be active and hopefully ultimately for the federal government who we believe needs to act in order to get at this problem comprehensively.
Brian Stempeck: All right. Judi, we're out of time. Thanks so much for stopping by. We appreciate it.
Judi Greenwald: Thank you.
Brian Stempeck: I'm Brian Stempeck. This is OnPoint. Thanks for watching.
[End of Audio] | <urn:uuid:7f2c2f13-f22c-461a-9c5b-4a6cae5e0fe0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eenews.net/tv/videos/316/transcript | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975372 | 3,458 | 2.875 | 3 |
By Pejman Akbarzadeh
19 November 2005 (CHN) -- Persian (Iranian) people in the English-speaking countries are the only community who use two different terms to refer to their language, "Farsi" and "Persian." This behavior has caused some confusion among the Westerners as to the appropriateness of these terms.
"Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the German speaking people refer to their language as 'Deutsch', the Greek 'Ellinika' and the Spanish 'Espanol', the Persians use 'Farsi' or 'Parsi' to identify their native form of verbal communication.
In English, however, this language has always been known as "Persian" ('Persane' in French and 'Persisch' in German'). But many Persians migrating to the West (particularly to the USA) after the 1979 revolution continued to use 'Farsi' to identify their language in English and the word became commonplace in English-speaking countries.
In the West when one speaks of 'Persian Language', people can immediately connect it with several famous aspects of that culture and history such as Persian Gulf, Persian Carpet, Persian food, Persian poetry, Persian cat, etc. But "Farsi" is void of such link which is only obvious for people in Persia (Iran) and a few other nations in the Middle East.
The Academy of the Persian Language and Literature (Farhangestan) in Tehran has also delivered a pronouncement on this matter and rejected any usage of the word "Farsi" instead of Persian/Persa/Persane/Persisch in the Western languages. The first paragraph of the pronouncement states: "PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' is to negate this established important precedence. Changing 'Persian' to 'Farsi' may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users..."
Fortunately all International broadcasting radios with Persian language service (e.g. VOA, BBC, DW, RFE/RL, etc.) use "Persian Service", in lieu of the incorrect "Farsi Service." That is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, and several American and European notable universities.
Some mistakably believe that, in English, the official language of Iran should be called "Farsi," while the language spoken in Tajikistan or Afghanistan should be labeled as "Dari," and "Persian" should be utilized to refer to all of them! However, the difference between the Persian spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, or Tajikistan is not significant and substantial enough to warrant such a distinction and classification. Consider the following case. An Egyptian and a Qatari engage in a conversation in Arabic. They will encounter a great deal of difficulties in comprehending each other. Despite this fact, however, the language used in their conversation is referred to as "Arabic." No one will even attempt to classify their respective dialects separately and refer to them as "Qatari" and "Egyptian"! On the other hand, Persians, Tajiks or Afghans can converse in Persian and easily understand each other. Then, why should their dialects be classified separately and referred to by different names?
In English, usage of "Farsi" in place of "Persian," that has been common since 1980s, is as inaccurate and odd as using "Farsi Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf."
* Pejman Akbarzadeh is Persian Gulf Organization's Rep. in Tehran
... Payvand News - 12/8/05 ... -- | <urn:uuid:90939a7e-e07d-47d4-a916-1a674dadfee8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://payvand.com/news/05/dec/1063.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955333 | 830 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Anna Hodgekiss – Daily Mail Feb 8, 2013
Scientists have made a key breakthrough in discovering how the body can destroy cancerous tumours itself.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have identified a molecule, known as TIC10, which activates a protein that helps fight the disease.
The protein, called TRAIL, suppresses tumour development during immune surveillance, the immune system’s process of patrolling the body for cancer cells.
This process is lost during cancer progression, which leads to uncontrolled growth and spread of tumours.
The key benefit of using TRAIL (tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) as a way to fight cancer is that it is already part of the immune system so it is not toxic to the body like chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Furthermore, the small size of TIC10 also makes it more effective than past discoveries because it can cross the blood-brain barrier, which separates the main circulatory system from the brain.
This barrier can prevent cancer treatments from entering the brain, thereby hindering the action of drugs for brain tumours.
‘We didn’t actually anticipate that this molecule would be able to treat brain tumours – that was a pleasant surprise,’ said lead researcher Wafik El-Deiry, an oncologist at Pennsylvania State University.
Another positive is that TIC10 does not just activate the TRAIL gene in cancerous cells, but also in healthy ones. This is known as the ‘bystander effect’ – i.e. where cells near cancerous cells are also killed.
Nearby healthy cells are also given a boost to increase the number of cancer-killing TRAIL receptors on their cell surface.
Although the study was limited to mice, Dr El-Deiry is confident that a similar approach would work in humans.
He added: ‘I was surprised and impressed that we were able to do this.
‘Using a small molecule to significantly boost and overcome limitations of the TRAIL pathway appears to be a promising way to address difficult to treat cancers using a safe mechanism already used in those with a normal effective immune system.
‘The TRAIL pathway is a powerful way to suppress tumors but current approaches have limitations that we have been trying to overcome to unleash an effective and selective cancer therapy,’ he added.
The success of TRAIL to trigger cancer cell death has led to ongoing clinical trials with artificially created versions, and early trials have shown that giving the protein in drug form is safe.
The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. | <urn:uuid:444d90e8-6833-418c-9256-a44204c6fc90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=65299 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953702 | 540 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Yellow-headed spruce sawfly
Larvae on June 17th were approximately ½ inch long in Grand Rapids and of an inch in Duluth on June 24th. When larvae finish feeding they drop to the ground and overwinter. In the spring adults lay eggs over a period of a couple weeks. Because of this you will find larvae of different sizes on individual trees. By the time the average larva is ½ to inches long it is likely some of the older larvae have already dropped to the ground to overwinter.
Spraying at this time, when the larvae are still active, is still effective in protecting the remaining foliage. However, because some larvae have already finished feeding and dropped to the ground there will likely be a population of sawflies present on the trees again next year. Spraying to get rid of the population needs to be done earlier.
First generation larvae are present on white pine at this time. They are likely to become more apparent and more abundant when the second generation larvae are active in August. | <urn:uuid:5161853e-c518-4107-adf7-e8a5227099c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fid/june98/6309810.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97999 | 207 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Whooping cough (pertussis) is an infection of the respiratory system caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis (or B. pertussis). It mainly affects babies younger than 6 months old who aren't yet protected by immunizations, and kids 11 to 18 years old whose immunity has started to fade.
Whooping cough causes severe coughing spells, which can sometimes end in a "whooping" sound when the child breathes in.
Before a vaccine was available, pertussis killed about 9,000 people in the United States each year. Now, the pertussis vaccine has reduced the annual number of deaths to less than 30. But in recent years, the number of cases has started to rise. In 2004, the number of whooping cough cases spiked past 25,000, the highest level since the 1950s.
Signs & Symptoms
The first symptoms of whooping cough are similar to those of a common cold:
- runny nose
- mild cough
- low-grade fever
After about 1 to 2 weeks, the dry, irritating cough evolves into coughing spells. During a coughing spell, which can last for more than a minute, a child may turn red or purple. At the end of a spell, the child may make the characteristic whooping sound when breathing in or may vomit. Between spells, the child usually feels well.
While many infants and younger kids with whooping cough develop the coughing fits and accompanying whoop, not all do. And sometimes babies don't cough or whoop as older kids do. Infants may look as if they're gasping for air with a reddened face and may actually stop breathing (this is called apnea) for a few seconds during very bad spells.
Adults and teens may have milder or different symptoms, such as a prolonged cough (rather than coughing spells) or coughing without the whoop.
Pertussis is highly contagious. The bacteria spread from person to person through tiny drops of fluid from an infected person's nose or mouth. These may become airborne when the person sneezes, coughs, or laughs. Others then can become infected by inhaling the drops or getting the drops on their hands and then touching their mouths or noses.
Infected people are most contagious during the earliest stages of the illness for up to about 2 weeks after the cough begins. Antibiotics shorten the period of contagiousness to 5 days following the start of antibiotic treatment.
Whooping cough can be prevented with the pertussis vaccine, which is part of the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis) immunization.
DTaP immunizations are routinely given in five doses before a child's sixth birthday. For additional protection in case immunity fades, experts recommend that kids ages 11-18 get a booster shot of the new combination vaccine (called Tdap), ideally when they're 11 or 12 years old.
The Tdap vaccine is similar to DTaP but with lower concentrations of diphtheria and tetanus toxoid. It also should be given to adults who did not receive it as preteens or teens. The vaccine is also recommended for all pregnant women during the second half of each pregnancy, regardless of whether or not they had the vaccine before, or when it was last given.
Getting the vaccine is especially important for people who are in close contact with infants, because babies can develop severe and potentially life-threatening complications from whooping cough. An adult's immunity to whooping cough lessens over time, so getting vaccinated and protecting yourself against the infection also helps protect your infant or child from getting it.
As is the case with all immunization schedules, there are important exceptions and special circumstances. Your doctor will have the most current information.
People who live with or come into close contact with someone who has pertussis should receive antibiotics to prevent the spread of the disease, even if they've already been vaccinated against it. Young kids who have not received all five doses of the vaccine may need a booster dose if exposed to an infected family member.
The incubation period (the time between infection and the start of symptoms) for whooping cough is usually 7 to 10 days, but can be as long as 21 days.
Pertussis usually causes prolonged symptoms — 1 to 2 weeks of common cold symptoms, followed by up to 3 months of severe coughing.
The last stage consists of another few weeks of recovery with gradual clearing of symptoms. In some children, the recovery period can last for months.
Call the doctor if you suspect that your child has whooping cough. To make a diagnosis, the doctor will take a medical history, do a thorough physical exam, and may take nose and throat mucus samples to be checked in a lab. Blood tests and a chest X-ray also might be done.
Whooping cough is treated with antibiotics. Many experts believe that antibiotics are most effective in shortening the length of the infection when they're given in the first stage of the illness, before coughing spells begin. But even if antibiotics are started later, they're still important because they can stop the spread of the pertussis infection to others. Ask your doctor whether preventive antibiotics or vaccine boosters for other family members are needed.
Some kids with whooping cough need to be treated in a hospital. Babies and younger children are more likely to be hospitalized because they're at greater risk for problems like pneumonia. Whooping cough can be life-threatening for infants younger than 6 months, so they almost always need hospital treatment.
Other potential complications include difficulty breathing, periods of apnea, needing oxygen (particularly during a coughing spell), and dehydration.
While in the hospital, a child may need suctioning to clear the airways. Breathing will be watched closely, and oxygen given if needed. Intravenous (IV) fluids might be needed if a child shows signs of dehydration or has difficulty eating. Precautions will be taken to prevent the infection from spreading to other patients, hospital staff, and visitors.
If your child is being treated for pertussis at home, follow the schedule for giving antibiotics exactly as your doctor prescribed. Giving cough medicine probably will not help, as even the strongest usually can't relieve the coughing spells of whooping cough. The cough is actually the body's way of trying to clear the airways. (Due to potential side effects, cough medicines are never recommended for children under age 6.)
During recovery, let your child rest in bed and use a cool-mist vaporizer to help soothe irritated lungs and breathing passages. (Be sure to follow directions for keeping it clean and mold-free.) And keep your home free of irritants that can trigger coughing spells, such as aerosol sprays; tobacco smoke; and smoke from cooking, fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves.
Kids with whooping cough may vomit or not eat or drink much because of the coughing. So offer smaller, more frequent meals and encourage your child to drink lots of fluids. Watch for signs of dehydration, including thirst, irritability, restlessness, lethargy, sunken eyes, a dry mouth and tongue, dry skin, crying without tears, and fewer trips to the bathroom to pee (or in infants, fewer wet diapers).
When to Call the Doctor
Call the doctor if you think that your child has whooping cough or has been exposed to someone with whooping cough, even if your child has already had all scheduled pertussis immunizations.
This is especially important if your child has long coughing spells and:
- the coughing make your child's skin or lips turn red, purple, or blue
- your child vomits after coughing
- there's a whooping sound after the cough
- your child has trouble breathing or seems to have brief periods of not breathing (apnea)
- your child seems very sluggish
If your child has been diagnosed with whooping cough and is being treated at home, get immediate medical care if he or she develops difficulty breathing or shows signs of dehydration.
Reviewed by: Rupal Christine Gupta, MD
Date reviewed: February 2015
Visit our blog!
Visit the Dr. Mom Squad blog to join in the conversation with our experts! You will hear from four local women who have two big things in common; they are all doctors and they are all moms!
Kohl's Cares® Merchandise
Every season, Kohl's offers special items for sale with all profits donated to children's hospitals – including Dayton Children’s. You can view the entire collection of stuffed animals, books and much more at Kohl's Cares® Merchandise.
Free parenting enewsletter
Finding trusted child health and safety information doesn't have to be hard. eGrowing Together offers the latest health, safety and parenting information from our experts delivered to your inbox every month. | <urn:uuid:d57b798e-6512-48bb-9452-a85227d94b4a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.childrensdayton.org/cms/conditions/1ed2eaf9fdc7758a/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955748 | 1,830 | 3.859375 | 4 |
The Constitution provides for freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites; however, the Government places restrictions on this right. Under the Constitution, Islam is the official state religion and the primary source of legislation. Accordingly religious practices that conflict with Islamic law (Shari'a) are prohibited. However, in the country the practice of Christianity or Judaism does not conflict with Shari'a and, for the most part, members of the non-Muslim minority worship without harassment and maintain links with coreligionists in other countries.
There was a trend toward improvement in the Government's respect for and protection of the right to religious freedom during the period covered by this report. Public schools began using curricular materials on Coptic history, the Government implemented policies facilitating church repairs, and seven Christians became deputies in the People's Assembly (3 were elected and four were appointed by the President). There was continued press and public discussion of intercommunal relations and religious discrimination. Nevertheless there were some Government abuses and restrictions on the right to religious freedom. In January 2001, security authorities arrested 18 citizens, most of them Baha'is, on suspicion of "insulting religion;" 10 remained in detention without charge at the end of the period covered by this report. During the period covered by this report, several intellectuals faced trial or charges related to writings or statements on the subject of religion. Government discrimination against non-Muslims persisted.
Religious discrimination in society is a problem about which many citizens agree more needs to be done; however, many argue that development of the economy, polity, and society is the most effective and enduring way to abolish prejudice. In February 2001, a criminal court acquitted 92 of 96 defendants suspected of crimes committed while participating in violence in the village of Al-Kush in January 2000 that resulted in the deaths of 20 Christians and 1 Muslim. In September 2000, a criminal court convicted 20 persons and acquitted 19 of crimes including assault and arson committed in the neighboring village of Dar Al-Salaam. By the end of the period covered by this report, the Court of Cassation was considering whether to order a retrial of the 92 suspects who had been acquitted of participation in the violence in Al-Kush.
The subject of religious freedom remains an important and active part of the bilateral dialog between the U.S. and Egyptian Governments. Senior Administration officials, the U.S. Ambassador, and members of Congress have raised U.S. concerns about religious discrimination with President Hosni Mubarak and other senior government officials. In March 2001, members of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom visited the country and discussed religious freedom issues with a variety of Egyptian Government and non-governmental representatives.
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has a total area of 370,308 miles, and its population is between 66 and 67 million. Most citizens, approximately 90 percent, are Sunni Muslims. There is a small number of Shi'a Muslims who constitute less than 1 percent of the population. Approximately 8 to 10 percent of the population are Christians, the majority of whom belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Other Christian communities include the Armenian, Chaldean, Greek, Maronite, Roman, and Syrian Catholic Churches. An evangelical Protestant church, first established in the middle of the 19th century, has grown to a community of 17 Protestant denominations. There also are followers of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which was granted legal status in the 1960's. The non-Muslim, non-Coptic communities range in size from several thousand to hundreds of thousands. The number of Baha'is has been estimated at between several hundred and a few thousand. The Jewish community numbers fewer than 200 persons. There are very few atheists.
Christians are geographically dispersed throughout the country, although the percentage of Christians tends to be higher in upper (southern) Egypt and some sections of Cairo and Alexandria.
There are many foreign missionary groups that work within the country, especially Roman Catholics and Protestants who have had a presence in the country for 100 years or more, although their mission involves education more than proselytizing. The Government generally tolerates missionary groups if they do not proselyte actively.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
The Constitution provides for freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites; however, the Government places restrictions on this right. Under the Constitution, Islam is the official state religion and the primary source of legislation. Accordingly religious practices that conflict with Shari'a are prohibited; however, in the country the practice of Christianity or Judaism does not conflict with Shari'a and, in general, members of the non-Muslim minority worship without harassment and maintain links with coreligionists in other countries.
The Constitution requires schools to offer religious instruction. Public and private schools provide religious instruction according to the faith of the student.
The religious establishment of Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Awqaf engage in interfaith discussions both domestically and abroad. First Lady Suzanne Mubarak has supported the development of reading and other curricular materials that advocate tolerance, which are distributed under her patronage by literacy projects aimed at girls.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
All mosques must be licensed, and the Government is engaged in an effort to control them legally. The Government appoints and pays the salaries of the imams who lead prayers in mosques and monitors their sermons. In December 2000, the Minister of Awqaf announced that of the more than 70,000 mosques in the country, the Government controls 52,000 mosques and 11,000 mosques located in private buildings. In an effort to combat extremists, the Government has announced its intention to bring all nongovernment mosques under its control by 2002.
An 1856 Ottoman decree still in force requires non-Muslims to obtain a presidential decree to build a place of worship. In addition Interior Ministry regulations issued in 1934 specify a set of 10 conditions that the Government must consider prior to issuance of a presidential decree permitting construction of a church. These conditions include the location of the proposed site, the religious composition of the surrounding community, and the proximity of other churches. The Ottoman decree also requires the President to approve permits for the repair of church facilities.
In December 1999, in response to strong criticism of the Ottoman decree, President Mubarak issued a decree making the repair of all places of worship subject to a 1976 civil construction code. The decree is significant symbolically because it places churches and mosques on equal footing before the law. The practical impact of the decree has been to facilitate significantly church repairs; however, Christians report that local permits still are subject to security authorities' approval. During the period covered by this report, the President approved a total of 38 permits for church-related construction, including 3 permits for the construction of new churches; 5 permits for demolition and reconstruction of churches; 21 permits for churches previously constructed without authorization, 7 permits for construction of additional church facilities; and 2 permits for comprehensive renovation. The Government reported that governors issued more than 350 permits for church-related repair in 2000, an increase of 150 over those issued in 1999.
However, the approval process for church construction continued to be time consuming and insufficiently responsive to the wishes of the Christian community. Although President Mubarak reportedly has approved all requests for permits presented to him, Christians maintain that the Interior Ministry delays--in some instances indefinitely--submission to the President of their requests. They also maintain that security forces have blocked them from utilizing permits that have been issued, and that local security officials at times blocked or delayed permits for repairs to church buildings. For example, a permit issued in 1993 to repair structural damage to a 110-year-old church in a village next to Luxor remains unenforced due to "security reasons." During the summer of 2000, newspapers published a May 22 letter from the secretary general of Assiyut governorate to the head of the Assiyut counsel directing that all church repair requests be screened by security before being approved. However, in two cases during the period covered by this report, President Mubarak took corrective action to overturn decisions by local authorities. In February 2001, the governor of Qalyubia ordered the demolition of a church building, and in March 2001, he ordered a halt to construction of another church building. On both occasions, President Mubarak intervened by revoking the orders and ordering the reconstruction of the demolished building at the Government's expense.
As a result of these restrictions, some communities use private buildings and apartments for religious services. In March 2001, the Government donated a plot of land to the Christian community to build a church in the city of Al-Tour in the Sinai. The authorities had closed the community's previous church in February 2000 for lack of a permit. During the period covered by this report, a new large Christian church was constructed in the neighborhood of Al-Qalag in the city of Shebin Al-Qanater in Qalubiya governorate; security forces had closed the Christian community's historic church in that area in 1989.
In January 1996, human rights activist Mamdouh Naklah filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the Ottoman decree's 10 conditions governing the building of places of worship for non-Muslims. In December 1998, an administrative court referred Naklah's case to the State Commissioner's Office, which in September 2000, recommended rejecting the suit on the grounds that Naklah had no standing to file suit. In October 2000, upon receiving a rebuttal from Naklah, the court returned the case to the State Commissioner's Office, and requested an opinion on the constitutionality of the 10 conditions. The State Commissioner's Office had not issued an opinion on this matter by the end of the period covered by this report.
In 1960 President Gamal Abdel Nasser issued a decree (Law 263 for 1960) banning Baha'i institutions and community activities. All Baha'i community properties, including Baha'i centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were confiscated. This ban has not been rescinded.
Political parties based on religion are illegal. Pursuant to this law, the Muslim Brotherhood is an illegal organization. Muslim Brothers speak openly and publicly about their views, although they do not explicitly identify themselves as members of the organization, and they remain subject to government pressure. Seventeen independent candidates backed by the Muslim Brotherhood were elected to the People's Assembly in the November 2000 parliamentary elections.
During the year, several authors faced trial or charges related to writings or statements considered heretical. In May 2001, a lawyer sued feminist Nawal Al-Saadawi for allegedly insulting Islam in comments she made during a magazine interview, and claimed that Al-Saadawi was an apostate and should be forcibly divorced from her Muslim husband. In June 2001, the Public Prosecutor rejected the complaints. The lawyer also filed an apostasy suit against Al-Saadawi in the Cairo Personal Status Court, which postponed a decision on the matter until July 2001.
Various ministries legally are authorized to ban or confiscate books and other works of art upon obtaining a court order. The Islamic Research Center at Al-Azhar University has legal authority to censor, but not to confiscate, all publications dealing with the Koran and Islamic scriptural texts. In recent years, the Center has passed judgment on the suitability of nonreligious books and artistic productions. For example, the Islamic Research Center at Al-Azhar University ruled in 1999 in favor of distribution of the book "My Father Adam: The Story of the Creation Between Legend and Reality," written by Abdel Sabour Shahine. An Islamist lawyer sued the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and several other senior Islamic figures in an effort to block publication of the book; the Court of First Instance rejected the suit in November 2000 and the plaintiff appealed the decision the same month. The Court of Appeals rejected the plaintiff's appeal on June 18, 2001.
In 1995 an administrative court ruled that the sole authority to prohibit publication or distribution of books and other works of art is vested in the Ministry of Culture. This decision invalidated a 1994 advisory opinion by a judiciary council that had expanded Al-Azhar's censorship authority to include visual and audio artistic works. The same year, President Mubarak stated that the Government would not allow confiscation of books from the market without a court order, a position supported by the then-Mufti of the Republic, who is now the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
In 1997 human rights activist Mamdouh Naklah filed suit seeking removal of the religious affiliation category from government identification cards. Naklah challenged the constitutionality of a 1994 decree by the Minister of Interior governing the issuance of new identification cards. In March 1998, the court referred the case to the State Commissioner's Office, which had not issued an opinion by the end of the period covered by this report.
The Constitution provides for equal public rights and duties without discrimination due to religion or creed, and in general, the Government upholds these constitutional protections; however, government discrimination against non-Muslims exists. There are no Christians serving as governors, presidents of public universities, or deans. There are few Christians in the upper ranks of the security services and armed forces. Although there was improvement in a few areas, government discriminatory practices include: Suspected statistical underrepresentation of the size of the Christian population; failure to admit Christians into public university training programs for Arabic language teachers (because the curriculum involves the study of the Koran); discrimination against Christians in the public sector; discrimination against Christians in staff appointments to public universities; and payment of Muslim imams through public funds (Christian clergy are paid by private church funds).
Anti-Semitism is found in the Government press and increased in late 2000 and 2001 following the outbreak of violence in the Israel and Occupied Territories (see Section III). In April 2001, columnist Ahmed Ragheb lamented Hitler's failure to finish the job of annihilating the Jews. In May 2001, an article in Al-Akhbar attacked Europeans and Americans for believing in the false Holocaust. The Government has advised journalists and cartoonists to avoid anti-Semitism.
In May 2001, the Administrative Court of the State Council (which hears disputes between the Government and citizens) overturned an August 2000 decision by the Ministry of Social Affairs barring human rights activist Mamdouh Nakhlah from membership on the board of the Youssef Al-Ramy Organization, a Christian charitable association operating in Cairo. The court rejected as inadequate the "security reasons" cited by the Ministry for barring Nakhlah's membership.
In 1996 upon agreement with Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda, the Minister of Awqaf, Hamdy Zaqzouq, established a joint committee to address a dispute with the Coptic Orthodox Church that originated in 1952. At that time, the Government seized approximately 1,500 acres of agricultural land from the Church and transferred title to the Ministry of Awqaf, which is responsible for administering religious trusts. Based on the committee's recommendations, more than 800 acres have been returned to the Church during the last few years. The committee continued to review claims to the remaining disputed property. In August 2000, the Coptic Orthodox Church won a lawsuit to reclaim several plots of land in greater Cairo that had been seized by private or Government institutions before 1952.
According to a 1995 law, the application of family law, including marriage, divorce, alimony, child custody, inheritance, and burial, is based on an individual's religion. In the practice of family law, the State recognizes only the three "heavenly religions:" Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Muslim families are subject to the Personal Status Law, which draws on Shari'a (Islamic law). Christian families are subject to canon law, and Jewish families are subject to Jewish law. In cases of family law disputes involving a marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim man, the courts apply the Personal Status Law.
Under Islamic law, non-Muslim males must convert to Islam to marry Muslim women, but non-Muslim women need not convert to marry Muslim men. Muslim women are prohibited from marrying Christian men. Muslim female heirs receive half the amount of a male heir's inheritance, while Christian widows of Muslims have no inheritance rights. A sole female heir receives half her parents' estate; the balance goes to designated male relatives. A sole male heir inherits all his parents' property. Male Muslim heirs face strong social pressure to provide for all family members who require assistance; however, this assistance is not always provided. In January 2000, the Parliament passed a new Personal Status Law that made it easier for a Muslim woman to obtain a divorce without her husband's consent, provided that she is willing to forego alimony and the return of her dowry. However, an earlier provision of the draft law that would have made it easier for a woman to travel without her husband's consent, was rejected.
The Coptic Orthodox Church excommunicates women members who marry Muslim men, and requires that other Christians convert to Coptic Orthodoxy in order to marry a member of the church. The Coptic Orthodox Church does not permit divorce.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
The Government occasionally prosecutes members of religious groups whose practices deviate from mainstream Islamic beliefs, and whose activities are believed to jeopardize communal harmony. For example, in January 2001, the Government arrested 18 persons in the southern Egyptian city of Sohag--most were Baha'is and some where Muslims--on suspicion of violating Article 98(F) of the Penal Code ("insulting a heavenly religion") and other possible charges. By the end of the period covered by this report, 10 Baha'is remained in detention without being formally charged.
In June 2001, the Public Prosecutor referred to a State Security Court a group of 52 men arrested in Cairo in May 2001 on suspicion of homosexual activity and unorthodox religious practices. Two of the defendants, who allegedly advocated a belief system combining Islam and tolerance for homosexuality, were charged with "insulting Islam," a violation of Article 98(F) of the Penal Code. Their trial was pending at the end of the period covered by this report. The remaining 50 detainees faced charges unrelated to religious beliefs or practices.
In October 2000, the Government released without charge 48 persons who had been arrested in March 2000 on suspicion of membership in a religious group established in 1969 by Salim Al-Faramawy; the group advocates the belief that members should isolate themselves from the State and society and abjure the use of science and technology, including medicine. Faramawy also advocated the consumption of dogs and cats, a practice prohibited by Islam. After Faramawy's death in 1991, his son-in-law, Mohamed Gouda, reportedly assumed leadership of the group.
On November 11, 1999, the State Security Prosecutor arrested 50 persons in Cairo suspected of heresy against Islam. On November 15, 1999, 30 of the detainees were released and the remaining 20 were charged with degrading Islam, inciting strife, and meeting illegally. The lead defendant, a woman named Manal Wahid Mana'a, who claimed that the Prophet Mohammed spoke to her, was accused of attempting to establish a new Islamic offshoot. On September 5, 2000, a State Security Emergency Court in Boulaq sentenced Mana'a to 5 years' hard labor, 3 other defendants to 3 years' hard labor, 7 to 1 year of hard labor, 2 to 6 months in prison, and 2 to a fine of $375 (1000 Egyptian pounds). One of the defendants died in prison, reportedly from ill health, during the investigation.
On January 27, 2001, a State Security Court sentenced Salaheddin Mohsen to 3 years in prison for "insulting Islam" through his writings. Mohsen originally had received a 6-month suspended sentence in a trial that ended in June 2000, but the Public Prosecutor appealed the sentence on the grounds that the sentence was too lenient and the Government ordered a retrial.
In June 2001, the Public Prosecutor ordered the release, pending an appeal, of author Ala'a Hamed, who had been convicted of insulting Islam in a novel in 1998; his appeal was pending at the end of the period covered by the report.
On July 16, 2000, the Dar Al-Salaam court sentenced a Christian, Suryal Gayed Ishak, to 3 years' hard labor for "insulting Islam" during a public dispute with a Muslim in 1999. Ishak's attorney appealed the conviction, claiming that Ishak was accused falsely. The Public Prosecutor appealed the sentence. On March 27, 2001, Suryal's sentence was reduced to 1 year and Suryal (who had been incarcerated for more than a year) was released.
Cairo University professor Nasr Abu Zeid and his wife continue to live abroad following the 1996 Court of Cassation ruling that affirmed lower court judgments that Abu Zeid is an apostate because of his controversial interpretation of Koranic teachings. In August 2000, the Supreme Constitutional Court rejected Abu Zeid's contestation of the constitutionality of the 1996 ruling.
In August 1999, the public prosecutor reopened and expanded an investigation of police torture of mostly Christian detainees that took place during the police investigation in August and September 1998 of the murder of Samir Aweda Hakim and Karam Tamer Arsal in the largely Coptic village of Al-Kush in Sohag governorate. However, during the period covered by this report, the investigation reportedly made little progress. It is unclear whether religion was a factor in the 1998 actions of the police officers. Some human rights groups outside Egypt believe that religion was a factor in the Al-Kush murder investigation, but most human rights and Christian activists in the country do not. Police abuse of detainees is a widespread practice that occurs regardless of a detainee's religious beliefs.
On June 5, 2000, a criminal court in Sohag city convicted Shayboub William Arsal of the 1998 murder of Hakim and Arsal. The court sentenced Shayboub to 15 years hard labor. An appeal was pending at the end of the period covered by this report. The Christian community of Al-Kush believes that Shayboub, a Christian resident of Al-Kush, was accused and convicted of the crime because of his religion. The public prosecution in Sohag has taken no action on charges of witness tampering in Shayboub's trial that were raised in 1998 against Bishop Wisa and Arch-Priest Antonious.
Neither the Constitution nor the Civil and Penal Codes prohibit proselytizing. While no such incidents involving Christians were reported during the period covered by this report, in past years several dozen Christians who were accused of proselytizing were harassed by police or arrested on charges of violating Article 98(F) of the Penal Code, which prohibits citizens from ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian strife. In May 2001, authorities arrested five members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church while they were distributing leaflets to Christian families. The authorities claimed that the leaflets included criticism of the Catholic Church, which might incite strife among Christians. The five Adventists were released after pledging not to distribute such materials in the future.
While there are no legal restrictions on the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam, in past years police harassed Christians who had converted from Islam; however, there were no such reports during the period covered by this report. In cases involving conversion from Islam to Christianity, authorities in the past also have charged several converts with violating laws prohibiting the falsification of documents. In such instances, converts, who fear government harassment if they officially register the change from Islam to Christianity, have altered their identification cards and other official documents themselves to reflect their new religious affiliation. However, there were no reports of such charges during the period covered by this report. In August 2000, the Government lifted travel restrictions on two converts to Christianity who were imprisoned in 1991 and later released; the two subsequently were able to travel to other countries without harassment.
An estimated several thousand persons are imprisoned because of alleged support for or membership in Islamist groups seeking to overthrow the Government. The Government states that these persons are in detention because of membership in or activities on behalf of violent extremist groups, without regard to their religious affiliation. During the period covered by this report, security forces arrested large numbers of persons allegedly associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Most observers believe that the Government was seeking to undermine Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated candidates in the elections to the People's Assembly, the Shura Council, and professional syndicates.
In past years, Coptic Christians have been the objects of occasional violent assaults by the Islamic Group and other terrorists. Some Christians have alleged that the Government is lax in protecting Christian lives and property. However, there were no reports of terrorist attacks against Christians during the period covered by this report.
Forced Religious Conversion
There were reports of forced conversions of Coptic girls to Islam by Muslim men. Reports of such cases are disputed and often include inflammatory allegations and categorical denials of kidnapping and rape. Observers, including human rights groups, find it extremely difficult to determine whether compulsion was used, as most cases involve a Coptic girl who converts to Islam when she marries a Muslim boy. According to the Government, in such cases the girl must meet with her family, with her priest, and with the head of her church before she is allowed to convert. There were no reports of forced religious conversion carried out by the Government. However, there are credible reports of Government harassment of Christian families that attempt to regain custody of their daughters, and of the failure of the authorities to uphold the law (which states that a marriage of a girl under the age of 16 is prohibited, and between the ages of 16 and 21 is illegal, without the approval and presence of her guardian) in cases of marriage between an underage Christian girl and a Muslim boy.
There were no reports of the forced religious conversion of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the Government's refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States.
Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom
During the period covered by this report, the Government took several steps to promote and improve religious freedom and tolerance. For example, government primary, middle, and secondary schools began using a new history curriculum incorporating the Coptic and Byzantine periods of Egyptian history. The curriculum was developed over several years with the advice and support of Christian intellectuals and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
President Mubarak's December 1999 decree making the repair of all places of worship subject to a 1976 civil construction code continued to facilitate church repairs. In two instances during the period covered by this report, President Mubarak intervened to reverse orders to demolish buildings belonging to Christians churches, in one of the cases ordering that a building be rebuilt at the government's expense.
In November 2000, three Christians were elected to the People's Assembly (the first to be elected to parliament in 10 years), and President Mubarak appointed an additional four Christians to the People's Assembly.
In contrast to previous years, there were no reports during the period covered by this report that converts to Christianity were subjected to harassment by the security services. Hassan Mohamed Ismail Mohamed, one of four converts previously prevented from traveling, was able to travel abroad in August 2000.
In May 2001, President Mubarak inaugurated a complex, run by the Ministry of Tourism, to support religious tourism in Old Cairo, a district that includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holy places. The Ministry of Housing and the organization American Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Athra Kadisha are expected to complete construction of a highway-bridge through the ancient Basatin Jewish Cemetery in Cairo in October 2001. The project is designed to be a modern highway--part of Cairo's Ring Road--that traverses a cemetery but respects Jewish religious strictures against moving or disturbing burial sites.
In September 2000, the Government extended official recognition to the Maadi Community Church, an independent interdenominational church, thereby allowing the church to buy property and hold services.
In May 2001, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny declared the burial place of Rabbi Ya'coub Abu Hasira an official antiquity site protected by the Government.
Building on actions first taken in late 1999, government-owned television and radio continued to expand the amount of programming time devoted to Christian issues, including live broadcast of Christmas and Easter services and documentaries on the country's monasteries and other aspects of Christian history. In August 2000, a version of Sesame Street especially designed for the country by the Children's Television Workshop with assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) began broadcasting. Among the aims of the program is the promotion of tolerance, and one of the principal characters is a Christian. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in December 2000, the most popular miniseries on government television was a drama explicitly addressing issues related to Muslim-Christian relations in the country; the drama provoked widespread public debate in print and broadcast media. There were no discriminatory programs in the broadcast media. Government and independent newspapers published a broad spectrum of news and views on religious topics, including respectful debates between Christian and Muslim clerics.
The Minister of Education has developed and distributed curricular materials instructing teachers in government schools to discuss and promote tolerance in teaching.
Section III. Societal Attitudes
Muslims and Christians share a common history and national identity. They also share the same ethnicity, race, culture, and language. Christians are geographically dispersed throughout the country, and Christians and Muslims live as neighbors. At times religious tensions flare up, and individual acts of prejudice occur. Members of both faiths practice discrimination. The majority of citizens agree that more needs to be done to eliminate discrimination, but argue that development of the economy, polity, and society is the most effective and enduring way to abolish social prejudice.
On July 26, 2000, gunmen killed Christian farmer Magdy Ayyad Mus'ad and wounded five other persons in Giza province, allegedly because of objections to a church Mus'ad built. Authorities charged a person with the killing but released the suspect on bail in October 2000; by the end of the period covered by this report, no trial date had been set. On December 11, 2000, Father Hezkiyal Ghebriyal, a 75-year-old Coptic Orthodox priest, was stabbed and seriously wounded in the village of Bardis, near Sohag. Police arrested the suspected attacker. At the end of the period covered by this report the suspect remained in prison pending an ongoing investigation. Several other Christians were wounded in sectarian disputes in other provinces, including 4 in Fayoum in August 2000, 3 in Minya in October 2000, and 8 in Alexandria in December 2000. The authorities arrested Muslims and Christian suspects in several of these incidents, but all had been released by the end of the period covered by this report. The case of Ahmad and Ibrahim Nasir, who were sentenced to 7 years in prison for the September 1999 murder of a monk in Assiut, remained pending at the end of the period covered by this report. The Court of Cassation had not yet set a date to hear an appeal by the Public Prosecutor seeking a heavier sentence.
