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From “Decoration Day” events in the 1860′s honoring Civil War soldiers to a transformation into a national holiday, Memorial Day is a time to learn about and reflect on those who have died serving our country. Baltimore’s abundance of monuments and public memorials offer a great opportunity to do just this.
Early on, our city gained a reputation for its remarkable monuments. The famous nickname, the Monumental City, comes from a 1827 toast by John Quincy Adams on a visit to Baltimore:
“Baltimore, the Monumental City: may the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy as the days of her danger have been trying and triumphant!”
The city’s reputation as the Monumental City has only grown as residents have erected hundreds of memorials in the intervening 190 years. We invite you to join Baltimore Heritage tour guide Dr. Ralph Brown this Memorial Day weekend to learn about the city’s monumental sculpture in our annual Baltimore by Bike tour.
Monumental City by Bike is free for veterans, currently enlisted military personnel and their families.
To register: http://baltimoreheritage.org/event/monumental-city-by-bike-a-memorial-day-weekend-ride/ | <urn:uuid:9bc9f4ca-c40d-4db1-a42b-de6a15fb27c3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20140519165745998&mode=print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.92996 | 261 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Tibhuvan University, faculty of education has designed Four years specialization course on information and Communication Technology in bachelor level program. This program provides students with a broad education in computer science and information technology concepts including Programming, Algorithms, Hardware concept, Database, Management information system, Data structures, Computer Graphics, Cyber law, Artificial intelligence, Web programming and other ICT allied areas. Students Learn Theory as well as engaged in the practical tools techniques used in the development of computer systems and software. The successful ICT graduates may progress in to the career such as a computer teacher in high school level, software application developer, system administrator, web programmer, database administrator, web developer etc.
Aims and objectives
The main aim of Four-year Bachelor ICTE is to prepare theoretically and practically competent Manpower who will work in the field of ICT. The major objective of this programme is to prepare competent Manpower who works related to their specialization areas of ICTE and who will work as expert in Government organizations (GOs) and Non-government organizations (IGOs).
Graduates who have twelve years of schooling i.e. Higher Secondary Education Certificate or Proficiency Certificate level of TU or equivalent qualification recognized by T.U. can apply for Four-year B.Ed.
Course Structure of ICTE.
ICTE is a four Year, eight semester program that enhancces an individuals capacity to succed in whatever career s/he chooes to pursue. Four-year B.Ed. ICTE consists of 138 credit hours and its course structure in given bellow. | <urn:uuid:3c9d5f14-f322-4bb0-81ef-c9af51a8a3d3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jjmc.edu.np/main/c2VtZXRlcnByb2dyYW0= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.933318 | 331 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Oct. 10, 2002 – Dusty plasma?
Many people in the Virgin Islands might say, "What's that, something like Sahara dust?" A small number of knowledgeable engineers and tech business types might say, "Oh yes, that's research a few physicists are working on. We can get some great new products out of it." A very small number of scientists might say, "Oh yes, that's a little branch in physics having to do with gases and microgravity and small particles of solid matter; those guys study it in labs."
One of an even smaller number of physicists who actually do study dusty plasma says, "I don't care what they do with the technology; I just love to do experiments with dusty plasma and see what develops." Virgin Islander Edward E. Thomas Jr. goes on to say, "In the lab, I see things that nobody else has ever seen or done before. What a rush!"
Thomas, son of the chief executive officer of The West Indian Co., has been home in the islands for a few days, finalizing arrangements for the 10th Workshop on the Physics of Dusty Plasma, to be held next June at Marriott Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort. Some 80 scientists and 20 engineers are expected to attend the conference, he says, adding that colleagues have been after him for a number of years to arrange the national conference here.
The field is a fast-growing one. The initial workshop in San Diego in 1986 was attended by 10 scientists, each of whom felt that he alone was working on this topic. But this soon changed as industrial implications moved from astrophysics into semiconductors. In 1990, between 30 and 40 papers were published on the topic; in 2001, there were 400. This year's third international conference, held in Durban, South Africa, was attended by about 125 scientists and engineers; more than 200 "talks" were presented.
The results of experiments are frequently taken by engineers who develop marketable products. In this field, there have been significant implications in astrophysics in, for example, National Aeronautics and Space Administration studies of the rings of Saturn and Uranus. Research has also resulted in cheaper methods of producing computer chips and better solar panels, even entire rooftop coverings that function as giant photoactive solar panels.
Core scientists aren't interested in the products, Thomas says; it's the engineers who pick up the developed technology and run to their companies and to the Patent Office.
He holds up a tiny blue-light keychain flashlight - "It's blue light, not a white light with a blue bulb," he explains - that intrigues his small son and friends. "It took 20 years of research to find a way to get green light and blue light," he observes. Sometimes, he says, 10 hours of data may take a year or more to analyze.
Inspiration at CAHS
Thomas, a product of St. Thomas elementary schools and four years at Charlotte Amalie High School, has long been interested in what sort of children grow up to become scientists and in attracting more youngsters to science fields.
In his own case, when he was in eighth or ninth grade, a summer spent on Cape Cod with a marine biologist uncle who took him to hang out in his lab sparked the interest. Returning from that experience, he landed with two CAHS science teachers - Austin Walters and Howard Gumbs - who fanned the spark. Walters taught physics, and "he was my inspiration," Thomas says. Walters was at the time teaching physics at the University of the Virgin Islands, too, and he used a college textbook for his course at CAHS; so, Thomas reached college with a leg up in training and knowledge. When he visits home, he always looks up those two teachers, along with another, Irose Payne, and now-Principal Jeannette Smith Barry.
Although he loved science fiction in books and on television (one of his favorite quotes is from "Babylon 5": "Be terrified and relieved that we have not explained it all"), he credits his uncle and his CAHS teachers with steering him to science.
Thomas at 34 is a tenured associate professor of physics at Auburn University in Alabama, where he earned his doctorate. He also is the coordinator of the on-campus Plasma Sciences Laboratory, which he says is a dream situation for him. He sets up and supervises the lab work of three graduate students and five undergraduates and is about to hire a postdoctoral scientist because of the intense workload at the thinking level.
In order to obtain funding, the lab performs other research not related to dusty plasma; in his lab, there's an important instability experiment going forward. "You're trained as a scientist to be flexible scientifically," he says, "to be a businessman, salesperson, manager, and that way you get grants which allow you to do the best possible science."
Creating future scientists
Thomas feels strongly that a community must support its science teachers if there is any expectation of producing future scientists. This includes salary, materials and equipment, and continuing education on the part of teachers. And, he says, it must begin at the elementary level.
In addition to his teaching and research work, he also coordinates a high school internship and teaching opportunities summer research program and is faculty adviser for a professional society of physics students.
When school groups visit his laboratory, he says, it's the children from 6th grade down that are really interested, with first and second graders being the best, most "hands on," most curious and excitable. By junior high age, he says, "something happens to kids that suppresses that curiosity — puberty, peer pressure, something. By high school it's too late" to turn them toward the sciences. Communities and schools need to recognize that and plan accordingly, he says, adding that it takes "political will."
The environment of the Virgin Islands, he observes, is a "natural laboratory," covering everything from marine biological sciences to trash disposal, fisheries and solar and wind power. "Science is living and breathing," he says. "Early teachers can generate great enthusiasm."
When a high school senior graduates No. 1 in his small class, he feels he's tops. But then he enrolls in a college course where all 30 students were No. 1 in their high school. They cannot all continue to be No. 1. As a college professor, Thomas feels some sadness that in his teaching he must cull out some who can't continue to be No. 1's, but he says it is necessary to teach to the ones who will become the future scientists.
For more on Thomas's views about science education in the Virgin Islands, see his detailed analysis in the 2001 Source Op-Ed article "What's needed to raise those science scores".
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here. | <urn:uuid:77dc9092-3653-49cb-86ad-87ef1999a99d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://stthomassource.com/content/2002/10/10/cahs-graduate-says-his-science-career-rush-399/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.978283 | 1,430 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Eco-friendly drug dealers are now packaging Class A drugs in re-usuable containers for customers concerned about the environment.
Dealers have traditionally used small plastic ziploc baggies, lottery tickets, greaseproof paper or cling film to wrap up their drugs but some are now giving customers plastic pods they can return and refill.
A cocaine user in Birmingham told Metro.co.uk he thought his dealer was joking when he was given drugs inside the cone-shaped vial.
He said: ‘I was given a gram of cocaine in this plastic pod thing and my dealer said they were not serving up in plastic ziploc bags or wraps any more.
‘He said that I could bring it back if I wanted to and he would refill it and that it would be better for the environment.opinion Please stop chuffing coke if you genuinely care about the planet
‘I thought he was joking but he was serious, he reckoned they used so many plastic baggies and paper and a reusable container would be easier than wrapping up individual wraps.
‘I told him I was not bothered about the environment and surely cocaine itself can’t be that be eco-friendly but he reckoned he had a load of hipster customers and they loved it.’
But another cocaine user backed the idea, saying: ‘The amount of plastic bags and paper that must have been wasted with wraps of drugs before must have been so bad for the environment so these reusable plastic things can only be good.’
Unfortunately it’s unlikely to balance out the damage done to the environment in the production of cocaine.
In 2011, a study by the State University of New York found that growing and producing the drug had contributed to major deforestation in Colombia.
Ecologist Liliana M. Dávalos said: ‘In southern Colombia we found geographically that there is just more probability of losing the forest close to coca cultivation.
‘And the more coca around you, the more forest you’re likely to lose, the sheer amount of coca in the vicinity has an effect.’Sunbed Hunger Games has people 'queueing for 90 minutes' before mad sprint
While in July last year, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick hit out at middle class cocaine users who worry about the environment but see ‘no harm’ in taking drugs.
She accused them of being ‘hypocritical’ and said they are ‘fuelling’ the drug trade.
Cocaine was used by an estimated 875,000 people in 2017-18 according to the latest crime survey for England and Wales – the highest number in a decade and a 15% year-on-year rise.
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Not convinced? Find out more » | <urn:uuid:847e4398-4968-4eb3-b66a-cd98fcc8cd05> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/07/eco-friendly-drug-dealers-are-now-selling-cocaine-in-reusable-plastic-vials-8318269/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.958713 | 611 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Award-winning musician and composer Helge Iberg releases two albums. Life Music consists of two works: a “quartet+1” on a grand scale, as well as a concerto for solo violin and strings. Helge Iberg’s Jazz-kammer is released simultaneously, recorded with a star-studded cast of Norwegian jazz musicians.
The un-commonality of life
The micro cosmos is explored in the first piece through eight movements – their assigned titles varying from the descriptive to the absurd. As a whole the movements are an analogy for life itself, from the first ‘Tentativo (First Steps)’ to the last ‘Discesa (Descent/Exit)’. Quartet for Life in it’s (Un)Commonality uses the same lineup as Messiaens famous Quartet for the End of Time, plus a marimba. Although playful and vital, the music also exudes dissolution and death at other times. The moods vary between the constructive and the destructive – from the safe to the dramatic, with Hans Christian Bræin’s clarinet the natural center of attention.
The meaningless life
With Sisyphus’ Dance of Endless Struggle, performed by The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra with Atle Sponberg as soloist, Iberg thematizes existentialism. The mythic figure King Sisyphus was cursed to push a boulder up a mountain, only for it to roll back down and he to repeat the action forever. A parallel to the meaninglessness of life; or the constant pursuit of perfection through the arts. Musically this is illustrated by a driving melody which stops, reflects, debates and dances – always moving.
A musician of our time
An original voice in the Norwegian cultural landscape, Iberg moves effortlessly between contemporary style music and jazz. He has written piano-, violin- and trumpet concertos, orchestral works, chamber music, musicals and opera. Iberg has won Prix Italia and Work of the Year, and has had several nominations for the Norwegian Spellemann and Edvard awards. He studied music at the University of Oslo, with renowned composers Olav Anton Thommessen and Ragnar Söderlind. Iberg is an engaged public voice and also an author of essays, articles and books. | <urn:uuid:130dd3d8-23b8-4442-81c7-54d947144067> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://grappa.no/en/albums/simax-classics/helge-iberg-life-music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.951905 | 485 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The concept of Bangladeshi food can be a confusing one.The definitive ranking of Indian food from worst to best
Your local ‘Indian’ curry house serves neither authentic Indian food, nor Bangladeshi – despite the fact many are owned by people from Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi food is distinct and delicious, with an emphasis on flavoursome spices, heat and fish.
Here’s everything you need to know about what it is, what culinary delights are typically Bangladeshi, and how it differs from Indian food.
What is Bangladeshi food?
Bangladeshi food is often referred to as Bengali food, as the state of Bengal has existed long before the formation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Partition and the independence of India divided Bengal along religious lines (Hindu/Muslim) and flavours slowly evolved to become more distinct.
Dishes native to both West Bengal and Bangladesh share some similarities, however the biodiversity of Bangladesh as a low lying country of many rivers determines what is eaten, and when.
South East Asian influences from bordering Myanmar can be tasted along the Chittagong Hill Tracts; think dried fish, coconut and sweet and sour combinations.
The capital, Dhaka, is famous for street food and Moghul inspired dishes, such as Haleem, a rich lentil, barley and meat dish and Tehari – mustard and green chilli beef pulao, but unlike the ones you’ve eaten.
The flavours, the spices
Sylhet, the region where I was born, is known for its fiery spice pastes, Shatkora, a bitter lime usually cooked with beef, and Naga Morich – a fiercely hot chilli accompanying meals with its sweet fragrance.
Shidol is fermented fish and forms the base to an extremely hot broth spiced with this chilli, and cooked with potatoes and seasonal greens. Dried, smoky fish called Shutki are stir fried with aubergine to create intense and mouthwatering dishes.
Sweets and desserts are at the heart of Bengali food and in Bangladesh molasses is a key sweetener, featuring in rice puddings and cakes.
Mango and jackfruit, spiced coconut-filled pastries and Mishti Doi, a sweetened yoghurt are also familiar guests to the Bangladeshi table.
Bangladesh is the land of rice and fish. Rich green paddy fields rise up and run as far as the eye can see.
Puffed, sticky, aged, broken, and flattened for breakfast porridge, rice is usually paired with the hero of a meal – fish. Macher Jhol, basically means a light fish stew, made with fish such as Rohu, a type of carp.
Occasional dishes include Chitoler Kofta (knifefish dumplings) and the king of fish, Ilish (a type of herring) cooked in a mustard gravy.
Bhaajis, Bhortas and Niramishas are essential to a meal. These are fresh vegetables, mashed or sauteed in spices, and sometimes served for breakfast with fried breads, or Luchis.
Rice-based sweets and savouries called Pitha are also key to Bangladeshi cuisine.
My favourite is Handesh, a deep fried molasses cake, always present during the festivals of Eid, and a perfect way to familiarise yourself with the authentic version of this much loved cuisine. | <urn:uuid:4013a1ac-b752-4faf-b1a9-efd25ab65327> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/22/what-is-bangladeshi-cuisine-the-classic-spices-staples-and-desserts-of-bangladesh-6858070/?ico=more_text_links | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.946633 | 728 | 2.296875 | 2 |
"Hello? Anyone home?"
"Sorry. Still not used to driving on this side of the road," Yael lies. "Need to concentrate."
Yael forces her shoulders back. She wants to reverse, set the case on fire. She cannot believe she's participating in the murder of innocent animals. But she cannot arouse David's suspicions. There's no telling what he might do. —excerpt from my new young adult, environmental fiction novel No Entry
Betrayal between a couple often feels like a punch in the mouth. In this excerpt, my heroine Yael Amar is desperate to keep her boyfriend away from the truth; she thinks he'll be safer that way. This is the type of betrayal many of us will find familiar. The kind we try to justify.
But before No Entry, even begins Yael Amar would be able to tell you about another kind of betrayal. She'd say it feels more like a descent into a personal hell. When her brother is killed by terrorists, she feels betrayed by humanity itself. She must grapple with the violation of an assumed contract that many of us have; we have the right to visit public places without experiencing violence, let alone murder.
And so, my theme of this other, more fatal type of betrayal is off to a running start before the first page is written. In other words, that's the backstory.
The third type of betrayal in No Entry happens on a macro level; beyond human interactions. The central conflict is between elephants and elephant poachers. Here too, mankind fails catastrophically. Elephant numbers are depleting at an alarming rate both in real life and in my fiction. Humans must step up to the plate and take responsibility for this senseless destruction of life.
This is not a coincidental connection. I set out to thread the senseless loss of human life with the equally nonsensical destruction of animals. I did this not because I'm trying to make a point about the connection or status between humans and animals—that's the wrong way to understand my motivation. Rather, I'm trying to weave the criminals who commit these inhuman acts: they're connected.
Often the same people willing to sell illegal blood ivory are involved in terrorism, human slavery, and other acts that bring nothing but grief to the planet. I wish to emphasize this linkage, to shout it from the rooftops. But in real life, I figured an exciting, adventurous, teen novel with a little romance thrown in was a more effective way to go.
I purposely made the terrorist event happen in Canada because I want to get the message across that fatal betrayal doesn't just happen in Africa or the Middle East. That attitude might allow some of us to feel off the hook. It happens everywhere and we all have to make sure we are part of the solution or there won't be one and that thought is too devastating to imagine. I refuse to go there and No Entry ends on a victorious note for a reason.
