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Online sound recordings, photos, maps, frequently-asked questions, interesting facts about the language, origins, history, regional differences, speakers and status, how and where to learn Quechua, spelling, grammar, etc.. Intended for general readers, plus specialist sections for linguists.
ofrecemos también varias páginas en castellano
this website is not
intended to support missionary work in any
If you are a missionary, please be honest and click here before using this site.
About Quechua – Introduction Pages
Listen to and compare pronunciations
by speakers of Quechua and Aymara from across the Andes,
Language and Linguistics
full clickable analysis of the structure of Quechua words for three short texts
see also: What is Quechua Like?
for specific information on the sociolinguistics and historical/comparative linguistics of Quechua, see the boxes below
Reference & Links
also, on its way, reference info on people and institutions doing research on Quechua:
Who’s Who in Quechua Linguistics?
History & ‘Dialects’
See our new and extensive answers to all of the most frequently asked questions about this at:
in Quechua Comparative and Historical Linguistics
see also, on the ‘Introduction’ page:
and on the ‘What is Quechua Like?’ page:
also on its way, reference info on the true original – not Hispanicised – spellings of
Quechua Names: Places and People
These pages were written by Paul Heggarty, a linguist with a Ph.D. in comparative linguistics from the University of Cambridge, U.K.
They reflect purely personal views and not the views of any organisation.
To email any ideas, comments and offerings of extra material to the author, click here.
Thanks for looking up this site, and good luck with Quechua!
Last updated: 21st March 2006.
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Hemlock Dwarf Mistletoe
Forest Service & Disease Leaflet 135
Revised January 2001
U. S. Department of Agriculture. Forest Service
Paul E. Hennon1, Jerome S. Beatty2, and Diane Hildebrand3
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe, Arceuthobium tsugense (Rosendahl) G.N. Jones, causes a serious disease of western hemlock and several other tree species along the Pacific Coast of North America. This small, seed-bearing plant lives exclusively as a parasite on living trees.
Throughout its range, hemlock dwarf mistletoe occurs in patch-like patterns in the forests. Some forests are severely infected, some sparsely, and some not at all. The incidence and severity of the parasite are greatly influenced by stand structure and disturbance history.
Severe infections of trees can cause growth loss, topkill and tree death. Dwarf mistletoe infections also produce densely branched structures called witches' brooms that are used by wildlife.
The disease can be managed to various levels depending upon land management objectives. One challenge for management may be to maintain the disease in some areas or some parts of stands to maintain wildlife habitat, but to avoid producing severe dwarf mistletoe infections where timber or other resources are impaired.
There are two subspecies of hemlock dwarf mistletoe, western hemlock dwarf mistletoe and mountain hemlock dwarf mistletoe, each having different host tree preferences (Table 1.)
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe occurs further north than any other dwarf mistletoe. The natural distribution for hemlock dwarf mistletoe is shown in Figure I. The western hemlock dwarf mistletoe subspecies is found near Haines, Alaska, south through coastal British Columbia, on the west side of the Cascade Mountain Range in Oregon and Washington, to near Mendocino in northern California. The mountain hemlock subspecies does not occur as far north; it grows from near Vancouver Island in British Columbia, through the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington, and south to the central Sierra Nevada Mountains in Alpine County, California. A population of mountain hemlock dwarf mistletoe occurs in the Olympic Mountains.
Climate may be responsible for limiting the distribution of hemlock dwarf mistletoe. The parasite is not found along the Gulf of Alaska in the northwest portions of western hemlock's natural range.
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe is also uncommon at higher elevations throughout its range. Observations by several scientists suggest that fruits of dwarf mistletoe sometimes freeze in the fall, killing seeds before they can disseminate. It is possible that the parasite cannot complete its life cycle in these northern and high-elevation areas where growing seasons are short.
Figure 1. The natural distribution of hemlock dwarf mistletoe (adaptedfrom Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).
Studies on the rate of western hemlock dwarf mistletoe spread indicate differences by latitude with a slower rate of spread in the northern portions of the range. Several mechanisms may be responsible for these differences: dwarf mistletoe seeds removed by snow sloughing during winter, varying reproductive success during pollination, fruits freezing during early fall frosts.
Figure 2. Aerial shoots of hemlock dwarf mistletoe: female plants with berries on the left, male plants on the right. Photo taken by Kenelm Russell, Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe is a small, leaf-less flowering plant consisting of an endophytic system and aerial shoots. The dwarf mistletoes are obligate parasites, requiring a living conifer host for their survival. The endophytic system (moditied "roots") functions as feeding structures imbedded in the cambium and sapwood of host tree twigs, branches, or boles. The aerial shoots are the visible portion and are produced solely for the purpose of reproduction. Female and male flowers occur on different dwarf mistletoe plants (Figure 2). Hemlock dwarf mistletoe shoots vary from greenish to reddish, and can be from 3 to 13 cm long, averaging about 7 cm.
The fruit is a berry that usually contains one seed. When ripe, hydrostatic pressure builds up in the fruit until it ruptures at the base, forcibly discharging the seed occasionally over 15 m.
However, most hemlock dwarf mistletoe seeds fall within 6 m of their source. The initial velocity of a dwarf mistletoe seed' s explosive discharge has been measured at 27 mlsec! Seeds are discharged from late summer to early November.
Dwarf mistletoe seeds are coated with viscin, a sticky, hygroscopic substance. Many seeds hit and adhere to host foliage. Precipitation lubricates the viscin, and the seed eventually slides down the needle and sticks to the twig, or falls to the ground. Seeds overwinter and germinate early the next spring. The elongating radicle of the germinating seed grows along the surface of a twig until it meets an obstruction or break in the bark, usually the base of a needle. The tip of the radicle then forms a disc-like hold-fast from which an infection peg penetrates bark tissues.
A small, spindle shaped swelling is the first symptom of dwarf mistletoe infection, and appears one or two years after infection. After another one or two years, dwarf mistletoe shoots emerge from the enlarged swelling and produce either male or female flowers by late summer. Pollination occurs sometime in July, August, or September for both subspecies of hemlock dwarf mistletoe. Fruits mature in the fall of the year following pollination. Thus, infections of hemlock dwarf mistletoe can spread to new hosts in as few as four years. In some instances, infections may remain in the host tissues for years before aerial shoots appear. During this time, swellings are the only evidence of these latent infections. Inoculation studies in Alaska suggest that the life cycle may take longer to complete there than further south. The endophytic system of a dwarf mistletoe infection remains viable for many years and may produce large swellings and many successive crops of aerial shoots and fruits.
Symptoms and Signs of Infection
The aerial shoots are the most positive diagnostic characteristic of hemlock dwarf mistletoe. The shoots are sparse and poorly developed in dense stands, older infections, ~nd lower branches. They reach maximum size on open-grown trees or where infected branches are exposed to sunlight. When aerial shoots drop off, the basal cups often are present on the spindle-shaped swellings of infected branches. The basal cups remain for many years after aerial shoots have disappeared.
Figure 3. Swelling and witches' brooms of hemlock dwarf mistletoe: (a) indicate young infections which grow into young brooms (b) and finally large brooms (c).
Dwarf mistletoe infection interferes with tree growth regulators causing increased growth in the tree tissues that are infected. This results in twig and branch swellings (Figure 3a). These slowly enlarge in size, and frequently become spindle-shaped (elongated with the axis of the branch). With time, infected tissues begin to develop a proliferation of branches known as witches' brooms (Figure 3b ). These brooms are the most conspicuous symptom of dwarf mistletoe infection and can often be seen easily from the ground (Figure 3c ). Brooms are even more obvious on dead trees. Witches' brooms vary from small, palm-like structures in young infections to large masses of branches weighing several hundred pounds. Brooms can grow to very large size and survive for 100 years or more. Infections can occur in the main stem of trees, some of which originate in side branches and grow into the bole. These bole infections sometimes lose all branches and develop into large burl-like structures (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Old bole infections resembling large burls develop from hemlock dwarf mistletoe infections that grow into the bole from the tree's leader or branches.
Spread, Intensification, and Influence of Disturbance
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe spreads to nearby hosts and intensifies within the crown of the same host by means of the forcibly discharged seeds. Spread is most rapid in forests with multiple size classes of host trees. Small understory trees are continuously exposed to dwarf mistletoe seed from infected overstory trees. After over-tory trees die or are harvested, they are replaced by the infected understory trees, and the cycle of infection continues.
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe is favored by small-scale disturbance (i.e., gap formation) that occurs in older forests where mistletoe seeds produced in large trees can infect new trees that regenerate in small openings. The dispersal mechanism of seeds discharging sometimes over 15 meters allows the parasite to penetrate into most areas where one or a few trees have died or blown over. Regeneration that develops after complete harvest or stand destruction is seldom infested. Catastrophic, stand-replacing events, such as fires or windstorms can eliminate hemlock dwarf mistletoe.
In even-age forests, spread of dwarf mistletoe is much slower than in multiple-aged forests. In dense even-aged forests, lateral spread is probably less than 50 cm per year, because the thick foliage reduces light intensity necessary for prolific seed production, and intercepts the discharged seed. In open-grown, thinned stands, dwarf mistletoe may spread faster because increased light favors seed production and the seeds are discharged for greater distances.
Birds and, to a lesser degree, mammals are responsible for long-range dispersal of hemlock dwarf mistletoe over large areas where it can expand its range or colonize forests after catastrophic disturbance. Dwarf mistletoe seeds do not survive the digestive systems of animals. Seeds adhere to the feathers, fur, or feet of birds or mammals who remove them during preening, often wiping them on twigs. Birds perch in treetops and preen, and the tops of conifers contain a high proportion of young tissues susceptible to infection. Dwarf mistletoe infection in the upper crown has the greatest potential for spread to surrounding trees.
Figure 5. Western hemlock tree mortality from severe infection with hemlock dwarf mistletoe.
Effects of Infection
Witches' brooms and swellings divert the tree's resources to these points of infection. This can adversely affect tree height and diameter growth, reduce tree vigor, and make infected trees more susceptible to insects and other diseases. The degree of growth loss is directly correlated to the intensity of infection (the number and size of infections). Lightly infected trees have no measurable growth loss, but severely infected trees can lose up to 40% of their potential growth. When a major portion of the live crown consists of infections and brooms, the tree weakens and dies prematurely (Figure 5). Mortality occurs as a direct result of the infection or from attacks by other diseases and insects on the already weakened tree. Bole infections and broken branch stubs from large brooms frequently provide infection courts for wood decay fungi, leading to significant heart rot.
In forests with several tree species, hemlock dwarf mistletoe may favor the development of succession of secondary hosts or non-susceptible species.
Brooms that develop from dwarf mistletoe infections provide additional structures in the forest. Birds and mammals may use dwarf mistletoe brooms as habitat for nesting, resting or foraging. Brooms vary greatly in their size, distance from the bole, and shape. Some can support a platform nest. Arboreal mammals (e.g., squirrels) are known to selectively feed on the swollen nutritious tissues of hemlock dwarf mistletoe infections, especially in southeast Alaska. Sometimes this feeding results in a biological control of the disease as branches are girdled and their infections die.
Dwarf mistletoe infections affect the quality and usable volume of wood. The presence of the endophytic system in wood alters its physical and chemical properties, reducing its quality. The large knots associated with brooms reduce timber values. Decay increases the amount of unusable (cull) wood. In recreational areas, large witches brooms can create hazardous conditions because of their potential to break and fall. Increased decay in old infected trees greatly reduces structural strength, increasing the danger from falling trees. In scenic areas, accelerated mortality and numerous dead tops may be considered unsightly. Severely infested stands increase opportunities for catastrophic outbreaks of insects, diseases, and fire.
The management of hemlock dwarf mistletoe should consider the resource objectives for the stand and the value of the dwarf mistletoe, as a disturbance agent and as food and habitat for other species. In stands where timber production or intensive recreation use are major considerations, control of dwarf mistletoe may be necessary to meet management objectives. In other areas, allowing dwarf mistletoe populations to remain and even increase may be appropriate.
Complete harvest of infected stands is the most effective control for dwarf mistletoe. As an obligate parasite, dwarf mistletoe is killed and will not reproduce on slash or downed logs. Infected residual trees (left after logging), advanced reproduction, and large trees growing adjacent to the clearcut boundary are sources of inoculum for spread to young-growth forests.
Reinvasion of harvested areas can be prevented by taking advantage of natural barriers such as roads, ridge tops, and changes in forest type as cutting boundaries. After usable trees are harvested, the recommendation is to destroy any remaining host trees over 1 meter tall. Even those without visible infections are likely to harbor latent infections, if the overstory was more than moderately infected. It takes only 25 evenly spaced infected trees remaining per hectare to re-infest the entire new stand.
However, where a young stand can be kept growing vigorously, the trees may put on height growth faster than infections can intensify upward. In Alaska, the height growth of hemlock is frequently twice as great as the upward advance of the parasite. In these cases, the dwarf mistletoe may eventually die out as stands reach 40 years of age or so and infected lower branches die. However, as the stand ages and tree growth slows, residual dwarf mistletoe can eventually reach tree crowns.
When complete harvest of infested stands is not appropriate, shelterwood or seed tree methods of regeneration harvest are good alternatives. Remove as many infected overstory trees as possible at the initial harvest. When regeneration is established, but before trees are 1 meter taIlor 6 years old, remove or kill all remaining infected overstory trees. Infection in the new stand should then be sufficiently low to cause little loss during the rotation. During all subsequent cultural treatments, select against any infected trees.
Partial harvests of old, infected forests can greatly increase dwarf mistletoe infection levels because dwarf mistletoe can spread from the mid and upper crown of large trees to infect the tops of other trees. Partial cutting results in varying amounts of dwarf mistletoe, with the amount dependent upon 1) the number of large hosts that remain, 2) their infection level, and 3) their spatial distribution. Where a clump of dwarf mistletoe is desirable, natural barriers including non-host vegetation and bare ground are useful in limiting spread.
Non-susceptible or occasional and rare hosts can be favored to decrease disease levels in a forest. Besides being uninfected or lightly infected, these trees sometimes act as a barrier to spread among the more susceptible species.
In forested recreation sites with hemlock dwarf mistletoe infestations, sanitation treatments that favor non-susceptible hosts, or removal of infected overstory trees may be appropriate. In areas where trees have high individual values such as developed recreation sites, pruning of large brooms can be effective in reducing hazard from falling branches and improving tree vigor and longevity .Trees with brooms and branch infections in the lower crown would benefit most from pruning.
Allen, E.A.; Morrison, D.I.; Wallis, G.W. 1996. Common tree diseases of British Columbia. Victoria: Canadian Forest Service. 178p.
Hawksworth, F.G.; Wiens, D. 1996. Dwarf mistletoes: biology, pathology, and systematics. Ag. Handb. 709. Washington, DC: U.S. Dep. Agric., For. Serv. 410 p.
Mathiasen, Robert L. 1994. Natural infection of new hosts by hemlock dwarfmistletoe. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mtn. For, & Range Exp. Sta., Research Note RM-RN-530, December 1994,6 pages
Smith, R.B. 1977. Overstory spread and intensification of hemlock dwarf mistletoe. Can. I. For. Res. 7: 632-640.
Thompson, A.I.; Alfaro, R.I.; Bloomberg, W.I.; Smith, R.B. 1985. Impact of dwarf mistletoe on the growth of western hemlock trees having different patterns of suppression and release. Can. I. For. Res. 15: 665-668.
Trummer, L.M.; Hennon, P.E.; Hansen, E.M.; Muir, P.S. 1998. Modeling the incidence and severity of hemlock dwarf mistletoe in 110-year-old wind-disturbed forests in Southeast Alaska. Can. I. For. Res. 28: 1501-1508.
Pesticides used improperly can be injurious to humans, animals, and plants. Follow directions and read all precautions on the labels. Consult your local forest pathologist, county agricultural agent, or State extension agent about restrictions and registered uses of particular pesticides.
1Plant pathologist, USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection, Juneau, AK.
2Plant pathologist, USDA Forest Service, Forest Insects and Diseases, Sandy, OR.
3Plant pathologist, USDA Forest Service, Forest Insects and Diseases, Portland, OR.
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It is generally agreed upon that chameleons originated in eastern Africa, then moving into the rest of Africa, the Mediterranean region, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Madagascar. Today, the majority of chameleons are naturally found on Madagascar, but captive-bred chameleons are found throughout the world.
Chameleons are easily recognized by their independently movable eyes, long tongues, and fused digits on each foot. They are beautiful creatures that come in a wide range of colors and varieties. They generally make their home in trees or bushes, making use of their gripping feet and tail. Perhaps the chameleon’s best-known trait, their ability to camouflage is also useful in their leafy habitat. In addition to color change, some chameleons’ camouflaging abilities include other forms of mimicry, such as pretending to be leaves swaying in the wind or purporting to be dead in the presence of a predator.
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Posted at: 12/27/2013 10:47 AM
SANTA FE -- The New Mexico Department of Health warns parents of the increased risks of sudden unexpected infant deaths during the New Year's holiday.
A national study, completed in 2010, indicates it may be just as important to pick a "designated caregiver" for the baby during the holidays as it is to select a "designated driver." When parents drink alcohol--especially in excess--young infants can be left vulnerable.
The University of California study, published in the journal Addiction, found a 33 percent increase in the incidence of sudden unexpected infant deaths on New Year's Eve. Researchers found alcohol was a risk factor for sudden unexpected infant deaths, and that parental decision-making capacity is significantly impaired by the excessive use of alcohol.
The study looked at 129,090 cases of sudden, unexpected infant deaths in the U.S. from 1973 to 2006 and also tracked alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents among the general population. Both were at an all-time high on New Year's Day, as well as on the 4th of July.
Babies of mothers who drink alcohol are also twice as likely to die unexpectedly, according to the study.
The New Mexico Department of Health is currently expanding its Safe Sleep efforts, focusing on the baby sleeping Alone, on its Back, in a Crib, or "ABC", and having no one smoking inside the home, whether during the pregnancy or after the baby is born.
There were 86 cases of unexpected infant deaths in New Mexico between 2009 and 2012, or an average of one every 13 days.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, almost two thirds of sudden unexpected infant deaths occurred while the baby was co-sleeping with another family member.
The New Mexico Department of Health recommends:
-Always designate a sober caregiver for babies under one year of age, especially during holidays and celebrations such as New Years.
-Remember ABC: All babies under one year of age should always sleep Alone, on their Backs, and in a Crib every time, including for naps and at night.
-Do not smoke in the house, either during pregnancy or after the baby is born.
-Use a firm sleep surface for babies to sleep on, such as a safety-approved crib mattress covered with a fitted sheet. Never place a baby to sleep on a pillow, quilt, sheepskin, or other soft surface.
-Keep soft objects, toys, and loose bedding out of your baby's sleep area. Don't use pillows, blankets, quilts, sheepskins, sleep postioners, or pillow-like bumpers in your baby's sleep area. Keep all items away from the baby's face.
-Avoid letting your baby overheat during sleep. Dress your baby in light sleep clothing and keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for an adult.
To learn more about safe sleeping for your baby, you can check out the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Safe to Sleep website.
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A good friend gave me a copy of Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes and I had the pleasure to read it last month. It’s not just the fascinating story of how the Eiffel Tower was built, it is an equally engaging series of vignettes about this amazing era of discovery. Jonnes does an excellent job researching and telling the story of the highly controversial centerpiece of the Exposition Universelle of 1889, while interweaving fascinating stories of life in Paris and the world in the late 1800’s.
The Exposition Committee commissioned bids for the central monument and received over 100 applications including everything from an enormous water sprinkler, to a giant reproduction of a guillotine as a monument to the French Revolution only 100 years before. Eiffel’s plan began to emerge as the winning design, generating substantial controversy and dissent. Gustave Eiffel designed an iron tower that would be the tallest in the world, at over 1,000 feet. It would dwarf the next highest structure, the Washington Monument at only 550 feet. Most scoffed that it was an impossible engineering feet.
If anyone could accomplish the task, it was Gustave Eiffel, recognized as France’s greatest railway builder and the designer of the frame of the Statue of Liberty. But even before the prize was awarded, the criticisms began to flow, fast and furious. Among the first were protests from a committee of prominent French Architects — furious that Gustave Eiffel, ‘a mere engineer and builder of railway bridges’ could think that his ‘odious column of bolted metal’ would be worth of a central position in their city. A large group formed to campaign against it, because ‘the construction of a safe one-thousand-foot tower was technically impossible, as no building that tall could resist the power of the wind’. Eiffel proved them all wrong.
Fraught with problems from financing this enormous project, to obtaining an absolutely level first floor platform, to installing elevators that were safe and could climb to the top, Eiffel ignored the critics and slowly but surely, he overcame each problem. For example, to solve the problem of building a level first floor platform, which would serve as the critical base on which to build the rest of this soaring structure, Eiffel invented a system of adjustable jacks in each of the four bases. The description of of the cold and winds and the conditions the welders and workmen had to work under are extremely vivid.
In terms of financing, the challenge was enormous as Eiffel had to raise 3,500,0000 francs of the total 5,000,000 cost. He was allowed to keep the concession of the tower for 20 years to help recover the costs.
When it came to the elevators, the awards were given to a French company, Roux, and to the relatively new American company, Otis Elevator. The Otis Company lost money on the deal, but kept their word and built a safe elevator to the second floor, much quieter than the French one used at lower level. Eiffel and the Committee were concerned about the new design and its safety, so the head of the Otis elevator company came to Paris to make a graphic demonstration The elevator was loaded with 3,000 kilograms of lead to simulate a load full of people. Next, the elevators were fascinated with ordinary thick ropes, removing the usual steel wire cables. The correspondent from The London Times reported: ‘What was to be done was to cut the ropes, and allow the lift to fall, so as to ascertain whether, if the steel cables were to give way, the brake would work properly and support the lift…Two carpenters, armed with great hatchets and were ready to cut the (rope) cables on a signal by Mr. Brown.” The hatchets swung and sliced through the ropes; a gasp arose from the crowd as the fifteen ton elevator began to fall. Then, “the lift began to move more slowly, it swayed for a moment…stuck on the brake and stopped.” Otis’ elevator stopped 30 feet from the ground and the crowd cheered and applauded! When these elevators were finally installed working, the Eiffel Tower had 12,000 visitors per day. An incredible number and comparable to the 7,000,000 visitors per year.
Most of the Royal Houses of Europe refused to attend, still smarting from the guillotining of French royal family 100 years before. France invited many smaller countries who set up small vignettes of life in Japan, Egypt, Bali – and they proved among the most popular exhibits of all. It was certainly the forerunner of Disney’s Epcot, with a small train ferrying visitors between the Invalides and the Ecole Militaire. The Fair proved so popular that the Prince of Wales finally attended and met Mr. Eiffel at the top of the Tower.
Thomas Edison attended and was received like royalty. His newest invention, the phonograph machine was one of the most popular exhibits, drawing ten thousand people each day to hear the first recorded music.
In contrast, a group of artists works were virtually ignored. The Impressionists and their works was so marginalized that only through the efforts of Jean Paul Gaugin did any works appear at all, on the walls of a café in the Exhibition Grounds. Vincent Van Gogh hoped to attend and show several paintings, but his mental state was too fragile. The cantankerous James Whistler withdrew his artwork from the American Pavilion because not enough of his paintings were shown, then had to accept a lesser position in the British Pavilion.
But the most popular show of the Exposition was none other than Wild Bill and his Wild West Show, including 100 Sioux Indians just off the reservation and his top star, Annie Oakley. An estimated thirty thousand people attended the show daily at their encampment in Neuilly to see real Indians, cowboys a demonstration of how the West was won with ‘Guillaume Bill’ and, the top draw of all, Ms. Oakley’s amazing shooting skills. Gauguin wrote to a friend: “I was at Buffalo (Bill’s). You absolutely have to come see this. It is hugely interesting.”
The stories and vignettes continue. The final story is how Eiffel’s Tower became a lasting monument of Paris. As 1909 approached it was initially saved thanks to its usefulness for scientific experiments and the invention of the Telegraph. It transmitted the first public radio programme in 1925. Slowly the Eiffel Tower became the symbol for France and nothing better exemplifies it than the story that unfolded in the final days of World War II. On August 25, 1945, a band of men climbed the 1,671 steps to hang the tricolor French flag on the top of the Eiffel Tower for the first time since the War began. ‘…the occupation was over, as every Parisian knew who saw the tricolor snapping that afternoon atop their proud tower.’
At last, the simple beauty of the graceful arches and design made it the icon for the City of Paris.
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A river transports its sediment load in a variety of ways. The methods of
transport are also used to describe the various loads of a river, i.e. the bed
or traction load, suspension load, dissolved load, and suspended load).
The sediment load varies from river to river, along the course of one river or
in the same place at different times.
This is because the velocity of the water is crucial in determining the way
that sediment is transported. The relationship between erosion, transport and
deposition of sediment is complex and can be shown by the Hjulstrom diagram.
This is based on experimental work rather than natural channels, but it shows
the principles involved.
Entrainment is the process of starting the particles of sediment moving - the
opposite of settling.
High velocities result in sediments being transported in the river flow, while
low velocities result in sediment being deposited.
Medium sand (0.25-0.5 mm in diameter) is moved at the lowest velocities.
Larger, heavier sediments need higher velocities to start movement.
Silt and clay need higher velocities than their size would suggest
are cohesive (they stick together) and so, in fact, are bigger than they should
Once set in motion, fine particles can be transported even if the velocity
Larger coarse particles are deposited rapidly as velocity falls. In
with mainly boulders and gravel, transport only occurs at high flows.
In natural channels the situation will be more complex. For example, small
particles may be sheltered by larger particles and therefore they are not moved.
Velocity of flow is variable across and vertically in a natural channel,
this will affect the processes.
Sediment transported under lower-flow velocities, as bed load, may become
suspended load under high velocities.
A river must have energy available to perform the work of transporting
sediment. A river's power is the energy available to overcome friction and to
move sediment. This will be greatest in rivers with high discharge, high
downstream gradient, and an efficient channel. If the river has just enough
energy in a particular section (reach) to transport the sediment available,
then it is in equilibrium. If it has more power available than needed to
transport its sediment load, the river will have excess energy and will erode
its channel. If there is less energy available than is needed to transport its
load, then deposition of the sediment will result.
Two further terms are useful in describing sediment transport. The competence is the maximum sediment particle size that can be carried at a particular
velocity. The capacity is the total load of sediment that the river can carry.
These will vary with both discharge and velocity.
The velocity at which a sediment particle drops to the channel bed is called
the settling velocity . This depends upon the size and shape and density of the
sediment particle. Deposition may be temporary on the channel bed and the
sediment may be moved again at a time of higher flow. In other situations there
is a net deposition of sediment, and a deposition landform results, e.g.
floodplains and point bars on the inside of meander bends.
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A team of researchers at the University of Brightloch have announced that 9×9 go has been solved. Inspired by recent improvements in computer play by Montecarlo algorithms, they hypothesized that “If a computer can play at random andplay good games, what prevents a more powerful device (like a brain) to do something similar?”
So the researchers picked a team of 100,000 chickens and taught them to play go. “It was hard in the beginning, but once a few knew how to play they started teaching others,” they report. “After a couple months all were playing as 30k players and we set them loose in a field filled with 9×9 go boards and bowls with stones. Also some grain and water.”
A month later the chickens were gone, and the same position was repeated on every 9×9 board: perfect play, with white winning by 0.5 points with 7.5 komi. The chickens had also left a note. It said “So long, and thanks for all the grain.”
- based on a report on Nordic Go Academy by RBERENGUEL; thanks to Go Game Guru, which posted it on their Facebook page.
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|Manual for the Use of Focus Groups (Methods for Social Research in Disease) (International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries - INFDC, 1993, 97 pages)|
|Part I: Team leader focus group training|
|Section 1: Deciding to use focus group training|
|Section 2: Designing the study|
|Section 3: Selecting and training staff|
|Section 4: Selecting the study participants|
|Section 5: Developing the question line|
|Section 6: Managing the information you collect|
|Section 7: Analysis of the results|
|Part II: Staff training for focus group discussions|
|Section 1: Introduction|
|Section 2: Introduction to focus groups|
|Section 3: Overview of skills training session|
|Section 4: Roles of the team|
|Section 5: Personal characteristics of the moderator|
|Section 6: Preparation for each focus group discussion|
|Section 7: Entering the community and activities for the reception of participants|
|Section 8: Beginning the focus group discussion|
|Section 9: Moderator skills: Asking questions|
|Section 10: Encouraging and controlling the discussion|
|Section 11: Moderator and observer skills: Observing non-verbal messages|
|Section 12: Observer skills: Recording the session|
|Section 13: Closing the discussion and meeting|
|Section 14: The debrief|
|The focus group manual|
2.1 Why are we using focus group discussions?
What are focus groups?
Focus groups are group discussions in which about eight people are gathered together to discuss a topic of interest. The discussion is guided by a group leader (called a moderator) who asks questions and tries to help the group have a natural and free conversation with each other.
Focus groups are aimed at encouraging participants to talk with each other, rather than answer questions directly to the moderator. The group interaction of focus groups is important because it gives us some understanding of how the people are thinking about the topic.
The questions asked of the group are usually "focused". By this we mean that they focus on one or two main topics, to get a really detailed idea about how the people think about the area of interest. They are also focused because participants of any focus group usually share common characteristics, such as age, sex, educational background, religion, or something directly related to the topic being studied. This encourages the group to speak freely.
Focus groups can find out about people's feelings, attitudes and opinions about a topic of interest. They examine only one or two topics in great detail, in an effort to really understand why people think or behave the way they do.
How can focus groups be used in health programmes?
Focus groups can be used in many different ways in health programmes. They can explore a new area of interest about which little is known, or they can establish what the community thinks about a new project plan and check whether the plan is appropriate for the community. Focus group discussions can solve project problems. For example, if a health education project did not appear to be changing the behaviour of the community, then focus groups can explore the reasons why. Focus groups can also be used when you are evaluating a project. They can give you the community's ideas about how useful the project is. They are also used to address staff problems, by providing understanding about programme problems from the point of view of the staff themselves.
What information will we be collecting?
NOTE TO TRAINER
In this section it is worthwhile to provide a very clear description of the project. You can explain what the problems are that you are trying to solve. You will need to go through in some detail your objectives and the list of information you require. If your objectives have been written in complicated language, then it is advisable either to simplify them, or present them to the staff in a way that will not make them feel that the project is difficult for them to manage. This, of course, will depend on the language skills and educational background of the staff.
How will we use the data from Focus Group Discussions?
NOTE TO TRAINER
Here you will need to be clear about how you will use focus group results. To make this a little clearer, read the example list below of how you might want to use the information:
· to get ideas about what the community sees as important issues to the topic so that good questionnaires can be written for a larger study in the population;
· to discover local words related to the topic;
· to have additional information about the topic to be used with results from other studies;
· to help the team become more familiar with the area and the communities who live there;
· to assist decision makers with future plans to benefit the community.
2.2 Conducting the Focus Group Research Project
The following section gives you a very brief outline of the whole process of conducting the project. It starts with the planning of the project and goes through all its aspects, including managing the results of the focus group discussions.
Focus group pre-planning
NOTE TO TRAINER
Your sharing of the detail in this section will depend upon what involvement the staff will have in project planning. You may need to provide as much detail as that in Part I of this manual, or alternatively you may just need to describe the main steps that were performed to plan the project.
Conducting the focus groups
BEFORE THE SESSION:
· pre-arrange the focus groups by visiting the site and talking to the local leaders and participants, and selecting the place where the focus groups will be held;
· check all equipment before leaving for the field;
· arrive at the site early to arrange seating and equipment.
DURING THE SESSION:
· receive participants;
· open the meeting;
· conduct the session;
· close the session.
AFTER THE SESSION:
· immediately debrief in the field;
· extend debrief at home office;
· expand field notes and check accuracy.
Management of the Results
NOTE TO TRAINER
It is necessary to provide an explanation of how you will manage the information. This simply means describing to the staff what decisions have been made concerning how you record the sessions, how you will store the information, and how you intend to analyse the information. Again, the detail you provide to the staff will depend on their involvement with these aspects of the project. However, it is important to explain to the staff the entire project, even if they are only involved in one aspect, such as moderating.
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I have to admit that I had to do a little more research on Marxist criticism in order to truly understand it. Now that I have, I can see why "Wuthering Heights" would be a excellent subject for this particular type of criticism.
Before reading the passage on Marxist criticism, I thought that "Wuthering Heights" was just another love story and that the revenge saga was just a way to fill up space in the novel. But the more I think about it, the more I am beginning to realize that Emily Bronte was using her novel as a social commentary about the disparages between the rich and the poor and the lack of rights given to women. Heathcliff served as a catalyst for both.
In the beginning, Heathcliff is brought to "Wuthering Heights" by the kindhearted Earnshaw. He was starved and unkempt and it was obvious that he was not in the same social class as the Earnshaws. As indicated in our class discussion, even though he was fed and clothed and allowed to live with the Earnshaws, he was still an outsider to the original family. And when the father died, Hindley immediately removed Heathcliff from his position as "family member" to servant. This was also reinforced by Edgar Linton as well. As soon as he saw Heathcliff, he knew that he was not in the same class as he and immediately despised him. And the constant reference to the term "gypsy" made me think of another term that's used to remind someone of their class - "nigger".
Bronte also used Heathcliff as a way to comment on the role of women in her society. Heathcliff's revenge on Hindley and Edgar rested solely on the fact that women were not allowed to own property and whatever they acquired through death immediately went to their male counterparts, whether it be brother or husband. If it wasn't for this norm in their society, Heathcliff's plan would have never come into fruition.
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One-third of the seafood consumed in the US is mislabelled, a fishy practice that can pose serious health risks, according to a study published Thursday by the non-profit Oceana.
The study reached its conclusions by testing the DNA of more than 1 200 seafood samples over a period of two years. It showed high levels of fraud when it comes to buying fish: the study found that 87% of snapper and 59% of tuna products actually contained types of fish other than what the label said.
Dr Kimberly Warner, author of the report and senior scientist at Oceana, said the findings were troubling.
How consumers choose their fish
"Apart from being cheated, many consumers can't choose their fish wisely based on conservation or health concerns," said Warner in a video produced by Oceana, the largest international organisation focusing on ocean conservation.
In some cases, she said, white tuna used in sushi was substituted with escolar, a type of fish that can actually lead to serious digestive problems if consumed in large portions.
Other fish known to have high levels of mercury are used as substitutes, putting women of childbearing age and children in danger.
US Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said the rampant fraud hurts consumers and fish producers economically.
Seafood fraud globally
"Seafood fraud is an epidemic, and it is a fraud on the consumer," Markey said. "Fishermen who play by the rules are also being ripped off by the bogus bass and the shady shrimp that are being marketed as the real deal."
As Massachusetts is a major fish producer in the US, Markey said the practice, which often involves fraudulent fish imported from abroad, must stop.
Oceana called on the federal government to establish stricter guidelines for tracking seafood "from boat to plate," to increase inspection of fish products for mislabeling and to better enforce existing laws on fraud.Author: Emoke Bebiak
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The Christchurch City Council will publish updated floor levels today - the heights above ground level that buildings must be constructed in a city prone to flooding. Council regulation and democracy services general manager PETER MITCHELL explains what's been happening with the city's land and drainage network as a result of the earthquakes, and the work being undertaken by the council.
Christchurch has always been a flat, low-lying city with areas prone to flooding. This flooding has tended to be shallow and more of an inconvenience rather than a serious threat to life or property.
The Canterbury earthquakes, as most homeowners are aware, caused significant damage to land throughout the city.
The worst hit areas tended to be those closest to riverbanks and waterways, with ground levels across large areas of the city dropping on average 200 millimetres to 300mm.
For some months now, the Christchurch City Council has been working to better understand the extent of the damage and what work is needed to help recover the city's land drainage/flood protection network and what measures need to be put in place to protect properties from future flooding.
Much of this work has focused on the Avon River catchment, but some investigations have also been completed in the Styx and Heathcote river catchments and in Sumner.
Though the earthquakes have extended some of the boundaries of the areas prone to flooding, resulting in an increase in the number of properties that are now likely to flood, there are also properties that no longer flood as a result of the changes to the land.
Of Christchurch's 160,000 properties, 10,361 in the Avon, Styx and Heathcote river catchments have the potential to flood in a 50-year rainfall event. This is an increase of 769 properties since the Canterbury earthquakes.
What is important to remember when we consider the risk of flooding in Christchurch is that the greatest potential for damage from flooding in the city remains the Waimakariri River bursting its banks and discharging what would be large volumes of water across the city.
The stopbanks that protect the city from such an event were damaged by the earthquakes but have since been repaired by Environment Canterbury to provide protection from a one-in-500-year event.
A secondary stopbank under construction by ECan will significantly lower this risk to somewhere in the order of one in 10,000 years.
The city's own stopbanks along the Avon were also damaged during the earthquakes and have been repaired and raised in the worst-hit areas close to the rivers.
Council staff are regularly inspecting these and undertaking additional repairs as required.
Many low-lying areas near streams and rivers are experiencing impeded drainage and base-flow water levels higher than in the past as a result of the lower ground levels.
This is annoying for residents but these will be addressed by repairs to the drainage system being undertaken by Scirt, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, and the council is about to undertake floor-level surveys in areas at risk.
The city's land drainage network has been moderately tested since last February's earthquake without any serious consequences or identifying any new areas of risk. There have been no extreme storms during this time, the biggest event being about 95mm over a 72-hour period in August. The intensity and depth was a one-in-three-year event. There was surface flooding in areas that have always been susceptible to flooding - it was no worse than in recent times.
From a tidal perspective, the biggest test to our land drainage network was in July last year when the stopbanks contained the high tide, preventing any tidal flooding of the low-lying mostly red- zone suburbs around the lower Avon. This tide did not coincide with a significant storm. The predicted 50-year tidal event is about six centimetres higher than this.
The city has developed a programme of work for recovery of the land drainage network. This work is prioritised with the first projects to be delivered before the end of this year. This includes understanding the effects of the earthquakes on the Avon, Heathcote and Styx rivers and the flood plains in the tidal reaches, new river/ stormwater modelling to identify and manage any new drainage issues and a full assessment of the Port Hills stormwater network.
The council began work in the 1990s to identify flood management areas in the city. This was first notified in 2003 as Variation 48 to the city plan. This variation was made operative, becoming part of the city plan, on January 31 last year.
Flood management areas are those that are prone to flooding, as a result of a major tidal or rainfall event, and that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change as a result of rising sea levels. These areas were identified to help reduce future damage to the city from flooding.
Christchurch's flood management areas are around the Styx River (lower areas), Avon and Heathcote Rivers, in the Lansdowne Valley and in some low-lying coastal areas, including Redcliffs and Sumner.
Today the council will issue new land information data that has been collated since the first earthquake in September 2010. Each time the city has experienced a major event, the land has been surveyed to ensure the council has a thorough understanding of what has been happening with the land. This new data will show property owners the accumulative effect of the earthquakes and aftershocks on ground levels, and what this means for the rebuild.
- The Press
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The Acadian Branch
History of the Acadian Samsons
According to the civil archives at Cap-St-Ignace, Quebec, Gabriel Sanson, the son of Gabriel Sanson and Francoise Durand, born January 12, 1682, was baptized at Lauzon, on January 16, 1682, in the presence of Jean Guiet, by Jean Basset, missionary priest from the seminary of Quebec. His baptismal record reads:
On the sixteenth day of the month of January, in the year 1682, was baptized in the church of St. Joseph of Lauzon, Gabriel, son of Gabriel Sanson and Francoise Durand, his wife, born on the twelfth of the same month, in the presence of Jean Guiet, by Jean Basset, missionary priest.
Gabriel was the couple’s seventh child and fourth son, and was only 8 years old when his father died. He grew up on the farm at the Point of Levis, and may have trained in carpentry and shipbuilding, as he was described in later census documents as a carpenter, builder, and navigator. Gabriel left Quebec to work in Port Royal, Acadia, and although he may have intended to stay temporarily, he never did return.
In 1701, Port Royal was a small community, and numbered fewer than 500 inhabitants. According to the author Rameau de Saint-Pere, the village consisted of a rough fort, a church, and a few houses. Lands were divided, as they were in France and Quebec, into long rectangular parcels perpendicular to the shore of the river. Settlers built their homes on the uplands, while cultivating the lowlands with wheat and hay, and using the wooded hills for firewood and building materials. Instead of clearing the forests, they built dykes on the low-lying lands adjacent to the Bay of Fundy. The reclamation of the salt-water marshes through the use of dyke building became a distinct characteristic of Acadian farming. During his visit to Port Royal in 1699, Sieur de Diereville of Normandy wrote: “The ebb and flow of the Sea cannot easily be stopped, but the Acadians succeed in doing so by means of great Dykes, called Aboiteau.”
Twenty two year old Gabriel Samson married Jeanne Martin, the young widow of Louis Chesnay dit La Garenne, and mother of two children, Marie-Josephe and Jean-Baptiste Chesnay. Jeanne was the daughter of Barnabe Martin and Jeanne Pelletret. She was born in Port Royal about 1676, and first married there about 1697 to Chesnay, a young settler from Quebec. Six years his senior, the widow Chesnay married Gabriel at the church of St. Jean-Baptiste of Port Royal, on April 7, 1704. Their marriage record read in part (RG1, Vol 26, p. 271):
“On the 7th of April in the year 1704, I, the undersigned, performing the civil functions in this parish, and following the publication of three bans for three consecutive Sundays without any impediments, have married in this church, Gabriel Samson, son of Gabriel Samson and Francoise Durand, of the Pointe of Levis, Quebec; and Jeanne Martin, daughter of Barnabe Martin and Jeanne Peltray of this parish. I have signed with the witnesses below, and the groom and bride have made their mark, Felix Pain, Recollet priest.”
Witnesses were Chartier, Cahouet, Pontif, Jacques Cochu, Elie Gentil (Jeanne’s brother-in-law), and Jacques Le Vanier, (Jeanne’s stepfather).
Gabriel and Jeanne enjoyed a brief period of happiness before another attack from New England by Major Church, on July 2, 1704. Church killed and captured close to 100 Acadians at Port Royal, and burned about 26 houses. Gabriel and Jeanne were certainly among those captured, since their daughter Madeleine was born in Boston on January 9, 1705. The family was finally returned to Port Royal more than a year later, where Madeleine was baptized on January 27, 1706, and their son Michel was born a few months later in July. His baptism in the church records of St. Jean-Baptiste of Port Royal shows Michel Samson, born July 12, 1706, baptized the same day, the son of Gabriel Samson and Jeanne Martin.
Gabriel Samson was enumerated in the 1707 census of Port Royal, with his wife, 2 sons under 14 years of age, 2 daughters under 12 years of age (which included his step-children), 4 horned animals, 5 pigs, a half arpent of land, and 1 gun. In 1709, the couple had a second son, Mathieu, born on August 14, 1709, and baptized at Port Royal on the following day. A copy of his baptismal record is shown below. The Samson family was included in the Port Royal census of 1710 and 1714, where Gabriel had 3 sons and 2 daughters.
Gabriel and Jeanne had a family of 11 children, 7 surviving to adulthood. He worked as an engineer at Port Royal, but left the capital when the British overtook the Port for the last time. In order to avoid taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, Gabriel and his family emigrated to Port Toulouse (present day St. Peter’s, Cape Breton), on Ile Royale around 1720-21, where he built and navigated coasting vessels. In the census of 1722, at Port Toulouse, Gabriel Samson is listed, an Acadian, with 10 persons. In the 1724 census of Port Toulouse, he is enumerated, born in Canada, builder and navigator, with a wife, 2 sons over 15 years of age, one son under 15, three daughters, and one ship for commerce. He is listed in the Port Toulouse census of 1734, born in Quebec, a carpenter, widower, with 2 sons under 15 years of age, and one daughter.
Jeanne died about 1728 and was buried at Port Toulouse, and her husband died several years later about 1757. Of their three sons, only two left descendants. Michel, born and baptized at Port Royal on July 12, 1706, married Anne “Jeanne” Testard dit Paris in Port Toulouse, and was deported to France with several members of his family in 1758 (see Isle Madame section).
Michel’s younger brother, Mathieu, born August 14, 1709, at Port Royal, married about 1734, at Port Toulouse, Marguerite Pouget, daughter of Pierre Pouget and Francoise Moyse, and is the ancestor of the Samsons of L’Ardoise and River Bourgeois, Nova Scotia. The youngest son, Charles Samson, born October 1, 1717 at Port Royal, married about 1752 at Port Toulouse, Marie Prejean, daughter of Nicolas Prejean and Marguerite Broussard. Charles and Marie were deported to France on the ship “La Reine d'Espagne” where Charles and his two children died during the crossing.
According to family oral history which continued until the turn of the century, the Acadians of Port Toulouse who remained in Cape Breton after the Expulsion of 1758 lived a nomadic existence for some years thereafter, fearful of capture and deportation by the British. From the petitions of land grants presented by several of the Acadians of L’Ardoise (Public Archives of Nova Scotia: Calendar of Cape Breton Land Papers), it appears that the Samsons settled at L’Ardoise in 1765. The whole family group of Mathieu Samson and Marguerite Pouget appears in the missionary records of 1771 as living at L’Ardoise. All of Mathieu’s sons remained at L’Ardoise except for Jean-Baptiste, who was one of the original settlers of River Bourgois, Nova Scotia, a neighboring community.
Written by Charles Samson, in December 1997, revised in April 2010.
Sources: Programme de recherché en demographie historique, Universite de Montreal; “Une Colonie Feodale”, Edme Rameau de Saint-Pere; “Une Relation du Voyage de l’Acadie,” Diereville; “Acadian Church Records, Vol. III – Port Royal, 1702-1721”, Reider & Reider; “Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes”, Stephen A. White, University of Moncton, New Brunskwick; “Histoire et Genealogie des Acadiens”, Bona Arsenault; and “The Acadian Exiles in Saint-Malo”, by Albert Robichaux.
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Definition of drawnCategorized under "General"
Definition as written by htop:
This term describes the structure of a plant which has grown too tall and too weak. This usually occurs because the plant is receiving too little light and/or because it is growing too close to other plants. One observes drawn plants growing in nursery flats.
Add a definition to this term
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Those that observe ecological dynamics have always stated that evolution plays a role, but it is only relatively recently that there has been a fever of interest in quantifying what that role might be. It is not the case that there was ever a lack of interest; it was just generally assumed that as evolution occurs on very long timescales, it will have little influence on contemporary ecological dynamics – certainly on the timescales over which ecologists would want to make predictions. But increasingly we have come to accept that phenotypic change can occur very quickly, in only a few generations, and we have a good body of evidence showing that “rapid” or “contemporary” evolutionary change in the underlying biology of species is common. (As an aside, I wonder if it should not be called “rapid” evolution, as it has recently been pointed out to me that palaeontologists see little more phenotypic change within species in thousands of generations than ecologists see in tens of generations.)
Much of the recent interest in contemporary evolutionary change was generated by the theory of harvest-induced selection, a framework in which it is thought that high trait-selective harvesting rates lead to a change in the frequency of traits in a population, diminishing the type of animal or plant that the harvester is seeking. More recently further interest has come from the question of species responses to current rates of environmental change. And so it was with these questions in mind that a project was born. What exactly is the contribution of evolution to the way in which populations respond to their environment, and how is this influenced by high (but reasonable) harvesting rates?
Our project was to compare the adaptation of populations of soil mites, taken from the wild and placed into environments differing in the form of environmental variation caused by experimental manipulation in the variance, but not the mean, of the food they received. In a recent paper (DOI: 10.1111/ele.12107) I presented the results of one of these environmental treatments: periodically varying food. The variation of the food is not so important for this blog post, so I won’t discuss it again here. Overlaid upon this, we harvested 40% of either juvenile or adult individuals each week, with an unharvested control. This harvest rate was estimated to be close to a maximum sustainable yield, based on harvesting adults. Other important information is that these soil mites have essentially three demographic stages: eggs, juveniles and adults. They are sexually dimorphic as adults and have a generation time of approximately five weeks.
A mite. Photo credit: Dr. Tom Cameron.
For two years we counted the numbers of the different stages of soil mites each week in each of 6 replicate population tubes per harvesting treatment (18 tubes). We combined this census of demography with a census of the life history of the mites. For the uninitiated, a life history is a way to describe the balance between how an organism invests its available resources into survival, growth or reproduction. To conduct the life history census, approximately every 15–20 weeks we took a sample of mites from two of the population tubes per treatment and reared them in a common garden for three generations (a common garden is where you rear all organisms in the same conditions, which helps to minimise any non-genetic effects of the parents’ environment on the life history of the mites). Our assumption is that if we view the life history of the mites after they have been in the common garden then any differences that remain should be mostly genetically based. Because that is an assumption, we also conducted a third census of the genetic dynamics in those two sample populations per treatment so we could estimate whether any changes we saw in the life history of the mites was “likely” to be caused by natural selection.
We have two main results. First, by placing mites from the wild into closed populations in the laboratory we created populations not suited to their new environment and the populations began to decline toward extinction. However, after only five generations this decline slowed and then reversed into a long-term increase. This dynamic occurred in all stages in each of the 18 tubes across all harvesting treatments. Our analysis of the life history found that there was a large delay in mite growth rates occurring during this period. Normally we think of a delay in growth to maturity as a negative response to poor conditions, but under the conditions the mites found themselves in compared to their wild ancestry, it was selected for. To understand why, we also looked at survival and fecundity. While survival was little changed, those mites that delayed their growth to maturity and spent a longer time in the juvenile stage could double their peak reproductive output. To confirm this pretty adaptive story that mites investing in increased individual reproductive output could rescue their population from extinction, we compared the population growth we would predict based on the life history of an average individual with the real population growth rates we observed in the population time series, and they were highly correlated. Indeed, if we do not use the changing life history trait values we observed throughout the experiment we cannot predict the recovery and long-term population size increase we saw in the experiment. Finally, we were able to show that this delay in age-to-maturity was linked to patterns of change in the genetic diversity in the populations, suggesting that natural selection was an important factor in the ecological dynamics even over just a few generations.