A trade dispute between a Christian clothing merchant and a Muslim customer that occurred on December 31, 1999, in the village of Al-Kush in Sohag governorate, escalated into violent exchanges between Muslims and Christians in the area, and resulted in the death of 21 Christians and 1 Muslim by January 2, 2000. The violence also resulted in the injuries to 39 persons in Al-Kush and 5 persons in the neighboring municipality of Dar Al-Salaam. Approximately 200 businesses and homes in the area were damaged.
On September 5, 2000, the Sohag Criminal Court convicted 20 defendants of the crimes committed in Dar Al-Salaam, including assault, arson, and vandalism (there were no deaths in Dar Al-Salaam) and acquitted 19 others. Four were convicted in absentia to 10 years in prison but were retried and acquitted upon turning themselves in to authorities. Four were sentenced to 2 years in prison, 11 to 1 year, and 1 to 6 months; the sentences were criticized as too lenient by the Christian community. Ninety-six persons (58 Muslims and 38 Christians) were accused of crimes committed in Al-Kush, including 43 charged with murder or attempted murder. On December 7, 2000, the Sohag court released all 89 defendants in custody (7 remained at large) on personal recognizance, reportedly to allow them to spend Muslim and Christian holidays with their families. On February 5, 2001, the court handed down the verdicts, acquitting 92 of the 96 defendants for the crimes committed in Al-Kush. One defendant was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 3 defendants were convicted of arson and sentenced to 1 year in prison. The lead judge justified the verdicts, citing inadequate evidence. On February 22, the Public Prosecutor contested the verdicts and called for a retrial before a different circuit. The Court of Cassation set a hearing date of May 21, 2001 to look into the case, postponing the verdict until July 30, 2001. The Christian community, including Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda, protested the initial verdicts in the Al-Kush case and expressed relief at the Public Prosecutor's contestation.
While there is no legal requirement for a Christian girl or woman to convert to Islam in order to marry a Muslim (see Section II), conversion to Islam is sometimes used to circumvent the legal prohibition on marriage between the ages of 16 and 21 without the approval and presence of the girl's guardian. Most Christian families would object to a daughter's wish to marry a Muslim; if a Christian woman marries a Muslim man, she is excommunicated by the Church. According to the Government, a Christian family whose minor daughter converts to Islam retains guardianship over her, but in practice local authorities sometimes allow transfer to a Muslim custodian, who is likely to grant approval for an underage marriage. The law is silent on the matter of the acceptable age of conversion. Ignorance of the law and social pressure, including the centrality of marriage to a woman's identity, often affect a girl's decision to convert (see Section II). Family conflict and financial pressure also are cited as factors.
Official relations between Christian and Muslim religious figures are amicable, and include reciprocal visits to religious celebrations. In 1998 a committee on dialog was established in 1998 by the Vatican and Al-Azhar, the country's foremost Islamic institution and a preeminent seminary of Sunni Islamic study. Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Awqaf engage in other interfaith discussions, both within the country and in other countries. The Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) supports the Forum for Intercultural Dialog. In February 2001, the Forum and the Ministry of Awqaf began a year-long program to reach common positions on a number of issues of national importance. In May 2001, in collaboration with Alexandria University, the Forum held a 3-day conference entitled "The Role of the Library of Alexandria in Supporting a Culture of Dialogue and Tolerance." Dozens of prominent intellectuals, Muslim and Christian clerics, and journalists participated in the conference. Other informal interfaith discussions took place as well. For example, on June 28, 2001, Al-Azhar, the Ministry of Awqaf, and CEOSS held a conference at the Red Sea resort of Ain Sukhna; the conference emphasized themes of religious tolerance and unity in Egypt. Private Christian schools admit Muslim students, and religious charities serve both communities.
Anti-Semitism is found in both the government press and in the nonofficial press of the opposition parties, and increased in late 2000 and throughout 2001 following the outbreak of violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories (see Section II). However, there were no anti-Semitic incidents during the period covered by this report directed at the tiny Jewish community.
On June 17, 2001, the Al-Naba' newspaper published an article involving alleged sexual misconduct in a Coptic Orthodox monastery. The article provoked unusual demonstrations by Coptic Christians in Cairo from June 17 to 20, during which demonstrators criticized both the Government and the church leadership for treatment of a number of issues, including discrimination against Christians and the Al-Kush trial. On June 20, a demonstration at the Coptic Orthodox Church headquarters turned violent, and several demonstrators and police officers were hospitalized with minor injuries. Police detained 22 demonstrators on suspicion of illegal public assembly and damaging public property; by the end of the period covered by this report, 19 demonstrators had been released on bail awaiting trial and 3 remained in detention. All 22 of the demonstrators are charged with illegal assembly and damaging public property. On July 3, 2001, the remaining 3 demonstrators were released on bail. No information on the demonstrators' trial date was available by the end of the period covered by this report.
The Coptic Orthodox Church and the Government reacted strongly to the story in Al-Naba'. The Coptic Orthodox Church promptly announced that the monk in question had been defrocked 5 years earlier and that it would sue Mamdouh Mahran, the publisher of al-Naba'. The Public Prosecutor referred Mahran to a State Security Court for trial on charges of undermining public order and social peace and spreading misinformation; the trial began June 24, 2001. The Speaker of the Shura Council also referred to the State Council Administrative Court a request to withdraw publishing licenses from Al-Naba' and its sister publication Akher Khabar. The case was pending at the end of the period covered by this report.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The subject of religious freedom is an important part of the bilateral dialog. The subject has been raised at all levels of government, including by the President, Secretary of State, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, the U.S. Ambassador, and other embassy officials. The Embassy maintains formal contacts with the Office of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition the Ambassador has discussed religious freedom with senior government officials and religious leaders. The Embassy also discusses religious freedom issues regularly in contacts with other government officials, including governors and Members of Parliament. Visiting congressional delegations have raised religious freedom issues during visits with government officials.
In January 2001, the Director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom visited the country and met with government officials and community activists. In March 2001, members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, including the Chairman and Vice Chairman, visited the country. Although some citizens and organizations boycotted the visit on the grounds that the Commissioners were interfering in the country's internal affairs, the commissioners met with a broad range of government ministers and other officials, Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, other Christian and Muslim clerics, and many private citizens concerned with religious freedom. The Commissioners and embassy staff also met with some imprisoned Baha'is (see Section II).
The U.S. Embassy maintains an active dialog with the leaders of the Christian and Muslim religious communities, human rights groups, and other activists. The Embassy investigates every complaint of religious discrimination brought to its attention. During a public speech in March 2001, the former U.S. Ambassador criticized anti-Semitism in the media. The Embassy also discusses religious freedom with a range of contacts, including academics, businessmen, and citizens outside of the capital area.
The U.S. Mission, including the Department of State and USAID, works to expand human rights and to ameliorate the conditions that contribute to religious strife by promoting economic, social, and political development. U.S. programs and activities support initiatives in several areas directly related to religious freedom.
The Mission is working to strengthen civil society, including training for nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) that promote religious tolerance. In April 2000, the Nongovernmental Organization Service Center was funded by USAID to provide training, technical assistance, and grants to domestic NGO's. By the end of the period covered by this report, the Center had given over $1 million in grants to 52 NGO's and had provided training for over 1,400 NGO representatives. The Embassy has nominated participants interested in advocacy for the State Department's International Visitor Program, and invited American specialists in this subject to speak in the country. In addition, USAID supports a major effort to improve the administration of justice, and State Department exchange activities promote legal reform and access to justice.
The U.S. Mission also promotes civic education. The public affairs section of the Embassy supports the development of materials that encourage tolerance, diversity, and understanding of others, in both Arabic-language and English-language curriculums. USAID, in collaboration with the Children's Television Workshop, developed an Egyptian version of the television program Sesame Street, which is designed to reach remote households and has as one of its goals the promotion of tolerance. The program began broadcasting in August 2000 and is estimated to reach one-third of school age children (see Section II). USAID also supports private voluntary organizations that are implementing innovative curriculums in private schools. The public affairs section of the Embassy is leading an effort to increase the professionalism of the press, with an emphasis on balanced and responsible coverage. Finally USAID is working with the Supreme Council of Antiquities to promote the conservation of cultural antiquities, including Islamic, Christian, and Jewish historical sites. | <urn:uuid:c110c092-2ba4-402d-8792-3b74fb5fedf4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/relegypt01.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966436 | 8,484 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Kindergarten teachers are responsible for actively supporting children’s development and learning. There is no magic formula for doing this. Successful teachers use their knowledge and judgment to make decisions about the materials, interactions, and learning experiences likely to be most effective for the group and each individual child.
Below are descriptions of teaching strategies that are key to the effective teacher’s repertoire. Certainly others exist, and there are many variations. Moreover, strategies often are used in combination; in a single supportive interaction, for example, a teacher might both acknowledge a child’s actions and give her a cue or challenge (“Marlena, I noticed that you split a set of five cubes into a set of three and a set of two. Is there a different way? How many ways can you find?”).
Ask questions: Move beyond recall questions (“What color is this?”) and ask well-designed and timely questions that encourage the children to explain their thinking, express ideas and actions verbally, describe ideas and strategies in detail, justify decisions made, draw connections, and push them to think in new ways (e.g., “Some of you were shaking your head. Do you have a different idea?”; “What do you think would happen if you tried it again? Do you think you’d see the same thing? Why? Why not?”).
Link the new to the familiar: Help students relate new concepts and information to what they already know and are interested in to help them remember and use what they learn (e.g., “Has something like this ever happened to you before? What happened?” [Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011, 133]; “That’s like the book we read earlier this week. They both have the same ending”).
Listen attentively: Pay close attention to find meaning in what a child says, or doesn’t say, with words and body language. This tells the child that she is cared for, interesting, and considered important. It also allows for genuine opportunities to deeply understand children’s thinking, understanding, and possible misconceptions (e.g., kneeling down to be at the child’s level, the teacher says, “Maria, I see that you have finished painting. Tell me about your work”; “Your face tells me that you are frustrated. How can I help?”) (see Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011).
Offer choices: Strategically offer choices to children in order for them to practice decision making and become more involved in their learning—thus exerting more effort in their work—while boosting social and cognitive abilities. Choices also enable students to feel empowered, become more independent, and gain ownership over their work (Gronlund 2010) (e.g., “There are three activities to complete today. Think about which one you plan to do first. What will be your second choice? What will be your third choice?”; “Decide if you would like to work with a partner or if you would like to work by yourself today”).
Support reflection: Provide opportunities for children to reflect on their actions and their thoughts and integrate new information into what is already known. When children engage in reflective thought, they consider new information and develop understanding and reasoned thinking (e.g., “Think about why you think this is true”; “I wonder why . . . ”; “What do you think will happen when you pour that into this container? Why do you think so?”) (Zambo & Zambo 2008).
Use rich vocabulary: Introduce complex and different words to children to expand their vocabularies, a link to school success (Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011) (e.g., “You’re curious about that word, aren’t you? I’ll read that part again. Do you have any guesses about what it means?” (116); “I think that’s an interesting word, too. Shall we add that word to our chart?”).
Create or add challenge: Generate a problem or add difficulty to a task or step so that it is a bit beyond what children have already mastered (e.g., once a child counts up to five items accurately, begin engaging him in counting sets of six to eight). Or reduce the challenge to meet children where they are (e.g., if a child is unable to count a set of five items accurately, give him a smaller amount, such as three).
Encourage: Offer comments or nonverbal actions that promote the child’s persistence and effort (e.g., “That wasn’t easy, but you kept trying different strategies. You really persevered”), rather than giving the child non-specific evaluative praise (“Good job, Ben”).
Foster dialogue and communication: Extend children’s language awareness, understanding, and thinking by engaging them in conversations (see Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011). Also, provide opportunities for students to interact with one another and exchange ideas, predictions, and outcomes while applying knowledge and skills as ideas are explored and problems are solved (e.g., “Tell me more about that”; “With your partner, investigate the different seeds. Tell each other what you see”; “Maria and Jose are thinking that the plant will grow if we do what Jacob and Shakila suggested. What do the rest of you think? Do you think Jacob and Shakila’s idea will work, or do you have a different idea?”).
Excerpted from Basics of Developmentally Appropriate Practice: An Introduction for Teachers of Kindergartners, by E.C. Phillips & A. Scrinzi, 41–43. 2013. Copyright © National Association for the Education of Young Children. | <urn:uuid:07a818e4-a81a-427c-8d04-55ba1778bb27> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://naeyc.org/books/basics_of_developmentally_appropriate_practice_kindergarten_excerpt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956425 | 1,260 | 4.21875 | 4 |
Posted May 01, 2010 06:10 am CDT
Robots may now be confined to sweeping living rooms and working assembly lines, but futurists and attorneys agree they are destined to take on a much greater role soon. Bill Gates has compared the development of robots to the earliest personal computers in the 1970s.
However, unlike that stationary pile of microchips on your desktop, robots have the potential to act in the real world. Attorneys and legal scholars are now puzzling over how harmful actions of robots will be assigned liability, and particularly how robotic maneuvers will fit into traditional legal concepts of responsibility and agency.
“Robots present a unique situation,” says Ryan Calo, a fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “Like the computer, it runs on software, but it can touch you. It doesn’t have a particular purpose like a lawn mower or a toaster; it’s more like a platform that you can program to do all kinds of different things. And it can act on the world, so it has legal repercussions. It might be very difficult to ascertain where the liability lies when a robot causes some physical harm.”
One possible avenue would be to view the robot as an agent of its owner, who would be presumed liable for the robot’s actions, but Calo says it’s not so simple. He has blogged about robotics and the law, and led a panel on the subject last year.
“Let’s say you rent a robot from the hospital to take care of Granny, and the neighborhood kids hack into the robot and it menaces Granny and she falls down the stairs. Who’s liable?” he asks. Possibilities include the hospital (which released it), the manufacturer (it’s easy to hack into), the neighborhood kids, or the consumer who failed to do something easy like update the software.
Damages are another puzzler. for defective software, society applies the economic-loss rule so that a consumer could sue Microsoft for the value of the software, but not for any subsequent harm the defective software may have caused.
“Society tolerates Microsoft Word eating your thesis, but it won’t tolerate a robot running into somebody,” Calo says. “If you look at cases where computers have caused physical injury, then you could recover—for example, if the computer gave a cancer patient too much radiation.”
Calo favors limited immunity for the robot industry, similar to section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which gives “interactive computer services” immunity for information put on their sites.
“There is a real danger if there is complete legal uncertainty and you have a couple of bad incidents involving sympathetic plaintiffs,” Calo says. “That could put a chill on robot development.”
Attempts to get comment for this article from manufacturers of today’s robots were unsuccessful.
Stephen S. Wu, a partner at Cooke Kobrick & Wu in Los Altos, Calif., and incoming chair of the ABA’s Section of Science & Technology Law, says society is prepared to deal with robots in the next five to 10 years. But cases for product liability involving robots could ramp up with the anticipated increased use of automated machines, Wu says, citing a study that predicts half the highway miles in 2030 will be driven robotically.
“In the longer run, though, you have to think about robots having intelligence that could surpass our own,” Wu says. “And then we could say if the robots are more intelligent than we are, maybe they should have intellectual property rights.”
Dan Siciliano, faculty director of the corporate governance center at Stanford University, says robot law will most likely develop as an extension of traditional legal concepts. He expects plaintiffs lawyers will “name everybody” in the putative suit for damage caused by robots. “You will see liability work its way up the chain,” he says.
And don’t be surprised to see some green lizard on your TV one day touting a brand-new form of society’s most traditional risk-spreading tool: robot insurance. | <urn:uuid:60d5d21e-1a72-48dc-b1ed-6cdaf43dcecc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/robot_rules/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944753 | 884 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What is binding?
According to your favorite dictionary (mine is http://www.dictionary.com), "bind" means to tie, fasten or secure. In RPC-style distributed computing, you need to bind a client to a server, which means that you must select the specific server you want to connect to, and then you must determine the specific details required to make the connection. Those specifc details constitute a "binding". It includes the endpoints of the communication, as well as the concrete protocols used to represent the message on the wire and the network protocols used to transfer the message.
In Web services you decribe a binding using the WSDL <binding> element.
Dig Deeper on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Related Q&A from Anne Thomas Manes
Anne Thomas Manes explains the differences between open source clients and open source implementations.continue reading
Anne Thomas Manes discusses the best way to go about creating an enterprise data dictionary and why the systems works well.continue reading
Anne Thomas Manes explains the difference between 'hard' real time and 'live' real time systems.continue reading
Have a question for an expert?
Please add a title for your question
Get answers from a TechTarget expert on whatever's puzzling you. | <urn:uuid:9ea5f181-aac7-488b-9bf2-4ae1a37fed7f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/answer/What-is-binding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.867478 | 264 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Human Foot is incredibly complex in structure. It consists of The 26 bones consist of 14 phalanges, 5 metatarsals and 7 tarsal bones. You can broadly classify the foot into forefoot, midfoot and hindfoot.
Structure of the Foot:
Forefoot -The forefoot consists of five metatarsal bones with the phalanges or toes. Metatarsal bones are strongest of the foot bones. The first metatarsal is responsible for bearing weight although it is the shortest of the metatarsals. It is associated with several tendons. The second, third and fourth metatarsals provide stability to the foot. They are associated only with minor tendons. On the plantar surface, slightly above the first metatarsal are two sesamoid bones. One is small oval shaped bone that develops inside a tendon. These small bones are well supported by tendons and ligaments. The forefoot also consists of 14 phalangeal bones.
Midfoot ““ The midfoot consists of five tarsal bones of the total seven tarsal bones. These tarsal bones are usually navicular, cuboid and three cuneiform. This gives a scope for the presence of multiple joints within the midfoot. The midfoot is then connected to the forefoot by Tarsometatarsal joints. The cuneiforms, navicular and cuboid bones of the midfoot play a significant role in determining the total foot structure.
Hindfoot ““ The calcaneus and the talus bones constitute the hindfoot. The largest tarsal bone that forms the heel is known as Calcaneus and Talus forms the pivot of the ankle.
There are 20 muscles in the foot responsible for giving the foot shape. They hold the bones in their position and give flexibility to the foot during movements.
The primary muscles of the foot are ““
- The Anterior Tibial muscle ““ It allows the upward movement of the foot.
- The Posterior Tibial muscle ““ It supports the arch of the foot.
- The Peroneal tibial ““ It controls the outside movement of the ankle.
- The Extensors ““ These muscles initiate the step and help raise the toes and ankles.
- The Flexors ““ These muscles help in stabilizing the toes against the ground.
There are smaller muscles that help the toes to lift and curl.
Apart from muscles there are tendons. Tendons are elastic tissues that connect muscles to the bones and joints. The strongest and biggest tendon in the foot is the Achilles tendon. It extends from the calf muscle down to the heels. It facilitates running, jumping, walking, climbing stairs and standing on toes.
Ligaments are responsible for holding the tendons in their place and stabilizing the joints. The longest ligament is plantar fascia. It causes the formation of the arch on the foot sole, extending from the toes to the heel. Its expansion and contraction allows the curving and flattening of the arch while walking. Plantar fascia provides balance and strength to the foot so that it bears the entire body’s weight. There are medial ligaments, located on the inside of the foot and there are lateral ligaments located on the outside of the foot providing stability enabling the foot’s upward and downward movement.
Foot And Toe Movement
The movement of the toe takes place at the joints. The joints are able to move in two directions that is in plantar flexion or in dorsiflexion motion. Apart from this joints also allow adduction and abduction movements of the toes as well.
The foot on the whole performs two movement eversion and inversion. All the joints present both in the hind foot and in the mid foot play a major role in the complex movements which combine together for the movement of the ankle joint.
Arches of the Foot:
There three arches in a foot. They are:
- The Medial Longitudinal Arch:This arch is the highest arch in the foot and is the most important one too. It comprises of the first three metatarsals along with along with the navicular, talus, calcaneus, cuneiforms.
- The Lateral Longitudinal Arch:This arch is lower and flat as compared to the medial arch. It is comprises of fifth and fourth metatarsals along with the cuboid and calcaneus bones.
- The Transverse Arch: This arch comprises of the five metatarsal bases along with the cuneiform and cuboid bones.
The arches of the foot are balanced by the bones, tendons and the muscles of the foot which maintain the proper shape of the arches and also provide support to them.
Muscles of the Foot:
There are basically two types of muscles in the foot. They are:
- Intrinsic Muscles: These are located inside the foot and helps in the movement of the toes. The various types of intrinsic muscles comprises of extensors or dorsiflexors, flexors or plantar flexors and adductors of the toes. Most of these intrinsic muscles help in supporting the arches of the foot.
- Extrinsic Muscles:These muscles are located on the outer side of the foot in the lower part of the leg. Most of these muscles comprise of gastrocnemius muscles or the calf muscles. These muscles have long tendons which connect the ankle and the muscles on the foot bones and help them in their movement. But the bone of talus does not have any tendon attachments. | <urn:uuid:f51e9e1f-272a-44bd-bd0e-ff5372a2bfda> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://footcare.ygoy.com/foot-structure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925422 | 1,174 | 4 | 4 |
One of the most popular of the MPLS applications is called MPLS virtual private networks (VPNs). MPLS VPNs allow a service provider, or even a large enterprise, to offer Layer 3 VPN services. In particular, SPs oftentimes replace older Layer 2 WAN services such as Frame Relay and ATM with an MPLS VPN service. MPLS VPN services enable the possibility for the SP to provide a wide variety of additional services to its customers because MPLS VPNs are aware of the Layer 3 addresses at the customer locations. Additionally, MPLS VPNS can still provide the privacy inherent in Layer 2 WAN services.
MPLS VPNs use MPLS unicast IP forwarding inside the SP's network, with additional MPLS-aware features at the edge between the provider and the customer. Additionally, MPLS VPNs use MP-BGP to overcome some of the challenges when connecting an IP network to a large number of customer IP internetworks—problems that include the issue of dealing with duplicate IP address spaces with many customers.
This section begins by examining some of the problems with providing Layer 3 services and then shows the core features of MPLS that solve those problems.
The Problem: Duplicate Customer Address Ranges
When an SP connects to a wide variety of customers using a Layer 2 WAN service such as Frame Relay or ATM, the SP does not care about the IP addressing and subnets used by those customers. However, in order to migrate those same customers to a Layer 3 WAN service, the SP must learn address ranges from the various customers and then advertise those routes into the SP's network. However, even if the SP wanted to know about all subnets from all its customers, many enterprises use the same address ranges—namely, the private IP network numbers, including the ever-popular network 10.0.0.0.
If you tried to support multiple customers using MPLS unicast IP routing alone, the routers would be confused by the overlapping prefixes, as shown in Figure 19-11. In this case, the network shows five of the SP's routers inside a cloud. Three customers (A, B, and C) are shown, with two customer routers connected to the SP's network. All three customers use network 10.0.0.0, with the three customer sites on the right all using subnet 10.3.3.0/24.
Figure 19-11 The Main Challenge with Supporting Layer 3 VPNs
The first and most basic goal for a Layer 3 VPN service is to allow customer A sites to communicate with customer A sites—and only customer A sites. However, the network in Figure 19-11 fails to meet this goal for several reasons. Because of the overlapping address spaces, several routers would be faced with the dilemma of choosing one customer's route to 10.3.3.0/24 as the best route, and ignoring the route to 10.3.3.0/24 learned from another customer. For example, PE2 would learn about two different 10.3.3.0/24 prefixes. If PE2 chooses one of the two possible routes—for example, if PE2 picked the route to CE-A2 as best—then PE2 could not forward packets to customer B's 10.3.3.0/24 off router CE-B2. Also, a possibly worse effect is that hosts in one customer site may be able to send and receive packets with hosts in another customer's network. Following this same example, hosts in customer B and C sites could forward packets to subnet 10.3.3.0/24, and the routers might forward these packets to customer A's CE-A2 router.
The Solution: MPLS VPNs
The protocols and standards defined by MPLS VPNs solve the problems shown in Figure 19-11 and provide a much larger set of features. In particular, the MPLS VPN RFCs define the concept of using multiple routing tables, called Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) tables, which separate customer routes to avoid the duplicate address range issue. This section defines some key terminology and introduces the basics of MPLS VPN mechanics.
MPLS uses three terms to describe the role of a router when building MPLS VPNs. Note that the names used for the routers in most of the figures in this chapter have followed the convention of identifying the type of router as CE, PE, or P, as listed here.
- Customer edge (CE)—A router that has no knowledge of MPLS protocols and does not send any labeled packets but is directly connected to an LSR (PE) in the MPLS VPN.
- Provider edge (PE)—An LSR that shares a link with at least one CE router, thereby providing function particular to the edge of the MPLS VPN, including IBGP and VRF tables
- Provider (P)—An LSR that does not have a direct link to a CE router, which allows the router to just forward labeled packets, and allows the LSR to ignore customer VPNs' routes
The key to understanding the general idea of how MPLS VPNs work is to focus on the control plane distinctions between PE routers and P routers. Both P and PE routers run LDP and an IGP to support unicast IP routing—just as was described in the first half of this chapter. However, the IGP advertises routes only for subnets inside the MPLS network, with no customer routes included. As a result, the P and PE routers can together label switch packets from the ingress PE to the egress PE.
PEs have several other duties as well, all geared toward the issue of learning customer routes and keeping track of which routes belong to which customers. PEs exchange routes with the connected CE routers from various customers, using either EBGP, RIP-2, OSPF, or EIGRP, noting which routes are learned from which customers. To keep track of the possibly overlapping prefixes, PE routers do not put the routes in the normal IP routing table—instead, PEs store those routes in separate per-customer routing tables, called VRFs. Then the PEs use IBGP to exchange these customer routes with other PEs—never advertising the routes to the P routers. Figure 19-12 shows the control plane concepts.
Figure 19-12 Overview of the MPLS VPN Control Plane
The MPLS VPN data plane also requires more work and thought by the PE routers. The PE routers do not have any additional work to do, with one small exception, as compared with simple unicast IP routing. The extra work for the PE relates to the fact that the MPLS VPN data plane causes the ingress PE to place two labels on the packet, as follows:
- An outer MPLS header (S-bit = 0), with a label value that causes the packet to be label switched to the egress PE
- An inner MPLS header (S-bit = 1), with a label that identifies the egress VRF on which to base the forwarding decision
Figure 19-13 shows a general conceptual view of the two labels and the forwarding process. The figure shows a subset of Figure 19-12, with parts removed to reduce clutter. In this case, a host in customer A on the left side of the figure sends a packet to host 10.3.3.3, located on the right side of the figure.
Figure 19-13 Overview of the MPLS VPN Data Plane
The figure shows the following steps:
- CE1 forwards an unlabeled packet to PE1.
- PE1, having received the packet in an interface assigned to VRF-A, compares the packet's destination (10.3.3.3) to the VRF-A CEF FIB, which is based on VRF-A's routing table. PE1 adds two labels based on the FIB and forwards the labeled packet.
- P1, acting just the same as with unicast IP routing, processes the received labeled packet using its LFIB, which simply causes a label swap. P1 forwards the packet to PE2.
- PE2's LFIB entry for label 2222 lists a pop action, causing PE2 to remove the outer label. PE2's LFIB entry for label 3333, populated based on the VRF for customer A's VPN, also lists a pop action and the outgoing interface. As a result, PE2 forwards the unlabeled packet to CE2.
The control plane and data plane processes described around Figures 19-12 and 19-13 outline the basics of how MPLS VPNs work. Next, the chapter takes the explanations a little deeper with a closer look at the new data structures and control plane processes that support MPLS VPNs.
The MPLS VPN Control Plane
The MPLS VPN control plane defines protocols and mechanisms to overcome the problems created by overlapping customer IP address spaces, while adding mechanisms to add more functionality to an MPLS VPN, particularly as compared to traditional Layer 2 WAN services. To understand the mechanics, you need a good understanding of BGP, IGPs, and several new concepts created by both MP-BGP RFCs and MPLS RFCs. In particular, this section introduces and explains the concepts behind three new concepts created for MPLS VPNs:
- Route Distinguishers (RDs)
- Route Targets (RTs)
The next several pages of text examine these topics in order. While reading the rest of the MPLS VPN coverage in this chapter, note that the text will keep expanding a single example. The example focuses on how the control plane learns about routes to the duplicate customer subnets 10.3.3.0/24 on the right side of Figure 19-12, puts the routes into the VRFs on PE2, and advertises the routes with RDs over to PE1 and then how RTs then dictate how PE1 adds the routes to its VRFs.
Virtual Routing and Forwarding Tables
To support multiple customers, MPLS VPN standards include the concept of a virtual router. This feature, called a VRF table, can be used to store routes separately for different customer VPNs. The use of separate tables solves part of the problems of preventing one customer's packets from leaking into another customer's network due to overlapping prefixes, while allowing all sites in the same customer VPN to communicate.
A VRF exists inside a single MPLS-aware router. Typically, routers need at least one VRF for each customer attached to that particular router. For example, in Figure 19-12, router PE2 connects to CE routers in customers A and B but not in customer C, so PE2 would not need a VRF for customer C. However, PE1 connects to CE routers for three customers, so PE1 will need three different VRFs.
For more complex designs, a PE might need multiple VRFs to support a single customer. Using Figure 19-12 again as an example, PE1 connects to two CEs of customer A (CE-A1 and CE-A4). If hosts near CE-A1 were allowed to access a centralized shared service (not shown in the figure) and hosts near CE-A4 were not allowed access, then PE1 would need two VRFs for customer A—one with routes for the shared service's subnets and one without those routes.
Each VRF has three main components, as follows:
- An IP routing table (RIB)
- A CEF FIB, populated based on that VRF's RIB
- A separate instance or process of the routing protocol used to exchange routes with the CEs that need to be supported by the VRF
For example, Figure 19-14 shows more detail about router PE2 from Figure 19-12, now with MPLS VPNs implemented. In this case, PE2 will use RIP-2 as the IGP to both customer A (router CE-A2) and customer B (router CE-B2). (The choice of routing protocol used from PE-CE is unimportant to the depth of explanations shown here.)
Figure 19-14 Adding Routes Learned from a CE to VRFs on Router PE2
The figure shows three parallel steps that occur with each of the two customers. Note that step 1 for each customer does not occur at the same instant in time, nor does step 2, nor step 3; the figure lists these steps with the same numbers because the same function occurs at each step. The explanation of the steps is as follows:
- The CE router, which has no knowledge of MPLS at all, advertises a route for 10.3.3.0/24 as normal—in this case with RIP-2.
- In the top instance of step 2, the RIP-2 update arrives on PE3's S0/1/0, which has been assigned to customer A's VRF, VRF-A. PE2 uses a separate RIP process for each VRF, so PE2's VRF-A RIP process interprets the update. Similarly, the VRF-B RIP process analyzes the update received on S0/1/1 from CE-B2.
- In the top instance of step 3, the VRF-A RIP process adds an entry for 10.3.3.0/24 to the RIB for VRF-A. Similarly, the bottom instance of step 3 shows the RIP process for VRF-B adding a route to prefix 10.3.3.0/24 to the VRF-B RIB.
MP-BGP and Route Distinguishers
Now that PE2 has learned routes from both CE-A2 and CE-B2, PE2 needs to advertise those routes to the other PEs, in order for the other PEs to know how to forward packets to the newly learned subnets. MPLS VPN protocols define the use of IBGP to advertise the routes—all the routes, from all the different VRFs. However, the original BGP specifications did not provide a way to deal with the fact that different customers may use overlapping prefixes.
MPLS deals with the overlapping prefix problem by adding another number in front of the original BGP NLRI (prefix). Each different number can represent a different customer, making the NLRI values unique. To do this, MPLS took advantage of a BGP RFC, called MP-BGP (RFC 4760), which allows for the re-definition of the NLRI field in BGP Updates. This re-definition allows for an additional variable-length number, called an address family, to be added in front of the prefix. MPLS RFC 4364, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)," defines a specific new address family to support IPv4 MPLS VPNs—namely, an MP-BGP address family called Route Distinguishers (RDs).
RDs allow BGP to advertise and distinguish between duplicate IPv4 prefixes. The concept is simple: advertise each NLRI (prefix) as the traditional IPv4 prefix, but add another number (the RD) that uniquely identifies the route. In particular, the new NLRI format, called VPN-V4, has the following two parts:
- A 64-bit RD
- A 32-bit IPv4 prefix
For example, Figure 19-15 continues the story from Figure 19-14, with router PE2 using MP-BGP to advertise its two routes for IPv4 prefix 10.3.3.0/24 to PE1—one from VRF-A and one from VRF-B. The BGP Update shows the new VPN-V4 address family format for the NLRI information, using RD 1:111 to represent VPN-A, and 2:222 to represent VPN-B.
Figure 19-15 Making Prefixes Unique Using an RD
Without the RD as part of the VPN-V4 NLRI, PE1 would have learned about two identical BGP prefixes (10.3.3.0/24) and would have had to choose one of the two as the best route—giving PE1 reachability to only one of the two customer 10.3.3.0/24 subnets. With VPN-V4 NLRI, IBGP advertises two unique NLRI—a 1:111:10.3.3.0 (from VRF-A) and 2:222:10.3.3.0 (from VRF-B). As a result, PE1 keeps both NLRI in its BGP table. The specific steps shown in the figure are explained as follows:
- PE2 redistributes from each of the respective per-VRF routing protocol instances (RIP-2 in this case) into BGP.
- The redistribution process pulls the RD from each respective VRF and includes that RD with all routes redistributed from the VRF's routing table.
- PE3 uses IBGP to advertise these routes to PE1, causing PE1 to know both routes for 10.3.3.0/ 24, each with the differing RD values.
The RD itself is 8 bytes with some required formatting conventions. The first 2 bytes identify which of the three formats is followed. Incidentally, because IOS can tell which of the three formats is used based on the value, the IOS rd VRF subcommand only requires that you type the integer values for the last 6 bytes, with IOS inferring the first 2 bytes (the type) based on the value. The last 6 bytes, as typed in the rd command and seen in show commands, follow one of these formats:
In all three cases, the first value (before the colon) should be either an ASN or an IPv4 address. The second value, after the colon, can be any value you wish. For example, you might choose an RD that lists an LSR's BGP ID using the third format, like 220.127.116.11:100, or you may use the BGP ASN, for example, 432:1.
At this point in the ongoing example, PE1 has learned about the two routes for 10.3.3.0/24—one for VPN-A and one for VPN-B—and the routes are in the BGP table. The next section describes how PE1 then chooses the VRFs into which to add these routes, based on the concept of a Route Target.
One of the most perplexing concepts for engineers, when first learning about MPLS VPNs, is the concept of Route Targets. Understanding the basic question of what RTs do is relatively easy, but understanding why MPLS needs RTs and how to best choose the actual values to use for RTs, can be a topic for long conversation when building an MPLS VPN. In fact, MPLS RTs enable MPLS to support all sorts of complex VPN topologies—for example, allowing some sites to be reachable from multiple VPNs, a concept called overlapping VPNs.
PEs advertise RTs in BGP Updates as BGP Extended Community path attributes (PAs). Generally speaking, BGP extended communities are 8 bytes in length, with the flexibility to be used for a wide variety of purposes. More specifically, MPLS defines the use of the BGP Extended Community PA to encode one or more RT values.
RT values follow the same basic format as the values of an RD. However, note that while a particular prefix can have only one RD, that same prefix can have one or more RTs assigned to it.
To best understand how MPLS uses RTs, first consider a more general definition of the purpose of RTs, followed by an example of the mechanics by which PEs use the RT:
- MPLS uses Route Targets to determine into which VRFs a PE places IBGP-learned routes.
Figure 19-16 shows a continuation of the same example in Figures 19-14 and 19-15, now focusing on how the PEs use the RTs to determine into which VRFs a route is added. In this case, the figure shows an export RT—a configuration setting in VRF configuration mode—with a different value configured for VRF-A and VRF-B, respectively. PE1 shows its import RT for each VRF—again a configuration setting in VRF configuration mode—which allows PE1 to choose which BGP table entries it pulls into each VRF's RIB.
Figure 19-16 The Mechanics of the MPLS Route Target
The figure has a lot of details, but the overall flow of concepts is not terribly difficult. Pay particular attention to the last two steps. Following the steps in the figure:
- The two VRFs on PE2 are configured with an export RT value.
- Redistribution out of the VRF into BGP occurs.
- This step simply notes that the export process—the redistribution out of the VRF into BGP—sets the appropriate RT values in PE2's BGP table.
- PE2 advertises the routes with IBGP.
- PE1 examines the new BGP table entries and compares the RT values to the configured import RT values, which identifies which BGP table entries should go into which VRF.
- PE1 redistributes routes into the respective VRFs, specifically the routes whose RTs match the import RT configured in the VRFs, respectively.
Each VRF needs to export and import at least one RT. The example in Figure 19-16 shows only one direction: exporting on the right (PE2) and importing on the left (PE1). However, PE2 needs to know the routes for the subnets connected to CE-A1 and CE-B1, so PE1 needs to learn those routes from the CEs, redistribute them into BGP with some exported RT value, and advertise them to PE2 using IBGP, with PE2 then importing the correct routes (based on PE2's import RTs) into PE2's VRFs.
