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Professor Bruce MacDonald of the University of Auckland in New Zealand leads a team working to create a corps of medical robots that will be able to help monitor and assist elders in need.
We are only two months into 2012 and it's clear that the Quantified Self movement is increasingly gaining traction. More devices are emerging to help people quantify everything from anxiety to weight and blood glucose to sleep patterns. But what about people who cannot use the devices or are not ambulatory themselves?
A team led by Professor Bruce MacDonald at the University of Auckland in New Zealand has been working to create a corps of medical robots -- Healthbots -- to help these people. Medgadget had the opportunity to interview Professor MacDonald about the Healthbots, what they do, and when we can expect to see them available to help those in need.
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Please describe your implementation goal for the Healthbots.
Our goal is to develop practical software technology for personal mobile robots, working together with our partners in South Korea who make the robot devices, the older care organization, The Selwyn Foundation, in New Zealand and several New Zealand companies who have interests in helping older people. The work involves important research: for example, how to make robots acceptable to older people, how to design and develop robot software that can easily be deployed and used in practice, and how to place robots in a care system that really helps and empowers older people and also care staff. We have evaluated these robots over the last four years, including in three trials. In the next few years we hope to see robots starting to be used by older people; perhaps initially for entertainment this year or next year.
By 2020, we would like to see robotic assistants in many older peoples' homes and apartments in retirement villages and in the community, around the world, helping people by doing simple tasks and providing, empowering, and enriching interactions including connections to their friends, family, and caretakers who are in other places. We think there are a number of roles for robots in older care, including a robot as a care assistant that does simple tasks to help staff, and a companion robot that provides entertainment, interactions, and connections to friends and family using its touch screen and its connection to the Internet. For all this we need a very well designed and simple interface that many people can use. In our trials, people have told us that they would like Internet technology delivered via the robot, because it is easier to use than a computer. Our goal is to put robots all around the world and the New Zealand government funding that supports our work is aimed at the export market for New Zealand companies.
What are the main obstacles that need to be overcome between now and the implementation goal?
We need to have robots interacting with a lot of people, and then improve what the robots do according to peoples' feedback. We need to find ways to get robots in peoples' homes on a wide scale, across our communities; that includes support for helping people use the robots. Currently there is little business infrastructure for selling and supporting robots across large markets around the world, and people are not used to having robots around. We have shown that people will accept robots in older care, and that the robots can work in an elderly care environment. We are hoping our current studies will verify that robots improve the life experience of older people and their care staff. The next step is to deploy robots in many places. Also, we need to narrow the focus to some simple initial applications for the robots; so far we have many things that the robots can do.
What types of conditions in people are the Healthbots most suited to helping? For example, hypertension/CVD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, etc?
I think robots can help people with all kinds of conditions, by helping them manage the condition, and by enriching peoples' lives with more interesting activities and interactions when the condition imposes limitations on what people can do by themselves. The medication management system on the robots is also important. Many older people are taking several medications several times a day and it can be a challenge to remember all the medications, the times they should be taken, and any limitations about each medications (e.g. with or without food or water). Some medications should be taken only if the older person has certain symptoms at the time. The robot system can remind people to take medications at the right time, and in the right way, and it can ask them about their symptoms and then remind them what to take as a result. Also, the doctor seems to like receiving a weekly summary on a Web page of the medications taken, the vitals signs taken every time the medications are taken (e.g. blood pressure and heart rate), and some answer to a few symptom questions that the doctor can tell the robot to ask. So we think this can help people with any conditions that are managed by medications, and that includes many conditions, including hypertension/CVD (something we are working on with Pulsecor, whose device measures arterial stiffness as well as blood pressure), diabetes (the robot can also collect blood glucose results), and respiratory problems that require inhaler use (something we are working on with Nexus6, which makes devices to monitor inhaler use). We also think that the robot can help people with Alzheimer's, however we are still evaluating how these people interact with robots like ours.
For people with mild cognitive problems we think the robot will be useful for reminding them about their daily activities. And maybe the robot will help calm people with more severe dementia. We also think that our robots will help people who are socially isolated and lonely, because it will give them something to interact with, and also will enable them to communicate through the Internet with their friends and family. We provided a simple Skype interface on our robot and that has been very popular; people often find Skype a little tricky to use and the robot simplifies that. We are also developing ways for monitoring peoples' daily movements, using wearable accelerometers, and we plan to use the robot to interact with people using the information collected.
Are there any other settings or populations that the Healthbots may be useful for (e.g. inpatients, children, etc.)?
Yes, we think robots can help children who have autism and other conditions and we think that robots can help all kinds of people who have long-term conditions, and people who are socially isolated for any reason. There is some research to show that children with autism can react quite positively to robots, and robots may have the potential to teach children social skills by providing a way for them to practice their skills with the robot. We think that robots can help people with disabilities, for example helping to remind people about their daily activities if they have cognitive problems and helping people to manage their medications if they take a lot of medication. The robot can also help link people with their doctors and caretakers, by managing all their health information, which is something we are working on with Lifetime Health Diary.
This post also appears on medGadget, an Atlantic partner site. | <urn:uuid:2803de55-1661-4cec-bc92-17f66d253066> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/how-robots-can-help-caregivers/252881/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968837 | 1,469 | 2.609375 | 3 |
(Medical Xpress) -- Most agree that the earlier you expose a child to a language, the easier it is for that child to pick it up. The same rules apply for deaf children.
According to a new study, early exposure to sign language in addition to spoken language for all deaf children is the best way to maximise linguistic and cognitive skills to overcome any delays or difficulties due to deafness.
La Trobe Universitys Dr Adam SchembriDirector of the National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Languageand colleagues examined the effects of age of acquisition in deaf adults who use British Sign Language (BSL).
This study is focused specifically on deaf adults and reports significant accuracy differences for those who acquire sign language as a delayed first language between 2 to 8 years of age, but also significantly slower response times for those who acquire sign language as a second language in later life, says Dr Schembri.
The study showed children that develop sign language skills from birth had better grammatical judgement in BSL. For adults who reported learning BSL from the ages of 2 to 8 years, the study found it harder for people to acquire the same language skills.
One thing that seems very clear is that successful early acquisition of a first language is crucial, whether that language is natural signed language, such as BSL (or Auslan in Australia), or a spoken/written language such as English, says Dr Schembri.
The current study supports many others showing that early exposure to accessible language is much more likely to result in successful language acquisition than later exposure.
The advantages of early sign language exposure remain clear even with rapid advances in hearing aids and cochlear implants.
According to Dr Schembri, an approach using both sign language and a spoken or written language will be the most beneficial for children to make the most of their linguistic skills.
Bilingual education is the best way of ensuring that deaf children have early exposure to both a signed language and a spoken/written language, which will provide the deaf child with the best chance for successful language acquisition, in either or both languages.
We know that bilingualism comes with a range of cognitive benefits, so we would advocate early bilingualism in both signed and spoken language for all deaf children, says Dr Schembri.
Explore further: 'Motherese' important for children's language development
The StudyFirst Language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelinqually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Languagewas published in Cognition. | <urn:uuid:2d227533-9b56-4106-9312-0efc25e6a109> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-early-exposure-language-deaf-children.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955934 | 520 | 3.34375 | 3 |
A giant wasp nest found in Spain takes up an entire floor of an empty home, leaving officials perplexed as how to get rid of the millions of stinging insects.
The nest is so large that officials think it will unseat New Zealand as the home of the largest recorded nest in history. The current Guinness World record holder was a giant wasp nest found on a farm near Auckland found in 1963, one that measured more than 12 feet long, 5 feet in diameter, and about 18 feet in circumference.
Though the New Zealand wasp nest was made of wood scrapings that the insects chewed up to create a paper mache material, it was so heavy that it came crashing out of a tree and split in two on the ground.
For as gigantic as that wasp nest was, the one found in Spain this week is believed to be even bigger. Experts think it was built by an African species of wasp that migrated close to 70 miles to the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The types of wasp normally in that area of Spain tend to live in gardens, and don’t built nests anywhere near as large as the one found in the home.
Police were alerted to the giant wasp nest when neighbors living close to the abandoned house noticed sometime was wrong. When they investigated, they found the house overrun with wasps — likely numbering in the millions.
Another gigantic wasp nest was found a few years ago in a pub in Southampton, England. Though still quite large — it measured 6 feet 5 inches and was home to close to 500,000 wasps — that one still pales in comparison to the house-invading Spanish nest.
The typical wasp nest will contain between 4,000 and 5,000 wasps, experts say. Some of the larger colonies can number in the tens of thousands of wasps, though it is rare for the nests to grow much larger than that.
Officials said they blocked off the house in Tenerife, but still haven’t figured out how to deal with the giant wasp nest. | <urn:uuid:29186c82-dc0b-4116-90e2-5f83e8d58440> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.inquisitr.com/616680/giant-wasp-nest-in-spain-takes-up-entire-floor-of-home/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97976 | 427 | 2.875 | 3 |
Embellishing and ornamenting one own self has been the most attractive and passionate activities practiced for centuries all over the world. With time the same logic and passion got transferred to fabric that was used to cover the body and we were introduced to many new forms of art or handicraft aiming for fabric decoration.
Yes the art of Embroidery it was.
Another way to look at its development long long ago is that when mankind was introduced to cloth; need to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery.
Using a thread or yarn and a needle, raised surface effects are created on the flat woven fabric surface imparting it a distinctive appearance. Initially basic stitches viz. chain, buttonhole, blanket, running, satin, cross stitch were employed and with time other materials like mirrors, pearls, beads etc. were also incorporated to build unique creations. However, those basic stitches still form the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery in India today.
India boasts a range of traditional embroideries from different states embodying their regional, cultural and social influences. Read further to get more insight on traditional embroideries of India.
Belongs to – Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Famous as shadow work, Chikankari embroidery is a very delicate and intricate work from the city of Lucknow. A skill more than 200 years old, the embroidery is famous for its timeless grace and gossamer delicacy. Also known as Chikan, the embroidery is traditionally done using a white untwisted cotton thread on colourless muslin popularly known as tanzeb (the muslim from Dacca).
This form of embroidery came to India from Persia with Noor Jehan, the queen of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir. It is also said that the word chikan is a derivative from the Persian word ‘chikaan‘ meaning drapery. The craft flourished under the benign nawabi influence and later with the British influence designs became more formal resulting in an export market in Europe and England.
Originally, chikan embroidery was done with the untwisted white cotton thread on soft, white cotton fabric like muslin or cambric. It was sometimes done on net to produce a kind of lace. Today chikan work is not only done with coloured threads but on all kinds of fabrics like silk, crepe, georgette, organdie chiffon, and tassar.
In Chikankari, the design to be embroidered is printed on the fabric using wooden blocks dipped in fugitive colours, which are commonly made by mixing a glue and indigo with water. For extra fine designs, brass-blocks are used sometimes.
Application of stitches in chikankari holds great importance and demands particular discipline. The embroidery has a repertoire of about 40 stitches which can be broadly divided into 3 heads flat, raised and embossed stitches and the open trellis-like jaali work.
Chikankari flat stitches with their traditional names are:
1. Bukhia: Most common chikan stitch to get the effect of shadow work. Bukhia is very similar to the herringbone stitch done on backside and front side to give a shadow effect.
It is done in two ways
a) From back side (ulta bakhia), the floats lie on the reverse of the fabric underneath the motif. The transparent muslin becomes opaque and provides a beautiful effect of light and shade.
b) From front side (sidha bakhia), it is the satin stitch with criss-crossing of individual threads. The floats of thread lie on the surface of the fabric. This is used to fill the forms and there is no light or shade effect.
2. Taipchi: It is the running stitch worked on the right side of the fabric. It is occasionally done within parallel rows to fill petals and leaves. Sometimes taipchi is used to make the bel buti all over the fabric. This is the simplest chikan stitch and often serves as a basis for further embellishment. It resembles jamdani and is considered the cheapest and the quickest stitch.
Pechni: It is the variation build on Taipchi where the taipchi base is covered by entwining the thread over it in a regular manner thus forming a lever spring.
3.Gitti: A combination of buttonhole and long satin stitch, usually used to make a wheel-like motif with a tiny hole in the center.
4. Jangira: It is the chain stitch usually used as outlines in combination with a line of pechni or thick taipchi.
Chikankari knotted, embossed stitches with their traditional names are:
1. Murri: It is the diagonal satin stitches worked several times with a knot on a basic taipchi stitch to form a grain shape.
2. Phanda: It is a smaller shortened form of murri. The knots made are spherical and very small. It resembles millets, gives a raised effect and is used to fill petals and leaves.
3. Dhum patti: It is the leaf pattern made of cross-stitch.
4. Ghas patti: It is the grass leaves formed by V-shaped line of stitches worked in a graduated series on the right side of the fabric.
Besides there are two other important forms of embellishments:
1. Jali work: The jaalis or trellises that are created in chikankari are a unique speciality of this craft. It gives an effect of open mesh or net created by carefully pushing warps and wefts apart by needle without cutting or drawing of thread. The act thus make neat regular holes or jaalis on the fabric.
2. Khatawa: It is an appliqué work similar to bakhia, which produces a flat effect. It is more of a technique than a stitch.
The source of most of the design motifs in chikankari is Mughal. Noor Jehan’s personal preferences and desire to replicate the Turkish architectural open-work designs is said to have that led to the introduction of jaalis in chikan embroidery. The designs in chikan are graded and used according to the stitches employed – murri ka buta and tepchi ka jaal – though terms like hathi (elephant) and kairi (mango) are also used to signify the shape of the motif. It is however the stitch employed that is the established nomenclature. Other common motifs include mostly paisley, flowers, foliages, creepers, fruits, birds like peacock and parrots.
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Images and information for this article has been sourced. | <urn:uuid:371cf3d3-f429-44ac-8677-d1fc75ff9dc2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://textontextiles.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/embroideries-of-india/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940094 | 1,434 | 2.65625 | 3 |
A heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), is the most extreme form of heart muscle pain and signals that a portion of your heart is dying. Usually a blockage of fatty deposits, or plaque, in a heart artery reduces or cuts off the blood and oxygen to a certain portion of your heart. Or a small piece of plaque can break off and a blood clot will form around it in the artery, shutting off the blood and oxygen. Either way, without oxygen this portion of your heart muscle begins to die - this is the pain of a heart attack.
To prevent death or severe heart damage, doctors can administer blood thinning or clot-dissolving medicines or perform an angioplasty procedure that removes arterial blockages, among other treatments. Getting to the hospital quickly is the best insurance for staying alive and saving your heart. Also, if experiencing heart attack symptoms, crush or chew a full-strength aspirin (swallow with a glass of water) to prevent further blood clotting. | <urn:uuid:85adbc48-ca06-4481-8ee1-ba5506b749c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.womenheart.org/?page=Support_WhatIsHA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879854 | 207 | 3 | 3 |
- Insomnia Pictures: 10 Tips to Avoid Insomnia
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- What is insomnia?
- What causes insomnia?
- What situational and stress factors cause insomnia?
- What are the risk factors for insomnia?
- What are the symptoms of insomnia?
- When should I call the doctor about insomnia?
- How is insomnia diagnosed?
- How is insomnia treated?
- What are non-medical treatments for insomnia?
- What is sleep hygiene?
- How can stimulus control help with insomnia?
- What is sleep restriction?
- What medications are used to treat insomnia?
- What is the outlook for insomnia?
Quick GuideTips to Avoid Insomnia
How is insomnia treated?
The treatment of insomnia depends largely on the cause of the problem. In cases where an obvious situational factor is responsible for the insomnia, correcting or removing the cause generally cures the insomnia. For example, if insomnia is related to a transient stressful situation, such as jet lag or an upcoming examination, then insomnia will be cured when the situation resolves.
Generally speaking, the treatment of insomnia can be divided into non-medical or behavioral approaches and medical therapy. Both approaches are necessary to successfully treat insomnia, and combinations of these approaches may be more effective than either approach alone.
When insomnia is related to a known medical or psychiatric condition, then appropriate treatment of that condition is in the forefront of therapy for insomnia in addition to the specific therapy for insomnia itself. Without adequately addressing the underlying cause, insomnia will likely go on despite taking aggressive measures to treat it with both medical and non-medical therapies.
What are non-medical treatments for insomnia?
There are several recommended techniques used in treating people with insomnia. These are non-medical strategies and are generally advised to be practiced at home in combination with other remedies for insomnia, such as medical treatments for insomnia and treatment for any underlying medical or psychiatric disorders.
Some of the most important of these behavioral techniques are sleep hygiene, stimulus control, relaxation techniques, and sleep restriction. Behavioral sleep specialists may also be available in some clinics and can be very helpful in managing the non-medical treatment options. They may use additional techniques dealing with cognitive behavioral therapy, including some biofeedback methods that help patients with insomnia relax and transition to sleep.
What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is one of the components of non-medical treatments for insomnia and includes simple steps that may improve initiation and maintenance of sleep. Sleep hygiene consists of the following strategies:
- Sleep as much as possible to feel rested, then get out of bed (do not over-sleep).
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time daily.
- Do not force yourself to sleep.
- Do not drink caffeinated beverages or other stimulants in the afternoon or evening.
- Do not drink alcohol prior to going to bed.
- Do not smoke, especially in the evening.
- Adjust the bedroom environment to induce sleep.
- Avoid watching television in bed and for 30 minutes before bed.
- Do not go to bed hungry, but avoid foods that may cause reflux.
- Resolve stress and anxiety before going to bed.
- Exercise regularly, but not 4-5 hours prior to bed time. | <urn:uuid:0a6c0428-2ec9-4ec4-a565-fe9063fddef7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.medicinenet.com/insomnia/page5.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895869 | 763 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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An article on the uses of nanotechnology in creating smart packaging which can reduce microbial activity or alert consumers if food is contaminated.
Useful information for the general public about how physics is used in medicine from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.
A brief description of how Nuclear Medicine works. The pages address broad areas of medical use of radiation: PET, MRI scanners, SPECT, cardiovascular and bone scanning, treatment, radiation therapy.
Sir Peter Mansfield, a physicist at Nottingham University in the UK, has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
A site provided by a company called ZYVEX giving information on Nanotechnology. Although a commercial company produces the site, it seems to be very informative and has many links to related ...
CASE conduct research, teach courses and offer advice in the areas of space, aviation, high altitude, remote, dive and hyperbaric medicine. Tthe study of human systems stretched to breaking point in ...
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A brief overview of how x-rays are used in medicine and forms part of teachers resources for medical physics.
Use of positron emission tomography (PET scan) with links to relevant explanations.
Showing 11 - 20 of 37 | <urn:uuid:d6ca3a84-5f0c-4ba8-9aa5-4a49bf4b9920> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.physics.org/explore-results-all.asp?currentpage=2&Linktype=0&age=0&knowledge=0&q=nanotechnology+medicine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907418 | 368 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The Japan Meteorological Agency announced this week the official beginning of rainy season, or tsuyu, in the Kanto-Koshin region. The Wednesday, May 29, start was 10 days earlier than the average and one of the earliest on record, the agency reported.
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This is just the most recent in a series of seemingly abnormal meteorological events in Japan. Cherry blossoms in Tokyo this year started to bloom 10 days earlier than average on March 16th due to unusually warm weather, matching the earliest record set in 2002. In contrast, the sakura front reached Hokkaido 12 days later than average, the latest since 1953.
According to the JMA’s website, this is the third earliest rainy season opening since official records began in 1951. Still, May showers appear to be an increasingly common phenomenon. The second-earliest rainy season was just two years ago, starting on May 27, 2011. While the earliest rainy season was back in 1963, when tsuyu started on May 6, that was the only May start between 1952 and 1988. In the past 25 years, five rainy seasons have started in May. The Japan Weather Association announced on Thursday that the rainy season will end earlier than usual, around the middle of July.
Restaurants have started rainy season themed campaigns, such as the fast food chain Gyukaku, with its Gyukaku Tsuyu Coupons. From May 29th to July, the chain offers meat with plum-flavored dressing, and items with prices dependent on the “discomfort index,” which multiplies the temperature and the humidity to measure the degree of discomfort experienced by an individual in warm weather. The higher the index, the more inexpensive the food. | <urn:uuid:1799c72b-222a-43b7-acee-21a0fceb15eb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/05/30/more-extreme-weather-early-rainy-season/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00097-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954393 | 442 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Firstly, "science has been driven by bigotry for centuries" is a very weird comment to make. I am not sure what to make of it. What we can say is something about the next two statements. Copernicus did wait before publishing his magnum opus, in 1543, the year of his death. Three years previously, his pupil Rheticus has published a summary of the heliocentric theory. After that, with the idea out and about, there was no need for Copernicus to wait other than to ensure his idea was as good as it could be.
One issue is the whimper with which the publication was greeted. This is in stark contrast to the reception that On The Origin Of Species garnered. Copernicus would probably have been disappointed, initially at least, to learn that no one really bothered too much. It was at least a year before anyone in theological circles became interested. And remember the idea was for calculating the calendar more than anything and was more complicated than the Ptolemaic model. But one thing is for certain, the bigotry, if any, was not driving the science but suppressing it. A similar thing could be said for Darwin's reluctance to put his idea out there, keeping it hidden for fifteen years, shared with only a handful of others.
The second statement is also arguable. Although we don't know for certain what did alert the religious authorities to Bruno, it almost certainly was his heretical views on religion and not his interest in the Copernican system. Bruno was a bit like one of those internet trolls that pops up trying to make trouble. He had a peripatetic adulthood, partly because he must have known that the authorities would catch up with him one day. They did and he went to the stake for it. The list of charges are in the main religious and he died a heretic's death.
Galileo did not meet with the same fate as Bruno because Galileo did not stray into areas of church doctrine. He could defend his science, but after 1615 he could not teach it as fact. Galileo's offence was to ridicule the Pope rather than teach the heliocentric model of the Solar System.
Enough of a history lesson for Mr Harding. One wonders what his agenda is, however, since he links the two favourites of the Heartland Institute together, anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and passive smoking. I used to be agnostic on both of those matters but I am now convinced, not through personal faith in anything but because the evidence tells me what to think. And what I don't think is that anyone has seriously suggested that we turn our economies back to the mid-nineteenth century. Eventually oil and gas will run out, then coal. Then we might be forced to return to the mid-nineteenth century, or rather the mid-eighteenth. This little planet has only finite resources. Burn those oils and Mr Harding will see where we get to. I am sure he doesn't understand what he says. And I am equally sure he has listened too long to the Heartland Institute.
The comment is a spiteful, petty and short-sighted one. Typical for a WUWT commenter. The mentality of the average WUWT that commenter is pretty juvenile through and through.
And ignorant. Since bigotry does not seem to be a driving factor in science, rather the opposite most of the time. Yes, we can find a few exceptions but the majority of scientists are not working on anything remotely political or bigoted. Harding, and others, should search for a few facts first. Then put their fingers on the keyboard. | <urn:uuid:32730bea-f72d-4a3e-ba29-db7d0bc4380b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ingeniouspursuits.blogspot.com/2013/06/denying-deniers-history-lesson.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98802 | 744 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Measuring your belly to monitor"¨ the fetus's growth.
Q: My OB recently started measuring my belly every time I see her. Why does she do this?
A: Starting between 12 weeks and 14 weeks pregnant, many doctors and midwives perform a fundal height measurement at each prenatal visit to monitor"¨ the fetus's growth. This involves measuring the distance from the top of the pelvic bone (symphysis pubis) to the top of the uterus (fundus).
In addition to looking for continued and appropriate growth from visit to visit, your doctor or midwife is watching for specific growth markers. "Measurements between 20 weeks and 36 weeks should be within 2 centimeters of the weeks of gestation," explains Elizabeth Stein, C.N.M., M.S.N., M.P.H., a midwife in New York City and the founder of askyourmidwife.com. "For example, at 32 weeks pregnant, the range of normal for fundal height is"¨ 30 to 34 centimeters. Any measurement larger or smaller should be a red flag that needs further evaluation."
If your doctor or midwife does see a red flag, she will likely recommend a biophysical profile, which typically includes an ultrasound to evaluate the fetus's growth and weight and your amniotic fluid level. "In addition, the woman's nutrition should be reviewed to make sure she is eating properly, and she may need additional testing for gestational diabetes," Stein says.
So how accurate is fundal height measurement at detecting potential problems?
Studies show detection rates range anywhere from 17 percent "¨to 93 percent, with an average of 65 percent (but with a 50 percent false-positive rate). In other words, Stein says, "It's subjective at best and most accurate when done by the same person at every visit." She points out that a woman's height, weight gain and body fat should also be taken into account. | <urn:uuid:c3cd1b6b-22be-4114-abb7-2a5f8f1180f3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fitpregnancy.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/prenatal-visit-fundal-height-measurement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939084 | 397 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Issue Date: April 15, 2013
Green Coffee Extract Has Health Benefits
Most studies of coffee’s health effects have focused on roasted, brewed coffee. Studies have also shown that caffeine isn’t the only source of coffee’s health benefits, suggesting that other bioactive components are involved. Possible contenders include a family of polyphenolic compounds known as chlorogenic acids, which are esters of caffeic acid and quinic acid. Chlorogenic acids are major components of unroasted, or green, coffee, but most of them are lost during the roasting process. Joe A. Vinson and coworkers at the University of Scranton found that green coffee extracts containing high levels of chlorogenic acids promote weight loss in overweight and obese people (Diabetes, Metab. Syndr. Obes.: Targets Ther., DOI: 10.2147/dmso.s27665). Vinson also reported that green coffee extracts improve the response of healthy volunteers in 75-g glucose tolerance tests. He and his coworkers gave the volunteers capsules containing 100 to 400 mg of green coffee extract. With the highest dose, glucose levels returned to baseline within two hours, and glucose control was improved by 22%.
- Chemical & Engineering News
- ISSN 0009-2347
- Copyright © American Chemical Society | <urn:uuid:0e614e81-a2c9-45f9-9109-6de78e6d1671> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i15/Green-Coffee-Extract-Health-Benefits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944095 | 269 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Sumerians could not see the writing on the wall
I was talking the other day to Lester Brown about the Sumerians.
They invented the wheel in about 3500 BC but could not invent themselves out of eventual disaster.
Lester Brown is one of the great pioneer environmentalists.
He mentioned the Sumerians because they may have a lesson for us all.
As he tells, it, the lesson goes like this:
The Sumerians were a tribe which arose in the cradle of civilisation, the land known as Mesopotamia, home of the Garden of Eden.
They invented the wheel because the land was so productive that it produced regular surpluses.
That led to non rural communities, cities, and that led to trade.
Cartloads of food, with newly-developed wheels, trundled off to new urban areas. Trade needed record-keeping, so tokens were invented; that led to writing, and laws.
Lots happened in the cradle of civilisation but why did it all happen?
China's growing material appetites could have serious repercussions
Because of water, piped from the two great rivers of the area by complex new irrigation systems.
And what then became to this latterday Eden?
Well, the rising water table caused by the irrigation sucked up the salt from deep levels in the soil; and the salt killed the abundance that the Sumerians had relied on.
They found no technological response as the water got increasingly salty. Something similar happened to the Mayans. And on Easter Island. A civilisation passed on.
Paying a heavy price
The similarity to our own times is pretty obvious. We have built our civilisation on fossil fuels and carbon emissions. But now it is time to pay for the past, and we may not be able to do it.
However, Lester Brown is not yet totally in despair.
He has just produced a book called "Plan B, 2.0" subtitled "Rescuing a planet under stress and a civilisation in trouble".
Oil will become an increasingly scarce commodity
It is a continuation of decades of work at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC, which produces the annual and enthralling State of the Earth report about the vital shortage of the raw materals the rich world relies on.
He has recently moved on to found a new more campaigning organisation called the Earth Policy Institute.
His new book focuses on the practical problem of what will happen if China continues to grow but develops similar appetites as the US already has, something he predicts may happen around the year 2031.
With the same consumption as the US today, it would mean two thirds of the current grain harvest going to China; the country would have more than a billion cars, when the whole world has 800 million now.
It would use 99 million barrels of oil a day, more than the current global production which may be near its limit.
China would then be consuming twice the world's current supply of paper. "Goodbye to the forests," he notes.
But - as Lester Brown admits - it is difficult to see this happening.
In other words, something has to happen to reduce our consumption of raw materials before we are joined by Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Al Gore detects a sea-change in US attitudes to the environment
He uses this mathematical projection of supply and demand rather than the threat of global warming because he thinks it is easier to grasp than the complexities of climate change.
But behind the figures, similar mechanisms would be needed to get us all out of the coming trouble.
Now I said that Lester Brown maintains that he is still just about an optimist about the state of the world, whatever his projections.
He says he detects urgent stirrings in - of all places - the US, gas guzzling on the roads and in denial about global warming, at least as far as government action is concerned.
Don't look at the President, says Lester Brown.
Look to the 180 local mayors across the US who have signed up to the Kyoto Agreement.
Americans are being pushed into a new awareness about the fragility of the world and the need to move towards sustainability by a combination of fears about oil prices and supplies, budget deficits, healthcare payments and social security.
Former vice president Al Gore told me something similar only recently.
Lester Brown says 'if you doubt America is changing look at how serious business and Wall Street are now taking wind generated energy'.
Well the trouble with its conversion to sustainability of - if it is actually happening - is that foreigners do not seem to have noticed.
Business in the rest of the world says 'what is the point of our taking action on carbon emissions if the White House won't even sign up to Kyoto'.
And that perception matters because, as Lester Brown says in a final, sobering aside : "The one resource we are really running out of is time."
Work in Progress is the title of this exploration of the big trends upheaving the world of work as we steam further into the 21st century; and it is a work in progress, influenced and defined by my encounters as I report on trends in business and organisations all over the world. | <urn:uuid:89d9f94e-d250-4ceb-a041-a8c36b73f35c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4744596.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00121-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959178 | 1,067 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Permanent magnet motors have long been used to provide high torque at low speeds, but these motors were only available in small frame sizes with low horsepower ratings. Small permanent magnet motors can be controlled to very precise speeds, making them especially useful in servo applications such as computer hard drives.
Recent technology advances are now allowing motor manufacturers to produce permanent magnet motors in much larger sizes. ABB (www.abb.com/motors&drives) now makes AC synchronous permanent magnet motors up to 670 HP (500 kW) at 600 rpm. The company also has plans to increase power ratings in the next 6-12 months. It claims no other motor manufacturer makes general-purpose permanent magnet motors in this size range.
Increased power should allow industrial users to apply permanent magnet motors in a wide range of applications. "With separate forced air or water cooling, these motors can be run with 100% torque down to zero speed, making them ideal for applications where high continuous torque at relatively low speeds is needed," says Lars-Erik Thand, area sales manager, ABB Drives and Motors group.
The differences in torque between synchronous permanent magnet motors and squirrel cage induction motors become more pronounced as motor size increases. The accompanying torque comparison chart shows ft.-lbs. of torque on the vertical axis vs. IEC frame sizes/weights on the horizontal axis. These torque values are for motors operating at speed ranges of 100-900 rpm.
Torque differences are insignificant at the low end but, as frame sizes increase, torque difference becomes substantial. The smallest IEC frame size shown (280SM) corresponds to a rating of 15-110 hp depending on speed and torque requirements. The largest IEC frame size shown (400LKC) corresponds to a rating of 150-820 hp.
When a synchronous permanent magnet AC motor is used to replace an asynchronous AC induction motor and a gearbox, there are additional advantages along with the increase in torque. Asynchronous motors have rotor slip that varies according to speed and load. This decreases motor efficiency and makes precise speed control more difficult.
A synchronous permanent magnet motor will typically operate at an efficiency about 1-3% higher than an asynchronous induction motor. Efficiency is further increased because the permanent magnet motor installation does not require a gearbox. The gearbox introduces inefficiencies of its own as it reduces speed and increases torque delivered to the load.
Eliminating slip also allows synchronous permanent magnet motors to be used in variable-speed applications without encoder feedback. Omitting the encoder reduces maintenance and can also decrease downtime.
For a given torque rating, synchronous permanent magnet motors are more compact than asynchronous induction motors. This is due in part to the high values of flux density available with modern permanent magnet materials such as neodymium iron boron (NdFeB).
NdFeB is the most powerful magnetic material available for operation at ambient temperatures, and it is less costly and less brittle than samarium cobalt, another rare earth material widely used in earlier permanent magnet motors.
Synchronous motors cannot be started without an inverter, so it makes sense to design synchronous permanent magnet motors strictly for variable-speed applications. Permanent magnet motors are more expensive than asynchronous induction motors of similar horsepower ratings, but cost per torque is comparable if the expense of the gearbox is added to the cost of the asynchronous induction motor.
Eliminating the encoder can bring the cost of a permanent magnet motor installation below that of a comparable installation with an asynchronous induction motor, gearbox, and encoder. Aside from the initial cost savings, users can also expect lower operating costs due to increased efficiency along with reduced maintenance.
E-mail Dan at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:89ad581e-7546-41ef-9e2a-763d2e791d12> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.controlglobal.com/articles/2003/212/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00010-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901344 | 767 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Change a Negative to a Positive
Just by Changing the Words You Use
By Harriet Meyerson
How often do you think about the meanings of the words that you use every day? Like most people, do you just utter the words that seem to flow naturally from your mouth? Some of the words that you commonly use may actually have a negative influence on people. This can create a negative relationship with the very people with whom you would like to have a good relationship.
Here are some places where you might run into trouble by inadvertently using negative words: leaving a message on an answering machine, talking with a colleague at work, chatting with a neighbor, meeting with your children's teachers, and relating with your family and friends.
Here's how you can eliminate six commonly used negative words and replace them with positive words.
PROBLEMS become SITUATIONS
A negative statement would be, "I have a problem at work." Contrast this with the more positive, "I have a difficult situation at work."
A problem seems as though it is stuck to you and will always be there. It weighs heavy on your shoulders. A situation, on the other hand, seems temporary and solvable. It has a much lighter feel to it, and it won't cause as much anxiety.
ALWAYS and NEVER become OFTEN and SELDOM
A negative statement would be, "You never take me anywhere. We always stay home and watch TV." Contrast this with the more positive, " Since we seldom go out in the evenings, and we're often so tired we just watch TV, I get frustrated. I would love to have a special evening out with you. Can we plan one together?"
Always and never are negative words because they are rarely true and exaggerate a situation. Since they are usually used to criticize, people feel attacked and become defensive. The worst part is that others may focus on your exaggeration and entirely ignore your message. In the second statement, however, you are explaining your own feelings and desires, so there is no need for your partner to get defensive, and you are more likely to get your wish - an enjoyable evening out.
SHOULD HAVE becomes COULD HAVE
A negative statement would be, "You should have worked on that management report instead of filing papers." Contrast this with the more positive, "You could have worked on that management report instead of filing papers." Using the words, should have, creates guilt and shame for something that has already been done and cannot be changed, whereas the words, could have, don't condemn anyone. They let someone know he or she had a choice, and this experience then becomes a lesson for making better choices in the future.
BAD becomes UNWISE
A negative statement would be, "You were really bad for missing work when we had a deadline to meet." Contrast this with the more positive "Missing work when we had a deadline to meet was not a wise decision. The rest of us had to work overtime. Would you please find a way to make it up to us."
Using the word, bad, is a judgement of a person's character, and causes resentment. On the other hand, using the word, unwise, refers to the natural consequences of the person's actions, and doesn't judge a person's basic character.
FAULTS become DIFFERENCES
A negative statement would be, "One of his faults that drives me crazy, is that his desk is always a mess." Contrast this with the more positive, "One of the differences between us is that he keeps his desk messy, while I get frustrated unless everything is put in its place."
In using the word, faults, you are judging someone's actions as right or wrong. Using the word, differences, removes the critical tone, because you are pointing out how you are different, not that one person is right or wrong.
MISTAKES become VALUABLE LESSONS
A negative statement would be, "You made a mistake." Contrast this with the more positive, "There is a valuable lesson in what you did." The first way makes others feel ashamed of what they did, and will probably inhibit them from trying new things in the future. The second way gives others something positive to do - to learn from their actions, thereby encouraging learning and experimentation.
The bottom line is that words can either be destructive or enriching to your relationships with other people. So, before you allow the words to simply flow out of your mouth without considering what they mean, remember this one very important word - THINK.
By Harriet Meyerson, president of the Confidence Center in Dallas, Texas.
Harriet Meyerson works with companies that want to build employee confidence and improve employee morale. E-mail Harriet@ConfidenceCenter.com
The Confidence Center
Harriet Meyerson, Founder and President
Contacting us by email is the best way to reach us.
Email: Information (-at-) ConfidenceCenter.com
Replace the (-at-) with the @ sign when you send your email. (This reduces spam in our email box.)
You may leave a phone message or place a phone order at:
Telephone: 1+214-736-4141 • FAX: 1-469-854-2957 • Dallas, TX, USA
(If you call from anywhere in the USA, you may use the button below without long distance charges .) | <urn:uuid:e752f38f-67c3-404b-b8ac-dac599160c47> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.confidencecenter.com/art21.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968771 | 1,121 | 2.546875 | 3 |
In wartime it is common for Governments to try to control the flow of information being released to the general public. One way to do this is to give material to the Press which can be used in newspaper and magazine articles. This small pamphlet was issued to the Press by the British War Office, with the instruction that it was not to be reproduced, but was instead to form the basis for articles on the subject.
The pamphlet is in four sections dealing with the military effort (distribution and organisation, and operations in France and Mesopotamia), the supply of food and war material (food, munitions, raw jute and sandbags, and hides), the financial effort, and help received from the ruling Chiefs of India.
The aim of the pamphlet was to indicate how far India had assisted the Allied cause with men, money, food, and war material. For instance, the pamphlet claims that since the outbreak of war, India had supplied Britain with 25,000,000 cwts (or 2,800,000,000 lbs) of wheat! | <urn:uuid:e66d3dad-22f5-46fa-b370-33903aa9dc32> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/india-and-war-press-briefing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969964 | 213 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
an Aesop Fable
There once was a boy who kept sheep not far from the village.
He would often become bored and to amuse himself he would call out,
"Wolf! Wolf," although there
was no wolf about.
would stop what they were doing and run to save the sheep from the wolf's
jaw. Once they arrived at the pasture, the boy just laughed. The naughty
boy played this joke over and over until the villagers tired of him.
while the boy was watching the sheep, a wolf did come into the fold.
The boy cried and cried,
came. The wolf had a feast of sheep that day.
No one will believe a habitual liar even when he is telling the truth. | <urn:uuid:3f34c39f-3879-416e-8ad0-acab72c55477> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.storyit.com/Classics/Stories/boycriedwolf.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983145 | 161 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Green beans are very often referred to as "string beans" even though in many modern varieties the string is hard to find. Alternatively, they are called "snap beans" because you can literally snap the bean in half with a twist of your fingers. Some grow as "bush beans" which means they can stand erect with no support while others grow as "pole beans" which need a support on which to climb. This vegetable is often referred to as "haricot vert" a term which means green bean in French. Because they are picked in the immature state (the beans in the pod are beginning to form) green beans are often eaten fresh which includes both the seed and the pod. This is in contrast to dried beans as kidney, pinto and black beans that you may have eaten. These latter beans remain on the vine longer and develop a very dense thick pod that is not eaten.
Research shows that beans are very low in calories, approximately 44 per cup, high in fiber and a good source of vitamins K, A, C and B complex as well as calcium, potassium, manganese and folate. The versatility of beans ranks high. Green beans can be used in soups, salads, omelets, sautes and pasta dishes.
Check out your local Farmers' Market this week. Purchase some green beans and prepare a new dish for your family using this versatile vegetable. | <urn:uuid:6ed9f28c-2c10-4cad-afd1-1d64f632f796> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/food-and-drink/blogs/roc-food/2014/07/21/introduce-your-kids-to-jack-and-the-bean-stalk/12935331/?from=global | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97603 | 283 | 3.234375 | 3 |
The field of Terramechanics deals with the mechanical behavior of the earth’s surface subjected to vehicle and machinery loads. In most cases the natural surface is soil, although vehicle movement over snow cover or ice also falls into this area. Professor Andrew Drescher (Civil Engineering, MSI Associate Fellow) and Ph.D. student Jim Hambleton use MSI to perform extensive simulations to investigate how wheel-induced soil deformation is influenced by material type, layering, wheel geometry, loading, and interface friction at the soil-wheel interface. The image above shows a graphical representation of a wheel rolling over soft soil. An article about this research will appear in the Spring 2010 issue of the MSI Research Bulletin. | <urn:uuid:a203d5bf-a841-4c2e-990b-cac2b68fbfdb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.msi.umn.edu/content/april-2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00083-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907181 | 143 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Introduction to Fluorescent Proteins
The discovery of green fluorescent protein in the early 1960s ultimately heralded a new era in cell biology by enabling investigators to apply molecular cloning methods, fusing the fluorophore moiety to a wide variety of protein and enzyme targets, in order to monitor cellular processes in living systems using optical microscopy and related methodology. When coupled to recent technical advances in widefield fluorescence and confocal microscopy, including ultrafast low light level digital cameras and multitracking laser control systems, the green fluorescent protein and its color-shifted genetic derivatives have demonstrated invaluable service in many thousands of live-cell imaging experiments.
Osamu Shimomura and Frank Johnson, working at the Friday Harbor Laboratories of the University of Washington in 1961, first isolated a calcium-dependent bioluminescent protein from the Aequorea victoria jellyfish, which they named aequorin. During the isolation procedure, a second protein was observed that lacked the blue-emitting bioluminescent properties of aequorin, but was able to produce green fluorescence when illuminated with ultraviolet light. Due to this property, the protein was eventually christened with the unceremonious name of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Over the next two decades, researchers determined that aequorin and the green fluorescent protein work together in the light organs of the jellyfish to convert calcium-induced luminescent signals into the green fluorescence characteristic of the species.
Although the gene for green fluorescent protein was first cloned in 1992, the significant potential as a molecular probe was not realized until several years later when fusion products were used to track gene expression in bacteria and nematodes. Since these early studies, green fluorescent protein has been engineered to produce a vast number of variously colored mutants, fusion proteins, and biosensors that are broadly referred to as fluorescent proteins. More recently, fluorescent proteins from other species have been identified and isolated, resulting in further expansion of the color palette. With the rapid evolution of fluorescent protein technology, the utility of this genetically encoded fluorophore for a wide spectrum of applications beyond the simple tracking of tagged biomolecules in living cells is now becoming fully appreciated.
Illustrated in Figure 1 are two examples of multiple fluorescent protein labeling in living cells using fusion products targeted at sub-cellular (organelle) locations. The opossum kidney cortex proximal tubule epithelial cell (OK line) presented in Figure 1(a) was transfected with a cocktail of fluorescent protein variants fused to peptide signals that mediate transport to either the nucleus (enhanced cyan fluorescent protein; ECFP), the mitochondria (DsRed fluorescent protein; DsRed2FP), or the microtubule network (enhanced green fluorescent protein; EGFP). A similar specimen consisting of human cervical adenocarcinoma epithelial cells (HeLa line) is depicted in Figure 1(b). The HeLa cells were co-transfected with sub-cellular localization vectors fused to cyan (mTurquoise) and yellow (mVenus) fluorescent protein coding sequences (Golgi complex and the nucleus, respectively), as well as the "Fruit" protein, mCherry, targeting the mitochondrial network.
Green fluorescent protein, and its mutated allelic forms, blue, cyan, and yellow fluorescent proteins are used to construct fluorescent chimeric proteins that can be expressed in living cells, tissues, and entire organisms, after transfection with the engineered vectors. Red fluorescent proteins have been isolated from other species, including coral reef organisms, and are similarly useful. The fluorescent protein technique avoids the problem of purifying, tagging, and introducing labeled proteins into cells or the task of producing specific antibodies for surface or internal antigens.
Properties and Modifications of Aequorea victoria Green Fluorescent Protein
Among the most important aspects of the green fluorescent protein to appreciate is that the entire 27 kiloDalton native peptide structure is essential to the development and maintenance of its fluorescence. It is remarkable that the principle fluorophore is derived from a triplet of adjacent amino acids: the serine, tyrosine, and glycine residues at locations 65, 66, and 67 (referred to as Ser65, Tyr66, and Gly67; see Figure 2). Although this simple amino acid motif is commonly found throughout nature, it does not generally result in fluorescence. What is unique to the fluorescent protein is that the location of this peptide triplet resides in the center of a remarkably stable barrel structure consisting of 11 beta-sheets folded into a tube.
Within the hydrophobic environment in the center of the green fluorescent protein, a reaction occurs between the carboxyl carbon of Ser65 and the amino nitrogen of Gly67 that results in the formation of an imidazolin-5-one heterocyclic nitrogen ring system (as illustrated in Figure 2). Further oxidation results in conjugation of the imidazoline ring with Tyr66 and maturation of a fluorescent species. It is important to note that the native green fluorescent protein fluorophore exists in two states. A protonated form, the predominant state, has an excitation maximum at 395 nanometers, and a less prevalent, unprotonated form that absorbs at approximately 475 nanometers. Regardless of the excitation wavelength, however, fluorescence emission has a maximum peak wavelength at 507 nanometers, although the peak is broad and not well defined.