Thank you to Cathy of the popular Between the Lines book blog for posting this on her site. | <urn:uuid:5a993074-6d15-452f-b22b-a32409f6b675> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://gilagreenwrites.com/index.php/blog/news-and-events/is-it-a-punch-in-the-mouth-or-betrayal?tmpl=component&print=1&format=print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.958458 | 621 | 1.703125 | 2 |
SpaceX postpones rocket launch again
Just minutes before liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, SpaceX on Thursday scrubbed the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket to propel a communications satellite into orbit, its second delay in as many days.
The reason for the postponement was not immediately given. Technicians suddenly called, "Hold, hold, hold," about two minutes before the launch window opened at 6:47 pm (2347 GMT).
"We are going to be scrubbing the launch for this evening," said a spokesman on SpaceX's live webcast, moments later.
Another launch date has not yet been set, he said.
After the launch, the company intends to try an ocean landing of the rocket's first stage, but has warned the touchdown was not expected to succeed.
Headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also runs Tesla Motors, the company is working to hone the techniques of recycling rockets, instead of jettisoning their costly components after each launch.
The aim is to make launches more affordable and environmentally friendly.
The launch is commissioned by SES, a Luxembourg-based company that specializes in worldwide satellite communications.
The goal of the mission is to propel a Boeing-built SES-9 satellite—delivering television and high-speed broadband to the Asia-Pacific region—to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) far above the equator.
© 2016 AFP | <urn:uuid:63c2afbb-539a-422d-a3f2-2815ea4cf585> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://phys.org/news/2016-02-spacex-postpones-rocket.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.951843 | 295 | 2.171875 | 2 |
No one dislikes playing games, for they have health benefits like relaxing your mind off the day’s activities. And even better if it’s money earning games. With today’s technological dynamics, you simply play for the fun of it, pass the time, or even secure some coins. The games are known for evaluating coordination of the hand and eye, critical thinking, and reflexes. They may constitute quizzes and puzzles on diverse agendas like general knowledge, sports, music, and current affairs. There are online gaming platforms or apps that are real and pay. Continue reading to learn how your hobby can be your source of income.
Earn money playing games
With earn money playing games, you can now gain from both worlds of fun and game. Some websites will require your registration to play, accomplish some tasks and earn monetary rewards in return.
- You need an account with a popular gaming app or website. You require a payment platform to get your pay when it is due.
- Install the app and comply with all registration procedures. Ensure you adhere to all the gaming apps rules and regulations after reading them.
- Depending on your gadget, whether iPhone or Android, there are respective download and installation instructions for the files on the phone. Concerning the operating systems demand, ensure you read them as well before starting.
- Use your regularly checked email address for the confirmation process. Other than the email address’ usage for confirmation, it is essential for any afterward crucial details.
- To get the money on such gaming platforms, you need to earn coins or points for the plays. The rewards can, after that, be translated to cash that is paid directly to your payment platform, such as a PayPal account.
- Note that it is not often the case for you to pay to join a legit app or website. It is normally totally free to join and commence your earnings of points or cash.
Real money earning games
Playing games that earn you real money does not mean that you leave your normal job nor invest a lot of your time playing games. It is a chance to earn as you enjoy all at once. Explore the list below with family and friends.
How to earn money from games?
So the main question is how to earn money from games? When seated waiting or simply trying to pass the time, you can get involved in an online game, earn real cash, and get your wallet fat. There is earning potential as you venture into different sites with varied prize pools.
If you are wondering if players get real money, yes, they do get it! Since they have the opportunity to pursue their passion and earn. These games include:
1. Wealth Words
It is an undoubtedly popular crossword game on the internet today. An online game that pays you for your smartness. It is unique from other games because it is available online. All persons above the age of 18 are potential players. Invest your knowledge in it and get cash rewards. It grants the players a chance to win up to 3000 dollars. It is played anytime and anywhere.
2. Paid Game Player
The platform provides an array of about 600 games. Just like Swagbucks, it rewards around 250000 dollars to the participants. Additionally, it offers opportunities to game with other platform users for more money earnings. The earnings are through survey completion, review of online plays, referrals to friends, product name branding.
There are two phases of the game depending on whether you are a premium member or are playing free limited games. The premium membership grants you the privilege to access an entire scope of the game’s version plus a 2X multiplier bonus. Additionally, you will receive 1000 points for signing up as a premium member.
3. Play and Win
It is Britain’s gaming website offering the best free games with an opportunity to win actual monetary prizes. Some of these platforms’ games are; Yatzy, Mahjong 3, Pow, Ludo, and many more. Moreover, you can be part of a tournament, have fun and make extra money!
Play to Earn Crypto Games 2021
The play to earn crypto games economy has dynamically come to rise. The model has surpassed the traditional ones via its in-built incentives toward its participants from the game publishers through power shifting. With about 3.2 million players across the globe, blockchain gaming is meant to be the primary driver for the main crypto adoption. Blockchain games have enhanced the industry simply by becoming the primary decision-makers and beneficiaries in its ecosystem.
Crypto games list
Blockchain play-to-earn games launched recently. Many of the early participants made unfathomable profits triggering crypto observers and players to seek the next huge hit. The list below encompasses the to date promising titles:
- The Sandbox
- Star Atlas
- Guild of Guardians
Top 10 Crypto games
Generating cash through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is gaining momentum and interest. For instance, Battle Pets has Pets as tokens in which gamers can gather, grow, arrange, breed the pets and even sell them. From the sale, the player can withdraw their cryptocurrency to their respective wallets. According to the BDC consultation agency, the following list shows the top ten crypto games with real money withdrawals. They include:
- Axie Infinity – was inspired by Tamagotchi and Pokemon
- CryptoBlades – it is based on battles of developing and equipping characters
- Alien Worlds – a DApp market’s fastest-growing game
- Splinterlands – crypto collectible card game inspired by Hive blockchain
- R-Planet – it is developed on a WAX blockchain
- My DeFi Pet – is similar to Axie Infinity in its working and works on BSC blockchain
- Crypto Zoon – it runs on BSC blockchain as well
- Upland – it is gaining momentum, especially in the online community that speaks Russian
- Blanks Block Party – constitutes a team
- Arc8 by GAMEE
Crypto games are highly intersecting the industry. As a result, more crypto games are being developed, with many connected to NFTs. Generally, online games need a little money to begin. You will completely enjoy the plays if you take them for entertainment and fun rather than targeting the rum some. | <urn:uuid:6ab78f24-b317-4706-a98a-c802a8ba6b79> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://skypool.fr/money-earning-games/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.951446 | 1,305 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The last time, I shared with all of you 5 free ebooks to learning User-Experience Designs. It got a lot of positive feedback on my Instagram and other social media mediums, that’s why today, let me share another 5 free ebooks to guide you in wireframing, prototyping and low/high mockups.
First of all, what is Wireframing? It is a way of creating a visual look or structural blueprint of a website or an app using pen and paper or software online (I’ll post about the free tools you can use in creating wireframe soon!).
Why do we need wireframes? Simply because, it’s a better way to start the design process. Some advantages are:
- It turns the abstract ideas into something tangible without distraction.
- It provides clear communication to a client how these features will function, where they will appear on the specific page and how useful they might actually be.
- Creating wireframes pushes usability to the forefront in showcasing page layouts at their core.
- Make the design process iterative and
- Saves time in many ways.
Without further ado, let’s begin with the first free ebook…
Starting with “The Guide to Wireframing“ by the UX Pin. This ebook covers major junctures in the wireframing process to enable quick and effective reference. It is divided into four main sections that will guide absolute beginners into becoming confident experts on wireframing.
The second one is “The Guide to Mockups” by UX Pin. This e-book exploring the types, purposes, and anatomy of mockups plus the best practices for Photoshop and Sketch.
The third one is “The Ultimate Guide to Prototyping” by UX Pin. This ebook will teach you the methods, tools, and processes for low and high fidelity rapid UX prototyping. You’ll learn how to:
- Prototype only what you need – then stop.
- There is no single “best” way to prototype. The three most common methods include presentation software, coded prototypes, and specialized prototyping apps. Each approach has pros and cons.
- The first step to deliver a perfect product to your target audience is to know your target audience.
The fourth one is “The Guide to Interactive Wireframing” by UX Pin. On this ebook, you’ll learn how to:
- How to use wireframes in the UX design process
- Create content wireframe to interactive wireframe
- Hands-on approach to rapid prototyping
- How to wireframe and protype motion
The last but not least, “The Practical Handbook to Rapid Lo-Fi Prototyping” by UX Pin. In this ebook, you’ll know Know how to create fast and effective prototypes with tips, methods, and exercises by designers including the pros and cons of the most popular offline and digital rapid prototyping methods.
Enjoy these 5 wireframing ebooks from UX Pin and I hope these will help you gain more knowledge and skills in your UX/UI career. If you love this post, let me know in the comment box below, share with your friends and subscribe to my newsletter for more tips and free resources on my next blog posts 🙂 | <urn:uuid:99e4a951-2c1a-4844-b3a9-602fc4ee5594> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://franzescolastico.com/freelance/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-wireframes-free-ebooks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.879218 | 683 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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Severe bone marrow suppression is a relative contraindication to idarubicin depending upon the etiology of the suppression. Patients with acute leukemia may require treatment with idarubicin despite severe bone marrow suppression. Idarubicin should be used cautiously in patients with bone marrow suppression, coagulopathy, or in those who have received previous myelosuppressive therapy such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Therefore, this drug requires an experienced clinician knowledgeable in the use of cancer chemotherapy. Administration of idarubicin requires a specialized care setting such as a hospital or treatment facility. Patients with preexisting marrow suppression, including neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia, should be allowed to recover their counts prior to idarubicin administration. Patients should be treated for any active infection prior to receiving idarubicin. Patients with a history of varicella zoster, other herpes infection (e.g., herpes simplex), or other viral infection are at risk for reactivation of the infection when treated with chemotherapy.
Idarubicin is a vesicant. Extravasations of idarubicin infusions should be avoided. Patients should be closely monitored during IV infusions for signs and symptoms of extravasation such as poor blood return, pain and swelling. If extravasation occurs, stop the infusion and remove the tubing. Attempt to aspirate the drug prior to removing the needle. Elevate the affected area and treat with ice packs. As this can be a progressive injury, appropriate long-term follow-up is required. Intramuscular administration and subcutaneous administration of idarubicin should be avoided due to severe skin and tissue necrosis which may occur.
Idarubicin should be used cautiously in patients with hepatic disease and/or jaundice. Since hepatic impairment can affect the disposition of idarubicin, liver function should be evaluated using serum bilirubin as an indicator prior to and during treatment. In a number of Phase III clinical trials, treatment was not given if bilirubin serum levels exceeded 2 mg%. However, in one Phase III trial, patients with bilirubin levels between 2.6 and 5 mg% received the anthracycline with a 50% reduction in dose. Dose reduction of idarubicin should be considered if the bilirubin levels are above the normal range (see Dosage).
Doses of idarubicin should be adjusted for severe renal impairment or renal failure, although specific guidelines are not available and < 5% of the dose is eliminated renally. Kidney function should be evaluated with serum creatinine as an indicator prior to and during treatment. In a number of Phase III clinical trials, treatment was not given if creatinine serum levels exceeded 2 mg%. Dose reduction of idarubicin should be considered if the creatinine levels are above the normal range.
Idarubicin is a cardiotoxin and can cause congestive heart failure due to its effects on cardiac myofibrils. Patients with preexisting cardiac disease including heart failure, angina, left ventricular dysfunction (i.e., ejection fraction less than 50%), recent or acute myocardial infarction, or cardiac arrhythmias are not good candidates to receive idarubicin. Angina and arrhythmias are relative contraindications to idarubicin therapy, depending on the degree of clinical impairment. Although it is suggested that idarubicin causes less cardiotoxicity than other agents in its class, patients should be observed closely for signs of cardiotoxicity if idarubicin is given. The risk of cardiac toxicity may be higher in children less than 2 years or geriatric patients 60 years of age or greater, patients who have received prior anthracycline therapy, and those who are receiving or have received radiation therapy to the mediastinal-pericardial area. Patients 60 years of age or more undergoing induction therapy with idarubicin experienced an increased incidence of cardiac effects vs. younger patients. Females and children may be more sensitive to the cardiotoxic effects of anthracyclines. Children treated with anthracyclines may develop late cardiotoxicity. Due to the risk of long-term cardiotoxicity, it has been recommended that children treated with anthracyclines should undergo screening with ECGs and echocardiograms every 2 years and 24-hour continuous ECGs and radionuclide angiograms every 5 years. Generally, patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction less than 50% are not considered candidates for anthracycline therapy; the risks vs. benefits of anthracycline therapy must be carefully considered in these patients. Patients should be observed closely for signs of idarubicin-induced cardiotoxicity; early recognition is essential for successful treatment. Establishment of baseline left ventricular function and periodic monitoring are recommended. Patients currently receiving idarubicin should wait at least 4 weeks following the last dose before undergoing periodic cardiac evaluation to allow cardiac function to return to baseline. Although the most definitive technique for assessing anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity is endomyocardial biopsy, echocardiograms or serial gated cardiography (MUGA) scans may also indicate if a patient is developing cardiotoxicity. A left ventricular ejection fraction less than 50% or an absolute decrease of 10% to 20% in left ventricular heart function are indications to discontinue anthracycline therapy. Cardiotoxicity is dose related; although there is little data, the maximum cumulative lifetime dose of idarubicin is suggested to be 150 mg/m2 IV, and should only be exceeded with extreme caution.
Anthracycline chemotherapy agentUsed in combination with other antileukemia drugs in adults with acute myelogenous leukemiaCardiotoxicity and myelosuppression have been reported
Idamycin PFS/Idarubicin/Idarubicin Hydrochloride Intravenous Inj Sol: 1mg, 1mL
12 mg/m2 daily for 3 days via slow IV injection over 10 to 15 minutes in combination with cytarabine as induction therapy. Cytarabine may be given as 100 mg/m2 daily by continuous IV infusion for 7 days or as cytarabine 25 mg/m2 as an IV bolus followed by cytarabine 200 mg/m2 daily for 5 days by continuous IV infusion. A second course of therapy may be administered in patients with unequivocal evidence of leukemia after the first induction course. A dose reduction or delay may be necessary in patients who develop toxicity. There is no consensus regarding optional regimens to be used for consolidation therapy.
8 mg/m2 IV daily on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in combination with cytarabine 100 mg/m2 IV daily as a continuous IV infusion on days 1 to 7 and lomustine 200 mg/m2 orally on day 1 as induction therapy was evaluated in a randomized, phase 3 trial (the LAM-SA 2007 FILO Trial). Patients who achieved a complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete recovery (CRi) after one induction course received consolidation therapy with idarubicin 8 mg/m2 IV daily on days 1, 2, and 3; cytarabine 50 mg/m2 subcutaneously every 12 hours on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; and lomustine 80 mg orally on day 1 followed by 6 reinduction courses of idarubicin 8 mg/m2 IV on day 1; cytarabine 50 mg/m2 subcutaneously every 12 hours on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; and lomustine 40 mg orally on day 1. In this study, patients also received 6 months of maintenance therapy with alternating courses of 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate.
12 mg/m2 given as a slow IV injection over 10 to 15 minutes daily for 3 days in combination with cytarabine. A second course may be administered in patients who have evidence of leukemia after the first induction course. If severe mucositis occurred following the first course of therapy, allow mucositis to resolve and reduce the dose of the next course by 25%. Induction therapy may be followed by consolidation therapy; however, there is no consensus regarding the optimal regimen to be used for consolidation.
12 mg/m2/dose IV on days 2, 4, 6, and 8 plus tretinoin 45 mg/m2/day PO in 2 divided doses until complete remission (CR) to a maximum of 45 or 90 days has been evaluated in 2 clinical trials (AIDA 0493 study; AIDA 2000 study). Adults less than 20 years of age received tretinoin 25 mg/m2/day PO in the AIDA 0493 study. Patients who achieved a hematologic CR received 3 anthracycline-containing consolidation therapy courses. Additionally, most patients in these studies who achieved a molecular CR after consolidation received up to 2 years of tretinoin-containing maintenance therapy. Prophylactic use of corticosteroids was recommended during induction therapy to help prevent differentiation (retinoic acid) syndrome.
12 mg/m2/dose IV on days 2, 4, 6, and 8 plus tretinoin 25 mg/m2/day PO in 2 divided doses until complete remission (CR) or a maximum of 90 days has been evaluated in a clinical trial (AIDA 0493 study). Patients who achieved a hematologic CR received 3 multi-agent chemotherapy consolidation courses containing anthracyclines and cytarabine. Additionally, most patients who achieved a molecular CR after consolidation received up to 2 years of tretinoin-containing maintenance therapy. In a subgroup analysis of the AIDA 0493 study, induction therapy with tretinoin plus idarubicin resulted in a post-induction hematologic CR rate of 96% in 107 evaluable pediatric patients (median age, 11.6 years; range, 1.4 to 17.9 years). Tretinoin was administered for a median of 32 days (range, 1 to 56 days) during induction therapy. The 10-year event-free survival and overall survival rates were 76% and 89%, respectively. Retinoic acid syndrome was reported in 8 patients (definitely present, n = 2; indeterminate, n = 6) and pseudotumor cerebri developed in 10 patients. There were 4 deaths during induction therapy.
