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A proxy resides in the address space of the calling process and acts as a surrogate for the remote object. From the perspective of the calling object, the proxy is the object. Typically, the proxy's role is to package the interface parameters for calls to methods in its object interfaces. The proxy packages the parameters into a message buffer and passes the buffer onto the channel, which handles the transport between processes. The proxy is implemented as an aggregate, or composite, object. It contains a system-provided, manager piece called the proxy manager and one or more interface-specific components called interface proxies. The number of interface proxies equals the number of object interfaces that have been exposed to that particular client. To the client complying with the component object model, the proxy appears to be the real object.
Note With custom marshaling, the proxy can be implemented similarly or it can communicate directly with the object without using a stub.
Each interface proxy is a component object that implements the marshaling code for one of the object's interfaces. The proxy represents the object for which it provides marshaling code. Each proxy also implements the IRpcProxyBuffer interface. Although the object interface represented by the proxy is public, the IRpcProxyBuffer implementation is private and is used internally within the proxy. The proxy manager keeps track of the interface proxies and also contains the public implementation of the controlling IUnknown interface for the aggregate. Each interface proxy can exist in a separate DLL that is loaded when the interface it supports is materialized to the client.
The following diagram shows the structure of a proxy that supports the standard marshaling of parameters belonging to two interfaces: IA1 and IA2. Each interface proxy implements IRpcProxyBuffer for internal communication between the aggregate pieces. When the proxy is ready to pass its marshaled parameters across the process boundary, it calls methods in the IRpcChannelBuffer interface, which is implemented by the channel. The channel in turn forwards the call to the RPC run-time library so that it can reach its destination in the object.
Build date: 10/27/2012
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686580(v=vs.85).aspx
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en
| 0.895608
| 419
| 3.5
| 4
|
February 20, 2008
People with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia live, on average, about four and a half years after their condition is diagnosed. This is based mainly on people in their 80s and 90s who have recently developed Alzheimer's. In general, people with Alzheimer's have about one-half the life expectancy, after diagnosis, than people who do not have Alzheimer's. The present findings are from a large collaborative study group in the United Kingdom. The findings appeared in the British Medical Journal.
The findings may help those who care for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease to better plan for the future. The results highlight that dementia is a chronic condition, and that people with Alzheimer's will likely need care for a number of years after their diagnosis. At the same time, the average survival time is under five years, with wide variations depending on age and physical condition at the time of diagnosis.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge followed more than 13,000 men and women, aged 65 and up, for 14 years. During that time, 438 of the study participants developed Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia, and more than 80 percent of those with dementia died.
Overall, men with dementia did not live as long as women with the disease: 4.1 years for men, versus 4.6 years for women. And men or women in frail physical shape did not tend to live as long as their more physically robust peers. It's important to note that these numbers mainly reflect people in their 80s and 90s. Younger people who get Alzheimer's generally live longer. The rule of thumb is to assume half the life expectancy of a normal person of the same age.
How far advanced the cognitive decline was, on the other hand, did not sharply influence how long someone tended to live after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, according to the present study. Nor did being married, which some studies have linked with improved survival. People who lived at home tended to live slightly longer than those living in a nursing home, though the differences were not statistically significant.
The median age at death was 90 for women and 87 for men. Average survival times varied widely, however, depending on the age at diagnosis. Those who were diagnosed at a younger age, from 65 to 69, lived an average of 10.7 years after diagnsosis. Those diagnosed in their 90s, on the other hand, lived an average of 3.8 years.
People with more education tended to live slightly less long than those who were less educated. However, the difference was not significant.
A Growing Problem
While life expectancies are increasing around the globe, one side effect of the aging population is a growing incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Worldwide, more than 80 million people may suffer from dementia by the year 2040.
Knowing how long a person with dementia might survive is important for caregivers and health policymakers. People with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia have markedly decreased life expectancies. They are two to four times more likely to die than someone of the same age who does not have dementia.
Various earlier reports have shown wide variation in expected survival after a diagnosis of dementia. President Ronald Reagan, for example, lived more than a decade with the disease. Some cases may progress very rapidly. Others may linger for decades.
Many factors come into play when estimating how long someone with Alzheimer's might survive. This study adds additional data about what caregivers might expect when preparing for a future of Alzheimer's.
Jing Xie, Carol Brayne, Fiona E. Matthews and the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study Collaborators: "Survival Times in People With Dementia: Analysis from Population Based Cohort Study With 14 Year Follow-Up." British Medical Journal, online edition, January 11, 2008
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.alzinfo.org/02/articles/caregiving-11
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Product carbon label - is this one label too many?
A recent discussion on the ABC Radio Bush Telegraph program considered whether a carbon label on products would be welcomed by consumers or lead to confusion due to the suggestion that there is already a proliferation of eco labels (recyclable, organic, energy star, compostable....etc).
Do you think there is a place for product carbon labels in Australia or is this one label too many?
You can listen to the ABC program at:
I think there can be a place. But its more complex than we think. There is much literature about the effectiveness of labels. In short, some work, many don't.
The success of current labels in the market is questionable and it can be difficult to fully evaluate the impact of environmental labels on consumer behaviour. Concerns regarding the environmental characteristics of a product form part of a complex purchasing decision which factors in price, quality and habit. (Horne et al, 2007). The design and information on the label, the certifying body and the environmental marketing that accompanies the product all contribute to the effectiveness of a label (Teisl et al, 2002). So determining whether the label is influencing the consumer is no easy thing. For a wide range of reasons it is also difficult to measure and assess the impact of labels on the environment itself.
Voluntary environmental labels have achieved mixed success in Australia. Lack of standardised definitions and scrutiny of claims can lead to confusion and mistrust amongst consumers (organic, free range). To be effective, labels need to be widespread, consistent and independent. Trust, understanding and awareness play major roles in their success (Horne et al 2007). Given this, mandatory labels may have more success. An example of this is Australia’s mandatory energy and water star rating labels for appliances which have been very successful. The energy star program is widely regarded as among the most informative in the world and is recognised by 94 percent of Australian consumers (Artcraft Research 2005).
Well recognised, trusted, independent and credible labels can form part of the solution to educate consumers on the sustainability of goods. But they won’t ultimately drive change unless there are policy instruments to back them up.
It was interesting to read in the Artcraft Research report that consumers put cost savings (39%) and energy savings (38%) ahead of helping the environment (13%) as the main reasons that they consulted the star labels on appliances. Maybe the cost saving benefit was more reason for the success of this program than it being mandatory.
If a large proportion of consumers are mostly concerned about saving money, what amount of behaviour change can we expect from labels that are associated with environmental and social improvements such as orangutan habitats, carbon emission reductions and the fair treatment of workers? Policies are unlikely to be implemented to support some of these campaigns due to the 'national interest' test and so in these cases, 'care' may need to be added to trust, understanding and awareness if a tipping point is to be reached.
I am not a marketing expert so I wont argue the relevance of a Carbon label as a marketing tool, instead from a different angle, its my point of view that something like the Carbon label can be use to generate internal commitment for excellence from the company that embraces it.
The fact that a company does an LCA for an specific product and instead of putting it in the drawer turns it into the start/strive for continuous improvement from a sustainability perspective makes the idea of the carbon label worthwhile. Creating a baseline and accounting for the improvements forever.
Even if it never sees the retail outlet, the fact of creating a kpi that marketing managers will use to drive their brands sounds like the right thing to do and even better if its done following a standard.
A good question, and in my opinion yes there is a place.
There is always a tension for consumers between being well informed and educated versus being confused or distracted by too much information.
Ultimately though, the fact that many consumers regularly ignore or disregard some or all of the information already on products/packaging (origin of manufacture, ingredients, nutritional value, carbohydrates & kilojoules etc, weight, marketing claims, contact details of supplier, use-by-dates etc) doesn't take away from the fact that we need to have information about the environmental impacts of a product where it can potentially influence both the general purchaser and those who are already looking specifically for low carbon/environmentally preferable products.
Product carbon labels aren't perfect, but they are here already, so its more about managing how they fit into the landscape of product information and labels, and maximising their credibility and effectiveness.
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<urn:uuid:6afd7fac-9a19-46e3-b261-36bcf38e25a8>
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http://www.carboninnovators.net.au/forum/general-discussion/product-carbon-label-one-label-too-many
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Monitor for Leafrollers and Other Caterpillars
Bloomtime applications of Bacillus thuringiensis for peach twig borer help to keep leafroller and other caterpillar populations under control. Leafroller damage is not a problem for prunes grown for the dried market, but needs to be monitored on fresh market prunes so that prompt action can be taken if damaging populations develop.
Monitor for the presence of caterpillars from the beginning of bloom (green fruitworm) through petal fall (leafrollers), looking for any species that may cause fruit damage. Carefully check young leaves and shoots for the presence of peach twig borer and leafroller larvae and leaf damage. Use a beating tray to catch green fruitworm larvae that drop from the tree as you shake blossom clusters.
Use the photos below to identify caterpillars that are present in the orchard at this time of year. Names link to more information on identification and management.
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http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/C606/m606bpcatroller.html
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FRENCH FORCES IN THE KOREAN WAR
Link to French Naval operations during the Korean War
Additional forces from UN countries arrived during the latter part of November 1950. Among these was the French Battalion. Consisting of 39 officers, 172 non-commissioned officers and more than 800 enlisted personnel, the battalion departed Marseilles on 25 September arriving at Pusan on 30 November. It was not entirely ashore until the fifth of December. Once equipped with US weapons and vehicles, it was attached the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd US Army Division with whom it served until the end of hostilities 27 July 1953. During this period 3,421 French soldiers were involved in Korea. Of these, 287 were killed in action; 1,350 wounded in action; 7 missing in action; and 12 became prisoners of war.
Back to Korean War Homepage
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.korean-war.com/france.html
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This lesson is based on the pointillist technique used by artists such as Andre Derain and Georges Seurat. It introduces the pupils to a different way of painting and includes aspects of colour mixing.
Pupils look at a picture painted using this technique and study parts in detail. They then have the opportunity to create their own picture using the pointillist technique and apply previous knowledge of colour mixing to this. Practical activities are then suggested to follow up the activity in groups.
Interactive whiteboard activity
Download lesson pack
Please save and then extract this file to your hard drive first before trying to use.
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<urn:uuid:d512e20d-cd61-49e8-81a1-3f1b49a2e01c>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/pointillist_paintings/eng/Introduction/default.htm
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en
| 0.950277
| 127
| 4.125
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Learn more physics!
as we look into our telescopes, we are looking into the past, so then, theoritically we could someday build a telescope which would see so far back that we could observe the creation of the universe! why not?
We can get pretty close. The cosmic microwave background radiation has been travelling pretty much undisturbed since a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Thatís about 13 billion years ago. It lets us see back to that era. Earlier times have to be inferred from less direct measurements, since most other particles bounced off others sometime in between then and now, scrambling the picture.
(published on 11/29/2007)
Follow-up on this answer.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=9982
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en
| 0.943484
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Figure 1 - A simple electromagnet science project operates in very much the same manner as the dynamo that generates the earth's magnetic field.
It has been generally believed by scientists for the last few decades that solar and planetary magnetic fields are created in much the same way that the magnetic field in a simple toy electromagnet is produced. A current of electricity flows through a wire and creates a magnetic field around the wire (Figure 1).
When the wire is wrapped around a nail, a strong electromagnet can be produced, whose strength changes as you increase or decrease the battery current in the wire. For planets, and some of the moons of Jupiter, magnetic fields are created by currents of charged liquids flowing within the outer core of the body (top right).
Figure 2 - Copyright Calvin J. Hamilton (http://www.solarviews.com/cap/venus/venusint.htm). Planetary magnetic fields are generated by a flow of charged particles often in the deep viscous outer core of the planet.
These currents don't have to look like ordinary electricity that comes out of a battery. Any system of moving charges will work just as well. They can be made of liquid iron-nickel (Earth) or even salt water (Ganymede) which move as the planet rotates. To make the magnetic field strong enough, the current has to flow fast enough and it also has to exhibit some turbulence or convection. If a planet rotates too slowly, the currents do not flow fast enough to produce a strong field. If the interior of the planet is too viscous, or there isn't enough of a temperature difference to produce convection, the field will also not be strong enough. So, when spacecraft fly-by a planet and detect a magnetic field, scientists can also use this information to learn about the deep interior of the planet.
Now let's see how each of the inner planets differs in its magnetism!
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<urn:uuid:a75cc6ff-4d2c-4e65-987a-0039492b6306>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/transit/dynamo.php
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en
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Lost letter project: Does wealth influence altruism?
Ethnic composition or population density did not contribute to whether or not people in a neighborhood delivered a dropped letter.
Thu, Aug 16 2012 at 2:42 PM
A wealthier environment may breed more generous behavior, suggests a new study that found people in wealthier neighborhoods were much more likely to deliver a "lost letter" than those living in poorer neighborhoods in London.
The researchers set out to test how the socioeconomic status of a neighborhood affected altruistic, or selfless, behavior.
The team dropped letters across 20 London neighborhoods, leaving them face-up so passersby could spot the address label, which was made out to a gender-neutral name at a study researcher's address. Of those dropped in wealthier neighborhoods, an average of 87 percent were delivered. Meanwhile, an average of 37 percent of those dropped in poorer neighborhoods were delivered.
The results suggest that those living in poor neighborhoods are less likely to behave altruistically toward their neighbors, the team from the anthropology department at University College London said.
Other neighborhood characteristics, such as ethnic composition or population density, did not appear to be good predictors of whether or not a letter dropped in a particular neighborhood would be delivered.
The researchers note that the lower altruism of the lower-income neighborhoods could be a result of exposure to crime, "as the poorer neighborhoods tend to have higher rates crime, which may lead to people in those neighborhoods being generally more suspicious and therefore less likely to pick up a lost letter," said study researcher Antonio Silva, of the University College London, in a statement. The other team members are Jo Holland and Ruth Mace.
The results were published on Aug. 15 in the journal PLoS ONE.
Related on LiveScience:
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved.
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<urn:uuid:9946e758-ae23-48a7-bd79-ec605cf6a6bd>
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http://www.mnn.com/money/personal-finance/stories/lost-letter-project-does-wealth-influence-altruism
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Workers seeing results from flash welding. (Photo by Al Fenn//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images). Copyright: Time & Life Pictures
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics , by causing coalescence . This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material (the weld pool ) that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in conjunction with heat , or by itself, to produce the weld. This is in contrast with soldering and brazing , which involve melting a lower-melting-point material between the workpieces to form a bond between them, without melting the workpieces. _x000D_
Many different energy sources can be used for welding, including a gas flame , an electric arc , a laser , an electron beam , friction , and ultrasound . While often an industrial process, welding may be performed in many different environments, including open air, under water and in outer space . Welding is a potentially hazardous undertaking and precautions are required to avoid burns , electric shock , vision damage, inhalation of poisonous gases and fumes, and exposure to intense ultraviolet radiation . _x000D_
Until the end of the 19th century, the only welding process was forge welding , which blacksmiths had used for centuries to join iron and steel by heating and hammering. Arc welding and oxyfuel welding were among the first processes to develop late in the century, and electric resistance welding followed soon after. Welding technology advanced quickly during the early 20th century as World War I and World War II drove the demand for reliable and inexpensive joining methods. Following the wars, several modern welding techniques were developed, including manual methods like shielded metal arc welding , now one of the most popular welding methods, as well as semi-automatic and automatic processes such as gas metal arc welding , submerged arc welding , flux-cored arc welding and electroslag welding . Developments continued with the invention of laser beam welding , electron beam welding, electromagnetic pulse welding and friction stir welding in the latter half of the century. Today, the science continues to advance. Robot welding is commonplace in industrial settings, and researchers continue to develop new welding methods and gain greater understanding of weld quality.
<div id="index_ignore">Description above from the Wikipedia article Welding
, licensed under CC-BY-SA
full list of contributors here
. This page is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.</div>
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<urn:uuid:39be3483-e78f-44da-913f-8635127621b9>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.zazzle.ca/workers_seeing_results_from_flash_welding_photoenlargement-190835945041858708
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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Most of us are familiar with haptics on touch-screen phones. The feedback technology uses vibrating pulses to replace the tactility of, for example, pressing a physical button. At the recent computer graphics event Siggraph Asia 2009, a team of researchers from Japan's University of Tsukuba demonstrated what they can do with haptics by letting users "feel" a remote object.
The prototype system comprises a laser range finder, computer, and haptics generator. By placing the device on a glass casing (we are very familiar with this as many companies like to put their prototype devices in a see-no-touch environment) and using the laser to measure the distance from the panel to the actual object, the user can "feel" the latter via the pulses that are generated.
According to the literature (PDF), the reaction force is determined by the distance between the handheld device and the actual object. Users supposedly can feel details such as texture when the magnification factor is increased. The researchers say the system can be used for educating viewers valuable exhibits and inspection of engineering products. We just want to get one of these before we attend another mega-scale event like CES.
(Source: Crave Asia)
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created 2008 · complexity basic · author Sightless · version 7.0
Often when you enter a blank line by pressing Enter twice in insert mode, Vim removes the indent from the blank line and your cursor moves back to column 1. Likewise, if you position the cursor on a blank line and press letter
o to open a new line below it, Vim does not open that line with any indent. Often, though, you want to use the same indent as the preceding non-blank line.
There are two ways to achieve this. If you can tolerate lines in your files that contain only whitespace, you can simply put this in your vimrc:
:inoremap <CR> <CR>x<BS>
Vim doesn't delete the indent if you type something, even if you delete that something, and this mapping simulates your typing something even if you didn't, and deletes it before proceeding to the next line! This approach is not recommended, though, as it is generally considered poor practice to have lines that contain only whitespace.
Another approach is to save the following in a .vim file in your ~/.vim/plugin (or $HOME/vimfiles/plugin on Windows) directory, or add it to your vimrc:
function! IndentIgnoringBlanks(child) let lnum = v:lnum while v:lnum > 1 && getline(v:lnum-1) == "" normal k let v:lnum = v:lnum - 1 endwhile if a:child == "" if ! &l:autoindent return 0 elseif &l:cindent return cindent(v:lnum) endif else exec "let indent=".a:child if indent != -1 return indent endif endif if v:lnum == lnum && lnum != 1 return -1 endif let next = nextnonblank(lnum) if next == lnum return -1 endif if next != 0 && next-lnum <= lnum-v:lnum return indent(next) else return indent(v:lnum-1) endif endfunction command! -bar IndentIgnoringBlanks \ if match(&l:indentexpr,'IndentIgnoringBlanks') == -1 | \ if &l:indentexpr == '' | \ let b:blanks_indentkeys = &l:indentkeys | \ if &l:cindent | \ let &l:indentkeys = &l:cinkeys | \ else | \ setlocal indentkeys=!^F,o,O | \ endif | \ endif | \ let b:blanks_indentexpr = &l:indentexpr | \ let &l:indentexpr = "IndentIgnoringBlanks('". \ substitute(&l:indentexpr,"'","''","g")."')" | \ endif command! -bar IndentNormally \ if exists('b:blanks_indentexpr') | \ let &l:indentexpr = b:blanks_indentexpr | \ endif | \ if exists('b:blanks_indentkeys') | \ let &l:indentkeys = b:blanks_indentkeys | \ endif augroup IndentIgnoringBlanks au! au FileType * IndentIgnoringBlanks augroup END
You can change the
* in the
au command at the bottom to make it apply to only the filetypes you want, or put the part after the
* in after scripts instead of with the above. :help after-directory
It works by 'wrapping' your indentexpr in another. The script sets the indentexpr to its own function, which adjusts the cursor position and variables as if you were inserting directly after the last non-blank line, not after the blank line, and then evaluates the original indentexpr.
- See :help prevnonblank(). It should greatly simplify your method.
Regarding :help prevnonblank(): Rather than simplifying it, this function would make the script more complicated; what we need is not a non-blank line but a line preceded by a non-blank line; we also need the cursor moved. Sightless 23:26, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
- I don't understand. Don't you just want to set the current indent to be the same as the indent level of the previous line that isn't blank? This is easily done using prevnonblank, with an example given in the help: "
let ind = indent(prevnonblank(v:lnum - 1))". Won't this work? Am I missing something? --Fritzophrenic 19:45, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, it's not that simple. What we want to do primarily is trick the syntax-specific indentexpr so it thinks it's opening a line below a correctly indented line, not below a blank line, and leave it to calculate whatever complicated indent change it wants to. Sightless 15:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
The script seems fairly solid. It should now behave the same as Vim when there are no blank lines involved. When blank lines are involved, and 'autoindent' would otherwise be in effect, the script takes the indent from whichever non-blank line is closest. This will usually be what the user wants. It can't second-guess indent expressions' intentions, though, so it may be slightly out in some cases. Sightless 15:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
This approach is not recommended, though, as it is generally considered poor practice to have lines that contain only whitespace.The thing is, using indented blank lines is useful. One example is diff'ing files often result to much cleaner and understandable diffs if blank lines are indented instead of empty. The main problem I have with the current system is that it makes trailing whitespace removal a mandatory and always-active part of the indenting system. An option would be good, but maybe the best thing would be to remove the option from the indenting and create a trailing-spaces removal system that allows to remove whitespace automatically all the time, and not in some specific conditions (i.e. blank lines if the blank line has not been modified). 23:54, October 15, 2011 (UTC)
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http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip1574
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Catalysts Neutralize Groundwater Contaminants
Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, have developed a set of molecules that can catalyze a variety of chemical reactions, including ones that neutralize organohalide groundwater pollutants.
Some of the molecules being investigated by researchers can be used to make specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The group also is focusing on how to use the new catalysts to render organohalide groundwater pollutants harmless by way of a simple chemical reaction.
“Organohalides can be transformed into safer compounds by breaking the bonds between the halogen and carbon atoms they contain,” says David P. Goldberg, associate professor for the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. “Though this work represents a step forward, there is still an enormous amount of work to be done, including finding what metals work best under what conditions.”
In the biological world, enzymes catalyze cell function. Many enzymes have a metal molecule held inside a specially built structure; these types of molecules are called porphyrins. Using them as a model, Goldberg’s team synthesized a molecular variation, thereby changing the properties of the reactive metal in the center of the molecule.
Molecule Mimics Enzyme
These molecules, called corrolazines, mimic porphyrins,
enzymes that catalyze cell function. Depending on the
reactive metal, corrolazines can be used to clean up
polluted groundwater or make specialty chemicals.
Called a corrolazine, the ring contains one less atom than other porphyrins. Goldberg says these molecules are fascinating from a fundamental perspective -- the change made in their structure gives them different properties than the system found in nature. This may allow scientists to use these catalysts in ways different from their natural counterparts.
“Organohalides comprise a high percentage of the priority pollutants as registered by the EPA, so this is a pretty important advance,” Goldberg says. “Our molecules have the potential to catalyze a number of other reactions important in the synthesis of specialty chemicals for industry.”
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OhioSeis Network must determine basic earthquake parameters:
- Hypocenter parameters: Epicenter, depth, and origin time (Depends on regional velocity structure).
- Magnitude: requires reliable wave amplitudes and correction factors
Then, we can study enhanced characteristics such as Focal Mechanisms and Quarry Blast discrimination, and so on.
Focus on Magnitude
Basic definition of magnitude
In the central and eastern North America, Lg becomes the dominant phase
What is Lg?
Lg is a complex surface waves that grows from the Sg phase.
What does Lg look like?
A distinct high-amplitude phase with U=3.5 km/sec, easily seen at distances of hundreds of km from earthquakes with M>5.
What do Ohio Earthquakes look like at regional distances?
We see an unusual regionally coherent "local Lg" wave with U<2.0 km/sec that is a distinct large wave at even small distances.
So what should we do to calculate the Ohio earthquakes magnitude?
We must find a consistent wave arrival and procedure (see below). Meanwhile, we are using the "LLg" wave and Hermann and Kijko (1983) formula.
Amplitude Study of recent
Ohio and Michigan earthquakes
Goal: To find the best combination of a large amplitude wave that is also regionally consistent so that a reliable magnitude can be assigned to local earthquakes — large and small.
Issues involved in practical aspects of wave amplitude and magnitude
- Amplitudes in frequency domain
- Anti-aliasing filter
- Use wave amplitudes at Nyquist frequency?
Manipulation of the MN formula suitable for broad-band velocity instruments
The 2001.01.26 Ashtabula OH earthquake
The 2000.08.07 Alliance OH earthquake
The 2001.10.23 Calhoun Co. MI earthquake
Conclusions and Recommendations
| To Ohio Waves & Magnitudes Main page | Forward |
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People's lives often depend on the quick reaction and competent care of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Incidents as varied as automobile accidents, heart attacks, slips and falls, childbirth, and gunshot wounds require immediate medical attention. EMTs and paramedics provide this vital service as they care for and transport the sick or injured to a medical facility.
In an emergency, EMTs and paramedics are typically dispatched by a 911 operator to the scene, where they often work with police and fire fighters. Once they arrive, EMTs and paramedics assess the nature of the patient's condition, while trying to determine whether the patient has any pre-existing medical conditions. Following protocols and guidelines, they provide emergency care and transport the patient to a medical facility. EMTs and paramedics operate in emergency medical services systems where a physician provides medical direction and oversight.
EMTs and paramedics use special equipment, such as backboards, to immobilize patients before placing them on stretchers and securing them in the ambulance for transport to a medical facility. These workers generally work in teams. During the transport of a patient, one EMT or paramedic drives, while the other monitors the patient's vital signs and gives additional care, as needed. Some paramedics work as part of a helicopter's flight crew to quickly transport critically ill or injured patients to hospital trauma centers.
At the medical facility, EMTs and paramedics help transfer patients to the emergency department, report their observations and actions to emergency department staff, and may provide additional emergency treatment. After each run, EMTs and paramedics document the trip, replace used supplies and check equipment. If a transported patient has a contagious disease, EMTs and paramedics decontaminate the interior of the ambulance and report cases to the proper authorities.
EMTs and paramedics also provide transportation for patients from one medical facility to another, particularly if they work for private ambulance services. Patients often need to be transferred to a hospital that specializes in treating their injury or illness or to facility that provides long-term care, like nursing homes.
Beyond these general duties, the specific responsibilities of EMTs and paramedics depend on their level of qualification and training. The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) certifies emergency medical service providers at five levels: First Responder; EMT-Basic; EMT-Intermediate (which has two levels called 1985 and 1999) and Paramedic. Some States, however, have their own certification programs and use distinct names and titles.
The EMT-Basic represents the first response of the emergency medical system. An EMT trained at this level is prepared to care for patients at the scene of an accident and while transporting patients by ambulance to the hospital under the direction of more highly trained medical personnel. The EMT-Basic has the emergency skills to assess a patient's condition and manage respiratory, cardiac, and trauma emergencies.
The EMT-Intermediate has more advanced training. However, the specific tasks that those certified at this level are allowed to perform varies greatly from State to State.
Paramedics provide more extensive pre-hospital care than do EMTs. In addition to carrying out the procedures of the other levels, paramedics administer medications orally and intravenously, interpret electrocardiograms (EKGs), perform endotracheal intubations, and use monitors and other complex equipment. However, like the EMT-Intermediate level, what paramedics are permitted to do varies by State.
EMTs and paramedics work both indoors and out, in all types of weather. They are required to do considerable kneeling, bending, and heavy lifting. These workers are at a higher risk for contracting illnesses or experiencing injuries on the job than workers in other occupations. They risk noise-induced hearing loss from sirens and back injuries from lifting patients. In addition, EMTs and paramedics may be exposed to communicable diseases, such as hepatitis-B and AIDS, as well as to violence from mentally unstable or combative patients. The work is not only physically strenuous but can be stressful, sometimes involving life-or-death situations and suffering patients. Nonetheless, many people find the work exciting and challenging and enjoy the opportunity to help others. These workers experienced a larger than average number of work-related injuries or illnesses
Many EMTs and paramedics are required to work more than 40 hours a week. Because emergency services function 24 hours a day, EMTs and paramedics may have irregular working hours.
|1.||Administer first-aid treatment and life-support care to sick or injured persons in prehospital setting.|
|2.||Perform emergency diagnostic and treatment procedures, such as stomach suction, airway management or heart monitoring, during ambulance ride.|
|3.||Observe, record, and report to physician the patient's condition or injury, the treatment provided, and reactions to drugs and treatment.|
|4.||Immobilize patient for placement on stretcher and ambulance transport, using backboard or other spinal immobilization device.|
|5.||Maintain vehicles and medical and communication equipment, and replenish first-aid equipment and supplies.|
|6.||Assess nature and extent of illness or injury to establish and prioritize medical procedures.|
|7.||Communicate with dispatchers and treatment center personnel to provide information about situation, to arrange reception of victims, and to receive instructions for further treatment.|
|8.||Comfort and reassure patients.|
|9.||Decontaminate ambulance interior following treatment of patient with infectious disease and report case to proper authorities.|
|10.||Operate equipment such as electrocardiograms (EKGs), external defibrillators and bag-valve mask resuscitators in advanced life-support environments.|
|11.||Drive mobile intensive care unit to specified location, following instructions from emergency medical dispatcher.|
|12.||Coordinate with treatment center personnel to obtain patients' vital statistics and medical history, to determine the circumstances of the emergency, and to administer emergency treatment.|
|13.||Coordinate work with other emergency medical team members and police and fire department personnel.|
|14.||Attend training classes to maintain certification licensure, keep abreast of new developments in the field, or maintain existing knowledge.|
|15.||Administer drugs, orally or by injection, and perform intravenous procedures under a physician's direction.|
[Back to Top]
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Well worth a few minutes of your time:
Jesus Existed writes Craig S. Keener
Contrary to some circles on the Internet, very few scholars doubt that Jesus existed, preached and led a movement. Scholars’ confidence has nothing to do with theology but much to do with historiographic common sense. What movement would make up a recent leader, executed by a Roman governor for treason, and then declare, “We’re his followers”? If they wanted to commit suicide, there were simpler ways to do it.
. . . Logically, why would Jesus’ followers make up a Jesus to live and die for? Why not glorify real founders (as movements normally did)? Why make up a leader and have him executed on a Roman cross? To follow one executed for treason was itself treason. To follow a crucified leader was to court persecution. Some people do give their lives for their beliefs, but for beliefs, not normally for what they know to be fabricated. Jesus’ first movement would not have made up his execution or his existence.
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Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: An Evaluation of Program Strategies and Implementation (2011)Water Science and Technology Board
Each report is produced by a committee of experts selected by the Academy to address a particular statement of task and is subject to a rigorous, independent peer review; while the reports represent views of the committee, they also are endorsed by the Academy. Learn more on our expert consensus reports.
Recovery of the Chesapeake Bay from the ecosystem disruption caused by excess nutrient and sediment inputs, primarily from agriculture, urban runoff, wastewater, and air pollution, will require profound changes in the management of resources in the Bay watershed. In recent years, the Chesapeake Bay Program has enhanced accountability of its partner states, for example by establishing two-year milestones for progress. However, numerous challenges affect the consistency and accuracy of the tracking and accounting of nutrient reduction practices. Opportunities also exist to improve support for applications of adaptive management. Because public support is vital to sustaining the program, it is important to help the public understand lag times and uncertainties associated with water quality improvements and to develop program strategies to better quantify them.
- Accurate tracking and accounting of the use of best management practices—efforts farmers, developers, local governments, and others make to reduce nutrient and sediment inputs to the Chesapeake Bay—is of paramount importance, because the Chesapeake Bay Program relies on these data to estimate current and future nutrient and sediment loads to the bay.
- Currently, tracking and accounting of the use of best management practices is not consistent across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Additionally, given that some best management practices are not tracked in all jurisdictions, the current accounting cannot be viewed on the whole as accurate. Independent auditing of the tracking and accounting at state and local levels would be necessary to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the data reported.
- The two-year milestone system represents an improvement upon past strategies because it requires Bay jurisdictions to meet short-term implementation goals, with frequent assessments of the pace of progress. However, the milestone strategy does not guarantee that implementation goals will be met, and consequences of failing to reach the two-year milestone goals are not clear.
- The jurisdictions participating in the Chesapeake Bay Program reported mixed progress on their first milestone goals. However, the committee was largely unable to assess the likelihood that the Bay jurisdictions will meet their ultimate nutrient load reduction goals with the data provided. Nearly all jurisdictions have insufficient data to evaluate implementation progress relative to their nutrient reduction goals.
- Electronic reporting systems are likely to improve the quality of reporting and ease the jurisdictions' tracking and accounting burden, but may currently be delaying assessments of implementation progress. Because implementation data are submitted electronically to a region-wide system, several jurisdictions noted that their own data are then less accessible for their assessments of state-level progress. Some Bay jurisdictions have mechanisms in place to compile progress updates as needed, but others have to wait approximately nine months after the end of the reporting period for a summary of best management practice implementation from the Chesapeake Bay Program.
- The committee did not find any evidence of formal adaptive management efforts for nutrient and sediment reduction. Instead, the current two-year milestone strategy is best characterized as a trial and error process of adaptation in which learning is serendipitous, rather than an explicit objective. Successful application of adaptive management requires careful assessment of uncertainties relevant to decision making, but the partners have not fully analyzed uncertainties inherent in nutrient and sediment reduction efforts.
- Without sufficient flexibility of the regulatory and organizational structure within which Chesapeake Bay Program nutrient and sediment reduction efforts are undertaken, adaptive management may be problematic. Truly embracing adaptive management requires recognition that factors such as the total maximum daily loads, load allocations, or even water quality standards may need to be modified based on what is learned through the management tests.
- To achieve all needed nutrient and sediment reduction practices by the target date of 2025, jurisdictions will not only have to make significant reductions in current inputs to the Bay, but also make additional efforts to limit impacts of growth and development over the next 15 years. In addition, future climate change may impact the response of the Bay to reduced loads.
- To help reach long-term load reduction goals, the committee identified strategies with unrealized potential, in order to encourage further consideration and exploration of these strategies by Chesapeake Bay Program partners and stakeholders. Examples of these potential strategies include improved animal waste management, enhanced individual responsibility for inhabitants of the Bay area, and additional air pollution controls.
- Helping the public understand lag times and uncertainties associated with water quality improvements, and developing program strategies to quantify them, are vital to sustaining public interest in the program, particularly if near-term Bay response does not meet expectations.
- Establishing a Chesapeake Bay modeling laboratory would ensure the Chesapeake Bay Program has access to a suite of state-of-the-art models that could be used to build credibility with the scientific, engineering, and management communities.
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Spiegel Online published a story last week about how a group of Europeans have formed the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Corporation (TREC) to develop enough solar-thermal power in the Sahara to power all of Europe. The idea is to build enough solar thermal power plants, plants that use concentrated solar energy to heat salts or boil water which then turn turbines to generate electricity, and then to transmit that energy across the Mediterranean to be used in Europe. Europe gets all the electricity it needs and North Africa gets a massive influx of development money and energy for desalinization plants, among other things.
The image at right shows why TREC believes this is a good idea. The big red box is, to scale, the area of the Sahara that would have to be covered with solar thermal plants to electrify the entire planet currently. The smaller box is just the current EU member states, and the red dot is Germany alone. And solar thermal technology is arguably the most mature solar power technology there is, so the technology risk is pretty low. After all, there have been solar thermal plants operating in the U.S. since the 1980s – they never took off because coal is so cheap. There are really only two technical problems – storing excess energy from the day so that the plants can generate electricity all night, and electrical transmission from North Africa to Europe.
The first problem has already been solved, and the solution has been well known for some time. If you use a salt with a very high melting temperature as the primary heat carrier instead of water, you can use large tanks of liquid salt to store that heat overnight. The hot salt is pulled out of the tank gradually and used to boil the water that ultimately turns the steam turbines and generates electricity. Make the tanks big enough, and this system will be able to keep up with the requirements of the European grid overnight without too much difficulty. And Desertec, as the TREC project is named, has estimated the cost at about 350 billion euros (~$545 billion) for the solar thermal plants, complete with salt tanks.
Transmission across the Mediterranean, however, is a little trickier. Alternating current (AC) is great for short and intermediate distance electricity transmission because you can use transformers to step the voltage up, the current down, and reduce losses on the transmission lines that way. However, really long transmission lines need direct current (DC) instead, since the losses in AC transmission lines go WAY up as the length of the transmission line gets really long due to limitations on the maximum line voltage and losses from the transmission line to the ground (among others). The problem with high-voltage DC transmission is that you have to convert AC to DC and then back again, and that adds cost and complexity to the power grid. On the other hand, you can dramatically increase the voltages, and thus reduce the losses, because some of the effects that plague AC transmission (corona discharge and capacitance) simply don’t occur in DC transmission.
But with all grand ideas, Desertec has the perennial non-technical problem – political will:
Too many questions remain unanswered. Who will pay for the electricity network? Who would own it? Could the various stakeholders agree on a collective guaranteed price for solar thermal electricity fed into the grid?
The latter issue is especially important for investors and industry. Wolfgang Knothe, a board member of MAN Ferrostaal, an industrial services provider, says: “We need political security to get going.”
A lack of money is not the problem. “Renewable energy is in,” says Nikolai Ulrich of HSH Nordbank. “It is relatively easy at the moment to get investment for renewable energy projects.”
Desertec is still only a vision. But visions are needed, says Knothe: “Without Kennedy’s dream, there wouldn’t have been a moon landing.”
Then, the will to make the vision reality existed, although the technology did not. With Desertec, it is exactly the reverse: The technology is available — but the will is missing.
Most people love the idea of being free of the power grid. Photovoltaic (PV) cells on residential or commercial roofs would be great, but even in regions where the costs of installation are low, PV electricity is still too expensive for most homeowners. This is especially true given the many years it takes to recoup the costs of installing solar on a home and our highly mobile society. Why would anyone choose to spend tens of thousands of dollars on aPV system that takes 20 years to recover the investment if they can reasonably expect to be out of the home in less than 10?
What if, he asked, the city financed residents’ solar rooftops, then levied a 20-year tax assessment on their properties to pay for it? The debt would follow the home, not the owner, and in one fell swoop, the two greatest impediments to home solar would be history.
The cost in Berkeley is expected to be more than $65 per month, but even so it still strikes me as a win for everyone. And according to the article, many other cities and towns around the country are considering their own versions of the same plan.
I wonder how long it’ll be before my hometown gets wise to this idea. Maybe I should email them about it….
I used to be a quasi-vegetarian – ova-lacto plus fish, with the occasional foray into Thanksgiving turkey or a hard-core pork green chili craving I gave in to. When my mother discovered my new food preferences, she was kind enough to give me a book called Diet for a Small Planet, wherein I discovered the idea of eating grains and plants because it was more efficient than feeding livestock and then eating the meat. The basic mathematics of this particular reality has been known since at least the 70′s – cattle take a LOT of feed to get them to maturity and sized for slaughter, and that same amount of feed could be used to feed a LOT more people than the equivalent amount of meat from the cattle can. Now a new study reported in Science News has confirmed yet again that eating red meat isn’t good for you, albeit indirectly:
For the average U.S. consumer, getting the equivalent of one-seventh of a week’s calories from chicken, fish or vegetables instead of red meat or dairy will do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than buying all local, all the time, the researchers say. Crunching the numbers revealed that delivery to the consumer accounts for only 1 percent of red meat–associated emissions. But the production path to red meat and dairy products is clouded with nitrous oxide and methane emissions, mainly from fertilizer use, manure management and animal digestion.
I guess it’s time to add “drives global heating” to the legion reasons why you shouldn’t eat red meat. If only we knew this back in the 70′s…oh, we did, just not quantitatively. Never mind….
Last week, the New York Times reported that several German scientists are, for the first time, attempting to apply climate modeling to predict overall climate changes for a region over the next decade. What makes this unusual is that the climate models in use today for long-term forecasts aren’t accurate enough on the scale of a decade to make significant predictions – the German model is a first attempt at changing this.
According to the NYTimes, the model successfully predicted, with rough accuracy, the climate of the 1990s when it was given the 1970s and 1980s as inputs. But the predictions were only roughly accurate for North America and Europe – Africa’s climate was significantly different in the models than it was in reality. Given that most disciplines have modeling systems and equations that apply very well over some scales but not others, this is a limitation to thegerman models, but is likely not a fatal flaw, at least so long as the models are used and interpreted correctly. Most interesting, however, is the fact that the models predict that Europe and North America will be slightly cooler over the next decade as a result of shifting oceanic currents in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
But lest we wrongly assume that a localized cooling trend over two continents equates to a reversal in global heating, I’d like to quote for you Dr. Kevin Trenberth of NCAR, from the end of the NYTimes story:
“Too many think global warming means monotonic relentless warming everywhere year after year…. It does not happen that way.”
For more information on climate modeling, see this article from the BBC.
Anyone who supports nuclear power has to do so with their eyes open. And that means acknowledging that nuclear wastes are a problem, that there won’t be enough nuclear fuel to go around without breeder reactors and the likely non-proliferation issues they bring up, and that some countries (the U.S. and Russia, for example) have done really stupid things with their nuclear programs and could stand to learn many things from other countries that have good nuclear programs (France and Japan, for example). But very nuclear energy supporters know anything about mining – if they think about it at all, they figure that the carbon emissions of mining coal roughly offset the emissions of mining for uranium. A new Australian study reported on by the BBC questions this assumption.
The problem is fundamentally one of ore quality, and it’s fundamental to mining in general – the greater the demand for the mined material, the faster the cheaply and easily extracted sources of that material are depleted. And when all the easily-extracted ores are gone, it takes more energy, time, and money to extract progressively lower quality ores. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is claimed by “experts” for the BBC as “the first such report to draw together such detailed information on the environmental costs incurred at this point in the nuclear energy chain.” And while the problems all relate to uranium ore extraction, much of the additional emissions occur as secondary effects – transportation of the ore by truck or train from the mine to the refinery, additional energy required to extract lower concentration uranium from the ore, and so on.
That being said, however, the BBC also quotes a representative of the Nuclear Energy Agency, Thierry Dujardin, as pointing out one very important fact – even at its worst, nuclear energy’s carbon emissions are still lower than fossil fuels.
“Even in the worst case scenario for CO2 emissions, the impact of nuclear on greenhouse emissions is still very small compared with fossil fuels.”
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The Thousand Bomber raids, 30/31 May (Cologne) to 17 August 1942
Sir Arthur Harris knew that the future of Bomber Command was still in doubt and he approached both Winston Churchill and Sir Charles Portal with the bold idea of assembling a force of 1,000 bombers and sending them out in one massive raid on a German city. Churchill and Portal were both impressed and they agreed. Although Harris had only a little over 400 aircraft with trained crews which were regularly used for front-line operational work, he did have a considerable number of further aircraft in the conversion units attached to groups with four engined aircraft and in Bomber Command's own operational training units 91 and 92 Groups. This secondary Bomber Command strength could be crewed by a combination of instructors, many of them ex-operational, and by men in the later stages of their training. To complete the 1,000 aircraft required, Harris asked for the help of his fellow commanders in chief in Coastal Command and Flying Training Command. Both officers were willing to help. Sir Philip Joubert of Coastal Command immediately offered to provide 250 bombers, many of them being from squadrons which had once served in Bomber Command. Flying Training Command offered fifty aircraft but many of these were later found to be insufficiently equipped for night bombing and only four Wellingtons were eventually provided from this source.
All now looked well. The target figure of 1,000 bombers was easily covered and detailed planning for the operation commenced. The tactics to be employed were of major concern, not only for the success of this unprecedented raid but as an experiment upon which future operations could be based. The tactics eventually adopted would form the basis for standard Bomber Command operations for the next two years and some elements would remain in use until the end of the war.
The major innovation was the introduction of a bomber stream in which all aircraft would fly by a common route and at the same speed to and from the target, each aircraft being allotted a height band and a time slot in the stream to minimize the risk of collision. The recent introduction of Gee made it much easier for crews to navigate within the precise limits required for such flying, although there would always be wayward crews who would drift away from the stream. The hoped-for advantage from the bomber stream was that the bomber force could pass through the minimum number of German radar night-fighter boxes. The controller in each box could only direct a maximum of six potential interceptions per hour. The passage of the stream through the smallest number of boxes would, therefore, reduce the number of possible interceptions, particularly if the bomber stream could be kept as short as possible and pass through the belt of boxes quickly. This led on to the next decision, to reduce still further the time allowed for the actual bombing at the target. Where four hours had been allowed earlier in the war for a raid by 100 aircraft and two hours had been deemed a revolutionary concentration for 234 aircraft at Lubeck, only 90 minutes were allowed for 1,000 aircraft in this coming operation. The big fear in these matters was always that of collisions but, on this occasion, this was accepted in return for the opportunity to allow the bomber stream to pass through the night fighter boxes quickly, to swamp the Flak defences at the target and, above all, to put down such a concentration of incendiary bombs in a short period that the fire services would be overwhelmed and large areas of the city would be consumed by conflagrations. As in previous raids, the coming operation would be led by experienced crews whose aircraft were equipped with Gee; 1 and 3 Groups were selected to provide these raid leaders in the Thousand Plan.
But, as the planning period came to an end, potential disaster struck. The Admiralty refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. This was obviously a step in the long-running battle between the R.A.F. and the Royal Navy over the control of maritime air power and the Admiralty realized that a success for this grandiose Bomber Command plan was not likely to help their prospects for building up a force of long-range aircraft for the war against the U-boat. They were quite correct in that belief. Harris now appeared to be falling well short of the dramatic figure of 1,000 aircraft with which he intended to carry out what was evidently a massive public-relations exercise.
Bomber Command redoubled its efforts. Every spare aircrew member and aircraft was gathered in by the operational squadrons but the decisive reinforcement came from Bomber Command's own training units, which committed more crews from the bottom half of their training courses. Every effort was made to provide the training crews with at least an experienced pilot but forty-nine aircraft out of the 208 provided by 91 Group would take off with pupil pilots. When the operation was eventually mounted, 1,047 bombers would be able to take off, all but the four from Training Command being provided by Bomber Command's own resources, in spite of the fearful risk of sending so many untrained crews. When Churchill and Harris discussed the possible casualty figures, Churchill said that he would be prepared for the loss of 100 aircraft. The force about to be dispatched was more than two and a half times greater than any previous single night's effort by Bomber Command. In addition to the bombers, forty-nine Blenheims of 2 Group reinforced by thirty-nine aircraft of Fighter Command and fifteen from Army Co-operation Command would carry out Intruder raids on German night-fighter airfields near the route of the bomber stream.
Final orders were ready on 26 May with the full moon approaching. The force stood ready, waiting for the weather. Harris hoped to use the 1,000-bomber force more than once if conditions permitted, before the extra aircraft gathered together were dispersed to their normal locations. His first choice of target was Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany, a great port and, an attraction for the Admiralty, builder of about 100 U-boats each year. But the weather over Germany was unfavourable for three days running and, on 30 May, Harris had to decide to send the bombers to his second target choice - Cologne, the third largest city in Germany. Soon after noon on that day, the order to attack Cologne went out to the groups and squadrons and the raid took place that night.
The first 1,000-bomber raid was a great success but a follow-up to Essen two nights later was not. The moon phase then passed and the training aircraft returned to their normal work, but they were recalled once more for a further massive raid on Bremen during the end of the June moon period, although the figure of 1,000 aircraft was not quite reached on that raid. Harris had originally hoped to assemble 1,000 aircraft for one or two raids in every moon period but he abandoned this idea and the full thousand operation using so many training aircraft was not carried out again after the Bremen raid, although smaller numbers of training aircraft were called upon from time to time later in the year.
The 1,000-bomber raids certainly made their mark on history and were another great turning point in Bomber Command's war. The new tactics were mainly successful; there were never any serious casualties through collision and the time over target would progressively be shortened until 700 or 800 aircraft regularly passed over the city they were bombing in less than twenty minutes! The morale of Bomber Command was certainly uplifted by this great demonstration of air power and by the wide publicity, which followed. That same publicity also confirmed Bomber Command's future as a major force and it can be said that, although there were bad as well as good times to come, Bomber Command never looked back after the 1,000 bomber raids. These events also placed Sir Arthur Harris firmly in the public eye where, as Bomber Harris, he would remain for the rest of his life.