Two predominant features of the fluorescent protein fluorophore have important implications for its utility as a probe. First, the photophysical properties of green fluorescent protein as a fluorophore are quite complex and thus, the molecule can accommodate a considerable amount of modification. Many studies have focused on fine-tuning the fluorescence of native green fluorescent protein to provide a broad range of molecular probes, but the more significant and vast potential of employing the protein as a starting material for constructing advanced fluorophores cannot be understated. The second important feature of green fluorescent protein is that fluorescence is highly dependent on the molecular structure surrounding the tripeptide fluorophore.
Denaturation of green fluorescent protein destroys fluorescence, as might be expected, and mutations to residues surrounding the tripeptide fluorophore can dramatically alter the fluorescence properties. The packing of amino acid residues inside the beta barrel is extremely stable, which results in a very high fluorescence quantum yield (up to 80 percent). This tight protein structure also confers resistance to fluorescence variations due to fluctuations in pH, temperature, and denaturants such as urea. The high level of stability is generally altered in a negative manner by mutations in green fluorescent protein that perturb fluorescence, resulting in a reduction of quantum yield and greater environmental sensitivity. Although several of these defects can be overcome by additional mutations, derivative fluorescent proteins are generally more sensitive to the environment than the native species. These limitations should be seriously considered when designing experiments with genetic variants.
In order to adapt fluorescent proteins for use in mammalian systems, several basic modifications of the wild-type green fluorescent protein were undertaken and are now found in all commonly used variants. The first step was to optimize the maturation of fluorescence to a 37-degree Celsius environment. Maturation of the wild-type fluorophore is quite efficient at 28 degrees, but increasing the temperature to 37 degrees substantially reduces overall maturation and results in decreased fluorescence. Mutation of the phenylalanine residue at position 64 (Phe64) to leucine results in improved maturation of fluorescence at 37 degrees, which is at least equivalent to that observed at 28 degrees. This mutation is present in the most popular varieties of fluorescent proteins derived from Aequorea victoria, but is not the only mutation that improves folding at 37 degrees as other variants have been discovered.
In addition to improving the maturation at 37 degrees, the optimization of codon usage for mammalian expression has also improved overall brightness of green fluorescent protein expressed in mammalian cells. In all, over 190 silent mutations have been introduced into the coding sequence to enhance expression in human tissues. A Kozak translation initiation site (containing the nucleotide sequence A/GCCAT) was also introduced by insertion of valine as the second amino acid. These, along with a variety of other improvements (discussed below), have resulted in a very useful probe for live cell imaging of mammalian cells and are common to all of the currently used fluorescent probes derived from the original jellyfish protein.
The Fluorescent Protein Color Palette
A broad range of fluorescent protein genetic variants have been developed that feature fluorescence emission spectral profiles spanning almost the entire visible light spectrum (see Table 1). Mutagenesis efforts in the original Aequorea victoria jellyfish green fluorescent protein have resulted in new fluorescent probes that range in color from blue to yellow, and are some of the most widely used in vivo reporter molecules in biological research. Longer wavelength fluorescent proteins, emitting in the orange and red spectral regions, have been developed from the marine anemone, Discosoma striata, and reef corals belonging to the class Anthozoa. Still other species have been mined to produce similar proteins having cyan, green, yellow, orange, and deep red fluorescence emission. Developmental research efforts are ongoing to improve the brightness and stability of fluorescent proteins, thus improving their overall usefulness.
Fluorescent Protein Properties
Presented in Table 1 is a compilation of properties displayed by several of the most popular and useful fluorescent protein variants. Along with the common name and/or acronym for each fluorescent protein, the peak absorption and emission wavelengths (given in nanometers), molar extinction coefficient, quantum yield, relative brightness, and in vivo structural associations are listed. The computed brightness values were derived from the product of the molar extinction coefficient and quantum yield, divided by the value for EGFP. This listing was created from scientific and commercial literature resources and is not intended to be comprehensive, but instead represents fluorescent protein derivatives that have received considerable attention in the literature and may prove valuable in research efforts. Furthermore, the absorption and fluorescence emission spectra listed in tables and illustrated below were recorded under controlled conditions and are normalized for comparison and display purposes only. In actual fluorescence microscopy investigations, spectral profiles and wavelength maxima may vary due to environmental effects, such as pH, ionic concentration, and solvent polarity, as well as fluctuations in localized probe concentration. Therefore, the listed extinction coefficients and quantum yields may differ from those actually observed under experimental conditions.
Green Fluorescent Proteins
Although native green fluorescent protein produces significant fluorescence and is extremely stable, the excitation maximum is close to the ultraviolet range. Because ultraviolet light requires special optical considerations and can damage living cells, it is generally not well suited for live cell imaging with optical microscopy. Fortunately, the excitation maximum of green fluorescent protein is readily shifted to 488 nanometers (in the cyan region) by introducing a single point mutation altering the serine at position 65 into a threonine residue (S65T). This mutation is featured in the most popular variant of green fluorescent protein, termed enhanced GFP (EGFP), which is commercially available in a wide range of vectors offered by BD Biosciences Clontech, one of the leaders in fluorescent protein technology. Furthermore, the enhanced version can be imaged using commonly available filter sets designed for fluorescein and is among the brightest of the currently available fluorescent proteins. These features have rendered enhanced green fluorescent protein one of the most popular probes and the best choice for most single-label fluorescent protein experiments. The only drawbacks to the use of EGFP are a slight sensitivity to pH and a weak tendency to dimerize.
In addition to enhanced green fluorescent protein, several other variants are currently being used in live-cell imaging. One of the best of these in terms of photostability and brightness may be the Emerald variant, but lack of a commercial source has limited its use. Several sources provide humanized green fluorescent protein variants that offer distinct advantages for fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments. Substitution of the phenylalanine residue at position 64 for leucine (F64L; GFP2) yields a mutant that retains the 400-nanometer excitation peak and can be coupled as an effective partner for enhanced yellow fluorescent protein. A variant of the S65C mutation (normally substituting cysteine for serine) having a peak excitation at 474 nanometers has been introduced commercially as a more suitable FRET partner for enhanced blue fluorescent protein than the red-shifted enhanced green version. Finally, a reef coral protein, termed ZsGreen1 and having an emission peak at 505 nanometers, has been introduced as a substitute for enhanced green fluorescent protein. When expressed in mammalian cells, ZsGreen1 is very bright relative to EGFP, but has limited utility in producing fusion mutants and, similar to other reef coral proteins, has a tendency to form tetramers.
Yellow Fluorescent Proteins
The family of yellow fluorescent proteins was initiated after the crystal structure of green fluorescent protein revealed that threonine residue 203 (Thr203) was near the chromophore. Mutation of this residue to tyrosine was introduced to stabilize the excited state dipole moment of the chromophore and resulted in a 20-nanometer shift to longer wavelengths for both the excitation and emission spectra. Further refinements led to the development of the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP), which is one of the brightest and most widely used fluorescent proteins. The brightness and fluorescence emission spectrum of enhanced yellow fluorescent protein combine to make this probe an excellent candidate for multicolor imaging experiments in fluorescence microscopy. Enhanced yellow fluorescent protein is also useful for energy transfer experiments when paired with enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) or GFP2. However, yellow fluorescent protein presents some problems in that it is very sensitive to acidic pH and loses approximately 50 percent of its fluorescence at pH 6.5. In addition, EYFP has also been demonstrated to be sensitive to chloride ions and photobleaches much more readily than the green fluorescent proteins.
Continued development of fluorescent protein architecture for yellow emission has solved several of the problems with the yellow probes. The Citrine variant of yellow fluorescent protein is very bright relative to EYFP and has been demonstrated to be much more resistant to photobleaching, acidic pH, and other environmental effects. Another derivative, named Venus, is the fastest maturing and one of the brightest yellow variants developed to date. The coral reef protein, ZsYellow1, originally cloned from a Zoanthus species native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, produces true yellow emission and is ideal for multicolor applications. Like ZsGreen1, this derivative is not as useful for creating fusions as EYFP and has a tendency to form tetramers. Many of the more robust yellow fluorescent protein variants have been important for quantitative results in FRET studies and are potentially useful for other investigations as well.
Illustrated in Figure 3 are the absorption and emission spectral profiles for many of the commonly used and commercially available fluorescent proteins, which span the visible spectrum from cyan to far red. The variants derived from Aequorea victoria jellyfish, including enhanced cyan, green, and yellow fluorescent proteins, exhibit peak emission wavelengths ranging from 425 to 525 nanometers. Fluorescent proteins derived from coral reefs, DsRed2 and HcRed1 (discussed below), emit longer wavelengths but suffer from oligomerization artifacts in mammalian cells.
Blue and Cyan Fluorescent Proteins
The blue and cyan variants of green fluorescent protein resulted from direct modification of the tyrosine residue at position 66 (Tyr66) in the native fluorophore (see Figure 2). Conversion of this amino acid to histidine results in blue emission having a wavelength maxima at 450 nanometers, whereas conversion to tryptamine results in a major fluorescence peak around 480 nanometers along with a shoulder that peaks around 500 nanometers. Both probes are only weakly fluorescent and require secondary mutations to increase folding efficiency and overall brightness. Even with modifications, the enhanced versions in this class of fluorescent protein (EBFP and ECFP) are only about 25 to 40 percent as bright as enhanced green fluorescent protein. In addition, excitation of blue and cyan fluorescent proteins is most efficient in spectral regions that are not commonly used, so specialized filter sets and laser sources are required.
Despite the drawbacks of blue and cyan fluorescent proteins, the widespread interest in multicolor labeling and FRET has popularized their application in a number of investigations. This is especially true for enhanced cyan fluorescent protein, which can be excited off-peak by an argon-ion laser (using the 457-nanometer spectral line) and is significantly more resistant to photobleaching than the blue derivative. In contrast to other fluorescent proteins, there has not been a high level of interest for designing better probes in the blue region of the visible light spectrum, and a majority of the developmental research on fluorophores in this class has been focused on cyan variants.
Among the improved cyan fluorescent proteins that have been introduced, AmCyan1 and an enhanced cyan variant termed Cerulean show the most promise. Derived from the reef coral, Anemonia majano, the AmCyan1 fluorescent protein variant has been optimized with human codons to generate a high relative brightness level and resistance to photobleaching when compared to enhanced cyan fluorescent protein during mammalian expression. On the downside, similar to most of the other reef coral proteins, this probe has a tendency to form tetramers. The Cerulean fluorescent probe was developed by site-directed mutagenesis of enhanced cyan fluorescent protein to yield a higher extinction coefficient and improved quantum yield. Cerulean is at least 2-fold brighter than enhanced cyan fluorescent protein and has been demonstrated to significantly increase the signal-to-noise ratio when coupled with yellow-emitting fluorescent proteins, such as Venus (see Figure 4), in FRET investigations.
Red Fluorescent Proteins
A major goal of fluorescent protein development has become the construction of a red-emitting derivative that equals or exceeds the advanced properties of enhanced green fluorescent protein. Among the advantages of a suitable red fluorescent protein are the potential compatibility with existing confocal and widefield microscopes (and their filter sets), along with an increased capacity to image entire animals, which are significantly more transparent to red light. Because the construction of red-shifted mutants from the Aequorea victoria jellyfish green fluorescent protein beyond the yellow spectral region has proven largely unsuccessful, investigators have turned their search to the tropical reef corals.
The first coral-derived fluorescent protein to be extensively utilized was derived from Discosoma striata and is commonly referred to as DsRed. Once fully matured, the fluorescence emission spectrum of DsRed features a peak at 583 nanometers whereas the excitation spectrum has a major peak at 558 nanometers and a minor peak around 500 nanometers. Several problems are associated with using DsRed, however. Maturation of DsRed fluorescence occurs slowly and proceeds through a time period when fluorescence emission is in the green region. Termed the green state, this artifact has proven problematic for multiple labeling experiments with other green fluorescent proteins because of the spectral overlap. Furthermore, DsRed is an obligate tetramer and can form large protein aggregates in living cells. Although these features are inconsequential for the use of DsRed as a reporter of gene expression, the usefulness of DsRed as an epitope tag is severely limited. In contrast to the jellyfish fluorescent proteins, which have been successfully used to tag hundreds of proteins, DsRed conjugates have proven much less successful and are often toxic.
A few of the problems with DsRed fluorescent proteins have been overcome through mutagenesis. The second-generation DsRed, known as DsRed2, contains several mutations at the peptide amino terminus that prevent formation of protein aggregates and reduce toxicity. In addition, the fluorophore maturation time is reduced with these modifications. The DsRed2 protein still forms a tetramer, but it is more compatible with green fluorescent proteins in multiple labeling experiments due to the quicker maturation. Further reductions in maturation time have been realized with the third generation of DsRed mutants, which also display an increased brightness level in terms of peak cellular fluorescence. Red fluorescence emission from DsRed-Express can be observed within an hour after expression, as compared to approximately six hours for DsRed2 and 11 hours for DsRed. A yeast-optimized variant, termed RedStar, has been developed that also has an improved maturation rate and increased brightness. The presence of a green state in DsRed-Express and RedStar is not apparent, rendering these fluorescent proteins the best choice in the orange-red spectral region for multiple labeling experiments. Because these probes remain obligate tetramers, they are not the best choice for labeling proteins.
Several additional red fluorescent proteins showing a considerable amount of promise have been isolated from the reef coral organisms. One of the first to be adapted for mammalian applications is HcRed1, which was isolated from Heteractis crispa and is now commercially available. HcRed1 was originally derived from a non-fluorescent chromoprotein that absorbs red light through mutagenesis to produce a weakly fluorescent obligate dimer having an absorption maximum at 588 nanometers and an emission maximum of 618 nanometers. Although the fluorescence emission spectrum of this protein is adequate for separation from DsRed, it tends to co-aggregate with DsRed and is far less bright. An interesting HcRed construct containing two molecules in tandem has been produced to overcome dimerization that, in principle, occurs preferentially within the tandem pairing to produce a monomeric tag. However, because the overall brightness of this twin protein has not yet been improved, it is not a good choice for routine applications in live-cell microscopy.
Developing Monomeric Fluorescent Protein Variants
In their natural states, most fluorescent proteins exist as dimers, tetramers, or higher order oligomers. Likewise, Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein is thought to participate in a tetrameric complex with aequorin, but this phenomenon has only been observed at very high protein concentrations and the tendency of jellyfish fluorescent proteins to dimerize is generally very weak (having a dissociation constant greater than 100 micromolar). Dimerization of fluorescent proteins has thus not generally been observed when they are expressed in mammalian systems. However, when fluorescent proteins are targeted to specific cellular compartments, such as the plasma membrane, the localized protein concentration can theoretically become high enough to permit dimerization. This is a particular concern when conducting FRET experiments, which can yield complex data sets that are easily compromised by dimerization artifacts.
The construction of monomeric DsRed variants has proven to be a difficult task. More than 30 amino acid alterations to the structure were required for the creation of the first-generation monomeric DsRed protein (termed RFP1). However, this derivative exhibits significantly reduced fluorescence emission compared to the native protein and photobleaches very quickly, rendering it much less useful then monomeric green and yellow fluorescent proteins. Mutagenesis research efforts, including novel techniques such as somatic hypermutation, are continuing in the search for yellow, orange, red, and deep red fluorescent protein variants that further reduce the tendency of these potentially efficacious biological probes to self-associate while simultaneously pushing emission maxima towards longer wavelengths.
Improved monomeric fluorescent proteins are being developed that have increased extinction coefficients, quantum yields, and photostability, although no single variant has yet been optimized by all criteria. In addition, the expression problems with obligate tetrameric red fluorescent proteins are being overcome by the efforts to generate monomeric variants, which have yielded derivatives that are more compatible with biological function.
Perhaps the most spectacular development on this front has been the introduction of a new harvest of fluorescent proteins derived from monomeric red fluorescent protein through directed mutagenesis targeting the Q66 and Y67 residues. Named for fruits that reflect colors similar to the fluorescence emission spectral profile (see Table 1 and Figure 5), this cadre of monomeric fluorescent proteins exhibits maxima at wavelengths ranging from 560 to 610 nanometers. Further extension of this class through iterative somatic hypermutation yielded fluorescent proteins with emission wavelengths up to 650 nanometers. These new proteins essentially fill the gap between the most red-shifted jellyfish fluorescent proteins (such as Venus), and the coral reef red fluorescent proteins. Although several of these new fluorescent proteins lack the brightness and stability necessary for many imaging experiments, their existence is encouraging as it suggests the eventuality of bright, stable, monomeric fluorescent proteins across the entire visible spectrum.
One of the most interesting developments in fluorescent protein research has been the application of these probes as molecular or optical highlighters (see Table 2), which change color or emission intensity as the result of external photon stimulation or the passage of time. As an example, a single point mutation to the native jellyfish peptide creates a photoactivatable version of green fluorescent protein (known as PA-GFP) that enables photoconversion of the excitation peak from ultraviolet to blue by illumination with light in the 400-nanometer range. Unconverted PA-GFP has an excitation peak similar in profile to that of the wild type protein (approximately 395 to 400 nanometers). After photoconversion, the excitation peak at 488 nanometers increases approximately 100-fold. This event evokes very high contrast differences between the unconverted and converted pools of PA-GFP and is useful for tracking the dynamics of molecular subpopulations within a cell. Illustrated in Figure 6(a) is a transfected living mammalian cell containing PA-GFP in the cytoplasm being imaged with 488-nanometer argon-ion laser excitation before (Figure 6(a)) and after (Figure 6(d)) photoconversion with a 405-nanometer blue diode laser.
Properties of Selected Optical Highlighters
Other fluorescent proteins can also be employed as optical highlighters. Three-photon excitation (at less than 760 nanometers) of DsRed fluorescent protein is capable of converting the normally red fluorescence to green. This effect is likely due to selective photobleaching of the red chromophores in DsRed, resulting in observable fluorescence from the green state. The Timer variant of DsRed gradually turns from bright green (500-nanometer emission) to bright red (580-nanometer emission) over the course of several hours. The relative ratio of green to red fluorescence can then be used to gather temporal data for gene expression investigations.
A photoswitchable optical highlighter, termed PS-CFP, derived by mutagenesis of a green fluorescent protein variant, has been observed to transition from cyan to green fluorescence upon illumination at 405 nanometers (note photoconversion of the central cell in Figures 6(b) and 6(e)). Expressed as a monomer, this probe is potentially useful in photobleaching, photoconversion and photoactivation investigations. However, the fluorescence from PS-CFP is approximately 2.5-fold dimmer than PA-GFP and is inferior to other highlighters in terms of photoconversion efficiency (the 40-nanometer shift in fluorescence emission upon photoconversion is less than observed with similar probes). Additional mutagenesis of this or related fluorescent proteins has the potential to yield more useful variants in this wavelength region.
Optical highlighters have also been developed in fluorescent proteins cloned from coral and anemone species. Kaede, a fluorescent protein isolated from stony coral, photoconverts from green to red in the presence of ultraviolet light. Unlike PA-GFP, the conversion of fluorescence in Kaede occurs by absorption of light that is spectrally distinct from its illumination. Unfortunately, this protein is an obligate tetramer, making it less suitable fur use as an epitope tag than PA-GFP. Another tetrameric stony coral (Lobophyllia hemprichii) fluorescent protein variant, termed EosFP (see Table 2), emits bright green fluorescence that changes to orange-red when illuminated with ultraviolet light at approximately 390 nanometers. In this case, the spectral shift is produced by a photo-induced modification involving a break in the peptide backbone adjacent to the chromophore. Further mutagenesis of the "wild type" EosFP protein yielded monomeric derivatives, which may be useful in constructing fusion proteins.
A third non-Aequorea optical highlighter, the Kindling fluorescent protein (KFP1) has been developed from a non-fluorescent chromoprotein isolated in Anemonia sulcata, and is now commercially available (Evrogen). Kindling fluorescent protein does not exhibit emission until illuminated with green light. Low-intensity light results in a transient red fluorescence that decays over a few minutes (see the mitochondria in Figure 6(c)). Illumination with blue light quenches the kindled fluorescence immediately, allowing tight control over fluorescent labeling. In contrast, high-intensity illumination results in irreversible kindling and allows for stable highlighting similar to PA-GFP (Figure 6(f)). The ability to precisely control fluorescence is particular useful when tracking particle movement in a crowded environment. For example, this approach has been successfully used to track the fate of neural plate cells in developing Xenopus embryos and the movement of individual mitochondria in PC12 cells.
As the development of optical highlighters continues, fluorescent proteins useful for optical marking should evolve towards brighter, monomeric variants that can be easily photoconverted and display a wide spectrum of emission colors. Coupled with these advances, microscopes equipped to smoothly orchestrate between illumination modes for fluorescence observation and regional marking will become commonplace in cell biology laboratories. Ultimately, these innovations have the potential to make significant achievements in the spatial and temporal dynamics of signal transduction systems.
Fluorescent Protein Vectors and Gene Transfer
Fluorescent proteins are quite versatile and have been successfully employed in almost every biological discipline from microbiology to systems physiology. These ubiquitous probes have been extremely useful as reporters for gene expression studies in cultured cells and tissues, as well as living animals. In live cells, fluorescent proteins are most commonly employed to track the localization and dynamics of proteins, organelles, and other cellular compartments. A variety of techniques have been developed to construct fluorescent protein fusion products and enhance their expression in mammalian and other systems. The primary vehicles for introducing fluorescent protein chimeric gene sequences into cells are genetically engineered bacterial plasmids and viral vectors.
Fluorescent protein gene fusion products can be introduced into mammalian and other cells using the appropriate vector (usually a plasmid or virus) either transiently or stably. In transient, or temporary, gene transfer experiments (often referred to as transient transfection), plasmid or viral DNA introduced into the host organism does not necessarily integrate into the chromosomes, but can be expressed in the cytoplasm for a short period of time. Expression of gene fusion products, easily monitored by the observation of fluorescence emission using a filter set compatible with the fluorescent protein, usually takes place over a period of several hours after transfection and continues for 72 to 96 hours after introduction of plasmid DNA into mammalian cells. In many cases, the plasmid DNA can be incorporated into the genome in a permanent state to form stably transformed cell lines. The choice of transient or stable transfection depends upon the target objectives of the investigation.
The basic plasmid vector configuration useful in fluorescent protein gene transfer experiments has several requisite components. The plasmid must contain prokaryotic nucleotide sequences coding for a bacterial replication origin for DNA and an antibiotic resistance gene. These elements, often termed shuttle sequences, allow propagation and selection of the plasmid within a bacterial host to generate sufficient quantities of the vector for mammalian transfections. In addition, the plasmid must contain one or more eukaryotic genetic elements that control the initiation of messenger RNA transcription, a mammalian polyadenylation signal, an intron (optional), and a gene for co-selection in mammalian cells. Transcription elements are necessary for the mammalian host to express the gene fusion product of interest, and the selection gene is usually an antibiotic that bestows resistance to cells containing the plasmid. These general features vary according to plasmid design, and many vectors have a wide spectrum of additional components suited for particular applications.
Illustrated in Figure 7 is the restriction enzyme and genetic map of a commercially available (BD Biosciences Clontech) bacterial plasmid derivative containing the coding sequence for enhanced yellow fluorescent protein fused to the endoplasmic reticulum targeting sequence of calreticulin (a resident protein). Expression of this gene product in susceptible mammalian cells yields a chimeric peptide containing EYFP localized to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane network, designed specifically for fluorescent labeling of this organelle. The host vector is a derivative of the pUC high copy number (approximately 500) plasmid containing the bacterial replication origin, which makes it suitable for reproduction in specialized E. coli strains. The kanamycin antibiotic gene is readily expressed in bacteria and confers resistance to serve as a selectable marker.
Additional features of the EYFP vector presented above are a human cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter to drive gene expression in transfected human and other mammalian cell lines, and an f1 bacteriophage replication origin for single-stranded DNA production. The vector backbone also contains a simian virus 40 (SV40) replication origin, which is active in mammalian cells that express the SV40 T-antigen. Selection of stable transfectants with the antibiotic G418 is enabled with a neomycin resistance cassette consisting of the SV40 early promoter, the neomycin resistance gene (aminoglycoside 3’-phosphotransferase), and polyadenylation signals from the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) for messenger stability. Six unique restriction enzyme sites (see Figure 7) are present on the plasmid backbone, which increases the versatility of this plasmid.
Propagation, Isolation, and Transfection of Fluorescent Protein Plasmids
Successful mammalian transfection experiments rely on the use of high quality plasmid or viral DNA vectors that are relatively free of bacterial endotoxins. In the native state, circular plasmid DNA molecules exhibit a tertiary supercoiled conformation that twists the double helix around itself several times. For many years, the method of choice for supercoiled plasmid and virus DNA purification was cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation in the presence of an intercalation agent (such as ethidium bromide or propidium iodide). This technique, which is expensive in terms of both equipment and materials, segregates the supercoiled (plasmid) DNA from linear chromosomal and nicked circular DNA according to buoyant density, enabling the collection of high purity plasmid DNA. Recently, simplified ion-exchange column chromatography methods (commonly termed a mini-prep) have largely supplanted the cumbersome and time-consuming centrifugation protocol to yield large quantities of endotoxin-free plasmid DNA in a relatively short period of time.
Specialized bacterial mutants, termed competent cells, have been developed for convenient and relatively cheap amplification of plasmid vectors. The bacteria contain a palette of mutations that render them particularly susceptible to plasmid replication, and have been chemically permeabilized for transfer of the DNA across the membrane and cell wall in a procedure known as transformation. After transformation, the bacteria are grown to logarithmic phase in the presence of the selection antibiotic dictated by the plasmid. The bacterial culture is concentrated by centrifugation and disrupted by lysis with an alkaline detergent solution containing enzymes to degrade contaminating RNA. The lysate is then filtered and placed on the ion-exchange column. Unwanted materials, including RNA, DNA, and proteins, are thoroughly washed from the column before the plasmid DNA is eluted using a high salt buffer. Alcohol (isopropanol) precipitation concentrates the eluted plasmid DNA, which is collected by centrifugation, washed, and redissolved in buffer. The purified plasmid DNA is ready for duty in transfection experiments.
Mammalian cells used for transfection must be in excellent physiological condition and growing in logarithmic phase during the procedure. A wide spectrum of transfection reagents has been commercially developed to optimize uptake of plasmid DNA by cultured cells. These techniques range from simple calcium phosphate precipitation to sequestering the plasmid DNA in lipid vesicles that fuse to the cell membrane and deliver the contents to the cytoplasm (as illustrated in Figure 8). Collectively termed lipofection, the lipid-based technology has met with widespread acceptance due to its effectiveness in a large number of popular cell lines, and it is now the method of choice for most transfection experiments.
Although transient transfections usually result in the loss of plasmid gene product over a relatively short period of time (several days), stably transfected cell lines continue to produce the guest proteins on a continuous long-term basis (ranging from months to years). Stable cell lines can be selected using antibiotic markers present in the plasmid backbone (see Figure 7). One of the most popular antibiotics for selection of stable transfectants in mammalian cell lines is the protein synthesis-inhibiting drug G418, but the required dose varies widely according to each cell line. Other common antibiotics, including hydromycin-B and puromycin, have also been developed for stable cell selection, as have genetic markers. The most efficient method of obtaining stable cell lines is to employ a high efficiency technique for the initial transfection. In this regard, electroporation has proven to generate stable transfectants with linearized plasmids and purified genes. Electroporation applies short, high voltage pulses to a cellular suspension to induce pore formation in the plasma membrane, subsequently allowing the transfection DNA to enter the cell. Specialized equipment is necessary for electroporation, however, the technique is comparable in expense to lipofection reagents when a large number of transfections are performed.
The Future of Fluorescent Proteins
The focus of current fluorescent protein development is centered on two basic goals. The first is to perfect and fine-tune the current palette of blue to yellow fluorescent proteins derived from Aequorea victoria jellyfish, while the second aim is to develop monomeric fluorescent proteins emitting in the orange to far red regions of the visible light spectrum. Progress toward these goals has been quite impressive, and it is not inconceivable that near-infrared fluorescent proteins loom on the horizon.
The latest generation of jellyfish variants has solved most of the deficiencies of the first generation fluorescent proteins, particularly for the yellow and green derivatives. The search for a monomeric, bright, and fast-maturing red fluorescent protein has resulted in several new and interesting classes of fluorescent proteins, particularly those derived from coral species. Development of existing fluorescent proteins, together with new technologies, such as insertion of unnatural amino acids, will further expand the color palette. As optical spectral separation techniques become better developed and more widespread, these new varieties will supplement the existing palette, especially in the yellow and red regions of the spectrum.
The current trend in fluorescent probe technology is to expand the role of dyes that fluoresce into the far red and near infrared. In mammalian cells, both autofluorescence and the absorption of light are greatly reduced at the red end of the spectrum. Thus, the development of far red fluorescent probes would be extremely useful for the examination of thick specimens and entire animals. Given the success of fluorescent proteins as reporters in transgenic systems, the use of far red fluorescent proteins in whole organisms will become increasingly important in the coming years.
Finally, the tremendous potential in fluorescent protein applications for the engineering of biosensors is just now being realized. The number of biosensor constructs is rapidly growing. By using structural information, development of these probes has led to improved sensitivity and will continue to do so. The success of these endeavors certainly suggests that almost any biological parameter will be measurable using the appropriate fluorescent protein-based biosensor.
David W. Piston - Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37232.
George H. Patterson and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz - Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892.
Nathan S. Claxton and Michael W. Davidson - National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr., The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32310. | <urn:uuid:84835099-bab2-422b-91f8-a01976adf53a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/livecellimaging/fpintro.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925788 | 8,538 | 3.59375 | 4 |
English divine of the seventeenth century. During his travels abroad he met Manasseh ben Israel in 1644, and heard from him an account of Antonio de Montesino's alleged discovery of the Ten Tribes in America. In 1649 he addressed a further inquiry to Manasseh on the subject, which resulted in the publication of "The Hope of Israel." Dury was also author of a pamphlet issued in 1656 entitled "A Case of Conscience: Whether It Be Lawful to Admit Jews into a Christian Commonwealth." To a question put to him by Samuel Hartleb, as to the general lawfulness of their admission, Dury replied in the affirmative; but from the point of view of expediency he considered that circumstances as to a particular time and place might render their admission unwise.
- Worthington's Diary, i. 78,83;
- Jewish Chronicle (London), Feb. 10, 1899;
- Rev. S. Levy, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Eng. iv. | <urn:uuid:ab667723-771d-4b46-9acf-2480fa5b5cfe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5370-dury-john | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961428 | 210 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Narrated by Roxann Dawson
B'Elanna Torres of TV's
Star Trek: Voyager
Sky Quest is an exploration of the stars, planets, and constellations told from the viewpoint of an astronomer. Share her lifelong fascination with the heavens — from her childhood adventures on Mars (via a cardboard rocket) — to the discovery of her "birthday star" that led her to become an astronomer and build her own mountain-top observatory.
Our astronomer shares her telescope views of solar system objects and talks about manned landings on the Moon, future missions to Mars, Hubble Space Telescope studies of Jupiter, and the glorious rings of Saturn. Along the way she points out her favorite stars, and explains how she learned to find the constellations with simple star-hopping techniques. She encourages everyone to make the time to look up, even if it means stargazing in urban areas with light pollution.
Sky Quest is an entertaining and educational exploration of the night sky that appeals to family members of all ages. Grade-school children may identify most with the main character depicted as an 8-year-old "astronaut" in a charming opening "home movie" style vignette.
Running times: 24:30 full length and 20:00 edit
Age level: General public; especially appropriate for elementary school audiences and families
Year of production: 2005 fulldome, 1996 classic
Narrated by Roxann Dawson
Words expertly crafted by Carolyn Collins Petersen
Stereo soundtrack with original music by Geodesium
Produced for the Albert Einstein Planetarium of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum.
The educational focus of Sky Quest is to introduce easily observable objects in the night sky with emphasis on finding them and knowing their characteristics. It also stresses the idea that anyone with an interest can participate in astronomy observations and take astronomy up as a hobby and a career choice. These concepts are woven throughout the program and help relate the information presented in the show to the lives of students, families, and the general public.
The show's content is relevant in these subject areas:Earth and Space Sciences:
Select link to preview the trailer.
Shows created by Loch Ness Productions come with English language soundtracks standard. Translated soundtracks are provided as additional items, not substitutes for the English ones. If your show's movies contain multiplexed audio, you'll receive separate movie files for each language.
Don't see the language you want? Let's work together to create it. Read more here! | <urn:uuid:36d5f2d1-7333-4da5-a12b-8cd608760a9a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lochnessproductions.com/shows/sq/sq.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922389 | 516 | 2.796875 | 3 |
A fossil unearthed in China in the 1970s of a creature that died about 247 million years ago, originally thought to be a distant relative of both birds and crocodiles, turns out to have come from the crocodile family tree after it had already split from the bird family tree, according to research led by a University of Washington paleontologist.
The only known specimen of Xilousuchus sapingensis has been reexamined and is now classified as an archosaur. Archosaurs, characterized by skulls with long, narrow snouts and teeth set in sockets, include dinosaurs as well as crocodiles and birds.
The new examination dates the X. sapingensis specimen to the early Triassic period, 247 million to 252 million years ago, said Sterling Nesbitt, a UW postdoctoral researcher in biology. That means the creature lived just a short geological time after the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, when as much as 95 percent of marine life and 70 percent of land creatures perished. The evidence, he said, places X. sapingensis on the crocodile side of the archosaur family tree.
"We're marching closer and closer to the Permian-Triassic boundary with the origin of archosaurs," Nesbitt said. "And today the archosaurs are still the dominant land vertebrate, when you look at the diversity of birds."
The work could sharpen debate among paleontologists about whether archosaurs existed before the Permian period and survived the extinction event, or if only archosaur precursors were on the scene before the end of the Permian.
"Archosaurs might have survived the extinction or they might have been a product of the recovery from the extinction," Nesbitt said.
The research is published May 17 online in Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a journal of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
Co-authors are Jun Liu of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Chun Li of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. Nesbitt did most of his work on the project while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.
The X. sapingensis specimen a skull and 10 vertebrae was found in the Heshanggou Formation in northern China, an area with deposits that date from the early and mid-Triassic period, from 252 million to 230 million years ago, and further back, before the mass extinction.
The fossil was originally classified as an archosauriform, a "cousin" of archosaurs, rather than a true archosaur, but that was before the discovery of more complete early archosaur specimens from other parts of the Triassic period. The researchers examined bones from the specimen in detail, comparing them to those from the closest relatives of archosaurs, and discovered that X. sapingensis differed from virtually every archosauriform.
Among their findings was that bones at the tip of the jaw that bear the teeth likely were not downturned as much as originally thought when the specimen was first described in the 1980s. They also found that neural spines of the neck formed the forward part of a sail similar to that found on another ancient archosaur called Arizonasaurus, a very close relative of Xilousuchus found in Arizona.
The family trees of birds and crocodiles meet somewhere in the early Triassic and archosauriforms are the closest cousin to those archosaurs, Nesbitt said. But the new research places X. sapingensis firmly within the archosaur family tree, providing evidence that the early members of the crocodile and bird family trees evolved earlier than previously thought.
"This animal is closer to a crocodile, but it's not a crocodile. If you saw it today you wouldn't think it was a crocodile, especially not with a sail on its back," he said.
|Contact: Vince Stricherz|
University of Washington | <urn:uuid:7c039037-c0ef-4a37-ac73-b3404ba88891> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/China-fossil-shows-bird--crocodile-family-trees-split-earlier-than-thought-19368-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955569 | 849 | 3.625 | 4 |
HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger
(b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London)
Vellum mounted on playing card, diameter 5,7 cm
Royal Collection, Windsor
The pair of pendant portraits of the near-royal relatives and schoolfellows of Prince Edward (Henry Brandon and Charles Brandon) shows that the distilled power of quiet observation that is Holbein's main achievement in miniature `limning' could draw personality and character even out of the very young. Both boys appear as differentiated individuals; Henry impatient with the sitting, on the verge of becoming fractious, the more stolid Charles transfixed by his role as sitter.
The refinement Holbein displays here was rarely bettered. The sad fate of the children casts a poignant aura across their portraits; the brothers died of the notorious `sweating sickness' within an hour of each other in 1551. Because the elder died first, Charles was deemed to have been (very briefly) the third Duke of Suffolk, heir to the bosom-friend of Henry VIII's youth, whose third wife had been Henry's sister, Mary, the dowager Queen of France. | <urn:uuid:e0d9ffc8-0fdb-423e-94d2-0b971b00bdcf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wga.hu/html/h/holbein/hans_y/3miniatu/5brando1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950068 | 242 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Queen's South Africa Medal, with bars for Tugela Heights & Relief of Ladysmith, awarded to Sgn. Cpt. W. Hall-Owen 1902Image["Queen's South Africa Medal, 1902"]
Obverse, a bust of Queen Victoria with veilImage["Queen's South Africa Medal, 1902"]
Reverse, Britannia in the foreground facing right holding a standard and waving a wreath over an army marching along the shore, with ships offshore in the background
Queen's South Africa Medal, 1902 (Second Boer War)
During the 1830s and 1840s several Dutch republics had been established outside the British
Cape Colony in
South Africa, among which were
Transvaal and the
Orange Free State, all now in modern South Africa. Transvaal was annexed briefly by the British but its independence re-established in the First Boer War.
In the 1880s however the discovery of vast gold reserves in Transvaal brought large numbers of foreign settlers, largely British, across the border, and an attempted coup at the instigation of Cecil Rhodes in 1895. Military escalation followed, negotiations failed and the two Boer republics, convinced that the British intended annexation, declared war in the Cape Colony in October 1899.
The immediate result was the siege of British troops in Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley, while field forces attempting to come to their relief were defeated in several open battles by Boer contingents. Kimberley, the first town to be relieved, could open its gates only in mid-February; Mafeking, famously, had to hold out until May. A relief force sent to Ladysmith was roundly defeated by Louis Botha in January 1900 while attempting to cross the Tugela River at Colenso, and again at Val Krantz on 5 February. The town was finally relieved on 15 February, by which time a fuller Imperial offensive was driving the Boers back. Their resistance in the field was more or less quelled by May 1900, but their forces maintained a bitter and obdurate guerilla campaign in several areas of the two Republics until mid-1902, when a surrender was finally agreed.
This medal was awarded to Surgeon Captain W. Hall-Owen, of the Medical Staff Corps of the Victoria Militia. He was apparently attached to the forces that relieved Ladysmith, and also served during their actions reducing Boer forces in the surrounding Tugela area in the days thereafter. Lester Watson acquired his medal at some point before 1928. | <urn:uuid:b718cc4e-67bc-4b59-bce2-134a6ebf31d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins/collection/watson/page317.html?sf_function=textonly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977342 | 524 | 3.140625 | 3 |
64 Bit Clean Code
Lists some of the common things you have to be careful of to make sure that your code is 64 bit clean.
Answers several frequently asked questions related to applets and what they are allowed to do.
Best Practices for Secure Development
Covers projects lifecycle, design principles, authentication, confidentitiality, integrity, and accountability. Also has specific information for many platforms and languages. [pdf format - 66 pages]
Describes a systematic process in which one or more individuals try to find security flaws.
Guidelines for C Source Code Auditing
Covers vulnerable points. Mentions both "white box" and "black box" testing methods.
How to Find Security Holes
Primer for finding faults so they can be fixed before people use them to break into things.
Java Security Code Guidelines
Identifies potential pitfalls that you should avoid and shows you how to write your code so that it will not be vulnerable to security attacks.
Java Security Tutorial
Takes about 2.5 hours. Licensed under the GPL. Available in PowerPoint (ppt) and Portable Document Format (PDF) formats.
NCSA Secure Programming Guidelines
Has checklists for cgi and setuid programs. Also has language specific things for C, Perl, and Shell.
Perl CGI Problems
"rain forest puppy" gives a list of holes and how to plug them.
Safe CGI Programming
Intended for the beginning or intermediate cgi programmer. Purpose is to help people avoid the most common errors.
Secure C Programming Guide
Talks about memory and string issues.
Secure Internet Programming
Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO
This document provides a set of design and implementation guidelines for writing secure programs for Linux and Unix systems.
Secure UNIX Programming
Covers general questions, information flow, "privileges and credentials", process interaction, race conditions, and input.
Shifting the Odds
Steve Bellovin's paper on writing more secure programs. [pdf format - 36 pages]
Avoiding security holes when developing an application.
Twelve Rules for Developing More Secure Java Code
Authors Gary McGraw and Edward Felten share tips about how to create more secure code.
Writing Safe Setuid Programs
Papers and talks by Matt Bishop.
Writing Secure Java Programs
Describes a variety of security features and attacks from a programmer's point of view.
Last update:January 2, 2007 at 17:14:01 UTC | <urn:uuid:f1a4a6d3-cab7-4b29-b9e7-40159d73034b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dmoz.org/Bookmarks/P/pollei/Misc._Computer_stuff/Source_Auditing/FAQs%2C_Help%2C_and_Tutorials/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.840593 | 512 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The ANC is a national liberation movement. It was formed in 1912 to unite the African people and spearhead the struggle for fundamental political, social and economic change.
The ANC's key objective is the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
This means the liberation of Africans in particular and black people in general from political and economic bondage. It means uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the poor.
The ANC is in an alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Each Alliance partner is an independent organisation with its own constitution, membership and programmes. The Alliance is founded on a common commitment to the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution, and the need to unite the largest possible cross-section of South Africans behind these objectives.
ANC Today is an exclusively electronic publication of the African National Congress, providing up-to-the-minute information on the programmes, perspectives and policies of the movement on current national and international issues. It is published every Friday and among its regular features is a column by the ANC President.
To receive ANC Today free of charge by email each week:
To unsubscribe yourself from the ANC Today mailing list: | <urn:uuid:0b39ee9c-f12c-4133-8182-58a320fe282d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=8418 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93048 | 260 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Perfumery Science Kit
Who needs to go shopping for a sensational new scent when you can make them in your own "laboratory" with the Perfumery Science Kit from Scientific Explorer! The kit introduces kids to the special science behind the intoxicating world of exotic scents. Not only will kids get to smell some yummy scents, but they will learn formulas for perfumes to help them sleep well or boost their energy. This science kit comes complete with elegant vials for storing the new concoctions from your perfumery or giving as gifts to friends. Introduce kids to the ancient art of perfume and lets them dabble in the design of some delicious scents!
From Scientific Explorer |
Item # OSA223TL SCI
- Kit makes science fun by introducing kids to the “chemistry” behind beauty products
- Includes vials to hold concoctions
- Introduces kids to exotic scents
- Experiments include making scents to sleep well, boost your energy and more
- CAUTION: Adult supervision required. | <urn:uuid:245cc270-c050-4537-a8fe-5f9e6b05892f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.growingtreetoys.com/product/perfumery-science-kit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892141 | 219 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Level: Primary, Junior, Middle School
Grades: K - 8 | Age: 5 - 14yrs | Written by: KinderArt.com
Learn how to make maracas using oranges, tissue paper and glue.
Musical Instruments that you bang, scrape or shape are called percussion instruments. Some examples of percussion instruments are drums, rainsticks, xylophones and maracas.
Maracas were originally made from the dried shells of gourds with beads or beans inside that rattled around and made lots of shuck-a-shuck-a-shuck-a noises.
You can make maracas using simple materials from around the home. Click here for a simple maraca making lesson plan for younger grades to tackle in an afternoon artmaking session.
What You Need:
What You Do:
- 1 large orange
- 3/4 inch dowel (7"-10" long)
- newspapers ripped into small pieces and strips
- tissue paper ripped into strips
- wallpaper paste & white glue & water
- containers for the wallpaper paste
- dried peas, coffee beans, popcorn kernels
- petroleum jelly
- an x-acto blade (and adult supervision)
- paint, paintbrushes and water
- Put a thin coat of petroleum jelly on the orange
- Cover the orange with six or so layers of newspaper dipped in the paper mache paste (see directions at the end of the lesson)
- For the final coat, put tissue paper dipped in paste over the orange.
- Let dry
- Once dry, draw a line around the paper covered orange and cut with an x-acto blade. REQUIRES ADULT SUPERVISION
- Take the halves apart ( the petroleum jelly will prevent the paper from sticking to the orange) and leave them to dry thoroughly.
- Next, in the center of one of the halves, cut a small hole the same diameter as the dowel.
- Glue or tape the 2 halves together.
- Pour a handful of the peas, coffee beans or popcorn kernels into the small hole that you cut earlier.
- Glue the dowel in the hole and tape it to make sure it is secure.
- Paint the maraca, let dry and shake... then make another for a pair.
Paper Mache Paste
- First mix up a batch of paper mache mix. Do this by mixing powdered wallpaper paste and water to the consistency of thick cream. (Instructions can be found on the wallpaper paste package).
- ***You can also use a mixture of flour and water but the wallpaper paste is inexpensive enough and it seems to work a little nicer***
- Add a touch of glue to make the paste nice and sticky.
- Tear newspaper or newsprint into small manageable pieces.
- Cover whatever you are working on with about 4 or 5 layers of newspaper or newsprint pieces dipped in the wallpaper paste.
- Let dry between layers.
This content has been printed from: | <urn:uuid:f4156f49-55a8-4c64-98f1-28b627c0a090> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kinderart.com/sculpture/maracas.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892767 | 619 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Origami Dragons hatch from eggs that are just a little too small for their bodies. To stay perfectly snug in their eggs, Origami Dragons' wings must be folded in on themselves. Even after they hatch, their wings retain their wrinkled look.