Following induction therapy with tretinoin (45 mg/m2/day PO in 2 divided daily doses until complete remission (CR) or a maximum of 45 days) plus idarubicin (12 mg/m2/dose IV on days 2, 4, 6, and 8), patients who achieved a hematologic CR received 3 risk-adapted tretinoin- and anthracycline-based consolidation therapy courses in a clinical study (AIDA 2000 study). All patients in this study received tretinoin 45 mg/m2/day PO for 15 days starting on day 1 of each consolidation cycle. Patients with low- or intermediate-risk APL (defined as initial WBC less than 10 x 109/L) received: idarubicin 5 mg/m2/dose IV on days 1, 2, 3, and 4 (course 1), mitoxantrone 10 mg/m2/dose IV on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (course 2); and idarubicin 12 mg/m2/dose IV on day 1 (course 3). Patients with high-risk APL received: idarubicin 5 mg/m2/dose IV on days 1, 2, 3, and 4 and cytarabine 1,000 mg/m2/day IV on days 1, 2, 3, and 4 (course 1); mitoxantrone 10 mg/m2/dose IV on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and etoposide 100 mg/m2/dose IV on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (course 2); and idarubicin 12 mg/m2/dose IV on day 1, cytarabine 150 mg/m2 subcutaneously every 8 hours on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and 6-thioguanine 70 mg/m2 PO every 8 hours on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (course 3). Intrathecal methotrexate 12 mg and methylprednisone 40 mg were administered prior to each consolidation course in patients with high-risk disease. Additionally, patients who achieved a molecular CR after consolidation received up to 2 years of tretinoin-containing maintenance therapy.
40 mg/m2 IV once on day 3 plus cytarabine 3 grams/m2 daily IV over 3 hours on days 1 to 5 (with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor starting on day 7 until neutrophil recovery) and idarubicin 5 mg/m2 daily IV for 6 days, cytarabine 1 gram/m2 daily IV over 6 hours for 6 days, and prednisone 40 mg/m2 daily for 21 days have been studied as induction therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in nonrandomized trials. In some responding patients, induction therapy was followed by multi-agent consolidation therapy and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) (in patients less than 55 years of age).
40 mg/m2 IV once on day 3 and cytarabine 3 grams/m2 daily IV over 3 hours on days 1 to 5 plus prophylactic intrathecal methotrexate (dosed for age) on days 1 and 5 (with prednisone 0.5 mg/kg daily and glucocorticoid eye drops during therapy plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor starting on day 7 until granulocyte recovery) and idarubicin 5 mg/m2 IV daily for 6 days, cytarabine 1 gram/m2 daily IV over 6 hours for 6 days, and prednisone 40 mg/m2 daily PO for 21 days have been studied as induction therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in nonrandomized trials. In some responding patients, induction therapy was followed by multiagent consolidation therapy and bone marrow transplantation (BMT).
10 to 12 mg/m2 IV in combination with other chemotherapies has been studied in nonrandomized trials. In a multicenter, phase II trial of 54 previously treated NHL patients (prior anthracycline therapy, 89%), idarubicin 12 mg/m2 IV bolus over 15 minutes on day 1 plus etoposide 100 mg/m2/day IV on days 1-3 and ifosfamide 1500 mg/m2/day IV (with mesna 1:1) on days 1-3 repeated every 3 to 4 weeks (mean number of 4.33 cycles; range, 1-6 cycles) led to an overall response rate (ORR) of 72% (complete response (CR), 46%). All patients received oral hydration starting 24 hours prior to chemotherapy, allopurinol 300 mg/m2 PO, and oral bicarbonate solution (to keep urine pH > 7). The median overall survival (OS) time was 17.5 months and the 2-year OS rate was 41%. In another multicenter, phase II study in 38 patients with relapsed or primary resistant high-grade NHL, idarubicin 10 mg/m2 IV on days 1 and 2 (or days 1 and 8) plus etoposide 150 mg/m2/day IV on days 1-3 and ifosfamide 1000 mg/m2/day IV on days 1-5 repeated every 21 days resulted in an ORR of 47.4% (CR, 21.1%) and a median OS time of 6.9 months. All patients in this study received filgrastim until granulocyte recovery. Additionally, idarubicin 12 mg/m2 IV once on day 1 plus etoposide 60 mg/m2 IV every 12 hours for 3 days and cytarabine 1 g/m2 IV over 3 hours every 12 hours for 3 days repeated every 21 days for up to 4 cycles (mean number of 2.6 cycles) led to an ORR of 60% (CR, 20%) and 3-year relapse-free and OS rates of 20% and 15%, respectively, in 30 patients with intermediate- or high-grade NHL who had prior anthracycline exposure in another clinical study. Serious treatment-related toxicity with idarubicin-containing regimens in clinical trials included grade 3 or 4 neutropenia/granulocytopenia, thrombocytopenia, febrile neutropenia; additionally, death attributed to septic shock during severe neutropenia has been reported.
12 mg/m2 IV with cytarabine and with or without imatinib has been studied in small, nonrandomized studies. Idarubicin 12 mg/m2 IV repeated every 14 days plus imatinib 600 mg/day PO and cytarabine 10 mg/day SC until patients returned to chronic phase (CP) followed by maintenance therapy with idarubicin 8 mg/m2 IV repeated every 4 weeks plus imatinib 600 mg orally and cytarabine 10 mg SC once daily until disease progression (median duration of therapy, 11 weeks; range, 4-124 weeks) resulted in a hematologic response rate of 74% (complete hematologic response rate (CHR), 47%) in 19 patients with CML in myeloid blast crisis in a pilot study; additionally, 26% of patients returned to CP. Most patients (n=17) had previously failed treatment with single-agent imatinib. Six patients received an allogeneic stem-cell transplant, including one patient still in myeloid blast phase. The median overall survival time was 23 weeks and the 1-year OS rate was 26%. All patients experienced at least 1 episode of grade 3 or 4 hematologic toxicity and 16 patients (84%) required hospitalization for febrile neutropenia, hemorrhage, pneumonia, cellulitis, and/or central nervous system leukemic infiltration. In a small phase II study in 16 patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive CML in myeloid blast crisis who received idarubicin 12 mg/m2/day IV for 3 days and cytarabine 600 mg/m2 IV twice daily for 5 days, no patient achieved a CHR but 4 patients (25%) had a second CP. Three patients in second CP received maintenance therapy with interferon alfa-2b 5 million international units/day SQ and cytarabine 20 mg/day SQ for 14 days per month until disease progression. The median OS time was 16 weeks for all patients; however, the median OS time for the 4 patients in second CP was 31.1 weeks (range, 16.1 to 111 weeks). All patients became pancytopenic and transfusion dependent following induction therapy with idarubicin and cytarabine and 3 patients died due to septic complications during bone marrow aplasia.
†Indicates off-label use
12 mg/m2 IV; maximum cumulative lifetime idarubicin dose: 150 mg/m2 IV.
12 mg/m2 IV; maximum cumulative lifetime idarubicin dose: 150 mg/m2 IV .
Safety and efficacy have not been established. Doses up to 12 mg/m2 IV have been given off-label for AML; maximum cumulative lifetime idarubicin dose: 150 mg/m2 IV.
Safety and efficacy have not been established. Doses up to 12 mg/m2 IV have been given off-label for AML; maximum cumulative lifetime dosage limits should be considered.
Total bilirubin 2.5—5 mg/dL: reduce recommended dose by 50%.Total bilirubin > 5 mg/dL: do not administer.
Dosage adjustment is recommended in patients with a serum creatinine greater than 2.5 mg/dL, but no quantitative recommendations are available.
Hazardous Drugs ClassificationNIOSH 2016 List: Group 1 NIOSH (Draft) 2020 List: Table 1Observe and exercise appropriate precautions for handling, preparation, administration, and disposal of hazardous drugs.Use double chemotherapy gloves and a protective gown. Prepare in a biological safety cabinet or compounding aseptic containment isolator with a closed system drug transfer device. Eye/face and respiratory protection may be needed during preparation and administration.Emetic RiskModerateAdminister routine antiemetic prophylaxis prior to treatment.Extravasation RiskVesicantAdminister drug through a central venous line.
Visually inspect parenteral products for particulate matter and discoloration prior to administration whenever solution and container permit.
Idarubicin is available as a 1 mg/mL solution vial or a lyophilized powder vial that requires reconstitution.Monitor the infusion site for signs or symptoms of extravasation; immediately discontinue idarubicin administration, restart in another vein, and administer appropriate treatment (e.g., intermittent icing, elevation of the extremity) if extravasation occurs. Reconstitution of lyophilized vial:Use care when the needle is inserted into the vial; vial contents are under negative pressure to decrease aerosol formation during reconstitution.Reconstitute the lyophilized vial with Sterile Water for injection to a final concentration of 1 mg/mL; bacteriostatic diluents are not recommended.NOTE: the reconstituted solution is hypotonic.Storage: Reconstituted solutions are stable for 72 hours at room temperature (15 to 30 degrees C; 59 to 86 degrees F) and refrigerated (2 to 8 degrees C; 36 to 46 degrees F); discard unused portion of the vial.Intravenous Injection:Inject idarubicin IV slowly over 10 to 15 minutes into the tubing of a freely running IV infusion of Sodium Chloride injection or 5% Dextrose injection.Attach the tubing to a butterfly needle or other suitable device and insert preferably into a large vein.Do not mix with other drugs; precipitation occurs with heparin and degradation may occur with prolonged contact with alkaline solutions.
Idamycin PFS:- Discard product if it contains particulate matter, is cloudy, or discolored- Discard unused portion. Do not store for later use.- Protect from light- Refrigerate (between 36 and 46 degrees F)- Store in carton until time of use
Idarubicin is should be avoided in patients with known idarubicin or other anthracycline hypersensitivity or anthracenedione hypersensitivity. Idarubicin therapy is not recommended in patients who have reached their total cumulative doses of doxorubicin, daunorubicin, idarubicin, and/or other anthracyclines and anthracenediones.
Myelosuppressive effects of idarubicin can increase the risk of infection or bleeding; therefore, dental work should be delayed until blood counts have returned to normal. Patients, especially those with dental disease, should be instructed in proper oral hygiene, including caution in use of regular toothbrushes, dental floss, and toothpicks.
Intramuscular injections should not be administered to patients with platelet counts < 50,000/mm3 who are receiving idarubicin. IM injections may cause bleeding, bruising, or hematomas due to idarubicin-induced thrombocytopenia.
Hyperkalemia, hyperphosphatemia, hyperuricemia, hypocalcemia, and decreased urine output may be indicative of idarubicin-induced tumor lysis syndrome (TLS). Appropriate measures (e.g. aggressive hydration and allopurinol) must be taken to prevent severe electrolyte imbalances and renal toxicity during and following chemotherapy administration in patients with large chemosensitive tumors.
Use care to avoid accidental exposure to idarubicin during preparation, handling, and administration. The use of protective gowns, gloves and goggles is recommended. Following skin or ocular exposure, skin and eyes should be thoroughly rinsed.
Vaccination during chemotherapy or radiation therapy should be avoided because the antibody response is suboptimal. When chemotherapy is being planned, vaccination should precede the initiation of chemotherapy by >= 2 weeks. The administration of live vaccines to immunocompromised patients should be avoided. Those undergoing chemotherapy should not be exposed to others who have recently received the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination is not contraindicated for the close contacts, including health care professionals, of immunocompromised patients. Passive immunoprophylaxis with immune globulins may be indicated for immunocompromised persons instead of, or in addition to, vaccination. When exposed to a vaccine-preventable disease such as measles, severely immunocompromised children should be considered susceptible regardless of their vaccination history.
Idarubicin may cause fetal harm if used during pregnancy. There have been no adequate and well-controlled studies of idarubicin in pregnant women; however, one case of intrauterine fetal death was reported after maternal exposure in the second trimester. Women of reproductive potential should avoid pregnancy during idarubicin therapy if possible. If idarubicin is used during pregnancy or if a woman becomes pregnant during therapy, she should be advised of the potential risks to the fetus. Idarubicin was teratogenic and embryotoxic in animals at doses less than the recommended human dose on a body surface area basis.
Counsel patients about the reproductive risk and contraception requirements during idarubicin treatment. Females of reproductive potential should use effective contraception and avoid pregnancy during and for at least 6.5 months after the last dose of idarubicin. Additionally, male patients with a female partner of reproductive potential should use effective contraception during and for at least 3.5 months after the last idarubicin dose due to the risk of male-mediated teratogenicity. Male or female patients should consider fertility preservation before starting idarubicin therapy due to a risk of infertility.
It is not known if idarubicin is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk and because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants from idarubicin, women should avoid breast-feeding during idarubicin therapy.
atrial fibrillation / Early / 0-16.0myocardial infarction / Delayed / 0-16.0vomiting / Early / 0-5.0oral ulceration / Delayed / 0-5.0nausea / Early / 0-5.0seizures / Delayed / 4.0-4.0pancytopenia / Delayed / 10.0tissue necrosis / Early / Incidence not knownbradycardia / Rapid / Incidence not knownventricular tachycardia / Early / Incidence not knownheart failure / Delayed / Incidence not knownAV block / Early / Incidence not knowncardiomyopathy / Delayed / Incidence not knowncardiotoxicity / Delayed / Incidence not knownGI perforation / Delayed / Incidence not knownenterocolitis / Delayed / Incidence not known
bleeding / Early / 63.0-63.0bullous rash / Early / 0-46.0chest pain (unspecified) / Early / 0-16.0peripheral neuropathy / Delayed / 7.0-7.0elevated hepatic enzymes / Delayed / 0-5.0neutropenia / Delayed / 10.0anemia / Delayed / 10.0thrombocytopenia / Delayed / 10.0leukopenia / Delayed / 10.0bone marrow suppression / Delayed / Incidence not knownradiation recall reaction / Delayed / Incidence not knownsupraventricular tachycardia (SVT) / Early / Incidence not knownsinus tachycardia / Rapid / Incidence not knownpremature ventricular contractions (PVCs) / Early / Incidence not knownST-T wave changes / Rapid / Incidence not knownQT prolongation / Rapid / Incidence not known
infection / Delayed / 95.0-95.0alopecia / Delayed / 77.0-77.0abdominal pain / Early / 73.0-73.0diarrhea / Early / 73.0-73.0urticaria / Rapid / 0-46.0rash / Early / 0-46.0fever / Early / 26.0-26.0headache / Early / 20.0-20.0injection site reaction / Rapid / Incidence not known
Cholera Vaccine: (Moderate) Patients receiving immunosuppressant medications may have a diminished response to the live cholera vaccine. When feasible, administer indicated vaccines prior to initiating immunosuppressant medications. Counsel patients receiving immunosuppressant medications about the possibility of a diminished vaccine response and to continue to follow precautions to avoid exposure to cholera bacteria after receiving the vaccine. Cyclophosphamide: (Moderate) Monitor for signs and symptoms of cardiac dysfunction if coadministration of cyclophosphamide with anthracyclines is necessary as there is an additive or potentially synergistic increase in the risk of cardiomyopathy. Gadobenate Dimeglumine: (Moderate) Gadobenate dimeglumine is a substrate for the canalicular multi-specific organic anion transporter (MOAT). Use with other MOAT substrates, such as anthracyclines, may result in prolonged systemic exposure of the coadministered drug. Caution is advised if these drugs are used together. Margetuximab: (Major) Avoid administration of anthracyclines during margetuximab therapy and for up to 4 months after the last dose of margetuximab due to the risk of increased cardiac dysfunction. If concomitant use is unavoidable, closely monitor cardiac function. This interaction has not been studied with margetuximab; however, clinical data from other HER2-directed antibodies warrants consideration. Palifermin: (Moderate) Palifermin should not be administered within 24 hours before, during infusion of, or within 24 hours after administration of antineoplastic agents. Penicillamine: (Major) Do not use penicillamine with antineoplastic agents due to the increased risk of developing severe hematologic and renal toxicity. Pertuzumab; Trastuzumab; Hyaluronidase: (Major) Avoid coadministration of anthracyclines and trastuzumab products due to the risk of increased cardiac dysfunction; if possible, continue to avoid for up to 7 months after the last dose of trastuzumab. If concomitant use is unavoidable, carefully monitor cardiac function. Anthracycline treatment after therapy with trastuzumab product may increase the risk of cardiac dysfunction due to the long washout period of trastuzumab. SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccines: (Moderate) Patients receiving immunosuppressant medications may have a diminished response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine. When feasible, administer indicated vaccines prior to initiating immunosuppressant medications. Counsel patients receiving immunosuppressant medications about the possibility of a diminished vaccine response and to continue to follow precautions to avoid exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus after receiving the vaccine. Trastuzumab: (Major) Avoid coadministration of anthracyclines and trastuzumab products due to the risk of increased cardiac dysfunction; if possible, continue to avoid for up to 7 months after the last dose of trastuzumab. If concomitant use is unavoidable, carefully monitor cardiac function. Anthracycline treatment after therapy with trastuzumab product may increase the risk of cardiac dysfunction due to the long washout period of trastuzumab. Trastuzumab; Hyaluronidase: (Major) Avoid coadministration of anthracyclines and trastuzumab products due to the risk of increased cardiac dysfunction; if possible, continue to avoid for up to 7 months after the last dose of trastuzumab. If concomitant use is unavoidable, carefully monitor cardiac function. Anthracycline treatment after therapy with trastuzumab product may increase the risk of cardiac dysfunction due to the long washout period of trastuzumab. Tuberculin Purified Protein Derivative, PPD: (Moderate) Immunosuppressives may decrease the immunological response to tuberculin purified protein derivative, PPD. This suppressed reactivity can persist for up to 6 weeks after treatment discontinuation. Consider deferring the skin test until completion of the immunosuppressive therapy.