The rest of the midsummer weeks passed with the front-line squadrons being pressed hard when the weather and moon conditions were favourable - and sometimes when they were not so favourable. The shorter nights again restricted raids to the coastal targets, the Ruhr and the Rhineland. There was another concentration of sustained effort against Essen in June, but this important target remained elusive of Bomber Command success. A similar campaign against Duisburg fared little better. There were minor operational changes. Harris started to restrict the practice whereby freshmen crews were introduced to operations gradually by being sent to lightly defended, close-range targets on the French coast. New crews were still allowed their one leaflet flight to France or Belgium but after that they were expected to go to any target in Europe. Harris was forced to agree to the temporary detachment of six more squadrons - even one of Lancasters - and one of his operational training units to Coastal Command to help with the U-boat war. There was a further draining away of operational effort when that unsatisfactory new aircraft, the Manchester, disappeared from 5 Group's order of battle at the end of June - although the Lancasters being sent to this group would soon more than replace the loss. There were only minor changes in 2 Group although one feature was to be the portent of a brilliant future for a new type of aircraft. In the early morning after the first 1,000 bomber raid, five small twin-engined bombers of wooden construction flew to the smoking city of Cologne to take photographs and throw a few more bombs into that unhappy place. The De Havilland Mosquito had arrived. By the time the war ended, this aircraft would perform an undreamt-of range of tasks for Bomber Command.
30/31 May 1942 - The first thousand-bomber raid, Cologne
1,047 aircraft were dispatched, this number being made up as follows:
Aircraft totals: 602 Wellingtons, 131 Halifaxes, 88 Stirlings, 79 Hampdens, 73 Lancasters, 46 Manchesters, 28 Whitleys = 1,047 aircraft
The exact number of aircraft claiming to have bombed Cologne is in doubt; the Official History says 898 aircraft bombed but Bomber Command's Night Bombing Sheets indicate that 868 aircraft bombed the main target with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. The total tonnage of bombs was 1,455 two-thirds of this tonnage being incendiaries.
German records show that 2,500 separate fires were started, of which the local fire brigade classed 1,700 as large but there was no sea of fire as had been experienced at Lubeck and Rostock because Cologne was mainly a modern city with wide streets. The local records contained an impressive list of property damaged: 3,330 buildings destroyed, 2,090 seriously damaged and 7,420 lightly damaged. More than 90 percent of this damage was caused by fire rather than high-explosive bombs. Among the above total of 12,840 buildings were 2,560 industrial and commercial buildings, though many of these were small ones. However, 36 large firms suffered complete loss of production, 70 suffered 50-80 per cent loss and 222 up to 50 per cent. Among the buildings classed as totally destroyed were: 7 official administration buildings, 14 public buildings, 7 banks, 9 hospitals, 17 churches, 16 schools, 4 university buildings, 10 postal and railway buildings, 10 buildings of historic interest, 2 newspaper offices, 4 hotels, 2 cinemas and 6 department stores. Damage was also caused to 12 water mains, 5 gas mains, 32 main-electricity cables and 12 main telephone routes. The only military installation mentioned is a Flak barracks. In domestic housing, the following dwelling units (mainly flats/apartments) are listed: 13,010 destroyed, 6,360 seriously damaged, 22,270 lightly damaged. These details of physical damage in Cologne are a good example of the results of area bombing. Similar results can be expected in those of Bomber Command's raids, which were successful during following years. The estimates of casualties in Cologne are, unusually, quite precise. Figures quoted for deaths vary only between 469 and 486. The 469 figure comprises 411 civilians and 58 military casualties, mostly members of Flak units. 5,027 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as bombed out. It was estimated that from 135,000 to 150,000 of Cologne's population of nearly 700,000 people fled the city after the raid.
The R.A.F. casualties were 41 aircraft were lost, including 1 Wellington, which was known to have crashed into the sea. The 41 lost aircraft were: 29 Wellingtons, 4 Manchesters, 3 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings, 1 Hampden, 1 Lancaster, 1 Whitley. The total loss of aircraft exceeded the previous highest loss of 37 aircraft on the night of 7/8 November 1941 when a large force was sent out in bad weather conditions, but the proportion of the force lost in the Cologne raid - 3.9 per cent - though high, was deemed acceptable in view of the perfect weather conditions which not only led to the bombing success but also helped the German defences.
Bomber Command later estimated that 22 aircraft were lost over or near Cologne 16 shot down by Flak, 4 by night fighters and 2 in a collision; most of the other losses were due to night-fighter action in the radar boxes between the coast and Cologne. Bomber Command also calculated the losses suffered by each of the three waves of the attack - 4.8, 4.1 and 1.9 per cent - and assumed that the German defences were progressively overwhelmed by bombing and affected by smoke as the raid went on. Further calculations showed that the losses suffered by the operational training unit crews - 3.3 per cent - were lower than the 4.1 per cent casualties of the regular bomber groups and also that those training aircraft with pupil pilots suffered lower casualties than those with instructor pilots!
Another Victoria Cross was awarded for an action on this night. A Manchester of 50 Squadron, piloted by Flying Officer L.T Manser, was caught in a searchlight cone and seriously damaged by Flak on the approaches to Cologne. Manser held the plane steady until his bomb load was released and, despite further damage, set course for England although he and his crew could have safely baled out after leaving the target area. But the Manchester steadily lost height and, when it became obvious that there was no hope of reaching England, Manser ordered his crew to bale out, which they all did safely. In holding the plane steady for the last man to leave, Manser lost the opportunity to save himself and was killed. He is buried at Heverlee War Cemetery in Belgium.
In a major effort to help the bomber force attacking Cologne, 34 Blenheims of 2 Group, 15 Blenheims of Army Co-Operation Command and 7 Havocs of Fighter Command attempted to attack German night-fighter airfields alongside the bomber route. No particular success was gained by these Intruders and 2 of the Blenheims were lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,103 sorties, 43 aircraft (3.9 per cent) lost. (The 7 Havoc sorties of Fighter Command are included in these figures but have not been added to the statistics at the end of the current period of the diary because they did not take place directly under Bomber Command control.)
Date Last Updated : Wednesday, April 6, 2005 2:40 AM
© Crown Copyright 2004 and © Deltaweb International Ltd 2004
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Part of A Practical Guide to Complementary Therapies for People Living With HIV
People living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) have a history of being active in their own health care. Since the HIV epidemic began, PHAs and their supporters have advocated for effective, available treatments. Rooted in the activism of the feminist and gay communities, AIDS activists promoted the idea that individuals living with HIV should not only have access to all potentially effective therapies but also the right to make informed choices about which treatments to use, including complementary therapies. Since Western medical science offered no cure and few treatments for AIDS, PHAs were open to other options, and a tradition of gathering and sharing treatment information began. Complementary therapies were particularly appealing to this community because they emphasize personalized treatment based on individual needs rather than standardized treatment for a specific diagnosis. This focus on individualized decision-making and treatment continues to be a valued part of complementary therapy for many PHAs.
Although we still have no cure, antiretroviral drugs have given many PHAs hope and renewed health. These drugs have also brought a new and daunting range of side effects, and, more and more, PHAs are looking to complementary therapies to cope. The result is that PHAs are increasingly making health decisions that integrate conventional and complementary approaches. Spurred on by the realities of difficult drug treatment schedules and side effects, the HIV movement is similarly increasing its focus on issues concerning quality of life. Many PHAs value treatment options that offer support beyond the physical impact of disease. Complementary therapies often offer a holistic approach. Holistic treatments explicitly connect the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and sexual dimensions of life and promote the idea that healing must occur on all levels in order to take place on any one level.
These ideas are becoming part of the larger Canadian culture. Health promotion campaigns encourage Canadians to take charge of their own health and treatment decision-making. A resurgence of interest in spirituality has led many Canadians to look at health and well-being holistically and to connect physical health with the spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of life. The attitudes of government, conventional physicians and pharmacists are slowly changing, opening the way for the spread of more information about complementary therapies.
As well, increasing numbers of Canadians born outside of Canada are familiar with medical practices used instead of, or in conjunction with, conventional Western medicine in their country of origin. These immigrant communities have become valuable sources of complementary therapy practitioners for Canadians of all cultural backgrounds. PHAs from within these ethnocultural communities may think of the therapies called "complementary" in this guide as simply the expected norms of medical treatment. They may also draw additional strength from using therapies founded on their own spiritual and cultural traditions.
Here's one simple definition: those medical practices that fall outside conventional Western medicine. Complementary therapies include mind-body therapies, in which the power of the mind or the spirit is harnessed to heal the body. They also encompass touch therapies, which involve massage and other forms of physical manipulation performed by practitioners to promote healing. And they comprise physical agents that are eaten, inhaled or rubbed on the skin.
A specific complementary therapy may contain any or all of these elements. For example, aromatherapists use essential oils, which are inhaled or rubbed on the skin and are often used in massage. The process of heating and inhaling these oils includes a meditative component that many people think of as mind-body therapy.
Some people prefer the term alternative medicine to complementary therapies, and the abbreviation CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) is being used increasingly. Another term is complementary and alternative health care, or CAHC. These terms refer to the same spectrum of medical options. The words used reflect the different attitudes and experiences of the people speaking. For example, people who use the medical practices described in this guide instead of conventional Western medicines would be more likely to use the term alternative. The term complementary therapies implies that these treatments are used with conventional medicine. Still others use the term integrative medicine to strongly state the importance they place on integrating elements of conventional and complementary medicines into a more unified approach.
Knowledge based on individual stories rather than hard data is called anecdotal information. This information can be collected and shared by practitioners or (as often happens with PHAs) the people using the treatments. Anecdotal information is an important component of both complementary and conventional medicine. In conventional medicine, such observation may reveal new uses for existing treatments or identify unforeseen side effects.
In complementary medicine, anecdotal information is often recorded and compiled to form a base of information about the likely outcome of a treatment. Anecdotal information has limitations. It is based on the experience of individuals; how these experiences apply to others is often difficult to judge.
Although much of Western medical practice was developed from anecdotal information, the current standard for a Western medical treatment is a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. In such a study, a group of people with the same medical condition believe they are being given the same treatment. Placebos (fake treatments) are used by some trial participants, but no one knows who is getting the real treatment. The study is called double-blind because even the physicians and researchers who collect the results are not told which participants received placebos. This method is intended to eliminate biases based on the expectations of researchers and participants and to gather statistical evidence about how often we can expect the treatment to work. Some complementary therapies can and are being tested in double-blind placebo-controlled trials. This is particularly true outside of Canada. Unfortunately, various factors often hamper complementary therapies trials:
Practitioners and producers of complementary therapies rarely have the financial resources of a drug company. Even when they do, most complementary medicines can't be patented, so there is less financial incentive to pay for trials.
Western scientists skilled in performing controlled clinical trials are often skeptical about complementary medicines. Due to this skepticism, trials of complementary therapies do not build a researcher's prestige in the same way that a typical drug trial might.
Complementary therapy practitioners and users have not participated in many controlled clinical trials. As well, practitioners schooled in medical systems with established bodies of knowledge (such as traditional Chinese medicine) may see little need to re-examine these therapies to comply with Western medical standards. Western medical researchers, on the other hand, may see little need to study complementary therapies when a Western medical treatment exists.
A controlled trial requires a purified, consistent dose of the treatment. In the case of some complementary therapies, this purified form is not available. In others, practitioners and users believe the therapy is most effective in its natural "unpure" state.
Some solutions to these problems are emerging. Governments are now more willing to dedicate resources to the study of complementary therapies. For example, the federal government of Canada has targeted funding for research on natural health products through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and through the Natural Health Products Directorate. Other research funds are also targeting complementary therapy research. In some cases, trial methods may need to be adapted to study complementary therapies effectively. All of these efforts will require collaboration between Western scientists and complementary therapy practitioners to produce reputable results.
In this guide, we discuss many different therapies and various types of practitioners. Only some of these practitioners are regulated by legislation. Health care, including complementary therapies, is regulated at the provincial level in Canada. That means provincial parliaments pass laws empowering governing bodies to set educational requirements and other standards for practitioners. In some cases, practitioners must be licensed, and only those holding a licence may practise. This is the case for chiropractors in most parts of Canada. Other professions have "protected title" legislation. For example, in Ontario, anyone can give a massage, but only those with specific credentials can call themselves registered massage therapists.
In each section of this guide, we give information about the regulations that apply to practitioners in that discipline.
When applicable, we outline education standards for practitioners, which readers may also use to judge unregulated practitioners. See Bonnie and Craig Harden's excellent book, Alternative Health Care: The Canadian Directory, for more information about the regulations that apply to complementary practitioners and an extensive listing of local and national professional organizations.
In response to growing concerns about the regulatory environment for herbal remedies, Health Canada developed a new regulatory framework for natural health products, which came into effect January 1, 2004.
This framework is the product of extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders. Previously natural health products were sold as either drugs or foods under the Foods and Drugs Act and Regulations. The new Natural Health Products Regulations call for improved labelling, good manufacturing practices, product and site licensing, and provision for a full range of health claims that will be supported by evidence.
The products that fall within the new Regulations include herbal remedies, homeopathic medicines, vitamins, minerals, traditional medicines, probiotics, amino acids and essential fatty acids. All natural health products in Canada require a product licence before being marketed. For site licensing, there is a two year transition period (2004-2005) and for product licensing, a six year transition period (2004-2009) for products who already have drug identification numbers (DIN). This will allow manufacturers, labellers, packagers, importers and distributors time to meet the new requirements.
Obtaining a product license will require detailed information on the product submitted to Health Canada, including medicinal ingredients, source, potency, non-medicinal ingredients and recommended use. Once a product has been assessed by Health Canada, the product label will bear a product licence number preceded by the distinct letters NPN, or, in the case of a homeopathic medicine, by the letters DIN-HM. The product licence number on the label will inform consumers that the product has been reviewed and approved by Health Canada for safety and efficacy.
With improved, standardized labelling, consumers will be able to make more informed decisions about the natural health products they buy. Labels will be required to specify directions for use, the recommended use or purpose (health claim), medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients, and any cautions, contra-indications or known adverse reactions associated with the product.
For further information on the regulatory framework, contact:
Natural Health Products Directorate, Health Canada
This guide is a brief overview of many complementary therapies used by PHAs. Estimates of the numbers of PHAs using these therapies vary widely according to who is studied, the questions they're asked and how the investigators define complementary therapies. For example, a recent study of the HIV Ontario Observational Database reported that 89 per cent of PHAs enrolled in its database used complementary therapies. A 1997 study described a random sample of PHAs living in British Columbia and reported that 39 per cent used some form of complementary therapy. Complementary therapy use appears to be increasing in Canada. At the 1999 Canadian Association for HIV Research conference, B.C. researchers reported that recorded use of complementary therapies among PHAs had effectively doubled in the last four years.
The reasons for complementary therapy use have also changed for PHAs. Before the introduction of combination drug therapies for the management of HIV infection, complementary therapies were mainly used to prevent opportunistic infections and boost immunity. With the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) as an effective way to manage HIV infection, complementary therapies are now being used by PHAs to improve general well-being, reduce symptoms and manage the side effects of HAART. (The use of a range conventional and complementary therapies in the management of drug side effects is discussed in the CATIE publication, A Practical Guide to HIV Drug Side Effects for People Living with HIV.)
Recent studies indicate that almost all PHAs using complementary therapies do so in conjunction with conventional drug therapies (HAART). Combining complementary therapies with conventional drugs raises new challenges around the potential for adverse interactions between them. These interactions can lead to increased side effects and/or toxicity. They can also reduce the effectiveness of HAART, possibly leading to drug resistance and treatment failure. It is therefore important to discuss your use of complementary therapies with your doctor and pharmacist, as well as your use of drug therapies with your complementary therapist.
This Practical Guide is part of a series and is meant to be used in conjunction with the other guides. The other titles are:
CATIE's publications are available free.
This article was provided by Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. Visit CATIE's Web site to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
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Plate Compactors, Rollers, Rammers and Tampers
|Forward Plate Compactors||Reversible Plate Compactors||Rammers|
Soil, sub-base, asphalt all have small voids and air pockets that if not compacted will lead to problems such as surface compression, sinking, subsidence and water damage. Expansion and contraction of water can lead to severe damage of foundations, roads, walkways, pavers and walls. By increasing the density of the underlying material compaction increases the materials load bearing capacity. Compaction reduces the small voids and air pockets reducing the risk of water damage.
Heavy Soil, Silt and Clay (Cohesive Materials <20% Granular)
Gravels, Light Soil, and Sand (Granular Materials >20%)
Asphalt (Bituminous Materials)
To prevent surface damage to pavers, ToolLines.com recommends the use of paving pads, available as a related item for each compaction unit listed. This is especially important if the pavers have an uneven surface. Alternatively, you might be able to get away with using, landscape fabric, compaction sand, thin carpeting or cardboard.
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Delmarva Fox Squirrel Photomonitoring
Fact Sheet | Distribution Map | Population Monitoring | Photo Monitoring
DFS and your property | Other Links | Status Review
National Links: Regulatory Profile | Recovery Plan
At times, CBFO needs to determine if Delmarva fox squirrels (DFS) occupy a particular forest parcel. Because we only need to know if they are present, we use a technique known as photomonitoring instead of traditional trapping methods. This technique is non-invasive, and allows us to confirm the presence of this endangered species without going through the rigors of a full trapping effort. The camera simply takes a photo of any animal that breaks a harmless, invisible, infrared beam.
However, when we are lucky enough to get a photo of DFS, we can’t tell individuals apart or how old they are. This is because most Delmarva fox squirrels look almost exactly alike. On rare occasions, we may get an individual with markings that can be used to identify future photos of this individual. Most commonly, we simply record whether or not the parcel is occupied, and can follow up with a trapping effort to estimate how many squirrels are actually there.
Because we use corn for bait, we get plenty of photos of other local wildlife. This “bycatch” does not usually interfere in our monitoring effort, unless they steal the bait. Raccoons are great thieves, and also our most common visitor, other than the fox squirrel.
Though it is easy to tell the difference between a DFS and a deer on film, sometimes we get common gray squirrels (the kind you have in your backyard) attempting to impersonate DFS. Though DFS and GS look very similar, the following are some consistent differences that help us tell them apart on film.
Visit the photo page for larger images for the DFS
•DFS are bigger. Delmarva fox squirrels are almost 1.5 times bigger than gray squirrels.
•DFS have fluffier tails. Delmarva fox squirrels tail hair is about 1.5 times longer than gray squirrels; as a result, their tail looks much longer and fluffier.
• DFS are silver. Although gray squirrels have “gray” in their name, they look browner than DFS on film, due to brown coloring on their cheeks, along their spine, and on their sides (just in between the white belly and gray back). DFS look more silver gray, usually with little or no dark markings.
Photomonitors have been used in a number of DFS research studies, and its future as a monitoring tool looks bright.
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Sex Education for Young Tweens
It is much easier to have the birds-and-bees talk with a tween who is young enough to respond with interest instead of embarrassment. Linda and Richard Eyre, the authors of
Diagrams can help your child better visualize what you are explaining. You can print out drawings from
By describing how men and women participate in the miracle of creating a baby before peers have convinced him that sex is dirty, you will have a much more receptive audience. If your child has already turned eight, consider choosing another special time, such as when he is exactly eight and one half, on the solstice, or on some other special occasion.
Begin by explaining that sex is personal and private, and many people are offended if bad words are used because they consider sex to be sacred. State that he needs to be considerate of other people's feelings.Basic Words and Concepts
How much technical vocabulary and detail you use depends on your child's level of understanding. If your child doesn't know the correct terms for the genitals, this is the time to explain that boys have a penis and testicles, which start producing millions of tiny sperm at puberty. Sperm are kind of like seeds, but they have tiny tails and can swim. Girls have sex organs inside their bodies beneath their stomachs and a small opening between their legs that leads into a tunnel called the vagina. The vagina connects to a sex organ that releases a new tiny egg every month.
Sometimes when a man is feeling very loving toward a woman, his penis gets longer and harder until it is the perfect shape to fit inside a woman's vagina. When he puts his penis into her vagina, the sperm come out and swim toward her egg. If one of the man's sperm gets inside a woman's egg, a baby is created. The baby grows inside the mother's body in a place called the uterus until it's ready to be born, and then it comes out through the opening between the woman's legs.Changes to Expect During Puberty
Explain that as boys turn into men they get more hair on their arms, legs, faces, and around their penis and anus. Their voices deepen. Their sweat glands start to work, so they perspire a lot. Many get pimples on their faces. Their testicles wrinkle and darken in color, and their penises grow and have erections.
Meanwhile, girls grow more hair on their arms and legs, anus, and in the pubic area. The area around their nipples wrinkles and darkens and then they grow breasts. Their breasts will fill up with milk when they have a baby so they can feed it. Every month their bodies build a special sort of nest inside to hold a baby. The nest is made of blood and tissue. Every month their bodies produce an egg, too. If no sperm joins with the egg to make a baby, the nest isn't needed and the body spends about five days releasing the blood and tissue. When it comes out through the vagina, it is called “having a menstrual period.” Even though there is blood, this is not painful. It is messy, though, so girls wear a sanitary napkin to catch the blood.
Don't wait to let your tween learn about sexuality in health class, which typically takes place in fifth grade. If a girl begins her period before then, she may suffer the trauma of thinking she is dying when she discovers menstrual blood. Boys are often fearful about their physical changes, too.
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“There’s not much attention paid to the Constitution in Washington. There’s not much attention paid to it by our executive branch of government. And we don’t get much protection from our courts. So one thing that might finally happen from this if the people finally feel so frustrated that they can’t get the results out of Washington — They’re going to start thinking about options. They might start thinking about nullification and a few things like that.” – Rep. Ron Paul
For anyone unfamiliar with the concept of state nullification, it was the idea expressed by then sitting vice president Thomas Jefferson when he authored what came to be known as the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. The resolutions made the case that the federal government is a creature of the states, and that states have the authority to judge the constitutionality of the federal government’s laws and decrees. He also argued that states should refuse to enforce laws which they deem unconstitutional.
James Madison wrote a similar resolution for Virginia that same year, in which he asserted that whenever the federal government exceeds its constitutional limits and begins to oppress the citizens of a state, that state’s legislature is “duty bound” to interpose its power and prevent the federal government from victimizing its people. Very similar to Jefferson’s concept of nullification, Madison’s doctrine of interposition differed in some small but important ways.
These two documents together came to be known as The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (or Resolves), of 1798. Both were written in response to the dreaded Alien and Sedition Acts, and the phrase, “Principles of ’98″ became shorthand for nullification and / or interposition. Over time, “The Principles of ’98″ would be invoked by many other states, many times for a variety of issues.
A LITTLE MORE
But in order to best-understand what Nullification IS, you should first understand some things nullification is NOT.
Nullification is not secession or insurrection, but neither is it unconditional or unlimited submission. Nullification is not something that requires any decision, statement or action from any branch of the federal government. Nullification is not the result of obtaining a favorable court ruling. Nullification is not the petitioning of the federal government to start doing or to stop doing anything. Nullification doesn’t depend on any federal law being repealed. Nullification does not require permission from any person or institution outside of one’s own state.
So just what IS nullification and how does it happen?
Nullification is any act or set of acts, which has as its end result, a particular federal law being rendered null and void, or just plain unenforceable in your area.
Nullification often begins with members of your state legislature declaring a federal act unconstitutional and then committing to resist its implementation. It usually involves a bill, passed by both houses and signed by your governor. In some cases, it might be approved by the voters of your state directly, in a referendum. It may change your state’s statutory law, or it might even amend your state constitution. In this case, it is quite simply a refusal on the part of your state government to cooperate with, or enforce a particular federal law it deems unconstitutional.
The same process can happen on a local level too. Your county board of commissioners or city council might take up a measure that rejects or resists a federal law. Once it gets passed, all local agencies might be required to refuse compliance with any federal agents trying to enforce the federal act in question.
In either case, Nullification carries with it the force of state or local law. It cannot be legally repealed by Congress without amending the U.S .Constitution. It cannot be lawfully abolished by an executive order. It cannot be overruled by the Supreme Court if the people in the state reject the Court’s opinion. It is the people of a state or local commnunity asserting their rights, acting as a political society in its highest sovereign capacity. It is the moderate, middle way that wisely avoids harsh remedies like secession on the one hand, and slavish, unlimited submission on the other.
It is the constitutional remedy for unconstitutional federal laws.
With the exception of a constitutional amendment, the federal government cannot oppose (except perhaps rhetorically), these actions to nullify an unconstitutional federal law without resorting to extra-legal measures or violence. But such measures would more than likely backfire, since most Americans still believe might does not make right.
There is no question as to whether or when such “official” nullification will happen: It has ALREADY HAPPENED.
In fact, not only has it happened recently, it has been a success! Perhaps this is why the federal government hopes you will never hear about it.
With Massachusetts voters approving Question 3 on November 6, 2012, there are now 18 states that have legalized marijuana use for limited medicinal purposes – in flat out defiance of the Congress, the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court.
There was a time when the federal government took the Constitution seriously enough that Congress actually did what was required to enact a nationwide ban on a substance – amend the Constitution. Even though the experiment would eventually be viewed as a failure, the 18th Amendment was passed, and the era known as “Prohibition” began. Four years later, it was repealed.
Burt when it comes to marijuana prohibition, the feds pulled another trick out of their sleeves. All three branches of the federal government agreed on a very novel, liberal interpretation of the “commerce clause,” allowing them to regulate virtually any substance, including marijuana, even though legal commerce involving pot doesn’t exist. Since that time, the federal government has claimed, with a straight face, that it has the power to regulate and ban a plant grown in your own back yard, never sold, and never leaving your property – all under the interstate “commerce clause.”
But the states just aren’t buying it and it has implications far wider than they want you to know.
Mark Kreslins points out:
“..medical marijuana now poses a real threat to the enforcement power of the Federal Government. With state after state defying Washington D.C. over this issue..Washington D.C. has a choice to make; enforce their laws based on a very liberal interpretation of the Commerce Clause by sending thousands of DEA agents into all fifty states, or look the other way. Thus far, they’ve chosen to look the other way, for if they create the appearance of a Federal takeover of police powers in the States, they will fully expose their extra-constitutional behavior and provoke a direct confrontation with the States who will use the 10th Amendment (hopefully) to defend their prerogatives.”
Whatever your view may be regarding marijuana use, medical or otherwise, one thing is apparent: Nullification is happening right now, and it works! Washington DC will just have to get used to it because this same method can be applied to virtually any issue.
In fact, this type of action is building on many issues, including resisting so-called “indefinite detention” powers or violations of the 4th amendment by the TSA. Pick a constitutional violation, and say NO in your state, county, city, or town.
That’s the blueprint. When enough people stand up and say NO to a federal act or mandate – and enough states pass laws backing them up, there’s not much the federal government can do to force their unconstitutional rules, laws or mandates down our throats.
What remains to be seen whether state governments will be willing to use their power to “officially” interpose themselves between agents of the federal government and the people of their state. In the unlikely event that one or more branches of the federal government decides to take extra-legal measures to punish residents of a state for exercising their constitutional rights in defiance of unconstitutional federal laws, will that state’s government have the courage to hamper or even neutralize such extra-legal measures?
There are a whole host of peaceful actions that a state government can adopt if that day comes, or appears to be just over the horizon. These measures range from county sheriffs requiring that federal agents receive written permission from the sheriff before acting in their county, to setting up a Federal Tax escrow account, which could potentially de-fund unconstitutional federal activities by requiring that all federal taxes come first to the state’s department of revenue.
Besides state interposition, the other thing Washington would have to consider is whether enough of their agents would actually obey orders to punish people for exercising their constitutional rights. There is a significant chance that enough of them would either publicly or privately decide in advance to ignore such orders. As the probability of this increases, it becomes more likely that Washington will not risk overplaying its hand. The reality is that Washington just doesn’t have the manpower to enforce all of their unconstitutional laws if enough states choose to defy them.
Of course, it all depends on the people of the several states: ordinary people like you and I.
Although I’ve discovered that there are more elected representatives at the state level who are committed to acting in a courageous and principled manner than I ever dared hope, most of their peers lack such a brave commitment. Most of them will stick their head in the sand, or sit on the fence, until they determine which way the wind is blowing. And so it’s our opinion, not the opinion of the American people in aggregate, but our opinion as citizens of our respective states, that will influence the decision of our state representatives to either stand tall or to kneel down and knuckle under.
Question: do you even know the men and women who represent you? I’m not talking about those who represent you in Washington, but rather in Phoenix, Salem, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Denver, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Nashville, Richmond, Harrisburg, Indianapolis, Columbus and Springfield.
If you don’t know them, and you care about our republic, you should make it your highest priority to get to know them and establish rapport with them as soon as possible.
For any of you who really want to preserve our union, and at the same time retain your rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, I can’t say it any better than 2008 presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, Chuck Baldwin:
“..it is absolutely obligatory that freedom-minded Americans refocus their attention to electing State legislators, governors, judges and sheriffs who will fearlessly defend their God-given liberties..as plainly and emphatically as I know how to say it, I am telling you: ONLY THE STATES CAN DEFEND OUR LIBERTY NOW! ..this reality means we will have to completely readjust our thinking and priorities.”
Michael Maharrey and Michael Boldin contributed to this article.
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Here’s a thought state epidemiologist Lon Kightlinger hopes people keep in mind these last days of summer: West Nile virus peaked in early August, but it’s far from over.
This year has brought an unexplained resurgence of the disease, which seemed to be in decline during recent summers.
There have been two deaths and 119 human cases in 2012 so far in South Dakota, the most since 2007, when there were 185 cases at this point.
A year ago there were only two cases total.
“This year has been perplexing for most people because the drought has provided little standing water for mosquito breeding, so we are seeing fewer mosquitoes. We are, however, seeing a higher proportion of WNV-infected mosquitoes,” Kightlinger said Wednesday.
“The fewer mosquitoes have allowed people to let their guard down and become lax in using repellants or wearing long pants in the evening.”
Septembers have been the third-busiest month for human cases of the mosquito-borne disease in South Dakota, based on a state Health Department analysis of WNV statistics for 2002 through 2011.
Those numbers show zero human cases during the months of November through April. May had a total of four during those years, while there were 24 during the Junes and 12 during the Octobers.
The highest activity has been clustered during the warmest three months: July: 315; August: 1,117; and September: 287.
This summer followed that pattern. The peak activity came during the week ending Aug. 4. Cases have steadily declined since then, but the danger remains present.
Kightlinger’s advice for the next few Friday nights as people gather to watch their high school teams: Communities should spray their football fields for mosquitoes, and people should use repellants and wear long pants.
That goes for other evening sports and activities, too.
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Effects of stroke
Changes after your stroke may be mild or severe, brief or long-lasting. This depends on the area of your brain affected by the stroke and how extensive the damage is.
After having a stroke, you may find that doing everyday activities may be difficult.
If the stroke damaged parts of your brain that control behavior, you may not be able to control your emotions. You may also feel anxious or depressed.
Physical effects on either side of the brain
Changes that may happen after a stroke on either side of the brain include abnormal muscle tone, bladder and bowel changes, problems with understanding and coordination.
The right side of the brain controls the ability to pay attention, recognize things you see, hear or touch, and be aware of your own body.
Left-sided stroke: Aphasia and language apraxia
The left side of the brain controls the ability to speak and understand language in most people.
Posterior CVA (cerebrovascular accident)
A posterior circulation stroke means the stroke affects the back area of your brain.
A multiple CVA (cerebrovascular accident) means several small strokes happen in a short time on both sides of your brain.
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Plant Virus Biodiversity and Ecology
(Funded NSF-EPSCoR Program)
Home | Team | Events |
Calendar | Publications | Positions
| Posters | Questions | Input Data |
Sequences | View Identified Viruses
Plant Virus Biodiversity and Ecology was one of two scientific theme areas in the State of Oklahoma's Research Infrastructure Improvement Award from the Experimental
Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for 2005-2008 funding. The theme area began receive funding in May 2005.
"Viruses, parasitic organisms that rely on their host for life sustaining" functions, have been found associated with almost every known organism, from eubacteria to archaebacteria to eukaryotes. They are as diverse in structure and molecular biology as the hosts they are associated with. We have not yet encountered the totality of virus biodiversity. ... Their biodiversity and abundance suggest an important role for viruses in our ecosystems. To explore this role, we need information beyond the mere discovery and cataloging of viral sequences. We need to know virus host associations, their geographic distributions, how these change with time, and the principles that govern these associations and distributions. A thorough understanding of virus biodiversity will have profound implications for our understanding of the evolution and ecology of higher organisms." The EPSCoR program funded the creation of infrastructure to address these needs.
Sifting through and analysing the data obtained is still in progress. Tentatively, however, the following conclusions are likely forthcoming.
- About one-third of plant specimens yielded evidence of the presence of one or more viruses.
- The proportions of samples of individual species yielding such evidence varied widely for the frequently sampled species, but was always greater than zero.
- A considerable number of samples yielded evidence of the presence of multiple viruses.
- Viral diversity was dependent of the family of viruses being considered.
- For several families (for example, tymovirus and tobamovirus) evidence of only a single species of virus was encountered.
- In other families (for example, Partitiviridae) evidence of a large diversity was found.
- Virus families frequently mentioned as agricultural pathogens (Geminiviridae, Potyviridae) were remarkably scarce in the data.
- Overall, signatures of hudreds of putative viruses were found.
- Only three of the putatively discovered viruses were viruses previously described by sequence.
Host distribution of viruses
- In the diverse kind of distribution apparent multiple viruses are found in multiple species of plants, in many cases (but not entirely) a one-on-one mapping of virus and plant species. Taxa exhibiting this distribution are: Chrysoviruses Endornaviruses, Totiviruses, Totivirids, Partitiviruses.
- In the limited kind of distribution, the virus is found in a single or very few plant species. Exemplifying this distribution are Ambrosia associated virus 1, TGP Allexivirus 1, Closteroviridae, Luteoviridae, Rhabdoviridae.
- In the cosmopolitan kind of distribution, the virus or apparent virus is found in high titer in one species but also in lower titer in many other species. Examples include TGP sobemovirus 1, Asclepias asymptomatic virus, TGP Comovirid 1, TGP Tobamovirus 1, TGP Panicovirus 1, TGP Carmovirus 1.
- Other kinds of virus-like sequences include one set similar to one oryzavirus segment, several (but not many) bacteriophage sequences, and pararetroviral sequences that may be from viruses or from chromosomal elements.
- The RNA2 of TGP Comovirid 1 has an extra ORF beginning before the polyprotein ORF.
- RNA of TGP Tobamovirus 1 has an extra ORF beginning at the end of the RdRP ORF and continuing, out-of-frame, through the middle of the movement protein ORF.
- Sequences similar to one RNA segment of an oryzavirus have been found in several plants, but no evidence of other segments was uncovered.
- A 3' terminal ORF of the Ambrosia asymptomatic virus encodes a protein of similar length to that of a mandarivirus, overlapping the coar protein ORF, but is more similar in sequence to the 3' ORF of carlaviruses.
- A putative badnavirus has a fusion of the canonical ORFs 1 and 2.
- Obvious symptoms of infection were only noted on about 2% of the plant samples collected.
- The proportion of plant samples with evidence of virus presence was much greater than 2%
- Factors such as life-history traits and competitive ability were not evaluated.
- One virus, the tymovirus Asclepias asymptomatic virus, was reconstructed and infected both its original host species (A. viridis) and N. benthamiana, but only the latter showed symptoms of disease.
- Isolation of dsRNA followed by its conversion to dsDNA and sequencing was an effective way of screening samples for evidence of virus presence. DNA viruses would be ignored by this process.
- Isolation of nucleic acids from a virus-like particle preparation from plant specimens used less material and gave comparable results to the dsRNA method except that it did not reveal viruses suspected of not existing in encapsidated forms.
- Microarray analysis has been developed to the point that it can be used to detect the presence of virus sequences from within a genus and distinguish among members of that genus. Its development may be useful in future biodiversity inventory surveys.
Oklahoma is an ideal site for this exciting endeavor. Through previous EPSCoR support, Oklahoma had built strength in molecular technologies associated with genomics (sequencing, microarray hybridization, bioinformatics) at its major graduate educational institutions (OU, TU, OSU and OUHSC). Oklahomas substantial infrastructure in ecology and biodiversity includes not only its diverse natural areas and plant species, but also its facilities and personnel for analysis of this diversity.
- Its Advanced Center for Genome Technology (ACGT, Roe, OU) is one of the worlds most efficient nucleotide sequencing facilities.
- The OSU Microarray Core Facility (OMCF, P. Hoyt, OSU) has state-of-the-art microarrayers and scanners, and the bioinformatics support for analysis of microarray data. Pioneering work in the use of microarrays for virus detection (Sengupta et al. 2003) was done at the OMCF. It also is a leader in microarray education and training.
- VirOligo, the database of virus-specific oligonucleotides (Melcher), resides at OSU.
- Plant Biotechnology Network tied together molecular plant biologists, including team members, from OU, OSU and SRN into a group with shared interests and collaborations. "The mission of this group is to enhance research and training activities in molecular plant biology ... throughout the state and to make such activities more visible to the international scientific community.
- TU spearheaded the creation of a new research station (dedication, May 2004), at the Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, including laboratories and classrooms. The vascular flora of the preserve consists of more than 740 species, and is vouchered with specimens in a reference herbarium at the preserve.
- The Flora of Oklahoma project is nearing completion and a digital specimen-based atlas of Oklahoma plants is available. Two major (OSU and OU) and several minor research herbaria document the flora. The effort is part of the Oklahoma Biological Survey.
- The Palmer Lab hosts the ordination web page which has been ranked (by Nedstat) as the most visited website in mathematics and computer science.
- Oklahoma Mesonet keeps track of weather conditions at over 110 stations throughout the state.
- Biodiversity: "Biodiversity, or biological diversity, may be defined as the variety of living organisms inhabiting a region. Because this definition only implies the existence of a very complex phenomenon, biologists further divide 'biodiversity' into three levels: genetic, species and community. " (Oklahoma Biological Survey). We have interest in all three levels of biological diversity defined in this manner.
- Biodiversity has also been defined as "species richness and relative species abundance in space and time. Species richness is simply the total number of species in a defined space at a given time, and relative species abundance refers to their commonness or rarity." (Stephen P. Hubbell, 2001 , The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Princeton U. Press, p.3)
- The species diversity can be viewed as a subset of the genetic diversity.
- Biogeography: is the study of the geographic distribution of species.
- Species: for viruses, this term is not universally accepted. For our purposes, we will adopt a nucleotide sequence based definition. Two viruses belong to different species if their sequences, overall are less than 90% identical.
- Virus: we use this term as a collective noun. A virus particle is part of a larger entity, the virus, that has infected the organism.
- Virion: a virus particle.
- Thus, virus relative species abundance does not include the concept of virion titer, but rather measures the frequency or fraction of plant individuals (of one or several plant species) that harbor the virus.
Contact U. Melcher
Page posted June 14, 2004
Last updated November 13, 2009
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- Press Briefing on Swine Influenza, April 26, 2009 In this briefing by heads of several U.S. agencies, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano declares a public health emergency in the United States.
- PandemicFlu.gov This is the U.S. government's "one-stop" website for information on swine, avian, and pandemic flu.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Swine Flu A table at the top of this web page shows the number of laboratory-confirmed swine flu cases in U.S. states.
- World Health Organization (WHO): Swine Influenza Here you can find international updates on the outbreak.
- Pan American Health Organization: Swine Influenza This web page provides links to Spanish-language publications.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Swine Flu Provokes Action by U.S. and World Agencies
As news sources reported that swine influenza cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and Canada and may have caused as many as 103 deaths in Mexico, the U.S. declared a "public health emergency." The U.S. is stockpiling civilian and military antiviral drugs for possible distribution, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is working on a vaccine against the virus. Read the Washington Post's report on the flu outbreak or view the most current updates on these U.S. and international agency websites:
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||The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (December 2010)|
Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of organizations that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds and some government sponsored enterprises.
As of 2004, the financial services industry represented 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 in the United States. The U.S. finance industry comprised only 10% of total non-farm business profits in 1947, but it grew to 50% by 2010. Over the same period, finance industry income as a proportion of GDP rose from 2.5% to 7.5%, and the finance industry's proportion of all corporate income rose from 10% to 20%.
The history of financial services
The term "financial services" became more prevalent in the United States partly as a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which enabled different types of companies operating in the U.S. financial services industry at that time to merge.
Companies usually have two distinct approaches to this new type of business. One approach would be a bank which simply buys an insurance company or an investment bank, keeps the original brands of the acquired firm, and adds the acquisition to its holding company simply to diversify its earnings. Outside the U.S. (e.g., in Japan), non-financial services companies are permitted within the holding company. In this scenario, each company still looks independent, and has its own customers, etc. In the other style, a bank would simply create its own brokerage division or insurance division and attempt to sell those products to its own existing customers, with incentives for combining all things with one company.
A "commercial bank" is what is commonly referred to as simply a "bank". The term "commercial" is used to distinguish it from an "investment bank," a type of financial services entity which, instead of lending money directly to a business, helps businesses raise money from other firms in the form of bonds (debt) or stock (equity).
Banking services
The primary operations of banks include:
- Keeping money safe while also allowing withdrawals when needed
- Issuance of checkbooks so that bills can be paid and other kinds of payments can be delivered by post
- Provide personal loans, commercial loans, and mortgage loans (typically loans to purchase a home, property or business)
- Issuance of credit cards and processing of credit card transactions and billing
- Issuance of debit cards for use as a substitute for checks
- Allow financial transactions at branches or by using Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs)
- Provide wire transfers of funds and Electronic fund transfers between banks
- Facilitation of standing orders and direct debits, so payments for bills can be made automatically
- Provide overdraft agreements for the temporary advancement of the Bank's own money to meet monthly spending commitments of a customer in their current account.
- Provide internet banking system to facilitate the customers to view and operate their respective accounts through internet.
- Provide Charge card advances of the Bank's own money for customers wishing to settle credit advances monthly.
- Provide a check guaranteed by the Bank itself and prepaid by the customer, such as a cashier's check or certified check.
- Notary service for financial and other documents
- Accepting the deposits from customer and provide the credit facilities to them.
Other types of bank services
- Private banking - Private banks provide banking services exclusively to high net worth individuals. Many financial services firms require a person or family to have a certain minimum net worth to qualify for private banking services. Private banks often provide more personal services, such as wealth management and tax planning, than normal retail banks.
- Capital market bank - bank that underwrite debt and equity, assist company deals (advisory services, underwriting and advisory fees), and restructure debt into structured finance products.
- Bank cards - include both credit cards and debit cards. Bank Of America is the largest issuer of bank cards.
- Credit card machine services and networks - Companies which provide credit card machine and payment networks call themselves "merchant card providers".
Foreign exchange services
Foreign exchange services are provided by many banks around the world. Foreign exchange services include:
- Currency exchange - where clients can purchase and sell foreign currency banknotes.
- Foreign Currency Banking - banking transactions are done in foreign currency.
- Wire transfer - where clients can send funds to international banks abroad.
Investment services
- Asset management - the term usually given to describe companies which run collective investment funds. Also refers to services provided by others, generally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as Registered Investment Advisors.
- Hedge fund management - Hedge funds often employ the services of "prime brokerage" divisions at major investment banks to execute their trades.
- Custody services - the safe-keeping and processing of the world's securities trades and servicing the associated portfolios. Assets under custody in the world are approximately US$100 trillion.
- Insurance brokerage - Insurance brokers shop for insurance (generally corporate property and casualty insurance) on behalf of customers. Recently a number of websites have been created to give consumers basic price comparisons for services such as insurance, causing controversy within the industry.
- Insurance underwriting - Personal lines insurance underwriters actually underwrite insurance for individuals, a service still offered primarily through agents, insurance brokers, and stock brokers. Underwriters may also offer similar commercial lines of coverage for businesses. Activities include insurance and annuities, life insurance, retirement insurance, health insurance, and property & casualty insurance.
- Reinsurance - Reinsurance is insurance sold to insurers themselves, to protect them from catastrophic losses.
Other financial services
- Intermediation or advisory services - These services involve stock brokers (private client services) and discount brokers. Stock brokers assist investors in buying or selling shares. Primarily internet-based companies are often referred to as discount brokerages, although many now have branch offices to assist clients. These brokerages primarily target individual investors. Full service and private client firms primarily assist and execute trades for clients with large amounts of capital to invest, such as large companies, wealthy individuals, and investment management funds.
- Private equity - Private equity funds are typically closed-end funds, which usually take controlling equity stakes in businesses that are either private, or taken private once acquired. Private equity funds often use leveraged buyouts (LBOs) to acquire the firms in which they invest. The most successful private equity funds can generate returns significantly higher than provided by the equity markets
- Venture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided by professional, outside investors to new, high-potential-growth companies in the interest of taking the company to an IPO or trade sale of the business.
- Angel investment - An angel investor or angel (known as a business angel or informal investor in Europe), is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.
- Conglomerates - A financial services conglomerate is a financial services firm that is active in more than one sector of the financial services market e.g. life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, asset management, retail banking, wholesale banking, investment banking, etc. A key rationale for the existence of such businesses is the existence of diversification benefits that are present when different types of businesses are aggregated i.e. bad things don't always happen at the same time. As a consequence, economic capital for a conglomerate is usually substantially less than economic capital is for the sum of its parts.
- Debt resolution is a consumer service that assists individuals that have too much debt to pay off as requested, but do not want to file bankruptcy and wish to pay off their debts owed. This debt can be accrued in various ways including but not limited to personal loans, credit cards or in some cases merchant accounts. There are many services/companies that can assist with this.
Financial crime
The U.S. finance industry comprised only 10% of total non-farm business profits in 1947, but it grew to 50% by 2010. Over the same period, finance industry income as a proportion of GDP rose from 2.5% to 7.5%, and the finance industry's proportion of all corporate income rose from 10% to 20%. The mean earnings per employee hour in finance relative to all other sectors has closely mirrored the share of total U.S. income earned by the top 1% income earners since 1930. The mean salary in New York City's finance industry rose from $80,000 in 1981 to $360,000 in 2011, while average New York City salaries rose from $40,000 to $70,000. In 1988, there were about 12,500 U.S. banks with less than $300 million in deposits, and about 900 with more deposits, but by 2012, there were only 4,200 banks with less than $300 million in deposits in the U.S., and over 1,800 with more.
The financial services industry constitutes the largest group of companies in the world in terms of earnings and equity market capitalization. However it is not the largest category in terms of revenue or number of employees. It is also a slow growing and extremely fragmented industry, with the largest company (Citigroup), only having a 3% US market share. In contrast, the largest home improvement store in the US, Home Depot, has a 30% market share, and the largest coffee house Starbucks has a 32% market share.
See also
- Accounting scandals
- Alternative financial services
- European Financial Services Roundtable
- Financial analyst
- Financial data vendors
- Financial markets
- Financial transaction tax
- International Monetary Fund
- Investment management
- List of banks
- List of countries by credit rating
- List of investment banks
- Misleading financial analysis
- Thomson Financial League Tables
- "The Mistakes Of Our Grandparents?". Contrary Investor.com. February 2004. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- Soltas, Evan (February 24, 2013). "The Rise of Finance". Economics and Thought. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Soltas, Evan (February 27, 2013). "5 More Graphs on Finance". Economics and Thought. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- "Bill Summary & Status 106th Congress (1999 - 2000) S.900 CRS Summary - Thomas (Library of Congress)". Retrieved 2011-02-08.
- "Private Banking definition". Investor Words.com. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- "How Swiss Bank Accounts Work". How Stuff Works. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- Prudential: Securities Processing Primer
- "Price comparison sites face probe". BBC News. 2008-01-22. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- "Watchdog warns of criminal gangs inside banks". The Guardian (London). 2005-11-16. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
- The Opportunity: Small Global Market Share, Page 11, from the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Strategic Decisions Conference – 6/02/04
Further reading
- Porteous, Bruce T.; Pradip Tapadar (December 2005). Economic Capital and Financial Risk Management for Financial Services Firms and Conglomerates. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-3608-0.
- The role of the financial Services Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity | A report by Christopher N. Sutton and Beth Jenkins | John F. Kennedy School of Government | Harvard University
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By Michele C. Hollow on Friends of Animals (FOA)
When I first heard about Black Dog Syndrome, I thought it was an Internet hoax. A trainer who rescued a black Labrador retriever told me that the shelter workers where she adopted her black Lab from were thrilled that she chose a black Lab over a yellow one.