Harvesting had both an ecological and an eco-evolutionary effect on the population dynamics. Its eco-evolutionary effect was to prevent individuals from juvenile-harvested populations from reaching the optimal phenotype, as they could not stay in the juvenile stage too long or the populations would go extinct. Adult-harvested populations produced individuals that delayed maturity a little longer but matured larger, which we suggest is an adaptive response that increases fecundity early in adult life. These results are exactly what we would predict from current theory. Certainly the ecological effects of harvesting were strong, in that when we ceased harvesting the population dynamics of all treatments were more similar; but differences remained for many generations, especially in terms of population variation.
So our take-home message from our first result from this project is that ecology and evolution are not as separate as we have traditionally assumed. Even over a few generations we can see that evolution has a role to play in how populations respond to environmental change, whether biotic (e.g. harvesting) or abiotic (e.g. climate change).
There has been some criticism of microcosm studies of harvest-induced evolution that they produce trait change underpinned by selection far faster (i.e. 10% per generation) than the slow rates observed in the heavily exploited wild populations (1–2%). In our study, in which mites were simply enclosed in population tubes and exposed to strong density-dependent competition for food and then harvested near the maximum sustainable yield, we saw a 4% per generation response to environmental change and a 1.4% per generation change in response to harvesting. This clearly places the trait changes we saw in the “slow” category and suggests that even slow rates of harvest-induced evolution can have significant and long-term effects on population dynamics. Our results are therefore further evidence that evolutionary considerations should be taken into account in harvesting management. By this I do not necessarily mean the harvest rate, as I think ecological models can mostly deal with this; rather, I mean in terms of making realistic predictions regarding whether harvested populations will recover from overexploitation, and how long such recovery might take.
How important are these results of contemporary/rapid evolution? Well, the truth is we do not know. Many studies have concluded that rapid or contemporary evolution may have repercussions beyond population ecology, for example in ecosystem services and ecological community structure, resilience and function; but to date there are few (if any?) examples in which this has been demonstrated. For this reason, I would suggest that future studies of the role of evolution in ecological dynamics should turn toward community ecology.
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A team of scientists from the University of Washington claim to have devised a way to test whether we’re living in a computer simulation. Though fascinating, ‘reality’ is still to pass the test.
Reality is questionable. Zeno, Plato, and many philosophers have held similar opinions centuries ago. But ever since computers became a part of our reality, an increasing number of individuals have argued that life itself may be nothing more than a computer simulation. The idea furthers the concept of phenomenalism. Scientists now believe that they can test the simulation hypothesis to see if we’re actually living in a computer simulation.
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Find out more
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This comprehensive report focuses on the fact that millions of people in poor countries remain uneducated and illiterate - which prevents them from developing the skills they need to escape poverty. The book looks at the underlying causes of the problem and sets out a clear agenda for reform. It demonstrates that universal free good-quality primary education is affordable and possible if governments all over the world change their priorities. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in education as a development issue, it is clear and accessible with many diagrams and statistics.
All publications by this author
All publications on this subject
© 2015. Oxfam is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC039042). Oxfam GB is a member of the international confederation Oxfam.
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David R. Thompson
Often remote investigations use autonomous agents to observe an environment on behalf of absent scientists. Predictive exploration improves these systems' efficiency with onboard data analysis. Agents can learn the structure of the environment and predict future observations, reducing the remote exploration problem to one of experimental design. In our formulation information gain over a map guides exploration decisions, while a similar criterion suggests the most informative data products for downlink. Ongoing work will develop appropriate models for surface exploration by planetary robots. Experiments will demonstrate these algorithms for autonomous geology on kilometer scales.
Subjects: 12.2 Scientific Discovery; 17. Robotics
Submitted: Apr 24, 2007
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History has blamed Nero for the disaster, implying that he started the fire so that he could bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking. Much of what is known about the great fire of Rome comes from the aristocrat and historian Tacitus, who claimed that Nero watched Rome burn while merrily playing his fiddle. Gangs of thugs prevented citizens from fighting the fire with threats of torture, Tacitus wrote. There is some support for the theory that Nero leveled the city on purpose: the Domus Aurea, Nero's majestic series of villas and pavilions set upon a landscaped park and a man-made lake, was built in the wake of the fire.
Certainly, it's hard to know whether to trust the allegations in the writings of Tacitus. What about the explanation offered by Nero, that the Christians were to blame? At least one scholar believes Nero was on the mark. Professor Gerhard Baudy of the University of Konstanz in Germany has spent 15 years studying ancient apocalyptic prophecies. He has learned that in the poor districts of Rome, Christians were circulating vengeful texts predicting that a raging inferno would reduce the city to ashes. "In all of these oracles, the destruction of Rome by fire is prophesied," Baudy explains. "That is the constant theme: Rome must burn. This was the long-desired objective of all the people who felt subjugated by Rome."
At the Palais des Nations in
September 2, 1983, Yasir Arafat espoused a unique interpretation of the life of the Apostle Peter:
"We were under Roman imperialism. We sent a Palestinian fisherman, called St. Peter, to
Rome. He not only occupied
Rome, but also won the hearts of the people. We know how to resist imperialism and occupation. Jesus Christ was the first Palestinian fedayin who carried his sword along the path on which the Palestinians today carry their Cross."
Muslim traditions are very comfortable with a militant Jesus and Peter. They preserve Eastern Christians traditions about Jesus and his less than peaceful apostles.
The Gospel of Peter reads like a rap sheet:
"And I and my companions were grieved; and being wounded in mind we hid ourselves: for we were being sought for by them as malefactors, and as wishing to set fire to the temple."
As portrayed by the Gospel writer, Peter and his companion were suspected arsonists. This is in addition to lopping off the ear of the high priest servant Malchus (John
-11), a rather unique attribute for the number one follower of the prince of peace.Simon Bar Jonah is not the son of a dove ("Bar Yonah") as Matthew 16:22-23 portrays him.The name is a corruption for the Hebrew word for Zealot or Bandit, that is "Baryonim."
But, did Peter and his followers burn
Rome down? The Roman historian Tacitus leaves is open as to whether Nero or the "Christians" (Jewish and Gentile varieties included) did it.
What about the explanation offered by Nero, that the Christians were to blame? At least one scholar believes Nero was right. Professor Gerhard Baudy of the University of Konstanz in Germany has spent 15 years studying ancient apocalyptic prophecies. He has claimed that in the poor districts of Rome, Christians were circulating vengeful texts predicting that a raging inferno would reduce the city to ashes. In all the oracles, especially the book of Revelation and similar apocalyptic writings, Rome burns.
The Whore of Babylon, the source of this evil according to Revelations, is described as having seven heads. "The seven heads are seven mountains," Revelations says. Rome, of course, is famously known as the city of seven hills.
An ancient Egyptian prophecy would have been well known in the Christian quarters of Rome. It foretold the fall of the great evil city on the day that the dog star, Sirius, rises. In 64 A.D., Sirius rose on July 19, the very day the fire of Rome started. Baudy and other scholars believe that, some of the Christians (especially Jews), maltreated and embittered, may have done it, -- or at least lit additional fires, adding fuel in hopes of fulfilling their prophecies. This led directly to the First Jewish Revolt against Rome, as we shall see in a future article.
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While the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor came as a shock to most Americans, the U.S. government had already investigated possible actions to take in case of war with Japan. Japanese Americans also had speculated on what would happen to them, fearing as early as 1937 that they would be "herded into prison camps — perhaps we would be slaughtered on the spot" (Daniels 1989). Some Nisei emphasized their loyalty and Americanism, which led to generational conflict with their Issei parents.
- Nisei: Second generation Japanese immigrant
- Issei: First generation Japanese immigrant
Exerpt from A Brief History of Japanese American Relocation During World War II
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Network Operations Center (NOC)
UEN Security Office
Technical Services Support Center (TSSC)
Eccles Broadcast Center
101 Wasatch Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
(801) 585-6105 (fax)
Main Curriculum Tie:
Background For Teachers:
The wind carries only fine particles, but the force of flowing water can move much larger fragments. The faster the water flows, the larger the fragments it can carry. Water from rainfall or melting snow runs downhill, taking particles of rock and soil with it. Rocks carried along by water are gradually reduced in size and become smooth and rounded as they bounce along a riverbed or against each other.
Most of the power of wind, water, and ice that strip away rocks comes from the abrasive effect of the rock fragments they carry. In deserts, windblown sand scours rock surfaces into fantastic honeycomb shapes. Rocks carried by a river current widen the river by knocking out more material along the way. Along shorelines, the tides grind sand and pebbles against rock surfaces.
Natural erosion tends to happen very slowly. Humans speed up the process tremendously by altering the environment. When forests are cut down leaving exposed soil, erosion may be devastating. Overgrazing by animal herds and unsound farming practices also accelerate the process of erosion.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
Invite the students to think of times when it has been so windy that the air has been filled with dust. Where did that dust come from? Where does it go? Ask if they have walked along the Jordan River. Have they noticed what the water does to the bank? Where does the soil go that falls into the water?
Activity 1 - Modeling erosion
Activity 2 - Discovering erosion
Homework & Family Connections
Find examples of erosion around the yard. Make a plan outlining how to stop the erosion (put in plants, arrange rocks, etc.).
Journal entry: How did the dust bowls in Utah affect the economy? Can that kind of erosion be prevented? Explain.
Created Date :
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Considering my family dynamic, I found this article interesting.
The first common genetic risk factor for autism spectrum disorder has been identified by a multi-center team of researchers that included Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Pericak-Vance and her collaborator Jonathan Haines, Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, joined the results of their study with those of Hakon Hakonarson, Ph.D., from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The findings from the breakthrough study published online April 28 by the journal Nature may implicate a gene involved in forming the connections between brain cells. .
"Until now, no common genetic variant has been identified with such overwhelming evidence to support its role in autism spectrum disorders," said Pericak-Vance, "The identification of a common variant for autism is a monumental achievement. Researchers have been looking for clues about the genetic architecture of autism for decades. Many thought that this day would never come, but we persisted." .
The study included investigators from more than a dozen sites and participation of more than 10,000 subjects, including individuals with autism spectrum disorder, their family members and other volunteers from across the United States. .
"Each research team conducted a genome-wide association study of individuals with autism and controls, and found a significant association between autism and a region on chromosome 5 that is near two genes known as CDH9 and CDH10," said Dr. Haines, lead investigator of the research team from Vanderbilt and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Human Genetics Research, "Both genes encode cadherins which are cell surface proteins thought to be important for establishing connections between cells in the developing brain and are candidate genes that may contribute to autism." .
"Although no single gene is responsible for autism, cadherin is one of several proteins that affect the stability and maturation of nerve synapses in the brain, therefore this is an intriguing candidate for this region," said John P. Hussman, Ph.D., one of the co-investigators in the research. "This discovery is important not only in its own right, but also because it offers important clues about specific biological processes we should investigate." .
Since individuals with autism are so diverse, some researchers believed a common risk variant would never be found, but the advent of genome wide technology changed everything. "We've known that technology would evolve to where identification of the hardest to find genetic risk variants would be possible," said Pericak-Vance. .
Haines added, "We also knew that the technology would require large numbers of patient participants as well as the tools and expertise to analyze data. We stayed invested and stayed on the cutting edge; it has paid off." .
The study published in Nature reflects the collaborative efforts of research teams from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Vanderbilt, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of California, Los Angeles. The institutions combined resources and datasets to achieve the genome-wide significant results. .
An independent publication in the Annals of Human Genetics details all the findings from the complete genome-wide study conducted by the University of Miami and Vanderbilt Medical Center on their independent datasets. Summary results from the candidate region on chromosome 5 were included in the Nature publication as they further support the overall finding. Deqiong Ma, M.D., Ph.D. is co-first author of both publications; other key authors on both publications are Michael L. Cuccaro, Ph.D., John R. Gilbert, Ph.D., and Daria Salyakina, Ph.D. from the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. .
Autism is among a spectrum of disorders and is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by three primary areas of impairment: social interaction, communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of interest or behavior. Recent prevalence studies suggest that autism spectrum disorders may affect as many as 1 in 150 children in the United States, making it one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders. .
Funding for the autism research conducted at the Miami Institute for Human Genomics and the Center for Human Genetics Research at Vanderbilt University comes from the National Institutes of Health and specifically from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, from Autism Speaks, and from the Hussman Foundation. Dr. Pericak-Vance is the Dr. John T. Macdonald Professor of Human Genetics.
Miller School of Medicine - University of Miami
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Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives is a compelling documentary exploring the under-reported environmental impacts of war and preparations for war. The film confronts the ecological and human ramifications of everything from technological development and natural resource exhaustion to weapons testing and modern warfare itself.
Ecosystems around the world are in distress from forces of humanity’s own making: increasing population, unsustainable demands on natural resources, habitat and species loss, and climate change. One of the most destructive of human behaviors - war - is not commonly included as a contributor to the growing global environmental crisis.
Yet, in all its stages, from the production of weapons through combat, military operations pollute land, air, and water, destroy entire ecosystems, and drain limited natural resources.
Using archival material from the Civil War through more recent wars, along with expert testimony and eyewitness accounts, the film clearly presents the environmental and human cost of combat, and argues for public scrutiny of the ecological and human impact of war as essential to a more sustainable - and secure - world.
The filmmakers, Alice and Lincoln Day will host a post film panel discussion along with other Special Guests.
- 星期三, 2016年6月29日, 6:30 pmWest Portal 分館, West Portal 兒童室開放時間
- Preschool Videos
- 星期四, 2016年6月30日, 10:30 amSunset 分館, 日落區分館兒童室
- Thursdays at Noon films - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- 星期四, 2016年6月30日, 12:00 pmMain 總圖書館, Koret 禮堂
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: Native or Not?
08-31-2003, 03:20 PM
I have a question regarding the Midwest.
Has anyone been able to find an archive of native trout streams in this area?
I've looked high and low to no avail....any help is greatly appreciated.
08-31-2003, 06:40 PM
Forty years ago when I lived in the midwest, there was no such thing as a trout stream at all, except maybe in the great lakes area. It wasn't until bottom release dams created tail water fisheries that any of those rivers ran cold enough all year long to support trout.
08-31-2003, 06:52 PM
Do you happen to know what the southern cut-off point is?
Or perhaps there is a site that can help me find the national range of the Trout?
Your help is appreciated.
08-31-2003, 07:16 PM
I assume you mean "Natural" range for trout? Today, even the White River in Arkansas, the Colorado River in Ca. /Arizona, and the Rio Grande in New Mexico supports trout.
09-01-2003, 07:07 PM
Are you refering to the Great Lakes trib's, or to inland streams in the midwest?
If you meant the trib's, then there are no native species other than Lake Trout & Brook Trout,(both actually char). The lakers spawn on reefs out in the lakes; the brookies on reefs & also in the streams.
If you refer to streams NOT tributary to the GL's, then the only native species would have been the brook trout. Rainbows & Browns are imports. They obviously survive & reproduce, but IMHO, they would have to be considered feral, not native.
09-01-2003, 07:23 PM
I was under the impression that brook trout were natives of the Maritimes, the Adoirondacs and Catskills the Great Lakes tribs and up into Canada. But certainly not the Ohio Valley. Although I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. :confused:
Brookies range extended from Labrador through northern Georgia (Apalachin Mts.) to all of the great lakes, their tribs, and the surrounding area. (Look at God's Lake for trophies - and I think that's in Manitoba.)
In the great lakes, they are called "coasters", as they spend their time feeding in shallow in the lakes, and spawning in the tribs.
09-01-2003, 11:38 PM
I stand corrected. I can see them being able to survive in the Appalachians, but not in the Ohio Valley or what is generally considered the Midwest.
09-02-2003, 05:18 AM
Let's not forget about the Michigan Grayling.
09-02-2003, 08:55 AM
Originally posted by JDJones
snip..... but not in the Ohio Valley or what is generally considered the Midwest.
What do you consider the "Midwest"? Wisconsin, Minn., & Iowa,(yes,Iowa), have native populations of brookies. I'd guess that the Mo. spring creeks were brook trout waters before the rainbows were planted about 100 years ago.
That was probably the southern limit...???
09-02-2003, 12:26 PM
This book has information on the native ranges and some info on existing native populations and where they can be found.
BROOK TROUT by Nick Karas
I also have an ecyclopedia on trout that is titled TROUT but I don't know the author. It has histrical native ranges in it.
Interesting discussion... and also let's not forget the giant landlocked atlantics indigenous to Lake Ontario.
09-03-2003, 08:29 AM
I think Trout is by Dr. Robert Behenke. Trout unlimited may also have some good info on the topic.
09-03-2003, 10:56 AM
there is an interesting article on Coasters in the latest TROUT issue (the TU publication). There are some beautiful pictures of a this tremendous species. What a great thing if we restored that fishery - Steelhead size brookies!
The UP of Michigan is a good place to start for native brookie streams. Most of the LP (and midwest in general-from my limited knowledge) is all browns, rainbows, and re-introduced brookies.
I agree - and virtually all of the GL states/provinces are working on it. To date, returns and survival has been dismal. Too many dams, too much warm water, and too many bad "exotic" species.
I think it's an impossible task today, but I'm glad they're working on it. Some good research is appearing, and HOPEFULLY some good news, especially for the Atlantic Salmon. Only time will tell - Rome wasn't built in a day, and trying to minimize the effects of the last 250-300 years is tough.
In the meantime, steelies and browns ain't bad, for a diversion!
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Lesson for March 24, 2013: The Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:1-38)
This treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson is written by Sam E. Stone, former editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD.
By Sam E. Stone
To the Jew, Passover was the most important of all the annual observances in Jerusalem. Passover was celebrated on the 14th of Nisan. At this feast, Jews remembered their deliverance from Egypt. They would eat bread that had not had time to rise, just as their forefathers had done as they hurried to escape Pharoah and his soldiers. At the feast, each family group would first sacrifice a lamb, then roast it for the meal.
Luke describes the preparations Jesus made for his disciples. He sent James and John ahead to secure a lamb and the other necessary supplies—herbs, bread, and wine. He chose the home of one of his followers where they could have this special meal. It was to be in an upper room where Jesus could have a quiet and private last evening with the 12.
All four Gospels mention the last supper, with each adding varying details. It took place on “the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed” (Luke 22:7). For Jews the “day” began at sundown, so this took place on Thursday evening probably around 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Luke explains that they reclined at the table. Rather than sitting in chairs like we do, this was the typical way for people to eat a banquet meal at this time and place. They likely had a low table with couches around it. I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. This would be his last chance to celebrate this important occasion with those closest to him on earth. He wanted to prepare them for what was to come. In addition, this Last Supper was also the First Supper. The meal introduced the Lord’s Supper for all who came after them.
Jesus was about to be slain as the perfect lamb (John 1:29). Later the apostle Paul wrote, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). In dying for our sins on the cross, Jesus fulfilled what the Old Testament had predicted. One day all Christians will share in the wedding supper of the Lamb in Heaven (Revelation 19:9).
The cup described in Luke 22:17 was not part of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, but one of several cups included in the Passover observance. Jesus explained that he will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. The church began on the Day of Pentecost that followed. Christ has been present with his followers each Lord’s Day since that time as they have assembled to remember him.
The Lord’s Supper
Using bread, a basic element of life everywhere, Jesus provided a way for his followers to remember that his body was offered on the cross. To the believer, the bread represents his body. When he said, “In remembrance of me,” Jesus alluded to the fact that the Passover meal was observed in remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Jews from captivity in Egypt. From now on, the Lord’s Supper will be observed in remembrance of our deliverance from sin by Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross of Calvary.
After the Passover cups had been shared, now an additional cup of “the fruit of the vine” was passed to the disciples. This was to remind Christ’s followers of his blood sacrifice for them, the new covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. Hebrews 9:15-22 shows how the shedding of blood was necessary to seal a covenant in Old Testament days.
Jesus then told the disciples that one of them was going to betray him. Naturally the disciples wondered who could do such a thing. We don’t know exactly when Christ sent Judas away from the meal, but we know he was present for part of the evening (John 13:26-30).
The Lesson in Humility
Ironically another challenge followed immediately. The 12 argued over which of them was considered to be greatest! Lewis Foster suggests, “Perhaps Judas was responsible for the discussion about the greatest. If Judas rushed in when they were being seated and took the place next to Jesus, this may have offended Peter—and others as well.” When no one was willing to do the servant’s job of washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus himself performed this humble task. He gave them an object lesson in service (John 13:1-20).
*Lesson based on International Sunday School Lesson, © 2009, by the Lesson Committee. Scripture quotations are from the New International Version ©2011, unless otherwise indicated.
|HOME DAILY BIBLE READINGS|
|March 18: Deuteronomy 16:1-8|
|March 19: Exodus 12:21-27|
|March 20: Luke 22:7-13|
|March 21: 1 Corinthians 10:14-22|
|March 22: 1 Corinthians 11:17-22|
|March 23: 1 Corinthians 11:23-32|
|March 24: Luke 22:14-30|
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Absorb (v) ? to take in or soak up a liquid.
Acre (n) ? a measure of land equal to
43,560 square feet.
Agriculture (n) ? farming; growing crops and raising farm
Air (n) ? the mixture of invisible, odorless, tasteless
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Alligator (n) - large amphibious reptile
with sharp teeth, powerful jaws, and a broad short snout.
Alternative Fuel Vehicle (n) - motor vehicles that run on fuels other than petroleum-based fuels. As defined by the National Energy Policy Act, this excludes reformulated gasoline as an alternative fuel.
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One of the simplest ways of cutting down on transportation pollution is to keep your car well tuned. Inspired by the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1972, many cities and states have now implemented annual or biannual emissions testing to determine if cars are producing excessive amounts of pollution at the tailpipe. Car owners whose vehicles flunk the test are legally required to bring their emissions maintenance up to spec. This has already been surprisingly effective at reducing pollution. For years the city of Los Angeles, which is ringed by freeways packed full of cars, was famous for the yellow haze of smog that hung in the air and stung the eyes and lungs of visitors and residents. Today, partly because of the vehicle emissions testing program instituted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 1982, Los Angeles smog is largely a thing of the past and the sky above the city is blue again.
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Indian-hating in American literature, 1682-1857
Osborne, Stephen D., 1958-
MetadataShow full item record
The New England Puritans set out to "irradiate an Indian wilderness," but rightly feared they were being "Indianized" as well. Their Indian captivity narratives, ostensibly celebrations of passive submission to the will of God, in fact represent the violent incorporation of the "wilderness" and its human components into the female body as well as the typological model of history based on the cosmic drama of God's war with Satan. The Puritan mode of understanding "the Indian" and legitimizing his destruction was to persist tenaciously despite vast changes in social and political structures within both white and Native American cultures. By the nineteenth century, the theology of Indian-hating had given way to the metaphysics of Indian-hating, as History replaced Providence as the ruling force in human activity. In both cases, "history" was used ahistorically, as a means of demonstrating static racial "natures" rather than critically penetrating a process of intercultural conflict and mutual acculturation. During the years of Indian Removal in the 1830's, male literary nationalists turned to the history of white-Indian war in order to wrest "American" literature from Europeans and women. The Indian achieved his full ideological force within the intersecting hierarchies of race, class, and gender, as the historical romancers portrayed a peculiar lower-class chivalry of Indian-hating. Thoreau, seeking an original presence in the American landscape, continually encounters the trace of Indianness, forcing him to read the "runes" of Nature through the mediation of a local history of cultural conflict. Melville uses conventional emplotments of white-Indian relations to parody romantic historiography and satirize Jacksonian market society. Cotton Mather had lamented, "O how our people do Indianize"; Melville shows that the treacherous Indian has become the devilish white confidence man. By reading The Confidence-Man in light of John Marshall's 1831 opinion in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, one can see how Indian "testimony" has been stricken from the proceedings of law as well as history. Modern commentary on the novel reveals a Cold War allegory suggesting that red-white conflict has become political as well as racial.
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Psychology is the study of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. It is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioral, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviors.
Psychologists explore concepts such as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists of diverse orientations also consider the unconscious mind. Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. In addition, or in opposition, to employing empirical and deductive methods, some—especially clinical and counseling psychologists—at times rely upon symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques. Psychology has been described as a "hub science", with psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, humanities, and philosophy.
While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also directed towards understanding and solving problems in several spheres of human activity. By many accounts psychology ultimately aims to benefit society. The majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role, practicing in clinical, counseling, or school settings. Many do scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental processes and behavior, and typically work in university psychology departments or teach in other academic settings (e.g., medical schools, hospitals). Some are employed in industrial and organizational settings, or in other areas such as human development and aging, sports, health, and the media, as well as in forensic investigation and other aspects of law.
- 1 Etymology and definitions
- 2 History
- 3 Disciplinary organization
- 4 Major schools of thought
- 5 Themes
- 6 Applications
- 7 Research methods
- 8 Contemporary issues in methodology and practice
- 9 Ethics
- 10 See also
- 11 References
- 12 Further reading
- 13 External links
Etymology and definitions
The word psychology derives from Greek roots meaning study of the psyche, or soul (ψυχή psukhē, "breath, spirit, soul" and -λογία -logia, "study of" or "research"). The Latin word psychologia was first used by the Croatian humanist and Latinist Marko Marulić in his book, Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae in the late 15th century or early 16th century. The earliest known reference to the word psychology in English was by Steven Blankaart in 1694 in The Physical Dictionary which refers to "Anatomy, which treats the Body, and Psychology, which treats of the Soul."
In 1890, William James defined psychology as "the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and their conditions". This definition enjoyed widespread currency for decades. However, this meaning was contested, notably by radical behaviorists such as John Watson, who in his 1913 manifesto defined the discipline of psychology as the acquisition of information useful to the control of behavior. Also since James defined it, the term more strongly connotes techniques of scientific experimentation. Folk psychology refers to the understanding of ordinary people, as contrasted with that of psychology professionals.
The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Persia all engaged in the philosophical study of psychology. Historians note that Greek philosophers, including Thales, Plato, and Aristotle (especially in his De Anima treatise), addressed the workings of the mind. As early as the 4th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that mental disorders had physical rather than supernatural causes.
In China, psychological understanding grew from the philosophical works of Laozi and Confucius, and later from the doctrines of Buddhism. This body of knowledge involves insights drawn from introspection and observation, as well as techniques for focused thinking and acting. It frames the universe as a division of, and interaction between, physical reality and mental reality, with an emphasis on purifying the mind in order to increase virtue and power. An ancient text known as The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine identifies the brain as the nexus of wisdom and sensation, includes theories of personality based on yin–yang balance, and analyzes mental disorder in terms of physiological and social disequilibria. Chinese scholarship focused on the brain advanced in the Qing Dynasty with the work of Western-educated Fang Yizhi (1611–1671), Liu Zhi (1660–1730), and Wang Qingren (1768–1831). Wang Qingren emphasized the importance of the brain as the center of the nervous system, linked mental disorder with brain diseases, investigated the causes of dreams and insomnia, and advanced a theory of hemispheric lateralization in brain function.
Distinctions in types of awareness appear in the ancient thought of India, influenced by Hinduism. A central idea of the Upanishads is the distinction between a person's transient mundane self and their eternal unchanging soul. Divergent Hindu doctrines, and Buddhism, have challenged this hierarchy of selves, but have all emphasized the importance of reaching higher awareness. Yoga is a range of techniques used in pursuit of this goal. Much of the Sanskrit corpus was suppressed under the British East India Company followed by the British Raj in the 1800s. However, Indian doctrines influenced Western thinking via the Theosophical Society, a New Age group which became popular among Euro-American intellectuals.
Psychology was a popular topic in Enlightenment Europe. In Germany, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) applied his principles of calculus to the mind, arguing that mental activity took place on an indivisible continuum—most notably, that among an infinity of human perceptions and desires, the difference between conscious and unconscious awareness is only a matter of degree. Christian Wolff identified psychology as its own science, writing Psychologia empirica in 1732 and Psychologia rationalis in 1734. This notion advanced further under Immanuel Kant, who established the idea of anthropology, with psychology as an important subdivision. However, Kant explicitly and notoriously rejected the idea of experimental psychology, writing that "the empirical doctrine of the soul can also never approach chemistry even as a systematic art of analysis or experimental doctrine, for in the manifold of inner observation can be separated only by mere division in thought, and cannot then be held separate and recombined at will (but still less does another thinking subject suffer himself to be experimented upon to suit our purpose), and even observation by itself already changes and displaces the state of the observed object." Having consulted philosophers Hegel and Herbart, in 1825 the Prussian state established psychology as a mandatory discipline in its rapidly expanding and highly influential educational system. However, this discipline did not yet embrace experimentation. In England, early psychology involved phrenology and the response to social problems including alcoholism, violence, and the country's well-populated mental asylums.
Beginning of experimental psychology
Gustav Fechner began conducting psychophysics research in Leipzig in the 1830s, articulating the principle that human perception of a stimulus varies logarithmically according to its intensity. Fechner's 1860 Elements of Psychophysics challenged Kant's stricture against quantitative study of the mind. In Heidelberg, Hermann von Helmholtz conducted parallel research on sensory perception, and trained physiologist Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt, in turn, came to Leipzig University, establishing the psychological laboratory which brought experimental psychology to the world. Wundt focused on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components, motivated in part by an analogy to recent advances in chemistry, and its successful investigation of the elements and structure of material. Paul Flechsig and Emil Kraepelin soon created another influential psychology laboratory at Leipzig, this one focused on more on experimental psychiatry.
Psychologists in Germany, Denmark, Austria, England, and the United States soon followed Wundt in setting up laboratories. G. Stanley Hall who studied with Wundt, formed a psychology lab at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which became internationally influential. Hall, in turn, trained Yujiro Motora, who brought experimental psychology, emphasizing psychophysics, to the Imperial University of Tokyo. Wundt assistant Hugo Münsterberg taught psychology at Harvard to students such as Narendra Nath Sen Gupta—who, in 1905, founded a psychology department and laboratory at the University of Calcutta. Wundt students Walter Dill Scott, Lightner Witmer, and James McKeen Cattell worked on developing tests for mental ability. Catell, who also studied with eugenicist Francis Galton, went on to found the Psychological Corporation. Wittmer focused on mental testing of children; Scott, on selection of employees.
Another student of Wundt, Edward Titchener, created the psychology program at Cornell University and advanced a doctrine of "structuralist" psychology. Structuralism sought to analyze and classify different aspects of the mind, primarily through the method of introspection. William James, John Dewey and Harvey Carr advanced a more expansive doctrine called functionalism, attuned more to human–environment actions. In 1890 James wrote an influential book, The Principles of Psychology, which expanded on the realm of structuralism, memorably described the human "stream of consciousness", and interested many American students in the emerging discipline. Dewey integrated psychology with social issues, most notably by promoting the cause progressive education to assimilate immigrants and inculcate moral values in children.
A different strain of experimentalism, with more connection to physiology, emerged in South America, under the leadership of Horacio G. Piñero at the University of Buenos Aires. Russia, too, placed greater emphasis on the biological basis for psychology, beginning with Ivan Sechenov's 1873 essay, "Who Is to Develop Psychology and How?" Sechenov advanced the idea of brain reflexes and aggressively promoted a deterministic viewpoint on human behavior.
Wolfgang Kohler, Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka co-founded the school of Gestalt psychology (not to be confused with the Gestalt therapy of Fritz Perls). This approach is based upon the idea that individuals experience things as unified wholes. Rather than breaking down thoughts and behavior into smaller elements, as in structuralism, the Gestaltists maintained that whole of experience is important, and differs from the sum of its parts. Other 19th-century contributors to the field include the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer in the experimental study of memory, who developed quantitative models of learning and forgetting at the University of Berlin, and the Russian-Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who discovered in dogs a learning process that was later termed "classical conditioning" and applied to human beings.
Consolidation and funding
One of the earliest psychology societies was La Société de Psychologie Physiologique in France, which lasted 1885–1893. The first meeting of the International Congress of Psychology took place in Paris, in August 1889, amidst the World's Fair celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. William James was one of three Americans among the four hundred attendees. The American Psychological Association was founded soon after, in 1892. The International Congress continued to be held, at different locations in Europe, with wider international participation. The Sixth Congress, Geneva 1909, included presentations in Russian, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as Esperanto. After a hiatus for World War I, the Seventh Congress met in Oxford, with substantially greater participation from the war-victorious Anglo-Americans. In 1929, the Congress took place at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, attended by hundreds of members of the American Psychological Association Tokyo Imperial University led the way in bringing the new psychology to the East, and from Japan these ideas diffused into China.
American psychology gained status during World War I, during which a standing committee headed by Robert Yerkes administered mental tests ("Army Alpha" and "Army Beta") to almost 1.8 million GIs. Subsequent funding for behavioral research came in large part from the Rockefeller family, via the Social Science Research Council. Rockefeller charities funded the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, which promoted the concept of mental illness and lobbied for psychological supervision of child development. Through the Bureau of Social Hygiene and later funding of Alfred Kinsey, Rockefeller foundations established sex research as a viable discipline in the U.S. Under the influence of the Carnegie-funded Eugenics Record Office, the Draper-funded Pioneer Fund, and other institutions, the eugenics movement also had a significant impact on American psychology; in the 1910s and 1920s, eugenics became a standard topic in psychology classes.
During World War II and the Cold War, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies established themselves as leading funders of psychology—through the armed forces and in the new Office of Strategic Services intelligence agency. University of Michigan psychologist Dorwin Cartwright reported that university researchers began large-scale propaganda research in 1939–1941, and "the last few months of the war saw a social psychologist become chiefly responsible for determining the week-by-week-propaganda policy for the United States Government." Cartwright also wrote that psychologists had significant roles in managing the domestic economy. The Army rolled out its new General Classification Test and engaged in massive studies of troop morale. In the 1950s, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency to fund research on psychological warfare. In 1965, public controversy called attention to the Army's Project Camelot—the "Manhattan Project" of social science—an effort which enlisted psychologists and anthropologists to analyze foreign countries for strategic purposes.
In Germany after World War I, psychology held institutional power through the military, and subsequently expanded along with the rest of the military under the Third Reich. Under the direction of Hermann Göring's cousin Matthias Göring, the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was renamed the Göring Institute. Freudian psychoanalysts were expelled and persecuted under the anti-Jewish policies of the Nazi Party, and all psychologists had to distance themselves from Freud and Adler. The Göring Institute was well-financed throughout the war with a mandate to create a "New German Psychotherapy". This psychotherapy aimed to align suitable Germans with the overall goals of the Reich; as described by one physician: "Despite the importance of analysis, spiritual guidance and the active cooperation of the patient represent the best way to overcome individual mental problems and to subordinate them to the requirements of the Volk and the Gemeinschaft." Psychologists were to provide Seelenführung, leadership of the mind, to integrate people into the new vision of a German community. Harald Schultz-Hencke melded psychology with the Nazi theory of biology and racial origins, criticizing psychoanalysis as a study of the weak and deformed. Johannes Heinrich Schultz, a German psychologist recognized for developing the technique of autogenic training, prominently advocated sterilization and euthanasia of men considered genetically undesirable, and devised techniques for facilitating this process. After the war, some new institutions were created and some psychologists were discredited due to Nazi affiliation. Alexander Mitscherlich founded a prominent applied psychoanalysis journal called Psyche and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation established the first clinical psychosomatic medicine division at Heidelberg University. In 1970, psychology was integrated into the required studies of medical students.
After the Russian Revolution, psychology was heavily promoted by the Bolsheviks as a way to engineer the "New Man" of socialism. Thus, university psychology departments trained large numbers of students, for whom positions were made available at schools, workplaces, cultural institutions, and in the military. An especial focus was pedology, the study of child development, regarding which Lev Vygotsky became a prominent writer. The Bolsheviks also promoted free love and embranced the doctrine of psychoanalysis as an antidote to sexual repression. Although pedology and intelligence testing fell out of favor in 1936, psychology maintained its privileged position as an instrument of the Soviet state. Stalinist purges took a heavy toll and instilled a climate of fear in the profession, as elsewhere in Soviet society. Following World War II, Jewish psychologists past and present (including Vygotsky, A. R. Luria, and Aron Zalkind) were denounced; Ivan Pavlov (posthumously) and Stalin himself were aggrandized as heroes of Soviet psychology. Soviet academics was speedily liberalized during the Khrushchev Thaw, and cybernetics, linguistics, genetics, and other topics became acceptable again. There emerged a new field called "engineering psychology" which studied mental aspects of complex jobs (such as pilot and cosmonaut). Interdisciplinary studies became popular and scholars such as Georgy Shchedrovitsky developed systems theory approaches to human behavior.
Twentieth-century Chinese psychology originally modeled the United States, with translations from American authors like William James, the establishment of university psychology departments and journals, and the establishment of groups including the Chinese Association of Psychological Testing (1930) and the Chinese Psychological Society (1937). Chinese psychologists were encouraged to focus on education and language learning, with the aspiration that education would enable modernization and nationalization. John Dewey, who lectured to Chinese audiences in 1918–1920, had a significant influence on this doctrine. Chancellor T'sai Yuan-p'ei introduced him at Peking University as a greater thinker than Confucius. Kuo Zing-yang who received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, became President of Zhejiang University and popularized behaviorism. After the Chinese Communist Party gained control of the country, the Stalinist USSR became the leading influence, with Marxism–Leninism the leading social doctrine and Pavlovian conditioning the approved concept of behavior change. Chinese psychologists elaborated on Lenin's model of a "reflective" consciousness, envisioning an "active consciousness" (tzu-chueh neng-tung-li) able to transcend material conditions through hard work and ideological struggle. They developed a concept of "recognition" (jen-shih) which referred the interface between individual perceptions and the socially accepted worldview. (Failure to correspond with party doctrine was "incorrect recognition".) Psychology education was centralized under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, supervised by the State Council. In 1951 the Academy created a Psychology Research Office, which in 1956 became the Institute of Psychology. Most leading psychologists were educated in the United States, and the first concern of the Academy was re-education of these psychologists in the Soviet doctrines. Child psychology and pedagogy for nationally cohesive education remained a central goal of the discipline.
In 1920, Édouard Claparède and Pierre Bovet created a new applied psychology organization called the International Congress of Psychotechnics Applied to Vocational Guidance, later called the International Congress of Psychotechnics and then the International Association of Applied Psychology. The IAAP is considered the oldest international psychology association. Today, at least 65 international groups deal specialized aspects of psychology. In response to male predominance in the field, female psychologists in the U.S. formed National Council of Women Psychologists in 1941. This organization became the International Council of Women Psychologists after World War II, and the International Council of Psychologists in 1959. Several associations including the Association of Black Psychologists and the Asian American Psychological Association have arisen to promote non-European racial groups in the profession.
The world federation of national psychological societies is the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), founded in 1951 under the auspices of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural and scientific authority. Psychology departments have since proliferated around the world, based primarily on the Euro-American model. Since 1966, the Union has published the International Journal of Psychology. IAAP and IUPsyS agreed in 1976 each to hold a congress every four years, on a staggered basis.
The International Union recognizes 66 national psychology associations and at least 15 others exist. The American Psychological Association is the oldest and largest. Its membership has increased from 5,000 in 1945 to 100,000 in the present day. The APA includes 54 divisions, which since 1960 have steadily proliferated to include more specialties. Some of these divisions, such as the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the American Psychology–Law Society, began as autonomous groups.
The Interamerican Society of Psychology, founded in 1951, aspires to promote psychology and coordinate psychologists across the Western Hemisphere. It holds the Interamerican Congress of Psychology and had 1000 members in year 2000. The European Federation of Professional Psychology Associations, founded in 1981, represents 30 national associations with a total of 100,000 individual members. At least 30 other international groups organize psychologists in different regions.
In some places, governments legally regulate who can provide psychological services or represent themselves as a "psychologist". The American Psychological Association defines a psychologist as someone with a doctoral degree in psychology.
Early practitioners of experimental psychology distinguished themselves from parapsychology, which in the late nineteenth century enjoyed great popularity (including the interest of scholars such as William James), and indeed constituted the bulk of what people called "psychology". Parapsychology, hypnotism, and psychism were major topics of the early International Congresses. But students of these fields were eventually ostractized, and more or less banished from the Congress in 1900–1905. Parapsychology persisted for a time at Imperial University, with publications such as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography by Tomokichi Fukurai, but here too it was mostly shunned by 1913.
As a discipline, psychology has long sought to fend off accusations that it is a "soft" science. Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn's 1962 critique implied psychology overall was in a pre-paradigm state, lacking the agreement on overarching theory found in mature sciences such as chemistry and physics. Because some areas of psychology rely on research methods such as surveys and questionnaires, critics asserted that psychology is not an objective science. Skeptics have suggested that personality, thinking, and emotion, cannot be directly measured and are often inferred from subjective self-reports, which may be problematic. Experimental psychologists have devised a variety of ways to indirectly measure these elusive phenomenological entities.
Divisions still exist within the field, with some psychologists more oriented towards the unique experiences of individual humans, which cannot be understood only as data points within a larger population. Critics inside and outside the field have argued that mainstream psychology has become increasingly dominated by a "cult of empiricism" which limits the scope of its study by using only methods derived from the physical sciences. Feminist critiques along these lines have argued that claims to scientific objectivity obscure the values and agenda of (historically mostly male) researchers. Jean Grimshaw, for example, argues that mainstream psychological research has advanced a patriarchal agenda through its efforts to control behavior.
Major schools of thought
Psychologists generally consider the organism the basis of the mind, and therefore a vitally related area of study. Psychiatrists and neuropsychologists work at the interface of mind and body. Biological psychology, also known as physiological psychology, or neuropsychology is the study of the biological substrates of behavior and mental processes. Key research topics in this field include comparative psychology, which studies humans in relation to other animals, and perception which involves the physical mechanics of sensation as well as neural and mental processing. For centuries, a leading question in biological psychology has been whether and how mental functions might be localized in the brain. From Phineas Gage to H. M. and Clive Wearing, individual people with mental issues traceable to physical damage have inspired new discoveries in this area. Modern neuropsychology could be said to originate in the 1870s, when in France Paul Broca traced production of speech to the left frontal gyrus, thereby also demonstrating hemispheric lateralization of brain function. Soon after, Carl Wernicke identified a related area necessary for the understanding of speech.
The contemporary field of behavioral neuroscience focuses on physical causes underpinning behavior. For example, physiological psychologists use animal models, typically rats, to study the neural, genetic, and cellular mechanisms that underlie specific behaviors such as learning and memory and fear responses. Cognitive neuroscientists investigate the neural correlates of psychological processes in humans using neural imaging tools, and neuropsychologists conduct psychological assessments to determine, for instance, specific aspects and extent of cognitive deficit caused by brain damage or disease. The biopsychosocial model is an integrated perspective toward understanding consciousness, behavior, and social interaction. It assumes that any given behavior or mental process affects and is affected by dynamically interrelated biological, psychological, and social factors.
Evolutionary psychology examines cognition and personality traits from an evolutionary perspective. This perspective suggests that psychological adaptations evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments. Evolutionary psychology offers complementary explanations for the mostly proximate or developmental explanations developed by other areas of psychology: that is, it focuses mostly on ultimate or "why?" questions, rather than proximate or "how?" questions. "How?" questions are more directly tackled by behavioral genetics research, which aims to understand how genes and environment impact behavior.
The search for biological origins of psychological phenomena has long involved debates about the importance of race, and especially the relationship between race and intelligence. The idea of white supremacy and indeed the modern concept of race itself arose during the process of world conquest by Europeans. Carl von Linnaeus's four-fold classification of humans classifies Europeans as intelligent and severe, Americans as contented and free, Asians as ritualistic, and Africans as lazy and capricious. Race was also used to justify the construction of socially specific mental disorders such as drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica—the behavior of uncooperative African slaves. After the creation of experimental psychology, "ethnical psychology" emerged as a subdiscipline, based on the assumption that studying primitive races would provide an important link between animal behavior and the psychology of more evolved humans.
Psychologists take human behavior as a main area of study. Much of the research in this area began with tests on mammals, based on the idea that humans exhibit similar fundamental tendencies. Behavioral research ever aspires to improve the effectiveness of techniques for behavior modification.
Early behavioral researchers studied stimulus–response pairings, now known as classical conditioning. They demonstrated that behaviors could be linked through repeated association with stimuli eliciting pain or pleasure. Ivan Pavlov—known best for inducing dogs to salivate in the presence of a stimulus previous linked with food—became a leading figure in the Soviet Union and inspired followers to use his methods on humans. In the United States, Edward Lee Thorndike initiated "connectionism" studies by trapping animals in "puzzle boxes" and rewarding them for escaping. Thorndike wrote in 1911: "There can be no moral warrant for studying man's nature unless the study will enable us to control his acts." From 1910–1913 the American Psychological Association went through a sea change of opinion, away from mentalism and towards "behavioralism", and in 1913 John B. Watson coined the term behaviorism for this school of thought. Watson's famous Little Albert experiment in 1920 demonstrated that repeated use of upsetting loud noises could instill phobias (aversions to other stimuli) in an infant human. Karl Lashley, a close collaborator with Watson, examined biological manifestations of learning in the brain.
Embraced and extended by Clark L. Hull, Edwin Guthrie, and others, behaviorism became a widely used research paradigm. A new method of "instrumental" or "operant" conditioning added the concepts of reinforcement and punishment to the model of behavior change. Radical behaviorists avoided discussing the inner workings of the mind, especially the unconscious mind, which they considered impossible to assess scientifically. Operant conditioning was first described by Miller and Kanorski and popularized in the U.S. by B. F. Skinner, who emerged as a leading intellectual of the behaviorist movement.
Noam Chomsky delivered an influential critique of radical behaviorism on the grounds that it could not adequately explain the complex mental process of language acquisition. Martin Seligman and colleagues discovered that the conditioning of dogs led to outcomes ("learned helplessness") that opposed the predictions of behaviorism. Skinner's behaviorism did not die, perhaps in part because it generated successful practical applications. Edward C. Tolman advanced a hybrid "cognitive behaviorial" model, most notably with his 1948 publication discussing the cognitive maps used by rats to guess at the location of food at the end of a modified maze.
The Association for Behavior Analysis International was founded in 1974 and by 2003 had members from 42 countries. The field has been especially influential in Latin America, where it has a regional organization known as ALAMOC: La Asociación Latinoamericana de Análisis y Modificación del Comportamiento. Behaviorism also gained a strong foothold in Japan, where it gave rise to the Japanese Society of Animal Psychology (1933), the Japanese Association of Special Education (1963), the Japanese Society of Biofeedback Research (1973), the Japanese Association for Behavior Therapy (1976), the Japanese Association for Behavior Analysis (1979), and the Japanese Association for Behavioral Science Research (1994). Today the field of behaviorism is also commonly referred to as behavior modification or behavior analysis.
Cognitive psychology studies cognition, the mental processes underlying mental activity. Perception, attention, reasoning, thinking, problem solving, memory, learning, language, and emotion are areas of research. Classical cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model of mental function, informed by functionalism and experimental psychology.
On a broader level, cognitive science is an interdisciplinary enterprise of cognitive psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, researchers in artificial intelligence, linguists, human–computer interaction, computational neuroscience, logicians and social scientists. Computer simulations are sometimes used to model phenomena of interest.
Starting in the 1950s, the experimental techniques developed by Wundt, James, Ebbinghaus, and others re-emerged as experimental psychology became increasingly cognitivist—concerned with information and its processing—and, eventually, constituted a part of the wider cognitive science. Some called this development the cognitive revolution because it rejected the anti-mentalist dogma of behaviorism as well as the strictures of psychoanalysis.
Technological advances also renewed interest in mental states and representations. English neuroscientist Charles Sherrington and Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb used experimental methods to link psychological phenomena with the structure and function of the brain. The rise of computer science, cybernetics and artificial intelligence suggested the value of comparatively studying information processing in humans and machines. Research in cognition had proven practical since World War II, when it aided in the understanding of weapons operation.
A popular and representative topic in this area is cognitive bias, or irrational thought. Psychologists (and economists) have classified and described a sizeable catalogue of biases which recur frequently in human thought. The availability heuristic, for example, is the tendency to overestimate the importance of something which happens to come readily to mind.
Elements of behaviorism and cognitive psychology were synthesized to form cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychotherapy modified from techniques developed by American psychologist Albert Ellis and American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck. Cognitive psychology was subsumed along with other disciplines, such as philosophy of mind, computer science, and neuroscience, under the cover discipline of cognitive science.
Social psychology is the study of how humans think about each other and how they relate to each other. Social psychologists study such topics as the influence of others on an individual's behavior (e.g. conformity, persuasion), and the formation of beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about other people. Social cognition fuses elements of social and cognitive psychology in order to understand how people process, remember, or distort social information. The study of group dynamics reveals information about the nature and potential optimization of leadership, communication, and other phenomena that emerge at least at the microsocial level. In recent years, many social psychologists have become increasingly interested in implicit measures, mediational models, and the interaction of both person and social variables in accounting for behavior. The study of human society is therefore a potentially valuable source of information about the causes of psychiatric disorder. Some sociological concepts applied to psychiatric disorders are the social role, sick role, social class, life event, culture, migration, social, and total institution.