In fact, for simple VPN implementations, in which each VPN consists of all sites for a single customer, most configurations simply use a single RT value, with each VRF for a customer both importing and exporting that RT value.
MPLS can support overlapping VPNs by virtue of the RT concept. An overlapping VPN occurs when at least one CE site needs to be reachable by CEs in different VPNs.
Many variations of overlapping VPNs exist. An SP may provide services to many customers, so the SP actually implements CE sites that need to be reached by a subset of customers. Some SP customers may want connectivity to one of their partners through the MPLS network—for example, customer A may want some of its sites to be able to send packets to some of customer B's sites.
Regardless of the business goals, the RT concept allows an MPLS network to leak routes from multiple VPNs into a particular VRF. BGP supports the addition of multiple Extended Community PAs to each BGP table entry. By doing so, a single prefix can be exported with one RT that essentially means "make sure all VRFs in VPN-A have this route," while assigning another RT value to that same prefix—an RT that means "leak this route into the VRFs of some overlapping VPN."
Figure 19-17 shows an example of the concepts behind overlapping MPLS VPNs, in particular, a design called a central services VPN. As usual, all customer A sites can send packets to all other customer A sites, and all customer B sites can send packets to all other customer B sites. Also, none of the customer A sites can communicate with the customer B sites. However, in addition to these usual conventions, CE-A1 and CE-B2 can communicate with CE-Serv, which connects to a set of centralized servers.
Figure 19-17 Central Services VPN
To accomplish these design goals, each PE needs several VRFs, with several VRFs exporting and importing multiple RTs. For example, PE1 needs two VRFs to support customer A—one VRF that just imports routes for customer A, and a second VRF that imports customer A routes as well as routes to reach the central services VPN. Similarly, PE2 needs a VRF for the central services VPN, which needs to import some of the routes in VPN-A and VPN-B.
The MPLS VPN Data Plane
The explanations of the VRF, RD, and RT features explain most of the details of the MPLS VPN control plane. VRFs allow PEs to store routes learned from various CEs, even if the prefixes overlap. The RD allows PEs to advertise routes as unique prefixes, even if the IPv4 prefixes happen to overlap. Finally, the RT tells the PEs which routes should be added to each VRF, which provides greater control and the ability to allow sites to be reachable from multiple VPNs.
At the end of the process, however, to support the forwarding of packets, ingress PEs need appropriate FIB entries, with Ps and PEs needing appropriate LFIB entries. This section focuses on explaining how LSRs fill the FIB and LFIB when using MPLS VPNs.
As usual for this chapter, this section focuses on how to forward packets to subnet 10.3.3.0/24 in the customer A VPN. To begin this examination of the MPLS VPN data plane, consider Figure 19-18. This figure repeats the same forwarding example in Figure 19-13 but now shows a few details about the FIB in the ingress PE and the LFIB entries in the P and egress PE routers.
Figure 19-18 The Ingress PE FIB and Other Routers' LFIBs
The numbered steps in the figure are as follows:
- An unlabeled packet arrives on an interface assigned to VRF-A, which will cause ingress PE1 to use VRF-A's FIB to make a forwarding decision.
- Ingress PE1's VRF-A FIB entry for 10.3.3.0/24 lists an outgoing interface of S0/0/1, and a label stack with two labels—an inner label of 3333 and an outer label of 1111. So PE1 forwards the packet with these two labels pushed in front of the IP header.
- P1 uses the LFIB entry for incoming (local) label 1111, swapping this outer label value to 2222.
- PE2 does two LFIB lookups. PE2 finds label 2222 in the table and pops that label, leaving the inner label. Then PE2 looks up the inner label 3333 in the LFIB, noting the pop action as well, along with the outgoing interface. So PE2 forwards the unlabeled packet out interface S0/1/0.
The example shows the mechanics of what happens in the data plane once the correct FIB and LFIB entries have been added. The rest of this topic about the MPLS VPN data plane examines how MPLS VPN LSRs build these correct entries. While reading this section, it is helpful to keep in mind a couple of details about the purpose of the inner and outer label used for MPLS VPNs:
- The outer label identifies the segments of the LSP between the ingress PE and the egress PE, but it does not identify how the egress PE should forward the packet.
- The inner label identifies the egress PE's forwarding details, in particular the outgoing interface for the unlabeled packet.
Building the (Inner) VPN Label
The inner label identifies the outgoing interface out which the egress PE should forward the unlabeled packet. This inner label, called the VPN label, must be allocated for each route added to each customer VRF. More specifically, a customer CE will advertise routes to the PE, with the PE storing those routes in that customer's VRF. In order to prepare to forward packets to those customer subnets, the PE needs to allocate a new local label, associate the label with the prefix (and the route's next-hop IP address and outgoing interface), and store that information in the LFIB.
Figure 19-19 shows PE2's routes for 10.3.3.0/24 in both VRF-A and VRF-B and the resulting LFIB entries. The figure shows the results of PE2's process of allocating a local label for each of the two routes and then also advertising those labels using BGP. (Note that the LFIB is not a per-VRF table; the LFIB is the one and only LFIB for PE2.)
Figure 19-19 Creating the VPN Label LFIB Entry on the Egress PE
The steps shown in the figure are as follows:
- After adding a route for 10.3.3.0/24 to VRF-A, PE2 allocates a local label (3333) to associate with the route. PE2 then stores the local label and corresponding next hop and outgoing interface from VRF-A's route for 10.3.3.0/24 into the LIB (not shown) and LFIB.
- PE2 repeats the logic in Step 1 for each route in each VRF, including the route in VRF-B shown at Step 2. After learning a route for 10.3.3.0/24 in VRF-B, PE2 allocates a different label value (4444), associates that route's next-hop IP address and outgoing interface with the new label, and adds the information to a new LFIB entry.
- PE2 adds the local labels to the BGP table entry for the routes, respectively, when redistributing routes into BGP.
- PE2 uses IBGP to advertise the routes to PE1, with the BGP Update including the VPN label.
As a result of the first two steps in the figure, if PE3 receives a labeled packet and analyzes a label value of 3333, PE2 would be able to forward the packet correctly to CE-A2. Similarly, PE2 could correctly forward a received labeled packet with label 4444 to CE-B2.
Creating LFIB Entries to Forward Packets to the Egress PE
The outer label defines the LSP from the ingress PE to the egress PE. More specifically, it defines an LSP used to forward packets to the BGP next-hop address as advertised in BGP Updates. In concept, the ingress PE adds the outer label to make a request of the core of the MPLS network to "deliver this packet to the egress PE—which advertised this particular BGP next-hop address."
MPLS VPNs use an IGP and LDP to learn routes and labels, specifically to learn the label values to use in the outer label. To link the concepts together, it can be helpful to think of the full control plane process related to the LSP used for the outer label, particularly Step 4 onward:
- A PE, which will be an egress PE for this particular route, learns routes from some CE.
- The egress PE uses IBGP to advertise the routes to an ingress PE.
- The learned IBGP routes list some next-hop IP address.
- For MPLS VPNs to work, the PE and P routers must have advertised a route to reach the BGP next-hop addresses.
- Likewise, for MPLS VPNs to work, the PE and P routers must have advertised labels with LDP for the routes to reach the BGP next-hop addresses.
- Each P and PE router adds its part of the full end-to-end LSP into its LFIB, supporting the ingress PE's ability to send a packet to the egress PE.
For example, Figure 19-19 shows PE2 advertising two routes to PE1, both with BGP next-hop IP address 18.104.22.168. For MPLS to work, the collective PE and P routers need to advertise an IGP route to reach 22.214.171.124, with LDP advertising the labels, so that packets can be label switched toward the egress PE. Figure 19-20 shows the basic process; however, note that this part of the process works exactly like the simple IGP and LDP process shown for unicast IP forwarding in the first half of this chapter.
Figure 19-20 Creating the LFIB Entries to Reach the Egress PE's BGP Next Hop
The steps in the figure focus on the LFIB entries for prefix 126.96.36.199/32, which matches PE2's BGP next-hop IP address, as follows. Note that the figure does not show all LDP advertisements but only those that are particularly interesting to the example.
- PE2, upon learning a route for prefix 188.8.131.52/32, allocates a local label of 2222.
- PE2 updates its LFIB for the local label, listing a pop action.
- As normal, PE2 advertises to its LDP neighbors the label binding of prefix 184.108.40.206/32 with label 2222.
- P1 and P2 both independently learn about prefix 220.127.116.11/32 with the IGP, allocate a local label (1111 on P1 and 5555 on P2), and update their LFIBs.
- P1 and P2 advertise the binding of 18.104.22.168/32, along with their respective local labels, to their peers.
Figure 19-18 showed the FIB and LFIB entries required for forwarding a packet from CE-A1 to CE-A2, specifically into subnet 10.3.3.0/24. Figures 19-19 and 19-20, and their associated text, explained how all the LFIB entries were created. Next, the focus turns to the FIB entry required on PE1.
Creating VRF FIB Entries for the Ingress PE
The last part of the data plane analysis focuses on the ingress PE. In particular, the ingress PE uses the following logic when processing an incoming unlabeled packet:
- Process the incoming packet using the VRF associated with the incoming interface (statically configured).
- Forward the packet using that VRF's FIB.
The FIB entry needs to have two labels to support MPLS VPNs: an outer label that identifies the LSP with which to reach the egress PE, and an inner label that identifies the egress PE's LFIB entry that includes the correct outgoing interface on the egress PE. Although it might be obvious by now, for completeness, the ingress PE learns the outer and inner label values as follows:
- The outer label is based on the LIB entry, specifically for the LIB entry for the prefix that matches the BGP-learned next-hop IP address—not the packet's destination IP address.
- The inner label is based on the BGP table entry for the route in the VRF that matches the packet's destination address.
Figure 19-21 completes the ongoing example by showing the process by which PE1 adds the correct FIB entry into VRF-A for the 10.3.3.0/24 prefix. The figure picks up the story at the point at which PE1 has learned all required BGP and LDP information, and it is ready to populate the VRF routing table and FIB.
Figure 19-21 Creating the Ingress PE (PE1) FIB Entry for VRF-A
PE1's BGP table holds the VPN label (3333), while PE1's LIB holds the two labels learned from PE1's two LDP neighbors (P1 and P2, labels 2222 and 5555, respectively). In this case, PE1's best route that matches BGP next-hop 22.214.171.124 happens to point to P1 instead of P2, so this example uses label 1111, learned from P1.
The steps in the figure are explained as follows:
- PE1 redistributes the route from BGP into the VRF-A routing table (based on the import RT).
- PE1 builds a VRF-A FIB entry for the route just added to the VRF-A routing table.
- This new FIB entry needs to include the VPN-label, which PE1 finds in the associated BGP table entry.
- This new FIB entry also needs to include the outer label, the one used to reach the BGP next-hop IP address (126.96.36.199), so PE1 looks in the LIB for the best LIB entry that matches 188.8.131.52, and extracts the label (1111).
- Ingress PE1 inserts the MPLS header including the two-label label stack.
At this point, when PE1 receives a packet in an interface assigned to VRF-A, PE1 will look in the VRF-A FIB. If the packet is destined for an address in prefix 10.3.3.0/24, PE1 will match the entry shown in the figure, and PE1 will forward the packet out S0/0/1, with labels 1111 and 3333.
Penultimate Hop Popping
The operation of the MPLS VPN data plane works well, but the process on the egress PE can be a bit inefficient. The inefficiency relates to the fact that the egress PE must do two lookups in the LFIB after receiving the packet with two labels in the label stack. For example, the data plane forwarding example used throughout this chapter has been repeated in Figure 19-22, with a summary description of the processing logic on each router. Note that the egress PE (PE2) must consider two entries in its LFIB.
Figure 19-22 Two LFIB Lookups Required on the Egress PE
To avoid this extra work on the very last (ultimate) LSR, MPLS uses a feature called penultimate hop popping (PHP). (Penultimate simply means "1 less than the ultimate.") So the penultimate hop is not the very last LSR to process a labeled packet, but the second-to-last LSR to process a labeled packet. PHP causes the penultimate-hop LSR to pop the outer label, so that the last LSR—the ultimate hop if you will—receives a packet that only has the VPN label in it. With only this single label, the egress PE needs to look up only one entry in the LFIB. Figure 19-23 shows the revised data plane flow with PHP enabled.
Figure 19-23 Single LFIB Lookup on Egress PE Due to PHP | <urn:uuid:ddd1c8f3-6845-4bef-8f45-eca77c2f8f69> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1081501&seqNum=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00092-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906238 | 8,080 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Increasingly, farm businesses are starting as operations intended to provide produce for schools and other institutional markets in the local area.
What "organic" means to the USDA and what it means to consumers may be two different things.
Changes to the WIC program include more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, yogurt and fish.
In 2005, USDA researcher Dana Blumenthal set out to document what effect climate change will have on large swathes of grassland.
Unhealthy foods are already being taken out of school lunches. Next up is the removal of unhealthy food marketing in schools.
New research indicates that soil is eroding from farms much faster than previously thought.
According to a USDA Census released last week, Indiana farms and farmland is decreasing.
Nearly 9 million pounds of beef have been recalled after the USDA discovered diseased animals were processed without proper oversight.
A virus that kills piglets is ripping through farms around the country. Midwest pork producers are doing everything they can to fight it off.
Retail prices for choice cuts of beef are up 8 percent over the past year, but a rise in the nation's cattle numbers could mean relief for consumers.
47 million Americans will see a reduction in their food stamp benefits starting November 1.
While 45% of the FDA's employees have been temporarily laid off, 87% of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service personnel have been retained.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the U.S. Department of Agriculture used bad data to justify new poultry inspection rules.
Revisions to federal school lunch guidelines are helping schools bring more local food into their cafeterias.
Corn yields are expected to be 64 percent higher than they were last year.
The meat was recalled after testing positive for E. coli.
The USDA has mandated that Country of Origin Labeling rules will go into effect. Eight meat industry groups are suing to fight the new requirements.
A whistleblower group says USDA officials are retaliating against meat inspectors who report inhumane treatment of animals at slaughterhouses.
Students researching antibiotic-resistant bacteria in organically-raised pigs discovered that all the pigs had some level of resistance in their systems.
National Beef has voluntarily recalled 22,737 pounds of ground beef after a sample tested positive for E.coli O157:H7. | <urn:uuid:675f6fbf-2fee-46ed-b209-ece82d2330eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/eartheats/tag/usda/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958202 | 472 | 3.171875 | 3 |
My colleague John Fleck writes about a report showing that with the end of the 2009 water year, the last decade (2000-2009) was the driest 10-year period in the Colorado River Basin since record-keeping began 100 years ago.
Since 1999, inflow to Lake Powell — the massive reservoir that collects water from the Upper Colorado Basin — has been below average in every year except the water years of 2005 and 2008. In 1999, the lake was close to full capacity, but as of the end of October, the lake was at 63 percent of capacity. Meanwhile, reservoir storage in the Colorado River Basin overall is now just 56.95 percent of capacity, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. Yet last I looked, The Bellagio in Las Vegas hadn’t drained its massive lake and fountains, and gardens were still blooming in Los Angeles.
How long can this continue? According to recent research by Balaji Rajagopalan of the University of Colorado, if climate change reduces the flow on the Colorado by 20 percent over the next few decades — not a terribly bad bet — the reservoirs in the basin stand a 50 percent percent of running dry. And that, of course, would mean bye bye Bellagio.
But for now, at any rate, the system of water allocation we use in the West seems to be doing okay. In fact, this incredibly complex system may be better suited to dealing with water shortages than the one used in the eastern United States, according to Dan Leucke, a consultant to Dividing the Waters, a network of judges, special masters and referees who preside over western water adjudications. Here in the West, the system of water rights, based on the concept of “first in time, first in right,” was designed to allocate water under an assumption of shortage. In the East, a “riparian” system prevails, which allocates water on the principle that landowners whose property is adjacent to a body of water have the right to use it. That system has run into some problems in parts of the Southeast.
Meanwhile, the mighty reservoirs along the Colorado, combined with our Rococo system of water rights, have helped get us through the driest ten years in a century. So the tourists at The Bellagio can continue enjoying a grotesque water spectacle every evening.
But if the reservoirs run dry, no system of allocation, not even one designed to deal with shortage, is going to help us. | <urn:uuid:e298dc4b-bf0b-4dac-b412-2a69fe47820c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cejournal.net/?p=2255 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964464 | 513 | 3.078125 | 3 |
On the duties of School-Boys, from the pious and judicious
Quintillian says, that he has included almost all the duty of scholars in this one piece of advice which he gives them, to love those who teach them, as they love the science which they learn of them; and to look upon them as fathers, from whom they derive not the life of the body, but that instruction which is in a manner the life of the soul. Indeed this sentiment of affection, and respect suffices to make them apt to learn during the time of their studies, and full of gratitude all the rest of their lives. It seems to me to include a great part of what is to be expected from them.
Docility, which consists in submitting to directions, in readily receiving the instructions of their masters; and reducing them to practice, is properly the virtue of scholars, as that of masters is to teach well. The one can do nothing without the other; and as it is not sufficient for a labourer to sow the seed, unless the earth, after having opened its bosom to receive it, in a manner hatches, warms, and moistens it; so likewise the whole fruit of instruction depends upon a good correspondence between the masters and the scholars.
Gratitude for those who have laboured in our education, is the character of an honest man, and the mark of a good heart. Who is there among us, says Cicero, that has been instructed with any care, that is not highly delighted with the sight, or even the bare remembrance of his preceptors, masters, and the place where he was taught and brought up? Seneca exhorts young men to preserve always a great respect for their masters, to whose care they are indebted for the amendment of their faults, and for having imbibed sentiments of honour and probity. Their exactness and severity displease sometimes, at an age when we are not in a condition to judge of the obligations we owe to them; but when years have ripened our understanding and judgment, we then discern that what made us dislike them, I mean admonitions, reprimands, and a severe exactness in restraining the passions of an imprudent and inconsiderate age, is expressly the very thing which should make us esteem and love them. Thus we see that Marcus Aurelius, one of the wisest and most illustrious emperors that Rome ever had, thanked the gods for two things especially—for his having had excellent tutors himself, and that he had found the like for his children. | <urn:uuid:49780a2c-91e0-4f6c-b33e-429f714d37af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/13588/220.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981231 | 526 | 2.546875 | 3 |
By G.P. Thomas
Introduction to Graphene
New Research into 2D Materials
Introduction to Graphene
Graphene was first identified in 2004 and for the last few years has been the focus of much scientific research. Graphene is a very flat sheet of carbon (just one-atom thick) with its atoms arranged into a 2D honeycomb structure, making it the thinnest man-made material ever.
The unique properties of this innovative material have gained widespread interest, and it is hoped that it can soon be utilized in the manufacturing industry, sparking somewhat of a global material revolution. Graphene is stronger than diamond, 100 times stronger than steel, and as flexible as rubber. It is also a good conductor of electricity, even better than copper.
However, the 2D materials world does not begin and end with graphene, and advancements in this field are being made all the time. Below, we look at some of the 2D materials that are currently being researched and how they may support and enhance graphene - or even compete against it.
New Research into 2D Materials
Until 2011 graphene was the only 2D material that could be easily and consistently synthesized in large quantities for device manufacture. A research team from Singapore created a new process to create a large number of single-layer nanosheets in a quick and efficient manner wherein they can be applied to any suitable bulk material. The process requires inducing lithiation with an electrochemical base where the materials can be carefully monitored until they reach a state that is perfect for ultrasonication and exfoliation. The process resulted in a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheet yield of 92% within 6h at room temperature conditions.
To emphasis the relevance and importance of these MoS2 sheets, the researchers created a proof-of-concept nitric oxide detector using the sheets. As the sheets are electrically conductive over large areas, and operate as p-type semiconductors, they tend to respond electronically to different nitric oxide concentrations. With the addition of gold electrodes to this setup, the response could measured, thus this detector device showed great potential with a detection limit of 190 ppt, which is ideal for a promising sensing platform.
Further experiments yielded tungsten disulfide (WS2) and titanium sulfide (TiS2) sheets. The success of this innovative process made the researchers realize that it could be adapted to produce a range of 2D nanosheets that can be used in areas such as catalysis, electronics, and sensing.
Scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, and RMIT University have created a new 2D nano-material made up of layers of crystals of molybdenum oxides, which is likely to revolutionise the electronics sector. The distinctive properties of the new material allow free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds without scattering.
One of the key achievements was that the researchers were able to remove the usual obstacles that hindered the free flow of the electrons, which is a crucial step in high-speed electronics. The opportunities for the use of this material are numerous. Electronic devices can be built smaller and can transfer data at much higher speeds. However, more research is required to study the potential of this material, before it is moved from the lab to the field.
Although graphene is an exceptional electronic material, conductors alone will not suffice to build a working device. An insulator would also be required. Studies revealed that hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) works well as an insulator. In February 2013, scientists at Rice University revealed that they were able to combine graphene and hexagonal boron nitride into sheets which were built into a variety of patterns at nanoscale dimensions. This was an essential step towards creation of 2D electronics with a process to make patterns in atom-thick layers (that combined a conductor and an insulator).
The technical capabilities at Rice allowed them to create materials with a resolution of about 100 nm; however, the scientists believe that it would be possible to make fully operational 2D devices with circuits that are 30-20 nm wide.
H-BN resembles graphene with the same atomic array. Finely detailed patterns of graphene could thus be laced into gaps created in sheets of h-BN. It is possible to imprint combs, bars, concentric rings and even microscopic Rice Owls via a lithographic process. The interface between the materials shows a razor-sharp transition from graphene to h-BN along a sub-nanometer line. The process is well engineered and enables control of the domain sizes and domain shapes, which are important to manufacture electronic devices.
Another Rice researcher Li Song completed an experiment wherein pure h-BN sheets (one to five atoms thick) could be deposited onto a copper substrate. The sheets could then be transferred to other substrates. His research team used a chemical vapor deposition process to deposit the h-BN sheets onto a 5 x 5 cm copper substrate at temperatures of about 1000° C (1832°F). With the aid of these techniques graphene can very well replace silicon.
Researchers are looking into the possibility of placing a third element - a semiconductor - along with the insulator and conductor combination into a 2D fabric, which would help in manufacturing flexible electronics.
The new 2D materials can be applied to creating nanoscale field-effect transistors, biosensors or quantum capacitors. They could also be widely used in graphene-based electronics. | <urn:uuid:925924d4-1876-4927-b9e2-b00c9525907c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8310 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947282 | 1,142 | 3.671875 | 4 |
ANTHRAX. : earth surrounding the corpse and then deposited the spores in their excrement at remote areas (Pasteur), or to currents of moisture in the soil. Koch seems, however, to have demonstrated the fallacy of the theories by show- ing that the conditions under which the bacilli find them- selves in buried cadavers are exactly opposed to those favorable to fructification or sporulation, and that in all probability the majority of bacteria suffer the same fate as the animal cells, and disintegrate, especially if the ani- mal be buried at a depth of two or three meters. Frankel points out particularly that no infection of the soil by the dead animal could be worse than the pollution of its surface by the bloody stools and urine, rich in bacilli, discharged upon it by the animal before death, and that in all probability it is the live, and not the dead, animals that are to be blamed as sources of infection. As every animal affected with anthrax is a source of danger to the community in which it lives, to the men who handle it as well as the animals who browse beside it, such animals, as soon as the diagnosis is made, should be killed, and, together with the hair and skin, be burned. When this is impracticable, Frankel recommends that they be buried to a depth of at least 1^-2 meters, so that the sporulation of the bacilli is impossible. The dejecta should also be carefully disinfected with 5 per cent, carbolic-acid solution. Of course, animals can be infected through wounds. This mode of infection is, however, more common among men, who suffer from the. local disease mani- fested as the malignant carbuncle, than among animals. Occasionally bacilli are encountered presenting all the morphological and cultural characteristics of the anthrax bacillus, but devoid of any disease-producing poweró Bacillus anthracoides, etc. Exactly what relation they may bear to the anthrax bacillus is uncertain. They may be entirely different organisms, or they may be in- dividuals whose pathogeny has been lost through unfa- vorable environment. | <urn:uuid:95eb7319-356f-445a-8a24-6ba6557d07cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.archive.org/stream/PathogenicBacteria/TXT/0000%20-%200363.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953919 | 455 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Mathematics for Elementary Teachers 1 (4-0) 4 Cr. Hrs.
This is the first of a two-course sequence designed for students who plan to enter elementary school teaching. The course examines elementary school math topics and mathematics curriculum from an advanced standpoint with an emphasis on conceptual understanding and problem solving. The course covers problem solving, number theory, sets, algebraic concepts and functions, numeration, the real numbers and their properties and operations.
(A requirement that must be completed before taking this course.)
- MATH 53 with a minimum grade of 2.5 or minimum placement test score of 19 ACT or 100 CPT (Elementary Algebra).
Upon successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:
- Apply Polya’s four-step plan in analyzing and solving problems.
- Demonstrate clear presentation of problem solving strategies to include the use of tables, charts, Venn diagrams and algebra.
- Compare inductive and deductive reasoning as related to logic, the foundation of the mathematics.
- Investigate special number patterns and sequences (to include arithmetic and geometric) and relate these number patterns to the study of functions.
- Apply concepts from elementary Number Theory, to include primes, composites, divisibility tests, greatest common factor and least common multiple.
- Apply concepts from set theory and set operations as the language and symbols of the mathematics.
- Investigate place value, base ten materials and other models for numeration systems.
- Model arithmetic operations using set or measurement models.
- Apply properties of real numbers.
- Explain arithmetic operations with a variety of paper and pencil algorithms to include mental math strategies (without the use of a calculator).
- Construct models for representing, operating with and solving problems involving fractions and decimals.
- Construct models for representing, operating with and solving problems involving percents and proportions.
| ||105||143028||Math for Elem Teachers 1|| ||4||Rainey A||$12.00||13/31/0||Open||
| ||105||143087||Math for Elem Teachers 1|| ||4||Haldane J||$12.00||23/31/0||Open||
Note: This schedule updates once every 24 hours. Please reference WebAdvisor for current status. | <urn:uuid:b7bad42a-c1d2-4226-9dff-6ccdac61e4d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://schoolcraft.cc.mi.us/academics/course-description/MATH/105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866063 | 485 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Obama showcases his own failure
This city has been combating hard economic times for a very long time.
Coal, steel and railroads, which made Scranton an industrial powerhouse early in the last century, faded long before the start of World War II. Folks began exiting the mine-ravaged city in the early 1940s when industrial jobs and businesses began drying up.
Scranton fell into decline earlier than other Rust Belt cities because its rich supply of anthracite coal fell out of favor — first to oil-burning systems, then to natural gas — as the energy supplier for most large public buildings and schools in the Northeast.
While other industrial cities across the country enjoyed the postwar industrial boom, Scranton's business leaders floated a bond (coining a tune, “Buy Scranton Bonds”) and literally took to the streets to sell them to citizens.
The result was a temporary reprieve: The city attracted 11 new downtown businesses.
By the 1960s, then-Gov. William Scranton, in the middle of his term as the state's chief executive and a descendant of the city's founders, was doing his part to try to revitalize it by attempting to lure a Chrysler plant and several other businesses to town.
Twenty years later, a Scranton civic commission released a report that found the city was paying untenable costs for its employees at the expense of providing much-needed public services.
Twenty years after that, in 2012, Mayor Chris Doherty said he couldn't pay the more than 400 city employees (including himself) more than the $7.25-per-hour minimum wage after a political impasse arose over how to deal with a substantial shortfall in the city's operating budget.
“I just don't have the money for the paychecks to give employees,” Doherty told the Trib at the time.
Ten years ago, Scranton did find a way to pursue a bit of a financial shot in the arm with the construction of downtown apartments and storefronts. Unfortunately, no one planned ways to fill those buildings. Part of the problem with doing so was the city's tax base: The four main local employers are universities, hospitals, social services and banks, and the first three don't pay taxes. No tax base means no money in the city budget, so living or conducting business in the city tends to be expensive and difficult.
Nothing zeroes in on the city's mismanagement combined with good intentions more than Steamtown. The somewhat fabulous, somewhat disappointing railroad museum and national historic site has been plagued with financial problems since its inception, including the cloak-and-dagger congressional deal in the dead of night that secured hundreds of millions of dollars in federal, state and even city funding — but which has never met the park's financial needs.
The park also has never met the expected visitor levels outlined in any of its planning.
When President Barack Obama stepped on the ground here Friday, into a village initially known as Slocum Hollow, he visited a city that has been managing decline for more than 70 years. None of his policies of the past four-plus years has done a thing to point Scranton back in the right direction.
Even the nearly $60 million in federal stimulus funds provided to the city by the Obama administration failed to create more than 34 jobs, as of 2012.
As history shows, Obama is not the first politician to try to fix Scranton. But, like any Democrat-machine-run city, Scranton did its part to provide a “hardscrabble” backdrop to make him look good for the TV cameras.
Comparisons to Detroit cause Scranton natives to cringe. Yet, not entirely unlike the Motor City, three generations of trying to hold this city together with Band-Aids, short-term fixes and pinning hopes for economic renewal on an industrial museum have not changed its fortunes.
Scranton is an emblem for our time, an era of economic calamity in America.
So perhaps it is fitting that the president perceived an opportunity in placing himself center stage here as he pivots — once again — for “the little guy,” praising himself as the savior of the middle class.
Who better to showcase the failure of our economic stability than the man who has been given ample time to revitalize it but has only mismanaged it?
Salena Zito covers politics for Trib Total Media. (412-320-7879 or firstname.lastname@example.org) | <urn:uuid:c79078a5-9b94-482a-83ed-c22c8ac9692a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://triblive.com/opinion/salena/4575314-74/scranton-industrial-economic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965579 | 936 | 2.609375 | 3 |
AGS / Geology / Stratigraphy / Ozark Plateaus / Quaternary
ALLUVIUM AND TERRACE DEPOSITS
Age: Quaternary Period
Distribution: Along the major stream valleys of the Ozark Plateaus in northern Arkansas
Geology: The deposits indicated by this notation are alluvial deposits of present streams and one or more terrace levels. Sediments include gravels, sands, silts, clays and mixtures of any and all of these. Fossils are rare. The lower contact is unconformable and the thickness is variable. | <urn:uuid:4e1a90be-a0a6-46ce-9fdd-d72cb855acd1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.geology.ar.gov/geology/ozark_quaternary.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.849959 | 122 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Students With Disabilities, Health Issues Bullied More Often
Students with disabilities or health problems are more likely to be the target of bullies than their classmates, according to a study published this month in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Researchers found that "children with special health-care needs had lower motivation to do well in school, more disruptive behaviors, and more frequent experiences as a bully victim. They experienced significantly lower academic achievement, as measured by grades, standardized testing, and parental-assessed academic performance."
The study involved 1,457 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in two rural Maryland counties and one rural West Virginia county.
Students with special health care needs were more afraid of other girls and boys than students without a disability, but they were also slightly more likely to have attacked someone else at school or tell someone they would hurt them.
As part of the solution to these issues, the researchers suggested schools use anti-bullying programs—which many do, (and bullying has been the focus of much attention from the federal government lately, too), providing in-school mental health counseling, and referring students to community services if their needs can't be met in school.
And, they said, schools should provide a continuum of mental health care that connects families, primary medical care, communities, and schools.
"Unfortunately," the authors said, "there are few examples of such comprehensive, co-ordinated, and linked school-community initiatives."
However, one small school district in Minnesota said this week it will put mental health counselors in all 15 of its schools, in part because the district found that nonacademic issues, including depression and family upheaval, were affecting how students did in school.
"In addition to specific academic interventions, schools should provide abundant opportunities for children with a (health issue or disability) to develop confidence in their ability to learn and succeed in school, choose educational experiences that they value, and develop positive interpersonal relationships at school," the study authors concluded.
But they said the well-being and academic performance of these students is a joint responsibility of schools and the medical community.
"Health and school professionals will need to work together to identify these children much earlier, ensure that they receive appropriate supports and services, and monitor the effectiveness of services on children's health and school outcomes." | <urn:uuid:00d17397-a608-4fff-80f9-4ca1fccf50c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2011/08/students_with_disabilities_or.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980959 | 483 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (cont.)
The cause (or causes) of SIDS is still unknown. Despite the dramatic decrease in the incidence of SIDS in the United States in recent years, SIDS remains one of the leading causes of death during infancy beyond the first 30 days after birth. It is generally accepted that SIDS may be a reflection of multiple interacting factors.
- Infant development: A leading hypothesis is that SIDS may reflect a delay in the development of nerve cells within the brain that are critical to normal heart and lung function. Research examinations of the brain stems of infants who died with a diagnosis of SIDS have revealed a developmental delay in formation and function of several serotonin-binding nerve pathways within the brain (serotonin is an example of a brain chemical known as a neurotransmitter that is important for brain function). These pathways are thought to be crucial to regulating breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure responses.
- The hypothesis is that certain infants, for reasons yet to be determined, may experience abnormal or delayed development of specific, critical areas of their brain. This could negatively affect the function and connectivity to regions regulating arousal.
- Arousal, in this context, refers to an infant's ability to awaken and/or respond to a variety of physiological stimuli. For example, a child sleeping facedown may move his or her face into such a position so that the nose and mouth are completely obstructed. This may alter the levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the infant's blood. Normally, these changes would trigger arousal responses, prompting the infant to move his or her head to the side to alleviate this obstruction.
- In addition, other normally protective responses to stressful stimuli may be defective in infants who are vulnerable to SIDS. One such reflex is the laryngeal chemoreflex. This reflex results in changes in breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure when portions of the airway are stimulated by fluids like saliva or regurgitated stomach contents. Having saliva in the airway may activate this reflex, and swallowing may be important to keep the airway clear. When an infant is in the facedown position, the rate of swallowing is decreased. Protective arousal responses to these laryngeal reflexes are also diminished in active sleep in the facedown position.
- Rebreathing asphyxia: When a baby is facedown, air movement around the mouth may be impaired. This can cause the baby to re-breathe carbon dioxide that the baby has just exhaled. Soft bedding and gas-trapping objects, such as blankets, comforters, water beds, and soft mattresses, are other types of sleep surfaces that may impair normal air movement around the baby's mouth and nose when positioned facedown.
- Hyperthermia (increased temperature): Overdressing, using excessive coverings, or increasing the air temperature may lead to an increased metabolic rate in these infants and eventual loss of breathing control. However, it is unclear whether the increased temperature is an independent factor or if it is just a reflection of the use of more clothing or blankets that may act as objects obstructing the airway.
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 6/22/2016
Must Read Articles Related to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Autopsy is a medical procedure that involves the examination of a deceased persons body. The word autopsy is derived from the Greek word autopsia, which means "...learn more >>
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a procedure a person can use to assist a person who is in cardiac arrest. Providing CPR to a person who is in cardiac a...learn more >>
Grief and Bereavement
Grief is our personal experience of loss. Mourning is a public expression of our grief. Bereavement is the period after a loss during which mourning occurs (usu...learn more >> | <urn:uuid:85d341b5-8b23-4726-a28c-075966252290> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sudden_infant_death_syndrome_sids/page2_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928696 | 812 | 3.890625 | 4 |
EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY
The first settlements of the cluster of islands now known as the Republic of Maldives can be traced back more than 2,500 years. Buddhist and Hindu fishermen and sailors arrived from India on the tropical archipelago as early as 500 BC. They came in very small numbers and there was no attempt to set up a formal government. They worked together and built primitive shelters. It was a real struggle just trying to survive in such an isolated area of the world.
In the 12th century, the Settlers had all been converted to the Islamic faith. Again, there was no formal government structure, but there were some minor political battles over the allocation of scarce resources and the division of land.
By the 16th century, the Portuguese had made their way to the islands in their big sailing ships. They attempted to convert the population to Christianity, but, never succeeded in their mission. The Portuguese left the archipelago by the time the 16th century was coming to an end.
Over the next 300 years or so, Islam ruled the every day lives of the people that inhabited the islands. In the late 19th century, the Maldives came under the control of the British. The British Protectorate began in 1887 and remained in effect until 1965. In 1965, the Maldives gained their independence from Britain. The people were ruled during this period by a Sultan. There were no democratic elections and the sultanate continued up until November 11, 1968, when it was replaced by a republic.
MODERN DAY GOVERNMENT
The Maldives adopted their current form of government in 1968. Under the provisions of the constitution, the President is elected to a 5 year term by popular vote which must then be approved by the Majlis (legislature).
The President's responsibilities include being head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, appointing a cabinet and he is the ultimate arbitrator over justice, with the power to pardon. He is also the chief spokesman for Islam in the Maldives.
There are 7 Provinces that are divided into 21 administrative divisions. The capital city of Male has its own administrative division and the other 20 divisions encompass the remaining atolls that make up the entire nation.
The judicial branch of the government rules on all legal issues in the Maldives. Judges are appointed by the president. A Chief Justice and 4 judges, in the highest court of the Maldives, all report directly to the President.