If you are unaware, Black Dog Syndrome is when people don’t adopt dogs with black or dark fur. I grew up with a German Shepherd/Collie/Beagle mix who was mostly black and dark brown. He was extremely handsome, and quite intelligent, which made me think that Black Dog Syndrome just couldn’t exist.
Yet, I kept on hearing about it on chat rooms, on the Internet, from friends who do rescue work, and from people who work at animal shelters. One person told me that when she was looking to adopt a Labrador retriever, she was astounded at the disparity between available yellow dogs versus black dogs. The wait for a yellow lab from a rescue group could be months or years, while there were plenty of black labs available.
Why Black Dogs are Overlooked
Black dogs are often overlooked. When you place a bunch of black dogs in a shelter amongst tan, red, yellow, mixed and other colored fur, people’s gaze goes towards the lighter or brighter animals.
“As a brand marketing professional, I can tell you color is a powerful perception tool,” says Steven Vena, owner of The Nimble Group, Inc., a brand marketing and advertising agency. “If I am walking down the street, I would bet more people would pet the tan dog versus the black dog.”
I was able to see his point—even though I didn’t like it. I grew up in New York, and have a lot of black clothes in my closet. I remember attending an expo at the Javits Center; the majority of men dressed in black suits and the women wore black dresses. I came along in a bright orange blazer, and got lots of comments. Many people thanked me for wearing a sunny color.
Still when it comes to fur or skin color, I think black is more interesting because it’s not just black. Look at a cat, dog, or person with black coloring and you will see reds, browns, and a nice mix of other tones thrown in. Maybe because I’m extremely fair skinned, I appreciate other colors. I was thankful for my freckles; otherwise I would have a ghostlike complexion!
Photos of Black Dogs
Take a look at photos of adoptable dogs and cats on line. Often shelter workers, not professional photographers, snap quick photos and post them. Unfortunately they are not very good, and all too often the black ones are blurry. Thankfully, many shelters are using professional photographers to show off these dogs and cats. Some shelters are adding color to these adoptable animals. You might see a black dog or cat with a colorful bandanna or attractive colored collar. It makes the pet stand out.
Black cats also have a hard time getting adopted. A lot of that has to do with superstitions. Personally, I had a black cat, and everyone loved him. He was the sweetest, and had a playful personality. His green eyes stood out against his expressive face.
I have trouble understanding this, but there are some people who regard black cats as witches’ familiars. It has gotten so bad that shelters won’t adopt out a black cat around Halloween time. It seems that people want to use black cats for rituals around that time. So a good number of shelters refuse to adopt out their black cats from the end of September to the beginning of November.
And I know this is going to sound screwy, but some people believe that vampires transform themselves into black dogs as a way of traveling unnoticed at night. (I just don’t get some people.) So unfortunately, black cats and dogs are the last, if at all, to be adopted.
Black Dog and Black Cat Syndrome are real. The next time you are looking to adopt a dog or cat, take personality into account. Talk to the shelter workers or the workers at the rescue group, and make an informed decision.
Michele C. Hollow writes Pet News and Views, a blog devoted to the positive side of animal welfare. Stories cover news about people who work with and for animals and animal nonprofits.
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Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to this article.
Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review.
...insect had virtually disappeared. The success was repeated in every country where the scale insect had become established without its predators. In eastern Canada in in the early 1940s the European spruce sawfly (Gilpinia), which had caused immense damage, was completely controlled by the spontaneous appearance of a viral disease, perhaps unknowingly introduced from Europe. This event...
What made you want to look up "spruce sawfly"? Please share what surprised you most...
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Water Management on the Rideau - An Overview
The Rideau Waterway is a man-made system with water levels regulated by a series of control dams and reservoir lakes. It cuts across two watersheds, the Cataraqui River watershed, which drains water south to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, and the Rideau Basin watershed which drains water north to the Ottawa River.
Prior to the Rideau Canal being built, the "Rideau Route" spanned three watersheds. One was the Rideau River watershed, basically as it exists today, the second was the Gananoque River watershed and the third was the Cataraqui River Watershed. It was these latter two watersheds that were altered, first by the buidling of mill dams and then by the dams of the Rideau Canal.
|Profile of the Rideau Waterway
(Click on the picture for a detailed view)
The story of the pre-canal landscape has been documented in The Rideau Route. In a nutshell, prior to about 1805, the top of the Cataraqui River Watershed were Dog and Loughborough lakes. Today, the top of the Cataraqui River watershed on the Rideau Canal is Newboro Lake (note, this is the top of the watershed on the Rideau Canal, but not the top of the full watershed). Prior to about 1805, Newboro Lake (then known as Mud Lake) was part of the Gananoque Watershed - water from it and other pre-canal lakes in this area (Clear, Indian, Opinicon and Sand) flowed, via the Whitefish River, to the Gananoque River.
In about 1805, a miller by the name of Lemuel Haskins built a mill dam at White Fish Falls (today's Morton). This blocked the Whitefish River and forced the water over the Cranberry Flood Plain to the Cataraqui River. Haskins had changed the watershed. This was made permanent by the building of a canal dam in the same location in 1826-1831. For maps illustrating this change see: The Rideau Route - Changing Watersheds.
While Haskins was the first miller to make a dramatic watershed change to the area, other millers were taking advantage of water power along the Rideau Route. Mills back then depended on waterpower. Any place that had a 5 to 10 foot head (elevation difference) of water made for a potential mill site. Water provided power to turn things - a grindstone to mill wheat, a saw blade to cut timber or a loom to make cloth.
When it was decided to build the Rideau Canal, several surveys were done of the route. The idea back then was to work with nature as much as possible. Everything had to be done by hand, and less work meant a cheaper cost. Colonel John By, who headed up the canal building project, decided to go with a slackwater system in order to gain navigation depth. In many conventional canals of the day, rapids were bypassed by digging a canal ditch around them. By decided to use locks and control dams to raise the water level of several sections of the waterway to drown rapids. This did two things, it made for cheaper construction costs (less rock excavation) and it turned rivers and swamps into lakes, providing navigation depths without the need for extensive excavation.
By was well aware of the dangers of spring flooding. Water can be controlled to a degree, but hydraulic pressure is an awesome force. By needed to design a system that could hold back water in order to maintain navigation depth, as well as release the torrents of water produced by the snow melt.
There were four design elements that By used to prevent water damage to the locks. First, at most of the lock sites he built waste water weirs, which are water control dams separate from the main lock. These dams have stop logs that can be dropped in or lifted out to control how much water is released. The bulk of the water that flows from lake to lake and from lockstation to lockstation goes through these waste water weirs. At only a couple of the lockstations did he dispense with the waste water weir and opt for the more conventional overflow dam (a dam that extends the full width of the river with water flowing over it).
|The old painting of Chaffey's Lock in 1833 (above) and the airphoto of Davis Lock (right) show how a waste water weir works. The stop logs (still used today) are visible in the Chaffey's Lock painting.|
Secondly, at many of the locks, he raised the height of the lock to provide a flood guard. This "guard", usually in the range of 2 to 4 feet, meant that flood water could not overflow the lock (which would likely destroy it). Rising water would find another route, bypassing the lock. It would be much easier and cheaper to repair a damaged earth dam or waste water weir than to repair a flooded-out lock. One lock (Hog's Back) actually has a "guard lock" to protect the lift lock from spring flood.
Thirdly the abutments (ends) of the locks were rounded and slots put in to allow for stop logs to be dropped in. The stop logs allowed the lock to be fully drained for repair work, but they also prevented ice from exerting pressure on lock gates and the lock basin. The rounded abutments better resisted both ice and hydraulic pressures than square abutments would have.
Fourthly, By put in automatic flood control gates at two locks. By was worried about the effect of a catastrophic flood. Such a flood could be man-made with the destruction of a upstream dam or lock. The resulting onslaught of floodwater could destroy additional locks downstream. One such gate was placed in the channel above Newboro. A sketchy description shows it to be a wooden structure that would lie flat on the bottom of the channel. Rushing floodwaters would trigger it to rotate into an upright position, forming a barrier to the rushing floodwaters. The water of course would flow around it, but this gate would buffer the effects of the initial onrush, preventing major damage to the lock. A second flood gate was put in at Upper Brewers after a mill dam did in fact fail in 1832, almost destroying the lock ( see the story of The Wall of Water). These gates never saw actual use and no longer exist.
In addition to these physical flood control mechanism, it was Col By who initiated the procedure of drawing down the water in the canal system during the winter, opening up the weirs to drop the water level as low as possible, in order to provide holding capacity in the spring, allowing the controlled release of the spring freshet. This procedure is still in use to this day.
The Early Years
Colonel By was quite aware of the Rideau as an integrated hydrologic system. In fact he advocated restricting the use of land and water in the Cataraqui and Rideau watersheds. A basic principle of hydrologic systems is the retention of water within a watershed. Forests and swamps have lengthy retention times. An inch of rain that falls in a forest or swamp may take three weeks to fully drain into the waterway. That same inch falling on cleared farmland will drain away in a few days. Water falling in an urban environment drains away in a matter of hours. Evaporation on cleared areas also means that less water reaches the lakes and rivers of the watershed.
The issue of water retention within the watershed relates to the need to maintain navigable water depths throughout the whole of the waterway. To maintain this depth, water lost through river flow, lake evaporation and transpiration must be replaced. During the summer on the larger lakes, evaporation can account for a drop of up to 1 centimetre per day. Before the clearing of land for farming and urban development, the system was almost self-regulating. Rain falling in the region was buffered by forests and swamps. Water flow continued into the waterway even in periods of drought.
However, as forests were cut down and swamps drained, it became more difficult to maintain consistent water levels in the waterway. This was particularly apparent in the Cataraqui Basin watershed. In the latter half of the 19th century, several lakes in the watershed had to be dammed to become reservoir lakes for the Rideau. These lakes in effect replaced the forests that had been cut down, allowing water to be retained in the system and released as needed. In the Rideau Basin Watershed, the presence of a very large lake system at the top of the watershed, along with the Tay River and associated swamplands, continued to provide the needed water retention.
In the very early years, another problem was the lack of communication between lockstations. Messages had to be carried between lockstation by a person on foot, horseback or boat. Lockmasters lived at the locks and were on duty 24 hours a day. They were instructed to keep a close eye on water levels, to release water at the first sign of the spring freshet, and to retain water as much as possible during the summer and fall navigation season. The advent of the telegraph and later the telephone made the co-ordination of water control efforts much more efficient.
Another problem was the competing interest for water. In the early years, this competition came from the mill owners. The retention of water to maintain navigable water depths sometimes conflicted with a mill's need to run water through its water wheels and later, turbines. This led at times to conflict.
As the Rideau entered the twentieth century, several new man-made demands were placed were on the system. A new breed of water user, the cottager, appeared. This added a new expectation regarding water levels since those living on the waterfront don't want structures such as boathouses and docks to be damaged by fluctuating water levels. As the twentieth century progressed, another use for the water, hydro-electric power generation, also competed for use of the water. In several cases existing structures, such as the dam at Jones Falls, were used for hydro-electric power generation. At Jones Falls a tunnel was excavated through the stone arch dam. This tunnel was connected to wooden sluiceways that took the water to power generation turbines. Another demand for water was made by growing municipalities such as Smiths Falls which needed water from the Rideau for their municipal systems.
As the century progressed, it became clear that other factors such as the flora and fauna along the Rideau must be taken into account. A dramatic shift in water levels at the wrong time of year can have a negative impact on the spawning beds of fish. Many species of plants and animal along the Rideau depend on a constant flow of water to maintain their habitat.
So, this takes us to the present. The current water management program must try to juggle the needs of many, sometimes competing, interests.
Each section of the Rideau is governed by a water level rule curve. A rule curve is the ideal water level that the lake or river should have at any point in the year. In many of the lakes the fluctuation is about 0.5 to 1 metre, maintaining high levels in summer and then allowing the lakes to drop down to normal winter levels after navigation closes in the fall. In the spring, the amount of snow pack determines how much the lakes must be drawn down in order to provide a reservoir to hold back water and prevent downstream flooding.
In the past, historic records and past practises gave direction on how to properly maintain water levels. Today, this information and a host of other data such as levels of snow pack, precipitation and flow measurements are all incorporated in a computer simulation of the waterway to help give direction on how to maintain the lakes and rivers as close to the rule curve as possible.
Of course nature can still intervene and ruin the best-laid calculations. The summer of 1999 was such an example, where exceptionally low summer precipitation led several lakes to drop below their rule curve and in a couple of cases, drop slightly below minimum navigable water depth (5 feet). It is to be noted, that due to the small size the watersheds, no matter what the water level in May, if the Rideau area goes into drought, water levels will be dropping by mid-late July.
In the past, before computer simulations, techniques were based on past experience. Some buffering was also built in the system, for instance, it was common practise to take Big Rideau Lake above its normal upper limit in the spring, in order to provide some extra water in case it was needed in the event of a dry summer. Cottagers' complaints put a stop to this practise. If the hot and dry summers of late continue, this practise may have to be reinstated.
The canal section in Ottawa is emptied each fall and raised back to navigation level in the spring. It is also partially re-filled in the winter for the skateway. The exact timing of all of this is variable. It is usually emptied about a week or so after the canal closes in the fall. It is refilled in the spring, generally in late April (the 2011 date was May 3 - the 2012 date was April 28). To get the exact dates, contact the Rideau Canal Office of Parks Canada: RideauCanalemail@example.com
Cottagers - a cottagers' main interest is protection of property and the recreation use of the waterfront. A flooded dock or prop-busting shallow water can lead to complaints. Some are valid, some are not. Cottage owners should be aware of the rule curve for their lake, as well as historic maximums and minimums. A floating dock is a wise choice to accommodate fluctuating water levels as well as being the soundest environmental choice.
Boaters - a boater's main interest is navigation depth. The minimum depth is normally 1.5 metres (5.0 feet) in the navigation channel. The navigation charts show depths based on the minimum summer rule curve level. So, if the water level dips below the minimum rule curve, then the charts numbers are no longer valid. Another issue is docking. The fixed docks at marinas and lock stations are based on the median rule curve. If water dips too low, it can be a bit of a chore to climb up onto the dock from a small boat.
Fish & Wildlife - the Rideau is home to many species of fish and wildlife that depend on the water. Water levels are adjusted to accommodate the needs of these local residents. In fall, several of the lakes are dropped quite quickly to winter levels. This is to accommodate trout spawning since trout spawn in shallow water. Water levels have to be taken down to winter level before they start to spawn, otherwise the spawning beds the trout pick would end up high and dry, or ice damaged in winter. Lakes are generally held to these levels until at least February 1, in order to lessen the impact on animals such as muskrat and beaver, which have hibernated in dens based on these winter water levels.
A complaint heard in the summer of 1999 was that water was still being let through at Smiths Falls, even though Lower Rideau Lake was falling below chart datum. A constant minimum flow must go through Smiths Falls to supply the Rideau River with water; you can't just shut off the flow. Part of this has to do with urban development in the northern Rideau (Ottawa) area. As swamps are drained for development, water-retention capacity diminishes, and more demands are required of the headwaters (Tay River, Big Rideau Lake, Lower Rideau Lake) to supply water to the Rideau River.
Hydro-electric Power Generation - generating plants are located at Kingston Mills, Washburn, Brewers Mills, Jones Falls, Smiths Falls, Merrickville and Rideau Falls in Ottawa. The generating plants operate under a lease agreement with the Parks Canada, and are allowed to take a certain amount of water. The need to maintain navigation depths in the Rideau takes precedence over power generation. Water fluctuations in certain lakes can sometimes be attributed to draw downs for the purposes of power generation.
Urban Residents - some urban communities use water from the Rideau Waterway for their municipal supplies. Water management of the Rideau is also a significant factor in flood control, particularly of the northern (Ottawa) area.
View Rule Curve Levels
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The Challenge of Wealth - Class 3
By Dr. Meir Tamari
The answer that Moses gives to the claims of Korach is actually a Torah perspective on the potential for abuse of power and of wealth. His answers are not directly related to the claims of the rebels, but rather a disclaimer of personal benefit from his position of power. They claimed he usurped and misappropriated spiritual and religious rights: those of the first born to be priests, those of all the people to be equal in sanctity and those of the families of the Levites to be priests. Their cry was, "all the people are holy". Moses turns to Hashem and says," turn not to their offering; not one ass have I taken from them, and not one of them have I hurt" (BaMidbar, 6:5). The midrashic sources flesh out his answer. They tell us that when he brought his wife and children to Egypt, in order to lead the Jews out of there, he transported them at his own expense. So too, every time his tent had to be dismantled or erected, he did not use the public service facilities to do so, as he was entitled to in view of his position.
This answer is paralleled by that of another leader, one considered to be an equal to Moses and Aaron. When Israel demanded a King, Samuel the prophet, made them bear witness to his own avoidance of the abuse of power. "Whose ox have I taken? Whose ass have I taken? Whom have I oppressed? With who have I curried favor? Of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes?" (Samuel 1,12:3). The sages, seeing the use of the singular in the peoples answer, said that HaShem added; "I bear witness that Samuel did none of these things even in secret, beyond the sight and knowledge of human beings".
When the text tells us that the sons of Samuel took bribes [Samuel 1,8:3], the Rabbis explained this in the number of ways that sound amazingly modern and sophisticated. "Samuel had been a Circuit-Judge reaching every corner of Israel, to render justice in each town. His sons, however, remained in Beer Sheva in order to increase the wages of their clerks and lawyers" (Shabbat, 56a). Thereby they increased the cost of justice. This was further exaggerated, by forcing the people to come from the far corners of the land. They made justice expensive and cumbersome, in effect a travesty. The same source continues to tell us that they took more than their share of the tithes, or forced businessmen to co-op them as partners thereby using their power to obtain personal benefit from the profits or they took by force the priestly gifts, that halahkically can given at the owners discretion. All these were forms of the abuse of power and therefore considered as bribery.
Abuse of power and wealth is not limited to public officials, elected or appointed, but pertains to everyone in the marketplace and in business. The economically weaker partner can be easily abused, insulted and exploited in many different ways. Employers have great power over their employees regarding wages, labor conditions and downsizing. Theoretically these are all set by the workings of the free market; however, in practice everybody knows that there is great place for discretion and personal decisions that are often expressions of power. Large firms have a power that flows from economic strength that can be used and is used against small suppliers, especially those who have a sole customer. Such power is used to squeeze margins of profit, determine dates of payment that that are beneficial to the large firms and to cease a relationship at their discretion, even though this may mean the destruction of a small firm. Sexual harassment, of unwilling or willing partners, is in reality an expression of the power of position and wealth in business, since employment or advancement can be dependent on sexual favors.
There is an area in which the public and private sectors meet and is often the arena of bribery on the one hand and the abuse of power on the other. It is common knowledge that corporations in the Western world find themselves expected, in foreign countries, to give bribes in order to receive licenses or to win tenders. The public officials or elected politicians there, abuse the power given to them by their governments or by their citizens in order to enrich themselves. There is, however, an even more sophisticated and subtle scenario that is common in developed Western countries. Enron is only the latest case of this mixture of bribery and abuse of power. At one level, it takes the form of contributions to the campaigns of political figures or to the parties in power in the government. The political contributions by Enron are seen by many, as explaining the weakness of the regulatory agencies in policing the financial practices that led to its collapse. There is another more subtle level that explains the delay of the professional institutions in making public, the weaknesses of Enron. As long as there were big commissions to be earned from the boosting and selling of Enron stock, the analysts, the stockbrokers and the financial advisers allowed themselves to be blinded to the faults and fissures in Enron's financial structure. They thereby abused the power they have over the investment portfolios of their clients and customers.
Our Sages taught that, "It is not the mouse that steals but the hole". The giver of a bribe is as guilty as the one who accepts it. So too, citizens of a country or community who do not vigorously protest the abuse of power by their elected or appointed officials and do not actively work for their removal, are simply the hole referred to by our
Copyright © 2002 by Rabbi Meir Tamari and Project Genesis, Inc.
Dr. Tamari is a renowned economist, Jewish scholar, and founder of the Center For Business Ethics (www.besr.org) in Jerusalem.
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last modified: Monday, December 19, 2005 10:19 AM
Downtown Development Authorities as a Catalyst to
Development: A Case Study of
Local economic development in many communities has focused on either creating
or revitalizing the city’s downtown district. Attracting businesses, shoppers,
and residents to the downtown has become an important part of many cities’ strategy. To
aid in these efforts, many cities have established a Downtown Development
Authority (DDA) to help attract and promote business in the downtown. This
paper looks at the city of
DDA Leads Downtown Revitalization
The goal of any DDA is to increase the business activity of the city. One way to do this is to bring in well-known national chains as a means of spurring growth. However, these chains often have specific criteria that must be matched in order for them to open a new store. These criteria can involve demographic requirements such as population density or income levels, as well as physical requirements like building size or number of parking spaces.
Because of these requirements many of Sheppard-Decius’ early attempts were
unsuccessful. For example, Starbucks and Borders both declined the opportunity
to open in
Sheppard-Decius decided to tap into the local business networks to increase downtown business activity. The DDA played an important role in helping many local business owners through the process of starting their own business. The success of these small, independent stores varied, but as time passed, certain niches began to emerge. Unique clothing and shoe stores, independent record stores, and restaurants and cafes were succeeding, and the downtown slowly came back to life. The vacancy rate dropped from 30% to around 3%.
The revitalization of
According to Sheppard-Decius, it is important to be aware of those differences when targeting potential businesses. A city would not want to bring in a store that is not likely to do well, and likewise a store owner wants to open in a location where it is most likely to succeed.
Building on the success of its downtown, Sheppard-Decius initiated events
to highlight local businesses. The DDA took over control of the annual Dream
Sheppard-Decius’ experiences illustrate two important aspects to creating
an effective DDA. The first is to accept the situation a city finds itself
in, and determine the best way to build off of that. An example is
It is also important to recognize the importance of knowing “who you are” as
a city and using marketing as a way to make it grow. As the downtown took
shape, Sheppard-Decius identified certain groups that frequented downtown
Limitations on a Development Authority’s Effectiveness
It is often noted that determining the effectiveness of economic development programs can be difficult. In this case, it is difficult to gauge how much of a business’s or shopper’s decision is based on the actions of the DDA and what their decisions would be in the absence of any policy.
There are also variable outside the control of the city or DDA that can
have a large influence on the vitality of the local business. Fluctuations
in the national and regional economy play an important role. For example,
the automobile industry’s troubles will have an impact throughout southeast
Sheppard-Decius faces other difficulties as well. The first is the size
of the downtown district. As mentioned earlier, the primary business district
is located along
Another challenge is the buildings themselves. Many of the buildings are older compared to buildings in other communities. While this may allow for lower rents, business owners may prefer to locate somewhere else.
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(Phys.org)—Research that sheds new light on the microscopic chemical physics driving one of the most important reaction sequences in atmospheric chemistry is published in Science today by Dr David Glowacki from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry, in collaboration with an international team including experimentalists and theoreticians based in Leeds, Cambridge, and Chicago.
The Earth's atmosphere is a huge chemical reactor where sunlight (rather than heat) starts off chemical chain reactions that ultimately control the fate of greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants. Within the Earth's atmosphere (and more generally), one of the most important classes of chemical reactions are so-called 'association reactions', where one molecule (call it A) reacts with another molecule (call it B).
Chemical physicists have known for a long time that molecules can exist in both high energy and low energy quantum states, often referred to as 'equilibrium' and 'non-equilibrium' states, respectively. For arbitrary A + B reactions taking place in the Earth's atmosphere, the nearly universal assumption is that, prior to reaction, both A and B are in their equilibrium states.
Earth's atmosphere is composed of 20 per cent O2, meaning that O2 is a participant in most atmospheric reaction sequences. Contrary to the assumption that atmospheric association reactions always involve reactants in equilibrium states, Dr Glowacki and colleagues show that, for association reactions of the type O2 + B, there is a high probability that O2 'intercepts' B before its non-equilibrium quantum states have relaxed to equilibrium.
The authors present compelling experimental and computational evidence showing that this occurs during the atmospheric degradation of acetylene, which is an important tracer of atmospheric pollution and also plays an important role in the formation of atmospheric particulates.
Furthermore, Dr Glowacki and colleagues show that that the products produced when O2 intercepts another molecule's non-equilibrium quantum states are different from those produced when the states are in equilibrium.
Using detailed mathematical models to unravel the timescales of non-equilibrium quantum state relaxation, the researchers speculate that the interception of non-equilibrium quantum states by O2 is likely to be important for a range of chemical reactions in Earth's atmosphere, with possibly unexpected chemical reaction outcomes.
Dr Glowacki said: "Ultimately, this work improves our fundamental understanding of the microscopic chemical physics driving one of the most important reaction sequences in atmospheric chemistry, and paves the way for further studies of non-equilibrium systems within nature."
Explore further: Searching for oxygen in space
More information: 'Interception of excited vibrational quantum states by O2 in atmospheric association reactions' by D. R. Glowacki et al in Science.
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A drawing - based research on postdigital visualization.
Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was the most important movement theorist of the twentieth century and the founding father of modern dance in central Europe. He considered human movement in the contexts of science and art, embracing a continuum from nature to spirituality. His lifelong study of movement gave rise to an integrated and holistic system for observing, describing and notating movement and it's interrelationship with human expression.
A visualization of concept sharing within a small group deployed at Interactive Futures 2007. Participants send text messages which are mapped according the frequency from bottom to top. Each participant is represented as a Milkweed seed with as many strands as text messages submitted. The seeds float in a simulated wind and are lofted by their own text submissions as they intersect. Seeds with more strands have more levity. Seeds with similar submissions are attracted to one another.
Drawing-based research on visual synthesis by Vjeko Sager
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Basil the Confessor
Saints Procopius and Basil, fellow ascetics, lived about the middle of the eighth century, during the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741), from whom they suffered many things for the sake of the veneration of the holy icons. They ended their lives in the ascetical discipline.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Basil, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
Thou tookest thyself away from worldly turbulence, since thou hadst received God's revelation from on high; and for living righteously as a monk, thou didst receive might from grace to heal ills and work miracles, O all-blessed Basil, wise in sacred things.
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STEM to STEAM: The Importance of Arts in Science
- 9:30 AM
For this month’s Muse of Nerds, I quickly grabbed onto the STEM to STEAM movement (adding ‘arts’ to the technical.) Creativity is the foundation for advancement in all fields. The arts — writing, music, art, theater and dance — paired with science, technology, engineering and math, foster a relationship between both sides of the brain for maximum human innovation potential. Trying to place STEM at the top of the educational plant stifles growth.
In 1858, Friedrich Kekule published a paper that showed, visually, how atoms bond chemically. He continued to play with the design until in 1865, he put carbon as a six-sided ring (hexagon) with chains and links, which gave rise to organic chemistry. Kekule started out as an architect before switching to the new science of chemistry. The visualization of chemical bonding didn’t come out of experiments in the lab, but a daydream while riding the bus. His brain looked at chemistry with an architect’s eye.
Daniel Tammet holds the European world record for reciting pi from memory. Daniel can “sense” if a number is prime. I think it’s important to mention that Daniel has high-functioning autism because many educators tend to steer children on the Autism spectrum towards STEM fields. However, Daniel uses the arts to “see” numbers. He is a lucid writer with his book, Born on a Blue Day. The way he was able to memorize pi was by creating a visual landscape in his mind. Clearly, art and math are tied for him.
Science News had a special issue on August 14, 2010 devoted to our minds on music. It was a fascinating look at how music influences our growth emotionally and mentally. In it there was a quote from Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, “In terms of brain imaging, studies have shown listening to music lights up, or activates, more of the brain than any other stimulus we know.” That’s just listening! As Daniel Levitin, director of the music perception, cognition and expertise laboratory at McGill University in Montreal explained, “Music processing is distributed throughout the brain…and playing an instrument, in particular, is an ensemble activity. It involves paying attention, thinking ahead, remembering, coordinating movement and interpreting constant feedback to the ears, fingers and, in some cases, lips. It is one of the most complicated tasks that we have.”
How could that kind of thinking be considered extracurricula? That’s the saddest part. STEM in education is not just getting the funding for special programming, but amazing mental tasks like music aren’t even in the BASIC CURRICULUM!
This very morning I was teaching a creative writing class to some junior high students. The stories will be used to later design and program robots (based on challenges the writing students come up with). The writing students have to be creative to make their challenges cohesive with their story lines. The robotic students have to be creative in designing and programming robots. Tying the two endeavors together gives the project more weight.
Have you ever been to a science museum? Did you attend any of the fantastic theater shows? Watching a story unfold is basic human communication. Lecturing is not.
My children were taking a botany course and convinced their teacher to demonstrate their plant family identification ability using interpretive dance. Seriously. Their teacher was cool about it and let them try. They took all the information they knew about these plant families (memorizing), decided on what was the most important and distinguishable traits (critical thinking) and then came up with movements to convey the information in a clear way (innovation.) By using their full body to translate the concepts, more parts of their brain were used. Do you think they will remember the information better than if they wrote it out on a test? Can your fingers remember a song on the piano from when you were a child? Muscle memory is a powerful tool.
My husband teaches genetics and is frustrated at the lack of “creative and independent thought” the students portray. Students walk in the classroom lacking good reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The scientists getting prizes don’t spit out what they were taught. They dream, they doodle, they hum, they dance their way to success.
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Watch Out for Winter
If freezing temperatures are in the forecast, it's time to winterize your irrigation system. By removing water from the pipes, valves and sprinkler heads, contractors can protect systems from potentially serious damage in cold climates. If this isn't done, possible problems could include cracked valves, mains freezing and bursting, and back flows that cause damage. Anything that is pressurized can cause damage to the system if you don't winterize it.
There are three common winterization techniques: manual drain valve, automatic drain valve and a compressed air blowout. It is important to remember that no matter which method you choose to remove water from the irrigation system, controller protection is also critical to the winterization process. It's better to keep the controller plugged in and switched to the off position than unplugging it for the winter. If unplugged over the winter, some controllers might automatically engage once power is re-connected, which could cause problems if the system is not ready for operation.
MANUAL DRAIN VALVE METHOD
To use this method, the irrigation system must be properly designed. Make sure the manual drain valve is installed at the lowest point on your system's mainline. You should install additional manual drain valves if your mainline has multiple low points where water may collect. A ball valve, gate valve, “stop and waste” valve or simple threaded pipe with a cap can provide drainage. It's important to make sure piping is properly sloped to drain. If the valve is outdoors, it should be installed over a “dry well” (underground pit filled with gravel) to drain water away from the piping. If the valve is installed indoors, make sure you can drain a volume of water without flooding or overflow.
To manually drain the valve, first turn off the sprinkler system mainline shut-off valve (A) (see Figure 1 on page C14). Then open one of the sprinkler system control valves, either manually or electronically from the controller, to relieve pressure on the sprinkler system mainline. Slowly open the manual drain valve (B) (see Figure 1 on page C14). Repeat this procedure for all manual drain valves on the sprinkler system mainline.
AUTOMATIC DRAIN VALVE METHOD
The automatic drain valve is a spring-loaded device installed on sprinkler heads or lateral pipes. The drain valve opens every time the system is shut off and drains all water from the pipe. When the system is pressurized, water presses against the sealing mechanism, shutting the valve and allowing water to flow through the pipe and to the sprinklers.
Automatic drains should be installed after or downstream of the sprinkler control valves at the low points in the sprinkler lines. Usually one or two drains per line are adequate. The drain valves simply screw on using ½- or ¾-inch male pipe threads. Teflon tape wrapped two or three times around the connection ensures a proper seal. A small dry well directly beneath the drain assists with drainage for poorly draining soil.
Because automatic drain valves remove water every time you shut off the system, no manual intervention is required for this stage of winterizing. Simply check for excessive puddling on the soil surface, which may indicate that one of the drains has become stuck open during sprinkler operation. As with the manual method, draining or activating remote control valves from the controller does not remove water captured inside the valves. Valves must be disassembled to remove standing water (unless you winterize using blown compressed air).
COMPRESSED AIR BLOWOUT METHOD
Use extreme care when blowing out the system. Excessive pressure (above 50 psi) can damage valves or sprinkler pipes or can generate flying debris, causing physical injury to the operator. Never stand over irrigation pipes, sprinklers or valves during this process.
This method uses compressed air to clear water from the mainline pipe, sprinkler control valves, lateral pipes and sprinkler heads.
To obtain proper air volume, use a compressor capable of providing 10 to 25 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air volume. It is important to rent or buy the right air compressor for the job. Some small shop compressors (2 hp) may not be adequate; however, air pressure must not exceed 50 pounds per square inch (psi) during the blowout procedure. Use a pressure-regulating valve to avoid over-pressurization. Air volume should be high and air pressure should be low to minimize the potential for damage.
Do not try to use an air compressor with high pressure (120 psi) and low volume to evacuate water from the system. Also, don't compensate for a small compressor by filling the compressor's holding tank while the mainline is closed to create a surge of pressure to blow the line clean when you open the sprinkler control valve. This dangerous practice places severe stresses on all components of the system. Never run the compressor without at least one sprinkler control valve open.
(Note: Even if the system can withstand 120 psi of water pressure, similar air pressure will damage the system. The viscosity of air is much lower than water, generating much higher stresses.)
The sprinkler system mainline should offer a separate quick-connect fitting, manual gate valve, plugged “tee” or capped pipe in the line specifically for the air hose. This connection should be located as close to the water source as possible. Check with your air compressor manufacturer for the correct procedure and equipment hookup.
Blowing out a system using a timer is safer than activating the valves manually. If your system has a timer, follow the guidelines described first.
USING THE CONTROLLER
Close the mainline sprinkler shut-off valve (A) (see Figure 1 on page C14). Relieve the water pressure on the mainline by activating a circuit or zone from your controller. Activate the circuit that is farthest from the air connection before letting air into the piping. Always keep a sprinkler zone control valve open, from start-up to compressor shutdown. Attach the compressor hose to the blow-out adapter (C) (see Figure 1 above). Set the pressure-regulating valve on the compressor to 50 pounds per square inch (psi). Never exceed 50 psi. Turn on the compressor. Gradually increase the flow of air until all the sprinkler heads pop up. The amount of flow or volume required will depend on the length of pipe and number of heads. Do not blow any circuit more than two minutes at a time. Sustained heat from the compressed air may damage pipe and sprinkler drive mechanisms that use water for lubrication and cooling. Switch to another station or zone by advancing the controller to the next circuit. Do not turn the controller off at any time during this operation unless the compressor is first shut off.
To ensure that lines adequately drain, repeat the cycle two or more times, activating each zone from the controller until nothing more than a fine mist appears from the heads. After blowing out all the zones, leave one zone on while shutting down the compressor. You may then unhook the compressor from the mainline. Turn the controller to “OFF.”
BLOW-OUT PROCEDURE USING SPRINKLER CONTROL VALVE MANUALLY
(Note: Use this option only if your system does NOT have electric remote control valves.)
If your system does have electric remote control valves, activate the valves from the controller. Using remote controls is safer because you are not close to irrigation components, which can discharge debris during blowout. Always wear eye protection and never stand over irrigation pipes, sprinklers or valves during this process. To activate valves manually for the blowout, close main sprinkler shutoff valve (A) (see Figure 1 on page C14).
Relieve the water pressure on the mainline by slowly opening the manual shut-off handle on one of your irrigation zone control valves. Attach the compressor hose to the blow-out adapter (C) (see Figure 1 on page C14). Set the pressure-regulating valve on the compressor to 50 psi. Never exceed this setting. Manually open the irrigation station you want to blow out before turning on the compressor. Gradually increase the flow of air from the compressor flow valve — not from the sprinkler control valve — until sprinkler heads pop up. The flow or volume required will depend on the length of the pipe and the number of heads. Do not blow any circuit more than two minutes at a time. Sustained heat from the compressed air may damage pipe and other components. After two minutes, turn the compressor off and allow the air to completely purge from the compressor tank and sprinkler system.
PREVENT AND PROTECT
Turn on the next irrigation control valve you wish to winterize before turning off the irrigation control valve you have just blown out. Repeat steps until you have blown out each zone at least twice and only a fine mist is blowing from each station. After turning the compressor off, allow any air in the storage tank or irrigation components to disperse before approaching the air hose or valves. Unhook the compressor from the adapter to the sprinkler mainline.
Taking the time to winterize all parts of a sprinkler system will not only protect it this winter, but will also extend the life of the irrigation components so they can serve for years to come.
Rod Waller is a contractor account manger for Rain Bird Corporation in Florida.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2013 Penton Media Inc.
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5. INSTALL THE FORWARD HANDRAIL.
View the whole assembled model
This is one of several handrails which help make it convenient for astronauts to handle and service the HST on orbit.
- From sheet B release the circular FORWARD HANDRAIL. There are eight pairs of prongs facing inward. Bend each prong of one of the pairs in opposite directions, one up and one down, and fold them all the way back. Repeat with the remaining seven pairs. Try not to distort the yellow ring, and be very careful not to tear it. (If you do tear the ring, it can easily be glued back together; just let it dry thoroughly before proceeding.)
- Slip the FORWARD HANDRAIL over the front of the tube. It should not be too tight a fit. Slide it about halfway down to the word NASA. Pinch the yellow ring near each of the pairs of prongs so that the prongs fold down against the tube. This should cause the ring to tighten against the tube.
- Slide the FORWARD HANDRAIL up until the yellow ring is 1/2 inch (13mm) below the black line near the end of the tube. Rotate it until one pair of prongs is over the seam in the tube. Adjust parallel with the black line. Secure with a droplet of glue at each prong.
| GO ON TO THE NEXT STEP |
| INSTRUCTIONS FIRST PAGE |
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About microscopic forms of life, including Bacteria, Archea, protozoans, algae and fungi. Topics relating to viruses, viroids and prions also belong here.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
I think I posted a few questions on here in the past, but the liklihood of anyone remembering me is very minor so I'll start off again by saying that I know nothing about biology except the research I've done (most of which I didn't understand) involving wikipedia and the library and there's a kid in one of my classes who is majoring in biology that I use for information, but I don't think he likes me very much so generally he's not very helpful.
So basically you might need to break things down Barney style for me.
Anyway, to the point of the question I work for an indie game development team and we're working on a few stories, and one of them is a kind of zombie apocalypse. Well not really zombie, but we've been talking about the effects of some viruses and bacterias, and what I've been focusing on is rabies.
So first off, is it possible to combine viruses or isolate the effects of one? Such as rabies, would it be possible at all to isolate properties and remove them or hinder their progression? Like, could you say, limit the speed at which it produces or the delay it takes before really becoming noticeable (like instead of rabies taking a few weeks to months, could you speed it up so that it takes affect in hours)?
And as for combining, say some biological engineers took rabies and infected a bacteria like toxoplasmosa gondii with rabies after having engineered the virus to limit it's replication so that it doesn't kill the host as quickly as it does usually. Would that be possible at all either?
The reason I'm using those two specifically is because for the most part they have the symptoms that we're looking for, which would cause hallucinations, lesions on the skin, extreme agitation and possibly dementia, and as I understand it, possibly a kind of schizophrenia. Does that make any sense to anyone?
well, yes, you could theoretically combine the properties as you like, because by some mutation you can get various responses. Question is, whether something like that could evolve in the nature. How will it survive between the standard virus/bacteria? How will it spread? etc.
But you cannot change the host just like that. I think that rabbies infect mammals and probably are not able to infect bacteria, you would have to look to the mechanism of infection and proceeding to see, whether there could be some analogy with bacterial host.
Cis or trans? That's what matters.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
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G etting kids into the kitchen to cook with you is a win-win situation, no matter how old they are and no matter what you make. By interacting with you in the kitchen, your child will gain more than just learning how to cook. First and foremost, you will have the opportunity to foster a greater sense of intimacy between you and your child. Here are a few other positive results from interacting together in the kitchen, which are then broken down into age groups:
- Reading and following recipes improves math, science and reading comprehension skills.
- Eating dishes from other countries enables learning about other cultures, foreign languages, and geography, and provides a culinary vocabulary.
- Learning about food preparation enhances organizational and cleanliness skills.
- Chances are greater that your child will eat the healthy food you are making if he helps.
- Cooking together strengthens feelings of responsibility and being a valued member of the team, will form a lifetime of good memories and help to strengthen bonds.
Preschool: Fine motor skills are enhanced with motions like pouring and stirring; counting ingredients and amounts teaches simple math skills; and working as a team reinforces socializing, learning how to share, and taking turns.
Elementary: Math, science, and reading skills are practiced and improved; an understanding of other cultures and traditions can be taught; the rudiments of nutrition can be learned; and basic cooking skills are learned.
Teenagers: Cooking skills and techniques are refined and knowledge of global cuisine can be enhanced; a sense of success and accomplishment is gained by making a dish or a whole meal.
How can you get the kids more involved in the kitchen?
Here are five steps to a successful time together:
1. Ask them what they'd like to make, to give them a sense of control and self-worth.
2. Read the recipe first together so that you know what happens and in what order.
3. Take out all of the ingredients ahead of time and have the proper tools ready and grouped in the order in which you're going to use them.
4. Have towels at the ready.
5. Practice patience and have a sense of humorthe two most valuable tools!
Creating a Kid-Friendly Kitchen
While small children definitely require a kitchen in lockdown status, no matter what the age of your child, there are a few things every parent should do to keep the kitchen safe.
- Danger with a Capital D
While age-appropriate equipment and tools should be in a place where your child can easily reach them, dangerous items such as knives, kitchen scissors, matches, igniters, and anything with sharp blades, like food processors, should be kept out of reach. Depending on the child's level of maturity, this can apply to households with teenagers as well. Also, a small child needs a slip-free step stool.
- Clean-Up Time is All the Time
Non-toxic cleaning supplies, a broom, and a mop should be easily accessible to your kids so that cleaning up becomes an integral part of the cooking/eating process. Get a few fun, funky aprons to have on hand.
- Keep them Inspired
Cookbooks, nutritional guides, food magazines, bookmarked food Web sites, and other inspirational materials should be easily available to kids.
- Stock Wisely
"Sometimes foods" (cookies, candy etc) should be placed higher in the cupboard so that they cannot easily be reached or be within the line of sight. Healthier snacks, such as fruit, pretzels, nuts, raisins, mozzarella sticks, on the other hand, should be easily reachable.
The preceding is from Real Food for Healthy Kids by Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel, © 2008, reprinted by permission of William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. To browse inside the Real Food for Healthy Kids cookbook, click here.
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A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF MICHAEL FARADAY
By Tim Lambert
Michael Faraday was one of the great scientists of the 19th century. Faraday was born 22 September 1791 in Newington Butts in Surrey. (The place where he was born is now part of London). He was one of 4 children. Faraday came from a relatively humble background. His father James was a blacksmith. Faraday had only a basic education and in 1804 he became an errand boy for a bookseller. When he was 14 he became an apprentice bookbinder.
However Michael Faraday became very interested in science. In 1813 he got a job as a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution. Then in 1813-1815 Faraday toured France, Switzerland, Italy and Southern Germany with Humphry Davy.
On 12 June 1821 Faraday married Sarah Barnard. The couple did not have children.
The same year, 1821 Faraday discovered electromagnetic rotation. Then in 1831 Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind the electricity generator.
Meanwhile in 1825 Faraday was made director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution. Faraday was also an accomplished chemist. In 1825 he isolated benzene. In 1830 Faraday became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. (He held the post until 1852). In 1836 he became scientific advisor to Trinity House (the body responsible for lighthouses).
Michael Faraday was also a devout member of the Sandemanian Church (a church founded in Scotland in the 18th century).
Michael Faraday died on 25 August 1867. He was 75. Faraday was buried in Highgate Cemetery. Today Faraday is remembered as a great chemist and physicist and one of the pioneers of the use of electricity.
A short biography of Charles Darwin
A short biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
A short biography of Alexander Graham Bell
Life in the 19th Century
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One way to judge the severity of a bailout is its final cost to taxpayers. So let's look at two bailouts that occurred during the financial crisis and consider the result of each. One consisted of stabilizing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The other provided money to banks and insurers. These stories may have begun similarly, but they're ending very differently.
Let's start with Fannie and Freddie. They were taken into conservatorship during the financial crisis. While the cost to taxpayers was unclear at that time, in December 2009 the Treasury announced that it would not limit the size of the bailout. Today, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said that the bailout will cost taxpayers somewhere between $221 billion and $363 billion.
Now let's compare that with the bank bailout. It also made news this week. According to Bloomberg, the government's $309 billion investment has so far yielded taxpayers $25.2 billion. That's an 8.2% return. There will still likely be some losses, but earlier this month the Treasury estimated that the bank and insurer portion of the bailout will result in a net profit of $11 billion for taxpayers.
Both these bailouts were needed for essentially the same reason. Both banks and the GSEs were going to lose many billions of dollars due to bad bets related to mortgages. Taxpayers will lose between $221 billion and $363 billion through the bailout of Fannie and Freddie. Meanwhile, taxpayers will gain $11 billion through the bank and insurer bailout. How did these two bailouts have such drastically different fates?
This answer is actually pretty easy: most banks could ultimately afford their losses, particularly the large banks. They make an awful lot of money, so even tens of billions of dollars in losses over the course of several years just means a period of relatively weak earnings. The bank bailout was necessary, not to ultimately give banks lots of taxpayer money that they would keep, but to end panic and irrational fears about their survival.
With Fannie and Freddie, it was the opposite. These entities didn't have the money to back up the very large losses that they would sustain, and they never would. As a result, taxpayers won't get back the money they provide the GSEs.
In short, banks made terrible bets, but they were ultimately able to back them up after investors stopped panicking. Fannie and Freddie also made terrible bets, but unlike banks, they didn't have the capital or business model to ultimately survive -- even once the crisis had subsided.
The moral of the story here is pretty clear. Quasi-public enterprises like Fannie and Freddie don't work. The risk they take on can grow much too great, because unlike private companies, they don't need market discipline and suffer from moral hazard. Banks may have taken on a lot of risk as well, but they were able to endure it once the panic subsided.
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Alastair Fothergill, the producer of the spellbinding Planet Earth series, has been working on nature documentaries for decades. Long enough for him to watch climate change transform the natural world he aims to capture, long enough for him to notice that the weather at his shooting locations is not as reliable as it once was. He is now filming chimpanzees in the rainforests of West Africa for a new documentary, where the rainy season didn’t come when the crew expected. “That does seem to be a widespread global phenomenon,” he says. “When is the rain coming? When is the dry season coming? When is the flood coming? Everything is a little unpredictable now.”
Planet Earth first premiered on the BBC in 2006 and had screened in 130 countries a year later, but its force as a cultural juggernaut isn’t waning. On Earth Day, April 22, Disney Nature is releasing Earth, a companion feature film to the TV series, in theaters in the United States. The film, which largely uses recut material from the series, traces the lives of three endangered and vulnerable species — polar bears, African elephants, and humpback whales — over the course of four seasons. Climate change is happening so quickly that it is not only affecting shots and shooting locations of nature films currently in production, it is also transforming Planet Earth and its sister film into a chronicle of a swiftly vanishing world.
Earth opens with a majestic shot of the sun creeping over the gorgeously alien Arctic landscape, a place ravaged by climate change in recent years. This month, NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that sea-ice cover at the poles has decreased dramatically in the past two years. “It’s really dropped off the cliff,” says NSIDC research scientist Walt Meier. From 2007 to 2008, ice coverage during summer months was 30 percent below average, Meier says, and between 2005 and 2007, there was a 40 percent drop in the thicker so-called “multiyear” ice. Ice melt is also increasing rapidly at the other end of the Earth, in Antarctica, where, according to a report published in Science just last month, seasonal sea ice in 2004 came approximately 54 days later in the fall and departed roughly 31 days earlier in the spring compared with 30 years ago, and winter temperatures warmed up 4.8 times higher than the global average at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
The effects of climate change on Planet Earth’s animal stars are not as clear-cut. Conservation efforts are helping the humpback whale, for example. Although the whales swim 4,000 miles to Antarctica each year to feed on krill, whose populations are declining due to climate change, the number of humpbacks are increasing due to crackdowns against illegal hunting. In certain areas, African elephant populations have also increased in recent years thanks to conservation efforts. Adélie penguins — which get more screen time in the television series than the movie — are not faring as well, as they need cold temperatures and ice to survive.