Psychoanalysis comprises a method of investigating the mind and interpreting experience; a systematized set of theories about human behavior; and a form of psychotherapy to treat psychological or emotional distress, especially conflict originating in the unconscious mind. This school of thought originated in the 1890s with Austrian medical doctors including Josef Breuer (physician), Alfred Adler (physician), Otto Rank (psychoanalyst), and most prominently Sigmund Freud (neurologist). Freud's psychoanalytic theory was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations. It became very well known, largely because it tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious. These subjects were largely taboo at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for their open discussion in polite society. Clinically, Freud helped to pioneer the method of free association and a therapeutic interest in dream interpretation.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, influenced by Freud, elaborated a theory of the collective unconscious—a primordial force present in all humans, featuring archetypes which exerted a profound influence on the mind. Jung's competing vision formed the basis for analytical psychology, which later led to the archetypal and process-oriented schools. Other well-known psychoanalytic scholars of the mid-20th century include Erik Erikson, Melanie Klein, D. W. Winnicott, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, John Bowlby, and Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna Freud. Throughout the 20th century, psychoanalysis evolved into diverse schools of thought which could be called Neo-Freudian. Among these schools are ego psychology, object relations, and interpersonal, Lacanian, and relational psychoanalysis.
Psychologists such as Hans Eysenck and philosophers including Karl Popper criticized psychoanalysis. Popper argued that psychoanalysis had been misrepresented as a scientific discipline, whereas Eysenck said that psychoanalytic tenets had been contradicted by experimental data. By the end of 20th century, psychology departments in American universities mostly marginalized Freudian theory, dismissing it as a "desiccated and dead" historical artifact. However, researchers in the emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis today defend some of Freud's ideas on scientific grounds, while scholars of the humanities maintain that Freud was not a "scientist at all, but ... an interpreter".
Humanistic psychology developed in the 1950s as a movement within academic psychology, in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The humanistic approach sought to glimpse the whole person, not just fragmented parts of the personality or isolated cognitions. Humanism focused on uniquely human issues, such as free will, personal growth, self-actualization, self-identity, death, aloneness, freedom, and meaning. It emphasized subjective meaning, rejection of determinism, and concern for positive growth rather than pathology. Some founders of the humanistic school of thought were American psychologists Abraham Maslow, who formulated a hierarchy of human needs, and Carl Rogers, who created and developed client-centered therapy. Later, positive psychology opened up humanistic themes to scientific modes of exploration.
The American Association for Humanistic Psychology, formed in 1963, declared:
Humanistic psychology is primarily an orientation toward the whole of psychology rather than a distinct area or school. It stands for respect for the worth of persons, respect for differences of approach, open-mindedness as to acceptable methods, and interest in exploration of new aspects of human behavior. As a "third force" in contemporary psychology, it is concerned with topics having little place in existing theories and systems: e.g., love, creativity, self, growth, organism, basic need-gratification, self-actualization, higher values, being, becoming, spontaneity, play, humor, affection, naturalness, warmth, ego-transcendence, objectivity, autonomy, responsibility, meaning, fair-play, transcendental experience, peak experience, courage, and related concepts.
In the 1950s and 1960s, influenced by philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger and, psychoanalytically trained American psychologist Rollo May pioneered an existential branch of psychology, which included existential psychotherapy: a method based on the belief that inner conflict within a person is due to that individual's confrontation with the givens of existence. Swiss psychoanalyst Ludwig Binswanger and American psychologist George Kelly may also be said to belong to the existential school. Existential psychologists differed from more "humanistic" psychologists in their relatively neutral view of human nature and their relatively positive assessment of anxiety. Existential psychologists emphasized the humanistic themes of death, free will, and meaning, suggesting that meaning can be shaped by myths, or narrative patterns, and that it can be encouraged by an acceptance of the free will requisite to an authentic, albeit often anxious, regard for death and other future prospects.
Austrian existential psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl drew evidence of meaning's therapeutic power from reflections garnered from his own internment. He created a variation of existential psychotherapy called logotherapy, a type of existentialist analysis that focuses on a will to meaning (in one's life), as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure.
Personality psychology is concerned with enduring patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion—commonly referred to as personality—in individuals. Theories of personality vary across different psychological schools and orientations. They carry different assumptions about such issues as the role of the unconscious and the importance of childhood experience. According to Freud, personality is based on the dynamic interactions of the id, ego, and super-ego. Trait theorists, in contrast, attempt to analyze personality in terms of a discrete number of key traits by the statistical method of factor analysis. The number of proposed traits has varied widely. An early model, proposed by Hans Eysenck, suggested that there are three traits which comprise human personality: extraversion–introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Raymond Cattell proposed a theory of 16 personality factors. Dimensional models of personality are receiving increasing support, and some version of dimensional assessment will be included in the forthcoming DSM-V.
Myriad approach to systematically assess different personality types, with the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, developed during World War I, an early example of the modern technique. The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator sought to assess people according to the personality theories of Carl Jung. Behaviorist resistance to introspection led to the development of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, tests which ask more empirical questions and focus less on the psychodynamics of the respondent.
Study of the unconscious mind, a part of the psyche outside the awareness of the individual which nevertheless influenced thoughts and behavior was a hallmark of early psychology. In one of the first psychology experiments conducted in the USA, C. S. Peirce and Joseph Jastrow found in 1884 that subjects could choose the minutely heavier of two weights even if consciously uncertain of the difference. Freud popularized this concept, with terms like Freudian slip entering popular culture, to mean an uncensored intrusion of unconscious thought into one's speech and action. His 1901 text The Psychopathology of Everyday Life catalogues hundreds of everyday events which Freud explains in terms of unconscious influence. Pierre Janet advanced the idea of a subconscious mind, which could contain autonomous mental elements unavailable to the scrutiny of the subject.
Behaviorism notwithstanding, the unconscious mind has maintained its importance in psychology. Cognitive psychologists have used a "filter" model of attention, according to which much information processing takes place below the threshold of consciousness, and only certain processes, limited by nature and by simultaneous quantity, make their way through the filter. Copious research has shown that subconscious priming of certain ideas can covertly influence thoughts and behavior. A significant hurdle in this research is proving that a subject's conscious mind has not grasped a certain stimulus, due to the unreliability of self-reporting. For this reason, some psychologists prefer to distinguish between implicit and explicit memory. In another approach, one can also describe a subliminal stimulus as meeting an objective but not a subjective threshold.
The automaticity model, which became widespread following exposition by John Bargh and others in the 1980s, describes sophisticated processes for executing goals which can be selected and performed over an extended duration without conscious awareness. Some experimental data suggests that the brain begins to consider taking actions before the mind becomes aware of them. This influence of unconscious forces on people's choices naturally bears on philosophical questions free will. John Bargh, Daniel Wegner, and Ellen Langer are some prominent contemporary psychologists who describe free will as an illusion.
Psychologists such as William James initially used the term motivation to refer to intention, in a sense similar to the concept of will in European philosophy. With the steady rise of Darwinian and Freudian thinking, instinct also came to be seen as a primary source of motivation. According to drive theory, the forces of instinct combine into a single source of energy which exerts a constant influence. Psychoanalysis, like biology, regarded these forces as physical demands made by the organism on the nervous system. However, they believed that these forces, especially the sexual instincts, could become entangled and transmuted within the psyche. Classical psychoanalysis conceives of a struggle between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, roughly corresponding to id and ego. Later, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud introduced the concept of the death drive, a compulsion towards aggression, destruction, and psychic repetition of traumatic events. Meanwhile, behaviorist researchers used simple dichotomous models (pleasure/pain, reward/punishment) and well-established principles such as the idea that a thirsty creature will take pleasure in drinking. Clark Hull formalized the latter idea with his drive reduction model.
Hunger, thirst, fear, sexual desire, and thermoregulation all seem to constitute fundamental motivations for animals. Humans also seem to exhibit a more complex set of motivations—though theoretically these could be explained as resulting from primordial instincts—including desires for belonging, self-image, self-consistency, truth, love, and control.
Motivation can be modulated or manipulated in many different ways. Researchers have found that eating, for example, depends not only on the organism's fundamental need for homeostasis—an important factor causing the experience of hunger—but also on circadian rhythms, food availability, food palatability, and cost. Abstract motivations are also malleable, as evidenced by such phenomena as goal contagion: the adoption of goals, sometimes unconsciously, based on inferences about the goals of others. Vohs and Baumeister suggest that contrary to the need-desire-fulfilment cycle of animal instincts, human motivations sometimes obey a "getting begets wanting" rule: the more you get a reward such as self-esteem, love, drugs, or money, the more you want it. They suggest that this principle can even apply to food, drink, sex, and sleep.
Mainly focusing on the development of the human mind through the life span, developmental psychology seeks to understand how people come to perceive, understand, and act within the world and how these processes change as they age. This may focus on cognitive, affective, moral, social, or neural development. Researchers who study children use a number of unique research methods to make observations in natural settings or to engage them in experimental tasks. Such tasks often resemble specially designed games and activities that are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful, and researchers have even devised clever methods to study the mental processes of infants. In addition to studying children, developmental psychologists also study aging and processes throughout the life span, especially at other times of rapid change (such as adolescence and old age). Developmental psychologists draw on the full range of psychological theories to inform their research.
Genes and environment
All researched psychological traits are influenced by both genes and environment, to varying degrees. These two sources of influence are often confounded in observational research of individuals or families. An example is the transmission of depression from a depressed mother to her offspring. Theory may hold that the offspring, by virtue of having a depressed mother in his or her (the offspring's) environment, is at risk for developing depression. However, risk for depression is also influenced to some extent by genes. The mother may both carry genes that contribute to her depression but will also have passed those genes on to her offspring thus increasing the offspring's risk for depression. Genes and environment in this simple transmission model are completely confounded. Experimental and quasi-experimental behavioral genetic research uses genetic methodologies to disentangle this confound and understand the nature and origins of individual differences in behavior. Traditionally this research has been conducted using twin studies and adoption studies, two designs where genetic and environmental influences can be partially un-confounded. More recently, the availability of microarray molecular genetic or genome sequencing technologies allows researchers to measure participant DNA variation directly, and test whether individual genetic variants within genes are associated with psychological traits and psychopathology through methods including genome-wide association studies. One goal of such research is similar to that in positional cloning and its success in Huntington's: once a causal gene is discovered biological research can be conducted to understand how that gene influences the phenotype. One major result of genetic association studies is the general finding that psychological traits and psychopathology, as well as complex medical diseases, are highly polygenic, where a large number (on the order of hundreds to thousands) of genetic variants, each of small effect, contribute to individual differences in the behavioral trait or propensity to the disorder. Active research continues to understand the genetic and environmental bases of behavior and their interaction.
Psychology encompasses many subfields and includes different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior:
Psychological testing has ancient origins, such as examinations for the Chinese civil service dating back to 2200 BC. Written exams began during the Han dynasty (202 BC.–AD. 200). By 1370, the Chinese system required a stratified series of tests, involving essay writing and knowledge of diverse topics. The system was ended in 1906. In Europe, mental assessment took a more physiological approach, with theories of physiognomy—judgment of character based on the face—described by Aristotle in 4th century BC Greece. Physiognomy remained current through the Enlightenment, and added the doctrine of phrenology: a study of mind and intelligence based on simple assessment of neuroanatomy.
When experimental psychology came to Britain, Francis Galton was a leading practitioner, and, with his procedures for measuring reaction time and sensation, is considered an inventor of modern mental testing (a.k.a. psychometrics). James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wundt and Galton, brought the concept to the USA, and in fact coined the term "mental test". In 1901, Cattell's student Clark Wissler published discouraging results, suggesting that mental testing of Columbia and Barnard students failed to predict their academic performance. In response to 1904 orders from the Minister of Public Instruction, French psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon elaborated a new test of intelligence in 1905–1911, using a range of questions diverse in their nature and difficulty. Binet and Simon introduced the concept of mental age and referred to the lowest scorers on their test as idiots. Henry H. Goddard put the Binet-Simon scale to work and introduced classifications of mental level such as imbecile and feebleminded. In 1916 (after Binet's death), Stanford professor Lewis M. Terman modified the Binet-Simon scale (renamed the Stanford-Binet scale) and introduced the intelligence quotient as a score report. From this test, Terman concluded that mental retardation "represents the level of intelligence which is very, very common among Spanish-Indians and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial."
Following the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests for soldiers in World War I, mental testing became popular in the US, where it was soon applied to school children. The federally created National Intelligence Test was administered to 7 million children in the 1920s, and in 1926 the College Entrance Examination Board created the Scholastic Aptitude Test to standardize college admissions. The results of intelligence tests were used to argue for segregated schools and economic functions—i.e. the preferential training of Black Americans for manual labor. These practices were criticized by black intellectuals such a Horace Mann Bond and Allison Davis. Eugenicists used mental testing to justify and organize compulsory sterilization of individuals classified as mentally retarded. In the United States, tens of thousands of men and women were sterilized. Setting a precedent which has never been overturned, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of this practice in the 1907 case Buck v. Bell.
Today mental testing is a routine phenomenon for people of all ages in Western societies. Modern testing aspires to criteria including standardization of procedure, consistency of results, output of an interpretable score, statistical norms describing population outcomes, and, ideally, effective prediction of behavior and life outcomes outside of testing situations.
Mental health care
The provision of psychological health services is generally called clinical psychology in the U.S. The definitions of this term are various and may include school psychology and counseling psychology. Practitioners typically includes people who have graduated from doctoral programs in clinical psychology but may also include others. In Canada, the above groups usually fall within the larger category of professional psychology. In Canada and the US, practitioners get bachelor's degrees and doctorates, then spend one year in an internship and one year in postdoctoral education. In Mexico and most other Latin American and European countries, psychologists do not get bachelor's and doctorate degrees; instead, they take a three-year professional course following high school. Clinical psychology is at present the largest specialization within psychology. It includes the study and application of psychology for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress, dysfunction or mental illness and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy although clinical psychologists may also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration.
Credit for the first psychology clinic in the USA typically goes to Lightner Witmer, who established his practice in Philadelphia in 1896. Another modern psychotherapist was Morton Prince. For the most part, in the first part of the twentieth century, most mental health care in the United States was performed by specialized medical doctors called psychiatrists. Psychology entered the field with its refinements of mental testing, which promised to improve diagnosis of mental problems. For their part, some psychiatrists became interested in using psychoanalysis and other forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy to understand and treat the mentally ill. In this type of treatment, a specially trained therapist develops a close relationship with the patient, who discusses wishes, dreams, social relationships, and other aspects of mental life. The therapist seeks to uncover repressed material and to understand why the patient creates defenses against certain thoughts and feelings. An important aspect of the therapeutic relationship is transference, in which deep unconscious feelings in a patient reorient themselves and become manifest in relation to the therapist.
Psychiatric psychotherapy blurred the distinction between psychiatry and psychology, and this trend continued with the rise of community mental health facilities and behavioral therapy, a thoroughly non-psychodynamic model which used behaviorist learning theory to change the actions of patients. A key aspect of behavior therapy is empirical evaluation of the treatment's effectiveness. In the 1970s, cognitive-behavior therapy arose, using similar methods and now including the cognitive constructs which had gained popularity in theoretical psychology. A key practice in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy is exposing patients to things they fear, based on the premise that their responses (fear, panic, anxiety) can be deconditioned.
Mental health care today involves psychologists and social workers in increasing numbers. In 1977, National Institute of Mental Health director Bertram Brown described this shift as a source of "intense competition and role confusion". Graduate programs issuing doctorates in psychology (PsyD) emerged in the 1950s and underwent rapid increase through the 1980s. This degree is intended to train practitioners who might conduct scientific research.
Some clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury—this area is known as clinical neuropsychology. In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession. The emerging field of disaster psychology (see crisis intervention) involves professionals who respond to large-scale traumatic events.
The work performed by clinical psychologists tends to be influenced by various therapeutic approaches, all of which involve a formal relationship between professional and client (usually an individual, couple, family, or small group). Typically, these approaches encourage new ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving. Four major theoretical perspectives are psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, existential–humanistic, and systems or family therapy. There has been a growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches, especially with an increased understanding of issues regarding culture, gender, spirituality, and sexual orientation. With the advent of more robust research findings regarding psychotherapy, there is evidence that most of the major therapies have equal effectiveness, with the key common element being a strong therapeutic alliance. Because of this, more training programs and psychologists are now adopting an eclectic therapeutic orientation.
Diagnosis in clinical psychology usually follows the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a handbook first published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952. New editions over time have increased in size and focused more on medical language. The study of mental illnesses is called abnormal psychology.
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. The work of child psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Bernard Luskin, and Jerome Bruner has been influential in creating teaching methods and educational practices. Educational psychology is often included in teacher education programs in places such as North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
School psychology combines principles from educational psychology and clinical psychology to understand and treat students with learning disabilities; to foster the intellectual growth of gifted students; to facilitate prosocial behaviors in adolescents; and otherwise to promote safe, supportive, and effective learning environments. School psychologists are trained in educational and behavioral assessment, intervention, prevention, and consultation, and many have extensive training in research.
Industrialists soon brought the nascent field of psychology to bear on the study of scientific management techniques for improving workplace efficiency. This field was at first called economic psychology or business psychology; later, industrial psychology, employment psychology, or psychotechnology. An important early study examined workers at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois from 1924–1932. With funding from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fund and guidance from Australian psychologist Elton Mayo, Western Electric experimented on thousands of factory workers to assess their responses to illumination, breaks, food, and wages. The researchers came to focus on workers' responses to observation itself, and the term Hawthorne effect is now used to describe the fact that people work harder when they think they're being watched.
The name industrial and organizational psychology (I–O) arose in the 1960s and became enshrined as the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Division 14 of the American Psychological Association, in 1973. The goal is to optimize human potential in the workplace. Personnel psychology, a subfield of I–O psychology, applies the methods and principles of psychology in selecting and evaluating workers. I–O psychology's other subfield, organizational psychology, examines the effects of work environments and management styles on worker motivation, job satisfaction, and productivity. The majority of I–O psychologists work outside of academia, for private and public organizations and as consultants. A psychology consultant working in business today might expect to provide executives with information and ideas about their industry, their target markets, and the organization of their company.
Military and intelligence
One role for psychologists in the military is to evaluate and counsel soldiers and other personnel. In the U.S., this function began during World War I, when Robert Yerkes established the School of Military Psychology at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia, to provide psychological training for military staff military. Today, U.S Army psychology includes psychological screening, clinical psychotherapy, suicide prevention, and treatment for post-traumatic stress, as well as other aspects of health and workplace psychology such as smoking cessation.
Psychologists may also work on a diverse set of campaigns known broadly as psychological warfare. Psychologically warfare chiefly involves the use of propaganda to influence enemy soldiers and civilians. In the case of so-called black propaganda the propaganda is designed to seem like it originates from a different source. The CIA's MKULTRA program involved more individualized efforts at mind control, involving techniques such as hypnosis, torture, and covert involuntary administration of LSD. The U.S. military used the name Psychological Operations (PSYOP) until 2010, when these were reclassified as Military Information Support Operations (MISO), part of Information Operations (IO). Psychologists are sometimes involved in assisting the interrogation and torture of suspects, though this has sometimes been denied by those involved and sometimes opposed by others.
Medical facilities increasingly employ psychologists to perform various roles. A prominent aspect of health psychology is the psychoeducation of patients: instructing them in how to follow a medical regimen. Health psychologists can also educate doctors and conduct research on patient compliance.
Psychologists in the field of public health use a wide variety of interventions to influence human behavior. These range from public relations campaigns and outreach to governmental laws and policies. Psychologists study the composite influence of all these different tools in an effort to influence whole populations of people.
Black American psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark studied the psychological impact of segregation and testified with their findings in the desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Positive psychology is the study of factors which contribute to human happiness and well-being, focusing more on people who are currently health. In 2010 Clinical Psychological Review published a special issue devoted to positive psychological interventions, such as gratitude journaling and the physical expression of gratitude. Positive psychological interventions have been limited in scope, but their effects are thought to be superior to that of placebos, especially with regard to helping people with body image problems.
Quantitative psychological research lends itself to the statistical testing of hypotheses. Although the field makes abundant use of randomized and controlled experiments in laboratory settings, such research can only assess a limited range of short-term phenomena. Thus, psychologists also rely on creative statistical methods to glean knowledge from clinical trials and population data. These include the Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient, the analysis of variance, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear modeling. The measurement and operationalization of important constructs is an essential part of these research designs.
A true experiment with random allocation of subjects to conditions allows researchers to make strong inferences about causal relationships. In an experiment, the researcher alters parameters of influence, called independent variables, and measures resulting changes of interest, called dependent variables. Prototypical experimental research is conducted in a laboratory with a carefully controlled environment.
Repeated-measures experiments are those which take place through intervention on multiple occasions. In research on the effectiveness of psychotherapy, experimenters often compare a given treatment with placebo treatments, or compare different treatments against each other. Treatment type is the independent variable. The dependent variables are outcomes, ideally assessed in several ways by different professionals. Using crossover design, researchers can further increase the strength of their results by testing both of two treatments on two groups of subjects.
Quasi-experimental design refers especially to situations precluding random assignment to different conditions. Researchers can use common sense to consider how much the nonrandom assignment threatens the study's validity. For example, in research on the best way to affect reading achievement in the first three grades of school, school administrators may not permit educational psychologists to randomly assign children to phonics and whole language classrooms, in which case the psychologists must work with preexisting classroom assignments. Psychologists will compare the achievement of children attending phonics and whole language classes.
Experimental researchers typically use a statistical hypothesis testing model which involves making predictions before conducting the experiment, then assessing how well the data supports the predictions. (These predictions may originate from a more abstract scientific hypothesis about how the phenomenon under study actually works.) Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical techniques are used to distinguish unique results of the experiment from the null hypothesis that variations result from random fluctuations in data. In psychology, the widely usd standard ascribes statistical significance to results which have less than 5% probability of being explained by random variation.
Other forms of statistical inference
Statistical surveys are used in psychology for measuring attitudes and traits, monitoring changes in mood, checking the validity of experimental manipulations, and for other psychological topics. Most commonly, psychologists use paper-and-pencil surveys. However, surveys are also conducted over the phone or through e-mail. Web-based surveys are increasingly used to conveniently reach many subjects.
Neuropsychological tests, such as the Wechsler scales and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, are mostly questionnaires or simple tasks used which assess a specific type of mental function in the respondent. These can be used in experiments, as in the case of lesion experiments evaluating the results of damage to a specific part of the brain.
Observational studies analyze uncontrolled data in search of correlations; multivariate statistics are typically used to interpret the more complex situation. Cross-sectional observational studies use data from a single point in time, whereas longitudinal studies are used to study trends across the life span. Longitudinal studies track the same people, and therefore detect more individual, rather than cultural, differences. However, they suffer from lack of controls and from confounding factors such as selective attrition (the bias introduced when a certain type of subject disproportionately leaves a study).
Exploratory data analysis refers to a variety of practices which researchers can use to visualize and analyze existing sets of data. In Peirce's three modes of inference, exploratory data anlysis corresponds to abduction, or hypothesis formation. Meta-analysis is the technique of integrating the results from multiple studies and interpreting the statistical properties of the pooled dataset.
A classic and popular tool used to relate mental and neural activity is the electroencephalogram (EEG), a technique using amplified electrodes on a person's scalp to measure voltage changes in different parts of the brain. Hans Berger, the first researcher to use EEG on an unopened skull, quickly found that brains exhibit signature "brain waves": electric oscillations which correspond to different states of consciousness. Researchers subsequently refined statistical methods for synthesizing the electrode data, and identified unique brain wave patterns such as the delta wave observed during non-REM sleep.
Newer functional neuroimaging techniques include functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, both of which track the flow of blood through the brain. These technologies provide more localized information about activity in the brain and create representations of the brain with widespread appeal. They also provide insight which avoids the classic problems of subjective self-reporting. It remains challenging to draw hard conclusions about where in the brain specific thoughts originate—or even how usefully such localization corresponds with reality. However, neuroimaging has delivered unmistakable results showing the existence of correlations between mind and brain. Some of these draw on a systemic neural network model rather than a localized function model.
Psychiatric interventions such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and of course drugs also provide information about brain–mind interactions. Psychopharmacology is the study of drug-induced mental effects.
Computational modeling is a tool used in mathematical psychology and cognitive psychology to simulate behavior. This method has several advantages. Since modern computers process information quickly, simulations can be run in a short time, allowing for high statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to visualize hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events that couldn't be directly observed in a human. Connectionism uses neural networks to simulate the brain. Another method is symbolic modeling, which represents many mental objects using variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems and stochastic modeling.
Animal experiments aid in investigating many aspects of human psychology, including perception, emotion, learning, memory, and thought, to name a few. In the 1890s, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov famously used dogs to demonstrate classical conditioning. Non-human primates, cats, dogs, pigeons, rats, and other rodents are often used in psychological experiments. Ideally, controlled experiments introduce only one independent variable at a time, in order to ascertain its unique effects upon dependent variables. These conditions are approximated best in laboratory settings. In contrast, human environments and genetic backgrounds vary so widely, and depend upon so many factors, that it is difficult to control important variables for human subjects. Of course, there are pitfalls in generalizing findings from animal studies to humans through animal models.
Comparative psychology refers to the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior. Research in this area explores the behavior of many species, from insects to primates. It is closely related to other disciplines that study animal behavior such as ethology. Research in comparative psychology sometimes appears to shed light on human behavior, but some attempts to connect the two have been quite controversial, for example the Sociobiology of E. O. Wilson. Animal models are often used to study neural processes related to human behavior, e.g. in cognitive neuroscience.
Qualitative and descriptive research
Research designed to answer questions about the current state of affairs such as the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals is known as descriptive research. Descriptive research can be qualitative or quantitative in orientation. Qualitative research is descriptive research that is focused on observing and describing events as they occur, with the goal of capturing all of the richness of everyday behavior and with the hope of discovering and understanding phenomena that might have been missed if only more cursory examinations have been made.
Qualitative psychological research methods include interviews, first-hand observation, and participant observation. Creswell (2003) identifies five main possibilities for qualitative research, including narrative, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, and grounded theory. Qualitative researchers sometimes aim to enrich interpretations or critiques of symbols, subjective experiences, or social structures. Sometimes hermeneutic and critical aims can give rise to quantitative research, as in Erich Fromm's study of Nazi voting or Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
Just as Jane Goodall studied chimpanzee social and family life by careful observation of chimpanzee behavior in the field, psychologists conduct naturalistic observation of ongoing human social, professional, and family life. Sometimes the participants are aware they are being observed, and other times the participants do not know they are being observed. Strict ethical guidelines must be followed when covert observation is being carried out.
Contemporary issues in methodology and practice
In 1959 statistician Theodore Sterling examined the results of psychological studies and discovered that 97% of them supported their initial hypotheses, implying a possible publication bias. Similarly, Fanelli (2010) found that 91.5% of psychiatry/psychology studies confirmed the effects they were looking for, and concluded that the odds of this happening (a positive result) was around five times higher than in fields such as space- or geosciences. Fanelli argues that this is because researchers in "softer" sciences have fewer constraints to their conscious and unconscious biases.
Some popular media outlets have in recent years spotlighted a replication crisis in psychology, arguing that many findings in the field cannot be reproduced. Repeats of some famous studies have not reached the same conclusions, and some researchers have been accused of outright fraud in their results. Focus on this issue has led to renewed efforts in the discipline to re-test important findings.
Some critics view statistical hypothesis testing as misplaced. Psychologist and statistician Jacob Cohen wrote in 1994 that psychologists routinely confuse statistical significance with practical importance, enthusiastically reporting great certainty in unimportant facts. Some psychologists have responded with an increased use of effect size statistics, rather than sole reliance on the Fisherian p < .05 significance criterion (whereby an observed difference is deemed "statistically significant" if an effect of that size or larger would occur with 5% -or less- probability in independent replications, assuming the truth of the null-hypothesis of no difference between the treatments).
In 2010, a group of researchers reported a systemic bias in psychology studies towards WEIRD ("western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic") subjects. Although only 1/8 people worldwide fall into the WEIRD classification, the researchers claimed that 60–90% of psychology studies are performed on WEIRD subjects. The article gave examples of results that differ significantly between WEIRD subjects and tribal cultures, including the Müller-Lyer illusion.
Some observers perceive a gap between scientific theory and its application—in particular, the application of unsupported or unsound clinical practices. Critics say there has been an increase in the number of mental health training programs that do not instill scientific competence. One skeptic asserts that practices, such as "facilitated communication for infantile autism"; memory-recovery techniques including body work; and other therapies, such as rebirthing and reparenting, may be dubious or even dangerous, despite their popularity. In 1984, Allen Neuringer made a similar point[vague] regarding the experimental analysis of behavior. Psychologists, sometimes divided along the lines of laboratory vs. clinic, continue to debate these issues.
Ethical standards in the discipline have changed over time. Some famous past studies are today considered unethical and in violation of established codes (Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Code of Conduct for Research Involving Humans, and the Belmont Report).
The most important contemporary standards are informed and voluntary consent. After World War II, the Nuremberg Code was established because of Nazi abuses of experimental subjects. Later, most countries (and scientific journals) adopted the Declaration of Helsinki. In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health established the Institutional Review Board in 1966, and in 1974 adopted the National Research Act (HR 7724). All of these measures encouraged researchers to obtain informed consent from human participants in experimental studies. A number of influential studies led to the establishment of this rule; such studies included the MIT and Fernald School radioisotope studies, the Thalidomide tragedy, the Willowbrook hepatitis study, and Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience to authority.
University psychology departments have ethics committees dedicated to the rights and well-being of research subjects. Researchers in psychology must gain approval of their research projects before conducting any experiment to protect the interests of human participants and laboratory animals.
The ethics code of the American Psychological Association originated in 1951 as "Ethical Standards of Psychologists." This code has guided the formation of licensing laws in most American states. It has changed multiple times over the decades since its adoption. In 1989 the APA revised its policies on advertising and referral fees to negotiate the end of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. The 1992 incarnation was the first to distinguish between "aspirational" ethical standards and "enforceable" ones. Members of the public have a 5-year window to file ethics complaints about APA members with the APA ethics committee; members of the APA have a 3-year window.
Some of the ethical issues considered most important are the requirement to practice only within the area of competence, to maintain confidentiality with the patients, and to avoid sexual relations with them. Another important principle is informed consent, the idea that a patient or research subject must understand and freely choose a procedure they are undergoing. Some of the most common complaints against clinical psychologists include sexual misconduct, and involvement in child custody evaluations.
Current ethical guidelines state that using non-human animals for scientific purposes is only acceptable when the harm (physical or psychological) done to animals is outweighed by the benefits of the research. Keeping this in mind, psychologists can use certain research techniques on animals that could not be used on humans.
- An experiment by Stanley Milgram raised questions about the ethics of scientific experimentation because of the extreme emotional stress suffered by the participants. It measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
- Harry Harlow drew condemnation for his "pit of despair" experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s. The aim of the research was to produce an animal model of clinical depression. Harlow also devised what he called a "rape rack", to which the female isolates were tied in normal monkey mating posture. In 1974, American literary critic Wayne C. Booth wrote that, "Harry Harlow and his colleagues go on torturing their nonhuman primates decade after decade, invariably proving what we all knew in advance—that social creatures can be destroyed by destroying their social ties." He writes that Harlow made no mention of the criticism of the morality of his work.
- Fernald LD (2008). Psychology: Six perspectives (pp. 12–15). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Hockenbury & Hockenbury. Psychology. Worth Publishers, 2010.
- Although psychoanalysis and other forms of depth psychology are most typically associated with the unconscious mind, behaviorists consider such phenomena as classical conditioning and operant conditioning, while cognitivists explore implicit memory, automaticity, and subliminal messages, all of which are understood either to bypass or to occur outside of conscious effort or attention. Indeed, cognitive-behavioral therapists counsel their clients to become aware of maladaptive thought patterns, the nature of which the clients previously had not been conscious.
- "Psychology is a Hub Science". Association for Psychological Science Observer (September 2007)
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- "The mission of the APA [American Psychological Association] is to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives"; APA (2010). About APA. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010–11 Edition, Psychologists, on the Internet at bls.gov (visited 8 July 2010).
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- Watson, John B. (1913). "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (PDF). Psychological Review 20 (2): 158–177. doi:10.1037/h0074428.
- The term "folk psychology" is itself contentious: see Daniel D. Hutto & Matthew Ratcliffe (eds.), Folk Psychology Re-Assessed; Dorndrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2007; ISBN 978-1-4020-5557-7
- "Aristotle's Psychology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Green, C.D. & Groff, P.R. (2003). Early psychological thought: Ancient accounts of mind and soul. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
- T.L. Brink. (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. "Unit One: The Definition and History of Psychology." pp 9 .
- Yeh Hsueh and Benyu Guo, "China", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- Anand C. Paranjpe, "From Tradition through Colonialism to Globalization: Reflections on the History of Psychology in India", in Brock (ed.), Internationalizing the History of Psychology (2006).
- Horst U.K. Gundlach, "Germany", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- Alan Collins, "England", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- Leahey, History of Modern Psychology (2001), p. 61.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2006). "Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt".
- Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr., and David B. Baker, "The Internationalization of Psychology: A History", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- Miki Takasuna, "Japan", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- Leahey, History of Modern Psychology (2001), p. 60.
- C. James Goodwin, "United States", in Baker (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology (2012).
- The Principles of Psychology (1890), with introduction by George A. Miller, Harvard University Press, 1983 paperback, ISBN 0-674-70625-0 (combined edition, 1328 pages)
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- Leahey, History of Modern Psychology (2001), pp. 196–200.
- Cecilia Taiana, "Transatlantic Migration of the Disciplines of Mind: Examination of the Reception of Wundt's and Freud's Theories in Argentina", in Brock (ed.), Internationalizing the History of Psychology (2006).
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- Nancy Tomes, "The Development of Clinical Psychology, Social Work, and Psychiatric Nursing: 1900–1980s", in Wallace & Gach (eds.), History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology (2008).
- Franz Samuelson, "Organizing for the Kingdom of Behavior: Academic Battles and the Organizational Policies in the Twenties"; Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 21, January 1985.
- Hans Pols, "The World as Laboratory: Strategies of Field Research Developed by Mental Hygiene Psychologists in Toronto, 1920–1940" in Theresa Richardson & Donald Fisher (eds.), The Development of the Social Sciences in the United States and Canada: The Role of Philanthropy; Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing, 1999; ISBN 1-56750-405-1
- Sol Cohen, "The Mental Hygiene Movement, the Development of Personality and the School: The Medicalization of American Education"; History of Education Quarterly 23.2, Summer 1983.
- Vern L. Bullough, "The Rockefellers and Sex Research"; Journal of Sex Research 21.2, May 1985. "Their importance is hard to overestimate. In fact, in the period between 1914 and 1954, the Rockefellers were almost the sole support of sex research in the United States. The decisions made by their scientific advisers about the nature of the research to be supported and how it was conducted, as well as the topics eligible for research support, shaped the whole field of sex research and, in many ways, still continue to support it."
- Guthrie, Even the Rat was White (1998), Chapter 4: "Psychology and Race" (pp. 88–110). "Psychology courses often became the vehicles for eugenics propaganda. One graduate of the Record Office training program wrote, 'I hope to serve the cause by infiltrating eugenics into the minds of teachers. It may interest you to know that each student who takes psychology here works up his family history and plots his family tree.' Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Wisconsin, and Northwestern were among the leading academic institutions teaching eugenics in psychology courses."
- Dorwin Cartwright, "Social Psychology in the United States During the Second World War", Human Relations 1.3, June 1948, p. 340; quoted in Cina, "Social Science For Whom?" (1981), p. 269.
- Catherine Lutz, "Epistemology of the Bunker: The Brainwashed and Other New Subjects of Permanent War", in Joel Pfister & Nancy Schnog (eds.), Inventing the Psychological: Toward a Cultural History of Emotional Life in America; Yale University Press, 1997; ISBN 0-300-06809-3
- Cina, "Social Science For Whom?" (1981), pp. 315–325.
- Herman, "Psychology as Politics" (1993), p. 288. "Had it come to fruition, CAMELOT would have been the largest, and certainly the most generously funded, behavioral research project in U.S. history. With a $4 – 6 million contract over a period of 3 years, it was considered, and often called, a veritable Manhattan Project for the behavioral sciences, at least by many of the intellectuals whose services were in heavy demand."
- Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich (1997), pp. 75–77.
- Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich (1997), p. 93.
- Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich (1997), pp. 86–87. "For Schultz-Hencke in this 1934 essay, life goals were determined by ideology, not by science. In the case of psychotherapy, he defined health in terms of blood, strong will, proficiency, discipline, (Zucht und Ordnung), community, heroic bearing, and physical fitness. Schultz-Hencke also took the opportunity in 1934 to criticize psychoanalysis for providing an unfortunate tendency toward the exculpation of the criminal."
- Jürgen Brunner, Matthias Schrempf, & Florian Steger, "Johannes Heinrich Schultz and National Socialism", Israel Journal of Psychiatry & Related Sciences 45.4, 2008. Bringing these people to a right and deep understanding of every German's duty in the New Germany, such as preparatory mental aid and psychotherapy in general and in particular for persons to be sterilized, and for people having been sterilized, is a great, important and rewarding medical duty."
- Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich (1997), Chapter 14: "Reconstruction and Repression", pp. 351–375.
- Kozulin, Psychology in Utopia (1984), pp. 84–86. "Against such a background it is not at all surprising that psychoanalysis, as a theory that ventured to approach the forbidden but topical theme of sexual relations, was embraced by the newborn Soviet psychology. Psychoanalysis also attracted the interest of Soviet psychology as a materialist trend that had challenged the credentials of classical introspective psychology. The reluctance of the pre-Revolutionary establishment to propagate psychoanalysis also played a positive role in the post-Revolutionary years; it was a field uncompromised by ties to old-regime science." Though c.f. Hannah Proctor, "Reason Displaces All Love", The New Inquiry, February 14, 2014.
- Kozulin, Psychology in Utopia (1984), p. 22. "Stalin's purges of the 1930s did not spare Soviet psychologists. Leading Marxist philosophers earlier associated with psychology—including Yuri Frankfurt, Nikolai Karev, and Ivan Luppol—were executed in prison camps. The same fate awaited Alexei Gastev and Isaak Shipilrein. Those who survived lived in an atmosphere of total suspicion. [...] People who dominated their fields yesterday might be denounced today as traitors and enemies of the people, and by tomorrow their names mihgt disappear from all public records. Books and newspapers were constantly being recalled from libraries to rid them of 'obsolete' names and references."
- Kozulin, Psychology in Utopia (1984), pp. 25–26, 48–49.
- Kozulin, Psychology in Utopia (1984), pp. 27–33. "Georgy Schedrovitsky, who is currently at the Moscow Institute of Psychology, can be singled out as the most prominent theorist working in the context of systems research. [...] This is Schedrovitsky's second major thesis: Activity should not be regarded as an attribute of the individual but rather as an all-embracing system that 'captures' individuals and 'forces' them to behave a certain way. This approach may be traced back to the assertion of Wilhelm Humboldt that it is not man who has language as an attribute, but rather language that 'possesses' man. [...] Schedrovitsky's activity approach has been applied successfully to the design of man-machine systems and to the evaluation of human factors in urban planning."
- Chin & Chin, Psychological Research in Communist China (1969), pp. 5–9.
- Chin & Chin, Psychological Research in Communist China (1969), pp. 9–17. "The Soivet psychology that Peking modeled itself upon was a Marxist-Leninist psychology with a philosophical base in dialectical materialism and a newly added label, Pavlovianism. This new Soviet psychology leaned heavily on Lenin's theory of reflection, which was unearthed in his two volumes posthumously published in 1924. Toward the late twenties, a group of Soviet research psychologists headed by Vygotskii, along with Luria and Leont'ev, laid the groundwork for a Marxist-Leninist approach to psychic development."
- Chin & Chin, Psychological Research in Communist China (1969), pp. 18–24.
- Wade Pickren & Raymond D. Fowler, "Professional Organizations", in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 1: History of Psychology.
- Irmingard Staeuble, "Psychology in the Eurocentric Order of the Social Sciences: Colonial Constitution, Cultural Imperialist Expansion, Postcolonial Critique" in Brock (ed.), Internationalizing the History of Psychology (2006).
- For example, see Oregon State Law, Chapter 675 (2013 edition) at Statutes & Rules Relating to the Practice of Psychology.
- Judy E. Hall and George Hurley, "North American Perspectives on Education, Training, Licensing, and Credentialing", in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 8: Clinical Psychology.
- T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1st. ed., Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1962.
- Beveridge, A. (2002). "Time to abandon the subjective—objective divide?". The Psychiatrist 26: 101–103. doi:10.1192/pb.26.3.101.
- Peterson, C. (2009, 23 May). "Subjective and objective research in positive psychology: A biological characteristic is linked to well-being". Psychology Today. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 9.
- Teo, The Critique of Psychology (2005), pp. 36–37. "Methodologism means that the method dominates the problem, problems are chosen in subordination to the respected method, and psychology has to adopt without question, the methods of the natural sciences. [...] From an epistemological and ontological-critical as well as from a human-scientific perspective the experiment in psychology has limited value (for example, only for basic psychological processes), given the nature of the psychological subject matter, and the reality of persons and their capabilities."
- Teo, The Critique of Psychology (2005), p. 120. "Pervasive in feminist critiques of science, with the exception of feminist empiricism, is the rejection of positivist assumptions, including the assumption of value-neutrality or that research can only be objective if subjectivity and emotional dimensions are excluded, when in fact culture, personality, and institutions play significant roles (see Longino, 1990; Longino & Doell, 1983). For psychology, Grimshaw (1986) discussed behaviorism's goals of modification, and suggested that behaviorist principles reinforced a hierarchical position between controller and controlled and that behaviorism was in principle an antidemocratic program."
- Edwin R. Wallace, IV, "Two 'Mind'-'Body' Models for a Holistic Psychiatry" and "Freud on 'Mind-Body' I: The Psychoneurobiological and 'Instinctualist' Stance; with Implications for Chapter 24, and Two Postscripts", in Wallace & Gach (eds.), History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology (2008).
- Richard F. Thompson & Stuart M. Zola, "Biological Psychology", in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 1: History of Psychology.
- Michela Gallagher & Randy J. Nelson, "Volume Preface", in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 3: Biological Psychology.
- Luria, "The Working Brain" (1973), pp. 20– 22.
- Pinel, John (2010). Biopsychology. New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-205-83256-3.
- Richard Frankel; Timothy Quill; Susan McDaniel (2003). The Biopsychosocial Approach: Past, Present, Future. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781580461023.
- McGue M, Gottesman II (2015). "Behavior Genetics". The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology: 1–11. doi:10.1002/9781118625392.wbecp578.
- Guthrie, Even the Rat was White (1998), Chapter 1: "'The Noble Savage' and Science" (pp. 3–33)
- Guthrie, Even the Rat was White (1998), Chapter 5: "The Psychology of Survival and Education" (pp. 113–134)
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- E. C. Tolman, "Cognitive maps in rats and men", Psychological Review 55, 1948; in Hock, Forty Studies (2002), pp. 107–114. "During the years when psychology was consumed with strict stimulus-response learning theories that dismissed unobservable internal mental activity, Tolman, at the University of California at Berkeley, was doing experiments demonstrating that complex internal cognitive activity occurred even in rats, and that these mental processes could be studied without the necessity of observing them directly. Due to the significance of his work, Tolman is considered to be the founder of a school of thought about learning that is today called cognitive-behaviorism".
- Ruben Ardila, "Behavior Analysis in an International Context", in Brock (ed.), Internationalizing the History of Psychology (2006).
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- Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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- Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul, 1963, pp. 33–39; from Theodore Schick, ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Science, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, pp. 9–13. Faculty.washington.edu
- June 2008 study by the American Psychoanalytic Association, as reported in the New York Times, "Freud Is Widely Taught at Universities, Except in the Psychology Department" by Patricia Cohen, 25 November 2007.
- For example, scientists have related brain structures to Freudian concepts such as libido, drives, the unconscious, and repression. The contributors to neuro-psychoanalysis include António Damásio (Damásio, A. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain; Damásio, A. (1996). The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex; Damásio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness; Damásio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain); Eric Kandel; Joseph E. LeDoux (LeDoux, J.E. (1998). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life (Touchstone ed.). Simon & Schuster. Original work published 1996. ISBN 0-684-83659-9); Jaak Panksepp (Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press); Oliver Sacks (Sacks, O. (1984). A leg to stand on. New York: Summit Books/Simon and Schuster); Mark Solms (Kaplan-Solms, K., & Solms, M. (2000). Clinical studies in neuro-psychoanalysis: Introduction to a depth neuropsychology. London: Karnac Books; Solms, M., & Turnbull, O. (2002). The brain and the inner world: An introduction to the neuroscience of subjective experience. New York: Other Press); and Douglas Watt.
- "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs". Honolulu.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- Gazzaniga, Michael (2010). Psychological Science. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-393-93421-2.
- Rowan, John. (2001). Ordinary Ecstasy: The Dialectics of Humanistic Psychology. London, UK: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23633-9
- A. J. Sutich, American association for humanistic psychology, Articles of association. Palo Alto, CA (mimeographed): August 28, 1963; in Severin (ed.), Humanistic Viewpoints in Psychology (1965), pp. xv–xvi.
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- Hergenhahn, B.R. (2005). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA, USA: Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 523–32.
- Frankl, V.E. (1984). Man's search for meaning (rev. ed.). New York, NY, USA: Washington Square Press. p. 86.
- Seidner, Stanley S. (10 June 2009) "A Trojan Horse: Logotherapeutic Transcendence and its Secular Implications for Theology". Mater Dei Institute. p 2.
- Carver, C., & Scheier, M. (2004). Perspectives on Personality (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
- Leslie C. Morey, "Measuring Personality and Psychopathology" in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 2: Research Methods in Psychology.
- Charles Sanders Peirce & Joseph Jastrow, "On Small Differences in Sensation", Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 3, October 17, 1884; cited in William P. Banks & Ilya Farber, "Consciousness", in Weiner (ed.), Handbook of Psychology (2003), Volume 4: Experimental Psychology; and in Deber, James A; Jacoby, Larry L. (1994). "Unconscious Perception: Attention, Awareness, and Control". Journal of Experimental Psychology 20 (2): 304–317. doi:10.1037/0278-73220.127.116.114.
- John F. Kihlstrom, "The Psychological Unconscious", in Lawrence Pervin & Oliver John (eds.), Handbook of Personality; New York: Guilford Press, 1999. Also see web version.
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- Psychology at DMOZ
- American Psychological Association
- Association for Psychological Science
- Discovering Psychology. (2001). The History of Psychology:Contemporary Foundations
- The Florida State University PSYCHOLOGY.(2011).HISTORY
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Today, a woman turns slavery from theoretical wrong
into personal evil. The University of Houston's
College of Engineering presents this series about
the machines that make our civilization run, and
the people whose ingenuity created them.
Harriet Beecher was her
mother's 7th child. After the 9th, her mother died.
Harriet was raised by her
father, a Calvinist preacher in Connecticut who
held forth on Hell and damnation, but denied the
doctrine of predestination. When she was 22 they
moved out to Cincinnati where he was to be
President of a new seminary.
Her father had only one faculty member, a bright,
pudgy, and ineffectual fellow named Calvin Stowe.
For a while, Calvin's wife Eliza befriended Harriet
Beecher. So when Eliza died young, Harriet and
Calvin were drawn together by a shared loss, and in
1836 Harriet became
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Their first children
were twin girls whom they chose to name Harriet and
Calvin was a piece of work. In a crisis, he simply
went to bed. He had regular visions of ghosts.
Still, an odd chemistry bound these two somewhat
strange, and very plain, people. Maybe they were
just easy on each other. When Harriet had
had-it-up-to-here with bearing children and
primitive life in early Cincinnati, she'd go East
to take the water cure, leaving Calvin with the
It was on such a trip, with hypochondriac Calvin
promising to die before she returned, that Harriet
fell in with organized anti-slavery forces. By then
she'd already crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky
and talked with slave women. A slave named Eliza
Buck had touched her deeply with stories about the
brutality of the system.
In 1850, Calvin moved to Bowdoin College in Maine.
He sent Harriet ahead with the children to set up
the house. She looked so frumpy when she got off
the ferry that the college president, who'd come to
meet her, went back saying she hadn't arrived. The
only people who'd left the boat were a poor Irish
woman and her brats!
Next spring, struggling with a cold damp house and
one more baby, 40-year-old Harriet began writing
Uncle Tom's Cabin. She'd written very
little, and she set to work with few hopes.
But what she created was the literary success of
the century. When people asked how she'd done it,
she said God had written it for her. Some
complained about the meanness of letting Little Eva
die. She only replied that when she herself found
out about that part, she was so devastated she had
to quit writing for two weeks.
Uncle Tom's Cabin fulfilled no canon
of literary greatness. It was poorly researched, to
boot. But Harriet galvanized anti-slavery forces by
humanizing abolitionist theory. Now slavery had
faces and names (including that recurrent name
Eliza). And when had a slave ever been the hero of
a book? When Abe Lincoln, half-hearted abolitionist
at best, received Harriet in the White House he
said, "So this is the little woman who made this
However, a more perceptive analysis of Harriet
Beecher Stowe was made by George Sand in France.