1968 - 1978: A BIG CHANGE IN THE POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT OF THE MALDIVES
With the new republic in place, a constitution was drawn up giving the Maldives executive, legislative and judicial branches of their new government. The sultanate who had been the leader prior to the new republic, Ibrahim Nasir, was installed as President and held that position for 10 years. During that time, the Maldives had a population of a little more than 100,000. While there were some political issues, for the most part, the strong Islamic faith of the nation prevented civil unrest. The population lived frugally and there was very little crime in the Maldives.
1978 - 2008: THE MAUMOON ABDUL GAYOOM ERA
At the time that Maumon Abdul Gayoom was first elected in 1978, the Maldives had only one political party - the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party). The Constitution called for Presidential elections every 5 years. After winning the election in 1978, Maumon Abdul Gayoom was subsequently elected in 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. As a fairly popular incumbent in a single party electoral system, there were few candidates willing or able to challenge him when elections were held.
In 1988, Gayoom fought off an attack by Sri Lankin Tamil mercenaries who attempted to overthrow the Maldivian government. He quelled a prison riot in 2003 in the capital city of Male. Toward the end of what was to be his final term, political unrest started to increase among the citizens of the Maldives.
New political parties emerged in 2005 that promised better and fairer representation for the people. In the 2008 election, Gayoom was defeated by the candidate who represented the recently formed Maldivian Democratic Party. On November 11, 2008, Mohamed Nasheed became the President of Maldives.
NOVEMBER 11, 2008: MOHAMED NASHEED BECOMES THE NEW PRESIDENT
As the new head of the executive branch of the island nation, Nasheed quickly took action. One of his first acts was to reduce the bureaucracy of the government. He shrunk the number of government ministries down from 21 to 14. The government focused on giving more attention and responsibility to the:
• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
• Ministry of Finance and Treasury
• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nasheed responded to a major concern of the population by making a concerted effort to address the serious climate change problem that is threatening the very existence of the Maldives. Rising tides, which can at least be partially attributable to climate change due to global warming, are slowly submerging the very low-lying islands of the Maldivian archipelago. The country has become one of the most diligent of all countries in the world at coming up with "green solutions" to protect the fragile environment. | <urn:uuid:1e1dabe4-2cf5-43ba-8cf5-1a1ded17d67e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.maldivesholidays.org/maldives-politics-government | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975292 | 1,106 | 4.125 | 4 |
Putting words in someone's mouth
Putting words in someone's mouth is the practice of misquoting someone deceptively. Rather than a legitimate paraphrase, it distorts the quotation so that it has a significantly different meaning. This tactic is most commonly used by Liberals.
A liberal group calling itself "People for the American Way" misquoted Star Parker twice in one short article:
- It said she attributed all American ills to sexual promiscuity and immorality
- Only by reducing our “sexual energy,” Parker claims, can we produce “economic health as well as moral health”
- Linked directly below that was an audio clip, in which Parker actually said, "We have an obligation to be responsible with the choices that we make every day, especially when it comes to our sexual energy. It's critical to rescue our country, to get us on a track of economic health as well as moral health ..."
- They conflated reducing with being responsible. Compare the small print in liquor ads saying, "Drink responsibly". They could only mean something like "Don't drink and drive" or "No drinking the night before school or work." Does anyone think they mean to use less of their product?
What it is not
Telling people that a character in "Casablanca" said "Play it, again, Sam" is not deceptive ... even though the exact wording was "Play it, Sam. ... for old time's sake." The character was indeed asking Sam to play the song which he had played before (i.e., again). To call this a misquotation would be an exaggeration; at worst, it would be a poor parahrase. | <urn:uuid:f03307e1-6d84-4b38-a8fe-a3582d380865> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.conservapedia.com/Putting_words_in_someone's_mouth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980022 | 351 | 2.515625 | 3 |
nag_save_random_state (g05cfc) saves the value of the seed used by the basic generator in the g05 Chapter.
nag_save_random_state (g05cfc) saves information about the basic generator to enable nag_restore_random_state (g05cgc)
subsequently to restore the basic generator to its current state. The values of istate
must not be altered between a call of nag_save_random_state (g05cfc) and a call of nag_restore_random_state (g05cgc)
The program prints 10 pseudorandom numbers generated by nag_random_continuous_uniform (g05cac)
; it saves the generator state after the 2nd, and restores it after the 7th so that the 8th, 9th and 10th numbers are the same as the 3rd, 4th and 5th. | <urn:uuid:11a2e213-ec15-4652-8476-cf5a056d0b0b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nag.com/numeric/cl/nagdoc_cl23/html/G05/g05cfc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.877025 | 202 | 2.75 | 3 |
A big landslide in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias range in July was detected using the global seismic network. (NASA)
A massive landslide in Alaska’s snowy Wrangell-St. Elias mountain range in July may have been caused by a summer heat wave making some slopes more vulnerable to collapse, says the scientist who first discovered the avalanche.
“Most of the big landslides that I’ve worked on in Alaska from 1999 to now have been south-facing, summer-time failures,” Colin Stark, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told NASA’s Earth Observatory. “My suspicion is that this landslide was probably caused by sustained daytime warming and progressive melting of rock permafrost.”
The slide let loose some 35 million tons of rock and debris, a collapse that registered on the global seismic network and was detected within hours by Stark and his colleagues Göran Ekström and Clément Hilbert from the Lamont campus in Palisades, N.Y. The July 25 landslide was confirmed by pictures taken by NASA satellites before and after the event.
When faults slip to create an earthquake, they shake the ground with intense, high-frequency waves that are picked up by earthquake monitoring systems worldwide.
Landslides also generate waves, but most are of a slower, low-frequency variety. Stark and Ekström have developed an algorithm for scanning seismographic data for those signature low-frequency waves. In a study in Science earlier this year, they picked through global earthquake records to document 29 major landslides that have happened in the world since 1980, a third of which had never been documented before.
The landslide in the Wrangell-St. Elias range this summer came amid a streak of unusually warm days for southern Alaska. For 15 days in a row, temperatures in Anchorage topped 70 degrees F, breaking the previous record of 13 days set in 2004, according to the National Weather Service.
A satellite took this picture a day before a massive landslide in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias range. (NASA)
Two weeks later, this is what the mountain slope looked like. (NASA)
Hunting Landslides with Landsat, August 30, 2013
A Library of Giant Unseen Landslides, April 1, 2013 | <urn:uuid:5b888658-fc5f-44d5-82ed-95912be88a0b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/summer-heat-wave-may-have-triggered-landslide-lonely-alaskan-glacier | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924212 | 490 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Trees are the backbone of any good landscape plan. Trees vary in height, the shape of their canopies, type of foliage, fall color, flowers or fruit as well as other factors, such as susceptibility to pests and disease and growth rate. These are all factors you need to take into account before you choose a tree for your yard. When the sweet gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) is one of the options on your list, learn everything you can about this attractive tree before you put shovel to soil.
Sweet Gum Description
A sweet gum is a deciduous tree in the witch hazel family that ranges in height from 60 to 100 feet and has a narrow oval canopy. It has a moderate to rapid growth rate, putting on height at a rate of 1 to 4 feet a year for the first five to 10 years and 12 to 15 inches per year thereafter. The foliage is palmate, like a maple leaf, but more deeply lobed and star shaped. It is glossy green in the spring and summer, turning to vivid red, yellow and even purple in the fall. In spring -- March to May depending on location -- the sweet gum produces small, pale green flowers that develop into spherical, spiky seed pods that can create a problem if you like to enjoy your yard in bare feet in the summer. However, this long-lived tree -- the sweet gum can live more than 150 years -- doesn't flower or produce seed for the first 15 to 20 years of its growth.
Sweet gum trees are native to the eastern U.S., but grow well throughout U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 to 9 in full sun. The tree prefers moist, slightly acidic soil, but is adaptable to many soil types, including clay soil, dry or wet soil and soil that is neutral to somewhat alkaline. These trees need plenty of room to grow, both above and below ground. Situate where a sweet gum's mature height cannot interfere with overhead wires or other obstructions and at least 8 to 10 feet away from sidewalks and curbs, as the tree has an aggressive root system that can cause pavement to heave.
Plant sweet gums in the spring rather than the fall for the best chance of survival. Avoid planting this tree too deeply; the root flare -- the point where the roots end and the trunk begins -- should be slightly higher than soil level to prevent root rot. Water every day to every three days depending on climate and precipitation in the tree's first season; afterwards water needs are moderate. Little pruning or fertilization is required. The tree often self-seeds once mature. It can also be propagated by stem cuttings or grafting.
Sweet gum trees are available in numerous cultivars, including varieties that never develop the prickly "gumballs" that can be a negative for some homeowners. Sterile -- pod-free -- cultivars are "Rotundiloba" and "Happydaze." Other cultivars have features such as variegated leaves -- "Silver King," "Golden Treasure" and "Variegata" -- or colorful regular season or fall foliage -- "Burgundy," "Festival" and "Moraine" -- while others have alternative profiles, like the more compact "Emerald Sentinel" or the narrow "Slender Silhouette."
The sweet gum tree attracts wildlife including blue jays, cardinals, mourning doves, squirrels, chipmunks and luna moths. It is considered a hardwood species with wood weighing 52 pounds per cubic foot and is used in furniture and plywood. The resin the tree produces has been used in folk medicine as well as in chewing gum. | <urn:uuid:7ed28e4c-3c28-4b94-944c-9740cf91f80b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/sweet-gum-tree-27329.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941676 | 759 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Just because you work with SQL Server does not make you a master at it. But by taking the time and learning SQL’s underlying theory, you have the best guarantee that your SQL code will be correct and that your system will be robust and maintainable. In SQL And Relational Theory Master Class, you will learn how to apply relational theory directly to the your use of SQL.
With the use of video training, SQL And Relational Theory Master Class goes beyond the book; through the use of many examples, Chris Date (evangelist to his mentor E.F. “Ted” Codd, the inventor of the relational model for database management) will show how to really understand relational theory so you can become a master.
Normally, this class is taught by the instructor over the course of three days. This video is divided in to 31 separate sections of reasonable length to take in one at a time and it runs 16 hours in total. I have broken this material down into 14 topic areas that are covered.
1. “Setting the Scene” reviews relational model basics and looks at the important properties of relations. It also introduces a crucial logical difference between relation values and relation variables.
2. “Types and Domains” shows that relations are defined over types (also known as domains) and so a basic understanding of elementary type theory is a prerequisite to understanding SQL theory.
3. “Tuples and Relations, Rows and Tables” takes a careful look at tuples and relations (what are referred to as rows and tables, in SQL parlance) which are the fundamental building blocks of the relational model.
4. “No Duplicates, No Nulls” are two of the most obvious SQL departures from the relational model. That is, based off of Codd’s model, duplicate records were not allowed. Duplicate entries are a product of database committees and DBMS developers. This session explains in detail what some of the problems those departures have caused, and why duplicates and nulls should be avoided.
5. “Base Relvars, Base Tables” takes a closer look at certain important concepts with regard to SQL. These are updating, keys, and relvar predicates that apply to relvars rather than to relations. The session also introduces the all-important “Closed World Assumption.”
6. “SQL and Relational Algebra I: The Original Operators” gives a detailed examination of the original relational operators (join, etc.), as well as certain ancillary but important issues such as the significance of proper attribute (or column) naming.
7. “SQL and Relational Algebra II: The Original Operators” now discusses the various additional operators and algebraic concepts such as matching, extend, aggregation, image relations, and a variety of related issues.
8. “SQL and Constraints” takes a look at constraints and how these are one of the most important database topics of all. Because of the fact that they’re also widely misunderstood, this session examines constraints in depth, and debunks a few myths along the way.
9. “SQL and Views” now takes on another topic that is also misunderstood. Like constraints, views are surrounded by numerous misconceptions. This session sets the record straight. It also introduces the important “Principle of Interchangeability.”
10. “SQL and Logic I: Relational Calculus” is important for the underlying understanding of SQL. This session is a tutorial on elementary logic for database practitioners. In particular, it shows how logic is directly supported in the relational model, in the form of the relational calculus.
11. “SQL and Logic II: Using Logic to Write SQL” examines how the previous section can be applied to SQL. In this session you will see how ideas from the relational calculus can help in the construction of SQL code that’s virtually guaranteed to be correct.
12. “Miscellaneous Topics” is something of a cornucopia of ideas. It discusses a few SQL features that, for one reason or another, don’t fit very neatly into any of the previous sessions.
13. “The Relational Model” is really the beginning of what in a book would be the appendices. This session is the first of three appendices to the main body of the seminar. Among other things, it offers a precise definition of the relational model, and it offers strong evidence to support the contention that the relational model will stand the test of time.
14. “Database Design Theory” now takes a look at certain aspects, unfamiliar and familiar, of logical design theory. The familiar aspects are essentially normalization and de-normalization and are presented from a novel point of view.
As with the book that this training was based on, SQL And Relational Theory Master Class is not for beginners to the world of SQL. It is for database professionals who want to pursue mastery of their craft. There is a lot of technical information here. While he does not use the book directly in the training, it would be helpful to have it at hand as well.
SQL And Relational Theory Master Class is filmed very nicely with reasonable segments lasting between 17 to 60 minutes with most around 30 minutes. The visuals show the instructor and the small group of workshop attendees as well as cuts to the visuals that the author uses throughout the course. There is also a 644-page PDF based on the information and slides contained in the presentation. For more information, to watch a sample video, or to purchase this video for $299, check out the O’Reilly website.
If you are a database professional who knows SQL reasonably well and want to learn both more about SQL as well as gain a firm foundation on the principles of relational theory then I wholeheartedly and very highly recommend SQL And Relational Theory Master Class.Powered by Sidelines | <urn:uuid:5ca479aa-5545-44d5-9b54-cac538f496ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogcritics.org/video-training-review-sql-and-relational/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938108 | 1,232 | 2.625 | 3 |
V.21 No.26 | 6/28/2012
Photo by Alicia Lueras Maldonado
Speaking for the Silenced
Río de Lágrimas links imperialism, La Llorona and Juárez slayings
By Leigh Hile
For 20 years, the stories of women and girls killed in Ciudad Juárez have been silenced in their own country and largely ignored by the world. A wave of roughly 60 femicides in 2012 is receiving even less media attention as the untold number of deaths continues to grow. In Río de Lágrimas (River of Tears), a multilingual music and storytelling performance at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the women of Albuquerque-based collective Las Meganenas nobly attempt to tell the victims’ stories.
What Are Fractals? at Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Learn about fractals through presentations and hands-on activities.
Near North Valley Neighborhood Association Annual Meeting at Indian Pueblo Cultural CenterMore Recommended Events ›› | <urn:uuid:bb25608c-e29c-4a70-ba98-5905f3bebe67> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://alibi.com/index.php?tag=nafta | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886853 | 212 | 2.71875 | 3 |
by James Paul Peruvankal, Senior Program Manager at Revolution Analytics
Three weeks ago, researchers at Princeton released a study on Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics that states Facebook might lose 80% of its users by 2015-2017. Facebook data scientists hilariously debunked the study stating that Princeton itself would lose all of its students by 2021, using the same methodology used in the original study. The media joined the hype, with TechCrunch, CNN, Mashable, CNET etc offering their comments on the study and methodology.
The reality is neither of these institutions are going out of business. Last year Princeton admitted 7.4% of the applicants, still maintaining the status of a premier educational institution. Facebook has over 1.2 billion active users. However, Facebook has lower engagement from teens and faces threat from a number of new social networks. The article from Times of India explores various possibilities for the social network. Similarly, traditional universities are threatened by the rise of online education platforms such as edx, Coursera and Udacity. One of the key assumptions behind using SIR model is that there are ‘waves of social networks’ (eg. Classmates.com, Friendster, MySpace) that come and go. It may also happen that there would be growth and stability instead of growth and decline.
Here is the Google search trends for Myspace:
and here is the Google trends plot for Facebook:
However, our interest is to use R as a platform in modeling contagion. These are useful in modeling propagation of diseases, marketing message, viral videos, etc. The simplest and classic model is the SIR model which considers fixed population with only three compartments: susceptible, infected and removed. The compartments used for this model consist of three classes:
- S(t) is used to represent the number of individuals not yet infected with the disease at time t, or those susceptible to the disease.
- I(t) denotes the number of individuals who have been infected with the disease and are capable of spreading the disease to those in the susceptible category.
- R(t) is the compartment used for those individuals who have been infected and then removed from the disease, either due to immunization or due to death.
If N is the fixed population, N = S(t) + I(t) + R(t).
Let’s assume that an individual in the population has an equal probability as every other individual of contracting the disease with a rate of ‘beta’ (infection rate of the disease).Also assume that a number equal to the fraction ‘gamma’ (recovery rate) , infected are entering the removed class
We derive the following differential equations:
dS/dt = - beta * S * I
dI/dt = beta*S*I - gamma*I
dR/dt = gamma*I
I used “deSolve” package to model this and “optim” function to optimize the solution. Here is what I got:
If you would like to improve this model, here is the code. If you would like to explore other models for modeling contagion, see Download SIR Model v3. Let us know if you have any interesting findings. | <urn:uuid:b59352d6-d10b-400c-9628-eacc10cdc55c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2014/02/princeton-vs-facebook-modeling-contagion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938896 | 676 | 2.65625 | 3 |
SAMPLE COLLECTION GUIDE
Soil samples must be collected properly and carefully to be
useful for evaluating the nutrient status of a crop. Analytical
results can only be as accurate as the sample. The most critical
objective of sample collection is ensuring that it is representative
of the area in question. If a field, orchard, or vineyard
is not uniform, separate samples from each distinct area are
recommended. Areas that differ in slope, color, drainage,
or texture should be sampled separately if they can be fertilized
separately. Avoid sampling fertilizer bands, fencerows, wet
spots, severely eroded areas, or any atypical sections unless
specifically evaluating these distinct locations.
try to sample when soil is relatively dry. Avoid collecting
samples immediately after fertilizer application or after
watering or a heavy rainfall, as misleading or inaccurate
analyses may result. Best sample collection method depends
on the type of plant or crop, tillage practices, and fertilization
strategies. Recommendations for some situations are listed
on this page. Please contact our lab for sample collection
recommendations for other types of crops or strategies.
Sample Collection Tools
Use stainless steel or chrome-plated sampling tools and plastic
buckets to avoid contaminating samples with traces of microelements
from the tools. Avoid brass, bronze, or galvanized tools.
Tools should be clean and free of chemical, lime, or fertilizer
residue. A trace amount of residue can seriously contaminate
the sample and cause inaccurate results.
Soil samples may be taken with a soil tube, auger, narrow-bladed
trowel, or a spade. At each sampling site, scrape away surface
debris and remove a core sample to the appropriate depth.
If using a spade, dig a spadeful of soil to the appropriate
depth and discard it. Then take a 1-inch slice of soil from
top to bottom. Keep the entire slice or keep only a strip
from the middle of the slice, top to bottom.
In general, soil samples should be taken from the root zone
of the crop in question. For field crops, sample soil to the
depth that the field is plowed, usually 0 to 8 inches. This
zone is where lime and fertilizer have been incorporated.
Where no-till conservation-type tillage systems are used,
collect a second sample at a depth of 0 to 4 inches. Also
sample from 0 to 4 inches for pastures, turf, and forage fields.
Studies have shown that for most orchard crops, depths of
8 to 14 inches are best. For home gardens, sample soil from
0 to 6 inches. To sample subsoil, which is recommended every
2 to 3 years, sample 6 inches beyond the root zone of the
crop. Be careful to maintain a constant depth for all samples
collected for best results.
Number of Samples
The number of samples that should be collected depends on
your overall nutrient management strategy. Conventional, whole-field
management usually requires less sampling than a more systematic,
site-specific or grid sampling approach. Choose a system that
best fits your strategy.
Whole-Field Nutrient Management
Traditional whole-field management requires only enough samples
to determine the average nutrient concentrations for the field.
Collect 15 to 20 soil cores or aliquots taken at random locations
and combine them into one sample. Thoroughly mix and subsample
the composite sample if necessary. Generally, one sample should
represent a uniform area of not more than 20 acres. Place
the sample in a clearly-labeled Soil Sample Bag and submit
to the lab within 48 hours for best results.
Site-Specific Nutrient Management
Site-specific soil sampling is more labor-intensive than whole-field
sampling. The objective is to accurately describe the size
and shape of each soil condition or property to allow variable
rate application of nutrients and other inputs. A field is
mapped and divided into blocks or cells to form a grid. Using
GPS software, a random sampling location within each grid
cell is identified and sampled. Results are incorporated back
into the mapping software and used to manage nutrient applications.
Recommendations for number of samples per field depend upon
the nature of variability within the field. Generally, one
sample per acre or 200-foot cell widths are recommended to
begin. Many high-value crops are sampled using 100-foot grids.
Sample each grid cell as mapped. Place samples in a clearly-labeled
Soil Sample Bag and submit them to the lab within 48 hours
for best results. | <urn:uuid:699c24b0-a8d8-436a-a514-a02af05ab12b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.techmark-inc.com/soilsample.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.862969 | 986 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Scientific management or Taylorism is the name of the approach to management and industrial and organizational psychology initiated by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his 1911 monograph The Principles of Scientific Management. (Online version ).
Mass production methodsEdit
Taylorism is often mentioned along with Fordism, because it was closely associated with mass production methods in manufacturing factories. Taylor's own name for his approach was scientific management. This sort of task-oriented optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous today in menial industries, most notably in assembly lines and fast-food restaurants.
His arguments began from his observation that, in general, workers in repetitive jobs work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work (which he called "soldiering", but might nowadays be termed "loafing" or "malingering" as a typical part of a day's work), he opined, was a combination of the inherent laziness of people and the observation that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work the slowest among them does. He therefore proposed that the work practice that had been developed in most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in its execution. From this he posited that there was one best method for performing a particular task, and that if it were taught to workers, their productivity would go up.
Taylor introduced many concepts that were not widely accepted at the time. For example, by observing workers, he decided that labor should include rest breaks so that the worker has time to recover from fatigue. He proved this with the task of unloading ore. Workers were taught to take rest during work and output went up. Today's army uses it during forced marches - the soldiers are ordered to take a break of 10 minutes for every hour of marching. This allows for a much longer forced march than continuous walking.
Division of labourEdit
Taylor recognized that there is a certain suitability of certain people for particular jobs:
Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-up the ox than any other type. The man who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of work of this character. Therefore the workman who is best suited to handling pig iron is unable to understand the real science of doing this class of work.This view -- match the worker to the job -- has resurfaced time and time again in management theories.
While his principles have a certain logic, most applications of it fails to account for two inherent difficulties:
- It ignores individual differences: the most efficient way of working for one person may be inefficient for another;
- It ignores the fact that the economic interests of workers and management are rarely identical, so that both the measurement processes and the retraining required by Taylor's methods would frequently be resented and sometimes sabotaged by the workforce.
Ironically, both difficulties were recognized by Taylor, but are generally not fully addressed by managers who only see the potential improvements to efficiency. Taylor believed that scientific management can not work unless the worker benefits. In his view management should arrange the work in such a way that one is able to produce more and get paid more, by teaching and implementing more efficient procedures for producing a product.
In general, pure Taylorism views workers simply as machines, to be made efficient by removing unnecessary or wasted effort. However, some would say that this approach ignores the complications introduced because workers are necessarily human: personal needs, interpersonal difficulties, and the very real difficulties introduced by making jobs so efficient that workers have no time to relax. As a result, workers worked harder, but became dissatisfied with the work environment. Some have argued that this discounting of worker personalities led to the rise of labor unions.
It can also be said that the rise in labor unions is leading to a push on the part of industry to accelerate the process of automation, a process that is undergoing a renaissance with the invention of a host of new technologies starting with the computer and the Internet. This shift in production to machines was clearly one of the goals of Taylorism, and represents a victory for his theories.
However, tactfully choosing to ignore the still controversial process of automating human work is also politically expedient, so many still say that practical problems caused by Taylorism led to its replacement by the human relations school of management in 1930.
However, Taylor's theories were clearly at the root of a global revival in theories of scientific management in the latter two decades of the 20th century, under the moniker of 'corporate reengineering'. So, as such, Taylor's ideas can be seen as the root of a very influential series of developments in the workplace, with the goal being the eventual elimination of industry's need for unskilled, and later perhaps, even most skilled labor in any form, directly following Taylor's recipe for deconstructing a process. This has come to be known as commoditization, and no skilled profession, even medicine, has proven to be immune from the efforts of Taylors followers, the 'reengineers' - who are often called derogatory names such as 'bean counters'.
Scientific management and the Soviet UnionEdit
Historian Thomas Hughes (Hughes 2004) has detailed the way in which the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s enthusiastically embraced Fordism and Taylorism, importing American experts in both fields as well as American engineering firms to build parts of its new industrial infrastructure. The concepts of the Five Year Plan and the centrally planned economy can be traced directly to the influence of Taylorism on Soviet thinking. Hughes quotes Lenin:
- American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognises obstacles; which continues on a task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is impossible . . . Th combination of the Russian revolutionary sweep with American efficiency is the essence of Leninism. (Hughes 2004, 251)
Hughes offers this equation to describe the what happened:
- Talorismus + Fordismus = Americanismus
Hughes describes how, as the Soviet Union developed and grew in power both sides, the Soviets and the Americans, chose to ignore or deny the contribution that American ideas and expertise had had, the Soviets because they wished to portray themselves as creators of their own destiny and not indebted to a rival and the Americans because they did not wish to acknowledge their part in creating a powerful rival.
- Division of labour
- Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Frank Bunker Gilbreth. Wife and husband team of time and motion study engineers
Hughes, Thomas P. 2004. American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870-1970. 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.da:Taylorisme de:Taylorismus eo:Taylorismo fr:Taylorisme he:ניהול מדעי nl:Scientific management pt:Taylorismo fi:Taylorismi zh:科学管理
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:4ca0a908-89d8-4960-9bb1-8be393e088ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Scientific_Management | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963777 | 1,528 | 2.984375 | 3 |
For the first time, researchers are able to map the genome of an unborn child using only a blood sample from the mother and saliva from the father. Scientists at the University of Washington say that in the future, the non-invasive procedure could predict genetic mutations in the fetus as early as the first trimester.
Mapping the fetal genome gives parents a peek at what potential genetic mutations their unborn child may have. Some advocates consider the new DNA breakthrough a leap forward. But others have ethical concerns.
Have you or your child had genetic testing? How do you feel about prenatal genetic screening?
Jacob Kitzman: Assistant graduate researcher at the University of Washington | <urn:uuid:ca119eeb-0ca1-46d6-bae0-dd6dd284af8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.opb.org/radio/programs/thinkoutloud/segment/mapping-fetal-genome/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00099-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928149 | 134 | 3.625 | 4 |
PROFESSOR, PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS
Robert Ledley was the inventor of the first full body computer axial tomography (also called CT, computed axial tomography or CAT scans). The CAT scan is a imaging device that uses conventional x-rays to create an image of the entire body of the subject. The scan is produced in three dimensions, as the x-rays are taken through rotation around the body at varying angles in cross sections.
Prior to the technology developed by Ledley, CAT scans were restricted to the subject's head, and precautions had to be taken through the use of water as an insulator to protect the subject from over exposure to x-rays. Ledley developed x-ray detectors and he redesigned the methods by which x-rays were emitted in the course of perfecting his CAT scanner.
During the early 1970s, enhanced digital capabilities spurred the development of computed tomography (derived from the Greek tomos meaning slice) imaging, invented by English physician Godfrey Hounsfield. CT scans use advanced computer-based mathematical algorithms to combine different reading or views of a patient into a coherent picture usable for diagnosis. Hounsfield's innovative use of high energy electromagnetic beams, a sensitive detector mounted on a rotating frame, and digital computing to create detailed images earned him the Nobel prize. As with x-rays, CT scan technology progressed to allow the use of less energetic beams and vastly decreased exposure times. CT scans increased the scope and safety of imaging procedures that allowed physicians to view the arrangement and functioning of the body's internal structures on a small scale.
The impact of CAT scan technology upon sports medicine has been profound. CAT scans are a useful diagnostic tool in the detection of blood clots that often arise as a result from blows to the head of athletes in contact sports. CAT scans are regarded as being a better method than either conventional x-rays or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with which to determine such deformities and injuries within the body as the extent and definition of fracture lines on bony structures, small calcified objects within the joints, and loose bodies such as cartilage that has become dislodged within the joint. CAT scans are also useful in the assessment of bone erosion (often due to structural deformities within the joint), and general losses of bone mineral and bone density.
CAT scans are also commonly employed to assess structural problems such as those that occur in the patellar tendon and femur that underlie the condition known as Osgood-Schlatter disease (OSD), a condition that arises due to unequal rate of growth between the patellar tendon and the femur in adolescents.
Like the MRI, the CAT scan has the advantages of speed and relative certainty when used to assess athletic injuries. Decisions regarding the treatment and management of the athlete can be made with greater speed. In a professional sports context, the quicker a definitive decision can be made regarding an athletic injury, the better a decision the team may make concerning a replacement to the team roster. | <urn:uuid:fcd651b3-624b-436c-b3f9-e853f2c2ac8f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Je-Mo/Ledley-Robert-Steven.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957044 | 620 | 3.359375 | 3 |
That’s the title of an editorial by Daniel Botkin, president of the Center for the Study of the Environment and professor emeritus at the University of California, in today’s Wall Street Journal.
With the ongoing polarization of science in today’s political environment, it’s more important than ever to remember that science is filled with uncertainty. Everything that scientists know about how the world works has been discovered by observation and experimentation. None of us were around at the very beginning, so we can never be absolutely certain about how the world works, though we can be very certain that we understand how it works.
You can’t prove anything to be true in science. This seems unintuitive to many people, including many of my former students, who used to insist that they had proven their point because the data supported their hypotheses. But since we will never be absolutely certain about how the world works, we can never prove that any particular hypothesis or theory is absolutely true. That’s why good scientists design experiments to disprove their hypotheses. While you can’t prove anything to be true, you can prove things to be false.
So good scientists are forever questioning their assumptions, looking for evidence that their hypotheses and theories are wrong, open to the idea that they may have misinterpreted the data. It’s vitally important for science teachers to remind their students to have this kind of healthy skepticism; scientific progress cannot easily proceed if people entrench themselves into opposing camps without regard for the data.
This is something that the High-Adventure Science investigations aim to do–immerse students in the data about climate change, finding extraterrestrial life, and freshwater resources–without making all-or-nothing judgements about the current state of the science.
“If you think that science is certain–well that’s just an error on your part.” ~Richard Feynman | <urn:uuid:f69ba031-30d4-42a4-a777-bafca23918a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.concord.org/absolute-certainty-is-not-scientific?postcomment=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951379 | 393 | 3.046875 | 3 |
[Footnote 5: It stood where the Peel statue now is, at the top of Cheapside.]
* * * * *
HISTORICAL MEMORIES OF THE TUDOR PERIOD.
Good Dean Colet—Accession of Henry VIII.—Papal Favour —Cardinal Wolsey at St. Paul’s—Bishop Fisher’s Preaching at Paul’s Cross—Fall of Wolsey—Alienation of the King from the Pope—The English Bible in the Cathedral—Edward VI. —Ridley’s Strong Protest against the Images—Progress of the Reformed Doctrines—Somerset’s Evil Deeds—Destruction of the Cloisters—Re-establishment of the Roman Mass under Mary —Cardinal Pole at St. Paul’s—The Lord Mayor’s Proclamation —Alienation of the Nation from Romanism—Death of Mary and Accession of Elizabeth—The Reformed Liturgy Restored—Growth of Puritanism—Destruction of the Steeple by Lightning —Continued Irreverence—Retrospect, the Tudor Monuments.
It seems fitting that we should open the chapter of a new era in the history of St. Paul’s with the name of its most famous Dean, a great, wise, good man. His name was John Colet. He was born in London, in the year 1466, within three months of his famous friend, Erasmus. His father, Sir Henry Colet, was twice Lord Mayor, one of the richest members of the Mercers’ Company. John, who was his eldest son, had ten brothers and eleven sisters, all by the same mother, who outlived the last of them. The young man was presented to livings (it was no unusual thing then) before he took Orders, and gave himself to study, both mathematical and classical, and in his zeal for learning travelled much abroad, where he saw much of ecclesiastical life, which startled him greatly. Returning, at length, to England, he was ordained at Christmas, 1497, went to Oxford, and began to lecture with great power on the Epistle to the Romans. It must be remembered that this was the epoch when the fall of Constantinople had driven the Greek scholars westward, the epoch of the revival of “the new learning” in Europe, the discrediting of the old scholastic philosophy which was now worn out and ready to vanish away. Colet stands before us then as the representative of the new learning in England, and as keen to reform the abuses in the Church which were terrifying all earnest and thoughtful men. He carried on his lectures with such energy that his lecture-room was crowded, the most distinguished tutors there being among his audience. And one day there came the great Erasmus, who had heard of him, and from the day of their first meeting they were fast friends for life. In 1504, Henry VII. made Colet Dean of St. Paul’s, and he showed at once that he had lost none of his zeal. He carried on his lectures in the cathedral and preached constantly, | <urn:uuid:cebd2c1a-0382-4754-9d18-ed8b20cf1de1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/16531/31.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980513 | 658 | 2.515625 | 3 |
IUCN Group Says 25% of All Sharks and Rays Threatened with Extinction
A new assessment by fish experts at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports one-quarter of the world's sharks and rays to be threatened with extinction.
The study of 1,041 chondrichthyan fishes - sharks, rays, and chimaeras - was carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG) and published Tuesday in the open-access journal eLife.
Of all the chondrichthyan fishes on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, only 23 percent have populations healthy enough to be considered of "least concern."
The IUCN reports that chondrichthyan fishes are "at a substantially higher risk than most other groups of animals and have the lowest percentage of species considered safe."
"Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction," said Simon Fraser University's Nick Dulvy, an IUCN SSG co-chair.
"We now know that many species of sharks and rays, not just the charismatic white sharks, face extinction across the ice-free seas of the world," Dulvy said. "There are no real sanctuaries for sharks where they are safe from overfishing." "In greatest peril are the largest species of rays and sharks, especially those living in shallow water that is accessible to fisheries."
The main threat to sharks and rays is overfishing, both targeted and incidental, the report suggests, with the most-threatened species being large-bodied, shallow-water species.
Rays are more threatened than sharks, the researchers said.
"Surprisingly, we have found that the rays, including sawfish, guitarfish, stingrays, and wedgefish, are generally worse off than the sharks, with five out of the seven most threatened families made up of rays," said Colin Simpfendorfer, a professor of environmental science at James Cook University and IUCN SSG co-chair. "While public, media and government attention to the plight of sharks is growing, the widespread depletion of rays is largely unnoticed. Conservation action for rays is lagging far behind, which only heightens our concern for this species group."
The high value placed on the fins of some sharks and rays - which are used in some Asian cuisine, most notably in shark fin soup - is a major contributor to the threats facing the animals. Other demand is driven by the traditional Chinese medicine market (which sells tonics made of manta and devil ray gills) and the pharmaceutical industry, which uses shark livers in some products.
The Gulf of Thailand and the Mediterranean and Red seas are the regions where the depletion of sharks and rays has been most dramatic.
The ICUN experts report that there is an urgent need to improve management of fisheries and trade in order to avoid extinctions and promote population recovery.
"Sharks, rays and chimaeras tend to grow slowly and produce few young, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to overfishing," said IUCN SSG Deputy Chair Sonja Fordham, president of the Shark Advocates International conservation group. "Significant policy strides have been made over the last two decades but effective conservation requires a dramatic acceleration in pace as well as an expansion of scope to include all shapes and sizes of these exceptional species. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the need for such action is urgent." | <urn:uuid:af806174-a30f-48f0-a3ec-714a94afc85e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/5727/20140121/iucn-group-25-sharks-rays-threatened-extinction.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946942 | 714 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Thomas W Collier
Extensive overview of important musicians, composers, arrangers, and stylistic periods of jazz history from emergence of the first jazz bands at the turn of the twentieth century through post-modern bebop era of the 1990s.
By completing this course, students will gain relevent historical perspectives on the chronological history of jazz, as well as an awareness of the social, cultural and political interactions that played a role in defining various musical stylistic branches of jazz that emerged throughout the 20th century.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Three primary methods of instruction are offered in this course: 1. class lectures - lecture / listening / discussion 2. textbook reading assignments - parallel class lectures and listening 3. listening assignments - on reserve in the media center in the OGUL, or on-line (URL will be provided on the first day of instruction)
Try listening to jazz on FM radio (KPLU plays jazz most of the day)
Class assignments and grading
Due to the large size of the class, outside assignments involve reading and listening. Listening assignments will comprise approximately 1/3 of each exam. Attending one "live" jazz performance and writing a paper on that performance is required.
Grades are calculated from (1) concert report, (2) midterm exam, and (3) final exam. | <urn:uuid:512d24fd-e1eb-4d8d-b26d-e1176ea13fe8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.washington.edu/students/icd/S/music/331mallets.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905253 | 277 | 3.28125 | 3 |
| || |
NEW NASA AIRCRAFT TO HELP CELEBRATE HISTORIC FLIGHT
One of NASA's newest aircraft, housed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., will help commemorate the 99th anniversary of the first successful powered flight.
Depending on availability, NASA 507 or NASA 504 will join more than 115 other planes that will fly in 99 formations over Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on December 17. It was there on December 17, 1903, that Orville and Wilbur Wright made the historic flight that launched a new age in transportation.