The mechanism of action of idarubicin is similar to that of other anthracycline antineoplastics. Idarubicin complexes with DNA by intercalating between DNA base pairs, causing the helix to change shape. Idarubicin has a higher affinity for DNA intercalation than daunorubicin and is more readily taken up into cells. This simple act of changing the conformation of DNA can interfere with strand elongation by inhibiting DNA polymerase and inhibit protein synthesis due to effects on RNA polymerase. Idarubicin inhibits the uptake of thymidine into cancer cells and normal fibroblasts at lower concentrations than other anthracyclines. As with other anthracylines, idarubicin inbibits topoisomerase II, an enzyme responsible for repairing faulty sections of DNA, causing double-strand DNA breaks. This occurs most commonly in the G2-phase of the cell cycle, although, in general, idarubicin is considered non-cell cycle specific. Idarubicin does not form free radicals to the same extent as doxorubicin or daunorubicin. This may account for the decrease in clinical cardiotoxicity seen with idarubicin. The alcohol metabolite of idarubicin is as active as the parent compound and plays an important role in the activity of the drug. Idarubicin and its metabolite seem to be less susceptible to multiple drug resistance (MDR, P-gp) than daunorubicin and its metabolites. Studies have shown that cyclosporine and other modulators of MDR may increase the cytotoxicity of the alcohol metabolite of idarubicin. Idarubicin may offer an advantage over other anthracyclines in the treatment of leukemia and other diseases which may overexpress MDR. Resistance to idarubicin may also be mediated by changes in topoisomerase II activity.
Idarubicin is administered intravenously. It exhibits extensive tissue binding due to a very high volume of distribution. Idarubicin (97%) and its primary active metabolite, idarubicinol (94%), are highly bound to human plasma proteins and this binding is concentration-dependent. Following idarubicin 10 to 12 mg/m2 daily for 3 to 4 days in adult patients with leukemia, the mean terminal half-life was 22 hours (range, 4 to 48 hours) when given as single agent and 20 hours (range, 7 to 38 hours) when given in combination with cytarabine. The estimated mean terminal half-life of idarubicinol exceeded 45 hours. Idarubicin has extensive extrahepatic metabolism. Elimination occurs primarily by biliary excretion and by renal excretion to a lesser extent (mostly as idarubicinol).
Peak concentration levels occur within a few minutes after the idarubicin injection. Levels of idarubicin and idarubicinol in nucleated blood and bone marrow cells are more than a hundred times the plasma levels. The terminal half-life was 15 hours for idarubicin in plasma and cells and 72 hours for idarubicinol in cells. Idarubicin plasma concentrations are best described by a 2- or 3-compartment open model. Based on the mean plasma levels and half-life values obtained after the first idarubicin dose, drug accumulation was 1.7- and 2.3-fold on days 2 and 3, respectively; however, there appeared to be no pharmacokinetic changes following a 3-day regimen. | <urn:uuid:53326d05-629a-4d24-80ef-9baa2220146b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://physician.pdr.net/drug-summary/Idamycin-PFS-idarubicin-hydrochloride-1018.3138 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.889042 | 7,997 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Prospective randomised controlled study.
Operation unit in a tertiary academic university hospital in a central European city. Period of the study was springtime and summer 2010.
PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:
Twenty-four anaesthesiologists with various levels of professional experience were allocated to intubate an airway manikin either with the SensaScope (group S) or with the conventional Macintosh 3 laryngoscope (group L).
Each participant performed three consecutive intubations with normal anatomy followed by three intubations with difficult anatomy. The airway difficulty was simulated by inflation of the manikin's tongue base with 40 ml of air. The times taken to view the larynx and to insert the tracheal tube were noted. The resulting tube position and the occurrence of dental damage were recorded.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Those planned in the protocol.
In normal anatomy, the laryngeal view (group L 5.9 ± 4.2 s vs. group S 9.2 ± 3.5 s) and intubation (group L 13.4 ± 7.6 s vs. group S 23.3 ± 8.6 s) was more rapidly obtained with conventional laryngoscopy (values presented as mean ± SD). In difficult anatomy, only the SensaScope permitted successful laryngeal view (group L impossible vs. group S 9.9 ± 4.8 s) and tracheal intubation (group L impossible vs. group S 23.4 ± 8.8 s). The latter always enabled correct tracheal tube position, whereas with laryngoscopy alone either oesophageal intubation or aborted attempts resulted. In the difficult airway setting, the frequency of simulated tooth damage was also significantly higher with conventional laryngoscopy (group L 26 of 36 vs. group S 6 of 36).
The SensaScope performed fairly well in normal intubation anatomy, although its use was more complex than with conventional laryngoscopy and it required a slightly longer time. In the difficult airway setting, the SensaScope performed as well as in normal anatomy, whereas intubation by direct laryngoscopy proved to be impossible. The SensaScope enables the user to overcome severe airway difficulties caused by large tissue masses at the level of the tongue base or mouth floor. | <urn:uuid:273984e2-6b27-491d-83df-4299eca2820b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/53804/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.938663 | 525 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders that people used to take as a joke in the past. If someone admits to having this illness, a tactless person may say, “Not true. You’re just sad – it will pass.” You may also hear accusations from others about lying to gain sympathy from everyone. Then, they only believe it once the depressed individual shows signs of self-harming or, worse, suicidal tendencies.
The thing is, millions of people across the globe turn out to have depression. Its poison has now reached children whose ages are between six and 17, and that is what’s more worrying than anything.
Here are some of the reasons why even kids are prone to getting depressed include:
- Lack Of Emotional Outlet
Some parents are stricter than the others when it comes to activities their offspring can enjoy. While kids usually go to playdates, the children of the former are merely allowed to play with their siblings. Even if their interest is in learning how to use drums, they cannot argue if the parents enroll them in violin classes instead.
In reality, the kids need to be able to choose the extracurricular activities they will try. That is supposed to be their way to de-stress from everything physically and emotionally. In case going to those lessons feel more like a chore for them, then they don’t exactly have an outlet to relieve their stress and emotions. Hence, it’s quite effortless for depression to enter their system (read more about it in www.mother.ly).
Parks and playgrounds are typically quiet in some neighborhoods where many kids live. It isn’t because the local authorities banned them from going there. It is because they prefer to stay at home, watch YouTube, and play video games all day long, primarily during the weekends or summer break.
The disadvantage of their lack of interest in going out is that these kids are effectively isolating themselves from the world. They have acquaintances from school, not real friends. They say hi to familiar faces, but they don’t stay long enough to catch up with anyone. Due to that, if something negative occurs in their life, the children do not have people to turn to for advice.
- Social Influence
Parents tend to be picky with the types of kids that their children can hang out with daily. Considering the family is deeply involved in church, for instance, they encourage the little ones to befriend fellow churchgoers. If they want a kid who excels in everything, their friends should be straight-A students or budding sports superstars.
What parents can never prepare for is the possibility that these kids who look normal on the outside might have negative habits that their offspring can adopt, e.g., cutting, thinking of death, et cetera. Once they feel sad or stressed out, they use a blade to cut their skin. No one sees them immediately since the self-harming kids are typically smart enough to do it on hidden body parts. The more your children hang out with them, the higher is the likelihood that they’ll use the same coping mechanism and eventually go down the depression lane.
We can talk about more causes of depression in kids, but the ones mentioned above require your attention the most now. The basic idea here is that the youngsters experience extreme bouts of sadness and hopelessness early because they either feel alone or are unable to express their emotions. If you can assure them all the time that you are always available to chat or listen, then it may give the children a more significant opportunity to fight depression. | <urn:uuid:c0a4fd58-cd9f-4391-b67a-b3c4524721b0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://wapsychiatry.com/why-even-children-are-prone-to-getting-depression-now/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.969687 | 747 | 2.75 | 3 |
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO TEACH MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING AS PER NEW EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA FRAMEWORK
The paradigm the new European Higher Education Area places us together with the teaching/learning guidelines and models. This fact demands the teacher to adapt his/her function considering new methods which locate the students in the centre of this process. In this context the definition of academic curriculum for the future engineers in the field of Manufacturing Engineering at the Bilbao Engineering Faculty (UPV/EHU) is presented. It must be taken into account that metalworking industry is of primary importance in our region, and the University must face the challenge of training engineers at different levels, from those that go into industry with the 3 years-degree up to those who choose research as a career and carry out their Ph.D. Thesis. In the intermediate, the training of specialists for the Machine-Tools industry, and the activities of long-life learning are also present in our Faculty. | <urn:uuid:ea4ed045-7250-431f-8aed-3661e883cbd6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://library.iated.org/view/SANCHEZ2010ANI?not_allowed=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.941762 | 213 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Bahinabai is a powerful example of a saint who struggled between dharma (duty) and devotion (bhakti); and marriage and the love of God, despite many trials and tribulations.
While other female saints of the bhakti movement renounced their homes, refused marriage or left their undesired husbands, she successfully realized God and uniquely reconciled these two Vedic ideals in the process. Little wonder that this flame of the17th-century bhakti movement is celebrated as both the ideal bhakta and the pativrata (one dedicated to her spouse), in Maharashtra, where she was born, lived and died.
>>> Drawing of Bahinibai by Richard Laeton
“To leave a husband is against the teachings of the Vedas, and
thereby one can never acquire the supreme spiritual riches.
At my door there seemed a great serpent hissing at me. How could I
live under such conditions?
It is the teaching of the Vedas, that one should not neglect one’s duty,
but my love was for the worship of God (Hari).
Says Bahini, ‘I was in a sea of troubles. How can I describe the
increasing anguish of my heart!’ ” (Abhanga 62)
This was the anguish, the tension between devotion and domesticity, articulated by her in Atmanivedana, her vividly detailed autobiography. It celebrates her unfaltering commitment to bhakti, yet unlike Akka Mahadevi, who is considered one of the first feminists, Bahinabai’s abhangas praise the role of the dutiful wife, even as they extol the virtue of bhakti and the saints, glorify Vithoba and redefine the criteria for Brahmanhood. Most of what we know about her today is through this and her other works.
She was born in Devagaon in western Maharashtra to Brahman parents who had remained childless for many years. As was customary in those days, she was married in Shivpur at the age of five to Gangadhar Pathak, a thirty-year-old Brahman astrologer, a very learned businessman and a distant, widowed relative. She became a mother at the age of eleven, first to a daughter named Kashi and later to a son, Vithoba.
After her marriage, family feuds led her father Audev into debts and imprisonment. Ratnakar helped to set him free and the whole family set off to Rahimatpur. After staying there for two years they finally decided to settle in Kolhapur, where a learned Brahmin named Bahirambhat gave them shelter in the courtyard of his house.
Those early years were marked by frequent pilgrimages to temples but, of all the places they visited, Bahina liked Pandharpur the most. She was captivated by the idol of Lord Vithoba and thrilled by the abhangas of Tukaram. She has described herself as a child who didn't enjoy playing ordinary games, but who wanted to chant God's name, fix her mind on Him and develope a great love for the poetry of Tukaram. Eventually Tukaram came to her in a dream, placed his hand on her head, and blessed her with the mantra Rama Krishna Hari.
“My soul was rocking with joy. With my mind intensely happy, I went to the Indrayani River. I looked upon the image of Pandurang when suddenly I felt inspired to be a poetess. I made a namaskar there to Tukaram, and quickly came back to where we lodged. Says Bahini, "[This inspiration] came like the tide of the ocean, or like the words of the God of Thunder in the sky of my heart."
With these words she describes the ecstasy she experienced after she awoke from her dream initiation.
There is an interesting story told of Bahina’s attachment to a calf gifted to her and Ratnakar by Bahirambhat and how that attachment brought her to an awakening. The calf liked Bahina and followed her wherever she went. Once, Jayaram Swami, a well-known Kirtankar (performer of kirtans) had come to Kolhapur. Bahina attended the kirtans (devotional musical discourses) with her family, and as usual, the calf followed her. Jayaram Swami noticed this and appreciated the bond between the two, but the people around thought that the calf had strayed into the pandal and drove it out. Noticing this, Jayaram Swami called the calf back and patted both the calf and Bahina. When Ratnakar heard about this he was enraged by the special attention Jayaram Swami showed towards Bahina, so he beat her severely. Unable to bear the ill-treatment Bahina was subjected to, the calf stopped eating and died as a consequence.
Grief-stricken by this news, Bahina fell unconscious for three days. In her unconscious state she saw Lord Vithal before her and was enlightened. She had also seen Sant Tukaram. After these visions, Bahina was a changed person once she regained consciousness. She became a devotee of Lord Vithal and spent her time singing Tukaram’s abhangas. Jayaram Swami realised and explained to Ratnakar how very fortunate he was, for Bahina, he said, was a saint and Yoga-brastha (a former yogi under a temporary memory lapse).
A series of such experiences only deepened the spirituality which she had shown from childhood. But Ratnakar had a marked disdain for devotional practice and adhered strictly to orthodox rituals. Bahina’s deep reverence for the things of God and her affection for Tukaram who was a low class shudra, often incited a jealous rage in him, which ultimately translated into physical violence against her. He even threatened to abandon her.
Her absolute devotion to God and her guru, the famous varkari mystic Tukaram, gained her the admiration of others, her fame spread far but antagonized her husband in equal measure and he abused her more physically. It was a mysterious illness which finally brought a begrudging alteration in his heart and mind. In abhangs 39 and 40, Bahina tells us about this incident.
39 - My husband had made up his mind to leave us on the morrow, when suddenly he was stricken ill and for seven days his body was burning with fever. Even from those he knew, he accepted no advice. I was at his side day and night. He rejected the medicines given to him. He suffered intense pain. For more than a month he rejected food, and endured excruciating pain. The various gods and family deities were pleaded with in special ways, but there was no cessation of his sufferings. He exclaimed, “I am about to die. How I insulted Pandurang and Tukoba! and it was then that this suffering came to me. If this pain is due to my having insulted Tukaram, then O Tukaram, you who are honoured in all the universe, perform now a miracle”. Says Bahini, "My husband repented; Pandurang is the inner witness of this change."
40 - An oldish Brahman appeared and said to him, 'Why is it you are wishing to die? Why did it come to your mind to take up the ascetic's life? What are your reasons for wanting to desert your wife? First, think in your own heart what wrong she has committed, and then if true, give yourself into the hands of anger. If you wish to live, accept her. If she has conducted herself without regard to her duties, then only you might abandon her, you idiot! She is one who has no worldly desires. She is truly a bhakta of Hari. You should likewise be one also. You will be blessed by it,' said the Brahman, and my husband bowed down at his feet.
He explained all to the Brahman and exclaimed, 'Give me now to-day the gift of life. O my Swami, save me from this painful disease, and I will devote my life at your feet.' He did not speak at all to his wife, but with all his heart he pleaded with Hari for help. He then arose and made a namaskar to the Brahman. The twice-born responded 'You will be blessed.' I was listening to the conversation of the two, and I at once fell at the feet of my husband. The Brahman immediately vanished out of sight and my husband regained his health and well-being. Says Bahini, 'If God bestows His favour, all the Siddhis stand at the door ready to serve."
After his miraculous recovery Ratnakar, who had always fiercely opposed her devotion to Tukaram, suggested that they go to see their Master in Dehu.
"The person of Tukaram, which I'd seen in a dream," Bahini writes, "now appeared before me in reality: joy danced in my eyes… Tukaram took possession of my heart. Says Bahini, 'I shook with joy. This joy the wise know through experience."' She and her husband lived on for many years in Dehu. Both her children were born there too.
In another abhang, Bahinabai laments her female birth which kept her away from the knowledge of the holy scriptures like Vedas and sacred mantras.
The Vedas cry aloud, the Puranas shout
"No good may come to woman."
I was born with a woman's body
How am I to attain Truth?
"They are foolish, seductive and deceptive -
Any connection with a woman is disastrous."
Bahina says, "If a woman's body is so harmful,
How in this world will I reach Truth?"
Bahinabai's literary works envision this suffering as a test of her bhakti, and as inspiration for seeking refuge in Vithoba's grace.
"A woman's body is a body controlled by somebody else. Therefore the path of renunciation is not open to her."