Stunned by the moral force of the book, she simply
said that Stowe had "no talent, only genius."
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
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The Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrates, nitrites, ammonia: where do they come from, and why are they dirtying up your fish tank? Various forms of nitrogen are the by-products of food consumption and digestion in all terrestrial and aquatic animals. In a natural environment, waste products are diluted and recycled continuously by a variety of processes. In the aquarium, waste is produced as food is added, but remains concentrated in the tank until it can be removed. The cycle is as follows:
Food -> Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate -> Water Change
As fish eat, digest, and metabolize protein, they produce waste as ammonia (NH3), which is then excreted into the water. Ammonia is also produced when excess food or other organic matter (such as a dead fish) rots in the tank. Ammonia is a small, soluble, and very active molecule. This means that it can be quite toxic to fish, even in small amounts.
Build-up of toxic ammonia within the tank is prevented in two ways. Prior to establishing a full community in an aquarium, a tank must be “cycled” with just a few fish. This allows time for ammonia-clearing (nitrifying) bacteria to establish a colony and combat the rising ammonia levels. Once a stable aquarium community is established, waste levels should be kept to a minimum. If at any time the bacterial colony becomes overwhelmed with waste, as with overfeeding, or when dead fish are left in the tank, ammonia levels might skyrocket and kill the fish.
Various commercial products are available to lower ammonia levels in an aquarium, from liquid drops to pellets that can be added to a filtration system. It is important to consider, however, that a healthy aquarium needs a good colony of nitrifying bacteria, and nitrifying bacteria need ammonia to feed on. Ammonia-removing products should only be used in emergency situations, and never relied on over the long term.
Ammonia (NH3) is continuously changed back and forth to ammonium (NH4+) in the water. The equilibrium between these two chemicals is such that nitrogen is present mainly in the ammonia form at higher temperatures and pH. Test kits are available to measure the level of total ammonia in the water, but temperature and pH are needed in order to determine how much of it is present as ammonia, and how much as ammonium. Ammonium is less toxic than ammonia, but an appropriately filtered and stocked tank with a normal amount of waste should never have an appreciable level of ammonia if a healthy colony of nitrifying bacteria has been established.
As a colony of nitrifying bacteria is established (specifically, Nitrosomnus bacteria), ammonia becomes converted into nitrite (NO2-), which is less toxic to fish than ammonia, but still lethal if levels become too high. As with ammonia, test kits are available to determine the level of nitrite in aquarium water. Testing is most useful during the initial cycling process, to help determine the extent of nitrifying bacterial colonization. Nitrite levels usually begin to rise about a week after cycling begins, depending on the size and temperature of the tank, as well as the number and type of fish being used to cycle. Testing nitrite levels is less useful in an established tank, as nitrite is only the middle step in the nitrogen cycle.
Once nitrite-producing Nitrosomnus bacteria are established, Nitrobacter bacteria begin to proliferate and convert nitrite into nitrate (NO3-). This step in the cycling process can take one to two months to complete (depending, once again, on various tank factors). Nitrate is relatively benign compared to nitrite or ammonia, and most hardy fish species can tolerate moderate levels of this chemical in the tank. Invertebrates such as corals and sea anemones are less tolerant. Nitrate is removed from the aquarium during partial water changes, the frequency of which is usually determined by a yellow discolouration of the water, a set schedule, or a nitrate test kit.
In a stable aquarium with minimal waste, ammonia and nitrite are rapidly converted into nitrate, and the danger of nitrite or ammonia toxicity is low. Regular testing of nitrate levels is the most useful way to monitor nitrogen waste levels in an established tank. If a sudden spike in ammonia levels is suspected, such as with sudden fish deaths or accidental overfeeding, emergency water changes and/or commercial ammonia-neutralizing additives can be used to lessen the impact.
To prevent unnecessary fish stress and deaths, be sure to cycle every new aquarium with one or two fish for at least a month before adding more individuals. Time should be allowed between new additions to give the bacterial population a chance to compensate for the increase in waste. Finally, keep a regular schedule of partial water changes and water quality testing, and always track down the source of an unexpected increase in nitrogen levels.
By Jen Perret – Pets.ca writer
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This spring, students in Professor Ruth Grant‘s course “Challenges of Living an Ethical Life” were given the chance to evaluate the view of ethics presented in Shel Silverstein’s classic children’s tale The Giving Tree. In the tale, a boy begins a friendship with a tree by playing in its branches and eating its apples, but as he ages he becomes increasingly demanding, as the tree gives all with no questions asked.
As an option for their final assignment, students could either defend the morality of the narrative in The Giving Tree or rewrite the story and explain their choices in an accompanying essay.
Student Lauren Hansson chose to adapt the story by building in greater consequences for the child and increasing reciprocity between the child and the tree (illustrated at right). She wrote that Silverstein’s original “has the potential to teach children about environmental ethics and how it fits into their everyday lives, but as it stands, its message is ambiguous and presents a flawed depiction of our relationship with the environment.”
Jamie Bergstrom illustrated an adaptation titled “The Helping Tree.” Bergstrom also created a more reciprocal relationship in the narrative. She emphasizes the ethics of giving as a way to help others better themselves through beneficial relationships with mutual respect.
Grant’s course is the gateway for KIE’s Ethics Certificate, a pathway of courses meant to supplement any undergraduate course of study by infusing ethics into their daily, academic, and later professional lives. The students in this course learned to address ethical dilemmas through the lens of different cultural viewpoints, reading texts from the ancient era to modern day.
Educators can find the related case study and teaching notes on the teaching caselettes web resources page.
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Canada's Copenhagen nightmare may be coming true.
A draft proposal published at the climate-change summit Friday for the countries in the Kyoto Protocol, the only international greenhouse-gas reduction treaty, calls for five years to be added to Kyoto, taking it to 2017. Canada fiercely resists any extension of the treaty.
Canada ratified the protocol in 2002, when Jean Chrétien's Liberals were in power. But the Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper have argued for years that the targets agreed to by Canada are impossible to meet. In common with many developed countries, Canada wants Kyoto to lapse in 2012, partly for fear of having to pay non-compliance penalties if it remains intact.
Canada supports the launch of a new treaty that would be signed by all 192 countries at the Copenhagen conference, including the United States, which did not ratify Kyoto. “We should be seeking a single, legally binding outcome,” Michael Martin, Canada's chief climate-change negotiator, said at a press conference. “That's a view supported by many parties, but certainly not all of them.”
When Canada signed Kyoto, it agreed to reduce emissions by 6 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. Canada's emissions have instead soared, partly due to the rapid expansion of the energy-intensive Alberta oil sands. Ottawa's new proposed target is 3 per cent from 1990 levels, far less than most developed countries.
The draft proposal to extend Kyoto is seen as a concession to the developing countries, which argue that the world's wealthy countries are chiefly responsible for the carbon emissions that threaten to raise global average temperatures. Mr. Martin, however, points out that the industrialized countries covered under the Kyoto Protocol account for less than 30 per cent of total global emissions. Kyoto, he says, is deeply flawed and should not be replaced after it expires in 2012.
A second draft proposal published Friday calls for the wealthiest countries to make far steeper emissions cuts than they have already pledged. The plan proposes that those countries, including Canada, the United States, Britain and Japan, jointly reduce greenhouse gases by at least 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. Current proposed reductions range from 10 per cent to 17 per cent, with deeper reductions by 2050.
The gap between the developed countries' proposals and the targets in the draft sets the stage for negotiations that promise to be fractious, and time is running out. The goal of the negotiators is to have an agreement in place no later than Thursday, when more than 100 heads of state and government, including U.S. President Barack Obama, arrive in Copenhagen to endorse a new climate-change agreement the next day. “I think we're heading to a high-noon scenario,” said Dave Martin, Greenpeace Canada's climate and energy director.
Friday's draft contains no details on another issue that threatens chaos at the summit – how to pay for climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures in the developing countries. The Commonwealth countries have proposed a “Quick Start” fund valued at $10-billion (U.S.) a year for three years starting in 2010. Friday the European Union offered to contribute $3.5-billion a year for short-term funding. Separately, France and Britain have floated the idea of a small tax on international financial transactions, called a “Tobin tax,” named after the American economist who proposed the idea in the 1970s.
The developing countries are highly unlikely to sign a climate-change deal unless more funds are committed. Canada supports a short-term fund, but no money is officially on the table. The decision on how much Canada will pledge will be made by Mr. Harper and Jim Prentice, the Environment Minister, when they arrive in Copenhagen next week.Report Typo/Error
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Adams Family Papers
The Adams Family Papers, the most important manuscript collection owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society, contains of an extensive amount of material relating to John Adams (1735-1826), Abigail Adams (1744-1818), and their descendants. The collection, dating from 1639 to 1889, includes correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, literary manuscripts, speeches, legal and business papers, and other documents.
Members of the Adams family were involved in many important political events, and the Adams Family Papers detail their range of activities. Material covered in the papers includes the evolution of the American Revolution and the diplomatic negotiations of peace; the formation of the new government in 1789; the international and internal crises at the end of the century; the founding of a permanent navy, the Louisiana Purchase and the policy of neutrality by embargo; the War of 1812; the establishment of U.S. Policy in this hemisphere by the terms of the Monroe Doctrine, largely written by John Quincy Adams; the expansion of the nation to continental proportions, complicated by the slavery issue; the Civil War, both in its military and diplomatic sphere; and the problems of reconstruction and party struggles that followed the war.
The collection includes papers relating to John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), Louisa Catherine Adams (1775-1852), Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), Charles Francis Adams II (1835-1915), and Henry Adams (1838-1918) and includes a large file of incoming correspondence from hundreds of major and minor figures in America and Europe. See the Massachusetts Historical Society's online catalog, ABIGAIL, for bibliographic descriptions of other collections relating to the Adams Family, including the Charles Francis Adams Papers and the Marian Hooper Adams Photographs.
The Adams Manuscript Trust generously donated the manuscripts to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956.
The Adams Family Papers are available on microfilm; see the guide to the microfilm edition for more information. See the list of institutions that hold the microfilm in the U.S. and abroad. Portions of the collection are available online, including images and searchable transcriptions of the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams, the diary of John Adams, the autobiography of John Adams, and the diaries of John Quincy Adams. The previously published volumes of The Adams Papers, including annotations, index, and a search tool, are also available online in the Adams Papers Digital Edition. See the Adams Papers editorial project for more information about the ongoing effort to publish the papers of John Adams and his family.
Additional Manuscript Collections at the MHS Related to the Adams Family
In addition to the Adams Family Papers, the MHS holds other collections that contain historical documents and materials relating to John and Abigail Adams and their families. Researchers should search the Society's online catalog, ABIGAIL; search collection guides; and consult with the reference staff for more information.
The papers of Adams family members that extend beyond 1889 include separate collections of Henry Adams and Charles Francis Adams II. For information about other collections containing letters written by John and John Quincy Adams, see the guide to Presidential Letters at the MHS.
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by Staff Writers
Delft, Netherlands (UPI) Sep 1, 2010
Concrete might heal its own hairline fractures -- as living bone does -- if bacteria are added to the wet concrete during mixing, European researchers say.
Cracks in concrete surfaces make them vulnerable, allowing water and tag-along aggressive chemicals in, says Henk Jonkers of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Patching cracks in old concrete is a time-consuming business, and rebuilding concrete structures is expensive. Jonkers thinks the answer is to fight nature with nature by packing the concrete with bacteria that use water and calcium lactate "food" to make calcite, a natural cement, NewScientist.com reported Wednesday.
Most organisms can't survive in a pH above 10, typical of concrete. To find bacteria that are happy in such an alkaline environment, Jonkers and his colleagues looked to soda lakes in Russia and Egypt, where the pH of the water is naturally high, and found strains of Bacillus thriving there.
Bacteria can take on a dormant spore state for long periods -- up to 50 years -- without food or water. Jonkers compares them to seeds waiting for water to germinate.
When water starts to seep into a hairline crack, Jonkers says, the bacteria would activate and begin to consume calcium. As they fed, they would combine the calcium with oxygen and carbon dioxide to form calcite -- essentially pure limestone.
Jonkers presented his work at the EU-U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium in Cambridge, England.
Space Technology News - Applications and Research
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AIPG Position Statement - Domestic Energy: Environmental
AIPG Position Statement - Domestic Energy: Environmental
Douglas E. Ganey, CPG-10868
In addition to resource availability, development logistics, and political aspects, the AIPG Energy Committee also considered the environmental aspects of energy production and use. The Energy Committee statement was reviewed through an environmental protection/sustainability lens in an effort to consider the comparative environmental costs of each form of energy.
The environmental effects of each method of energy production are complex and involve environmental trade-offs. Different fuel types in varying mixes are used for different purposes (heating, power generation, transportation). Development and use of each fuel type can result in varied environmental costs (externalities) and ecological and human health risks in multiple areas. Primary environmental concerns include:
- sustainable use of hydrocarbons and mineral resources;
- greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;
- water use;
- land, water, and air pollution;
- aesthetics; and
- waste management.
Environmental management practices during energy development are improving in preventing environmental problems. The key to minimizing environmental detriments of energy use and production is in finding the optimal fuel mix and reducing scientific uncertainty in this regard. A summary of the environmental impacts of fuel sources follows.
Fossil fuels are finite and non-renewable so using them at current rates is not a sustainable practice. Combustion of fossil fuel include and the generation of GHGs including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Emissions of GHGs are perceived by some to be one of the largest, global environmental concerns related to energy production due to potential effects on the global energy system and possibly global climate. Fossil fuel use is the primary source of the increased atmospheric concentration of GHGs since industrialization (UN IPCC, 2008 and US DOE, 2008). This effect of fossil fuel combustion use causes some to consider the safety of using the remaining available fossil fuel resources.
In addition to sustainability issues and GHG emissions, there are a number of environmental issues related to mining and burning of coal, if use of coal is not controlled or managed properly. Air emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from coal burning can generate acid deposition, which could be damaging to water supplies, soils, plants and wildlife, and ecosystems. Mercury emissions from burning coal can ultimately produce methylmercury when deposited in aquatic systems and acted on by anaerobic organisms. Methylmercury is toxic and may enter the food stream from aquatic systems.
Without proper management, acid mine drainage can result when water drains through tailings that are also exposed to oxygen after coal has been removed. Minerals in the tailings can be converted to acid (e.g. iron sulfide to sulfuric acid) when in contact and air, resulting in discolored, low pH runoff that can be detrimental to downstream ecosystems, soils, wildlife, and surface and ground water supplies. Additional downstream deterioration in water quality can result from introduction of toxic trace metals and increased dissolved solids, which block light and therefore reduce dissolved oxygen content.
Mountaintop removal, a form of strip mining that blasts the tops off mountains and dumps leftover rock in valleys, affects streams and ecosystems. Other negative aesthetic effects of coal mining operations include dust, vibrations, and exhaust odors.
Waste management issues with coal mining include disposal of ash waste and mining tailings that can include uranium, thorium, and other heavy metal contaminants.
Coal mining operations can also have multiple significant ecosystem effects primarily habitat destruction. Land disturbance impacts can be short or long-term and can include species displacement or destruction. Coal mining can also lead to top soil erosion.
Oil and Gas combustion contributes GHG (CO2 and CH4) and nitrogen oxide emissions, albeit less than coal burning. Compared to coal, natural gas generation produces half as much CO2, less than 1/3 as much nitrogen oxides, and 1% as much sulfur oxides (US EPA, 2009). Additional air emissions are generated during the extraction, processing, and transport of oil and gas prior to use in power plants and vehicles.
Some water use is required for cooling natural gas-fired boilers and combined cycle systems do require water for cooling purposes. When power plants remove water from a lake or river, fish and other aquatic life can be killed, affecting animals and people who depend on these aquatic resources.
Other environmental issues related to oil and gas production and use include land use issues such as drilling in environmentally sensitive areas (e.g. Alaska National Wildlife Refuge). Offshore drilling and related seismic explorations can disturb marine environments. Large oil spills have caused significant damage to marine and coastal ecosystems. Use and storage of petroleum products on land has resulted in spills and leaks from storage tanks, resulting in significant land and groundwater pollution. Environmental impacts of oil shale mining include many of the same land use, waste management, and water and air pollution impacts of coal.
Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
Carbon dioxide sequestration is a formative concept related to management and storage of carbon emissions so that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 does not increase. Carbon sequestration can be a physical capture and separation process, or refer to biological “carbon sinks” such as replanted forests. These biological sinks have limited capacity, and are temporary (for the life of the plants acting as the sink). Geological sinks can include coal seams, oil reservoirs, and salt dome formations. Carbon sequestration is currently unproven and environmental benefits and detriments are not yet certain.
Nuclear power plants produce no GHG emissions, sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxide, or heavy metal air pollutants. However, mining and extraction of uranium utilizes fossil fuel and results in some GHG emissions. Environmental issues, while manageable and preventable, include sustainability of uranium resources, environmental damage from mining operations, thermal pollution discharge to receiving waters, accidental release of radioactivity to the environment from a power plant, effects of cooling water withdrawal on ecosystems, and radioactive waste management, including spent fuel and mining tailings.
Other Resources (“Renewables”)
Other Resources include geothermal power, hydroelectric power, biofuels, tidal and ocean thermal energy, and heat pumps. These energy sources are renewable and therefore may be more sustainable than fossil fuels. There are, however mineral requirements for some of these energy forms that present sustainability issues and other environmental issues described below. In general these renewable resources are dependent on environmental conditions (e.g. sufficient precipitation, current velocity, proximity to geothermal energy source, etc.) and are relatively scarce in terms of replacing the existing fossil fuel energy supply.
Hydroelectric power involves the construction of dams that can have adverse effects on the ecology of river systems and downstream water supplies. Salmon and other fish populations have declined along rivers where dams have restricted them from their spawning grounds.
Geothermal energy uses some water resources in energy extraction and production but has generally lower water and land use requirements than other forms of energy. Geothermal energy also produces minimal air emissions, and minimal GHGs. Some geothermal steam or fluid can contain toxic metals which could be discharged during operation of a geothermal plant.
During use of solar energy, it is a renewable energy source with no water use or GHG emissions. Development of this energy source and construction of solar panels does use non-renewable resources including scarce strategic metals for construction of photovoltaic systems and solar-thermal devices. The production of photovoltaic wafers creates small amounts of hazardous waste. Solar-thermal devices require significant use of land, which can affect wildlife and ecosystems. Water resources are often scarce in areas where solar energy is currently produced. Solar-thermal technologies sometimes require water to create steam.
Wind energy generates no air emissions or wastewater discharge and little solid waste. Water use for wind energy generation is minimal; if there is insufficient rainfall, water is used to clean the turbine blades and maintain performance. Wind energy sites can require significant tracts of land, but this land can also have other uses. Wind energy generation can also occur offshore. Environmental issues related to wind energy can include aesthetic and noise concerns, and bird and bat mortality.
Biofuels includes biodiesel, bioalcohols (e.g. ethanol) biogas (primarily methane), biomass, and various advanced biofuels, (e.g. derived from algae). Using biomass makes use of existing agricultural waste. Burning of biomass produces nitrogen oxides and some SO2, albeit less than coal. Burning biomass also produces GHGs; however, these GHGs would be introduced into the atmosphere with vegetative decay eventually, unlike most mined fossil fuels.
Similarly, biogas is derived from landfill waste, consisting of CH4, CO2, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Bioalcohol production uses large amounts of water and cropland, thereby reducing area available for food production. Production of bioalcohols generates GHGs including water vapor, CO2 and methane. Development of advanced biofuels is in its early stages. Water used in power plants using all types of biofuels affects water supplies and aquatic communities. Water returned to aquatic systems after use in these power plants can contain pollutants, including heat. Some ash waste is also produced from burning biofuels
Tidal power produces no GHGs or other wastes during generation. There are potential impacts on plants and animals in coastal areas and estuaries from tidal energy facilities. Wave and ocean current energy has also produced no GHGs. Non-corrosive plastics used for constructing these facilities generate hazardous waste in their production. There is limited data to date on the ecological effects of these facilities. Other environmental issues associated with tidal and wave energy include noise pollution, aesthetic issues, and potential interference with beach sand nourishment.
Hester, R.E. and Harrison, R.M., editors. Sustainability and Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Resources, Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, No. 19, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2003.
International Atomic Energy Agency Bulletin. Review of the Environmental Impact of Nuclear Energy. E.E. El-Hinnwai, 1978.
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC). Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007, Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis" http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg1.htm , 2008.
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC). Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/srccs.htm, 2005.
U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), Energy Information Agency. International Energy Outlook 2008, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/index.html
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), Clean Energy website., http://www.epa.gov/solar/index.html 2009.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), Effects of Acid Rain website., http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/effects/index.html 2009.
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In recent years, advances in semiconductor electronics have pushed the instrumentation of our world to unprecedented levels. Sensors are now all around us: many cell phones contain GPS receivers as well as cameras, doorways have motion detectors, stop lights sense vehicles at intersections, and satellites orbiting overhead are constantly imaging the Earth.
Additionally, we have data sourced electronically: feeds from social networking sites, crawls of Web pages, repositories of medical images, results from computer simulations, etc. Many of the data objects from these sources are collected for analysis, archived, subjected to re-analysis, cross-correlated with other data objects, and processed to create additional, derived data sets.
The result is that we live in a world that is data rich. In this article, we consider two types of data sources: stored and streaming. A stored data object is just that, information that has been archived in some way. A corpus of digital images stored on a collection of magnetic disks would be an example of stored data. Streaming data objects have a real-time component; a live video feed is the canonical example of streaming data.
The two types of data present different processing challenges in that applications operating on stored data are often throughput-sensitive, while those operating on streaming data are often latency-sensitive. While the two types of data present subtly different performance constraints, both require significant, scalable computing resources.
For example, an image search application operating on stored images may need to scale out depending on the number of images or complexity of the search. Similarly, an application executing a face-detection algorithm on live video may need to scale out if faces are detected and more compute-intensive face recognition algorithms are invoked.
Cloud computing technologies enable many users to share modern computing clusters while providing mechanisms for scaling applications as needed. As a result, researchers in Intel Labs are investigating what challenges arise when leveraging cloud computing technologies in the context of rich data applications operating on either stored or streaming data, and what solutions may address those challenges. This research program includes support of the Open Cirrus* research test bed, development of an open source software stack for operating on stored data, development of a runtime system for operating on streaming data, and exploration of the benefits resulting from integration of optical networks in compute clusters.
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History of the College of Education
President Lathrop considered the training of teachers to be among the most important functions of any state university. His opinion was supported by the new Missouri state constitution of 1865. The document suggested that all state universities house a department in instruction of teaching. It was at this point that the Board of Curators created the Normal College in 1868. Its purpose was to prepare teachers for public schools. E.L. Ripley of Michigan was appointed as the director.
Grace C. Bibb from St. Louis took charge of the school in 1878. She was the first female appointed a deanship at the University. Under her leadership, women were first allowed into the Normal College, then all other university departments.
After a series of name changes during the early 1900s, the Normal College eventually became the College of Education.
Today, graduates are employed at a variety of educational institutions and non-school settings. The college's vision is "Educating Missouri, our Nation and our World." This vision is realized through research-based professional practice and training, which prepares lifelong educators and professionals to provide the necessary foundation for truly educated citizens.
The College of Education is housed in Townsend and Hill Halls, and the administrative offices are located in Hill Hall.
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IS ANIMAL LIFE POSSIBLE ON MARS?
Having now shown, that, even admitting the accuracy of all Mr. Lowell’s observations, and provisionally accepting all his chief conclusions as to the climate, the nature of the snow-caps, the vegetation, and the animal life of Mars, yet his interpretation of the lines on its surface as being veritably ‘canals,’ constructed by intelligent beings for the special purpose of carrying water to the more arid regions, is wholly erroneous and rationally inconceivable. I now proceed to discuss his more fundamental position as to the actual habitability of Mars by a highly organised and intellectual race of material organic beings.
Water and Air essential to Life.
Here, fortunately, the issue is rendered very simple, because Mr. Lowell fully recognises the identity of the constitution of matter and of physical laws throughout the solar-system, and that for any high form of organic life certain conditions which are absolutely essential on our earth must also exist in Mars. He admits, for example, that water is essential, that an atmosphere containing oxygen, nitrogen, aqueous vapour, and carbonic acid gas is essential, and that an abundant vegetation is essential; and these of course involve a surface-temperature through a considerable portion of the year that renders the existence of these—especially of water—possible and available for the purposes of a high and abundant animal life.
Blue Colour the only Evidence of Water.
In attempting to show that these essentials actually exist on Mars he is not very successful. He adduces evidence of an atmosphere, but of an exceedingly scanty one, since the greatest amount he can give to it is— “not more than about four inches of barometric pressure as we reckon it"; and he assumes, as he has a fair right to do till disproved, that it consists of oxygen and nitrogen, with carbon-dioxide and water-vapour, in approximately the same proportions as with us. With regard to the last item—the water-vapour—there are however many serious difficulties. The water-vapour of our atmosphere is derived from the enormous area of our seas, oceans, lakes, and rivers, as well as from the evaporation from heated lands and tropical forests of much of the moisture produced by frequent and abundant rains. All these sources of supply are admittedly absent from Mars, which has no permanent bodies of water, no rain, and tropical regions which are almost entirely desert. Many writers have therefore doubted the existence of water in any form upon this planet, supposing that the snow-caps are not formed of frozen water but of carbon-dioxide, or some other heavy gas, in a frozen state; and Mr. Lowell evidently feels this to be a difficulty, since the only fact he is able to adduce in favour of the melting snows of the polar caps producing water is,
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WASHINGTON—Scientists looking for habitable planets may not have to stray far from our galactic neighborhood, said a new study Wednesday, which calculated an Earth-size planet could be orbiting a red dwarf as near as 13 light years away.
“We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet. Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted,” said Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing.
The researchers based their calculations on planets already discovered by the US super-telescope Kepler, focusing on the question of which “red dwarf” stars could have potentially habitable Earth-size planets in their orbits.
Red dwarfs are smaller, cooler and fainter than our solar system’s sun—and they are also the most commonly found stars in our galaxy, making up about three of every four stars in the Milky Way.
Kepler casts its gaze on around 158,000 stars and, based on the analysis by Dressing and her team, the telescope has identified 95 planetary candidates orbiting red dwarf stars.
But most of those planets weren’t quite the right size or temperature to support life, so the researchers narrowed the candidates to just three that were both warm and approximately Earth-sized.
Projecting outward based on the estimated 75 billion red dwarf stars in our galaxy, they arrived at the prediction that around six percent of red dwarfs should have an Earth-like planet, and the nearest one could be just 13 light years away.
“We now know the rate of occurrence of habitable planets around the most common stars in our galaxy,” said co-author David Charbonneau.
“That rate implies that it will be significantly easier to search for life beyond the solar system than we previously thought.”
A light year is equivalent to around 5.8 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers), or the distance light can travel in a year.
So 13 light years away is hardly a quick jaunt.
But it’s a whole lot closer than the 300-600 light years between us and the planet candidates Kepler has spotted to date in the so-called “habitable zone” where liquid water is capable of existing and thus supporting life.
The characteristics of red dwarfs make it relatively easy to spot planets orbiting them from far away—a process that relies on identifying dim spots created when the planet passes in front of its star.
But the researchers said scientists may have to dedicate a small space-based telescope, or a large network of ground-based ones, to looking for a nearby planet, since the larger space telescopes are aimed at further stars.
Dressing also cautioned that an Earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf would look quite different from the green-and-blue one we call home, but said the differences didn’t rule out the existance of life.
“You don’t need an Earth clone to have life,” Dressing said.
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IBM scientists have developed a system to slow down the speed of light, and potentially enable it to be used as an optical power source to drive components in a PC.
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive emails regarding relevant topic offers from TechTarget and its partners. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Contact TechTarget at 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA.
Such an optical alternative would greatly increase the performance of machines without using expensive components.
IBM scientists have created a tiny device to slow light down to less than 1/300th of its usual speed, by directing it down a channel of perforated silicon called a "photonic crystal waveguide".
The unique design of the device allows the light's speed to be varied over a wide range simply by applying an electrical voltage to the waveguide.
IBM said the device's small size, use of standard semi-conductor materials, and ability to more closely control this "slow light", could make the technology useful for building ultra-compact optical communications circuits that are practical for integration into computer systems.
IBM said the ultimate goal of this project is to develop a technology for on-chip integration of ultra-compact nanophotonic circuits for manipulating the light signals. This is similar to the way electrical signals are manipulated in computer chips.
IBM researchers said integration of optical devices at the chip scale could significantly reduce the cost of optical components.
Eventually the development of the nanophotonic technology compatible with the CMos fabrication line could result in cheap mass production of densely integrated opto-electronic superchips, comprising both photonic and electronic circuitry, IBM said.
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The effect of age of acquisition in visual word processing: Further evidence for the semantic hypothesis
2004) JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-LEARNING MEMORY AND COGNITION. 30(2). p.550-554 Mark(
- Age of acquisition and the cumulative-frequency hypothesis: A review of the literature and a new multi-task investigation
- Age-of-acquisition ratings for 2332 Dutch words from 49 different semantic categories
- The effects of frequency-of-occurrence and age-of-acquisition in word processing
- A validation study of the age-of-acquisition norms collected by Ghyselinck, De Moor, & Brysbaert.
- Age-of-acquisition ratings for 2816 Dutch four- and five-letter nouns.
- The influence of spatial compatibility on exogenous and endogenous saccades
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< Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay >
Musicians in Seattle organize a union on November 7, 1890.
HistoryLink.org Essay 1085
: Printer-Friendly Format
On November 7, 1890, Seattle musicians form an union called Musicians Mutual Protective Association.
By 1902 membership was 154. By 1906, the union had grown to 306 members with musicians earning from $20 to $30 per week. By 1918, the Musicians Local No. 76 had 550 members. By 1920 the union had 825 members including 125 females.
[Washington State] Bureau of Labor, Third Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor of the State of Washington 1901-1902 (Seattle: Metropolitan Press, Inc., Public Printer, 1903), 97; [Washington State] Bureau of Labor, Fifth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Factory Inspection 1905-1906. (Olympia: C.W. Gorham, Public Printer, 1908), 98.
Travel through time (chronological order):
< Browse to Previous Essay
Browse to Next Essay >
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Deer build a new layer called cementum on their teeth each year, much like the annual rings of a tree. By freezing a tooth, a biologist can slice off a thin layer and determine the exact age of the deer. Hunters can estimate the age of deer they take by evaluating replacement and wear of teeth on the lower jaw. Both mule deer and whitetails can be aged by this method.
To check replacement and wear, you will need to slit the check bone to expose the teeth on the lower jaw.
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Today is the 140th day of 2014 and the 62nd day of spring.
TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which provided Western settlers free land for farms.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davies received the U.S. patent for blue jeans.
In 1902, Cuba declared independence from the United States.
In 1961, a mob of 300 white segregationists attacked a busload of “Freedom Riders” in Montgomery, Alabama, requiring federal intervention.
In 2006, Nouri al-Maliki took office as prime minister of Iraq.
TODAY’S FACT: In 1916, the Saturday Evening Post published its first issue featuring a Norman Rockwell painting (“Boy with Baby Carriage”) on the cover.
TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1989, Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer by a nose in the 114th Preakness Stakes, the horse race’s closest margin.
TODAY’S QUOTE: “One person with a belief is a social power equal to 99 who have only interests.” — John Stuart Mill
TODAY’S NUMBER: 270 million — acres of U.S. land given away through the Homestead Act.
TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (May 14) and last quarter moon (May 21).
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Sun spots – also referred to as age spots, liver spots or dark spots – are flat brown, black or grey spots that typically show up on the back of the hands, neck, face, shoulders and arms – any area most often exposed to the sun.
While sun spots may not appear before age of 40 or so, (hence the other name, age spots) they can appear on younger people. Those with light colored, or fair skin and who have a history of frequent sunburn or exposure to the sun, will most commonly develop sun spots.
True sun spots are nothing to worry about and do not require treatment. However they may look like cancerous growths so it’s always recommended that you have them medically diagnosed so you can rule out a more serious condition.
Sun spots are evidence of sun damage and over exposure to UV rays over many years. The use of tanning beds and sun lamps can also result in the development of sun spots. Exposing the skin to UV light accelerates the production of melanin in our skin, creating a ‘tan’ that helps protect deeper layers of skin from future UV harm. However, as we age, skin’s natural ability to protect itself against UV rays begins to deteriorate – as a result, we see the formation of sun spots.
Spots can range in size from a small freckle-size to a spot that is half inch (1 centimeter) across. These spots can also group together, making them more prominent.
Treating Sun Spots
Sun spots take years to develop, so it’s no wonder that some treatments may take time to work. On the other hand, some treatments may provide immediate results but they require a lengthy recovery time:
#1 – Lightening Creams – Prescription grade lightening creams used alone or with retinoids and a steroid may slowly fade the spots over several months. This treatment leaves the skin very sensitive to sunlight. Sun protection with a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30+ is recommended if you use this treatment.
#2 – Laser Therapy – Laser therapy destroys melanin-producing cells without damaging the skin’s surface. Several sessions are usually required to achieve lasting results. . After treatment, spots will fade gradually and while laser therapy has few side effects, it may result in some discoloration of the skin in people with darker skin types.
#3 Chemical Peel – A chemical peel ‘burns’ the outer layer of the skin. As the skin peels off, new skin forms, slowly removing all evidence of spots. Several treatments may be necessary. Sun protection with SPF 30+ is highly recommended after chemical peeling.
#4 Freezing – Also called cryotherapy, this procedure works by applying liquid nitrogen or another freezing agent to the spots to destroy the extra pigment. As the area heals, the skin appears lighter. Freezing is typically used on a single spot or a small grouping of spots. The treatment can temporarily irritate the skin and, in rare instances, may result in permanent scarring or discoloration.
#5 Dermabrasion – The most aggressive of treatment, this procedure requires local anesthetic and consists of abrading or ‘sanding’ down the upper layers of the skin. After treatment, the skin is very red and irritated, and it will takes several months for the skin to re-grow and heal.
#6 Home Remedies – There are several home remedies that have been shown to fade sun spots. Like all treatments, these may take some time to produce results, but they are proven remedies, and they cost just pennies to do. Here are two:
- Lemon juice has a proven track record for fading the appearance of sun spots. Simply dab fresh lemon juice onto spots twice a day. Leave on for 30 minutes or more, if possible, and you will begin to notice improvements in about two months.
NOTE: Lemon juice increases the skin’s sensitivity to sunlight – so if you plan to go outdoors, wait for the juice to dry first and protect the skin from direct exposure to sun.
- Apple cider vinegar is an excellent home treatment for fading sun spots. Apply directly to the skin alone, or mix with the juice of an onion and apply to the skin. To get the onion juice, finely chop or blend and use a strainer or cheese cloth to squeeze and extract the juice. Mix equal parts of vinegar and onion juice and dab on spots with a cotton pad. Leave mixture on the skin for at least 30 minutes. Repeat once a day for approximately 6 weeks for gradual improvement.
Finally, the best remedy for sun spots is prevention! Always use broad spectrum sunscreen with at least SPF15 if you plan to be outdoors for extended periods of time. For more information on sunscreen, including new FDA guidelines, read our related articles below.
- Remove Dark Spots Naturally (healthyskinsolutions.com)
- Fraxel Laser Resurfacing (healthyskinsolutions.com)
- Sunscreen: New Guidelines this Summer (healthyskinsolutions.com)
- Seeing Spots? What are Dark Spots on the Skin? (healthyskinsolutions.com)
- Photo Facial – For Clearer, Brighter, More Radiant Skin (healthyskinsolutions.com)
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Definition of Gastric ulcer
Gastric ulcer: A hole in the lining of the stomach corroded by the acidic digestive juices which are secreted by the stomach cells. Ulcer formation is related to H. pyloridus bacteria in the stomach, anti-inflammatory medications, and smoking cigarettes. Ulcer pain may not correlate with the presence or severity of ulceration. Diagnosis is made with barium x-ray or with the use of a viewing tube slipped through the throat to the stomach (endoscopy).Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary
Last Editorial Review: 5/13/2016
Get the latest treatment options.
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(b. 1511, Arezzo, d. 1574, Firenze)
Italian painter, architect and biographer, one of Italy's busiest and most influential Mannerist artists. Born in the Florentine subject city of Arezzo, Giorgio was the child of a potter, and precocious enough for Cardinal Silvio Passerini, guardian of the young Ippolito and Alessandro de' Medici, to sponsor his education alongside them in Florence - presumably to act as a provincial spur to their overprivileged laggardliness. Thus began a connection with the Medici that lasted until the death of the steadiest patron of his work as a painter, architect and decorator-of-all-work, the Grand Duke Cosimo I. Thanks to a steady succession of Medicean and papal commissions (interspersed with others from individuals and religious bodies), Vasari produced an immense volume of artistic work, helped by a natural fluency and by teams of capable assistants: both were factors in his contemporary fame as an artist and his subsequent neglect - until quite recently. He was trained in Florence, in the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils Rosso and Pontormo, where, above all, he became a Michelangelo idolater.
As a painter his quality can be gauged by the posthumous portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception in SS. Apostoli, the decorative schemes in the Salone dei Cinquecento and elsewhere in the Palazzo Vecchio - all in Florence; and by the Sala dei Cento Giorni (Room of the Hundred Days - the time he took to paint it) and the Sala Regia in Rome: in the Palazzo della Cancelleria and the Vatican respectively. Some of his principal paintings are in his own house in Arezzo, which is now a museum. He was important in the development of Counter-Reformation iconography, as in his Immaculate Conception (Florence, SS. Apostoli; sketch in Oxford, Ashmolean), and in elaborate allegories glorifying the Medici Grand Dukes. As an architect he can be judged from the Florentine Uffizi and the Pisan Palazzo dei Cavalieri.
In spite of almost incessant artistic activity he found time to establish a more lasting and far more respected reputation as a writer. In his Le Vite de' piů eccelenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects), planned from 1543, published in 1550 and heavily revised in 1568, he wrote the first and still the most influential of all narrative and critical histories of art. The Vite drew on the same philosophical, shaping drive as distinguished the work of the great political historians of his youth, Machiavelli and Guicciardini. They embody the humanist notion that history should instruct and encourage through the record of notable careers and notable achievements: and he humanizes their humanism by infusing the biographies with the spirit of Boccaccio's novellas. Though substituting the pen for the brush, he never pretends not to be a professional artist; the Lives are introduced by a long technical preface on materials and procedures, and they reflect his determination to give his profession a pedigree that would enhance public respect for its practitioners. No other work of the period contains so many independent judgments. Of the facts (gleaned from tours of Italy, correspondence, reading and the questioning of artists or their surviving friends), enough are accurate to ensure the status of the Lives as the quarry from which all histories of Italian Renaissance art must be hewn. The judgments were based on the first developed vocabulary of critical appraisal, with such concepts as proportion, design and manner being used as a check on the success with which an artist brought his first idea to completion. His book became the model for artistic biographers in other countries, such as van Mander in the Netherlands, Palomino in Spain, and Sandrart in Germany.
Equally revolutionary was his notion of progress in the arts. He did not attempt to press sculpture and architecture into the same pattern, but allowed for their shifting position within a route which painting had followed. When ancient Rome fell, art declined. All the Italians knew of art was the flat, lifeless style derived from Byzantium. Then, around 1250, art was reborn. It grew to maturity in 3 stages. In the first (whose hero was Giotto), artists began to grope towards imitating the colours and forms of nature, the solid physical presence and the expressiveness of the living human body. In the second (whose inspiration was Masaccio), from c. 1400 to c. 1500, they indulged in a riot of experiment, especially in perspective and anatomy, that brought art's ability to record the real "world almost to fruition, though it retained a certain harsh or rule-fettered flavour. It was in the third period, which included the careers of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, that artists not only mastered nature but triumphed over her. And when the grace and omnicompetence of a painter's hand could go, as Vasari put it, 'beyond the hand of nature', then the art of antiquity had been surpassed and the rebirth of art had led to a career for it of unparalleled achievement.
Vasari's concept of Renaissance invoked a period from the early 14 century to the 1560s when, with Michelangelo dead (in 1564), Vasari himself was left - as he fairly directly implies - to keep the momentum going on his own. It is far from a coincidence that most subsequent views of 'Renaissance' envisage the same timescale. He saw his 3 phases anthropomorphically, as representing the childhood, youth and maturity of art; the imprint of this implied critical canon has faded, but it determined the value placed upon works of art for centuries.
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This is third post in a series on Text-to-Speech for eLearning written by Dr. Joel Harband and edited by me (which turns out to be a great way to learn). In the first two posts, Text-to-Speech Overview and NLP Quality and Digital Signal Processor and Text-to-Speech, we introduced the text to speech voice and discussed issues of quality related to its components: the natural language processor (NLP) and the digital signal processor (DSP). In this post we will begin to address the practical side of the subject: How can e-learning developers use Text-to-Speech (TTS) voices to narrate their courses? What tools are immediately available?
Text-to-Speech (TTS) Tools for eLearning Applications
There are a number of possibilities available today for using TTS for eLearning; they fall into two categories or approaches:
- TTS Stand-Alone. A general approach in which developers use any standard authoring tool such as Articulate or Lectora and use stand-alone TTS on-demand services/products to create audio files that are then linked or embedded in the presentation.
- TTS Integrated. Products/services that have TTS voices bundled and integrated with an authoring solution, including Adobe Captivate and Tuval Software Industries’ Speech-Over Professional.
In this article, we are going to concentrate only on using TTS Stand-Alone tools to create audio files that are embedded into a course.
TTS Stand-Alone Web Services
TTS stand-alone products can be used by eLearning developers irrespective of the authoring tool they are used. Several of the voice vendors offer on-demand TTS voice web services which accept text and produce sound files. Here are a few of the top web services for TTS:
These web services have the advantages:
- Choose any voice among a set of vendors voices
- Set pitch, speed volume of voice for the entire file
- Select type of sound file output (wav, mp3, etc)
- Preview function
- Pronunciation dictionary
- Pay as you go
- Because they are web services, there’s no automatic connection with the desktop file system. Most of the time you are creating audio files locally and thus having access to the file system means it will keep files up-to-date. In some cases, this also applies to things like storing scripts and default settings.
This can be a major disadvantage and cause significant extra steps. Because of this, we are going to concentrate on a particular desktop stand-alone product to illustrate the eLearning production workflow.
Acapela Virtual Speaker – a Desktop Stand-Alone TTS Product
Acapela-Group offers a desktop stand-alone product, Acapela Virtual Speaker, that is better suited to eLearning production than most of the web services solutions listed above.
As an example, let’s see how to work with Acapela Virtual Speaker. Virtual Speaker works with input text files (the narration scripts) and output sound files organized into directories. Narration scripts (text files) are stored for easy updates and the system makes it easy to generate the associated sound files based on updates. The sound files are generally easy to find and access from any authoring tool.
To create a sound file from narration text for an authoring tool using Virtual Speaker, you perform the following:
- Define a file naming system to identify the text and sound files for the authoring tool
- Set working folders for input text files and output sound files
- Enter new narration scripts or open a stored narration script file from the text files working folder
- Select the language and voice for this sound file
- Select the volume, pitch, speed of the voice
- Press the Play button to preview the voice reading the text
- Make changes in text and voice settings as required
- Name the text file according to the naming system (for new text) and save it in the working folder
- Select the output format: wav, mp3, etc
- Press the Record button, a sound file is created with the same name as the text file and stored in the working folder
To import the sounds files into the authoring tool use the File Import function of the tool to import the file from the working folder as required.
It sounds really easy and it is. Stand-alone TTS tools are used to create sound files just as you would if you had a human recording audio for the course. These sound files then need to be associated with the content using the authoring tool. In later posts, we’ll get into more specific comparisons of TTS vs. human narration. In terms of taking the resulting audio files and using them via an authoring tool, the level of effort is similar.
Of course, both human narration and TTS tools that produce audio files means that it takes some work to get the audio files embedded in the authored course, including importing the files and in some cases synchronizing them with a time-line editor. Tools that have embedded TTS, like Adobe Captivate, make this significantly easier. And if you make changes to the script, you will need to create new audio files and import them again. This is much easier than having to go through another round of narration. But it still takes work.
Personal TTS Readers Not Licensed for eLearning
Some readers may be wondering why we haven’t mentioned the TTS “personal reader” products such as: Natural Reader , TextAloud, Read the Words, and Spoken Text as possibilities for eLearning tools. The reason is that sound files produced by personal readers are for personal use only and are not allowed, by license, to be distributed. This restriction means that these products cannot be used for eLearning, where sound files are distributed to learners. We’ll talk more about this important subject in a future post.
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* Prices may differ from that shown
This small unmanned aircraft was designed for the American armed forces and is used for surveillance of the battle field and identifying possible targets to call up artillery fire and attack aircraft. The Predator is equipped with extended endurance, allowing it to remain in flight over the zone to be monitored for many hours. Its reduced size and particularly silent engine makes it difficult to identify. Fitted with a television system it transmits images in real time to the operator who controls it from the ground station which may be located hundreds of kilometres away. The Predator vision system is also used for aiming and directing weapons released by fighter bombers at the target without the need to fly the aircraft directly over the target zone, reducing enormously the risk to pilots. The RQ-1 is also used in an armed version for direct attacks on targets that require precision attacks using laser or television guided missiles.
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Syllabus of Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education Middle Standard Examination
I. INTRODUCTION :
Home Science is an optional elective subject of study in Classes VI-VIII.
The subject aims at providing a preparation for home and covers essential
ground in the following areas :—
1. Food & Cookery.
2. Laundry & Niddle Work.
3. Home Management
II. OBJECTIVES :
To enable the pupils to :
1. Understand the significance of Home Science.
2. Understand the means of planning and saving time, money and labour.
3. Understand the means of health and hygenic living.
4. Understand the necessity of nutritious & balance diet.
5. Develop the skill to budget according to the income of the family.
6. Inculcate respect for manual labour and love for social work.
7. Inculcate moral values leading to good behaviour and culture.
8. Foster love for home, neighbouhood and society.
III. EXAMINATION :
There will be one written paper (of 3 hours) carrying 60 Max. Marks.
Practical Examination of 40 marks will be conducted by the school concerned.
Question paper for the Practical Examination will also be set by the school
concerned. Practical will be internal as per prescribed syllabus.
Home Science M.M. : 100
One paper (3 horus) 60
As per prescribed syllabus
Practical (Internal only) 40
As per precribed syllabus
Maximum pass marks will be 33% in theory, and 33% in practical
I. Food and Cookery :
1. Balanced diet, food constituents and their importance.
2. Effects of cooking of vitamins.
3. Elementary knowledge of preservation offood.
4. Invalid cookery (cooking & serving of meals for invalids-harley
water, whey water, eff flip, vegetable soup.
II. Laundry and Needle work :
1. Storage and care of cotton, woolen and silken clothes.
2. Methods of removal of strains-tea, blue in greese, themetic (Haldi),
3. Sources and nature of silk fibres-physical properties.
4. Preparation for washing, laundering and finishing of synthetic
III. Home Management :
1. Selection and cleaning of metal brass, iron, steel & aluminium.
2. Keeping personal accounts, hostellers and day scholars (books and
3. Choice of house-location, site, soil and neighbouhood.
4. Arrangement of different rooms i.e. Drawing room, dining-room, bed
1. Cleaning of metals.
2. Stain removal.
3. Preparation of serving tea, snaks (at least two).
4. Embroidering and cusio cover or table-cloth.
5. Making a simple lace with corchet hook (at least eighteen inches).
6. Knitting a baby coat.
7. Drying and pickeling.
8. Preparation of barley water, why water, flip and vegetable soup.
Note :. Each portion in theory paper carries 20 marks.
IV. List of equipment in Home Science for Classes VI-VIII for a group of 20
1. Patilas, with Lid (brass) 20 (Small & Medium size)
2. Karahi (Brass) 20
3. Poni 20
4. Karachhi (Steel) 20
5. Stoves 20
6. Chakla Belan 20
7. Thal 20
8. Kitchen Knives 2 dozen
9. Tea Spoons 2 dozen
10. Tea set 2
11. Full Plates 2 dozen
12. Quarter plates 2 dozen
13. Table mats 1 dozen
14. Forks 1 dozen
15. Knives 1 dozen
16. Bucket (Plastic) 20
17. Chilamchi 20
18. Mugs 20
19. Enamel bowls 20
20. Electric iron (automatic) 2
21. Brushes (collar brush) 2
22. Greater 20
23. Masala box 20
24. Egg beater 20
25. Strainers 20
26. Glass Jars 3 dozen
27. Weighing machines 1
28. Towel 1
29. Glass tumblers 2 dozen
30. Jug 2
31. Polish (food) .
32. Measuring tape 6
33. Pair of Scissors 6
34. Tailors Chalk .
35. Brooms & brushes 6 each
No responses found. Be the first to comment...
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Environmental advocates joined with business leaders to support Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to invest $30 million
of cap-and-trade proceeds in recycling, composting, recycled-content manufacturing and organic waste to energy projects. This funding will help build the infrastructure necessary to transition the waste sector from a major source of climate pollution to a source of greenhouse gas reductions.
Recycling, composting and using organic waste to generate renewable electricity and fuels are proven, cost effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Making new products from recycled materials helps close the loop by reducing the carbon impact of California’s manufacturing sector, while supporting its expansion. These multiple industries also have a demonstrated track record of putting Californians to work, producing twice the environmental benefit when compared to disposal of the same materials. Diverting materials from landfills –while expanding domestic end uses for the recovered materials – helps achieve multiple state policy objectives.