NASA 507 is a Lancair Columbia 300. It is one of a number of new-generation small planes that incorporate NASA technology pioneered at Langley. Technologies range from modified wing leading edges for spin resistance to energy-absorbing composite airframes to state-of-the-art cockpit systems inspired by the Langley-led Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) program.
NASA 504 is a Cessna 206 and is more typical of most of the planes flown by private pilots. It's being used to develop and test next-generation aviation safety technologies so that they can be retro-fitted into existing aircraft.
On December 17, one of the NASA planes will meet up with aircraft coming from across the country in a two-and-a-half hour fly over above the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. Civilian and military aircraft dating as far back as the 1930s will be spaced at ninety-second intervals in sections two to three minutes apart, so visitors can see just how far aviation has come since the Wright Brothers' innovation. The first arrival over the monument is expected about 10:35 a.m.
NASA Langley will also have an exhibit inside the Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center that will be available for viewing the morning of the fly over.
- end - | <urn:uuid:afb8837b-346a-4017-9bf6-cdd68574c6cb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/releases/2002/02-092.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913481 | 389 | 3.34375 | 3 |
“Thank you so much - y5 loved it! What an incredible insight into history from a brilliant educator!"
S Bromley, y6 teacher and Deputy Head Teacher, Manchester
Inspired by the story of a real First World War stretcher bearer, our unique WW1 workshop centres around bandages and brotherhood in a series of fun activities that are guaranteed to enhance your pupils' knowledge of what is was really like to have been in the trenches and the front line.
Beginning with an essential interactive WW1 timeline for that all-important chronological knowledge, pupils then experience a soldier's day to day life, basic training including learning how to march, and of course some stretcher bearer first aid tuition, for an overall experience that immerses them in the life of a First World War soldier in the very best way possible, with a great deal of hands-on experience and with a large amount of good humour and fun.
But that's not all, because with many detailed replica artefacts to investigate; an increasing range of free teaching resources, links to other websites and optional genuine WW1 souvenir pennies to purchase, we can guarantee a very effective learning experience for every pupil that will last before, during and long after the experience of bringing the First World War to life in your primary school.
ATTENTION PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS!
A great price and souvenirs too! all workshops come at a standard price (+ mileage for out of area bookings) and an optional GENUINE GEORGE V WW1 PENNY at just £1 each
Suitable for between 1 and 4 KS1/2 classes in a single day (but, of course, one class is much better as they can access ALL the activities in a full immersive experience)
Starts with a fun interactive timeline to consolidate pupils' chronological understanding (can be delivered as a full KS2 one hour assembly, regardless of the number of classes you want teaching)
NO GUNS policy: absolutely no weapons involved at any time, whilst still remaining entirely historically accurate as per a stretcher bearer's 'non-combatant' role
Planned and delivered by a highly experienced QTS teacher with wide experience both in the state and private sector
(Click any image to enlarge)
Are you looking for a way to teach about the First World War in your primary school in a way that suits the age range of your pupils from either Key Stage One or Key Stage Two or both?? Well look no further, as our new Key Stage Two WW1 school workshop offers a solution that is age-appropriate, packed with learning opportunities and a great deal of fun for both pupils and teachers.
Focusing on the day to day life of a WW1 stretcher bearer in the trenches rather than on the horror or weapons of the war, our unique workshop is ideally suited to any primary school looking to commemorate the centenary of WW1 in a meaningful way with their pupils.
PERFECT FOR EITHER KS1 OR KS2
WATCH THE PROMO: | <urn:uuid:8314786b-ec9f-42ed-a395-3b13e7a6c8f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ww1schoolworkshop.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944273 | 620 | 2.65625 | 3 |
White Men Challenging Racism is a collection of first-person essays detailing the inspiring efforts of thirty-five white men who make fighting for social justice and combating racism central to their lives. Thanks to the way the book’s three editors--Cooper Thompson, Emmett Schaefer, and Harry Brod--put together each interview (especially the way they cut out their own questions), the book reads like a collection of very accessible, personal and inspiring stories.
James Loewen, the heroic champion of forgotten history, provides in the foreword an excellent overview of anti-racist white men of the past, from Bartolome Las Casas, a conquistador who convinced a Spanish court that Indians were humans and thus not to be enslaved; to Edward Coles, a governor who prevented legalization of slavery in the state of Illinois; to anthropologist Franz Boas, who fought for an African museum in Washington D.C. during the Nadir:
Like those Jewish Americans who helped found the NAACP in 1909, Boas epitomizes the many “hyphenated Americans”—the term Woodrow Wilson used to disparage recent [soon to be “white”] immigrants—who worked for justice for African, Asian, Mexican, and Native Americans in their new homeland. He also offers a lesson to ivory-towered professors everywhere: he acted in public and wrote for the public, not just in academic journals read only by scholars, because he knew the issue was of paramount importance to the nation.
The thirty-five essays in White Men Challenging Racism are divided into six sections: “Movement Elders,” “Grassroots Organizing,” “Art and Politics,” “Challenging the System from Within,” “Challenging the System from the Margins,” and “The Next Generation.” The white anti-racists include a wide variety of people, including David Attyah, a graphic artist and a founder of THINK AGAIN; radical Historian Herbert Aptheker; former Boston police officer Bill Johnston; and writer, lecturer, and activist Tim Wise.
This book is loaded with endlessly useful details and examples for white folks who want to make a difference. Instead of presenting an overview of its contents, I’ll write about just one man's story that I found especially compelling. I plan to summarize various other "Fighting White Folks" stories in future posts.
Jesse Wimberley is a farmer and carpenter in North Carolina who worked for twelve years as an organizer for the Piedmont Peace Project and on social justice projects in Africa and Central America. In addition to farming and carpenter work, he also does consulting and training for non-profit organizations. He lives on fifty acres in a house built in 1870 by his Scotch-Irish great-grandfather, and he wishes he had the funding to spend all of his work-time with low-income white men.
“I hear the pain in their voices,” Wimberley says, “when they make angry comments at people of color. Their fear is poking through the costume they’re wearing. I just want to go up and hug them, and of course if I did that, I’d get hit.”
Unlike the national media and most of America in general, which hold low-income people up for ridicule, contempt, and scorn, Wimberley sees them as victims of a “patriarchal economic system” that uses “barriers of race and class and sexual preference” as wedges between groups of people to keep class inequities hidden and intact. These barriers, which are variably visible and invisible, separate communities that could see their common ground and work together on the basis of it. They also force individuals within communities apart from each other.
“When you cannot grasp what the larger oppression looks like, the matrix of it,” Wimberley says, “you fight against those close to you. . . . So a big part of the organizing in each community is just helping low-income people of color not to blame each other for the living conditions but to realize that poverty is a political, not a personal, failure.”
Wimberley says that he’s still learning to curb his white tendencies, including that of taking up space in a multiracial setting in ways that shut down black voices. He also finds non-white, non-straight mentors willing to teach him about interacting effectively in non-white spaces. One of these men told him, “Women know a lot about men, Black folks know a lot about white folks, gay folks know a lot about straight folks, but it doesn’t go in the opposite direction.”
Wimberley finds the lack of community among low-income whites “astounding.” As he mourns this lack, he reflects on what it was that killed the close-knit sense of togetherness that he's heard about from his mother and grandfather, back when neighbors knew, talked with, and helped each other:
They’ve told me that it used to function as a community all the time. When your tobacco was done, you would move with all your neighbors to the next farm. There would be square dancing, corn shucking, all kinds of community building. At the end of the day, you knew who you were. You knew where your value came from and could go to bed at night with a sense of self that was healthy.
This might seem like a nostalgic vision of a communal sense that wasn’t ever really “healthy,” especially because it was based so much in a conception of “inferior” blackness. But what Wimberley works for is that kind of community for everyone—the removal, that is, of the barriers mentioned above that have been continuously imposed and reshaped by the patriarchal economic order.
That rapacious profit-seeking system is what destroyed both a functioning sense of community and the part of low-income dignity that came from respectable employment--multinational corporations destroyed subsistence farming, which was replaced by factory work, which has now largely moved abroad in search of even cheaper labor. And again, low-income white men have been socially trained to turn against the people who are nearby, especially those who seem different from themselves, rather than against the forces that are really hurting them.
Since Wimberley recognizes this larger economic context for rural bigotry, he rarely calls out low-income white folks for their expressions of racism and sexism.
I don’t see it as my job to always be correcting people. Bob is not at a place where he can hear that he is a privileged young man. He makes panty hose seven days a week, twelve hours a day to put food on the table. For me to teach Bob that he carries privilege is like teaching a pig to sing. It’s a waste of time, and it irritates the piss out of him. There’s a time to share information and a way to share it that doesn’t come off as preaching or blaming.
Wimberley sees himself as "a low-income white man who has had the luxury to have access to other information,” and his work largely involves finding discreet ways to share this information and to encourage others to work with it.
“What I really see here with low-income white men,” Wimberley says, “is a group looking for community. . . . their backs are up against the wall. . . . Our identity used to be agrarian, but now—making panty hose in a factory? That doesn’t feel good. So what you have left is what you are against: gays, Blacks, Jews.”
The economic degradation of low-income people is the primary source for the appeal of the militia movement and the KKK, according to Wimberley. These groups at least provide a sense of belonging and purpose, and agitation against the gays, blacks, and Jews becomes a primary means of establishing some sense of group-bound identity and pride.
Wimberley also discusses the sexual identities of these men. His most comfortable low-income male friends are gay, because with them he doesn’t have to maintain a macho sense of distance, a sexualized barrier that he wishes wasn’t between himself and other straight men. This barrier also seems to serve the elite economic purpose of keeping people with similar circumstances from banding together against their true oppressors.
For Wimberley, the only hope for significant progress in racial and economic conditions is getting these men to change their xenophobic attitudes and wake up to the true causes of their misery because "they're the voting majority right now.”
As for what it’s like for him to work toward that goal, Wimberley ends with these humbling words:
What I’ve learned about working with women and people of color is that normally, when they enter, they leave something at the door. That becomes a way of life. Now I’m learning about that, and it feels like shit to have to leave part of myself at the door. I’m hoping one day that experience will bring us together instead of keeping us separate. | <urn:uuid:0bf85cb4-c1d8-4be0-9449-ded5b9fde86c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2008/06/saturday-book-rec-white-men-challenging_07.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970829 | 1,948 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In terms of revenue generated Nebraska's top five agricultural products are cattle and calves, corn for grain, Soybeans, Hogs, and wheat.
Nebraska ranks #3 among the states in total livestock receipts.
Livestock products account for about 2/3 of Nebraska's farm income and beef cattle are the most important source, followed by hogs.
Dairy products and chicken eggs are also important contributors to livestock product revenue.
Nebraska farmers also raise sheep and lambs, broilers (young chickens), farm chickens, and turkeys.
Corn is Nebraska's most important crop, with much of it going to feed cattle and hogs.
Other leading crops are soybeans, wheat, hay, and grain sorghum.
Other crops raised in Nebraska include beans, sugar beets and potatoes.
[ More ]
Manufacturers add value to raw products by creating manufactured items. For example, cotton cloth becomes more valuable than a boll of cotton through manufacturing processes.
Food processing (meat products, breakfast cereal, livestock feed, baked goods, dairy product, soft drinks)is the leading manufacturing activity in Nebraska by a wide margin. The state is one of the world's major meatpacking centers.
The production of chemicals (pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fertilizer) ranks as Nebraska's second most important manufacturing enterprise.
Machinery (farm equipment, telecommunications equipment, scientific, medical and surgical instruments) ranks third.
Petroleum, sand and gravel, and clays for bricks, tiles and pottery.
Limestone is mined for construction, making cement and soil treatment.
Private health care, data processing companies, engineering companies, law firms and repair shops are the leading income producers in the services industries.
Ranking second are the wholesale (farm products, farm supplies, food products) and retail (automobile dealerships, grocery stores) trade sector and the insurance, finance and real estate sector. Omaha is a Nebraska financial center.
Ranking third are the government services (electrical utilities, public schools, public hospitals, military bases, Indian reservations) and transportation, communication and utilities sectors. Nebraska is the only state where publicly owned utilities provide 100% of the electrical power.
David Wishart and Donald R. Hickey, "Nebraska," World Book Online Americas Edition, http://www.worldbookonline.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/385440, August 15, 2001.
U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Agricultural Statistics Service, "Nebraska State Agriculture Overview, 2004", 3 January 2006, <http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Ag_Overview/AgOverview_NE.pdf> (12 January 2006) | <urn:uuid:c8ad19b8-7c35-49d1-a16c-ec7f7be7a962> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.netstate.com/economy/ne_economy.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90401 | 567 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Platonic Tradition
There are several misconceptions about the Platonic tradition and its "revival" in the Italian Renaissance. For instance, there really is no solidly coherent body of philosophy that is "Platonic," but rather a series of philosophies openly or implicitly derived from work of the fourth century Athenian philosopher, Plato. In addition, Platonism never really faded out of the Western tradition nor was the Italian Renaissance a rediscovery of Plato; rather, the Italian Renaissance forged new philosophies from Plato and the Platonic tradition in antiquity and the Middle Ages. This new Platonic philosophy not only represented one of the central currents of Renaissance thought, it also had far reaching consequences in the future development of European thought and science. Finally, histories of the Renaissance tend to put Renaissance Platonism in conflict with Aristotelianism and its medieval derivative, Scholasticism. These are oppositional philosophies, or so the histories say, with diametrically opposed aims. The reality is a bit different: the philosophical instinct in the Italian Renaissance was to synthesize thought systems, to find a common, universal philosophy that encompasses a broad range of human thought. The greatest of these synthesizers was the Neoplatonic philosopher, Pico della Mirandola, who attempted to synthesize Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Hebrew thought, Jewish mysticism, Arabic philosophy, and a whole host of others into a single philosophical system.
The dialogues and teaching of Plato form the ground on which the Platonic tradition is built. Plato ran an academy for philosophy in Athens during the first half of the fourth century BC. As instructional exercises, he composed a series of dialogues with Socrates as the main protagonist over such questions as what is virtue?, can virtue be taught?, what is love?, what is justice?, and so on. The foundation of Plato's thought was that the universe consists of two realms: a realm of appearance and a realm of eternal, abstract forms. While the world of appearances (the world you and I live in) constantly changes and so affords no possibility of certain knowledge, the world of forms is always static. For instance, while a horse will cease to be a horse if you run over it with eighteen wheeler, the "form of a horse," that is, the intellectual category of "horse" by which we understand horses to be differentiable from other things, always remains the same, even if we run over every horse in existence. In this realm of forms (the Greek word is "idea"), the highest levels of existence and knowledge is mathematics, and the very highest form or idea is the "form of the good."
The Platonic tradition continued not through these dialogues but through the activities of Plato's Academy, which lasted until 539 AD, almost a thousand years of intellectual activity and ferment. The philosophy of Plato changed dramatically over the centuries and the general outline of that change is described by categorizing the Platonic tradition into two categories: Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism (meaning "new Platonism"). The most significant and far-reaching innovation of the Middle Platonists was the development of the view that the eternal forms or ideas that underly the world of appearances are the thoughts of some single god or divinity. This means that all abstract categories and all mathematics are closer to the mind of God than anything else. The Neoplatonists, on the other hand, sought to combine Platonism with the other major philosophies of antiquity, such as Stoicism, Aristoteleanism, and various theologies. In this respect, the Neoplatonist activity was more similar to that of the philosphers of the Han synthesis in China, who also sought to systematically reconcile the myriad of contending philosophical schools. The two most important Neoplatonic philosophers, Plotinus and Proclus, were active in the third century AD, and between them they effected the most systematic synthesis of Roman and Greek thought ever attained in the European tradition. Their most important innovation was the fusion of the Platonic forms with Aristotle's concept of an ordered an hierarchical universe. In the Neoplatonic scheme of things, the top of the hierarchy of the universe was one god, called "the One," and that all the lower levels were "emanations" from God. The lowest level of the universe was this world; since it is the farthest from the One it is both less real than the rest of the universe and less like God.
During the Middle Ages, the Platonic tradition survived in three distinct traditions: the European tradition, the Byzantine tradition, and the Islamic tradition. In Europe, Neo-Platonism never really died out because it formed the philosophical heart of the thought of Augustine and Boethius. Many of the standard Neoplatonic ideas, such as the existence of higher ideas in the mind of God and the reflection of those ideas in the real world were standard aspects of medieval thought. The knowledge of Plato was never lost; Plato's most thorough description of the structure of the universe, the Timaeus, was preserved and read throughout the middle ages in a Latin translation.
The Islamic tradition, on the other hand, far preferred Aristotle over Plato. The Islamic scholars never ignored Plato but gave far greater preference to the empirical and qualitiative philosophy of Aristotle. When the Islamic tradition intersected with the European tradition in the twelfth century, Europeans got a heavy dose of Aristotle with a correspondingly low dose of Plato. As a result, the European preference for the Platonic tradition, reflected in the predominance of Augustine, began to fade.
Of all the medieval Platonic traditions, the most dynamic was the Byzantine tradition. The Byzantines carried on the Neoplatonic speculations about the divine ideas and their relation to the physical world. Most importantly, the Byzantine Neoplatonists carried on the work of synthesizing philosophiesthe most crucial of these was the synthesis of Platonism with Christianity. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the most active of these Neoplatonists was Gemistus Pletho. He is most significant for the Italian Renaissance for he visited Italy and introduced the Italians to Byzantine Neoplatonism. Pletho also introduced the Italians to the notion that the philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle were in conflict with one another; a large part of European thought during the Renaissance would involve spelling out this conflict.
For all practical purposes, then, the Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance continues these three traditions. The Neoplatonists inherit the Augustinian and Boethian synthesis of Platonism with Christianity and many are avowed Augustinians. The Islamic tradition had taught Europeans to prize empiricism, logic, hierarchy, and qualitative knowledge in relation to the "divine ideas." Finally, the strongest influence were the Byzantine traditions which continued the Neoplatonic speculation into the mind of God and, more importantly, continued the tradition of synthesizing philosophical traditions.
Renaissance Platonism cannot really be easily considered as a school or even a coherent movement. Unlike humanism or Aristoteleanism, it was not a program of education and so did not constitute normal studies, nor did it ever become a program of study or curriculum. Aside from the Academy founded by Marsilio Ficino and Cosimo de'Medici, it had only the slimmest of institutional support as a distinct discipline. Only a few philosophers, such as Cardinal Bessarion, Nicholas Cusanus, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola, can be unabashedly classified as "Neoplatonists." In the history of ideas, Renaissance Neoplatonism is more important for its diffusion into a variety of philosophies and cultural activities, such as literature, painting, and music.
The humanists, beginning Petrarch, associated themselves in part with Platonic philosphy as a reaction against Aristoteleanism, though the early humanists knew little or nothing about Platonism. It wasn't until the arrival of Byzantine philosophers, most importantly John Chrysolas and Pletho, that the Italians were really introduced to the entire corpus of Platonic works. The first to undertake translating and transmitting Plato to the rest of Europe was Cardinal Bessarion, who, as a student of Pletho when he visited Italy, had thoroughly internalized Platonic ideas. This translation project, begun by Bessarion, would be completed a few decades later when Ficino undertook the herculean task of translating all of Plato's works into Latin.
The first highly influential Neoplatonic philosopher in the Italian Renaissance was Nicholas Cusanus who developed a rich and complex view of the universe and human knowledge. Among his most important and far-reaching ideas was the idea that mathematical knowledge was always absolutely certain knowledge; as such, the mathematical sciences were higher than all other sciences, including the qualitative empiricism of Aristotle. Cusanus also argued that their was one single, archetypal idea in the mind of God and that this idea is present in every other idea and in every physical object. With the proper understanding, one could arrive at this archetypal idea by studying any object whatsoever. This is a remarkably similar conclusion to that arrived at by the School of Principle in Chinese Neo-Confucianism. The critical difference between Cusanus and the Chinese Neo-Confucianists was that Cusanus advocated a mathematical approach while Neo-Confucianism led to a qualitative empirical science such as that practiced by Aristotle.
The most important of the Renaissance Neo-Platonists was Marsilio Ficino, who developed original and highly influential ideas from Plato and Neoplatonism. Ficino was an active and dynamic mind; as the founder of the Academy in Firenze under the auspices of Cosimo de'Medici, he, more than any other person in the Renaissance, was responsible for its widespread diffusion. The Academy resembled no academic organization that you might think of; it was part discussion group and part literary club. Discussions were wide ranging and activities included poetry and games. The overall character of the Academy, however, was syncretic and synthetic. The members of the Academy believed at some level that all human thought and arts could be discussed in a common language based on Neoplatonic ideas.
Ficino translated all of Plato's dialogues into Latin and produced a number of commentaries, but his most important and systematic work was Platonic Theology , in which he outlines Neoplatonism and synthesizes it with other philosophical systems, in particular, Christianity.
Ficino's philosophy is based on one central doctrine: the human soul is immortal and the center of the universe. It is the only thing that sits midway between the abstract realm of ideas and the physical worldas such, it is the mediator between these two worlds:
All things beneath God are but single things, but the soul can truly be said to be all things . . . For this resaon, the soul is called the center of creation and the middle term of all things in the universe, the entirety of the universe, the face of all things, and the binding and joining center of the universe.
This special, central position in the universe made humanity the most dignified of all objects in creation; Ficino's emphasis on the dignity of humanity was derived from humanistic currents.
From the standpoint of religion, Ficino was a syncretic in that he believed that all the world's religions could be related to one another. At the heart of every religion was a belief in the one God and the variety of relgions was not a bad thing but rather an expression of the complexity and beauty of God worshipped in all his infinite aspects. Of course, Christianity was a more complete religion.
Ficino believed that the purpose of human life was contemplation. The ultimate goal of human life was to be reunited with God, at least in an intellectual sense. This goal, according to Ficino, was realized through contemplation. At first, the human mind removes itself from the outside, physical world, and thinks about abstract ideas concerning knowledge and the soul. As it rises in knowledge it eventually reaches a point where it can arrive at an unmediated vision of God itselfthis last stage would occur only after death and the immortality that the soul would enjoy would be an eternity of this vision of God.
From this program, Ficino developed a concept he called Platonic love, which had far-reaching consequences in the history of love and social reality in the European tradition. While Ficino believed that the human soul pursued contemplation more or less in isolation, he acknowledged that human beings were fundamentally social. When the spiritual relationship between God and the individual, sought through contemplation, is reproduced in a friendship or love with another person, that constitutes for Ficino spiritual or Platonic love. In other words, when the love and spiritual activity in a friendship mirrors the love for God, then the two individuals have attained the highest type of friendship that they can. Ficino did not condemn sexuality or erotics nor deny that Platonic love was only possible outside sexual relations; his only concern was the nature of the spiritual bond between two people.
The two most influential aspects of Neoplatonism for Western culture were its emphasis on the priority and certainty of mathematics and Ficino's doctrine of Platonic love.
While Renaissance artists, thinkers, and other cultural producers only picked up Neoplatonism in part, the doctrine of Platonic love diffused quickly all throughout the culture. It significantly changed the European experience of sexual love which, since antiquity, had always been closely related erotics and physical attraction. Suddenly writers, artists, poets, philosophers, and women's communities began discussing sexual love in terms of spiritual bonds, as reflecting the relationship between the individuals and God. Platonic love also gave homosexual erotics a new language. While homosexuality was extremely common in the middle ages, it wasn't really regarded as an identity characteristic, as we do today. When a man had sex with another man, he was a sodomite for as long as the act took place. After that, he was someone who committed sodomy; homosexuality as a steady state did not really exist. The language of Platonic love, however, gave the Italians a language with which to define non-sexual male-male relationships. Once understood in spiritual terms, male-male sexual relationships could now be discussed in the same terms: in the Italian Renaissance, the language of male-male friendship and male-male erotics became the same. This language is still a key element in the modern debates of homosexuality and lesbianism.
Nicholas of Cusanus expanded the Platonic argument that mathematics were a form of certain knowledge to the radical thesis that mathematics represented the divine ideas. This extreme position, accepted by Neoplatonists (except of Pico), eventually became the basis for a new form of science. Through the high middle ages, scientific inquiry was dominated by the qualitative, empirical science of Aristotle combined with the doctrine from the Arabic philosopher, Averroes, that inquiry into the physical world should never include speculation about God or any other kind of metaphysics. In distinction to this, the Neoplatonists that the physical world was fundamentally mathematical and that a knowledge of that mathematics would provide access to the divine mind.
The most famous advocate of this scientific position was Joahnnes Kepler and, a century later, Galileo Galilei. Their story is told in the chapter on the so-called scientific revolution, but we can look forward at the conclusion of this essay. Kepler, working in the first half of the sixteenth century, believed that the mathematics of the universe was the truth of the universe. Until Kepler, astronomers and astrologers believed that the qualitative understanding of the universe superseded the quantitaive understanding of the universe. The Ptolemaic universe, which was a mathematical system for describing the movements of the heavenly bodies in relation to the earth as the center of the universe, had long been regarded as a nearly insane mathematical system. That wasn't the point, though. Even though the Ptolemaic universe didn't make much sense mathematically, it served its purpose in that it provided the math to successfully predict movements of the heavenly bodies. For Kepler, the math of the movements of the stars and planets was the movement of the stars and planets; the most rational mathematical universe was one in which the planets and stars orbitted the sun. This, because it was the most rational mathematics, represented the physical truth. This is a unique reorientation of mathematics to physical phenomena and remains the standard world view of European physics.
While Galileo's relationship to Neoplatonism is controversial, he seems to have inherited from Neoplatonism this same view of mathematics. The fundamental truth of the universe, as Galileo saw it, was mathematical. Only when our understanding of the universe corresponded to the math of the universe could we say that we understood the universe. In the dogmatic throes of the counter-Reformation, the church wasn't willing to accept some of the conclusions that resulted from this viewopint, such as understanding that the sun is the center of the solar system. It wasn't until Newton that this mathematical view of the universe finally took hold and perpetually changed the face of European science. So, the next time you walk into a physics course, remember, the fundamental understanding of the universe that they're using has its origins in Renaissance Neoplatonism.
©1997, Richard Hooker | <urn:uuid:5d257f08-e0fe-41ad-83a4-f448667c5e09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hermetic.com/texts/neoplatonism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957743 | 3,601 | 3.15625 | 3 |
by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) March 16, 2014
Beneath its Sun-scorched exterior, the planet Mercury is cooling, which is causing it to shrink ever so slightly, scientists said Sunday.
Over the last 3.8 billion years, the planet has shrunk by up to 14 kilometers (8.8 miles) to reach its present diameter of 4,800 km (3,032 miles), they said.
Mercury, like Earth, is believed to have a superhot metallic core.
But unlike Earth, it has no tectonic plates which bump and jostle and slide in response to the stress that heat loss causes on the planet's crust.
Instead, Mercury has just a single, rigid top layer, which means the stress is transmitted directly to the planet's surface, causing it to "wrinkle" into gouges and ridges as the planet cools.
Planetary geologists led by Paul Byrne at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington used a tally of these features to get a yardstick for the planet's thermal contraction, the term for shrinkage through heat loss.
They studied nearly 6,000 landforms recorded by NASA's Messenger spacecraft to look for these telltales.
Earlier estimates based on images of only 45 percent of the planet suggested a contraction of 1.6 to six kilometres (one to four miles) over the course of its history.
The starting point for the measurement is the end of the "late heavy bombardment" of the Solar System -- a period that ran from around 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago, when our star system was a shooting gallery of comets and other icy bodies which smashed into the nascent planets.
The study appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.
News Flash at Mercury
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more
|The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.| | <urn:uuid:3ba2b9c3-0c3d-4e61-bdeb-0b989c1ab978> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mercury_the_incredible_shrinking_planet_999.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919816 | 609 | 3.28125 | 3 |
For those looking to get into woodworking and have enough experience to justify opening a workshop, there are 10 essential tools which create the foundation of a working shop.
Here is a list of these 10 tools, in no particular order. Perhaps number 10, safety, is the most important because woodworking can be a dangerous and hazardous hobby/profession if the proper precautions are not made. Always read your owner's manual and take all the recommended safety precautions seriously.
Handwork in woodworking tends to be the line where craftsman and factory worker split. Working by hand enables one to create joinery which most machining cannot. The preciseness of the chisel in removing waste enables for a tight and perfect fit in joinery. Chisels come in every shape and size as well as different materials. The harder the material, the less one would need to sharpen, enabling more time to work. Chisels are used in creating dovetails, mortise and tendons, and much more.
2. Japanese Saw
The Japanese saw is a favorite. A much smarter, efficient and exact cut can be made using this saw as opposed to a European saw. The difference between the two is simple: tooth direction. European saws cut when pushing the saw as opposed to Japanese saws which cut on the pull. One uses much less energy when pulling - perhaps that is why the horse was put in front of the cart. A Japanese saw is a must have in any shop.
3. Circular Saw
The circular saw is a hand held or table mounted saw. Circular saws come with the ability to set the depth of the blade, which enables one to create cut offs, dados and narrow slots. There are upsides and downsides to all saws, and the one down side to the circular saw that its light weight sometimes causes it to move when cutting, and stability in the machine is important for the cut and for safety. On the other hand, this is also its advantage. The versatility and the mobility of this saw gives one the freedom to work anywhere.
4. Power Drill
Power drills are something most people have in their homes, and something every father in law should buy for their kids’ wedding. Therefore, this is probably not something one would need to go out and buy. As you can see, there is no drill press on this list; perhaps it would be number 11, 12, or 13. The point is that starters should buy what they can get away with to achieve similar results. With that being said, there are ways to convert your hand held drill into a drill press, if necessary. Additionally, the versatility comes with options of other accessories.
The jigsaw, another hand held and versatile saw, is used for cutting curves. One has a lot of freedom with a jig saw because it can cut curves, circles and straight. Depending on the width of the blade, the curves can be very fine. The down side to the jigsaw is that straight lines can be difficult depending on the wood you are cutting. No matter, it is important to make sure to always have sharp blades.
6. Random Orbital Sander
This hand held sander is a great finish sander. When sanding, grain directions should be the first thing one looks at when deciding which direction to move the sand paper. With the random orbital sander, because of its circular movements, one does not need to take too much notice in the grain direction. Plus, with a velcro pad, switching sandpaper discs only takes a few seconds. Most sanders allow for speed control as well. This is an important feature because you do not want to over or under sand your work since what you leave behind after you finish sanding is going to exist.
7. Table Saw
The table saw is the center of most workshops; it is the largest and most imposing tool in the shop. While it is an important tool, one could claim that table saw need not be on this list. However, it is an important tool and shows that creating a shop is not a matter of just collecting hand tools. There are jobs that hand tools cannot do as well as tools like the table saw, especially when there is such a wide variety of blades which can be set up and changed for so many different applications. Table saws create straight and consistent cuts. When setting up a table saw for a cut, one needs to set the depth of the blade and adjust the fence according to the width desired.
8. Compound Miter Saw
Although a mobile tool, it is recommended to set the compound miter saw in place with extended tables on both ends. This saw makes very quick and accurate cuts, allowing for compound cuts. In addition to the rotating table, the compound milter saw has a rotating vertical pivot which lets the cutter head and blade to be tilted sideways, allowing both vertical and horizontal cuts to be angled on both planes.
The router is a hand held tool which is often mounted upside down and is used to hollow out an area in the face of a work piece. It is also used to cut profiles for moldings and adding decorative edges to any piece enhances its beauty and dimension. Routers are also used to cut joinery, such as dovetails and dados. The beauty of a router is that one can purchase an unlimited number of profiles to best suit the many requirements which arise with woodworking.
Last but not least, every shop needs safety measures. Reading all safely requirements for tools is important, but there are also other issues one needs to deal with. First, it is important to use proper eye protection. Accidents do happen, blades crack and wood does go air born. Therefore, if you value your eye sight it is important to wear safely glasses. Second, you also need ear protection. Since many power tools give off a high decibel noise, the ears become damaged over time, which can cause tinnitus. There are many different ear protections on the market so choose the one that works best for you. The final safety measure is dust collection. Dust collection is often overlooked because it tends to be invisible, but it can enter the lungs and, over time, inhibit the air capacity of your lungs.
Opening a shop is an exciting time; I know because I have done it a few times. Going shopping can be a bit overwhelming so it is important to do the best with the basics. When you are ready, you can upgrade and invest at the right time. | <urn:uuid:733d842d-fb5f-4015-bbb7-9fe0267fc1a9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.toolstoday.com/g-45-top-10-tools-every-woodworker-should-have.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966609 | 1,331 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Medical Illustration is one part art, one part science, and one part communication. Your education will hone your skills in all three.
The new program builds on the strengths of our Illustration, Graphic Design, and Digital Media programs through supportive studio relationships. In some ways, medicine is just another topic to illustrate, and many of the techniques will be the same as those used for other topics. One thing that sets this field apart is the demand for accuracy, instead of interpretation, in your work.Illustration techniques you’ll study include:
- Traditional drawing methods
- Traditional/digital hybrids
- All-digital illustrations
- 2-D animations
- 3-D (digital) modeling
The program also includes 12 credits of studio electives. This gives students the chance to investigate an additional discipline in art or design, to concentrate in specific methods or media, or to specialize in specific topic areas.
ScienceDuring this program, students will learn biology, medical terminology, and anatomy. They’ll build their knowledge by reading scientific papers, meeting with medical experts, and taking part in many laboratory procedures, including examining cadavers and specimens in gross anatomy. Proper lab behavior and ethics will be an important part of these studies.
CommunicationMedical Illustration focuses on visual communication, but verbal communication is an important tool for achieving the best results. At KCAD, we’ll help you hone your oral, written, and visual communication skills so you can be an effective part of every team and every project, no matter how diverse.
Get the scoop on the advantages of this unique partnership. | <urn:uuid:48455a2a-56aa-4498-889a-94dc50ff6b59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kcad.edu/programs/undergraduate/medical-illustration/what-will-I-learn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919223 | 328 | 3.109375 | 3 |
A compound that shows promise for drug-resistant malaria has been discovered by scientists at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) in collaboration with researchers from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and The Scripps Research Institute.
Published in Science the findings demonstrated that the antimalarial candidate spiroindolone NITD609 was effective against both strains of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. Through a reportedly novel mechanism, NITD609 cleared plasmodium in a malaria mouse model and showed pharmacological properties compatible with a once-daily dosing regimen.
Despite significant advances in Plasmodium genome biology, the identification and validation of new drug targets has proven challenging. In the Science paper the research team outlines how they identified a potential target by finding mutations that decreased the parasite's sensitivity to a new compound class.
"Using a novel Plasmodium whole-cell assay, we were able to tap into the Novartis archive of 12,000 pure natural products and synthetic compounds to identify 275 compounds highly active against P. falciparum, the most prevalent and deadly form of malaria," notes Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases’ Bryan Yeung, project team head.
"From this set all but 17 compounds were discarded for failing to meet pharmacological and efficacy standards. Of the remaining compound class, spirotetrahydro-beta-carbolines or spiroindolones have favorable physical and chemical properties for drug development as well as a mechanism of action distinct from the currently used therapies based on aminoquinolines and artemisinin derivatives." | <urn:uuid:d1b222a1-5284-427b-9608-5ede200beb4b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/novartis-and-collaborators-discover-candidate-for-drug-resistant-malaria/81243874/?kwrd=Novartis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919596 | 359 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Electric motors are a great invention, they are very small comapred to combustion engines, they can produce huge amounts of torque at very low speeds, they aren't so noisy, they made our every day life easier, they are everywhere, from the gigantic power stations to the tiny DVD player in your laptop. They are magic.
Electric cars... they say it's future.. But there is only one problem with them, they need electricity to run. And in order to produce electricity for hundreds of millions of electric vehicles around the planet we need hundreds of huge gas powered turbines or nuclear reactors that cause more harm than good to this planet. To store electricity for hundreds of millions of electric cars we need batteries, very heavy and expensive ones. Batteries that are made from rare earth, they are costly to produce and they last only for one decade or two. They are toxic and you can't throw them anywhere.
Electric cars... they say it's the future... Maybe. But not in the way they are produced today. Let's take this electric Porsche 911 made by RUF as an exemple. Let's start by looking at the full half of the glass. It is powered by a three Phase induction motor that produces 150 Kw (204 hp) and 616 Newton Meters (455 ib/ft) of torque. More importantly, this huge amount of torque is available at unbelievably low speeds. That's exactly where electric motors shine compared to combustion engines. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 7 seconds and it has a top speed of 160 mph, great! It is also capable of running 200 miles on a single charge! All this without emitting a single gram of CO2 (No, wait...).
Now this all sounds perfect! Once again, we put aside the environmental catastrophy that would be caused by hundreds of millions of people owning a car similar to this electric RUF and think about it from a driver's point of view. While a flat six powered 911 weights 1420 Kg, this baby is nearly 500 Kg heavier, thanks to all the batteries that are placed both at the front and at the rear of the car. To fully charge the batteries, the two ton sports car needs to stay still and pump electricity for 10 hours before it can go again for a 200 miles journey... if you don't drive it like a sports car. All this for a car that costs as much as five Golf GTIs.