In a devastating scene in Earth, a male polar bear, driven by hunger, is seen swimming across expanses of open water and then futilely trying to attack walruses. He eventually dies of hunger and injuries from the tussle. The plight of the polar bear is well known — it’s become an endangered species since filming commenced — but Planet Earth was ahead of the curve in showing some of the desperate situations in which these animals are finding themselves. In 2005 the US Minerals Management Service confirmed that polar bears were drowning offshore in Northern Alaska as a result of the loss of ice-shelf coverage. And last March the journal Arctic reported instances of cannibalism, starvation, and predatory behavior among adult polar bears. What seemed like high drama perfect for television has become all too common in the real world.
For one major sequence in Planet Earth, the crew followed African elephants waiting for floodwaters to return to Botswana’s Okavango Delta, the world’s largest inland delta. “We had the whole shoot set up for it,” Fothergill says. “And then the flood really never came to the extent that we had predicted it.” This potential effect of climate change goes undetected in the scene, as the weary, thirsty elephants eventually bask in an unimaginable bounty of water. Fothergill would explain this by saying that Planet Earth’s principle aim is “to celebrate the beauty of the planet,” not an attempt to catalogue vulnerable species or places on the verge of demise. In this way, it’s a much more subtle ecological clarion call. “Despite all the damage that we’ve done and are doing, the planet remains an amazing place. All of the animals in all the places that are shown in the movie are still there,” he says. “Whether they’ll be there in another 25 years is another matter.”
Originally published April 22, 2009
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Image via Wikipedia
Parents often face trouble with their teenage children because they fail to understand that old methods of communicating with their children will no longer work with their teenaged child. Many gifted students stop studying during their teenaged years because they feel unappreciated by their parents.
When your child is young, he or she may want to excel in studies to make you happy. However, when teenage arrives, the child begins to develop his or her own identity and develops an ego. In such a scenario, the child may not be interested in getting good grades simply to satisfy you. Rather, he or she may focus on self-satisfaction and adopt a more selfish approach.
Many parents make the mistake of taking their children’s obedience for granted. They presume that the child should do well in school because they have done a favor by being a good parent for the child. Well, do you think you would appreciate such a sentiment? Obviously not.
As your child grows, you should set up a quid pro Quo system where you appreciate the child for efforts made and acknowledge that the child is going to benefit a lot in the future from his or her efforts. Instead of demanding good grades as a right, you should express appreciation that the child is considerate enough to work hard for you. That is the right way to motivate your teenaged child to continue being a good student despite the physical and emotional changes in the teen’s life.
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The appearance of Rome and Jerusalem by Hess, Pinsker's Auto Emancipation, the Chowewe Zion movement, the speeches of Dr. Nathan Birnbaum and especially the appearance of Herzl's Judenstaat [Jewish State]and Herzl's call for the first Zionist Congress aroused the Jewish students and awoke in them the knowledge of their own nationality. As a consequence of this, Jewish national student corporations began to be formed. In Czernowitz in 1897, the year of the first Zionist Congress, Zephirah was born. The founders of Zephirah were the brothers: Moses Bardich, Max Diamant, N. Fuhrmann, Berl Kinsbrunner, Karl Metsch, Leib Presser, Samuel Roth, Bernhard Stecher and Josef Tennenhäuser. The founding praeses was Leib Presser.
While many believed that the wearing of couler [colors] and saber dueling was an imitation of the German student customs, from a historic standpoint, it cannot be disputed that in this movement one can seen the stressing of proud Jewish self knowledge and the beginning of the organized fight for Jewish rights and honor. It was color wearing Jewish students who gathered around Herzl and in spite of the indifference and enmity of many Jewish groups, strengthened him in the realization of his lofty ideas.
So, also Zephirah introduced the wearing of blue-white couleur (without caps, however) and training in sable dueling and had many opportunities to demonstrate their skill in dueling.
Zephirah, however placed the most importance on:
In Suceava, Salomon Wagner (later Hatikva) founded an organization of Sephardic minded middle school students named Theodor Herzl. There was hardly a place in Bukovina, whether city or village where Zephirah hadn't spread Zionist and national educational propaganda. Members of Zephirah together with members of other fraternities, in 1910 forced the change of the Zionist leadership and the election of university professor Dr. Leon Kellner to president of the State Zionist Committee which led to an upswing of the Zionist organization. Due to the initiative of brother Krämer, it was decided to found a Bukovina Colony in Palestine and as a result of functions and collections, an appreciable sum was collected which was given to the KKL. The drive was interrupted by the World War. Brother Markus Krämer already as a student took part in 1911 in the tenth Zionist Congress in Basel.
Zephirah founded the so-called Worker Education Courses, evening courses for Jewish apprentices and hand workers in which members of Zephirah taught basic education subjects for free.
Yearly, Zephirah conducted very popular lecture cycles at which appeared leading Jewish and non-Jewish personalities like Martin Buber, Kurt Blumenfeld, Prof. Leon Kellner, Schmarjahu Levin, Chief Rabbi Dr. Rosenfeld, Prof. Zolschan, Lazar Felix Pinkus, Prof. Arthur Mahler, Adolf Stand, Prof. Werner Sombart, Prof. Franz Oppenheimer, etc.
When in 1905, in Romania there was an uprising of the farmers, whose consequences hit the Jews, Bukovina was overrun by a flood of Jewish refugees. This flood became still stronger when as a result of of the pogrom in Kischinew, thousands of Russian Jews fled into Bukovina. Zephirah placed itself completely in the service of the Jewish organizations of Bukovina which concerned themselves with caring for the refugees. Brother Dr. Chaim Kinsbrunner was selected as liaison officer between the Jewish organizations and the state government. While the other groups in Bukovina (Romanians, Ruthenians, Germans and Poles) were recognized as special nationalities (none of these groups constituted a majority), the central and state governments in order to maintain the German character of the land, counted the Jews as being of the German nationality.
The fight for the recognition of the Jewish nationality began at the university where the Jews comprised 40% of the students and where numerous Jews and baptized professors worked. Zephirah took a leading part in this long running battle for recognition of the Jewish nationality. The brothers Kalman Schapira, Markus Krämer, Seinvel Brettschneider, Rudolf Katz, Nachman Morgenstern, Selig Hochstädt, Mordko Rotfeld, etc. had a special part in this fight. The last named, was after a stormy meeting in the Universities auditorium, suspended from the school.
The period in which Kalman Schapira was elected several times as praeses was a sparkling time of activities centered around this respected and beloved figure.
The fight for recognition of the Jewish nationality spread from the university to the Jews in the street and took on in connection with the census of 1910, the character of a peoples movement. The Zephiraner Dr. Diamant, Dr. Mendel and Chaim Kinsbrunner, Brettschneider, M. Krämer, R. Katz, Mordko Rotfeld, Marem Somer and Dr. Sperber took a leading part in the battle over the census. The fight was without success since the officials were determined to officially maintain the German character of Bukovina.
In 1909, brother Dr. Diamant filed a complaint with the Austrian Supreme Court concerning the violation of the national rights of the Jews. In particular, a petition to the Interior Ministry had been rejected by the Ministry. The Supreme Court under the chairmanship of its President Dr. Joseph Unger (a baptized Jew) also rejected Dr. Diamant's claim on the grounds the Jews did not have the character of a recognized nationality in Austria.
Remaining true to their premise, the central authorities in Vienna, in 1909, also rejected the election statute unanimously approved by the Bukovina Parliament, according to which, each of the 5 nationalities in Bukovina, including the Jews were to cast ballots in their own ballot box for parliamentary elections. Zephiraner were very effective in working for the passage of the election stature in the Parliament and in organizing Jewish mass demonstrations throughout the entire land to promote the concept.
When in, 1906, the member of parliament, Dr. Benno Straucher founded the Jewish National Party, Dr. Diamant was made vice president and Dr. M. Kinsbrunner was made chairman. For years the Zephiraner fought at the side of Dr. Straucher, who for the first time in the Austrian let the word Zionism be heard and who courageously got involved in the Hilsner trial (about alleged ritual murder) and who stepped forward for persecuted Romanian and Russian Jews. Zephirah in following its program was actively involved in the Imperial Assembly election campaign. In 1907, Zephirah worked for the election of Dr. Nathan Birnbaum in the election district of Sereth-Radautz, Suceava and Zalesczyki. In Zalesczyki, Dr. M. Kinsbrunner was arrested on election day to hinder Birnbaum's election effort.
A great number of Zephiraner labored under the leadership of M. Somer and M. Krämer to help Adolf Stand's campaign in Tarnopol. In 1911, Zephirah took over the election campaign of the Honorary brother Prof. Arthur Mahler from Prague for the Imperial Assembly mandate for Sereth-Radautz-Suczawa. In every one of these cities, the brother Somer, Krämer, and Rothfeld ran the election campaigns. The central leadership in Czernowitz was in the hands of brother Brettschneider.
There was an understanding between the Jews and the government, according to which the Jews in Czernowitz West would vote for Hofrat Prof Skedl and in exchange for that, the government would be responsible for seeing that the Germans in the district of the above named 3 cities would vote for Mahler. On election day, the Zephiraner reported to Braettschneider that the Germans weren't keeping their part of the bargain and so, the order was given, to wait with voting until definite news was received. Around 5 in the afternoon, it was obvious that Mahler was going to be defeated. The State President Graf Etzdorg who feared that Skedl would be defeated, called the young Zephirah praeses and conveyed to him the official news that that the election of Mahler was assured. Brettschneider replied: Excuse me Excellence, I place more faith in the reports of my fraternity brothers and today, we will see that Herr Hofrat is defeated. Simultaneously, the members of Zephirah passed the word from man to man to vote against Skedl. And so it was, that Skedl was defeated in the Czernowitz election.
In 1910, Zephirah turned away from Dr. Straucher because of his position against the Zionist organizations and his dictatorial behavior in public life and joined forces with the Volksratsbewegung [Peoples' Council Movement] which was inaugurated by Prof. Kellner and which Prof. Kellner and Dr. Fokschaner were using to help candidates fight the Straucher list in the State Parliament elections. Zephanier, especially Dr. Markus Shapira, Kräemer, Kinsbrunner, Brettscheider, Somer, Rothfeld, Katz, Sperber, Quecksilber, Mosner among others traveled the entire state and spread a democratic state politic. This memorable People's Movement which also strived for the democratization of the Kultusgemeinde [Jewish community's governing body], sent both of its candidates to the State Parliament and increased its influence, but was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.
Zephirah was not only active in the intellectual and political life of the Bukovina Jews but also had a leading part in the Jewish Sports Movement and in various other organizations.
In 1938, the Zephanier Marem Somer founded the Blue White Movement of Bukovina to which the Zephiraner Krämer, the Miseles Brothers, Willi Kligler, Diamant, Glaubach and Scherzer belonged, partly as founders and partly as active members. In 1910, Somer and Krämer founded the sports club Maccabi with the State Parliament member Prof. Dr. Neuman Wender as president, Somer as vice president and Krämer as secretary. Zephiraner were also involved in the founding of the sports club Hakoah.
Marem Somer as well as the Zephiraner Dr. Nachman Morgenstern, Dr. Isidor Kottlar, Dr. Rotfeld and Prof. Schleier took a leading part in the founding of the Jewish glee club Hasamir which made Jewish folk songs at home in all strata of Jewish society.
The highpoint of the pre-war activity of Hasamir was achieved in the concert trip arranged by Dr. Somer to the 13th Zionist Congress in Vienna.
In 1913, Dr. Somer organized the Jewish Ball in Czernowitz to which all the leading personalities of the Jewish and non-Jewish population attended.
The outbreak of the World War interrupted the activity of Zephirah, but the Zephiraner took part in various activities in support of the Jewish population and in the leadership of the Home Guard. In the two House Regiments many Zephiraner were excellent officers. The brothers Dr. Marcus Schapira, Prof. Hilferding, Dr. N. Morgenstern, Quecksilber, Ungar, Löbl, Bardach and Markus fell in action and others like Rothfeld and Widner were taken prisoner. Several brothers remained in Austria after the war and held respected positions there like Dr. Eckstein, Dr. Chaskalovicz, Dr. W. Herzberg, Dr. Somer, the brothers Dr. Stecher, Dr. Rothfeld, the brothers Dr. Krässel, Hofrat Dr. U. Haber among others. Rudolf Katz was a representative in Transylvania for the Hungarian Credit Bank and later in Bucharest the general director for the cartel of Romanian sugar factories. When at the end of 1918, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed and the Jews in Bukovina together with the Jews in other nations created the Jewish National Council, Dr M. Krämer and Prof. Schleyer from the Bukovina State Zionist Organization were the first to be named delegates to this organization. In Fall of 1918, a conference of the Austrian Zionist Organization took place in Lemberg at which a resolution proposed by a delegate from Bukovina, M. Krämer demanding that Austria be turned into a country of nationalities and that the right of autonomy be granted to the Jews, was unanimously accepted. The resolution was the basis for the later program of the Jewish National Council. This resolution is cited on page 1 of this book (History of the Jews in Bukovina) and in N.M. Gelber's Jewish Autonomy in East Galicia. The program of the Bukovina National Council was worked out by a commission, to which the Bund members, Dr. Jakob Pistiner and Dr. M. Kraemer and the Poale Zion member Dr. Mayer Rosner belonged. It is noteworthy, that in this program was found the Palestine Plan, the only one ever agreed to by the Bund.
After the National Council declined to accept the annexation of Austria to Romania as demanded by the Romanian occupation army, Dr. Krämer and Dr. Diamant were sent as delegates to Paris to present the Jewish demands to the Peace Conference. There they reworked the Zionist memorandum presented to the conference by Weizmann and Sokolo and in the Comite des Delegations juives under Sokolow and Motzkin worked on the finishing of the Minority Agreement. Under Sokolow's leadership the two Bukovina delegates to the Commission for new Countries, (moderator, Mr. Lipert) handed over a memorandum dealing with the special requirements of the Bukovina Jews and presented a thorough argument for their adoption. Dr. Kraemer was the only delegate from Bukovina at the 1920 Annual Zionist Conference in London where he helped to elect Adolf Bernhard and Dr. Mayer Ebner as the first members of the Action Committee from the Regat and Bukovina. Dr. Kraemer had, as a member of the Central Council of the Jewish World Help Conference visited the Ukraine several times to organize the transfer of pogrom orphans to the West and Palestine. As a member of the Zionist Central Committee for Austria, which was located in Vienna, he had together with Dr. Ebner who had just returned from Siberia, composed a memorandum supporting the demands of the Romanian Jews to the Bucharest Peace Conference of 1917. which through the intercession of Nathan Eidinger was given to the Austrian foreign minister, Graf Ottokar Czernin. This memorandum is cited in N.M. Gelber's book, The Romanian Jewish Question at the Bucharest Peace Conference. The brother Fähnrich Sellig Hochstädt was especially effective in arming the Jewish militia which protected the Jewish population when the Romanian army entered Austria. Among the leadership of the General Militia, which was composed a great number of Jewish and several German and Polish mustered out officers and soldiers, the Jewish National Council was represented by Dr. Jakob Pistiner and Dr. Markus Krämer.
Here, however began with renewed vehemence, the intellectual grappling about the hegemony of Zionism as the solution for the Jewish question. The group inclined toward Zionism, demanded national education while the old Culture advocates dedicated little attention to the Zionistic side of Culture. The contrasts became ever sharper until it came to a crisis. The Zionist side demanded a clear decision. At the heavily attended extraordinary general meeting held in the Jewish House, brother Zwi Brender was the main speaker for the Zionist group. He was therefore entrusted with presenting the groups ideological point-of-view and with announcing the group's decision to leave Culture. When brother Brender had finished his talk, the leading member of Culture asserted that they had been misunderstood, promised to clarify the situation and asked that they not take an irreversible step. The Zionist group, however remained firm and left Culture in a body.
Now before them stood the great question, what next? Someone mentioned the name Zephirah. The suggestion was weighed and accepted. Meanwhile, the group decided on a provisional program for the next time which included the following points: radical Zionist and radical democratic. They talked to the old timers from Zephirah, Prof. Hoffman, Dr. M. Kinnsbrunner, Prof. Herbst, Dr. J. Ebner, Prof. Schleyer and others. They agreed with the entrance of the group into Zephirah and so the reactivated organization set up its hangout in the Jewish House in January 1919. Then began a period of feverish activity in all areas of Zionist and Jewish political work.
Let us go back for a while to that stormy period after the war with its political and social upheavals. The Jewish youth sought a way out of the uncertainty of the period. On one hand they were impressed by the revolutionary slogans of the Communists but on the other hand they asked themselves: What will become of the Zionist ideal, the iron rule of Zionism that the existence of the Jewish people and the normalization of the Jewish masses can only take place on our own territory?
On one side the bright light from outside lured and on the other side the loyalty and devotion to the Jewish people and Zion called. And the doubt gnawed at the heart. Until another stronger light flamed up, the light of a functioning Eretz Yisrael [land of Israel], Zionism and Socialism, viewed no more as opposing opposites, but as a natural synthesis. The new Zephirah wrestled its way to a socialistic Zionism or a Zionistic Socialism which saw the national and social freeing of the Jewish people in Palestine as its task and which in contrast to bloody minded Bolshevism and the orthodox rigid Marxism of the Social Democrats developed the new concept of constructive Socialism.
It should be pointed out that with almost no help from outside, using its own resources, of which Zephirah had few at that time, (letters of A.D. Gordon, the works of M. Buber, M. Brod, Charles Arlosoroff) Zephirah succeeded with this wonderful synthesis, led by the unforgettable Schamschon Schächter, a man of unusually high intellectual qualities, who was to later take on still greater Zionistic missions in Romania and in the bloom of his youth and creative powers was to leave for Eretz Yisrael at 25 years of age. brother Dr. David Spiegel-Marani worked extraordinarily closely with him. This Zionist social program which later became the program for Hapoel-Hazair in Eretz Yisrael and Zeire Zion (Hitachduth) in the Gola [exile or diaspora] became the official program of Zephirah. Also, Zephirah was the only Bukovina fraternity to take in female students as regular members.
Then the fraternity expanded its activities so they far exceeded the framework of a student organization and encompassed the whole area of the Zionist Movement and Jewish politics in Bukovina and were often able to influence them.
The external work that Zephirah accomplished can be illustrated by the case which was unique in the history of the Zionistic student movement, that a fraternity created a political party. Namely, Zephirah brought to life the party Zeire Zion-Hitachduth in Bukovina which was to become an important factor in all areas of Zionist work, especially the Aliyah [immigration to Israel], the Hechaluz [movement that encouraged and trained youth for emigration to Palestine to work the land], founding of the youth movement, Gordonia, organizing the hand worker union Haowed and the democratization of Zionism and Jewish life in the land.
Zephirah was a leader in the campaign for the reestablishing of Saja Iwria. In the leadership of Saja Iwria sat the brother Dr. D. Spiegel, Prof. Schleier, Dr. B. Kaswan, Schamschon Schächter, (first general secretary of the organization) Dr. Z. Brender among others.
Zephirah took part in 1921 in the first Jewish Student Congress in Romania which took place in Bucharest and the fraternitie's delegation led by Sch. Schächter contributed much to defeating the anti-Zionist faction. The Zephirah delegation to the Congress consisted of brothers Z. Brender, A. Hechtlinger, A. and B. Kasvan, Sch. Rosenrauch, Schamschon Schächter, D. Scherzer and J. Thau. After returning to Czernowitz, a meeting of Jewish students was called at the University at the initiative of Zephirah to give a report on the Congress. Brothers opened the meeting and greeted the audience and the Academic Senate which had attended the meeting. Brother Scherzer was elected chairman and brother Scherzer was chosen to read the report. At that moment a hoard of Romanian students armed with clubs stormed the hall and made unacceptable demands on those present. The chairman rejected these demands in no uncertain terms and when a delegation consisting of brothers. M. Schapira and D. Scherzer went to the rector and asked him to guarantee that they could hold the meeting undisturbed; he refused to take any action. Taking encouragement from this, the Romanian students with their superior numbers brutally dispersed the meeting. To rub salt in the wounds, the members of the delegation were disciplined by the university officials. That was the beginning of the Romanian student unrest in Czernowitz, which, to be sure, didn't take the form of those in Bucharest and Iasi, since the nationally knowledgeable student body in Czernowitz knew how to defend itself and struck back forcefully.
Right after the war's end, Zephirah became involved in the reactivation of the Jewish sports organization, Maccabi. Brother Dr. Marem Somer was elected as the first president of Maccabi. As a testimony to the general respect that Zephirah enjoyed, when M.M. Ussischkins visited Czernowitz in 1924, actually, the first visit of a Zionist leader to the land, the praeses of Zephirah at that time, Salo Woreczek was chosen to greet the Jewish leader. The honor was all the greater since only a single speaker was chosen to represent the academic youth. That our praeses performed this honorable task worthily and enhanced the good reputation of the academic fraternities in general and Zephirah in particular should be mentioned here.
Zephirah was successful in demanding that at the student celebration to honor King Ferdinand the Second's visit to Czernowitz in 1924, not only songs in Romanian and the other student languages, but also Hebrew songs should be sung and so King Ferdinand and his court, probable for the first time in their lives, heard the Hebrew language.
The fraternity took a leading part in the creation of the Business Association of Jewish high school students in Czernowitz which built a canteen and later a dormitory. To the founders of this group belonged among others the brothers: Dr. Josef Thau, Dr. E. Wagner and Lawyer Meier Schapira. Dr. Thau was for many years the chairman of the organization. Zephirah members have, either as members of Zeire-Zion or other Zionist parties taken a meaningful part in the community life of Czernowitz. Among the members of the parties founded by Zephirah should be mentioned:
Dr. Zwi Brender[A] functioned in the years 1930 - 1935 until his aliyah to Eretz Yisrael as chairman of the party Zeire-Zion-Hitachduth in Bukovina.
Dr. Benedikt Kaswan[B] was chairman for several years of Zeire-Zion of Bukovina and after the union, chairman of the combined party Ichud Poale Zion - Zeire-Zion.
Schamschon Schächter[C] was one of the founders of the Zeire-Zion Party of Bukovina.
Dr. David Spiegel-Marai[D] was one of the founders, theoretician, and ideologue of the Zeire-Zion Paarty of Bukovina.
Dr. Josef Thau was editor of the paper published by Dr. Mayer Ebner, Oestjüdischen Zeitung [East Jewish Newspaper]. Active in the Zionist Movement in general and in the Zeire-Zion particularly, he was sent by the Russians to Siberia where he died miserably.
Simon Preminger was for many yars a member of the presidium of Keren Hajessod and K.K.L. in Bukovina. Because of his Zionist activity, he was sent to Siberia and there with his family died a terrible death.
Dr. Emanuel Wagner was chairman of the local organization of Zeire-Zion in Czernowitz[E].
Lawyer Aron Hechtlinger was for many years general secretary of Zeire Zion and then of the combined party of Bukovina. He sat in the leadership of the K.K.L. and functioned as general secretary of the Landes schekelkommission [State Schekel Commission].
Salo Woreczek founded the Zionist organization in his home town of Mielnica in 1918 and he was its first praeses. At his initiative, the palace of the Grand Rabbi Friedmann was acquired for a Jewish National House in which the Zionist organization and later, the Hebrew school founded by him were housed. In Czernowitz, he was twice president of Zephirah. He has been in Israel since 1944
Attorney J. Isaksohn was for years chairman of the local commission of Zeire-Zion in Czernowitz and was active in the Hebrew Movement in the land.
Dr. David Kimmelfeld was for a time chairman of Zeire-Zion in Bukovina and worked for the Ost-Jüdische Zeitung and the Neuen Jüdischen Wirtschaft [New Jewish Business].
The brothers Dr. I. Osterer, Dr. H. Lecker and J. Bickel who were among the most active members of the fraternity at the time of its reactivation moved to Vienna in 1920 and were active Zionists in their new home. Dr. I. Osterer was president of the Business Organization of Jewish High School Students in Vienna and I. Bickel was until his Aliyah, a member of the leadership of Keren Hajessod in Vienna.
I. Rennert emigrated to Germany where he was active in Zionism and during the Hitler era, until his aliyah was leader of the Palestine office in Manheim.
Land owner Dr. Bernhard Kahane, one of the most well educated Zephiraner was murdered during his flight from Nazi Romania to Kischinew.
The BB Langer and Dr. F. and Marie Nospreis were among the first academicians from Bukovina who went as Chaluzim [Pioneers] to Palestine.
The old gentlemen of the pre-war Zephirah who remained in Bukovina belonged to the State Zionist Organization of Bukovina. Dr. Ch. Kinsbrunner was vice president of Keren Hajessod, Dr Krämer was, for a time, honorary director of this fund, Dr. Juda Ebner, B. Scherzer, Bank Director Leo Wiener and Jakob Geller were members of the Zionist Executive and Dr Krämer vice president of the same as well as president of State Organization that he had founded and which especially in the later difficult time developed into the center of Jewish social life. Dr. Josef Sperber and Dr. Diver were as members of the Zionist Party Council extremely active representatives of the Zionist organization and the Federal Party in their home town, Kotzman and Zastawna. Dr. Diver died in a camp in Transnistrien. Dr. Moses Glaubach was chairman of the Parent's Group of Haschomer Hazair. Also, Zephanier were also among the founders of Haoved Haklalzioni and Hanoar Hazioni.
Judge Dr. Isidor Kottlar was founder and chairman of the organization Jedidei Hechaluz in Bukovina.
Dr. Max Diamant[F] was a noted personality in the public life of Bukovina.
D. Scherzer was an officer of the Organization for Support of Sick and Needy Students and was one of the leaders of the sports organization Maccabi.
Dr. Jakob Geller was general secretary of the State Zionist Organization of Bukovina and director of Keren Hajessod. When the Roman troops marched in, he and his wife and child were stoned to death by farmers in the village Millie where they had fled.
Dr. Abraham Schärf-Gilboa was for many years secretary of the local Zionist organization and the Zionist Fund in Gurahumora. He was a member of the Party Council of the State Zionist Organization and the Jewish Federal Party. In 1933, he went to Eretz Israel.
Prof. Dr. Leo Hoffmann was president of the Bnai Brith lodge of which Dr. Brettschneider was also a member.
Dr. Markus Krämer[G] was founder and chairman of the Radical Zionist Party in Bukovina and delegate to most of the Zionist congresses where he was elected to the Political and Permanent Committees. He was a member of the administrative committee for the Jewish Agency (Sochnuth) and later, the Zionist Action Committee and in Israel, a member of the smaller Action Committee.
The brothers Drimmer, Hofmann, Kern, Hilferding, Brenner, Hornstein and B. Ebner during their student years were very active in Zionist propaganda and enjoyed great respect as high school professors. Prof. Dr. Ephriam Brenner was named as the first Jewish State School Inspector at the end of 1918. After him, this office was never again awarded to a Jew.
Since the fraternity had stopped growing, in 1930, several brothers, Jakob Kirmeier, Noe Lehrer, Nims, among others with the agreement of several of the old gentlemen, Dr. Juda Ebner, A. Kligler, and Reinstein among others agreed to try and recruit more students as members. This attempt was successful and new members joined Zephirah. This change in form however didn't lead to any changes in Zephirah's program. In the course of this period during which brother Jakob Kirmeier, H. Kreisel, N. Lehrer, B. Schuler, H. Spasser, D. Zloczower among others functioned as senior members, as earlier, new member tests were given, lectures were arranged and propaganda for the Zionist concept and the National Fund was carried on. In 1933, Zephirah was one of the leading groups which stormed the University when the Romanian students had prevented the Jewish students from entering.
Zephirah had also founded two pre-fraternities, Herzliah and Bar Kochba (founding Praeses of Herzlia was M. Reinstein). In Suceava, Salomon Wagner founded the middle school fraternity Theodor Herzl (later Tikwah) based on the model of Zephirah.
In 1932 Zephirah, under the Senior Council of Hermann Spasser took part in the reception for King Caroll II as well as the reception for President Weizmann and W. Jabotinsky. This epoch, however ended in 1934 and since then there was no more growth, but the internal life of Zephirah did continue until the outbreak of the war.
Zephirah took a leading roll in the fight of the Jews for Romanian citizenship. One of the most zealous fighters for this cause was Dr. M. Diamant. With the support of Dr. Krämer, a member of the Committee of the Jewish Delegation, N. Sokolow had intervened several times in this question and much damage was avoided. It was however to become still worse. At the end of 1937 Zephirah under the chairmanship of brother Dr. E. Wagner celebrated its 80th semester. This was to be the last publicly held Jewish function. On the day of the celebration came the tragic news that the notorious anti-Semitic leaders Cuza and Goga had been entrusted with creating the government. With that, a wave of oppressive measures crashed on the Jewish population, among them the law for confirmation of citizenship. The Zephiraner Dr. J. Thau, Dr. E. Wagner, Attorney Hechtlinger and Dr. Diamant immediately founded a rights protection office in order to aid the Jewish population in the protection of their rights with advice and action. Zephirah also had an active part in the help action for the Polish Jews who fled into the country in September, 1939.
Under the Romanian-German occupation since 1941, the Zephiraner continued, in spite of the danger, to work with other Zionists in the secret Zionist organization and only much later were able to get to Palestine, Brother Dr. Kinsbrenner only after long imprisonment in Cypress and others after imprisonment in Atlith. The Zephiraner who lived in Austria were able to rescue themselves from the Nazi terror by fleeing to Israel and then later overseas (Dr. Eckstein, Dr. Somer, the brothers Dr. Stecher, Dr. Nospreis, Dr. Herzberg, the brothers Dr. Krässel, Dr. Lessing, Dr. Osterer, Dr. Lecker, Bickel, Dr. Herman Ebner, Dr. Juda Ebner, Dr. Karl Morgenstern, Hofrat Dr. Ulbrich Haber, Insurance Director Dr. S. Harnik and Dr. E. Bibring had already died in Vienna. Dr. W. Herzberg who had returned to Vienna after the war was for several years was president of the Vienna Jewish Community and the Zionist Organization.
Zephirah has for a long time been a member of the Ring of A.H. Organizations of Zionistic Academic Fraternities which was formed in Vienna as an umbrella organization and also joined the umbrella organization which was re-activated under the name Igul. Dr. Krämer has been president of Igul since 1958, Dr. Spasser is the secretary and A. Hechtlinger is the representative in the Senior Convention. Igul set several goals for itself: 1) Creation of a professorship for the study of the history of Zionism in the high schools. 2) Publication of the history of Igul. 3) Acquisition of a home for Igul with the goal of attracting scholars with a Zionistic viewpoint as members. The year long efforts for the professorship have been crowned with success. The professorship was instituted at the Jerusalem University and at the celebration of Herzl's 100th birthday organized by Igul on May 24, 1960 in the great concert hall the chairman of Igul was able to thank the audience of 3000 made up of participants from all strata of the population, representatives of the government, the Sochnut, and others for their help in making the professorship possible. Zephirah is proud of being part of the creative powers helping to build up Israel.
Worked on by an editorial committee consisting of the brothers Dr. Z. Brender, A. Hechtlinger, B. Scherzer, Dr. H. Spasser, Dr. E. Wagner and Schamschon Janai (Woreczek).
But with the beginning of the Zionist Movement, the effort to make the Hebrew language a central feature of the national reawakening came clearly to the forefront. This process started quite early in Bukovina. Already in 1907 in Dorna Kandreny, a village in the southern part of Bukovina a Hebrew school was founded under the leadership of Joseph Tischler. One year later in Vatra Domei at the initiative of the Zionist J. Biber a similar educational institution was formed. It was directed by the teacher Kamin. The tendency to raise the youth to love the national language spread. In Campulung Moldovenesc there was a Hebrew school under the patronage of the town rabbi Dr. Wolf Mischel. At this establishment the teacher was Luwisch. In Vashkivtsi (teacher Rachman) and in Sadgora (teachers Weisstaub and Porath) Hebrew children's schools were similarly founded.
Language courses for adults originated in Czernowitz (teacher N. J. Quittner) and in Siret. One tried, not always successfully in private courses to acquaint middle school students with the Hebrew language. The Hebrew teachers who worked in Bukovina were members of a teachers' association for Galicia and Bukovina. This organization under the leadership of the educator Rafael Sofermann (since 1911 in Eretz Israel, died 1957 in Tel-Aviv) developed a successful activity. On November 19, 1911 the conference (Jom Haivrim) was held in Lemberg attended by 517 delegates. The above mentioned J. Biber was elected as state executive of Histadruth Iwrith.
According to the report issued by this conference, in the years 1919/1910 there existed in Bukovina, Hebrew schools in Sadagura (50 students with 2 teachers), Storozynetz (72 students with 2 teachers), director Sch. Lewin, Czernowitz (58 students, 1 teacher), Kitsman (52 students, 2 teachers), director J. Schapira, Radauti (49 students, 1 teacher), Vashkivtsi (30 students, 1 teacher), Campulung Moldovenesc, teacher Luwisch.
Under the influence of the Lemberg conference M.D. Beinisch, Pinkas Melzer, Schulamith Wurmbrand, Fleischmann, Linder, Koppler, Alexander Sperber, Chajes, Schaje Goldfeld, Dr. Hermann Glaser, Hermann Gottesmann, teacher M. Rabinowicz,
Klara Klinger and Mark started the first Hebrew language association in Czernowitz, Safa Berura [clear language].
The organization was located on the passage between Hauptstrasse and Postgasse. The members gathered there daily to have conversations in Hebrew. On Shabbats they would have lectures on biblical themes, new Hebrew literature and Zionism. After a short time many people from Sadagura became members, the Retter sisters, Schnitzer, Chacham, Spun and many others. This success beyond all expectations prompted the members to found a Hebrew elementary school. More than any other Schaje Goldfeld worked untiringly for the realization of this goal. Markus Kisslinger, the builder and owner of Toynbee Hall on Fäbergasse let them use the building gratis. And so, the first Safa Iwria [Hebrew language] language school opened in Czernowitz in 1912.
Schaje Goldfeld understood how get more and more people to work for the school by expanding the school committee. No setback would discourage him. He was for a series of years president of the state school organization Safa Iwria. Under the leadership of his successor, Dr. Josef Bierer (1870-1938) the Hebrew school movement became more intensive. Dr. Bierer wanted to make Hebrew the every day language of the masses. He fought passionately for this goal. One God, one people, one language, was his motto. After he died, the leadership of Safa Iwria passed to Prof. Dr. Hermann Sternberg who won the active support of the club Massada for the Hebrew language movement. When he was transferred to another city, the position of president was taken over by a member of Massada, Dr. Lupu Rappaport.
The school developed and was able to chronicle successes. For many years it was led by Chaim Ehrenkranz. Outstanding teachers were: Dr. Ephraim Porath (died in Jerusalem April 7, 1959), Miriam Schickler, Sabina Hasenfratz, Mordechai Rabinowicz-Hacohen (died in Tel-Aviv in 1959), Chaim Jampolski, Simon Weitzman, Neomi Mann-Teller, Shulamith Wurmbrand, Abraham Rosenzweig, Debora Slobidkes-Schächter and N. Siegelbaum.
At the initiative of Schaje Goldfeld the first Hebrew kindergarten was founded in Czernowitz in 1912. It was very popular. In the same year an attempt was made to make Hebrew the language used in public gatherings. In the building of the Jewish elementary school (Heinegasse) a memorial celebration for Theodore Herzl was held at which teacher Weisstaub (Sadgora) and M. D. Beinisch made commemorative speeches in Hebrew. There followed several similar celebrations attended by the Zionist Travel Secretary Dr. Philipp Korngrün and Dr. Mayer Geyer. There were many Jewish middle school organizations that pursued the learning of Hebrew with youthful zeal. Beinisch and others led courses for the Zionist youth.
For the purpose of educating kindergarten teachers a course was established which at first was run by Prof. Dr. Sternberg and later by Dr. Ephraim Porath. In this connection the teacher seminar in Czernowitz should be mentioned which was a creation of the Chief Rabbi Dr. Abraham Mark and which was run by Dr. Bendit Gottlieb (died in Transnistrien in 1943).
With the expansion of the institution and Hebrew courses, the location on Färbergasse was no longer adequate to meet the demands placed on it. The state school organization Safa Iwria therefore decided to build its own culture house in the heart of the Jewish quarter. This building was finished in 1928 and put in service. When President Chaim Weizmann visited Czernowitz in the same year he honored Safa Iwria with a visit and was visibly impressed with all he saw and heard.
Safa Iwria didn't merely restrict its activities to one framework, it set itself higher goals trying to win the influence of the Jewish political forces of the land for the Hebrewisation of the masses. It tried to influence the Zionistic members of the kultusrat [body that governed Jewish community] of Czernowitz and demanded that the Jewish volksschule [elementary school] which during the Austrian times had a program of German assimilation should be changed to a Hebrew school that stressed Jewish education. Actually, with the beginning of the school year 1926/1927 as the leadership of the kultusrat lay in the hands of Dr. Mayer Ebner the first class was Hebrewized. However, one year later with a change in leadership - during the period of Romanian rule which put a cooperative Jew at the head of the kultusrat - the recently introduced Hebrewisation of the schools was suspended. In 1930, the fight began anew. The cause was the dispute over filling the director's post which had become vacant. The Bund members (leftist socialists) were strongly against the naming of a nationally leaning, Zionistic oriented candidate. However, they didn't participate in the election. Now a systematic effort started in the school to educate the children in a Zionistic manner and the teaching of Hebrew was significantly expanded.
The school work of Safa Iwria repeatedly suffered from need. It often didn't have money to pay the teachers. When in 1933, the school was to be closed because of lack of funds to keep it operating; a rescuer appeared in the person of the industrialist Markus Gold. He generously made available the necessary funds.
Also in the orphanage of the Czernowitz community on Wagnergasse which was directed by Mrs. Klara Klinger, a Zionistic oriented personality with a spotless reputation (died in 1957 in Tel-Aviv) as well as in the children's home on Siebenbürgerstrasse the greatest attention was dedicated to the teaching of the Hebrew language.
In the 30's there were in Czernowitz three Hebrew kindergartens with 5 teachers and 100 children, two Hebrew elementary schools with 240 students, a seminar for kindergarten teachers with 6 teachers and 30 students, a teacher's seminar with 7 teachers and 15 students and 4 evening courses with 4 teachers and 60 students. Many parents gave their school age sons and daughters private Hebrew lessons. In the provinces, there were 12 kindergartens (18 teachers, 400 students) and 15 language courses (15 teachers and 380 students)
Safa Iwria can be thanked for the success of this project due to its untiring efforts, especially in the years 1920 to 1940. Only the occupation of North Bukovina by the Russians in the summer of 1940 brought the sudden end.
The Jewish language [Yiddish] whose origin can be found in the ghettos of the German cities became the language of the masses in Eastern Europe. With the rise of Zionist ideas began the fight against the disappearance of Yiddish as Jews started to use the local languages. In Czernowitz, Dr. Nathan Birnbaum fought for the recognition of Yiddish as the mother tongue and initiated the Jewish Language Conference (1908) which was stimulating and fruitful.
Inspired by the Jewish academic association, Culture in Vienna, in 1910 several students in Czernowitz also tried to form an association which would serve to preserve the Jewish language in Bukovina and especially in Czernowitz. In the contemporary intellectual and comfortable middle class Jewish circles of Bukovina, the use of the Jewish street language or jargon as Yiddish was called was looked upon with contempt and one was ashamed of this language and so it took much courage to defend the language. The founders of this novel academic association displayed this courage. There were eight students: Abraham Reiner, Pinkas Schorr, Simche Klier, Abraham Arie, Schaje Blasenstein, Michel Gast, Abraham Dupler and Edmund Melzer. These students had various political orientations, but were bound together by the Yiddish language and their goal. At first, this novel academic association was looked at askance by some of the existing Jewish student organizations in Czernowitz and it was boycotted, but gradually they became used to it, and as the respect and the influence of the Association and the Yiddish language rose, slowly, slowly, Yiddish gained entrance to the previously closed social circles.
The academic association, Jewish Culture wasn't a student association in the pre-war sense. Above all, the association was the first Jewish academic association to break with the outmoded Germanic customs and usages. It had completely discarded the barbaric custom of the saber duel from the Middle Ages, the uniforms which already at that time appeared comical, the various outmoded student customs and in this manner stripped off the foreign national student character. As a sign of membership, they wore a sash with their colors, blue-white-red. The lyrics of the association's song written by members Wolf Schärf and Abraham Dupler were set to music by Jewish actors.
The first officers of the organization were: Abraham Reiner as chairman, A. Arie as deputy chairman, and Abraham Dupler as secretary and librarian. Later, as original members Moses Dickstein, Leon Czeikel, Fritz Herzan, Samuel Fuhrmann, Abraham Brender, A. Zimring, Moses Schärf, Wolf Schärf, Niliu Thaler and A. Rosenthal joined the group. During the semester, the group was enlarged by the addition of the following members: Elias Felder, Chaim Lecker, S. Mosner, Fischler, Mayer, Terner, Schnarch, Baltuch, Weidenfeld, Halpern, Altheim and Hochstädt. After the war Isiu Brettschneider, Lachser, Finder, Lutwak, Laufer, Chaim Weidenfeld, Sch. A. Soifer, and David Schlomo Bickel. There was a larger group of students under the leadership of Wolfgang Fokschaner (from the Jewish national academic association Zephirah and many others. Also, several gentlemen joined the association as A.H., among them Dr. Berl Friedmann and Dr. Jakob Pisstiner. The first honorary member of the Association was the elderly author Mendele Mocher Sforim whose note of appreciation in his graceful handwriting hung for many years in the association's meeting hall.
The goal and purpose of the association were to spread Yiddish and make it socially acceptable. So to speak, one had to give this language backbone. It must be spoken by the Jewish intellectuals and upper class in order to become the legitimate national language of the Jews of Bukovina, since the Jewish masses already spoke Yiddish. Only then when this language had found acceptance in all strata of Jewish society, could one speak of a national identity with a national language. The fight was for complete national recognition, for their own school system, and for the use of the language in public life.
In order to achieve this holy goal the primary task for the association was to create a library which would serve to spread the Yiddish language and literature. Books and newspapers in the Yiddish language were collected. The members of the association demonstrated their sympathy by contributing books and money. The money was used to buy books that would help achieve their goal. In a short time the association had a goodly number of books at their disposal which were read in and lent out from the association's meeting hall. Courses were introduced to teach the Yiddish language and participants were brought in. Further, lectures were held in the city and state to explain the goals of the association and they were always well attended and received with enthusiasm. A Yiddish amateur theater group was formed which performed pieces by prominent Jewish dramatists in Czernowitz and the provinces. Often, with the help of well known Jewish actors evenings of great style were presented. Often at such evenings, Jewish authors read from their own works (Wewjurks, Imber, Steinberg, etc.). Similarly, entertainment was provided for young and old. Garden parties, home socials, academic evenings with a dance following served this purpose. Jewish Culture could be thanked for the fact that the Jewish singing club Hasamir preserved Jewish folksongs in Czernowitz. The association was represented in Hasamir by its members Michel Gast and Abaham Dupler.
A small success that Jewish Culture achieved together with other student groups before the outbreak of the First World War should be pointed out. In the report of the year before last of Franz Josef University in Czernowitz (1912/1913), the number of students who report themselves as Jews was noted. However, this gesture of the university had one little blemish: the mother tongue was still listed as the German language.
With the outbreak of World War I, the association had to interrupt its activities since most of the members had to devote their services to the Austrian fatherland, but it was reactivated at the end of 1918 with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Since, however, the Jews in the newly created Greater Romania were far from having equal rights, the situation of the Academic Association Jewish Culture got worse and the fight for their own national identity and language had to start again from the beginning, or in some cases, just be continued. The Romanian authorities however were a thorn in their eye and they reacted completely differently than the authorities of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. At the beginning of the twenties, the association was dissolved on so-called political grounds. The association's treasury as well as the well-stocked library were given to the Jewish School Association which was founded in 1919.
The majority of the original members are no longer among the living. The members Lt. Schaje Blasenstein, Simche Klier and Pinkas Schorr lost their lives in the war. During the Second World War many members fell victim to the Nazis, among them Lawyer Dr. Edmund Melzer, who was shot by the Nazis in Czernowitz, as well as the Lawyer Dr. Moses Schärf who the Nazis murdered in Paris.
Professor Dr. Dickstein and Prof. Czeikel died in Russia, Lawyer Dr. S. Mosner and the Jewish journalist Sch. A. Soifer died in Czernowitz while Lawyer Dr. Altheim died in Bucharest. R.A. Dr. Miliu Thaler, Issiu Brettschneider, the athletes Chaim Weidenfeld and Finder died in Israel.
Abroad, to our knowledge, still are living today the following former members: In Romania, Lawyer Dr. Fritz Herzan, the doctors Dr. Mayer and Dr. Terner and the banker Zimring; in Czernowtiz Prof. Chaim Lecker who in 1919 published a Yiddish text for the schools and Lawyer Dr. Fischler; in Argentina Prof. Dr. Samuel Fuhrmann and in New York Lawyer Dr. Schlomo Bickel. In Israel presently live the former lawyers Dr. Arie, Dr. Elias Felder and Dr. Laschser in Tel-Aviv, the former lawyer Dr. Wolf Schärf in Jerusalem and the former Regional Post Director Abraham Dupler in Rishon le Zion.
Nothing is known about the fate of the older members Michel Gast, Dr. Abraham Brender, Rosenthal, Baltuch, Laufer, Dr. Lutwak as well as the other members.
Also the Bukovina Middle School was successful in this respect. After the collapse of the monarchy, this body lost its reason for existence. The Romanian government had only one interest, and that was to quickly and ruthlessly Romanize the country whose northern half saw being incorporated with a Greater Romania as a difficult to bear disaster. The Middle School in which the Romanian element had always been in the minority fell out of the picture.
Also, the Bukovina Middle School tried in vain to survive. The problems of public instruction were not the cause of its collapse, for there wasn't the smallest hope to convince the chauvinistic element of the Romanian Education Administration concerning a reasonable school reform. What brought the middle school teachers together were the common need and the drive for self preservation in view of the undisguised destructive urges of the new holders of power. The Jewish middle school teachers sought in a strong union, a kind of self defense for themselves and the Jewish students against the arbitrary youth antagonistic edicts handed down by the Romanian educational bureaucracy. In 1919 one heard for the first time of the organization Jewish Middle School.
The leaders were the professors Dr. Julian Pilpel, Dr. Hermann Sternberg and Israel Schleyer. There were more than 100 registered members. The needs of the time had brought them all together. There were also members who at one time had sought to repudiate their connection to Judaism, even those who were baptized or half baptized. Among the members were to be found Yiddishists and Hebraists, Zionists and the assimilated, radicals and liberals. The majority had come from the Jewish national student organizations and spoke German although there were also those who were Ukrainian or Romanian oriented. The Jewish professors had little success in the fight for their rights. Numerous delegations from the Middle School waited in the anterooms of the Romanian school inspector, submitted petitions, negotiated and depending on mood, were either consoled or abruptly dismissed. Many members retired from the school system because they were convinced of the hopelessness of improving their situation, while others were transferred to remote locations and others were dismissed. The number of members never again reached the levels of 1919.
The Middle School had more success in the area of founding new private gymnasiums because sometimes the law allowing the opening of private schools was observed. In general, as the Romanians made the education of Jewish youth difficult or impossible, the opening of Jewish private schools proved to be a necessity.
The activity of the Middle School in social work remains unforgettable. From a fund provided by American Jews a food service was initiated. Approximately 50 of the poorest students whose parents had returned to their destroyed homes as war refugees and now faced starvation received adequate warm meals in 1920.
In the course of the year the activities of the organization were crippled. It suffered from a lack of members since the Romanians no longer hired Jewish professors and with the continued deprivation of Jewish rights, it lost all significance. It ceased to exist.