Some might think that the thin, pliable wings of the Origami Dragon are a hindrance to flight, but they're actually a great help. Origami Dragons are able to fold their wings to match the air conditions around them, allowing them to glide through the air in the most efficient way possible!
Origami Dragons are very individual creatures. Due to the many complexities of their wings and horns, Origami Dragons are able to contort their bodies in a specific form that is unique to them. While adult Origami Dragons may look the same at a base level, no two are exactly alike.
Epic Origami Dragons are masters of shape-shifting, and over years of intense practice and effort, they can actually manage to fold and control their legs, torsos, tails, and even heads! While this is a remarkable characteristic, it also makes them very hard to find if they're trying to hide, to the bane of Caretakers everywhere.
By breeding two dragons that collectively contribute Pink and Purple to the type pool. If a parent has the appropriate minor types, missing requirements may also be added to the pool, even if neither parent has the originally required types. Minor types that have been split from other minor types can also contribute their component types to the type pool.
DISCLAIMER: When attempting to breed the Origami Dragon, you may get other offspring instead. Check the Breeding Calculator to view all of the possible results of combining a particular pair of parents.
The Origami Dragon has special behavior when it is used as a breeding parent. Unlike dragons with only basic types, it will obey the following rules:
When the Pink type is alone in the pool, it will add pure dragons of its component types (Red and White) to the list of possible outcomes, but it will not split into its component types. When Pink is included in the pool along with one or more other types, the Pink type can split into Red and White. However, if it is split, then Pink is no longer in the pool for the duration. Thus, the presence of Pink in a pool will either add the Pink type if it does not split or the Red and White types if it does split. There is one exception to this rule, and that is when both parents possess the Pink type. In this case, Pink can contribute both itself and its split colors at the same time.
Although the Pink type can split into Red and White for breeding purposes, it still only counts as one type. This is important when considering the number of types for type-amount-dependent dragons such as the Diamond Dragon. Breeding a Forest Dragon with an Origami Dragon only counts as three types: Green, Pink, and Purple.
The Origami Dragon's design is based upon the Firestorm Dragon's, although there are differences between the two.
Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding
The Origami Dragon grows a horn when evolved to Juvenile Form. | <urn:uuid:9bda0825-9010-4af2-97f6-2b64d0d611a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dragon-story.wikia.com/wiki/Origami_Dragon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948675 | 658 | 2.640625 | 3 |
US Peg and Shank Mill, Princeton, 1930
This image shows the workers from the US Peg and Shank Mill, also referred to as the Hardwood Mill. The workers pictured in the front row from left to right are: Kenneth Greenlaw, George Fenlason, Frank Jacque, Raymond James, William "Bill" James, Cash James, Bill Bailey, Harold Davis, Maud Foss, Ethel Cox, Emma Laney, Minnie Hold, Annie James Day (Chick's mother), and Bud Drew.
The workers pictured in the back row along the top of steps, from left to right, are: Arnold Smith (Nora's husband), Douglas Dunning (Nora's son), Charles Greenlaw, and Quimby Tuell.
The workers standing at the top of stairs, from left to right are: Willy Davis, Eda Brown, June Greenlaw, Hazel White McGraw, Carrie Pierce, Almeda Bailey, Iva Bugbee, Flossie Libby, Maud White, Francis McLaughlin, Lulu James, Gladys Fenlason (George Fenlason's first wife), Juanita McDowell, Catherine James, Ora Hold, and Muriel Bailey.
The US Peg and Shank Mill was built in 1929, and burned in 1939 or 1940. The mill was located on Lewey Lake in Princeton. It was owned by Nora Lewis Smith and her father of Brownville, Maine, and was run by her and her husband, Arnold Smith. The mill used birch wood and at different times manufactured sucker sticks, tongue depressors, pegs, shanks, and wooden spoons for eating ice cream. This picture was taken in 1930 and shows the workers of that mill.
Please post your comment below to share with others. If you'd like to privately share a comment or correction with MMN staff, please use this form. | <urn:uuid:1f420882-b910-45b1-ac5e-eb6c15e8b3af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/79235/enlarge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935697 | 386 | 2.8125 | 3 |
This page was reviewed or revised on Friday, October 28, 2011 2:50 PM
What is mumps?
Mumps is caused by a virus. It can be prevented by vaccination. Before the mumps vaccine, mumps was a very common illness for infants, children and young adults. However, because most people in Ontario have been vaccinated, very few cases are reported.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of mumps may appear within 12 to 25 days after exposure to the virus and may include:
- Painful swelling of the glands at the jaw line (salivary glands - may be one or both)
- Muscle aches and pains
- Loss of appetite
- Respiratory symptoms similar to a cold may also occur.
Mumps can be accompanied by no symptoms. Adults who get the mumps are more likely to have serious problems than children.
If you had mumps as a child you are likely immune. A very small number could get re-infected with mumps.
How is it spread?
Mumps is spread person-to-person through close or direct contact with saliva or respiratory secretions (coughing, sneezing, kissing, sharing drinks and utensils, cigarettes). Mumps virus may spread up to 7 days before the glands begin to swell and for up to 9 days after. It takes about 2-3 weeks to get the mumps after being in contact with someone with the disease.
What can I do?
- Contact a doctor if you have signs and symptoms of mumps.
- Make sure MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) records are up-to-date.
- Keep the person with mumps away from childcare, school, work or public places for at least 10 days after the symptoms appear.
- Avoid contact with infants (children less than one year of age) or others who are not immune to mumps through vaccination or past infection, especially pregnant women and individuals with a weakened immune system.
- Wash your hands well and often with soap. It can help prevent the spread of mumps and other infections.
- Avoid sharing eating utensils. Objects and surfaces that are regularly touched (toys, counters, doorknobs, phones, etc) should be cleaned with soap and water or other cleaning agents.
There is no treatment for mumps. The use of Acetaminophen (e.g. Tempra® or Tylenol®) as well as hot or cold compresses may relieve the pain in the gland area.
When can I return to childcare, school or work?
You can return in 9 days after onset of swelling.
What is PDF? PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is a way of distributing documents over networks while ensuring they always print the same. To view PDF files, you need either the Foxit Reader (1.1 MB) or Adobe Reader (27.7 MB) | <urn:uuid:e76776fd-e34a-4641-aa2f-92ffa04f6a5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://lambtonhealth.on.ca/health-information/communicable-diseases/mumps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938241 | 610 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Earlier this week NASA launched the Landsat Data Continuity Mission into orbit.
After testing and checkout it will be renamed Landsat 8, handed off to the United States Geological Survey, and will continue the venerable mission to observe our green planet.
Its task is to “extend more than 40 years of global land observations critical to energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture.”
I expect great things from this mission…but for now, you simply must watch this amazing footage, taken from a camera inside the booster rocket, showing the satellite itself decoupling from the booster and moving away into space. That’s the crescent Earth in the background, and, well, just watch for yourself. Trust me: wait for it.
It's right out of Star Trek—in fact, the end of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” really does end that way. Except this mission isn’t riding off into the sunset; in that Landsat footage it’s literally moving into the sunrise. An apt metaphor for the start of such an important mission.
Congratulations to everyone involved on a successful launch and deployment.
What will be the main motivation for humanity's future space endeavours?Related story: (See story)
The cost of losing nature | <urn:uuid:b1708a29-e232-4bcb-99f0-0986311ab07e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/8309011/Amazing-footage-of-a-satellite-deployment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885249 | 278 | 3.3125 | 3 |
The Museum's most popular device was the Psycograph, an antique phrenology machine. Phrenology, created by Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall, was the 'in theory' of the 19th century for determining personality. According to phrenology, different parts of the brain were "organs" controlling various character traits. If your head is bigger in an area, you have more of that trait. But if it's flat, there's nothing in there!
The Psycograph was patented in 1905
by Henry Lavery of Superior WI.
A quarter century later, still building phrenology machines, Mr. Lavery recruited Mr. Frank P. White as an investor and began doing business as the Psycograph Company in the Builders Exchange, Minneapolis MN.
The psycographs were a novelty device featured in department stores and theatre lobbies during the Great Depression . The Psycograph Company operated from 1929-1937.
Left: Phrenology in the 1990's at the Museum of Questionable Devices. Above right: Woman and phrenologist from Psycograph advertisement, ca. 1932.
"You Ought to Have Your Head Examined"
That's our motto! Over the years at our Riverplace and St. Anthony Main locations, several hundren thousand museum visitors got their heads 'examined' in Henry Lavery's antique phrenology machines. | <urn:uuid:fd8462aa-7d0b-4c2b-b8b3-3bedc463e15e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/psycogrf.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954541 | 287 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Research suggests culling badger not effective to stop spread of bovine TBWednesday 02 July 2014 20.31
New research has suggested that culling badgers is not an effective way of reducing tuberculosis in cattle.
A study which models the way in which TB spreads across Britain using data on cattle dating back to the 1990s found that few options could reverse annual increases in the disease.
The research, published in the journal Nature, found that only culling the whole herd when infection was found, vaccination of cattle, or additional national testing for infection would be effective in stemming the rise of the disease.
However, researchers said whole-herd culling would initially involve a 20-fold increase in the number of cattle slaughtered and the measure was a "draconian" one, which they did not advocate.
The latest analysis was seized on by anti-cull campaigners as further evidence that culling badgers to control TB in cattle did not work, but the British government rejected the findings, saying badger culling was necessary as part of measures to prevent the disease.
The model looked at transmission of bovine TB within farms, between nearby farms, and between more distant farms due to cattle movement. It also modelled the effects of control strategies on the potential spread of TB.
It assessed whether new TB cases, or breakdowns, in herds were caused by movement of cattle between farms, infection being missed during testing as the test is only around 70% effective, or by infection from the farm environment, and found 40% of new cases were due to a combination of all three.
The study was unable to separate out transmission from badgers and from other routes in the environment such as pasture where the disease lingered.
However the farm environment seemed to play a "relatively minor role" in onward transmission of TB, Professor Matt Keeling, of the University of Warwick and one of the study's authors, said.
"Only 15% of breakdowns are solely due to the environment and although the majority do feature the environment in there somewhere, if you get rid of all the environmental transmissions you'd only expect to stop around 15% of new breakdowns," he said.
Cutting environmental transmission between farms by half, which could represent the impact of a large scale badger cull, has "relatively little effect", the researchers found, and predicted that controlling badger populations would have a limited effect on TB.
Halving environmental transmission could cut the rise in TB from 10% annually to 6%, they suggested.
Prof Keeling said: "If we reduce transmission from the environment to other farms by a factor of about 50% this has a limited impact on what we see in the future, it would slow the increase in cases but not completely eliminate it."
The research found that culling the entire herd if an animal tests positive had by far the greatest effect, reducing infected cattle, numbers slaughtered and affected farms by 80% compared to standard measures after six years.
But it also had a huge cost, requiring the slaughter of 20 times the number of cattle than would otherwise be killed as part of TB control measures, although in the long run fewer animals would be slaughtered.
Vaccination had a marked effect in reducing the disease, although the vaccine offers cattle only limited protection.
Increased testing leads initially to more cattle slaughtered and farms placed under restrictions for being infected, but does reduce the disease in later years.
Prof Keeling said: "Transmission is complicated, it's multifaceted. This means you've got cattle to cattle transmission, you've got movement of infected animals and you've got infection from the environment and all of these play a role.
"This means there's no easy strategy that's ever going to rapidly eradicate infection, and what we've predicted is without substantial changes in policy we're probably going to see this historical 10% rise in cases year on year to continue.
"And we only really found three strategies that stop this rise, and that's either improved or additional testing, vaccination of cattle that slows disease progression and culling all animals on a farm which obviously is a quite draconian measure."
He and fellow researcher Dr Ellen Brooks-Pollock were not criticising existing control measures, did not advocate any one policy and that whole-herd culling was never put forward as a viable policy, they said.
The model presented a "dispassionate analysis" of the information available, the researchers said.
British farming minister George Eustice said: "We cannot accept the paper's findings because it does not investigate the full range of ways in which TB could spread. What this paper proposes would finish off the cattle and dairy industry in this country.
"TB is devastating for our dairy and cattle farmers and, along with blanket testing and removal of infected cattle, biosecurity measures, vaccination and cattle movement controls, culls will help get this disease under control."
The British environment department's chief scientific adviser, Professor Ian Boyd, said: "Based on our current understanding of the disease cycle, the more severe control measures suggested by the paper would probably result in a rapid decline in the cattle industry in areas where TB occurs.
"However, the study reinforces the basis of the current TB control strategy which is designed to cope with complex and diverse routes of infection."
The British government introduced a TB control strategy which includes more cattle movement controls, testing, development of vaccinations for cattle and badgers, and two pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
But Dominic Dyer, of the Badger Trust and Care for the Wild, said: "The government and the farming industry have focused far too much on badgers and nowhere near enough on the gaping holes in cattle management policy, which have been letting this disease through.
"This research confirms that the vast majority of new bTB outbreaks are due to poor TB testing, biosecurity and cattle control movements, so maybe farmers will now be convinced to give badgers a break and start focusing on methods that will actually work." | <urn:uuid:d684f08a-945c-4acf-9b8d-17c4292597a2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0702/628122-tb-badgers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973173 | 1,237 | 3.0625 | 3 |
H1N1 Flu Prevention Information
You can help prevent influenza sickness for you and your family by following the everyday actions show below, and by getting both your seasonal influenza and H1N1 Flu vaccination shots.
Although the 2009-2010 seasonal flu shot is not expected to protect against the H1N1 Flu virus, a seasonal flu shot is important because it can prevent the spread of other viruses that cause respiratory infections.
The H1N1 Flu vaccine is widely available in California. See Vaccine Information and Vaccination Locations for more information.
The symptoms of the H1N1 Flu are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with H1N1 influenza. If you are sick or think you may have H1N1 influenza, please contact your healthcare provider.
Take these everyday steps to protect your health:
Taking care of a sick person in your home - Guidance and recommendations from CDC
More Prevention Information | <urn:uuid:595f4506-b736-4613-8745-976a4ebf2ec8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HEALTHINFO/DISCOND/Pages/H1N1Prevention.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921196 | 217 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Dr. Alexander Konopelko's fascination with outer space may have been influenced by pop culture, but his scientific research in astrophysics these days is without a doubt far beyond the average star gazer - both intellectually and in proximity.
"I watched a lot of movies about space research growing up. I loved Star Trek," said Konopelko, a physics professor at PSU whose area of study focuses on black holes millions of miles beyond the Earth's surface.
Not a bad place for space experts to begin. After moving to the United States from Germany three years ago, Konopelko spent a year as a research associate at Purdue before being recruited to teach at Pitt State. Since then, he has quickly proven why he is part of a selective group of highly regarded astrophysicists in the country: this fall, he and his researchers were awarded a $140,000 grant from NASA to study black holes. Their goal is to catch one in a flaring state, which he says would ultimately help explain the evolution of the universe.
"We want to understand the nature of this ultra-high energy gamma ray emission," he said. "If we can track the absorption of it, we can explain different models of evolution and how the universe will evolve from now on. Black holes are one of the best things to study to give us these answers."
His connections with NASA will certainly help with that endeavor, along with his work to recruit students to the program. Crediting his team of students, faculty and staff with helping to secure the grant, he's headed in the right direction when it comes to showing potential students what they can achieve at PSU.
"We want to make this school a place where students want to come to study this," Konopelko said. "Physics education has evolved, and we are seeing that graduates with physics degrees can find jobs everywhere. People are interested in this research." | <urn:uuid:7a65ff84-72f3-4fb7-a29f-bf8f0543db91> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pittstate.edu/stories/detail.dot?id=142833 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975742 | 391 | 2.625 | 3 |
Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks these words seconds after the destruction of the distant planet Alderaan in the movie “Star Wars.”
Time, Predictions, & Prophecies
Dreams and the Bible
A Brief Outline
What Is A
In his book Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865, Ward Hill Lamon relates a dream Lincoln had shortly before his death. In the dream Lincoln heard a group of people mournfully weeping downstairs in the White House, but he could find no one. Upon entering the East Room he discovered a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Demanding of one of the soldiers stationed there, “Who is dead in the White house?” he received the reply, “The President. He was killed by an assassin.” Such fantastic stories challenge our preconceptions and rational explanations about how the world works.
Jung recounts in his autobiography disturbing dreams and visions in 1913. In one vision he witnessed a monstrous flood covering Germany and realized a catastrophe was in progress. “I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood.” Jung said he was perplexed and nauseated, assuming this vision was personal. It was not until World War I broke out a year later that he realized its collective nature. This irrational experience led Jung to conclude that each person’s unconscious possesses not only a personal but also a collective dimension.
We assume we live individual lives, connected to one another only by sight, touch, hearing and feeling. But in another sense we are also connected “below the surface,” despite the boundaries of distance, race, religion, circumstance, and even time. It is a great mystery. For the most part, this collective bond is beyond our control or explanation. Yet it exists. Why certain people seem more open and receptive to such intrusions from the unconscious, no one can say. And yet the stories of foreboding dreams, eerie premonitions, and unexplainable experiences continue to surface. And so often they seem to come when an individual, family, or nation is at great risk or in immanent danger.
In the wake of these terrorist attacks upon America we should certainly occupy ourselves with such issues as increased security, detailed anti-terrorist plans, and better international intelligence gathering. We do live and breathe and move in the “real world.” But perhaps we should not lose sight of this other connection we apparently have to one another. After hearing the kinds of uncanny stories I have heard this past week, I wondered if these nocturnal images might be included in a different type of intelligence gathering.
If such an undertaking is too fantastic, we can at least derive some comfort in the knowledge that someone in Charlotte, or wherever, can feel a concern and a connectedness to an unknown stranger miles away and days before. Perhaps it will also help those unwillingly plagued by disturbing nightmares to consider the possibility that the messages they receive may say more about our collective link to one another than about some personal deficiency. We are united in more ways than you can imagine.... Howard W. Tyas, Jr.
Synchronicities, according to Jung are meaningful coincidences
Carl Jung believed the traditional notions of causality were incapable of explaining some of the more improbable forms of coincidence. Where it is plain, felt Jung, that no causal connection can be demonstrated between two events, but where a meaningful relationship nevertheless exists between them, a wholly different type of principle is likely to be operating. Jung called this principle "synchronicity."
In The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Jung describes how, during his research into the phenomenon of the collective unconscious, he began to observe coincidences that were connected in such a meaningful way that their occurrence seemed to defy the calculations of probability. He provided numerous examples culled from his own psychiatric case-studies, many now legendary.
"A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me his dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to the golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetoaia urata) which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of the patient has remained unique in my experience."
Who then, might we say, was responsible for the synchronous arrival of the beetle--Jung or the patient? While on the surface reasonable, such a question presupposes a chain of causality Jung claimed was absent from such experience. As psychoanalyst Nandor Fodor has observed, the scarab, by Jung's view, had no determinable cause, but instead complemented the "impossibility" of the analysis. The disturbance also (as synchronicities often do) prefigured a profound transformation. For, as Fodor observes, Jung's patient had--until the appearance of the beetle--shown excessive rationality, remaining psychologically inaccessible. Once presented with the scarab, however, her demeanor improved and their sessions together grew more profitable.
Because Jung believed the phenomenon of synchronicity was primarily connected with psychic conditions, he felt that such couplings of inner (subjective) and outer (objective) reality evolved through the influence of the archetypes, patterns inherent in the human psyche and shared by all of mankind. These patterns, or "primordial images," as Jung sometimes refers to them, comprise man's collective unconscious, representing the dynamic source of all human confrontation with death, conflict, love, sex, rebirth and mystical experience. When an archetype is activated by an emotionally charged event (such as a tragedy), says Jung, other related events tend to draw near. In this way the archetypes become a doorway that provide us access to the experience of meaningful (and often insightful) coincidence.
Implicit in Jung's concept of synchronicity is the belief in the ultimate "oneness" of the universe. As Jung expressed it, such phenomenon betrays a "peculiar interdependence of objective elements among themselves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of the observer or observers." Jung claimed to have found evidence of this interdependence, not only in his psychiatric studies, but in his research of esoteric practices as well.
Of the I Ching, a Chinese method of divination which Jung regarded as the clearest expression of the synchronicity principle, he wrote: "The Chinese mind, as I see it at work in the I Ching, seems to be exclusively preoccupied with the chance aspect of events. What we call coincidence seems to be the chief concern of this peculiar mind, and what we worship as causality passes almost unnoticed...While the Western mind carefully sifts, weighs, selects, classifies, isolates, the Chinese picture of the moment encompasses everything down to the minutes nonsensical detail, because all of the ingredients make up the observed moment."
Similarly, Jung discovered the synchronicity within the I Ching also extended to astrology. In a letter to Freud dated June 12, 1911, he wrote: "My evenings are taken up largely with astrology. I make horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth. Some remarkable things have turned up which will certainly appear incredible to you...I dare say that we shall one day discover in astrology a good deal of knowledge that has been intuitively projected into the heavens."
Freud was alarmed by Jung's letter. Jung's interest in synchronicity and the paranormal rankled the strict materialist; he condemned Jung for wallowing in what he called the "black tide of the mud of occultism." Just two years earlier, during a visit to Freud in Vienna, Jung had attempted to defend his beliefs and sparked a heated debate. Freud's skepticism remained calcified as ever, causing him to dismiss Jung's paranormal leanings, "in terms of so shallow a positivism," recalls Jung, "that I had difficulty in checking the sharp retort on the tip of my tongue." A shocking synchronistic event followed.
Jung writes in his memoirs:
"While Freud was going on this way, I had a curious sensation. It was as if my diaphragm were made of iron and were becoming red-hot--a glowing vault. And at that moment there was such a loud report in the bookcase, which stood right next to us, that we both started up in alarm, fearing the thing was going to topple over on us. I said to Freud: 'There, that is an example of a so-called catalytic exteriorization phenomenon.' 'Oh come,' he exclaimed. 'That is sheer bosh.' 'It is not,' I replied. 'You are mistaken, Herr Professor. And to prove my point I now predict that in a moment there will be another such loud report! 'Sure enough, no sooner had I said the words that the same detonation went off in the bookcase. To this day I do not know what gave me this certainty. But I knew beyond all doubt that the report would come again. Freud only stared aghast at me. I do not know what was in his mind, or what his look meant. In any case, this incident aroused his distrust of me, and I had the feeling that I had done something against him. I never afterward discussed the incident with him."
In formulating his synchronicity principle, Jung was influenced to a profound degree by the "new" physics of the twentieth century, which had begun to explore the possible role of consciousness in the physical world. "Physics," wrote Jung in 1946, "has demonstrated...that in the realm of atomic magnitudes objective reality presupposes an observer, and that only on this condition is a satisfactory scheme of explanation possible."
"This means," he added, "that a subjective element attaches to the physicist's world picture, and secondly that a connection necessarily exists between the psyche to be explained and the objective space-time continuum." These discoveries not only helped loosen physics from the iron grip of its materialistic world-view, but confirmed what Jung recognized intuitively: that matter and consciousness - far from operating independently of each other--are, in fact, interconnected in an essential way, functioning as complementary aspects of a unified reality.
The belief suggested by quantum theory and by reports of synchronous events - that matter and consciousness interpenetrate is, of course, far from new.
Synchronicity reveals the meaningful connections between the subjective and objective world.
Synchronistic events provide an immediate religious experience as a direct encounter with the compensatory patterning of events in nature as a whole, both inwardly and outwardly.
All synchronistic phenomena can be grouped under three categories:
1 The coincidence of a psychic state in the observer with a simultaneous objective, external event that corresponds to the psychic state or content, (e.g. the scarab), where there is no evidence of a causal connection between the psychic state and the external event, and where, considering the psychic relativity of space and time, such a connection is not even conceivable.
2. The coincidence of a psychic state with a corresponding (more or less simultaneous) external even taking place outside the observer's field of perception, i.e. at a distance, and only verifiable afterward (e.g. the Stockholm fire).
3. The coincidence of a psychic state with a corresponding, not yet existent future event that is distant in time and can likewise only be verified afterward.
1. One in which the compensatory activity of the archetype is experienced both inwardly and outwardly. [the event seems to emerge from the subconscious with access to absolute knowledge, which cannot be consciously known]
2. One in which the compensatory activity of the archetype is experienced outwardly only. [ these convey to the ego a much-needed wholeness of the self's perspective, they show one a new perspective]
1) The specific intrapsychic state of the subject defined as one of the following:
a) The unconscious content which, in accordance with the compensatory needs of the conscious orientation, enters consciousness [something is in our conscious]
b) The conscious orientation of the subject around which the compensatory synchronistic activity centers [something happens concerning what is in our mind]
2) An objective event corresponds with this intrapsychic state [may be literal or figurative correspondence]
a) The objective event as a compensatory equivalent to the unconscious compensatory content
b) The objective event as the sole compensatory of the ego-consciousness
3) Even though the intrapsychic state and the objective event may be synchronous according to clock time and spatially near to each other, the objective event may, contrary to this, be distant in time and/or space in relation to the intrapsychic state [as in telepathy, clairvoyance, etc.]
4) The intrapsychic state and the objective event are not causally related to each other [acausality]
5) The synchronistic event is meaningful [excludes some coincidence, but does not require the meaning to be understood]
a) The intrapsychic state and the objective event as meaningful parallels
b) The numinous charge associated with the synchronistic experience [feeling of spiritual experience]
c) Import of the subjective-level interpretation [the content must reflect back on the issues of the individual]
d) the archetypal level of meaning [transcends the individual and implies absolute knowledge]. | <urn:uuid:b1ae262b-2bda-4074-a219-875b04dbe2df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mythsdreamssymbols.com/precognitivedreams.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00041-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958228 | 2,902 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Depending on the age of asthmatic children, on their exposure to molds or dampness in their bedroom, and on the severity of their asthma, vitamin C has greater or smaller beneficial effect against asthma, according to a study published in the Clinical and Translational Allergy.
Proposals that vitamin C might be beneficial in the treatment of asthma date back to the 1940s, but the findings from controlled trials have been conflicting.
Drs Mohammed Al-Biltagi from the Tanta University in Egypt and Harri Hemila from the University of Helsinki in Finland analyzed the effect of 0.2 grams per day of vitamin C on 60 asthmatic children aged 7 to 10 years. The effect of vitamin C on the forced expiratory volume per one second (FEV1) was modified by age and exposure to molds or dampness. In the younger children aged 7.0 to 8.2 years with no exposure to molds or dampness, vitamin C administration increased the FEV1 level by 37%. In the older children aged 8.3 to 10 years with exposure to molds or dampness in their bedroom more than one year before the study, vitamin C increased the FEV1 level by only 21%.
The effect of vitamin C on the asthma symptoms was modified by age and the severity of asthma symptoms. In the younger children aged 7.0 to 8.2 years with mild asthma symptoms, the benefit of vitamin C was greatest. In the older children aged 8.3 to 10 years who had severe asthma symptoms, the benefit of vitamin C was smallest.
Drs Al-Biltagi and Hemila conclude that there is strong evidence that the effect of vitamin C on asthmatic children is heterogeneous. They consider that it is important to carry out further research to confirm their findings and to more accurately identify the groups of children who would receive the greatest benefit from vitamin C supplementation. | <urn:uuid:3af1ae48-ee6c-4c72-9610-0654d96a79b5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-vitamin-beneficial-asthmatic-children.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96093 | 391 | 3.09375 | 3 |
It's rare enough to see a meteorite and its resulting fireball streaking through the atmosphere. What's even more rare is for the meteorite to cause a giant fireball in the sky witnessed by multiple people and then to have enough of that meteorite survive the fiery entrance to the Earth's atmosphere to strike the ground. Even rarer still is for that fragment meteorite to hit a home and be recovered.
Last week, a meteor was spied in the skies over the San Francisco Bay area. A San Francisco Bay resident named Lisa Webber found the small two-inch chunk of meteorite you see in the photo above in her yard. The meteorite fragment struck the roof of her home three days before she found it. Webber said that she heard the meteorite fragment hit the roof of her home, but didn't think anything about the sound until she heard news reports of a meteorite exploding over the Bay Area.
Since discovering the chunk of meteorite, scientist Peter Jenniskens from the Seti Institute in Mountain View California has confirmed that the piece of rock is indeed debris from the meteor that streaked through the skies in the San Francisco Bay area last Wednesday. Jenniskens says that finding the piece of meteorite is significant because it will allow scientists to create a trajectory and trace the path to the meteorite's origins in the asteroid belt.
Webber had used a magnet to determine if the chunk of rock she found in her yard might be a meteorite. It appears that the small chunk of rock impacted the roof of her home hard enough to leave a charred mark on the roof. Tiny pieces of meteorite can be valuable to collectors, but it's unclear what Webber plans to do with the meteorite she discovered. | <urn:uuid:fc8840ab-c8ef-4b79-9543-6796430332a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slashgear.com/tiny-meteorite-fragment-strikes-home-in-san-francisco-bay-area-22253048/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956361 | 353 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Well, this is a mess than cannot be undone. While we all worried today mostly about Google I/O and what would be announced at the annual conference for geeks, news was coming out of Central American country Belize that had a much sadder note to it. It seems a road crew decided an ancient Mayan relic was in its way — or at least would provide needed gravel for a project.
According National Geographic’s Elizabeth Snodgrass “a construction company in Belize has been scooping stone out of the major pyramid at the site of Nohmul (meaning Big Mound), one of only 15 ancient Maya sites important enough to be noted on the National Geographic World Atlas”. The ruins have been dated to 300 BC, perhaps even earlier by some estimates.
Now it seems that nearly the entire main pyramid, which once stood over 60 feet tall, has been destroyed by road building crews, according to John Morris, associate director of research at Belize’s Institute of Archaeology.
Having traveled in the area just north of this site, visiting the ruins of both Tulum and Chichzen Itza, I feel for this terrible loss. The site can obviously not be restored, but hopefully such tragic events can be prevented in the future. | <urn:uuid:4a06d099-1c04-46dc-b361-e7c867f3ec90> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://geeknewscentral.com/2013/05/15/belize-road-crew-tears-down-2300-year-old-mayan-pyramid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97666 | 261 | 2.625 | 3 |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley, [1754-65], at sacred-texts.com
est 3:1Agagite - An Amalekite of the royal seed of that nation, whose kings were successively called Agag. All the princes - Gave him the first place and seat, which was next to the king.
est 3:2But, &c. - Probably the worship required was not only civil, but Divine: which as the kings of Persia arrogated to themselves, so they did sometimes impart this honour to some of their chief favourites, that they should be adored in like manner. And that it was so here, seems more than probable, because it was superfluous, to give an express command to all the kings servants, to pay a civil respect to so great a prince, which of course they used, and therefore a Divine honour must be here intended. And that a Jew should deny this honour, is not strange, seeing the wise Grecians did positively refuse to give this honour to the kings of Persia themselves, even when they were to make their addresses to them: and one Timocrates was put to death by the Athenians for worshipping Darius in that manner.
est 3:4To see - What the event of it would be. For, &c. - And therefore did not deny this reverence out of pride, but merely out of conscience.
est 3:6Scorn - He thought that vengeance was unsuitable to his quality. Destroy - Which he attempted, from that implacable hatred which, as an Amalekite, he had against them; from his rage against Mordecai; and from Mordecai's reason of this contempt, because he was a Jew, which as he truly judged, extended itself to all the Jews, and would equally engage them all in the same neglect. And doubtless Haman included those who were returned to their own land: for that was now a province of his kingdom.
est 3:7They cast - The diviners cast lots, according to the custom of those people, what day, and what month would be most lucky, not for his success with the king (of which he made no doubt) but for the most effectual extirpation of the Jews. Wherein appears likewise both his implacable malice, and unwearied diligence in seeking vengeance of them with so much trouble to himself; and God's singular providence in disposing the lot to that time, that the Jews might have space to get the decree reversed.
est 3:11The silver - Keep it to thy own use; I accept the offer for the deed.
est 3:15The city - Not only the Jews, but a great number of the citizens, either because they were related to them, or engaged with them in worldly concerns; or out of humanity and compassion toward so vast a number of innocent people, appointed as sheep for the slaughter. | <urn:uuid:9c55593d-6202-48ca-8b2b-df60258db113> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/wesley/est003.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982402 | 611 | 2.625 | 3 |
Need organization help? Follow our checklist to create routines that help your child grow and learn.
1. Give specific instructions. "Put away the toys on your carpet on the shelf in the closet." Be consistent — if the toys are stored on the shelf one night, they should be put there every night. Children need to know precisely what you expect.
2. Assign tasks that your child is capable of doing on his own. Success builds confidence. The goal is to teach your child to do things independently.
3. Involve your child in discussions about rules and routines. It will help him understand goals and teach him to accept responsibility.
4. Write down routines as sequences of tasks (two to five items only), and post where easily visible (refrigerator, bathroom mirror). Review lists regularly with your child.
5. Be realistic about time. Make sure you've set aside enough time for the child to complete his homework, clear the dishes, and get out the door in the morning. If the original time frame is leaving you five minutes shy, add five minutes.
6. Expect gradual improvement. It takes time to change old habits and form new ones.
7. Praise effort — not just results. If your child set the table but forgot napkins, acknowledge that she's trying. Reward good behavior more often than you punish bad.
8. Allow for free time in daily routines. Kids — and adults — need downtime.
9. If your child isn't taking to the routine, seek help from a counselor who specializes in ADHD. A pro can help get you on track.
10. Stay focused on the long-term goals. Above all, don't give up!
This article comes from the April/May 2004 issue of ADDitude. | <urn:uuid:416d5513-f3c6-4e4a-8fc0-fb4caadfec9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/1945.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951607 | 364 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Signing: The toothbrush sign looks like you are brushing your teeth with your finger. To sign toothbrush, extend your index finger and rub it back and forth in front of your teeth.
Usage: Making the sign for toothbrush before you brush prepares your baby for the activity and seems to reduce fussiness.
Flash Card: Click the link to view the Toothbrush Baby Sign Language Flash Card. The flash cards are printable and available in both U.S. Letter and A4 sizes. | <urn:uuid:d764cbd3-e38a-4cc3-b796-ab9b143f5ff7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.babysignlanguage.com/dictionary/t/toothbrush/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894232 | 102 | 2.625 | 3 |
Jesus set up the first missionary efforts during his mortal ministry, but I find the precedents he set rather indeterminate on how the apostles should have handled the problems that accompanied expanding growth. Jesus confined his mission only to the Jews (Matt. 15) or the lost sheep of the House of Israel (John 10). It wasn’t until later that the apostles received their great commission (Matt 28:19) to take Christ’s gospel to all the world and began to have success with converting Gentiles (in Acts). Luke made the Apostolic Decree (Acts 15:20, Acts 21:25), issued by James, the brother of Jesus, a focal point. I wish to explore some of the lessons we might learn from early Christianity’s rocky start.
Jesus’ statements show that he came not to destroy the Law of Moses but to fulfill it. I believe that his advent meant that some aspects (especially the use of sacrifices as a sign of his coming) of the Law could be done away with. Jesus wished his followers would continue to follow many aspects of the Law of Moses as interpreted through his teachings. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount he exacted more rigorous standards and even demanded perfection. He also took aim at some of the traditions that had been built up as a hedge around letter of the Law, but violated the spirit of the Law. See for example Jonathan Draper “Torah and Troublesome Apostles in the Didache Community” Jesus also initiated new practices (like the Lord’s Supper) and restored older things missing from the Judaism of his time.
The Twelve were initially headquartered in Jerusalem and faced difficult problems of growth. After the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), enthusiastic pilgrims carried the good news back to their home in the diaspora and ahead of organized efforts. Indeed, one of the problems encountered by missionaries was to reign in zealous enthusiasts who were lacking in sound knowledge (Acts 19:1-6, Acts 18:26). A rift arose in Jerusalem between Hellenist Jewish converts who didn’t put as much stock in Jewish traditions and converts with an orthodox background. Though the apostles relieved some of that strain by appointing seven Hellenist leaders (Acts 6:5), the feud between non-Christian orthodox Jews and Hellenist Christians escalated into the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7) and Hellenists fleeing Jerusalem for safety.
This scattering opened up further missionary opportunities abroad and apostles were sent out to organize these new outposts. We read of Peter and John (Acts 8:14) following up Philip’s (one of the Seven) work and Barnabas (Acts 11:22) being sent out and subsequently connecting up with Paul. The success among the Gentiles led the early Christians to contemplate questions not really addressed during Christ’s ministry. Hence we have the Lord revealing his will through revelation (especially to Peter) and through the early Church councils. I do not find that Christ gave a definitive teaching regarding circumcision of converts in his mortal advent. We can not possibly know his will on the matter outside of subsequent revelation. Being circumcised committed a person to living the whole Law of Moses. Yet Peter felt inspired to baptize Cornelius without the latter from committing to observe dietary laws (and by implication a lot of traditional Jewish practices). Paul later brilliantly argued that circumcision was not a mandatory requirement to accepting a life of discipleship to Christ and that the Law of Moses was but a school master pointing the more excellent way of Christ (Gal. 3:24-25).
While Peter invoked his earlier revelation as grounds for not making circumcision mandatory for Gentile converts, James sought different grounds. He referenced Amos 9:9-11, while envisioning a restoration of Israel’s glory under David with some degree of sharing with Gentiles. The opinion of James, as a pillar of the early church, was very weighty in those days. He has been seen as the bishop of Jerusalem, the Presiding Bishop, Davidic heir, an apostle, ideological leader of Jewish Christians who retained an almost Pharisaic zeal for keeping the Law of Moses, temple High Priest, and original receiver of the gnossis (endowment). James’ authoritative scripture interpretation culminated in what has been called the Apostolic Decree, which proclaimed 4 standards that converts were expected to acknowledge.
There are signs in the New Testament of the difficulties in interpreting the Apostolic Decree. For example, I believe that events described in Gal. 2 occurred after the Jerusalem conference. That would mean that Peter, men from James, and Paul all had different opinions on the implications of the decree had on table fellowship between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. One could add numerous examples of differing visions of how much of the Jewish identity should be retained as missionary efforts expanded in the New Testament. Raymond Brown in Antioch and Rome and John Painter in Just James have created a categories of different factions regarding missionary policies. Raymond Brown goes as far as attributing the death of Peter and Paul in Rome under Nero as a conspiracy by envious Christians who disagreed with their policies.
While there may be some connection between the Apostolic Decree and the Noachides (7 laws that God gave to Noah and perhaps Adam that were presumably binding on all their descendants and not just Israel), there is the problem that only 4 out of the 7 Noachides are mentioned. What prohibitions the 7 actually entailed was debated for quite some time by the rabbis up through the 3rd century, so it is difficult to believe James expected lay converts to fill in the blanks. Their purpose was also debated. Were they minimalist requirements for Gentiles to be saved in the afterlife? Were the laws less about morality and more about purity and being set apart from other idolaters? Were the laws rules for the types of Gentiles the Jews could associate with? For some answers Tim Hegg, “Do the Seven, Go to Heaven?”
Rather than seeing the 4 proscriptions as an incomplete reference to the Noachides or by convoluted reasoning, the Ten Commandments, I think they are better viewed as the tenants that Gentiles were expected to observe when they lived (as resident aliens) in lands that were ideally Israel’s (as given in Lev 17-18). Ideal Israel could be seen as the maximum extent of Israel’s empire in its glory days, which James appears to invoke by his reference to the restoration of the hut of David in Acts 15 (which is an allusion to Amos 9). See: Patrick Hartin “James of Jerusalem” (p. 67-76), Scot McKnight “Jesus and James on Israel and Purity” (esp p. 102-111), Bruce Chilton “James in Relation to Peter, Paul, and the Remembrance of Jesus.”
I think some early Christians would had have been divided on minimalist and maximalist interpretations of the Apostolic Decree. The minimalists viewed the Decree as setting forth minimal requirements for baptism, but that Gentile converts should be encouraged to come into full conformity to the Torah) or maximalist interpretations (the Gentile Christians should not be encouraged to observe additional requirements (dead works) and Jewish Christians should be encouraged to give up non-mandatory elements of the Law of Moses so as not to create a double standard or two classes of Christians. I would put James in the minimalist camp and Paul in the maximalist camp.
So what are some modern lessons we can learn? I have identified a few.
1. James’ role in the ealy church is an enigma and a challenge to some LDS conventions. If Nibley is correct, his functionality is most like a stationary bishop and less like a traveling, missionary-oriented apostle. However, Joseph Smith often served as a stationary, local leader, and oversaw economic aspects of the Church and envisioned succession by his brothers and sons (while delegating missionary functions to the Twelve). Martyrdom, the fall of church headquarters, and competing factions in both eras seem to have thrown a wrench in succession plans.
2. The NT describes a constant process of evaluating past teachings and traditions to determine whether they should be kept and demanded of groups that don’t necessarily share the same traditions. I think the modern Church has to continue to jettison inherited Protestant and America-centric cultural baggage that may be a stumbling block for some potential converts while conserving what is good and uplifting.
3. I think we potentially recreate some of the same tensions between minimalists and maximalists. For a stereotypical example, missionaries who work hard to get investigators to meet minimal requirements for baptism versus bishops who are primarily concerned about retention and eventual temple worthiness. A second example, might be when some Mormons take pride in their compliance (or non compliance) of some standard. | <urn:uuid:79dfeba1-69ec-4ff9-8f31-37db19a4675b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.millennialstar.org/the-apostolic-decree-and-missionary-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967377 | 1,821 | 3.046875 | 3 |
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. Zanamivir was the first neuraminidase inhibitor commercially developed. It is currently marketed by GlaxoSmithKline
under the trade name Relenza
as a powder for oral inhalation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), no flu, seasonal or pandemic, has shown any signs of resistance to zanamivir.
Zanamivir was discovered in 1989 by scientists led by Mark von Itzstein at the Victorian College of Pharmacy
, Monash University
, in collaboration with the CSIRO
and scientists at Glaxo, UK. Zanamivir was the first of the neuraminidase inhibitors
. The discovery was initially funded by the Australian biotechnology company Biota
and was part of Biota's ongoing program to develop antiviral agents through rational drug design
. Its strategy relied on the availability of the structure of influenza neuraminidase
, by X-ray crystallography
. It was also known, as far back as 1974, that 2-deoxy-2,3-didehydro-N
-acetylneuraminic acid (DANA), a sialic acid
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-acetyl neuraminic acid, NANA), the substrate of neuraminidase, is itself a mild inhibitor of the enzyme, but the dehydrated derivative DANA, a transition-state analogue, is a better inhibitor.Computational...... | <urn:uuid:f50bcde5-1474-40e2-95bf-e47756810e69> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pages.rediff.com/zanamivir/690313 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940163 | 350 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Twenty leading research scientists who are also dedicated to undergraduate teaching are tapped as HHMI professors.
Teaching often takes a back seat to research at leading American universities. Determined to change that fact, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) combed the country for leading research scientists who, through their teaching and mentoring, are striving to ignite the scientific spark in a new generation of students. Now 20 of the best will receive $1 million each from HHMI to put their innovative ideas into action as HHMI professors at 18 research universities across the country.
The Institute does not tell the HHMI professors what to do or how to approach science education. Rather, HHMI provides them with the resources to turn their own considerable creativity loose in their undergraduate classrooms. Some will design programs to attract more women and minorities to science. Others will turn large introductory science courses or classes for non-science majors into engaging, hands-on learning experiences that challenge students to think like working scientists.
The scientists whom we have selected are true pioneers—not only in their research, but in their creative approaches and dedication to teaching.
Thomas R. Cech
"The scientists whom we have selected are true pioneers—not only in their research, but in their creative approaches and dedication to teaching," said Thomas R. Cech, HHMI president. "We are hopeful that their educational experiments will energize undergraduate science education throughout the nation."
The Institute awarded $20 million to the first group of HHMI professors in 2002 to bring the excitement of scientific discovery to the undergraduate classroom.
The experiment worked so well that neurobiologist and HHMI professor Darcy Kelley convinced Columbia University to require every entering freshman to take a course on hot topics in science. Through Utpal Banerjee's HHMI program at the University of California, Los Angeles, 138 undergraduates were co-authors of a peer-reviewed article in a top scientific journal. At the University of Pittsburgh, HHMI professor Graham Hatfull's undergraduates mentored curious high school students as they unearthed and analyzed more than 30 never-before-seen bacteriophages from yards and barnyards. And Isiah Warner, an award-winning chemist and HHMI professor at Louisiana State University, developed a "mentoring ladder," a hierarchical model for integrating research, education, and peer mentoring, with a special emphasis on underrepresented minority students.
"The HHMI professors are as excited about teaching as they are about research, and it definitely rubs off on their students," said Peter Bruns, HHMI vice president for grants and special programs. "Undergraduates need a window into the excitement and fulfillment that scientists get from science. They need to discover that science is a way of learning and knowing, involving critical thinking, problem solving, and asking answerable questions. In this program we are supporting faculty to use research grade innovation to advance science education."
The Institute will give smaller renewal grants to eight of the original 20 professors to help them find ways to sustain the parts of their programs that worked best and to disseminate them to the broader community of teachers.
Last year, HHMI invited 100 research universities with outstanding track records in sending graduates to medical or graduate school to nominate up to two faculty members to compete for the HHMI professorships. A panel of distinguished research scientists and educators, including some HHMI professors selected in the last competition, reviewed 150 applications. They evaluated the potential impact of the proposals on undergraduate science education, as well as the quality of the applicants' research and educational accomplishments, and the potential for the proposed programs to serve as models elsewhere.