Even if the world is not ready for fully electric cars. Cars like the Tesla Roadster and the eRUF are a great beginning. You can see them as moving laboratories, but they are far from being the solution. | <urn:uuid:0fac85c5-d91c-4480-8205-0641c92a9765> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ebeasts.com/2011_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967631 | 544 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Keep Norway Clean
Every year 8 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans. According to a new report from the World Economic Forum, it will by 2050 be more plastic garbage in our oceans than fish. Marine pollution is a serious global environmental problem that particularly affects Norway as the coastal nation.
Every day is a costal cleanup day, but to set focus on the importance, “Hold Norge Rent” (Keep Norway Beautiful) invites everyone to participate on “Strandryddedagen” which is the Norwegian version of the International Coastal Cleanup day, this year held 7th of May. NOVASOL Norway supports the work that “Keep Norway Beautiful” does, and alone we engaged 500 volunteers for the Coastal Cleanup day this year. They all received a NOVASOL cleanup-kit with garbage bags and disposable gloves to use when cleaning up their local beach. These 500 people included both house owners, customers, communities and school classes, and were reached through newsletters, social media and landing pages. NOVASOL Norway with families also participated, and together with Keep Norway Beautiful we cleaned the beaches of Langøya, a small island in the Oslofjord. | <urn:uuid:83d0b348-66a2-4f0a-99f2-cf51f5836858> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://video.novasol.dk/da/news.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937724 | 248 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A new scientific study presented at the American Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim found that walnuts outrank other tree and ground nuts in nutritional value. The analysis showed that walnuts have more antioxidants of a higher quality than any other nut.
“Walnuts rank above peanuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios and other nuts,” said Joe Vinson, Ph.D., who did the analysis. “A handful of walnuts contains almost twice as much antioxidants as an equivalent amount of any other commonly consumed nut. But unfortunately, people don’t eat a lot of them. This study suggests that consumers should eat more walnuts as part of a healthy diet.”
February is American Heart Month, but that doesn’t mean you should only worry about having a healthy heart for 28 days out of the year. Heart health is incredibly important; if you take care of your heart, you’ll be less likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke, the most common killer in the USA.
The foods that you eat can have a great impact on your heart’s health. Think of your heart as a high performance sports car: if you put super-premium fuel in, you’ll get better results. Here are nine super-premium foods to keep your ticker in tip-top shape:
Oatmeal Oatmeal is good for your heart because it contains omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, potassium, and folate. The fiber in oatmeal is very beneficial for your heart because it can lower levels of your bad cholesterol (LDL), which can clear up your arteries.
Avocados Like oatmeal, avocados will help lower your LDL cholesterol levels; they will also raise the amount of good cholesterol (HDL) in your body. They also make it easier for your body to absorb other nutrients that are good for your heart, such as beta-carotene and lycopene.
Granola is a popular breakfast option that we’ve all seen on grocery store shelves. Even though it can be less time-consuming to snag one from the market, baking a batch of granola at home is far more rewarding. With a homemade version, you can create your favorite combination of fruit, nuts, grains and seeds.
When making granola, some people prefer to use a recipe, where others take a more rustic approach. If you’re planning to wing it, choose your ingredients for a fresh, healthy flavor that will make you want to wake up in the morning. (more…)
The National Peanut Board has launched a free iPhone app, called Peanuts: Energy for the Good Life. It features recipes, facts and even a little tool to help you curb snack cravings. While peanuts are high in calories, they contain more protein than any other nut, and contain many other nutrients. According the to the board, 90 percent of Americans have a jar of peanut butter in their homes.
Naturally, the app discusses the health benefits of peanuts and has over 30 dietitian recommended recipes featuring the legume. I’m particularly excited to try the masala slaw, with ginger, cilantro, cabbage and, of course, peanuts. Some of the desserts look pretty high-calorie, although delicious–maybe not so diet friendly. But the app isn’t just about discovering new ways to eat peanuts. It also has a meditation feature, guided by the relaxing voice of Stephan Bodian. Bodian practiced as a Zen Buddhist monk for ten years and is the author of Meditation for Dummies. Finally, the app has a note tool that you can set to remind you take a break or even have a healthy snack.
Get Peanuts: Energy for the Good Life now. | <urn:uuid:c68fc7f3-0d9a-42f3-b6d0-6e696c57d5f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/tag/nuts/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93802 | 775 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What is Community Arts?
So what exactly is Community Arts?
Defining, clarifying and reflecting on what we do is essential and something we do all the time at Valley and Vale Community Arts, to inform our practice and make sure we are offering the best process we can to everyone we have the privilege to work with. The Community Arts sector is a sector of change, a sector about change; we are transforming lives, and this dynamic means we need to be especially clear about what we are aiming to do.
Our thoughts about our work are all over this web site, so we thought you might like to read some other thoughts and definitions about Community Arts.
Alex Bowen, Director, Valley and Vale,
Chair, Wales Association of Community Arts
Webster Med.; 1997; Finding Voices, Making Choices
Community Arts is a way of describing creative activities that bring people together in their communities and that give people the opportunity to gain new skills and new opportunities. Community Arts works to nurture the potential that exists in all communities to be creative and to find a voice to express their concerns through and using the Arts.
Community Arts is a term embracing all those activities which involve groups of people doing creative things together. What differentiates Community Arts, say, from amateur arts or the professional or commercial arts, is that:
- It promotes participation, regardless of the existing level of skill or talent
- It is undertaken by a group who either have the same collective identity, or a goal greater than the art form itself, or both
- It is developed primarily to provide opportunities for people who through economic or social circumstance have little access to the means to participate in the Arts
CAF (Community Arts Forum):
‘Community Arts is a specific practice within a field of allied work, singularly concerned with the original collective creative expression of a community. The core values of Community Arts practice inform the development and delivery of training and education for that practice. Learning can take place in a range of ways; it should be undertaken by those who may think they don’t need it, and accessible to those who think they can’t aspire to it, to raise the quality and the impact of the work.’
Fegan T (2003) Learning and Community Arts Leicester, NIACE:
‘Community Arts is an activity rooted in a specific community in which participants decide, organise and practise the arts in response to their own ideas and lives.’
essays & articles
Chasing the Dragon: creative community responses to the crisis in the South Wales coalfield.
Creating Meaning: a book about culture and democracy, edited by Jerry Rothwell
Counselling Skills at Work: Katja Stiller
Person-Centred Creativity – A Learning Curve by Nick Clements, Katja Stiller, Alex Bowen and Rhys Hughes, Valley and Vale Community Arts, October 2005 | <urn:uuid:35ec3633-b962-4d50-97f7-e75867ebeb8d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.valleyandvalecommunityarts.co.uk/about/what-is-community-arts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00115-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942698 | 588 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. -- Wikipedia.
One of the most common labels thrown by our detractors at those of us in the constitutional militia movement is “paranoid.” This mental health diagnosis is whipped out at the drop of a hat by people who refuse to accept our concerns about (and our actions reacting to) portending federal tyranny.
It is said that “even paranoids have real enemies,” but the test of whether or not we are truly “paranoid” -- that is, unreasonably, obsessively fearful -- of federal intentions and the slide of the country into corruption, disorder and tyranny is whether or not
a. the situation in the country is in fact as bad as we believe it to be and whether it is likely to continue to deteriorate, and
b. our preparations to meet it are out of proportion to the threat.
As we view ourselves as the descendants of the Founders and accept the mantle of civic republicanism that they laid upon us -- as we are certainly students of that history of the Founding generation -- we must in any situation ask ourselves what the Founders’ experiences teach us about our present situation.
Put simply, we must ask ourselves: “Were the Founders themselves “paranoid” about the intentions of King George the Third?” The king and his ministers certainly thought so.
I present in evidence of that contention this excerpt from Gordon S. Woods’ magnificent history, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776 - 1787 (University of North Carolina Press, 1969).
The American Revolution has always seemed to be an extraordinary kind of revolution, and no more so than to the Revolutionaries themselves. To those who took stock at the end of these decades of revolutionary activity, the Revolution was not “one of those events which strikes the public eye in the subversions of laws which have usually attended the revolutions of governments.” Because it did not seem to have been a usual revolution, the sources of its force and its momentum appeared strangely unaccountable. “In other revolutions, the sword has been drawn by the arm of offended freedom, under an oppression that threatened the vital powers of society.” But this seemed hardly true of the American Revolution. There was none of the legendary tyranny of history that had so often driven desperate people into rebellion. The Americans were not an oppressed people, they had no crushing imperial shackles to throw off. In fact, the Americans knew they were probably freer and less burdened with cumbersome feudal and hierarchical restraints than any part of mankind in the eighteenth century. To its victims, the Tories, the Revolution was truly incomprehensible. Never in history, said Daniel Leonard, had there been so much rebellion with so “little real cause.” It was, wrote Peter Oliver, “the most wanton and unnatural rebellion that ever existed.” The Americans’ response was out of all proportion to the stimuli: “The Annals of no Country can produce an instance of so virulent a Rebellion, of such implacable madness and Fury, originating from such trivial Causes, as those alledged by these unhappy People.” The objective social reality scarcely seemed capable of explaining a revolution.
Yet no American doubted that there had been a revolution. How then was it to be justified and explained? If the American Revolution, lacking “those mad, tumultuous actions which disgraced many of the great revolutions of antiquity,” was not a typical revolution, what kind of revolution was it? If the origin of the American Revolution lay not in the usual passions and interests of men, wherein did it lie? Those Americans who looked back at what they had been through could only marvel at the rationality and moderation, “supported by the energies of well-weighed choice,” involved in their separation from Britain, a revolution remarkably “without violence or convulsion.” It was, said Edmund Randolph, a revolution “without an immediate oppression, without a cause depending so much on hasty feeling as theoretic reasoning.” It seemed in fact to be peculiarly “the result of reason.” The Americans were fortunate in being born at a time when the principles of government and freedom were better known than at any time in history. By “reading and reasoning” on politics they had learned “how to define the rights of nature, -- how to search into, to distinguish, and to comprehend, the principles of physical, moral, religious, and civil liberty,” how, in short, to discover and resist the forces of tyranny before they could be applied. “Justly it may be said, ’the present is an age of philosophy, and America the empire of reason.’”
As early as 1775 Edmund Burke had noted in the House of Commons that the colonists’ intensive study of law and politics had made them acutely inquisitive and sensitive about their liberties. Where the people of other countries had invoked principles only after they had endured “an actual grievance,” the Americans, said Burke, were anticipating their grievances and resorting to principles even before they actually suffered. “They augur misgovernment at a distance and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.” The crucial questions in the colonists’ minds, wrote John Dickinson in 1768, was “not, what evil HAS ACTUALLY ATTENDED particular measures -- but, what evil, in the nature of things, IS LIKELY TO ATTEND THEM.” Because “nations, in general, are not apt to THINK until they FEEL, . . . Therefore nations in general have lost their liberty.” But not the Americans, as the Abbe Raynal observed. They were an “enlightened people” who knew their rights and the limits of power and who, unlike any people before them, aimed to think before they felt. -- Gordon S. Woods, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776 - 1787, Chapter One, “The Whig Science of Politics,” pp. 3-5.
The Founders, then, recognized the dangers of a corrupt and autocratic government, compared what they saw and experienced with the pattern of tyranny from history, and determined to avoid the experiences of others throughout history BEFORE THEY THEMSELVES HAD ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED IT. Before, indeed, they knew that events would unfold in the way that they feared.
Seen from the Tory point of view, they were “paranoid.”
So the next time someone calls you “paranoid” for auguring “misgovernment at a distance and snuff(ing) the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze,” tell them that if you are, so were the Founders. | <urn:uuid:98e912d5-148d-47a1-9479-c14095d1ae82> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/05/paranoid-yep-were-as-paranoid-as.html?showComment=1274204083753 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966323 | 1,445 | 2.5625 | 3 |
- A place of worship on the site of Peterborough Cathedral was founded in around 655 by Peada of Mercia and survived until it was destroyed by Vikings in 870. At the time of the Dark Ages it was reputed to be the richest church in England with an income of over £1,000 a year.
- Rebuilding started on the abbey in 972 and survived Norman invaders and local uprisings until it was destroyed by fire in 1116. Work then began on the existing building which took 120 years to complete and was consecrated in 1238.
- Much of the early Norman style was rebuilt as Gothic in the following century giving a unique 'French' design. Whilst the English favoured tall towers and relatively low naves, Peterborough has the tallest nave in England and a low central tower.
- The three entrance arches to the cathedral are 27m tall which were erected between 1214 and 1222. This west front stands 47.5 metres wide, a greater size than the height of the central tower. It was perhaps designed for use specifically on Palm Sundays with huge celebratory banners hung in the arches.
- As well as the scale, the west front is notable for its chaotic appearance that shows the haphazard way it was built, with the design rapidly changing a section at a time. Other great churches would simply demolish a part considered obsolete and rebuild in its place, or at least heavily restyle, but this appears to uniquely ignored at Peterborough where conventional architecture was seemingly ignored for spontaneous construction. This is evidenced above all by towers in front of towers.
- A large single tower pokes over the frontage disrupting the symmetry having been raised unlike the other flanking tower which remains a stump. Furthermore the central arch has a lesser width than those either side, and a small porch sits in the middle of it like an after-thought. One possible explanation is that this was done for structural reasons as the central arch was starting to spread.
- Early attempts, perhaps in 1118 to vault the nave, something that at the time was a cutting edge technology had failed resulting in the unvaulted look that remains today. Fan vaulting was later constructed by John Wastell at the far east end of the quire, one of the earliest examples of its type. The similarities to his nearby and future work in Cambridge are striking.
- Unlike most great abbeys, it survived the reformation of the Church of England thanks to having the body of Katherine of Aragon, Henry the 8th's first wife when it was elevated to cathedral status, but it was badly vandalised in the English civil war with much of the stained glass being completely destroyed. The lady chapel was also demolished.
- Restoration work started piecemeal in the the later half of the 17th century but it was not until 1883 that full scale work was done and the cathedral was restored to its former glory.
If your company has been involved with the Design/Build, Supply or Maintenance of this building please submit your details.
- John Wastell
- Renovation Architect
- John Loughborough Pearson
- Reference No.
- First Uploaded
- Last Editorial Date
- Minster Precincts, Peterborough. PE1 1XS
- Peterborough City Council
- East Anglia
- United Kingdom
View in Google Maps
Available office space in PE1
Paul Sunderland Associates Ltd Swan Court, Forder Way, Peterborough
Halcyon Offices Castle Hill House, High Street, Huntingdon
Rupen Estates Limited Carlton House Business Centre, Ryhall Road, Stamford
Find Other Offices
- Construction start date
- Completion date
- Renovation Date
- Heritage Status
- Grade I
- Pinnacle Height (AGL)
- Pinnacle Type
- Roof Height (AGL)
- Primary Use
- Place of Worship
Metres > Feet | <urn:uuid:482c74c5-204e-4b94-9055-d1db071f5971> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=2079 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96854 | 811 | 3.609375 | 4 |
March 26, 1999
Risks for heart disease associated with size of LDL particles
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine have produced new analyses predicting the risk of heart disease among diverse population groups ? younger women, middle-aged men and older Japanese-American men.
The findings are being presented on March 26 at the 39th Annual American Heart Association (AHA) Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Orlando, Florida.
The analyses are based on results from several studies showing that for every nanometer decrease in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particle diameter or size, heart disease risk increases from 30 to 230 percent, depending on the population studied.
LDL particles carry the “bad cholesterol” through the bloodstream. Smaller LDL particles may more easily become trapped in blood vessel walls than larger ones, possibly increasing risk for atherosclerosis. LDL particle size is determined using a technique called gradient gel electrophoresis that separates LDL particles obtained from blood samples by their diameter and shape.
The UW researchers have analyzed data from three different population groups. In a case-control study of 231 primarily Caucasian women aged 20-44 in Western Washington, blood samples from women with heart disease had smaller LDL size than control women in the same age group. A one-nanometer decrease in LDL size was associated with a more than two-fold risk for heart disease. The relationship remained after taking into account smoking, diabetes, hypertension and LDL cholesterol level, but was reduced substantially after taking into account triglycerides (another form of fat carried in the bloodstream) or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, known as the “good cholesterol.”
“Many people think heart disease occurs mainly in men, but heart disease is also the number-one cause of death among women in this country,” says Dr. Melissa Austin, professor of epidemiology. “We need more data to better understand heart disease risk in women.”
“The association between small LDL and heart disease may involve genetic predisposition,” she adds. “If we can find the genes involved, and how they interact with environmental and behavioral factors, we can find new ways to prevent heart disease.”
Small-particle LDL has also been shown to be a risk factor among middle-aged to older Caucasian men, based on data from the Physician?s Health Study, the Stanford Five-City Project and the Quebec Cardiovascular Study. However, these studies all reported the results differently. To pinpoint the strength of the association, Austin?s team applied semi-quantitative methods of meta-analysis to the combined data from these studies, which included 960 men. It was found that a one-nanometer decrease in LDL size predicted a 60 percent increase in heart disease risk. After controlling for blood levels of triglycerides and HDL cholesterol, the risk was still 30 percent greater.
Among a third group studied earlier ? more than 400 Japanese-American men with an average age of 65 ? the association was also found but was not as strong. A one-nanometer decrease in LDL size predicted a 30 percent increase in risk of heart disease, and was not present after taking triglyceride and HDL cholesterol into account. The study was in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute?s (NHLBI) Honolulu Heart Program.
Other studies will be needed to determine whether this difference is attributable to age or ethnicity. “The magnitude of the association between small LDL and heart disease varies from group to group, but the risk is always there,” says Austin.
The study on heart disease risk among younger women is being presented by Alisa Kamigaki, an MPH student in epidemiology, while the results in the middle-aged men are a poster presentation by Austin?s group at the meeting.
The research was sponsored by grants from the NHLBI and the AHA. | <urn:uuid:620e12e5-1f84-40d4-9f4f-8a294a9bd50d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.washington.edu/news/1999/03/26/risks-for-heart-disease-associated-with-size-of-ldl-particles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00183-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951874 | 806 | 2.625 | 3 |
Python list comprehension is basically short-hand for creating lists, and it does not use map(), filter(), or lambda to do its work. List comprehension is easy to understand after about three small examples, and you will probably benefit from using it. The structure contains an expression, then a for clause, and possibly an if clause.
1Open up a python file OR an interactive prompt. I recommend the interactive prompt while you're practicing it. To open IDLE, go to the Start Menu > Python (version number, mine is 2.6) > IDLE (Python GUI).
2Create a list that we can work with. To do this, we write a variable name, like foo, followed by an equal sign for assignment, a left bracket, then a series of values separated by commas, and finally a right bracket. Example: foo = ['John', 'John2', 'Did I mention John']. This is called a list.
3Since you have a list, you can move on to the juice of what we need to do. Write foo2 = , and don't press enter. This would be an empty list, but we're going to put an expression inside the brackets. Inside, write: item for item in foo. Now, you should have: foo2 = [item for item in foo]. This runs a for loop which goes through each item in another list, string, dictionary, tuple, or other data type. The item before the for loop puts that item inside our new list. Press enter.
4To see the result, we have to print the list. Type: print foo2. If you have python 3.0, type print(foo2). Press enter, and the list should look like: ['John', 'John2', 'Did I mention John']. Now, if you're thinking, "Why would I do that? I could've just done foo2 = foo!", then you're right. But list comprehension gets way better. Read the following and you will soon see how powerful and useful list comprehension can be.
If statements in list comprehension
1Let's modify our past script. Retype the foo2 line, and add the following to the end: if len(item) > 5. It should look like: foo2 = [item for item in foo if len(item) > 5]. What everything to the right of the if statement does is check if the number of letters in the item, (John, John2, Did I mention John), is greater than 5. If it isn't, then it doesn't add it to foo2. Len() just checks the length of a datatype. Len(foo) would be 3 because it has 3 items in it. So, foo2 = ['Did I mention John'], right? (Remember, John and John2 are 4 letters long, which is less than 5.)
2Check your prediction. Type print foo2, and your result should be ['Did I mention John']. You can use if statements at the end to make sure you get the right value!
- If you want to multiply every part of a list by three and assign it to a new list, do the following:
- Now, to get a little more complicated, let's say you want to multiply everything larger than 2 by 3, and the rest leave alone:
- This is another complicated one, but quite interesting:
- How does it work? Well, look at the first expression. I have already showed you a list comprehension with that expression, except that it had a 1 instead of an i in the brackets. (Row instead of row[i]). The i is outside those brackets, in the "for i in [0,1,2]]". So it picks 0 first, and runs the first expression with row. Then it goes to 1, and runs row, etc.
- To read more, go to http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html, and scroll down until you see "List Comprehensions". | <urn:uuid:a5697d14-0149-42b2-9349-83b5e66466e4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Python-List-Comprehension | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908866 | 840 | 4.09375 | 4 |
Dress and Toilet Articles
Women´s clothes underwent relatively few changes in style in the course
of antiquity. Clothes were normally made at home from locally available wool
or flax (used to make linen). The two most commonly worn garments were the
chiton or tunic and the himation or cloak. The chiton came in two styles.
Its earlier Doric version, preferred by Athenian women until the end of the
6th century BC, was called the peplos and was made of wool. Cut into a simple
rectangle measuring half again the height of the person wearing it, it was
folded over, wrapped around the body, and pinned at the shoulders and side.
It was sleeveless, with large arm openings. Expensive versions were decorated
with elaborate woven figures or designs. The Ionian chiton was made of linen
that fell into more elaborate vertical folds than its heavier wool counterpart.
The sides were sewn up to create a long cylinder which was then caught by
a girdle or cord at the waist or just below the breasts. Short sleeves were
added to the sides.
||Italic Low-Footed Red Figure Bowl with High Handles
4th century BC
On loan, Philadelphia Museum of Art
The most common toilet article appearing on vases is the mirror, usually
made of polished silver or bronze. These and a wide variety of cosmetic
implements are often excavated in tombs, sanctuaries dedicated to female
divinities, and in the domestic quarters of ancient towns.
Photo courtesy Mediterranean Section, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum (99k)
Early 3rd century BC
Standing clothed female figure of possibly Corinthian manufacture, wearing
a himation over a floor-length chiton. The himation was a rectangle of
wool or linen, often drawn away from one shoulder. The figure´s
earrings are well preserved. Traces of white slip cover most of the figure,
and rusty red survives in the hair.
H. 20.7; W. 7.6; Th. 5.0 cm. Photo courtesy Public Information Office,
Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum (99k)
© Copyright 2002 | <urn:uuid:297dc83f-89dc-4a24-bd29-681b4eeedb00> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.penn.museum/sites/greek_world/women_dress.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952762 | 465 | 3.375 | 3 |
Every Thursday, we're going to introduce you to bits and pieces, and aspects of, the Japanese language. But, before we go too far, let’s talk a bit about putting sentences together in Japanese. Perhaps the most useful thing to keep in mind is how things are described in Japanese.
There are ordinary old adjectives like red (akai), noisy (urusai), cold (samui) and sexy (sekushina) that work exactly the same as in English. E.g. akai isu (red chair), urusai yatsu (a noisy guy), samui hi (cold day) and sekushina onna (sexy woman).
However, when it comes to trying to say things like “The man I spoke to on the phone this morning,” it’s best to try and forget about how we do it in English.
In some ways, Japanese is more consistent than English in regard to sentences like this. In English we jump from saying, for example, “the tall MAN” (i.e. description + THING) to “the MAN I spoke to on the phone this morning” (i.e. THING + description. But Japanese keeps the order the same.
So in Japanese, you would say: “this morning/on the phone/spoke to/MAN”. (Kesa/denwa de/hanashi o shita/OTOKO) How’s that for efficient? (When you’re saying a sentence like this, everyone knows, unless you specifically state otherwise, that you’re the one who spoke to the man, so you can leave any reference to yourself out.)
How about: “the music I liked as a kid?” We’re describing music here, so MUSIC comes last in the Japanese sentence, i.e. “kid time/liked/MUSIC” (Kodomo no toki/ki ni itta/ONGAKU”.
Try it yourself: using the three following words: otoko (man) aruiteru (walking) yuki ni (in the snow), try and say “The man walking in the snow” in Japanese. Have a look underneath the picture below (of snow, yesterday, in Tokyo – taken at Nakano-sakaue Station) to see if you were right.
Yuki ni aruiteru otoko. Congratulations! Now, do you remember the word for "cold"?!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Japan Tourist Info. Copyright © JapanVisitor From 2000. All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:f2e7fcd2-495e-4877-b73c-a397d7976630> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://japanvisitor.blogspot.com/2008/01/japanese-almighty-adjectival.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903281 | 560 | 2.96875 | 3 |
UN DESA | DPAD | Development Policy Analysis Division
World Economic Situation and Prospects
19 May 2014
Prepared by John Winkel
Change in world trade of goods and services
Over the past decades, there has been a noticeable shift in the sources of global trade. Developing countries are exporting an increasing share of both goods and services as a fraction of total world trade. Over the period from 1998 to 2012, developing countries' share of world trade in goods and services rose from about 27 per cent to over 40 per cent, while developed countries' share fell from over 71 per cent to about 55 per cent. Accompanying that rise, there has been a slow shift in the exports of developed countries, from a greater share of their exports in goods to a greater share coming as services exports (table). While the magnitude of the change is not sizable, it is still significant as it represents structural changes which manifest gradually over the long term.
In addition, while developing countries' overall share of world services exports has been rising over the period, developed countries still dominate the services trade. World Trade Organization data on trade in commercial services points to significant services trade deficits for many major developing countries, and services trade surpluses for a number of developed countries. At the same time, services export growth has been slightly stronger than import growth in developing countries over the decade from 2000 to 2010, and both are considerably higher than the rates for developed countries.1 All of these developments come as world commercial services trade has grown considerably over the same period, from $1.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion between 1998 and 2013, and continues to grow as a share of overall world trade.
1 Michalopoulos, C. and F. Ng (2013), "Trends in Developing Country Trade 1980-2010", World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6334, January. | <urn:uuid:e91c1d1f-bc80-406b-a5ad-43b99779e260> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_wh.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948092 | 380 | 2.53125 | 3 |
A sea lion sunning himself with ample style on a Duwamish River dock float. PLEASE CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE OR SEE BELOW THE STORY FOR MORE
SLIDESHOW: Duwamish River's beauty belies the Superfund story underneath
Over the past 100 years, the Duwamish River near Elliot Bay has transformed from its natural state as a massive estuary with tidal marshes, mud flats, riparian habitat and forested wetland into an industrial row that has become home to boat building, timber and pulp mills, shipping and more.
With that change came the residuals of industry, making the Duwamish one of the nation’s most polluted rivers. However, the beauty of the Duwamish - from its shimmering surface blue to the abundant wildlife still living and playing there – sometimes obscures the real dangers that lurk below in the riverbed.
Earlier this year, the Herald toured the river with Port of Seattle employees and Patrick Robinson took these photos we share with you now.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deemed the five mile stretch reaching from the mouth at Elliot Bay on south the “Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site.” The EPA explains: “A century of heavy industrial use has left the toxic waterway contaminated with toxic chemicals from many sources – industries along its banks, stormwater pipes, and runoff from upland activities, streets and roads.”
Over 40 pollutants have been identified in Duwamish River soil, including PCBs and arsenic, and over time those pollutants have made their way into the crab, shellfish and bottom-feeding fish populations, making them a health risk to eat.
The EPA has a proposed cleanup plan in place that will cost around $305 million and could stretch well beyond 15 years as they cap sources of pollution and dredge the soil to remove contaminants all along the five mile stretch.
Earlier this year, when asked if the goal of reducing PCBs by 90 percent will be enough for people to regularly and safely eat shellfish and bottom feeders one day, EPA’s Allison Hilltner told KUOW, “We’re gonna try to get it as best as we can. But we don’t want to make false promises and say we can get to unlimited consumption.”
Regardless of those warnings, there are low income communities all along the Duwamish who use the river as a major source of sustenance.
In what the EPA calls “Early Action Areas,” cleanup efforts are already underway, and most are being performed and paid for by the big four polluters, known as the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group (LDWG)comprised of the City of Seattle, King County, Port of Seattle and Boeing.
While the LDWG is supportive of much of the overall cleanup plan, they’ve said the EPA’s goals for reducing PCBs in sediment and fish tissues will be hard, if not impossible, to meet.
BJ Cummings with the non-profit Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, while saying the EPA’s plan “is going in the right direction … the problem all along has been that it does not proved adequate health protection for some of our most resource-dependent, vulnerable communities, particularly those who have any kind of cultural or subsistence relationship to the river.”
There is hope that the cleanup effort will revitalize the communities of South Park and Georgetown as more green space and a more hospitable shoreline are created over time, but along with that is the concern shared by UW researcher and professor William Daniell, who said gentrification of those neighborhoods could force low-income residents out of the area if not managed properly.
Photo gallery for this story | <urn:uuid:9f02e2e9-8413-4b69-b650-09f71ea6f9bc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.westseattleherald.com/2013/09/12/features/slideshow-duwamish-rivers-beauty-belies-super | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00143-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956753 | 789 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Fossil fuels are responsible for providing the energy needed worldwide for many household and industrial purposes today. Deposits of fossil fuels are found throughout the world deep inside the earth. Fossil fuels are the carbon rich remains of ancient vegetation and other organisms that have endured intense heat and pressure inside the earth over periods of millions of years. Severe heat and pressure over time convert these organic remains into fossil fuels, which collect in reservoirs that are sought after by oil focused companies such as Western Pipeline Corporation as well as investors for extraction. Though quite a few types of fossil fuels exist, here we examine three main types that are widely utilized for energy production and many other products: petroleum, coal and natural gas.
-Petroleum: Also called crude oil, the term petroleum encompasses multiple types of hydrocarbons, which are compounds consisting primarily of hydrogen and carbon but possibly containing other elements as well. Petroleum forms mainly from marine vegetation and bacteria that lived in the oceans or other saltwater environments millions of years ago. Petroleum deposits are often found in the same locations as natural gas, each of which can be extracted for energy production. Petroleum is used in the production of plastic and medications among many other products.
-Coal: Coal forms from plants such as ferns, moss and trees which lived near shorelines and in swamps and bogs millions of years ago. When these plants die, they are slowly covered with sediment and over time pressed deep into the earth where they are affected by mounting heat and pressure. Under these conditions, the organic matter becomes richer in carbon and hydrogen, and increasingly deprived of oxygen. Coal goes through various stages of development based on its increasing carbon content, and coal containing higher levels of carbon burns cleaner than those with lower levels. The purest form of coal is graphite, which consists almost entirely of carbon.
-Natural Gas: Natural gas forms mainly from the remains of plankton, or a type of small water organisms including algae. Consisting mostly of methane, natural gas is often found on top of deposits of petroleum due to its lower density, and is extracted in the same process. However, deposits containing only natural gas do exist. Natural gas is desirable in part because it burns cleaner than coal and petroleum. Natural gas is commonly used in residential applications for home heating and has a myriad of other applications. | <urn:uuid:dd94e1b8-42e8-4a98-915e-5c6e74c43daa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/118588/science/three_types_of_fossil_fuels.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970112 | 471 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial (LSST) v1.05r3
Chapter 2: Getting started with Shell Programming
As You know Linux is multi-user, multitasking Os. It means you can run more than two process simultaneously if you wish. For e.g. To find how many files do you have on your system you may give command like:
$ ls / -R | wc -l
This command will take lot of time to search all files on your system. So you can run such command in Background or simultaneously by giving command like
$ ls / -R | wc -l &
The ampersand (&) at the end of command tells shells start process (ls / -R | wc -l) and run it in background takes next command immediately.
Process & PID defined as:
"An instance of running command is called process and the number printed by shell is called process-id (PID), this PID can be use to refer specific running process."
|What is Processes|| |
Linux Command(s) Related with Process | <urn:uuid:0b248c33-d230-4218-80b4-377c619683cf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/ch02sec19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910834 | 224 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Normed linear Space
I really need help for this . don't know where i need to start
Prove that C[a,b] is a normed linear space with ||f||= sup|f(x)| x is an element of closed interval [a,b] .
#Here C[a,b] denotes the set of all continuous real valued functions defined on the closed interval [a,b].
The problem, then, is just to show that all parts of the definitions are satisfied.
Originally Posted by neset44
"Linear Space". Show that both addition and scalar multiplication, f+ g and rf, where f and g are in C[a, b] and r is a number. Show that this has all the properties of a vectorspace:
Addition is associative: (f+ g)+ h= f+ (g+ h)
Addition is commutative: f+ g= g+ f
scalar multiplication distributes over addition: r(f+ g)= rf+ rg
There exist a "zero" function so that f+ 0= f for all f in C[a, b]
Every function has a "negative": for each f, there exist g such that f+ g= 0.
Norm: ||f||= sup |f(x)|.
Show that ||f|| is always non-negative and equal to 0 if and only if f is the "zero" function.
Show that ||rf||= |r| ||f|| where f is a function in C[a,b] and r is a number.
Show that . | <urn:uuid:5e21f08a-f139-44d7-bd53-36c4092abe3b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathhelpforum.com/differential-geometry/147207-normed-linear-space-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908512 | 347 | 2.671875 | 3 |
|Nitrogen Fixing Trees Highlights (Winrock, 1990-1997, 100 p.)|
Albizia procera is a large, fast-growing tree that occurs on many different sites. Like other Asian Albizias, it occurs in forests and savanna woodlands but prefers moister sites than its relatives. This species provides wood for a variety of purpose nutritious fodder for livestock and shade for tea plantations. It is an important reforestation and agroforestry species. It is commonly called white sins or tall albizia and has many regional names.
Albizia procera (Roxb.) Benth is usually 60-70 cm in diameter and 25 meters in height. Troup (1921) reports trees as large as 95 cm in diameter and 36 meters in height. Mature individuals are characterized by a tall clear, erect, so curved trunk and large branches which form a thin, spreading crown The bark is nearly smooth, whitish to light-greenish gray or light brown It exfoliates in thin flakes with red undersides (Troup 1921). Lateral roots are wide-spreading and the taproot stout The bipinnate leaves, reddish when juvenile, mature to a length of 12-25 cm; leaflets are 2 4 cm long and 8-16 mm wide.
Flowering varies by geographic location; January to March in Indonesia (Djogo 1992), June to September in India (Troup 1921) September in Manila (Hensleigh and Holaway 1988) and August to October in Puerto Rico (Parrotta 1987). Flowers are borne on racemes 8-25 cm long near the end of a twing.
Numerous greenish-yellow flowers form whitish heads 20-24 mm in diameter. Individual flowers, 6-7 mm long, have long white threadlike spreading stamens about 10 mm long (Little and Wadsworth 1964). The reddish-brown flat pods, 10-20 cm long and 18-25 cm wide, are produced in large numbers and ripen 35 months after flowering The mature brown pods, each containing 6-12 seeds, usually remain on the tree until the twig bearing the pods is steed (Troup 1921, Little and Wadsworth 1964). The natural regeneration of white siris is generally good. Following the beginning of the rainy season large numbers of seedlings are common near mature trees. Seedlings, saplings and mature trees coppice vigorously from stumps and roots (Parrotta 1987).
White siris is a component of tropical and subtropical moist and wet forest type-c where rainfall is 1000-5000 mm/yr. It develops best when rainfall is above 2500 mrn/yr. Growing to elevations of 1200 meters, the species is also common on moisture savannas and swamp forests. In its natural habitat, maximum vary from 37-46° C and minimum temperatures from 1-18° C. Once established white siris is drought tolerant. It is susceptible to frost (Troup 1921, Djogo 1992).
Like many nitrogen fixing trees, white siris survives on a variety of soils. It grows best on moist alluvial soils, welldrained loams or clay soils (Brandis 1906, Venkataramany 1968). Its ability to grow on dry, sandy, stony, and shallow soils makes it a useful species for reforestation of difficult sites. Good survival and rapid early growth have been reported in afforestation trials on both saline and alkaline soils (Ghosh 1976). It doe not tolerate suppression, but will survive moderate shade between the seedling and small tree stage Venkataramany 1968).
In India, white siris is dominant to co-dominant in mixed deciduous forest or fauna as scattered individuals or in small groups in savanna woodlands (Benthall 1933, Bor 1953). In Puerto Rico, white siris is an aggressive pioneer, forming pure stands on abandoned farms and other disturbed sites It is also common in pastures at elevations below 600 meters, including areas receiving as little as 800 mm of annual rainfall.
The native range of A. procera is South and Southeast Asia between latitudes 30 degrees N to 15 degrees S. The tree occurs naturally in India, Nepal, the the Adaman Burma, southern China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia and northern Australia (Nielsen 1979). It is naturalized in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Agroforestry. Natural regeneration of A. procera is often encouraged on farms to provide small timber, fuelwood, charcoal, fodder or shade. Seedlings are planted in family forests or home gardens for the same purposes. Albizia procera can be cultivated as shade for tea plantations. However, Albizia odoratissima is preferred for this purpose because of its rapid early growth, fuller crown and resistance to red spidermites. The protein-rich fodder of A. procera is eaten by cattle, buffaloes, goats, camels and elephants in South Asia and the Philippines. However, the fodder is not utilized in Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
Durable, strong and resistant to termites, the wood is fight- to cnocolate-brown with light and dark bands. It is difficult to saw due to interlocking grain and has a specific gravity of 0.60.9. The wood is used to produce wheels, carts, boats, furniture, flooring, posts, agriculture irnplements, boxes and carvings. This species is considered a promising source of pulp for high quality paper (Parrotta 1987).