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Also known as: Tamponade and Pericardial tamponade
- Dissecting aortic aneurysm (thoracic)
- End-stage lung cancer
- Heart attack (acute MI)
- Heart surgery
- Pericarditis caused by bacterial or viral infections
- Wounds to the heart
- Heart tumors
- Kidney failure
- Placement of central lines
- Radiation therapy to the chest
- Recent invasive heart procedures
- Recent open heart surgery
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Anxiety, restlessness
- Radiating to the neck, shoulder, back, or abdomen
- Sharp, stabbing
- Worsened by deep breathing or coughing
- Difficulty breathing
- Discomfort, sometimes relieved by sitting upright or leaning forward
- Fainting, light-headedness
- Pale, gray, or blue skin
- Rapid breathing
- Swelling of the abdomen or other areas
- Low blood pressure
- Weak or absent pulse
- Blood pressure may fall (pulsus paradoxical) when the person inhales deeply
- Breathing may be rapid (faster than 12 breaths in an adult per minute)
- Heart rate may be over 100 (normal is 60 to 100 beats per minute)
- Heart sounds are faint during examination with a stethoscope
- Neck veins may be abnormally extended (distended) but the blood pressure may be low
- Peripheral pulses may be weak or absent
Cardiac tamponade is compression of the heart that occurs when blood or fluid builds up in the space between the myocardium (heart muscle) and the pericardium (outer covering sac of the heart).
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
In this condition, blood or fluid collects in the pericardium. This prevents the ventricles from expanding fully. The excess pressure from the fluid prevents the heart from functioning normally.
Cardiac tamponade can occur due to:
Other potential causes include:
Cardiac tamponade occurs in approximately 2 out of 10,000 people.
Other symptoms that may occur with this disorder:
Signs and tests
There are no specific laboratory tests that diagnose tamponade. Echocardiogram is typically used to help establish the diagnosis.
Other tests may include:
Cardiac tamponade is an emergency condition that requires hospitalization.
The fluid around the heart must be drained. Pericardiocentesis is a procedure that uses a needle to remove fluid from the pericardial sac, the tissue that surrounds the heart.
A procedure to cut and remove part of the pericardium (surgical pericardiectomy or pericardial window) may also be done.
Fluids are given to maintain normal blood pressure until pericardiocentesis can be performed. Medications that increase blood pressure may also help sustain the patient's life until the fluid is drained.
The patient may be given oxygen. This reduces the workload on the heart by decreasing tissue demands for blood flow.
The cause of the tamponade must be identified and treated.
Tamponade is life-threatening if untreated. The outcome is often good if the condition is treated promptly, but tamponade may come back.
Calling your health care provider
Go to the emergency room or call the local emergency number (such as 911) if symptoms develop. Cardiac tamponade is an emergency condition requiring immediate attention.
Many cases are not preventable. Awareness of your personal risk factors may allow early diagnosis and treatment.
Jacob R, Grimm RA. Pericardial disease. In: Carey WD, ed. Cleveland Clinic: Current Clinical Medicine. 1st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier;2008:chap 23.
- Review date:
- May 17, 2010
- Reviewed by:
- Shabir Bhimji, MD, PhD, Specializing in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Midland, TX. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- 2008 A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.
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Human case of Streptococcus suis serotype 16 infection.Streptococcus suis infection is an emerging zoonosis Zoonosis Definition
Zoonosis, also called zoonotic disease refers to diseases that can be passed from animals, whether wild or domesticated, to humans. in Southeast Asia. We report a fatal case of S. suis serotype 16 infection in a Vietnamese man in 2001.
Streptococcus suis is a gram-positive, facultatively anerobic coccus coccus
Spherical bacterium. Many species have characteristic arrangements that are useful in identification. Pairs of cocci are called diplococci; rows or chains, streptococci (see streptococcus); grapelike clusters, staphylococci (see that may cause pneumonia, meningitis, septicemia septicemia (sĕptĭsē`mēə), invasion of the bloodstream by virulent bacteria that multiply and discharge their toxic products. The disorder, which is serious and sometimes fatal, is commonly known as blood poisoning. , and arthritis in pigs. The pig can also be a healthy carrier of S. suis in the upper respiratory tract (particularly the tonsils tonsils, name commonly referring to the palatine tonsils, two ovoid masses of lymphoid tissue situated on either side of the throat at the back of the tongue. and nasal cavities), the genital tract, and the alimentary tract (1,2). The first case of S. suis infection in humans was reported in Denmark in 1968. Since then, increasing numbers of cases have been reported in many countries, including the Netherlands; the United Kingdom; France; Hong Kong Special Administrative Region A special administrative region may be:
The Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD) in Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, city (1997 pop. 5,250,000), on the right bank of the Saigon River, a tributary of the Dong Nai, Vietnam. , Vietnam (N.T.H Mai et al., unpub, data). The number of cases is likely underreported and will likely increase further with increased awareness and enhanced capacity to culture and identify S. suis.
A 57-year-old unemployed man from Long An Province, southern Vietnam, who had a history of alcohol abuse, had a 10-day history of abdominal pain, jaundice, anorexia, and weight loss. At the time of admission to HTD in 2001, the patient was lethargic, his vital signs were stable, and his neck was not stiff. Physical examination showed cutaneous spider naevi, jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, and ascites. Leukocyte count was 15.3 x 103 cells/[mu]L (70% neutrophils), blood urea nitrogen blood urea nitrogen
n. Abbr. BUN
Nitrogen in the form of urea in the blood or serum, used as a indicator of kidney function.
Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 12.1 mmol/L (reference range 3.57-7.14 mmol/L), creatinine 150 gmol/L (< 115 mmol/L), sodium 127 mmol/L (135-145 mmol/L), potassium 6.67 mmol/L (3.5-5.1 mmol/L), serum aspartate aminotransferase 87 IU/L (12-30 IU/L), serum alamine aminotransferase 41 IU/L (13-40 IU/L), and albumin 20 g/L (35-52 g/L). An abdominal ultrasound examination showed hepatosplenomegaly and ascites. Ascitic fluid was cloudy and contained 5 g/L protein. Results of Gram stain and culture of ascitic fluid were negative. A diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis spontaneous bacterial peritonitis Spontaneous peritonitis Critical care A severe acute infection of the peritoneum that accompanies end-stage liver disease and ascites Agents E coli, Klebsiella spp, S pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis associated with alcoholic liver cirrhosis was made, and the patient was treated with 2 g/day of ceftriaxone.
Twenty-four hours after admission, acute respiratory distress developed. The patient's family decided to take him home because they were unable to pay for further treatment; the patient died on the same day. The blood culture (BACTEC 9050 system; Becton Dickinson Microbiology Systems, Sparks, MD, USA), which was taken at the time of admission, grew S. suis 24 hours after collection. Further inquiries into potential pig exposure, after the blood culture results were reported, indicated that the patient kept pigs near his house and was known to regularly consume portions of the pig that had a high risk of being contaminated, such as the intestine.
S. suis was identified on the basis of colony morphology, negative katalase reaction, optochin resistance, and APlStrep (bioM6rieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France). Serotyping was performed by slide agglutination agglutination, in biochemistry
agglutination, in biochemistry: see immunity.
agglutination, in linguistics
agglutination, in linguistics: see inflection. using specific antisera (Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark) and was positive for serotype 16. Confirmation of the serotype was performed at the International Reference Laboratory for S. suis Serotyping, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (M. Gottschalk). This strain was susceptible to penicillin (MIC 0.032 mg/L), ceftriaxone (0.064 mg/L), rifampin (0.032 mg/L), chloramphenicol chloramphenicol (klōr'ămfĕn`əkŏl'), antibiotic effective against a wide range of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria (see Gram's stain). It was originally isolated from a species of Streptomyces bacteria. (2 mg/L), erythromycin erythromycin (ĭrĭth'rōmī`sĭn), any of several related antibiotic drugs produced by bacteria of the genus Streptomyces (see antibiotic). (0.064 mg/L), levofloxacin (0.38 mg/L), and vancomycin (0.5 mg/L) but resistant to tetracycline (64 mg/L) by E-test (AB-Biodisk, Solna, Sweden) when Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute breakpoints were used. On pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) that used restriction enzyme SmaI, this strain showed little similarity with a representative set of serotype 2 isolates from Vietnam (Figure). Multilocus sequence typing Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a technique in molecular biology for the typing of multiple loci. The procedure characterizes isolates of bacterial species using the DNA sequences of internal fragments of multiple (usually seven) housekeeping genes. (MLST) (www.mlst.net) showed that the sequence of 5 of 7 alleles of the included housekeeping genes had not been previously described. Thus, this strain was assigned the new sequence type 106. On eBURST analysis (www.mlst.net), this sequence type does not belong to any of the clonal complexes but is a singleton. PCR PCR polymerase chain reaction.
polymerase chain reaction
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of the genes encoding the putative virulence factors extracellular protein factor (EF) and suilysin were negative. Results of Western blot for detection of muramidase-released protein (MRP) and EF, using rabbit polyclonal antibody against MRP and EF (provided by H. Smith, the Netherlands), were also negative. S. suis serotype 2 strains 31533 and 89-1591 (provided by M. Gottschalk, Canada) were used as positive and negative controls respectively.
The total number of human S. suis infections reported until August 2006 was [approximately equal to] 400, and nearly 90% of these cases occurred in China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Netherlands (4). These data did not include at least 200 cases of S. suis infection in Vietnam (C. Schultsz, unpub. data). At present, 33 capsular serotypes of S. suis have been recognized (1,4). S. suis serotype 2 is considered to be the most pathogenic to pigs and humans. All human cases of S. suis infection for which serotyping was available were caused by S. suis serotype 2, except for 1 case of serotype 1 (9), l case of serotype 4 (3), and 1 case of serotype 14 (6). Among 116 cases of S. suis meningitis seen at HTD from 1997 through 2005, 115 were caused by serotype 2 and 1 by serotype 14.
S. suis serotype 2 can cause meningitis, septicemia and septic shock, arthritis, endocarditis endocarditis (ĕn'dōkärdī`tĭs), bacterial or fungal infection of the endocardium (inner lining of the heart) that can be either acute or subacute. , pneumonia, endophthalmitis, and cellulitis Cellulitis Definition
Cellulitis is a spreading bacterial infection just below the skin surface. It is most commonly caused by Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphylococcus aureus. in humans (3,5,8). The mortality rate for S. suis serotype 2 meningitis is <10% (10), but it can reach 70% among patients with septicemia and septic shock (11). The exact route of infection for humans is not known. Cases have been linked to accidental inoculation through skin injuries, for example, during occupational exposure to pigs and pork, but inhalation of aerosols and ingestion of contaminated food have also been suggested (3,9,11,12). Preexisting pre·ex·ist or pre-ex·ist
v. pre·ex·ist·ed, pre·ex·ist·ing, pre·ex·ists
To exist before (something); precede: Dinosaurs preexisted humans.
v.intr. medical conditions, such as alcoholism and liver cirrhosis, as was present in our patient, or a prior splenectomy Splenectomy Definition
Splenectomy is the surgical removal of the spleen, which is an organ that is part of the lymphatic system. The spleen is a dark-purple, bean-shaped organ located in the upper left side of the abdomen, just behind the bottom of the may predispose to severe infection.
Serotype 16 has never been isolated from humans and, to our knowledge, has also rarely been reported as a cause of invasive disease in pigs. One isolate of S. suis serotype 16 was reported from a diseased pig in Germany and 4 isolates from slaughter pigs in South Korea (13,14). The S. suis serotype 16 strain was sensitive to all antimicrobial agents tested except tetracycline, as has been reported for serotype 2 isolates (5). PFGE results showed that this human serotype 16 isolate was unrelated to human serotype 2 isolates. On MLST, this isolate had a new sequence type that did not belong to any of the clonal complexes. In contrast, most serotype 2 isolates reported so far belong to clonal complex 1 (www.mlst.net). Taken together, these results suggest that capsule switch, such as has been observed for S. pneumoniae, does not explain the emergence of invasive isolates of a different serotype. In addition, the PCR and Western blot analyses indicate that the serotype 2 capsule, EF, MRP, or suilysin is not required for virulence or S. suis in humans, as has also been shown in pigs.
S. suis infection is an emerging zoonosis in Asia. Strains with serotype 16 are among those capable of infecting humans.
This study was supported by The Wellcome Trust.
Dr Nghia is an infectious disease specialist. His research interests include the epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical manifestations, and treatment of Streptococcus suis infection in Vietnam.
(1.) Gottsehalk M, Segura M. The pathogenesis of the meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis: the unresolved questions. Vet Microbiol. 2000;76:259-72.
(2.) Staats JJ, Feder I, Okwumabua O, Chengappa MM. Streptococcus suis: past and present. Vet Res Commun. 1997;21:381-407.
(3.) Arends JP, Zanen HC. Meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis in humans. Rev Infect Dis. 1988;10:131 7.
(4.) Lun ZR, Wang QP, Chen XG, Li AX, Zhu XQ. Streptococcus suis: an emerging zoonotic Zoonotic
A disease which can be spread from animals to humans.
Mentioned in: Zoonosis pathogen. Lancet Infect Dis. 2007;7:201-9.
(5.) Wangkaew S, Chaiwarith R, Tharavichitkul P, Supparatpinyo K. Streptococcus suis infection: a series of 41 cases from Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai University (Thai: มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่) was the first provincial university established in Thailand and the first to be named after the city it is in. Hospital. J Infect. 2006;52:455-60.
(6.) Watkins EJ, Brooksby P, Schweiger MS, Enright SM. Septicaemia septicaemia or septicemia
an infection of the blood which develops in a wound [Greek sēptos decayed + haima blood]
septicemia, septicaemia in a pig-farm worker. Lancet. 2001;357:38.
(7.) Willenburg KS, Sentochnik DE, Zadoks RN. Human Streptococcus suis meningitis in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2006;354:1325.
(8.) Yu H, Jing jing (jing) [Chinese] one of the basic substances that according to traditional Chinese medicine pervade the body, usually translated as "essence"; the body reserves or constitutional makeup, replenished by food and rest, that supports H, Chen Z, Zheng H, Zhu X, Wang H, et al. Human Streptococcus suis outbreak, Sichuan, China. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006;12:914-20.
(9.) Vilaichone RK, Vilaichone W, Nunthapisud P, Wilde H. Streptococcus suis infection in Thailand. J Med Assoc Thai. 2002;85(Suppl 1): S109-17.
(10.) Suankratay C, Intalapaporn P, Nunthapisud P, Arunyingmongkol K, Wilde H. Streptococcus suis meningitis in Thailand. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2004;35:868-76.
(11.) Tang J, Wang C, Feng Y, Yang W, Song H, Chen Z, et al. Streptococcal streptococcal /strep·to·coc·cal/ (-kok´al) pertaining to or caused by a streptococcus.
Pertaining to any of the Streptococcus bacteria. toxic shock syndrome toxic shock syndrome (TSS). acute, sometimes fatal, disease characterized by high fever, nausea, diarrhea, lethargy, blotchy rash, and sudden drop in blood pressure. It is caused by Staphylococcus aureus, an exotoxin-producing bacteria (see toxin). caused by Streptococcus suis serotype 2. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e151.
(12.) Sriskandan S, Slater JD. Invasive disease and toxic shock due to zoonotic Streptococcus suis: an emerging infection in the East? PLoS Med. 2006;3:e187.
(13.) Han DU, Choi C, Ham HJ, Jung JH, Cho WS, Kim J, et al. Prevalence, capsular type and antimicrobial susceptibility of Streptococcus suis isolated from slaughter pigs in Korea. Can J Vet Res. 2001;65:151-5.
(14.) Wisselink HJ, Smith HE, Stockhofe-Zurwieden N, Peperkamp K, Vecht U. Distribution of capsular types and production of muramidase-released protein (MRP) and extracellular factor (EF) of Streptococcus suis strains isolated from diseased pigs in seven European countries. Vet Microbiol. 2000;74:237-48.
Ho Dang Trung Nghia, * Ngo Thi Hoa, * Le Dieu Linh, * James Campbell, * To Song Diep, ([dagger]) Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, ([dagger]) Nguyen Thi Hoang Mai, * Tran Tinh Hien, ([dagger]) Brian Spratt, ([double dagger]) Jeremy Farrar, * and Constance Schultsz *
* Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; ([dagger]) Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and ([double dagger]) Imperial College London History
Imperial College was founded in 1907, with the merger of the City and Guilds College, the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science (all of which had been founded between 1845 and 1878) with these entities continuing to exist as "constituent colleges". , London, United Kingdom
Address for correspondence: Constance Schultsz, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 190 Ben Ham Tu, Quan 5, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam; email: email@example.com
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Menstrual cramps (Dysmenorrhea)
What are menstrual cramps?
Dysmenorrhea is the medical term for menstrual cramps. Dysmenorrhea affects most women at some stage during their reproductive years. There are two types of dysmenorrhea, primary dysmenorrhea and secondary dysmenorrhea. Primary dysmenorrhea is now believed to be caused by an excess of one of the prostaglandin hormones normally found in the body. Excess amounts of this hormone result in excessive contractions of the uterus (cramping). Secondary dysmenorrhea may be caused by an underlying disease, infection, or gynelogical problem.
What are some symptoms of menstrual cramps?
Abdominal cramps, lower back pin, and leg pain are the most common symptoms of dysmenorrhea. Nausea and vomiting, constipation or diarrhea may also be present. If the pain is severe, light-headiness may be experienced. Primary dysmenorrhea typically begins with the onset of the menstrual period and usually does not last more than two days. Secondary dysmenorrhea may begin prior to the menstrual period and last throughout the period. If the pain in the pelvic area is accompanied by fever, abnormal vaginal bleeding and/or pain with intercourse, it may indicate a serious infection and medical care should be sought promptly.
How can I treat menstrual cramps?
The first important step in treatment is to see a Women's Health Care clinician for an examination in order to rule out the possibility of underlying disease or anatomic abnormality as the cause of dysmenorrhea. Secondary dysmenorrhea is often difficult to identify and treat. There are a number of treatment alternatives for primary dysmenorrhea. Antiprostaglandin medications, which inhibit the production of prostaglandin hormones, are available and frequently provide relief. These include ibuprofen and aspirin, which can be purchased over the counter, and related medications, which require prescriptions. They are non-narcotic. Women who are allergic to aspirin, have severe or persistent anemia, or have ulcers or intestinal bleeding should not take these medications without consulting a clinician. Birth control pills usually reduce menstrual cramping. They may be an option for women needing contraception and for whom birth control pills are not contraindicated.
Are there other things I can do to help prevent or reduce menstrual cramps?
A well-balanced diet and regular exercise during the menstrual period may help reduce menstrual cramps. By reducing salt and sugar intake, avoiding spicy foods and maintaining an adequate water intake (6-8 glasses per day) may lessen water retention and bloating. A warm bath or hot water bottle held to the abdomen may also help ease pain.
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Teaching online should be more than just a Skype conference. A true online lesson should be a collaborative experience between the educator and the students.
There are several online tools that can be used to create this type of learning environment. Tomorrow’s Genius trains all of its teachers and staff to use these and other online tools to successfully create a successful learning program for both the students and the educator.
Dabbleboard (www.dabbleboard.com) – While there are more sophisticated online platforms available, Dabbleboard is a free online whiteboard that can be used by multiple participants at the same time. Its real-time information sharing could be ideal for subjects such as math, science, and languages.
Twiddla (www.twiddla.com) – Twiddla is another online whiteboard option with some additional features. First, you can use Twiddla to share images with other users. There is also an integrated audio option that can be used for conferencing. While not quite as powerful as some of the more professional options, Twiddla can be great for a simple online session.
Prezi (www.prezi.com) – PowerPoint has, for several years been the go-to tool for presentations. Prezi however offers an easy to use alternative that can add a new element to online learning. This platform uses camera tracking to move from one screen to the next. So, instead of individual slides, you create your content on one canvas and then create a path for the camera to follow. Once a Prezi is created it can be shared with other users via the provided web-link.
Prezentit (www.prezentit.com) – Another PowerPoint alternative that enables users to create professional presentations directly online. The user interface is simple, yet packed with features. As with PowerPoint there are also options for transitions and effects. The advantage to this platform is that sharing the presentations is simple and quick. Any updates made to a presentation are instantly available to any shared users.
GeoGebra Online (http://www.geogebra.org/webstart/geogebra.html) – Geogebra has been a popular math tool for several years. Recently however, the company released its web based version, making it easy and simple to work in a collaborative environment. The program has several tools available and can be used for both low level and higher level students. Sharing your board is quite simple as well.
These are just a few of the available online tools. Of course, the most important part of online education cannot be provided through a program or browser window. Great teachers are still a needed part of the educational process. Even with these and other new collaborative tools, online lessons still require the expertise and experience of classroom teachers.
Every Tomorrow’s Genius teacher has received several hours of hands on training designed to enable the best online learning experiences possible. Teaching online requires focus, the ability to multi-task, and a strong command of the technological capabilities. Tomorrow’s Genius currently facilitates an average of 20 hours per day of online classes. Each class is taught by a talented and capable TG educator, who uses tools like these and others to provide the students with the best educational experience possible.
If you have taught or worked with students online, tell us which tools you have used.
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Crop circles in rapeseed fields
A crop circle measuring some 300 feet diameter has appeared in a field of oil seed rape near Wilton Windmill in Wiltshire. Lucy Pringle, crop circle researcher and author said: "I believe it contains binary. Working from the centre outwards, people are suggesting it has a connection to Leonhard Eulers theorem e^(i)pi+1=0 which is thought to be one of the most beautiful theorems in mathematics. Historically over the years, crop circles have been associated with diatonic scales (white notes on the piano). These diatonic scale frequencies are encoded in each segment of the crop circle and can be played on the piano. This is a unique formation incorporating both music and mathematics and is similar in importance to the famous 2008 Barbury Castle Pi event"
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|Allegro CL version 9.0|
Unrevised from 8.2 to 9.0.
This document contains the following sections:1.0 Introduction to the Lisp top-level listener
When Allegro CL starts, by default it runs a lisp listener. Although the listener has various extended capabilities, it is basically a loop that repeatedly writes a prompt, reads a form, evaluates it, and prints the result(s). For this reason a lisp listener is sometimes also called a read-eval-print loop. A listener is also sometimes called a top-level loop because it is the interactive command processor under which other programs run.
The user interacts with Allegro CL by typing to the read-eval-print loop, which of course can also be driven from a script. The full power of the Lisp environment to load, debug, and run programs is immediately available from the listener. In addition to the basic read-eval-print loop, the listener has a set of commands to perform certain common operations more quickly and succinctly, such as re-executing a previously-entered command, loading files, recovering from errors, and examining the execution stack for debugging.
The following examples are places where Allegro CL runs a lisp listener loop: the Debug window in the Integrated Development Environment on Windows; the console window on Windows; a listener buffer when using the Emacs-Lisp interface; and a Lisp started directly in a Unix shell. Some have additional features (Emacs-Lisp interface commands in an emacs buffer, menu commands that operate on the just-typed input in the Debug window) but all have the features described in this document.
The debugging tools in Allegro CL are integrated into the listener. They consist of a tracer, a stepper, an inspector, a set of top-level commands that allow dynamic examination and manipulation of Lisp data and the run-time evaluation stack, and mechanisms to single-step through expressions or function calls. The debugger is documented in debugging.htm and the inspector in inspector.htm.
The Allegro CL listener is modeless -- all top-level commands are always accessible, regardless of the conceptual activity currently underway, such as tracing a function, debugging, or simply entering expressions for evaluation. For example, while stepping through the forms in a function, the user may examine the function's parameters, abort stepping, display a stack backtrace, ask for help on any top-level command, or exit Lisp. There is only one set of top-level commands. There is no command to put Allegro CL into a distinct debugging mode. Debugging commands are always available.
Allegro CL has an extension called multiprocessing which permits several distinct Lisp processes to execute in the same image (using stack groups on UNIX platforms and OS threads on Windows). This facility is described in the multiprocessing.htm document. The top-level interacts with multiprocessing in a number of ways, but most important is that certain debugger commands operate on a focus process rather than the listener process itself. When a listener starts it is focussed on its own process. The interaction of the top-level with multiprocessing is described in the Section 6.0 Top-level interaction with multiprocessing . Other information is found in the section Section 7.0 Commands for killing processes and exiting Lisp. Programmers who do not use multiprocessing need not concern themselves with most of these materials.
This document describes the top level in images built with the
include-tpl keyword argument to build-lisp-image specified
t (or true). Images built with
a minimal top level (and may have a user-supplied top-level as
well). The minimal top level is described in Minimal top
levels in building-images.htm and is not
further discussed in this document.
The listener prints the prompt using a format control string or
formatter function (such as returned by the cl:formatter macro)
that consumes 8 arguments. This format control is taken from the
The eight arguments are (in order):
nilif the current process is the initial lisp listener.
nilif there is no focused process.
nilat break level zero.
This prompt scheme provides information about the dynamic state of
the listener. If the system determines that the value of
inappropriate, it will print a warning (once) and replace it with the
(The Emacs-Lisp interface must also have a regular expression that will parse the prompt being printed by a listener. See eli.htm for details. The default regular expression will correctly handle the default prompt and many popular variations . However, no check will be made that the Emacs regexp is correct and features of the Emacs-Lisp interface will fail if the prompt pattern is incorrect.)
Here is what the default prompt looks like when Lisp first starts:
The prompt indicates that typed expressions will be evaluated in the common-lisp-user (nickname user) package. The number in parentheses is the command number. Since the listener has just started, the command number is one. The command number sequence is local to the particular listener. Each listener maintains its own.
When Lisp enters a break loop the prompt shows the break level in brackets. Consider the following Lisp session:
USER(1): (foo) Error: attempt to call `FOO' which is an undefined function. [condition type: UNDEFINED-FUNCTION] Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: Try calling FOO again 1: Return a value 2: Try calling a different function 3: Setf the symbol function of FOO and call it again USER(2): xyz Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `XYZ'. [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE] Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: Try calling FOO again 1: Return a value 2: Try calling a different function 3: Setf the symbol function of FOO and call it again USER(3):
In the last prompt printed here the number in brackets -- -- is the break level. The command number is 3 and the package is still the common-lisp-user package.
Let us take a more complex example. We clear the previous errors and then define a function bar which calls cerror. Then we execute bar in a new process using process-run-function:
USER(5): (defun bar () (cerror "Just continue" "A cerror break")) BAR USER(6): (mp:process-run-function "Break-process" #'bar)
At this point, a *background-interaction* buffer is created in Emacs (assuming Lisp is running as a subprocess of Emacs using the Emacs-Lisp interface). That buffer is a separate listener so the command number starts from 1. We display the prompt you see in that buffer. Note that it is on two lines. The first line shows the process (it does not appear if the process is the Initial Lisp Listener).
[Current-process: Break-process] [1c] USER(1):
The `c' after the break level number indicates that the break level arose from a call to cerror or break. These are standard operators that invoke the debugger with an explicit provision for returning from the debugger. Calls to certain other operators (most significantly, error) guarantee that the call will not return. Even so, there may and in general will be other more-remote restart points dynamically surrounding the execution that may validly be invoked. The `c' indicates only whether the operator that invoked the debugger allows a return. It is something of a historical feature predating the widespread adoption of the Common Lisp condition system.
The prompt also changes if you are inspecting or stepping. See debugging.htm and inspector.htm.
Because the prompt processes a lot of information, changing it is not trivial. Some example of top-level prompts are included in file <Allegro directory>/misc/prompts.cl.
The top-level understands two sorts of input: top-level commands and
Lisp expressions. A top-level command is syntactically identified to
Allegro CL by a single character prefix, initially the colon
character. This can be changed by assigning a different character to
*command-char*. In this document we
illustrate commands prefixed with the colon although the name
of the command does not contain the colon. When referring to the
command (as an argument to :help,
for example) the top-level command character is not required.
A newline typed to the top-level is a null command which is ignored; extra spaces and tabs are ignored; and end-of-file has a special meaning which is discussed below (see Section 4.0 Break levels).
Most top-level commands have abbreviations. The :help command called without arguments will print out the list of top-level commands and their abbreviations, along with a brief description of their use. An abbreviation is always an initial substring of the command name. Any portion of the command name that at least contains the minimal abbreviation will invoke the command. For example, the minimal abbreviation for the command :error is :err. Thus, :err, :erro, and :error all invoke that command.
Top-level commands may only be entered interactively to the top-level. They cannot appear in a Lisp source file processed by load, including the various initialization files Lisp loads at startup. do-command is the functional equivalent of a top-level command, documented in Section 11.0 Adding new top-level commands, that may be used to execute top-level commands. However, since load does not print the results of executing Lisp forms, the many top-level commands which simply return a result to be printed are not useful in a source file. The functional form of top-level commands is mainly used in aliases (i.e. user-defined top-level commands, see Section 11.0 Adding new top-level commands below).
A top-level command has the form
:name argument ...
The function that implements the command is passed the
arguments. The arguments are read in one of three ways: as if by
read using the current case
mode (for example
:case-sensitive-upper); as if by read using case-sensitive mode; or as a single
string. No predefined top-level commands use case-sensitive mode. The
only predefined top-level commands that read their argument as a
string are those that take filenames as arguments: :ld, :cf, :cload, :cd, and :pushd. All other predefined top-level
commands read their arguments in the current case mode. When the user
defines a top-level command (using the macro tpl:alias described in
section Section 11.0 Adding new top-level commands) the case
sensitivity of input may be specified. Case sensitivity in general is
discussed in section case.htm.
The :help top-level command
without an argument prints summary information on all top-level
commands. The summary information is fairly long. The number of lines
displayed before pausing is controlled by the variable
With a command name argument, :help gives more detailed information for that command. The command name argument should omit the leading colon.
As the user enters commands and expressions to the top-level, they
are recorded on a history list. The value of
*history* is the maximum
number of inputs (commands or expressions) to which the history list
can grow. When the history list reaches its maximum size, the oldest
entry is discarded as each new one is added. Note that expressions and
commands typed to the top-level are added to the history list, but
input read from programs that are called from the top-level is not
remembered on the history list. (The Emacs-Lisp interface has an
additional entirely-separate mechanism that remembers all input.)
Repeated entries (the same form or command entered more than once with no intervening form or command) are collapsed into a single entry.
The :history command prints the history list. Commands in the following forms will retrieve items from the history list:
:[+|-]number[?] ::pattern[? | +]
These are redo commands. They allow re-execution of a previous input
without re-entering it. The expressions will be re-evaluated as if the
read-eval-print loop were entered at the eval stage. That is, the
input will not be re-read, so changes that affect the reader (such as
package inheritance, or the value of variables like
*read-base*) will have no
effect. This usually makes no difference but can occasionally be
confusing. See the example below for an explanation.
The first format, :number, re-evaluates the numberth input expression on the history list.
The second format searches the history list for input matching the pattern and re-executes it. If the second form is entered without a pattern, the last expression typed is re-evaluated.
If + is given as an argument to the :: form, then the search will be in reverse from the beginning of the history list forward, instead of from the end backward. If ? is an argument to either format, the user will be asked to confirm before re-execution of the command or expression.
Here is an example using these commands:
USER(1): (setq a 10) 10 USER(2): :his 1 (SETQ A 10) 2 :his USER(3): (set 'b 'setq) SETQ USER(4): ::setq (SET 'B 'SETQ) SETQ USER(5): ::a (SETQ A 10) 10 USER(6): :his 1 (SETQ A 10) 2 :his 3 (SET 'B 'SETQ) 4 (SET 'B 'SETQ) 5 (SETQ A 10) 6 :his USER(7): :5 (SETQ A 10) 10 USER(8):
The history list mechanism remembers both the form read as input as well as a string representation of that form. The string is the write-to-string with the input form. The string is used to match the pattern given to the :: command, but the form that is evaluated is the original form (that is, the string is not reread). In most cases, the behavior is the same as if the original input had been reentered, but there are at least two circumstances where this is not the case.
In the example, we call a function in the
convert-to-lang. This function takes a string (which
is usually a function name) and returns the address of the
foreign-functions package has not
been made accessible (with use-package) and we neglect to preface
convert-to-lang with the ff: package
qualifier. Not surprisingly, we get an `undefined function'
USER(8): (convert-to-lang "foo") Error: attempt to call `CONVERT-TO-LANG' which is an undefined function. [condition type: UNDEFINED-FUNCTION] Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: Try calling CONVERT-TO-LANG again 1: Try calling FOREIGN-FUNCTIONS:CONVERT-TO-LANG instead 2: Return a value 3: Try calling a different function 4: Setf the symbol function of CONVERT-TO-LANG and call it again
Now we call use-package again
to make external symbols in the
package accessible. (Incidently, we get a symbol conflict error at
this point. This is a continuable error and the appropriate thing to
do is :continue. See Using package
results in name conflicts... in
errors.htm for more information.) We enter the
command ::convert to re-evaluate our call to
convert-to-lang but another "undefined
function" error is signaled! This happens because Lisp has
remembered and re-evaluates the identical (in the sense of eq) form. The
convert-to-lang symbol that is the car of that form
is still the same. The symbol used to be interned in the
cl-user package and is now uninterned by the
use-package continuation, but
it still has no function binding. At the end we call
ff:convert-to-lang with the package qualifier and
display the history list. Note that the qualifier is not stored. When
we enter ::ff, it is the use-package form called well before
ff:convert-to-lang that is repeated.
USER(9): :pop USER(10): (use-package :ff) Error: Using package `FOREIGN-FUNCTIONS' results in name conflicts for these symbols: CONVERT-TO-LANG [condition type: PACKAGE-ERROR] Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: Unintern the conflicting symbols from the `COMMON-LISP-USER' package. [1c] USER(11): :cont 0 T USER(12): :hist ;; [unrelated items deleted] 8 (#:CONVERT-TO-LANG "foo") 9 :pop 10 (USE-PACKAGE :FF) 11 :cont 0 12 :hist USER(13): ::convert (#:CONVERT-TO-LANG "foo") Error: attempt to call `#:CONVERT-TO-LANG' which is an undefined function. [condition type: UNDEFINED-FUNCTION] Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: Try calling #:CONVERT-TO-LANG again 1: Try calling CONVERT-TO-LANG instead 2: Return a value 3: Try calling a different function 4: Setf the symbol function of #:CONVERT-TO-LANG and call it again USER(14): :pop USER(15): (convert-to-lang "foo") "_foo" USER(16): (ff:convert-to-lang "bar") "_bar" USER(17): :hist :count 4 ;; Note the package qualifier is *not* saved if the ;; symbol is accessible in the current package: 15 (CONVERT-TO-LANG "foo") 16 (CONVERT-TO-LANG "bar") USER(18): ::ff (USE-PACKAGE :FF) T
The initial read-eval-print loop when a listener starts is called the top-level read-eval-print loop. This can be thought of as break level zero (but see below). A higher break level and a recursive read-eval-print loop can only be entered by a call to invoke-debugger. Each new call (assuming that earlier calls have not yet been exited) puts the listener into a new, higher break level. invoke-debugger is typically called, directly or indirectly, in one of these ways:
cl:*break-on-signals*), and warn (via cl:signal);
Note that some things (most notably the result of an end-of-file on the input stream) behave very differently depending on whether Lisp is in the top-level read-eval-print loop or a break level. Thus, it is inaccurate to think of the top-level read-eval-print loop merely as break level 0.
Entry to a new break level prints the condition passed to invoke-debugger; typically this serves
as an "error message" indicating why the break occurred.
When the listener returns from a higher break level to a lower break
level n>0 , the original condition for entering break level
n is printed as a reminder. A break level is exited
by using one of the :pop, :prt, :continue, :restart, :return, or :reset commands, or by execution of any
normal lisp form that performs a non-local return to some
dynamically-surrounding construct. The :pop command is also invoked by
typing an end-of-file (usually Control-D on Unix systems).
Since Lisp allows type ahead, that is to enter forms ahead of the top-level prompt, there is an issue about what happens to pending input when an error occurs. The two choices in Allegro CL are
The choice is controlled by the variable
The following example illustrates the difference between the two
*clear-input-on-error*. Suppose the variables
b1, b2, and b3 are all bound with values 1, 2, 3, while u1 and u2 are
unbound (note that the prompts and the returned values can get
USER(19): (setq b1 1 b2 2 b3 3) 3 USER(20): b1 b2 b3 1 USER(21): 2 USER(22): 3 USER(23): (setq *clear-input-on-error* nil) NIL USER(24): u1 b1 u2 Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `U1'. [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE] USER(25): 1 USER(26): Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `U2'. [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE] USER(27): :reset USER(28): (setq *clear-input-on-error* t) T USER(29): u1 b1 u2 Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `U1'. [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE] USER(30):
Reader errors (such as an unknown package) occurring on the listener's input stream are a special case and unconditionally flush the input stream.
|Command||Arguments (if any)||Brief Description|
|:reset||Reset the state of the top-level and throw to the top-level read-eval-print loop.|
||Cause computation to continue with the effects for the restart action specified by the argument|
||Pop up to the previous break level, or to the nth previous one, if n is given.|
|:prt||Return to the previous level, and re-evaluate the expression that caused the entry into the break level.|
|:error||Print the condition associated with the current break level and all available restarts.|
Here is a transcript showing some of the commands just defined.
USER(31): (setq foo bad) Error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `BAD'. [condition type: UNBOUND-VARIABLE] USER(32): (/ 1 0) Error: Attempt to divide 1 by zero [condition type: DIVISION-BY-ZERO] USER(33): :pop Previous error: Attempt to take the value of the unbound variable `BAD'. USER(34): (setq bad :not-so-bad) :NOT-SO-BAD USER(35): :prt USER(36): (SETQ FOO BAD) ;; :prt evaluation :NOT-SO-BAD USER(37): foo :NOT-SO-BAD USER(38): (cerror "just continue" "error!") Error: error! Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: just continue [1c] USER(39): :cont 0 NIL USER(40):
The top-level commands described in this section deal with compiling and loading files.
|Command||Arguments (if any)||Brief Description|
||The files specified are compiled. With no arguments, the file names specified in the most-recent :cf command are used. The compiled files are not loaded.|
||The files specified are loaded. With no arguments, the file names in the most-recent :ld command are used.|
||The files specified are compiled if necessary (that is, unless a compiled file already exists and is newer than its source file) and then the compiled file is loaded. With no arguments, the file names in the last :cload command are used. Note that only a change to the source file causes a source file to be considered newer than the compiled file. Changes in Lisp, such as changing global values of optimization qualities such as speed and safety, do not trigger a compile.|
Note that these commands (as well as the underlying functions
compile-file and load) infer omitted file types
(e.g. .cl or .fasl) automatically.
The commands that take one or more filename arguments read the argument as a single string. That string is subsequently parsed into multiple filenames using space as a delimiter. (These commands therefore cannot take a filename containing an embedded space.) Filenames should not be quoted. To load foo.cl, do:
USER(1): :ld foo.cl
But if you use quotes, it will fail:
USER(2): :ld "foo.cl" Error: "\"foo.cl\"" does not exist, cannot load [condition type: FILE-ERROR]
General information on multiprocessing can be found in multiprocessing.htm.
When the Allegro CL multiprocessing facility is in use there may be several Lisp processes running simultaneously in a single executing Lisp image, sharing the same heap, streams, and other resources. A lisp listener running in one of these processes operates much the same as if multiprocessing were not in use. However, there are additional capabilities whereby a listener running in one process may be used to investigate and debug another process. Users not employing multiprocessing may skip this section.
For this section the term listener will refer specifically to the process in which a lisp listener is running and which is executing commands. The Allegro CL listener maintains a concept of the focus process. The following debugger commands apply to the focus process:
Initially a listener is focussed on itself and these commands report and operate on the listener process' own execution state. The :focus command allows the listener's focus to be changed to another process. For a process to be focussed upon and debugged, it must first be arrested. The focus command does this automatically if necessary, and when focus is removed from the process it will be unarrested. Commands such as :return and :pop that implicitly cause the process to resume execution will automatically remove focus from the process and unarrest it. The :arrest and :unarrest commands provide additional explicit controls.
The :processes command prints information about processes in the image:
USER(1): :proc P Dis Sec dSec Priority State Process Name, Whostate, Arrest * 3 3 3.2 0 waiting TCP Listener Socket Daemon, waiting for a connection * 2 1 1.1 0 runnable Initial Lisp Listener * 1 0 0.0 0 waiting Editor Server, waiting for input USER(2): :help :proc Prints the state for the argument PROCESSES, or mp:*all-processes* if none. Each argument may be a process object, the name of a process, or a form to evaluate yielding a process or name. The columns printed for each process are: P `*' if the process' stack-group status is set to be profiled. Dis The number of times this process has been resumed by the scheduler since the previous report. Sec The total cpu time consumed by this process (approximate). dSec The cpu time consumed by this process since the last report. Priority The integer process priority. State Inactive, runnable, or waiting. These are followed by the process name, the process whostate (if any),and a list of arrest reasons (if any).The output is sorted on the dSec column, most cpu-intensive first. USER(3):
The arguments to the process commands (:focus, :arrest, :unarrest, and :processes) are evaluated. A process may be identified by the process object itself, by a variable bound to the process object, or by the process' name. Process names are strings. Since process names are often long, these top-level commands will accept an unambiguous initial substring of a process name. If the abbreviation is ambiguous, the command will be aborted. (Note that some commands, such as :arrest, process their arguments sequentially. In these cases, all arguments preceding the one causing the error will have been processed. Any arguments following the ambiguous argument will not be processed.) Process names and abbreviations are case-sensitive. Thus "Thinker" is different from "thinker".
When Allegro CL is run using the Emacs-Lisp interface, a background process entering the debugger will automatically create a new Lisp listener buffer in which to debug the broken process. This eliminates much of the need for the focus mechanism, although it is still an appropriate tool to investigate the state of a background process that is not in a break.
If for any reason background processes do not create new listener buffers when running under the Emacs-Lisp interface, evaluate the following form:
See debugging.htm for more information.
There are top-level equivalents to the exit and process-kill functions that are used to exit Lisp and to kill processes. These top-level commands work slightly differently from their associated functions, since the top-level attempts to protect the user from unrecoverable typing mistakes. In the multiprocessing environment, users must understand the difference between killing a process and exiting the entire Lisp.
There are three relevant commands, :kill, :exit and EOF. (EOF means the end-of-file
character or signal, control-D on many systems.) The :kill command kills the processes, but if
there is only one process, it seeks confirmation. The :exit command terminates the Lisp image,
but seeks confirmation if there is more than one process. EOF is
equivalent to the :pop command
when typed at a break level but is equivalent to :exit when typed at the top-level
(i.e. break level zero). Users who use EOF for :pop may want to set the variable
*exit-on-eof* to a large
number to protect Lisp from accidental exit.
The following commands are also available in a lisp listener. In addition, debugging commands (such as :zoom) described in debugging.htm (and not listed here) are available.
|Command||Arguments (if any)||Brief Description|
||Pretty print the macroexpansion of expression, which is not evaluated. The expression must fit on a single line.|
|:optimize||Query user for values for the compiler optimizations safety, space, speed, debug, and compilation-speed and other compiler options. See compiling.htm.|
||Without an argument, print the name of the current package. With an argument, make that package the current package.|
|:printer-variables||Prompt the user for new values for various printer control variables.|
||Change the current directory to dir, defaulting to the user's home directory (C:\ on Windows). See current-directory and chdir.|
||Change to dir and push the previous current directory to the directory stack.|
|:popd||Pop the directory stack and change to that directory.|
|:dirs||Print the directory stack.|
|:pwd||Print the current directory.|
The value of the variable
*time-threshold* can be a positive
number. If it is, then evaluations which take longer than that number
of seconds will have a time report (such as printed by the time macro) printed along
with the value of the evaluation. If
nil (which is its initial value), no time report is
cl-user(1): (setq top-level:*time-threshold* 5.0) 5.0 cl-user(2): (sleep 4) nil cl-user(3): (sleep 5.5) ; cpu time (non-gc) 0 msec user, 0 msec system ; cpu time (gc) 0 msec user, 0 msec system ; cpu time (total) 0 msec user, 0 msec system ; real time 5,495 msec ; space allocation: ; 4 cons cells, 32 other bytes, 0 static bytes nil cl-user(4):
The following variables are maintained or used by the top-level.
||The character recognized as the prefix for top-level commands. Initially the colon character.|
||The value of this variable is used for the prompt.|
If true, the function to be used to read top-level input.
||If true, the function to be used to evaluate top-level
If true, the function to be used to print top-level output. If
||If true and bound to a valid function (something acceptable to funcall), then this function is called (with no arguments) after executing the :reset command.|
Sometimes a form executed for side effect will return a huge or
circular data object that is not itself of interest. The
exist to limit printed output from evaluated forms. If this
print truncation should ever truncate desired printed output from a
form, following that form with (pprint *) will
reprint the returned value without special top-level truncation.
The top-level command set is extensible. A top-level alias is a user-defined listener command. It is invoked the same way as built-in commands. The difference between built-in commands and aliases is that aliases can be removed, one at a time or all at once.
The macro alias defines a top-level alias.
The function remove-alias removes user-defined top-level aliases. It is not possible to remove system-defined top-level commands.
The function do-command will programmatically execute a top-level command.
In the following example, we define a new top-level command.
USER(40): (top-level:alias "ff" (&rest args) "my alias for the :find command" (apply #'top-level:do-command "find" args)) USER(41): (defun test (x) (break "testing....")) TEST USER(42): (test nil) Break: testing.... Restart actions (select using :continue): 0: return from break. [1c] USER(43): :zoom Evaluation stack: (BREAK "testing....") ->(TEST NIL) (EVAL (TEST NIL)) (TPL:TOP-LEVEL-READ-EVAL-PRINT-LOOP) (TPL:START-INTERACTIVE-TOP-LEVEL #<EXCL::BIDIRECTIONAL-TERMINAL-STREAM @ #x190b4e> #<Function TOP-LEVEL-READ-EVAL-PRINT-LOOP @ #x2ed8c6> ...) [1c] USER(44): :ff eval Evaluation stack: (BREAK "testing....") (TEST NIL) ->(EVAL (TEST NIL)) (TPL:TOP-LEVEL-READ-EVAL-PRINT-LOOP) (TPL:START-INTERACTIVE-TOP-LEVEL #<EXCL::BIDIRECTIONAL-TERMINAL-STREAM @ #x190b4e> #<Function TOP-LEVEL-READ-EVAL-PRINT-LOOP @ #x2ed8c6> ...) [1c] USER(45):
Copyright (c) 1998-2012, Franz Inc. Oakland, CA., USA. All rights reserved.
Documentation for Allegro CL version 9.0. This page was not revised from the 8.2 page.
|Allegro CL version 9.0|
Unrevised from 8.2 to 9.0.
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Would someone walking into your school be able to distinguish it from one built or run in the 19th century? Here are recommendations for 21st century digital learning from staff and wire reports, eSchool News, June 14, 2013 – On the heels of President Obama’s connected initiative launch, the bipartisan Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission released a five-point blueprint outlining specific actions to accelerate the expansion of K-12 digital learning. The blueprint calls on the federal, state, local, private, and charitable sectors to consider and put into practice the following recommendations for digital learning and ed-tech.
- Solve the infrastructure challenge by updating the wiring of schools
- Build a national effort to deploy devices
- Accelerate the adoption of digital curriculum
- Embrace and encourage model schools
- Invest in human capital
“As long as our schools remain in an education model that is fundamentally unchanged since the 19th century, we risk remaining stagnant as other countries surge ahead in educational performance,” said LEAD Commissioner and Co-Founder of TPG Capital Jim Coulter. “We’re eager to join the collective effort and growing political support, as seen with President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative, to pave the way for expanded digital learning access in America.” Read the full story by clicking here.
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| 275
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| 3
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What do fireflies, nanorods and Christmas lights have in common? Someday, consumers may be able to purchase multicolor strings of light that don't need electricity or batteries to glow. Scientists in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences found a new way to harness the natural light produced by fireflies (called bioluminescence) using nanoscience. Their breakthrough produces a system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than those produced during previous experiments.
It's all about the size and structure of the custom, quantum nanorods, which are produced in the laboratory by Mathew Maye, assistant professor of chemistry in SU's College of Arts and Sciences; and Rabeka Alam, a chemistry Ph.D. candidate. Maye is also a member of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute.