The new HHMI professors are accomplished researchers from diverse fields, including genetics, biochemistry, plant pathology, bioengineering, neuroscience, biophysics, and computational biology. Two are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Two have won Presidential Early Career Awards.
Some of the professors' plans include:
- Winston Anderson, a professor of biology at historically African-American Howard University in Washington, D.C., wants to give his undergraduates "a competitive edge" for entering biomedical science careers. He plans intensive mentoring and a summer exchange program that will take students to African countries such as Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali, or Nigeria to study tropical diseases and ethnopharmacology—the use of indigenous plants for medicinal purposes.
- Susan Wessler, a Regents professor of plant biology at the University of Georgia, intends to respond to the proponents of "intelligent design" by guiding her undergraduates through bioinformatic and genetic analyses of transposable elements in plant genomes, so they can witness evolution in action. Transposable elements, the focus of Wessler's research, are pieces of DNA that make copies of themselves that are inserted throughout the genomes of plants and animals, at times promoting evolutionary change.
- Scott Strobel, a Yale University biophysicist and biochemist, will take undergraduates "bio-prospecting" for promising natural products in the world's rain forests. The students will then purify and analyze the compounds they collected and test them for potentially beneficial activity.
The new HHMI professors are:
- Richard Amasino University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Winston Anderson Howard University
- Bonnie Bartel Rice University
- Victor Corces The Johns Hopkins University
- Catherine Drennan Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Irving Epstein Brandeis University
- Louis Guillette, Jr. University of Florida
- Leslie Leinwand University of Colorado at Boulder
- Claudia Neuhauser University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Diane O'Dowd University of California, Irvine
- Baldomero Olivera University of Utah
- Pavel Pevzner University of California, San Diego
- Jasper Rine University of California, Berkeley
- Robert Sah University of California, San Diego
- Scott Strobel Yale University
- David Walt Tufts University
- Susan Wessler University of Georgia
- Jennifer West Rice University
- Huntington Willard Duke University
- Richard Zare Stanford University
The following 2002 HHMI professors received renewal awards:
- Utpal Banerjee University of California, Los Angeles
- Sarah C.R. Elgin Washington University in St. Louis
- Jo Handelsman University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Graham Hatfull University of Pittsburgh
- Darcy Kelley Columbia University
- Richard Losick Harvard University
- Rebecca Richards-Kortum Rice University
- Isiah Warner Louisiana State University and A&M College | <urn:uuid:2b609a88-26a9-4251-9ad4-bcd0bfc749ee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-names-20-new-million-dollar-professors-top-research-scientists-tapped-their-teaching | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937106 | 1,329 | 2.609375 | 3 |
An electronic or other device which records images of something: a thermal imager
More example sentences
- Also, instead of mechanical scanning, the newest generation of digital imagers now uses electronics to focus on one part of the image, reducing noise and the complexity of the equipment.
- Some of these would include television cameras, thermal imagers and FLIR (forward-looking, infrared radars).
- A current example is a digital camera on a chip that includes the imager, all control electronics, and an analog-to-digital converter - all on the same silicon chip.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: imager
Definition of imager in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:f6208792-71d8-4a49-a24d-a71b48520b3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/imager | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.858015 | 168 | 2.75 | 3 |
Four times in the last seven years, migrating waterfowl in the Great Lakes basin, especially common loons, have experienced massive die offs during their fall migrations. These anomalies, if unchecked, can have dangerous repercussions for the survival of Michigan loons into the next decade.
But, for better and for worse, based upon an array of environmental and climatological conditions, one can set their clock by when the die offs take place. The next step, biologists say, is finding preventative measures to deal with those conditions to preserve a species already threatened in the state. The problem is, at this point, solutions are hard to come by. Unfortunately, the loons, a symbol of northern lakes and wild places with their eerily lonely two-note call, serve as the end result sentinel of a growing environmental danger in the Great Lakes.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), there are about 30,000 common loons in the United States. During the breeding season, from early spring to late fall, about half of them reside in the Great Lakes’ states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
In 2012, thousands of dead birds, mainly common loons washed up dead on Lake Michigan shorelines – from the Upper Peninsula, down to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A large percentage of the dead loons had just entered their first year of breeding maturity. While the mortality rate in 2012 was the worst on recent record, it followed similar incidents that took place in 2006, 2007 and 2010. Northern Lake Michigan serves as a staging area for common loons from the Great Lakes states and Canada to load up on food before flying down to their wintering grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Atlantic Ocean.
In 2013, early indications are that the death count numbers are way down. Most bird count volunteers up and down the Lake Michigan shorelines in both the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula report only small numbers of dead birds, many likely from natural causes, although carcasses are being analyzed. The largest number of deaths thus far this year appears to be in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a regular hotspot during the largest die offs. So far this year, 272 dead birds, mainly red-breasted mergansers, ring-billed gulls and white-winged scoters, have been identified along the 32-mile shoreline, according to Dan Ray, a biological technician and project leader for the avian botulism monitoring program for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. And of that number, only nine of the dead are common loons, but Ray cautioned that since loons spend most of their time miles off shore in open water, it’s possible that others have died but simply haven’t been washed to shore. USGS airial surveys in September and October indicated distribution of loons similar to previous years.
Last year at Sleeping Bear, more than 1,500 birds were found dead, including 600 loons.
In 2012, in just a seven-mile stretch of Lake Michigan beach near the Upper Peninsula town of Gulliver, 865 water birds showed up dead in a two-week period in October, 302 of which were common loons. That came to an average of 121 dead birds per mile. In 2013, there has been virtually nothing.
The botulism problem
The culprit in each of these outbreaks is Type E botulism, a paralytic condition brought on by the consumption of the botulinium neurotoxin. This neurotoxin is thought to be produced under oxygen-depleted conditions -- like what takes place when huge Cladophora algae mats build up on the lake bottom and decompose. When enough bacteria is developed, the toxin is released. That is just the first step in what becomes toxin production and a toxin food chain transfer from the botulism to the waterfowl.
The Type E botulism toxin is then consumed by bottom-feeding insect larva and invasive species such as quagga mussels and zebra mussels. The mussels also consume plankton floating in the water column and then excrete waste into the dead algae mat, feeding the bacteria. The mussels are then consumed by the round goby, another invasive species. And finally, the gobies, more prevalent in the Great Lakes every year, are consumed by waterfowl in mass quantities.
“That’s what we believe is going on. It’s a fair guess, but it’s still a guess,” said Jennifer Chipault, a USGS biological technician. “Data is still being gathered from the field.”
The common loon, after arriving in the northern part of Lake Michigan to start its migration, feeds on the gobies and ingests the toxin. The botulism affects the bird’s nervous system and musculature, leaving it unable to fly. Soon, it can no longer keep its head aloft, and it drowns.
According to Dan Ray, the telltale signs of Type E botulism toxin poisoning are clear. First, the infected birds begin to have problems with their wings, primarily an inability to fold them into their bodies. As that problem persists, they become weak and are unable to fly. Next, they will bob their heads up and down in a desperate attempt to breathe. In the final stages, they become too weak to lift their heads up. Some dead birds on the shore are found with their bills still stuck in the sand. In the case of common loons, since most of their time is spent miles off the shore in open water, when they are unable to keep their heads aloft, they drown. The drowning kills them before the toxins can finish them off. Most dead loons are only discovered after their bodies are blown to shore by prevailing winds.
But analysis of sediment cores from near Sleeping Bear Dunes show that Type E botulism bacterium has long been in the Great Lakes. The Cladophora algae is a native species. So why is botulism suddenly causing mass deaths among migrating waterfowl?
According the biologists studying the issue, it goes back to the integration of the invasive mussels into the Great Lakes basin via ship ballast.
Since 1988, when the first zebra mussels, native to the Caspian and Black seas, were found in Michigan in the St. Clair River, the invasive mussels have been clearing and “cleaning” Great Lakes water columns by consuming plankton. Aesthetically, their work gives the water a more pleasing appearance, but also allows the sun’s rays to penetrate deeper into the water column, causing larger and larger algae mats to flourish and then die on the bottom.
What follows is a precise recipe for disaster that includes unusually warm spring weather, a hot summer, low water levels and a lack of rain. The resulting warmer water temperatures provide a perfect environment for the Clostridium to grow. In other words, the spring and summer of 2012.
Warm weather sets the stage
According to the National Weather Service, March temperatures in areas like Negaunee, Iron River and Houghton in the Upper Peninsula, were an average of 20 degrees warmer in 2012, 49 degrees, than they were this year, which averaged 29 degrees. In Alpena, Rogers City, Pellston, Petoskey, Charlevoix and Traverse City in the upper Lower Peninsula, March temperatures were 15 degrees warmer in 2012, 42 degrees, than they were in 2013, which had an average of 27 degrees for the month. Those numbers mean the ice sheets on Lake Michigan melted much sooner than normal, removing the barrier that would otherwise block the sun’s rays and prevent algae from forming until much later. Temperatures were about 10 degrees warmer in the U.P. in April (50 degrees vs. 40 degrees) and about three degrees warmer at the top of the Lower Peninsula (41 degrees vs. 38 degrees). Rainfall in the U.P. was down dramatically in 2012 during the two months at the start of the spring compared to 2013, with an average of 1.9 inches of rain for March and April in 2012 compared to an average of 6.24 inches in 2013. In the upper L.P., rainfall in March and April was similar in 2012 and 2013 (4.7 inches vs. 5.7 inches on average), according to NWS numbers. Thanks to an increase in rain, lower temperatures and most importantly, less evaporation, lake levels are up six inches compared to last year, although they remain at historically low levels.
“It was certainly cooler and wetter than last year,” said Dan Myers of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, whose volunteers monitor about 25 miles of shoreline in Charlevoix and Emmet counties. “A major factor was that it was really cold in the early spring and summer. Ice didn’t leave some of the inland lakes until late April, early May. In 2012, we had some 80-degree days in March.”
But there have been warm springs and hot summers before. And there have been cases of avian botulism, but nothing on this scale for decades. Avian botulism was first documented in the Great Lakes in the 1960’s, but there were very few confirmed cases in Lake Michigan between 1983 and 2006. The addition of the invasive mussels into the mix has provided an easier link in the food chain to deliver the toxins to the waterfowl.
“You must have toxin production and toxin transfer,” said Brenda Moraska Lafrancois, a regional aquatic ecologist with the National Park Service out of Ashland, Wisc. “This new factor (mussels) has been introduced, making both toxin production and transfer easier.”
“Mussels are a more efficient way to deliver the toxin into the food chain,” echoed Damon McCormick, co-director of a research group called Common Coast Research and Conservation in Houghton. He has been studying loons in the Upper Peninsula since 1997.
Effects of the 2012 die off
Much of McCormick’s work takes place in Seney National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area in the eastern-central Upper Peninsula. He sees firsthand the results of the devastation from last year.
From 1989 through 2004, the return rate of leg-banded adults who return to the refuge every spring has hovered around 96 percent. Since the four major die offs in the last seven years, the numbers have consistently gone down. This spring, following the devastation in 2012, only 76 percent of the banded adults returned, compared to the returns a year earlier.
“About a quarter of returns went missing,” McCormick said. “With loons, (who average about 0.4 surviving offspring per year from 1.5 eggs), it doesn’t have to be bad every year to devastate the population. Loons can’t make up for that.”
The average common loon lifespan is 25-27 years, with the probability that some live into their 30s and 40s. Last year’s die off consisted exclusively of mature adults and represented thousands of years of life. Those animals had a proven record of reproduction. Juveniles survived the die off during migration last year because they were not yet able to dive and hunt the infected gobies. But those birds still must survive their first three years in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, years which are fraught with peril from a variety of predators. On average, only about 60 percent of those birds survive that time period before they reach sexual maturity and head north near their birthplace to find a territory. So the worst results of the die off are yet to come.
“Suddenly, this spring, we had a refuge that was much more open,” McCormick said. “That’s largely an impact of the botulism. There wasn’t the same amount of birds looking for and fighting for their turf.”
Statewide, the last common loon survey in 2007 showed 800-900 pairs in Michigan, giving the bird “threatened” status. While no surveys have taken place since then, clearly the number of pairs is lower in 2013 since two mass die offs have taken place since 2007.
What can be done?
Finding a fix for reoccurring disasters is difficult. Lafrancois said biologists are limited in the kind of testing they can do in the lab because the Centers for Disease Control’s National Select Agent Registry restricts the amount of Type E botulism toxin and bacteria. Researchers can only have a half a milligram of the toxin in their labs and cannot culture the bacteria. So, establishing controls in the lab are limited, and researchers are left primarily to field data and testing the blood of carcasses.
“It’s a complex ecological problem, made more complex by Lake Michigan’s changing food webs, the transient nature of toxin production, the fact that many of the affected birds are migratory, and the restrictions on lab testing due to bioterrorism concerns,” Lafrancois said.
Lafrancois added some improved policies are in place to limit the introduction of new and existing Eurasian invasive species into the Great Lakes with more regulation of ballast procedures. For example, if ballast water is picked up in an area of fresh or brackish water, where both fresh and saltwater species can survive, the brackish ballast water is replaced with saltwater, which in theory kills all of the organisms in the ballast before moving into Great Lakes’ gateways, such as the St. Lawrence Seaway. Also, ballast water can be treated with technology, such as thermal methods, biocide or ultraviolet light. There is also some thought given to using a seismic shock system to kill the round gobies, but nothing has been instituted yet.
“Efforts to curb new species introductions may allow Great Lakes food webs to stabilize and give managers some time to come up with solutions,” Lafrancois added. “A lot is being done to reduce Cladophora growth for beach health and other reasons. Although we can’t control the weather, some attention to lake level management might be warranted.”
“We are limited in terms of a cure,” Ray said. “We are trying to focus on a moving target. As soon as one thing is understood, new factors come in. The best thing we can do now is to monitor the situation. Gobies are everywhere in the Great Lakes. They are a food base for a lot of other animals. It’s tough to come up with a species specific control.”
While the northern part of Lake Michigan seems to be the epicenter of avian botulism, it may not be. McCormick said northern Lake Michigan simply benefits from more monitoring, especially since it is a staging area for migrating birds. But he said there are other areas, the east coast of Lake Huron on the Canadian border, for example, that had a huge die off in 2010. He also suspects there are collections of dead loons in and around the many islands far out in open water in the Great Lakes. Those islands are popular areas for loon nests.
“There hasn’t been much systematic monitoring of the problem. With so little monitoring being done, it’s tough to determine the scope,” McCormick said.
McCormick calculates there are roughly 527 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline between the tip of the Garden Peninsula and the southern edge of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, including the shorelines of all the major islands within the northern portion of the lake (the Manitous, the Foxes, the Beaver Island cluster). He said in 2012, only 68.5 miles were regularly monitored. In those areas, 1,180 dead common loons were documented.
“While I don’t think it’s appropriate to simply extrapolate that average (17 dead loons per mile) to the entire 527 miles, it’s clear that even the most conservative of estimates should suggest there were several thousand dead loons in just the northern third of Lake Michigan last season.
“In terms of awareness, this year it was sort of out of sight, out of mind. This doesn’t have the same impact as an annual threat,” he added. “But for loons, it doesn’t have to be every year. If an average loon pair produces 0.4 chicks per year, age does matter, as does the survivorship of chicks and adults. It takes only a small change in variables to dramatically affect the population.” | <urn:uuid:7dbf7c56-e444-426b-b12b-22210574a0de> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.themorningsun.com/environment-and-nature/20131115/invasive-species-climate-changes-can-combine-to-wreck-havoc-on-great-lakes-loon-population&template=printart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956786 | 3,499 | 3.375 | 3 |
Flu, cold, pertussis – how to tell
Sneezing, coughing, sore throat, stuffy nose – if you are experiencing these symptoms, there’s no question you feel miserable. But how do you know if you are suffering from the common cold, influenza, or perhaps pertussis (whooping cough)?
“Colds are usually milder than the flu, and pertussis can have a distinctive cough,” said Cindy Litchfield, RN, Henry County Community Health.
Influenza, or the flu, is usually characterized by a high fever (102-104), typically lasting three to four days. Chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and exhaustion are very common with stuffy noses, sneezing, and a sore throat. A non-productive cough is typical and is usually moderate in severity and will last three to seven days. A person is infectious one day before symptoms and three to seven days after symptoms end.
Common cold sufferers rarely have a fever, chills or headache. Muscle aches and fatigue are mild. Extreme exhaustion is rare. A stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, and sore throat are common. A cold sufferer usually has a hacking cough, often productive which usually responds to cough medications. The cough is mild to moderate, lasting three to seven days. The infectious period is variable, typically four to seven days after symptom onset.
Pertussis, however, has a very distinctive cough. The cough is variable in severity. Coughing fits and nighttime coughing are common. This cough generally does not respond to cough medications. Infants with pertussis appear quite ill and may come to the medical provider with a cough or difficulty breathing.
A “whooping” noise may or may not occur during coughing. The cough is persistent, almost always greater than one week, usually two to six weeks, and sometimes 10 plus weeks.
Fever, chills, headache or muscle aches are rare with pertussis. Fatigue and weakness is mild with the person appearing well between coughing attacks.
A stuffy or runny nose and sneezing are common early in the disease Pertussis is infectious from before the cough starts to 21 days after cough starts or until the end of five days of an appropriate anti-pertussis antibiotic.
As always, if there are any questions or concerns, please call your medical provider. | <urn:uuid:682a601b-adb0-4d42-9ee8-2763a20c0840> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mt-pleasant-ia.villagesoup.com/p/flu-cold-pertussis-how-to-tell/1078591 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952607 | 505 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Foot Care Tips for Diabetics
Avoid serious diabetes complications with these guidelines
BHM Edit Staff | 4/1/2014, 1 a.m.
Diabetics have to take special care of their feet. The disease can cause peripheral neuropathy—otherwise known as nerve damage. When this happens, you might lose feeling in your feet and be at greater risk of sustaining injuries. Foot injuries can become infected and, in the worst-case scenario, require an amputation.
Follow these care tips to keep your feet in the best shape possible.
- Wash your feet with mild soap and lukewarm water (less than 90° F) every day. Pat your feet dry, paying special attention between your toes.
- Though you can apply lotion to your feet, don’t rub any between your toes. Sprinkle on a non-medicated powder before putting on your socks and shoes.
- Talk to your doctor before you trim your own nails. Better yet, treat yourself to a professional pedicure. If you have corns, calluses or ingrown toenails, it’s best to let the doctor handle those.
- Always wear socks and shoes, even indoors on carpeted floors.
- Choose cotton socks and wear a clean, dry pair every day. Skip the cute sandals, flip-flops and sexy stilettos. Check your shoes regularly for rough spots or worn lining. Replace damaged or worn-out shoes.
- Avoid using electric blankets or heating pads on your feet. If you have nerve damage, you might not notice when you’re being burned.
- Keep the blood flowing to your feet by move them around several times a day. Wiggle your toes often. | <urn:uuid:e5e3029f-7178-47a4-9a30-f64ab5526e5d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://baystatebanner.com/news/2014/apr/01/foot-care-tips-diabetics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919238 | 361 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Wetzlar (vĕtsˈlär) [key], city (1994 pop. 54,188), Hesse, central Germany, on the Lahn River. Situated in a region where iron ore is mined, the city has a metallurgical industry. Other manufactures include optical equipment (cameras, microscopes, and binoculars), and iron ware. Wetzlar was a free imperial city from 1180 to 1803. The supreme court of the Holy Roman Empire (Ger. Reichskammergericht ) was located in the city from 1693 to 1806. Goethe was a young lawyer in Wetzlar when he met (1772) Charlotte Buff, the Lotte in his novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774). The city passed to Prussia in 1815 and formed an enclave between Nassau and Upper Hesse. It suffered considerable damage in World War II. Noteworthy structures include the cathedral (9th cent.) and the ruins of Kalsmunt castle (13th cent.).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:c72e205b-c6a6-4e04-9e9f-3831415d60e4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/world/wetzlar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917448 | 240 | 2.921875 | 3 |
It was just one of these nights. We were sitting at the O’Neil’s San Mateo Pub, taking a break after a long day at the Maker Faire. Hackaday was hosting an informal drink-up and a steady stream of colorful characters has just started flowing in. That’s when we met [Robert Coggeshall].
It started off as a normal discussion – he runs Small Batch Assembly and does a lot of interesting things in the maker space. Then he brought up a fascinating detail – “Oh, did you know I also co-invented sudo back in the 80’s?”
If you ever did as much as touch a Unix system, you’ll know this is a big deal. What came as an even bigger surprise was that something like sudo had to be “invented” in the first place. When thinking about the base Unix toolkit, there is always this feeling that it all emerged from some primordial soup of ideas deep inside of Bell Labs, brought to life by the infinite wisdom of [Ken Thompson] and the rest of the gang. Turns out that wasn’t always the case. We couldn’t miss asking [Bob] for an interview, and he told us how it all came about…
The story itself is a fairly common one – it starts with a problem and ends with a hack. [Bob] and his colleague [Cliff Spencer] were working at SUNY/Buffalo at the time, and [Bob] was in charge of administration of their Unix infrastructure. Since Unix was a multiuser system from the very beginnings, being a sysadmin meant executing a lot of commands as a superuser. The standard way of doing so was using the “su” command, which enabled user to switch to a superuser mode. While this generally did the trick, it opened a lot of opportunities for human error – it was just too easy to forget you’re in a “root” mode and end up causing inadvertent damage to the system. [Bob] and [Cliff] thought of a better way – instead of constantly switching, why not simply create a tool that enables executing individual commands as a superuser, without changing the actual user id in the shell. They quickly whipped up a hack that combined two standard Posix system calls – setuid() and execvp() in order to achieve such functionality. The command was named “sudo“, short for superuser-do ([Bob] insists that correct pronunciation is /ˈsuːduː/, not /ˈsuːdoʊ/).
Going Open Source
After proving to be an indispensable tool in the sysadmin arsenal at SUNY, sudo slowly began to make its way into other research groups and was formally “open sourced” in 1985. In those days Open Source was not yet all the rage (Richard Stallman had just come out with his GNU Manifesto the same year), so the act of “open sourcing” essentially meant posting the source code on the Usenet. And on December 15th, 1985 that’s what they did. [Bob] helped us track down the original message posted to the net.sources group.
There be trolls
Another fascinating historical artifact that can be found in the thread following the original post is an early example of the Internet Troll species:
-- isn't this the same as saying: su -f root -c "some commands here" why reinvent the wheel? plus this doens't have to be recompiled when there is a new root passwd. i find that most unix programs get written again and again and again, when the one you wanted was already there in the first place. tom --
Though it is true that sudo didn’t invent anything fundamentally new, it did something better – it provided an efficient solution to a real problem. And because [Bob] and [Cliff] cared enough to share it with the world, other people happily adopted it and continued to improve. Today sudo counts 9944 lines of code (up from 153 lines in the original release) and is maintained by [Todd C. Miller]. Over 30 years in age, it still continues to receive code contributions and regularly issues new releases. | <urn:uuid:3743d465-d3ee-4c18-8ee1-c5022dddf7fc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hackaday.com/2014/05/28/interview-inventing-the-unix-sudo-command/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962287 | 888 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Reviving Native Foods
Native Americans rediscover native foods for better health.
In 1996, Johnson co-founded Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) in an effort to reacquaint members of the impoverished tribe with disappearing native foods—such as squash and tepary beans. In the heart of the Sonoran Desert, 60 miles west of Tucson, he successfully re-established two working farms to grow and sell traditional native foods in the community and also teach O’odham members how to harvest and prepare them.
But habits are hard to break and Johnson worries: “We’re on a time schedule. The elders are dying. We’re working hard to get as much information from them about their traditional culture as we can.” For details on all of TOCA’s programs, go to tocaonline.org.
By Edie Jarolim | <urn:uuid:316fc9fc-faa4-4e12-92c6-4067758d8907> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mobile.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/people_perspectives/local_heroes/reviving_native_foods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94543 | 191 | 2.6875 | 3 |
- freely available
Religions 2012, 3(1), 37-49; doi:10.3390/rel3010037
Abstract: This paper investigates representations of gender in the material culture of the ancient synagogue. The pertinent data are numerous dedicatory and funerary inscriptions linking individual Jews, men and women, with titles seemingly associated with leadership in Late Antique synagogues (ca. 200–600 CE). Bernadette Brooten’s influential 1982 monograph argued against the prevailing tendency to characterize these titles as indications of power, authority, and responsibility when associated with men but as meaningless flattery when applied to women. She suggests that synagogue titles denote power, authority and responsibility on all title bearers equally, both men and women. I question the continued utility of proffering female title-holders as enumerable examples of powerful women rescued from their forgotten place in history. Using theoretical insights developed by historians Elizabeth Clark and Gabrielle Spiegel, this paper will engage a comparative analysis with the work of Riet van Bremen and Saba Mahmood to develop new methods of conceptualizing women’s authority in early Jewish communities. I propose that viewing women’s synagogue titles as culturally constructed representations allows for a fruitful inquiry into how women’s titles were used by male-dominated synagogue communities in their self-articulation and public presentation of Judaism.
A third century CE mortuary inscription from Smyrna reads, “Rufina, a Jew, head of the synagogue (ἀρχισυνάγωγος), built this tomb for her freedmen and her slaves. None other has the right to bury a body here. If, however, any one should dare to do so, he must pay 1,500 denarii into the holy treasury and 1,000 denarii to the Jewish people. A copy of this inscription has been deposited in the archives (, n. 43).” A fourth century CE marble mortuary plaque from Crete reads, “Sophia of Gortyn, elder (πρεσβυτέρα) and head of the synagogue (ἀρχισυναγώγισσα) of Kisamos, lies here. The memory of the righteous one forever. Amen.”(, p. 227). A Roman sarcophagus fragment of undetermined date reads, “Veturia Paula, taken to her eternal home, who lived 86 years, six months; a proselyte of sixteen years named Sara, mother of the synagogues (mater synagogarum) of Campus and Volumnius. In peace her sleep (, n. 577).”
This paper investigates representations of gender in the material culture of the ancient synagogue. The pertinent data are numerous dedicatory and funerary inscriptions linking individual diasporic Jews, men and women, with titles such as archisynagogos (head of the synagogue) and pater/mater synagogae (father/mother of the synagogue), and others, seemingly associated with synagogue leadership in antiquity (ca. 200 CE–600 CE). Bernadette Brooten’s influential 1982 monograph argued against the prevailing tendency to characterize these titles as indications of power, authority, and responsibility when associated with men but as meaningless flattery when applied to women . She suggests that synagogue titles denote power, authority and responsibility on all title bearers equally, both men and women.
Brooten’s study was of paramount importance for bringing the phenomenon of female title bearers to prominence. Synagogue title inscriptions offer a rare example of material culture illuminating questions of gender and women’s religious expression in the context of Late Antiquity’s synagogues and as such merit continued and rigorous examination. Without disputing the importance of publishing newly discovered women’s title inscriptions, scholarship on synagogue titles in general and female title bearers specifically is trapped in a pattern in which, to quote Clark, “we retrieve another forgotten woman and throw her into the historical mix .” Given the absence of progress interpreting these inscriptions over the past thirty years, a reconceptualized approach to the corpus as a whole is warranted. The pattern can be broken and progress renewed by the adoption of a new theoretical position from which to investigate synagogue titles and their female bearers. Building upon Brooten’s work, I will demonstrate that viewing women’s title inscriptions as culturally constructed representations allows for fruitful inquiry into how women’s titles were used in male-dominated synagogue communities’ self-articulation and public presentation of Judaism.
After presenting additional details about the inscriptions in question, I will offer a brief overview of the history of scholarship on synagogue titles. The paper continues with a short discussion of the challenges and opportunities posed to historians by post-modern critical theory and some of the theoretical solutions, devised by historians Elizabeth Clark and Gabrielle Spiegel, to meet them. A comparative analysis will follow, which uses the methods of Riet van Bremen and Saba Mahmood to juxtapose women’s positions in synagogue communities with those in Greco-Roman civic administration and the Islamist piety movement, respectively. I will conclude with a discussion of Jewish communities’ social and cultural locations in the Greco-Roman Diaspora and how those locations illuminate the purpose and significance of female synagogue title bearers.
The inscriptions of Rufina, Sophia, and Veturia Paula, along with twenty additional inscriptions found throughout the Mediterranean world of Late Antiquity, commemorate women in the same or comparable terms as evinced for men, albeit in fewer numbers. The inscriptions’ execution ranges from finely chiseled in marble to sloppily scrawled red paint on plaster, and their location varies from prominent display on a synagogue chancel screen to obscurity in the dimly lit passages of catacombs. In these ways, women’s title inscriptions differ not at all from those of men, or indeed from the many hundreds of Jewish inscriptions that include no title at all. Yet the title inscriptions have generated interest disproportionate to their frequency in the corpus of Jewish epigraphy, due in large part to the paucity of information on the organization and administration of the synagogue institution in Late Antiquity. In this information vacuum, early scholars expanded the definitions of titles found in these inscriptions to cover all the logistical, liturgical, financial, spiritual, and social roles they perceived as necessary for the synagogue’s successful operation in antiquity .
Although synagogue title inscriptions have been a topic of study since the nineteenth century, early scholars gave only passing interest to the fact that on rare occasions these titles were bestowed upon women. Whereas these scholars assumed practical responsibilities and obligations were incumbent upon male title bearers, they also assumed a complete male dominance of Judaism that would preclude the possibility of female leadership. These assumptions resulted both from an over-reliance on Rabbinic texts, which were uncritically assumed to constitute accurate reflections of pan-Jewish life in Late Antiquity, as well as comparison with later, better documented periods of Jewish history.
As a result of these assumptions, early scholarship typically explained away the significance of female title bearers in a variety of ways. Some scholars explained that female title bearers acquired their titles through marriage to the men with the same title, who performed the actual job. In the case of Rufina, the head of the synagogue in Smyrna, for example, Baron suggested that she was most likely the wife of the actual head of the synagogue , while Krauss said of female heads of synagogue in general that their titles “can certainly not mean that they were bestowed with the dignity of a head of the synagogue… it is rather the wives of heads of the synagogue who are meant (, p. 118).” Other scholars have discounted the importance of female title bearers by considering titles held by women to be honorary, in contrast to the functional nature of titles bestowed upon men. Thus, Rufina’s title of head of the synagogue is interpreted by Schürer as “in the case of a woman, of course, just a title (, p. 2.435),” while Frey comments that “it seems difficult to admit that she [Rufina] actually exercised the functions of a head of the synagogue.” (, p. 2.11).
Brooten disputes the nearly ubiquitous assumption among these early scholars that synagogue titles were functional when bestowed upon men, but honorary when given to women. A preponderance of evidence supports Brooten’s rejection of the argument that women derived titles by virtue of marriage to real synagogue officials. Numerous examples of inscriptions exist in which female title bearers are named with no reference to their husbands. The examples of Rufina, Sophia, and Veturia Paula given above fall in this category. Further, there are examples of inscriptions in which women hold titles different from those of their husbands. One example comes from Malta, where a catacomb inscription commemorates “[X], gerousiarch, lover of the commandments and Eulogia, the elder (πρεσβυτήρα), his wife.”(, , p. 513, ). While the most conclusive evidence that women did not derive titles from their husbands would be an example of a title-bearing woman married to a man with no title of his own, no such example is extant in the corpus. Nevertheless, sufficient evidence exists to support Brooten’s conclusion that women did not receive titles by virtue of marriage. As for the argument that women’s titles were honorary while men’s were functional, Brooten concludes that there is no basis for this assumption, nor evidence to support it. She maintains instead that all synagogue titles should be viewed as functional, regardless of whether they were conferred upon men or women.
Just as scholars of early Judaism were eager for synagogue title inscriptions to fill the lacuna in knowledge of early synagogue administration, so too were feminist scholars delighted by Brooten’s apparent discovery of women acting in leadership positions within early Jewish communities [14,15,16,17]. As new inscriptions have added to the corpus of female title bearers over the past thirty years, each publication presents its inscription as further confirmation that earlier assumptions of women’s subordinate place in Judaism and Jewish society have been overturned . As Rajak and Noy note, however, Brooten’s otherwise revolutionary study neither questions the basis upon which the functional responsibilities of synagogue title bearers had been established, nor challenges the binary functional/honorary terminology of the debate [19,20,21]. Her assertion that both men’s and women’s titles were functional has no more solid basis or supporting evidence than did earlier scholars’ assumptions that women’s titles were honorary while men’s were functional. There is simply too little information available to know what, if any, practical responsibilities or obligations were associated with the titles in question, regardless of the title bearer’s gender. The continued enumeration of female title bearers brings us no closer to understanding how these and all synagogue titles functioned in early Jewish communities.
Examining historians’ theoretical responses to post-structuralist critical theory’s rejection of subject and history is one place to start developing a new theoretical approach to female title bearers and their inscriptions. I turn to theory in an effort to break the conversation out of its current stalemate. The theoretical models discussed here help distance data from interpretation by emphasizing the space between the text’s words and their meaning. Instead of concluding from Sophia’s inscription that she was an elder and head of the synagogue, the statement is amended: Sophia is called an elder and head of the synagogue in this inscription—a fact open to a variety of interpretations. The distinction might seem obvious or pedantic, but the token acknowledgement of the difference between reality and representation apparent in most studies of female title bearers justifies its emphasis here. Obviously these inscriptions are representations of women and not women themselves, but the questions asked of representations have yet to be asked of Jewish title inscriptions, as the following examples demonstrate.
3. Theoretical Considerations
Clark has reflected on the effects of literary criticism’s linguistic turn on historians and their work on female subjects in particular . She notes that whereas the initial “discovery” of respected, authoritative female figures in male-dominated religious roles was cause for celebration, the gradual realization of the representational nature of such figures has tempered expectations about their proving the empowerment of “real” women . Clark gives the example of St. Macrina in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa, whose prominent, positive depiction of his sister initially was lauded by feminist historians. Scholars have become increasingly aware, however, of the distinction between the historical Macrina and the textual Macrina. The former was a real woman whose reality is lost to modern scholars, whereas the latter is a representational character created by Gregory for specific uses in his text [5,22]. This realization leads to more sobering conclusions regarding Macrina’s presence and prominence in the text, but also to more credible understandings of women’s roles in early Christianity. Clark’s critique of Macrina scholarship in light of post-structuralism’s desired elimination of the subject offers a way to rethink female title bearers. Rufina of Smyrna, Sophia of Gortyn, and Veturia Paula of Rome, like Macrina, are not the subjects they were once thought, but neither are they wholly gone. As representational subjects, female title bearers can illuminate the ways in which ancient synagogues used gender in their public presentations of leadership.
In response to post-structuralism’s attempted dissolution of history into textuality, Gabrielle Spiegel has formulated a stance by which literary text and historical context remain distinct but work in conjunction to create meaning . She argues that by heeding a text’s “social logic,” due diligence is given both to its contextual and discursive dimensions as simultaneous product and agent of social construction . Moreover, if the discursive power of a text is to be understood, it should be examined within a historical context which though distinct from the text itself simultaneously establishes its significance: “Historians must insist… on the importance of history itself as an active constituent of the elements which themselves constitute the text ( p. 83–84).” The theoretical relationship between history and text articulated by Spiegel offers a corrective to the current practice of reading synagogue title inscriptions as neutral records of historical fact. Indeed, a robust skepticism toward archaeological and epigraphic sources is particularly important, as these sources are often heralded as straightforward and unequivocal in their depiction of “real” women in contrast to more bias-prone literary sources . Determining the “social logic” of synagogue title inscriptions would involve renewed emphasis on the historical context of Jewish Diaspora communities as the social location reflected in and generative of these titles.
Repositioning the theoretical stance from which to view synagogue title inscriptions is the first step in moving the conversation in a productive direction. The insights developed by Clark and Spiegel in response to post-structuralist challenges to subject and history offer three new positions from which to think about title bearers. First, the subjects of inquiry are, of necessity, representations rather than real people. This is not to say that Rufina of Smyrna, for example, did not exist, but rather that the title inscription from which we know her is a contextually specific representation of Rufina as head of the synagogue. Second, title inscriptions participate in the construction of social meanings at the same time they purport to reflect those meanings. Again using Rufina as an example, her title inscription contributes to what it means to be a head of synagogue even as it describes Rufina. Third, the meaning of a synagogue title is not fixed, but fluid and signified through the discursive exchange between text and historical context. For example, both Rufina and a female, possibly an infant, from Cappadocia bear the title head of synagogue (, n. 255, [13,24]). The social logic of these texts would suggest that the title’s meaning is sufficiently fluid to allow both individuals to be heads of the synagogue without necessarily implying that they were heads of the synagogue in the same way. The significance of the term is mediated by each context in which it is invoked.
4. Comparative Analysis
Having established a new theoretical perspective for the study of synagogue title inscriptions, this paper offers two methodological lenses through which to view and reflect on the import of women as title bearers. The following comparative analyses do not aim to essentialize the social position of women in ancient synagogues, Greco-Roman civil society, and Islamist movements, but rather the opposite: to reveal the essentialization of women’s aspiration for power and autonomy that undergirds much of women’s historiography. Challenging this essentialism will allow more contextually credible constructions of women’s social locations.
Beginning in the Hellenistic period (ca. 150 BCE), the number of women represented in public inscriptions as holding civic offices increases, particularly in Asia Minor . Many scholars interpret this numerical increase in female civic title bearers as indicative of women’s enhanced influence and autonomy [26,27]. Particular interest is devoted to women credited with financing major events or monuments from their own monetary resources and without reference to a male relative: situations Paul Trebilco and others describe using the phrase “in her own right [28,29].” The significance of action “in her own right” rests on its belying Roman legal and literary evidence for women’s continued subordination to male authority: the former requires male authorization for women’s legal and financial transactions, at least in some cases, while the latter participates in the commonplace trope of women as the weaker sex . Once again we see inscriptions upheld as straightforward, unbiased reflections of reality, which contradict male manufactured texts that obscure women’s real life enhanced status .
Riet van Bremen has challenged two facets of current scholars’ methodological approaches to Greco-Roman civic inscriptions: first, that quantity begets quality; second, that action “in her own right” constitutes a standard by which status or authority could be measured in the ancient world . On the first point, van Bremen notes that the enumeration of women with titles is offered frequently as evidence for significance: “that by showing quantity… we are somehow able to make a positive qualitative point: ‘therefore women must have been prominent’, or some such statement (, p. 43).” In studies adopting this method, the link between quantity and quality is seemingly self-evident, as no explicit connection is drawn [28,29]. Women’s civic title inscriptions are a small percentage of the overall corpus, which does not make them insignificant, but does make an argument based on quantity suspect. On the second point, van Bremen observes that while independence is a modern criterion for assessing status and authority, it is anachronistic when applied to antiquity: “we need to understand the status, the roles and the civic activities of women within the context of the families to which they belonged. In other words, not ‘independence from’ but its diametrical opposite ‘belonging to’ is the criterion we should be applying when measuring status and power (, p. 45).” Van Bremen’s own approach, therefore, eschews both quantitative reasoning and the valuation of independence in favor of analyzing the social and familial contexts of specific titled women and drawing conclusions from those analyses. The following example illustrates this difference.
Plancia Magna of Perge, high priestess of the imperial cult and holder of other offices and liturgies, was responsible for funding the construction of a large gate complex in the city. Although married to a prominent senator from the family Iulii Cornuti, her husband is not mentioned in any of the dedicatory inscriptions from the gate complex. Is this an example of a woman acting “in her own right?” Van Bremen suggests rather that Plancia is acting as the local representative of her biological family. Her father and brother had senatorial careers in Rome, and so it fell to Plancia to represent the Plancii in their home-city of Perge . In Roman society’s reciprocity system, her civic contributions are necessary insomuch as they reflect and strengthen her family’s position as one of the first families of the city: as Seth Schwartz points out, a benefactor who ceases to support his (or her) city is no longer its benefactor (, p. 9). Such a conclusion does not detract from the significance of these responsibilities falling to Plancia. Instead, Plancia’s actions are situated in the more culturally credible context of her family’s civic responsibilities to the city of Perge. Ultimately, van Bremen’s analysis of gender representation in Greco-Roman civic inscriptions reveals complicated networks of familial and community interests that influenced the bestowal of titles to women, always to the benefit of said family and community rather than the individual title bearer.
In a recent monograph, Seth Schwartz explored the question of how Jewish communities reacted and adapted to Roman social systems founded on concepts of reciprocal exchange, given, as he notes, that the Hebrew Bible prioritizes solidarity over reciprocity in intra-human relationships (, pp. 25–33). Most relevant here is his exploration of patronage, benefaction, and honor in the Palestinian Talmud. Great discomfort is evinced on the part of the rabbis towards Jewish religious communities’ reciprocation of benefaction through honor and memorialization, including but not limited to epigraphic attestation of community gratitude for financial donations. At the same time, however, the rabbis demonstrate the internalization of these foreign values through the relationship between sage and students as well as in their desire that the honorability of the Torah, and themselves by extension, be recognized in Rome (, pp. 118–165). This tension reveals two things. First, honor was held as a socially functional commodity, even among conservative Jewish circles deliberately resistant to Roman values. Second, Jewish epigraphic memorialization was recognized, even among those who disapproved of it, as functioning within a Roman style system of euergetism. Their disapproval implies their recognition that reciprocity has become part and parcel of the synagogue institution.
A consideration of the interests and influence of family and community on the choice of synagogue title recipients lends itself to a reevaluation of titled women and female donors as operating within specific familial and social contexts as well as within specifically Jewish responses to the pressure of the Greco-Roman patronage system. A dedicatory inscription from a synagogue at Tralles records the following inscription: “I, Capitolina, the most revered and pious one, having made the entire dais, made the revetment of the stairs in fulfillment of a vow for myself, [my] children, and [my] grandchildren. Blessings (, n. 27).” An inscription from Phocaea reads, “Tation, daughter of Straton, son of E(m)pedon, having erected the assembly hall and the enclosure of the open courtyard with her own funds, gave them as a gift to the Jews (, n. 36).” A dedicatory inscription from Myndos records the chancel screen donation, “[From Th]eopempte, head of the synagogue ([ἀρ]χισυν), and her son Eusebios (, n. 25).”
In these three examples, Jewish women, including one with a synagogue title, are credited with making financial contributions to their synagogue communities from their own monetary resources and without reference to a husband or other legal guardian. Earlier scholars considered these examples as evidence for Jewish women acting “in their own right” in the areas of office holding and financial contributions. In light of van Bremen’s analysis, perhaps greater attention should be paid to the inclusion of Capitolina’s, Tation’s, and Theopempte’s biological family members than to the absence of their husbands. The emphasis on biological rather than marital relationships in these dedicatory inscriptions implies prioritizations of familial and community interests similar to those at work in Perge among the Plancii. The relative paucity of Jewish inscriptions as a whole in comparison to the Greco-Roman corpus makes van Bremen’s type of large scale contextual analysis difficult for synagogue title inscriptions. Nevertheless, her methodological insight regarding the importance of familial context in assessing the meaning and significance of women’s inscriptions should inform the study of female title bearers.
The positive valuation of action “in her own right” has its root in the discourse of feminist theory of the 1970s. A key area of focus is the workings of individual agency within the confines of a subordinating social or religious structure. Data are analyzed with the goal of detecting how women were able to subvert hegemonic cultural norms to serve their own interests and agendas . This action is characteristic of what feminist scholar Saba Mahmood calls “positive freedom,” which she describes as “the capacity to realize an autonomous will, one generally fashioned in accord with the dictates of ‘universal reason’ or ‘self-interest’, and hence unencumbered by the weight of custom, transcendental will, and tradition. In short… the capacity for self-mastery (, p. 11).” This positive notion of freedom often appears in feminist historiography (the her-story described by Joan Scott, for example) as the basis upon which specific instances of women’s self-directed actions are uncovered . Mahmood’s work on women’s participation in and support of Islamist movements exposes previously held assumptions regarding women’s universal desire for individuality and autonomy. Her research reveals women asserting themselves within male-dominated power structures, but with the goal of supporting the very discursive strategies that normalize and reify their subordination (, pp. 4–5). This insight encourages a reconsideration of the conclusion that female title bearers accrued, or even sought to accrue, equal power, authority, and responsibility within the synagogue community.
In her study of female participation in the women’s piety movement in Egypt, part of the larger Islamic Revival movement, Mahmood has had to contend with the paradoxical fact that large numbers of Muslim women actively and of their own volition support and strengthen cultural systems that reinforce their subordinate status. In the 1970s, Egyptian women began organizing neighborhood religious lessons focusing on the Qu’ran and other religious literature and the application of the tenets therein to everyday life, leading to an increase in veiling, in the production of religious media, and in rejection of perceived secularism and western culture in favor of the principles of Islamic piety and virtuous behavior (, p. 3). Mahmood notes that the seeming paradox of Egyptian women’s support for subordinating structures can be resolved if we discard our assumptions about the universal valuation of positive freedom. Rather than locating agency in political and moral autonomy, as feminist scholarship tends to do, she suggests that, “the meaning of agency must be explored within the grammar of concepts within which it resides (, p. 34).” Mahmood’s method, therefore, has clear similarities to van Bremen’s, insomuch as it relies upon context to create meaning.