Bahina had to struggle with the institutionalised power structure of the family which blocked and often forbade her religious expression. Tukaram, preached renunciation of the world in order to reach God but unlike him, Bahina was bound by social life and its attachments. She harmonised these forces by interlacing her love of God and husband. Without sacrificing the intensity of her religious devotion, she cloaked it, with dutiful expressions of spousal piety: "she who conducts her household duties and her religious life equally - only she catches the heaven". She saw service to a husband as the duty of a woman, adherence to duty as the teaching of the Vedas, and disregard of the Vedas as the surest way to miss the ultimate Goal.
Despite her criticism of the restrictions placed upon her religious practice, in the final analysis, she upheld the authority of the orthodox tradition, its reliance on Sanskrit, (her abhangs were in Marathi) and its limited religious/spritual freedom for women. In fact, her compositions revere facets of this culture, allowing for the patriarchal ideal of the obedient wife, or pativrata. Though she questioned the norms that limited female spirituality, she never provided a direct solution to the dilemmas female devotees encountered. Rather, she provided high-caste women with a new model for religious living by integrating the role of the pativrata into the spirit of bhakti.
In her life story, her last message to her son describes her previous thirteen births. It is presumed that she knew beforehand the time of her death in the present incarnation as Bahinabai. She is believed to have initiated disciples too. Deenakavi, the author of Panchkaran Mahavakya, was one of her disciples.
Bahina's poems concern saintly life, the praise of Brahman, and the duties of wifely devotion taking her work beyond religious context to a commentary on the workings of caste, the wifely devotion and submission demanded of every woman, the need to mediate through a guru, and the dynamics of rebirth, displaying a remarkable convergence of gender and religion.
A widow, she died a normal death at the age of seventy-two, in Dehu where her memorial stands.
Autobiography and Verses - Justin Abbot
Bahinabai and Mystical Resistance – Cynthia Ho
Previous: Who is Andal? | <urn:uuid:af143611-e3eb-4c61-8355-36130f63e0c7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.boloji.com/articles/10936/another-light-of-bhakti-movement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.979109 | 2,655 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Design Researchers in Residence programme has revealed four climate-related projects, from a pollution-absorbing seaweed to wearable furniture.
Design Researchers in Residence is an annual programme at London’s Design Museum where designers are invited for a ten-month residency to address a given theme.
The name of this year’s programme, as well as the brief given to the designers, differs from previous years, as the 2021/22 cohort were encouraged to submit designs supported heavily by research which fall into the theme of restore.
The display is part of the Museum’s flagship Future Observatory programme, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Design Museum director of Future Observatory Justin McGuirk explains that the choice stems from the climate crisis as “restoration is becoming a valuable mode for design and research practices”.
The display will feature projects that cover multiple disciplines. According to the museum’s Chief Executive and Director Tim Marlow, this year’s cohort has presented “varied, thought-provoking and potentially game-changing ideas”.
Addressing economic inequality
Thomas Aquilina’s project focuses on spatial and environmental injustice in London, particularly in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Over the course of his residency, he went on multiple walks across this borough which is considered to be one of the most economically unequal areas in the country.
From this, Aquilina created a documentary film and a new kind of glossary. This collection of words and images aims to speak about social injustice and how it exists in the borough’s most well-known sites, from the Westway and Holland Park, to Grenfell Tower and the Design Museum itself.
Aquilina had a variety of people accompany him on these walks to speak on the topic. As well as local residents, he involved writer and editor of Tank magazine Ekow Eshun, former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad, and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show award-winning gardener Tayshan Hayden-Smith, who is known for “greening” abandoned urban spaces like the Grenfell site.
The 33 terms in the glossary – such as race, climate and gardening – are defined through a combination of texts written by Aquilina and the conversations he had with his guests on the walks. The glossary is then printed in a pamphlet-like book which is meant to be rolled out across the space like an art work.
A future with wearable furniture
Another of the designers, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, took a more futuristic approach to her project, presenting a speculative exploration of the relationship between warmth, fashion and architecture.
Her ideas were born out of the context of the current energy crisis, ongoing war, increasing pollution and environmental damage. Fantini van Ditmar and her collaborators aim to imagine an alternative scenario for a future world in which domestic comfort is fundamentally different to how we view it today.
A resourceful approach to reuse is prominent in this future, where waste materials become experimental clothing and furniture to keep us warm and comfortable. Her future-facing designs include an adaptable waterproof shelter which features discarded clothing and attempts to offer a new type of home suited for forest-based life. Another piece in her display is the Pinch, which is a piece of wearable furniture that can also function as a chair and can be transported on a person’s back.
Improving the health of UK water
Fellow designer in residence Samuel Iliffe’s exhibit is a seaweed farm designed to address freshwater pollution. The seaweed naturally extracts phosphorus from the water to use it for its own photosynthesis and growth, and it can be transported easily to areas where phosphate levels are high.
According to a recent study by the Environment Agency, not a single river, lake or estuary in the UK is classed as “in good health”. Iliffe’s design hopes to address the number one reason for this: phosphorus pollution.
Phosphorus is a harmful by-product of agricultural production. This lightweight, transportable seaweed farm created by Iliffe is meant to remove phosphorus from waters that are at risk of pollution.
Recycling human hair
Sanne Visser’s display includes the 97 hairdressers and barbers within one mile of the Design Museum. On average, each of these will cut off 2.4 kilograms of hair every month, most of which will end up in landfill.
Visser recognised human hair as a highly versatile material which, like wool, can be processed for use as a yarn or textile. Hair can also be broken down to its chemical components for medical uses or even as a plastic alternative.
Through showing prototypes of new equipment that she has designed, Visser hopes to establish a national large-scale hair recycling system, including a barber’s chair that captures cut hair for sorting.
The free exhibition will run from 24 June – 25 September at London’s Design Museum. For more information, please visit the museum’s website. | <urn:uuid:fe90ecee-00ff-4d8d-91a1-00bda5db7dda> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://garstangtowncouncil.org/index-24.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.954997 | 1,054 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Turquoise, a beautifully versatile stone whose range of color varies from green and greenish blue to sky blue shades is the December birthstone and gift for the 11th wedding anniversary. First introduced to Europe by the Turks from the Eastern Mediterranean, Turquoise has been used for ornamentation throughout the ages. Highly regarded by the ancient Egyptians of thousands of years ago, the legendary powers it provides its wearer include healing, courage, protection, friendship, and good luck. Turquoise is one of the world's most ancient gems and is associated with attracting money, success and love. Long considered a gemstone which guarantees good fortune and protection from evil, Turquoise is also said to relax the mind and ease mental tension. Available in a variety of sizes and in varying vivid shades, Turquoise, known as the stone of communication, has long been used in Native American jewelry and amulets. It was once also used as a ceremonial gemstone and medium of exchange for tribes in the southwestern United States. Used for beads, cabochons, carvings and inlays, this striking and versatile stone is considered to be one of the most powerful metaphysical healing stones. According to New Age practitioners, its healing powers can benefit the entire body, especially when it comes to healing ailments of the immune, respiratory, waste and skeletal systems. Turquoise is porous and semitranslucent. It is a compound of hydrated copper and aluminum phosphate. Found in only a few places around the world, Turquoise comes from dry and barren regions where acidic, copper-rich groundwater drains downward and reacts with minerals that contain aluminum and phosphorous. Call us to inquire about our collection of unique Turquoise jewelry or create a custom piece exactly to your liking. | <urn:uuid:045a764b-c372-473f-8611-f3a0fa37b5f6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://alarajewelry.com/collections/turquoise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.942534 | 359 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Ashley Liso is a first year MSW student. Read her story about her efforts to get vaccines to the clients she is serving as part of her internship:
"I am doing my internship for Section 8/Public Housing. A majority of these residents suffer from mental and physical disabilities so it is very difficult for them to get around. There are also a lot of seniors who do not drive and are homebound. While planning this, I hit almost every roadblock possibly trying to obtain vaccines for them. Many of these residents do not have phones, computers, nor a means of transportation. They were all having difficulty registering anywhere because of their circumstances. Therefore, I contacted my Senator, Assemblyman, Health Department, and practically everyone under the sun in hopes to get a vaccination site on premises. However, no one could help me. I knew I had to do something because the residents would come to the office on site begging me to help them get vaccinated. I knew I had to keep on exploring any and all avenues, otherwise these residents would not get vaccinated. I decided to look into mobile vaccination sites and I contacted over 10 agencies before I found this mobile health clinic that was willing to come to both of our sites and vaccinate the residents. They gave me a date and told me the residents will need to fill out registration forms. I hit the pavement delivering notices, making phone calls, knocking on doors and made sure that we hit our minimum. I would also need to make copies of everyone's ID's and documentation of a pre-existing condition if they were under 65. I helped each tenant fill out their registration forms and also helped retrieve documentation by calling doctor's offices and having them fax the letters to me. A lot of residents didn't have identification because they didn't drive and were elderly so I had to track down family members to send me some sort of photo ID. I dealt with language barriers, physical disabilities and whatever need became evident. I only had three days notice, so this was very difficult to do. I had to scan all of their forms, ID's, and documentation to the agency ahead of time. Once Friday arrived, I noticed that I didn't receive back about 25-30 forms so I had to go to each site and get it from their apartments to meet this deadline. It was very stress inducing, but it was certainly worth it. I ended up registering over 100 people and they were all vaccinated on Sunday, March 14! I am so happy these residents were finally able to get vaccinated and the nurse is coming back on april 11th to administer their second dose of Monderna"! | <urn:uuid:d14578c0-cda8-4383-9425-7afa4cf2fa2c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://socialwelfare.stonybrookmedicine.edu/news-events-field-intern-helps-vaccinate-clients | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.990413 | 530 | 2.046875 | 2 |
ISO 8503-5:2003 describes a field method for measuring the surface profile produced by any of the abrasive blast-cleaning procedures given in ISO 8504-2. The method uses replica tape and a suitable gauge for measuring, on site, the roughness of a surface before the application of paint or another protective coating.
The method is applicable within the range of profiles cited for a given grade (or thickness) of replica tape. The commercial grades currently available permit measurement of average peak-to-valley profiles of 20 micrometres to 115 micrometres. The method is valid for surfaces that have been cleaned with either metallic or non-metallic abrasives.
Текущий статус : WithdrawnДата публикации : 2003-07
Версия : 1
Технический комитет:Preparation of steel substrates before application of paints and related products | <urn:uuid:48500825-1802-4e1f-af86-0e80f32a4c19> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://iso.ch/ru/standard/28622.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.811737 | 270 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Participating in crafts gives you a great way to unwind and actually has some therapeutic value as well. You need to make sure you enjoy this hobby. Continue reading to learn how to make the most out of your crafting efforts.
Have you been searching for a good spot to gather materials to make crafts? There are many places online that offer significant savings on craft items. Quickly search online to find good deals on the things you use for crafting. Several top Internet stores even provide free shipping.
Craft projects can be many different things. You probably throw away a lot of paper, but it can be recycled into many different types of projects. Empty rolls for toilet paper or paper towels work, too. You can even use magazines and newspapers. Use some creativity in terms of materials or items you typically dispose of, and put them to arts and crafts use instead.
If you can’t seem to find reasonably priced art supplies, check second hand stores. They often have items which your creativity can turn into a project. Check often to see what they have as these items are sold quickly.
Look for a bead specialty place, like Beadaholic, to find all sorts of supplies for your custom jewelry. Make any kind of jewelry from the fantastic variety of beads, chains and other supplies. Many people wear costume jewelry today. By making items of your own, it is possible to save lots of money and have closely matching items.
Stick to one project at a time. In this hobby, new projects are always tempting to start. On the other hand, constantly starting new projects means never finishing them. Take your time and enjoy each project before beginning the next exciting project. This will allow you to finish them.
Remember that kids can be messy with arts and crafts. If that stresses you, prepare the area with newspaper in order to keep glue and glitter off your floor and furniture. You can also try using washable materials like washable markers and adhesives.
You don’t have to lay out perfect samples of the craft you want to do with children. The perfect examples inhibit their imagination and hold them up to a standard. You want to focus on them being creative instead. Maybe your child glues an eye where the ear should be! The more they are allowed to experiment, the better.
Look online when you need new ideas for your arts and crafts. There are quite a few Internet sites that offer ideas on many types of projects. It does not matter if the ages of the artists are young or old, you can find something for all ages on the Internet.
Many people love to partake in arts and crafts related hobbies. Choosing the right pursuit can be difficult. We hope the information provided in this article has assisted you in identifying your favorite craft.
If it is hard to locate craft supplies at the price you want to pay, check out secondhand stores. Many consignment shops and stores like Goodwill will have many goodies for an aspiring artists. You do have to look regularly though, as great possibilities don’t sit on the shelves long. | <urn:uuid:441a7076-3cf7-44fb-b9d8-d35337e3258d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://selloutart.com/want-to-know-about-arts-and-crafts-read-this-7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.957031 | 628 | 2.234375 | 2 |
An assessment of the Gulf of Mannar region as another possible region where the discovery and appreciation of pearls first began
The Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka is another very ancient source of pearls, and pre-historic people living in the southern coast of India and the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka might have stumbled upon the first pearls discovered by man in this region, during the harvesting of pearl oysters for food.
The Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), is the other most ancient source of pearls in the world. The pearl banks in this region are situated both closer to the Sri Lankan coast as well as the South Indian coast. However, the pearl banks closer to the Sri Lankan coast were more extensive and lucrative than the pearl banks near the South Indian coast. Pre-historic peoples living closer to the coastal areas in the northwestern Sri Lanka and southern India may have stumbled upon the first pearls discovered in this region, during their quest for food, just as much as it happened in the Persian Gulf in pre-historic times. Such discovery of pearls might have occurred independent of the discovery that took place in the Persian Gulf.
Archeological evidence supporting the use of pearls in pre-historic times are almost non-existent both from the Sri Lanka and southern India, though such evidence exists for mother-of-pearl beads and other shell beads from univalve mollusks in the ancient Mohendajaro and Harappa civilizations (2,600-1,900 B.C.) of the Indus Valley, a civilization that built the first planned cities and controlled vast territories through trade and religion rather than warfare. The Harappans established trade contacts with ancient Mesopotamia, and traded in pearls, gems, copper and ivory in exchange for Mesopotamian wool, leather and olive oil. Unlike in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea region where extensive archaeological excavations had taken place of both historic and pre-historic sites, in Sri Lanka and India most of the excavations had been largely limited to historic sites, of which information was already available from ancient written records, but whose existence had been obliterated by the ravages of time, buried by mounds of earth and forest growth. In Sri Lanka, most of the ancient sites mentioned in the two written historical chronicles of the Island nation, the Mahawamsa (Great Chronicle) and the Chulawamsa (Lesser Chronicle) have now been excavated. Archaeologists have now diverted their attention to pre-historic sites that are not mentioned in the two chronicles, extending to pre-Vijayan times, the period before King Vijaya, the north Indian prince who settled in the Island with his followers in the 6th-century B.C., and from whom the Sinhalese claim their descent.
Pearl Banks of the Gulf of Mannar
Examination of the coastal region of Sri Lanka as a possible area where the discovery and appreciation of pearls first began
Evidence for the large scale harvesting of oysters as a source of food have emerged from a pre-historic stone-age site at Pallemalala in southeastern Sri Lanka 6,000 years old (4,000 years B.C.)
The credit for the discovery of the site goes to an alert school boy who reported the digging out of human skeletons in a shell mine by a shell miner, to his teacher
In one of the significant archaeological discoveries made in the southeastern coastal region of Sri Lanka in 1997 by a team of archaeologists of the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology led by archeologist Raj Somadeva, the first evidence was unearthed of extensive use of saltwater oysters as a source of food by a pre-historic stone age community that lived in the coastal village of Pallemalala in the Hambantota district of southeastern Sri Lanka. The site discovered in a shell midden by a shell miner, was reported by an alert schoolboy to his teacher. A large part of the credit for the discovery goes to this school boy, without whose alertness the discovery might have gone unreported. The pre-historic site contained several skeletal remains of stone age men and implements used by them.
The underground shell middens were formed when pre-historic men discarded the shells after eating the roasted contents of the oyster
A shell midden is an underground mound of shells covering a large area, that was formed when pre-historic stone age man, discarded the shells of mollusks, mainly oysters that he had consumed over a long period of time. Over the years such mounds reached enormous proportions, and formed a solid base of calcareous material that encouraged human settlements. It appeared that primitive men collected the mollusks from the nearby lagoon or bay that had presently dried up. Most of the shells in the midden had been broken up by opening the bivalve shells with some crude stone implement.
Archaeologists also unearthed evidence that the primitive settlers on the shell midden, were stone-age men from the mesolithic period, who were hunter gatherers
Archaeologists discovered the living floor of the primitive settlers when excavating the site to a depth of about three feet into the shell mound. Bones of animal skeletons recovered from the living floor appeared to belong to around 50 different animal species, that included deer, wild boar, wild buffalo, hare, mouse etc. Among other discoveries were a primitive grinding stone, and the remnants of a fire place, used for roasting not only the carcass of hunted animals, but also the fleshy contents of the mollusks harvested from the bay or lagoon.