Trees are often planted for shade or beautification along roads Albizia procera is commonly used in traditional medicines Venkalarammany 1968). The bark contains tannins and a reddish gum Also, it can be used to make a poison. The leaves are used to treat ulcers and have insecticidal properties (Parrotta 1987). In the Philippines, the cooked leaves are eaten as a vegetable (Hensleigh and Holaway 1988).
Seeds are small, greenish-brown, elliptical to round, flat and have a hard, smooth seedcoat. There are 20,00024,000 seeds per kilogram (Rosbetho 1997). Insect damage to seed is common in Indonesia (Djogo 1992) but not in India (Troup 1921). Fresh seed germinates readily without treatment (Parrotta 1987). Clean seed can be stored at room temperature for 10 months with minimal loss of viability (Roshetko 1997). Seed that has been stored should be treated before sowing; cut through the seedcoat with a knife or file, or soak seeds in boiled water for 3 minutes. After either treatment soak seed in cool water for 12-24 hour and sow immediately (Roshetko 1997).
In the nursery, seed should be sown in containers or beds Seedling growth is favored by loose soil sufficient soil moisture, full sunlight and the absence of weeds. Healthy seedlings produce a thick, long taproot After two months in the nursery containerized or bare-root seedlings should be transplanted to the field. Direct sowing of white sins is successful given abundant soil moisture and regular weed control (Troup 1921). Propagation is also possible by stem or root cutting and stump sprouts. Plantations should be weeded twice in the first year and once during the second. During weeding, soil should not be unduly exposed; only weeds directly interfering with seedlings should be removed (Venkataramany 1968).
Growth and Management.
In Bangladesh plantation trees have reached heights of 0.3 and 4.5 m in 1 and 5 years. In Burma 6-year-old trees average heights and diameters of 12.8 m and 16 cm, respectively. In Indonesia, 17-year-old trees average heights and diameters of 24.3 m and 22.4 cm, respectively. Total standing volumes of 87 m³/ha have been reported in 8-year-old plantations Burma end of 151 m³/ha in 17-year-old plantations in Indonesia Natural forests are managed for timber production by coppicing on a 40-year rotation. Fuelwood plantations are managed on a 20-year rotation (Venkataramany 1968).
Albizia procera forms symbiotic association with Rhizobium bacteria enabling it to fix nitrogen and thrive on infertile soils. The application of phosphorus fertilizer can improve nodulation and nitrogen fixation. particularly on infertile soils.
Because of its aggressive growth white siris may be a potential weed This is panicularly true in the Caribbean where white siris grows faster than many native species.
Benthall A P.1933. The tea of Calcutta and its neighborhood.Thacker Spink and Co., Calcutta, India. 513 p.
Bar, N.L. 1953. Manual of Indian forest botany. Oxford University Press, London, UK 441 p.
Brandis D. 1906. Indian trees Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, India
Djogo, A.P.Y. 1992. The possibilities of using local drought-resistant multipupose tree species as alternatives to lamtoro (Leucaena leucocephala) for agroforestry and social forestry in West Timor. Working Paper No. 32. EARI East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 41 p.
Ghosh, R.C. 1976. Afforestation problems of saline and alkaline soils in India Van Vigyan 14(1): 1-17.
Hensleigh, T.E. end B.K Holaway. 1988. Agroforestry species for the Philippines. Washington DC: US Peace Corps, 404 p.
Little, E.L., F.H. Wadsworth 1964. Common trees of Puerto Rico and the Vrgin Islands. Agric. Handbook 249. US Department of Agriculture, Washington DC. 548 p.
Nielsen, L 1979. Notes on the genus Albizia Durazz. (Leguminosae-Mimosaceae) in mainland SE. Asia. Adansonia 19(2): 199-229.
Parr otta, IA 1987. Albizia procera (Roxb.)Benth. Silvics of Forest Trees of the American Tropics. Rio Piedras Puerto Rico USA USDA Forest Service, international institute of Tropical Forestry. 4 p.
Roshetko, J.M. 1997. Seed treatment for Albizia species. In: N.Q. Zabala (ed) Albizia & Paraserianthesis. Proceedings of an international workshop. Morrilton, Arkansas, USA Winrok International in press.
Troup, R.S. 1921. The silviculture of Indian trees Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1195 p.
Vankataramany P. 1968. Silvicuture of genusAlbizia and species Silviculture of Indian trees., No. 22. Government of India, Delhi, India 54 p.
NFTA 95-01 January 1995 | <urn:uuid:625c2c73-e69c-4e7a-85df-e1ddea08e70f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0cdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=cdl&cl=CL1.89&d=HASH013644aa51d3a05b31c098cc.37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875627 | 2,331 | 2.765625 | 3 |
“Shadowing” is a term to describe the process of following someone around in an effort to gain first-hand knowledge of that person. Shadowing a physician is no different; it refers to a period of time in which a pre-medical student spends time watching a physician’s daily activities in an effort to learn more about the life of a doctor. Physician shadowing programs are also referred to as student externships, physician observerships, physician mentor programs, medical internships, and other similar phrases that describe the process.
Reasons to Shadow a Physician
There are several reasons to shadow a doctor. Shadowing opportunities provide aspiring medical students with unique insights in the life of a physician. Furthermore, most medical schools encourage pre-meds to have at least one shadowing experience prior to matriculation.
More and more medical school admissions committees take into account shadowing experiences when considering an applicant. Although it may seem unusual to some, many medical schools prefer students to have some time shadowing even though they may have extensive clinical experience.
Shadowing a Doctor is Generally Expected
Medical schools expect applicants to possess experience shadowing a physician. In recent years, shadowing a physician has become an unwritten requirement for medical school admissions. As a result, many students choose to shadow a physician that they have known for years, such as a family physician or a family member. Those who do not have experience shadowing a physician will not be considered as competitive.
Learn About "Real World" Medicine
Shadowing a physician gives you a first hand look at the day-to-day life of a doctor. Some physicians have their own offices while some may spend the majority of his/her time in an operating room or hospital. When you shadow a doctor, the goal should be to learn and see the environment experienced by a physician in practice.
Furthermore, shadowing a doctor in a clinical setting should provide premeds with a more accurate depiction of the medical field. The recent popularity of television shows involving medicine often time paint a picture of the life of a doctor in a more glamorous light.
Also, physician shadowing allows premeds the ability to see different specialties and aspects of medicine that they would not otherwise see until their second or third year of medical school.
A personal relationship with a physician provides an easier method of requesting letters of recommendation from current M.D.'s. If the physician you have shadowed is willing to write a letter of recommendation for you, he or she is much more capable of providing medical school admissions committees with a personalized and professional depiction of you. Furthermore, if possible, you should seek to shadow a physician that graduated from one of the medical schools to which you are applying.
Shadowing a physician allows premedical students to develop a professional relationship that centers around the medical field. This is especially important for those premeds who haven't had the opportunity to be surrounded by medicine.
Adequate experience in a clinical setting is a part of to preparing for your future years in medical school. If you apply to medical school but your application shows little or no direct exposure to the practice of medicine, you will not be as competitive as other applicants who have spent large amounts of time in a clinical environment. Students should try to obtain experience in a medical environment in order to make an informed decision to pursue a career in medicine and to make an informed decision about which field of medicine to pursue.
The Personal Statement
Almost all aspiring medical students struggle when writing their personal statement for medical school applications. Shadowing a physician provides students that may not have otherwise been exposed to medicine with content unique to their own perceptions. More often than not, especially for students who have mediocre MCAT scores or GPA's below 3.5, the personal statement may be the deciding factor for some medical school admissions committees.
Shadowing a physician can give you the ability to provide specific accounts of your decision to become a doctor. Being able to reflect and talk about your experiences shadowing a physician may give you the ability to write and talk about your passion for medicine easily.
We currently only have locations for shadowing a physician in the United States, however, we are looking to soon expand to other countries as well. However, for those located in the U.S., whether you are in New York or California, you can find a listing of physician shadowing opportunities in your area. See our physician shadowing opportunities page for more information. | <urn:uuid:c5079388-d140-48ac-b4a3-b23638c57926> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.doctorshadow.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968984 | 910 | 3 | 3 |
Mark and sweep is a technique in GarbageCollection
to free all unreferenced objects.
It works with three passes.
- First, for all objects in the system, if they have their mark bit set, it is cleared.
- The second pass traverses all pointers, starting at the accessible roots of a program (conventionally, globals, the stack, and registers) and for each object traversed it marks the object.
- The third pass walks the heap linearly again and removes all objects that are not marked.
This approach requires two linear walks of the heap (steps 1 and 3) and one recursive traversal of the heap, which can be inefficient. In addition, this technique does not address fragmentation at all. A related technique, StopAndCopy
does - but it has other drawbacks.
There is a simple variation of MarkAndSweep
that needs to make only one linear sweep. It works simply by reversing the meaning of the mark bit from sweep to sweep. I am also under the impression that in practice marking tends to dominate sweeping, but this of course depends on what percentage of the heap is actually live at GC-time. -- CurtisBartley
I've seen a variant that uses two bits - one bit for even sweeps and the other bit for the odd sweep. The even sweep clears the odd bit, and vice versa. It still takes a second pass to clean out garbage. -- DaveSmith
You can have one linear sweep and only one mark bit. The final sweep unsets the mark bits as it passes through all the objects.
If one wishes to provide a way for objects to release their resources when they're about to be removed (what Java calls finalizing), an additional pass must be made; you can't just call the finalizer as you sweep, since if one dead object has a reference to another dead object, and uses it in its finalizer, the process would fail if the referenced object had already been deleted. The finalizing pass is after marking but before sweeping, and simply calls the finalizers of all dead objects. -- MikaelBrockman
I came to this page to look for what MarkAndSweep
meant. When I read the descriptions however, it is reminiscent of Clock algorithm for page file replacement used in many operating systems. -- AnandHariharan?
I think it's worth noting that all MarkAndSweep algorithms have an execution time proportional to the size of the entire object space rather than the number of live objects. This (in addition to the need to pause system operation while executing) makes them less attractive than the various semi-space scavenging algorithms that copy live objects from "from space" to "to space". No such pauses are needed, and execution time is proportional to the number of live objects rather than available space. A price paid for this advantage is a factor of two increase in the available memory required.
- 'Paying for the garbage' is only true of naive implementations. Explained here is a method of mark&sweep that gets around "marking everything unused" by making that part of its allocation step: http://people.csail.mit.edu/gregs/ll1-discuss-archive-html/msg00761.html
- A copying collector doesn't need to be a semi-space collector. For a copying collector, you only need enough free space to allocate the largest object in the heap - i.e. if you keep all objects under a page, then you only need one free page because (by nature) you'll free at least a page for every page you fill.
It's probably also worth noting that this feature can be an advantage in certain situations. For example, garbage collectors in embedded systems frequently use MarkAndSweep
because memory sizes are small enough that capacity is the limiting factor. Often, the later stages in a generational collector also use MarkAndSweep
because a high proportion of old objects remain live at each collection (this is the whole point of GenerationalGarbageCollection
). -- JonathanTang
In the naïve mark-and-sweep method, each object in memory has a flag (typically a single bit) reserved for garbage collection use only. This flag is always cleared, except during the collection cycle. The first stage of collection sweeps the entire 'root set', marking each accessible object as being 'in-use'. All objects transitively accessible from the root set are marked, as well. Finally, each object in memory is again examined; those with the in-use flag still cleared are NotReachable? by any program or data, and their memory is freed. (For objects which are marked in-use, the in-use flag is cleared again, preparing for the next cycle.) | <urn:uuid:6791de96-f7df-4f66-b717-826120ce14f0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?MarkAndSweep | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929091 | 985 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Helheim Glacier, Greenland
Rapid melting and retreat of glaciers such as Helheim, in Greenland, contribute to rising sea levels and growing amounts of freshwater in oceans worldwide. Satellite images of the terminus—or ocean end—of Helheim (smoother striped surface) in May 2001 (top) and June 2005 (bottom) relative to reference points A and B clearly show that it has retreated leftward.1
Greenland's Helheim glacier has been rapidly retreating—that is, shrinking as ice breaks up and melts—since 2001. Accelerated retreat of glaciers can exert effects worldwide, from causing sea-level rise2,3,5 to adding freshwater to oceans, both of which can affect weather and ocean cycles in the North Atlantic.7
Helheim glacier in southeast Greenland is one of the world's fastest-moving glaciers. Helheim is also one of the best-known and most-studied glaciers in Greenland, and one of several whose rate of retreat has increased dramatically in recent years.
These glaciers are fed by the massive Greenland ice sheet, which is shrinking despite recent increases in local snowfall. Losses from surface melting, water runoff, the breakup of glaciers into the ocean (calving), and the transformation of solid ice into water vapor (sublimation) exceed any gains through snowfall.2,3,4,5 The Greenland ice sheet loses most of its mass on the perimeter, through a dozen fast-moving glaciers, including Helheim.5,6
Scientists have recently observed major changes in these glaciers: several have broken up at the ocean end (the terminus), and many have doubled the speed at which they are retreating.2,5 This has meant a major increase in the amount of ice and water they discharge into the ocean, contributing to sea-level rise, which threatens low-lying populations.2,3,5 Accelerated melting also adds freshwater to the oceans, altering ecosystems and changing ocean circulation and regional weather patterns.7 (See Greenland ice sheet hotspot for more information.)
Part of a Larger Pattern
Glaciers follow an annual cycle, melting in summer and growing in winter owing to seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation. Greenland has seen both warming and cooling trends in the past century.8 However, the warming since 1995 has led to greater changes than any measured since 1950.8,9
As with many other glaciers, changes in Helheim glacier have correlated with changes in local temperatures. For example, the Helheim terminus remained relatively stable from the 1950s to 20009—roughly when summer temperatures in Greenland were cooler than average (late 1960s to mid-1990s).8 Beginning around 1995, local summer temperatures began to rise, and in 2001 the Helheim glacier terminus began a rapid retreat that totaled nearly five miles (more than 7.5 kilometers) by 2005.10,11
The accelerated retreat of glaciers such as Helheim has surprised scientists, many of whom expected the ice sheets to have a slower response time to climate change.8 Instead, glaciers flowing from ice sheets seem to react almost immediately to changes in both seasonal and annual regional temperatures. The warmer summers of 2002, 2005, and 2007 each broke the previous record for melting of the Greenland ice sheet.12
All this melting has begun to expose rock and soils (and ocean in areas where sea ice has melted), which in turn causes further melting, because darker surfaces absorb more heat. This is known as positive feedback, or amplification.
Albedo is a measure of how much sunlight an object or surface reflects. Bright surfaces such as ice and snow have a high albedo, reflecting much of the solar radiation they receive, whereas dark surfaces such as soils, dark rock, and ocean have a low albedo, absorbing light in the form of heat. Given the rising pace at which ice and snow in Greenland, Siberia, Alaska, and other Arctic regions are disappearing, the resulting changes in albedo may worsen global warming and its consequences.13,14
Rapid melting of Greenland's glaciers has also produced a special category of earthquake known as a glacialquake.15,8 Helheim glacier triggered nearly 20 percent of the 136 glacialquakes recorded from January 1993 to October 2005 in Greenland—second only to the nearby Kangerdlugssuaq glacier.15 (See Kangerdlugssuaq hotspot for more information about glacialquakes.) | <urn:uuid:969d5200-8e01-4c2a-9650-277d4e8857b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-locations/helheim-glacier-greenland.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949351 | 901 | 4.53125 | 5 |
EBSCOhost Online Research Databases (EBSCO) offers a broad range of full text and bibliographic databases designed for research. Subject areas include academic, humanities, general studies, literary, biomedical, government, school, applied science, technology, and education.
Designed for secondary schools, public libraries, junior/community colleges and undergraduate research, this database features full text for thousands of primary source documents and informational texts.
This comprehensive research database provides easy access to a wealth of full-text, science-oriented content. Designed to meet every student researcher's needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other reliable sources. In addition, the database includes more than 280,000 high-quality science images from sources such as UPI, Getty, NASA, National Geographic and the Nature Picture Library.
Containing resources that present multiple sides of an issue, this database provides rich content that can help students assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues, and develop analytical thinking skills.
Ensure student and educator success with EBSCO’s new interface for schools and public libraries. Designed to meet the unique needs of its users, Explora supports both student research and classroom instruction with rich, reliable content and easy-to-use functionality.
Downloadable eBooks and audiobooks
NoveList, the complete readers' advisory solution, empowers librarians, engages readers and connects communities
Mango Languages helps millions of awesome people like you learn new languages and connect with new cultures. Give it a try for free.
A complete tutoring system consisting of tutoring, collaboration, and study tools
One of a kind career assistance that covers all major aspects of job hunting, including premium job coaching and career resources
Encyclopedias and reference books
Interactive ebooks for kids! | <urn:uuid:45b5543f-bad4-44b9-be6f-092afedb37da> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cityofwoodland.org/gov/depts/library/research/articles/default.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90158 | 387 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Finding the Domain of a Function
Date: 02/10/2009 at 11:14:05 From: Brandon Subject: Domain of a function I'm having trouble finding the domain of a function. I'm trying to do all of this on an online math class and its just extremely hard to understand all of it by reading it off a web page instead of having it taught in front of me.
Date: 02/10/2009 at 14:19:00 From: Doctor Ian Subject: Re: Domain of a function Hi Brandon, One thing that works for me is to actually read my textbook (or a web page, or any other written resource) out loud, word by word... as if someone else is reading it to me. You'd be surprised at how much this can help you, if only because it keeps you from skimming past a few words here and there that turn out to be critically important. (By the way, if you're planning to go to college, learning to teach yourself from written resources is a skill that you need to be polishing. When you're in college, classes aren't where the teacher reads the book to you, as in high school. Classes are where the professor discusses material that he assumes you've already read before class.) Anyway, the domain of a function is the set of legal inputs. Given a function like f(x) = 2x we can put in any real number for x, and get a sensible value for the function. So the domain is "all real numbers". Contrast that with __ f(x) = \/ x Now we get nonsense if we put in a negative value of x, but we're okay with any other real numbers. So the domain is "all non-negative real numbers" or "all real numbers greater than or equal to 0". We can change that slightly, so it looks like ______ f(x) = \/ x - 3 and now it works as long as x is not less than 3. So the domain becomes "all real numbers not less than 3" or "all real numbers greater than or equal to 3". Dividing by zero is another no-no, so we might write a function as ______ f(x) = 1 / \/ x - 3 Now we can't use 3, either, because it would require us to divide by zero. So the domain becomes "all real numbers greater than 3". What about something like f(x) = 1 / [(x + 1)(x - 2)] ? Now we're fine except if x is -1, or 2. So the domain is "all real numbers except -1 or 2". And so on, and so on. Basically, the idea is that you look at your function, and you consider what values might cause it to "break", by requiring you to take the square root of a negative number, or divide by zero, or get a value of sin(x) greater than 1, or anything else that doesn't make sense. And you remove those values from the set of real numbers. What remains, is your domain. Does that make sense? If not, try reading it out loud. And if it still doesn't make sense, write back and let me know which sentence starts to lose you, okay? - Doctor Ian, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Date: 02/10/2009 at 18:51:30 From: Brandon Subject: Thank you (Domain of a function) Thank you for the help! I understand better now. You were very thorough and easy to understand, which is a big help. Thanks again. And I may be back!
Search the Dr. Math Library:
Ask Dr. MathTM
© 1994-2015 The Math Forum | <urn:uuid:3fe9427f-16f4-4950-ab8a-1b4d22905503> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/72945.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937127 | 773 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The internet is nothing but software fabric that connects the interactions of human beings. Every piece of software is going to transformed by this primacy of people and this shift.
—Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president and Google+ project manager in Wired
More information about text formats
Two conclusions flow from this, then. First, sociology, being the discipline that studies interaction, is the discipline to study the internet. Second, to the extent that the internet will mirror our society, it will be a realm characterized by deepening inequality and a contested terrain. As a realm of discourse, it will be a technology both of domination and liberation.
How does that follow?
How do you get from "the fabric of our communication" to "deepening inequality and contested terrain"? Is that some implication you see in the base quote, or does it derive from a conviction that humans can't interact in any other ways?
Many technologists are aware of the problems of current inequalities and the danger of widening the gap, and are applying their technologies to resist. A fascinating study was done recently using the "One Laptop Per Child" systems: a box of OLPCs were dropped into a village without instructions or instructors. The children figured out how to use the devices themselves!
Even more exciting than the experimental result is the mere fact that the experiment was done: technologists striving to find the most effective ways to eliminate the inequalities.
Definitely excellent blog site I'll definitely be returning to look at it regular in the future
You are right .
Taking this quote with a grain of salt. Just have to point out that the internet is exactly an unmitigated place where only good things happen. In fact, if you're not careful, navigating the internet is like walking in a minefield. We only have to be aware of horror stories - identity theft, internet addiction, all sorts of scams & frauds, etc - that happen while using the internet to realize that we have to be careful while using this technology so that we will not be victims of people who are out to take advantage of us in the cyberworld....
On the other hand, Ray Kurzweil is also a senior googler, Director of Engineering, and he's famous for the notion of a "Singularity," the moment when computers become smarter than people, or perhaps when computer-human fusions become the new masters.
Google is nothing if not eclectic. | <urn:uuid:775ad7d1-646b-4c06-8881-412848096cfb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.onbeing.org/comment/255453 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946546 | 500 | 2.65625 | 3 |
To differentiate instruction means to provide a different learning experience for every individual student in the class. Perhaps there is a student who is just learning English in your class. And perhaps that student sits next to another who wants to have an in-depth discussion about Shakespeare. Should these two students prove difficult to teach at once, a normal person might consider what the root problem is -- that they shouldn't be in the same class. But the wise education bureaucrat knows that any problem here must be the teacher's -- he must not have differentiated his instruction enough.Not to worry, it's entirely possible to teach "algebra" (however a non-math person wants to define "algebra") to someone who doesn't understand fractions.
Hat tip to Joanne for the link above. | <urn:uuid:b129e188-f320-4998-bc24-a47674ca5da1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2011/08/one-of-many-stupid-ideas-to-come-out-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97848 | 158 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Primary Sources: How Social Connections Benefit Homeless Youth
“Social Connectedness and Self-Esteem: Predictors of Resilience in Mental Health among Maltreated Homeless Youth” (abstract). Michelle T. Dang. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 35 (2014).
What it’s about: One hundred and fifty homeless youth ages 14 to 21 answered a series of computer-based questionnaires that gauged their health in six areas: psychological distress, family connectedness, school connectedness, relationships with prosocial peers, self-esteem, and parental and caregiver maltreatment. Author Michelle T. Dang was looking to determine whether a positive network of support and high self-worth made young people more resilient when facing the effects of trauma.
Why read it: One of the priorities of the Family & Youth Services Bureau is to deepen understanding about how protective factors promote young people's health and well-being. Rather than defining resiliency as a static personality trait, the author sees it as a "dynamic process” that rises and falls over the course of a person's life as they grow and encounter different obstacles.
Biggest takeaways for family and youth workers: Using regression analysis, the author confirmed that positive social connectedness and high self-esteem protected youth in the study against traumatic experiences. Youth with these protective factors reported "better mental health” across all participants, Dang writes.
Dang advocates for programmatic approaches that encourage self-esteem and social connectedness, since those qualities often result in greater resilience. For example, providing opportunities for social media use and family visits can improve young people’s sense of connectedness. And strengths-based programming, coupled with regular opportunities for independent accomplishment, can improve youth’s self-esteem. Though the author doesn’t specify which activities help encourage autonomy, research shows that art-making and volunteer opportunities can help achieve this goal.
Additional references: NCFY has written about various ways of improving youth self-esteem, including art projects and farm work. Previous research has confirmed the value of social media in improving youth connectedness.
(Publications discussed here do not necessarily reflect the views of NCFY, FYSB or the Administration for Children & Families.) | <urn:uuid:4dc35089-6408-4972-97cc-31443683803e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/news/2014/12/primary-sources-how-social-connections-benefit-homeless-youth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914483 | 464 | 3 | 3 |
From Our 2010 Archives
Bilberry Seems to Act Against Blood Sugar
Latest Diabetes News
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Bilberry extract helps control blood sugar levels in mice, researchers have found.
Bilberry and other brightly colored foods such as blueberries, purple grapes, cherries and cranberries contain anthocyanins, which are thought to reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity and reduce obesity in laboratory mice.
To study these effects further, Japanese researchers used mice genetically predisposed to develop diabetes. The mice were fed either a diet containing bilberry extract (27 grams per kilogram) or their normal diet for five weeks.
The study authors found that bilberry extract lowered blood glucose and increased insulin sensitivity in the mice. It did this by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in white adipose (fat) tissue, skeletal muscle and the liver, the researchers explained. AMPK stimulates fat breakdown in liver and muscle, and modulates insulin secretion by the pancreas.
The effect of AMPK was accompanied by an increase in glucose transporter 4 (which helps glucose enter cells) in white adipose tissue and skeletal muscle, and suppression of glucose production and fat content in the liver. At the same time, acetyl-CoA carboxylase (an enzyme needed for fatty acid synthesis) was inactivated and there was activation of PPARa (a protein that modulates fat metabolism), acyl-CoA oxidase (an enzyme that plays a role in fatty acid metabolism), and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1A (an enzyme needed for the breakdown of fatty acids) in the liver.
This "overlapping and coordinated adjustment of enzymes and other factors" seen in the mice that were fed the bilberry extract might also occur in humans, the researchers said. They recommended that clinical studies be conducted to test the effects of bilberry on human health, especially in people at increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
The findings are published in the March issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
SOURCE: Journal of Nutrition, news release, Feb. 12, 2010 | <urn:uuid:eec4cef5-633a-44b3-b18a-9bbfbb224af8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=113404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933614 | 460 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The hepatitis B vaccine is widely promoted, even mandated, based on the proposition that the hepatitis B virus is both serious and widespread. Unfortunately, the statistics and "science" used to promote this idea are of questionable validity.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have made highly discrepant claims about the incidence of new infections each year. In their "....Comprehensive Strategy for Eliminating Transmission..." (of hepatitis B in the United States), they claim that between 1980 and 1991 there were an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 new cases of hepatitis B each year. In a 1998 article the CDC estimates 323,462 were infected annually between 1976 and 1980, while 334,863 were infected annually from 1988-1994. However, in their Hepatitis B Fact Sheet, the estimate rises to "an average of 450,000" new cases in the 1980's.
Which is it, CDC?
They allegedly arrive at these numbers using "catalytic modeling" based on serum sampling of hepatitis B markers employed to derive the proportion of unreported and asymptomatic cases. Were they not to do so, the reported cases would be strikingly low, ranging from 18,003 (in 1991) to 26,611 (in 1985), hardly enough to get very excited about.
While the notion that one might want to determine missing cases is certainly valid, in this case errant methodology appears to have been used, since the particular markers upon which we are told the estimates are based do not necessarily measure the things they are purported to measure.
Using serum sampling of 14,488 people, the CDC found that "The prevalence of serologic markers for HBV infection (HBsAg, anti-HBs, or anti-HBc) in this population was 4.8%." In the CDC study upon which their estimates are based, it was stated, "In NHANES II, serologic evidence of present or past HBV infection was defined as a positive test for anti-HBs or HBsAg, while in NHANES III, a positive test for anti-HBc was used to define infection". (Journal of Infectious Diseases)
These methods of measurement, however, do not necessarily denote either current or chronic infection. In fact, quite to the contrary, anti-HBs represents immunity and is present in those cases where there has been recovery from hepatitis B. Anti-HBc may indicate "resolved infection". In addition, "Anti-HBc appears shortly after HBsAg among people with acute disease and generally persists for life. It is therefore not a good marker for people with acute disease." (Vaccines)
Even the significance of HBsAg, a marker for acute or chronic HBV infection, is not clear-cut: "In 95 percent of patients with acute hepatitis B, HBsAg disappears from the serum within one year." (American Family Physician) The mere finding via sampling of subclinical cases also says nothing about the significance of such a finding. "Most of these patients (with chronic persistent hepatitis) do not progress to chronic active hepatitis or cirrhosis: however, those with HBeAg in the serum are more likely to do so". (American Family Physician)
By lumping together acute, chronic and recovered hepatitis B cases, an approach, which includes using contrary and ambiguous indicators, and markers which haven't even been approved by the FDA, the results become inflated and meaningless, particularly given that most cases recover. In addition, by taking a slice in time and treating it as if it is a constant, they are also disregarding the overwhelming proportion of cases which eventually resolve. It is usually only chronic, active infection that poses a long-term threat, not recovery.
To bolster the appearance that the risk of getting hepatitis B was rising, the CDC stated that "reported incidence of acute hepatitis B increased by 37% from 1979 to 1989".
The truth is, however, that reported cases actually DECLINED 12% between 1985 and 1989. By the time the hepatitis B recombinant vaccine was recommended in 1991 for all infants and children, the reported incidence of hepatitis B was down to 18,003 (all ages), another 23% drop in two years. (Put another way in Vaccines: "In the United States, reports of acute hepatitis B increased by 37% from 1979 to 1985, but since 1986 declined to 1979 levels.")
Topping it all off, the CDC is now reporting that hepatitis B incidence dropped to around 80,000 in 1999, the implication being that vaccination has had a huge impact. This, in spite of the fact that according to the American Journal of Public Health, as recently as 1994 there was no significant decrease in prevalence, "despite the availability of hepatitis B vaccine".
The CDC also has stated that "The estimated 1 million-1.25 million persons with chronic HBV infection in the United States are potentially infectious to others." "Potentially infectious" - now what's that supposed to mean? Particularly given that hepatitis B is largely a "lifestyle" disease, with transmission dependent on either engaging in risky behaviors or living in close contact with someone with infectious hepatitis B virus (HBV) (the important exception, of course, being an infant born to a hepatitis B positive mother, in which case the mother can be screened).
The truth is, the United States, except for certain ethnic groups in Alaska, is actually considered a low prevalence area for chronic hepatitis.
And what about long-term risk from chronic hepatitis B? According to Murray, "It is not unusual for hepatitis B virus antigenemia to resolve after 20 to 30 years". Even the chronic carrier state will eventually resolve, at least for some.
As for the alleged risk of acquiring liver damage or hepatocellular carcinoma from hepatitis B, and implied to be quite large by the CDC, according to American Family Physician, "In the United States, alcoholic cirrhosis more commonly leads to primary hepatic cancer than does chronic hepatitis B infection". According to the journal Cancer, "Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurs more frequently in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related chronic liver disease than those with hepatitis B virus-related disease." And in the American Journal of Epidemiology it was reported that "rather than chronic hepatitis B virus infection, hepatitis C virus infection and alcoholism were the two dominant risk factors that signaled the risk of liver damage among these Taiwanese aborigines".
What is the true incidence of the chronic hepatitis B carrier state in the U.S. and its significance?
How many chronic hepatitis B carriers in the U.S. go on to develop chronic, active hepatitis?
How many of those with chronic, active hepatitis in the U.S. go on to develop serious, long-term consequences?
What percent of hepatitis B cases in the U.S. end up eventually resolving and how is this taken into account when estimating long-term risk?
How much hepatocellular carcinoma in the U.S. is directly attributable to hepatitis B?
Is Public Health over-stating the risk of cancer resulting from hepatitis B?
What justification is there to recommend, not only universal infant hepatitis B vaccine, but vaccine for those adolescents and adults not participating in risky behaviors?
Even if there is what many would consider an arguably small risk from hepatitis B vaccine, where is the justification for taking any risk?
Are the CDC estimates of hepatitis B incidence, prevalence and risk based on sound science?
How much coming out of the CDC can we believe? | <urn:uuid:25c6d00b-55e2-4302-a88b-e8a10a0bc6b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vaccinationnews.org/Scandals/March_29_02/Scandal10.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953371 | 1,549 | 2.859375 | 3 |
B. “Good goverance & preserving history: why Hong Kong needs an archives law”. Hong Kong Lawyer, 7.2011 by W. Waung
What are public archives?
Archives are the original records of an event at the time it occurred and preserved for posterity. Public archives record birth and citizenship,confirm death and ownership, verify rights and obligations, detail government policies and decisions and serve legal, operational, research and cultural purposes. They are a repository of significant and factual
information that helps us to understand the history and identity of a community, the workings of a government and its publicly funded bodies and enables us to benefit from the past. [read more by download PDF] | <urn:uuid:f5c73949-2b14-4faf-8cfd-16a5349c3478> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://archivesactiongroup.org/main/?page_id=57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93579 | 146 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Gus is an owl who's on the go, flying around the world while teaching the languages he knows to the children of the world. This is the premise for an adorable new app, "Gus on the Go," created by Israeli-born programmer Yonatan Mittlefehldt, now of Houston, and Chicago-based marketing expert Alice Zhao. Chicago's own Galit Greenfield, a native Hebrew speaker, provides the voice that pronounces the words in the Hebrew version.
As the children play the app's six intuitive games, they learn some 90 words in the given language. Only the language being taught is used, and native speakers provide the audio pronunciations. Subjects range from concrete concepts like animals, foods, and clothes to more abstract ones, like colors, shapes, and numbers. "We also limited the app to 8-11 words per lesson," Zhao said, "as we had consulted with teachers who informed us that that was the optimal amount of vocabulary words to teach at a time."
The game features lots of color, sound, movement, and re-enforcement. "We felt that there were plenty of flash-card apps, but none that were complete with interactive lessons, reviews, and games," Zhao said. "We purposefully created an intuitive interface that would not require instruction. This helps give it a feeling of language immersion. We also found that young kids are fearless with the iPad- they dive right in and never ask about the rules!"
The various games levels are presented on a map- of Israel, in the Hebrew version- and learners progress from Tel Aviv to Eilat to Be'ersheva, ultimately arriving in Jerusalem. The harder levels can only be "unlocked" once the easier ones have been sufficiently mastered. The games also grow progressively more challenging as the harder levels integrate the words the children have mastered at the easier ones. There also is a "trophy room" to track progress and skill levels.
Niqqudot, the "dots and dashes" that indicate vowels sounds in Hebrew, are included, as the app is intended for children. And when it came to choosing the word for "airplane," the current "matos" won out over the dated "aviron."
The app's creators began with Spanish and English; today, Gus also teaches German, Russian, and five Asian languages. Their next phase includes French and four Indian languages.
"We also wanted to be able to create it for languages that were important to us personally- Hebrew for "Yono" and Cantonese for me- as there were just not as many apps out there in those languages," Zhao said. "Yonatan was born in Be'er Sheva, so without a question, we knew we had to create a Hebrew version of "Gus on the Go." In fact, the other product of their company, too juice, is an app that teaches Hebrew verb conjugation.
The project was an almost inevitable outgrowth of Zhao's life. "Yonatan and I are longtime friends. [We] decided to work together on this project because of our deep and mutual interest in languages and creating the tools necessary to introduce our own children to those languages. I have two young children and Yonatan and his wife are expecting their first child at the end of the year." Zhao said. "He and I both have software backgrounds, but he is our resident software genius, and I am the business development/marketing director. He and I also work on graphics together. Galit is a close friend of mine and she naturally came to mind as we began developing for 'Gus on the Go: Hebrew.'"
An owl was chosen as the mascot because "we wanted a character to represent international travel and learning… they fly and they're wise!" And Zhao selected its name. "The name Gus is personal to me. It's the nickname I gave my son while I was pregnant with him."
Zhao welcomes feedback. "We would love to see where "Gus on the Go" takes us and would be thrilled to create new levels based on user response. The beauty of the app world is that we can submit updates post-release."
"Gus on the Go: Hebrew" is $4.99 and is available at the App Store, and at gusonthego.com. It can be played on iPhones, iPads; Windows, and Android versions will arrive in the spring. | <urn:uuid:1cf6d34d-4935-41f4-89c4-45bb15b21090> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.juf.org/news/arts.aspx?id=418810 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976799 | 913 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A professor of the history of Christianity, the popular author and distinguished broadcaster/commentator Eamon Duffy has written this slim but fascinating history—based on a series on BBC—of the ten pontiffs he deems the most influential. Many of the church's powerful spiritual leaders have played a major role not only throughout church history but the political history of Europe and, in fact, the wider world. The author profiles the following: St. Peter; Leo the Great; Gregory the Great; Gregory VII; Pius IX; Pius XII; John XXIII and John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years.
"The papacy has endured and flourished," Duffy notes, "under emperors, kings and robber barons, under republican senates and colonial occupations, in confrontation or collaboration with demagogues and democrats…and survived them all." "The popes themselves," he adds, have never been in doubt about the coherence of papal history." The book is enlivened by dozens of black-and-white illustrations (engravings, photographs, sketches) depicting key events and places throughout pontifical history. These include, e.g., the granite Egyptian obelisk erected in 37 A.D. and believed to be the last object seen by the dying St. Peter. Others feature St. Gregory at his writing desk; an engraving of the Council of Trent in full session; Angelo Giuseppi Roncalli (the future "good Pope John") as military chaplain and, later, as John XXIII with Queen Elizabeth II; and John Paul II with the Dalai Lama as well as praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall. At book's end Duffy provides a helpful bibliography of recommended readings for each of the 10 popes profiled.