To illustrate her method of analysis, Mahmood offers the example of Abir, who joined the piety movement against the wishes of her husband, Jamal (, pp. 176–180). Abir’s increasingly pious lifestyle included adopting the full body veil, performing routine religious observances, and attending religious lessons, as well as voicing objections to Jamal’s use of alcohol and pornography, and his lax observation of religious rituals. In defying the wishes of her husband by participating in the piety movement, Abir was actually violating the very tenets the movement espoused. Her defiance was successful for two reasons: first, because although Jamal did not support Abir’s pious behaviors, he did at heart share the beliefs that undergirded them; second, because through the instruction Abir received from the piety movement, she had the upper hand in their arguments about proper Islamic conduct. Mahmood summarizes the situation, “Abir’s ability to break from the norms of what it meant to be a dutiful wife were predicated upon her learning to perfect a tradition that accorded her a subordinate status to her husband (, p. 179).” While a traditional feminist reading might interpret Abir’s behavior as a subversion of her patriarchal cultural norms through the pursuit of her own agenda, such a reading would not take into account the grammar of concepts with which Abir conceptualizes her actions. She does not, for example, defy Jamal’s authority because she objects to it as such. Rather, she defies his impiety, exemplified both by his own behavior as well as his attempted restriction of her pious practices, using persistence and superior knowledge of virtuous conduct to achieve specific ends (, pp. 180; 187–188).
The methodological connection between analysis of the Egyptian women’s piety movement and the study of women’s synagogue inscriptions is not as immediately apparent as was the latter’s relationship to Greco-Roman women’s civic inscriptions. As discussed above, it is precisely the actions of title bearers that cannot be determined with any degree of certainty, and Mahmood’s work is, at heart, about women’s action. Although I cannot develop a detailed grammar of concepts to describe the actions of female title bearers in the way Mahmood can for the women of the piety movement, there are several ways in which her work can clarify the position of female title bearers. A preliminary benefit of embracing the idea of agency mediated by a grammar of concepts is abandoning terminology like “in her own right” in favor of terms derived from inscriptions themselves, such as Capitolina’s description as “most revered and pious one,” or Sophia of Gortyn’s epithet “the righteous one.” Although a discussion of the meanings of these qualities in these contexts is necessary, at least these terms originate in an ancient, rather than modern, conceptual world. Independent action is a modern value that should not be applied uncritically in ancient contexts. Moreover, following Mahmood’s method in prioritizing “the ends” over “the means” would mitigate the scholarly tendency to analyze and to value women’s title inscriptions as an end unto themselves. Insufficient attention has been paid to inscriptions’ “afterlife”: the ways in which titles continue to shape meanings and perceptions long after the demise of their bearers. By focusing on the ends to which women’s titles inscriptions contributed, the conversation re-centers productively on how representations of female title bearers served specific purposes in the Jewish communities of Late Antiquity.
A disconnect remains, however, between Mahmood’s conceptualization of agency, as embodied by Abir, and female title bearers, who I have insisted on discussing in terms of representation. A more direct connection can be made by combining Spiegel’s concept of social logic, van Bremen’s theory of familial context, and Mahmood’s notion of agency, and applying these ideas to the subset of title inscriptions that fall in the category of dedications. For although female title bearers in dedicatory inscriptions remain representations, they differ from women memorialized in funerary inscriptions in one crucial way: they are self-representations.
5. Patronage, Family, and Self-Representation
The question of who commissioned the inscriptions in question has yet to be addressed. Like their Greco-Roman counterparts, a small percentage of Jewish funerary inscriptions name a commemorator in addition to the deceased in mortuary inscriptions [3,36,37]. For example, an inscription from the Vigna Randanini catacombs reads, “Here lies Simplicia, mother of the synagogue, who loved her husband … of the synagogue for his own spouse … ” (, n. 251). Although incompletely preserved, the text indicates that Simplicia’s husband commissioned her mortuary inscription and, by implication, that he chose to commemorate her as mother of the synagogue. The majority of funerary inscriptions featuring female title bearers, like the majority of funerary inscriptions more generally, do not indicate a commemorator. It is reasonable to suggest, however, that they were commissioned by family or community members, whose choice of how to represent the deceased is reflected in the inscriptions.
Three of the 24 extant inscriptions naming female title bearers are not funerary in nature, however, and are instead dedicatory inscriptions: Rufina and Theopempte, who have already been introduced, as well as Jael, who is commemorated as a προστάτης (benefactor) in the monumental inscription from Aphrodisias (, n. 14). As living financial supporters of the projects for which they were commemorated, it stands to reason that they had influence over how they were commemorated. Thus the inscriptions of Rufina, Theopempte, and Jael are self-representations: a subcategory of female title bearers that bridges the gap, at least momentarily, between representation and reality.
As noted above, financial donation was one area of synagogue leadership for which there is corroborative evidence that women participated, and, like their Greco-Roman counterparts, both male and female Jewish donors could expect to receive titles and other rewards for their generosity. Like Plancia Magna, all three women represent themselves as acting within a familial structure: Theopempte and Jael by making donations in association with their sons, and Rufina by acting on behalf of her financial dependents and their descendents . Like Abir, all three women make use of the vocabularies available to them within their worlds’ grammar of concepts, not to subvert the system or to challenge their place within it, but to reinforce that system to the advantage of their families.
Rufina represents herself as head of the synagogue at Smyrna. The actions she commemorates, however, are not related to synagogue activities. Instead, in the inscription Rufina represents herself as performing the office of a patron for her clients in a manner indistinguishable from normative Greco-Roman patronage practice . In the context (or social logic) of this inscription, at least, the positioning of the title head of the synagogue alongside her name and self-identification as a Jew, and prior to the actual action commemorated by the inscription, reinforces the observation of Rajak and Noy that head of the synagogue was who Rufina was rather than what she did (, p. 89). The question remains: did Rufina exercise religious authority within her synagogue community?
However promising they appear, I would argue that title inscriptions are not helpful data for those asking questions about women’s religious authority in early Jewish communities. Despite the suggestive and seemingly unambiguous implication that phrases such as “head of the synagogue” offer, these titles are surrounded by too many unknowns . It is all too easy to envision the scenario in which Theopempte, Jael, and all the rest played prominent, official, and authoritative roles within the synagogues of Late Antiquity. This is our scenario, however, and is predicated upon how we think women can and should think, act, feel, and be.
I suggest that Rufina’s inscription, although with those of Theopempte and Jael, finds an appropriate grammar of concepts in Schwartz’s location of the synagogue within the Roman patronage system. According to this interpretation, synagogue title holders—both men and women—are awarded office on the basis of their status and wealth, with the expectation that as office holders they will continue as financial benefactors of the synagogue, garnering honor, prestige, and influence in return for their largesse. Rufina functioned as a patron, not only of her synagogue, but also for a group of dependent individuals, the construction of whose tomb she commemorates. In exchange for her patronage, she would have received loyalty, support, enhanced status, greater influence, and honor. Whatever other implications her title held, being head of the synagogue contributed to Rufina’s honorary status in the community of Smyrna. Likewise her inscription, designating her a Jew, an archisynagogos, and a patron, functioned simultaneously to create and to display her honored status.
Although Rufina’s self-representation as head of the synagogue is insufficient to conclude that she exercised religious authority within the synagogue at Smyrna, this conclusion does not detract from her significance for improving our understanding of women’s social positions in early Jewish communities. We can, for example, explore the social logic in each title inscription’s representation of gender, and articulate a grammar of concepts appropriate to the familial and community contexts that both created and are defined by these inscriptions. This approach frees the study of synagogue inscriptions from its current unproductive pattern and encourages new conversations about text, context, history, representation, and construction of gender in Jewish communities.
I am grateful to Laurie Maffly-Kipp and Jill Peterfeso, the guest editors of this volume of Religions, and to the anonymous reviewers for their gracious, valuable comments. Thanks are due as well to John-Charles Duffy, Cynthia Hogan, and Shenandoah Nieuwsma for their helpful input on this project. All remaining deficiencies are my own.
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Leiden, a town in the Dutch province of South Holland (1953 population, 91,632, with 626 Mennonites; 2014 population, 121,249), where Anabaptists have been found since the earliest period, who apparently at first mostly belonged to the revolutionary branch. Unemployment and poverty among the weavers, who were numerous in this city, were a fertile matrix for revolutionary teachings, which the Anabaptist elder Cornelis Pieters of den Briel proclaimed here soon after 1530. He was active in Leiden at several times. Pieter Pieters, alias Borrekieck, tried and executed at Amsterdam in July 1535, reports a number of names of Anabaptists at Leiden in 1534 who had been baptized by Cornelis Pietersz. In 1533 Jan Beuckelszoon (Jan van Leyden) lived here. In April 1534 an attack on the city was contrived but not carried out and in January 1535 a new attack was planned but prevented by treason. At that time a number of Anabaptists were apprehended and put to death. After Münster had fallen (25 July 1535) there were still some traces of Münsterism at Leiden, but gradually this declined and after a number of followers of Batenburg had been arrested in May 1544 the revolutionary Anabaptists disappeared. Apparently at that time a congregation of peaceful Anabaptists already existed, of whose earliest history not much is known. In 1544 Reyer Willemsz of Leiden is said to have circulated books by Menno Simons. There were some martyrs in 1552, and Leenaert Bouwens baptized 27 persons here in 1563-1565. About this time or shortly thereafter a number of Mennonites came from Flanders. About the circumstances of the Mennonites during the siege of the city by Spanish soldiers in 1574, no information is available.
In the last decades of the 16th century the schisms among the Dutch Mennonites caused a number of different branches at Leiden also. About 1600 four congregations existed: Flemish, Waterlander, Frisian, and High German. Perhaps there was also a French-speaking Waterlander congregation. There is only adequate information. only about the Waterlander and the Flemish. In both the Flemish and the Waterlander congregations a number of names are found which show that its members were refugees from Flanders and especially from French Flanders: Christian names, such as Jacques, Gilles, Francois, family names like Hennebo, Marville (Marvilje), Tavenne, des Mulliers, du Forest, Casier (Cesaer), Le Poole, van de Walle, de Pla (le Pla), Viane, Calvaert, Bossu, le Leu, and Roynaert.
Although no figures are available, it is known that the Flemish congregation was rather small. In 1626 its preachers Francois van Achterson, Joost Cassier, and Hendrick Ongena signed the Outerman confession, while in 1632 Christiaan de Koninck and Jan Weyns of Leiden signed the Dordrecht confession. This caused a schism in the Leiden Flemish congregation. A small number, following Elder Jan Rose, separated from the main body and did not return before 1663, after Rose had died. In 1639 the Frisian congregation, which had been joined by a number of High German Mennonites, merged with the Flemish church. In 1660 an old people's home, called De Hoeksteen, and intended for aged women of the congregations, was founded on Het Levendael. The congregation was conservative and a champion of strict Mennonitism. In 1660 together with the congregations of Rotterdam, Dordrecht, and Gouda, it arranged a meeting of Flemish elders and preachers, held at Leiden, 18-23 June, presided over by Tieleman Jansz van Braght, in which a number of church regulations were made and a strict attitude was stipulated against Galenus Abrahamsz and his followers. And after the Lammerenkrijg the Leiden Flemish congregations took the side of the Zonists. On 13 February 1701 it merged with the Waterlander congregation. At this time the conservative views seem to have disappeared, since in the stipulations of the union a clause is found in the formula of "benodiging" (invitation to the Lord's Supper) which is rather liberal, also admitting non-members to the communion service. The Flemish meetinghouse in the Boogaardsteeg was sold in 1726.
There is more detailed information about the history of the Waterlander congregation, always numbering a larger membership than the Flemish,. In the early 17th century it was usually called "Duitsche en Walsche Gemeente," i.e., Dutch and Walloon congregation. It is not clear whether there was an independent Walloon (French-speaking) Waterlander congregation at Leiden; a document of 1613 was signed in French by Jean (Jan) de Mortier as bishop of the congregation of the "Valons" at Leiden, by Jan des Mulliers as preacher, and by Joost Cesaer as deacon. Possibly the French-speaking did not form an independent church, but met separately as long as the French-speaking refugees did not understand the Dutch language. There is a nearly complete list of elders, preachers, and deacons of the Leiden Waterlander congregation from 1613. Figures about the number of members are not available, except those of 1675, when the number of baptized members was 165. After that year there was a considerable decrease of membership. Most members were rather well-to-do, as is proved from legacies made to the congregation. In 1630 one of the members, Gerrit van Hoogmade, a deacon, founded an old people's home, the "Hofje" called Bethlehem. This institution, located on the Levendaal, consisted of 16 small houses facing a court, in which the inmates had separate residences. These houses and also the old gate of 1631 were still standing in 1957. The congregation was represented in 1647 at the large Waterlander meeting at Amsterdam. Since 1638 it had its meetinghouse in the Pieterskerkstraat, which, though totally rebuilt, was still in use by the Leiden congregation. From 1675 the congregation, which had joined the Lamist conference of South Holland, insisted on thorough training of ministers. When the Waterlander and Flemish congregations had merged in 1701, the total membership numbered about 300. The hoped-for growth expected from the union was not realized. In 1737 the membership was 201, in 1799, 105, and in 1847 only 43. From then on there was a considerable increase: 115 in 1861, 455 in 1902, 442 in 1934, 500 in 1955.
The two old people's homes, De Hoeksteen and Bethlehem, were merged and in 1811 the Bethlehem house was sold. The Hoeksteen-hofje was henceforth called Bethlehem. Formerly the church board was supreme in governing the church. From 1701 until about 1914 only two congregational meetings (in 1810 and 1882) were held in which the brethren of the congregation were called to give advice to the church board. The preachers were chosen by the church board, while the board, assisted by the "Groote Kerkeraad," was self-perpetuating.
In 1774 a pipe organ was built in the meetinghouse, one of the first in a Dutch Mennonite church. In 1859 the meetinghouse was completely rebuilt. In 1752 the congregation took over the care of the property of the dissolved Mennonite congregation of The Hague, administering it and caring for Mennonites living at The Hague until a new congregation was formed there in 1882. Pastor Sepp of Leiden, who had given catechetical instruction at The Hague from October 1879, also preached from then until the new congregation called its own pastor in 1883.
From 1777-1787 Francois Adriaan van der Kemp was preacher at Leiden. By his patriotic sympathies and his aversion to nonresistance he caused some dissension in the congregation. He was followed by Jan Kops (1788-1800), Jan van Geuns (1789-1814), Abr. de Vries (1801-1803), Matthijs Siegenbeek (at the same time professor at the University of Leiden) (1804-1829), Isaac Molenaar (1814-1818), Anthony Doyer Thz. (1818-53), Christiaan Sepp (1854-82), Aemilius W. Wybrands (1882-86), Salvus Kutsch Lojenga (1887-1904), W. J. Kuhler (1905-1912), J. Wuite (1912-1925), L. Bonga (1926-1934), F. ten Cate (1935-1943), A. J. Snaayer (1944-1954), and S. L. Verheus from 1955. The members of the Leiden congregations were found in the city of Leiden and surrounding towns Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Katwijk, Noordwijk, Sassenhetm, Rijnsburg, and Alphen aan de Rijn. Church activities in the 1950s included a ladies' circle, young members group, Sunday school for children. The Leiden church has four large silver communion cups from 1705 and three pewter communion pitchers from about 1750.
Dit Boec wort genoemt: Het Offer des Herren, om het inhout van sommighe opgheofferde kinderen Godts . . . N.p., 1570: 195, 526, 578.
Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht en Gelderland, 2 vols. Amsterdam: P.N. van Kampen, 1847: Passim, see Index.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1875): 27-31; (1876): 62; (1892): 103-127; (1896): 60 f., 71; (1900): 15-19; (1907): 114, 116-120, 128-33; (1917): 149; (1918): 49, 53f.
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Knappert, L. De opkomst van het Protestantisme in eene Noord-Nederlandsche stad, 1908, passim; f.
Mellink, Albert F. De Wederdopers in de noordelijke Nederlanden 1531-1544. Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1954: 186-207.
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Reliwiki. "Leiden, Pieterskerkstraat 1 - Lokhorstkerk." 20 September 2013. Web. 12 October 2014. http://reliwiki.nl/index.php/Leiden,_Pieterskerkstraat_1_-_Lokhorstkerk.
Verhaat van 't gene verliandelt ende besloten is in de Byeenkomste tot Leyden. Amsterdam, 1661.
Additional Information
Congregation: Doopsgezinde-Remonstrantse Gemeente Leiden
Address: Pieterskerkstraat 1, 2311 SV Leiden, Netherlands
Church website: Doopsgezinde-Remonstrantse Gemeente Leiden
|Author(s)||Nanne van der Zijpp|
Cite This Article
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Leiden (Zuid-Holland, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1955. Web. 29 Jun 2016. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Leiden_(Zuid-Holland,_Netherlands)&oldid=132062.
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1955). Leiden (Zuid-Holland, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Leiden_(Zuid-Holland,_Netherlands)&oldid=132062.
©1996-2016 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:ab17f576-bf89-4ff9-bd6f-e60c012c1caa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Leiden_(Zuid-Holland,_Netherlands) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00180-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903829 | 2,958 | 3.15625 | 3 |
(Science: botany) Razor grass, any marine bivalve shell belonging to solen and allied genera, especially Solen, or Ensatella, ensis, and Americana, which have a long, narrow, somewhat curved shell, resembling a razor handle in shape. Called also rasor clam, razor fish, knife handle. Razor stone. Same as novaculite. Razor strap, or razor strop, a strap or strop used in sharpening razors.
Origin: OE. Rasour, OF. Rasur, LL. Rasor: cf. F. Rasoir, LL. Rasorium. See Raze, Rase. | <urn:uuid:523ef27a-ba25-4078-a3f8-cf33ae3a4be8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Razor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.829812 | 142 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Whats in a Name - Coral Reef?
John K. Reed
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Division of Biomedical Marine Research
Senior Research Scientist
Deep-water coral reefs, also referred to as bioherms, coral banks, or lithoherms, typically consist of thickets of live coral, capping mounds of unconsolidated sediment and coral rubble, and are often built upon an underlying rock base structure. Deep reefs usually are found in regions of fairly strong currents or zones of upwelling. The coral structures capture suspended sediment and build up mounds to heights of a few meters to 150 m (492 ft). Corals are found at average depths of 70 m to 1,000 m (230 to 3,280 ft). At these depths, the corals lack zooxanthellae, the algal symbiont found in shallow, reef-building corals. However, the deep-water reefs still provide habitat for thriving and diverse reef communities.
Two Types of Deep Reefs
Two types of deep-water coral reefsOculina and Lopheliaoccur off the coast of the southeastern United States, primarily between Florida and North Carolina. The geomorphology and functional structure of both the Oculina and Lophelia reefs are similar, but they occur at different depths. The deep-water Oculina coral reefs form an extensive reef system at depths of 70 m to 100 m along the shelf edge off the coast of central eastern Florida. These reefs are comprised of numerous pinnacles and ridges, and range from 3 m to 35 m in height. Each pinnacle is a bank of unconsolidated sediment and coral debris that is capped on the slopes and crest with living and dead colonies of Oculina varicosa, the ivory tree coral. These reefs were studied during NOAAs Islands in the Stream 2001 Expedition. In comparison, deep-water reefs of Lophelia pertusa corals occur at depths of 500 m to 850 m and form pinnacles up to 150 m tall along the base of the Florida-Hatteras slope in the Straits of Florida. On the western edge of the Blake Plateau off South Carolina and Georgia, banks that reach 54 m high of Lophelia occur at depths of 490 m to 550 m. On the eastern edge of the plateau, the reefs form structures 146 m high and at depths of 640 m to 869 m.
Coral Description and Distribution
In deep water (more than 60 m), Oculina varicosa forms spherical, bushy colonies that are 10 cm to 1.5 m in diameter and height. The branches average 6 mm in diameter near the tips and frequently fuse together. Individual corals may grow together to form linear colonies 3 to 4 m in length, or they may form massive thickets of contiguous colonies on the slopes and crests of the deep-water reefs. The deep-water Oculina varicosa lacks zooxanthellae and is white. In shallow water, however, Oculina varicosa is usually golden brown because it is infused with the algal symbiont. The shallow-water colonies average 30 cm in diameter, with thicker branches, but they do not form thickets or coral banks like the deep-water form.
Similar in gross morphology to Oculina, Lophelia pertusa coral also forms massive, bushy colonies, 10 cm to 150 cm in diameter, with branches that may grow together. It is distributed throughout the western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, and also in the eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian, and eastern Pacific Oceans at depths of 60 m to 2170 m.
Coral Growth and Reef Age
Oculina varicosa occuring at a depth of 80 m grows an average of 16 mm per year. At this rate a large, 1.5-m-high colony may be nearly a century old. Lophelia pertusa have shown comparable growth rates of 6-25 mm per year. Both types of reefs are found in areas of upwelling along the shelf edge. Thus, it is likely that the upwelling of nutrient-rich water onto the shelf and subsequent increases in plankton may enhance the growth of the coral.
Using radiocarbon dating techniques, dead Lophelia reefs in the Gulf of Mexico were estimated to be about 40,000 years old. Dead Lophelia from the Straits of Florida were dated at 28,170 years. Likely, these Oculina reefs were exposed about 15,000 years ago during the height of the Wisconsin glacial period, when the water stand was extremely low. Radiocarbon dating has helped us estimate that these current Oculina reefs began to form about 980 years ago, which makes them relatively young.
Deep-water Coral Reef Communities
The deep-water coral reefs support very rich communities of associated invertebrates and fish. Faunal diversity on the Oculina reefs is very highequivalent to many shallow-water tropical reefs. More than 20,000 individual invertebrates were found living among the branches of 42 small Oculina colonies from deep and shallow water, yielding 230 species of mollusks, 50 species of decapods, 47 species of amphipods, 21 species of echinoderms, 15 species of pycnogonids, and numerous other taxa. One striking difference between the Oculina and Lophelia reefs is that larger sedentary invertebrates such as massive sponges and gorgonians found on the Lophelia reef are not common on the deep-water Oculina reefs. Rather, the Oculina coral itself is the dominant component on these reefs.
The Lophelia reefs support large populations of massive sponges and gorgonians in addition to the smaller macroinvertebrates which have not been studied in detail. Dominant macrofauna include large plate-shaped sponges and fan-shaped sponges that grow to over 1 m.
Bottom trawling and dredging can cause severe damage to these deep reefs, as indicated on deep-water Oculina reefs off the coast of Florida, Lophelia reefs off Norway, and deep-water seamounts off New Zealand and Tasmania. During NOAAs Islands in the Stream 2001 Expedition, researchers documented extensive damage apparently from shrimp trawling on the Oculina reefs. Moreover, the Institute of Marine Research of Norway has documented severe damage to the Lophelia from shrimp trawling. In addition, most deep-water fish stocks are overfished or depleted in these areas. Because most benthic fisheries focus on apex predators such as groupers, snappers, and sharks, removal of these predators and other ecologically important species may have severe long-term repercussions to the fisheries.
Deep-water Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas
The deep-water Oculina reefs were the first deep-water reefs in the world to be designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA). A 92 sq.-mile Oculina Habitat of Particular Concern (HAPC) was designated off the coast of Florida in 1984 and was expanded to include 300 sq. mi. in 2000. Meanwhile, the need to protect other deep-water reefs has gained worldwide attention. Recently, Norway designated its first MPAthe first MPA to protect deep-water Lophelia coral reefs. In Canadian waters, the Northern Coral Forest MPA has been proposed for deep-water, soft coral habitats off Nova Scotia. A deep-water marine reserve was established in 1995 on the continental shelf south of Tasmania over an area of 370 sq. km. It protects 14 deep-water seamounts that are known to be highly diverse but limited to that region. In fact, up to 43 percent of the Tasmanian seamount fauna are new to scientists, and up to 33 percent are restricted to this environment.
Future of Deep Water Reefs
Because most MPAs are so remote and far away from the coast, it is extremely difficult to patrol and enforce restrictions within them on a 24/7 basis. However, random surveillance by spotter planes and enforcement vessels may discourage the major offenders. Educating the commercial and recreational fishing communities about the importance and delicate nature of these rich resources is also important. This will lead to better self-regulation and surveillance by the fishing community itself. Only by sharing knowledge of these deep-water coral reefs with the public through videos, photos, and educational efforts will we gain their understanding and acceptance of the need to protected these important resources.
Sign up for the Ocean Explorer E-mail Update List. | <urn:uuid:3b20503b-bcff-422f-a5b8-8216fd553f00> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02sab/background/corals/corals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932748 | 1,791 | 3.953125 | 4 |
|The following description is based upon fieldwork conducted in 1991 at Malimbong, Rembon, in the district of Saluputti, Tana Toraja. The article focuses on the ritual art of making an effigy of an old woman called Ne' Bine' (80 years old) who died in 1989 and was given a high class (rapasan) funeral ceremony which was still based on aluk to dolo in 1991.
The rites and wood material of the tau-tau may vary from region to region and in accordance with the social status of the deceased. Some people are permitted only to have tau-tau lampa, 'the temporary effigy which is made of bamboo'. Others may afford to have tau-tau made of kapok tree. The high class people may have an effigy which is made of jackfruit tree.
The effigy of Ne' Bine' is made of jackfruit wood (nangka), one of the highest quality of wood material reserved for a noble man and noble woman only. As we know, in Toraja man and woman have an equal right to have an effigy. The construction of an effigy of Ne' Bine' is an integrative part of the second part of the death ritual, which was carried out from July to August 1991.
The person who carved Ne' Bine's tau-tau is called Ne' Sanda. At the age of 70 the master artist has been able to make three effigies. He claimed that he was the only effigy maker, being available for the villages of Kole and Ulu Salu. This means that only the person of utmost importance in the villages could have the tau-tau. He strongly criticized the present style of effigy whose face resembled the face of the dead person. For him, such construction has lost its sacred quality.
Effigy in Toraja is called tau-tau, and this word is derived from the root tau (its cognate form is to) which means 'person'. The reduplication form of tau-tau implies a negative sense, that is 'not a real person'. It is sometimes called bombo, 'spirit' or payo-payo, 'shadow'. Within the death ritual context, tau here refers to to mate, 'dead person' while tau-tau refers to its representation so the contrast is between tomate and tau-tau. How are we to understand the relationship between the two within the cultural framework of Toraja people?
While many people have interpreted this effigy as a representation of the dead person (patung orang mati), one must be careful of such interpretation because it seems to emphasize the death aspect of it. Rather, this effigy is best understood as an ancestral figure emphasizing the Torajan worldview of the principle of continuity of cyclic life.
||This principle is culturally played out in three cultural forms of eulogizing the effigy (massinggi'tau-tau), the ritual of making an effigy (manggaraga tau-tau) and the death ritual (rapasan), the structure of which bears iconic relationship to each other.
The text of eulogy of the effigy (singgi' tau-tau), which is narrated by the ritual specialist (to minaa) after the completion of the effigy has the structure which consists of the beginning of life in heaven, life in this world and life after death. The purpose of making the effigy is to symbolically enact such continuity of life, through the mediation of east ritual and west ritual interchangeably performed within the totality of death ritual context. One can not fail to note that a number of rites performed in the death ritual are actually structured on the opposition between life and death (as it is exemplified in the opposition between ma'karu'dusan, 'to cause the dead person to die' and ma'tundan, 'to cause the dead person to wake up').
The first section of eulogy deals with the two phases of life: the heavenly origin of life, the mythical reality of pregnancy and childbirth in heaven, and the earthly life in this world.
The heavenly origin of life is performatively enacted by pande tau-tau (the effigy maker) by carving the head and the body of an effigy on the wood material of a jackfruit tree. All rites that accompany the fashioning of the head and the body of the effigy are classified as life ritual (aluk rampe matallo). The art work begins after performing the rite of ma'tundan, 'to wake up the dead person', the rite of the second part of the high class death ritual. Using a pencil and a sharp knife, the effigy maker begins to fashion a life-size effigy detailing each part of the body from the face (dibala lindo) to the legs and arms (ma'lette' and ma'lima').
After shaping the head, the effigy maker continues to carve in sequence the mouth (ma'sadang), nose (ma'illong), eyes (ma'mata), ears (ma'talinga), teeth (mangngasa isi), neck (ma'baroko), breast (ma'barangkang), waist and sexual organ (ma'lassak), legs (ma'lette'), and arms (ma'lima), each of which is respectively preceded by a rite of sacrificing a pig (bai todi') used as an offering to both deities and the ancestors.
When the carving is finished the rite of massabu is performed to mark the completion of the effigy. This part is the symbolic enactment of the birth of the noble lady. One pig is sacrificed for an offering to the deities and ancestors. The performance of this rite marks the beginning of a number of activities for the coming big ritual.
The eulogy further talks about the second phase of life, focusing on the growth of the noble lady from childhood to maturity, her agricultural activities and ritual achievements in this world (lino). Within the ritual context of carving an effigy, such growth is symbolically enacted in the rite of cutting the hair (ma'ku'ku') for the first time, the rite of giving attire to the effigy (ma'pake), and the rite of betrothal (ma'pasa' tau-tau).
The rite of cutting the hair signifies nobility and marks the separation from the previous world. In this ritual event one pig is sacrificed, the meat of which is used as offerings for deities and ancestors.
Once this is over the effigy is given attire and accessories according to sex (ma'pake). The effigy is dressed in traditional Toraja clothing and the use of such costumes symbolize maturity. Over her head is placed a folded sarong (lullung) which indicates the style from that area. Around her head is tied the sa'pi' (a kind of ornament made from beadwork and silver), the front part of her head is given ornament consisting of strips of bamboo with curly ends (pangngarru'), spangles of goldleaf (tida-tida), and chicken feathers (bulu manuk) . A necklace (manik kata) beautifies her neck, and around her waist is tied the beadwork (ambero). Over her shoulder a small pouch containing betel nuts (sappa manik) is hung.
|As soon as this work has been completed the effigy is placed at the west side of ricebarn facing the house in which the dead person is located.
In the following several days the rites that are performed center on the wrapping of the bodily remains (mebalun). Previously, the body is let to decompose in the temporary boat-shaped coffin (karopi').
Further in eulogy, it is mentioned that as she becomes adult she goes to the market and meets her partner there. Within the ritual context, on the day when the temporary coffin is buried, this event of meeting a spouse is performatively enacted in the rite of ma'pasa' tau-tau . It is a kind of the rite of betrothal which is performed by carrying the effigy in a ritual procession to the market on the market day at Rembon. As the procession arrives the effigy is put to rest. People in the market come to bring the offerings such as betel nut, tobaccos and others. A pig is sacrificed to mark this event.
|The next day the rite of ma'parampo tau-tau, 'marriage ceremony' is performed. This rite enacts and commemorates the marriage ceremony of the dead person. Another pig is sacrificed for the day. Finally, the second section of eulogy talks about the most important rite which marks the transition from the earthly life to the heavenly one. This transition is enacted in the rite of ma'tatau, 'the conversion ritual' which is a kind of the rite of passage entering into the next phase of life. After being given some offerings and food the effigy is turned first to east (symbol of life) and then to west (symbol of death).
At this point the effigy partakes in the next phase of life of the deceased (life after death). As it is narrated in eulogy, the soul travels to south and ascends to sky and becomes deified ancestors (to membali Puang). When the funeral procession is made to the funeral site the effigy goes with it. And when the dead person is interred into a stone grave the effigy is also put there. Traditionally, the effigy is placed on the balcony in front of the grave but considering the fact that the stealing of effigies have increased in the past several decades, Ne' Bine''s tau-tau is placed inside the grave.
||After a long period of time, the ritual of conversion for effigy is further reinforced by the rite of ma'balik bane'. By performing this rite the family members believe that the soul has turned into deified ancestor (tomembali puang), which according to some, is then manifested in the effigy. The tau-tau then functions to re-present life cycle of the deceased with the emphasis on the continuity of life after death, the pinnacle of life which can be achieved only through the mediation of death ritual. For that very reason tau-tau is best understood as the representation of ancestral life.
The tau-tau is respected by Toraja people and it is held to be sacred. When tau-tau has been placed on the balcony in front of the grave it is strictly forbidden to touch it except on the ma'nene' ceremony (contacting the ancestors). In this ritual event, the clothes of tau-tau worn out by rain, sun and wind should be changed. When the family members want to give an offering to the dead, it is placed on tau-tau's palm.
Author: Stanislaus Sandarupa
Hasanuddin University, Makassar (South Sulawesi)
The University of Chicago | <urn:uuid:c142b252-05be-4a1e-8e50-82aca09dad25> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.toraja.net/culture/tautau/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945932 | 2,378 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Wall Street Journal April 8, 2005 As the Stakes Increase, Prime-Number Theory Moves Closer to Proof By SHARON BEGLEY
The English mathematician G.H. Hardy (1877-1947) was an avowed atheist, but not above hedging his bets. Whenever he had to cross the Channel, he mailed postcards to friends saying he had proved the "Riemann hypothesis," an intriguing mathematical conjecture about prime numbers that had been proposed (but not proved) by Bernhard Riemann in 1859. By the early 20th century the Riemann hypothesis had become a Holy Grail for mathematicians. Hardy was therefore sure that if, on the off chance, God did exist, He would never let Hardy take the proof, unpublished, to a watery grave (Hardy also was apparently sure God would fall for the empty boast on the postcard).
In the decades since, the legend of the Riemann hypothesis has only grown, becoming "the most important unsolved problem in mathematics," says mathematician Dan Rockmore of Dartmouth College, author of a nifty new book, "Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis: The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers." Since 2000, the problem also has had a bounty on its head. The Clay Mathematics Institute, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., is offering $1 million to the first person who can prove it.
The prize sits unclaimed. But after a century of progress that can charitably be described as fitful, "frustration has begun to give way to excitement, for the pursuit of the Riemann hypothesis has begun to reveal astounding connections among nuclear physics, chaos and number theory," Prof. Rockmore says.
What these appear to have in common is prime numbers, because deep down the Riemann hypothesis describes in detail how prime numbers are sprinkled along the number line. Primes are numbers that can be evenly divided only by themselves and 1. So 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 are prime, as are 199, 409, 619, 829, 1039, 1249, 1459, 1669, 1879, 2089.
This last string is curious because the primes in it all are separated by 210. Last spring, two mathematicians proved that there exist strings (separated not by 210 but by other intervals) that contain an arbitrarily-long run of primes. That is, you can find a number, keep adding another number to it and get a run of primes as long as you like. Because prime numbers underlie digital cryptography and Internet security, such deep truths have become more than mere oddities.
An early discovery about the primes was that there is an infinite number of them, sprinkled "like indivisible stars scattered without end throughout a boundless numerical universe," Prof. Rockmore writes. But how infinite? Although most of us think of infinity as one big number, some infinities are bigger than others. The number of numbers divisible by 2 is infinite, and so is the number divisible by 9. But the first infinity is bigger. There also is an infinite number of squares (4, 9, 16 ...) and cubes (8, 27, 64 ...), but more primes than either.
In 1859, Riemann got an inkling of how the primes thin out as you go along the number line. The number of primes around a particular number, he knew, equals the reciprocal of (that is, 1 divided by) the natural logarithm of that number. The natural logarithm of a number equals how many times you have to multiply a number called e (about 2.718) by itself to get that number. At around one million, whose logarithm is about 13, every 13th number or so is prime. At one billion, whose log is about 21, about every 21st number is prime.
Riemann wanted to fathom why the heck primes were related to logarithms. He suspected he might find a clue in a formula that adds up 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1-over-every-other-counting-number, but with the twist that each fraction is raised to an exponent (multiplied by itself some number of times). For bizarre exponents -- those that use the imaginary number the square root of -1 -- this sum equals zero. Riemann guessed at the general form of these "magical exponents." If his hypothesis is right, then mathematicians will know how primes thin out along the number line.
Proving the hypothesis means proving that every exponent of the form Riemann described makes the sum of the fractions zero. For more than a century mathematicians have been testing the magical exponents. In 1903 a researcher checked the first 15. By the 1930s, others had verified the first 1,000. By 1968, they had 3.5 million. Two years ago an IBM researcher using 500 computers verified the first 50 billion.
But that doesn't count as proving all of Riemann's exponents work. What if the 50-billionth-and-1st doesn't? The $1 million still is up for grabs.
The stakes are actually higher. The Riemann hypothesis now has been shown to underlie a plethora of puzzles in physics and math. The pattern of his magical exponents is related to the energies of particles in atomic nuclei, the energies of waves that fit precisely on geometric surfaces that describe space in Einstein's general theory of relativity, waiting times on bank lines and even how many cards you have to move to order the hand you're dealt in bridge. Why that should be so is -- depending how you look at it -- a coincidence, a profound truth of nature, or proof that God has a sense of humor. Maybe Hardy had the right idea with those postcards. | <urn:uuid:f9787c5a-f03b-407a-b2c0-aed5ffb7e2c5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1137228&tstart=135 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9588 | 1,217 | 2.546875 | 3 |
MAKING THE REVOLUTION: AMERICA, 1763-1789
A Summer Institute for High School Teachers of History, Literature, and Art
June 23 to July 4, 2008, at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, NC
In what ways was the American Revolution a civil war?
What distinguished Loyalists from Patriots?
How did Americans construct a variety of meanings for the War?
What was the global impact of the American Revolution?
Under the direction of leading scholars, institute participants will examine how and why the British changed the rules by which they governed their American colonies. This will lead to a thorough consideration of the Imperial Crisis. Participants will also consider how the Revolution shaped ideas about liberty, with particular attention to matters of religious freedom and gender issues. In addition, they will examine the American Revolution in a global context.
The institute is open to high school teachers of history, literature, and art.
Participants will receive a stipend of $1,000. The National Humanities Center will cover the cost of travel and provide lodging.
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The gladiolus is a spectacular flower that can brighten up any garden around the globe. Trouble is that it does not grow everywhere in the world because in some places it is simply too cold for the gladiolus to survive. Although it is possible to hibernate the gladiolus corms using a method called winterization it does not mean that all of the corms will survive and the extra work it means might just not make it worth it. Luckily that is where the hardy gladiolus steps in.
The thing about the hardy gladiolus is that the only difference between it and any normal gladiolus is that it can take cold a little bit better. It will not make it hardier against winds, diseases or any other problem that might show up in the garden but a little cold is no problem. A lot of cold, however, is. The hardy gladiolus corm might survive temperatures around freezing but if it drops further this special hybrid of gladiolus will freeze to death all the same. So you better make sure that the gladiolus corm will be alright in your garden even before you buy it, otherwise it will just be a total waste of money.
How cold it may get in your area is not only dependent on your geographical location, although it is a huge part of it. Closeness to the sea and other factors is very important to know and think about when deciding if the hardy gladiolus is the right thing to plant in the garden. Strong cold winds can also be a real hazard for the hardy gladiolus as it will freeze the ground without any trace. In a garden there are also often specific spots where cold air tends to gather up, these spots will be the first ones to freeze so it will be a shame to plant the hardy gladiolus there. Learn all you can about your garden before planting the hardy gladiolus, or any other plant, and it will help a long way on the road.
If there are any risk that the temperature will drop it is possible to help the hardy gladiolus out momentarily. Most people do not have heating under their gardens and although that would be the simplest and best solution there are other ways to keep the hardy gladiolus safe. By insulating the hardy gladiolus somewhat it will be able to hang in there for a few more days so it is just a temporary solution to a temporary problem, there is no way to hibernate the hardy gladiolus in the ground in several cold degrees with just insulation. Good materials for insulation are the general compost material as extra soil, autumn leaves, wood chips and real insulation mats. With a little luck the hardy gladiolus will survive the short-lived frostbite and bloom again in the spring. | <urn:uuid:327da8bf-3b58-48b4-9a25-568b51924221> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gladiolusguide.com/hardy-gladiolus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938939 | 578 | 3.0625 | 3 |
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Any DC appliances can then be run directly from the battery, but AC
appliances will need a inverter to change/convert the DC power stored in the battery into AC electricity of 230V AC | <urn:uuid:6ded8f5a-2d5f-44c4-9037-8a96b80eed53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.howzit.co.za/business-services/solar-power/kwazulu-natal/pietermaritzburg/5-777-29733/kzn-solarpower-solar-power-manufacturer-and-installer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89989 | 201 | 2.6875 | 3 |
TEKARIHOGEN (Dekarihokenh, Ahyonwaeghs, Ahyouwaeghs, John Brant), Mohawk chief and Indian Department official; b. 27 Sept. 1794 near present-day Brantford, Ont., a member of the turtle clan and youngest son of Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea*] and his wife Catharine [Ohtowaˀkéhson*]; d. there 27 Aug. 1832 and was buried the same day.
John Brant probably received some early education in the school for Indian children at the Mohawk village where he was born. Following his parents’ move in 1802 to the vicinity of Burlington Bay (Hamilton Harbour), his education was completed at nearby Ancaster and then at Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake); one of his teachers was Richard Cockrell, a number of whose pupils went on to prominence in Upper Canadian life. Brant must have learned well, for engineer John Mactaggart remarked after making his acquaintance years later, “I have not met a more polite gentleman or a better scholar in all Canada.”
As the War of 1812 approached, many Mohawks, influenced by Red Jacket [Shakóye:wa:thaˀ] and others as well as by unhappy memories of the American revolution, hesitated to commit themselves to a fray. John Brant betrayed no such hesitation and with John Norton and a party of like-minded Indians helped stop an invading American force at Queenston Heights on 13 Oct. 1812. In April 1813 he was made a lieutenant in the Indian Department and he took part in the defeat of the Americans at Beaver Dams on 24 June, a victory that British officer James FitzGibbon* later credited entirely to the Indian contingent. Brant served in most of the subsequent skirmishes on the Niagara frontier and in the battles of Chippawa, Lundy’s Lane, and Fort Erie. On 9 Jan. 1814, disgusted with those of his compatriots who refused to fight, he joined his uncle Henry Tekarihogen, George Martin*, and others in signing a petition that begged the government to withhold the usual annual presents from such disloyal Indians.
Some time after his father’s death in 1807, Brant’s mother had returned to the Grand River, taking the younger children with her. At the war’s end, Brant and his sister Elizabeth went back to the family house at Burlington Bay, where they lived in the English style. Their mother, who preferred Mohawk ways, remained at the Grand River.
Brant must still have been quite young when it became clear that he had the qualities that would fit him for the position of Tekarihogen, the primary chieftainship of the Six Nations Confederacy, which was hereditary in his mother’s family. He could look forward to considerable influence, since to the prestige of that office he would add the knowledge of white ways that had been a major source of his father’s power. As early as 1819 he was assisting Henry Tekarihogen, who was growing old and blind, in the Six Nations’ dispute with white authorities over the nature and extent of their land grant on the Grand River. Governor Frederick Haldimand* had in 1784 bestowed lands “Six Miles deep from each Side of the River beginning at Lake Erie, & extending in that Proportion to the Head of the said River,” and the Indians had been struggling for years to get the grant confirmed by formal deed in fee simple. They were especially anxious about the northern half of their property which had a flaw in its title, this part of the tract not having been bought from its original Mississauga Ojibwa owners before Governor Haldimand made his grant – an error easily explained by the lack of proper surveys and by the general ignorance of the country in 1784. The Six Nations had always expected and hoped that a legal purchase would eventually be made for them which would set this error straight. But when a purchase was finally made in 1819, Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland* informed the Indians in no uncertain terms that the land had been bought for white settlers, not for them.
In 1821 John Brant and Robert Johnson Kerr finally went to England to lobby on behalf of the Six Nations. The two delegates argued that the transfer of the valley from the Mississaugas to the Six Nations had actually been made by an agreement between those groups prior to Haldimand’s proclamation and that the parties to this agreement had understood that the entire valley was being transferred. Brant and Kerr also remarked that it was absurd to maintain that titles were invalid because the king had not purchased the lands from the original proprietors. “The principle is undoubtedly just towards those proprietors,” they observed, “but Europeans have derived their title to the greatest part of America from other sources.” They proposed that their case be submitted to the law officers of the crown. The Colonial Office countered by suggesting that the Indians relinquish their claim to the disputed lands in return for a deed in a fee simple to the undisputed ones. Brant and Kerr offered to accept the deed and leave compensation for the disputed lands to arbitration, but the Colonial Office insisted on its own suggestion and by the end of April 1822 they had given in.
Once the delegates were back in Upper Canada, further difficulties arose. As in the time of Joseph Brant, the provincial government was opposed to any arrangement that would allow Indians to sell their own lands, and it was announced to the Six Nations at a council in February 1823 that if they were to receive their lands in fee simple, they would no longer be entitled to presents. Despite this threat, at a full council on the Grand River in September Brant managed to get the assent of a majority of chiefs to the agreement made in England, and seven chiefs were named as trustees for the lands. The government countered the following spring, when William Claus, the deputy superintendent general of Indian affairs in Upper Canada, told a council that in the opinion of the attorney general the Indians would, as a consequence of the grant in fee simple, become entirely subject to all the laws in force in Upper Canada. A number of chiefs who had supported Brant in September thereupon withdrew their approval and he was left in a minority. Through John Galt* he protested to the Colonial Office in the autumn of 1825, but the vigorous opposition from Upper Canada had won the day and formal control over the sale of Indian lands remained with the colony’s government until 1841. In that year the problem of the alienation of the Grand River lands was finally settled, when the Indians surrendered them to the crown to be managed on their behalf.
Brant was involved in many other activities aimed at improving the lot of his people. In London he had been in contact with the New England Company, a non-sectarian missionary society, and on his return home he worked closely with that organization, welcoming missionaries of all Protestant faiths and encouraging the construction of schools. In 1829 he received a silver cup from the society in recognition of his work.