Archaeologists also unearthed seven well-preserved human skeletons in the flexed position of which at least one belonged to a female
Further excavations carried out by the archaeologists, going down by another three feet below the living floor, led to the discovery of a burial floor, beneath the living floor, where seven well-preserved adult skeletons in flexed positions were unearthed. At least one of the seven skeletons were determined by anthropologists to belong to a female.
Anatomical features of the skeletons showed distinct features related to the aboriginal Veddahs of Sri Lanka, an Austro-Asian indigenous stock related to the aborigines of Australia, Malayan sakais, and the hos and birhos of eastern India
Anthropological and cultural evidence showed that these primitive stone age people were genetically related to Sri Lanka’s inland aboriginal inhabitants, the Veddahs, with their thick-set skull, long head, broad nose, pronounced brow-ridges and prognathous or protruding jaw, and were thus allied to the Austro-Asian stock of indigenous peoples, such as the Australian aborigines, the Malayan sakais, and the Mundari-speaking peoples of eastern India, such as the Hos and the Birhos. Pallemalala stone age man appears to belong to the middle stone age or mesolithic period, as they possessed no polished stone implements, or engaged in activities such as agriculture or domestication of animals. Archeologist Raj Somadeva has estimated that there are at least 50 such shell middens in the vicinity of the present excavation site. Similar shell middens had been discovered in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean before, but this is the first ever shell midden discovered in Sri Lanka. All pre-historic sites discovered before in Sri Lanka were found in sheltered rock caves, but this is the first time an open air pre-historic site had been discovered in Sri Lanka. The oldest pre-historic site discovered in Sri Lanka, containing the skeleton of early cave-dwelling mesolithic “Balangoda man” is around 37,000 years old.
The skeletal remains found in the lower layers of the shell midden have been tentatively estimated to be around 6,000 years old (4,000 years B.C.), but the shell midden itself originates from a much older period
Archaeologists have tentatively dated the Pallemalala pre-historic skeletal remains as belonging to 4,000 years B.C. (6,000 years B.P.), until an accurate determination by carbon-dating is done on the skeletal remains and the shell midden. The shell midden is undoubtedly much older than the skeletal remains, as the pre-historic people that chose to live on the midden, came from a much recent era, whereas the shell midden itself was built up by discarded shells of mollusks eaten by pre-historic men that lived in a much older era. Hence, the oyster eating men who were responsible for creating the large mounds of open shells, lived in a period much older than 6,000 years, perhaps as old as 37,000 BP, the age of the earliest mesolithic “Balangoda man” skeletons discovered in the Fa-Hien caves near Bulathsinhala. .
The significance of the Pallemalala discoveries
The Pallemalala discoveries have a great significance with respect to the ancient history of the usage and appreciation of pearl oysters and pearls. The significance of this discovery are as follows :-
1) The discovery establishes the fact that Sri Lanka was one of the most ancient sources of pearl oysters and pearls in the world. The fact that oyster-eating pre-historic populations lived in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, 6,000 to 40,000 years BP, that was responsible for the building up of enormous shell middens, estimated to be around 50, consisting mostly of discarded oyster shells, shows that oyster-producing beds were quite common in the past, in the shallow waters surrounding the Island, that was able to sustain such pre-historic people for long periods of time.
2) The discovery also shows that in ancient times pearl banks was not only restricted to the northwestern coastline of Sri Lanka, around the Mannar area, but were also found abundantly in the directly opposite southeastern coastline of the Island, around the ancient port city of Hambantota, that opens the possibility that such pearl oyster beds were also found in the numerous shallow bays and lagoons right round the Island. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before more shell middens are discovered elsewhere in the Island.
3) The fact that oyster-eating pre-historic populations lived in the coastal regions of the Island 6,000 – 40,000 BP, gives rise to the strong possibility that such pre-historic people were among the first to stumble upon the rare pearls that were occasionally found in these oysters, and thus deserve to be given the credit for discovering natural pearls, and appreciating their beauty. Little wonder then Sri Lanka was known in ancient times as an important source of pearls, with sea faring people like the Phoenicians, and later the ancient Greeks and Romans reaching the northwestern coasts of the Island, to purchase pearls.
Evidence from the early historical period of Sri Lanka that shows the antiquity of the natural pearl industry and trade
Sri Lanka has a recorded history of almost 2,500 years beginning from the mid 6th-century B.C. and “The Mahawamsa” (Great Chronicle) that records the history of the Island is considered to be one of the world’s longest unbroken historical accounts
The historical period of Sri Lanka begins with the Indo-Aryan migration to the Island in the mid 6th-century B.C. (around 543 B.C.), by a north Indian prince, Vijaya and his 700 followers, who settled in the Island and from whom the majority ethnic group in Srl Lanka, the Sinhalese, claim their descent. The history of the Island nation beginning with the arrival of Prince Vijaya, was recorded in Pali language by Buddhist monks of the Mahavihara (Great Temple), on “Ola” palm leaves (similar to papyrus leaves), beginning with the 3rd-century B.C. and subsequently compiled into a single document known as the “Mahawamsa” (Greater Chronicle) in the 5th-century A.D. by the Buddhist Monk Mahanama, who is usually credited with the authorship of the ancient document. Thus, the “Mahawamsa” consists of almost 1,000 years of recorded history of Sri Lanka, dealing with the life and deeds of all kings who ruled during this period.
The history of the Island nation after the 5th-century A.D. was compiled in a companion volume known as the “Chulawamsa” (Lesser Chronicle), also by Buddhist monks and covered a period of 14 centuries, from the 5th-century A.D. until the total British take-over of the Island in 1815. While the “Mahawamsa” was compiled by a single author in the 5th-century A.D. the “Chulawamsa” was compiled and progressively revised and expanded by several authors over the years until 1815. Some authorities prefer to refer to the combined volumes of “Mahawamsa” and “Chulawamsa” as “The Mahawamsa” instead of differentiating between the two volumes. The combined volumes spanning a period of almost 2,500 years, is considered to be one of the world’s longest unbroken historical accounts.
Reference to pearls in the Mahawamsa
The Mahawamsa records stories of battles and invasions, court intrigues, the construction of palace complexes, rock fortresses like Sigiriya, giant Buddhist stupas (like the pyramids of Egypt), and giant irrigation schemes, with large reservoirs and long irrigation channels. that has marveled the modern-day irrigation engineers. It also records various aspects of the lives of ordinary citizens, including the vocations they are engaged in such as farming, blacksmithing, gold-smithing and jewelry designing, stone and rock-carving, brass founding, carpentry, pottery, weaving etc. The Mahawamsa also refers to different kinds of pearls and other gemstones like sapphire, beryls and rubies found in Sri Lanka, and occasions such pearls and gemstones were sent as gifts by the king of Sri Lanka to monarchs in neighboring India. Two such references to pearls are found in Chapter 7 – Consecration of King Vijaya and Chapter 11 -Consecration of King Devanampiyatissa.
The following are relevant extracts (in italics) from chapters 7 and 11 of the English translation of the Mahawamsa translated by Mabel Haynes Bode, from the German version written by Wilhelm Geiger in 1920.
Chapter 7 – Consecration of Vjaya – Reference to pearls around 543 B.C.When they had founded settlements in the land the ministers all came together and spoke thus to the prince: `Sire, consent to be consecrated as king.’ But, in spite of their demand, the prince refused the consecration, unless a maiden of a noble house were consecrated as queen (at the same time).But the ministers, whose minds were eagerly bent upon the consecrating of their lord, and who, although the means were difficult, had overcome all anxious fears about the matter, sent people, entrusted with many precious gifts, jewels, pearls, and so forth, to the city of Madhura in southern (India), to woo the daughter of the Pandu king for their lord, devoted (as they were) to their ruler; and they also (sent to woo) the daughters of others for the ministers and retainers.
The first extract from Chapter 7, refers to Prince Vijaya’s refusal to be consecrated as king, unless he married a maiden from a noble house, who would be consecrated as queen at the same time. Prince Vijaya’s ministers and closest advisers immediately set about the task of finding a princess of a noble family to fulfill his wishes. Realizing that the closest kingdom from where they could find a princess of noble birth, was the Dravidian Pandu kingdom of South India, the ministers sent a delegation to the city of Madurai in southern India, carrying the proposal to the Pandu King, to ask for his daughter’s hand for the Prince. As was the tradition at that time, the delegation carried several valuable gifts for the Pandu King, that included among others jewels, precious stones (sapphires, rubies, beryls etc.) and pearls, for which Sri Lanka was renowned at that time. The mission was successful and delegation returned not only with the Pandu King’s daughter accompanied by more valuable reciprocal gifts for Prine Vijaya, but also fair maidens for the ministers of the Prince. The story not only signifies an Indo-Aryan-Dravidian alliance, at the beginning of the historical period in Sri Lanka, but also establishes the fact that Sri Lanka was a source of pearls and other precious stones such as rubies, sapphires and beryls since ancient times. Chapter 11 – The Consecration of Devanampiyatissa – Reference to pearls around 306 B.C.Pearls of the eight kinds, namely horse-pearl, elephant -pearl, waggon-pearl, myrobalan -pearl, bracelet-pearl, ring-pearl, kakudha fruit-pearl, and common (pearls) came forth out of the ocean and lay upon the shore in heaps.
All this was the effect of Devanampiyatissa’s merit. Sapphire, beryl, ruby, these gems and many jewels and those pearls and those bamboo-stems they brought, all in the same week, to the king.When the king saw them he was glad at heart and thought: ‘My friend Dhammasoka and nobody else is worthy to have these priceless treasures ; I will send them to him as a gift.’ For the two monarchs, Devanampiyatissa and Dhammasoka already had been friends a long time, though they had never seen each other.
The king sent four persons appointed as his envoys : his nephew Maharittha, who was the chief of his ministers, then his chaplain, a minister and his treasurer, attended by a body of retainers, and he bade them take with them those priceless jewels, the three kinds of precious stones, and the three stems (like) waggon-poles, and a spiral shell winding to the right, and the eight kinds of pearls. When they had embarked at Jambukola and in seven days had reached the haven in safety, and from thence in seven days more had come to Pataliputta, they gave those gifts into the hands of king Dhammasoka. When he saw them he rejoiced greatly. Thinking: ‘Here I have no such precious things’ the monarch, in his joy, bestowed on Arittha the rank of a commander in his army, on the brahman the dignity of chaplain, to the minister he gave the rank of staff-bearer, and to the treasurer that of a guild-lord.Commentary on King Devanampiyatissa (306 B.C.-266 B.C.)
Grand miracles occurred during the consecration of King Devanampiya Tissa. Jewels buried in earth rose to the surface, pearls in deep oceans came to the shore and piled up in the shore and bamboo trees started to look like they were made out of silver. King Devanampiya Tissa thought that these pearls and gems should be sent to his great friend, King Dharmashoka of India. King Dharmashoka and King Devanampiya Tissa were great friends for many years but had never seen each other. King Devanampiya Tissa sent a mission to India with many jewels and pearls and other gifts for his friend, King Dharmashoka.
The fact that king Ashoka was impressed by the gifts sent by king Devanampiyatissa, to the extent that he bestowed special honors and titles on the members of the delegation who carried them to India, speaks of the high-quality of the precious stones and pearls that originated in Sri Lanka at that time
King Devanampiyatissa was no doubt a pious, benevolent and one of the greatest kings that ruled Sri Lanka for 40 years from 306 B.C. to 266 B.C. Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka during his period of rule, and the king was the first Buddhist convert. The Buddhist missionary who successfully converted the king to Buddhism was none other than Mahindra (Mahinda), the son of the mighty Mauryan king of India, king Ashoka (Dharmasoka) who himself had converted to Buddhism, after the bloody military campaigns that saw the expansion of his kingdom. King Ashoka sent his son Mahindra to Sri Lanka to invite his contemporary King Devanampiyatissa to accept Buddhism, which he did very gladly. After the king accepted Buddhism his subjects followed suit, and Sri Lanka became a mainly Buddhist country thereafter and remains so up to this day.
The narrator in his enthusiasm to extol the virtues of the King and portray him as a pious Buddhist, ascribes several miraculous happenings during his consecration. However, the narrative has great significance for the history of jewels and jewelry in Sri Lanka and the rest of the world. It clearly brings out the fact that the three main types of precious stones in Sri Lanka since ancient times, had been sapphires, beryls and rubies, apart from the organic gems – the pearls, obtained from the sea. The fact that the gifts impressed the mighty king Ashoka to the extent that he bestowed special honors and titles on the members of king Devanampiyatissa’s delegation, speaks for the high quality of the precious stones and pearls that originated in Sri Lanka at that time.
Evidence from foreign writings of the antiquity of the pearl trade in Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Pearls and beryls from Sri Lanka mentioned in the Mahabharata, the ancient great Indian epic of the 4th-century B.C.
In the ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata, that is believed to have originated around the 4th-century B.C. mention is made of Sri Lankan pearls, in the second parva or book, known as the Sabha Parva (The Book of the Assembly Hall). The Simhalas of Sri Lanka are said to have offered to the legendary Indian king Yudhisthira, the choicest gifts of the sea, pearls and conches, and also gemstones like beryls(catseyes).
Kautilya, chief adviser and minister to King Chandragupta Maurya refers to the lucrative pearl banks of the Kondaichchi Bay in the Gulf of Mannar, situated near the mouth of the River Kula (Kala Oya), in his book the Arthashastra, written in the 4th-3rd century B.C.
Kautilya, close adviser, political and military strategist and minister to Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan kingdom in eastern India, in his book the “Arthashastra” written in the 4th-3rd century B.C. refers to the pearl banks closer to the mouth of the River Kula (Kala Oya) in the Kondaichchi Bay in the Gulf of Mannar, in northwest Sri Lanka. The Arthashastra apart from dealing in politics, statecraft, law and military strategy, also treats extensively the economy of a vibrant state, giving details of economics activities, such as mineralogy, mining and metals, agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine, the use of wildlife, and natural pearl production. In giving an extensive account of the natural pearl production in India, he gives a list of ten different coastal areas in India and Sri Lanka where natural pearl fisheries existed during his time. Of the five areas in southern India he had mentioned, where a natural pearl fishery existed, one area known as “Kula” was in the northwest of Sri Lanka. He was actually referring to the lucrative pearl banks in the Gulf of Mannar, near the mouth of the River Kula (Kala Oya), that flows into the Kondaichchi Bay, below the Island of Mannar.
Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Mauryan king Chandragupta of India writes about Srl Lankan pearls in the 3rd-century B.C.
Sri Lanka was known to the ancient Greeks as “Palaesimoundu” and “Taprobane,” and the island of Mannar, the center of the pearl trade was known as “Epidorus.” Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of the Mauryan King Chandragupta, wrote in the 3rd-century B.C. that, “the island of Taprobane was more productive of gold and large pearls than the Indias.”
The Phoenicians, enterprising seafarers reached Epidorus (Mannar) in Sri Lanka to purchase pearls, which they re-sold to the Greeks, Romans and ancient Egyptians
The Phoenicians who were enterprising seafarers and a powerful maritime trading nation in the Mediterranean from 1500 B.C. to 300 B.C. are believed to have reached Epidorus (Mannar) in Sri Lanka to purchase pearls, and these pearls were subsequently sold to the Greeks, Romans and ancient Egyptians.
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a Greek book written in the 1st-century A.D. gives an accurate account of the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar, not found even in the “Mahawamsa.” However, the account is from the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar, which the ancient Greeks explored during this period.
The Alexandrian-Greek author who wrote the “Periplus of the Erythrean Sea” around the first-century A.D., gives an account of the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar, around the year 60 A.D. The author states that due to the dangers involved in the pearl fishing, it was the usual tradition to employ slaves and convicts, for the difficult task of pearl fishing.
The following is an excerpt from the “Periplus of the Erythrian Sea :-
“Upon leaving Bakare we come to the ruddy mountain towards the south; the country which succeeds is under the Government of Pandian; it is called Paraha and lies almost directly north and south; it reaches to Kolkhoi in the vicinity of the pearl fishery. But, the first port after leaving the Ruddy Mountain is Balita and next to that is Komar (Cape Comorin), which has a good harbour and a village by the shore. From Komar the district extends to Kolkhoi (Korkai) and the pearl fishery which is conducted by slaves or criminals condemned to the service; the whole southern point of the continent is part of Pandiyan’s dominion. Beyond Kolkhoi there succeeds another district called the “Coast Country” lying along a gulf (Palk Bay) and has a region inland called Argaru. Here and here only the pearls obtained in the fishery at the island of Epidorus (Mannar) are perforated and prepared for the market, and from the same place are procured the muslins called, Argantic.”
A commentary on the above extract from the “Periplus of the Erythrian Sea.”