"Firefly light is one of nature's best examples of bioluminescence," Maye says. "The light is extremely bright and efficient. We've found a new way to harness biology for nonbiological applications by manipulating the interface between the biological and nonbiological components."
Their work, "Designing Quantum Rods for Optimized Energy Transfer with Firefly Luciferase Enzymes," was published online May 23 in Nano Letters and is forthcoming in print. Nano Letters is a premier journal of the American Chemical Society and one of the highest-rated journals in the nanoscience field. Collaborating on the research were Professor Bruce Branchini and Danielle Fontaine, both from Connecticut College.
Fireflies produce light through a chemical reaction between luciferin and its counterpart, the enzyme luciferase. In Maye's laboratory, the enzyme is attached to the nanorod's surface; luciferin, which is added later, serves as the fuel. The energy that is released when the fuel and the enzyme interact is transferred to the nanorods, causing them to glow. The process is called Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET).
"The trick to increasing the efficiency o
|Contact: Judy Holmes|
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Lesson 6: The Gospels and You
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the story of Jesus Christ's life and teachings from different perspectives, giving us a fuller view of our Savior. This lesson can only scratch the surface of what we can learn and apply from the four Gospels.
Old Testament prophecies of a coming Messiah were very much on the minds
of the first-century Jews, chafing under Roman rule. They were looking
for a conquering King to liberate them from the Romans, but they generally
misunderstood the prophecies of a suffering Savior. They did not understand
that the Messiah would come twice.
The New Testament writers mention Old Testament messianic prophecies
more than 130 times, proving clearly that Jesus was the Messiah or Christ.
The story of the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist marks
the beginning of Jesus' ministry and helps show the seamless connection
between the Old Testament and the New.
"Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'
"He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.'
"And they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.'
'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No.'
"Then they said to him, 'Who are you, that we may give an answer to those
who sent us? What do you say about yourself?'
"He said: 'I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Make straight
the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah said.'
"Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
"And they asked him, saying, 'Why then do you baptize if you are not the
Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?'
"John answered them, saying, 'I baptize with water, but there stands One
among you whom you do not know.
"'It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap
I am not worthy to loose.'
"These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was
"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold! The
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
"'This is He of whom I said, "After me comes a Man who is preferred before
me, for He was before me."
"'I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore
I came baptizing with water.'
"And John bore witness, saying, 'I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
"'I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to
me, "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this
is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."
"'And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God'" (John 1:19-34).
The prophecies and the miracles fully convinced those who became Jesus'
disciples. The next day Andrew told his brother, Simon Peter, "'We have
found the Messiah' (which is translated, the Christ)" (John 1:41).
Share Your Story
Why Four Gospels? Do They Contradict Each Other?
Our lesson on "The
Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ" explains:
"Why are there four Gospels instead of just one? First, the Gospels are not
purely biographies. Each of the four authors is describing what he considers
the most spiritually significant elements of Jesus' life and teachings. Of
course, each author was inspired by God through His Holy Spirit.
"There are no real contradictions among the four accounts. The four different
perspectives complement each other and help to fill out the whole picture
of His perfect life. Therefore, there is harmony, continuity and unity among
the four accounts. It's profitable to combine the perspectives into an overall
view, but it's also interesting and profitable to focus on one perspective
at a time.
"Summarizing the particular focus of each author can be challenging, but
here is one simplified approach: Matthew announces Jesus as King, Mark presents
Him as Servant, Luke focuses on Him as Man and John highlights Him as God.
Jesus is our perfect model in each of those roles."
The multifaceted view provided by the four Gospel writers enriches our understanding
of our Savior. Even seeming contradictions can be helpful in getting a fuller
picture. Consider this example from our booklet Is
the Bible True?:
"As an example of resolving supposed contradictions, let's consider
how the four Gospels record the words that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor,
ordered to be placed above Jesus' head at His crucifixion.
"Matthew 27:37 reads, 'This is Jesus the king of the Jews.'
"Mark 15:26 says, 'the king of the Jews.'
"Luke 23:38 reads, 'This is the king of the Jews.'
"John 19:19 states, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.'
"At first glance it might appear none of the authors copied the words
on the sign properly. But, when we read each account, we find every one
adds a bit more information to the rest. From John we find that Pilate composed
the message. From Luke we have additional information as to why these words
are different: The inscription was originally written in three languages,
Greek, Latin and Hebrew (Luke 23:38).
"So the variation of the wordings logically would have to do with
the three languages used as well as the different point of view of each
biographer, stressing slightly different aspects of Christ's life and ministry.
Adding up the wording of the different accounts, we see that the complete
message recorded by the signs was 'This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of
"None of the Gospel accounts contradicts the others; they complement
each other to provide increased understanding. A helpful tool for studying
Christ's life and ministry is A.T. Robertson's A Harmony of the Gospels, which
provides all four Gospel accounts side by side in chronological order."
Matthew was one of the original 12 disciples of Christ. The Gospel of Matthew
begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, intricately tying this first book
of the New Testament with all that had gone before in the Hebrew Scriptures
(known to Christians as the Old Testament).
The Bible Knowledge Commentary explains: "Matthew's genealogy answered
the important question a Jew would rightfully ask about anyone who claimed
to be King of the Jews. Is He a descendant of David through the rightful line
of succession? Matthew answered yes!" (Logos Software, 1996).
Matthew appears to have written his account with the first-century Jewish
audience in mind. "Matthew's Gospel cites 21 prophecies that were fulfilled
in circumstances surrounding the life and death of Christ. Eleven passages
point out these fulfillments using such introductions as 'that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophet…' or 'then was fulfilled what
was spoken by the prophet…'" (Jesus
Christ: The Real Story, p. 20).
What responsibilities did Jesus give His followers as recorded by
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness
to all the nations, and then the end will come."
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age." Amen.
With this mission in mind, Matthew's Gospel focuses on preaching about the
coming Kingdom (Matthew mentions the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God
37 times) and teaching the Church.
"The discipling process involves instruction in the words of Christ, and
the Gospel of Matthew revolves around five of Jesus' discourses (5:1-7:28;
10:5-11:1; 13:3-53; 18:2-19:1; 24:4-26:1). Instead of emphasizing a narrative
of Jesus' life as Mark does, Matthew uses the narrative elements in his Gospel
as a setting for Jesus' sermons" (The Nelson Study Bible, introduction
"Matthew is formal and stately. Mark is bustling with life; full of action.
Matthew collects Jesus' sayings. Mark concentrates on the marvellous things
Jesus did and the places he went to" (Eerdmans' Handbook to the Bible, 1973,
Mark was not one of the original 12 disciples, but tradition says that the
apostle Peter was influential in providing information for Mark's Gospel.
The outline of events in Mark follows the outline of Peter's sermon to Cornelius
(Acts 10:34-43). And Peter tells us that he loved Mark as his own son (1 Peter
Mark's Gospel was likely the first one written, and it is the shortest. "Only
four paragraphs in these 16 chapters are unique to Mark. All the rest appears
again in either Matthew or Luke, or both. Yet to lose Mark would be to lose
something beyond price. In Mark we see Jesus in action. And as we watch, the
things he does convince us that he is the Son of God himself" (ibid.).
What was Jesus Christ's message, powerfully summarized in Mark?
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
The good news of the coming government of God is a message that requires
action. Mark's Gospel ends with an additional call to action. Those who believe
and are baptized are commissioned to assist in continually spreading the good
news to others (Mark 16:15-16).
"Luke never met Jesus, yet chose to follow Him. An obviously educated man
who, as Col. 4:14 tells us, was a physician, Luke learned all that he could
about Jesus and shared his findings with us. Thus his Gospel provides a 'step
back,' a unique perspective on Jesus' birth, ministry, death, and resurrection…
Much of the material in chs. 9-19 appears only in Luke; in all, about one-third
of the Gospel of Luke is unique" (The Nelson Study Bible, introduction
Luke apparently talked with many eyewitnesses in researching this book (Luke
1:2). The apostle Paul probably also assisted Luke in understanding the life
and ministry of Christ. It seems evident that Luke began to accompany Paul
in his journeys after joining him at Troas, since it is there that Luke, the
author of Acts, begins using the pronoun "we" (Acts 16:8-11). Paul had been
directly taught by Jesus Christ during the years that he spent in Arabia (Galatians
1:12, 15-18; 2 Corinthians 12:1-6).
Luke "shows Jesus as the Saviour of all men; his coming, a world-event. He
lets us see Jesus the Man. And his selection of stories reflects his own warm
interest in people, especially the sick and helpless, the poor, women, children,
the social outcasts" (Eerdmans' Handbook to the Bible, 1973, p. 514).
Luke wrote his Gospel and the book of Acts as a two-part history of Jesus
Christ and the New Testament Church.
What did it take for the disciples to really understand what Jesus
had done and the prophecies He had fulfilled?
Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in
the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."
And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
The Scriptures exhibit a wonderful unity, but it takes God to open our minds
to truly see the connections. This understanding set the stage for the next
big event that Luke recorded in the book of Acts: the giving of the Holy Spirit
and the founding of the New Testament Church of God on the Day of Pentecost
John was one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus. John became an exceptionally
loving person, and Jesus had a special love for him. It was John whom Jesus
asked to take care of His aging mother after Jesus ascended to heaven (John
"The Gospel of John is a persuasive argument for the deity of Jesus. It concentrates
on presenting Jesus as the Word, that is, God (1:1) who became a man (1:14).
Thus John meticulously records the statements and describes the miracles of
Jesus that can only be attributed to God Himself.
"Jesus called Himself the bread of life (6:35, 41, 48, 51), the light of
the world (8:12; 9:5), the door for the sheep (10:7, 9), the good shepherd
(10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way the truth, the
life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1, 5). Each of these statements begins
with the words, 'I am,' recalling God's revelation of His name, 'I AM,' to
Moses (see Ex. 3:14)…
"Then there are the signs of Jesus' deity. Miracles in the Gospel of John
are called 'signs' because they point to Jesus' divine nature. John records
seven such signs: changing water into wine (2:1-11), healing a man's son (4:46-54),
healing a lame man (5:1-9), multiplying bread and fish (6:1-14), walking on
water (6:15-21), healing a blind man (9:1-7), and raising Lazarus (11:38-44).
These miracles show that Jesus is God; He possesses power over nature" (The
Nelson Study Bible, introduction to John).
Why did John write his Gospel?
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which
are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have
life in His name.
John, writing long after the other Gospels had been circulated, did not try
to cover the same ground, but chose his material carefully for a purpose.
He wanted his readers, then and through the centuries, to believe that Jesus
is the Son of God and to choose to follow Him—to enter the road to eternal
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Help Yourself is created by Counseling Services
copyright 1989, 1997 Kansas State University
"I can't concentrate." "My mind wanders when I try to study."
Lack of concentration is one of the most frequent complaints heard on a college campus.
Concentration: the ability to direct one's thinking in whatever direction one would intend.
We all have the ability to concentrate -- sometimes. Think of the times when you were engrossed in a super novel. While playing your guitar or piano. In an especially good game of cards. At a spellbinder of a movie. Total concentration.
But at other times your thoughts are scattered, and your mind races from one thing to another. It's for those times that you need to learn and practice concentration strategies. They involve (1) learning mental self regulation and (2) arranging factors that you can immediately control.
Training Your Wandering Mind: Learning Mental Self-Regulation for Improved Concentration
Improving concentration is learning a skill.
Learning a skill takes practice... whether it is shooting baskets, dancing, typing, writing, or concentrating. Do not confuse these strategies with medicine. When you take a medicine, it acts on the body without your having to help it.
Concentration strategies require practice. You probably will begin to notice some change within a few days. You'll notice considerable improvement within four to six weeks of training your mind with some of the skills that follow. And that's a short period of time considering how many years you've spent not concentrating as well as you'd like.
Begin by practicing these techniques:
Then try any of the Other Mental Strategies that sound promising to you. Give them an honest try -- use them for at least three days. If you notice a little change, that suggests that the skill will be valuable and, with continued practice, will greatly improve your concentration. There are also Other Factors You Can Change now in your environment that may be helpful.
This deceptively simple strategy is probably the most effective. When you notice your thoughts wandering astray, say to yourself
"Be here now"
and gently bring your attention back to where you want it.
You're in class and your attention strays from the lecture to all the homework you have, to a date, to the fact that you're hungry. As you say to yourself
"Be here now"
you focus back on the lecture and maintain your attention there as long as possible.
When it wanders again, repeat
"Be here now"
and gently bring your attention back.
You may notice that your mind often wanders (as often as several times a minute at times). Each time just say
"Be here now"
and refocus. Do not try to keep particular thoughts out of your mind. For example, as you sit there, close your eyes and think about anything you want to for the next three minutes except cookies. Try not to think about cookies...When you try not to think about something, it keeps coming back. ("I'm not going to think about cookies. I'm not going to think about cookies.")
When you find your thoughts wandering, gently let go of that thought and, with your "Be here now," return to the present.
You might do this hundreds of times a week, if you're normal. But, you'll find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer every few days. So be patient and keep at it. You'll see some improvement!
This is another strategy that sounds deceptively simple. But it is the basis for concentration because it helps you to maintain your concentration and not give in to distractions.
Hold a vibrating tuning fork next to a spider web. The spider will react and come looking for what is vibrating the web. Do it several times and the spider "wises up" and knows there's no bug and doesn't come looking.
You can learn that. Train yourself not to give in to distractions. When someone enters the room, or when a door slams, do not allow yourself to participate. Rather, keep your concentration on what's in front of you.
Use the "Be here now" technique to help you regain concentration when you do become distracted momentarily.
Practice this in a variety of settings, such as:
In lecture classes practice letting people move or cough without having to look at them - just let them "be out there" while you form a tunnel between you and the lecturer.
When talking with someone keep your attention on that person, look at his face, and note what is being said. Let the rest of the world just be "out there."
Set aside a specific time each day to think about the things that keep entering your mind and interfering with your concentration. For example, set 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. as your worry/think time. When your mind is side-tracked into worrying during the day, remind yourself that you have a special time for worrying. Then, let the thought go for the present, and return your focus to your immediate activity.
There's research on this, believe it or not! Persons who use a worry time find themselves worrying 35 percent less of the time within four weeks. That's a big change!
The important steps are:
- set a specific time each day for your time,
- when you become aware of a distracting thought, remind yourself that you have a special time to think about them,
- let the thought go, perhaps with "Be here now," and
- be sure to keep that appointment with yourself at that special time to think on the distracting thoughts of the day.
Tallying your mental wanderings. Have a 3 x 5 inch card handy. Draw two lines dividing the card into three sections. Label them "morning," "afternoon," and "evening."
Each time your mind wanders, make a tally in the appropriate section. Keep a card for each day. As your skills build, you'll see the number of tallies decrease. And that's exciting!
Rest/Stretch Time. Remember to take short breaks. Lectures are usually 50 minutes long, and that's about the length of time most people can direct their attention to one task. But, that's just an average. Your concentration time-span might be less (20-35 minutes) or longer (perhaps 90 minutes).
When you take a break, oxygenate (get more oxygen to your brain)! Get up and walk around the room for a couple of minutes. When we sit for long periods, blood tends to pool in our lower body and legs (because of gravity). Our calves serve as pumps for our blood when we walk, getting blood flowing more evenly throughout the body. As a result, more oxygen is carried to the brain and you are more alert.
Change Topics. Many students aid their concentration by changing the subject they are studying every one to two hours. You pay more attention to something that's different. And you can give yourself that variety by changing the subject you study regularly.
Incentives and Rewards. Give yourself a reward when you've completed a task. The task might be small, such as stay with a difficult assignment until you've finished. An appropriate reward might be a walk around the block, a glass of water, or reading the day's cartoon in the newspaper.
For those special projects such as term papers, design projects, or long book reviews, set up a special incentive. Upon completion, plan to give yourself a special pizza, movie, or an evening of TV.
Incentives and rewards can be overdone. Use them for the especially difficult assignment or longer projects. When you do use them, make the rewards something you ordinarily would not give yourself.
Increasing Your Activity Level. Your concentration wanders more easily if you just read an assignment straight through. Instead, take the heading for each section and turn it into a question. For this section, that would be, "How can I increase my activity level while studying?" Then study that section to answer that question. Do this routinely. The questions give us a focus for each section and increase our involvement.
Also, as you study an assignment, make a list of questions you can bring to class. Listen to the lecture for answers to those questions.
Shift position in your seat every so often. Don't sit there frozen in one position. The move will help keep the blood circulating, sending more oxygen to your brain and helping you remain alert.
Skydivers, rock climbers, tightrope walkers, and lion tamers don't have trouble concentrating! You probably haven't done any of those. But, think back to some time in your life when you had that calm, total concentration. Close your eyes and recreate that time. Visualize it, if you can. Feel how you felt at that time. Now, when you begin studying tonight, recapture that focused attention and see how long you can hold it. Does it feel as if that might work? If so, begin all your study sessions with the feeling and see how long you can maintain it. With practice, your concentration will get better and better.
Chart your energy levels. When is your energy level at its highest? When are your low energy times? Study your most difficult courses at your high energy times. Sharpest early in the evening? Study your most difficult course then. Later in the evening? Work on your easier courses or the ones you enjoy the most.
Now that's not what most students do. Instead, they put off the tough courses until later in the evening when they are more fatigued. It's more difficult to concentrate when you're tired. Reverse that. Hard courses at peak energy times. Easier ones later. This alone can help to improve your concentration.
Light. Make sure you have adequate light. It's essential to keeping your attention focused on what you are studying. So your eyes don't tire, use indirect lights (to avoid glare) and ones that don't flicker.
Chair and Table. Sit on a not overly comfortable chair at a table, not sprawled out on your bed. Your bed is where you sleep and dream.
Posture. Sit up straight to aid concentration rather than sprawled out in a similar-to-sleep position.
Clear away distractions. Don't have pictures where you'll notice them when looking up from your studies. Also, put out of sight any material for other courses. Seeing it can panic you a little about all you have to do. So put it out of sight.
Signs. Don't hesitate to put signs on your door. "I need the grades. Please let me study." "Please do not disturb." "Concentrating is tough. Help me by staying away." Some inconsiderate person will interrupt. Ask them to come back later. If they don't leave, practice ignoring them (see the Spider Technique above).
Take your phone off the hook. Yes, you might miss a call. But developing your concentration skills is important. It will be useful for the remainder of your life.
Where you study can make a difference. Think about where you concentrate best. Often it's difficult to study where you live, so look for a corner in the library that's quiet and facing a wall (not a door with people coming and going or a window with a distracting view). Some students study better where they live. Find the place or places you find most conducive to concentration.
Background music? Research on productivity with music versus without music is inconclusive. If you think you need music, choose some with no lyrics and with relatively monotonous melodies. Baroque music is the best example. Something with words, a definite beat, a catchy melody, or one of your favorite pieces can easily divert your attention, often without your being aware of it at first.
Perhaps you might try "white noise" -- it masks out environmental noises and helps minimize distractions. Your radio can be an inexpensive source of white noise. Switch to FM and team to the high end of your dial. You should get a steady static or form of white noise, unless your radio is an especially good one. Or keep a fan running.
Enough time for everything? Ever find your study of one subject interrupted by worries about getting assignments in another course done? Or waste time trying to decide what to study? Take an hour or so and do a little planning.
First, estimate for each course the number of hours you'll need to study each week. Then work up a flexible time schedule. Include all your obligations (classes, meetings, meals, laundry, etc.). Then allocate specific time periods for studying particular subjects. When studying one course you won't worry so much about others because you'll know that you have time for them.
Be flexible in your schedule. If you need an extra hour on a subject, continue with it and then do a little juggling to make up the study time you encroached on. You'll probably need to modify your schedule from time to time.
If you would rather schedule smaller chunks of time, each Sunday plan the following week and change from week to week. Check to be sure you're getting study time in on all your courses.
Rewards for Concentrating. In summary, the rewards for improving your concentration can be priceless. You'll be delighted at your ability to recall information given in lectures. You'll find yourself accomplishing more in the same period of time. It can even affect your social life. Your special friend will appreciate your undivided attention and, in return, will give you undivided attention. So will other friends. Best of all, concentration skills help your self confidence because you will realize how much more is possible when you can give your total attention.
Originally developed in 1989 by Clifford G. Schuette, Ed.D., Counseling Services, KSU; modified for use on the Internet by Dorinda Lambert, Ph.D. in 1997.
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Review report by W.T. Bridgman and Nereid.
Quotes from the article discussed are in blue.
Electric Currents Key to Magnetic Phenomena
Donald E. Scott
What is the point of equation 3? It is not used anywhere in the paper.
"Magnetic fields that obey equation (1) cannot exist in the absence of the current density, J, which is their cause."This equation can also be true if J is zero and dE/dt is non-zero, yet Scott ignores this case, which is strange considering Scott mentions the term, but not its implications.
Maxwell added the dE/dt term to Ampere's Law to solve a problem in configurations such as capacitors. It is sometimes called the "displacement current" (wikipedia), but does not correspond to an actual charge flow. This case is vital for the propagation of electromagnetic waves, where electric and magnetic fields repeatedly regenerate each other, far from their original source. This process continues to operate even after the original current source (antenna) is turned off! While some type of current may be required to get the field started, there are configurations where a changing magnetic field can be maintained via this term, long after the original current is gone. We can examine the interaction of electromagnetic waves with matter independent of the original source of the electromagnetic wave. See additional references:
- The Maxwell Displacement Current
- Displacement Current
- THE DISPLACEMENT CURRENT AND MAXWELLS EQUATIONS
"Magnetic fields are created by and moved around by electric currents – nothing else."This is a strange oversight for an electrical engineer to make. Even odder is this is NOT the first time Dr. Scott has made such wrong statements about Maxwell's equations (see Scott Rebuttal. IV. 'Open' magnetic field lines).
Apparently he did not check any of this with anyone with any actual expertise in using Maxwell's equations at a more fundamental level. This is made more annoying by the fact that Dr. Scott's fundamental thesis is accusing others of not understanding Maxwell's equations!
"There are no bar magnets in space."Planetary dipoles can be treated as bar magnets if the time scale is small compared to the intrinsic variation of the field. Even bar magnets are not permanent on sufficiently long time scales at temperatures above absolute zero.
III. Enigmatic Plasma motions.
In Scott's description of magnetic reconnection, he totally ignores the role of the plasma itself in the electromagnetic field. The field is created by charged particle motion (ions & electrons). But the field influences the motion of the charges via the Lorentz force. This causes the particle distribution to change, which drives changes in the electric & magnetic fields (a feedback mechanism). Dr. Scott made this same error in "The Electric Sky" and has failed to correct it ("The Electric Sky - Short Circuited" 2008 Draft, pg 36-37).
Dr. Scott's complaints about descriptions of magnetic fields are from popularizations?? Apart from the Parker reference in Physics Today, all of Scott's complaints are from popularizations. Scott concludes his (brief) criticism of Parker's paper like this:
"In light of the previous example, we offer a possible explanatory mechanism in Fig. (3), below."This is the same "possible explanatory mechanism" he presents in his book. In the years since, he has apparently done nothing to develop it, or to test it.
However, what Scott ignores is that if a conducting fluid (or solid, or gas) moves through a magnetic field, it generates an induced current which feeds back on the original field. This force will also feedback on the conductor motion. But if the conductor is getting energy from another source (thermal, hydrodynamic, etc.), this feedback loop can operate for a significant amount of time (i.e. a generator or dynamo action).
IV: Magnetically stored energy
Dr Scott never uses Equations 4-10 and they are not related to any measurable quantity of an EU model which Dr. Scott presents. These equations are not used to derive any measurable quantity in the paper. Are they only there for decoration? What field energy is needed? What is the current density or electric field measured in the configuration and how does it relate to an observed astrophysical quanity?
VI. Magnetic Fields that Reverse Polarity
Regardless of the direction of the main driving current coming into the Sun, the eleven-year reversal of the magnetic loops can be explained by transformer action as shown above.Models of stellar dynamos do this (MSFC), where some initial magnetic field combined with conductive fluid motions driven by other energy sources (in the stellar case, thermal energy from nuclear reactions) set up a feedback mechanism that can maintain a reversing global magnetic field so long as there is enough energy to drive it (see Dynamo Models of the Solar Cycle). These models are being run on commercial-grade desktop computing equipment giving actual numerical predictions we can compare to measurements (see a data-driven visualization of a solar dynamo model). Where is the EU equivalent?
Dr. Scott's model suggests the solar cycle is not driven by processes inside the Sun, but by external processes driven by a mechanism which he does not define.
How are these external processes setup?
Do they form naturally? If so, how?
Dr. Scott's model merely moves the problem to be solved from inside the Sun to some ill-defined location and mechanism outside the Sun. How does this improve the situation?
Nor is there any mention of the origin or driving energy of this external current.
using the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, they had discovered ‘jet streams’ or what they called ‘rivers of hot, electrically charged gas’ (plasma) flowing beneath the surface of the Sun. They also found features similar to trade winds that transport this ‘gas’ below the Sun's surface. Flows of electric charges such as these are, by definition, electric currents.Because the definition of plasma is neutral or 'quasi-neutral', not all plasma flows qualify as electric currents.
I find no mention of usual EU claim that Sun's energy comes from external electric current, though figure 3 implies it.
Note: Comments that DIRECTLY address the points in THIS post are favored. Since there will be a post on each of the five papers in the EU 'Special Issue', comments more relevant to one of those other papers should await that specific post.
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Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Cascades
Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) are a family of Ser/Thr protein kinases widely conserved among eukaryotes and are involved in many cellular programs such as cell proliferation, cell differentiation, cell movement, and cell death. MAPK signaling cascades are organized hierarchically into three-tiered modules. MAPKs are phosphorylated and activated by MAPK-kinases (MAPKKs), which in turn are phosphorylated and activated by MAPKK-kinases (MAPKKKs). The MAPKKKs are in turn activated by interaction with the family of small GTPases and/or other protein kinases, connecting the MAPK module to cell surface receptors or external stimuli.
- Junttila MR, Li SP, Westermarck J (2008) Phosphatase-mediated crosstalk between MAPK signaling pathways in the regulation of cell survival. FASEB J. 22(4), 954–65.
- Murphy LO, Blenis J (2006) MAPK signal specificity: the right place at the right time. Trends Biochem. Sci. 31(5), 268–75.
- Pimienta G, Pascual J (2007) Canonical and alternative MAPK signaling. Cell Cycle 6(21), 2628–32.
- Raman M, Chen W, Cobb MH (2007) Differential regulation and properties of MAPKs. Oncogene 26(22), 3100–12.
- Turjanski AG, Vaqué JP, Gutkind JS (2007) MAP kinases and the control of nuclear events. Oncogene 26(22), 3240–53.
- Zhang Y, Dong C (2007) Regulatory mechanisms of mitogen-activated kinase signaling. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 64(21), 2771–89.
created January 2002
revised November 2010
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COMETA, TEXAS. Cometa is at the intersection of Farm roads 2691 and 393, ten miles west of Crystal City in far southwestern Zavala County. The Cometa area was the location of prehistoric Indian encampments and Spanish campsites; one such campsite was called the Loma de Cometas by Spanish transportation agents. With spring water, a large natural lake, free-roaming cattle, and fertile soil, land in the Cometa area was much sought after immediately after the Civil War. Part of the site was bought by people interested in establishing a commune. The first families to settle the area permanently were Grey (Doc) White and the Vivian family around 1867. They were joined by the Ramón Sánchez and Galván families in 1870 and by J. Fisher in 1871. Cattlemen ranched the Cometa area throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Around 1885 T. A. Coleman established his ranch headquarters on Cometa hill and hired Charles Lindenborn as foreman. The ranch brand was in the shape of a comet, called cometa by the Mexican ranchhands. The county's first schoolhouse was constructed by teacher George Herman in 1885 near Cometa; twenty-five students attended that year. The schoolhouse also served the community as church and community center. Methodists, Baptists, and members of the Church of Christ used the facility. In the early 1890s Coleman constructed a building that served as the general store and later the post office. The Vivian Cemetery was established in the community sometime near the turn of the century.
By 1900, 16 percent of Zavala County's population resided in the Cometa area. A post office was established in the community in 1905 with B. H. Erskine as postmaster. At that time Cometa farmers used artesian wells to irrigate small farms that produced watermelons, pumpkins, and tomatoes. Although harvests were bountiful, Cometa's farmers discovered that their produce spoiled in transit by oxcart and mulewagons to distant markets such as Eagle Pass.
In the early 1900s Thomas Edison and later the Edison Institute contracted with several Cometa farmers to grow experimental crops, including soybeans and guayule for use in the manufacture of various rubbers and plastics. The area was replete with registered and purebred stock, including Durham cattle, Duroc Jersey hogs, Hampshires, brown Leghorn chickens, thoroughbreds, and quarter horses. By 1920, however, Cometa was declining; the post office was discontinued in 1919, and the general store closed several years later. Nonetheless, local prosperity during the Great Depression enabled farmers to donate fresh vegetables and corn to a growing number of migrants moving to the area from northern states. In 1942 the schoolhouse was closed. That same year Cometa had several irrigated and dry-land farms; although some vegetables were raised, most farmers produced oats for cattle grazing. By 1946 Cometa was a rambling community of farms and ranches with an estimated population of 100. In the 1980s Cometa's farmers contended with a rapidly falling water table. Vegetables and exotic crops were cultivated on only 500 acres in the area. The springs at Pendencia Creek had dried up in 1926. In 1988 the area was largely abandoned except for a scattering of small farms and the Vivian Cemetery. In 2000 the population was ten.
Florence Fenley, Old Timers of Southwest Texas (Uvalde, Texas: Hornby, 1957). R. C. Tate, History of Zavala County (M.A. thesis, Southwest Texas State Teachers College, 1942). Zavala County Historical Commission, Now and Then in Zavala County (Crystal City, Texas, 1985).
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50 Mind Blowing Facts About America That Our Founding Fathers Never Would Have Believed – from the Economic Collapse Blog:
If our Founding Fathers were alive today, what would they think of America? Surely they would be very proud that the United States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and has built some of the most amazing cities that the world has ever seen. They would probably be surprised that the country they founded went on to become the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and they would be absolutely astounded by things like our interstate highway system and the Internet. However, there are quite a number of things that they would be horrified about as well. The fact that over 40 million Americans are dependent on the federal government for their daily food would be deeply disturbing to our founders. Also, the fact that the U.S. government has accumulated the greatest mountain of debt in human history would be incredibly distressing to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the founders. But perhaps most of all, our founders would be absolutely disgusted that the land where Americans could once be free to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has become so tightly regulated and controlled that Americans dare not even squeak without the permission of the federal government.
Needless to say, our founders would certainly not understand many of our institutions or many of the advanced technologies that we have today. But without a doubt they would be able to grasp how far we have fallen as a nation and how far we have strayed from the fundamental principles that they enshrined in our founding documents. The United States is a much different place today than it was in 1776, and unfortunately many of the changes have been for the worse.
The following are 50 mind blowing facts about modern America that our Founding Fathers never would have believed….
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Straw Bale Construction/Glossary
Glossary of Terms
- Bale Needle
- A pointed metal rod or plate with a handle at one end and a hole at the other used to push twine through the bales and stitch them from one side to the other, holding mesh tightly to each surface.
- BTU or British Thermal Unit
- This is a unit for measuring energy which is now mostly replaced by the joule. One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound avoirdupois of water by one degree Fahrenheit. One BTU is approximately 1054–1060 joules.
- Cold bridge
- If a structure is made a various materials some of which insulate more than others, any part of the structure which is a potential path warmth can use to escape is a cold bridge. A common example is a well insulated house with solid aluminium windows which transfer large amounts of heat throght the structure.
- Ecological footprint
- The land, air and water that a city or nation needs to produce all of its resources and to dispose of all its waste. It is a way to determine if the lifestyle of a community is sustainable. It shows if a city or nation is utilizing more or less than its fair sustainable share of the world’s resources.
- Embodied energy
- The total energy used to bring a product or material to its present phase in its life cycle. It includes the energy required to extract or produce raw materials, their transport to the place of production, and the energy used for manufacturing. It can also include the energy used in the distribution and retail chain, for maintenance processes, for repair, etc. It is measured in MJ per kg or GJ per tonne. There is a list of the embodied energy of verious material on the Embodied energy page of Australians Governments Your Home Design Guide.
- End-of-Life (EoL)
- The moment when a product ceases to fulfil the tasks it was designed for. The end-of-life
of a product is not the end of its life cycle, since its environmental impact has not yet come to an end; the disassembly, recycling, incineration, and/or disposal phases still remain.
- A metal cage full of some hard material, typically stones. Often used for retaining wall especially on river sides. Can be succesfully used as part of a building foundation.
- Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.
- Straw bales used between the vertical elements of a structure to form non-bearing walls and act as insulation. Often an option where building regulations are otherwise too restrictive.
- Life Cycle Analysis or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
- A calculation of the environmental impact of a product over its complete life cycle. It starts with an inventory of the ’input’ (all resources and energy consumption) and ’output’ (emissions, solid waste, waste water). The elements in this inventory are grouped into environmental categories, which are quantified according to their environmental impact. The goal is to compare different design strategies within a category.
- A load bearing wall is one where all or most of the weight of the building is taken by the straw bale walls. The walls are 'bearing' the 'load'.
- Modified Post and Beam
- See Post and Beam. Modified simply means that the dimensions are modified to suit the dimensions of your straw bales.
- Post and Beam
- A construction using vertical elements (posts) and horizontal elements (beams) to form a structural framework. The term often refers to using a smaller number of larger than normal timbers compared to conventional 'baloon' timber framing.
- R value
- Standard insulation value which measures the Resistance in a material to the passage of heat. An R-value is the inverse of a U-value which measures the conductance in a material of heat.
- Rubble trench foundation
- A trench dug into the ground and filled with a rigid material such as demolition rubble, gravel or sea shells. Important functions of such a wall are: it cannot be further compressed, and moisture will not rise through the rubble into the wall.
- When stress it put into your structure some elements will be compressed. Pre-compression adds this stress to the building before it is finished to stop the structure suddenly settling, or the plaster suddely cracking, once finished.
- Stem walls
- A stemwall is the part of the foundation between the floor level and ground level, and may rest on and be attached to a rubble trench or whatever else is in the ground. It can be made of concrete blocks or such or be concrete poured into forms. Think raised foundation.
- The ground of the site and anything below the surface. Subgrade foundation insulations is therefore insulation below the finished ground level to insulate the foundation from the surrounding temperature.
- Top Plate
- plate (normally wood) used to precompress bale wall, use as a roof connection, and help distribute roof weight.
- A beam made up of a large number of small elements, typically in a criss-cross pattern, which together perform as one large beam.
These heating specific definitions should be edited and added into the rest alphabetically
A.F.U.E.: Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency represents the percentage of fuel that is converted into usable heating energy - the balance is vented through your chimney or other venting systems. It is an industry agreed upon standard. All furnaces and brands are tested the same way to provide "apples to apples" comparisons.
Air Conditioner - a device used to decrease the temperature and humidity of air, which moves through it. Typical air conditioners include central air conditioning which utilizes existing forced air ductwork and “Ductless Splits”.
Anode Rod - a sacrificial metal used to protect against corrosion in a hot water heater.
Baseboard Heating - heating elements located around the perimeter of a room, used to warm room air by transferring the heat from the hot water circulating through them.
Blower – an air handling device used with a furnace to circulate air through a network of ducts.
Boiler: A heating appliance that heats water to a pre-set temperature and feeds it to a circulator, which transfers the water to radiant heating units including some or all of cast iron radiators, slim baseboard radiators, under floor tubing or wall panels. Some boilers produce steam for heating purposes.
B.T.U.: British Thermal Units are the standard efficiency comparison between heating fuels. One BTU is the amount of heating energy that will raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.
B.T.U./Hr.: British Thermal Units Per Hour. Used to express capacities of furnaces and boilers.
Burner - a device which supplies a mixture of air and fuel to the combustion area.
Cast Iron - a durable metal with an exceptional capability to hold and transfer heat.
Chimney Liner: A clay-tile or metal liner that is inserted into a chimney.
Chimney Venting - a vertical vent used to transfer products of combustion from a furnace or boiler to the outdoors.
Combustion - the process of converting fuel into heat. This requires oxygen.
Combustion Air: An air supply brought into the furnace's combustion chamber - supplied from within the basement, or from outdoors. Combustion air is necessary to burn fuel.
Controls: Devices such as a thermostat that regulate a heating or cooling system.
Convection: The transfer of heat through a moving gas (air) and a surface, or the transfer of heat from one point to another within a gas. In hydronic heating, cool air falls to the floor where it is heated by metal fins in a baseboard radiator and then rises to transfer heat to the environment through natural convection.
Convective Heat: the natural circulation of air across a heat source to heat the air.
Degree Days: A system by which heating oil dealers measure and record the daily temperature. This information is compared to what they know about your heating system to ensure automatic delivery before your system uses all of the oil in the storage tank.
Direct Venting: A process in which the products of combustion are vented to the outdoors via sidewall venting, (without the use of a chimney).
Direct Vent - a furnace or boiler design where all the air for combustion is taken from the outdoors and all exhaust products are released to the outdoors, also known as sealed combustion. Direct Vent is also known as balanced flue venting in oil furnaces and boilers.
Distribution System: The component of a heating or cooling system that delivers warmed or cooled air, or warmed water, to the living space.
Draft Hood - a device that prevents a backdraft from entering the heating unit or excessive chimney draw from affecting the operation of the boiler or furnace.
Ductless Split A/C System - A system that cools and dehumidifies air without the use of conventional duct work. The equipment location is split, with the condenser and heat pump outside of the home and the air handler and controls inside.
Efficiency Rating - the ratio of heat actually generated versus the amount of heat Theoretically possible from the amount of fuel inputted.
Flame Retention Burner: A modern oil burner which retains the flame near the mouth of the burner, for improved efficiency and operational savings.
Flue: An enclosed passage that is designed to convey hot flue gases. (Also known as a breech).
Flue Gases: The gases (eg. carbon dioxide, water vapour and nitrogen) that are formed when the fuel oil, natural gas, or propane is burned with the air. (Products of combustion are technically all of the flue gases less the nitrogen that was present before combustion).
Forced Air: A distribution system in which a fan circulates air from the heating or cooling unit to the rooms through a network of supply air and return air ducts.
Furnace: A heating appliance that warms air around a heat exchanger. The air is conveyed by fan, into a central duct system to distribute warm air to all areas of the home or building.
Heat Exchanger: A structure that transfers heat from the hot combustion gases inside the furnace heat exchanger to the circulating room air flowing across the exterior of the heat exchanger.
Heat Loss: Term used for all areas of your home where heated air may escape due to construction styles, age of house, windows, weather-stripping, etc. All homes will experience some level of heat loss.
Heat Loss Calculation: This is the means by which a heating contractor will determine the required capacity of a furnace or boiler to adequately heat the home (or building).
Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV): A device used in central ventilation systems to reduce the amount of heat that is lost as household air is replaced with outside air. As fresh air enters the house, it is warmed as it passes through a heat exchanger, heated by the warm outgoing air stream.
Heat Transfer: the transmission of heat from the source (flame) to air or water.
Heating Capacity: the amount of usable heat produced by a heating unit.
High-boy: a term used to describe a furnace which has a small "footprint" but is tall. The blower is under the heat exchanger. This is also known as an upflow furnace.
Hot Water Boiler: a heating unit that uses water circulated throughout the home in a system of baseboard heating units, radiators, and/or in-floor radiant tubing.
Hot Water Heater: a unit with its own energy source that generates and stores hot water.
Hydronics: Hydronics, or heating with water, consists of a compact boiler (fired by any fuel) that heats water, which is distributed to a network of slim baseboard, panel or space radiators, or under floor tubing by a circulator. This term also applies to the science of heating (or cooling) with water.
Indirect Hot Water Storage Tank: a unit that works in conjunction with a boiler to generate and store domestic hot water, it does not require its own energy source.
In-floor Radiant Tubing: tubing, typically plastic or rubber, used in conjunction with heated boiler water to heat floors.
Low-boy: a term used to describe a furnace which has a low profile. The blower is located on the same level plane as the heat exchanger. This furnace style has both the return air plenum and the supply air plenum on the top of the furnace. This furnace style is sometimes called a console style furnace.
Low Water Cut-off: a device used to shut down a boiler in the event that a low water condition exists. This is required whenever radiators are located at a lower level than the boiler. Some jurisdictions require them on all boiler installations.
Natural Gas: any gas found in the earth (e.g. methane gas) as opposed to gases which are manufactured.
Nozzle: A burner component that atomizes, meters and patterns fuel oil into the heat exchanger / fire-pot.
Oil Heating: the production of heat by burning oil.
Propane: a manufactured gas typically used for cooking or heating. This is also known as L.P. gas. (liquid petroleum).
Push Nipples: machined metal sleeves used to join adjacent sections of a boiler.
Radiant Floor Heating: Under floor heat is provided by flexible, long-lasting tubing. The continuous tubing can be placed under any flooring, and circulated hot water provides invisible heat anywhere in the home, swimming pool or driveway.
Radiant Heating: the method of heating the walls, floors or ceilings in order to transfer heat to the occupants of a room.
Radiator: a heating element, typically metal, used in conjunction with water or steam to give off heat.
Retrofit: Replacement of one or more components of an existing system.
Safety Shut-off Device: any device used to shut down a heating appliance in the event an unsafe condition exists.
Seasonal Efficiency: A performance rating that considers the heat actually delivered to the living space, the total energy available in the fuel consumed, and the impact the equipment itself has on the total heating load through an entire heating season.
S.E.E.R.: Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating. The standards by which equipment is measured. The higher the S.E.E.R., the more efficient the equipment (especially air conditioning).
Sealed Combustion: a furnace or boiler design where all the air for combustion is taken from the outside atmosphere and all exhaust products are released to the outside atmosphere, also known as direct vent.
Steam Boiler: a heating unit designed to heat by boiling water, producing steam, and circulating it to radiators or steam baseboard units throughout the home.
Stack Damper: a device installed in the venting system that will automatically close when the appliance shuts down. This device is used to reduce the amount of warm indoor air being drawn up the chimney between heating cycles.
Supply Tapping: opening in a boiler by which hot water enters the heating system. Setback Thermostat: A programmable thermostat with a built-in timer. You can adjust it to vary household temperature automatically.
Tankless Heater: a copper coil submerged into the heated boiler water used to transfer heat to domestic water.
Venting: An opening for combustion gases to exit the house. Can be a chimney or a vent through the wall of the house. Includes all parts of the venting system - vent connector, chimney, etc.
Zone Control: A heating control system in which the space to be heated is divided into zones and each zone is controlled by a separate thermostat.
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ColoburaNiklas Wahlberg and Andrew V. Z. Brower
This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.
The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.
You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.close box
The genus Colobura was long thought to contain only a single species, C. dirce. The recent revision of the genus by Willmott et al. (2001) showed that there are in fact two species. The genus is distributed in Central and South America as well as the Greater Antilles.
Willmott, K. R., L. M. Constantino, and J. P. W. Hall. 2001. A review of Colobura (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) with comments on larval and adult ecology and description of a sibling species. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 94:185-196.
University of Turku, Finland
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Niklas Wahlberg at and Andrew V. Z. Brower at
Page copyright © 2009 Niklas Wahlberg and
Page: Tree of Life Colobura Authored by . Niklas Wahlberg and Andrew V. Z. Brower. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.
- First online 11 November 2006
- Content changed 11 November 2006
Citing this page:
Wahlberg, Niklas and Andrew V. Z. Brower. 2007. Colobura http://tolweb.org/Colobura/70344/2007.08.21 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. Version 21 August 2007 (under construction).
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In this lab we'll explore the syntax of Supercollider and learn to make some sounds.
Work through the following short tutorials. These are .sc documents; download to your workspace and open them from Supercollider.
1. Getting Started
2. Easy Synthesis
3. Signal Generators
5. Control Signals
Due: Monday, Oct. 10, 9 pm
Review the examples in the documents 3SignalGenerators and 4Envelopes. Create a SC file that is titled with your last name and first initial followed by #1.sc. For example, "HemingwayB#1.sc".
In this file you should create an example of SuperCollider code that does the following:
1a. Create a SuperCollider example:
• Using Buffer create a waveform that has only odd harmonics 1 (fundamental), 3, 5, and 7 such that the third harmonic has the highest gain.
• Using this waveform, Env, EnvGen and Osc play a note with a linen envelope.
1b. Create a SuperCollider example:
• Using Buffer create a waveform that has only even harmonics 1 (fundamental), 2, 4, 6, and 8 such that the 2nd harmonic has the highest gain.
• Using this waveform, Env, EnvGen and Osc play a note with a reverse percussion envelope.
1c. Combine 1a and 1b such that waveform #1 starts loud and fades out, while waveform #2 starts soft and gets loud. The two waveform should specify the same fundamental frequency. In effect, there should be a crossfade between the two tones.
Be sure to play and to plot the results from all three with the scope!
Email your SC file to email@example.com. KEEP A COPY!!
Assessment. Each programming assignment will be assessed as either complete, incomplete or not received (C, I, or N).
C: To be complete, all components of the assigned need to be completed in the submitted work. Omitting elements will lead to an incomplete.
N: If the assignment is not received by the due date, it is assigned an N and there is no opportunity to redo the assignment.
I: If you receive an incomplete, you will have an additional week to redo the assignment and to turn in a revised version. If the revised version fulfills all elements of the assignment, it will considered complete and receive a C. Revised work files should have the letter ‘Rev’ appended to the original file name.
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Latvia is located in Eastern Europe, bordering Belarus, Russia and the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania. Latvia has a maritime climate with wet moderate winters. The country is rich in peat, limestone, timber and arable land.
Mr. Milan Matuska email@example.com (for GWP Central and Eastern Europe)
Mr. Ivars Sekacis firstname.lastname@example.org (for Latvia)
AQUASTAT -FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/main/index.stm
UN-Water Statistics http://www.unwater.org/statistics_KWIP.html
Source: www.cia.gov; http://data.worldbank.org; www.unwater.org
Total surface area: 64,589 km2
Estimated population: 2,191,580 (2012)
Average precipitation: 641 mm/yr (2009)
Total actual renewable water resources per capita: 15,679 m3/cap/yr (2009)
Freshwater withdrawal as of total:108 m3/cap/yr (2003)
Water: catalyst for cooperation
Copyright © 2012 Global Water Partnership
Copyright and Disclaimer
GWP Regional Websites
Your email address and name are required, and if you wish you may give the details of your organisation and country to allow us to identify information of interest for you for future newsletters.
You may of course unsubscribe at any time.
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Learning about what doctors do, what a hospital is and all the reasons why we go see doctors or visit the hospital is best introduced when a child is not ill. Using pretend and role play to learn more about these anxious topics parents can minimize the fear when a child has a check up or is sick. We played doctor a lot before my son had to go for a long visit to the pediatric cardiologist last December, and it was smooth sailing. But even that one visit left a lasting impression, over 6 months later my son still talks about it. Yesterday we built on that experience by making our own box hospital !
- Gather your materials. You will need a large box, some black, read and white construction paper, scissors, red glitter paint, white paint, a large sponge, and glue.
- Start by cutting the box so that you have one open side. Cut a door or two into it. We made 2 one for the emergency ward and one for the main doors.
- Grab the white paint and sponge and start painting. Do not expect toddlers to stick around to paint the whole thing, encourage yes but don’t force. My son did one side , took a break while I did the others and joined me for the last.
- While the white paint dries write out the word hospital and emergency in uppercase letters. I did this on the cardboard I cut from the box. BAD choice, the cardboard was too think and I have a blister from cutting the letters out. Learn from my oops and use plain construction paper.
- Add red glitter glue and spread it to cover the letters.
- Make some crosses and do the same.
- Cut out some dark colored windows in squares and rectangles.
- Make a helipad if you wish – it was a must for out medical helicopter!
- When the white paint is dry, add glue for the helipad.
- Add the helipad.
- Add the windows and the Emergency ward sign.
- When the glitter is dry cut out the letters for the hospital sign and crosses.
- Add your sign and crosses. Let dry.
- Grab some ambulances and get to playing!
Pretend Play!It’s all the rage in our house right now. Take a few dolls and have your little doctor give them a check up. I was amazed at how well my son knew the routine procedures, considering he’s normally fidgeting on my lap when he is the patient. Have fun and take times like these to ask questions and calm fears.