“These funds will help create the right economic environment for construction of vital anaerobic digestion and composting infrastructure that is necessary to achieve the state’s 75 percent recycling goal,” said Mike Sangiacomo, president and chief executive officer of Recology. “Additionally, the development of anaerobic digestion will help create green jobs, as well as new mechanical and technological expertise in our industry.”
Published in the March 2014 Edition of American Recycler News
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|United States Geological Survey: Contaminant Biology Program|
This is the homepage of the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Contaminant Biology Program, whose mission is to investigate the effects and exposure of environmental contaminants (for example, mercury) on the living resources of the United States. The site features links to information on the program's projects, grouped under chemistry and toxicology; contaminated habitats; and monitoring and assessment. There are also links to news items and events, publications, links to biology science centers and cooperative research units, and links to related websites.
Intended for grade levels:
Type of resource:
Some documents require Adobe Acrobat reader
Cost / Copyright:
Information presented on this website is considered public information (unless otherwise noted) and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credit is requested. We strongly recommend that USGS data be acquired directly from a USGS server and not through other sources that may change the data in some way. While USGS makes every effort to provide accurate and complete information, various data such as names, telephone numbers, etc. may change prior to updating. USGS welcomes suggestions on how to improve our home page and correct errors. USGS provides no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of furnished data.
DLESE Catalog ID: USGS-ED-000-000-000-079
Resource contact / Creator / Publisher:
Publisher: United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Contact: Sarah Gerould
Contaminant Biology Program
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
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Studies have demonstrated that patrons of archives have greater success when they have a basic knowledge and understanding of archival management – what are archives and what exactly do archivists do? Here you will learn about how archivists acquire, protect, and prepare historical records for research. You’ll also discover how to find historical records and what to expect when you visit an archives. This site is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of archives or the archival profession; rather, we hope it will serve as a relatively quick and easy summary that will help make your research experience fun, exciting, and productive.
You can keep up on what’s happening at the Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives by visiting and following our web site, the Archives’ blog The Northern Tradition, or the university archivist’s blog The Marchivist: Adventures of an Aging Archival Raconteur and Blatherskite.
Published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA), this guide provides a concise and easy to read overview of the main points to consider before launching an archival research project. SAA designed the guide for the novice and the expert scholar.
The Archival Profession
So You Want to Be an Archivist: An Overview of the Archives Profession (The Society of American Archivists)
Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics (The Society of American Archivists)
A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (The Society of American Archivists)
The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA), founded in 1989 at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, is an independent, nonprofit certifying organization of professional archivists. Individual members qualify for certification by meeting a series of defined professional standards and passing an examination.
The Basics of Archival Work
A Day in the Life of an Archivist (3:03)
A very quick overview of what archivists actually do.
Introduction to Processing (1:40)
This short video summarizes how archivists prepare historical manuscript collections for public research.
How do Archivists Preserve Historical Collections? (12:09)
This excellent overview focuses on the preservation to paper records, discussing the threats and solutions to long-term retention of paper.
How do Archivist and Researchers find Historical Collections? (8:45)
An excellent overview of how archivists “describe” collections by creating and using narrative finding aids.
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9 April 2013 Despite a great deal of work in recent years there is still a lack of understanding of the link between forests and society, the economy and the wider world, the Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat said, as countries meet in Istanbul to chart a way forward on a number of forestry-related issues.
Over the next two weeks, participants at the Forum’s tenth session (UNFF10) will examine how to reduce deforestation, improve the livelihoods and economies of people who depend on forests, increase the number of forests under protection, and increase aid to developing countries to improve forest management.
Forests provide significant subsistence benefits, generate informal work opportunities, and constitute reservoirs of economic values that help mitigate shocks to household incomes, particularly for the rural poor.“I would argue that forests are one of the complex systems to understand and grasp,” said Jan McAlpine. “And one reason why we haven’t been able to do it effectively is because sometimes it’s simpler to take a narrow issue and address it, rather than to be able to look at a system as complex as forests and see how it fits into the landscape of these broader sets of issues,” she told delegates as they began their deliberations yesterday.
The Forum, holding its first ever session outside UN Headquarters, is the only international body that addresses all forest and tree policy issues. Established by the UN Economic and Social Council in 2000, it is tasked with promoting the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.
In an interview with the UN News Centre, Ms. McAlpine noted that while there are a number of challenges facing forests today, “people are the most important challenge.”
“I don’t mean that they necessary have the intention to be negative, but because they don’t understand the complexities and the importance of forests and their value, they have ignored them to the detriment of those resources for the future, and that is probably the biggest challenge.”
The theme for the current session is forests and economic development. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that forestry products contribute nearly $468 billion annually to the global economy, while studies being presented at UNFF10 show that we may have grossly underestimated the actual economic, social and environmental values.
In his report on forests and economic development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out that forests have played a major role to influence patterns of economic development, support livelihoods and promote sustainable growth, in many countries.
“Forests provide significant subsistence benefits, generate informal work opportunities, and constitute reservoirs of economic values that help mitigate shocks to household incomes, particularly for the rural poor.”
He went on to say that that if the contribution of the forestry sector to gross domestic product (GDP) alone is in the neighbourhood of $468 billion per year, it is projected to be two to three times greater for benefits that are not included in GDP figures.
“The material/cash benefits of forests generally tend to be better recognized, while the non-cash contributions of forests, including non-wood forest products, ecosystem services, tourism and cultural benefits are largely ‘invisible’,” he stated.
A study by FAO in Uganda, cited in the report, demonstrates that forests provide fuelwood for local energy consumption, which accounts for 40 per cent of the local economy, and the non-cash component is three times the value of the cash component.
Ms. McAlpine said that if one looks at the GDP figures alone, there might be a tendency to think that forests are not a priority.
“But, and this is the discussion here at the UNFF10, if you start to look at the social and livelihoods and economic benefits and functions that forests provide beyond timber and traded goods across borders, then you start to understand it’s much more complex,” she stated.
“So what we are talking about here is quite an interesting and substantive and complex discussion about how we start to explain to the world that forests’ value is probably billions of dollars more than economists have understood or global leaders have understood.”
The session, she said, is expected to result in two major decisions – one on economic development, with some other associated issues, and one on forest financing.
“I believe, after working in this area for 22 years, that we have perhaps the first glimmer of opportunity to take a major step to truly look at these issues and make decisions at this session of the United Nations Forum on Forests to better understand the connection between forests and economic development and the need for financing for forests.”
News Tracker: past stories on this issue
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Researchers for deCODE, a company that focuses on genome-related products and services, studied 40,000 individuals to pinpoint the genes responsible for the most common eye health conditions in the world.
Both glaucoma and myopia are widespread in the population, and effect many people. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, it is estimated that over 4 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those know they have it. According to the World Health Organization, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. Myopia doesn’t cause blindness, but it does effect the vision of a lot of people.
According to VOAnews.com, nearly one-third of Americans, or about 70 million, are nearsighted, and more than $5 billion dollars is spent on treating the condition each year. It is estimated that about 60% (or 42 million) with this eye condition are children. It has also been estimated, by the World Health Organization, that 50% of the world population by the year 2020 will have myopia. The condition is definitely on the rise. Some statistics suggest that only 5% of the population were nearsighted 100 years ago compared to the 30% who have the condition today. For now, options for people with myopia are only corrective eye surgery, which not everyone is a candidate for, or corrective lenses. 39DollarGlasses.com seeks to make myopia, and other conditions that require corrective lenses, as affordable as possible with high quality, prescription lenses at prices that start at $39. It looks like science is making gains on helping correcting myopia medically, however.
“We can reintroduce that gene into the retina by injections at this point, and the retina will take up the healthy gene product and start to produce it and the retina no longer degenerates and the vision improves,” Terri Young, an ophthalmologist at Duke University Medical Center, said of the discovery.
Though it may be a few years before these finding translate into treatment options, those who are currently experiencing difficulty seeing objects that are far away should consult an eye health professional to determine if they suffer from myopia, and what options will work best for them.
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Viewer Question:Is there a specific type of arthritis that is common among Crohn's patients? Specific to the feet, how do you tell the difference between psoriatic and osteoarthritis?
Doctor's Response:Patients with Crohn's disease can develop arthritis of two basic types: arthritis of the spine (spondylitis) and arthritis of joints away from the spine (peripheral arthritis). Spondylitis occurs in approximately 20% of patients with Crohn's disease and the symptoms do not tend to coincide temporally with the activity of the bowel disease. Peripheral arthritis also occurs in around 20% of patients with Crohn's disease, and the flare-ups of joint inflammation tend to coincide with the bowel inflammation.
Psoriatic arthritis is a very inflammatory form of arthritis associated with psoriasis. In the toes, psoriatic arthritis classically features reddish, warm, tender, and painful toes that have soft tissue swelling in the shape of a sausage.
Both Crohn's disease and psoriatic arthritis can be associated with inflammation of the tissue under the foot (plantar fasciitis).
Thank you for your question.
Last Editorial Review: 11/4/2004
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By Béla Lipták, PE, Columnist
In the United States, natural gas (NG) is the source of about 25% of the total energy consumption, and shale gas is the source of about 20% of the NG consumed. During the next years, hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to produce NG will continue to rise, and will increase from today's 20% to about 45% of American consumption by 2035. To date, just in Pennsylvania, there are some 4000 fracking wells in operation, and their number nationwide is projected to approach 100,000 within a few decades. The size of American recoverable shale gas deposits is debated. Until 2011, industry estimated the Marcellus Reserves (from Virginia to New York state) to be over 400 trillion cubic feet (tcf), while this year the U.S. Geological Survey reduced that estimate to 84 tcf.
Many of the natural gas wells in the United States use fracking to produce gas at economic rates. Large trucks, blenders, tanks and multistage pumps are used to inject millions of gallons of water at pressures of up to 20,000 psig into these wells that can be drilled to the depths up to 20,000 feet. Hydraulic fracturing can be performed in vertical or horizontal wells. In horizontal drilling, the terminal drill-hole is completed as a "lateral" that extends 1500 to 5000 feet parallel with the shale layer, while vertical wells extend only 50 ft to 300 ft into it. Horizontal drilling also reduces surface disruptions, as fewer wells are required.
After drilling the well, high-pressure liquids are injected into the shale rock or coal beds (Figure 1). When the "down-hole" pressure exceeds the fracture strength of the rock, it cracks, and the fracture fluid (FF) travels farther into the rock, extending the crack.
After cracks are formed, they have to be kept open. Proppants are solid particulates, such as grains of silica sand, resin-coated sand or harder materials such as ceramics. They serve to prevent the reclosing of the fractures when the injection phase is completed.
In the FF, sometimes, naturally radioactive minerals are also used in order to help to measure the depth of the fractures along the wellbore. Ninety-nine percent of the FF is usually water, while the rest consists of chemical additives used to protect the well and improve its operation. Initially, the injected FF is acidic to increase permeability. This phase is followed by injecting FF-containing proppants with gradually increased size solids, and the operation is completed by flushing the well with water.
When the fracking phase is over, most of the FF and drill cuttings are processed for reuse, trucked away, treated on-site before being released into the environment or stored on-site either in large tanks or in "frack ponds" that are several acres in size. Since these ponds are on the surface, and their wastewater can contaminate ground waters, wells and rivers, these ponds are sealed with plastic lining. Usually 30% to 40% of the FF can not be removed from the underground fractures and stays down in the shale, creating small and often toxic lakes.
During the removal of the FF, large amounts of NG, including methane, escape from the well or dissolve in the FF and enter the frack pond. After the removal of as much FF as possible, the actual production starts, and the drilling equipment is moved to drill another well.
Arguments Pro and Con
Some representatives of the gas industry and some politicians believe that the amount of recoverable fracking gas could meet the American energy needs for a century or more, while opponents argue that the NG that is recoverable will be exhausted in a few decades. Proponents argue that fracking creates jobs and reduces energy imports, while opponents argue that these jobs are temporary, and more permanent jobs could be created if the same investment was made in renewable energy. Industry representatives also argue that NG is inexpensive, while opponents say that the cost would be much higher if the value of the water used, reduced real estate values, increased mortgage costs, expenses associated with health effects, the cost of wastewater treatment and legal expenses were included.
The gas industry advertises NG as the cleanest fossil fuel. Opponents claim that during the lifetime of a well, 3% to 8% of the produced methane is leaked into the atmosphere and, because methane is such a potent greenhouse gas, the greenhouse-gas footprint of NG is worse than that of coal or oil. The tradeoff is that, while the burning of NG releases fewer allergy- and cancer-causing solids and other pollutants than coal, the released methane contributes several times more greenhouse gases.
Proponents argue that the forces generated by fracking are insufficient to cause earthquakes, even when applied to unstable geological formations. Opponents point to the tremors and small earthquakes that have already been caused and to the potential damage to buildings. Last year, nine quakes occurred, unclamping ancient faults (geophones) near the Mahoning River in Ohio and others were reported in Arkansas and Colorado.
Proponents also argue that the drilling of wells should not affect the real estate values and should not invalidate mortgages. Opponents argue that this is a new industry, and its costs of operation will change if, in the future, businesses are required to compensate the landowners for water contamination or damage to livestock and crops. They also point to cases such as the Ohio bank warning the state's lawmakers in September 2011 that if the borrowers do not obtain the consent of the bank before signing drilling leases, they will be violating the terms of their mortgage.
Environmental and Health Concerns
In 2005, Congress passed legislation prohibiting the federal government from regulating fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This federal legislation is still in effect; therefore, companies do not have to disclose what chemicals they are putting into the ground, although some states, such as Wyoming, do require it. It is generally not known which company is using what chemicals, but in general the following are used: heavy metals, salts (bromides, chlorides), acetone, radionuclides (strontium, barium), arsenic and volatile substances (methane, benzene, alcohol, toluene, phenol, ethylene glycol). These substances can enter the ground waters from leaking plastic transfer piping or due to damage to plastic liners of the frack ponds.
The industry claims that fracking and water contamination has never been definitely linked. Yet, in a 2011 report, MIT scientists found that "there is evidence of natural gas migration into freshwater zones in some areas, most likely as a result of substandard well completion practices by a few operators. Also, there are additional environmental challenges, particularly the effective disposal of fracture fluids.
According to the industry, the harmful effects of fracking are no worse than those of conventional drilling. Opponents point to environmental effects, including the contamination of water supplies, air pollution, migration of gases and fracturing chemicals to the surface or the potential mishandling of toxic waste. They point to cases in Pennsylvania, where farmhouses and homes were abandoned because of animals dying, people getting blisters, dizziness, nosebleeds, etc. from the toxic and carcinogenic chemicals (New York Times Magazine, Jan. 20, 2011) and the class action lawsuits by landowners in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and Virginia (New York Times Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, 2011).
The National Academy of Sciences determined in 2011 that groundwater contains much higher concentrations of methane near fracking wells, causing potential explosion hazards. In Dimock, Penn., 13 water wells were contaminated with methane, and Cabot Oil & Gas had to compensate residents financially and construct a pipeline to bring in clean water to the town. Elsewhere the landowners had to install water purifiers or drink bottled water. In Pennsylvania, the fracking fluid at 116 of 179 deep gas wells contained materials with high levels of radiation, and in March 2010, Congress directed the EPA to examine claims of water pollution related to hydraulic fracturing.
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The Four Protective Meditations: recollecting the Buddha's attributes
at the time you pay homage to him is absolutely necessary in
order to reinforce your confidence in him. The Metta Sutta,
the Mittanisamsa Sutta, the Khandha Paritta, and "Sharing
Loving-Kindness" are verses which we selected so that you
may cultivate benevolent thoughts during the devotional practice.
choose one to recite each time you do some devotion, or if you
have time, you may recite them all. The third protection is
"Unattractiveness of the Body." This section has been
introduced to vandana by ancient Buddhists in order to reduce
our attachment to the body by reminding us again and again of
the true nature of the body. This knowledge reduces our pride
and thought of permanence of the body. The last section of this
protection is the recollection of death. As most people do not
want to know anything about death, there is no opportunity for
them to know the true nature of life. This recollection brings
us face to face with the reality of life. It helps weaken the
attachment to life, treasure, and wealth; it produces a sense
of renunciation and compassion; and, when the time for our own
parting arrives, it enables us to die in calm and self-possession.
It also is used in some countries for recitation during the
funeral ceremony held for a deceased relative or friend and
for commemorating a death anniversary.
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Definition of stoned
imp. & p. p. - of Stone 2
The word "stoned" uses 6 letters: D E N O S T.
No direct anagrams for stoned found in this word list.
Words formed by adding one letter before or after stoned (in bold), or to denost in any order:
a - donates c - docents e - denotes f - fondest m - endmost n - tendons o - snooted r - rodents snorted u - snouted
Shorter words found within stoned:
de den dens dent dents do doe does doest don done dons dos dose dost dot dote dotes dots ed eds en end ends ens eon eons es et ne nest net nets no nod node nodes nods noes nos nose nosed not note noted notes od ode odes ods oe oes on one ones ons onset os ose sen send sent set seton sned snot so sod son sonde sone sot steno stone ted teds ten tend tends tens to tod tods toe toed toes ton tone toned tones tons
List shorter words within stoned, sorted by length
All words formed from stoned by changing one letter
Browse words starting with stoned by next letter
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Computer with brain connections changing quality of life of paralyzed
Patients with neurological diseases offered new hope
Tuebingen, Germany – November 02, 2006 -- Fundamental theories regarding consciousness, emotion and quality of life in sufferers of paralysis from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as 'Lou Gerhig's disease') are being challenged based on new research on brain-computer interaction. ALS is a progressive disease that destroys neurons affecting movement. The study appears in the latest issue of Psychophysiology. The article reviews the usefulness of currently available brain-computer –interfaces (BCI), which use brain activity to communicate through external devices, such as computers.
The research focuses on a condition called the completely locked-in state (CLIS, a total lack of muscle control). In a CLIS situation, intentional thoughts and imagery can rarely be acted upon physically and, therefore, are rarely followed by a stimulus. The research suggests that as the disease progresses and the probability for an external event to function as a link between response and consequence becomes progressively smaller, it may eventually vanish altogether.
Researchers have found that by implementing a BCI before the CLIS state occurs, a patient can be taught to communicate through an electronic device with great regularity. The continued interaction between thought, response and consequence is believed to slow the destruction of the nervous system.
The findings are also raising a number of new questions about the quality of life amongst paralysis sufferers. Patients surveyed were found to be much healthier mentally than psychiatrically depressed patients without any life-threatening bodily disease. Only 9% of ALS patients showed long episodes of depression and most were during the period following diagnosis and a period of weeks after tracheotomy.
"Most instruments measuring depression and quality of life are invalid for paralyzed people living in protected environments because most of the questions do not apply to the life of a paralyzed person. Special instruments had to be developed," says Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D., author of the study.
This contrasts previously accepted notions as many doctors believe that the quality of life in total paralysis is extremely low and continuation of life is a burden for the patient. The study challenges the myth of helplessness, depression and poor quality of life in paralyzed persons that lead to hastened decisions on euthanasia.
This study is published in the current issue of Psychophysiology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article please contact [email protected]
Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D. is a professor of medical psychology and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany and a member of the German Academy of Science. He has published more than 500 scientific papers on this topic over the last 30 years. Dr. Birbaumer is the recipient of the Einstein World Award of Science and served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR). He can be reached for questions at: [email protected]
Psychophysiology is the oldest, first, and most established journal in its field. This prestigious international journal plays a key role in advancing psychophysiological science and human neuroscience, covering research on the interrelationships between the physiological and psychological aspects of brain and behavior. Psychophysiology reports on new theoretical, empirical and methodological advances in: psychology and psychiatry, cognitive science, cognitive and affective neuroscience, social science, health science and behavioral medicine, and biomedical engineering. The journal publishes theoretical papers, evaluative reviews of literature, empirical papers, methodological articles, meeting announcements, and fellowship opportunities. For more information, please visit: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/psyp
Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, partnering with 665 academic and professional societies. Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date, has published more than 6,000 books, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects. Please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com for more information.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
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Vermeer's Allegory of the FaithThanks to the availability of art education, particularly art appreciation classes with their heavy emphasis on art history, and the easy accessibility of the huge, mega-museums in all our major cities, we often come to a certain mindset in which we elevate our greatest artists a godlike level of perfection. We tend to think that all great artists were completely successful all the time. Absolutes are dangerous and that's three in just one sentence. Not only is such overkill not the case, it would be untrue even it we limited it to only two. Yesterday, I discussed the evident problems the great Edouard Manet encountered in trying to learn how to use photography as a tool in his painting. Several of his major works from the 1860s and thereafter, while not artistic disasters, nonetheless exhibited technical difficulties quite evidently photographic to modern eyes. Possibly because he may have tried to hide his use of photographs in creating his work, his Academic enemies simply chalked them up to his brazen flouting of the rules of good taste and the rejection of the technical virtuosity he'd been taught as a student. At his best, Manet was most successful when he succeeded in stretching the definition of fine art and when he worked exploring the use of new visual aids in his painting. For that we should give him high marks, but stop well short of deification.
Two hundred years before Manet there was a Dutch artist in very much the same vein. He was quite unlike Manet in temperament and style, but quite similar in his embrace of scientific aids in creating his works. His name was Jan Vermeer. During his lifetime, he was a quiet, modestly successful, journeyman artist, living in a very modest household in Delft, Holland, with his wife, mother-in-law, and eleven children - about as different from the bon vivant Manet as imaginable. After his death in 1675, his work was virtually unknown until about the time of Manet. He left behind a meagre collection of but 35 exquisite masterpieces of Dutch genre chronicling the intimate home life and times in which he lived. His quiet, trademark scenes of pleasant women involved in various acts of domestic tranquillity are instantly recognisable the world over. Perhaps not so well known, but just as evident, was his customised use of the room-size camera obscura as a drawing aid. This tool gave his work a remarkable level of consistency in style, composition, setting, and technical virtuosity. But it also imposed limitations.
You'd never know it from looking at his work, but Vermeer lived during turbulent times in Holland. Political and religious strife between Protestants and Catholics in Holland was at a peak during the mid-1600s. Vermeer was born and raised a staunch Protestant. But, much to the consternation of his parents and friends, he fell in love with a Catholic girl, converted, and married her. Even today, the saying goes that, "There is no more devout Catholic than a Catholic convert." This was probably even more the case in Vermeer's troubled time. His faith was important to him. That's why, when he was asked by his church to paint an allegory of faith, he could neither refuse nor resist the challenge, even though such a work was completely foreign to his artistic background. This also accounts for the fact that his Allegory of the Faith, painted in 1670, is easily his least satisfying, least successful work.
First of all, the painting is larger than he was accustomed to working. His female figure, emoting melodramatically before a painted crucifixion, which occupies the major portion of his background, is relatively smaller than those in any of his other "female" paintings. Moreover, her pose, leaning against a draped altar, her foot resting uncomfortably high upon a globe, is decidedly un-feminine, seemingly unstable, anatomically awkward at best, even bordering on the impossible, given her modest height. To the right of this stylishly dressed female figure symbolising faith is a gold chalice, an open Bible, and a towering crucifix. Her foot, resting upon the globe, symbolises the trampling of worldly temptations. At her feet lies a "sinful" apple and a serpent, its head crushed, its blood spewing across the familiar checkerboard marble of Vermeer's studio floor.
The hallmarks of Vermeer's typical interior scenes are all present. A massive, intricately painted drapery in the form of a brocade tapestry depicting worldly delights is drawn back to reveal symbolically the private nature of faith. A strong light from the left, likewise typical of Vermeer, illuminates the drapery and displays the artist's complete mastery of its volume, texture, light, and colour. It is by far the strongest, most satisfying part of the painting. But the painting as a whole is little more than an intellectual exercise, a carefully contrived work in which all its many parts simply fail to mesh. To call it Vermeer's "least admired" work is putting it kindly. Compositionally, it doesn't "come together" at all like virtually every one of Vermeer's other paintings. One has to wonder if the artist himself saw this valiant effort as a failure or if he was, instead, caught up solely in the effort to convey a faith which he deeply felt yet was quite ill-equipped to realise in paint. In any case, one is forced to admire an artist with the strength, faith, and daring to allow himself to be vulnerable in stretching to accomplish that which was beyond his reach.
Contributed by Lane, Jim
5 December 2001
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Michelle Obama's Plan to End Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Goal: Cut Child Obesity From 20% to 5% by 2030
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD
May 11, 2010 -- Spearheaded by Michelle Obama, a new presidential initiative would reverse the child obesity epidemic.
The goal, as set out in a report from the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, is to reduce childhood obesity from 20% to 5% by 2030.
To accomplish this, the plan makes 70 recommendations for early childhood, for parents and caregivers, for school meals and nutrition education, for access to healthy food, and for increasing physical activity.
"For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time," Obama says in a news release.
U.S. kids haven't always been obese. Only one in 20 children ages 2 to 19 was obese in the 1970s. But around 1980 child obesity began to rocket to today's stratospheric level: Nearly one in three kids is overweight or obese, and nearly one in five is frankly obese.
Everyone knows obese kids face worse health than their normal-weight peers. What this means is that higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and lung disease may lower children's life expectancy below that of their parents.
Other effects are becoming apparent. The U.S. armed forces now warn that one in four Americans aged 17 to 24 is too heavy for military service.
To reverse these trends, the White House plan seeks to cut child obesity and overweight rates by 2.5% by 2015 and by 5% by 2020. It's not a vague goal. Scorekeeping will be up to the CDC, which reports child obesity rates every two years.
- The number of children eating a healthy diet as measured by the USDA Healthy Eating Index. A score of 80 out of 100 indicates a healthy diet. Today's score: 55.9. The goal is to score 65 by 2015 and 70 by 2020.
- The amount of sugar in children's diets.
- The amount of fruits and vegetables in children's diets.
- The number of children meeting yet-to-be-established physical activity guidelines.
Fighting Obesity in Early Childhood
The White House plan makes 12 recommendations for early childhood. Key elements of these recommendations are:
- Educate and help women conceive at a healthy weight and have a healthy weight gain during pregnancy.
- Encourage and support breastfeeding.
- Federal and state agencies should prioritize research into chemicals in the environment that may cause or worsen obesity.
- Educate and support parents in efforts to reduce kids' screen time (i.e. less time watching television and using digital media and more time being physically active).
- Improve federal early childhood programs' child nutrition and physical activity practices.
Fighting Childhood Obesity by Empowering Parents and Caregivers
The White House plan makes 13 recommendations for empowering parents and caregivers. Key elements of these recommendations are:
- The federal government should work with local communities to spread the word about the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the next generation of the food pyramid.
- The FDA and USDA should work with the food and beverage industry to develop standard nutrition labels for packages.
- Restaurants and vending machines should display calorie counts of all items offered.
- The food and beverage industry should extend its voluntary self-regulation to restrict all forms of marketing to children. If this does not happen, federal regulation should be considered.
- Media and entertainment companies should limit licensing of popular characters to healthy food and beverage products.
- Insurance plans should cover services needed to help prevent, assess, and care for child obesity.
Fighting Childhood Obesity by Improving School Foods
The White House plan makes 17 recommendations for healthier food in schools. Key elements of these recommendations are:
- Update federal standards for school meals and improve the nutritional quality of USDA foods provided to schools.
- Increase funding for school meals.
- Encourage schools to upgrade cafeteria equipment to support healthier foods. Example: Swap deep fryers for salad bars.
- Connect school meal programs to local growers and encourage farm-to-school programs.
- Improve nutritional education in schools and make it more available.
- Increase the use of school gardens to educate about healthy eating.
- Promote healthy behaviors in juvenile correction facilities.
Fighting Childhood Obesity by Improving Access to Healthy Food
The White House plan makes 11 recommendations for improving access to healthy foods. Key elements of these recommendations are:
- Launch a multi-agency "Healthy Food Financing Initiative" to make healthy foods more available in underserved urban and rural communities.
- Encourage local governments to attract grocery stores to underserved neighborhoods.
- Encourage facilities that serve children (e.g., hospitals, recreation centers, and parks) to promote healthy foods and beverages.
- Provide economic incentives to increase production of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
- Evaluate the effect of targeted subsidies on purchases of healthy foods through nutrition assistance programs.
- Study the effects of state and local sales taxes on calorie-dense foods.
Fighting Childhood Obesity by Increasing Physical Activity
The White House plan makes 17 recommendations for increasing kids' physical activity. Key elements of these recommendations are:
- School programs should stress physical activity as much as healthy nutrition.
- State and local school programs should increase the quality and frequency of age-appropriate physical education taught by certified PE teachers.
- Promote recess for elementary school students and activity breaks for older students.
- Federal, state, and local agencies should partner with communities and businesses to extend the school day in order to offer physical activity programs.
- The EPA should assist communities building new schools to place them on sites that encourage walking or biking to school.
- Increase the number of safe playgrounds and parks, particularly in low-income communities.
- Encourage entertainment and technology companies to continue developing new ways to engage kids in physical activity.
"Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity within a Generation," White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President, May 2010.
News release, The White House.
© 2010 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
Find out what women really need.
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FITCHBURG -- The region is rich with available renewable-energy options, but the upfront cost of harnessing these sources can often be prohibitive, student presenters concluded at a meeting Friday with the Montachusett Energy Advisory Committee.
Students from Fitchburg State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute presented projects to the committee focusing on the benefits, drawbacks and siting issues associated with a number of green-energy sources, including solar, hydropower and biomass fuels.
WPI students Rachel Feyler, Brian Gallenstein and Yael Rosenblum focused on solar power as a means for residents to harness their own natural energy and provide economic and environmental benefits.
While the upfront cost of solar can be prohibitive for many, in the long run, they concluded, buying systems outright is more cost-effective than leasing, and the systems will often pay for themselves over the first five to seven years.
They recommended the Montachusett region adopt the model of a community-based program like Solarize Mass, a partnership between the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the Green Communities Division of the state Department of Energy Resources and cities and towns across the state, which aims to increase the adoption of small-scale solar electricity systems and lower costs as more homes and businesses in a community sign up.
Students also recommended that communities throughout the region coordinate their permitting processes and regulations and retain a single regional inspector to simplify the process for applicants and save communities money.
Despite barriers that exist, photovoltaic panels seem to be becoming more popular at the residential level, at least in some communities.
Westminster Town Planner Stephen Wallace said his community, while not a member of Solarize Mass, has seen more building-permit applications for residential solar projects than for single-family homes over the last three years.
"Program or not, that does seem to be an emerging trend," he said.
FSU students and Montachusett Regional Planning Commission interns Thomas Roufos and Stephanie Brundige made presentations on hydropower and biomass fuels, respectively.
Roufos said Massachusetts has 1,490 dams, 80 percent of which are less than 25 feet high and only 6.6 percent are used to create hydroelectric power. Quoting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers figures, he said the state has the potential to generate 67 megawatts of energy through hydroelectric technologies. Roufos acknowledged that conventional hydropower does have some negative environmental consequences, however, including temperature and oxygen content changes that can affect aquatic and other wildlife, and explored examples of different types of turbines used in hydropower.
Brundige focused on woody biomass fuels, and said 4 million tons could be produced annually throughout the state. Using half of that for electricity could produce 150 megawatts of power, she said, but the process of preparing and transporting these items, as well as resulting damage to ecosystems, makes it an option that is not carbon neutral.
Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alanasentinel or on Twitter @alanamelanson.
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The New Jersey court is following a path similar to that of the Massachusetts Supreme Court a few years ago in allowing the legislature time to correct the law through legislative action; however, the Massachusetts court, unlike New Jersey's, has determined that recognition of civil unions alone will satisfy the state's constitution. In this respect it is similar to an earlier ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court allowing marriage equality through civil unions for same-sex couples.
In this landmark ruling, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that the state's equal protection guarantee prohibits the state from discriminating against same-sex relationships. Although the court found that "no fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists", the "unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners [could] no longer be tolerated under [New Jersey's] state constitution." To achieve equal protection, the court ruled:
To comply with this constitutional mandate, the Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or create a parallel statutory structure, which will provide for, on equal terms, the rights and benefits enjoyed and burdens and obligations borne by married couples. We will not presume that a separate statutory scheme, which uses a title other than marriage, contravenes equal protection principles, so long as the rights and benefits of civil marriage are made equally available to same-sex couples. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.
Although the court determined that the right to marry is a fundamental right, it concluded that it was not a right that historically had been recognized for same-sex couples as it had traditionally been recognized for opposite-sex couples. In a concurring and dissenting opinion, three of the court's seven justices disagreed with the majority opinion and argued that a person's due process rights are also denied if he or she is denied the opportunity to participate in a state-sanctioned marriage ceremony, in addition to the equal protection claim.
Today's ruling will no doubt bring greater attention to this issue in this year's election. Gay marriage amendments are on the ballot in eight states this year, including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. The issue could impact the outcome of control of the U.S. Senate. Both Virginia and Tennessee have closely contested races where the religious right vote could make the difference for the Republican candidates, Sen. George Allen (R) and Rep. Bob Corker (R). The issue is being raised in both congressional and state legislative issues by Republican candidates in Indiana, although there is no ballot initiative. Indiana could have such an issue on the ballot in 2008, however, if the legislature approves the pending SJR-7 constitutional amendment, which has already been approved once by the legislature.
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Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).
The surface of the earth is approximately 70.9% water and 29.1% land. The former portion is divided into large water bodies termed oceans. The World Factbook recognizes and describes five oceans, which are in decreasing order of size: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. The land portion is generally divided into several, large, discrete landmasses termed continents. Depending on the convention used, the number of continents can vary from five to seven. The most common classification recognizes seven, which are (from largest to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Asia and Europe are sometimes lumped together into a Eurasian continent resulting in six continents. Alternatively, North and South America are sometimes grouped as simply the Americas, resulting in a continent total of six (or five, if the Eurasia designation is used).North America is commonly understood to include the island of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama. The easternmost extent of Europe is generally defined as being the Ural Mountains and the Ural River; on the southeast the Caspian Sea; and on the south the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. Africa's northeast extremity is frequently delimited at the Isthmus of Suez, but for geopolitical purposes, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula is often included as part Africa. Asia usually incorporates all the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The islands of the Pacific are often lumped with Australia into a "land mass" termed Oceania or Australasia. Although the above groupings are the most common, different continental dispositions are recognized or taught in certain parts of the world, with some arrangements more heavily based on cultural spheres rather than physical geographic considerations.
the land boundaries in the world total 251,060 km (not counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border 14 other countries note: 45 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include: Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia, Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly landlocked
356,000 km note: 94 nations and other entities are islands that border no other countries, they include: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Baker Island, Barbados, Bermuda, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominica, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan
a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone; boundary situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200 nm
lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m
the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only beginning to address
large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters, pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion; global warming becoming a greater concern
Mandarin Chinese 13.22%, Spanish 4.88%, English 4.68%, Arabic 3.12%, Hindi 2.74%, Portuguese 2.69%, Bengali 2.59%, Russian 2.2%, Japanese 1.85%, Standard German 1.44%, Wu Chinese 1.17% (2005 est.) note: percents are for "first language" speakers only
definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 82% male: 87% female: 77% note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)
Global output rose by 5.2% in 2007, led by China (11.4%), India (8.5%), and Russia (7.4%). The 14 other successor nations of the USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong performers, in the 8%-10% range of growth. From 2006 to 2007 growth rates slowed in all the major industrial countries except for the United Kingdom (3.0%). Analysts attribute the slowdown to uncertainties in the financial markets and lowered consumer confidence. Worldwide, nations varied widely in their growth results. Externally, the nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada. Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers to international bodies, notably the EU. In Western Europe, governments face the difficult political problem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a growing risk to global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the initial coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major global problems that continued through 2007.
developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to 20% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in one Third World countries (Zimbabwe); inflation rates have declined for most countries for the last several years, held in check by increasing international competition from several low wage countries (2005 est.)
dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already grim environmental problems
the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and services top ten - share of world trade: electrical machinery, including computers 14.8%; mineral fuels, including oil, coal, gas, and refined products 14.4%; nuclear reactors, boilers, and parts 14.2%; cars, trucks, and buses 8.9%; scientific and precision instruments 3.5%; plastics 3.4%; iron and steel 2.7%; organic chemicals 2.6%; pharmaceutical products 2.6%; diamonds, pearls, and precious stones 1.9% (2006 est.)
World total DFI $12.2 trillion top ten recipients of DFI: US $1.818 trillion; UK $1.135 trillion; HK $769 billion; Germany $763.9 billion; China $699.5 billion; France $697.4 billion; Belgium $633.5 billion; Netherlands $450.9 billion; Spain $439.4 billion; Canada $398.4 billion (as of year-end 2006)
World total DFI $12.2 trillion top ten sources of DFI: US $2.306 trillion; UK $1.487 trillion; France $1.005 trillion; Germany $941.4 billion; HK $689 billion; Netherlands $652.3 billion; Switzerland $546.6 billion; Spain $509.2 billion; Belgium $485.1 billion; Japan $459.6 billion (2006 est.)
total airports - 49,024 top ten by passengers: Atlanta - 84,846,639; Chicago - 77,028,134; London - 67,530,197; Tokyo - 65,810,672; Los Angeles - 61,041,066; Dallas/Fort Worth - 60,226,138; Paris - 56,849,567; Frankfurt - 52,810,683; Beijing - 48,654,770; Denver - 47,325,016 top ten by cargo (metric tons): Memphis - 3,692,081; Hong Kong - 3,609,780; Anchorage - 2,691,395; Seoul - 2,336,572; Tokyo - 2,280,830; Shanghai - 2,168,122; Paris - 2,130,724; Frankfurt - 2,127,646; Louisville (US) - 1,983,032; Singapore - 1,931,881 (2006)
stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 322 international land boundaries separate 194 independent states and 70 dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities; ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states into separate political entities as much as history, physical terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes arbitrary and imposed boundaries; most maritime states have claimed limits that include territorial seas and exclusive economic zones; overlapping limits due to adjacent or opposite coasts create the potential for 430 bilateral maritime boundaries of which 209 have agreements that include contiguous and non-contiguous segments; boundary, borderland/resource, and territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to violent or militarized; undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and unmanaged boundaries tend to encourage illegal cross-border activities, uncontrolled migration, and confrontation; territorial disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they may be brought on by resource competition; ethnic and cultural clashes continue to be responsible for much of the territorial fragmentation and internal displacement of the estimated 6.6 million people and cross-border displacements of 8.6 million refugees around the world as of early 2006; just over one million refugees were repatriated in the same period; other sources of contention include access to water and mineral (especially hydrocarbon) resources, fisheries, and arable land; armed conflict prevails not so much between the uniformed armed forces of independent states as between stateless armed entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare of local populations, leaving the community of nations to cope with resultant refugees, hunger, disease, impoverishment, and environmental degradation
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that in December 2005 there was a global population of 8.4 million registered refugees, the lowest number in 26 years, and as many as 23.7 million IDPs in more than 50 countries; the actual global population of refugees is probably closer to 10 million given the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees displaced throughout the Middle East (2006)
current situation: about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least 80% of the victims are female; 75% of all victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; roughly two-thirds of the global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia (170,000 to 210,000 people) Tier 2 Watch List: Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Cyprus, Dijbouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Fiji, The Gambia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Libya, Macau, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates Tier 3: Algeria, Bahrain, Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela
cocaine: worldwide coca leaf cultivation in 2005 amounted to 208,500 hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than two-thirds of the worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine production rose to 900 from 645 metric tons in 2005 - partially due to improved methodologies used to calculate levels of production; Colombia conducts aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both Peruvian and Bolivian Governments are hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing areas; 551 metric tons of export-quality cocaine (85% pure) is documented to have been seized or destroyed in 2005; US consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to have been in excess of 380 metric tons opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation reached 208,500 hectares in 2005; potential opium production of 4,990 metric tons was only a 9% decrease over 2004's highest total recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s; Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 90% of the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 9% of global opium - saw marginal increases in production; Latin America produced 1% of global opium, but most was refined into heroin destined for the US market; if all potential opium was processed into pure heroin, the potential global production would be 577 metric tons of heroin in 2005
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I was lucky that my daughter asked me whether I would answer all the questions of her classmates - most of them are nine years old - about my profession. They had "professions" as the topic of their general knowledge lesson. So my daughter told me that they invited teacher, school caretaker, stewardess, nurse and also me software developer. Her classmates and she would ask the invited person some questions. I directly said yes because I think that the new generation needs to be introduced in software stuff especially that the current professions will change a lot in the near future. Reuters had a very interesting article about how Robots and Artificial Intellegence will cost five millions jobs by 2020. In my opinion software development will be much more important by 2020, so this is my chance to introduce my profession to the kids in my daughter's class.
PreparationIn my preparation I thought that I need to show them something cool so I began to google and found this piece of IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Scratch is a great IDE for doing graphical programming language. With Scratch you can show your kids how to write a program in a simple manner. You also can find a tablet version called ScratchJr.
(1) Content of my presentation: I need to prepare my presentation so that all the kids will understand me. For this purpose I'm lucky to have my wife as a primary school teacher. So I asked her how I could show them Scratch in an easy manner so they understand what software developer is doing the whole day. She told me that I have to involve them and create something cool. I also need to think about what are the requirements to become a good software developer. We took a look at Scratch and I should involve them in some these things:
- I will choose the standard "cat" figure and do some movements with it.
- One of the kids should choose how many steps the cat should walk to the left or to the right.
- They also should record the cat sound alltogether.
- They should choose the second character.
- Then the second character should walk and meet the cat somewhere and says "hello cat".
- Math is a must.
- Art and creativity are good foundation.
- Endurance will help a lot.
(2) Technical possibilities in the classroom: to be able to show ScratchJr and programming in the classroom I need to prepare some technical things. It is a pitty that in the classroom there is no projector so I need to bring all the things by myself. Generally speaking, computer equipments (tablets, internet and projector) in primary schools in Germany look really horrible. In 2014 only six percent of primary schools in Germany has a tablet equipment in their classroom. Following gadgets will help me a lot:
- An Android tablet with WiFi where I could install ScratchJr.
- A small projector something like Aiptek Pico Projector.
- A Google Chromecast: this is an important part so that I can connect from my tablet wirelessly to my small projector, no need to use HDMI cable. My Samsung tablet does not have a HDMI and neither a MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) connector.
- An Android mobile phone with internet access, so that the tablet and the Chromecast stick can find each other.
- A power bank to supply the power for Chromecast and the Pico projector as I know that it would be impossible to get a power supply in the classroom.
One thing I recognize: I need to have a good internet connection from my mobile phone since Google Chromecast needs an internet connection.
At the end of the day I'm prepared with the content and the gadgets so I was really looking forward to show this to my daughter's class.
ExecutionAt the D-Day I was well prepared, every single gadgets was fully charged, as I know, without power supply I need to be secure that all the gadgets can work independently from the power supply. I also need to put my mobile in the near of the classroom's window to get a good internet connection. I also need helps from the kids to get some books to put the projector on the top of them, so that it can show the ScratchJr user interface just in the middle of their blackboard.
After showing them the ScratchJr and let them decide some things as I planned above, I got an interview round, so they could ask me all their questions about the profession as a software developer. Here are some questions:
- How long do you need to study to be able to execute your profession?
- In what age did you start programming?
- Why do you like your profession?
- What characteristics are important to do your profession?
- Can I use iPad to play with ScratchJr?
- I like to play games, do you know someone who also develops games?
- Could you please tell the developers of Minecraft to solve some of my problems?
I had a lot of fun showing ScratchJr and answering all the questions for about 45 minutes.
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Tibetan sky burial photos. WARNING: Extremely graphic.
This is a series of pictures of the Tibetan practice of sky burials. It involves cutting a corpse and exposing it to birds of prey. Burial isn’t practical in Tibet because of the permafrost condition of the ground. Cremation isn’t practical because of the shortage of fuel to burn.
Another factor is the Buddhist belief in rebirth—so once a person dies, his or her body is an “empty vessel.” Providing the empty vessel as a food source is an act of generosity because it provides food to sustain other living organisms.
See the pictures at MBV Travel. WARNING: the pictures are extremely graphic. It involves a naked body being eaten by birds.
More on Buddhism.Posted by Guy Kawasaki
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3D Vision with Stereo Disparity
2D is nice, but these days I’m getting interested in doing computer vision in 3D. One way to get 3D data is to use two cameras and determine distance by looking at the differences in the two pictures (just like eyes!). In this project I show some initial results and codes for computing disparity from stereo images.
UPDATE: Check this recent post for a newer, faster version of this code. The new version no longer relies on mean-shift.
People can see depth because they look at the same scene at two slightly different angles (one from each eye). Our brains then figure out how close things are by determining how far apart they are in the two images from our eyes. The idea here is to do the same thing with a computer. Check this for some information on the geometry and mathematics of stereo vision. First, here are the images I’ll use to show results.
These two images are slightly different. The top one is from the left and the bottom is from the right. It’s a bit hard to see the disparity like this, so here are the same two images placed “on top” of one another.
You can see that the close-up objects like the lamp are very misaligned in the two images, while the farther-away things like the poster and the camera are lined up better. The greater the misalignment, the closer the object.
This pair of images is one of many standard stereo pairs that can be found at the Middlebury stereo vision site. These guys keep a compendium of standard datasets as well as a scoreboard of who’s algorithms work the best. The algorithm I talk about here is a knock-off of the one that was on top in December 2007: “Segment-Based Stereo Matching Using Belief Propogation and a Self-Adapting Dissimilarity Measure[PDF]” by Klaus, Sormann, and Karner. (Mind that the algorithm here is *inspired* by the algorithm of Klaus et al. Theirs is much more complete)
Getting Pixel Disparity
The first step here is to get an estimate of the disparity at each pixel in the image. A reference image is chosen (in this case, the right image), and the other image slides across it. As the two images ‘slide’ over one another we subtract their intensity values. Additionally, we subtract gradient information from the images (spatial derivatives). Combining these gives better accuracy, especially on surfaces with texture. In the video below, we can see a visualization of this process. You’ll notice how far-away objects go dark (meaning they line up in the two images) at different times than close-up objects. We record the offset when the difference is the smallest as well as the value of the difference.
We perform this slide-and-subtract operation from right-to-left (R-L) and left-to-right (L-R). Then we try to eliminate bad pixels in two ways. First, we use the disparity from the R-L pass or the L-R pass depending on which has the lowest matching difference. Next, we mark as bad all points where the R-L disparity is significantly different from the L-R disparity. Finally, we are left with a pixel disparity map.
In this image, red-er colors indicate closer pixels, and blue-er colors represent pixels that are farther away.
Filtering the Pixel Disparity
In the next step, we combine image information with the pixel disparities to get a cleaner disparity map. First, we segment the reference image using a technique called “Mean Shift Segmentation.” This is a clustering algorithm that “over-segments” the image. The result is a very ‘blocky’ version of the original image.
Then, for each segment, we look at the associated pixel disparities. In my simple implementation, we assign each segment to have the median disparity of all the pixels within that segment. This gives the final result:
Here again, the red colors are close objects, and blue objects are far away.
I spent some time getting these simple ideas into working form. I’ve posted the codes and images I used as well as a demo script. To see how the code works, simply un-archive everything and run demo from a Matlab prompt. Enjoy, and let me know how these work for you.
Check out the newest results:
This stereo algorithm is just a tool to be used on other projects. For instance, by computing the stereo disparity of a stereoscopic video it is possible to improve tracking results by using the 3D information. Also, segmentations can be made more accurate if 3D information is known.
I wanted to put this up to introduce people to stereo vision (as this was my introductory project). Hopefully, the words and the codes above will save you some time getting up to speed. I would ask that if you find this helpful and make improvements that you let me know!
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EAST GREENBUSH -- Kathy Arbogast believes that "buttons are miniature works of art."
She will offer proof of that assertion when she speaks about "Button History and Heritage" at the East Greenbush Community Library on Sept. 29. She is president of the Half Moon Button Club in Bethlehem.
"The diversity of types, colors, styles, materials and usage of buttons are amazing," she said. "When you look at a button from the 1800s with a magnifying glass, you may see pictures of castles, people, birds or flowers in incredible detail."
Buttons also offer clues to their age, she noted, because "they change from century to century and can tell how fashions changed" in different periods.
At one time, upstate New York was the location of several button manufacturers, Arbogast continued, ranking the most famous one as Chalmers Mill in Amsterdam.
"It was one of the largest producers of pearl buttons in the 1800s," she said. "In my research, I've found old newspaper articles and articles in button publications, books and manuscripts that mention factories in Guilderland, Hudson, Waterford, Deposit and Hoosick. Most of these were in the 1800s and failed when railroads brought goods from New York City."
In the 20th century, she added, "buttons began to be imported, plastics became prevalent and manufacturing moved overseas."
Within her own collection of buttons, the one she finds the most fascinating is "a colonial button made from a material called tombac -- an alloy of copper and zinc plus tin, lead and arsenic. I wonder who could have worn it, when was it lost, who discovered it? I obtained it from another button collector."
While people marvel at the fronts of antique buttons, which were often made to dazzle and delight, Arbogast explained that "the back of the button can tell more information than the front, if you have the manufacturer's name on the back."
With that name, she continued, people can go to "published records that tell when manufacturers operated. Certain shanks were made in different centuries -- looped shanks were prevalent in earlier centuries, for example. One of the best resources about buttons is the National Button Society website (www.nationalbuttonsociety.org). It's full of links to state societies, button shows, how to identify buttons and more."
The button expert noted that "many people remember playing with their grandmother's button box. They buy jars of buttons at flea markets and garage sales."
Such people should come to her library talk, she said, because "my talks provide them information about what they have and what the buttons' history may be."