On 25 June 1828 Brant was officially appointed resident superintendent of the Six Nations of the Grand River, a position which involved close supervision of their affairs and which he held until his death. In practice, he looked after not only the Six Nations but also other Indian groups who had settled alongside them. One of his first challenges was to fight the damming of the river by the Welland Canal Company. The welfare of Indians counted little with the government when weighed against canals, and despite forceful protests made as soon as he read of the scheme, he lost. “I am very anxious to receive His Excellency’s commands as to the Nature of the Explanation to be made to the Six Nations,” he rather pointedly remarked to Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne* in June 1829. In December he wrote, “I have the honor to report . . . that the dam thrown a cross the Grand River by the Welland Canal Company has overflowed the Indian Corn fields their Crops laid waste and their winters provision destroyed.”
Brant also led the Six Nations in their dispute with John Claus, who on the death of his father, William, in 1826 had become trustee for funds belonging to the Indians. The Indians wanted to invalidate an enormous land grant obtained from them by the elder Claus shortly before his death; in retaliation, John Claus withheld the interest on the money of which he was trustee. In this controversy Brant succeeded to the extent that in 1830 Claus was dismissed.
Either with the death of Henry Tekarihogen in 1830 or perhaps shortly before, Brant officially assumed the ancient office and title. Moreover, he ran for the Upper Canadian House of Assembly in the riding of Haldimand in 1830. He took his seat in January 1831 but his election was challenged on the grounds that some of those who voted for him were leaseholders rather than the freeholders required by law, and in February his opponent John Warren was declared elected. Both men died in the cholera epidemic of 1832. In Brant’s case it is not clear whether he succumbed to the disease itself or to the ministrations of the white doctors who were called in to treat him. He was not yet 38.
Many years later, a resident of the Burlington Bay area remembered John Brant at the time he had lived there. He had been a young man fond of dancing who had regularly attended neighbourhood parties and who had “so entirely given up the manner of the Indians that it would not be discovered that he was of the original inhabitants of the Country unless attention was called to it.” Other evidence suggests that, although Brant had adopted an English gentleman’s style of living, he was capable of Mohawk behaviour when dealing with other Mohawks. Yet in personal terms he paid a price for his accomplishments. He never married, and he is said to have commented rather wistfully on the subject to missionary Richard Phelps: “I might have married a fine English lady. I was thought something of there, even by the nobility. I was considered almost a king. But to . . . bring her here and let her see the degraded state of the people that I ruled, would have broken her heart.” He was proud of his heritage, however, and went out of his way to defend his father’s name, taking indignant exception to an article in John Strachan*’s Christian Recorder that portrayed him in an unfavourable manner. He apparently secured an apology from Strachan. When he was in England he undertook to demonstrate to poet Thomas Campbell, who had maligned the elder Brant as “the Monster” chiefly responsible for the “Wyoming massacre” of 1778, that his father was not even present. Campbell later apologized in print to the memory of Joseph Brant.
A portrait of John Brant, reproduced in William Leete Stone’s biography of Joseph, reveals an amiable countenance but little of his Indian heritage. He was broad shouldered and about six feet three inches tall – an impressive height for the time. What struck people, however, was his bearing. Jurist Marshall Spring Bidwell* remembered his “dignity and composure,” and Phelps was awed by “the dignity, the authority, the power there was in [his] look, gesture and emphasis.” | <urn:uuid:6c67e91c-a60e-45a6-9d50-b7a68a295e8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tekarihogen_1794_1832_6E.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00046-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988742 | 2,400 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The old adage tells us, ‘Cognition comes through comparison’. Really it is hard to qualify anything as absolute in our world. As long as there are people with their unique tastes, preferences and views, there will be comparison and of course comparative analysis. Perhaps no writer, actor, musician or painter ever escaped comparison with someone else. For this purpose a comparative analysis essay and a comparative analysis paper are usually written.
As you might have guessed the comparative analysis essay includes not only writer’s personal opinion but also critical comparative analysis. The main goal of the comparative analysis essay is a comprehensive analysis of works, for instance books, and their comparison.
With the help of the recommendations in this article you will be able to write the comparative analysis essay on any topic better and faster. With each new experience in writing the comparative analysis essay you will develop your own methods and principles. Analytical and comparative skills will stand you in good stead in real life. And finally instead of ‘I like this more than that’ you will provide an argumentative comparative analysis on the topic. | <urn:uuid:e99afd61-b628-4259-b3f3-1f1e8caed731> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://custom-paper-writing.com/blog/comparative-analysis-essay.html | 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 | 0.94509 | 223 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Few compositions by the 15th-century French composer Firminus Caron survive, but a new 2013 recording from the vocal ensemble“The Sound and the Fury” presents a great deal of Caron’s music. Their three-disc set includes five masses and several chanson.
Caron seems to have been among the successful composers of his time. In 1473, the writer and music theorist Tinctoris praised Caron alongside Ockeghem, Busnoys and Regis as “the most outstanding of all composers I have heard.”
It’s interesting to note that very little of this French composer’s music has been preserved in French sources. Caron’s masses, for example, survive mostly in Italian sources. The French sources are assumed to have been destroyed in the late 18th century with the purging and destruction of churches during the French Revolution.
It seems that no fashionable 15th-century French composer could get away without writing a Missa L’homme arme, and Caron certainly followed suite! A genre that was already ubiquitous, Caron’s L’homme Arme is a little more abstract than others. Except for a nearly full statement of the Cantus Firmus in the Agnus Dei, throughout the rest of the mass the tenor appears in fragments and paraphrases of the melodic L’homme Arme material.
The chansons included on disc three of this set are some of the most enjoyable of the whole recording. Written mostly for three voices, the compositions show a transitional thinking towards music with a more defined bass and a greater use of duple meter. | <urn:uuid:650d6a56-d9ea-4b7a-881a-699df237d23d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/firminus-caron/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962085 | 351 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Oct 5 2009
The Arab Muslim slave trade is alive and well in Sudan where black Muslims are slaughtered and brutalized by Arab Muslims.
UK GUARDIAN Many converts feel uncomfortable with the term “black Muslim”, as they regard themselves as part of a worldwide community of believers who do not recognise “race”. However, others are less reticent about associating their blackness with being a Muslim, and believe that Islam is the “natural religion of black people” and provides the means for full “spiritual, mental and physical liberation” from an oppressive system designed to subjugate them.
Arab Muslims are killing Sudanese Muslims because they consider them to be ‘too black.’
Arab racism against Black Muslims in Iraq.
The media never mention that it is systematic Islamic ethnic cleansing of African Muslims by Arab Muslims that is behind the genocide in Darfur.
Islamic history is the world’s primary driving force behind black African slavery. The Islamic black slave trade engendered brutality, sexual concubinage, and elicited an extremely high death toll during the slave transports. The Islamic slave trade comprehensively dwarfs any other slave trade in recorded human history. | <urn:uuid:a2492dcb-8b54-4f00-9745-667358a36529> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.barenakedislam.com/2009/10/05/why-do-black-people-become-muslims/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949116 | 247 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Python bsddb3 is a Python module that provides a nearly complete wrapping of the Oracle/Sleepycat C API for the database environment, database, cursor, sequence, and transaction objects, and each of these is exposed as a Python type in the bsddb3.db module. The database objects can use various access methods: btree, hash, recno, and queue. It has complete support for Berkeley DB distributed transactions, and complete support for the Berkeley DB Replication Manager and base replication API. The goal is to mirror most of the real Berkeley DB API.
Langer is an object oriented, rule based programming language. Its interpreter is shipped as a Python library. It was created to express behavior strategies, has a simple syntax based on languages like Python and C, and was designed to be convenient and readable for a programmer, but it can be easily used in genetic programming as well.
pyratemp is probably (one of) the smallest complete template-engines for Python (with about 500 LOC). It has a very small set of special syntax in the templates. This reduces complexity and the probability of bugs and lead to an easy-to-use and intuitive user-interface. It uses embedded Python-expressions (in a "sandbox"), is well documented, has full Unicode-support, and produces very good error-messages, which is very useful when creating new templates.
pacparser is a library to parse proxy auto-config (PAC) files. Proxy auto-config files are a vastly used proxy configuration method these days. Web browsers can use a PAC file to determine which proxy server to use or whether to go direct for a given URL. The idea behind pacparser is to make it easy to add PAC file parsing capability to any program (C and Python are supported right now). It comes as a shared C library and a Python module that can be used to make any C or Python program PAC scripts intelligent. Some very useful targets could be popular Web software like wget, curl, and python-urllib.
Fivebit is a Python 3 compression library for short text strings. It compresses short strings of text into five bit encoding, which yields a 37.5% reduction for lowercase ASCII. There is also a dictionary for the 1024 most common English words (3 letters or longer). Punctuation, digits, and normal symbols will usually take up 10 bits each, and oddball Unicode characters will take up more space again. | <urn:uuid:a6a818b6-989d-410e-9c36-ffbc1f73e62e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://freecode.com/tags/python-modules?page=2&sort=updated_at&with=&without= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896297 | 507 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Botanical: Iris germanica (also known as Iris florentina and Iris pallida)
Family: Iridaceae (iris)
Other common names: Iris, Flag Iris, Flower de Luce, German (or) Florentine (or) Dalmatian Iris,
Pale Iris, Fleur-de-lis, Sweet Iris
Orris Root is the dried root of the beautiful and fragrant iris. Aside from its value in perfumes, lotions and potpourris, Orris Root has a long history as a powerful diuretic that was used to alleviate excess water retention problems and edema. It is also considered a powerful laxative and expectorant and an old-time treatment for lung problems, including bronchitis, dry cough and excess mucus.
The information presented herein by Herbal Extracts Plus is intended for educational purposes only. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent disease. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.
Orris Root is the dried root of one species of the beautiful iris, a highly decorative flower that is a native of the eastern Mediterranean region, extending into northern India and northern Africa and now growing mainly as an ornamental throughout Europe and North America. The rhizomes, or roots, are cultivated in southern Europe for medicinal purposes, mostly on mountain slopes, and are derived from three species of iris (I. germanica - German iris), I. florentina - Florentine iris and I. pallida - Dalmatian or pale iris). The iris is typically an erect, basal plant with bluish-green, sword-like leaves with flowers (which vary according to the species) of pale blue, violet or white, and resembling the fleur-de-lis. The plant thrives in well-drained, neutral-to-alkaline soil in full sun; and the beautiful, violet scent of the root intensifies as it ages and dries. The iris is named after the rainbow goddess, Iris, because of the beauty and variety of colors in the flowers of the genus. In ancient times, it was the symbol of power and majesty and is the origin of the royal scepter, with the three leaves typifying faith, wisdom and valor. The importance of the dried root of the iris (Rhizoma iridis) was recorded in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome for its fragrance and inclusion in unguents, and it remains an important component in herbal medicine and indispensable as a fixative in the perfume industry today. The thirteenth-century writer, Petrus de Crescentiro, of Bologna, mentions the cultivation of irises and advises about the optimum season for collecting the roots for medicinal use. In North America, another species of iris (I. versicolor) was one of the most widely used medicinal plants among Native Americans. The Creeks valued it so highly that they cultivated it near their villages. Blue Flag (a wild iris variety) was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1820 through 1895 as an emetic and purgative. In addition to its importance today in herbal medicine and in perfumery, Orris Root is also used as a flavoring in candies, an ingredient in dental preparations as a breath freshener and gum strengthener, in dusting powders and in potpourris. Some of the constituents included in Orris Root are volatile oil (called oil of orris, also known commercially as orris butter, and includes irone, a liquid ketone, which gives the herb its violet scent that intensifies as the root dries and ages), myristic acid, fat, resin, starch, mucilage, a bitter extractive and a glucoside named iridin.
Orris Root is known as a diuretic, which promotes the flow of urine from the body. It is thought to be helpful in cases of water retention problems and has been used to relieve dropsy and edema (fluid retention in the body that causes swelling and discomfort). The root has also been thought to clear the liver of congestion.
As an expectorant, Orris Root has been used for centuries for complaints of the lungs, helping to loosen and expel phlegm and excess mucus and ease bronchitis, hoarseness, dry cough and sore throat.
Orris Root is a soothing aromatic herb that has been called a "stomachic," or agent that gives strength and tone to the stomach, helps to stimulate digestion and improve the appetite. Orris Root is also said to relieve colic.
As a purgative, dried Orris Root is known as a strong cathartic, which acts to promote bowel movement and implies a stronger action than a typical laxative.
Orris Root is considered an emetic, a substance that produces vomiting; and, in fact, large doses will cause nausea and vomiting.
Orris Root Herbal Supplement should not be used with prescription diuretic medicines. Large amounts (many times the recommended dosage) will cause nausea, vomiting, purging and colic. | <urn:uuid:00a72303-e39f-41ad-a8b3-d4cb2e7da997> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.herbalextractsplus.com/orris-root.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942959 | 1,088 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Fabaceae (Pea Family)
General - a slender, climbing perennial from creeping rhizomes; stems somewhat flat-sided, 0.3 - 1 m tall, hairless.
Leaves - alternate, compound, tendril at tip; 6 to 10 leaflets, egg-shaped to elliptic, 2 - 5 cm long; tendrils well-developed, usually branched; stipules broad, oval, often half as long as leaflets.
Flowers - 5 - 10 in clusters at step tips; pea-like; petals white to yellowish white, about 15 mm long; appearing early summer.
Fruit - hairless pods; opening in late-summer.
Open woods, thickets, and clearings; widespread across our region, north and west to southern N.W.T. and northern B.C.
Many plants of this genus are eaten by livestock and have been used successfully in various parts of the world. However, they are generally viewed with suspicion because some cause a type of poisoning called lathyrism, which results from eating too much vetchling seed over long periods of time. Epidemics of lathyrism date back to ancient Greece, but cases in humans usually occurred during famines when people were forced to eat vetchling almost exclusively. After 10 days to 4 weeks, this can cause progressive loss of coordination, ending in irreversible paralysis. Vetchling is not generally considered poisonous but these plants should be approached with caution. Lathyrus is the ancient Greek name for a 'pea' or 'a pulse' (legume).
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| What's Happening | Contacts | Site Map | | <urn:uuid:4558f74c-d76e-4c3c-828a-a082b3c5e575> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.borealforest.org/herbs/herb19.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931045 | 390 | 3.625 | 4 |
The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science. Naomi Oreskes. 368 pp. Oxford University Press, 1999. $29.95 (paper).
During the 1920s and '30s, prominent American geologists were generally opposed, sometimes virulently so, to continental drift, a new theory proposed by Alfred Wegener. On the opposite side of a furtively widening transatlantic schism, earth scientists were inclined to explore the idea, or at least to regard it with more muted skepticism. Wegener's original "theory" was incomplete and mechanically unsound, and some of his European colleagues actually bent their effort toward developing physical models in support of drift. After all, the theory did summarize a set of observations that hinted at a broader vision of geological mapping than was currently in vogue. However, Americans appear to have been committed to demonstrating the impossibility of drift. Naomi Oreskes has carefully sifted the archival ashes of the early stages of this conflagration, producing an analysis of scientific practice that challenges previous accounts of the drift controversy. In the now-familiar language of current critical discourse on the scientific enterprise, The Rejection of Continental Drift states that the theoretical vistas of North American geologists were constrained by pervasive cultural and social factors.
The book offers an arsenal of examples in support of this idea, now de rigeur in the sociology and philosophy of science. Popping out periodically from thickets of historiographic prose (and particularly in the generous end-notes) are the familiar snipers of the science wars: the contingencies of economics and patronage, "communal standards" and ideological commitments. Oreskes expresses fascination with the fact that American geologists of the time seem to have adopted their methods and interpretations "because they worked" yet ended up taking a wrong turn that lasted for decades. The false step that hindered and the success that eventually followed it reinforce the notion that social and cultural factors are a critical part of scientific developments. What else could explain science's failure to "come up with the right answer"?
For instance, American geologists, facing the daunting task of documenting the mineral and hydrologic wealth of a vast territory, may simply have not had time for grand and idle speculation about geophysical mechanisms. Furthermore, the best field evidence for drift had mainly been collected in distant foreign localities, and in those days there was no believing without seeing for oneself. American geologists, it is suggested, were also theoretically blinkered by their reliance on particular agencies of financial support and the types of instrumentation they opted to employ. Generalities such as uniformitarianism became insufficiently flexible in the wrong hands. Utilitarian yet fundamentally incorrect analytical tools such as the Pratt model of isostasy aided in preserving theoretical commitments to vertical tectonics. These and numerous other historical references are marshaled by Oreskes to suggest, finally, that "scientific judgments are inescapably personal and historical."
Oreskes is burdened, however, with a major contradiction in the thesis of this history. A section subtitled "An Antiauthoritarian Logic of Discovery" (a straight shot of intoxicating deconstructionist jargon!) suggests that "authoritative" European rhetorical styles offended more "pluralistic" American sensibilities. Oreskes thus opines that "the ideal of pluralism . . . central to so many aspects of American political and religious life . . . had also been embedded in the methodological commitments of American scientists. The result was a culturally rooted American philosophy of scientific method, rhetoric, and practice."
Yet this was most evidently a period during which the observations and opinions of a few dominant American scholars determined the direction of tectonic theories in the United Staets. Whatever "pluralism" is supposed to mean in this context, Oreskes seems quite comfortable with numerous examples of how scientists of considerable standing and accomplishment and presumably in possession of a full complement of pluralistic "methodological commitments" can still be authoritarian (and quite loudly wrong!). Perhaps this muddled analysis mirrors the intellectual confusion experienced by her historical subjects, or maybe Oreskes has merely been carried off on the old geologist's warhorse, the method of multiple working hypotheses, with but one foot in the stirrups.
Other historians of science have looked back at this controversy from the perspective of well-established plate tectonics theory. In some of these views, the geological community was succeeding at making itself useful and failing at transforming a systematized but quaint and unimaginative natural history into a physical science of the earth. Oreskes dismisses these other interpretations of this phase in American intellectual history, terming them "the glorification of present achievement through a pejorative portrayal of previous work."
In the penultimate chapter, provocatively titled "The Depersonalization of Geology," we find a science finally able to advance, albeit hostage to alliances with the military and industry.
With no less dogmatism than the subjects of this history are charged with, Oreskes has seized upon an interpretation of the record that is all too obviously bound to the "methodological commitments," not to mention the "rhetoric and practice," of today's trendiest critical theories in the humanities. It is wise for those in the scientific community to contemplate the ways in which their work may be influenced by cultural and social factors. In this capacity, the social critics of science perform a vital function, but at the same time they will likely find themselves subjected to the same intense scrutiny that they apply to their subject.—Daniel Stein, Institute for Crustal Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara | <urn:uuid:3834841b-7e45-4cf7-a680-b065fa6c5724> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/continental-rift | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950009 | 1,148 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Weekly Daf #261
Yoma 37 - 43 Issue #261
Week of 24 - 30 Shevat 5759 / 10 - 16 Feb 1999
This publication is also available in the following formats: Explanation of these symbols
The Miraculous Gates
All of the gates in the Beis Hamikdash were made of gold except for the eastern gates of the courtyard. They were made of brass and they were called the "Gates of Nikanor."
Why they were called "Gates of Nikanor" is dramatically explained in the gemara. Nikanor was the name of the man who traveled to the Egyptian city of Alexandria to bring specially made brass gates for the eastern entrance to the Beis Hamikdash. On the return trip a violent storm threatened to sink his ship and the crew lightened its load by throwing one of the heavy gates overboard. As the storm continued to threaten the ship the sailors decided to cast the second gate into the sea as well. At this point Nikanor, who was confident that no harm would befall him as befits one involved in a mission for a mitzvah, tied himself to the second gate and asked to be thrown overboard together with it. The sea miraculously become calm and both Nikanor and his gate were spared. His sorrow at losing the first one, concludes the gemara, was relieved when he arrived at the Port of Acco and the first gate surfaced. One version is that it had miraculously become attached to the bottom of the ship. Another is that a huge sea creature swallowed the gate and then vomited it out.
Why did Nikanor wait till the second gate was threatened before showing his heroic determination to save his sacred treasure? Iyun Yaakov explains that as long as he had one gate to bring back to Jerusalem there was the hope that craftsmen there could duplicate it.
But why, asks the gemara itself, were the Gates of Nikanor permitted to remain in their brazen form while all other gates were covered with gold? One answer given by our Sages is that this was done to commemorate the miracles which occurred in connection with these gates. Another is that they were made from a very special kind of brass which gave them a luster similar to that of gold.
But is "similar to gold" a sufficient reason for making an exception of them? The Jerusalem Talmud's approach is that the brass of Nikanor's gates outshone the gold of the others. Our own gemara, points out Iyun Yaakov, implies that even if they were only as brilliant as gold, this made them stand out because they were able to achieve such a superior glow despite being made of an inferior metal.
Aim at the Name
This delineation of King Solomon is applied in the mishna to those who made important contributions to the dignity of the Beis Hamikdash in contrast to those whose selfishness detracted from it.
Maharsha calls attention to the fact that Solomon, in his divinely inspired words, did not contrast the blessing for the righteous with a curse for the wicked. This is because our attitude to sinners is to hope and pray for them to improve their ways. When Rabbi Meir considered praying for the destruction of some troublesome sinners in his neighborhood, his wife, Beruria, suggested that he pray instead for them to repent. "Let sin be eliminated from the earth," is what King David meant (Tehillim 104:35), not that "sinners be eliminated." To prove her point she cited the continuation of that passage, "and there will be no more wicked ones." Once they have repented, their wickedness will cease to exist. Rabbi Meir followed her advice and they did indeed improve their ways (Berachos 10a).
In the same spirit, explains Maharsha, we actively bless the deeds and memory of the righteous so that others will learn from their example. But in regard to the wicked we do not pray that they be cursed, but rather that the name "sinner" which they have earned decay and disintegrate as a result of their repentance. It is not the sinner's elimination that we hope for but for the elimination of sin, not his disappearance but the disintegration of the name he has acquired.
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Eli Ballon
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Dedication opportunities are available for Weekly Daf. Please contact us for details. | <urn:uuid:1f893192-c627-4b7c-8025-2eb28102fda1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ohr.edu/yomi/yomi261.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976138 | 1,098 | 2.953125 | 3 |
NOVA recently launched the Cloud Lab—an online interactive that enables authentic student research with scientific data. NOVA Education celebrates the release of this third Lab with a special blog series exploring the importance of Big Data and its implications for STEM education, starting with the following.
Big Data. If you haven’t already heard about it, your hard drive has. We are generating digital information at such a frightening pace that some scientific fields are now dealing with a “data catastrophe”—where more data is being collected than can physically be stored. In 2011, Science magazine explored the issues surrounding this increasingly huge influx of research data in a special edition. From this collection of articles reaching across a breadth of scientific fields, two themes emerged:
- Most scientific disciplines are finding the data deluge to be extremely challenging
- Tremendous opportunities can be realized if we can better organize and access the data. (Source)
It is this second theme of opportunity that I would like to explore through the lens of K-12 formal education and teacher Professional Development in a series of blog postings that I am calling Big Data in the Classroom.
But before I start throwing any facts and figures at you, here is a personal story about what this transition looks like to someone engaged in scientific research.
When I was an undergraduate physics major, I spent 4 nights in 1996 on a mountain in Arizona observing a few individual stars to research their variability. My method involved measuring the rate of incoming photons and graphing the data to generate a light curve for each variable star. Between weather and equipment issues, I was able to gather only a few hours of usable data over the course of four nights—thankfully this was enough to finish my senior research project.
Now, 1996 wasn’t that long ago (at least I like to tell myself that), but if I was doing research in astrophysics today, my methods would look quite different. Thanks to robotic telescopes and a fleet of different satellites, many sky surveys have gathered and stored spectra and images across multiple wavelengths of light, offering researchers large collections of data just waiting to be queried and downloaded. Gone is the image of the astronomer sitting with their eye to a telescope eyepiece. Now, I could simply go to the AAVSO or SDSS sites and download the data I need for my research. More importantly, I would never need to travel to a mountain, wait for good weather, or possibly even operate a telescope or learn a constellation!
But why should you, as a science educator, care about this? “Big Data” represents the fundamental evolution of the tools and methods of scientific research—and the gathering and availability of data is no longer the limiting factor. The Digital Renaissance is here, and in many fields there is now more data than scientists know what to do with. Adding to this volume of new digital data, there are also efforts to bring specimens that are currently deep in storage in natural history museums—called “dark data”— into the digital age, making their secrets available to researchers, to the general public, and to you and your students.
As a science educator, the implications of this sea-change in the very nature of scientific data and information touches everything from you and your practice, to what your students—future scientists or not—will face in their careers and lives. It also informs the very design of your classroom laboratory equipment and lessons, as well as your selection of professional development experiences. In the next blog in this series, I will explore some of the implications of “Big Data” for your classroom instruction.
To further investigate “Big Data” in science, visit:
- TEDxSaltLakeCity – Chris Johnson – Visualizing Large Data Sets
- Science Magazine Data Edition
- Big Data on Wikipedia (Lots of great references)
- Introduction to Data Science Coursera | <urn:uuid:9eed91a9-c618-442e-b867-5c13f757cce6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/education/2013/08/big-data-in-the-classroom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945167 | 794 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Tuesday January 20 2009
Keeping active, both mentally and physically, reduces dementia risk
“Being laid-back and outgoing makes you 50% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease”, the Daily Mail reported. The newspaper said that people who are anxious, shy and prone to stress are more likely to go on to develop dementia. It said a study looked at the personalities and lifestyles of 506 older people and followed them for six years. Those who were calm had a 50% lower risk of dementia, even if they were not socially active, than those who were isolated and prone to stress.
This study found that people with low levels of neuroticism and high levels of extroversion (calm, relaxed types with outgoing personalities) had less risk of dementia than those with high neuroticism (those prone to distress and poor coping responses) and high extroversion.
However, the study cannot prove that these personality factors themselves affected the risk of dementia, as early dementia-related changes could themselves have affected personality. This study has not looked at whether changing your personality, which may not be possible, can affect your risk of dementia. For elderly people, maintaining social contact with others is likely to have benefits, but whether or not it reduces dementia risk remains to be proven.
Where did the story come from?
Dr Hui-Xin Wang and colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet and other research institutes in Sweden and the US carried out this research. The work was funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, and various other charitable organisations in Sweden and the US. The study was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal: Neurology.
What kind of scientific study was this?
This prospective cohort study looked at the relationship between personality traits (neuroticism and extroversion), lifestyle and dementia. Previous studies have found that stress is associated with degenerative changes in the brain. It has also been found that people’s personality traits and their level of social interaction may affect their ability to cope with stress. Therefore, the researchers wanted to investigate whether these factors might affect risk of dementia, which is a result of degenerative changes in the brain.
The participants were obtained from a previous cohort study of ageing and dementia in Sweden. The researchers excluded anyone from that study who met criteria for probable dementia at the time of assessment, and those who were unable to complete a personality questionnaire that assessed neuroticism and extroversion. This neuroticism part of the questionnaire is designed to identify people prone to ‘psychological distress, unrealistic ideas, excessive cravings or urges, and maladaptive coping responses’. Low scores indicate people to be ‘calmer, more relaxed, unemotional, and self-satisfied’. The extroversion part of the questionnaire assesses ‘quantity and intensity of interpersonal interaction, activity level, need for stimulation, and capacity for joy’. People who score lower on extraversion are identified as being ‘more reserved, sober, task-oriented, and quiet’.
Those who met inclusion criteria were asked to take part in a personal interview in which they were asked about their lifestyle, including their social interactions and leisure activities.
Of the people who were asked, 544 completed the questionnaire, and 506 (average age 83 years) were successfully followed up for an average of six years. The participants were given a full clinical assessment at three and six years, including medical history and psychological assessment. If an individual could not answer questions, the researchers identified a person close to them who could provide the relevant information.
Diagnoses of dementia were based on standard criteria. Two physicians made independent diagnoses, and if they agreed then this was the final diagnosis. If they disagreed then a third opinion was obtained. If a person died, their medical history and diagnoses were assessed using hospital records and death certificates.
The researchers then looked at whether levels of neuroticism or extroversion were individually associated with dementia. They also looked at the effects of these two personality traits together, and at how this association was affected by social interaction. They compared the proportion of people who developed dementia among those with low levels of neuroticism, extroversion or both with those who had high levels of both. The researchers adjusted their analyses for factors that could affect the results, such as whether the participants had the form of the ApoE gene which has been associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. They also took into account the participants’ age, cognitive function, gender, level of education, depressive symptoms or diagnoses, vascular disease, and whether they had died or were still alive at follow up.
What were the results of the study?
Of the 506 participants, 144 (28%) developed dementia during the six years of follow up. When they looked at each personality trait individually, the researchers found no association between the participants’ neuroticism or extroversion and their risk of developing dementia. However, when the two traits were assessed together some associations with dementia were found. People who had low neuroticism but high extroversion were about half as likely to develop dementia as those with high neuroticism and high extroversion (hazard ratio 0.51, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.94). Risk of dementia among people with low neuroticism and extroversion, or high neuroticism and low extroversion did not differ from those with high levels of both traits.
The researchers then split the participants into those with different social lifestyles. Among those who had an inactive and socially isolated lifestyle, people who were less neurotic had a lower risk of dementia than those who were more neurotic, but this was not the case among people with an active and socially integrated lifestyle. Extroversion was not associated with risk of dementia in either socially inactive or socially integrated groups.
What interpretations did the researchers draw from these results?
The researchers concluded that people with low neuroticism and high extroversion have the lowest risk of dementia. They say that low neuroticism alone can reduce the risk of dementia in people with an inactive and socially isolated lifestyle.
What does the NHS Knowledge Service make of this study?
The prospective design of this study is one of its strengths; however, there are some limitations to consider:
- Even though this study followed people over time, it is difficult to determine the sequence of events. People who did not have detectable dementia may have had very early brain changes associated with this condition, and these changes may have affected their personality rather than the other way around. However, the authors feel they reduced this possibility by testing for cognitive performance at the beginning of the study, and adjusting their analyses accordingly.
- Even if the personality traits preceded the brain changes, it does not necessarily mean that the personality traits themselves increased the risk of dementia. There may be another factor or factors that affect both personality and risk of dementia.
- About a third of the people asked did not complete the personality questionnaire, and this may have affected the results if they differed from those who chose to complete it.
- Personality was only assessed once, and may not have been indicative of personality at other times during the participants’ lives.
- It is not possible to say from this study whether attempting to change one’s social life would have an effect on risk of dementia.
- The results may not be applicable to other countries, where social customs and interactions may differ.
Further replication of the findings of this study in other settings would increase confidence in the results. By objectively measuring dementia over time, by using a series of brain scans for example, it may be possible to avoid the criticism that this study is a “chicken and egg scenario”. These could help to determine whether it is the personality traits that increase the risk of dementia or if they are simply an early sign of the disease. | <urn:uuid:46462e93-f64b-420e-a6bb-59acbaf652b6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/01January/Pages/Personalityaffectsdementiarisk.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973621 | 1,612 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Since its inception in 1911, the Forestry Division of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department has been involved in the conservation and protection of natural resources through its forestry programs.
Originally, the Forestry Division, under the direction of County Forester Stuart J. Flintham, was tasked with planting trees along major avenues and roadways throughout the Los Angeles Basin. In the early days of the automobile and paved roads, ongoing maintenance was a costly proposition. Much of the damage on these early roads was caused by exposure to the hot summer weather. Planting shade trees along the roadways lessened annual repairs and maintenance costs.
During the early 1900s, the County Fire/Fish and Game Warden was responsible for controlling wildland fire. However, from 1915-1919, the level of activity recorded by the Fire Warden was in continuous decline. When two large fires consumed 135,000 acres of timber and watershed in the San Gabriel Mountains during September 1919, the Board of Supervisors decided that a change of venue for the County Fire/Fish and Game Warden was at hand. On July 1, 1920, a few short months after the smoke had cleared; the responsibility for wildland fire control was shifted to the newly renamed Los Angeles County Department of Forester and Fire Warden. Today, this agency is better known as the County of Los Angeles Fire Department.
During this time, planting and caring for trees at the numerous County Parks also became the responsibility of the Forester and Fire Warden. Some of the earliest trees planted by County Foresters still exist in Sunland Park in the community of Sunland. This was the first park where County Foresters planted trees. Evidence of their early efforts is present in the form of the towering pine trees that stand on the site today.
The Forestry Division Today
Today, the Forestry Division is comprised of three sections: Operations, Natural Resources, and Brush Clearance. The employees of the Forestry Division serve the citizens by using their knowledge to preserve and enhance the environment for the benefit of all residents of Los Angeles County. The Forestry Division employs a group of professionals from diverse backgrounds, including natural resources management, forestry, horticulture, recreation and landscape architecture. Currently staffed with 39 professionals, the Forestry Division is responsible for the review of environmental documents related to development and protection of oak tree resources, development of vegetation management plans and proposals, coordination of wildland fire planning, enforcement of the Department’s brush clearance program, and review of fuel modification plans. In addition, the Forestry Division staffs five Forestry units, located across the County, which provide service to the constituents of Los Angeles County . The five Forestry units are located in Malibu, Saugus, Lake Hughes, San Dimas, and at Henninger Flats in the foothills above Altadena. At each unit, tree seedlings are provided to the public and advice is shared with local homeowners. Frequently, school-age children visit to learn about nature and the environment.
Other projects of the Forestry Division include live fuel moisture monitoring, the removal of invasive plants species from the San Gabriel River channel, planting of native vegetation, and staffing booths and displays at the annual Antelope Valley and Los Angeles County Fairs.
Since April 2004 the Forestry Division has supervised the juvenile court wards assigned to Forestry Camp 17. This program provides training in Forestry practices and provides useful skills for life. In addition, it provides a solid workforce that can assist with labor intensive work projects undertaken by the Forestry Division.
During major emergencies, the Forestry Division is tasked with providing logistical support for operational personnel. This can become a complicated task when large areas of Los Angeles County are affected by natural disasters. Recent major emergencies in Los Angeles County included several large fires in the northern areas of Los Angeles County during 2004, and the firestorms that affected all of Southern California during October, 2003.
Technical activities that the Forestry Division is involved with include the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map wildland fires and provide assessments of limited natural resources. The Forestry Division also oversees development and staffs the Department’s Infrared and Fire Mapping Program. This helicopter-based aerial camera completes simultaneous mapping of the fire perimeter and highlights hot spots near the fire line that could lead to additional fire spread. | <urn:uuid:66a5ef80-28f2-4287-af84-259ad7a2e168> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fire.lacounty.gov/forestry-division/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955691 | 862 | 2.6875 | 3 |
For anyone who’s seen a Boy Scout patrol return from grocery shopping with six family size bags of sour-cream-and-onion potato chips.
For anyone who has set out snacks for a Cub Scout den and seen the boys eat everything but the carrots and celery sticks.
Or for anyone who’s watched a Venturer finish two 32-ounce bottles of Gatorade during a three-mile hike.
For all those Scouters and more, the Healthy Kids Hub is for you.
In 2010, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So if the statistics hold up, one out of every three Scouts in your pack, troop, team, or crew has this common health problem, which could mean immediate and long-term effects on his or her well-being.
But it’s not all bad news. The BSA is one of nine extracurricular organizations that have joined up with Healthy Kids Out of School to develop guiding principles for turning this country’s worsening childhood obesity epidemic around.
What’s in it for you? The Healthy Kids Hub, which launched today. The Hub is a gold mine of resources developed by leading universities, after-school organizations, and nonprofits designed to be used by adults who work directly with kids.
These aren’t dull academic journal articles about obesity; these are graphically rich tools you can use right away.
The resources include easy-to-digest information on a wide range of topics, such as ideas to encourage kids to drink water instead of sugary sports drinks, suggestions for outdoor and indoor games, and low-cost, healthy snack ideas.
It’s all based around the three Healthy Kids Out of School guiding principles:
- Drink Right: Choose water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages.
- Move More: Boost movement and physical activity in all programs.
- Snack Smart: Fuel up on fruits and vegetables.
Most Scout units shouldn’t have trouble with the second principle, but the resources on the Healthy Kids Hub can help you work all three tenets into your unit’s meetings and activities. Depending on which level of the program you’re in, this may involve talking with the youth leaders in your unit to get them to deliver the message to the rest of the guys and girls.
But first, join leaders from other out-of-school-time organizations, such as the YMCA, 4-H, and the Girl Scouts, in taking the pledge to adopt the three principles. Leaders who do so by May 8, 2013, can win one of 100 $50 gift cards. (See the rules page for details.)
Even if you don’t win a gift card, the real prize is equipping your Scouts with the knowledge they need to lead long, healthy lives. | <urn:uuid:2e1f00f4-6398-4297-a986-c37d73a0593e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/04/08/healthykids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943762 | 601 | 3.109375 | 3 |
A disc herniation, commonly known as a slipped disc is sometimes required when the jelly-like disc material is squeezed out from between the vertebral bodies. This material may irritate a nerve root in the back or neck and require removal for treatment. Several methods of discectomy are available and may be utilized based on the type of disc herniation.
In the past a large open incision was required for almost all spine procedures. Now large open incisions are utilized only when a discectomy is performed in combination with a larger procedure.
Microdiscectomy surgery for a herniated lumbar disc is traditionally performed through a one to two-inch incision. The muscle must is pulled aside and the opening between the bones is widened to allow access to the spinal canal. The herniated disc material is then removed.
Endoscopic microdiscectomy utilizes specialized retractors and x-rays in the operating room to make a smaller incision through which the spine is approached. This allows the surgeon to use both the camera and the microscope to visualize the spine and spinal canal. Using specialized instruments, the surgeon can safely remove the herniated disc material.
The benefit of this procedure lies in the reduction of local trauma. Specifically, this means that less of the muscles, ligaments, and soft tissues are disrupted to perform the procedure. This translates into less pain after surgery and an enhanced rate of recovery. This technique can often be done on an outpatient basis and many patients can return to work in just a few days.
This technique is only appropriate for certain types of disc herniations and is not as appropriate for revision surgeries.
When disc degeneration advances to cause chronic back or neck pain, the disc may require removal for treatment. The typical treatment after removal of a disc has been fusion surgery. This treatment achieves very good results; however, there is increased risk for degeneration at an adjacent spinal level and there is some reduction in mobility.
Recent technological advances have allowed us to replace discs, when appropriate, instead of fusing the spine. This treatment provides pain relief while maintaining the mobility of the spine. Though the technology is new, our experiences with the FDA trials have been excellent with an extremely high rate of patient satisfaction.
Spinal stenosis is often a problem of the aging spine. As arthritis of the spine increases, the spinal canal and foramina may become narrowed allowing less room for the spinal cord and nerve roots. This often leads to back and leg pain as well as weakness. These typically result in decreased walking tolerance. The stenotic spine can be treated with conservative measures such as therapy and injections, but when these fail, decompression may be required. Spinal decompression surgery involves removing the arthritic bone and soft tissues that compress the spinal canal and nerve roots. Recovery is relatively quick with high patient satisfaction.
If stenosis is combined with instability of the spine, both decompression and stabilization with instrumentation is required. This has typically been spinal fusion; however, newer techniques of dynamic stabilization such as dynesis are available that stabilize the spine without requiring fusion. This results in a shorter recovery and better mobility.
Patients with osteoporosis are often at risk of spinal compression fractures. These fractures can be very painful and may lead to kyphosis (hunching over) of the spine. Though most of these fractures heal over time, some continue to be painful. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty refer to two methods of injecting bone cement through a small tube into the fracture site. This provides support for the fracture and significantly reduces pain. The procedure is often done with the patient awake and patients return home the same or next day.
In some instances, there is either too much degeneration or too much instability for disc replacement and spine fusion is required. Spinal fusion surgery is a common treatment for such spinal disorders as spondylolisthesis, scoliosis, severe disc degeneration, or spinal fractures. Again multiple methods for fusion are available and should be tailored appropriately based on the patient’s condition.
ENDOSCOPIC LUMBAR INTERBODY FUSION
New and evolving technologies now allow us to perform lumbar interbody fusion surgery via the micro-open or endoscopic approach. The micro-open approach can be performed over multiple levels while the endoscopic approach is most appropriate for spine conditions affecting one level. The endoscopic approach to lumbar interbody fusion can be performed through several small punctures in the skin. The micro-open approach requires a small incision that is considerably smaller and less traumatic than the traditional open approach. In both cases, pedicle screw instrumentation is often used and can be performed by placing the screws through small incisions made through the skin.
The endoscopic or mini-open approach can reduce the patient's hospital stay. Postoperative pain is dramatically reduced and overall function is dramatically improved. Return to work and play can be greatly accelerated by utilizing these techniques.
Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion involves fusing the spine across the disc space from the front. The surgical access for this procedure is traditionally done through an incision in the left lower abdominal area. This incision may involve cutting through and later repairing, the muscles in the lower abdomen. At the University of Colorado’s Orthopaedic’s Department Spine Division, a mini open approach is available that preserves the muscles and allows access to the front of the spine through a very small incision. This approach maintains abdominal muscle strength and function and is oftentimes used to fusion a few levels.
Many levels may need to be fused from the front of the spine when performing surgery for complex problems such as scoliosis. Unfortunately, the mini open technique does not allow access to multiple levels. Therefore, a more traditional approach may be needed to perform anterior fusion for scoliosis.
PLIF stands for Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion. In this fusion technique, the vertebrae are reached through an incision in the patient's back (posterior).
The PLIF procedure involves three basic steps:
1. Pre-operative planning and templating. Before the surgery, the surgeon uses MRI and/or CAT scans to determine the size of implant(s) the patient needs.
2. Preparing the disc space. Depending on the number of levels to be fused, a 3-6 inch incision is made in the patient's back and the spinal muscles are retracted (or separated) to allow access to the vertebral disc. The surgeon then carefully removes the lamina (laminectomy) to be able to see and access the nerve roots. The facet joints, which lie directly over the nerve roots, may be trimmed to allow more room for the nerve roots. The surgeon then removes some or all of the affected disc and surrounding tissue.
3. Implants are then inserted. Once the disc space is prepared, a bone graft, allograft or BMP with a cage, is inserted into the disc space to promote fusion between the vertebrae. Additional instrumentation (such as rods or screws) may also be used at this time to further stabilize the spine.
TLIF stands for Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion. This surgery is a refinement of the PLIF procedure and has recently gained popularity as a surgical treatment for conditions affecting the lumbar spine. The TLIF technique involves approaching the spine in a similar manner as the PLIF approach but more from the side of the spinal canal through a midline incision in the patient's back. This approach minimizes the nerve manipulation required to access the vertebrae, discs and nerves.
POST FUSION SURGERY
As with PLIF and ALIF, disc material is removed from the spine and replaced with bone graft inserted into the disc space(along with cages, screws, or rods if necessary). The instrumentation helps facilitate fusion while adding strength and stability to the spine.
Recovery time is different for every patient, however, most patients are up and walking by the end of the first day after surgery. Most patients can expect to stay in the hospital for 3-5 days depending on their condition. Once released from the hospital, patients who have undergone a PLIF, ALIF, or TLIF procedure are given a prescription for pain medications to be taken if needed, as well as a detailed post-operative physical therapy/exercise plan to help ease recovery and return to a healthy life.
Fractures of the spine can be quite complex and often require surgical treatment for both decompression of the spinal cord and for stabilization of the spine. Every fracture is different and individualized treatment is carefully planned according to each patients needs. Brace treatment is often sufficient for most fractures; however, spinal canal compromise and spinal instability may require surgical treatment. Surgery may require anterior spine decompression, posterior stabilization or both.
Spine infections may present from a variety of causes. Infections often affect the bones, discs, nerves, or all three. Though antibiotics and rest may be enough for treatment of early infections, surgery is required for those that progress. Typically this requires removal of the infected bones and disc spaces and stabilization of the spine to allow healing.
Spine tumors may originate in the spine or may be metastatic to the spine. These complex problems require a multidisciplinary approach including oncologists, radiation treatment specialists, and surgeons. Spinal surgery includes decompression of the spine as well as stabilization. Treatment is individualized based on the type of tumor and involvement of the spine. | <urn:uuid:85c9c460-13a2-4fda-aa1f-90348788ea6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/Orthopaedics/clinicalservices/spine/Pages/CommonProcedures.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933036 | 1,969 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Original Title: A New Geological Map of England and Wales, with the Inland Navigations; Exhibiting the Districts of Coal and other Sites of Mineral Tonnage.
By W Smith, Engineer. 1820.
This map has been reproduced from an original of William Smith's 1820 map held in the BGS Library in Keyworth. The original was split into sections, mounted on linen and folded. This reproduction has had the section-marks and folds digitally removed, is the same size as the original, and is colour-matched.
Poster size: 76.5 cm x 63.5 cm (portrait format).
Customers in the USA and Canada may also order this map from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists at http://bookstore.aapg.org
or from toll-free number (888.945.2274) and ask for the Bookstore | <urn:uuid:589e7c56-f574-44e0-bfe3-f58a9e1634d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://shop.bgs.ac.uk/Bookshop/product.cfm?p_id=WS1820 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936927 | 186 | 2.765625 | 3 |
I am a grad student receiving my masters in early childhood education part time, while working a full time job. During my class my professor passed along this article for us to read and discuss.