Harry Goes to the Hospital: A Story for Children about What It’s Like to Be in the Hospital by Howard J. Bennett MD is a wonderfully informative book. It’s long , I read each page but skipped some of the text while reading it to my 2 year old. Of all the what to expect when you are going to the hospital books I’ve read I think this is the best. What makes me say that is that Harry goes into the ER for dehydration after throwing up, which is a very common reason. He gets and IV , some tests but nothing else is wrong with him. It goes into great detail about everything and is really geared towards 4-5 year olds. Still the pictures and info can easily be used with younger kids.
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Insomnia is a disorder of initiating or maintaining sleep or of excess sleepiness that is characterized as a disturbance in the quantity, quality, or timing of sleep.1 The 1-year prevalence of insomnia is estimated to be between 30% and 40% of all adults. It is greater among the elderly.1
Current pharmacologic treatments include benzodiazepines (BZDs), tricyclic antidepressants, antihis-tamines, and selective BZD receptor agonists, including zolpidem. Since the addition of zolpidem in 1993, it has become one of the more commonly prescribed sleep medications. In September 2005, Sanofi- Aventis announced FDA approval of its extended-release formulation of zolpidem, Ambien CR.2
Zolpidem, an imidazopyridine, is a sedative-hypnotic that alters GABA activity by selectively binding to BZD1 receptors in the brain. Because of its selectivity, it has more predominant hypnotic effects and less anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, and myorelaxant effects than nonselective BZDs.3
Ambien CR is a 2-layer tablet, with the first layer releasing drug immediately and the second allowing a slower release of drug. The mean elimination half-life is 2.8 hours.4
Two randomized, controlled trials were conducted to evaluate the use of extended-release zolpidem in patients with primary insomnia. One study evaluated 212 adults in a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, 3-week trial of Ambien CR 12.5 mg. The study found Ambien CR to decrease wake after sleep onset (WASO) for the first 7 hours during the initial 2 nights of sleep and for the first 5 hours after 2 weeks of treatment. Polysomnography recordings showed superiority over placebo in decreasing latency to persistent sleep on the first 2 nights of treatment and after 2 weeks.4
The second study evaluated Ambien CR in 205 elderly participants over the age of 65 with primary insomnia. The trial design was similar to that of the first trial, although the dose of Ambien CR was reduced to 6.25 mg. A decreased WASO also was observed for the first 7 hours during the initial 2 nights and for the first 5 hours after 2 weeks. Ambien CR was superior to placebo in decreasing latency to persistent sleep on the first 2 nights of treatment and after 2 weeks.4
The safety of Ambien CR is expected to be comparable to that of the immediate-release formulation. The most common adverse events associated with zolpidem include central nervous system (CNS) effects such as nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness.3 Because elderly patients may have impaired motor and/or cognitive performance, it is recommended that the dose for them be reduced to 6.25 mg.4
Ambien CR is a schedule IV medication, and it is in pregnancy category C. There is limited evidence of any significant drug interactions with zolpidem. Precaution should be taken, however, if it is used concomitantly with other CNS depressants.
Ambien CR has been shown to be safe and effective for both sleep induction and sleep maintenance. Ambien CR may be favorable, compared with other sleep medications, because of its tolerability and its side-effect profile.
The recommended dose is 12.5 mg for adults and 6.25 mg for elderly patients. Ambien CR should be taken close to bedtime because of its rapid onset, although the onset may be prolonged if it is taken with food.4
Dr. Soo is a senior research pharmacist with the Investigational Drug Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass. Ms. Dascoli is a sixth-year PharmD candidate from Northeastern University, currently on clinical clerkship in the Investigational Drug Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
For a list of references, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: References Department, Attn. A. Stahl, Pharmacy Times, 241 Forsgate Drive, Jamesburg, NJ 08831; or send an e-mail request to: email@example.com.
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Animal Habitats is a fully inclusive academic tutorial program designed to enhance language, reading, writing, speech, and cognitive skills for children in primary grades with developmental and physical disabilities. This collection of educational activities features a range of integrated support materials to effectively use the computer as a whole language tool in the classroom. This program uses an original story to introduce users to five habitats: the jungle, the desert, the grasslands, the mountains, and the Arctic. Students follow the story on the computer and then explore each habitat. The program includes more than 20 software activitiesthat teach phonics, language comprehension, and animal facts; an original storybook, and a corresponding overlay; five environments, each with a separate overlay for accessing animated computer activities; and a Teacher's Resource Guide with extension activities and blackline masters. Software activities include Animal Facts, Who Am I? (comprehension), Silly Rhymes (reinforces initial sounds and rhyming), Listen to the Sounds (introduces initial sounds), and Read (replays text as often as desired). The program also offers two extra quizzes for each environment and two advance overlays that introduce counting and beginning writing skills. This program is compatible with IntelliTalk (see separate entry), includes the IntelliPics (see separate entry) player, as well as graphics files and modified overlays which can be edited and printed in Overlay Maker (see separate entry). COMPATIBILITY: For use on Macintosh computers. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Any Macintosh system with a hard drive, a color monitor, System 7 or higher, 8 megabytes (MB) RAM, and IntelliKeys. IntelliTalk is recommended, but not required.
Notes: IntelliTools, IntelliKeys, IntelliPics, and IntelliTalk are registered trademarks of IntelliTools. ** This company maintains a website at http://www.intellitools.com.
This product record was updated on March 30, 2004.
This product is available from:
IntelliTools, Inc., a Cambium Learning Technologies Company24 Prime Parkway
Natick, Massachusetts 80504
Telephone: 800- 547-6747 (USA or Canada).
Link to more products from IntelliTools, Inc., a Cambium Learning Technologies Company
Laetare Solutions2409 BelAir Drive
Bowie, Maryland 20715
Link to more products from Laetare Solutions
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Record 2 of 48.
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23 Sep 2002
Japanese Mars Probe Back on Track
Scientists have re-established communication with the Nozomi spacecraft
by Elesa Janke
Scientists at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in Japan are bringing their first interplanetary mission, Nozomi, back to life. On April 21, 2002, the spacecraft was bombarded by extremely energetic solar particles from a coronal mass ejection, which pounded the craft for over six hours and caused a temporary shutdown. But engineers are now confident that the mission will soon be back on track.
Originally known as "Planet-B," Nozomi was renamed after launch to the Japanese word for "hope." It is en route to Mars, where it will study the planet's atmosphere and ionosphere. Carrying 14 instruments from five nations, including NASA's Neutral Mass Spectrometer, the mission will bring scientists valuable information about the interaction between the atmosphere and the solar wind. The spacecraft will also send pictures back to Earth of the Red Planet's surface.
After months of hunting down the source of the problem, ISAS scientists discovered that the coronal mass ejection caused one of the electrical power converters to "latch up," knocking out the main power and freezing the onboard propellant. They have since restored communication with the spacecraft and will maneuver its attitude (orientation) when the craft re-approaches Earth later this month, allowing the propellant to unfreeze.
Launched in July 1998, the craft was originally scheduled to arrive at the Red Planet in 1999. But due to a course-correction maneuver that used more fuel than planned, Nozomi did not have enough acceleration to propel it into its planned route. It is now scheduled for a December 2003 arrival, when it will begin to fly around Mars in an oval-shaped orbit that will range from 96 to 27,000 miles from the planet's surface.
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Catherine Clinton, Christine Lunardini. The Columbia Guide to American Women in the Nineteenth Century. Columbia Guides to American History and Cultures. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. 364 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-10920-8.
Reviewed by Heidi Campbell-Shoaf (Curator, Historical Society of Frederick County, Maryland)
Published on H-Women (March, 2001)
A Primer for Nineteenth Century American Women's History
A Primer for Nineteenth Century American Women's History
As a young student of women's history during the era in which the field was growing by leaps and bounds, but had not yet made its full presence felt in all institutions of higher learning, necessity forced me to read extensively beyond my course textbooks. Though I voraciously devoured new and old works on the subject of women's history there was always this nagging bit of uncertainly that I must most assuredly be missing something. Had I read all the germinal texts, the insightful monographs, and the interesting biographies? There was really no certain way to know. Thankfully, Clinton and Lunardini have saved future women's historians of the nineteenth century some of that same apprehension.
The Columbia Guide to American Women in the Nineteenth Century provides the tools for constructing a sturdy foundation for students interested in the changing status of women during a pivotal time in our nation's history. The book is divided into four sections, each with its own distinct style and purpose.
Part one begins with an historiographical essay that helps the reader understand the process of women's history. It provides insight on how the discipline developed, how scholars emerged and how they created theories that have become synonomous with nineteenth century women's history. Those who are advanced in their study of women's history will find this to be a thorough review of authors and texts they have already read or perused. Those who are new to the field will find this section enlightening as well as useful in directing future reading. The remainder of the first section is dedicated to a narrative overview of women's history divided into topical and chronological sections from the post-Revolutionary era to the turn of the twentieth century.
The second section of the book is a mini-encyclopedia or glossary of names and terms that are significant to the study of women in the 1800s. To be even more helpful to the reader, the authors highlighted these same terms with bold lettering in the narrative section of the book, thus creating a sort of cross-reference. This helps one put the word or name into context beyond just a short definition.
The third section of the book is a chronology of women's history beginning in 1783 and ending in 1920. Most years have multiple entries addressing the fight for women's rights, notable women's firsts, and milestones in the lives of prominent women of the era.
The fourth and final section of the book may be the most useful to students. Entitled "Resources," it is a lengthy, annotated bibliography of sources for further research. Everything from standard book-length studies arranged topically, to reference books, archival holdings, electronic resources (including CD-ROMs and web pages), and even novels and movies are included in this section. >From this vantagepoint one can appreciate the wide array of work that has already been done and note what areas still need fleshing out.
The book capably meets its goal of providing a readable overview of nineteenth century women's history and its historiography up to the present. Most people who have studied women's history at the graduate level will already be familiar with the information imparted in Clinton and Lunardini's book. Though a quick read will provide even these students with a sense of where they are in their ongoing study of the subject and perhaps remind them of a book or resource they have yet to examine.
By far, however, this book is of greatest use for individuals starting out in women's history and for those of other disciplines who need a background or reference source for nineteenth century women's issues and accomplishments. It is written in a way that enables one to pick up the book and easily find an answer without having to read it cover to cover. At the same time the narrative section lends itself well to either continuous reading or the review of a select section. This characteristic makes The Columbia Guide to American Women in the Nineteenth Century a strong candidate for use as a classroom text.
One noticeable omission within the text is that of the experiences of northern women during the Civil War. Though the authors do mention the work of Sanitary and Christian Commission workers and battlefront nurses, women's lives on the northern home front get very little attention. The authors cannot be blamed for this shortcoming as the scholarship has yet to provide us with a similar variety of information about northern women that we now have for southern women.
The other shortcomings of the book can be attributed to the copyeditors and publisher. On several occasions, mostly at the beginning of the book and notably more often in the paragraph-length overview at the start of chapters, typographical errors, omitted words, and non-sequitors are too obvious to miss notice. This was somewhat of a surprise in a work published by such an established and respected institution. Hopefully, these errors will be corrected in future editions.
Finally, as this work is of most use for students starting out in the field of women's history, a less expensive paperback version of the book would be of utmost utility.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.
Heidi Campbell-Shoaf. Review of Clinton, Catherine; Lunardini, Christine, The Columbia Guide to American Women in the Nineteenth Century.
H-Women, H-Net Reviews.
Copyright © 2001 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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SA'DIS (Banū Sa'd), Arab dynasty of sharīfs (descendants of the Prophet *Muhammad) who penetrated *Morocco and ruled it from the mid-16th century to the 1660s. They succeeded the *Wattasids, retained *Fez as their capital, and fought relentlessly against the Spanish and Portuguese occupation of parts of Morocco. At first the Sa'dis appeared to be fanatical religious zealots who were intolerant of non-Muslims. They imposed heavy taxes on the local Jewish community. As they consolidated their authority in the country, however, they gradually evinced greater toleration toward the Jewish minority. Like their Wattasid predecessors, the Sa'di sultans now employed Jews as physicians, diplomatic emissaries, and interpreters. Beginning in 1603, Abraham bin Wach and later Judah Levi served as ministers of the treasury. Members of the Jewish aristocratic Cabessa and Palache families were recruited by the sultan's court as agents and negotiators with European merchants who entered the country. Whereas the authorities increasingly proved to be friendly toward the Jews, the same could hardly be said of the Muslim masses as well as local urban and rural chieftains and governors – the Arabs more than the *Berbers – who from time to time subjected them to harsh humiliations. The Sa'dis were succeeded in 1666 by another branch of their family, the *Alawid dynasty, whose sultans and kings ruled Morocco continuously. The current king of Morocco, Muhammad VI, is a member of this dynasty.
E. Bashan, Yahadut Marokko (2000); D. Corcos, Studies in the History of the Jews of Morocco (1976); H.Z. Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa, vols. 1–2 (1974); D.J. Schroeter, The Sultan's Jews: Morocco and the Sephardi World (2002); N.A. Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands (1979).
[Michael M. Laskier (2nd ed.)]
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.
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Question: How does a family history of autism affect the risk of my child developing an autism spectrum disorder?
Answer: A family history of autism does slightly increase the risk of having another child with autism. This is greatest when a couple has a child with autism and they're considering having further children. Baby boys are at much greater risk than girls for reasons that we don't fully understand. While the risk of having a child with autism is increased significantly over the general population if there's already one child with autism, it is still far more likely that a subsequent child will not have autism than that they will have autism.
The great majority of families affected by autism have only a single affected child. The risks are lower if there's a more distant relative, such as a cousin or uncle affected with autism.
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Q: What are electrophysiology studies?
A: Having an irregular heartbeat can be a sign of more serious heart problems. Electrical-activity based technology-called electrophysiology (EP) -studies the electrical activity of the heart to detect the presence of irregular heart rhythms in patients and helps the physician determine necessary treatment.
Q: What is an arrhythmia?
A: An arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat that often results from a change or malfunction in the heart's conduction system. The conduction system is where normal electrical activity travels where normal electrical impulses travel through the heart. An arrhythmia can occur when the heart's natural pacemaker develops an abnormal rate, the normal conduction pathway is interrupted, or another part of the heart takes over as pacemaker. Arrhythmias can be unusually fast, called tachycardia, or unusually slow, called bradycardia.
Q: Should I be worried if I have an arrhythmia?
A: Some arrhythmias are signs of a more serious problem, while others are not. The irregular heartbeat can be brief and unnoticeable, but it also can be quite bothersome or even fatal. Because an occasional skipped heartbeat is not medically significant in the majority of cases does not mean that arrhythmias should be ignored. Notify your physician if you feel any skipped beats or feel that your heart is beating differently than normal.
Q: How is an EP study performed?
A: At Palmetto Health Richland's Heart Hospital, EP studies are done in the EP Lab, which is part of the Catheterization Lab. The lab is equipped with the necessary monitoring devices, video display equipment and X-ray cameras. Once the patient is made comfortable, heart and blood pressure monitoring begin and an intravenous line is inserted. The area where the thin tube-like catheter will enter the body is locally anesthetized.
A long, thin tube-like catheter is inserted in an artery or vein in the arm, neck or groin. The catheter then is guided into the heart. Small pacemaker catheters then are inserted through the catheter. The physician sends electrical impulses through these catheters to check for problems with the heart's electrical system.
Once in place, the electrode catheter performs specific, essential measurements of the heart's electrical activity and pathways. The catheter records heart sounds to assess the presence of arrhythmias.
Q: What happens if an arrhythmia is detected?
A: If the abnormal source of an arrhythmia is detected, the physician may use the opportunity to perform treatment such as radiofrequency ablation. Radiofrequency energy from the tip of the catheter is used to heat and destroy the heart cells that are creating the arrhythmia.
Some reasons for having an EP study include fainting, irregular heartbeat, and a very fast or slow heartbeat.
Q: How long does an EP study take?
A: An EP study that includes ablation treatment can take up to six hours.
Q: What happens after the EP study?
A: Once the procedure is concluded, the catheter is withdrawn, pressure is placed on the puncture point and the patient is watched for four to six hours before being released. The patient may go home the same day, or, occasionally, is watched overnight in the hospital.
Q: How quickly are results available?
A: Results from the study often are available to the patients at the time of the procedure.
Q: What treatments are available if the EP study shows an arrhythmia?
A: If the EP study reveals that an arrhythmia is being caused by abnormal electrical impulses, treatments (in addition to the catheter ablation) include a pacemaker, an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or antiarrhythmic medications.
Q: Are arrhythmias common?
A: Approximately 4 million Americans have periodic arrhythmias. And, an estimated 2 million Americans are living with atrial fibrillation, which is the most common "serious" arrhythmia. The prevalence of arrhythmias tends to increase with age, even when there's no clear sign of heart disease.
Q: What are the symptoms of arrhythmia?
A: Arrhythmias occur throughout the population and their severity varies widely. Some people with arrhythmia have no symptoms, while others experience obvious discomfort. Some of the symptoms experienced by people with arrhythmia include:
Q: Can an arrhythmia be fatal?
A: In severe cases, arrhythmia can result in cardiac arrest and death. If you think you may be suffering from any of these symptoms, contact your physician.
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In March 1911, a federal lawsuit against Coca Cola (The United States Government vs. Forty Barrels, Twenty Kegs Coca-Cola,) began in Chattanooga. How come? The US government alleged that Coke's added caffeine was a deadly poison.
Nowadays Coca Cola is demonized for causing obesity and dissolving your incisors, but in the early 1900s the US government accused the soft drink of poisoning consumers. Here's an excerpt from Ludy T. Benjamin Jr.'s fascinating article from November's issue of The Psychologist:
On the evening of 20 October 1909, agents of the United States government waited in the darkness in a stakeout on the Tennessee state line. They were watching for a truck coming from Atlanta, Georgia. When the truck crossed the border, the agents intercepted it and seized its cargo – 40 barrels and 20 kegs of Coca-Cola syrup. The seizure was made under the auspices of the recently passed Pure Food and Drug Act by which the US government charged the Coca-Cola Company with marketing and selling a beverage that was injurious to health because it contained a deleterious ingredient. Most readers hearing this part of the story would assume that the harmful ingredient was cocaine, a popular myth about the contents of Coca-Cola early in its history (a trace of cocaine existed in the 1890s because of the manufacturing process but was eliminated by 1898). However, it wasn't cocaine. It was caffeine. The government administrator who authorised the seizure could be described as a zealot, intent on ending the sale of Coca-Cola or at least ridding the beverage of its caffeine. [...]
The impetus behind the lawsuit was Harvey Washington Wiley, head of the Bureau of Chemistry of the US Department of Agriculture. Wiley had long been a vocal opponent of caffeine and was especially critical of its role in the popular beverage [...] Wiley had testified before Congress that caffeine was a poison and a habit-forming drug. He was not fond of coffee or tea but was less critical of those drinks because the caffeine was an indigenous ingredient. But he opposed the sale of Coca-Cola on two grounds: the caffeine was an added ingredient, and the beverage was marketed to children.
The lawsuit never went anywhere thanks to some legal wrangling on behalf of Coke's attorneys, but it's intriguing that at one point the US government took the most ubiquitous sugar water on the planet to court for killing people.
[Spotted on Mind Hacks]
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“I’d like to tone up, lose some weight, get in shape, and get my beach body” are common goals personal trainers hear from clients, but what if a client said, “I’d like to grow some more brain cells”?
This may seem outlandish, but studies have demonstrated that vigorous exercise fuels neurogenesis — the creation of new brain cells — and slows neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Similar to how exercise grows muscle cells by creating new mitochondria (organelles that give fuel to most cellular activity) near the nucleus, exercise boosts brain cells.
While it’s unlikely a client would actually say they wanted to grow new brain cells, the unrivaled, unmatched and fearless fitness professional on the edge of the latest research and contemporary thinking would know exactly how to respond.
An often-quoted study at the University of South Carolina is worth briefly noting. Two groups of mice were assigned to either run on a treadmill for an hour a day or lead more sedentary lifestyles without such exercise during a two-month period. What they found in the brains was very interesting: The group that exercised had significantly greater mitochondrial development in their brains than the sedentary mice did, demonstrating that exercise can induce mitochondrial biogenesis in more than muscle — at least in mice.
And a study at the National Cheng Jung University in Taiwan found that when mice were allowed to run freely compared to being forced to run harder than they might otherwise, the findings were again indicative of noteworthy brain changes. Those racing harder had molecular changes in more areas of the brain than those allowed to run at their own comfortable pace. The researchers concluded that different forms of exercise led to different neuroplasticity changes — at least in mice.
The University of Illinois did a study on humans that demonstrated similar findings. They compared brisk walking with stretching on tests of cognition. Brisk walking, with its increase in blood flow, induced a greater molecular cascade and therefore improved test scores – at least in humans.
Other studies on humans have demonstrated that when aerobically trained subjects were compared with age-matched control groups of subjects who were either doing strength and flexibility exercise or were not engaged in exercise, the aerobically trained group demonstrate significantly advanced central cerebral metabolic activity and improvement on neuropsychological tests.
The 1972 foundational work of Goodwin, McClowskey and Matthews, referenced in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual, pages 452-453, describe some of the understanding of how sensory receptors and the central nervous system interact in humans. This work is important to recognizing how growth factors are carried from the body’s periphery to the brain to initiate the brain’s growth factor cascades that exercise induces.
And this helps forward-thinking, differentiated and unique fitness professionals be better able to discuss how new neurons and brain connections are, in fact, created through vigorous exercise.
It has been found that not only is exercise helpful in promoting the brain’s growth, but in slowing neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s) and reducing peripheral risk factors for cognitive decline as well. Remember the mice? Research data suggests that mitochondrial deficits play a role in the development of these diseases, so exercise is beneficial to overall neurological health.
Over and over again, the research, particularly when focused on the hippocampus area of the brain, demonstrates that exercise reduces diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease — illnesses that can combine to cause brain impairment and forms of neurodegeneration.
Aerobic exercise, in particular, assists in the regulation of growth factors and the reduction of peripheral and central risk factors furthering successful brain functioning, improving learning and memory, delaying age-related cognitive decline, playing a role in regulating mood disorders, and helping ensure overall well-being.
So much for just toning up, losing a few pounds and getting six pack — grow new brain cells as cell! It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to discover exercise benefits more than just muscles — it takes a leading edge, crisp thinking, and distinguished fitness professional.
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Snake hitches ride on airplane wing
Passengers watch as python clings to wing during flight
Passengers on a Qantas jet flying over Australia were surprised to look out their windows and see an unexpected travel companion. 20 minutes into a flight from Cairns, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, a woman noticed that a reptile was tucked under the wing of the plane, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
The snake was curled up in a ball initially, but as the flight continued, the wind began to pull the snake straight out of is nook, leaving it to flap in the air for the entire 1 hour, 50-minute flight.
An expert later identified the snake as a 10-foot long scrub python, Australia's longest species of snake.
A Qantas representative stated that while people were shocked, there was no panic among the passengers. Most people were concerned for the well-being of the snake as they watched it struggle to hold onto the plane. Ultimately, the snake did not survive the flight.
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But now comes a tantalizing study in tomorrow’s issue of Nature hinting at the possibility that what we do to live longer may change the lifespan of our grandchildren. It’s only a hint—the research reported here involves the faithful nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. By exposing one generation of these tiny worms to just three proteins, researchers in Anne Brunet’s lab at Stanford produced worms that live up to 30% longer. The surprising thing is that the enhanced lifespan was passed to the next 2-3 generations. The really surprising thing is that the lifespan of the C. elegans great-grandchildren was enhanced even though no DNA sequences were modified. In other words: germline enhancement without genetic modification.
How is that possible? Epigenetics. The three proteins changed the way the DNA is structured or packed without changing the DNA code itself. Such epigenetic changes can change the way genes are expressed. The effect can be dramatic—in this case, a 30% longer lifespan. What’s more, the epigenetic change can be passed to future generations. Most often, epigenetic changes are reset during reproduction. But in some cases, epigenetic modifications are passed to the next 2-3 generations. When that happens, the structure and the expression of DNA are changed even though the DNA sequence remains unchanged. Over time, however, the effect washes out so that the great-great-grandchildren are back to the starting point.
Will this epigenetics-to-lifespan relationship be found in human beings? Who knows. Again, it must be repeated: this research involves flatworms. Humans are just a bit more complicated. Already, however, Brunet’s lab is looking for something similar in mice and in African killfish.
Whether anything similar will be found in human beings, this research already suggests a truly interesting thought experiment. Suppose this leads someday to a human-application technology. Would it be opposed by those who object to human germline modification? Sure, future human beings would be changed without their consent. But no genes are changed, and the changes are not permanent.
Perhaps the more sobering thought is this. Maybe this research will lead to a startling discovery. Never mind some new technology. Might it turn out that what health-minded human beings normally do—eat their green vegetables, get their exercise—has the effect of enhancing their offspring by modifying the expression of their genes by means of generating inheritable epigenetic changes? Could be. If just three proteins make C. elegans progeny live 30% longer, just imagine how your dinner might change your grandchildren (assuming, of course, that you’re in your reproductive years or younger).
The article, “Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans,” appears in the October 20 issue of Nature.
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The Childhood Obesity Epidemic
The childhood obesity epidemic has reached alarming levels. Multiple studies show a tripling of prevalence over the last thirty years. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,” we are raising the first generation of youth who will live sicker and shorter lives than their parents.”
As healthcare providers, we see the impact this epidemic has on the children and families we care for. It affects not only the physical and emotional health of children, but their academic and economic potential as well as the overall health and economics of our communities.
As obesity rates have increased dramatically over the last 30 years in the U.S. in both adults and children, obesity has become a national epidemic. Data from the CDC from 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 indicated that two-thirds of U.S. adults were either obese or overweight. Based on representative samples of U.S. children, nationally 1/3 of children are overweight or obese.
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we are raising the first generation of youth who will live sicker and shorter lives than their parents. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic with tripling of prevalence rates since 1980. According to a recent report published by Trust for America's Health, Nebraska ranks as having the 21st highest percent of obese and overweight children in the U.S., with 31.5% of Nebraska children measured as obese or overweight.
The childhood obesity epidemic disproportionately affects children who are minority, live in poverty, and/or live in neighborhoods without access to healthy foods and safe play spaces. These disparities are demonstrated nationally and in our communities across Nebraska. The economic burden of the obesity epidemic on our communities is high. Rising healthcare costs, decreased workforce productivity, increased school absenteeism rates have an economic effect on all of our citizens.
Obesity is the result of an imbalance of energy intake and energy expenditure. Genetics, environment and behavior, all contribute to obesity risk. The rapid increase in prevalence of children who are obese and overweight cannot be explained by genetics alone.
Although diet and exercise are key determinants of weight, environmental factors beyond the control of individuals (including lack of access to full-service grocery stores, high costs of healthy foods, and lack of access to safe places to play and exercise) contribute to increased obesity rates by reducing the likelihood of healthy eating and active living behaviors.
Ubiquitous shifts in food practices, changes in our built communities, a marked increase in sedentary activities opportunities, and a food industry which spends billions marketing unhealthy food choices to children at very young ages, are some of the major causes of the epidemic
Childhood Obesity Defined
Overweight and obesity is defined in children by the Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement, or the measure of weight adjusted for height using age and gender specific growth charts. BMI is defined as weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of height (in meters). BMI levels correlate with body fat and also correlate with concurrent health risks, especially cardiovascular risk factors. For children, the distribution of BMI changes with age. As a result, percentiles specific for age and gender define underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obesity in children. Obesity risk is also determined by screening family history, assessing physical activity and nutrition behaviors, a review of systems and physical examination for comorbidities, which taken altogether determine the need for intervention.
Health Consequences by Body System
Obesity affects nearly every body system. Diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, formerly termed adult-onset diabetes, are now being seen in children in epidemic proportions.
Some of the Health Consequences by Body System include:
Cardiovascular- Dyslipidemia, Hypertension, Atherosclerosis
Orthopedic- Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis, Blounts Disease, Flat Feet, Knee and Leg pain, Gait abnormalities
Endocrine- Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Insulin Resistance, Menstrual Irregularities
Psychologic- Depression, Negative self-image, social isolation, Eating disorders
Gastrointestinal- Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Gallstones, Gastroesophageal Reflux
Pulmonary- Asthma, obstructive Sleep Apnea
Neurologic- Pseudotumor Cerebri
Role of the Healthcare Provider
Role of the Healthcare Provider:
The 2007 Expert Committee Recommendations on the assessment, prevention and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity define the role of healthcare providers. Nebraska’s Clinical Childhood Obesity Model was developed to assist healthcare providers to readily integrate the Expert Committee Recommendations into practice by resourcing clinicians with the tools necessary to carry out the defined roles which are to:
The first step in the universal assessment of children ages 2 to 18 for obesity and obesity risk is to chart BMI %. Perform a clinical evaluation, including a history and exam and order appropriate laboratory tests. Using Nebraska’s Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition (PA-N) Assessment Form assess health behaviors and attitudes, and set patient-driven healthy lifestyle goals.
Prevention of obesity starts with promoting the initiation of breastfeeding and providing support for breastfeeding through the first year of life. For children ages 2 to 18 who are in the healthy weight category, follow the universal assessment steps, give consistent prevention messages, and reevaluate annually.
The Expert Committee recommends a staged protocol for treatment with the level of intervention to be based on a patient’s BMI% and age. The keys to successful treatment are to chart BMI% at every visit, follow the staged protocol, target comorbidities, use Nebraska’s Youth PA-N Form to set patient driven goals, engage the entire family in behavior change, and stay the course because small changes yield big rewards.
As a healthcare provider, you can advocate as a role model by being physically active and making healthy food choices. Integrate Nebraska’s Clinical Childhood Obesity Model into practice by resourcing your office with the patient educational materials and office posters. Engage the entire clinic in your efforts. Serve as a conduit to community resources and programs. Advocate for environmental and policy changes in your community and join the Nebraska Medical Association’s Childhood Obesity Prevention Project. Together, we can Foster Healthy Weight in Youth.
Following the guidelines for health supervision at well child visits, pediatricians and family practice providers give anticipatory guidance regarding health, safety, and development everyday. This includes educating patients and families on age- appropriate nutrition and physical activity guidelines. Our prevention efforts are even more important in light of the severity of the childhood obesity epidemic. Not only does prevention work when put into practice, but prevention is important because:
• The probability of childhood obesity persisting into adulthood is estimated to increase from:
o 20% at 4 years of age to
o 80% by adolescence
• Prevention of obesity is critical because long-term outcome data for successful treatment approaches are limited.
• Early physical activity and dietary patterns track into adolescence and correlate with adult obesity risk.
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Researchers reported in the scientific journal Cancer Cell that a protein called EZH2 is linked to breast cancer tumor growth, according to Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
In cells where EZH2 was overproduced, breast cancer progressed faster. A link between the two factors seemed to be due to EZH2's effect on cancer stem cells.
“Overexpression of the EZH2 protein has been linked to breast cancer progression, but the molecular details of that connection were unknown. Tumor-initiating cancer cells that arise from the primary cancer stem cells also are thought to drive cancer progression. This research connects EZH2 to the growth of breast tumor-initiating cells," Dr. Mien-Chie Hung, chair of the department of molecular and cellular oncology at MD Anderson, told the news source.
Dr. Hung’s team went one step further and tested the effects of five drugs on the EZH2-cancer stem cell phenomenon, with positive results.
“The drugs’ inhibition of the breast tumor-initiating cells reveals a previously unidentified therapeutic effect for RAF1-ERK inhibitors to prevent breast cancer progression,” said Dr. Hung.
Breast cancer affects one out of eight women in the United States and most industrialized countries, according to the American Cancer Society. February is Pink Zone month, sponsored by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to promote breast cancer awareness
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A diverse selection of artworks by the master artists of Ireland will be showcased at Whyte’s Irish Art auction on May 27.
Queen Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the longest reigning British monarch.
Victoria was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent and Victoria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg. She became queen at the age of 18, succeeding her uncle, William IV in 1837.
In 1840, Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and together they had nine children.
Albert died in 1861 and Victoria spent the rest of her life mourning him.1
In 1877, Victoria became the empress of India. Her Empire also included Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of Africa.
Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
She died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
On December 3 2003, an autograph letter from Queen Victoria to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was sold at a Christie’s auction in London. The letter sold for £9,560.
Do you have a passion for collecting? You can help build the Wikicollecting community. Anyone can get involved - simply 'add a new page' or 'edit' an existing page.
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To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 10.1.0 or greater is installed.
Car crash website tracks the really big hits
Wednesday 31 August 2011
For those wanting to know about risky places to drive, bike or walk, UC Berkeley researchers have designed a tool for sorting through and mapping all of the serious traffic collisions in the state.
Anyone with Internet access can search the Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) for a look at where more than 130,000 serious and fatal crashes in California have occurred.
John Bigham, of UC Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center and lead researcher for TIMS, explains this powerful new tool in the slideshow above.
The program uses data from the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, which includes all crashes reported by the California Highway Patrol, to produce customized maps of local roads and highways where collisions occur.
It provides professionals and the general public with information to identify traffic safety problems and potential solutions, says Bigham.
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In a low-carb diet, the carbohydrate intake is limited to about 5 to 10 percent, such that protein and fats take precedence in one’s eating habits, to be able to keep sated and avoid bouts of hunger. It is in maintaining that feeling of fullness that one is able to avoid craving for sweets, and this is a good reason for diabetics to adopt a diet that is low in carbohydrates to control their condition. Following this type of diet prevents excessive consumption of carbohydrates, which leads to higher levels of blood sugar.
Diabetes is a condition in which the body is unable to properly take in starch and sugar. For a diet to work in favor of a diabetic, it has to be low in fat, high in fiber, and packed with minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. Keeping to the kinds of food with low glycemic index is also important. Foods that are permitted in low-carb diets are meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, fish, and some selected vegetables.
Although some sources say that to eliminate carbohydrates altogether is not recommended for diabetics, as carbohydrates in the diet are vital, because they serve as the main resource of energy and nutrients within our bodies. In a diabetic’s diet, carbohydrates in excessive amounts may be frowned at, but authorities recommend a daily dosage of not less than 130 grams. On the other hand, studies have shown that the low-carb diet caused no undesirable effects on the levels of insulin, glucose, blood pressure or cholesterol. It is also worthwhile to note that one can alter a diet according to his or her specific needs. In this regard, before following any diet, be sure to check with your physician to make sure you will be getting all the right nutrients that will help you control your condition. Doing so will also help you pinpoint areas of the regimen that you should alter for a more appropriate eating habit.
The effects of limiting the amount of carbohydrates in your diet manifest as loss of weight due to a lesser calorie intake, or the successful maintenance of your ideal weight. Remember that with weight loss, the body’s blood sugar and insulin levels naturally improve. Even just a 10 percent weight loss is a substantial improvement towards being in better control of diabetes.
Also, when weight loss is part of your goal of achieving better health to make your condition more bearable, then a carefully planned diet is best paired with an exercise routine that is easy enough to follow. Daily walks and a couple of dozen repetitions with free weights are good low-impact exercises you can adopt. Regular exercise doesn’t only help combat diabetes; it also promotes a sense of well-being that helps you maintain the right attitude towards living a healthier life for good.
Lowcarbdiets.eu.com is a website providing information on low carb diets,
Atkins diet food and diet products to help you on your way to losing weight.
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A Caribbean fish known as the French grunt is infested with gnathiid isopods.
The late Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley is the latest celebrity to be honored with a scientific species name. It's not the most glamorous species — in fact, it's a blood-feeding fish parasite — but there's no question that Gnathia marleyi knows how to "stir it up" in Caribbean coral reefs.
It's the Caribbean connection that prompted the name, which is listed along with a description of the species in the June 6 issue of the journal Zootaxa.
"I named this species, which is truly a natural wonder, after Marley because of my respect and admiration for Marley's music," Paul Sikkel, a marine biologist at Arkansas State University, said in a news release from the National Science Foundation. "Plus, this species is as uniquely Caribbean as was Marley."
G. marleyi is a type of gnathiid isopod, a small crustacean that hides in corners of eastern Caribbean coral reefs. When the right kinds of fish come by, the juveniles jump out and attach themselves to suck their blood. But when they grow into adults, they stop feeding. "We believe that adults subsist for two to three weeks on the last feedings they had as juveniles and then die, hopefully after they have reproduced," Sikkel said.
Sikkel and his colleagues found specimens of the tiny isopods about 10 years ago in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They're so common there that Sikkel assumed that the species had already been described — but after he sent a specimen to another member of his research team, Nico J. Smit of South Africa's North-West University, he received word that the critter hadn't been written up in the literature.
John Artim / Arkansas State Univ.
This close-up shows an adult male gnathiid. The adult males look entirely different from the juveniles and are used by taxonomists to identify species.
Researchers went through the laborious process of raising the juvenile isopods up to adulthood so they could be properly described. Specimens of G. marleyi will be housed indefinitely at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for reference.
The reason why Sikkel and his colleagues have been spending so time with Caribbean coral-reef parasites is because they suspect that such species may serve as an indicator of coral-reef health. Coral degradation may create habitats more conducive for parasites to attack their fishy hosts. Those parasites, in turn, may transmit blood-borne diseases and accelerate the decline of fish communities.
That's not to say that G. marleyi is all bad: Sikkel points out that they are "the most important food item for cleaner fishes, and thus key to understanding marine cleaning symbioses." (It's worth noting that other breeds of isopods can grow to horror-movie dimensions.)
Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981, at the age of 36, and it's an open question whether he would have welcomed having a parasite named in his honor. As cartoonist Gary Larson said after a species of louse was named Strigiphilus garylarsoni, "You have to grab these opportunities when they come along." But even if Marley fans are not also fans of gnathiid isopods, they can take heart in the fact that Marley has other critters named after him — such as the "Bob Marley sponge" (Pipestela candelabra), which is found in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
More about celebrity species names:
- The Hoff just loves his crabs
- What's in a scientific name? (Scroll down)
- One way to get a species named after you
- Rename Homo sapiens? The idea seems unwise
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Submitted to: Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: January 17, 2011
Publication Date: May 16, 2011
Citation: Arias, R.S., Blanco, C.A., Portilla, M., Snodgrass, G.L., Scheffler, B.E. 2011. First microsatellites from Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and their potential use for population genetics. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 104(3):576-587.
Interpretive Summary: Fall army worm (Spodoptera frugiperda) is an important insect pest of corn, though it affects many other crops such as cotton and soybean. This insect is normally controlled by pesticides and to a less extent with a toxin from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). At least two strains of this insect are recognized based on their behavior, since no morphological differences can be distinguished. Given that some populations of this insect have shown resistance to Bt toxin, that this insect can migrate or be transported by weather conditions, and that different strains cannot be distinguished based on morphology, the only tool to identify and monitor strains is by molecular methods. For that purpose, microsatellites are a suitable and powerful molecular tool for identification. We have developed 178 of those microsatellites for fall army worm, and these allowed accurate identification of each of the eight colonies tested. No other microsatellite had been reported for this particular insect before, thus, our work will provide a very useful tool for the identification, monitoring and analysis of the genetic variability of this insect.
This is the first report of sequence-specific microsatellite markers (SSRs) of Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), an economically important pest of the American continent. We developed 178 microsatellite markers using pyrosequencing, and screened 15 individuals from 8 isofamilies collected from three geographical areas, Puerto Rico (PR), Texas (TX) and Mississippi (MS), including Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) (Bacillales: Bacillaceae) resistant and susceptible colonies. Cluster analysis was performed to determine the potential use of these SSRs in discriminating populations. SSR polymorphism grouped individuals of each colony together with a reliability of 100% estimated by bootstrap. In this analysis, colonies from TX grouped away from those from PR, but the two MS isofamilies grouped with TX and PR separately. Genetic distance between individuals of the same isofamily ranged between 0.22 and 0.56, whereas minimum genetic distance between isofamilies was 0.83. Unique pattern informative combination (UPIC) scores were calculated, and the 80 SSR markers that had UPIC scores of =1 are listed according to their discriminating potential. UPIC scores allow reducing costs by choosing fewer and highly informative markers for future studies. Heterozygosity of S. frugiperda individuals, estimated as the percentage of multiallelic loci based on 120 SSR markers, ranged between 35 and 59 %, with a difference of 2-15% between individuals of the same geographic region. The markers reported will significantly enrich the pool of molecular markers available for S. frugiperda. In addition, they could be used for monitoring migration of populations, in the development of biocontrol agents and for management practices in general.
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According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) 1998-1999 survey, over 2.6 million girls participated in high school athletics compared with 3.8 million boys. The NFHS began keeping records in 1971, when fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school athletics and 3.6 million boys competed.
The NFHS surveys reveal an increase of nearly 2.3 million in girls' high school sports participation in the last 30 years. This dramatic increase is due largely to Title IX, which was passed in 1972 and prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally-funded education, including in athletics programs.
John Gillis, NFHS administrator said that girls' participation ought to continue increasing in the 21st Century because their opportunities will continue to rise.
Media Resources: Toledo Blade - January 1, 2000 and Feminist Majority Foundation
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The rivers of Guinea and the islands of Cape Verde were among the first areas in Africa explored by the Portuguese, notably Nuno Tristão, in the 15th century. Portugal claimed Portuguese Guinea in 1446, but few trading posts were established before 1600. In 1630, a "captaincy-general" of Portuguese Guinea was established to administer the territory. With the cooperation of some local tribes, the Portuguese entered the slave trade and exported large numbers of Africans to the Western Hemisphere via the Cape Verde Islands. Cacheu became one of the major slave centers, and a small fort still stands in the town. The local African rulers in Guinea, who prospered greatly from the African slave trade, had no interest in allowing the Europeans any further inland than the fortified coastal settlements where the trading takes place. The slave trade declined in the 19th century, and Bissau, originally founded as a military and slave-trading center in 1765, grew to become the major commercial center.
Portuguese conquest and consolidation of the interior did not begin until the latter half of the 19th century. Portugal lost part of Guinea to French West Africa, including the center of earlier Portuguese commercial interest, the Casamance River region. A dispute with Britain over the island of Bolama was settled in Portugal's favor with the involvement of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
Before World War I, Portuguese forces, with some assistance from the Muslim population, subdued animist tribes and eventually established the territory's borders. The interior of Portuguese Guinea was brought under control after more than 30 years of fighting; final subjugation of the Bijagós Islands did not occur until 1936. The administrative capital was moved from Bolama to Bissau in 1941, and in 1952, by constitutional amendment, the colony of Portuguese Guinea became an overseas province of Portugal.
In 1956, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) was organized clandestinely by Amílcar Cabral and Rafael Barbosa. The PAIGC moved its headquarters to Conakry, Guinea, in 1960 and started an armed rebellion against the Portuguese in 1961 (for a detailed account of this struggle, see the PAIGC page). Despite the presence of Portuguese troops, which grew to more than 35,000, the PAIGC steadily expanded its influence until, by 1968, it controlled most of the country. It established civilian rule in the territory under its control and held elections for a National Assembly. Portuguese forces and civilians increasingly were confined to their garrisons and larger towns. The Portuguese Governor and Commander in Chief from 1968 to 1973, General António de Spínola, returned to Portugal and led the movement which brought democracy to Portugal and independence for its colonies.
Amílcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry in 1973, and party leadership fell to Aristides Pereira, who later became the first president of the Republic of Cape Verde. The PAIGC National Assembly met at Boe in the southeastern region and declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on 24 September 1973 and was recognized by a 93-7 UN General Assembly vote in November, unprecedented as it denounced illegal Portuguese aggression and occupation and was prior to complete control and Portuguese recognition. Following Portugal's April 1974 Carnation Revolution, it granted independence to Guinea-Bissau on 10 September 1974. Luís Cabral, Amílcar Cabral's half-brother, became President of Guinea-Bissau.
Following Portugal's April 1974 Carnation Revolution, it granted independence to Guinea-Bissau on 10 September 1974. Luís Cabral, Amílcar Cabral's half-brother, became President of Guinea-Bissau. Following independence local soldiers that fought along with the Portuguese Army against the PAIGC guerrillas were slaughtered by the thousands. A small number escaped to Portugal or to other African nations. The most famous massacre occurred in Bissorã. In 1980 PAIGC admitted in its newspaper "Nó Pintcha" (dated 29/11/1980) that many were executed and buried in unmarked collective graves in the woods of Cumerá, Portogole and Mansabá. In late 1980, the government was overthrown in a relatively bloodless coup led by Prime Minister and former armed forces commander João Bernardo Vieira.
From November 1980 to May 1984, power was held by a provisional government responsible to a Revolutionary Council headed by President João Bernardo Vieira. In 1984, the council was dissolved, and the National Popular Assembly (ANP) was reconstituted. The single-party assembly approved a new constitution, elected President Vieira to a new 5-year term, and elected a Council of State, which was the executive agent of the ANP. Under this system, the president presides over the Council of State and serves as head of state and government. The president also was head of the PAIGC and commander in chief of the armed forces.
From 1980 to 1991, opposition parties were illegal. Aristide Menezes led the Democratic Front, which in 1991 became the first legal opposition party and paved the way for democratic elections.
There were alleged coup plots against the Vieira government in 1983, 1985, and 1993. In 1986, first Vice President Paulo Correia and five others were executed for treason following a lengthy trial.
In 1994, 20 years after independence from Portugal, the country's first multiparty legislative and presidential elections were held. An army uprising that triggered the Guinea-Bissau Civil War in 1998, created hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. The president was ousted by a military junta in 7 May 1999. An interim government turned over power in February 2000 when opposition leader Kumba Ialá took office following two rounds of transparent presidential elections. Guinea-Bissau's transition back to democracy has been complicated by a crippled economy devastated by civil war and the military's predilection for governmental meddling.
In September 2003 a bloodless coup took place in which the military, headed by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra, arrested Ialá, because "he was unable to solve the problems". After being delayed several times, legislative elections were held in April 2004.
A mutiny of military factions in October 2004 resulted in the death of General Seabra and others, and caused widespread unrest. The Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Júnior has stated that the mutineers were ex-UN soldiers recently returned from Liberia who were angry about delays in being paid. Talks between these soldiers and the authorities have so far failed to come to an agreement.
In June 2005, presidential elections were held for the first time since the coup that deposed Ialá. Ialá returned as the candidate for the PRS, claiming to be the legitimate president of the country, but the election was won by former president João Bernardo Vieira, deposed in the 1998 coup. Vieira was a candidate for one sect of the PAIGC. Vieira defeated Malam Bacai Sanha in a runoff-election, but Sanha refused initially to concede, claiming that the elections had been fraudulent in two constituencies, including the capital Bissau.
Despite reports that there had been an influx of arms in the weeks leading up to the election and reports of some 'disturbances during campaigning' - including attacks on the presidential palace and the Interior Ministry by as-yet-unidentified gunmen - European monitors labelled the election as "calm and organized".
On 2 March 2009, Vieira was assassinated by soldiers. This may be part of another coup attempt. While on 5 June, several major politicians (Baciro Dabo, Faustino Imbali and Helder Proenca) were shot to death, officially to counter a planed coup d'État against the temporary military leadership.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Some people think that writing is an innate skill and people are born with it. You will be surprised to know, that this statement is not true. Writing an essay means developing your skills. Organization of your thoughts in essay composition makes the marked difference between a good and poor essay. A student may have great ideas, but unorganised thoughts and alignment of paragraphs may not result into an impactful essay.
Always remember there are bad writers and not bad readers. Therefore, the organisation of your thoughts on paper must be such that readers may not find it hard to understand the meaning of the sentences.
The three most important components, which make a good essay, are:
- Supporting points
Thesis defines the purpose of your writing. Once you have answered your question about the central point of your writing, you will know how to frame your composition. In the last line of your introduction, you must mention about the thesis. The reader will get the hint about the focal point in your essay.
Supporting points are the information, which proves your stated points. They are the evidences, which support your statements. In case if you do not have enough supporting points, then you must rework on your thesis or come up with a new thesis. For each supporting point, you must have a separate paragraph. The word count of your essay will determine how many supporting points you require.
Conclusion is the final and the most important component of your essay. Here you must recall your thesis. Do not repeat words or sentences. You have to reframe your words and sentences in such a way that you make the readers agree to your decisions in the essay.