Arbogast also hopes "to generate interest in collecting" Adding to her talk will be exhibits from her society's collections that will be on display.
"I learn something new every time I read a book about buttons, or go to one of the club meetings, or go to button shows," she said. "It is never dull!"
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
As a retired Army officer, I tend to get pretty exercised at the widespread notion in the media and public commemorations of Memorial Day that this day is set aside to honor living veterans. It's not. That's done on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
Memorial Day is to honor and give thanks for the service, dedication and sacrifice of members of the American armed forces who gave their lives in the service of their country. We also honor those who survived their service but have died since.
Which is to say that Memorial Day is set aside to honor the memory of dead, not thank the living.
Memorial Day as we know it grew from diverse strands of decorating the graves of Civil War dead, begun in various towns just after the war ended. One tradition says that Southern women, mainly widows and bereaved mothers, began laying flowers on graves of Confederate dead before the war ended. Many people today think that this tradition continued as a separate Southern practice called Decoration Day, while it was the North that practiced Memorial Day.
While not exactly wrong, it's not altogether true. Beginning with a proclamation by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Memorial Day was first widespread observed in 1868 to honor the dead of the Civil War. Graves of both Union and Confederate dead at Arlington Cemetery were decorated with flowers.
By 1890, all the states of the former northern Union recognized the day, but it still honored only Civil War dead. Southern states did not join in observing this day, continuing to honor Confederate dead on other dates (not uniform across the South). People generally think that this day was called Decoration Day, but I cannot find any citation to confirm it. (The old CSA memorializing of Confederate dead is still on the books of many Old South states; it is June 3 here in Tennessee.)
After World War I, the dead of that war were added to the honor roll of Memorial Day, then almost immediately the dead of all American wars. At that, the Southern states joined in and there has been a unified observance since.
Memorial Day was generally an observance by the several states until President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation in 1966 designating May 30 as national Memorial Day. There the day remained until Congress passed legislation in 1971 called the National Holiday Act. The Act made Memorial Day and most other federal holidays always occur on a Monday. Whether this served to strip the day of its solemn meaning I'll leave it to you to evaluate.
Unlike Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Memorial Day is a unique American holiday. The other English-speaking nations observe Nov. 11, the date World War I ended, just as we do. However, the observance is called Remembrance Day in Canada, Australia, Bermuda and other lands of the former British Empire. New Zealand observes Nov. 11 in a low key way, the main observance being ANZAC Day, April 25. In the United Kingdom Nov. 11 is also commemorated in a low-key manner, the main observance being the second Sunday of November, called Remembrance Sunday.
In these nations, commemorations accomplish in one day what Memorial Day and Veterans Day do in America.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Nashville ABC News affiliate, WKRN, interviewed a number of World War II veterans at a retirement home last week, my dad among them. Here is the video report my dad is in. The story and more video are here (link may be perishable).
My father was a Seabee in the Navy. His trained specialty (MOS in modern terms) was damage control onboard ships. He served on the battleship USS Texas and the escort carrier USS Bougainville.
I addressed Gold Star Mothers and their families, along with many Blue Star families, at a luncheon honoring fallen U. S. Marines on Sept. 17, 2005. The luncheon was sponsored by Tennessee Marine Families, a chartered not-for-profit organization.
The text of the address is here. Many readers will recognize that I modeled five paragraphs of this address on Pericles' oration at the first funeral of Athens' fallen of the Peloponnesian War in 431 bc. You will also see an echo of Shakespeare's "Henry V" in a closing paragraph.
Although this address was specifically honor U.S. Marines who died, I offer it here to honor the men and women of all services who have died for our country. Click here.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
None of what most people think they know about "global warming" is actually true. Here are 10 top global warming untruths:
1. Global temperatures are rising. No, they are not, and haven't since 1998.
2. The polar ice caps are melting. Not so.
3. Droughts have never been so bad. Wrong again.
4. Cities have never been hotter. Yes, they have.
5. The oceans are getting hotter. Nope, the seas are actually cooling.
6. The seas are rising. In fact, ocean levels have been rising for 10,000 years. But they're not rising now. Global-warming alarmists claim that the Maldives will be submerged because of global warming, but in fact the sea level there has not risen for at least 1,250 years.
7. Hurricanes are getting worse. Nope, they're weaker now than they've been in decades.
8. Australi's Great Barrier Reef is dying. No, it's thriving quite well.
9. Snow seasons are shorter. Not hardly.
10. Tsunamis are other natural disasters are getting worse because of global warming. Oh, please, get serious. Tsunamis?
Full explanation of these 10 points is here.
Oh, did you know that acne has been blamed on global warming? As have dozens and dozens of other things, listed here.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
And so finally I want to say this, just to wreck your mind for the afternoon. Isn't abortion worse than torture? OK put it this way - if you torture 3 adults for the comfort and piece of mind of 1 million, is it OK? What if you abort half a million fetuses for the comfort and piece of mind of 1 million?
Friday, May 15, 2009
I posted my review of ST09 ("Star Trek 2009 not a bullseye but it's still pretty good"). Thanks to Gizmodo and links therefrom, here's some more for the Trekkie people out there.
I remember reading somewhere that director J.J. Abrams intentionally included some subtle elements of the Star Wars series, apparently wanting to salute sci-fi as a genre, not just the ST legacy alone. For example, in the first minutes of the movie the young James T. Kirk, having stolen his stepdad's car, is pursued by a future motorcycle cop, riding a flying motorcycle that immediately brings to mind the speeder bikes of Star Wars 6, Return of the Jedi. Soon after, there's a bar scene full of alien beings calling to mind the bar in SW4, where Han Solo is introduced.
A couple of points, though. One, those Star Wars movies are 30 years old or almost, and so a lot of people seeing ST09 probably aren't much familiar with them. But one does have to wonder, doesn't one, how would USS Enterprise fare against an Imperial Star Destroyer? Well, wonder no more!
Yeah, probably, even though ST09's Enterprise is a lot bigger than the ones that went before, taping out at a hefty 725 meters, almost a half-mile, compared to the old Enterprise's length of a mere 288 meters. But a Star Destroyer is a mile long.
It takes 24 GPS satellites orbiting the earth to maintain the accuracy of the system at its present level. But the chances of the Air Force being able to maintain 24 operational satellites starts to drop next year, and lessens with each passing year.
According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office in April, the Air Force ran into problems with being able to build GPS satellites under budget and on schedule. For example, three years late from its original launch date, the next GPS satellite will be launched into orbit in November 2009.As things are going now, the chance that there will be 24 operational satellites in orbit in 2017 is about 10 percent.
With the hardware currently being used in space, the replacing and maintaining of satellites is crucial, especially since the current hardware we're using has been in orbit for almost two decades. If maintenance is not kept up, then GPS accuracy will begin to drop more and more each year.
Which means we'll be back to this:
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Four wealthy Yorkshiremen vacationing on the French Riviera reminisce about how happy they were when they were dirt poor:
Now, Conor Clarke, writing from England, asks, "What Makes Us Happy? Not Jobs.."
Joshua Shenk's Atlantic essay on happiness has gotten plenty of response (see David Brooks in yesterday morning's New York Times), but one thing that I find striking about the piece is how little focus there is on material gains as the right route to happiness. When the doctor in charge of the Grant Study lists the factors that predict happy aging -- education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and employing "mature adaptations" -- there is no mention of career success or even career stability. Relationships matter; incomes don't. This comports pretty well with my general understanding of self-reported happiness studies and gives me a chance to print my second favorite graph in the history of economics:Clarke points out that though this graph portrays Britain, the same results are found around the world. Even though Britons' (and Americans') material circumstances have been improving, often quite substantially and rapidly for the last 50 years or so, we do not claim to be happier now than we did back then.
It would be a mistake to infer, however, that material sufficiency has no relation to happiness. In 1943, Abraham Maslow promulgated his theory of human "hierarchy of needs," a tier of life conditions that Maslow said are necessary for life itself, at the bottom of the tier, and for human flourishing and happiness, moving up to higher-level needs.
At the bottom, of course, are the needs essential to live at all - food, air, water, sleep and other life-essential things. These are physiological needs shared with any other creature. Above them are human-specific (mostly) needs - safety employment, family, and so on. As the tier rises, the needs become steadily less bodily and more psychological - respect, achievement, creativity, and so forth.
Happiness, to Maslow, resulted from being able to meet the higher-level needs, which was in turn dependent upon meeting the basic type of needs. Persons chronically hungry or fearful of their safety are quite unlikely to describe themselves as happy.
As influential as Maslow's work was and deservedly remains, about the same time he published it a man named Viktor Frankl was developing his own theory. Frankl, though, worked as a captive of Nazi Germany, held in concentration camps, where his whole family died. Building on work he had begun before the war, he used his experiences in the camps to refine a psychotherapy built on the hypothesis that the very fundamental human needs are neither bodily ones nor material ones at all. The basic need is to have meaning and purpose in one's life. That is, Frankl turned Maslow's pyramid upside down and claimed that Maslow's higher needs are actually the most elemental.
Frankl's postwar book, Man's Search for Meaning, was named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by the Library of Congress. So it is. And therein lies the key to why people on all points on the economic spectrum can say they are happy, or not.
It is simply this: Material prosperity is not a bad thing (as some of Left would have us believe), but neither is it good, in itself. Things, even an abundance of them, cannot make us happy (though severe, ongoing lack of Maslow's basic needs can prevent happiness). Frankl is right: it what we make of life that makes us happy, which is why, even in the direst of physical circumstances in the Nazi camps, he was able to cling to the conviction there was meaning in his suffering. He relates another inmate insistence that if the camps' survivor could not find meaning in life after the war, there could be no meaning to the camps. To the contrary, Frankl insisted, if there was no meaning in the camps, there could be no meaning to surviving them.
A common theme among the writers of the classics is the unhappy, if not suicidal, wealthy man. One need consider only Charles Foster Kane, subject of Orson Welles' 1941 classic, still ranked by the American Film Institute as the best American movie ever. Stupendously wealthy, surrounded by every material blessing money can buy, Kane nonetheless becomes an embittered old man who finally dies alone, as unhappy as a man can be.
What went wrong in Kane's life? As this clip shows, he suffered from self-inflicted deterioration of the relationships that should have been most important to him, the only ones that could have sustained him and provided meaning for his passion.
That is the key: relationships. And I'll take a look at that in the next installment.
Update: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that the more taxes you pay, the happier you are! Law Professor Paul Caron reports. Read the comments, please.
Categories: Human condition
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
... but it's still pretty good.
I may as well jump on the Star Trek review bandwagon and post mine. I went with the fam last evening to see the new ST movie. Is it really a prequel to the other movies and the 1960s TV series? No, it's not, any more than Casino Royale, in which James Bond receives his double-oh designation, was a prequel to the other Bond flicks.
In fact, like Casino, ST 2009 hits the reset button on the franchise. Let me discuss that before I talk about the merits of the movie itself. There are some spoilers here, but get real - how can there really be spoilers when you know in advance that the movie's main intent is to show how Kirk and Co. wind up on USS Enterprise? Yes, they win (as the always do) in the fight with the bad guy and live to tell the tale. So here goes.
James T. Kirk is born in space at the beginning of the show, aboard an escape rocket fleeing the doomed USS Kelvin, captained, for 12 minutes, by Kirk's father, who sacrifices himself to save the crew. We next see Kirk at age 10, having swiped his stepfather's antique Corvette for a joy ride while the Beastie Boy's "Sabotage" plays over all. Kirk, pursued by a cop on a flying motorcycle, drives the 'Vette off a cliff, jumping clear at the last moment.
Herein lie the first clues:
- The Vette is a 1966 model, the same year that the ST TV series debuted. The Vette is destroyed. Does this mean that the legacy is also being thrown (mostly) off a cliff? Why, yes, yes it does.
- The song symbolizes that director J.J. Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are indeed sabotaging the Star trek legacy in order to sart over.
There is other proof within the storyline of the movie, but that would be giving too much away here. Suffice to say that at movie's end it is literally impossible for this movie's story future trajectory to merge with that of the TV series or the previous ST movies. We'll see how that works out. If this film's sequel is as sorry as Quantum of Solace was to Casino Royale, then the reset won't work too well.
So I suggest enjoying the movie as escapist entertainment rather than viewing it as a true prequel or another in the ST series. There are enough trekkie things in the show to establish a good connection with the series' legacy, such as a tribble sitting on Scotty's desk when he first appears, but in the end they do not matter. The movie should have been subtitled, "Starting All Over."
Leonard Nimoy's appearance as "Spock Prime" (so credited at the end) is a nice touch, as is his uttering a few lines from the older movies. It works just right. I thought it quite satisfying when he identified himself to the young Kirk by saying, "I am Spock." After the TV series was canceled, Nimoy tried to run away from it and establish a career as a serious dramatic actor. He even published a book in the mid-1970s called, I Am Not Spock. But, in the winter years of his life he has come to admit that Star Trek has defined his career (actually, he realized this long before now - the sequel to I Am Not Spock is I Am Spock, appearing 20 years later).
The Villain: Eric Bana as the destruction-bent Romulan, Nero, is excellent. He doesn't top Ricardo Montalban in Wrath of Khan, but nonetheless Nero is a worthy nemesis. And his threat is properly galactic: he wants to destroy every planet of the Federation and thanks to Spock Prime, he can (a zipped lip on that one, too).
The Enterprise crew:
Zachary Quinto as young Spock is excellent. Karl Urban as Bones is "excellent-minus," very good, but not quite as good in his part as Quinto is in his. Uhura and Spock have a thing for each other? Who knew? In the TV series it was Nurse Chapel who was enamored with Spock, IIRC, but her role long ago got beamed away. Zoe Saldana plays Uhura very well. Chekov and Sulu are presented competently, if not exactly inspiringly. Young Scotty, we learn, was a chowhound with an overdone Scottish brogue.
Ah, but what of Chris Pine, paying the major role of James T. Kirk? Sorry, bad idea. IMO, he just doesn't cut it. It's not that he acts the part of space cadet, then Enterprise officer, badly, he just doesn't act them as Kirk. You can pretty easily imagine young Spock maturing into Nimoy's Spock, and young Uhura and McCoy and the rest becoming the personalities we already know. But Pine's Kirk is unimaginable to become Shatner's Kirk.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But how is the movie as a movie? My wife, who is no sci-fi fan, enjoyed it. My eldest son, who is very familiar with the ST legacy, and my young daughter, who is not, also liked it a lot. As for me, I'll put it this way - I'll probably spring for the DVD when it comes out, but I won't pay hard-earned coin to see it in the theater again. There are times to movie seems too frantic and plot developments too forced. But it's enjoyable and pays enough tribute to the legacy to justify seeing it in theater once. So I recommend it. Overall, I give Star Trek 2009 seven out 10 NCC-1701s.
Scientists with time weighing heavily on their hands have proven that vampires cannot exist. These are, btw, serious scholarly articles.
The reason is very simple: if even one vampire ever existed, the global population of earth would become vampires within short order. Vampires subsist only on human blood, biting victims on the neck to get it. But the bite turns that person into a vampire, too. S/he then must bite others, who in turn become vampires and must bite others, etc.
One scientist established that just one Nesferatu, biting his first victim in 1600, would have resulted in in all 536,870,911 people of the earth becoming vampires within only two years. But then how would the vampires eat? They're predators, not cannibals.
The vampire empire (heh!) would be so quickly established, wrote one scientist, because defense measures by uninfected humans - stakes through vampires' heart, garlic, etc. - could not defeat the vampire triumph, only delay it somewhat.
Also, says the scientist, vampires have no natural enemies. However, that is patently untrue because I know, thanks to this vampire, that vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies and are killing each other off in carload lots all the time. Well, the ugly ones do, anyway.
So there you are - vampires do exist and if it wasn't for Vampire Kate and her like-minded friends, we'd probably all be werewolves by now. But if I ever get a choice of becoming either a werewolf or a vampire, I'd sure rather spend my years in the undead hanging around with a creature that looks like Vampire Kate than vampires' enemy, who looks like this:
And admit it, so would you.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Of course you remember the command given by King Arthur at the end of the k'niggets' attack against the French castle:
Well, that's the advice being given by a senior US Navy officer to ships transiting the piracy-imperiled waters off Somalia: "Navy ship outruns pirates, officials say."
The attempted attack happened Wednesday against the USNS Lewis and Clark, a dry cargo and ammunition ship that supports the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet and coalition ships in the area, the Navy said.To which Galrahn at Information Dissemination blog, devoted to matters maritime, responds,
Two pirate skiffs pursued the Lewis and Clark for more than an hour as it headed north, the Navy said. They got as close as one nautical mile from the ship.
The Lewis and Clark sped up and tried to escape the pirates, and the ship's security team issued verbal warnings to the approaching skiffs, the Navy said.
The suspected pirates, who were then two nautical miles behind the Lewis and Clark, fired small arms at the ship. They fell a mile short of the ship's stern, the Navy said.
The Lewis and Clark sped up and the skiffs stopped their chase.
"The actions taken by Lewis and Clark were exactly what the U.S. Navy has been recommending to prevent piracy attacks -- for both commercial and military vessels," said Capt. Steve Kelley, commander of Task Force 53, assigned to the Lewis and Clark.
"Merchant mariners can and should use Lewis and Clark's actions as an unequivocal example of how to prevent a successful attack from occurring," he said.
On one hand, the US Navy is telling shipping companies they need to protect themselves, and Congress is suggesting they arm their ships to do it.This response seems to confuse a strategic approach to dealing with piracy with the tactical solution to deal with individual pirate attacks. But the pirate threat is actually so low that the best strategy for now may well be simply to deal with individual threats on a case-by-case basis.
On the other hand, the US Navy is telling everyone to run from pirates. Maybe the Congress should go after the US Navy first, because apparently the US Navy hasn't even armed the gray hulled MSC operated US Navy ships to deal with piracy, because according to the US Navy, fleeing from pirates is an "unequivocal example of how to prevent a successful attack from occurring."
I'm not looking for blood, I'm looking for a strategy.
The fact is that Somali piracy is not a pressing national-security issue for the United States, so avoiding, rather than escalating encounters is indeed the preferable thing to do. Running away from pirates is the best course of action if the ship has that kind of speed. After all, "don't start nuthin', won't be nuthin'." Speedy sailing is the best tool in the toolbox for mariners in those waters, but it cannot be the only one. CNN's story points out that,
[L]ate Wednesday morning in the Gulf of Aden... a Greek vessel fended off a pirate attack. The Greeks hit the approaching skiff, causing the pirates' boat to capsize, the European Union's Maritime Security Center said in a written statement.Which is bully good stuff. On the other hand, there may be large gaps in the tactical, too. Galrahn links to the blog of a merchant vessel captain who reports,
A Spanish crew recovered seven pirates from the water and detained them, the statement said. No casualties or damage was reported.
During my transits of the Gulf of Aden I receive no information at all regarding military assets available for protection. In fact the response I get to my numerous reports is ....NOTHING, not even so much as an automatically generated email, something along the lines of "your call is important to us", I mean nothing, not a single message or email even acknowledging that I exist, let alone that I am transiting the GoA. ...Not exactly a confidence builder, that.
I find myself transiting the Gulf of Aden wondering if any one is even receiving my reports, let alone reading them.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
It's a simple enough headline: IDF Soldier Killed in Action Near Ramallah. The story goes on to describe the action, the manuever, and the unit. Straight and to the point.
(IsraelNN.com) A soldier from the IDF Duchifat Battalion was killed when terrorists opened fire on an army force at Bir Zeit, near Ramallah, in the Binyamin region on Wednesday night. His name was released for publication on Thursday morning: Noam Adin Rechter Levi, 20, from Mitzpeh Netofa in the Galilee.
The IDF force was carrying out arrests of wanted terrorists, part of various operations. In all, soldiers arrested 16 wanted terrorists overnight: Three were arrested in Shechem; one was arrested at Haja, east of Kalkilya; four were nabbed at Shubaka, north and west of Ramallah; three at Deir Salah, east of Bethlehem; one suspect was arrested at Tzurif, southwest of Bethlehem; and four at nearby El Arub.
The Duchifat Battalion is part of the Kfir Regiment (Regiment 900), an infantry regiment under Central Command. It deals mostly with counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria. Kfir means 'lion.'
It does not tell us about the young man killed in action. Noam was my neighbor. He was my son's role model and friend. The one who looked after the other "Amerikai" in his Shevet in Bnei Akiva. He was their leader and they looked up to him. He was their big brother--the one who told them how to get in shape and prepare when their time to serve arrived. He was bright eyed, full of laughter, and dreams. He believed strongly in "doing the right thing" and that it was not enough to do the mandatory thing. He believed that his duty to his country was also a duty to freedom of the highest order. He believed that these things were worth more than ones life let alone personal comfort.
At the core of Jewish life, especially in Israel across all streams, is the notion of akkim--we are all brothers and sisters--not just spiritually but actually. Long before the news released the story, the word was spreading among Noam's brothers and sisters. It was my son who called me. He and the other boys at his yeshiva from Mitzpe Netofa, the members of Noam's Bnei Akiva group, were going home to help the family prepare for the funeral and the seven days of mourning. Noam taught the lads well.
The Talmud tells of the death of the sons of Rabbi Yochanan. It happened on a Shabbat, when all mourning is set aside. Rabbi Yochanan was at his yeshiva at the time and did not know. When he returned home after Shabbat, and inquired of his sons, his wife spoke to him thusly to prepare him: "Our lodgers have returned to their home".
"For God will give God's angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways." (Psalm 91)
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
That's the way Michael Barone characterizes the Obama administration. The issue is the demonization of Chrysler's bondholders who rejected the administration's "request" to accept 33 cents or less on the dollar to save Chrysler from bankruptcy. Enough bondholders refused to force the bankruptcy filing last week.
By now it's well known that bankruptcy lawyer Tom Lauria said on a WJR talk show last Friday morning that the Obama administration nakedly threatened him if he didn't go along. Barone relates it thus:
“One of my clients,” Lauria told host Frank Beckmann, “was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight.”Comes now one Cliff Asness, who runs fund AQR Capital Management, LLC. Capital was not involved in the Chrysler debacle, but Asness has written an open letter responding to the administration's demonization of hedge fund managers. Here is the entire text.
Lauria represented one of the bondholder firms, Perella Weinberg, which initially rejected the Obama deal that would give the bondholders about 33 cents on the dollar for their secured debts while giving the United Auto Workers retirees about 50 cents on the dollar for their unsecured debts.
This of course is a violation of one of the basic principles of bankruptcy law, which is that secured creditors — those who lended money only on the contractual promise that if the debt was unpaid they’d get specific property back — get paid off in full before unsecured creditors get anything. ...
The Chrysler negotiations will not be the last occasion for this administration to engage in bailout favoritism and crony capitalism. There’s a May 31 deadline to come up with a settlement for General Motors. And there will be others. In the meantime, who is going to buy bonds from unionized companies if the government is going to take their money away and give it to the union? We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government. It is likely to be part of a continuing series.
Unafraid In Greenwich Connecticut
Clifford S. Asness
Managing and Founding Principal
AQR Capital Management, LLC
The President has just harshly castigated hedge fund managers for being unwilling to take his administration’s bid for their Chrysler bonds. He called them “speculators” who were “refusing to sacrifice like everyone else” and who wanted “to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.”
The responses of hedge fund managers have been, appropriately, outrage, but generally have been anonymous for fear of going on the record against a powerful President (an exception, though still in the form of a “group letter”, was the superb note from “The Committee of Chrysler Non-TARP Lenders” some of the points of which I echo here, and a relatively few firms, like Oppenheimer, that have publicly defended themselves). Furthermore, one by one the managers and banks are said to be caving to the President’s wishes out of justifiable fear.
I run an approximately twenty billion dollar money management firm that offers hedge funds as well as public mutual funds and unhedged traditional investments. My company is not involved in the Chrysler situation, but I am still aghast at the President's comments (of course these are my own views not those of my company). Furthermore, for some reason I was not born with the common sense to keep it to myself, though my title should more accurately be called "Not Afraid Enough" as I am indeed fearful writing this... It’s really a bad idea to speak out. Angering the President is a mistake and, my views will annoy half my clients. I hope my clients will understand that I’m entitled to my voice and to speak it loudly, just as they are in this great country. I hope they will also like that I do not think I have the right to intentionally “sacrifice” their money without their permission.
Here's a shock. When hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and individuals, including very sweet grandmothers, lend their money they expect to get it back. However, they know, or should know, they take the risk of not being paid back. But if such a bad event happens it usually does not result in a complete loss. A firm in bankruptcy still has assets. It’s not always a pretty process. Bankruptcy court is about figuring out how to most fairly divvy up the remaining assets based on who is owed what and whose contracts come first. The process already has built-in partial protections for employees and pensions, and can set lenders' contracts aside in order to help the company survive, all of which are the rules of the game lenders know before they lend. But, without this recovery process nobody would lend to risky borrowers. Essentially, lenders accept less than shareholders (means bonds return less than stocks) in good times only because they get more than shareholders in bad times.
The above is how it works in America, or how it’s supposed to work. The President and his team sought to avoid having Chrysler go through this process, proposing their own plan for re-organizing the company and partially paying off Chrysler’s creditors. Some bond holders thought this plan unfair. Specifically, they thought it unfairly favored the United Auto Workers, and unfairly paid bondholders less than they would get in bankruptcy court. So, they said no to the plan and decided, as is their right, to take their chances in the bankruptcy process. But, as his quotes above show, the President thought they were being unpatriotic or worse.
Let’s be clear, it is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money, and many are spectacularly so, but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice”, they are stealing. Clients of hedge funds include, among others, pension funds of all kinds of workers, unionized and not. The managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the President, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their personal political views. That’s how the system works. If you hired an investment professional and he could preserve more of your money in a financial disaster, but instead he decided to spend it on the UAW so you could “share in the sacrifice”, you would not be happy.
Let’s quickly review a few side issues.
The President's attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. Why is he not calling on his party to "sacrifice" some campaign contributions, and votes, for the greater good? Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power.
Let’s also mention only in passing the irony of this same President begging hedge funds to borrow more to purchase other troubled securities. That he expects them to do so when he has already shown what happens if they ask for their money to be repaid fairly would be amusing if not so dangerous. That hedge funds might not participate in these programs because of fear of getting sucked into some toxic demagoguery that ends in arbitrary punishment for trying to work with the Treasury is distressing. Some useful programs, like those designed to help finance consumer loans, won't work because of this irresponsible hectoring.
Last but not least, the President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out. Find me a hedge fund, even a failed one, that has asked for one. In fact, it was only because hedge funds have not taken government funds that they could stand up to this bullying. The TARP recipients had no choice but to go along. The hedge funds were singled out only because they are unpopular, not because they behaved any differently from any other ethical manager of other people's money. The President’s comments here are backwards and libelous. Yet, somehow I don’t think the hedge funds will be following ACORN’s lead and trucking in a bunch of paid professional protestors soon. Hedge funds really need a community organizer.
This is America. We have a free enterprise system that has worked spectacularly for us for two hundred plus years. When it fails it fixes itself. Most importantly, it is not an owned lackey of the oval office to be scolded for disobedience by the President.
I am ready for my “personalized” tax rate now.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Debka.com tonight is carrying the following post Shabbat cheer.
DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that their host is fired up to be the first US president in decades of close friendship and cooperation to clash openly with Israel and the bulk of US Jewry. Oblivious to Israel's claim of US support for its security in a hostile regional environment, Barack Obama is expected to squeeze the Netanyahu government hard for immediate engagement on the Middle East conflict without further delay.
According to our sources, the White House staff is working at top speed on options for imposing its will.
Peres and Netanyahu will be informed that Washington is setting up two trilateral peace commissions to hammer out peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel with the Syrians.
What will the BO plan look like?
It starts out with pressure on Israel to freeze settlement activity on the West Bank and construction in East Jerusalem. At a later stage, Israel would be pushed to abandon large sections of the West Bank, remove authorized communities as well as unauthorized outposts and hand over the historic nucleus of Jerusalem.
Finally, the Israeli government would be required to accept an independent Palestinian state, even if its government is dominated by the rejectionist terrorist group Hamas.
Peres and Netanyahu will find administration officials deaf not only on Israel's arguments on the Palestinian issue but on a nuclear-armed Iran too. They will see the US president no longer prioritizing the suspension of Iran's nuclear aspirations, but bent on establishing a new Persian Gulf order that formalizes Iran's rising power. Washington's objective now is negotiations for setting the boundaries of Iran's Middle East expansion and limits for its nuclear program.
Israel will have no say in this process. In fact, by elevating Iran to premier regional power, America is sidelining its longstanding friends, Israel and Egypt, and setting aside their security and strategic interests for the sake of deals with Iran.
Dennis Ross, US envoy for Iran, carried this message to the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, last week.
It is interesting to note that two of the "big three" in the current Israeli government, Netanyahu and Barak, are veterans of the former Clinton era failed peace accords. They are not likely to go willingly, especially since the mandate of the Israeli electorate in the last election clearly signaled the total lack of trust in the current Oslo-road-map derivatives.
The third key member of the big three is Lieberman--Mr. Surprise. Already forging new ground with Egypt, the other loser to the BO Iranian Surrender, the Foreign Minister's current success might be surprising to Americans but not to Israel's neighbors. Lieberman is neither American nor European. He is Russian with all that entails.
Over here, in this part of the world, that says volumes. For one thing, Russians, being more Asiatic than European, understand how the Shuk works. Russians are known to tell you where they stand on prices and their true initial bargaining position. Israel's neighbors find that very refreshing. Instead of vague nuanced talk, Russians are known for their negotiating bluntness. For years, liberals have dawdled and dallied around where they hold as the starting point in negotiations. Lieberman is quite plain.
All of this is quite interesting with respect to BO, person of the volk. It would appear that the man who wishes to be the FD Roosevelt on domestic policies, wants to be the T Roosevelt around the world's other canal of note.
Oh well. Maybe BO is learning from the Russians. It will be nice when the canard that the Jews are to blame for ALL the ills of the Middle East is finally in the open.
So much for Never Again.
Friday, May 1, 2009
That's how some Marines thought of themselves at a remote outpost in Iraq in March 2008.
Watchtowers festooned with machine guns and grenade launchers overlooked the maze of obstacles littering Entry Control Points.But this tour's conditions are totally sucky:
The Marines lived in conex boxes which were converted shipping crates covered in sandbags and Hesco barriers. The Company Commander, myself, the XO and our air officer all lived in one room together that used to be some kind of meat locker.
Indirect fire from insurgent mortar teams was pretty regular until we killed them all.
The Marines live in air conditioned trailers we call ‘cans’ and fit two to a room. They have electricity, mattresses, cable for AFN television, and even wireless connections are available for internet use! ...
On base, there is a Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, and a stinkin’ Cinnabon! There is a Green Bean Coffee Shop, though I see no reason to bad mouth that fine company. ...
The base is totally inundated with Army, Air Force, Navy, KBR workers, and third country nationals.
It IS the Zombie Apocalypse.
Remember that the operating meme of our government has been openly stated by its top officials, including the secretary of state herself: "Never waste a good crisis."
Now consider two reports about the swine flu. First, the AP reports, "Swine flu may be less potent than first feared."
The swine flu outbreak that has alarmed the world for a week now appears less ominous, with the virus showing little staying power in the hardest-hit cities and scientists suggesting it lacks the genetic fortitude of past killer bugs. President Barack Obama even voiced hope Friday that it may turn out to be no more harmful than the average seasonal flu.But don't worry - the World Health Organization is on it: "WHO Raises Swine Flu Alert to Level 5."
In New York City, which has the most confirmed swine flu cases in the U.S. with 49, swine flu has not spread far beyond cases linked to one Catholic school. In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, very few relatives of flu victims seem to have caught it.
A flu expert said he sees no reason to believe the virus is particularly lethal. And a federal scientist said the germ's genetic makeup lacks some traits seen in the deadly 1918 flu pandemic strain and the more recent killer bird flu.
The World Health Organization has raised the swine flu pandemic alert level to phase 5 - just one step below the highest level. The decision comes as the number of countries with confirmed cases rises to at least 10. ...That last item, of course, directly contradicts the empirical evidence reported by the AP.
The increase to level 5 indicates that there is sustained human-to-human transmission in communities in different geographical locations.
Why do I get the impression that it's budget-pleading time at the WHO? Wait, with any government or UN agency, it's always budget-pleading time.
My prediction, noted epidemiologist that I am: within two weeks the swine flu will have fizzled like a wet firecracker, pandemic-wise. People will still be getting sick, but Level 5 emergency (much less Level 6)? Nope.
Remember, here in the US, between 30,000-35,000 people die every year from flu of the ordinary type. "Ordinary" flu means, of course, flu strains without a catchy, crisis- and cable-news-ready name.
Remind me this fall to write a post warning people of the threat of the hackengag flu.
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From Our 2010 Archives
Big Waist Increases Death Risk
Very Large Waist Could Double a Person's Risk of Death From Any Cause, Study Finds
Reviewed By Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC
Aug. 9, 2010 -- Men and women who are very large around the middle are at much greater risk of dying from any cause than people with thinner waists, a new study says.
Eric J. Jacobs, PhD, and colleagues at the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society, examined associations between waist circumference and the risk of death in 48,500 men and 56,343 women aged 50 and older.
They found that people with very large waists -- 47 inches or more for men and 42 inches and more in women -- were about twice as likely to die, compared to thinner people, and not just from weight-related problems.
All participants had completed a mailed questionnaire about demographic, medical, and behavior factors and provided information about weight and waist circumference during the 1990s. Over a nine-year follow-up period, 9,315 men and 5,332 women died.
A larger waist was associated with a higher risk of death across all measures of BMI, or body mass index, including people of normal weight and people who were overweight and obese.
A somewhat surprising finding was that among women, the risk association between waist size and death was strongest for those with a normal BMI. Researchers say the reason is unclear and that more study is needed.
Reshaping Obesity Guidelines
The study findings could affect the development of future guidelines on obesity.
"Currently available clinical guidelines from the National Institutes of Health are based on evidence from the 1990s," the researchers say. "These guidelines recommend that waist circumference be used to identify increased disease risk only among individuals in the overweight and obese categories of BMI."
NIH guidelines recommend weight loss goals for all patients with a BMI of 30 or greater. BMI is a ratio of a person's weight to their height to determine degree of body fat. A person with a BMI of less than 18.5 is considered underweight, 25-29.9 is overweight, and 30-39.9 means obese. A BMI of 40 or more means dangerously obese.
The study authors say the NIH guidelines do not specifically recommend weight loss goals for abdominally obese patients who are in the normal or overweight categories unless they also have two or more cardiovascular risk factors or a desire to lose weight.
Large waist circumference has been shown to be associated with higher circulating levels of inflammatory markers, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. More than 50% of men and 70% of women in the United States exceed waist circumference thresholds.
The scientists conclude that their study provides evidence that a larger waist circumference may have important adverse health effects, even among people with a BMI lower than 30. They conclude that regardless of weight, people should avoid allowing themselves to become too big around the middle.
The study is published in the Aug. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
SOURCES: News release, Archives of Internal Medicine.
- Changes That Keep the Weight Off
- Diabetes-Friendly Foods for Your Workout
- Are We Close to a Cure for Cancer?
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From PennFuture (http://www.pennfuture.org):
The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395. [AP Story by Seth Borenstein]
It’s been at least 800,000 years — probably more — since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s….
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Our lives are filled
it brings pleasure in
Color is an important part of food -- alerting us to the time when fruit is ripe, making it easy to obtain needed vitamins and minerals by selecting a diet made up of foods of different colors. But Mother Nature didn't stop with mere eye appeal; she saw to it that foods which are good for us also taste good. Does that mean healthy eating simply requires us to follow our eyes and palate?
Unfortunately, this approach, which has served humanity well for thousands of years, has recently been upset by the wonders of modern food technology.
The problem began when a chemist first discovered how to change coal tar oil into brightly colored liquids which then found their way into virtually everything we use, including food. Chemists have managed to unlock some of the secrets of nature's flavorings, and can now come very close to mimicking the real thing.
All this is great news for food manufacturers. Synthetic colors and flavorings are cheap and remain stable in food. Today most food colors are made from petroleum, and flavorings can be made from thousands of natural and artificial chemicals. So what's wrong with a bit of petrol in your popsicle? Does it matter that cherry gelatin doesn't contain any cherries, and grape drink mix has never been near a grape? And if fluorescent cereal will get breakfast into little Johnny, do we really need to be concerned? Unfortunately, we do.
Humans have a remarkable ability to tolerate exposure to harmful substances, but we're not identical, and some of us can handle more than others. In a world where neither our water nor our air is pure, where food is laced with pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones, where excessive processing has removed essential nutrients and fiber, many of us are already having a tough time coping. Then add three of the more troublesome chemicals: synthetic food dye, artificial flavoring, and antioxidant preservatives, and feed them to a small child. It's a recipe for disaster.
Johnny might have a physical reaction to such a chemical stew, for example: stomach ache, bed wetting, hives, poor muscle control, or ear aches. He could have a behavioral reaction: becoming easily frustrated, overactive, aggressive, excessively talkative. Or he may have a hard time paying attention in school, reading a story, remembering a spelling word, doing a math problem, or writing.
Johnny may be a normal child who is merely sensitive to some of the abnormal substances in the food or environment. The first place to begin is to rule out chemical sensitivity and, fortunately, this is not as difficult as it sounds if you start with the Feingold Program.
For more information, go to the website of the Feingold Association at www.feingold.org
The Feingold Association of the United States
11849 Suncatcher Drive
Fishers IN 46037
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By Bob Burson
There are many factors to consider when adding solar panels to a self-storage facility. These include cost, potential energy savings, incentives, physical requirements and more. But an important aspect often overlooked in the process is the overall system design.
Design can mean different things. To the facility owner, design can be as simple as the placement or location of the solar array. To the contractor, it will not only be the location but the type of modules and mounting structure, the tilt angle of the modules, the direction of the modules, the number of modules in a string, the size and number of inverters, and other factors. This article defines system design as the decision-making process that addresses the general size, location, placement and aesthetics of a solar array, as well as the building requirements needed to host a system.
Uncover Your Facility’s Needs
Your contractor will be able to recommend a system size based on a number of factors. The first and foremost is the facility's energy usage. Does the building have a live-in manager? Does it offer 24-hour access? Are some or all of the units climate-controlled? What kind of lighting does the site have? How old are the buildings? What climate does the property experience throughout the year?
All of these elements together will play a role in driving the energy use of a property, which will, in turn, determine your needs and directly affect the system’s size. The more solar panels in your array, the more power the system will produce. The more power you need, the larger your solar installation will need to be.
Once your contractor has recommended the ideal system size to meet your energy needs, you can work with him to determine the best location for the installation. The ideal placement of the solar panels will be one that receives unobstructed access to the most amount of sunlight as possible throughout the day. Most of time, this will mean the facility's roof, but it could be elsewhere on the property. It’s important to avoid nearby trees and buildings that may cast shadows because they’ll limit the system's energy production.
If your building has a parapet wall, you’ll want to provide enough offset from the perimeter of the building to avoid shading the array in the early morning and late evening. If possible, you also want your solar modules to be mounted at an angle facing the equator—south if you’re in the northern hemisphere and north if you’re in southern hemisphere.
This is where your contractor’s expertise is important. It’s up to him to provide you with a design that maximizes the system production based on the unique features of your property. It's important to remember that it’s not necessary to have a perfect building or installation to still achieve a strong return on investment.
Every facility has its own unique characteristics that will play a factor in determining the ideal installation location. Most often, these factors directly relate to the type of building and property. For example, does your facility have a flat or pitched roof? If it’s pitched, which direction does it face? What material(s) comprise the roof, metal, rolled composition or a PVC membrane? What’s the age of the roof? Does your property have unused land that could be used for an installation?
Your solar contractor will work with you on different design options based on your facility’s features. For almost every type of building, roofing and property, there’s a specific product designed for mounting solar panels.
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Today, scientists at CERN in Geneva announced their results for their search for the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that, if it exists, is thought to be responsible for giving other particles mass. It’s no exaggeration to call it a keystone in quantum mechanics, and finding it for sure will be a huge accomplishment for particle physicists.
So, did they find it?
Maybe. Then again, maybe not.
Um, what? OK, this’ll take a wee bit of explaining.
Last things first
|I said Higgs, Magnum. HIGGS.|
First, the conclusion, so at least you have that in mind as you read the rest. There are two experiments running at CERN looking for the Higgs particle. They don’t smash particles together, look around with magnifying glasses and tweezers, and then yell “AHA!” when they find one. Instead, they build up a picture of it after doing gazillions of particle collisions. After a year of runs, both experiments see something that might be Higgs, but they’re not 100% sure. One sees something at about the 94% confidence level, the other at 98%. That’s pretty good, but it’s not enough to be completely sure. It seems likely they’ve found something, but it’s like a fuzzy picture: it looks like Higgs, but it still might be something else.
So why can’t they be sure one way or another?
Basically, what the Large Hadron Collider at CERN does is whip protons around at nearly the speed of light, then smashes them into each other. At that speed they have huge energies, and when they collide that energy gets converted into matter: other particles. Like shrapnel, these new particles explode away from the collision site. Many of these new particles aren’t stable; they decay into yet lower energy particles after incredibly short time intervals. For example, electron and protons are almost certainly stable over long times (like the lifetime of the Universe), but neutrons decay after only a few minutes, turning into a proton, and electron, and a particle called an antineutrino.
So these daughter particles from the proton collisions in LHC decay, and they have daughter particles, and some of those decay, and so on. At the LHC there are two ginormous detectors called ATLAS and CMS. Both of these, in essence, measure the energy of the particles that hit them; like forensics team, they look at the aftermath of the collision and try to work backwards to figure out what happened.
We know to some extent how much energy is expected from these collisions due to all the particles that are currently known, so those can be accounted for. But if there’s some excess of energy, that could very well indicate a new particle. And we have theories as to how much energy the Higgs particle should have. So the energies are measured, calibrated for known particles, and the excesses are examined.
What both experiments found is an excess of energy — a bump in the graph — indicating a particle that has an energy* about 125 times that of a proton — right in the expected range for the Higgs particle. That’s exciting! But what they’re doing is counting up things statistically, so they can’t be 100% sure. The bump in the graph is still fuzzy.
Rolling loaded dice
An article on Ars technica gave a great analogy, which I’ll paraphrase: imagine you have a pair of dice. One of them is not normal: instead of the numbers 1 – 6, it replaces the 6 with a 5. If you roll the dice once, you might get 2-3, or 1-5, or 6-4. It’s random. But because one of the die is missing a 6 and has an extra 5, if you roll them enough times that starts to become apparent. After a bunch of rolls, you see too many 5s and not enough 6s. If you roll them, say, three times you might not see anything, but roll them 10,000 times and you’ll definitely know something is up. The more you roll, the more confident you’ll be.
It’s the same thing at CERN. Every run in the collider is a roll of the dice. Do it once and you might see something, but your confidence is low. Do it again and you get better statistics. Do it thousands or millions or billions of times, and you get more confident. In fact, you can calculate your confidence level. For one experiment, the bump at 125 times the energy of the proton has a confidence level of about 94%, the other experiment sees it at about 98%.
Here’s the plot from the ATLAS experiment at LHC:
The horizontal axis is energy — it’s measured in a weird unit called GeV, but a proton has an energy of very close to 1 GeV, so think of the axis as being in proton units — and the vertical axis is a measure of how certain they are the measurement is real, which depends on how many times they saw a particle at that energy. The units are called sigma, and are calculated statistically. 1 sigma means your confidence level is about 68%, 2 sigma is about 95%, and so on. The bigger sigma is, the more confident you can be.
The dashed line is what they would expect to see if Higgs doesn’t exist, and the solid line connecting the dots are what they actually saw. You can see the bump around 125 GeV; it’s way above what you’d expect if Higgs doesn’t exist, and that’s what has everyone so hot and sweaty. The bump tops out at about 2.4 sigma, which is where the 98% confidence comes from. The results from the CMS experiment are a bit noisier, and top out at 1.9 sigma, or 94%.
That sounds good, and it is, but in physics we want even better confidence than that. After all, a 94% confidence means there’s a 6% chance of being wrong (as the CERN press release notes, there’s a 3% chance of rolling two sixes with a pair of normal dice on the first try, so you have to be careful here). So while these confidence levels are good, they’re not great. Physicists start getting excited around the 99.99% (4 sigma) confidence level, and start celebrating at 99.9999% (5 sigma). Seriously. After all, at that point the odds of being wrong are literally one in a million!
Some good news too is that this works the other way as well: looking at higher energies, they don’t see any evidence for the Higgs particle. So while they can’t be sure they see it at 125 GeV, they are in fact very confident they don’t see it at energies higher than 125 GeV or so. That’s good: it’s always nice to eliminate possibilities when you’re looking for something.
OK, so what does this mean?
So the grand conclusion here is:
Scientists at CERN cannot claim with enough confidence they have found the Higgs particle, but neither can they rule it out. There’s a good chance they have have found something, and it very well may be real, but they cannot say with complete confidence that it’s the Higgs.
They will continue to run more experiments and try to bump up that confidence level a few more notches. In other words, they have to keep rolling those dice, building up the numbers, and get better statistics. As they do, those confidence levels will change, and hopefully move into the “5-sigma-we-have-a-winner” stage. But that takes time, and it’ll be 2012 at least before we know more one way or another.
If you want to read more about this, I suggest Dennis Overbye’s article at the NYT, and this nice overview by Jon Butterworth at The Guardian.
* In quantum/particle physics, energy and mass are two sides of the same coin. All these experiments measure energy, but that’s pretty much the same as the rest mass of the particle. So if energy makes you uncomfortable, think of it as mass and you’ll be fine. So in this case, what they seem to have found is something that has a mass about 125 times that of a proton.
– LHC smacks some protons! (Includes a video I made when I toured the LHC a few years ago)
– Brian Cox calls ‘em like he sees ‘em
– Breaking: LHC still will not destroy the Earth
– Get your mass handed to you
Links to this Post
- It all makes sense now | Not So Fast | December 13, 2011
- CERN encontra o bosão de Higgs? | Blog de Astronomia do astroPT | December 13, 2011
- New Mass Effect 3 Trailer Pits a Reaper Against a Thresher Maw | | December 14, 2011
- The Elusive Higgs « Technology « Science Today: Beyond the Headlines | December 14, 2011
- Wordstuff – 15/12/11 « Cubik's Rube | December 15, 2011
- Friday Links | December 18, 2011
- I was going to get up and find the broom, but then I… » keeg.org | December 18, 2011
- What’s a Higgs Bozo? « The Gear Head Skeptic | December 19, 2011
- 2011: The Year in Science. | December 22, 2011
- misc-ience - science-related ramblings and whimsy | January 18, 2012
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The main lecture at Day 3 of the YERME Summer School is held by Jean-Baptiste Lagrange. His talk will be concerning research about technology in mathematics education. Lagrange is going to look at different technologies with certain theoretical concerns:
- programming with the reification theories,
- microworlds with situated cognition,
- spreadsheets and computer symbolic systems with the instrumental and anthropological approaches,
- today fast developing web based technologies with the need for new approaches.
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Blended Learning and Teaching with Animation
Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|Dr S. M. Hajsadr|
|Algebra lessons online. Free registration required. From the site: Electronic lessons are animated learning material which deliver classroom or tutor like teachings. They are developed following the strict guidelines drawn from many years of research. The aim is to provide our learners with a teaching tool that will accelerate their learning. Animation of teacher's thoughts helps learners see what it means.|
|Levels:||High School (9-12)|
|Resource Types:||Video, Web Interactive/Java|
|Math Topics:||Basic Algebra|
© 1994- The Math Forum at NCTM. All rights reserved.
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10 Winning Science Fair Projects That Will Make You Feel Dumb
As beleaguered parents all over the country endeavor to prod their kids to finish their requisite science fair projects, some may find it helpful to provide some inspiration from past winners of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. These are not your basic tabletop volcanoes or series of potted sunflowers. Many sport titles that you'd expect to see gracing the pages of the most prestigious scientific journals, and some of them actually have. Others became inventions developed for use in the wider world while their inventors were still in high school. Each and every one of these projects won their teenage researchers big prizes and hefty scholarships to ensure their future success.
1. The Sign Translator
Image credit: Patterson
One of the ISEF 2001 winners invented something so completely cool that he bowled over the competition to win a total of more than $200,000 in cash prizes and scholarships. The idea came to then 17-year old Ryan Randall Patterson of Grand Junction, Colorado, over an order of burger and fries at a fast food restaurant. The customers were deaf and needed an interpretor to get their order right, so Ryan decided to develop a method to make it easier for the hearing impaired to communicate with regular people.
It's a glove that translates American Sign Language into large, easy to read letters on a computer screen. This is a kid who carried around an electrical cord instead of a security blanket as a toddler, and requested extension cords from Santa. He helped his dad rewire an extension to their house when he was 6, and managed to live through a bad experiment once when he stuck a screwdriver into an outlet. Ouch! Doesn't seem to have hurt his brain much, though.
2. Prototype for Autonomy: Pathway for the Blind
Image credit: Abdulrasool
Sometimes the most far-reaching discoveries come about by putting already available technologies to new uses. One big prizewinner in the 2005 ISEF fair in Phoenix did just that. 18-year old Ammem Abdulrasool, a senior at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science, developed over three years a way to allow the visually impaired to navigate themselves by using the Global Positioning System.