We hope you pick up a copy of this intriguing book and enjoy Duffy's portraits of his favorite papal movers and shakers.
Purchase Ten Popes Who Shook the World from amazon.com. | <urn:uuid:9e31f1e6-ce33-4a43-bcff-cf771fab209a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/october-selection-1?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938001 | 409 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Cantonese Radios app. Cantonese is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton (i.e. Guangzhou) in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese.
In mainland China, it is a lingua franca in Guangdong Province and some neighbouring areas, such as the eastern part of Guangxi Province. Outside mainland China, it is spoken by the majority population of Hong Kong and Macau in everyday life. It is also spoken by overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia (like Singapore and Christmas Island), the United States, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Panama, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as parts of Europe, and is the most widely spoken non-Mandarin Sinitic language in the world.
Tags: cantonese radio , chinese radio in cantonese | <urn:uuid:2bc84ceb-557a-4302-ba8c-21552653eb67> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/entertainment/cantonese-radio-radios_cfxaf.html?nav=related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944794 | 176 | 2.875 | 3 |
Log Cabin Construction at the Woodland Education Centre
Follow each stage of
the Log Cabin's construction - in pictures.
Log Cabin Images link at bottom of page
The Log Cabin at the Woodland Education Centre, shortly after completion in 1994.
The Log Cabin is one of the best known features at the Woodland Education Centre in East Devon, England. Every year, it serves as a busy focus for the environmental education activities of thousands of visiting school children as well as many adult groups. Situated in the Northern Study Area of the Centre, it overlooks one of several valuable ponds which support a wide variety of native wildlife from plants to dragonflies and kingfishers.
The Log Cabin structure is built entirely of coniferous timber grown within a 200m radius of where it stands. Timber is a renewable resource, meaning that for each tree felled to make the Log Cabin, another tree can be planted for use in the future.
The building was funded by a number of sponsors including the Department of the Environment (now Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions) through their Local Projects Fund. This funding was made available because the project clearly illustrated sustainability using a renewable resource.
The Log Cabin looks like it has come straight out of the forests of North America or Canada. Indeed, it was built using a highly skilled method called the American Full Scribe Technique. The method involves the contours of each layer of logs being carefully scribed and shaped into the layer above, so making a perfect water and air tight fit. It took just over four months to build but should last well over 100 years! You can follow each stage of building the Log Cabin, from clearing the site to laying the chestnut floorboards by clicking on the link near the bottom of the page. All the images are in chronological order.
Follow the Log Cabin's construction in pictures
Techniques and Tips for Log Cabin Building | <urn:uuid:da063531-1eb8-4dbc-b8f6-21cc346e10cb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/cabin/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96127 | 387 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Similar to other species of animals, horses also have their own breeds and types. Not all of them are appropriate for racing because some of these animals do not have the built that can competitively run against other breeds.
Currently, there are over one hundred breeds of horses around the world. These types are then being grouped according to similar characteristics, appearances and uses. One of the types of horses is the light horse.
Breeds that are under the light horse category are those that are used for recreational and performance activities. They are swift and their weight is generally light compared to other breeds. These include the Arabian Horse, Thoroughbred Horse and the American Quarter Horse. Draft Horses are other types of horses that are generally used for war and for work in fields and plantations. Draft horses are very muscular and they are very good jumpers as well.
The Clydesdale Horse is the most popular example of a draft horse. The Pony is another very popular type of horse because they are smaller in terms of height. But ponies are among the most versatile types of horses and they are used extensively in farms, rural areas and mines for transport of children and luggage as well. | <urn:uuid:b38c3c31-7d7c-46bd-b8de-b01b4596b606> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.secondchancefarm.ca/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977416 | 236 | 2.609375 | 3 |
In 1900, a German scientist named Max Planck wrote an equation to show this the relationship between energy and frequency of electromagnetic radiation :
E = hn
where E is the energy of a bit of light called a quantum, A quantum is the smallest bit of electromagnetic radiation that can be emitted. It is also called a photon of light or small “packet” of electromagnetic radiation. The “h” in the above equation is a very small constant called “Planck’s constant” (6.626068 × 10-34 J s) and “n” is the frequency of the radiation. Through various experiments of Planck and Albert Einstein, it came to be accepted that light has properties of particles as well as waves. Planck’s “quantum” idea became the basis for the modern understanding of atomic structure. In the above equation, as the frequency of radiation increases, its energy increases by the increment “h”. In other words, energy was not continuous, it was quantized – only certain energies are allowed. Continuous energy and quantized energy can be likened to a ramp versus a set of stairs connecting two levels of a building. The ramp is analogous to continuous energy – you can sit at any position along the ramp and thus be at any elevation between the two levels. The stairs are analogous to quantized or discrete energy – you can only sit at certain elevations between the two levels and nowhere in between. You may sit only on the steps, not in between the steps. Only certain elevations are allowed.
Next-->Electrons as Waves | <urn:uuid:3ac696a9-0a13-4455-9da2-7ebc9d47bdae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kentchemistry.com/links/AtomicStructure/PlanckQuantized.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964871 | 333 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Here is how your child can also become an impressive prodigy
Follow on Twitter
on September 03, 2013 at 2:10 PM, updated September 04, 2013 at 1:39 PM
One of the latest video sensation that features a smart kid is the little geography prodigy from Ohio featured in Cleveland.com. Aanav Jayakar, an 18 month old toddler can name capitals of 61 countries, and can also point out on a map 21 different nations. A really amazing feat!
Undoubtedly, his parents play a big part in developing his talent. Not only did they endow him with genes that are predisposed to being intelligent, but a big part of his talent is also the result of his parents teaching him and challenging his mind in a way that is fun and enjoyable.
Many kids around the world may be doing similar feats but do not get media attention. My eldest child, for one, can identify and name all trucks we see on our road trips and in his books even before he was two. I have seen other kids who can name different kinds of stuffs – from dinosaurs to Disney characters. This is because babies and toddlers are born to be language geniuses. Their developing brains are attuned to learning words. They learn language at a rate that cannot be matched by adults.
Parents, however, play a big part in developing their language potential. That’s why it is important for parents to talk to their babies and toddlers a lot. They should involve their babies and toddlers in playful activities that offer collaborative opportunities for them to learn language. Many websites can help you with ideas for fun toddler activities.
In these activities, interaction with an adult is important. When you respond to your baby’s cues, he responds to you. That is why TV, computer, and tablet games are not effective substitutes for learning language and building vocabulary.
Children also respond better to games and songs than they do direct instruction. Aanav is able to name the capitals of countries because that is the game he and his parents play and do regularly. However, it difficult for a toddler to understands the concept of country and its capital apart from its shape as he sees it in a map.
For a young child who loves to play the country-capital name game, parents can read aloud the simplest picture books which can give him a clearer concept about the topic. Another great activity for the family is to attend various festivals sponsored by immigrants from around the globe. A child can meet their people, see their costumes, hear their music, watch their dance, maybe even taste their food, and experience a bit of their culture.
Aanav's parents are doing him a lot of good in maximizing his intellectual potential. It is important for parents to introduce a young child to a variety of words as early as possible. The greater the number of words a baby hears before he turns 3, the easier it is for him to comprehend, the higher his IQ, and the better he will perform in school. A diverse vocabulary provides a child a good foundation for reading, writing and spelling skills.
Join Chacha Tumbokon Google+ circle to get latest parenting updates. | <urn:uuid:f01bf227-1a3c-40b5-9210-982c73cd831b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nj.com/parenting/index.ssf/2013/09/heres_how_your_child_can_also_become_an_impressive_prodigy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97843 | 647 | 2.921875 | 3 |
SPEC CPU2000 Benchmark Description File
Danny Sleator (firstname.lastname@example.org)
and Davy Temperley (email@example.com)
Benchmark Program General Category
The Link Grammar Parser is a syntactic parser of English, based on link
grammar, an original theory of English syntax. Given a sentence, the system
assigns to it a syntactic structure, which consists of set of labeled links
connecting pairs of words.
The parser has a dictionary of about 60000 word forms. It has coverage of a
wide variety of syntactic constructions, including many rare and idiomatic
ones. The parser is robust; it is able to skip over portions of the
sentence that it cannot understand, and assign some structure to the rest
of the sentence. It is able to handle unknown vocabulary, and make
intelligent guesses from context about the syntactic categories of unknown
The input is a sequence of proposed sentences, one per line. Punctuation
and case matter.
The output is an analysis of the proposed input sentence. The analysis
includes a set of links which capture the grammatical structure of the
sentence, a labelling of each word with an appropriate part of speech tag,
along with a judgement of the grammaticality of the input sentence. Words
in square brackets are ones that the parser deems superfluous.
The parser is written in ANSI C.
Known portability issues
for announcements of the latest version, detailed documentation, papers,
source code, and rules for commercial use.
Last updated: 26 January 2000 | <urn:uuid:37822189-156d-4e82-97b1-65dbf49c1782> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/CINT2000/197.parser/docs/197.parser.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.842585 | 339 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Cyber criminals can damage their victim's computer systems and data by changing or deleting files, wiping hard drives, or erasing backups to hide some or all of their malicious activity and tradecraft. By wiping, or "zeroing out," the hard disk drives, which overwrites good data with zeros or other characters, the criminals effectively erase or alter all existing data, greatly impeding restoration. This sort of criminal activity makes it difficult to determine whether criminals merely accessed the network, stole information, or altered network access and configuration files. Completing network restoration efforts and business damage assessments may also be hampered.
The FBI and DHS encourage businesses and individuals to employ mitigation strategies and best practices such as:
The US-CERT Web page at www.us-cert.gov hosts a wide range of tips, best practices, and threat information for business and home users.
If you have been a victim of cyber crime, please file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov. | <urn:uuid:ac12a2b4-04f8-4dd0-9c26-871848789e9c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.ic3.gov/media/2012/120120.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894046 | 206 | 2.71875 | 3 |
As the probability of an El Niño winter increases, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers are following the climate phenomenon as it develops off Southern California and finding that local readings closely hew to El Niño monitoring taking place at the equator.
El Niño is a phenomenon characterized by warmer sea surface water in the equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean. It is often associated with greater rainfall on much of the U.S. West Coast and frequently enhances the encroachment of storm surges by raising regional sea level for several months at a time. An El Niño is defined by a seasonal sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern/central equatorial Pacific greater than 0.5 C° (0.9° F) warmer than historical average temperature. The opposite phenomenon known as La Niña is defined as a seasonal sea surface temperature anomaly 0.5° C (0.9° F) colder than the historical average.
An autonomous underwater glider known as Spray monitors water temperature and other parameters off Dana Point, Calif. Scripps physical oceanographer Dan Rudnick said the Southern California El Niño Index produced from Spray data so far strongly agrees with the El Niño/ Southern Oscillation Diagnostic Discussion, a measure of El Niño published by NOAA based on temperature data collected at the equator. Currently NOAA forecasts a probability of El Niño conditions 70 percent during the Northern Hemisphere summer and reaching 80 percent during the fall and winter.
The Spray data are distributed by the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS), a region of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®). SCCOOS is a multi-institutional network sponsored by NOAA and the California State Coastal Conservancy that makes ocean data available to the public and to entities such as the Naval Oceanographic Office, which uses the data to make model forecasts in support of U.S. national security.
“The long-term monitoring is critical for establishing the baseline for evaluating, tracking and predicting large storm events in the future,” said SCCOOS Executive Director Julie Thomas.
“The Southern California El Niño Index and the suite of data provided by SCCOOS are enabling decision-makers to prepare for this year's El Niño as well as for everyday variations that affect California commerce,” said Catherine Kuhlman, deputy secretary for ocean and coastal policy with the California Natural Resources Agency. “This measure of preparedness is evidence of the strong leadership of California in the use of science to guide state policy.”
The Spray data are one of several means by which scientists are following the developing El Niño. Deployment of Spray gliders off the Galapagos Islands began in October 2013 in a joint project with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Oceanographic Institution of the Ecuadorian Navy (INOCAR). The National Science Foundation (NSF) and NOAA fund this project, called Repeat Observations by Gliders in the Equatorial Region (ROGER). The next Spray deployment in the Galapagos is scheduled for July.
In coordination, Scripps oceanographers beefed up the coverage of the international Argo network in the equatorial Pacific Ocean as part of a larger endeavor to demonstrate how long-term observations in the tropical Pacific Ocean can be improved. Dean Roemmich, a Scripps oceanographer and Argo Steering Committee co-chair, said a commercially operated sailboat, SV Investigator, deployed 41 Argo floats along the equator in January - March. A global array of more than 3,500 Argo floats records ocean temperature, salinity and current data in the upper 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) of the ocean.
Roemmich said the new floats, in addition to the existing Argo array, have provided an unprecedented view of the Pacific-wide evolution of El Niño conditions. A burst of westerly wind in the western Pacific in January resulted in a strong subsurface pulse of energy that crossed the equatorial Pacific from February to April.
“This warm temperature anomaly became shallower in the eastern Pacific where it was felt as a warming of sea surface temperature,” said Roemmich. “The next few months will tell whether this warm pulse is followed by others and whether it will develop into an El Niño.”
“The Pacific Argo and glider observations from Scripps are especially critical for monitoring the development and enabling the prediction of El Niño and potential impacts on California,” said David Legler, director of NOAA’s Climate Observations program. “Scripps is an important partner with NOAA in observing the changing global ocean environment.”
Scripps oceanographers are also collaborating with the Naval Research Laboratory to improve a fine-resolution Navy model used to analyze El Niño among other phenomena. Oceanographer Julie McClean said the goal of the Navy's Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) development effort is to eventually use it in a fine-resolution fully-coupled forecast system to simulate coupled ocean and atmospheric phenomena leading to improved prediction of sea level rise and extreme weather events.
The term “El Niño” has existed since the 1890s, having been so nicknamed by South American fishermen, who acknowledged the birth of Christ by associating an onset of warming ocean water with its Christmastime appearance. Modern El Niño research, however, began mainly after a strong episode in 1982-83 that had gone largely undetected by scientists until it was well under way. That event caused more than $13 billion in economic loss worldwide and prompted more than a dozen countries to make large investments in El Niño research. Advances in data collection and computer modeling enabled researchers at Scripps and elsewhere to forecast a major El Niño in 1997-98 with success, though the models were relatively crude compared to current generations of models.
Scripps Oceanography Director Margaret Leinen noted that El Niño has the ability to exacerbate the effects of even moderate sea-level rise. As the phenomenon develops, she and NOAA officials are alerting federal funding agencies to the potential need for rapid-response measurements of ocean conditions that will enable improved risk assessments. Prior to the onset of El Niño conditions, Leinen said that researchers will be gathering baseline measurements of coastal features using light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and satellite data.
“Technology has advanced considerably since the last major El Niño struck the West Coast in 1998 and we can take advantage of our new capabilities,” said Leinen. “We have the tools we need to assess the accuracy of our understanding of El Niño-related risk.”
The Southern California El Niño Index uses data that have been continuously gathered since 2006. Its record shows that changes in temperature that take place at the equator are matched very quickly off California, Rudnick said.
“It suggests to me that if an El Niño is brewing at the equator, we’re going to feel the effects pretty much immediately here in Southern California,” he said.
In addition, the Scripps El Niño forecast model has been predicting since last December that an El Niño would occur in the winter of 2014.
“The forecast uses observations of ocean temperatures and surface winds in the equatorial Pacific Ocean to predict El Niño up to a year in advance,” said Scripps climate researcher David Pierce.
The forecast system has been operational since late 1996. As with the Southern California El Niño Index, its value increases as its dataset grows larger over time.
The NSF California Current Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research (CCE-LTER) program at Scripps also plans several studies of the effects of the 2014-15 El Niño on life in the California Current. CCE-LTER Lead Principal Investigator Mark Ohman said he is studying the effects of a 2009-10 El Niño that could suggest that the nature of the phenomenon in the 21st century could be different than most 20th century El Niños. CCE-LTER in conjunction with the long-running California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program will track El Niño using data from Spray and from moorings in the California Current. The continuity of measurements made by several programs at Scripps allows a significantly improved understanding of El Niño and La Niña.
“In the absence of a quantitative record of historical ocean conditions, it is impossible to attribute causality to El Niño,” said Ohman. “Because of our growing historical record, CCE-LTER, together with its partners, is ideally positioned to understand the effects of the forecast El Niño on living components of marine ecosystems.”
# # #
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical, and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today on every continent and in every ocean. The institution has a staff of more than 1,400 and annual expenditures of approximately $195 million from federal, state, and private sources. Scripps operates oceanographic research vessels recognized worldwide for their outstanding capabilities. Equipped with innovative instruments for ocean exploration, these ships constitute mobile laboratories and observatories that serve students and researchers from institutions throughout the world. Birch Aquarium at Scripps serves as the interpretive center of the institution and showcases Scripps research and a diverse array of marine life through exhibits and programming for more than 430,000 visitors each year. Learn more at scripps.ucsd.edu and follow us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
About UC San Diego
The University of California San Diego is a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution that provides opportunity for all. Recognized as one of the top 15 research universities worldwide and born of a culture of collaboration, UC San Diego sparks discoveries that advance society, drive economic growth and positively impact the world. Our students, who learn from Nobel laureates, MacArthur Fellows and National Academy members, are committed to public service. For the sixth consecutive year, UC San Diego has been ranked first in the nation based on research, civic engagement and social mobility. We are one campus with multiple pillars of excellence, a top ten public university that is transforming lives, shaping new disciplines and advancing the frontiers of knowledge. Learn more at www.ucsd.edu. | <urn:uuid:48396038-ca43-48ba-9142-2621d8907d7e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/el-ni%C3%B1o-shaping-southern-california | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93091 | 2,180 | 3.5 | 4 |
The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Respulikaji Sovetiji Sotsialistiji Toçikiston; , Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, the Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union. It succeeded the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR), which had been created on 14 October 1924 as a part of the predominantly Turkic Uzbek SSR in the process of national delimitation in Soviet Central Asia. On 9 September 1991, Tajik SSR declared independence from the Soviet Union and was renamed the Republic of Tajikistan. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the state ceased to exist on 6 November 1994 with the adoption of the new Constitution of Tajikistan
One of the new states created in the process of national delimitation of Soviet Central Asia in October 1924 was the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic – Uzbek SSR or Soviet Uzbekistan. Soviet Tajikistan was created at the same time within the predominantly Turkic Uzbek SSR as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR) – one rank below a Soviet Socialist Republic in USSR geopolitical hierarchy. The new autonomous republic included what had been eastern Bukhara and had a population of about 740,000, out of a total population of nearly 5 million in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as a whole. Its capital was established in Dyushambe (today's Dushanbe), which had been a village of 3,000 in 1920. In December 1929, Tajik ASSR was detached from the Uzbek SSR and given full status as a Soviet Socialist Republic – Tajik SSR. At that time, its capital was renamed Stalinabad and the territory that is now northern Tajikistan (Sughd Province) was added to the new republic. Even with the additional territory, the Tajik SSR remained the smallest Central Asian republic.
With the creation of a Tajik republic defined in national terms came the creation of institutions that, at least in form, were likewise national. The first Tajik-language newspaper in Soviet Tajikistan began publication in 1926. New educational institutions also began operation at about the same time. The first state schools, available to both children and adults and designed to provide basic education, opened in 1926. The central government also trained a small number of Tajiks for public office, either by putting them through courses offered by government departments or by sending them to schools in the Uzbek SSR.
Under Soviet rule, the Tajik SSR experienced some economic and social progress. However, living standards in the republic were still among the lowest in the Union. Most still live in rural qishlaqs, settlements that were composed of 200 to 700 one-family houses built along a waterway. | <urn:uuid:b0453525-77dd-416b-9802-7fb28516a7ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Tajik_SSR%2C_Soviet_Union | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972188 | 614 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Rapid warming over the Indian Ocean reduces marine productivity
Increasing water temperatures in the Indian Ocean are taking a toll on the marine ecosystem, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers suggest rapid warming in the Indian Ocean has reduced marine phytoplankton up to 20 percent during the past six decades.
Going digital: Building a better geological map of Alaska
In the early 1900s, before Alaska was part of the United States, geologists roamed this northern territory on foot and horseback, noting its features and terrain on hand-drawn maps. Nearly 100 years later in 1996, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research geologist Frederic Wilson and a dozen colleagues created the first fully digitalized geological map of Alaska.
On Twitter, oceanographers show deep appreciation for data-collection device
On Friday, while many people were tracking the progress of the winter storm bearing down on the eastern United States, oceanographers were rummaging through their fieldwork photos for images of CTDs to share on Twitter in honor of #CTDAppreciationDay.
The Landslide Blog
The greatest ever debris flow video? Aconcagua in Argentina
Dave Petley nominates this landslide footage, located on the flanks Aconcagua in Argentina, for "greatest ever debris flow video." It starts slowly, but hang in there!
Arctic research on thin ice: consequences of Arctic Sea ice loss
Scientists embarked on a 6-month expedition in the Arctic Ocean to study the thinning sea ice cover, improve our understanding of sea ice loss effects, and help predict future changes.
New research papers
The northward march of summer low cloudiness along the California coast, Geophysical Research Letters
The Global Positioning System constellation as a space weather monitor: Comparison of electron measurements with Van Allen Probes data, Space Weather
Find research spotlights from AGU journals and sign up for weekly E-Alerts, including research spotlights, on eos.org. Register for access to AGU journal papers in the AGU newsroom.
The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing more than 60,000 members in 139 countries. Join our conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media channels. | <urn:uuid:cb4f514e-903f-4ea7-a77c-a99ece4c5af7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/agu-twf012716.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904498 | 502 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Visual basic training guide for beginners users contain rules of the vb logic game, step-by-step programming process description in e-book EXE format, screenshots and 9 complete vb-projects. Logical game has several variants, such as tabular, card, cycle card, paper sheet tabular. Software versions of the game contain bigger scaling capabilities: playing area dimensions can be changed, as well as cells / cards nominal quantity, game branching types can; PDA /cellular versions can be created etc.
Visual Basic 6.0 User Guide E-Book
Valery V Shmeleff
visual basic tutorial guide programmer beginner user developer source code project game logic e-book ebook
Step-by-step programming guide and 9 complete VB-projects
|Rating||Vote %||# of Votes|
Want to increase the number of votes and resource rating for this listing?
Place a Visual Basic 6.0 User Guide E-Book Vote Box on your website. | <urn:uuid:8339268f-fb17-4535-982f-aadab9c80c0f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bigwebmaster.com/3127.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.743178 | 202 | 2.703125 | 3 |
A team of 24 researchers from the U.S., Europe, Taiwan and Japan and led by University of Illinois scientists has engineered a new anti-cancer agent that is about 200 times more active in killing tumor cells than similar drugs used in recent clinical trials.
The study appears this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The new agent belongs to a class of drugs called bisphosphonates. These compounds were originally developed to treat osteoporosis and other bone diseases, but were recently found to also have potent anti-cancer and immune boosting properties.
Drug developers have tried for years to design drugs to inhibit cell survival pathways in tumor cells, focusing on a protein called Ras since nearly a third of all human cancers involve a mutation in the Ras gene that causes cell signaling to go awry. These efforts have met with limited success.
Bisphosphonates act on other enzymes, called FPPS and GGPPS, which are upstream of Ras in the cell survival pathway. Inhibiting these enzymes appears to be a more effective strategy for killing cancer cells.
When used in combination with hormone therapy in a recent clinical trial, the bisphosphonate drug zoledronate significantly reduced the recurrence of breast cancer in premenopausal women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer. Similar results were reported previously for hormone-refractory prostate cancer.
But zoledronate quickly binds to bone, reducing its efficacy in other tissues.
"We're trying to develop bisphosphonates that will be very active but won't bind to the bone, because if they bind to the bone they're not going to go to breast, lung or other tissues," said University of Illinois chemistry professor Eric Oldfield, who led the new study.
Oldfield's team also wanted to design a compound that would inhibit multiple enzymes in the tumor cell survival pathway, rather than just one, an approach analogous to the use of multi-kinase inhibitors in cancer therapy.
Andrew Wang, of Academia Sinica, Taipei, and Illinois chemist Rong Cao began by producing crystallographic structures of the target enzymes and drug candidates, allowing the researchers to identify those features that would enhance the drugs' ability to bind to the enzymes. Using this and other chemical data, Illinois chemistry department research scientist Yonghui Zhang engineered new bisphosphonate compounds that bound tightly to multiple enzyme targets, but not to bone.
One of the new compounds, called BPH-715, proved to be especially potent in cell culture and effectively inhibited tumor cell growth and invasiveness.
Tadahiko Kubo, of Hiroshima University, then found that BPH-715 also killed tumor cells in mice. And Socrates Papapoulos, of Leiden University, the Netherlands, showed that the compound had a very low chemical affinity for bone.
In humans, compounds like BPH-715 and zoledronate have an added benefit in fighting cancer: They spur the proliferation of immune cells called gamma delta T-cells, which aid in killing tumor cells.
"The new drugs are about 200 times more effective than the drugs used in recent clinical trials at killing tumor cells and in activating gamma delta T-cells to kill tumor cells," Oldfield said. "They also prevent tumor progression in mice much better than do existing bisphosphonate molecules."
|Contact: Diana Yates|
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | <urn:uuid:a94c9bac-85b7-4c57-ae21-5ab3dc5dd7a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/New-drug-agent-knocks-out-multiple-enzymes-in-cancer-pathway-7692-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954455 | 706 | 2.71875 | 3 |
However this I don't like, you've to heavily idealized the actual process of evolution, which by all accounts, natural selection is really a coincidence of the favoritism of environmental circumstances. How did camouflage evolve? In the discussions at school with my students we sometimes speak anthropomorphically about natural selection and evolution, almost as if the animals themselves chose consciously to adapt and evolve certain traits. This is simply nonsensical! Species don't chose to evolve, the environmental circumstances favor certain features over others, and the way in which these features evolve is through a combination of purely RANDOM mutation and further sexual reproduction where even if species mate selectively, none-the-less the combination of genes is randomized. Both result not necessarily in conscious or strategic evolution, rather purely serendipitous. Camouflage for example evolves as animals when the environment favors one kind of marking over another as an animal with some markings survives and reproduces more successfully where as the previous versions eventually go extinct. Kodak bears are genetically identical with brown bears, and even sometimes swim back to shore in Canada and live out as brown bears. How did the brown bear turn white? It surely didn't consciously decide this change, rather the snow white environment favored the eventual transition as lighter and lighter brown bears reproduced more successfully than darker brown bears until inevitably they turned white! Then in time the white bears out competed the fully brown bears and the brown bears either left or died off and after a certain amount of time the genetic differences get so strong that they become separate species. At this time Kodak and brown bears can still fully reproduce like Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox are in full communion
It may have become confusing but in my post I discussed both natural and artificial selection. The death penalty, castration, and even family extermination have been used throughout human history and these are, in a very real sense, a form of artificial selection: the tribe making a conscience decision to remove an individual, and in some cases even his entire genetic line, from the gene pool. Maybe they didn't think about it in those terms (though in the case of family extermination, they may very well have), though that's exactly what they did.
As for natural selection, it's certainly true that the species does not determine how they evolve, that would be artificial selection, but I don't think it's incorrect to speak of the system as 'choosing' certain traits over others, it may not be a conscience choice, but an algorithmic choice is made: creatures and species that can survive and reproduce get to pass on their genes and influence the future of evolution, those that cannot survive and reproduce do not get to do so. So the system is optimizing all the elements for one characteristic: survivability. Yes, it can often be environment-specific, but since environments change over the ages there are many valuable environment-independent traits that get passed on as well.
Now that we've gotten the science out of the way, lets look at this quoted discussion about the cultural evolution of certain human traits in relation to natural selection. I'm sorry but I just do buy into the influence of reproductive instinct and natural selection on the evolution of human psychology and culture. Yes, human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to reproduce, as do ALL living things, but just like all other living things, we are not solely defined by this urge just as we are no more defined by our urges to defecate!
The very nature of the system requires optimization for survival and reproduction and survival is only important through reproductive age, of course certain species can have various other characteristics, but these are the two constants across all living things from humans to insects to flora to bacteria. They are very strong and driving forces that must be strongly present for a species to survive. And, yes, there are outliers, but evolution is a game of means.
Animals do not live solely to reproduce, and sometimes scientists in their studies and theories forget that somethings live just to live, and reproducing a facet of this existing. There is far more to life than just reproduction, and it is not the sole driving force, Freud was also mistaken. I just think you have oversimplified the process and factors involved.
Of course I've oversimplified it, this is a web forum, I'm making a casual argument, not presenting a scientific dissertation.
Humans have evolved a remarkable capacity for logic and reason, which we no doubt evolved to give us a survival advantage, but we have done much, much more with it than that. But still, despite our accomplishments, we have a fundamental desire to survive and to reproduce (or at least engage in the reproductive act, our intellect has allowed us to separate the pleasure of the act from the consequences of the act and make decisions balancing our desire to survive (kids are expensive and don't help personal survival); however none of this has diminished the desire to actually engage in the reproductive act). But we are complex beings and how these things interact with our rational abilities is hardly straightforward, but we can't deny their overwhelming influence on human society, in fact the very existence of human society, of humans as social animals, is the result of a survival tactic that doesn't hurt with reproduction either.
Also, the fact that we survive to reproduce does not imply that these two impulses are in harmony, they can be pulling in opposite directions and one can even be detrimental to the other. But just so long as they are sufficiently optimized to the environment to be able to exist and reproduce in that environment and are more successful at it than competing species, that will be the species that survives. Though these things are likely to be optimized as time progresses.
Culture is precisely what living things, be it humans or flowers, have inherent to their life which defines them beyond reproduction and in fact counters the forces of natural selection and nature.
Flower culture? Really? A little to 1960's for my taste.
Culture is beyond instinct and in fact it controls instincts.
If culture controlled instinct, the western world would have become extinct with the celibacy craze of the Roman Church in the Middle Ages.
Humans are not the only social animals with stratified societies and complex sociocultural patterns, and these are really beyond evolutionary explanation either in humans or animals!
No, we're not not, these characteristics are inherent in all social animals or at least all social mammals. They are traits that are necessary for animals to successfully live in a social context. Humans and horses don't both have stratified societies and complex sociocultural patterns because horses reason similarly to humans, we share these characteristics because they are necessary characteristics to live in a social situation and either followed similar paths of evolution as a result of this strong necessity of these characteristics for survival in a social situation or derive from a common ancestor that had these traits and passed them on due to the ability these traits gave this common ancestor to survive (I honestly don't know enough about the history of the evolution of the Horse to say which is true, I'm not even certain how long ago our common ancestor lived, though I'm sure someone has calculated it from DNA analysis).
Species do many things to counter natural selection and ensure survival of even non-reproductive members counter to the instinctive drives or reproduction because while all universally share them as DNA bearing creatures,
As you reminded me earlier, evolution is not a conscience choice by the species (at least for non-human species), we are likely the only species that has ever figured out this connection between survival and reproduction and its role in the advancement of evolution. Social animals help non-reproductive members survive because they are programmed to seek the survival of the herd. They don't know that evolution programmed them this way to simply be able to survive to reproductive age and reproduce more efficiently. They know what their instinct and impulses tell them to do, they don't know why they have them.
surely our lives are more beautifully complicated then that, even if solely defined by our numerous primal urges such as hunger, companionship, reproduction, fear, and pleasure!
They are because we have developed this remarkable capacity for reason, this doesn't mean that these primal urges and impulses are not central to our lives and existence, they are, but because of reason we are able to expand beyond these primal desires and at times expand on or even influence them.
After all, we are often hungry for different things, seek companionship for different reasons, purposely avoid reproducing, deny fear, and have different definitions of pleasure.
We are hungry for different things, but we tend to gravitate towards that which is familiar (though I freely confess, I'm an outlier in this regard). Do we seek companionship for different reasons or do we inherently desire companionship and simply come up with different rationals to justify that desire? We may purposely avoid reproduction, but very few of us can shed the reproductive desire while of reproductive age, the writings of the Church Fathers can attest to this much at least. We can deny fear, but so can the the mother in the wild deny fear to protect her young, but we are more sophisticated in that we can also deny fear for rational reasons, not purely instinctive ones; but it is hardly true that reason always conquers fear, more often than not the opposite is true, we try to rationalize and justify our fear and as a result our history is plagued with genocide and great tragedy that results from this attempt to rationalize fear, this merger of fear and reason where fear ultimately wins. We may have some different ideas for leisure, not that evolution spent much time on those characteristics, but the vast majority of people (and social animals in general) share many of the same fundamental pleasures across all cultures, peoples, and species: the pleasure of a drink of water when suffering from thirst, the pleasure of food when truly hungry, the pleasure of success over failure, the pleasure of friends and companionship, and, above all, the pleasure of the reproductive act. | <urn:uuid:54cac18d-7db5-46d6-b62c-55b8bec83703> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=38495.msg616139 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958905 | 2,036 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The Role of a Principal
A principal has a very important role to fulfill in their daily job duties and responsibilities. They are the guiding force which makes schools what they are today. The following information will detail the general responsibilities of a principal as well as their specific duties.
In addition, there are various traits principals should possess and these too will be discussed below. By reviewing the following information, one can gain better insight into the role of a principal and determine whether or not this is something they would like to pursue as a desired occupation.
What Is A Principal?
A principal is an individual who directs and monitors the academic and nonacademic activities within a school environment. The principal is the individual who plans and implements the daily routines within an educational setting.
General Responsibilities of a Principal
The principal has many general responsibilities which they must carry out on a daily basis. First and foremost, the principal is the head of the educational setting. This individual provides guidance not only for the teachers but for the students as well. The principal must monitor all activities within their school and be the leader of it all, so to speak.
In addition, the principal must act as a liaison between what goes on in the school and those in the general community. The principal will meet requests from parents, school board members and government officials. This individual is the one these people go to with praise as well as complaints.
Specific Duties of a Principal
The principal has many numerous duties they must take part in since they are in a supervisory position. The first duty a principal is responsible for fulfilling in their capacity as principal is that of hiring, firing, and disciplining teachers and staff at the school. Those who work at the school will answer to the principal should any issues arise and the principal is the individual who usually does the interviewing and placement of staff as well as firing thereof.
Along with the hiring and firing of staff, the principal is also responsible for developing payroll specifications for the individuals. The principal will most likely have a payroll specialist who in fact transmits the payments but the principal is the one who will resolve any issues with regard to payroll.
The principal is also responsible for monitoring the education and extracurricular activities of the students at the educational facility. This individual will monitor lesson plans of the teachers as well as other activities which go on in the school to ensure that the students are receiving the educational requirements and activity requirements that are necessary to provide a well-rounded learning environment for them. The principal is often the individual who takes care of disciplinary actions with students as well.
In addition to providing supervision in the school itself, the principal will also engage with outside entities. The principal may contact businesses to let them know of any contributions or sponsorships which may be needed for various school programs. This involves academic as well as extracurricular activity needs.
The principal must also stay abreast of current laws, rules and regulations and ensure the school’s compliance with all of the above. This also deals with everything from the administration to extracurricular activities for the students. The principal must be sure that everything that deals with the smooth operation of the school is in keeping with state and federal laws and regulations.
A principal is also an individual who has a hand in government grants and funding acquisitions. The principal is in the best position to know what things his/her school needs and the best ways in which to obtain these things from governmental entities.
Positive Traits Which Principals Should Possess
The principal holds a key supervisory role in the school system. This individual is one who is in direct charge of all that goes on within their school and is in the best position to do something about the various things which occur on a daily basis. Due to the supreme role of a principal, individuals who are in this profession should possess certain favorable traits.
First and foremost, the principal should exhibit excellent leadership skills. Since the principal is the main individual in charge in a particular school, that person should have the superior leadership skills in which to lead those below them to make the school the best that it possibly can be. There will be many individuals looking to the principal for guidance and the individual in this role must be able to provide that guidance to their subordinates.
A principal should also have good problem solving skills as they will need to solve many problems during their role as principal. These problems may range anywhere from disciplinary actions for students to finding a way to fund certain school programs. A principal who has top of the line problem solving skills will find that it makes their job that much easier to carry out as they know exactly what to do should problems arise.
Good conversational skills are another positive trait principals should possess. As they will be speaking with countless amounts of individuals throughout their daily job duties, it is important that the principal knows exactly how to express what they want and relay this information to individuals. A principal should also be social in nature and not simply robotic in relaying information to various parties. A principal who has good conversational skills will excel in their position.
In addition, a principal should enjoy what they do on a daily basis. One who likes their job will arguably do a better job at it. If one is a principal and dreads starting the day each morning, this sentiment will be relayed in their daily activities and negatively affect their ability to do their job.
The principal of a school has a very important role in society. They are the leaders within an educational establishment who provide guidance to teachers, students, staff and members of the general community. If one can complete the aforementioned job duties effectively and possesses some of the traits mentioned above, then the likelihood that the individual will be a wonderful principal is quite great. Engaging in a career as a school principal is a fulfilling role to play in society and one that is sure to be rewarding to the individual who takes it upon themselves to do so. | <urn:uuid:101c1fe3-aa2d-4d8b-868b-76986eeed3cf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/career-tracks/the-role-of-a-principal.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 | 0.976526 | 1,202 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.