My thoughts on the article:
Let’s just say that I love Eric’s thoughts in this article. He is not only an educator; he is a parent to children who will be entering the education system within a few years. His thoughts are based on what he sees first hand within not only in his home but within the education system he works in. It is pretty common knowledge that if you are with a child as young as 1 ½ years of age and you have a smart phone, that child will want to use the phone and most likely know how to use it. I recently came across this about a year ago at my sister in laws bridal shower. I was playing with her friend’s daughter who was only 16 months old. She proceeded to take my phone, go into the music application, put on a song and started to dance! If a child this young is already using technology how is she ever going to be excited to learn in a classroom that provides learning with just basic textbooks.
Most people no matter their income do have technology within their home. Whether that is a laptop, smart phone, ipod touch, etc. Therefore if their children are in a school district that cannot afford technology BYOT should be implemented within the classroom. Eric states a great point where he says “Ensuring equity is important and we must be cognizant of those students that might not own a device. Determining those that do not in a confidential manner is very important. If using mobile phones, teachers can easily pair students up”. This is something that can easily be done, and it allows the students to benefit from technology as well as group learning.
With the right goals are rules implemented BYOT could be something that changes the way students learn for the better. As a society we advance daily with technology and its almost comical to hold the education back of our students by not allowing them to use technology to benefit their own learning.
I am curious to see how each of you feel on this topic?
It is interesting that I came across your post today, as I just watched a webinar on implementing technology in the classroom. One option was BYOD (Bring your Own Device). The presenter discussed students supplying their own technology with the institution managing the necessary software and applications necessary for class. I agree that this could be a very useful and simple way to ensure technology integration. In fact, where I am from, many private schools require the purchase of laptops and/or Ipads by 8th grade. A problem as a public school educator is that many of my students do not have access to computers or other devices at home. I assumed that most would, as most of the feeder for my school comes from middle to upper class homes, so I assigned an online assignment. I had eight students return to school with notes from home explaining that they did not have access to a computer. Many even said that their parents have laptops, but they are not allowed to use them. Furthermore; even if students had devices and could get them to school, I do not have access to wireless internet, which would be necessary for many activities and assignments. In theory, BYOD or BYOT would be an easy solution, but in reality, it is no solution at all.
do understand the points you bring that some students don’t have access at
home, and some parents do not allow their children to use their personal
computers. The age of the students
should be considered when asking their parents for the use of their laptops. I wouldn’t be for my second grader bring my mac book into their classroom, however I would fully support my junior high
aged child doing so. Also BYOT would
only work in a school that offered wifi, and schools that don’t offer this
would not be able to support BYOT.
I am the Technology Trainer and Manager of Information Technology at a school district in New Jersey and we have recently implemented a BYOD program throughout our district. In 2009, we had a 1:1 laptop program implemented in our high school that covered grades 9 through 12. Due to the budget cuts that came at the end of the 2009 school year, we were forced to dismantle the program and send all of the leased laptops back to the manufacturer. We decided that a BYOD program was our best alternative to maintain the technology infusion in our curriculum. Things have been working our really well so far. The most significant implication that we have faced as a result of implementing the program was creating an environment of "haves" and "have-nots". We have been working towards addressing this by purchasing iPad carts that can be used to supplement the BYOD program. I think that allowing the students to utilize devices that they are familiar and comfortable with enhances the potential for productivity and creativity. In addition, the program has allowed us to create more of a college atmosphere, which will help students transition once they leave our district.
It's amazing how today's "Digital Natives" are born with technology integrated into every facet of their lives. I think that for many students, going to school is like going back in time. They are often told to put their devices away instead of allowing them to use the tools that are part of their daily lives to enhance their education. I believe that our schools are long overdue for a paradigm shift as it relates to technology and student use. We are working really hard to change the culture throughout our district and deliver the 21st century learning environment that today's students need. We have a long road ahead of us, but the implementation of the BYOD program has really been a great boost for us.
Your reply gave me hope that BYOT does work. May I ask if you have had issues controling your students use of the technology at all? Do your students have to pay due so the school can afford wifi?
Our students do not pay anything for our services. I know that providing these services can be difficult for school districts, but I really feel that it is all about priorities. In New Jersey, we are part of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). This is really pushing us to be smart about assessing our priorities and ensuring that we are prepared for the online testing that is associated with PARCC. I was able to find some significant cost savings by switching our internet service provider that allowed us to upgrade our wireless infrastructure and provide more bandwidth. With some creative leasing options, we are able to keep our network on a 5 year upgrade cycle with the cost savings paying for the majority of the lease payment each year. As for the students using technology, we have not had any significant problems. In our district, we really look at the use of technology as a part of classroom management. If the students are engaged and utilizing the technology for something meaningful as part of the class, there is little time left for them to get themselves into trouble. It has been working out really well for us so far.
Technology has advance so rapidly since I was even in high school only 5 years ago. It is a great idea offering students the option, especially with the recent budget cuts for education, to bring in their own unique piece of technology. Not only does it serve a great purpose like Gilbert said as classroom management, but I feel as if the students are more comfortable working with their very own piece of equipment. I find this idea very fascinating because of the fact when I was in school, we had the computer lab and/or a projector. We were certainly not allowed to bring ANY piece of technology to school, especially our cell phones. I always wondered why, especially with the greatness of iphones/ipads, why the schools wouldn't allow us to access our phone because it was such a great tool. I acknowledge what you have done in your district Gilbert and applaud you for working with the little resources you have left after budget cuts. As much as I love the this program of bringing your own technology and everyone does bring up a great point of each child having SOME kind of technology at home, do you have students that get jealous over each other's piece of equipment? Some parents can obviously afford more than others and I am very interested in how you deal with jealousy in this department. As much as technology is a wonderful resource, I believe it can hinder if not used correctly.
I have not heard of any problems or situations that have arisen as a result of jealousy relating to technology so far. Our biggest concern is creating an environment of "haves" and "have-nots". We specifically make an effort to address this by ensuring that supplemental technology is available to students that do not participate in the BYOD program. We make several iPad carts available out of our media centers for student use. At this point, this has been the most effective approach considering the financial circumstances.
It is great to see a school so welcoming to the students bringing their own technology. Our school, although full of technology for presentation (smartboards, mimio software, document projectors, etc), our tech department is very hesitant to let the students in on this concept. It took several years for us to finally get wifi set up in the school. As it is set up, it is not accessible for devices not from our school district. They do not even share the password for teachers to use their own laptops in the school.
I don't know if it is the fear of our network being attacked by viruses or what the issue is, however, technology is a very secretive aspect in our district.
Us as teachers where talking about getting a class set of iPads as we saw how useful it could be with our new curriculum, however, we were immediately told that we could not get iPads, even if we were able to get grant money to pay for it.
I'm glad that your school is open to allowing the students into the technology for your school, as I could see that could really increase the learning without putting forth the massive amount of money needed.
I very much agree with you! As much as technology is at the hands of our schools, I feel like many schools are still hesistent to let the students use any source of it. I know around where I am, it is the fear of funding and if something is messed up, then what? You bring up an excellent point and I think it is fantastic that Gilbert's school is embracing all of the technology changes so well! If only all schools would do this, could you think of all the possibilities that would be at our student's fingertips? | <urn:uuid:1d5cf627-d085-4b78-9a5c-b082e83a4b09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/byot-bring-your-own-technology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98208 | 2,196 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Here are some of our favorite ancestors and other people important to our family history.
- Rutherford Birchard Hayes
- - 19th President of the United States of America.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- - Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Elihu Yale
- - Primary Benefactor to Collegiate School of Connecticut, later named Yale College.
- Linus Yale, Jr.
- - Inventor of the Yale Lock with pin-tumbler mechanism. | <urn:uuid:5fb72d5b-7212-458f-94e5-21fc007680e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kin-seeker.com/ui09.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917447 | 102 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Mitochondria play an essential role in the generation of energy in eukaryotic cells. Mitochondria are the organelles that are the main “chemical factories” of the cell where cellular aerobic respiration—using the Krebs (citric acid) cycle and respiratory electron transport to produce NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and ATP (adenosine triphosphate)—occurs.
In the light microscope, mitochondria look like short rods or thin filaments about 0.5 to 2 microns long. A mitochondrion is made up of a smooth outer membrane and an inner membrane that is folded into tubular shapes called cristae. Many aerobic respiration reactions are catalyzed by enzymes that are bound to mitochondrial membranes.
Other reactions occur in the space between the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes. Cells may contain several hundred mitochondria. Cells that are dividing and cells that are metabolically active need larger amounts of ATP and usually have large numbers of mitochondria.
Size and Structure
All eukaryotic cells except some primitive protozoans contain mitochondria. All mitochondria contain their own DNA(genomes). There are typically between twenty and one hundred copies of the mitochondrial genome per mitochondrion.
The mitochondria of multicellular animals contain genomes of 14 to 20 kilobases (kb), present as single circles. The mitochondrial DNA of some organisms, such as some protozoa, algae, and fungi, is organized in linear molecules with ends of chromosomes (telomeres) much like nuclear chromosomes.
In contrast, the mitochondrial DNA of higher plants is larger and more complex—from 200 to 2,500 kb—and is present in many different molecules. The size and organization of the mitochondrial genome vary widely from one plant species to another. Electron micrographs of mitochondrial DNA show linear and circular DNAs of a variety of sizes and complex, branched molecules that are larger than the size of the genome.
Cloning the mitochondrial DNA and comparing the sequences of the clones show that the entire complexity of a plant mitochondrial genome can be represented as a “master circle.” Also, it has been learned that sequences are repeated on the master chromosome. The repeated sequences differ for different plant species.
A series of recombination events between these identical repeated sequences results in a series of rearrangements of mitochondrial DNA and forms the complex, multiple molecules of varying sizes that are the physical structure of the plant mitochondrial genome.
Adding to the complexity of mitochondrial DNAs in higher plants is the fact that some plants, such as corn, contain extra chromosomal mitochondrial nucleic acids. Plasmid-like DNAs (circular double-stranded molecules) and double-stranded and single-stranded RNAs have been found in some corn strains.
Genes Encoded by Mitochondrial DNA
|Genes Encoded by Mitochondrial DNA|
The ribosomes of mitochondria are different from those of chloroplasts and the cytoplasm, using a slightly different genetic code (a sequence of three bases that codes for a particular amino acid). Mitochondrial genomes code for all of the ribosomal RNAs found in mitochondria and for most of the tRNAs. Mitochondria make only a small number of proteins that are needed for electron transport and ATP production.
The other proteins needed in mitochondria are coded by nuclear DNA, translated in the cytoplasm of the cell, then transported into the mitochondria. Plant mitochondria do not encode a full set of tRNAs, and some are imported from the cytoplasm.
Even though the mitochondrial genome of higher plants is much larger than that of animals, the plant mitochondrial genome codes for only a few more genes. The mitochondrial genome of Arabidopsis has been sequenced and contains thirty-two protein-coding genes, twenty-two tRNA genes, and three ribosomal RNA genes.
Exchange of DNA
Mitochondrial DNA from plants also differs from that of animals in that mitochondrial DNAs contain segments of DNA that originally were in nuclear and chloroplast DNAs. There appear to have been exchanges of DNAs between all three of the higher plant genomes.
There is evidence that mitochondrial genes have been transferred to the nucleus and some mitochondrial tRNAs appear to be of chloroplast origin. Changes in nuclear genes have been shown to lead to changes in the copy number of the different mitochondrial DNA configurations.
Mitochondria and chloroplasts contain the biochemical machinery to alter the sequence of the final messenger RNA (mRNA) product in a process called RNA editing. The most common editing is changing a cytosine to a uracil (two of the bases found on the “rungs” of DNA molecules and which are responsible for determining the nucleotide sequences that form the genetic code).
Inheritance of Mitochondrial DNA
Given the complex branched network of plant mitochondrial DNA, it is difficult to see how the inheritance of a complete genome is ensured. It is still not clearly understood how this complex network of DNAs is passed to daughter cells in away that assures that all of the genetic information is maintained. | <urn:uuid:ce781861-6976-416d-9e07-302cc77b8f33> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lifeofplant.blogspot.com/2011/03/mitochondrial-dna.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914193 | 1,070 | 4.03125 | 4 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
| Male and female Mule deer|
Male and female Mule deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) are often also called deer. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer) grow and shed new antlers each year – in this they differ from permanently horned animals such as antelope – these are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance. The Musk deer of Asia and Mouse Deer or Water Chevrotain of tropical African and Asian forests are not true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae, respectively. All other animals in Africa resembling deer are antelope.
<span id="doe"/> The word "deer" was originally quite broad in meaning, but became more specific over time. In Middle English der (Old English dēor) meant a wild animal of any kind (as opposed to cattle, which then meant any domestic livestock). This general sense gave way to the modern sense by the end of the Middle English period, around 1500. Cognates of English "deer" in several other languages still have the general sense of "animal – for example German Tier, Dutch dier, and Scandinavian djur, dyr, dýr. "Deer" is the same in the plural as in the singular.
For most deer the male is called a buck and the female is a doe, but terminology varies according to the size of the species. For many medium-sized deer the male is a stag and the female a hind, while for many larger deer the same words are used as for cattle: bull and cow. Terms for young deer vary similarly, with that of most being called a fawn and that of the larger species calf; young of the smallest kinds may be a kid. A group of deer of any kind is a herd. Usage of all these terms may also vary according to dialect. The adjective of relation pertaining to deer is cervine; like the family name "Cervidae" this is from Latin cervus, "deer".
The word hart is an old alternative word for "stag" (from Old English heorot, "deer" – compare with modern Dutch hert, also "deer"). It is not now widely used, but Shakespeare makes several references (for example in Twelfth Night), punning on the sound-alike "hart" and "heart". "The White Hart" and "The Red Hart" remain common English pub names, and the county Hertfordshire is thought to be named after a place where deer forded a watercourse. Whinfell Forest once contained a landmark tree called Harthorn.
Deer are widely distributed, and hunted, with indigenous representatives in all continents except Antarctica and Australia, though Africa has only one native species, the Red Deer, confined to the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of the continent.
Deer live in a variety of biomes ranging from tundra to the tropical rainforest. While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around the world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive.
Small species such as the brocket deer and pudús of Central and South America, and the muntjacs of Asia generally occupy dense forests and are less often seen in open spaces, with the possible exception of the Red Brocket and the Indian Muntjac. There are also several species of deer that are highly specialized, and live almost exclusively in mountains, grasslands, swamps, and "wet" savannas, or riparian corridors surrounded by deserts. Some deer have a circumpolar distribution in both North America and Eurasia. Examples include the caribou that live in Arctic tundra and taiga (boreal forests) and moose that inhabit taiga and adjacent areas. Huemul Deer (taruca and Chilean Huemul) of South America's Andes fill an ecological niche of the ibex or Wild Goat, with the fawns behaving more like goat kids.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate North America lies in the Canadian Rocky Mountain and Columbia Mountain Regions between Alberta and British Columbia where all five North American deer species (White-tailed deer, Mule deer, Caribou, Elk, and Moose) can be found. This region has several clusters of national parks including Mount Revelstoke National Park, Glacier National Park (Canada), Yoho National Park, and Kootenay National Park on the British Columbia side, and Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, and Glacier National Park (U.S.) on the Alberta and Montana sides. Mountain slope habitats vary from moist coniferous/mixed forested habitats to dry subalpine/pine forests with alpine meadows higher up. The foothills and river valleys between the mountain ranges provide a mosaic of cropland and deciduous parklands. The rare woodland caribou have the most restricted range living at higher altitudes in the subalpine meadows and alpine tundra areas of some of the mountain ranges. Elk and Mule Deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region. Elk also inhabit river valley bottomlands, which they share with White-tailed deer. The White-tailed deer have recently expanded their range within the foothills and river valley bottoms of the Canadian Rockies owing to conversion of land to cropland and the clearing of coniferous forests allowing more deciduous vegetation to grow up the mountain slopes. They also live in the aspen parklands north of Calgary and Edmonton, where they share habitat with the moose. The adjacent Great Plains grassland habitats are left to herds of Elk, American Bison, and pronghorn antelope.
The Eurasian Continent (including the Indian Subcontinent) boasts the most species of deer in the world, with most species being found in Asia. Europe, in comparison, has lower diversity in plant and animal species. However, many national parks and protected reserves in Europe do have populations of Red Deer, Roe Deer, and Fallow Deer. These species have long been associated with the continent of Europe, but also inhabit Asia Minor, the Caucasus Mountains, and Northwestern Iran. "European" Fallow Deer historically lived over much of Europe during the Ice Ages, but afterwards became restricted primarily to the Anatolian Peninsula, in present-day Turkey. Present-day Fallow deer populations in Europe are a result of historic man-made introductions of this species first to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, then eventually to the rest of Europe. They were initially park animals that later escaped and reestablished themselves in the wild. Historically, Europe's deer species shared their deciduous forest habitat with other herbivores such as the extinct tarpan (forest horse), extinct aurochs (forest ox), and the endangered wisent (European bison). Good places to see deer in Europe include the Scottish Highlands, the Austrian Alps, and the wetlands between Austria, Hungary, and Czech Republic. Some fine National Parks include Doñana National Park in Spain, the Veluwe in the Netherlands, the Ardennes in Belgium, and Bialowieza National Park of Poland. Spain, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus Mountains still have virgin forest areas that are not only home to sizable deer populations but also for other animals that were once abundant such as the wisent, Eurasian Lynx, Spanish lynx, wolves, and Brown Bears.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate Asia occurs in the mixed deciduous forests, mountain coniferous forests, and taiga bordering North Korea, Manchuria (Northeastern China), and the Ussuri Region (Russia). These are among some of the richest deciduous and coniferous forests in the world where one can find Siberian Roe Deer, Sika Deer, Elk, and Moose. Asian Caribou occupy the northern fringes of this region along the Sino-Russian border.
Deer such as the Sika Deer, Thorold's deer, Central Asian Red Deer, and Elk have historically been farmed for their antlers by Han Chinese, Turkic peoples, Tungusic peoples, Mongolians, and Koreans. Like the Sami people of Finland and Scandinavia, the Tungusic peoples, Mongolians, and Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia, Northern Mongolia, and the Ussuri Region have also taken to raising semi-domesticated herds of Asian Caribou.
The highest concentration of large deer species in the tropics occurs in Southern Asia in Northern India's Indo-Gangetic Plain Region and Nepal's Terai Region. These fertile plains consist of tropical seasonal moist deciduous, dry deciduous forests, and both dry and wet savannas that are home to Chital, Hog Deer, Barasingha, Indian Sambar, and Indian Muntjac. Grazing species such as the endangered Barasingha and very common Chital are gregarious and live in large herds. Indian Sambar can be gregarious but are usually solitary or live in smaller herds. Hog Deer are solitary and have lower densities than Indian Muntjac. Deer can be seen in several national parks in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka of which Kanha National Park, Dudhwa National Park, and Chitwan National Park are most famous. Sri Lanka's Wilpattu National Park and Yala National Park have large herds of Indian Sambar and Chital. The Indian sambar are more gregarious in Sri Lanka than other parts of their range and tend to form larger herds than elsewhere.
The Chao Praya River Valley of Thailand was once primarily tropical seasonal moist deciduous forest and wet savanna that hosted populations of Hog Deer, the now-extinct Schomburgk's Deer, the Eld's Deer, Indian Sambar, and Indian Muntjac. Both the Hog Deer and Eld's Deer are rare, whereas Indian Sambar and Indian Muntjac thrive in protected national parks such as Khao Yai.
Many of these South Asian and Southeast Asian deer species also share their habitat with various herbivores such as Asian Elephants, various Asian rhinoceros species, various antelope species (such as nilgai, Four-horned Antelope, blackbuck, and Indian gazelle in India), and wild oxen (such as Wild Asian Water Buffalo, gaur, banteng, and kouprey).
Australia has six introduced species of deer that have established sustainable wild populations from Acclimatisation Society releases in the 19th Century. These are Fallow Deer, Red Deer, Sambar Deer, Hog Deer, Rusa deer, and Chital. Red Deer introduced into New Zealand in 1851 from English and Scottish stock were domesticated in deer farms by the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now. Seven other species of deer were introduced into New Zealand but none are as widespread as Red Deer.
Extant deer range in size from the Template:Convert/LoffAonDbSoffTemplate:Convert/test/Aon Northern Pudu to the Template:Convert/LoffAonDbSoffTemplate:Convert/test/Aon Moose. They generally have lithe, compact bodies and long, powerful legs suited for rugged woodland terrain. Deer are also excellent jumpers and swimmers. Deer are ruminants, or cud-chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. The teeth of deer are adapted to feeding on vegetation, and like other ruminants, they lack upper incisors, instead having a tough pad at the front of their upper jaw. The Chinese water deer, Tufted deer and muntjac have enlarged upper canine teeth forming sharp tusks, while other species often lack upper canines altogether. The cheek teeth of deer have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind a wide variety of vegetation. The dental formula for deer is:Template:Dentition2
Nearly all deer have a facial gland in front of each eye. The gland contains a strongly scented pheromone, used to mark its home range. Bucks of a wide range of species open these glands wide when angry or excited. All deer have a liver without a gallbladder. Deer also have a Tapetum lucidum which gives them sufficiently good night vision.
A doe generally has one or two fawns at a time (triplets, while not unknown, are uncommon). The gestation period is anywhere up to ten months for the European Roe Deer. Most fawns are born with their fur covered with white spots, though in many species they lose their spots once they get older. In the first twenty minutes of a fawn's life, the fawn begins to take its first steps. Its mother licks it clean until it is almost free of scent, so predators will not find it. Its mother leaves often, and the fawn does not like to be left behind. Sometimes its mother must gently push it down with her foot. The fawn stays hidden in the grass for one week until it is strong enough to walk with its mother. The fawn and its mother stay together for about one year. A male usually never sees his mother again, but females sometimes come back with their own fawns and form small herds.
Deer are selective feeders. They are usually browsers, and primarily feed on leaves. They have small, unspecialized stomachs by ruminant standards, and high nutrition requirements. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, fruit, fungi, and lichens.
With the exception of the Chinese Water Deer, all male deer have antlers that are shed and regrown every year from a structure called a pedicle. Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only female deer with antlers are Reindeer (Caribou). Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard bone. The velvet is then rubbed off leaving dead bone which forms the hard antlers. After the mating season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of softer tissue, and the antler falls off.
One way that many hunters are able to track main paths that the deer travel on is because of their "rubs". A rub is used to deposit scent from glands near the eye and forehead and physically mark territory.
During the mating season, bucks use their antlers to fight one another for the opportunity to attract mates in a given herd. The two bucks circle each other, bend back their legs, lower their heads, and charge.
Each species has its own characteristic antler structure – for example white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, while Fallow Deer and Moose antlers are palmate, with a broad central portion. Mule deer (and Black-tailed Deer), species within the same genus as the white-tailed deer, instead have bifurcated (or branched) antlers—that is, the main beam splits into two, each of which may split into two more. Young males of many deer, and the adults of some species, such as Muntjacs, have antlers which are single spikes.
Most species of deer in the "True Deer" subfamily (Cervinae) have large, impressive antlers with several tines, highly prized by game hunters and collectors. Four Members of the Odocoleinae subfamily whose antlers are also popular and sought after are the moose, caribou, White-tailed deer, and mule deer. The most impressive White-tailed deer antlers come from populations in Texas, the Northern Great Plains Region, the Great Lakes Region, and the Piedmont (United States). The most impressive mule deer antlers come from populations in the Rocky Mountains. The most impressive moose and caribou antlers come from populations living in Siberia, Canada, and Alaska. For Elk and Red Deer, a stag having 14 points is an "imperial", and a stag having 12 points is a "royal". Occasional individual males may have no antlers: these are known as hummels, and they may grow significantly larger than normal males.
The earliest fossil deer date from the Oligocene of Europe, and resembled the modern muntjacs. Later species were often larger, with more impressive antlers. They rapidly spread to the other continents, even for a time occupying much of northern Africa, where they are now almost wholly absent. Some extinct deer had huge antlers, larger than those of any living species. Examples include Eucladoceros, and the giant deer Megaloceros, whose antlers stretched to 3.5 metres across.
Deer have long had economic significance to humans. Deer meat, for which they are hunted and farmed, is called venison. Deer organ meat is called umble.
The caribou in North America is not domesticated or herded as is the case of reindeer (the same species) in Europe, but is important as a quarry animal to the Inuit. Most commercial venison in the United States is imported from New Zealand.
Deer were originally brought to New Zealand by European settlers, and the deer population rose rapidly. This caused great environmental damage and was controlled by hunting and poisoning until the concept of deer farming developed in the 1960s. Deer farms in New Zealand number more than 3,500, with more than 400,000 deer in all.
Automobile collisions with deer can impose a significant cost on the economy. In the U.S., about 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those accidents cause about 150 deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage annually.
Subfamilies, genera and speciesEdit
The family Cervidae is organized as follows:
- Subfamily Muntiacinae (Muntjacs)
- Genus Muntiacus:
- Indian Muntjac or Common Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak)
- Reeves's Muntjac or Chinese Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi)
- Hairy-fronted Muntjac or Black Muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons)
- Fea's Muntjac (Muntiacus feae)
- Bornean Yellow Muntjac (Muntiacus atherodes)
- Roosevelt's muntjac (Muntiacus rooseveltorum)
- Gongshan muntjac (Muntiacus gongshanensis)
- Giant Muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis)
- Truong Son Muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis)
- Leaf muntjac (Muntiacus putaoensis)
- Sumatran Muntjac (Muntiacus montanum)
- Genus Elaphodus:
- Tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus)
- Genus Muntiacus:
- Subfamily Cervinae (True Deer, Old World Deer):
- Genus Cervus:
- Subgenus Cervus:
- Subgenus Przewalskium:
- Thorold's deer, or white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris)
- Subgenus Sika:
- Sika Deer (Cervus nippon)
- Subgenus Rucervus:
- Subgenus Rusa:
- Genus Axis:
- Genus Elaphurus:
- Père David's Deer (Elaphurus davidianus)
- Genus Dama:
- Genus Megaloceros:
- Genus Cervus:
- Subfamily Hydropotinae (Water Deer)
- Genus Hydropotes:
- Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis)
- Genus Hydropotes:
- Subfamily Odocoileinae/Capreolinae (New World Deer)
- Genus Odocoileus:
- Genus Blastocerus:
- Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus)
- Genus Ozotoceros:
- Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus)
- Genus Mazama:
- Genus Pudu:
- Genus Hippocamelus:
- Genus Capreolus:
- Genus Rangifer:
- Caribou/Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)
- Genus Alces:
- Moose (Alces alces; called "Elk" outside North America) (largest deer in the world)
In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin wrote "Although I do not know of any thoroughly well-authenticated cases of perfectly fertile hybrid animals, I have some reason to believe that the hybrids from Cervulus vaginalis and Reevesii [...] are perfectly fertile." These two varieties of muntjac are currently considered the same species.
A number of deer hybrids are bred to improve meat yield in farmed deer. American Elk (or Wapiti) and Red Deer from the Old World can produce fertile offspring in captivity, and were once considered one species. Hybrid offspring, however, must be able to escape and defend themselves against predators, and these hybrid offspring are unable to do so in the wild state. Recent DNA, animal behavior studies, and morphology and antler characteristics have shown there are not one but three species of Red Deer: European Red Deer, Central Asian Red Deer, and American Elk or Wapiti. The European Elk is a different species and is known as moose in North America. The hybrids are about 30% more efficient in producing antlers by comparing velvet to body weight. Wapiti have been introduced into some European Red Deer herds to improve the Red Deer type, but not always with the intended improvement.
In New Zealand, where deer are introduced species, there are hybrid zones between Red Deer and North American Wapiti populations and also between Red Deer and Sika Deer populations. In New Zealand, Red Deer have been artificially hybridized with Pere David Deer in order to create a farmed deer which gives birth in spring. The initial hybrids were created by artificial insemination and back-crossed to Red Deer. However, such hybrid offspring can only survive in captivity free of predators.
In Canada, the farming of European Red Deer and Red Deer hybrids is considered a threat to native Wapiti. In Britain, the introduced Sika Deer is considered a threat to native Red Deer. Initial Sika Deer/Red Deer hybrids occur when young Sika stags expand their range into established red deer areas and have no Sika hinds to mate with. They mate instead with young Red hinds and produce fertile hybrids. These hybrids mate with either Sika or Red Deer (depending which species is prevalent in the area), resulting in mongrelization. Many of the Sika Deer which escaped from British parks were probably already hybrids for this reason. These hybrids do not properly inherit survival strategies and can only survive in either a captive state or when there are no predators.
In captivity, Mule Deer have been mated to White-tail Deer. Both male Mule Deer/female White-tailed Deer and male White-tailed Deer/female Mule Deer matings have produced hybrids. Less than 50% of the hybrid fawns survived their first few months. Hybrids have been reported in the wild but are disadvantaged because they don't properly inherit survival strategies. Mule Deer move with bounding leaps (all 4 hooves hit the ground at once, also called "stotting") to escape predators. Stotting is so specialized that only 100% genetically pure Mule Deer seem able to do it. In captive hybrids, even a one-eighth White-tail/seven-eighths Mule Deer hybrid has an erratic escape behaviour and would be unlikely to survive to breeding age. Hybrids do survive on game ranches where both species are kept and where predators are controlled by man.
- ↑ www.bartleby.com
- ↑ Magna Britannica et Hibernia
- ↑ Deer An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966
- ↑ Cockerill, Rosemary (1984). Macdonald, D. The Encyclopedia of Mammals, 520–529, New York: Facts on File.
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ The phylogenetic position of the 'giant deer' Megaloceros giganteus. Letter in Nature 438, 850–853 (8 December 2005)
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:9e6aa237-318e-4dc9-a591-c747f0279d17> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Deer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93819 | 5,423 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Leaders Preserving Our Future: Pace and Priorities on Climate Change
On 3 November 2010, the World Preservation Foundation held a conference in Central Hall, Westminster, in partnership with Dods, the first name in political information and communications, to address the urgent need to find near term solutions to climate change.
Short-lived non CO2 climate forcers
Scientific evidence shows that the strong bias of current mitigation efforts toward carbon dioxide emissions reduction will not produce results sufficient to halt global warming in time to stop irreversible tipping points being passed.
In the run up to the COP16 UN climate change conference taking place just 4 weeks later in Mexico, this conference sought to bring to the forefront the crucial role of reducing shorter lived non CO2 climate forcers – methane, black carbon and tropospheric ozone – as an urgently needed solution at this point in time to help halt further rises in temperatures and climate change.
Delegates included Members of Parliament, NGOs, members of media, local government, celebrities and a cross section of civil society from different sectors.
World Preservation Foundation is underlining the immediate need for governments, industry, NGOs and the public to take action now to prevent any further damage to our ecosystems and our planetary life support system.
This event was carbon offset by growing edible playgrounds in London inner city schools in partnership with Trees for Cities.
Have a question?
If you have any questions about the event, you can send them to us at: [email protected]
Dr. Patrick Brown
TOPIC: A shift by the global food industry to promote plant based foods to ensure food and water security
Dr. Patrick Brown is a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University in California, USA.
Dr. Brown has received numerous awards and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2002, identifying him as one of the top 2000 scientists in the nation.
Best of British and International Eco-Tec and Initiatives
An eco exhibition was run throughout the day featuring some of the leading initiatives in green technology and sustainability, demonstrating their importance and tangible ways in which they can be more widely adopted. | <urn:uuid:408cb607-dd69-4c4c-89c0-b8b426ac4564> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/events.php?id=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938468 | 431 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Welcome to the Birds of North America Online!
Welcome to BNA Online, the leading source of life history information for North American breeding birds. This free, courtesy preview is just the first of 14 articles that provide detailed life history information including Distribution, Migration, Habitat, Food Habits, Sounds, Behavior and Breeding. Written by acknowledged experts on each species, there is also a comprehensive bibliography of published research on the species.
A subscription is needed to access the remaining articles for this and any other species. Subscription rates start as low as $5 USD for 30 days of complete access to the resource. To subscribe, please visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology E-Store.
If you are already a current subscriber, you will need to sign in with your login information to access BNA normally.
Subscriptions are available for as little as $5 for 30 days of full access! If you would like to subscribe to BNA Online, just visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology E-Store.
An imperiled Neotropical migrant, the Golden-winged Warbler is a small but stunning songbird breeding in eastern North America. Bright patches of yellow on the crown and wings punctuate its soft gray plumage, as do the bold chickadee-like patches of black on the throat and face. It breeds in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains and northeastern and north-central U.S., with a disjunct population from southeastern Ontario and adjacent Quebec northwest to Minnesota and Manitoba.
This warbler nests in habitat with dense herbaceous cover and patches of shrubs, often adjacent to a forest edge, and in the Appalachian region usually at moderate elevations. Natural disturbance habitats include beaver glades, openings from natural fires, oak parklands, and swamp forests with partially open canopy. It also occurs in a variety of anthropogenic disturbance sites such as clearcuts, abandoned farmlands, reclaimed strip mines, and power line rights-of-ways.
The Golden-winged and Blue-winged warblers interbreed and produce fertile hybrid offspring. Hybrid forms were first believed to be two separate species (Brewster’s and Lawrence’s Warbler), but were later understood to carry the dominant and recessive traits of the two parental species. Early work on hybridization compared species recognition capabilities of Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers in sympatric and allopatric populations (Ficken and Ficken 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, Gill and Murray 1972a, 1972b, 1976, 1980). DNA analyses show a 3.0% to 4.5% mitochondrial sequence divergence, which suggests the two species became isolated several million years ago (Gill 1987, 1997, Shapiro et al. 2004, Dabrowski et al. 2005, Vallender 2007). Inexplicably, there is little differentiation in nuclear DNA between the two species (Vallender et al. 2007), which suggests recent isolation.
The Golden-winged Warbler increased in abundance and expanded its distribution into New England more than a century ago and has continued to expand to the north and northwest in the north-central states and adjacent Canada during the last 100 years, yet it is declining in many areas and has disappeared from previously occupied regions (Confer et al. 2003, Buehler et al. 2007). Local declines correlate with both loss of habitat owing to succession and reforestation and with expansion of the Blue-winged Warbler into the range of the Golden-wing. The loss of winter habitat in Central and South America and migratory habitat may also contribute to the Golden-wing’s decline.
Confer, John L., Patricia Hartman and Amber Roth. 2011. Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/020 | <urn:uuid:4f02a107-8851-42ce-9ab4-2dd98afbc563> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/020/articles/introduction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9312 | 834 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Great Skua: Large, heavy-bodied seabird, prominent white patch in primary feathers. Body color ranges from a light bleached to dark brown, all have a cinammon wash that makes the bird look red-tinged. Strong direct flight with constant shallow wingbeats. Hugs wave contours or flies up to 150 feet.
Range and Habitat
Great Skua: Breeds in Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands and the Scottish islands, with a few on mainland Scotland. It breeds on coastal moorland and rocky islands. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the Atlantic Ocean and regularly reaching North American waters. Vagrant to Mediterranean countries.
Skuas and Jaegers (Stercorariidae)
The sandpipers, plovers, buttonquail, auks, and skuas, and oystercatchers are some of the nineteen families in the taxonomic order CHARADRIIFORMES (pronounced kah-RAH-dree-ih-FOR-meez).
The Stercorariidae (pronounced stehr-koh-rah-REYE-ih-dee), or skuas and jaegers, encompasses seven species of skuas and jaegers in one genus that can be found in all of the world’s oceans.
In North America, five species of skuas and jaegers in one genus have been identified. Among these are included the graceful Long-tailed Jaeger and the hefty Great Skua.
Members of this family are known for their predatory and piratical behavior. Like other skuas and jaegers, the Parasitic Jaeger is known for expertly chasing and harassing gulls and terns until they drop their food.
The skuas and jaegers look like a cross between a gull and a falcon. They are large birds with long, pointed wings (broader in skuas), have thick necks with fairly large heads, webbed feet, and medium-length bills with a hook on the end. They also have distinctive tails with projecting central tail feathers.
Skuas are mostly brown, streaked birds, some species with gray or rusty highlights in their plumage. Juvenile jaegers have plumages similar to those of skuas, while adults are creamy or white on the underparts, the Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers sporting black breast bands. On the upperparts, adult jaegers are dark brown with black caps. Most plumages of jaegers and skuas also show prominent white patches in the wings at the bases of the primaries.
Jaegers and Skuas are bird of the Arctic, Antarctic, and the open ocean. They breed on the tundra and rocky islands of the far north, and spend the rest of the year in pelagic waters off of both North American coasts, rarely occurring near land.
All members of this family are highly migratory.
Skuas and jaegers are solitary predators of the high seas except when they form pairs during the breeding season and hunt for small mammals, birds (especially nestlings), and insects on the tundra. Outside of the breeding season, they occur on the open ocean where they pursue gulls, terns, and other seabirds to steal fish these smaller birds have caught. They also prey upon other birds, the skuas even attacking and killing gulls.
Skuas and jaegers are not threatened in North America and appear to have healthy populations throughout their range.
Jaegers get their name from the Germanic word for “hunter”; an appropriate name for these aggressive, predatory birds. In Great Britain, though, the word “jaeger” is not used with all members of this family being called skuas. | <urn:uuid:629b712e-3e87-48a2-8822-28ac80d59595> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/1049/overview/Great_Skua.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922305 | 800 | 3.1875 | 3 |
ICP stands for Intracranial Pressure and refers to the amount of pressure within the cranium at any one time. Although ICP fluctuates on a daily basis, if allowed to increase severely, it will result in long term brain injury and death. Common causes of a severe raise in ICP includes: traumatic head injuries, drug use (particularly amphetamines), cerebral infections, and stroke.
Early Signs of Raised ICP
These are some common signs and symptoms of a raised ICP
1. Headache -particularly bad, and prollonged
2. Nausea and vomiting
3. Blurred vission
Late Signs of a Raised ICP
4. Pupilary changes (as a result of increased pressure on the 3rd occular motory nerve which changes the size of pupils) – this will result in uneven pupil sizes, fixed dilated pupils, any many other irregularities of pupils.
5. Respiratory changes, include cheyne stokes
6. Widening Pulse Pressure
8. Swollen fontanelle (in young children)
9. Signs of Cushing’s Triad: Bradycardiac, Widening Pulse Pressure, and Respiratory Changes, which indicate late signs of raised intracranial pressure.
Signs of a Raised ICP in Paediatrics
Signs of raised ICP in children are fundamentally the same for adults, with the following addional signs. These include:
1. Children become quieter than ussual
2. Baby’s stop tracking movement with their eyes
3. In young children, their fontanelles (undeveloped sutures in the cranium) appear swollen and bulging | <urn:uuid:d4f8724e-77a0-499e-b015-e28ee4a28ec8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.emergencymedicalparamedic.com/signs-of-raised-icp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891497 | 357 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Since the mid-1990s, genetically engineered (GE) crops have swept across the nation’s landscape to now cover approximately half of all cropland. While the United States is the undisputed leader in GE crops adoption and use, farmers in many other countries also are adopting them at increasing rates. Despite rapid adoption rates, GE crops have not been without controversy. Depending on the groups to which you listen, GE crops are either the boon or the bane of a more sustainable agriculture. However, those pro and con arguments are often couched in ideological positions and do not reflect the latest natural and social science research findings. This Choices theme aims to clarify the complex, also called wicked, issues surrounding the role of GE crops in fostering a more sustainable agriculture and to hopefully elevate the dialogue to a more constructive plane.
A recent National Academy of Sciences meta study aids our task (NRC 2010). The National Research Council convened a multidisciplinary committee in 2008 to assess the impacts of GE crops on farm sustainability in the United States. The members combed the scientific literature to interpret the latest findings and identify the state of peer-reviewed evidence. Importantly, this comprehensive assessment adopted a tripartite sustainability framework of environmental, social and economic effects, which constitute the essential pillars of modern sustainability science. Frequently, arguments and analyses of the role of GE crops in promoting sustainable agriculture neglect the social dimensions. We believe this serious oversight has exacerbated tensions between GE crop proponents and opponents.
The NRC study represents the most thorough look at this fast moving agricultural technology and three articles in this theme summarize and extend the key environmental, economic and social findings. In the end, the NRC assessment could not draw firm conclusions about the sustainability of commercialized GE crops due to critical knowledge gaps. For example, the impacts of the evolving and concentrating seed and chemical industry structure on non-GE seed availability remain largely unexplored and undocumented. Also, large-scale ecological-system analyses of GE-crop plantings have been rare. Many individual studies have been completed, but a cohesive spatial and temporal framework is needed to put the environmental impacts of GE crops, both favorable and unfavorable, into a broader context to evaluate their long-term effects. Finally, researchers have neglected the complex social impacts on adopters and on those who, for whatever reason, chose not to use the technology. Two articles in this issue supplement the NRC assessment to start filling key knowledge gaps. The first by Nag, et al. discusses the driving motivations of academic bioscientists whose discoveries will shape future GE crops. The second by Greene and Smith explores potential ways to manage the coexistence of GE with non-GE crops, a contentious issue in organic circles.
For a variety of technological and economic reasons, the first generation of GE crops has focused mostly on new cost-effective ways to deliver existing pesticides. This accomplishment is not trivial or inconsequential. As the NRC report documents, the available evidence indicates that current GE soybean, cotton, and corn varieties have generally improved the economic and environmental conditions on farms that adopted them compared with using conventional non-GE cropping methods. The substantial but not universal benefits stem mainly from using lower cost, more flexible and more environmentally benign pesticides that complement either no tillage or conservation tillage practices.
Yet, the early favorable effects may not portend enduring improvements, as three articles in this volume explore. Wolfenbarger, Owen and Carrière discuss rapidly spreading weed resistance problems and uncertainties in maintaining the efficacy of the insecticides engineered into insect resistant (IR) crops. If such problems grow, farmers likely will return to more toxic pesticides and more tillage, both of which will partially erode the economic and environmental gains of the GE crops. As Zilberman, Sexton, Marra and Fernandez-Cornejo discuss in their article, GE crops have provided multiple economic benefits to farmers adopting the crops to date, but larger economic questions spawned by global adoption loom. Salient social issues also accompany GE crops, such as reforming R&D institutions to deliver GE crop technologies for minor crops and varieties particularly suited to local needs of producers and consumers, topics explored by Glenna and Jussaume in their article.
Some background may assist readers as they read the articles in this theme. We try to anticipate and answer some questions related to the topics covered.
The most common genetically engineered (GE) traits are of two types. The first produces their own insecticide, reducing crop losses to insect damage, and are termed insect resistant (IR) crops. Most commercial IR crops contain toxins from a soil-dwelling bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that are lethal to the larvae of particular species of moths, butterflies, flies, and beetles (Lepidoptera and Diptera), but are harmless to humans, animals, or types of insects not susceptible to the toxin. The toxins are effective only when a susceptible insect feeds on the plant. The second type is engineered to resist particular herbicides that can be used to kill many types of weeds without harming the crops and are termed herbicide resistant (HR) crops. Most HR seed varieties have been engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate; the most common herbicide brand utilizing glyphosate is Roundup. Relative to the herbicides it replaced, glyphosate kills most plants without substantial adverse effects on animals or soil and water quality according to the NRC review. Glyphosate can be applied before or after the plant emerges giving the farmer more flexibility in weed control operations. Since 1996, the HR and IR traits have been incorporated into most soybean, corn, and cotton varieties grown in the United States, and accounted for at least 80% or more of soybean, corn, and cotton acreage in the United States in 2009. A few other GE crops with much smaller acreages have been commercialized, including HR versions of canola and sugar beets, IR sweet corn, and virus resistant (VR) varieties of papaya and squash. Not all commercialized GE crops have succeeded, most notably GE tomatoes and potatoes.
It is an understatement to say sustainable agriculture is a contested concept. Since discussions about it began in earnest in the 1980s, a plethora of definitions have been proposed. Perhaps the most cited is the U.S. Department of Agriculture definition, codified into law in the 1990 Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act and reaffirmed in subsequent farm bills. That law defines “sustainable agriculture” as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:
Salient aspects include the integrated system and the inclusion of elements addressing environmental, natural resource, economic and social quality of life dimensions.
Some scientists characterize the concept as emerging from the ‘scientific agriculturalist’ movement that emphasized diversification, recycling, avoiding chemicals, and decentralized production and distribution. This stands in stark contrast to the ‘industrialized agriculture’ model of predominant monocropping, heavy use of external chemicals, pesticides and nutrients, and concentration in supply and output markets. Harwood (1990) distills three basic principles that underpin sustainable agriculture:
He explains how these principles can be converted into a plan for action:
Note the emphases on developing integrated farming systems, including the farmers, the reliance on localized biological processes, and closing of nutrient cycles.
These definitions and frameworks can be used to evaluate the propensity of the current portfolio of GE crops to promote sustainable agriculture. Hubbel and Welsh (1998) developed three scenarios to describe increasing levels of compatibility of GE crops with sustainable agriculture. The first and lowest level is for GE crops that reduce use of the most harmful agricultural chemicals within an agricultural system characterized by monocropping and socio-economic concentration. A prime example would be current HR crops, such as glyphosate resistant. These crops enable the use of a more environmentally benign chemical to control weeds. However, they are external inputs with little farmer control over the development of the technology, are self-limiting because of developing weed resistance and may lead to the loss of efficacy of a relatively benign herbicide in glyphosate. This prospect of resistance development is not unlike that faced by every herbicide and insecticide previously adopted for widespread agricultural use. However, the sheer size of glyphosate-tolerant crop plantings likely has exacerbated the rate of development of weeds resistant to that single chemical.