You must keep some simple points in mind. Just as you, do not build a house without its blue print. Similarly and essay requires a blue print. Outline of your essay is very important. You may feel it is monotonous but outline of your composition helps in organisation of your thoughts. Disorganised essay writing means there is no planning involved.
Once you have given an outline to your essay, now you know that you will not deviate from your point. Write as per your essay outline.
The final step is the proofreading. You will spoil your essay if you have grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. You can take help from your friends or parents who will point out your mistakes. Often a writer is not able to pin point his errors, this is the reason you must involve somebody else for proof reading.
If you follow these steps in your essay, writing you will create a good essay. The formulation of an outlined plan is like a math formula, which gives you exact ways to progress in your essay writing. For a good essay writing incorporate these steps in your composition your readers will get the basic facts and information behind your essay writing.
Hope these tips would be useful for you. More information about how to write an essay you can find at my essay writing blog.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Does your creative writing feel a little predictable and samey lately? Do you find you always fall back to the same kind of words and phrases, the same kind of ideas?
A fantastic tool for giving your creative writing a new lease of life are creative writing prompts.
Here are 5 ways they can give your writing the boost it needs:
1. A new starting place gives a new perspective. When you write beginning from somewhere completely new, you can't help but have a different outlook to the ones you're familiar with. This fresh perspective encourages you to write with different eyes, in a way you may not have thought of before.
2. You can focus your energy on your writing, not on struggling for ideas. If you feel short of ideas then much of your creative energy seems to get sucked away desperately trying to find something interesting to write about. Creative writing prompts give you that different starting point so you can use your energy to focus on writing, not fretting about a lack of ideas.
3. You're more free to experiment. Writing on your own it's all too easy to stick to safe and trusted methods, even if it does mean you write virtually the same poem or story over and over again. Just by using writing prompts you're giving your creativity the green light, saying "I'm trying something new here, go with it and let's see what we can come up with." And you're creativity will be happy to oblige.
4. You write more, so you evolve more. You can write a short piece using a writing prompt in 5 or 10 minutes. With each new work, you've become a little more experienced, confident and flexible as a writer. This allows you to evolve more quickly meaning all of your writing benefits from a new depth of richness.
5. You put the fun back in writing. If you've been stuck in your writing lately, you'll have realised it's not much fun. Painful, more like. With writing prompts, you take off this pressure and instead begin with the attitude of enjoying your writing, experimenting and seeing where it leads. This new energy then spills over and enhances all your writing.
These are 5 great ways you can use creative writing prompts to give your writing a fresh injection of energy and start seeing more of your writing potential come to the fore.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Picture the scene. You head off to your creative workspace, head full of great ideas, ready to get writing and create wonderful, rich, three-dimensional characters in believable, realistic scenarios.
You're keen to write the stories that will touch and inspire people, make them say "that character spoke to me, I'm just like them!".
You open your notebook, switch on your computer, sit down, and... er, nothing happens, that's it.
For all your ambition and great intentions, you don't know where to start. You can't think what to write. You begin to wonder if you can even string together a couple of sentences, let alone a complete story or novel.
You're in the grip of the dreaded "Blank Screen Paralysis".
Also known as creative block, or writer's block.
But don't give up, because there's a way this story can still have a happy ending.
Creative writing prompts are an excellent tool to combat writer's block.
A creative writing prompt is a small phrase, idea, or picture that can be used to kick start your creative writing. They provide that initial little push we sometimes need to get our creative writing going.
Once we have got going, the momentum easily builds and we can write freely and deeply.
Creative writing prompts can be used as and when you need them, for example when you feel you're hit with some kind of creative block. But the great thing is, by using creative writing prompts regularly, you actually begin to create more easily without them.
Using them often means your mind begins to learn new ways of approaching your writing and finding starting points when it feels there aren't any. In a short space of time of using creative writing prompts written by others, you quickly begin to automatically come up with your own.
If you haven't used creative writing prompts before, try them out today and realise what a wonderful tool they can be to enhance your creative writing.
Monday, May 6, 2013
As admission to colleges and graduate schools becomes even more competitive, there is increasing importance placed on the essay as part of the admissions process.
Most of the colleges and graduate schools have different requirements and publish these in their guidelines. However, there is a basic approach to admission essay writing that you should use.
Your essay should be original and unique and make a good impression on the selection committee. In addition, your essay should reflect your analytical skills and your ability to deal with different situations, whilst also giving insights to the selection committee to help them understand why you want to do the particular course and how you will benefit from it.
Since admission essay writing does not come easy to everyone, it is always a good idea to start early so that you have plenty of time to proofread your essay and check your spelling and grammar.
The instructions provided by the college or graduate school that you are applying to will give you valuable tips on how to format and approach your essay, and you should follow these strictly. You would be surprised how many college applicants ignore these!
It is very important at the outset to develop your admission essay writing plan and then write your essay according to this plan. Your writing should demonstrate your ability to think clearly and express ideas properly while at the same time the essay should reveal your scholarly side.
The admission essay should clearly articulate your motivation for attending the college or graduate school and how you will benefit from the course. Your essay also needs to state what the institute will gain by accepting you as a student - many applicants forget this aspect.
It is very important to use a first person narrative while writing the admission essay and include active words that demonstrate the qualities and abilities that you will bring to the course. However, at the same time you should remember not to go overboard, or it may come across as false. Also don't make the essay too long as that will potentially lose the interest of the reader. One or two pages are likely to be sufficient but adhere to the published admission essay writing guidelines.
It is very important to keep your readers in mind while you are writing the essay. Check that your objective is clear and that your essay reveals the purpose and enthusiasm that you have for your chosen field of study.
As you can see, admission essay writing does not need to be difficult. The admission essay should portray your writing abilities and also reveal the clarity of thought and the depth of your knowledge in relation to your chosen field. In addition, you need to convey your motivation and commitment to study the course you are applying for and you can also use this to mention the career opportunities that you want to explore once you graduate.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
How many times have you been plagued by writer's block?
That horrible creative paralysis that comes when you're sat at a blank page or computer screen, desperate to write and pour out your creative ideas.
But the words just don't come. There's not even a slow drip, let alone the gushing rivers of creative writing you'd hoped for.
This type of creative block, or writer's block, can strike any creative writer and render them almost helpless.
But there is hope, and there are ways to overcome it.
Using creative writing prompts is a very effective method of combating the evil writer's block.
Creative writing prompts are in fact like your own special private team of superheroes.
They're ready and waiting to hit that evil villain known as writer's block right where it hurts and send it scurrying back to where it come from.
So how do these prompts work?
What they do is provide a short creative phrase, idea or sentence to get your creative juices flowing. Once you've had that little push to get you started, your own creativity kicks in and carries you forward.
The most difficult part of creating - especially when your confidence is low - is getting started.
Creative writing prompts step up to the rescue in their beautiful flowing capes and their underpants worn on the outside.
(Ok they don't ACTUALLY look like that, they're just a few words written down, but go with the analogy!)
So the next time you're stuck at a blank screen and feel you're suffering the effects and onset of writer's block, get on that superhero hotline and call up a few creative writing prompts to save the day!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
All the young Jedi apprentices groaned when Master Yoda announced, "You will an essay write."
Once upon a time, everything was made by hand. Each item had to be crafted individually; it took forever because there was no standardization. When Man grasped the concept of using patterns, templates and molds to mass-produce identical parts for later assembly, manufacturing efficiency took a great leap forward. Whether making furniture or automobiles, once people had assembled the first model, building additional copies was a piece of cake. They could be certain that the parts would fit together.
Why can't the same process be applied to writing essays?
Many folks would argue that writing an essay is not the same as building a car. An essay written by one individual will always differ from that of another. Conventional Wisdom says, "Essays defy standardization, so of course there is no way to make writing them easy." As a result, students believe that they must start from scratch all over again on each new essay assignment. The prospect causes great consternation. "What will I write? Where will I begin? If only there were some kind of essay writing system..."
The perception that no part of the essay writing process can be "systematized" (i.e. repeated over and over again) is flawed. It overlooks the fact that the structure of virtually every type of essay follows the same format. American high school English classes focus almost exclusively on the content of an essay. Since each essay assignment deals with new subject matter, students assume that all essays are different. They don't realize that "topic" is an irrelevant factor. There is very little discussion about the format of a properly structured essay.
Too bad! Most students don't learn the secret that makes writing essays easy - all they have to do is follow the same format every time. Usually the topic of the essay assignment is posed in the form of a question. There is never any doubt about where to begin - the first sentence of the essay should answer the question! After that, list some reasons supporting the answer. In the following paragraphs, provide details to back up those reasons. Each paragraph should deal with only one reason. Come to a conclusion.
It's a morceau de gateau (piece of cake). There is no need to feel confused. When students follow the format, writing an essay becomes like painting by the numbers. The formula never changes. Follow the yellow brick road and always stay on the path. If high school English teachers would devote three measly days to teaching this concept (and only this concept), most students would no longer have to panic when they hear, "You will an essay write."
c. 2009 Michael Strong
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When learning how to play the guitar or learning any musical instrument or singing, you’ll be aware of 3 elements that are part of musical sound. They are the quality of sound or timbre, the volume or amplitude and what we are discussing here, the pitch or frequency of the sound. In the context of playing or listening to music, pitch is the conventional term but in the more scientific context of sound waves as opposed to musical notes, we would use the term, frequency.
When learning the guitar you’ll know the top E guitar string has the highest pitch and the bottom E, the thickest string, has the lowest pitch but this, it must be remembered, is nothing to do with the volume.
A certain note is a sound made by the guitar at an exact frequency and the system of notes is now a standard recognized around the world so that all guitarists, musicians and singers use the A above middle C as the reference for tuning instruments. It became a standard in 1939 for this note A4 to be 440Hz. The Hertz measurement of sound wave vibrations created by the movement of the guitar string for instance.
Remember our reference is 44Hz or 440 vibrations a second and that is A4; it follows that A5 is twice the frequency or 880Hz and going the other way, A3 is half A4 at 220Hz, A2 half again at 110Hz and A1 is 55Hz.
Between each of these references there are 7 additional sections which means there are 8 notes per section and these make up an octave.
On your guitar the thickest and thinnest strings at the top and bottom are both tuned to E but they are, in fact, 2 octaves apart.
The vibration frequency of a guitar string and therefore the pitch is affected by the string’s mass, tension and length so you us the placement of fingers on the frets to reduce the length of the guitar string, reducing it’s mass.
This is the very essence of note production and it’s useful to understand when you are first learning the guitar.
Do you have perfect pitch?
When watching your favourite guitar player the skills she incorporates will include agility around the guitar neck and body but also two aspects which are less easy to identify by looking and they are a sense of rhythm and of pitch. Both senses are qualities that normally evolve with time and experience and vary a lot between guitarists.
Someone who has perfect pitch, often called ‘absolute pitch’ can flawlessly identify notes and play or sing them back without any point of tuning reference – a rare quality even for those guitar players, singers etc. who we most admire.
Consensus has it that there are genetic markers that some people are lucky to have enabling them to more easily learn the guitar because they understand ‘relative pitch’ even with limited musical tuition. Relative pitch is, as the name implies, understand the relationship between musical notes.
That’s the bad news regarding perfect, absolute and relative pitch. The good news is that being tone deaf, as a lot of us where accused of being back at school, is as rare as being born with perfect pitch, so if you enjoy listening to music you’ll not be tone deaf.
By learning to play the guitar, tuning your guitar and generally getting fully involved in guitar playing stuff your understanding of pitch will get better. My favourite online guitar lessons provider has a ”game” which challenges you to identify the distance between notes helping to improve your ability to hear like a musician – check out the review here.
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First Battle of St. Albans - Conflict & Date:
The First Battle of St. Albans was fought May 22, 1455, during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485).
Armies & Commanders
First Battle of St. Albans - Background:
The antagonism between the Houses of Lancaster and York commenced in 1399 when Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster overthrew his unpopular cousin King Richard II. A grandson of Edward III, through John of Gaunt, his claim to the English crown was relatively weak compared to his Yorkist relations. Ruling until 1413 as Henry IV, he was forced to put down several uprisings to maintain the throne. On his death, the throne passed to his son, Henry V. A great warrior known for his victory at Agincourt, Henry V only lived until 1422 when he was succeeded by his nine-month old son Henry VI. For most of his minority, Henry was surrounded by unpopular advisors such as the Duke of Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, and the Duke of Suffolk.
During Henry VI's reign, the French gained the upper hand in the Hundred Years' War and began pushing English forces from France. A weak and ineffective ruler, Henry was heavily advised by the Duke of Somerset who desired peace. This position was countered by Richard, Duke of York who wished to continue fighting. A descendent of Edward III's second and fourth sons, he possessed a strong claim to the throne. By 1450, Henry VI began experiencing bouts of insanity and three years later was judged unfit to rule. This resulted in a Council of Regency being formed with York at its head as Lord Protector. Imprisoning Somerset, he worked to expand his power but was forced to step down two years later when Henry VI recovered.
First Battle of St. Albans - Forces Mobilize:
Resuming the throne, Henry again fell under the influence of his advisors. Seeking to eliminate York as a threat, Queen Margaret of Anjou had him removed from court. Departing, York increasingly began to fear that he would be arrested for treason. This came to a head in 1455 when he received a summons to appear before the King's council to answer allegations against him. Fearing the outcome, York began raising troops from among his supporters in the north. Assembling his men, he started moving south towards London. En route, he was joined by the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, both members of the allied Neville family. The addition of their forces brought York's army to between 5,000 and 7,000 men. In response to York's actions, Henry formed a small army of 2,000-3,000 men, with the Duke of Somerset in command, and began marching north.
First Battle of St. Alban - The Armies Meet:
Departing London, Henry was surprised by the speed of York's advance and directed his army to occupy the fortified town of St. Albans on the morning of May 22. Shortly thereafter, York's forces arrived outside the town and began deploying to the east. Despite the aggressive stances assumed by both sides, neither Henry nor York was eager to engage in combat. York desired that his name be cleared and certain Lancastrian advisors removed. Badly outnumbered, Henry and Somerset wished to escape from militarily weak position. As a result, much of the morning was spent in negotiations as messengers travelled back forth between the two camps. After three hours of talks, York proved unable to convince Henry of his peaceful intentions and the King became increasingly angry in regard to the Duke's demands.
First Battle of St. Albans - A Short, Violent Clash:
Around midday, York grew tired of the impasse and directed his forces to assault St. Albans via the Sopwell and Shropshire Lane gates. Charging forward, they found both gates barricaded by Henry's men. Repeated assaults failed to break through and casualties began to mount. Assessing the situation, Warwick led the Yorkist reserves in search of another way into St. Albans. Moving through gardens and back roads, he was able to enter the town and approached its marketplace. Here, Yorkist forces found the Lancastrian reserves. Caught by surprise, they were not prepared for battle when Warwick's men charged forward. Quickly shattering the enemy's forces, Warwick pressed his attack. With the Lancastrian reserves fleeing, the troops at the gates were also forced to withdraw.
First Battle of St. Alban - Aftermath:
As the battle swirled through the streets, Somerset was killed and Henry captured. In the fighting, the King was slightly wounded in the neck. While a minor clash in regard to numbers engaged, the First Battle of St. Albans marked the opening of the Wars of the Roses and had a substantial political impact. Taking possession of Henry, York reclaimed his position at court and was made Lord High Constable of England. As the King again slipped into another bout of insanity, York also became regent with the title of Lord Protector in November 1455. Following Henry's recovery the following year, York was forced from his posts by Margaret and sent to Ireland. Fighting resumed in earnest in 1459 when the two sides clashed at Blore Heath and Ludford Bridge.
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by Richard Firsten
Dear Mr. Firsten:
First a compliment: I just finished reading The ELT Grammar Book. It's the easiest, most accessible and interesting grammar book I've ever found, and we've adopted it for a TESL class.
Now a question: Here's a sentence that one of my students created:
From him I learned how important to have responsibility was.
I substituted the infinitive to have with the gerund, and the sentence became grammatical:
From him I learned how important having responsibility was.
Instead of adding the gerund to the student's sentence as I had done, every native speaker I asked added it was after important.
From him I learned how important it was to have responsibility.
I assume that to have responsibility is the infinitive subject, so the word order is correct (not inverted), but I can't for the life of me figure out why this sentence doesn't work.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Karen L. Fox
University of California at Irvine Extension, USA
Dear Ms. Fox:
Let me alleviate your consternation right away. The sentence your student created does work. The reason that you and the native speakers you asked about it weren't comfortable with it has to do with other ways of expressing the same idea that are more typically used by English speakers.
You were right in thinking there's nothing wrong with the word order--that's a given. Changing to have into having to create a gerund noun phrase is another way of expressing this idea. Placing the phrase it was after the adjective is yet another way. And here's one more alternative:
From him I learned it was very important to have responsibility.
All of these sentences are equally grammatical. The question is simply which ones are more commonly used or less awkward, and therefore more easily recognized as correct.
The most typical way of expressing this idea, however, is to use the anticipatory it (. . . it was to have responsibility). This is called the anticipatory it because the pronoun literally anticipates what will follow. Here's another example:
It's wonderful to master another language.
A: It's wonderful.
B: What's wonderful?
A: To master another language. To master another language is wonderful.
Notice that A's reply contains exactly the same construction as your student's sentence. Person A could equally say Mastering another language is wonderful.
I hope this puts your mind to rest, Ms. Fox. Thanks for a great question! And thank you very much for the kudos about the book and the news about its adoption!
Can you please clarify an issue I have concerning a couple of adjectives and adverbs? It's amazing how something I thought was a no-brainer turns out to be more complicated than I would have expected. Is it correct to say both I feel good and I feel well? Do they mean the same thing? (I think they do.) But I just don't understand why it's permissible in this case to use either the adjective good or the adverb well. How is it that both are acceptable?
In the same vein, is it equally fine to say I feel bad and I feel badly? Somehow I'm not as comfortable with these two as I am with the first two. Please help me out here.
One of the things I enjoy most about delving into English grammar is that it's full of unexpected little twists and turns, and you're never quite sure if you've got the definitive answer for everything. Yes, this can make grammar a frustrating subject, but you must admit that its intricacies can keep your attention.
As to your first question, both sentences you cited are correct, but not for the reason you think. The word well is not only an adverb but also an adjective, so labeling well as an adverb in this case isn't correct. When well means in good health, it's an adjective, not an adverb, and that's why both sentences are correct. Well is being used here, just as good is, as a subject complement after the linking verb feel. When well means in a good way, then it's an adverb, as in the sentence She sings well.
As a quick side note, here are two short sentences that demonstrate the difference in meaning: Be good./Be well. The first sentence is talking about the other person's behavior; the second, about his or her health.
Now to your second question. The word badly is exclusively an adverb, so it doesn't work grammatically after the verb feel. Yes, many people say I feel badly, and some consider this all right in informal usage, but in more formal or educated English, you should say I feel bad since the linking verb feelrequires the use of a subject complement adjective.
I hope you won't be confused anymore about these adjectives and adverbs. Thanks for your question, Frank.
I'm actually embarrassed to ask this question, hence the pseudonym I'm using. One of my LEP [limited English proficient] students said the other day, "Ham and eggs have been one of my favorite breakfasts since I came to America." At first I didn't say anything except, "Oh, that's nice." But then I thought about his grammar and told him he should have said that ham and eggs has been one of his favorite breakfasts. Of course I got a quizzical look from him since he knows that has should only be used with he, she, and it, but that ham and eggs is/are they.
My question to you is, was his grammar correct, and am I the one who's confused?
Austin, TX USA
You were right in correcting your student's grammar. Ham and eggs is considered as one prepared dish, so it's treated as a third-person singular item. The simple rule is that any prepared dish of food, regardless of how many ingredients are mentioned in its name, is considered a singular item, which means it takes the third-person singular form of the verb. Other examples are chicken and rice, rice and beans, and sausage and peppers.
And please don't feel embarrassed, Embarrassed. I'm glad you asked this question!
Here's the Brain Teaser from my June 2005 column:
1. It's okay to say I saw him leave.
2. It's also okay to say I saw him leaving.
3. It's okay to say I heard her sneeze.
4. And it's okay to say I heard her sneezing.
Sentences 1 and 3 have base-verb direct object companions (DOCs), leave and sneeze, and Sentences 2 and 4 have -ing verb DOCs, leaving and sneezing. What exactly does each DOC mean?
The first completely correct answer came from Anne Kall of Dublin, Ireland:
By using the base verb (leave) in the first sentence, the speaker is saying that he/she saw the completed action. In other words, that person left,since this base verb represents the simple past. As for sneeze, it means that the speaker heard one sneeze coming from the woman. We can use the base verb to mean that something that can happen one or several times only happened one time.
By using the -ing verb (leaving), the speaker is saying that he/she saw the action in progress, but really didn't witness the end of the action. In other words, the speaker is assuming that the other person left, but really didn't see for sure if that happened or not. In the case of sneezing, here we know that the speaker heard more than one sneeze from the woman--in fact, the speaker probably heard several sneezes.
How's that? I hope I got these right.
You certainly did, Anne! You've got a gift for explaining grammar very clearly. Thank you!
Here's the Brain Teaser for this issue. What do you think about the following sentence?
If someone feels that they've been unfairly passed over for a promotion, they should speak to their supervisor.
Is the grammar OK or not? Please e-mail your responses to email@example.com, or send them in by snail mail to
c/o Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center
750 NW 20th Street
Miami, FL 33179 USA
When writing to Grammatically Speaking, please include your name and location (city and state, province, or country). If your question or response is selected for publication, your name and location will be printed unless you specify otherwise.
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Failure to wear a personal floatation device is the main reason people lose their lives in boating accidents.
The National Safe Boating Council warns boaters that most drowning victims had a life jacket available, but were not wearing it when they entered the water. “It is difficult to put a life jacket on once you are already in the water,” said Nancy Boldt, boat and water safety coordinator for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. “The single most important part of safety on the water is wearing a personal flotation device.”
North Dakota law requires all children ages 10 and younger to wear a personal flotation device while in boats of less than 27 feet in length. The law also requires all personal watercraft users to wear a life jacket, Boldt said, as well as anyone towed on skis, tubes, boards or other similar devices.
Water users should make sure to wear life jackets that are the appropriate size, and in good condition. It is also important that children wear a PFD while swimming.
When purchasing a PFD, Boldt suggests considering the most prevalent water activity. Water skiers and tubers should wear a life jacket with four nylon straps rather than one with a zipper, because straps are stronger than zippers upon impact with water. Anglers or persons paddling a canoe should opt for a PFD that is comfortable enough to wear for an entire outing.
Water skiers and tubers are reminded it takes three to ski and tube. When a person is towed on water skis or a similar device, an observer other than the operator is required on the vessel.
It is important for swimmers to know water depth, as serious injuries can occur from diving into water. Large objects hidden below the water’s surface can lead to significant injury.
North Dakota boaters also are reminded that marine VHF radios are an important part of boat safety that should not be improperly used by operators. Boldt said they are intended for boat operators who are in distress and facing an emergency situation.
Regulations to help ensure safe boating this summer are found in the 2012-14 North Dakota Fishing Guide. A more comprehensive listing is available in the North Dakota Boat and Water Safety Guide or the Boat North Dakota education book. These guides are available online at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov, by email at firstname.lastname@example.org, or at a local Game and Fish Department office.
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There have been two recent stories of girls who became the victims of brutal bullying campaigns after sending naked pictures of themselves to boys in text messages, or sexting. This is a dangerous trend that brings together impulsivity and hyperpersonal communication, and it has the potential to wreak havoc on the lives of young people.
In the literature about computer-mediated communication, there is a phenomena called “hyperpersonal communication.” What happens with hyperpersonal communication is that people communicating through computers or mobile devices lose the social cues that usually provide them with the signals that they’re sharing too much information. They also feel as if they’re not really sharing things with another person, since there isn’t a physical person standing there looking at them.
When it comes to sexting, hyperpersonal communication is a huge factor. Many girls who send pictures of their bodies to boys via text probably wouldn’t show these same body parts to the boys in person. There’s something about that little mobile device that makes them feel removed from the situation, from what they’re actually doing. In the same way, many boys and girls that text, email, or send Facebook messages that are sexually explicit likely wouldn’t say the same thing in person.
Computer-mediated communication removes so many of the social cues that provide us with the boundaries we need to be able to tell if what we’re doing or saying is appropriate or not. We know by the bad feeling we get in the pit of our stomach (indicating shame) that we shouldn’t do something. We know by the look that someone gets on their face when we’re in person that we shouldn’t say something. Our cell phone or computer, on the other hand, doesn’t say anything. They don’t give us that look. They’re so sterile, so impersonal, it’s easy to feel like what we’re doing or saying in front of them goes nowhere. Like we’re alone. But, we’re not.
It’s vitally important that both adults who care about children and adolescents themselves understand the dangers of sharing too much of ourselves through technology. It’s just so easy to text that picture, but the repercussions are huge. Just ask the families of these two girls who, in a moment of thoughtlessness, shared too much of themselves. It goes beyond locker room talk when there are pictures to share. Pictures so intimate, they never should have been made.
We need to start talking about this issue openly with kids. Parents, look at your child’s text messages, monitor their Facebook and email!! Yes, you do have the right. Teens and tweens, know that when your parents insist upon surveying your messages, they are not out to hurt or humiliate you. They are trying to keep you safe. And, if you find that the two of you can’t agree on where to draw the boundaries, then take the phone and computer away until you can. That sounds harsh, I know. But it’s no different from setting boundaries about other types of behaviors that could be dangerous, such as drinking alcohol, going to parties, or setting curfew. If you don’t think this is that serious, read the story that I linked above. It’s a matter of life and death.
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'Free-for-all' decimates fish stocks in the southern Pacific
Posted: 25 January 2012
Asian, European and Latin American fleets have devastated fish stocks in the southern Pacific, once among the world’s richest waters, a new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found.
Governments with the power to stop the plunder have stalled for years, and no binding rules are in place. The result: Stocks of jack mackerel are down 90 percent to less than 3 million metric tons in just two decades.
The oily fish is a staple in Africa, but people elsewhere are unaware that it is in their forkfuls of farmed salmon. Jack mackerel is a vital component of fishmeal for aquaculture.
Today, industrial fleets bound only by voluntary restraints compete in what amounts to a free-for-all in open waters from the west coast of South America across much of the southern Pacific.
Daniel Pauly, oceanographer of University of British Columbia, sees the jack mackerel crisis as an alarming indicator of progressive collapse in all oceans. “This is the last of the buffaloes,” he told ICIJ. “When they’re gone, everything will be gone ... This is the closing of the frontier.”
Delegates from at least 20 countries will gather January 30 in the Chilean capital Santiago at a meeting organised by the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization to seek more progress toward the elusive goal of curbing this plunder.
Among the investigation’s findings:
- As other fisheries are pushed to their limits, giant trawlers have moved southward toward the edge of Antarctica to catch the fish that are left. Many are aided by government subsidies.
- National interests and geopolitical rivalry have blocked efforts, since 2006, to create and ratify a regional fisheries management organization that can impose binding legal measures to rescue jack mackerel from further collapse.
- In Chile, a handful of companies controlled largely by wealthy families own rights to 87 percent of the jack mackerel catch; with government backing they have secured unrealistically high quotas –beyond what scientists recommend to save the stock.
- In Peru, the world’s second largest fishing nation, widespread cheating at fishmeal plants allows companies to overfish and evade taxes. An ICIJ analysis reveals that at least 630,000 tons of anchoveta, – worth nearly $200 million when reduced to fishmeal for aquaculture – “vanished” over two and a half years.
The Last Fish: Plunder in the South Pacific is the latest installment of Looting the Seas, a multi-year investigation looking at forces that are rapidly emptying oceans of fish. The stories are published in partnership with media around the world, including the International Herald Tribune, Le Monde (France), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), El Mundo (Spain), Trouw (The Netherlands), and the investigative journalism centers IDL-Reporteros (Peru) and CIPER (Chile). A documentary co-produced with London-based tve is planned to air on BBC World TV News in the spring.
- Goodbye to Planet 21
- Voices from Planet 21
- Commentary: 20 years on - and time runs desperately short
- World in serious trouble on food front
- Arab grain imports rising rapidly
- COMMENTARY: Green renaissance, not revolution
- Lost bees could cost UK farmers a fortune
- Rising number of farm animals poses environmental and public health risks
- Why cashew is driving Guinean farmers nuts
- 'Free-for-all' decimates fish stocks in the southern Pacific
- COMMENTARY: World must wake up to the coming crisis in the Sahel
- Bumper 2011 grain harvest fails to rebuild global stocks
- Food security a looming crisis
- Rush for land a wake-up call for poorer countries
- World grain production down, meat consumption up
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Birth Defects and Prescription Drugs
Some prescription medications are known to cause birth defects when taken during pregnancy. If your baby was born with spina bifida, a heart or lung defect, or any other type of congenital abnormality and you were prescribed a medication while you were pregnant, you might qualify for financial compensation. Contact our birth defect lawyers for a free case review today.
Each year, approximately 120,000 babies are born with birth defects. While some birth defects are minor with few or no symptoms, others are severe and can lead to serious health complications and death. Some of the most common birth defects include heart defects, lung complications, spina bifida, cleft lip, cleft palate and limb reduction defects.
Birth Defects and Prescriptions Drugs
It has been estimated that approximately 90 percent of women take some form of over-the-counter or prescription medication during their pregnancies. Although many drugs are safe to take during pregnancy, others pose serious dangers to the unborn child.
Drug makers have a responsibility to warn both consumers and health care providers of any risks associated with their medications, including the risk of birth defects. When a drug manufacturer fails to notify the public about these risks, it can and should be held accountable.
Health care providers also have a responsibility to their patients and can be held accountable if they fail to properly warn their patients about risks associated with the medications they prescribe.
Prescription Drugs Linked to Birth Defects
If you are pregnant or are planning a pregnancy, you should talk to your doctor about any over-the-counter and prescription drugs you are taking to make sure they are safe for your baby. The following is a brief list of some of the medications that have been linked to an increase in the risk of birth defects:
- Topamax® (topiramate), a drug to treat epilepsy increases the risk of cleft lip and cleft palate when taken during pregnancy. Studies show that Topamax® increases the risk of oral clefts by 16 times.
- Dilantin® (phenytoin), an anticonvulsant medication, has been associated with a possible increase in the risk of spina bifida, cleft lip, cleft palate, developmental delays and other congenital malformations when taken during pregnancy.
- Diflucan® (fluconazole), a drug used to treat yeast infections, has been linked to abnormal development of the head, face, skullcap and bones. According to an FDA warning, babies are at risk of birth defects when their mothers take high doses of Dilfucan® during the first trimester.
- SSRI antidepressants, including Zoloft® (sertraline), Paxil® (paroxetine), Prozac® (fluoxetine), Celexa® (citalopram), Lexapro® (escitalopram) and Effexor® (venlafaxine) have been associated with an increase in the risk of a broad range of birth defects. Risks might include heart defects, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), neural tube defects (spina bifida), craniosynostosis, omphalocele and club foot.
- Accutane® (isotretinoin), a strong acne medication has been linked to severe birth defects and death. Women of child bearing age who use isotretinoin are advised to use two forms of birth control to avoid pregnancy.
- Certain antibiotics such as sulfa drugs, tetracyclines and ciprofloxacin might be linked to birth defects when taken during pregnancy.
Helpful Categorization by the FDA
In the United States, prescription drugs that are approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are placed in pregnancy categories according to how they may affect the fetus. Prescription medicines (especially those that fall in the categories C and D) should be researched thoroughly prior to taking. They may cause birth defects.
FDA pregnancy category C indicates drugs that have been tested on reproducing animals and there were adverse reactions in the animal fetuses. The valid studies of the drug and pregnancy in humans have not been conducted. The benefits of the drug may outweigh the risks involved.
FDA pregnancy class D drugs are those that have shown adverse reactions to the fetus in both animal and human studies, but the benefits may still outweigh the risks, depending on the individual situation.
FDA pregnancy class X drugs should not be taken while pregnant because the risks obviously outweigh the benefits of the medication.
Birth Defect Lawsuits
If your baby is born with a birth defect and you were prescribed one or more medications during your pregnancy, you might be eligible for financial compensation. To learn more, please contact a birth defect lawyer today. We will review your case for free and let you know how we can help you.
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Table of Contents
Welcome to the Online Safety Training Manual for the Lower Division Biology Program atTexas A&M University . The manual is designed to help students prepare for lab experiments, help instructors with safety training and chemical spill management, and help the technical staff safely prepare, store and dispose of chemical reagents. The online manual supports the following laboratory courses: Biology 101, Biology 107, Biology 111, Biology 112 and Biology 123. I am thankful to the thousands of students and hundreds of instructors who have contributed to the development of this manual. You are encouraged to visit the Office of Environmental Health and Safety home page and their online safety manual for additional safety information for Texas A&M University.
Hazard Communication Requirements
Lab Safety Guidelines
Chemicals used in the Lower Division Biology Labs
Hazard Summaries for Chemicals used in Lower Division Biology Labs
Glossary of terms used on Material Safety Data Sheets
Return to Lower Division Biology Home Page
This manual and its component sections are copywrited. This includes any format including electronic reproduction. Permission is granted for educational use provided the Introductory Biology Program at Texas A&M University and the author, Tonna Harris-Haller are properly credited. ©2009 Lower Division Biology Program at Texas A&M University.
Please notify the author if you have trouble making links, or have questions, comments or suggestions for improvement. Last Updated January 14, 2009 by Tonna Harris-Haller
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EUROPEAN PHYSICS ORGANISATION Cern has announced that shut down its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) until 2015 for vital maintenance and repair work.
The shutdown was planned because the LHC was in operation for three years and needs upgrades in order to continue to extend its research. When it comes back online again in 2015 it will run at higher speeds.
In the past three years the experiments at the LHC have generated huge amounts of data, about 100 petabytes according to Cern, and have led to potentially groundbreaking discoveries, including a particle that appears to be the long sought Higgs Boson.
The data generated by experiments seeking the Higgs Boson are still being analysed, Cern added.
Cern, which receives funding from governments across Europe, said it was pleased with the LHC's first years of operations.
"We have every reason to be very satisfied with the LHC's first three years. The machine, the experiments, the computing facilities and all infrastructures behaved brilliantly, and we have a major scientific discovery in our pocket," said Cern director general Rolf Heuer.
The work on the LHC and its component parts is a vital next stage in the machine's evolution as Cern moves to boost its running speed.
"We'll essentially be rebuilding the interconnections between LHC magnets, so when we resume running in 2015, we will be able to operate the machine at its design energy of 7TeV per beam," said Cern director for accelerators and technology Steve Myers.
Since the start of the year the LHC has been trying to recreate the conditions immediately after the Big Bang by smashing protons into lead ions, while the final four days saw a return to proton-proton collisions to use as a reference point for the lead ion-proton collisions. µ
This article was originally published on V3.
Uses 20 percent less power than traditional systems
It's becoming more prevalent in car research and development
Sign up for INQbot – a weekly roundup of the best from the INQ
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Traditional solar cells are able to capture only a small fraction of the energy that fall upon them. In this segment, we'll talk with the developers of flexible sheets of 'nanoantennas' that could aid in getting energy from solar energy or from other heat sources. Repeating arrays of tiny gold foil loops coated on plastic sheets could harvest up to 80 percent of the infrared light that fall upon them, according to scientists involved with the project. The researchers say the material has the potential to cost just pennies a yard -- though a key part of the technology, a method for storing or transmitting the generated electricity, remains to be developed. We'll find out more.
Produced by Christopher Intagliata, Associate Senior Producer
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Iben BrowningThis article may require cleanupto meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this articleif you can. (October 2007)
Born in England in 1918, Iben Browning graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in 1937. He majored in both math and physics, and earned an M.A. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1947, followed by a doctorate of philosophy degree the following year at the same school. His doctorate was in zoology with minors in genetics and bacteriology. He wrote four books, held 90 patents, and served as a climatologist and business consultant.
Dr. Browning projected an increased risk of a major earthquake on the New Madrid Fault around December 2nd and 3rd, 1990. No noticeable seismic activity was recorded in that area on those dates.
Iben Browning was born in Edna, Texas on January 9, 1918 and grew up in Jackson, Texas. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He graduated from Southwest Texas Teachers College and earned a Master's Degree and a PhD. in biology from the University of Texas. He was married to the former Florence Pinto and had one daughter, Evelyn. He lived his later years in Albuquerque, NM and died on July 18, 1991. (1)(2)(3)
Dr. Browning worked in various scientific fields, including artificial intelligence and bio-engineering, and patented scores of inventions. He also served as a business consultant in various scientific and engineering fields. He eventually became interested in long-term weather forecasting and climate changes. (4)
Browning believed that climate fluctuations are caused by changes in the amount of particulate matter in the atmosphere. The major source of these changes is volcanic activity. His studies showed that volcanic activity can be triggered by land tidal forces caused by the moon, the earth's elliptical orbit of the sun, and the alignment of these three bodies. When conditions are right, these tidal forces can trigger volcanic eruptions (and earthquakes). There are periods when the sun, earth and moon move closer together and line up well to produce frequent high tidal forces and thus a greater number of volcanic eruptions. The dust thrown into the atmosphere reflects sunlight, which can result in climatic cooling. Browning found that climatic changes, especially cooling, are associated with increased troubles in human society, including famine, revolutions, and war. (5)
Browning described his climatic theories and findings in Climate and the Affairs of Men, which he co-authored with Nels Winkless III and published in 1975. At that time he believed that the earth had been through a long warm period and was moving into a dangerous cooling phase. He also declared that he had not detected any effect of human activity on the climate.
Beginning 1971 he began forecasting dates when increased seismic activity could be expected at certain latitudes, based on his theories of tidal stresses caused by astronomical alignments. He is credited with accurately predicting high stress periods that coincided with the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the Mexico City quake of 1985, and the Loma Prieta (California) quake of 1989. (6)
However, Browning is best known for his prediction of a 50% probability of an earthquake to occur on December 3, 1990, along a fault line near New Madrid, Missouri, that would be severe enough to cause damage in several states east and west of the Mississippi River. He made this forecast based on the expected very high tidal forces at that latitude. He reasoned that if geologic forces along this fault had built up enough pressure, the heightened tidal forces could trigger a quake. When the quake did not occur, Browning became the subject of much ridicule by geologists and the public.
Iben Browning was a scientific generalist, who made a career of suggesting new and sometimes unusual ideas.
(1) New York Times, July 20, 1991, obituary (2) Social Security Death Index (3) U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records (4) New York Times, July 20, 1991 (5) Winkless, Nels III and Browning, Iben, Climate and the Affairs of Men, Harper's Magazine Press, 1975 (6) New York Times, July 20, 1991
New Madrid, an Uncle Tupelo song, refers to Dr. Browning and his prediction.This biographicalarticle about a scientistis a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Donald B. Egolf, Ph.D.
Department of Communication
1117 Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412) 624-6763 FAX (412) 624-1878
One common way of categorizing the messages of human discourse is to place them in either the verbal or nonverbal category. Getting the most attention in the field of augmentative communication has been the verbal category, a move understandable, of course, considering the immediate educational, interpersonal, and vocational needs of nonspeaking persons. At the same time, however, there is the other side of the communication coin, the nonverbal side, and it is this side that is the focus of the current research. Specifically, the research focused on facial expressions and sought to answer several basic questions in the area with specific reference to nonspeakers who use assistive communication devices. Two studies were conducted. The first study dealt with perception; the second with expression.
The purpose of Study 1 was to find answers to the following two questions:
Four groups, comprised of the following 95 subjects, participated. Group 1, the target group, was comprised of ten adult, cerebral palsied, nonspeakers who used assistive devices. Of these subjects, nine were wheelchair users. All were enrolled in an independent living program. Group 2, the first control group, was comprised of ten adult, cerebral palsied speakers. These individuals came from the same program as did the members of the target group and seven were wheelchair users. Members of Groups 1 and 2 successfully passed vision and hearing screens and were literate. Group 3, the second control group, was comprised of fourteen adult, foreign nationals. Group 4, the third control group, was comprised of 61 college undergraduates. The students were included to represent native and non-disabled communicators.
Each subject was shown thirty, shuffled photographs that were taken from "Unmasking the Human Face" (Ekman and Friesen, 1975). The photographs depicted six basic facially-expressed emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. From cross-cultural studies, Ekman and Friesen determined that these six emotions were basically universal in meaning, and from other studies they determined that the same six emotions were the most reliably identified. Subjects were told that each picture shown to them depicted one the six emotions. No additional expressions were introduced during the course of the study. There were five photographs for each of the six emotions. Subjects had as much time as they needed to decide upon the emotion being expressed, but could choose only one of the six emotions. After each subject completed identifying all thirty photographs, the pictures were reshuffled. This was done to control for any ordering and expectancy effects. Arrangements were made to have subjects respond by a method that was physically possible for them.
For each subject an accuracy score was computed. The highest possible score was 30--equivalent to identifying correctly each of the 30 emotions presented. Group means were computed and the data showed that each successive group had a higher mean. In other words, cerebral palsied nonspeakers who used assistive communication devices scored lowest (M=17.10), succeeded by cerebral palsied speakers (M=19.40), followed by foreign nationals (M=21.86), and then by native, nondisabled communicators (M=23.85). Accuracy data was analyzed using a one-way ANOVA with a resultant F(3,91) = 18.57 (p<.0001). Therefore the groups were significantly different from one another. When the data were examined to see if the groups were similar with respect to which emotions they found to be most and least difficult to identify, they were found to be very much alike. All groups found happiness the easiest to identify and disgust to be the most difficult.
In answer to Question 2 of Study 1, it was found that nonspeakers were similar to the control groups in confusions. For example, with two emotions, fear and disgust, the most common confusions for all groups were surprise and anger respectively.
Study 2 posed two questions:
Three groups participated; two were expressers and the third served as judges. Group 1 consisted of six, cerebral palsied, nonspeaking adults who used assistive communication devices. This group was recruited from the same independent living program mentioned in Study 1. Group 2 consisted of six college undergraduate natural speakers. Group 3 consisted of 77 undergraduates.
All subjects were asked to portray facially the emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. The portrayals were photographed and shown to the judges who recorded the emotion they thought was portrayed.
For each subject an accuracy portrayal score was computed. It was an average score with a range of 0 through 6, representing six emotions. Group means and variances were computed: nonspeakers (M=2.26; V=0.2) and speakers (M=4.01; V=2.44). A t-test (df=10) for independent groups showed significance at the .05 level. The two groups differed significantly from one another.
To answer to question posed by Question 2 of Study 2, confusion matrices were created showing the emotions portrayed by each of the subject groups versus the emotions perceived by the judges. Analysis of these matrices showed nonspeakers performing extremely well portraying happiness (83.8%); moderately well portraying sadness (52.3%) and surprise (45.6%); and poorly on fear, anger, and disgust (each below 23%). The normal speakers portrayed every emotion more accurately by an average of 29.8%.
Study 1 showed that nonspeakers, who use assistive communication devices, scored lowest as a group in identifying emotions expressed by the face. One observation made of the nonspeaking group in free interaction was that the members spent much of their time looking at their assistive communication devices, and in doing so, were not observing the faces of their communication partners. Focus and concentration on the device is of course necessary, but focusing almost exclusively on the device and not on the communication partner may impede the development of perceptual skills or dull those extant.
Therefore one suggestion emerging from this study is that users of assistive communication devices should learn to visually shift their gazes from their devices to their discourse partners. Another suggestion from Study 1 is that the nonspeakers' ability to perceive nonverbal emotional expressions differs from other groups in degree but not in kind. In other words, nonspeakers' confusions are, more often than not, similar to the control groups. The consequence of this finding would seem to be that nonspeakers can indeed improve their "face-reading" skills.
Study 2 sought to determine if nonspeakers, who use assistive communication devices, can facially express emotions as accurately as a control group, and were judges' confusions of nonspeakers' expressions similar to those of the control group of speakers. Results showed that the nonspeakers expressed significantly more poorly than did the controls. The types of confusions made by the judges perceiving the two groups' expressions were in moderate agreement.
It is the case that with neuromuscular problems many nonspeakers will have difficulty facially expressing emotions with accuracy. Compensatory strategies have to be devised. It is here where the assistive communication device should be recruited for compensatory purposes. Devices can be programmed to generate sounds (both words and non-words) to reflect not only the six emotions listed by Ekman and Friesen, but other emotions as well. When the face cannot produce an emotional expression, the auditory output of the communication device must "step-in." And, just as the face can quickly produce an array of fast changing expressions or frames, so must the device be programmed accordingly. One user, for example, in his repertoire of emotional expressions, has programmed into his device the currently popular, "yada, yada, yada ..." to express boredom. This emotion can be quickly changed to one of interest with a preprogrammed, "OK-now we're getting somewhere." Programming assistive communication devices with the structures of language is very important, but at the same time, the nonverbal side of the communication coin must not be forgotten.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W., (1975). UNMASKING THE HUMAN FACE: A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING EMOTIONS FROM FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-hall, 1975.
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UT Dallas researchers recently demonstrated how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences, such as movements or sounds, can reorganize the brain. This technology could lead to new treatments for stroke, tinnitus, autism and other disorders.
In a related paper, The University of Texas at Dallas neuroscientists showed that they could alter the speed at which the brain works in laboratory animals by pairing stimulation of the vagus nerve with fast or slow sounds.
A team led by Dr. Robert Rennaker and Dr. Michael Kilgard looked at whether repeatedly pairing vagus nerve stimulation with a specific movement would change neural activity within the laboratory rats’ primary motor cortex. To test the hypothesis, they paired the vagus nerve stimulation with movements of the forelimb in two groups of rats. The results were published in a recent issue of Cerebral Cortex.
After five days of stimulation and movement pairing, the researchers examined the brain activity in response to the stimulation. The rats who received the training along with the stimulation displayed large changes in the organization of the brain’s movement control system. The animals receiving identical motor training without stimulation pairing did not exhibit any brain changes, or plasticity.
People who suffer strokes or brain trauma often undergo rehabilitation that includes repeated movement of the affected limb in an effort to regain motor skills. It is believed that repeated use of the affected limb causes reorganization of the brain essential to recovery. The recent study suggests that pairing vagus nerve stimulation with standard therapy may result in more rapid and extensive reorganization of the brain, offering the potential for speeding and improving recovery following stroke, said Rennaker, associate professor in The University of Texas at Dallas’ School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
“Our goal is to use the brain’s natural neuromodulatory systems to enhance the effectiveness of standard therapies,” Rennaker said. “Our studies in sensory and motor cortex suggest that the technique has the potential to enhance treatments for neurological conditions ranging from chronic pain to motor disorders. Future studies will investigate its effectiveness in treating cognitive impairments.”
Since vagus nerve stimulation has an excellent safety record in human patients with epilepsy, the technique provides a new method to treat brain conditions in which the timing of brain responses is abnormal, including dyslexia and schizophrenia.
In another paper in the journal Experimental Neurology, Kilgard led a team that paired vagus nerve stimulation with audio tones of varying speeds to alter the rate of activity within the rats’ brains. The team reported that this technique induced neural plasticity within the auditory cortex, which controls hearing.
“Our goal is to use the brain’s natural neuromodulatory systems to enhance the effectiveness of standard therapies,” Dr. Rennaker said.
The UT Dallas researchers are working with a device developed by MicroTransponder, a biotechnology firm affiliated with the University. MicroTransponder currently is testing a vagus nerve stimulation therapy on human patients in Europe in hopes of reducing or eliminating the symptoms of tinnitus, the debilitating disorder often described as “ringing in the ears.”
“Understanding how brain networks self-organize themselves is vitally important to developing new ways to rehabilitate patients diagnosed with autism, dyslexia, stroke, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease,” said Kilgard, a professor of neuroscience.
Treatment of neurological disease is currently limited to pharmacological, surgical or behavioral interventions. But this recent research indicates it may be possible to effectively manipulate the plasticity of the human brain for a variety of purposes. Patients then could benefit from brain activity intentionally directed toward rebuilding lost skills.
If subsequent studies confirm the UT Dallas findings, human patients may have access to more efficient therapies that are minimally invasive and avoid long-term use of drugs.
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