The above account by the unknown Alexandrian-Greek author describes a sea journey undertaken in the first-century A.D. that explored the coastal areas of southern India. It describes the coastal area known as “Paraha,” that was occupied by the “Parawa” community, who were by profession fisherman and pearl divers. The account refers to “Kolkhoi,” which was “Korkai” the second largest city in the Pandyan kingdom, which was the headquarters of the pearl fishery on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar, as Epidorus (Mannar) was for the Sri Lankan side; the pearl fishery being carried out by slaves and convicted criminals. The city of “Korkai” was situated at the mouth of the river “Tambrapani” a river draining the present district of “Tinnevelly.” Due to silting and delta formation, the Korkai harbor was gradually eliminated and the city itself was abandoned and moved closer to the new mouth of the river, before the onset of the medieval period. The new city that sprang up was known as Kayal; Cail by Marcopolo in the 13th-century; and Chayl by the Portuguese in the 16th-century. After further receding of the sea, Kayal was abandoned and the new ports of Kayalpattanam and Pinnakayal (Pinnacoil), occupied by the Moor and Parawa community respectively was created in the early Portuguese period. Mention is also made of “Komar” which is corruption of “Kumari” subsequently anglicized to “Comorin.”
An important fact about the drilling of pearls harvested from the pearl fishery in Mannar emerges from the account given in the “Periplus of the Erythrian Sea.”
The island of “Epidorus” referred to in the account is the island of Mannar, the headquarters of the pearl fishery on the Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar. Another important fact that emerges from this accurate account of the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Mannar from the Indian side, by the Greeko-Egyptian geographer, is that all pearls harvested whether from the Sri Lankan side or the Indian side of the Gulf, had to be taken to a place called “Argaru” for drilling and stringing before they are dispatched to the markets. Thus, from this account it appears that in the first-century A.D. all pearls harvested on the Sri Lankan side of the Persian Gulf, were taken to “Argaru” for this purpose.
Ptolemy, the Alexandrian-Roman geographer and astronomer refer to the rich pearl fishing grounds near the Island of Epidorus (Mannar) in Taprobane (Ceylon) in the 2nd-century A.D.
Ptolemy, the 2nd-century A.D. Alexandrian-Roman astronomer and geographer, referred to Sri Lanka as the Island of Taprobane and wrote of the rich pearl fishing grounds near the Island of Epidorus (Mannar), and also about the variety of gemstones found in abundance in the Island, of which the most famous were the beryls, rubies and sapphires.
Pliny, the Elder, refers to the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery as the most productive of all fisheries in the world
The Ceylon pearl fishery flourished during the ancient Roman period during which pearls became very popular among the aristocracy of Rome, from around 100 B.C. to around 100 A.D. Pearls from the Gulf of Mannar were highly valued in Rome, and reached Rome, either by Greek and Roman ships that chartered the Indian Ocean or by caravans that took 1-2 years for the long journey. Pliny, the Elder, in the first-century A.D. refers to the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery as the most productive of all fisheries from different parts of the world, in his famous book “Historia Naturalis.”
Pliny the elder- Roman historian
Strabo, the Greek traveler and Geographer of the 1st-century B.C/1st-century A.D. reports on the trans-Indian Ocean trade between the Roman empire and India and Sri Lanka, that also included pearls originating from the Gulf of Mannar
Strabo, the Greek traveler, historian, geographer and philosopher, born in the wealthy kingdom of Pontus, Asia Minor, (presently in Turkey), in 64/63 B.C. traveled to Egypt around 25-24 B.C. during the reign of Augustus Caesar (27 B.C. – 14 A.D.). During this period there was a thriving trans-Indian Ocean trade between the Roman empire and the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, using vessels making use of seasonal monsoon winds, that lasted from 1st-century B.C. to 4th-century A.D. Strabo reported in his 17-volume work “Geographica” that was written before he died in 24 A.D., that in the year 25-24 B.C. while he was in Egypt he found that around 120 vessels were employed in the trans-Indian Ocean trade between the Roman empire and India and Sri Lanka, originating from Myos Hormos, the Roman port on the western shores of the Red Sea. Around the time Strabo was in Egypt (25-24 B.C.), an Indian embassy arrived that was on its way to visit Octavian Augustus. The embassy carried several gifts to the emperor that included a collection of pearls. One of the embassies that came was from the ruler of the South Indian Pandyan kingdom, who was known in Greek as king Porus or Pandion. The Pandyan kingdom was an important producer of pearls at that time, controlling the pearl banks on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar. Out of the emperors who ruled the Roman empire from 14 A.D. to 361 A.D. nine emperors are believed to have received embassies from India or Sri Lanka. At least two of these embassies were from Sri Lanka, one sent by the Sri Lankan king Sandmukha Siva or Sandamuhune in 50 A.D. to the court of Claudius Caesar (41-54 A.D.) as reported by the Roman historian Pliny, and the other by king Upatissa in the period 361-363 A.D. to the court of emperor Julian, as reported by Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. As was the tradition during that period all embassies from India and Sri Lanka carried valuable gifts to the Roman emperor, that also included pearls highly valued by the Romans.
A significant portion of the trans-Indian Ocean trade included pearls that was considered to be more valuable than gold at that time
According to Pliny, the Roman empires eastern trade with India and other eastern nations, accounted for 50% of the annual trade of the empire, which he calculated to be around 50 million sesterces. A significant portion of this trade was on pearls, a commodity highly valued in Rome, considered to be more expensive than gold, which according to historians were used together with gold to underpin the Roman monetary system. The trade lasted for about 75 years, up to the death of Nero in 68 A.D. after which there was a steady decline in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. and then again a recovery in the 4th-century A.D. The trade with the south Indian Pandyan kingdom, was a significant portion of this annual trade, and consisted of commodities that were in greatest demand, such as spices, pepper, ivory, ebony, sandalwood, muslin, precious stones and pearls. According to pliny, these commodities were sold in Rome, at one hundred times their initial cost.
The discovery of Roman pottery and coins at several coastal locations in India and Sri Lanka, and whole pearls and drilled pearls excavated from Mantai (Mahatittha) near Mannar, the main port of Sri Lanka at that time, confirms the thriving trade in pearls originating in the Gulf of Mannar, during the period of the Roman empire.
The discovery of Roman pottery and coins in the coastal cities and ports in southern India and northwestern Sri Lanka confirms the extensive trade contacts between Rome and India and Sri Lanka. The areas from where Roman pottery and coins were discovered in Sri Lanka, were Attikuli in the Mannar district and Kantarodni on the Jaffna Peninsula, both important areas of pearl fishing during this period. However, the main port city in Sri Lanka during this period was the ancient port of Mantai or Mahatittha near Mannar from which Sri Lankan products such as spices, ivory, gemstones and pearls were exported, a port city that was indicated in Ptolemy’s map of Sri Lanka. Excavations around Mantai have led to the discovery of whole and drilled pearls, that confirms pearls were among the commodities exported from that port, situated closer to the pearl banks on the Sri Lankan side.
Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustus reports in the 6th-century A.D. that Sri Lanka was a great international trade mart frequented by ships from many nations, such as India, Persia, Ethiopia and the Roman empire.
In the 6th-century A.D. the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustus reported that the island of Taprobane (Sri Lanka), was a great trade mart, much frequented by ships from all parts of India, Persia and Ethiopia, and it likewise sent out many ships of its own. Most of the products of Sri Lanka that reached the west during the early period of the Christian era, such as pearls, gemstones, ivory, spices etc. were sent out directly from the island, from the ancient port of Mantai (Mahatittha) or were dispatched to the Malabar coast from where they were picked up by Roman ships, Malabar serving as a trans-shipment point.
6th-century A.D. gemological text, “Ratnapariksa” (Examination of Gems) by Buddhabhatta, makes reference to the quality of Ceylon pearls
Buddhabatta’s 6th-century gemological text, the Ratnapariksa (Examination of Gems), makes reference to Sri Lankan pearls and their quality in verses 75 and 76. In verse 75, Sri Lanka is mentioned as one of six sources of pearls in the known world at that time, the others being Paraloka, Surastra, Tamraparni, Pundra and the Himalayas. In verse 76, more sources of pearls are mentioned including Sri Lanka, but these sources are singled out as producing pearls of a certain quality, color, size and shape. These other sources are Barbara in Persia, Aravati and Kontara.
Emerson Tennent’s viewpoint that King Solomon in the 10th-century B.C. sent his ships to the seaports of Sri Lanka to purchase precious stones, pearls, ivory, apes and peacocks
The English Historian James Emerson Tennent theorized in his publication on Ceylon, Vol I in 1859, that the natural harbor in Galle, a city in Southern Sri Lanka, on the international east-west shipping route, was the ancient seaport of Tarshish, reached by King Solomon’s ships in the 10th-century B.C. from where they obtained precious stones such as rubies, sapphires and beryls; pearls harvested from the pearl banks closer to Mannar; and ivory, apes and peacocks found abundantly in the Island. However, there is no archeological evidence to support his theory.
According to Charles Stuart Pratt, the Romans sent caravans on year-long journeys to Ceylon, for the specific purpose of purchasing pearls
In the July 1896 issue of the monthly magazine “Popular Science” published by the Bonnier Corporation, Charles Stuart Pratt, writing an article titled “Pearls and Mother of Pearl” makes an almost prophetic prediction of the future success of culturing pearls in “oyster ranches” set up for the purpose in a suitable marine environment such as the southern California coast, in which oysters could be induced to produce pearls by artificially seeding them with alien particles such as grains of sand or other material as nucleus of the pearl. Perhaps, Charles Stuart Pratt was already aware of the partial success achieved by Mikimoto in Japan in 1893, when he was able to culture a hemispherical pearl known as a “mabe” pearl, after extensive research on the culturing of Akoya pearls in his oyster farm in the Shinmei inlet on Ago bay, and it was only a matter of time before a technique for culturing whole spherical pearls was developed. In this same article Pratt writing about the history of the appreciation of pearls, states that ancient Romans sent caravans on year-long journeys to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), for the specific purpose of purchasing pearls.
According to James Hornell, the marine biologist to the Colonial Government of Ceylon, the Gulf of Mannar Pearl Fishery was the world’s greatest, that none can compare in terms of its antiquity as well as continuity of exploitation
An article written by James Hornell, the marine biologist to the Ceylon Colonial Government, titled “The Pearl Fishery” and published in the book “Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon” by Arnold Wright, describes the Pearl Fishery of the Gulf of Mannar as “the world’s greatest fisheries, that none can compare either in point of antiquity or in the continuity of their prosecution, with the portion belonging to Ceylon being the more lucrative and famous ( as opposed to fishery on the Indian side of the Gulf). Continuing further he says that, “Three thousand years ago the Tamil Kings of Southern India reckoned this fishery one of the principal sources of their large revenues, so much so that the chief of the pearling centers was second only to Madura, the capital, and was the residence of the heir apparent.
According to James Hornell a gift of pearls by King Vijaya to his father-in-law the Pandyan king of Madura, bespeaks of a settled fishery for pearls on the coasts of his domain
The pearl banks of Ceylon came into historic ken rather later – not, indeed, till the 6th-century before Christ, a fact due rather to the absence of all historical data prior to the Aryan conquest of the island about 550 B.C. than to their non-existence. A gift of pearls by Vijaya, the leader of the invaders and the first Sinhalese king of Ceylon, to his father-in-law the Pandyan king of Madura, is duly set down with a list of other essentially Ceylon products in the Mahawansa, the Royal chronicle of the Sinhalese. Such a gift bespeaks a settled fishery for pearls on the coast of his dominions, undoubtedly carried on by men of Tamil race, even as is the case today in large part; the Sinhalese themselves have never taken to this industry, their instincts being largely, if not exclusively agricultural.
Historic references to the pearl fishery are common only after the dawn of the Christian era
From the dawn of our own era (Christian era), historic references become frequent. In Rome in the days of Pliny, pearls from the Gulf of Mannar were valued at a high price, and Pliny himself refers to this fishery as the most productive of pearls in all the world. Ptolemy and the unknown author of the “Periplus of the Erythrian Sea” both knew its location well, and the latter gave definite sailing directions for the use of mariners navigating the gulf.
But, it would take too long to recount all that adventurous Greeks, Barbary Moors, Venetians and Genoese have jotted down of the wonders of the pearl harvest of these seas, in the centuries immediately preceding the arrival of Vasco da Gama off the Indian coast.
A commentary on James Hornell’s observations
James Hornell’s estimation that the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Mannar was the world’s greatest, was a reiteration of what Pliny said 2,000 years ago, that this pearl fishery was the most productive of all fisheries from different parts of the world. However, according to Hornell, the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery is also the oldest pearl fishery in the world, that had been worked for a longer period of time than any other fishery. As a British marine biologist who had been involved in studying the pearl banks on both sides of the Gulf of Mannar, and having first hand knowledge of the quantity of oysters harvested on both sides as well as the revenue accruing to the governments on both sides, his assertion that the pearl banks belonging to Ceylon was more lucrative than the pearl banks on the Indian side, must be quite accurate. Yet, the pearl banks on the Indian side 2,000 to 3,000 years ago provided large revenues to the Pandyan kings of Madura, that the headquarters of the pearl fishery, the city of “Korkai” was considered the second most important city in the Pandyan kingdom after the capital Madurai, that deserved to be the residence of the heir apparent.
Even though recorded historical evidence of the existence of the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar, begins only with the mid 6th-century B.C. James Hornell is convinced of the antiquity of the pearl fishery, that must have existed long before this period. But, how long before the mid 6th-century B.C. is a matter of conjecture. This is due to the absence of historical data, including archaeological evidence, prior to 550 B.C. However, the lack of such data does not mean that fishery did not exist prior to the 6th-century B.C. The fact that King Vijaya was able to send a gift of pearls to his father-in-law soon after he settled in Sri Lanka in the mid 6th-century B.C. provides indirect evidence for the existence of an established fishery at the time he landed in Sri Lanka with his 700 followers. James Hornell also asserts that the pearl fishery on the Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar, was worked by the men of the Tamil race, and the Sinhalese were never involved in the exploitation of the pearl resources, being mainly farmers by profession. Even among the Tamils only coastal dwellers, such as fishermen and boatmen, known as “karaiyar’ served as pearl divers. The people of the Tamil speaking parawa caste of southern India, were the main pearl divers of the region, before the Moors, the descendants of Arab settlers in the region, also took a keen interest in pearl diving, as their Arab ancestors. At the time Vijaya and his followers landed in the northwest coast of Sri Lanka, closer to the pearl fishing region of the country, one of the indigenous tribes that lived in Sri Lanka was the “Nagas,” who according to some Tamil historians were the ancestors of the parawas. Thus, it was quite possible that during the time of king Vijaya, it was the “Nagas” who served as pearl divers, and these Nagas of Sri Lanka at the time of Vijaya’s landing spoke the local Elu language apart from Tamil, due to the regional influence of southern India. The indigenous tribes of Sri Lanka, at the time of Vijaya’s landing, the Yakkas and the Nagas spoke the local Elu language, which subsequently merged with the Parakrit of the Indo-Aryans to produce the language known as Sinhala, that became the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka
According to Periplus of the Erythrian Sea, pearls harvested from the Gulf of Mannar were superior in quality to that of the Persian Gulf
The Periplus of the Erythrian Sea records that Apologos (Uballah in Arabic), situated at the mouth of the Euphrates, and Omana at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, sent large quantities of pearls, though inferior to the Indian pearls (pearls from the Gulf of Mannar), to Arabia and Barygaza (Broach), the emporium in northwest India, referred to by Ptolemy. The above comment in the Periplus, brings out two important facts in the ancient international pearl trade :-
1) That the pearls harvested from the Gulf of Mannar were superior in quality to the pearls harvested from the Persian Gulf.
2) That the export of pearls from the Persian Gulf to northern India was of ancient origin, dating back probably to the period 1st-century B.C./1st-century A.D. Subsequently, during the medieval and modern periods, pearls from Persian Gulf reached Bombay the main emporium of oriental pearls in the world, from where they found their way to the pearl markets of the world.
Evidence for the antiquity of appreciation of pearls and the pearl industry and trade in India
Archaeological evidence for the use of pearls in India during pre-historic and early historic times are lacking, but compensated by textual evidence from very ancient literature dating back to around 3,700 B.P.
Unlike the Persian Gulf region, archaeological evidence for the use of pearls in India in pre-historic times, or the early historic period are very scarce or virtually non-existent. According to R.A. Donkin’s book “Beyond Price, Pearls and Pearl Fishing” there are very few ancient pearls and none that antedates the rise of Buddhism around 500 B.C. However, what is lacking in archaeological evidence appears to be more than compensated by the availability of an enormous volume of ancient literature, mentioning the use and appreciation of pearls, the oldest dating back to around 1,700-1,100 B.C. (3,700-3,100 B.P), such as the Vedas, Brahmanas, Puranas, and the two great epic poems the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the renowned treatise on political science and economics of the 4th-century B.C. known as “Arthasastra” written by Kautilya, that gives details of the centers of pearl fishing in India during that period, the first of its kind from anywhere in the world.