The second level is comprised of GE crops that help farmers transition away from a chemical-intensive agriculture. IR crops that produce biological insecticides can replace the application of harmful chemicals. The current portfolio of Bt crops exemplifies this second scenario. However, these crops are not fully sustainable because gene flow and pest resistance buildup remain persistent challenges. In some cases, these crops have become parts of integrated pest management approaches, suggesting that they can be used to transition to and even support more biologically complex farming systems (Carriere, Sisterson and Tabashnik, 2004). Yet for the most part, applications of IR crop technologies have promoted a business-as-usual reliance on monocropping or bi-cropping farms and have substituted for some but not all insecticide applications. Therefore IR crops, despite their potential to do so, have not contributed generally to biological complexity or integration of farming systems.
GE crops in the third level would be designed to promote an integrated pattern of sustainable agricultural development. As such, they would maximize the use of natural biological cycles in the farming system, close nutrient cycles within the farm, and reduce the need for external inputs such as fossil-fuel based energy and fertilizers. Potential examples include crops that reduce water requirements, fix part or all of their own nutrients, and stimulate natural plant defenses to pests. To our knowledge, very few GE crop developments fit this description. Ervin, Glenna and Jussaume (2010) add another requirement to this third level, that of addressing socio-economic equity criteria. Such social issues might include making such GE crop innovations accessible to all types of farmers, high resource and low resource, and opening the control of the technology development process to farmer participation.
Populating the third level with seeds that address the full suite of sustainability criteria will require a reframing of the development of GE crops. Such innovative products might be described as meeting the following conditions:
Achieving the first two outcomes listed above may require something as concrete as intragenomic changes to the plant, such as switching off certain genes that result in less pest susceptibility, rather than importing genetic material from other species—transgenic transformations. But overall, realizing such a vision of GE crops that support the goals of sustainable agriculture will require major reforms in the private and public R&D institutions guiding GE crops. Let there be no illusion that such massive changes will take time and must proceed incrementally. However, this is a pivotal point in the development and use of GE crops; the first generation of innovations faces some serious challenges, such as weed resistance, which will require diverse approaches to sustain their efficacy. The rising momentum to use GE crops for renewable energy and environmental purposes adds pressure to the R&D agenda. If industry tries to meet the response alone, we can expect more of the same type of GE crop technologies already commercialized. An example is the recent releases of ‘stacked’ varieties with multiple HR or IR traits. These developments may delay the evolution of resistance, but do not address the inherent problems of the pesticide paradigm (Welsh, et al. 2002). Based on sound economics, we should also expect an insufficient response to the public goods issues from industry as they cannot capture enough revenue to provide incentive to invest adequate amounts of R&D.
The NRC report recommends a boost in public research funding to develop GE crops that support more sustainable agricultural systems, as follows:
Recommendation 4. Public and private research institutions should be eligible for government support to develop GE crops that can deliver valuable public goods but have insufficient market potential to justify private investment. Intellectual property patented in the course of developing major crops should continue to be made available for such public goods purposes to the extent possible. Furthermore, support should be focused on expanding the purview of genetic-engineering technology in both the private and public sectors to address public goods issues.
Implementing this recommendation will require a series of steps following the principles of adaptive management. Adaptive management is a structured repeated process of decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim of meeting program objectives via active or passive monitoring of outcomes to identify potential problems, and then redirecting resources as necessary. GE crop development, especially a new generation of technologies that follow the vision offered, will be pervaded by uncertainty of many different forms. For example, the best allocation of research support along the basic/fundamental to applied continuum to stimulate the development and commercialization of GE crop technologies that respond to public goods challenges is unknown. This means that the new programs to deliver such innovations will need to follow a "learning by doing" process.
Despite the pervasive uncertainty, several potential policy options can be envisioned that would provide a foundation for such discoveries. Foremost may be the reform of IP mechanisms such that basic and public good science can be widely shared among researchers while applied proprietary discoveries can be protected by patents or other means to give firms incentives to make sufficient investment for commercialization. However, there needs to be strong government oversight of the degree of effective competition in the GE seed industry to foster the breadth of innovation needed. Research has shown clearly that increased concentration in the seed industry stifles such innovation Schimmelpfennig, Pray and Brennan (2004). A final example of needed policy reform is innovative mechanisms to allow farmers to save and replant seeds from GE crops to tailor the crops to the demands of their local ecosystems and crop consumers.
In closing, we should stress that the development of GE crops to sustain and support the whole range of agricultural systems has just begun. As the NRC report documents, GE crops have had substantial impacts on only three crops to date. Yet, U.S. agriculture is a mosaic of several hundred commercial crops, many of which may benefit from the application of GE technology. For a host of reasons, the technology has been applied sparingly to crops that have smaller markets, particularly most specialty crops. Furthermore, the technology has not yet addressed the many potential public goods purposes for which they appeared to hold so much promise a decade ago. Without an infusion of government support and new institutions to increase stakeholder participation in the R&D process, the promise will likely not be fulfilled.
Carrière Y., M. S. Sisterson, B. E. Tabashnik. (2004). Resistance Management for Sustainable Use of Bacillus thuringiensis Crops. Pp. 65-95 in: Insect Pest Management: Field and Protected Crops. A.R. Horowitz, I. Ishaaya (eds.). New York: Springer.
Ervin, D., L. Glenna, and R. Jussaume Jr. (2010). Are biotechnology and sustainable agriculture compatible? Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 25(2): 143-157.
Ervin, D., and R. Welsh. (2006). Environmental effects of genetically modified crops: Differentiated risk assessment and management. Pp. 301-326 in: Regulating agricultural biotechnology: Economics and policy. R.E. Just, J.M. Alston and D. Zilberman (eds). New York: Springer Publishers.
Harwood, R. (1990). A history of sustainable agriculture. Pp. 3-19 in: Sustainable Agricultural Systems. C. A. Edwards, R. Lal, P. Madden, R. H. Miller, and G. House (eds.). Ankeny Iowa: Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Hubbell, B. and R. Welsh. (1998). Transgenic crops: Engineering a more sustainable agriculture? Agriculture and Human Values, 15:43-56.
National Research Council (NRC). (2010). Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Schimmelpfennig, D., C. E. Pray, M. F. Brennan. (2004). The impact of seed industry concentration on innovation: a study of US biotech market leaders. Agricultural Economics 30: 157–167.
Welsh, R, B. Hubbell, D. Ervin and M. Jahn. (2002). GM crops and the pesticide paradigm [correspondence]. Nature Biotechnology 20: 548-549.
Welsh, R. and L. Glenna. (2006). Considering the role of the university in conducting research on agri-biotechnologies. Social Studies of Science. 36: 929-942.
The authors acknowledge helpful comments from Walt Armbruster and LaReesa Wolfenbarger. | <urn:uuid:1a5bb651-5a5f-467b-9be7-84d9685d7f3d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/article.php?article=127 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911112 | 3,460 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Linux Ethernet Bonding Configuration
Ethernet bonding refers to aggregating multiple ethernet channels together to form a single channel. This is primarily used for redundancy in ethernet paths or for load balancing. This page refers in particular to performing ethernet bonding under linux, and so does not limit itself to discussion of 802.3ad Trunk Aggregation.
Ethernet Bonding Types
The linux kernel bonding module supports a number of bonding types.
Packets are transmitted in a round robin fashion over the available slave interfaces. Provides both load balancing and fault tolerance
One slave interface is active at any time. If one interface fails, another interface takes over the MAC address and becomes the active interface. Provides fault tolerance only. Doesn’t require special switch support | <urn:uuid:7c12c016-5f0d-40ce-a64f-e40cbb9a2c2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tuxmachines.org/node/9811 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.828016 | 156 | 2.875 | 3 |
I am writing this blog for the people who are strongly interested in Automata and Formal languages or who want to start from basics of Automata.
First of all, we will discuss some very basic definitions of Automata. In Automata theory, all things are related to each other so you will notice that you need definitions of other words for understanding a particular definition. We will also see formal definitions of all terms after understanding their basic definitions. After basic and formal definitions, we will solve a lot of good “Problems of Automata” and see a lot of good examples.
If you are a beginner, you should know what is Automata and Automata theory.
In Simple Words, An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. Used colloquially, it refers to a mindless follower.
An automaton is a mathematical model for a finite state machine (FSM). An FSM is a machine that, given an input of symbols, 'jumps' through a series of states according to a transition function (which can be expressed as a table). In the common "Mealy" variety of FSMs, this transition function tells the automaton which state to go to next given a current state and a current symbol.
2. Automata theory:
Automata theory is the study of abstract machines and problems they are able to solve. Automata theory is closely related to formal language theory as the automata are often classified by the class of formal languages they are able to recognize.
Now at this point, it is important to know about Finite state machines.
3. Finite state machine (FSM):
A finite state automaton (plural: automata) is a model of behavior composed of a finite number of states, transitions between those states, and actions.
A state is a unique configuration of information in a program or machine. It is a concept that occasionally extends into some forms of systems programming such as lexers and parsers.
We will see the definition of parser in the next post. Above 4 definitions are enough for today. Please don’t forget to review them otherwise you will not be able to understand the next post. Read carefully. Have a good day. | <urn:uuid:f1c6f434-134d-4899-b933-8491e3f63f03> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://automatasteps.blogspot.com/2007/04/automata-step-by-step.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919599 | 481 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Solar energy is, in the long term, one of the few renewable energy sources that can potentially meet humanity's energy needs. Although it is a bit disingenuous to make a comparison, enough solar energy hits the Earth's surface in one hour to power humanity for one year. This comparison, of course, overlooks the various complications involved in the capture, storage, and release of that energy. Nevertheless, solar energy collectors only need to be moderately efficient before they can meet present and future energy demands.
One significant reason we don't make more use of solar energy is convenience. The Earth rotates, making the energy supply intermittent. It can't even be said to be periodic, because the weather disrupts the day/night periodicity sufficiently to make supply unpredictable. The solution is, of course, to store the energy and release when it is needed. This is exactly what biofuels do (and fossil fuels, for that matter). Unfortunately, biofuels require quite a bit of refining before they can be used, making the whole procedure complex and relatively inefficient. Batteries and super-capacitors are improving and may yet solve the energy storage problem, but at present are still not anywhere close to being capable of handling the capacity we need.
A while ago, some Japanese researchers proposed an alternative: burn magnesium and hydrogen. The recipe is simple, as you can just add magnesium to water and heat. The magnesium will burn, using oxygen from the water molecules, freeing hydrogen. The hydrogen will bubble to the surface, where it can be used in fuel cells, generating water.
The problem is that you quickly run out of magnesium, unless you could reverse its oxidation. It turns out that magnesium can be deoxidized, but it takes quite a bit of energy to do so—100,000W/cm2 to be precise. Now, it doesn't matter how efficiently you collect sunlight, there is no way to focus it sufficiently. But—and this is lateral thinking for you—a laser can do this, and lasers can be powered by sunlight.
At this point, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a bit of a roundabout route to take, but it does make some sense. Lasers diodes have an efficiency of something like 30 percent, and solid-state lasers can have similar optical-to-optical (I'll explain that in a bit) efficiencies, making them more efficient than the current generation of photovoltaic cells. The problem is that laser diodes require a current source to operate, meaning that a photovoltaic step is required—this drops the maximum efficiency something like six percent.
Solid-state lasers are pumped by light, and one in every 3 or 4 photons of light in can be turned into laser output. Hence the high optical-to-optical efficiency, but low overall efficiency—you have to make the photons first. Fortunately, we have this enormous source of photons sitting just a few light-minutes away, and all we need are the optics to harvest it.
The researchers used a lightweight Fresnel lens (this is the sort of lens used in an overhead projector system) to capture sunlight and focus it to as small an area as possible. At the focal plane, they placed a conical reflector, which basically causes the light to bounce around like a ping pong ball. At the center of the conical reflector, the researchers placed a laser crystal. Unfortunately, a normal laser crystal cannot be used, because these crystals want to absorb near-infrared light and reemit it at a slightly redder wavelength (808nm to 1064nm, for example). To get around this, they doped their crystal with a small amount on chromium. Chromium loves absorbing visible light, and it can't get rid of the energy directly, so it transfers to it to the other atoms in the crystal.
The researchers showed that they get relatively even illumination over the whole laser crystal, resulting in a laser efficiency of about 10 percent. This doesn't seem that spectacular, at least until you compare it to other solar laser experiments. It uses a mere four square meters of collection area to get 80W of laser power—about an order of magnitude better than previous efforts.
In this work, the researchers didn't actually deoxidize any magnesium, but they are clearly headed that way. At their current power levels, they can achieve the 100,000W/cm2 required without too much difficulty. At that point, it becomes a question of how much time it takes to deoxidize a reasonable amount of magnesium, and how many lasers would be required to scale things up.
If the process works out, it should leave us with some seriously hot magnesium, and harvesting that heat through steam power springs instantly to mind. Steam turbines are some of the most efficient heat engines we have, but heating the water has always been the problem.
Journal of Applied Physics, 2008, DOI: 10.1063/1.2998981 | <urn:uuid:176f8f28-b689-49d8-a214-8f2d69d6cdd0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://arstechnica.com/science/2008/10/on-the-road-to-solid-solar-fuel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942303 | 1,029 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Pounding and slicing meat and vegetables would have saved our ancestors millions of tough chews a year—potentially explaining the evolution of smaller jaws and teeth. Christopher Intagliata reports.
Chimpanzees spend about half their day chewing. "And for context, think about how much time a day you spend chewing." Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. "So how did we make that transition, from spending most of our day or half of our day chewing, to spending less than five percent?"
Cooking certainly tenderizes food, making it easier to chew and digest. But evidence for human cookfires goes back only about 500,000 years, if that. And Homo erectus had already evolved weaker jaws, and smaller teeth, more than a million years before that. So Lieberman and his colleague Katherine Zink began their investigation by recreating a paleolithic dinner: yams, carrots, beets… and goat meat. "If you were to try to eat some raw goat with your teeth you would find that you would chew and chew and chew, it's like bubblegum."
Lucky volunteers got to experience that, by chewing the food. Either in its wild, un-tenderized state, or after it was bashed or sliced with Flintstonian tools. As the study subjects ate, the researchers monitored the frequency and force of each chew. And they found that a diet of abundant, pre-sliced meat, with a side of pounded root vegetables, might have saved Homo erectus two and a half million chews a year. Meaning: less need for big, bulky jaws and teeth. The research is in the journal Nature. [Katherine D. Zink & Daniel E. Lieberman, Impact of meat and Lower Palaeolithic food processing techniques on chewing in humans]
Of course, these days "processed food" has a pretty bad rap. But for our ancestors, food processing was key. "It's hard for people today to imagine what it was like to eat and cook and hunt during those times. For the vast majority of our evolutionary history, our ancestors had to work pretty hard to chew their dinner." Something for you to chew on, perhaps over dinner tonight.
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
[Scientific American is part of Springer Nature.] | <urn:uuid:29aa6189-62ed-43c7-9e5d-4dfdbd11ee4d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/raw-stone-age-meals-got-tenderizing-treatment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00084-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966587 | 480 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Virtual Expirements Used to Uncover Cancer Targets
Using a new online approach that allows reaseachers to perform virtual expirements in order to rapidly priorotise which are the best targets for drug discovery.
The new approach combines the use of a unique online database called canSAR with a new tool that allows researchers to compare up to 500 potential drug targets at the same time in minutes.This enables scientists around the globe to analyze unprecendented volumes of data while uncovering new or “missed” drag targets that can potentially lead to innovative cancer drugs.
This was demonstrated by analysing the Sanger Institute’s existing list of 479 cancer genes, revealing a total of 46 potentially druggable cancer proteins that have previously been overlooked for drug discovery, despite their known biological relevance to cancer.
According to Study co-author Professor Paul Workman, director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit and deputy chief executive at The Institute of Cancer Research, the new approach will help researchers worldwide to address three major issues that we face today in developing new cancer drugs for personalised medicine.
Firstly, it will empower scientists to select the very best targets that are most likely to lead to successful drugs, thereby increasing the success rate in the clinic. Secondly, it will allow researchers to discover the best new drugs much more quickly and at a lower cost. Thirdly, it will enhance innovation, by helping shift the focus away from the tried and tested drug targets while managing the inevitable risk associated with moving into new and exciting areas. Both patients and the pharmaceutical industry will benefit from these advances.
There’s more science you can check out at Re-Freezing the Arctic to Prevent Global-Warming Disaster and NASA Plans to Turn Asteroid Into Space Station. | <urn:uuid:86820bcd-9a90-4b16-a4bb-cd43c95bca66> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://walyou.com/virtual-expirements-cancer-targets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919186 | 363 | 2.671875 | 3 |
This preserve in St. Clair County protects one of only a handful of populations of the federally endangered Alabama leather flower (Clematis socialis). This site is critical for the preservation of this species that is now known to grow at less than 7 sites in Northeast Alabama and Northwest Georgia. In addition, upland rose gentian, prairie dock and other native plants reside, and along the creek bank are upland oak/hickory trees, as well as bottomland hardwoods.
This preserve serves as a critical site for migratory and nesting songbirds and supports a healthy population of beaver.
St. Clair County in central Alabama
Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
As one of only five populations, our preserve is key to the preservation of the Alabama leather flower.
What the Conservancy is Doing
The Nature Conservancy is currently monitoring this species to determine if any specific management activities are necessary for long term preservation. | <urn:uuid:a7acc992-86bc-41f0-bccf-05d1ed33e600> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/alabama/placesweprotect/dry-creek.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916154 | 190 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Fitness for Life (Updated 5th Edition)
- Brief Synopsis:
- Textbook: Improve your quality of life and fitness through physical activity. Increase your years of healthy life.
- Long Synopsis:
- Text contains the Following -- Unit 1: Getting Started. Unit 2: Becoming and Staying Physically Active. Unit 3: Physical Activity Pyramid: Level 2 Activities. Unit 4: Physical Activity Pyramid: Level 3 Activities. Unit 5: Healthy Choices. Unit 6: Wellness and Personal Program Planning.
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 299 Pages
- Human Kinetics Publishers
- Date of Addition:
- Copyright Date:
- Copyrighted By:
- Charles B. Corbin and Ruth Lindsey
- Adult content:
- Nonfiction, Health, Mind and Body
- Grade Levels:
- Ninth grade, Tenth grade, Eleventh grade, Twelfth grade
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Import
- This book is currently only available to public K-12 schools and organizations in the United States for use with students with an IEP, because it was created from files supplied by the NIMAC under these restrictions. Learn more in the NIMAC Help Center.
Reviews of Fitness for Life (Updated 5th Edition) (0 reviews)
0 - No Rating Yet | <urn:uuid:9423ea99-1653-4407-ab6f-3a193b389c80> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/45563?returnPath=L2Jyb3dzZS9wb3B1bGFyP21vZHVsZU5hbWU9cHVibGljJm9mZnNldD01MzkyNQ%3D%3D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875172 | 285 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Tk_SetClass, Tk_Class - set or retrieve a window's class
Tk_SetClass is called to associate a class with a particular window. The class string identifies the type of the window; all windows with the same general class of behavior (button, menu, etc.) should have the same class. By convention all class names start with a capital letter, and there exists a Tcl command with the same name as each class (except all in lower-case) which can be used to create and manipulate windows of that class. A window's class string is initialized to NULL when the window is created.
For main windows, Tk automatically propagates the name and class to the WM_CLASS property used by window managers. This happens either when a main window is actually created (e.g. in Tk_MakeWindowExist), or when Tk_SetClass is called, whichever occurs later. If a main window has not been assigned a class then Tk will not set the WM_CLASS property for the window.
Tk_Class is a macro that returns the current value of tkwin's class. The value is returned as a Tk_Uid, which may be used just like a string pointer but also has the properties of a unique identifier (see the the documentation for Tk_GetUid for details). If tkwin has not yet been given a class, then Tk_Class will return NULL.
class, unique identifier, window, window manager | <urn:uuid:279cf599-5544-4cb7-b21b-9c92d1e1e2a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://search.cpan.org/~srezic/Tk-804.031/pod/pTk/SetClass.pod | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87525 | 312 | 2.875 | 3 |
Maria Tallchief, Brilliant American Ballerina Who Broke Barriers, Dies
Maria Tallchief, who broke barriers to become one of the most respected American ballerinas, died on Thursday of complications from a broken hip.
The New York Times reports that Tallchief was "a crucial artistic inspiration for choreographer George Balanchine, her first husband."
As her career took off in the 1940s, so did the New York City Ballet.
In an interview for The George Balanchine Trust, Tallchief described the first performance of "Firebird" in 1949.
"The city center sounded like a stadium after a football game, after somebody's made a touchdown," Tallchief said. Balanchine, explained Tallchief, said that her performance was the "first great success of the New York City Ballet."
The Washington Post has a bit more on why Tallchief was so important to ballet:
"When she received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996, she recalled the pressure she faced as an American dancer. One impresario insisted that she Russianize her name to Tallchieva. 'Never!' she said, although she was open to the concession of changing her surname to one word and to use Maria, a variation on her middle name.
"From the start, her dancing was characterized by precise footwork and an athleticism that dazzled without being excessive. Her regality and grace won critical admirers, as well as the attention of Balanchine, who was consistently impressed by her musicality, which had been honed through childhood piano lessons."
We'll leave you with a clip from the 1952 film Million Dollar Mermaid. It featured Maria Tallchief performing "The Dying Swan:" | <urn:uuid:0d4d9084-6561-4c4c-b9c7-67b84dc1fa9e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wesa.fm/post/maria-tallchief-brilliant-american-ballerina-who-broke-barriers-dies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976562 | 351 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The Internet Protocol suite, usually referred to as "TCP/IP," is a full set of internetworking protocols that operate in the network layer, the transport layer, and the application layer. While TCP/IP refers to two separate protocols called TCP and IP, Internet Protocol suite refers to the entire set of protocols developed by the Internet community. Still, most people just say "TCP/IP" when they are referring to the Internet Protocol suite. Figure I-8 illustrates how the protocols compare to the OSI model.
Note that no Internet protocols exist at the data link and physical layer. This is because the Internet protocols were designed to accommodate any underlying network technology.
The global Internet is a success because of TCP/IP. It is hard to believe that there ever was a "protocol war," but during the 1980s and early 1990s, many organizations were indecisive about which protocols to use. TCP/IP was popular in academic, military, and scientific communities, but many businesses had installed LANs using Novell SPX/IPX and Microsoft's NetBEUI/NetBIOS, or were tied to legacy protocols such as IBM SNA. The Internet protocols have been universally accepted because they support scalable internetworking, for which the global Internet is the best example.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Internet began to take shape in the form of a wide area network (primarily continental United States) called ARPANET. ARPANET was funded by the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). It consisted of computers that had been set up and connected using an experimental packet-switching system. At first, the systems used a client/server relationship, but it was decided that a host-to-host protocol was preferred. This protocol was called the NCP (Network Control Protocol).
By 1972, developers were connecting terminals to a variety of hosts. An early goal was to develop methods for supporting many different types of computers over many different types of transmission schemes, including low-speed, high-speed, and wireless connections. This open interoperable strategy accounts for the Internet protocol's enormous success.
Bob Kahn of DARPA and Vinton Cerf at Stanford University began developing TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) in 1973 with the objective of gaining knowledge about how the protocol would interface with existing operating systems. Originally, TCP connected large computers, not LANs and PCs. It was meant to support a nationwide system of approximately 256 networks, but this turned out to be too small in scale when LANs started appearing in the late 1970s.
Note that the original protocol was called TCP. It attempted to provide as many reliability services as possible, including connection-oriented sessions in which the sender and receiver exchange flow-control information and acknowledge the receipt of data. These reliable services help guarantee that data is received exactly as it was sent. But these services add overhead that disrupts real-time transmissions like voice, so TCP was reorganized into TCP, IP, and UDP (User Datagram Protocol), with UDP providing a way to bypass TCP for applications that don't need TCP's reliable services. Each of these protocols is discussed under its own heading.
The following RFCs provide additional information:
- RFC 768 (User Datagram Protocol, April 1980)
- RFC 791 (Internet Protocol, September 1981)
- RFC 793 (Transmission Control Protocol, September 1981)
- RFC 1122 (Requirements for Internet Hosts-Communication Layers, October 1989)
- RFC 1123 (Requirements for Internet Hosts-Application and Support, October 1989)
- RFC 1180 (A TCP/IP Tutorial, January 1991)
- RFC 1580 (Guide to Network Resource Tools, March 1994)
- RFC 1958 (Architectural Principles of the Internet, June 1996)
- RFC 2151 (A Primer on Internet and TCP/IP Tools and Utilities, June 1997)
- RFC 2700 (Internet Official Protocol Standards, August 2000)
Other Protocols and Services
While TCP, IP, and UDP provide transport and network services, many other protocols were added by the Internet community over the years, mostly at the applications level. These are listed next. Of course, hundreds of nonstandard services are also available. The protocols listed here are described in various Internet RFCs and many are described under their own heading.
- Archie A utility for gathering and indexing files on the Internet.
- ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) Dynamically maps Internet addresses to physical (hardware) addresses on local area networks.
- BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) A routing protocol that is used to exchange route information between autonomous systems (i.e., service provider networks on the Internet).
- DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) A protocol that dynamically assigns IP addresses to host devices when they connect to a network.
- DNS (Domain Name System) A service that resolves easy-to-remember host names into IP addresses.
- DNS (Domain Name System) A hierarchical name service that matches up Internet host names with IP addresses.
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol) A utility for transferring files between hosts on the Internet or any TCP/IP network.
- Gopher A tool for searching for and retrieving documents stored hierarchically on Internet hosts.
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) The markup and tagging language used to create Web pages.
- HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) The file transfer protocol that is the basis of the World Wide Web.
- ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) A diagnostics and error-reporting protocol used to handle errors and control messages at the IP layer.
- IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) A protocol for managing multicast groups.
- IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) An Internet e-mail post office protocol that expands on the features of POP.
- IPSec (IP Security) A set of protocols that support secure and encrypted data exchange at the network layer. IPSec supports VPNs.
- IRC (Internet Relay Chat) A multiuser chat system.
- LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) A set of protocols for accessing directory services and directory service databases.
- Listserv An automated mailing list system that users can subscribe to. Mailing lists are available on a variety of topics.
- MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Provides a way to use different file formats in e-mail and other documents.
- NFS (Network File System) A shared file system developed by Sun Microsystems.
- NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) A protocol for managing and distributing news articles.
- OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Another routing protocol. OSPF is now used on the Internet while RIP is still used for many internal networks.
- PING (Packet Internet Gopher) A tool for determining the reachability of a host. It sends a request to a specified host and waits for a response.
- POP (Post Office Protocol) A protocol that stores mail for users on a server and forwards that mail to them when they log on.
- PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) A protocol for transmitting IP datagrams and other protocols over telephone links or serial lines.
- RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) A diskless host uses this protocol to find its Internet address at startup.
- RIP (Routing Information Protocol) A protocol that routers use to exchange routing information.
- RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol) A protocol that allocates and reserves bandwidth across Internet links to support QoS.
- RTP (Real-Time Protocol) A protocol that optimizes the delivery of real-time data such as live and/or interactive audio and video.
- SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) A signaling protocol used for setting up, maintaining, and terminating multimedia sessions.
- S-HTTP (Secure HTTP) A secure version of HTTP that encrypts HTTP transmissions.
- SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) A protocol for transmitting IP datagrams and other protocols over telephone links or serial lines.
- SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) The primary protocol for exchanging e-mail messages across TCP/IP networks. Works with POP and IMAP.
- SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) A network management protocol used to gather information about devices on a network.
- Sockets An API (application programming interface) that applications use to access TCP/IP networking services.
- SSL (Secure Socket Layer) A protocol that secures transmissions across IP networks by encrypting data.
- Telnet A terminal protocol for logging on to remote hosts.
- TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) A simplified version of FTP that provides no security and does not use TCP's reliability features.
- Usenet A protocol that allows users to participate in newsgroups, where articles can be posted and viewed.
- Veronica A search engine similar to Archie and built with Gopher.
- WAIS (Wide Area Information Service) A distributed information service and search system.
- WHOIS A protocol that displays information about an entity or person.
Copyright (c) 2001 Tom Sheldon and Big Sur Multimedia.
All rights reserved under Pan American and International copyright conventions. | <urn:uuid:3e830c7d-ac86-497c-b95a-b27c7325cd6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.linktionary.com/i/internet_protocols.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89652 | 1,918 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Losing the Lorax
Children’s books pay less attention to nature
Horton heard a who and the Lorax spoke for the trees. But today’s top children’s books don’t pay much attention to nature or wild animals, according to a new analysis.
“Picture books often play an important role in childhood socialization,” a group of researchers notes in Sociological Review. And, given the seriousness of environmental problems, they wondered: How have depictions of natural environments and animals changed over time?
To find out, they analyzed more than 8,000 images in 296 children’s books that received the prestigious Caldecott Awards from 1938 to 2008. Anything constructed by humans, such as a house, was considered a built environment. Lawns and cornfields were considered “modified spaces,” while animals were coded as “domestic, wild, or anthropomorphic.”
Overall, built environments were depicted in 58 percent of the images, while natural environments appeared in 46 percent. “Wild animals were somewhat more likely than domestic animals to be present or to be a subject in a story,” they add. Over time, however, “there have been significant declines in depictions of natural environments and animals while built environments have become much more common.” Indeed, “natural environments have all but disappeared,” they note. And “although nature is included less in recent books, when present, it is less likely to be portrayed negatively.”
“This does not mean, of course, that environmentalism is not an important part of American culture,” they note. But it does suggest that the current generation of young children listening to the stories and looking at the images in children’s books are not being socialized, at least through this source, toward greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the place of humans within it.” ❧
Williams, J.A. Jr. et al. 2012. The human-environment dialog in award-winning children’s picture books. Sociological Inquiry doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.2011.00399. | <urn:uuid:6797e11a-72b5-423f-9414-87ebf472440b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://conservationmagazine.org/2012/03/losing-the-lorax/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967264 | 455 | 3.046875 | 3 |
A nationwide survey in the US revealed that almost ten percent of the children under the age of 18 live with such parents that are or have suffered from the alcohol use disorder. These children living with an alcoholic parent have a much higher risk of suffering from parental neglect and also abuse. These also have a high chance of experiencing some other disorders like sorts of anxiety disorders, depression and cognitive and verbal skills problems. The data that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMSHA, used were a part of the organization’s 2005-10 national survey on the drug usage and health.
The report has clearly set its focus on the children that have either one or both the parents suffering from the alcohol use disorder. The percentage is shockingly higher for those kids that live with their mothers. It is around 2.2 million for those living with the mothers and just a 0.2 million for those living with their fathers. The impact and the greatness of this situation are well beyond one’s imagination. It is huge and enormous in its effects on the society and the kids. It is not just about the number of people soaring high daily but it is about the circumstances that this is bringing forth the kids. These children are more likely to develop a habit of alcohol and drinking themselves. Also there runs a higher risk of getting involved in other diseases as well.
SAMHSA and such like other groups are now into the promotion of such programs that can spread constant awareness about the harms the alcohol use is having on the children and the society. They are also into the spreading of such programs that can turn out to be really helpful for the ones having this alcohol use problem. They are providing ample help to such parents to deal with their problems and to be able to walk on a path to recovery to a normal life.
Alcohol usage can have really bad impacts on a child’s future and present. The child could turn out to be an alcohol addict himself. The children do suffer with pain and problems of depression when they have parents engulfed in this beastly situation. It also becomes a reason to promote child abuse which has its own impacts on the child. Hence there must be steps to cure the parents of this habit and to pave a safe and clean path for them. | <urn:uuid:8e7df414-a91b-4866-8a07-73909facc008> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://healthmedadvisory.com/alcoholic-parents-affecting-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975693 | 457 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Door of Night
The Door of Night
was a guarded portal in the distant Uttermost West
, through which Morgoth
was cast after his defeat in the War of Wrath
. Its origins are unclear: according to some accounts, it was made by the Valar
as a passage for the Sun, which would return into the World through the Gates of Morning
in the east.
According to others, though, it was made expressly as a gateway through which to expel Morgoth.
The Door of Night was guarded by Eärendil, bearing his Silmaril aloft in his shining ship Vingilot.
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "The Tale of the Sun and Moon"
J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Shaping of Middle-earth, "V. The Ambarkanta"
See also | <urn:uuid:924d91a0-f08b-4e22-9eb6-28bf70cd20be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Door_of_Night | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966984 | 196 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Clausewitz claimed that war was diplomacy by other means. This may explain why Sparta, popularly known as a militaristic society, was in fact a city with a long history of effective diplomacy and a high regard for the diplomatic profession.
Sparta’s diplomatic history started early. According to Herodotus, for example, Sparta sent an envoy to the Persian court mid-6th Century, long before the Persians had become interested in Greece. Allegedly, the Spartan envoy warned the Great King against enslaving Hellenes - which prompted the bewildered master of the Eastern world to ask who (in the hell) the Spartans were? After the diplomatic breech of murdering the Persian ambassadors sent to obtain earth and water in 491, the Spartans were concerned enough about diplomatic niceties to send to men to Persia as sacrifices to atone for the murdered ambassadors.
More significant, however, is the fact that Sparta founded the first non-aggression pact in recorded history when it stopped seeking to conquer its neighbors but sought defensive alliances with them instead. A series of bilateral treaties evolved into what became known as the Peloponnesian League. While initially this organization was an instrument of Spartan hegemony, which required Sparta's allies to follow her lead, in or about 500 BC the allies successfully asserted their power and effectively converted the League into an alliance in which every member - including Sparta - had an "equal" vote. Even if, as we know, some members of every alliance are always a little "more equal" than others, the principle of voting on major commitments of the Alliance was clearly established and largely respected.
Likewise, although often dismissed as simply “natural,” the forging of an alliance with Athens, Corinth, Aegina, (all hated rivals of one another!) and other lesser cities to oppose the Persian invasion of 480 was, in fact, a brilliant Spartan diplomatic achievement. I say Spartan, because the election of Sparta to lead on land and sea suggested that Athens would not have been able to hold this alliance together without Spartan influence. Arguably, it was Leonidas’ ability to put together a “coalition of the willing” to fight against Xerxes, more than his untimely death at Thermopylae, that was his greatest achievement.
Notably, some of Sparta’s best commanders were also excellent diplomats. Brasidas comes to mind. Brasidas had only limited troops, the bulk of which were helot volunteers without the training of Spartiates. His success depended not on force of arms, but his ability to win over allies and detach cities from the Delian League. Likewise Sparta’s success in Syracuse was certainly not a military success, no Spartan hoplites were in action at any time! It was, however, an enormous diplomatic success that severely weakened Athenian strength and morale.
The weaker Sparta became, the important it was for Sparta to forge alliances and out-wit rather than out-fight her enemies. It may be an indication of weakness, but it was nevertheless a diplomatic coup that Sparta was one of the first city-states in Greece to forge an alliance with a rising Rome, for example.
All in all, Sparta's diplomatic culture deserves much more attention and research. A comprehensive work on Spartan diplomacy from the Archaic to the Roman Periods would be a welcome addition to existing scholarly literature.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Did the Spartans give gifts?
Obviously, gifts were an important feature of most ancient societies. Gifts were an important component of diplomacy, with monarchs or cities exchanging gifts as gestures of good will. Gifts were given to the gods, and to victorious athletes. Gifts were a feature of the cult of hospitality and friendship, and gifts were given to favored prostitutes and slaves. Gifts played a much more significant role in ancient Greek society as a whole than they do in ours today.
But what about Sparta? In Sparta, after all, conspicuous consumption was disdained. Spartan laws prohibited the minting of gold and silver coins, and in the 5th Century BC, even the wearing of gold and silver was allegedly proscribed. While there is good reason to think that descriptions of Spartan austerity are greatly exaggerated, there is no reason to think that Sparta was not comparatively less extravagant in the use of luxuries and display of wealth.
In a society which frowned upon the display of wealth, gifts would necessarily have a different character than in a society, like Athens, where flaunting wealth was an essential component of social status and political power. For example, an Athenian Olympic victor was fed for the rest of his life at civic expense, was granted a front-row seat at all public festivals including the plays, and received other material rewards as well. Sparta's Olympic victors received only one reward: the privilege to "stand in front of their Kings in the line of battle" -- i.e. automatic membership in the elite unit, the Hippeis, or royal guard.
In short, Spartans had the same cultural traditions of gift-giving, but very likely gave gifts that were more immaterial and practical. Personally, I picture public gifts being mostly "honors" -- prominence of place in processions or at festivals, or election to positions of prestige (committees judging the singing and dancing contests, for example) or ceremonial functions -- the Kings' cup bearer, the Kings' marshal, etc. Personal gifts were more likely to be practical things, game, honey, and other products from a man's kleros, or possibly a hunting dog or livestock.
Gifts to women, on the other hand, were probably more conventional, things like jewelry, expensive fabrics, perfumes etc. We know Athenians viewed Spartan women as particularly extravagant and luxury loving, and Aristotle blamed their love of wealth for the downfall of Spartan society.
For those of us living today, however, gift-giving is a traditional aspect of the "Holiday Season," and our gift-giving is more materialistic than symbolic. So for any of you who would like to give a gift with a Spartan theme, I have created a few products. I'm just getting started, actually, but I hope you'll like one or the other of my t-shirts and mugs. You can look, select and buy online at: http://HPSDesign.spreadshirt.com or http://HPSDesign.spreadshirt.de.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
On October 28, the following review of A Boy of the Agoge appeared on amazon.com. It was contributed by "Thomas E." -- not further identified. I'd like to share it with you, and my thanks to Thomas E!
Helena P. Schrader has the kind of academic credentials that make you wonder what you did with your life. Growing up in Japan, Brazil, England, and the United States she has degrees from the University of Michigan, Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Hamburg. After writing several non-fiction books focusing on WWII, she turned her attention to fiction. This academic zeal for research shows up in her books, and is very prevalent in the "Leonidas" series. She also owns a home in what was once called Lacedeamon, or more commonly, Sparta.
This book is the first in a trilogy that walk through the life of Leonidas, the legendary king of Sparta. Unlike other such texts, this one makes liberal use of citations to the historical record, and where no such record is available the author explains why she choose to go the way she did. She is also very open about what is conjecture or writers license on her part. Obviously everybody knows how the book will end, so there is considerable pressure to make the parts in between worthwhile, logical, consistent, and reflective of what the historical and archaeological would have us believe occured. This is where Schrader shines.
As the title implies, this book focuses heavily on the Agoge, that almost mythical Spartan insitutation of education and training. The book actually opens with Leonidas receiving the oracle that damns him to his fate, and then jumps back to the future kings childhood. We are treated to life in the palace, and an indepth examination of life in the five villages that make up Sparta. The view presented here and throughout the series conflicts with more idyllic apperances in other tales, such as Gates of fire by Pressfield. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae However, her examples all make sense, are explained, and ring true to how a society such as Sparta would develop.
The Messenian helots are touched upon, and the rituals of growing up are expounded upon. How would a child orphaned early develop, and in an almost Harry Potter like fashion, how would such a child wield wealth? How do you grow up to be the man that offers himself up as sacrifice? This book lays the foundation. It is a great read, and yet it is the weakest of the trilogy. It is where one must start, and nobody will be disappointed by it. Just know that what follows is even better.
To read more about the Leonidas Trilogy click here.
To see the video teaser on YouTube click here.
To buy t-shirts or mugs with Leonidas and Gorgo motifs click here.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
In 413 BC, according to Thucydides, an estimated 20,000 Athenian slaves ran away to the Spartans, who had established a permanent fortress at Dekeleia. For these oppressed and exploited individuals, the Spartans were liberators. Their story, however, is virtually ignored by the usual depictions of Sparta that stress the “exceptionally harsh” lot of Sparta’s helots.
As I have tried to point out in earlier posts, helots enjoyed significant privileges that chattel slaves in the rest of the ancient world did not. First and foremost, they lived in family units, could marry at will and raise their own children. Almost equally significant, they could retain half their earnings. Such income could be substantial, as is demonstrated by the fact that no less than 6,000 helots were able to raise the significant sum of five attic minae necessary to purchase their freedom in 369 BC, according to Xenophon.
In contrast, chattel slaves had no family life and their children belonged – literally – not to them but their masters. As to the fruits of their labor, these accrued exclusively to their masters, and even freed slaves (at least in the case of former prostitutes) had to surrender some of their earnings in perpetuity to their former masters after their manumission. In Athens, furthermore, slaves could be tortured for evidence in trials against their masters, because the Athenians believed a slave’s word was worthless unless obtained under torture – a bizarre and chilling attitude to fellow human beings.
I would like to note, further, that Athens’ economy was no less dependent on slaves than Sparta’s was on helots. Slaves worked Athens silver mines -- under appalling and dehumanizing conditions worse than any horror story told of helots even by Sparta’s worst enemies. Slaves also provided essential agricultural labor and manned the workshops that made Athens famous for its handcrafts. Even the statues on the acropolis, the wonder of all the world to this day, were largely the work of slaves, who earned “wages” only for their master’s pockets and had to make do with whatever scraps he deigned to give them.
Defenders of Athens are apt to point out that Athens’ laws prohibited the execution of slaves and no one but the slave’s own master was allowed to flog a slave. In contrast, war was declared on Spartan slaves annually and an organization, the kryptea, allegedly existed solely for the purpose of eliminating potentially rebellious helots. These Spartan customs are indeed harsh, but they should also be viewed in perspective.
First, according to Plutarch, both the annual declaration of war and the creation of the kyrptea post-date the helot revolt of 465 and have no place in the Golden Age of Sparta, the archaic period. Second, even after the helot revolt and the onset of Spartan decline, we know of only a single incident in which helots were in fact executed without cause. According to Thucydides, in ca. 425/424, 2,000 helots were led to believe they would be freed, were garlanded and paraded through the city, only to then “disappear.” Everyone presumes they were killed.
If this really happened as described, it was an unprecedented atrocity. If true, it besmirches the record of Sparta for eternity. It would nonetheless also still be only an isolated incident. Beside this atrocity, I would like to place as exhibit B the slaughter of the entire male population of island city-state of Melos by Athens in 416. Melos was a free city. It’s only “crime” was to remain neutral in the Peloponnesian war. Yet Athens subjugated the city, slaughtered the adult males and made all the women and children chattel slaves. I’d call that an atrocity too – and every bit as bad as the disappearance of 2,000 helots.
There is no doubt about what happened to Melos. We have many sources and know the fate of many individuals that further verify and illuminate the brutality of the event. But the story of the 2,000 helots has only a single – albeit usually reliable – source: Thucydides. As Nigel Kennell in his book Spartans: A New History notes, Thucydides’ dating of the incident must be off because at exactly the same time (425/4) Brasidas was recruiting helots to fight with him – something he did successfully. Why would young men have been willing to volunteer to fight with Brasidas (which they most certainly did), if they had just seen 2,000 of their fellows slaughtered? It is so unreasonable to believe helots would have volunteered if the alleged massacre had just taken place, that Kennel concludes that Thucydides was referring to an incident that had occurred at some vague/unknown time in the past.
That is surely one explanation, since after Brasidas’ helots had proved their worth as soldiers, i.e. after they had proved just how dangerous they could be to the Spartiates, no less than 700 of them were liberated by a vote in the Spartan Assembly. This means that, if Thucydides is correct and the Spartans had once been so afraid of strong, healthy helots that they slaughtered 2,000 of them before they were trained to bear arms, by 421 a majority of Spartan citizens had no qualms about freeing 700 helots, who were not only healthy, but trained and experienced fighting men. Why would they free these 700 hundred after killing 2,000 others? It doesn’t add up, and so the story of the murder of the 2000 has to be questioned.
While it is possible Thucydides was describing an earlier event, it is almost certain that the only evidence he had was hearsay. The modern historian should not exclude the possibility that the entire “atrocity” was either a gross exaggeration or outright propaganda.
And who would have a greater interest in spreading rumors of such an atrocity than Athens itself? An Athens, whose slaves were deserting in droves by 413. One thing is clear: those 20,000 Athenian slaves, who turned themselves over to Spartan mercy, did not expect to be slaughtered. Either they had not heard the “truth” about how the Spartans “really” treated their helots, or they didn’t believe the stories they were told by their Athenian masters.
Thucydides is silent on what happened to those 20,000 former Athenian slaves, either because he doesn’t know – or it wouldn’t fit into his neat polemic against Spartan brutality. We know, however, that Sparta’s citizen population had already declined dramatically by the end of the 5th Century BC and yet Sparta kept fighting and winning battles. It did so by relying more and more on non-citizen soldiers, and a fleet manned by non-Spartiates. It is also in this period that the first references to a curious new class of people, the “Neodamodeis,” emerge in literature. The most common interpretation of this term is that these “New Citizens” were freed helots or the children of Spartiate men by helot women. There is, however, no reason to assume that some of these new citizens were not freed Athenian slaves as well. If so, then these men surely found freedom in Lacedaemon. | <urn:uuid:236dcb73-4b53-4733-80ad-86a8093488c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://spartareconsidered.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979288 | 3,526 | 3.203125 | 3 |
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