Inspired by his love for his father, who is visually impaired, Ammem set out to find a way to help and ended up not just winning the big prizes at ISEF, but being named an official Science Hero. He describes his invention, said to be one of the biggest innovations for the blind since the invention of Braille, as "an 'On-Star' system at the handheld level for the blind." Abdulrasool planned to major in business administration at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.
3. Brain-Computer Interface for the Muscularly Disabled
Image Credit: Glassman
We older folks rely on our kids to do many computer things for us these days, so it's not surprising that the ISEF fairs have a category for computer science. In 2003's fair 16-year old Elena Leah Glassman from Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown, Pennsylvania took top awards for developing an algorithm that allows people with muscular disabilities to use computers with the help of electro-encephalographic signals.
The algorithm interprets signals from the brain when a person thinks about a task. For interpreting which keys on a keyboard these wavelets are signaling, Glassman achieved 90 percent accuracy using EEG wavelets she found in the public domain. When putting that to use with electrodes on her own scalp and interpreting the specific wavelets for particular keys, she managed over 70 percent accuracy. This informed her that in real life applications the software had to be customized to each user. Impressive!
4. An Experiment to Determine the Agent/Mechanism Causing the Passivity of Iron in Aerated Distilled Water
Image Credit: Nyberg
Michael Nyberg of Old Lyme, Connecticut took top awards in the 2001 ISEF fair with this experiment that explained why iron doesn't rust in super-oxygenated water. That might not sound too spectacular, except that the concept had specific applications that Michael and his father started a company to develop - controlling mosquitoes without the use of insecticides!
They called it the "Larvasonic" and it works by introducing sonic waves into standing water to kill mosquito larvae before they mature and fly away to spread diseases and cause pesky bites. Even at low frequencies the waves rupture an air bladder just below the head of the larva. Because the frequency is so specific, it does not harm fish or other species living in the body of water.
5. Engineering of a Novel Inhibitor of Biofilm-Encapsulated Pathogens
Image Credit: Mahdavi
In the 2006 ISEF fair in Indianapolis, 16-year old Mahdavi Gavini blew everybody away when she managed to achieve a significant medical research breakthrough while searching for a way to help a friend who suffered from cystic fibrosis. She began the project when she was just 14, having found that most CF sufferers die of pseudomonas infections. These opportunistic pathogens form a thick, protective layer around themselves so that it's nearly impossible for antibiotics to penetrate.
This student at the Mississippi Institute of Mathematics and Science turned to traditional Ayurvedic medicine to find a way to defeat these deadly bacteria. Eventually she isolated a specific molecule in a tropical plant extract that inhibited its growth by preventing the transcription of vital genes. Rather than patenting her discovery, she made the information readily available and plans to seek many more alternative cures in the future.
6. Determining Carbon Nanotubes' Thermodynamic Solubility: The Missing Link to a Practical Supermaterial?
Image credit: Philip Streich
This big winner of $70,000 in prizes and scholarships at the 2007 ISEF fair in Albequerque was Sweet 16 at the time. Philip Streich spent his usual days tending animals on his family's farm near Platteville, Wisconsin, where he was home schooled by his parents. He had not at the time decided if he wanted a career in science, but had already racked up college credits, and was a member of the U.S. Physics Team. Oh... and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory named a minor planet after him, as they do for all first and second place category winners.
Streich has a way of explaining his interest in nanotubes that communicates well why this material might capture the imagination of future scientists like your offspring. Just think of a nanotube as a long, thin pipe made of carbon atoms that have "super-properties." Possible applications? A bridge to the moon, a super-cool stealth fighter, or maybe just a very light and sturdy frame for a racing bike.
7. Petrology, Morphology, and Geochemistry of the Southern Juan de Fuca Ridge: Evidence for Off-Axis Volcanism
Image Credit: Langberg
A student at the Canterbury School in Fort Myers, Florida, Sarah Rose Langberg won the big money prizes, some special awards and government prizes in the 2004 ISEF competition with research that put many masters' theses to shame. Sarah's hard work included chemical investigations, a mathematical simulation, and poring over video of the ocean floor to accurately characterize one of the earth's most active volcanic regions.
She became a Merit-based Scholarship winner at her school as a freshman, went on to become Florida's National Honor Society vice president in her senior year, and was her class valedictorian. This is one high school student research project that really did make it into the scholarly scientific press - she presented her research at the National Society of Exploration Geophysicists Convention in Denver in 2004, and her paper was published in the journal The Leading Edge.
8. Nanoconstruction with Self-Assembling DNA-PNA Complexes
Image credit: Mittal
Alexander C. Mittal, a 17-year old from Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, took top honors in the 2002 ISEF fair with this head-spinning entry in the chemistry category. His project examined the use of peptide nucleic acid [PNA] in combination with DNA to create some unique double-crossover structures that could serve as scaffolding upon which to create molecular size electronic circuits.
Mittal learned from cancer research that the artificial PNA molecule was extremely stable, and hypothesized that a dual DNA-PNA architecture could form a stable structure to be used in electronic arrays. So he designed and produced a totally new, stable PNA-DNA molecule to demonstrate his hypothesis. When he wasn't being a high school chemical engineering genius, Alexander was a Red Cross volunteer, captain of the school's cross country team and co-editor of the school newspaper. His dream? To be one of the first astronauts on Mars.
9. Mechanisms of the Photoisomerization of Conjugated Dienes as a Model for the Primary Visual Event
In case there is some confusion, a diene is a molecule with two double bonds. A conjugated deine is a hydrocarbon molecule with double bonds separated by a single bond. These form the most stable hydrocarbon molecules. Photoisomerization is when light excites the molecules and causes an structural change in the molecule even though its atoms remain the same. Jouei hypothesized that it was this conformational change in certain molecules in the retina of the eye that produce the sense of sight.
10. Computation of the Alexander-Conway Polynomial on the Chord Diagrams of Singular Knots
Image: YouTube, Raoof's presentation
In the category of mathematics, 17-year old Sana Raoof of Jericho High School in Jericho, New York produced this mind-bender to win the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and $50,000 scholarship in the 2008 fair in Atlanta. She chose Harvard, which no doubt feels privileged to have won the bidding for this brilliant young mathematician.
Just in case you are having trouble recalling exactly what chord diagrams and singular knots are all about - having perhaps missed that particular sub-chapter in your high school math class - Greg Muller offers a passable introduction at his blog The Everything Seminar to refresh your memory. Basically, knot theory is about solving simple problems with advanced techniques. For those of us who don't like doing things the easy way...
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Scientists say they have seen the future of genetically modified foods and have concluded that it is orange or, more precisely, golden.
In a few months, golden rice - normal rice that has been genetically modified to provide vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in the developing world - will be given to farmers in the Philippines for planting.
Thirty years after scientists first revealed they had created the world's first GM crop, hopes that their potential to ease global malnutrition problems may be realised at last. Bangladesh and Indonesia have indicated they are ready to accept golden rice in the wake of the Philippines' decision, and other nations, including India, are considering planting it.
"Vitamin A deficiency is deadly," said Adrian Dubock, a member of the Golden Rice project. "It affects children's immune systems and kills around two million every year in developing countries. It is also a major cause of blindness in the third world. Boosting levels of vitamin A in rice provides a simple straightforward way to put that right."
Tests have revealed that a substantial amount of vitamin A can be obtained by eating only 60g of cooked golden rice.
But scientists' satisfaction over the Golden Rice project has been tempered by the fact that it has taken an extraordinarily long time for the GM crop to be approved. Golden rice was created late last century, but its development and cultivation has been opposed vehemently by campaigners who refused to accept it could deliver enough vitamin A, and who argued that the crop would make farmers in the developing world increasingly dependent on western industry.
The scientists reject this view. "We have developed this is conjunction with organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a way of alleviating a real health problem in the developing world," said Dubock. "No one is going to make money out of it. The companies involved in developing some of the technologies have waived their licences just to get this off the ground."
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Metal Bar Floated in Air by Magnetic Repulsion (May, 1929)
Obviously this is a silly trick, but I posted the piece mainly so I’d have an excuse to link to this insane video of “quantum” levitating superconductors locked in a magnetic field. You need to see this, they can actually levitate upside down.
Metal Bar Floated in Air by Magnetic Repulsion
AN IRON bar which floats in the air in apparent defiance of the law of gravity was recently exhibited by the physics department of the University of California, but the professors made no claim to supernatural ability. The metal “wobbly bar” floated between two guide posts on either end of a wooden base in which they were mounted. The secret of the seemingly in- explicable phenomenon of floating metal lies in a duplicate bar buried in the wooden base with the magnetic poles arranged as shown in the drawing above. The floating bar was actually supported by invisible lines of magnetic force repelling similar poles. Cobalt steel was the metal employed, since it can be magnetized more strongly than any other metal.
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Facebook 'may soon allow' under-13s to join the site
- 4 June 2012
- From the section Technology
Facebook may soon allow children younger than 13 years old to access the site under parental supervision, reports say.
The social networking giant is developing technology to link children's accounts to those of their parents, says the Wall Street Journal.
The publication also claims parents could be allowed to control whom their children add as friends.
At the moment, Facebook bans under-13s from joining the site.
The social network currently has more than 900 million users, and opening it up to under-13s could significantly boost the numbers.
Although when approached by the BBC, Facebook's spokeswoman refused to either confirm or deny the reports, she did say that the company was constantly testing new technologies.
She also added that children's safety had always been of paramount importance.
"Many recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to enforce age restrictions on the internet, especially when parents want their children to access online content and services," Facebook said in a statement to the BBC.
"We are in continuous dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policymakers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment."
Lying about age
Among the main reasons of banning under-13s from accessing Facebook are cyber-bullying, child pornography and trolling.
But many analysts wonder whether simply stating that young children are not allowed to join is really solving the problem.
According to surveys, many under-13s get on Facebook anyway, by lying about their age while completing the application form.
And it seems that often, parents are in the loop.
A recent study by researchers from Harvard, University of California, Northwestern University and Microsoft Research found that 72% of parents who had reported that their child was on Facebook knew that that the child joined the social network before age 13.
In May 2011, Consumer Reports found that "of the 20 million minors who actively use Facebook", 7.5 million were younger than 13 and more than five million were younger than 10.
McAfee conducted a study in 2010 which said that 37% of 10 to 12-year-olds were on the social network.
The social network is aware that under-13s do manage to join, and has a page offering advice to parents to help them educate their children about potential issues in the online world.
In May, the Sunday Times quoted Facebook's head of policy in the UK, Simon Milner, as saying that the social network was getting ready to change its policy with regard to allowing younger users join the site.
"A lot of parents are happy their kids are on Facebook," he was quoted as saying.
"We would like to hear from people what the answer might be."
But Facebook's spokeswoman told the BBC that Mr Milner was misquoted, and that it was not correct to conclude from the interview he gave to the Sunday Times that the network was considering to open up to under-13s.
"All he said was that children's safety is extremely important to us, and he did not say anything new," said the spokesperson.
Last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned safety.
"My philosophy is that for education, you need to start at a really, really young age," he said, as quoted by Fortune.
"We'd take a lot of precautions to make sure that the under-13s are safe."
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Far from a pristine forest stretching for mile upon mile, the Amazon was once home to millions of people who domesticated huge swathes of land before the arrival of Europeans caused their societies to collapse, according to a new study.
An international team of researchers concluded that the minimum population in 1492 would have been about eight million, with an “unlikely” upper figure of 50 million. Their findings suggest the forest returned to wilderness after the civilisations were wiped out by disease and conquest brought by the Europeans.
The researcher’s conclusions are partly based on one of the few remaining signs of the civilisations – the dark, fertile soil produced by farming techniques and waste. Some of theses sites are only accessible because of deforestation.
The research tallies with reports from some of the first Europeans to visit South America, which have been dismissed by some at the time as nothing more than propaganda.
Gaspar de Carvajal wrote of the Amazon in 1542: “There was one town that stretched for 15 miles without any space from house to house.”
The researchers, led by Dr Charles Clement of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, said that today the word Amazon “conjures images of dense rainforests, painted and feathered natives, exotic fauna and flora, as well as rampant deforestation, biodiversity extinction, and climate change”.
But they pointed to evidence of considerable human impact. According to one model, extremely dark earth known as terra preta is thought to occur on more than 150,000 square kilometres of Amazonian rainforest, about 3.2 per cent of the total area.
“The idea of a domesticated Amazonia, the immense diversity of social, cultural and historical processes that shaped Amazonia during the Holocene, situates this vast area in the company of other world anthromes [human-dominated areas],” the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.
“It contrasts strongly with reports of empty forests, which continue to captivate scientific and popular media.”
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What are the bacterial prostatitis causes? Bacteria can find their way up the urethra on their own, they may hitch a ride on a urinary catheter or any other instrument inserted into the urethra, or they can originate in the bladder and make their way to the prostate via the urine. Regardless of their travel method, once bacteria settle into the prostate, they should be treated immediately before they cause bladder infections, abscesses in the prostate, or they completely block the flow of urine. If the bacteria move into the bloodstream, they can rush throughout the body and cause a significant drop in blood pressure, confusion, and possibly even death. Fortunately, in most cases, the right treatment for bacterial prostatitis causes can usually eliminate the bacteria.
Any bacteria that are capable of invading the urinary tract and causing an infection are capable of triggering acute bacterial prostatitis.
The main bacteria is Escherichia coli (E. coli) although there are others that can directly or indirectly trigger the disease. They include:
- Chlamydia trachomatis (they also cause Chlamydia)
- Klebsiella pneumonia
- Neisseria gonorrhea (which causes gonorrhea)
- Proteus mirabilis
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Trichomonas vaginalis (which causes trichomon)
Experts do not know the nonbacterial prostatitis causes. Some propose that it is caused by germs that go undetected, while others suggest it is associated with nerve or muscle function in the area of the prostate, a renegade immune system, substances such as uric acid that move from the blood into the prostate and irritate the gland, pressure exerted on the prostate from nearby diseased tissue, and psychological stress.
One of the nonbacterial prostatitis causes that is getting some attention is associated with nerve or muscle function in the area of the prostate. Some research suggests that chronic squeezing of the pelvic muscles causes chronic irritation of the pelvic floor, which in turn irritates the nerves and other structures in the prostate region. Several studies have also noted that most patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome have significantly more abnormal pelvic floor muscle issues compared with men without pain, and/or poor to absent pelvic floor function. (Segura 1979; Zerman 1999; Hetrick 2003) These findings in turn led to several studies in which researchers have used non-drug approaches, namely biofeedback and myofascial trigger point release therapies, to relieve the tension and stress in the pelvic floor muscles in some men who have symptoms of nonbacterial prostatitis.
Over time, chronic nonbacterial prostatitis can cause semen abnormalities, infertility, and a poorer quality of life.
Hetrick DC et al. Musculoskeletal dysfunction in men with chronic pelvic pain syndrome type III: a case control study. J Urol 2003; 170: 828
Segura JW et al. Prostatosis, prostatitis or pelvic floor tension myalgia? J Urol 1979; 122: 168
Zermann DH et al. Neurological insights into the etiology of genitourinary pain in men. J Urol 1999; 161: 903
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That may never have happened if dinosaurs had never gone extinct, Butler added."
London, July 28 - If the killer asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago had hit a few million years earlier or later, dinosaurs probably would have been much better equipped to survive, an interesting study reveals.
Just before a large asteroid slammed into the earth, the diversity of plant-eating dinosaur species declined slightly.
The scarcity of plants would have left them more vulnerable to starvation and population collapse after the impact, with consequences that rippled all the way up the food chain, researchers suggested.
The asteroid hit at a particularly bad time, said Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist at University of Edinburgh.
It is very likely that had the asteroid not hit the earth at that time, we would still have dinosaurs around today, Brusatte claimed.
To explore what dinosaurs were doing when the asteroid hit, the study pulled information from a database on global dinosaur diversity, including hundreds of fossils found in the past decade.
They found most dinosaurs thriving right up until the impact.
In no sense were dinosaurs doomed to extinction and the asteroid just kind of finished them off, said Richard Butler, a palaeontologist at University of Birmingham.
The extinction set the stage for the modern world.
Although one lineage of dinosaurs survived as modern birds, mammals began their rise only after the dinosaurs were out of the picture.
That may never have happened if dinosaurs had never gone extinct, Butler added.
The research appeared in the journal Biological Reviews.
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How to Study More Effectively – Top Methods
Here, you’ll learn several tips on how to study, such as scientifically-proven note taking methods, tricks for getting the most out of the time you spend reading, and programs that can help you take more effective notes. Knowing any one method won’t be enough; finding the ones that work best for you and using them in conjunction with one another, however, can be the difference.
- Chapter 1 – Note Taking and Learning Methods
- Chapter 2 – Note Taking Software
- Chapter 3 – Reading Comprehension and Effective Reading
- Chapter 4 – How to Memorize
Note Taking and Learning Methods
Though it may seem simple to learn “by osmosis,” just letting ideas wash over you isn’t an effective way to absorb and retain information. You need to stay actively engaged to study. Whether you’re wondering how to study in college or how to learn information for a business presentation, note-taking is key.
As you read these tips on how to study, remember that the most effective method of note-taking varies from person to person and from situation to situation. It’s best to experiment with a range of techniques and find the method that works best for you.
The Cornell Note Taking System
Cornell University professor Walter Pauk, author of the bestseller How to Study in College, developed this note-taking method in the 1950s. The Cornell Method helps students systematically record, analyze, synthesize and reflect on the material presented in class, and has gained national recognition as a strong note-taking technique.
To start using this method, divide each page into three sections: a main note-taking section on the right side, a smaller cue column on the left and a summary section on the bottom. During the lecture itself, record notes in the note-taking area, using symbols, abbreviations, and short sentences whenever possible. Write down the most important pieces of information: the main ideas and key supporting details.
Within 24 hours of taking notes, and ideally as soon as possible, write down cues and questions in the left-hand column. Write a brief summary in the bottom section as well, no longer than seven sentences. Those cues provide an invaluable resource for going back and studying the notes later, and the summary forces you to synthesize information and prioritize the most important ideas.
The Cornell Method shines because it provides a built-in means to go back and study. Cover the notes themselves with your hand or a piece of paper and try to recall the information based only on the questions or cues you’ve written in the left-hand column. Reciting in this manner isn’t just a helpful memorizing tool; it’s a way to make sure you understand the significance of each fact.
Finally, spend a few moments reflecting on your notes, asking questions such as “Why is this important?” or “How does this connect with what I already know?” This last step takes note-taking beyond a tool for rote memorization and turns it into an opportunity to really internalize information.
The Cornell Method may have originally been developed for college students, but it has applications outside the classroom as well. The same note-taking technique works with any sort of media: books, videos, slideshows and more.
If all you need to do is memorize and regurgitate facts, there are more efficient methods than the Cornell Method. When it’s time to really analyze and synthesize information, though, the Cornell Method offers some unique tools and stands out among potential methods.
- Additional Resources on the Cornell Notes System:
The Outline Method
Perhaps the most organized note-taking method of all is the venerable outline method. Dating all the way back to the thirteenth century, with predecessors going back much further, outlining is a careful, orderly way to arrange ideas in order of importance and flow. It’s one of the most commonly taught learning techniques in the Western world, and for good reason.
A classic outline uses a system of capital and lowercase letters and numbers to indicate the relative importance of different ideas. Start by labeling each major idea with a Roman numeral: I, II, III, and so on. Below each Roman numeral, label the main sub-points with capital letters, starting with A. Next up are Hindu-Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3), then lowercase letters, indenting at each level. If you need even more sub-points, start using letters and numbers in parentheses.
The key to successful outlining is to leave a little extra space under each section heading. Not all sources of information are as well-organized as a good outline, after all. That extra space means you can go back and fill in more information if a lecturer later returns to the same subject, or if you notice something new when watching a video for the second time.
Because outlines lay out their information in a clear, orderly manner, it’s easy to use them as study tools. Many students use the outline to write a summary, which requires some analysis and synthesis of the information. If all you need to do is memorize, recite the outline line by line, filling in some questions or cue words off to the side if necessary.
Outlining can be an especially efficient note-taking method when your source of information is a carefully organized document such as a textbook. Most textbooks provide easy outlining methods through chapter titles, section headings, and paragraphs focused on one idea apiece, a structure that easily translates to an outline. Some electronic sources, such as government and educational websites, use an outline-like structure as well. Outlines also have a strong visual component, so they mesh well with certain learning styles.
Outlining can present problems, however, as it forces you to impose a structure on the material that may or may not actually be there. When dealing with free-flowing sources of information, making an outline is an exercise in frustration; it’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The structure of an outline can also be somewhat limiting because it’s harder to see connections between material in different sections.
Outlining, then, works particularly well when orderly learning is your top priority. If you’re dealing with disorganized information or need to make more abstract connections, seek another method.
- Additional Resources on The Outline Method:
The Charting Method
Creating a chart is another time-honored technique that helps to keep your notes clear and organized. By splitting your notes into labeled columns, you can cut down on repetition and make the entire process more efficient and productive.
Charting requires more preparation than most other study methods. First, divide your page into a number of columns; four is usually preferred, but certain subjects may require more or less. Label each column at the top of the page with an appropriate category. For instance, when listening to a history lecture, you might label your columns “Date,” “Important People,” “Major Events,” and “Overall Significance.”
You’ll get that preparation time back and then some when it’s time to actually listen to the lecture. Because you’ve already labeled each column, all you need to do is fill in information in the appropriate column. There’s no need to write, for instance, that World War Two was a major event; just list it in the “Major Events” column and you’re all set.
By reducing the amount of necessary writing, charting makes it easier to keep up with fast-paced lectures, presentations, and videos. It’s also easy to visualize the relationships between the pieces of information and understand the overall flow of data, especially if the information is organized chronologically. When it comes to memorizing facts, you can’t beat a chart.
The biggest difficulty faced with a chart is preparation time. You can’t really pull out a chart off the cuff, and you need some knowledge of the material beforehand to effectively label the columns. The organized structure of a chart can also be limiting, as you may encounter information that doesn’t really fit in any particular box. Be sure to keep a blank sheet of paper on hand just in case you need to jot something down.
If you’re wondering how to study faster, though, charting is one of the best methods there is. A good chart will give you a systematic, orderly overview of the material that will make it easier to study, memorize and retain information going forward.
- Additional Resources on The Charting Method:
The Sentence Method
Among the simplest learning techniques out there is the sentence method, which uses nothing more than the writing skills you learned in grade school. Note-taking in sentence form has several key disadvantages when compared to charts and outlines, but if you’re still learning how to take study notes, there’s no easier place to start.
To use the sentence method, all you need to do is copy everything down more or less verbatim. In order to keep up with fast-moving lectures, presentations, or videos, it’s best to use shorthand; abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols all work well. Every time your source moves on to a new idea, start a new line. It’s often wise to leave a little blank space after each line to go back and fill in additional information later.
In many ways, the sentence method is the reverse of the charting method. It requires no preparation and no foreknowledge of the subject matter. Sentence note-taking also has the advantage of thoroughness; unless you physically can’t keep up with the speaker, you’ll record every single piece of information. That means the sentence method is surprisingly useful when you’re faced with a “heavy” presentation where every last fact is important.
On the other hand, if your notes are in sentence form, you’ll need to spend some time immediately afterward converting them into something more useful. The sentence method doesn’t distinguish between major and minor points, nor does it give you any organization except for whatever structure came from the original source. At best, that means you have your notes organized in a manner that made sense to someone else, which may or may not work well for you.
If you’re learning from a resource that you can examine at your own pace, such as a textbook or a video that can be paused, it’s better to use an outline or chart to clearly organize the information. Using the sentence method means you may waste time taking notes twice: once to copy information out of the book and once to organize your notes into an outline. Save yourself the trouble and just make an outline!
If you’re faced with a fast-paced lecture, a live speech, or a streaming video, however, you may have no choice but to use the sentence method. If you’re still learning how to take notes, it’s a simple place to start. The sentence method is a great technique to have in your back pocket for those times when you don’t have enough time to prepare.
- Additional Resources on The Sentence Method:
The Mind Mapping Method
If you’re a visually oriented person wondering how to study, you can’t beat the mind map. This unique method creates a graphic organizer that clearly shows the connections between ideas as they radiate out from a central core concept. British author Tony Buzan is widely credited as the originator of the term “mind map,” but the underlying principles go back much further. Philosophers were known to use similar techniques to visualize information as early as the third century.
The theory behind a mind map is that it uses the same basic architecture as your brain. Instead of starting at the top of the page, a mind map begins in the center, and ideas spread out from that central point in a logical manner. For each main point, draw a curved line spreading out from the central bubble labeled with a one- or two-word key phrase. As you gather additional information, branch out with thinner and thinner lines labeled with the finer details. Many mind mapping experts recommend using color and, if possible, images to make the map more interesting and thus easier to remember.
A mind map has many of the same benefits as an outline, as it shows orderly, logical relationships between ideas. However, while outlines are linear, mind maps are radial. That means there’s no need to slog back through your notes to find a key piece of information; just follow the branches of the map, and you’ll be there in no time.
Mind maps, though, tend to be fairly minimalist in terms of recording facts. They’re not efficient ways to record huge amounts of data, which means it’s best to have the original resource available for reference in case you need to look up something specific down the road. If you need to get every last detail from a particular lecture, try using the sentence or charting method first, then building a mind map based on your notes.
Because mind mapping has become something of a hot topic among purveyors of study tips and learning techniques, there are plenty of resources available to make the most of this method. If you need to learn a complex, multifaceted topic, you’d do well to invest in a dedicated mind mapping tool.
- Additional Resources on Mind Mapping:
Note Taking Software
When individuals develop effective note taking strategies, they learn how to study better. They may then improve upon these skills by incorporating free note taking software and productivity tools. This elevates note taking to new levels by maximizing efficiency and saving time. Increasing efficiency is one of those important studying tips to help individuals realize how to learn faster by cultivating self-discipline and focus.
Since software options offer different benefits, understanding these choices enables users to select technology suitable for each project, purpose, platform, or preference. Below is a basic introduction to key programs that support the studying tips learned throughout this resource.
Launched in 2008, Evernote is a multi-platform tool accessible via the Internet, all mobile devices, Windows, and Mac.
Evernote helps users save notes, organize notebooks, tag locations, capture images, scan documents, record audio, set reminders, and clip websites. These notes may be shared with any user and synced across any device. With top-notch search capabilities, a customizable interface, a wealth of features, and add-on applications, Evernote has attracted 100 million active users as of mid-2014.
While Evernote is free, premium services run $45/year. Free users receive unlimited storage, but only 60MB of monthly data. Upgrading raises this to 1GB/month. While the free version allows users to share documents, editing-enabled collaboration requires premium service. Premium users may also work offline.
Overall, Evernote’s drawbacks are relatively sparse. Increased alarm options are needed. The free data limit can be prohibitive, but the upgrade fee is fairly nominal. Finally, collaboration is hindered when some parties lack the premium access required for every individual needing to actively edit shared work.
Nonetheless, Evernote offers an easy-to-use and multi-faceted experience.
Created in 2008, Simplenote is a user-friendly, web-based program to quickly write, tag, revise, search and share notes.
Simplenote works on the Web, iOS, MAC, Kindle and Android. It allows users to back up, sync, and share data. Because it automatically saves all drafts, Simplenote ensures access to crucial information from previously-saved versions.
For Simplenote collaboration, users simply tag email addresses or create blogs with clear URLs. Using Markdown, Simplenote text converts to basic HTML, turning notes into web pages that further aid collaboration.
While basic functions are free, users can also pursue premium service at a rate of $20/year. Premium users can email notes and sync with Dropbox. Numerous apps further expand services, enabling desktop and online backups.
Simplenote has drawbacks for those wanting more features and organization, however. A tag-and-search system limits organization. Users may upgrade to enable Dropbox, but the overall organizational capability is minimal. Simplenote, ultimately, provides a basic system without too many extras, like audio recording, scanning, etc.
Google Docs is a free, web-based processing suite where users create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in a variety of formats, like PDF, DOC, and HTML. With information securely stored online, users have access from anywhere. All that’s required is a Google ID and Internet connection.
A prolific tool providing advanced collaboration, Google Docs offers simultaneous document viewing/editing, real-time updating, and an IM sidebar. Imagine a study group taking notes in the same document, simultaneously. Such added detail and perspective could improve learning. Now, what about a group research project or spreadsheet? The potential is limitless. This is how to study better.
Google Docs has over 60 add-on tools and syncs with Google Bookmarks/Note/Drive, etc.
Users receive 1GB storage and basic editing functions. While these functions are the most heavily-used, bare bones editing can also help with note-taking. Without clip-art to rival Word, Google Doc users insert graphics by uploading their own or searching online.
Overall, Google Docs resembles a pared-down version of Word with immense portability, but without the hefty price tag.
Workflowy is an interface from which to create notes, organize personal lists, plan events, write creatively, or even complete major research papers. According to the company blog, “WorkFlowy is a zoomable document that provides unprecedented flexibility in organizing your ideas.”
Workflowy users create lists where bullets lead into other bullets. Multiple pages of information are woven together into one list housing linked layers of information. Such lists, with searchable points and the ability to tag key information, are much more complex than basic outlines.
Workflowy services include free, PRO, and Workflowy for Teams. Free users only get 1 list, but upgraded PRO accounts are available for $49/year. PRO users get unlimited lists, offline editing, and safeguards to back-up information while ensuring password safety. Team users receive package deals.
- Additional Resources on Workflowy:
OneNote users create, share, and edit notes for individual and collaborative efforts, clipping pages, taking photographs, emailing files for upload, and expanding product capability through numerous plug-in applications that users can download or create.
OneNote lets users write, draw, email, upload, and date-stamp automatically-saved work organized into notebooks. This easily-navigated program simplifies note taking and organization, and can be of great help to users who want to know how to learn faster.
The full desktop version comes with MSOffice 2013 or Microsoft 365, but free mobile/web versions are also available. Some reviewers feel these versions are not adequate standalones, however, with only the desktop version providing a worthwhile service. Still, OneNote is a multi-platform tool that works with the Internet, Windows, iPad or any type of mobile device.
Spiderscribe provides some indispensable services for visual learners, allowing them to create mind maps connecting various files, documents, images, websites, calendar events, and other functions. Launched in 2012, this flash-based brainstorming tool allows users to directly embed information from outside sources. Utilizing a cloud-based system, Spiderscribe maps may be shared and accessed anywhere.
Spiderscribe service comes in free and upgraded versions. The free version allows unlimited public maps, but only three private maps. It also provides full sharing capabilities and 3MB storage. The professional upgrade, however, offers unlimited private/public maps. This $5/month upgrade gives 2GB storage and priority technical support services. For $25/month businesses/teams may upgrade to the business level for unlimited maps, infinite users, a personal subdomain, priority support and 10MB storage. The first 30 days of premium service is a free trial period.
Reading Comprehension and Effective Reading
Whether you are a student or someone already working in business, you will most likely be required to do a great deal of reading. When it comes to reading, make sure approach the reading you do for business in a different way from the reading you do for pleasure. When reading for pleasure, the goal is to simply “get lost” in the story and reach the ending, but reading effectively requires you to understand and keep the information you are reading. Comprehending what you read can be difficult, but you can develop the skill over time. Comprehension requires you to be able to stay focused, read fluently and to critically think about the text being read. The following strategies will help you improve your reading comprehension, read effectively, and retain the information being read.
How to Improve Reading Comprehension
One of the main aspects of retaining information you read is comprehension of the text itself. Some easy tips to use that will help you learn how to study and how to improve reading comprehension include:
- Active reading will help you use your reading time more effectively. Active reading requires an interaction with the text. While reading, ask yourself or make comments about various points in the text and look for major points or supporting evidence that relates to the main topic of the text.
- When attempting to comprehend information from difficult subjects, try changing your reading speed. Although reading at a slower pace can feel time-consuming, it will help you retain the information being read.
- Concentration makes reading drastically more effective, especially when reading difficult text. To help reduce distractions, find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Avoid reading when you are sleepy, and do not read in bed or while in front of a television, as it will interfere with your concentration.
- When you read for long periods of time, you may find it difficult to understand the text, so plan reading sessions in short periods throughout the day.
Understand that reading, as well as comprehension, can vary from person to person. When improving reading comprehension, you may have to try a few different types of reading strategies until you find the one that works best for you. Two of the most popular types of reading techniques that help with reading and comprehension are SQ3R and OK4R.
Both SQ3R and OK4R were developed as excellent reading comprehension strategies, and each works best in particular situations. The SQ3R technique was developed in 1941 by Francis Robinson as a way to teach military personnel to become better readers. An active reading exercise, SQ3R was designed to help you fully understand what you are reading. The OK4R technique, meanwhile, was developed by Dr. Walter Pauk after becoming frustrated with his students failing class. OK4R also helps with understanding as well as remembering what you read.
The SQ3R method is a comprehension strategy that will help you think about the text you are reading, while you are reading it. You will need to have a pen and paper ready while using the SQ3R method. There are five steps in the SQ3R strategy:
- Survey: see the layout of the text and get a general idea of its construction. Skim over the material, look at the graphics, notice the titles and subtitles, and make a mental note of the total layout. When you survey the material at hand, it gives you an idea of what the author considers important.
- Question: jot down the questions that are addressed in the titles, subtitles and bold or italicized words you noticed while surveying.
- Read: look for the answers to the questions you formulated while surveying. The questions, which are based on the structure of the text, will help you focus on your reading.
- Recite: recite the answers to your questions and make notes of your answers. Quiz yourself at the end of each section to see if you know the material well enough to answer the questions you developed.
- Review: after you have finished reading, review your answers, and if you have any unanswered questions, quickly survey the text for answers. Recite the questions you previously answered.
The OK4R is similar to the SQ3R method in that it allows you to comprehend and retain the information being presented. The steps for the OK4R method include:
- O is overview: read the introduction, table of contents, headings, and summaries so you will get an idea of what the text is about.
- K is key ideas: once you have completed the overview, go back and skim through the text for key ideas, which are typically found at the beginning of each paragraph. Read the bold print, italics, bulleted sections and look at the pictures and graphs.
- R1: read the text from beginning to end. You will be able to read it quickly, because you already know what the author is trying to say, illustrate, or prove.
- R2: recall by closing the book and trying to recall what the main points were that you read. Write down or say a few key words or sentences of the major points. This will help to keep the information in your mind.
- R3: reflect on the previous steps to help keep the information in your memory, relate it to other information, and find the relationships and significance of what you have read.
- R4: review at a later time. Go over the text again to refresh your memory. Study any parts you have forgotten again.
Reading and remembering information can be challenging. It requires time and attention for optimal learning, but with time you will be able to find the best reading comprehension strategies that work for you. Remember to take a lot of notes while surveying and always answer your own questions. Try not to dwell over the same section of text for a long period. If you find yourself reading and rereading the same paragraph, take a break and start from the beginning with the method you are using.
- Additional Resources on Reading Effectively:
How to Memorize
Have you ever spent hours studying for an important test, only to arrive in class and have your mind go blank? Are you dreading returning to an important business meeting after the lunch break because you have suddenly realized that you cannot remember the names of any of the key participants who you met only a few hours ago? If either of these situations seems uncomfortably familiar to you, do not despair. You can improve your memory through some simple, easy to learn memorizing techniques.
How the Brain Processes Information
Psychologists describe memory as the process by which your brain encodes information, stores it, and retrieves it when it is needed. Rather than occurring in just one part of your brain, memory uses several different locations within the brain, which work together to create, store, and recall stored information as cohesive thoughts which you can call upon as needed.
There are three types of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term. These three memory types work together in the memorization process. Sensory memory comes from your five senses and lasts for only a matter of seconds. Researchers have shown that sensory memory is usually limited recalling a maximum of 12 items at a time. Sensory memory is connected to short-term memory through a process that concentrates on only a limited segment of the total environment to the exclusion of other segments. This process of concentration is referred to as attention, and it allows information acquired as sensory memory to become short-term memory.
Short-term memory lasts up to one minute and can process up to 7 items at a time. The information stored in short-term memory will disappear unless you make an effort to retain it in your long-term memory. This transfer of information to long-term memory is what memorization techniques attempt to improve. Learning how to memorize involves finding the technique that works best to help your brain transfer information.
The process of memorization must be used in conjunction with other study skills and learning techniques to be effective. The information your brain acquires as you study for the big exam, or the names of the people to whom you have been introduced at a meeting can be retained and recalled from long-term memory more reliably by learning how to memorize fast in a way that works best for you.
The process of taking notes during a lecture or at a meeting helps you to concentrate on the information being conveyed by the speaker. Retyping those notes can be an effective learning technique that can help you to memorize key information by reintroducing it to your brain.
An even better technique is to reorganize the information into categories, principles, or related concepts. Creating examples to help you to understand important points in a lecture can also be accomplished as you retype your notes. Doing it this way will force you to think about the information from a different perspective or in more depth than you might have done when you were hearing it for the first time.
Replaying Recorded Lectures
If you intend to record a lecture, seminar, or meeting with the intention of listening to it later to improve your memory and study skills, keep in mind that gathering information is the first step you must take toward creating a memory of that information. Taking notes during a lecture might help you to better focus on the information and keep you alert, so recording the lecture and taking notes at the same time might be the best method.
Some people are auditory learners, finding it easier to retain information that they hear rather by reading it in notes. For those types of learners, listening to a recorded version of the original lecture while actively thinking about the concepts and material being presented can enhance the brain’s gathering and processing of the information.
Repetition is the method by which a baseball player learns to perfect a home run swing. Babies use this method to learn how to speak a language.
Repetition focuses on the fact that information is retained in short-term memory for only a brief period of time. By repeating information over and over again, your brain takes the repeated thought patterns and converts them from short-term to long-term memories which you can recall in the long term.
Repeating learned material at intervals that reintroduce the information before it has been removed from short-term memory eventually results in it being stored in the brain for longer periods. The trick to successful repetition is in being aware of the intervals at which to repeat the previously learned material to retain as much of it as possible.
Flash cards, a memory retention technique teachers often use to highlight key points in a lesson, evoke memories of elementary school for many people. Reading or hearing large amounts of information can make it difficult for the brain to identify key points. Most of the information ends up in short-term memory only.
Flash cards focus your attention on key points. Auditory learners benefit by reading the information aloud from the card while visual learners get the information by reading it. In both instances, the information transfers from short-term to long-term memory.
- Additional Resources on Flash Cards:
Because short-term memory is limited in the number of items it can store, chunking is a memory technique that groups items into larger, more meaningful units. An example of chunking is remembering the a telephone number as 123-456-7890 instead of as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0.
One of the most effective learning techniques for remembering new or unfamiliar material is to associate it with something that is familiar. For example, when introduced to a man named whose name is Robert Banks, thinking of a man robbing a bank might help you to remember his name later.
- Additional Resources on Association:
The mnemonic peg system can help those who often find themselves memorizing lists of information. Peg systems can use numbers or letters of the alphabet as the pegs upon which you hang the objects you want to remember. Rhyming pegs associate rhyming words with the numbers one through 10. For example, 1-bun, 2-shoe, 3-tree, etc. If you are going shopping and wish to remember to buy milk, bread and apples, for example, you might visualize a bun floating in milk, a shoe stepping on a slice of bread, and apples hanging from a tree.
- Additional Resources on The Peg System:
The method of loci or the memory palace uses visualization to organize and, eventually, recall information. Begin using this technique by thinking of a location with which you are familiar, such as a bedroom in your home or, for those who are more creative, an imaginary palace with multiple rooms
By following a specific route through your palace, you can deposit things that you want to remember later along the way at specific locations. When you wish to recall the things you deposited, you simply retrace your steps through the palace. Periodically walking the same path through the palace will help you to remember the location of the items when it comes time for you to retrieve them.
- Additional Resources on The Peg System:
References and Additional Resources on Learning and Studying
- Ken Bain. What the Best College Students Do. Belknap Press, 2012. ISBN-0674066642
- John B Bader. Dean’s List: Eleven Habits of Highly Successful College Students. John Hopkins University Press 2011. ISBN-1421400812
- Cynthia C Muchnick. The Everything Guide to Study Skills: Strategies, Tips, and Tools You Need to Succeed in School! Adams Media 2011. ISBN-1440507449
- Cal Newport. How to Win at College. Three Rivers Press 2005. ISBN-0767917871
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ERIC Identifier: ED446368
Publication Date: 2000-11-00
Author: Goorian, Brad
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on
Educational Management Eugene OR.
Alternative Teacher Compensation. ERIC Digest Number 142.
Teacher compensation is gaining renewed attention in state legislatures and
school district offices as policymakers seek to attract and retain qualified
individuals to teaching and also explore creative ways to promote higher
educational and professional standards.
This Digest examines various alternative methods of teacher compensation
currently proposed or in practice in school districts around the country.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT STANDARD FOR TEACHER COMPENSATION?
single salary schedule, which pays individual teachers on the basis of their
years of experience and educational units or degrees, has been in place
nationwide for at least 50 years (Odden 2000). Attempts to unseat the single
salary schedule have largely foundered.
The 1980s saw significant experimentation with merit-pay and career-ladder
systems, which rewarded teachers financially based on performance reviews and
their willingness to take on extra responsibilities. The seemingly subjective
nature of administrator-led reviews created resentment among teachers and their
unions and was "at odds with the team-based, collegial nature of
well-functioning schools" (Odden). Odden asserts that virtually none of the
merit-pay systems enacted prior to the 1990s survives today.
WHY CHANGE THE SINGLE SALARY SCHEDULE?
resilience, the single salary schedule "seems to be always under attack" (Odden). Although predictable and fair, the current system, say its critics,
rewards mediocrity by valuing seat time over teaching skill. A tight labor
market, greater scrutiny from state legislatures, and new laws in some states
that encourage or even require changes in teacher compensation are among the
factors currently pressuring schools to raise salaries.
Demographically, the need for new teachers is rising to an epic level. The
U.S. Department of Education estimates that the nation will need more than a
million new teachers by 2010, nearly half the current work force of 2.6 million
in elementary and secondary schools. An estimated 50 percent of new teachers
leave the profession within five years, many of them citing money and
professional dissatisfaction as key reasons.
At the same time, policymakers seem unwilling to allocate more money to
schools without ensuring a return on their investment. Linking teacher pay to
student test scores, for example, is unpopular with many teachers and their
unions but may be imposed on school districts by legislators or district
WHAT ALTERNATIVES EXIST TO THE SINGLE SALARY
There are four main types of alternative compensation systems in
use today: (1) pay for performance, (2) knowledge- and skills-based pay systems,
(3) school-based performance award programs, and (4) compensation for
certification with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Pay for performance. This concept generally links teacher pay to certain
performance benchmarks, notably student test scores. School districts in
Colorado, Minnesota, Indiana, and other states are experimenting with some form
of pay for performance linked to student test scores (Urbanski and Erskine
2000). This concept, like merit-pay systems of the past, is troubling to many
teachers who worry that pay will be linked to subjective factors outside their
control. The National Education Association recently rejected a resolution that
would have accepted pay for performance provided the systems were "clearly
stated," "subject to objective measurement," and did not use student test scores
to determine salaries (Archer, July 12, 2000).
One alternative school in Los Angeles ties dollar amounts to teachers'
demonstrated skill in lesson planning, literacy instruction, and the use of
technology. An administrator and a peer teacher conduct assessments four times a
year, rating the skills of those being evaluated. The teachers also rate
themselves, and their scores account for one-third of the total score.
Systems based on knowledge and skill. Some states, such as Ohio and Colorado,
are incorporating relatively new assessment tools produced by the Educational
Testing Service (ETS) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
into their compensation systems. These tools, known as Praxis and INTASC
assessments, assess and test teachers' core content knowledge as well as
clinical teaching practices and pedagogy. Performance on these assessments is
one factor in earning increased pay, though both the Denver and Cincinnati plans
allow teachers to demonstrate acquisition of new knowledge and skills through
portfolios of their class-work and professional-development activities.
The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) stresses that
knowledge- and skills-based compensation systems can and should reward teachers
for acquiring whatever skills a school needs. Thus, a plan could encourage and
reward teachers who learn skills such as budgeting and curriculum planning,
which might allow talented individuals to both teach and perform administrative
duties, instead of leaving teaching altogether for better-paying administrative
Systems based on school performance. School-based-performance award (SBPA)
programs generally tie financial bonuses to specific goals and benchmarks, such
as improving test scores in core subjects and reducing absenteeism and dropout
rates. Some school districts restrict the funds to school-improvement projects,
whereas others give bonuses directly to staff with no restrictions. In the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, schools set annual improvement goals based on
student achievement on standardized tests. The district grants staff
unrestricted cash bonuses for meeting their goals.
Maryland's program assesses student attendance and performance on two
standardized tests. Maryland's Department of Education awards cash bonuses to
schools but not to staff for meeting targeted goals. The Department also
releases report cards on state and district progress toward meeting standards,
thus creating incentives in the form of public approval and support or public
The CPRE believes that current SBPA programs do a good job of focusing
teacher and system attention on key educational goals and continuous
improvement. However, it argues that SBPA programs can be strengthened by
providing more clearly stated goals and consistent feedback so that teachers
know what is expected of them and what knowledge and skills they should strive
to acquire. It also calls for more consistent funding to assure teachers that
the bonuses will be available if they meet their goals.
Compensation based on certification. Certification through the NBPTS is
gaining recognition. About half the states provide financial incentives for
achieving board certification.
The certification process combines rigorous standards developed by the NBPTS
with a sophisticated, extensive assessment process to determine whether teachers
meet those standards. Many teachers who have been assessed testify to the rigor
and fairness of the process and claim that the assessments are the "best
professional development activities" in which they have been involved (Odden).
The assessment procedure is both long and expensive, and currently only about
40 percent of teachers who go through it earn board certification (Odden).
Many states are offering incentives for certification. For example,
California provides a one-time $10,000 bonus for board certification; North
Carolina offers a 12 percent pay raise for the life of the certificate; and
Florida grants a 10 percent salary increase for the life of the certificate and
an additional 10 percent bonus to those who mentor newly hired teachers
WHERE ARE ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS IN PRACTICE TODAY?
is believed to be the first big-city public school district to scrap its
traditional salary structure entirely. Beginning in the 2002-2003 school year,
all teachers with less than 22 years of experience will be ushered into the new
plan (Blair 2000).
The plan contains five career categories and accompanying salary ranges, from
"apprentice" to "accomplished," with specific goals and standards attached to
each. Frequent, indepth evaluations will determine whether teachers advance,
stay in the same category, or slide back into a lower one. The plan is a
"knowledge- and skills-based" system, rewarding teachers for meeting goals set
by the district rather than student test scores.
Denver's closely watched pilot program offers three different
pay-for-performance plans. One is based on standardized test scores, another is
linked to achievement on teacher-made assessments, and the third takes into
account demonstrated acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Twelve elementary
schools are currently participating, but so far no middle or high schools have
signed on as hoped.
Douglas County, Colorado, has one of the oldest and most comprehensive
alternative compensation plans in the nation. The plan is multifaceted,
combining elements of both pay-for-performance plans and
The Teacher's Union Reform Network (TURN), a consortium of 21 unions around
the country, is experimenting with one or more forms of alternative teacher
compensation. Cincinnati, Columbus, Denver, Memphis, Miami, and New York City
grant unrestricted bonuses to staff under SBPA programs. Teachers in Los
Angeles, Minneapolis, Montgomery County, Rochester, and Toledo, among others,
receive significant cash bonuses for earning board-certification (Urbanski and
WHERE CAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS TURN FOR GUIDANCE?
Kelley (1997) provide a theoretical framework for new forms of teacher
compensation and offer examples of compensation innovations in place around the
country. The CPRE Teacher Compensation Project has developed four models that
illustrate different versions of what new pay systems might look like.
The Milken Family Foundation has produced a report (Solmon and Podgursky
2000) that argues most obstacles to performance-based compensation can be
overcome. It advocates experimentation with pay plans that incorporate key
elements of knowledge- and skills-based pay systems and performance-based
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Commission on Teaching
and America's Future (NCTAF), and Education Week are also good sources for
research and information on alternative teacher- compensation plans around the
Archer, Jeff. "NEA Delegates Take Hard Line
Against Pay for Performance." Education Week 19, 42 (July 12, 2000): 21-22.
-----. "Changing the Rules of the Game." Education Week (June 14, 2000): 19,
24-30. -----. "Denver Pay-for-Performance Pilot Still Has Far To Go, Report
Says." Education Week 19, 42 (July 12, 2000): 10.
Blair, Julie. "Cincinnati Teachers To Be Paid on Performance." Education Week
20, 4 (September 27, 2000): 1, 15.
Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. "Why Change Teacher Compensation?"
"Questions and Answers on Teacher Compensation and Skills-Based Pay."
Kantrowitz, Barbara, and Pat Wingert. "Teachers Wanted." Newsweek (October 2,
Kelley, Carolyn; Allan Odden; Anthony Milanowski; and Herbert Heneman III.
"The Motivational Effects of School-Based Performance Awards." CPRE Policy
Briefs. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, February 29,
2000. 12 pages. ED 440 473.
Odden, Allan. "New and Better Forms of Teacher Compensation Are Possible."
Phi Delta Kappan 81, 5 (January 2000): 361-66. EJ 599 065.
Odden, Allan, and Carolyn Kelley. Paying Teachers for What They Know and Do:
New and Smarter Compensation Strategies To Improve Schools. Thousand Oaks,
California: Corwin Press, 1997, 204 pages. ED 404 312.
Olson, Lynn. "Pay-Performance Link in Salaries Gains Momentum." Education
Week 19, 7 (October 13, 1999): 1, 18.
Solmon, Lewis C., and Michael Podgursky. "The Pros and Cons of
Performance-Based Compensation." Milken Family Foundation, 2000.
Urbanski, Adam, and Roger Erskine. "School Reform, TURN, and Teacher
Compensation." Phi Delta Kappan 81, 5 (January 2000): 367-70. EJ 599 066.
The following links contain information on various alternative plans and on
studies as well as specific information on the plans enacted in Cincinnati and
Douglas County, Colorado.
American Federation of Teachers: http://www.aft.org/research/index.html
Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: http://www.nbpts.org
National Commission on Teaching & America's Future:
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Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Confederated Tribes of the Colville ReservationHistory
The Colville reservation was established April 19, 1872 east of the Columbia River by the executive order signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. The boundaries were changed July 2, 1872. Chiefs Moses and Joseph bands moved onto the Reservation in the 1880's which caused anguish among Sapoils and Nespelems, the originals of the reservation. On May 23, 1891 Okanagons, Sinkisuses, Nez Perces, Colvilles and Seijextees agreed to sell 1.5 million acres, north half of res., to the United States for $1.5 million. However, was never ratified by the United States Senate. The North half of the reservation was opened to the public domain and opened for mineral entry by the act of February 20, 1896. The Confederated Tribes were not paid. July 1, 1898 the South half of the reservation was opened to mineral entry. December 1, 1905 350 out of about 551 Indians signed a McLaughin agreement giving United States all rights, title and interest to lands within the reservation in exchange the $1.5 million would be given to them which they hadn't received yet and still didn't get it. In an act of March 22, 1906 it provided allotment of 80 acres for each of the Indians belonging to the reservation. It was amended August 31, 1916 to reserve land for school, mills, cemeteries and missions. In the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 undiposed lands (818,000 acres) within the reservation were temporarily withdrawn from further disposition or sale by the Department of Interior order of September 19, 1934. Then the act of July 24, 1956 restored ownership to the Tribe. The 1.5 million acres and lands on the South half of the reservation that were never paid for were taken to the Claims Commission for a final judgement and they awarded the Tribe $3.5 million.
The Confederated Tribes of Colville are run by their business Council which derived its powers from their constitution and bylaws. The Council seeks sovereignty in tribal matters which the state and federal have been involved such as law enforcement and protection of water rights.
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PARIS – Imagine Optic, French manufacturer of wavefront metrology and adaptive optics technology, has been entrusted with the leadership of MICADO (MICroscopy with ADaptive Optics), a three-year project that aims to develop new technology using adaptive optics for detecting and treating neurological disorders.
Financed by France's National Research Agency, the MICADO project will gather Imagine Optic (Orsay, France) and researchers from the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI), the Neurobiology Laboratory at the Normal Superior School (ENS) and the Laboratory of Optics and Biosciences (LOB).
A key objective of the consortium is to develop an all-new wavefront sensor, dubbed Optical Coherence Interferometer (OCI), that will complement Imagine Optic's HASO wavefront sensor. Scientists said OCI would have to be able to differentiate between the light reflected by the specified target and errant light reflected back that confuses other devices.
Commenting on the technology emanating from this collaboration, Xavier Levecq, team leader at Imagine Optic, declared: “Certain technologies, including confocal scanning microscopes, are not suitable for in vivo deep-tissue imaging because sufficiently amplifying the imaging source inevitably causes damage to the specimen. Using adaptive optics to enhance Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and multi-photon microscopes for subcellular deep-tissue bioimaging will enable us to dramatically improve image quality at depths of several hundred microns without damaging the living tissue.”
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- Course overview, expectations, logistics, processes, syllabus,
FAQ, and prerequisite material.
- Embedded systems descriptions, definitions, and vocabulary.
Design Engineer's notebook.
- Embedded system design considerations and requirements,
processor selection and tradeoffs.
- Overview of board development process, wire wrapping, soldering.
- Microprocessor/microcontroller architectures and instruction sets.
- Multiplexed address/data buses, bus architectures.
- Design cycle, planning a development project, derivation of
- Microcontroller instruction set, assembler and simulator. Code
- Examples of assembly code, discussion of mnemonics, calculation of execution time.
- Device programmers, EPROM emulators, Intel hex records and Motorola S-records.
- Schematics and wiring diagrams, recommended practices, CAD tools.
- Board layout considerations, signal integrity (noise, crosstalk, etc.), decoupling, techniques.
- Manufacturing and test engineering, PCB design, ground and power planes, EMI, EMC.
- Data sheets, power supplies, voltage regulators. Thermal considerations, heat sinks.
- Oscillators and reset circuits. Microprocessor supervisory circuits, watchdog timers.
- Development and debugging strategies and techniques. Logic probes, voltmeters and oscilloscopes.
- Designing with tolerances and margins, part variations and substitutions, reliability/part count.
- Interfacing different logic families, fanout, signal buffering, noise margins, pullups/pulldowns.
- Microcontroller peripherals, selection and interfacing. Core component circuitry (?P, ROM, RAM).
- Microcontroller timing diagrams, program read, data read, data write.
- Debugging using logic analyzers, state and timing information.
- Timing requirements, propagation delay, setup, hold, rise/fall times, timing analysis. Clock skew.
- Memory selection and interface, SRAM, NVRAM, DRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash.
- Memory maps, decoding logic, glue logic, programmable logic (PALs, FPGAs).
- Port pin structure. Controlling port pins in assembly. User interface design, human factors.
- Driving LEDs, switch debouncing in hardware and firmware, keypad decoding.
- Timers/counters. Interrupts and Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs).
- Estimating bandwidth requirements, code timing.
- Serial communication, RS-232/485, line drivers/receivers, charge pumps, terminal emulation, USB.
- Cross-assemblers, cross-compilers, linkage editors, disassemblers, other software tools.
- MICRO-C and SDCC cross compilers, Emily52 simulator, makefiles, and tools.
- Monitors, in-circuit emulators, debuggers, monitors, software engineering, debugging using software.
- EEPROMs, I2C and synchronous serial communication.
- Embedded C variables, bit operations, pointers.
- Final Project Design Review. Each project team presents development plan, including milestones.
- Interrupts in embedded C.
- Interfacing C and assembly.
- Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs).
- Motor control, stepper motors, DC motors, PWM, H-Bridges. Case study: hard disk drive.
- Firmware design, main loop designs, interrupt driven firmware, device drivers.
- Operating systems and real-time schedulers.
- Jump tables, POST, memory testing, Little/big endian issues, math functionality.
- Current events and emerging technologies.
- Migrating C code from RAM to ROM.
- Review of vocabulary.
- Final project presentations.
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The Hall of Memory
The focus of the Memorial is the Hall of Memory, a quiet place for contemplation of the efforts of ordinary Australians in war and for the remembrance of those who suffered and died.
Each one of the Hall's fifteen stained glass windows represents a defining quality of Australian servicemen and women, incorporating images of Australian soldiers, airmen, sailors and a nurse, all from the First World War. The windows were designed and executed by Napier Waller, a Victorian artist who lost his right arm during that war.
The walls and dome of the Hall are lined with one of the largest mosaics in the world, also the work of Waller and unveiled in 1959. The mosaic inside the dome depicts the souls of the dead rising from the earth towards their spiritual home, represented by a glowing sun within the Southern Cross. The figures on the walls – a soldier, a sailor, an airman and a servicewoman – recall the Australian experience of the Second World War.
Over six million pieces of glass tesserae were used in the composition; it was installed by an Italian craftsman and took over three years to complete.
- The Hall of Memory Mosaic
This document was produced in 1989 as collection notes to accompany the art Exhibition "Art in Action". It contains detailed information about the Hall of Memory Mosaic (the exhibition referred to is no longer on display).
- The stained glass windows
This document describes the defining qualities of Australian servicemen and women which are represented by the fifteen stained glass windows in the Hall of Memory.
- The four pillars in the Hall of Memory
This document describes the symbolism of the four pillars located in the Hall of Memory as earth, air, fire and water.
- Large figures on the walls of the Hall of Memory
This document describes the significance of the four large figures located on the walls in the Hall of Memory - the soldier (army), sailor (navy), airman (air force) and servicewoman (women's services).
- Napier Waller article in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
- Commemorative Area
- Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
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When members of the general public are faced with complex decisions, for example a medical situation for an elderly parent, all of the sudden there is a need to learn what a whole lot of new words mean and a compulsion to get up to speed with current research. The relevant words may be entirely new concepts and its hard to know where to start. The spectrum of sources for medical information range from Google to MedLine and on and on depending the users comfort level with exploring advanced research. Members of the general public, and even experts, can face difficulty staying on track to solve only the current problem without wandering down unrelated paths that, while interesting, actually have nothing to do with making an informed decision about the situation at hand.
There are too many facts and opinions to choose from and currently no way to stack conflicting and current points of view against each other in a simple format limited to a specific, narrow context, rather than the context of everything. In a medical situation, understanding all the options for medical reasons is unfortunately only part of the picture, there is also a need to become an instant expert in the swirl of confusion that is the insurance industry, not to mention the information pharmaceutical companies publish for public access. All three industries collide on a regular basis. Simple decisions may be influenced by a large number of conflicting viewpoints that may not care as much about the outcome as much as untrained users trying to learn new terminology to understand the pros and cons. Maybe FLIPP explainers could be used to understand the options, for example, IF hospice care is initiated THEN Medicare benefits will change.
Having access to endless research, benefits, and reports does not make the decision easier or fix things in the real world. Diagrams can help see in overviews to consider what doctors are telling you, compared to what the industry position is, compared to what you can observe yourself to decide what is realistic, what to expect, how you can help. What is needed is something like a holding bin or personal visual dashboard to collect, analyze, and keep only the pieces that matter in your puzzle. For example, Figure 5 from Context Driven Topology drawings shows:
Instead of a curator, scientist, and detective – what if the points of view were brother, brother, and sister? From left to right, one approach is to integrate bits and pieces information into a solid position, another may choose to undertake a comprehensive survey, another may simply be trying to separate fact from fiction. A consensus across all three points of views and ways of making decisions may only intersect at one point. Too bad that point can’t be guided by all the medical, insurance, and pharmaceutical information.
How would such a point be derived? Maybe through Linked Open Data
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Severe weather is most common during the Spring months of March, April, and May across Tennessee and southwest Virginia, but it can occur any month of the year. It's important to stay weather-aware and to have multiple ways to receive severe weather alerts. Have a plan of action before the storm hits.
See the latest Severe Weather Alerts here: www.wcyb.com/weather/severe
See the latest Storm Track 5 Forecast here: www.wcyb.com/weather
Sign up for Severe Weather email and/or text alerts here: www.wcyb.com/weather/mobilealerts
Get the Storm Track 5 mobile app: www.wcyb.com/mobile
Tornadoes are nature’s most violent and dangerous storms. Tornadoes can appear without warning and be invisible until dust and debris are picked up or a funnel cloud appears.
2014 commemorates the 40th anniversary of the worst tornado outbreak in U.S. history.
According to the National Weather Service, on April 3 and April 4, 1974, 148 twisters touched down in 13 states, leaving 330 people dead and 5,848 injured.
In Tennessee, 50 people died as 28 tornadoes blew through 19 counties in middle and east Tennessee.
A little more than a year ago, Middle Tennessee recorded the largest January tornado outbreak in its history, when 22 touched down on Jan. 30, 2013. This date also marks the second biggest outbreak of tornadoes for any month in Middle Tennessee history.
First, familiarize yourself with the terms used to identify a tornado hazard: a Tornado Watch indicates that conditions are right for a tornado to develop; a Tornado Warning indicates a tornado has developed or could develop within minutes.
Be sure to have a NOAA Weather Radio with batteries in case you lose power. Keep your cell phone charged and access the Storm Track 5 mobile app for the latest.
If at home, go to a basement or storm cellar, away from windows. If neither is available, find shelter under a piece of sturdy furniture such as a work bench or heavy table and hold on to it. A room in the center of the house is usually safer than the outer rooms.
If at work or school, go to the basement or inside hallway at the lowest level. Avoid auditoriums, gymnasiums, cafeterias or large hallways.
If outdoors, get inside a building, or lie in a ditch or low-lying area. Avoid water-filled ditches. Use arms to protect head and neck and stay low to the ground.
Never try to outrun a tornado. If in a vehicle, get out immediately and take shelter in a nearby building, ditch or low-lying area between the vehicle and tornado.
If in a mobile home, get out and take shelter in a building with a strong foundation or lie in a ditch or low-lying area between the tornado and mobile home.
A copy of the Severe Weather Awareness Guide, from TEMA and NWS, is available at www.srh.noaa.gov/images/ohx/SWAW/SWAW2014.pdf.
The guide contains more severe weather preparedness information and includes a disaster supplies checklist.
For more information on Severe Weather Awareness Week and on preparing for severe weather, visit TEMA’s website at www.tnema.org, or download TEMA’s ReadyTN smartphone application, http://www.tnema.org/ReadyTN/index.html.
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Volume 10 — September 26, 2013
Consistency of Nutrition Recommendations for Foods Marketed to Children in the United States, 2009–2010
Lorraine J. Weatherspoon, PhD, RD; Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam, PhD; Hye-Jin Paek, PhD; Sookyong Kim, MS; Sumathi Venkatesh, MS; Julie Plasencia, MS, RD; Mira Lee, PhD; Nora J. Rifon, PhD
Suggested citation for this article: Weatherspoon LJ, Quilliam ET, Paek H, Kim S, Venkatesh S, Plasencia J, et al. Consistency of Nutrition Recommendations for Foods Marketed to Children in the United States, 2009–2010. Prev Chronic Dis 2013;10:130099. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd10.130099.
Food marketing has emerged as an environmental factor that shapes children’s dietary behaviors. “Advergames,” or free online games designed to promote branded products, are an example of evolving food marketing tactics aimed at children. Our primary objective was to classify foods marketed to children (aged 2–11 y) in advergames as those meeting or not meeting nutrition recommendations of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). We document the consistency of classification of those foods across agency guidelines and offer policy recommendations.
We used comScore Media Builder Metrix to identify 143 websites that marketed foods (n = 439) to children aged 2 to 11 years through advergames. Foods were classified on the basis of each of the 4 agency criteria. Food nutrient labels provided information on serving size, calories, micronutrients, and macronutrients.
The websites advertised 254 meals, 101 snacks, and 84 beverages. Proportions of meals and snacks meeting USDA and FDA recommendations were similarly low, with the exception of saturated fat in meals and sodium content in snacks. Inconsistency in recommendations was evidenced by only a small proportion of meals and fewer snacks meeting the recommendations of all the agencies per their guidelines. Beverage recommendations were also inconsistent across the 3 agencies that provide recommendations (USDA, IOM, and CSPI). Most (65%–95%) beverages advertised in advergames did not meet some of these recommendations.
Our findings indicate that a large number of foods with low nutritional value are being marketed to children via advergames. A standardized system of food marketing guidance is needed to better inform the public about healthfulness of foods advertised to children.
In the United States, 1 in 3 children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years is overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥85th percentile) or obese (BMI ≥95th percentile) (1). Inappropriate high-calorie food choices and portions, relative to the amount of physical activity, contribute to childhood obesity (2). Other diet-related health considerations include consumption of total fat, saturated fat, added sugars, cholesterol, and sodium. These nutrients when consumed in excess can cause cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and other obesity-related conditions (3). Time spent using the computer, watching television, or using game consoles displaces the time and energy spent in playing sports and engaging in physical activity (4). Simultaneously, high-calorie foods such as sweetened beverages and French fries can lead to displacement of nutrients from more healthful foods (5).
Food marketing has emerged as an environmental factor that shapes children’s dietary behaviors (6). “Advergames,” or free online games designed to promote branded products, are an example of evolving food marketing tactics aimed at children (7). Food advergames influence children’s food preferences and choices, and food products promoted in food advergames tend to have poor nutritional quality (8). Consumers often seek science-based nutrition guidelines for recognizing healthful foods from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) (3), the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (9), the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) (10), and the food and nutrition board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (11).
The objectives of this study were to 1) determine whether the foods marketed to children through advergames meet nutrition recommendations of the USDA, FDA, CSPI, and IOM and 2) examine the level of consistency across the 4 agencies by comparing food classification of the agencies. To our knowledge, no single federal regulatory agency or policy governs the nutrition content of foods marketed to children. Instead, the practice of self-regulation by food manufacturers allows the use of self-defined “science-based guidelines” rather than having a single source (12).
We used comScore Media Builder Metrix (comScore, Inc, Reston, Virginia) to measure a webpage level audience database of 1.2 million Internet users from the United States. We identified food advergames visited by children aged 2 to 11 years from August 2009 through July 2010 that may have contained products from top-selling food companies, including those likely consumed by children. We obtained an extensive sample and comprehensive lists of the most recent food advergames from the top-selling food companies identified in previous studies (13), which was supplemented by the top 5 food brands identified in the Mintel Reports (14). A total of 475 URLs were identified. URLs were excluded if the website was not exclusively devoted to advergames or if the advergame was nonexistent (due to the changing nature of websites) or had other Web features such as product menu or videos. A total of 143 URLs met the criteria, including having at least 30 visitors per month (the visitor criterion set by comScore for tracking the URL), and were analyzed. We identified 439 foods from the 143 URLs, which resulted in an average of 3.06 unique foods per advergame (does not include repeated promotion of the same foods). Most of the brands represented in these advergames were promoted in children’s television programs (83.1%), and the food product categories were child-oriented (94.4%).
Two trained coders independently assessed the nutrient content of the 439 food products, representing 19 brands, identified in the advergames (average intercoder reliability = 0.93) (15). Coders were trained using an initial pilot sample of 143 foods. The nutritional content of the food products promoted in the advergames was calculated on the basis of nutrition facts labels displayed on food packages found either at the food company websites, grocery stores, or both.
We obtained information on serving sizes and total calories as well as information on the following: 1) total fat, 2) saturated fat, 3) added sugar, 4) sodium, and 5) cholesterol. The nutrition information obtained from the food packages was compared with the recommendations by USDA, FDA, CSPI, and IOM (Table 1) for the respective categories to determine if a food product met the recommendations for each of the 5 categories. To examine foods by meal categories, foods were also grouped by meal type: snacks (salty and sweet), meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and beverages.
For USDA, the dietary guidelines for children aged 2 to 11 years were chosen to compute the recommendations on the basis of a 2,000 kcal per day diet (3). The amounts of total fat, saturated fat, added sugar, sodium, and cholesterol in the food products were converted to percentage of calories obtained from each of these 5 categories, which were subsequently analyzed to determine whether they met the USDA recommendations. For all the other organizations, we used either the percentage of calories from the respective category when necessary or the cut points provided by the organizations for the different categories (Table 1).
Among the 439 foods from the 19 brands, there were 254 meals, 101 snacks, and 84 beverages (Table 2). Approximately 95% of the advertised meals and 78% of the snacks did not meet the USDA and FDA recommendations for total fat, and a large proportion of these foods met the recommendations of CSPI and IOM (only 13% of meals and snacks did not meet their fat recommendations). Similarly, nearly half of the snacks did not meet the saturated fat recommendations of USDA and FDA, while more than 80% of them met the CSPI and IOM saturated fat recommendations. However, less than one-fourth of the meals advertised met the USDA recommendations for saturated fat, while more than 65% of the meals met the recommendations of FDA, CSPI, and IOM.
Only a few foods met the USDA recommendations for added sugar (13.4% of meals and 3% of snacks), while 90% of meals and 26.7% and 25.7% of snacks met CSPI and IOM criteria, respectively. The FDA did not have recommendations for added sugar. The USDA and FDA had stringent recommendations for sodium; only 3% to 5% of meals and 46% (FDA) and 59% (USDA) of the snacks met the sodium recommendations. Conversely, a larger proportion of foods met the CSPI (64% meals and 97% snacks) and IOM (44% meals and 91% snacks) recommendations for sodium.
The CSPI and IOM did not have recommendations for cholesterol content of meals and snacks. Except for 1 meal, all met the recommendations for cholesterol according to FDA and 230 meals met the USDA recommendations (90%). All the advertised snacks met the USDA and FDA cholesterol recommendations. Overall, foods that met the USDA and FDA recommendations were consistent for total fat, cholesterol, saturated fat (only for snacks) and sodium (only for meals), while fewer foods met the CSPI and IOM recommendations.
Overall, meals only met the recommendations made by all 4 organizations for total fat (4%), saturated fat (23%), and sodium (3%). Thirteen percent of meals met the recommendations for added sugar by USDA, CSPI, and IOM, and 90% of the meals met the cholesterol recommendations by USDA and FDA. Conversely, 22%, 53%, and 46% of the snacks met the criteria for all the organizations for total fat, saturated fat, and sodium, respectively. Only 3% of the foods met the recommendations for added sugar by USDA, CSPI, and IOM, while all the foods met the cholesterol recommendations made by the USDA and FDA.
The nutrition recommendations made by USDA, CSPI, and IOM (FDA does not provide recommendations for beverages) for beverages that were examined in this analysis were also inconsistent (Table 3). Only the USDA and IOM recommend 100% fruit juice, and this was met by 10.7% of the beverages analyzed. The USDA and CSPI recommend no added sugars or sweeteners, and this criterion was met by 4 beverages analyzed for both agencies. The IOM recommends that beverages contain less than 22 g of sugar per 8 fluid ounces; 34.5% of beverages met this recommendation. CSPI is the only agency that mentions caffeine in its recommendations and recommends that beverages contain none; most (86.9%) beverages met this recommendation. The only recommendation that was consistent across all 3 agencies was for milk. All 3 recommend nonfat or 1% milk, but these beverage types were not found advertised through advergames.
Our evidence indicates that the nutrition recommendations of the USDA, FDA, IOM, and CSPI for foods marketed to children vary greatly. Companies that market foods to children should exercise social responsibility, and clear criteria and enforcement of food advertising guidelines and regulations is warranted in the absence of consistent and enforceable voluntary standards.
The tactic addressed in this study, the advergame, is new, and the rapid pace of technological innovation will continue to provide more new and unique advertising opportunities for food companies. For example, the expanding popularity of mobile technology such as smartphones and tablets provides another venue for advertisers to reach children. In our technology-driven society, highly interactive advergames engage the player in ways that traditional one-way media, such as television, cannot. Food marketers, presumably recognizing the potential persuasive effect of advergames on children’s attitudes or behaviors, have used advergames to reach their target audience more frequently than have marketers of nonfood products (16). This reach is achieved by promotion of advergames on food product packages, on portal websites, and via television advertisements (17). As new techniques evolve, it becomes even more critical that parents and the public be provided with sound nutritional and health guidance through food marketers.
Advergames most often promote high-calorie food products (8,18), potentially blurring the lines between advertising and entertainment and compounding children’s inability to recognize and resist intent (19). Conversely, studies have also demonstrated that using advergames can be an effective method of increasing nutritious food choices (20) and can potentially be a positive alternative strategy for obesity interventions aimed at children.
Arguably, the food policy environment is complex, particularly within the context of food marketing to children; stakeholders representing industry, government, health policy, and consumer interests are often at odds over who should determine what marketers can and cannot do to sell their products. The food industry, advocating for self-regulation rather than government action, created the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) in 2006 (21). The original design of the program left the development of standards in the purview of each company, and, as a result of its self-regulatory nature, the CFBAI lacks strong compliance and enforcement powers (13). Five years later, the CFBAI announced the development of “uniform standards” to be effective December 13, 2013 (22). But even these new standards differ from those promulgated by the USDA, FDA, IOM, and CSPI, which are typically regarded as providing sound science-based guidance by consumers. Our findings call into question the ability of the consumer to make healthful choices when organizations they look to for guidance provide information that is not consistent.
In an effort to provide better information and help control and prevent childhood obesity and other diet-related health problems, a group of 4 federal agencies (the Federal Trade Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, and the USDA) was tasked with developing nutrition principles for foods marketed to children and adolescents ages 2 to 17 (23). This collaboration resulted in the Interagency Working Group on Foods Marketed to Children, formed in 2009, which proposed self-imposed guidelines that have not been implemented. These voluntary guidelines met with much resistance from the food industry and, at least at the time this study was conducted, the effort to adopt self-regulatory guidelines or enforce policy appears to be delayed indefinitely. The current state of self-regulation is ineffective (24), and inconsistent criteria from agencies result in a confusing environment for parents who are trying to provide their children with healthful food choices.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a data set of foods advertised through advergames that are actually reaching children and compare nutritional quality of foods in those games across nutrition recommendations from 4 organizations on which consumers rely for accurate nutrition information. The USDA provides the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for foods and beverages for people aged 2 years and older to facilitate a healthful diet. The FDA provides food labeling guidelines for the safety of the nation’s domestically produced and imported foods. The FDA also works in harmony with the Federal Trade Commission to establish guidelines for health and nutrition claims made in food marketing as well as on food labels. The IOM makes recommendations on appropriate nutrition standards for foods and beverages offered at schools, more specifically for those that are competing with federally reimbursable meals and snacks. The CSPI, a consumer advocacy organization, developed Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children intended for use by companies that market, sell or advertise foods to children less than 12 years of age.
Childhood obesity is a complex issue, and the food industry has the power of promoting foods that could positively affect children’s food preferences and consumption patterns (25). A multinational study of children aged 6 to 12 years in 10 countries (the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, and Sweden) showed a positive association between the hours spent watching television advertisements promoting energy-dense (sweet, salty, or high-fat) foods and the prevalence of childhood overweight. This relationship was inverse when the advertisements promoted nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, bread, and fish products) (26). As mentioned in a review by Boyland and Halford, brand recognition as a result of various media exposure influences eating behaviors and food preferences of children (27). This result could also occur with advergames. Regulation of advertisement of foods high in calories, fat, salt, and sugar is imperative to protect the health of the younger generation.
Our study has limitations. Due to the nature of this study, it was not possible to demonstrate any actual effects of advergames on children’s dietary behaviors. And we could not ascertain whether multiple exposures from various media existed for any the food products identified. In addition, some food products appeared in an advergame multiple times, so the frequency of appearance may have been higher than reported and may be considered in future research. Finally, foods and meals that did not meet comScore’s criteria to generate audience information were excluded, even though they may have been used by and intended for children.
In our study, the classification of food categories varied across organizations due to varying criteria for nutritional quality developed to meet each agency’s purpose. Therefore, as postulated by Moodie et al, self-regulation or inconsistent regulation does not help adequately inform the public, and a uniform, preferably federal, policy should be established for guidelines for foods marketed to children (24). This policy should address the differences in what may be defined as “healthy” for foods marketed to children by industry versus nutrition experts.
The project described was supported by award no. R21HD061761 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.
Corresponding Author: Lorraine J. Weatherspoon, PhD RD, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, 140 GM Trout Food Science Building, 469 Wilson Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824. Telephone: 517-355-8474, ext. 136. E-mail: email@example.com.
Author Affiliations: Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam, Sookyong Kim, Sumathi Venkatesh, Julie Plasencia, Nora J. Rifon, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; Hye-Jin Paek, Hanyang University, South Korea; Mira Lee, Chung-Ang University, South Korea.
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- US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. 7th edition. Washington (DC): US Government Printing Office; 2010.
- Hands BP, Chivers PT, Parker HE, Beilin L, Kendall G, Larkin D. The associations between physical activity, screen time and weight from 6 to 14 yrs: the Raine Study. J Sci Med Sport 2011;14(5):397–403. CrossRef PubMed
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- Seiders K, Petty RD. Taming the obesity beast: children, marketing, and public policy considerations. J Public Policy Mark 2007;26(2):236–42. CrossRef
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- Guidelines for responsible food marketing to children. Center for Science in the Public Interest; 2005. http://www.cspinet.org/marketingguidelines.pdf. Accessed January 23, 2013.
- Institute of Medicine. Food marketing to children and youth: threat or opportunity. Washington (DC): The National Academies Press; 2006.
- Quilliam E, Lee L, Cole R, Kim M, editors. Do food advergames promote healthy dietary choices and lifestyles? An analysis of national marketers’ self-regulation of food advergames for children. Denver (CO): The 2010 Marketing and Public Policy Conference; 2011.
- Quilliam ET, Lee M, Cole RT, Kim M. The impetus for (and limited power of) business self-regulation: the example of advergames. J Consum Aff 2011;45(2):224–47. CrossRef
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- The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative: a report on compliance and progress during 2011. Arlington (VA): Council of Better Business Bureaus; 2012.
- Interagency working group on food marketed to children preliminary proposed nutrition principles to guide industry self-regulatory efforts. Federal Trade Commission; 2011. http://ftc.gov/os/2011/04/110428foodmarketproposedguide.pdf. Accessed January 16, 2013.
- Moodie R, Stuckler D, Monteiro C, Sheron N, Neal B, Thamarangsi T, et al. Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries. Lancet 2013;381(9867):670–9. CrossRef PubMed
- Hastings G, McDermott L, Angus K, Stead M, Thomson S. The extent, nature and effects of food promotion to children: a review of the evidence (technical paper). Geneva (CH): World Health Organization; 2006.
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Table 1. Comparison of Guidelines for the Recognition of Nutrient-Dense Foods, by Agency, United States, 2009–2010
|Nutrient||USDA Dietary Recommendations for Children Aged 2–11 Years||FDA Conditions for the Use of “Healthy”||CSPI Criteria for Foods Marketed to Children||IOM Tier I Nutrition Standards for Foods in School|
|Calories||1,000–2,200 daily||None||<1/3 RDA||≤200 kcal for snacks; ≤664 kcal for entrees|
|Total fat||<5% daily value; trans fats as low as possible||≤3 g per 100 g||≤35% kilocalories from fat||≤35% of kilocalories from fat/portion|
|Saturated fat||<10% of kilocalories||≤1 g per 100 g≤10% of kilocalories from saturated fat||≤ 10% kilocalories from saturated fat plus trans fats||<10% of kilocalories from saturated fat; no trans fat|
|Added sugar||≤5% daily value||None||<35% added sugar||<35% of kilocalories/portion|
|Sodium||<1,500 mg daily; ≤5% daily value||≤600 mg for meals||≤230 mg for snacks; ≤770 mg for meals||≤200 mg for snacks; ≤480 mg for entrees|
|Cholesterol||<300 mg daily≤5% daily value||≤90 mg/serving for entrees; ≤60 mg for all other foods||None||None|
Table 2. Proportion of Meals and Snacks Advertised Through Advergames That Met Agency Recommendations, by Agency, United States, 2009–2010
|Nutrient||USDA, n (%)||FDA, n (%)||CSPI, n (%)||IOM, n (%)||Meets Standards of All Organizations|
|Meets||Does Not Meet||Meets||Does Not Meet||Meets||Does Not Meet||Meets||Does Not Meet|
|Meals (n = 254)|
|Total fat||14 (5.5)||240 (94.5)||11 (4.3)||243 (95.7)||220 (86.6)||34 (13.4)||220 (86.6)||34 (13.4)||11 (4.3)|
|Saturated fat||58 (22.8)||196 (77.2)||167 (65.7)||87 (34.3)||188 (74.0)||66 (26.0)||183 (72.0)||71 (28.0)||58 (22.8)|
|Added sugar||34 (13.4)||220 (86.6)||NA||229 (90.2)||25 (9.8)||228 (89.8)||26 (10.2)||34 (13.4)a|
|Sodium||13 (5.1)||241 (94.9)||8 (3.1)||246 (96.9)||163 (64.2)||91 (35.8)||112 (44.1)||142 (55.9)||8 (3.1)|
|Cholesterol||230 (90.6)||24 (9.4)||253 (99.6)||1 (0.4)||NA||NA||230 (90.6)b|
|Snacks (n = 101)|
|Total fat||22 (21.8)||79 (78.2)||22 (21.8)||79 (78.2)||88 (87.1)||13 (12.9)||88 (87.1)||13 (12.9)||22 (21.8)|
|Saturated fat||53 (52.5)||48 (47.5)||53 (52.5)||48 (47.5)||82 (81.2)||19 (18.8)||82 (81.2)||19 (18.8)||53 (52.5)|
|Added sugar||3 (3.0)||98 (97.0)||NA||27 (26.7)||74 (73.3)||26 (25.7)||75 (74.3)||3 (3.0)a|
|Sodium||60 (59.4)||41 (40.6)||46 (45.5)||55 (54.5)||98 (97.0)||3 (3.0)||92 (91.1)||9 (8.9)||46 (45.5)|
|Cholesterol||101 (100)||0||101 (100)||0||NA||NA||101 (100)b|
Table 3. Proportion of Beverages Advertised Through Advergames That Met Recommendations of the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, CSPI, and the IOMa, United States, 2009–2010
|Beverage Recommendation (n = 84)||Meets Recommendation, n (%)||Does Not Meet Recommendation, n (%)|
|100% fruit juiceb,d||9 (10.7)||75 (89.3)|
|Nonfat and 1% milkb,c,d||NA||NA|
|No added sugars or sweetenersb,c||4 (4.8)||80 (95.2)|
|<22 g sugar per 8 fl ozd||29 (34.5)||55 (65.5)|
|Caffeine freec||73 (86.9)||11 (13.1)|
The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions.
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Periodic Report on the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention
As a country that has ratified the World Heritage Convention, Canada is required to submit a report to the World Heritage Committee describing how it is implementing the Convention. The “periodic report” consists of Section I, an overview of Canada’s legislation, policies and programs for protecting and presenting natural and cultural heritage, and Section II, a series of reports on the current conditions of the existing World Heritage Sites in Canada. The purpose of this report, as determined by the World Heritage Committee, is:
- to provide an assessment of the application of the World Heritage Convention by the State Party;
- to provide an assessment as to whether the World Heritage values of the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List are being maintained over time;
- to provide up-dated information about the World Heritage properties to record the changing circumstances and state of conservation of the properties;
- to provide a mechanism for regional co-operation and exchange of information and experiences between States Parties concerning the implementation of the Convention and World Heritage conservation.
In addition to the reports mentioned above, Canada is required to submit a joint report with the United States, describing implementation of the World Heritage Convention in North America.
As Canada’s representative for the World Heritage Convention, Parks Canada has been leading the project to prepare the periodic report. This has included working in partnership with provincial government officials in British Columbia, Alberta and Québec and with municipal government officials in Québec City and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to prepare the Section I (national) and Section II (site-specific) reports. It has also included working cooperatively with the United States National Park Service - the US representative for the World Heritage Convention - to prepare the North American Regional Report.
Canada’s periodic report must be submitted to the World Heritage Committee’s secretariat in December 2004, so that the Committee can discuss it in 2005. If you would like to read and comment on the draft report, you may do so by selecting from the links below and submitting written comments to firstname.lastname@example.org. The deadline for submitting comments is October 22, 2004.
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In March 2000, I wrote an Email message to a young student who had asked me about memorizing mathematical formulas. With his message he included some example formulas for perimeter, area, etc. Here was my reply:
“There are lots of different ways to memorize mathematical formulas. I have always found that the best way is to know how the formula was created in the first place. Then, if I forget the formula on a test, I can just go through the steps of re-creating the formula. It gives me a great feeling to know exactly how a formula works rather than just taking the letters and numbers and trusting the “magic.”
Here is an example, using the formulas you gave me:
>Perimeter: Rectangle: P=2 (L + W), Square: P= 4s
To derive the formula for a rectangle, first picture the rectangle,
W +-----------------------+ | | L | | L | | +-----------------------+ W
The perimeter, as you probably know, is the distance around the
rectangle. To do that, we simply need to add up the four sides.
The answer is L + W + L + W. This is equivalent to the condensed
formula that you gave: P = 2(L+W). Is this pretty easy?
The only problem you may run into is that you may use different
letters than were used in the “official” formula. For example, you
might use “a” and “b” instead of “L” and “W” and get a formula
like P = 2(a+b). There is nothing wrong with this alternate
formula. If you use it to calculate a perimeter, it will work fine.
So the only question is whether your teacher expects you to quote
the exact formula with the right letters or if he/she wants you to use the formula to actually solve a math problem. If you are solving a math problem, then the teacher will never see the formula you use, so you can use whatever formula you want (as long as it works). If he/she wants you to write down the formula on a quiz, you might have to use the same letters. But hopefully the teacher is reasonable. You could do something like this on a pop quiz:
Perimeter of a rectangle: c = 2(a+b) where c = perimeter a = length b = width
Since you are specifying what the letters mean, the teacher should
accept this answer as correct, unless he/she’s really strict. (If
you don’t say what you use for your letters, the answer will not be
correct, because someone else who looks at your formula has to be
able to understand how to use it.)
Here’s another example of deriving formulas: What about the area
of a triangle? Let’s say you already know the easy formula for the
area of a rectangle: A=LW. A triangle looks like half of a
______ | W / | / L| / | / | / |/
In that case, the area is half that of the imaginary rectangle:
A = 1/2 L*W. Now, of course triangles have different shapes, so
does this formula work for all triangles? The answer is yes. If you
doodle on the back page of your quiz, you can draw various triangles and fit rectangles around them. Some of the triangles may cut the big rectangle into three pieces instead of two, but, when you look at it, it still will look like half the area. Also, hopefully you’ve previously made an attempt to memorize the formula, and you know that it’s a real easy formula, so it has to be right! The only difference is just the letters we used. The “real” formula uses B and H for base and height instead of L and W. But we already talked about this.
“Base” and “Height” are easier to understand than “put an imaginary rectangle around a triangle as tightly as possible and take H for the height and W for the width of that rectangle and use that in my formula A = 1/2 L*W” … so you’d want to use the preferred “base” and “height” on your pop quiz unless you really were having a memory crisis!
The techniques I mentioned above can be applied to almost all of the formulas you gave me. But sometimes you may have to do something different because 1) the formula is too complicated, or 2) you don’t have enough time on the pop quiz to derive the formula because it’s a really short pop quiz and you’re expected to know the answer immediately.
The most complicated formula you gave me was the area of a circle,
which is A = 3.14*R2 (R squared). Actually, I hope you were told
that the number 3.14 is a special number in mathematics called PI
(and represented by a Greek letter). It is special because it appears
in a whole bunch of formulas, so once you’ve memorized 3.14159, you can really take advantage of it. If you know that 3.14 is PI, then that makes for a very interesting memory “picture”… you can think of a PIE for PI. Then you can think of two rats on top of the pie, eating it. You watch them as they gobble down the whole pie. The pie represents PI. The two rats represent R and 2 (2 for squared). The full stomachs represent the entire “area” of the pie. Actually, we have to be a little careful because “area” is a two-dimensional concept and the pie in our imagination is three-dimensional and we might think of it as VOLUME… we don’t want to confuse it with a volume formula we might memorize in the future. So… just modify the picture a little bit… pretend we have a very FLAT pie… one that is perhaps only half an inch thick. Perhaps this was a rejected pie by a baker, so he threw it out the door into the alley, where the two rats found it. WOW!! What a picture! You’ll be sure to remember the formula now!
The only other problem is memorizing what PI is in the first place.
There are different ways to do this. One way is to convert the numbers
to letters using the mnemonic alphabet as described in my
“How to Improve Your Memory” tutorial
(you might think of meat, run, lip, then
use that with “pie” to make a short little story). Another way, if you
have the luxury of time, is to cleverly create a sentence like:
“Hey, I feel a lumpy cantelope.” The trick is that if you write down
the number of letters in each word, you get PI! A third idea is simply
to write 3.14159 on a card and tape it to your bedroom ceiling, front
door, maybe even your Playstation console. It may take longer to
memorize, but soon you’ll have it memorized by “brute force,” and you’ll
be able to recall it very quickly without even a story. Since it’s such
an important number in math, it may be worth it.
Here is an example from another Email message:
“I found website very informative. Do you know of any information out there on memory techniques for remembering detailed technical calculations … ?”
Most of the good, published books out there on improving your memory include
a section or chapter about memorizing mathematical formulas. The basic idea
is that you convert the formula into a picture. For example:
_()_ = V --- A
This formula says that resistance is the ratio of voltage to current. For
the horizontal line, you might think of a table. V is perhaps a V-shaped
vase, and it’s on top of the table, whereas under the table is an Ant.
The Greek Omega symbol on the left side sort of looks like a horseshoe, and
you could pretend someone throws the horseshoe over to the other side of the
equation and hits the vase and it crashes. Some of the falling pieces
disturb the ant.
There, that is a beautiful and memorable picture for a formula!
For more complicated formulas, you just
creatively expand on the idea.
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The Opportunity Rover on Mars is one of the greatest engineering success stories of the 21st century. Originally designed for a 3 month mission and still going 10 years later, it’s performed 40x longer than planned!
It’s saddening that a feat of engineering that in my mind equals that of say Brunel’s Clifton Gorge bridge, is not publicly recognised. Have you ever seen a show detailing it’s design or build? Do you know the names of anyone in the team that built it? The 10,000 word wikipedia page doesn’t even name the team involved in its design or construction, let alone any individual.
Actually that’s not strictly true, in the “Honors” section it says:
> “Honoring Opportunity’s great contribution to the exploration of Mars, the asteroid 39382 has been named Opportunity.”
And it then goes on to name 3 individuals: Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Tom Gehrels, who found the asteroid. So yes the article does name some people, but they found a rock in space, one assumes the 39,382nd rock to be found in space!
But it doesn’t name a single engineer responsible for actually building a robot that flew to another planet and has spent 9 years and 3 months longer than planned, and certainly longer than anyone could have dreamed of, exploring it.
I know that engineers are not considered cool etc, but when something really remarkable happens, it’s a shame more effort is not made to recognise the achievement.
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THE ROLE OF FERRIC IRON UPTAKE REGULATOR (FUR) PROTEIN ON IRON REGULATION IN COXIELLA BURNETII
Coxiella burnetii is a gram negative, obligate intracellular bacterium. It is the etiologic agent of Q fever in a variety of species including livestock, humans and arthropods. The bacterium infects the monocytes of its host and is encapsulated in the phagolysosome, an acidic vacuole meant to kill the bacterium, where it survives and replicates. C. burnetii must be able to acquire all the nutrients necessary for survival within this acidic environment. In all but one species of bacteria, iron has been shown as necessary for replication as is serves as a cofactor for many cellular processes. However, iron concentration must be maintained as a delicate balance. Too little iron and replication is impeded, while too much iron initiates the production of oxygen radicals which are fatal to the cell. Ferric iron Uptake Regulator (Fur) is responsible for the regulation of iron acquisition genes in many gram negative bacteria. Fur acts as a transcriptional repressor of iron regulated genes. These genes have a sequence within their promoter region called the “Fur box” that binds to the Fur protein when the protein is also bound to its co-repressor, Fe2+. In E. coli, Fur has been found responsible for the regulation of over 30 genes. Previous work showed that C. burnetii has a functional fur gene. We hypothesize that C. burnetii genes that contain promoters with a highly conserved consensus sequence are part of a Fur regulon. Our goal is to characterize this regulon. Nineteen putative Fur boxes were identified in C. burnetii. Fifteen of these were cloned into the pBlue plasmid expressing beta-galactosidase. These plasmids were then co-transformed with a plasmid expressing Fur into an E.coli fur deletion strain. The ?-galactosidase assay was then used to test promoter activity. Eleven of these promoters were evaluated. Three promoters, for open reading frames CBU0970, CBU0769 and feoB were found to be repressed in the presence of iron. We predict that although a Fur regulon is present in C. burnetii, it includes only a limited set of genes.
School:Texas A&M University
School Location:USA - Texas
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:fur coxiella iron regulation
Date of Publication:08/16/2006
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Scouting for turkeys can mean anything from simply driving around and looking for tracks in the road, to extensive groundwork and advanced woodsmanship in searching for and reading the various types of turkey sign. The importance of scouting is undeniable. Hunters who go into the field armed with sufficient knowledge about their quarry can greatly increase their chance of harvesting a bird.
While scouting before the season, keep your eyes peeled for the below signs, which are good evidence of turkeys in the area:
Tracks – Search areas where tracks will be noticeable such as along field edges and paths clear of leaves. Tracks will confirm that birds are in the area and maybe help you understand where they like to travel. Turkeys have three long toes. A single track measuring 4 1/4 inches or more from the tip of the middle toe to the heel indicates a gobbler, smaller than that its probably a hen.
Droppings – A hen’s look like small pieces of popcorn while a gobbler’s droppings are larger and J-shaped.
Wingtip marks – When gobblers strut, their wingtips drag the ground leaving two parallel lines in the dirt, sometimes with turkey tracks visible between them.
Dusting areas – Turkeys bath themselves in dust to rid themselves of mites and other parasites, creating small, round dirt depressions in the ground.
Feathers – Turkeys will typically knock feathers loose from their wings as they fly up to and down from their roosts. Out west, tall timber area littered with feathers and mixed with droppings indicates a good roost site. In the east, larger wooded areas make identifying roost areas a little more difficult as the birds have more roosting options.
While tracks, droppings, shed feathers and of course, visual sightings of turkeys are all positive proof that birds are in the area, many hunters opt to delve further into the business of scouting. Here's what they look for:
Roosting site - Turkeys generally roost high in the branches of large trees and often spend some time gobbling before flying down at sunrise. In Rio Grande range, roosts are often located on cottonwoods found along rivers, stream and creeks. Eastern birds may roost near water also, but may spend their nights high in ridge top pines. The ground below roost trees will be littered with feathers and droppings. While birds may not use a specific site every night, a roost tree with fresh sign is reliable indication that birds are frequenting the area. This is a good, centralized location to continue scouting, but most veterans prefer not to hunt near a roost. Turkeys spooked off the roost, they believe, tend to move out of the area.
Fly-down area - Turkeys, Rio Grandes on particular, prefer to leave the roost and hit the ground on a relatively open area. In the west, this may be a pasture or wheat field, while in the east it may be clear cut, grazed field or open understory beneath the pines. If a hunter can pattern birds coming off their roost, fly-down areas are excellent places to set up for a hunt.
Display areas - In the spring, gobblers spend much of their day strutting in a high visibility area such as a knoll, rise, bare ridge, old roadway or meadow. Look for concentrations of tracks and drag marks made by the wing tips of a displaying tom.
Feeding area - In some areas, turkeys feed randomly and are nearly impossible to pattern. In other areas, hunters can almost count on birds using particular field or draws where a food source is readily available. These also are good places to set up and wait.
Loafing area - Depending on weather, turkeys may spend their afternoons in sunny openings amid hillside brush or in cool, shady creek bottoms. These areas are often protected from wind and well-used dusting wallows are often nearby. Late in the season when hens are nesting, toms are often lonely and vulnerable to hunters set up in a loafing area.
Staging area - Turkeys often congregate in a seemingly designated locations before moving together toward the roosting site. Difficult to locate except by visual observance, these areas are excellent ambush sites.
Travel lanes - Tree rows, shelterbelts, draw, creek banks, cattle or deer trails are all likely routes which turkeys take from one area to another during the course of a day. These too are excellent locations to plan a hunt.
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<urn:uuid:10c02361-e97a-4422-a9d1-ab240e2e8105>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
|
http://wildlifedepartment.com/hunting/turkeyscouting.htm
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en
| 0.950817
| 938
| 2.796875
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Invasive species: impacts on forests and forestry
Books and monographs
- Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). 1993. Harmful non-indigenous species in the United States. Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, Report OTA-F-565.
- Stein, B.A. & Flack, S.R. eds. 1996. America's Least Wanted: Alien species invasions of U.S. ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia.
- Aliens - bi-annual publication of the Invasive Species Specialist Group
- Biocontrol News and Information - CAB International
- Biosecurity - Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand
- Feral Herald - Invasive Species Council, Australia
- Forest Insect & Disease Newsletter - Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry
- GISPNews - Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP)
- Gypsy Moth News - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry
- Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Newsletter - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Morgantown Field Office, Forest Health Protection
- IPMnet News - Consortium for International Crop Protection (CICP)
- NAPPO Newsletter - North American Plant Protection Organization
- Pest Detection and Management Programs- Weekly Notices - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine
- Protect - New Zealand Biosecurity Institute
- State Pest Management Newsletters, United States
- Weed Watch - Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) for Australian Weed Management
- United Nations Environment Programme (Content Partner); Mark McGinley (Topic Editor). 2007. Invasive alien species in Africa: Developing effective responses. In: C.J. Cleveland, ed. Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington, D.C., Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment. First published April 2, 2007; Last revised April 13, 2007
- Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) publications
- Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) publications
- Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA) - Research briefs (primarily dealing with Prosopis spp.)
- Cambray, G. 2006. A river ran through it. Science in Africa, March 2006.
last updated: Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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<urn:uuid:487264fd-9b10-4cdb-96c4-da79b2feba17>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.fao.org/forestry/aliens/28269/en/
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| 0.733086
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Any Card At Any Number - You table a cased deck, then remove a small, thin note-pad from your shirt pocket and ask one person to name any card. Let's assume he says, "The Queen of Spades." You record this on the pad. You next ask a second person to name any number from 1 to 52. Let's assume this person says, "22". You record this too, then pick up the cased deck. You remove the cards and show that they are all different. You hand the deck to one of them, and ask that he deals down to the 22nd card... it's the Queen of Spades!
If you would like to inject a little comedy, once the card and number have been named, you can explain that you have a giant playing card in your pocket (or an envelope) and ask if everyone would be impressed if the named card was on its face, and the named number was on its back? When they reply you remove the card and ... all 52 card faces are printed on its face and all the numbers from 1 to 52 are printed on its back. You now allow at least five minutes for the laughter to subside.
Do not confuse ACAAN with inferior 'A card at Any Number' routines, where either you name the card or they select one. The presentations in ACAAN are nothing like that!
1st edition 2006; 9 pages.
word count: 3256 which is equivalent to 13 standard pages of text
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
|
http://www.lybrary.com/acaan-p-1079.html
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en
| 0.965327
| 305
| 3.015625
| 3
|
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