There is no archaeological evidence for the use of pearls in the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley, but some mother-of-pearl beads and other shell beads from univalve mollusks like sea-snails have been uncovered
The most ancient civilization of India, is the Indus Valley Civilization, a bronze-age civilization dating back from 3,300 to 1,300 B.C.E. (5,300-3,300 B.P.), which is as old as some of the Mesopotamian civilizations. The mature phase of the Indus Valley civilization is known as the Harappa civilization, that lasted from 2,600-1,900 B.C.E. The Indus Valley Civilization was situated in most of present-day Pakistan, extending from Baluchistan to Sindh, and into the modern-day Indian States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. Mohenjo-daro was one of the largest urban settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization, built around 2,600 B.C.E. presently situated in the Larkana District of Sindh in modern-day Pakistan. Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and other IVC settlements have yielded evidence of a sophisticated jewelry industry, turning out personal jewelry, that incorporated beads made out of a wide range of materials, such as gold, silver, copper, lapis-lazuli, agate, jasper, cornelian, turquoise, steatite, hematite, shell, ivory and bone. Pearl beads have not been recovered from these sites, or might not have survived the ravages of time. However, evidence have emerged that Harappa civilization established trade contacts with ancient Mesopotamian civilizations of the Persian Gulf region, and among the items believed to be traded were pearls, beads of different materials listed above, copper, ivory etc. in exchange for Mesopotamian wool, leather and olive oil. Some mother-of-pearl beads were excavated from Mohenjo-daro, and another IVC settlement known as Chanhu-daro. Other shell beads and shell inlay recovered appear to have been derived from the shell of univalve mollusks, sea-snails such as Turbinella species (sacred chank shell) and Fasciolaria species (tulip shell). Coral items derived from the head-coral. Favia fabus have also appeared.
Archaeological pearls discovered from Taxila at Bhir, only date back to around 300-200 B.C. (2,300-2,200 B.P.).
Taxila was an important Hindu and Buddhist center of learning belonging to the Gandhara period, and presently located in the Punjab province of Pakistan, 32 km northwest of Islamabad. Taxila, with its capital at Bhir, was situated at the crossroads of three major trade routes, in northwestern India, and hence came under the influence of foreign invaders; first by DariusI in 518 B.C., who annexed Taxila to the Persian Archaemenid Empire and later in 326 B.C. by Alexander the Great, and in 321 B.C. by Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan empire in eastern India, who expanded his kingdom to include northern and northwestern India. Emperor Chandragupta himself was a student at Taxila when it was a seat of Vedic learning, and so was his closest advisor and strategist Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, who is said to have written the renowned treatise on political science and economics while being a teacher in the great halls of learning of Taxila. Another distinguished alumnus of Taxila was the famous Ayurvedic healer Charaka. During the reign of king Ashoka, the grandson of king Chandragupta, who embraced Buddhism, Taxila under royal patronage became a great Buddhist center of learning. After the fall of the Mauryan empire, in 185 B.C. Taxila came under Bactrian Greek rule, and the Indo-Greeks built a new capital city at Sirkap. The Indo-Greek rulers were ousted by Indo-Scythian rulers in 90 B.C. who in turn were ousted by the Indo-Parthian rulers in 20 B.C. In 76 A.D. the Kushana kings took control of Taxila, who built a new capital at Sirsukh. During the period 460-470 A.D. (5th-century A.D.) the marauding armies of the Hepthalites, swept over Gandhara and Punjab, causing total devastation of Taxila and the destruction of its ancient Buddhist monasteries and stupas, from which Taxila never recovered, and the ruined city was eventually buried in mounds of earth.
The three former capital cities of Taxila, Bhir from the 6th-century B.C., Sirkap from the 2nd-century B.C. and Sirsukh from the 1st-century A.D. are the three main archaeological sites that have been excavated and restored today. During the excavations of Bhir, the oldest of the Taxila sites, mother-of-pearl, small pearls and corals were discovered. However, the pearls discovered came from the upper strata of the mound, and may not be older than 300-200 B.C. Pearls of later date, probably 1st-century B.C/1st-century A.D. were discovered from Sirkap, and the ones from Sirsukh were from 1st/2nd century A.D. Pearls older than the ones discovered in Bhir, have not been reported from any part of India. Pearls identified on terracotta figurines from Ahicchattra, the ancient fortress city near Bareilly, believed to have been visited by the Buddha, dates from around 300 B.C.
Evidence from ancient sacred Hindu texts and literature
Evidence from the Vedas
The Aryans invaded northern India around 2,000 B.C. through the passes of the Hindu-Kush mountain range extending from northwestern Pakistan and eastern and central Afghanistan. It is believed that the invasion of the Aryans from the steppes of Central Asia was probably responsible for the decline and fall of the ancient Harappa civilization. The Aryans came with their culture and beliefs that eventually evolved into Hinduism or the Vedic culture, the oldest living religion in the world. The scriptures of the Hindu religion are written in Sanskrit and the most ancient of these scriptures are the Vedas. There are four Vedas :- Rigveda, Samaveda, Yagusveda and Atharvaveda. The Rigveda is the oldest, believed to have originated around 1,700-1,100 B.C. Each Veda is divided into 4 parts : the Samhita, the Veda proper in verse form, consisting of sacred mantras, and the other three consisting of commentaries in prose form, known as the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads. The peoples, places and events described in the Rigveda relate almost exclusively to northern India, and especially to the Punjab. The Atharvaveda, the 4th-Veda originating from 1,200 – 1,000 B.C. incorporates the early traditions of medicine, healing and magic, and identifies the causes of disease as living causative agents, seeking to kill them by a combination of plant-based drugs and magical incantations.
There are many instances of reference to pearls both in the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda, the term used for pearls being “krisana,” In later Sanskrit works, the term “krisana” is replaced by “muktha” which is of Dravidian origin. According to the Rigveda, krisanas were used to decorate horses and chariots or sacred wagons. The Satapatha Brahmana mentions of golden pearls woven into the manes and tails of sacrificial horses. Thus, the Rigveda shows that pearls were highly valued and had symbolic significance in northwest India in the 2nd-millennium B.C.
According to the Atharvaveda, the pearl and its shell serves as an amulet, that ensures long life and protects against all evils, such as disease, demons, poverty etc. Considered as the “bone of gods” and described as “one of the golden substances,” pearls are said to be the net result of the elements of nature working in consonance with one another, such as the sea, rivers, wind, lightning, the clouds, heavens and the moon. Around 500 B.C. the pearl was an integral part of Aryan symbolism and sacred ritual, which according to R.A. Donkin was a result of the long familiarity with pearls over several millennia, perhaps extending to Proto-Aryan times in Central Asia.
Evidence from the Manusmriti – the Laws of Manu
The Manusmriti or the Laws of Manu, is believed by followers of Hinduism to be a revealed scripture (Smriti) by Lord Brahma himself, the creator, to his son Manu, prescribing the norms of domestic, social and religious life of Hindus, the duties and responsibilities of rulers, the modus operandi in civil and criminal proceedings and punishments to be meted out, laws of ownership of property and inheritance, divorce and lawful occupations of each caste, the kind of penance for misdeeds, and the concept of karma, rebirth and salvation. The scripture comprises of 2,684 verses, that are divided into twelve chapters. The origin of the scriptures are believed to date back from 1,200 B.C. to around 500 B.C. In one of the verses dealing with penalties for theft, pearls are distinguished from corals and other gemstones including rubies. The fact that pearls are listed among valuable items of jewels and jewelry, clearly indicate the usage and appreciation of pearls among the ancient followers of Hinduism in India during the period 1,200 B.C. to 500 B.C.
Evidence from the Puranas
Puranas are ancient oral traditions, and legends that existed as narratives or stories from time immemorial, concerning the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography, that were subsequently converted to a written form during the Gupta period from 3rd to 5th century A.D. The most important of the Puranas are the Mahapuranas (Great Puranas), consisting of 18 Puranas. consisting of a minimum of 9,000 verses in the Markendaya Purana to a maximum of 81,100 verses in the Skanda Purana. In the Varaha Purana consisting of 10,000 verses, one of the verses relate how a merchant embarked on a voyage in a sea-going vessel in quest of pearls with people who knew all about them. Markandeya Purana, the shortest Mahaprurana relating the origin of the Goddess C’andika, states that the “Ocean of Milk” gave a spotless necklace of pearls. Again reference to pearls are made in the Agni Purana (15,400 verses) and the Garuda Purana (19,000 verses), treating the origins of different kinds of “pearls” both real pearls originating from the oysters and conch shells, as well as “pearls” originating from elephants, wild boars, whales, fish, cobras and in the stems of bamboos, some of which were renowned as amulets as the serpent pearls.
Evidence from the two great epics of ancient India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
The Ramayana ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki possibly originated in the 5th-4th century B.C.
The Ramayana and Mahabharata are the two great and ancient Sanskrit epics of India. The Ramayana ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki forms an important part of the Hindu canon, that brings out the duties and relationships of ideal characters in society, such as the ideal king, ideal wife, ideal brother and ideal servant. The Ramayana consisting of 24,000 verses, in seven books (kandas) and 500 cantos (sargas), tells the story of Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana. Thematically, the epic explores the tenets of human existence and the concept of dharma. Historians have suggested the possible period of origin of the Ramayana as between the 5th-4th century B.C.
The Mahabaratha, ascribed to Vyasa, is the world’s second largest book whose origins go back to the 4th-century B.C. but was compiled as a sacred text around 350 A.D.
The Mahabaratha, which is four times the length of the Ramayana, consisting of over 100,000 verses is considered as part of Hindu “itihasa” (history), and is ascribed to the author Vyasa. It is probably the world’s second largest book, after the Gesar epic of Tibet. The origin of the Mahabharata is believed to be around the 4th-century B.C. and existed as oral traditions passed down from generation to generation, that was compiled around 350 A.D. into a sacred text of 100,000 stanzas, written in Sanskrit. The main story of the Mahabharata is the bitter rivalry that develops between the five sons of the deceased king Pandu, known as the Pandavas, and their cousins, the 100 sons of the blind king Dhritarashtra, known as the Kauravas, over the possession of the ancestral Bharata kingdom, with its capital city in Hastinapura, on the Ganga river, in north-central India, that leads to a fratricidal war, known as the Kurukushetra war. Incorporated into the epic narrative are philosophcal and devotional material, such as a discussion on the four goals of human life – dharma (right action), artha (purpose), kama (pleasure) and moksha(liberation). Other works and stories associated with the Mahabharata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Ramayana and the Rishyasringa, which are works in their own right.
Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata make several references to pearls in their texts. The Mahabharata is divided into 18 parvas or books, of which the second parva is the Sabha Parva – The book of the Assembly Hall, in which reference is made to the Simhalas (Sri Lankans) who are said to have offered to Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas and the rightful heir to the throne, the choicest gifts of the seas, pearls and conchs, as well as beryls (cat’s-eyes).
Kautilya’s Arthashastra, a book on political science, law, economics and military strategy, written around 4th-century B.C. provides the strongest evidence of the antiquity of the pearl fisheries in India, giving a list of prominent pearl fisheries both in India and neighboring Sri Lanka
Kautilya is believed to have written the “Arthashastra” while he was a teacher in the great seat of Vedic learning, Taxila
The Arthashastra, variously translated as “Science of Politics,” “Treatise on Polity,” “Science on Material Gain,” etc. is a comprehensive and controversial ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, law, economic policy and military strategy, ascribed to the 4th-3rd century B.C. Brahmin intellectual Kautilya, also known as Vishnugupta or Chanakya, an eminent scholar and alumnus of the great seat of Vedic learning, Taxila in northwestern India, who was subsequently appointed as a close adviser, political and military strategist and minister to Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan kingdom in eastern India. Kautilya is believed to have written his renowned treatise on political science and economics while being a teacher in the great halls of learning at Taxila, and Emperor Chandragupta who studied in the same Vedic schools, was a probably a student of Kautilya.
Kautilya’s views on statecraft was meant for a monarchy or an autocratic ruler, but he clearly advocated a people-centered form of governance
Kautilya’s treatise discusses theories and principles of governing a state ruled by a monarchy or an autocratic ruler, and may not be applicable in the modern context of democracy and republican form of government. Yet his treatise have a significance in a historical context as it shows how statecraft evolved from autocratic monarchial forms of government to the modern republican form of government. Kautilya, the political scientist, who lived over 2,300 years ago, has shown clearly that in whatever form of government, the ultimate beneficiaries should be the people. He says in his treatise, “The sacred task of a king is to strive for the welfare of his people incessantly. The administration of the kingdom is his religious duty. His greatest gift would be to treat all as equals.” He goes on further on the people-centered form of governance, “The happiness of the commoners is the happiness of the king. Their welfare is his welfare. A king should never think of his personal interest or welfare, but should ever try to find his joy in the joy of his subjects.”
He discusses the duties of a king extensively in Book I, Chapter 19. to the extent that he recommends a time-table to be followed by would-be king, in which due prominence is given to public audiences, to hear petitions and look into to the problems of the people.
When in his court he shall never cause his petitioners to wait at the door, for when a king makes himself inaccessible to his people and entrusts his work to his immediate officers, he may be sure to engender confusion in business, and to cause thereby public disaffection, and himself a prey to his enemies. He shall, therefore, personally attend to the business of gods, of heretics, of Brahmans learned in the Vedas, of cattle, of sacred places, of minors, the aged, the afflicted, and the helpless, and of women; all this in order (of enumeration) or according to the urgency or pressure of those works. All urgent calls he shall hear at once, but never put off, for when postponed, they will prove too hard or impossible to accomplish.
These are some of the sublime thoughts of a great intellectual of the 4th-century B.C. which are even applicable today in the governance of the modern democratic state by leaders elected by the people.
Doubts have been cast on whether an individual capable of sublime thoughts as a people-centered governance would at the same time advocate violence as a means of perpetuating oneself in power
However, Kautilya’s book was mainly intended as a guidance to kings and emperors, as this was the form of government prevalent during his time all over the world. While writing extensively of the duties of a king, he also gives guidelines of what a king should do to protect his position and power, from enemies, both external as well as internal from his own family. However, some of the methods he has suggested such as espionage, the use of provocative agents, murder, false accusations etc. without any ethical considerations may sound revolting to the modern political scientist. Doubts have been cast on whether an intellectual capable of such sublime thoughts as outlined above, may at the same time advocate violence as a means of perpetuating oneself in power. Some of the more revolting sections in the Arthashastra as it is known today, may not not have flowed from the pen of the celebrated author himself, as it has been convincingly proved by historians, based on the numerous stylistic and linguistic variations, belonging to different periods, that other authors were also involved, who would have perhaps revised and expanded the treatise.
The treatise also deals extensively on economic policies of a vibrant state, and discusses economic activities including natural pearl production
Apart from statecraft, military strategy, laws governing social institutions and punishment prescribed for violation of these laws and other criminal offences, the treatise also deals extensively on economic policies of a vibrant state, and discusses economic activities, such as mineralogy, mining and metals, agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine, the use of wildlife, and natural pearl production. Pearls were highly valued in India at that time, valued more than gold, and used exclusively by members of the royalty, or sold to other countries such as Greece and Rome, or countries of the Persian Gulf. Kautilya’s account of the natural pearl industry in India is accepted by jewelry historians as a reliable guide to areas of pearl production in India around the time of Alexander the Great’s invasion in 326-325 B.C. The areas of pearl production in India in the 4th-century B.C. mentioned in the treatise, is confirmed by accounts given by later authorities on the subject.
Details given by Kautilya such as the areas of pearl production in India, properties of good and bad quality pearls, and the types of ornaments in which pearls are incorporated provides the strongest evidence for the antiquity of the pearl industry in India, that might go back to at least one millennium B.C.
Thus, according to information provided by Kautilya on the status of the natural pearl industry in India, it appears that the industry had been on-going in India during the greater part of the 1st-millennium B.C. or even before. In Chapter XI, section 29, Kautilya examines the precious articles to be received into the treasury, and pearls occupy first place in the list. Kautilya, mentions only oysters and conches as sources of origin of pearls. Unlike other ancient and medieval authors, he does not advance any mythological or supernatural explanations for the origin of pearls. He describes in detail the properties of good quality pearls, as well as defective specimens. He also gives the names and details of different personal ornaments and settings in which pearls are incorporated. The nomenclature used by Kautilya, and the evident technical expertise, undoubtedly shows that pearls had been known and appreciated over a long period of time, before Kautilya’s period in the 4th-3rd century B.C.
The 10 areas in ancient India that produced pearls
Kautilya refers to 10 areas in ancient India, that produced pearls. He uses names of rivers to refer to these areas, and pearls were harvested from the sea around the mouth of these rivers. Five of these 10 areas were in southern India and Sri Lanka, mainly in the Gulf of Mannar, one area was in the coast of eastern India, and four in the northwest of India.
The five pearl-producing areas in southern India and Sri Lanka
The five pearl producing areas in southern India were :- 1) Tambraparni 2) Pandyaka-vata 3) Pasika 4) Kula 5) Curni.
1) Tambraparni :- Tambraparni is a river in Tamil Nadu, southern India arising from the Annamalai range on the eastern slopes of the western Ghats, 1,500 meters above sea-level, flowing east through the Tirunelveli and Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, and entering the Gulf of Mannar near Punnaikayal. In the 1st-century A.D. the mouth of the Tambraparni was situated inland closer to Korkai, which was the second largest city in the Pandyan kingdom, and the center of the pearl fishery on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar. Subsequently due to silting, delta formation and the receding of the sea, the mouth of the river moved to Kayal from around 8th-century A.D. to around 13th-century A.D. The sea receded further and by early 16th-century, a new city was established at the mouth of the river, known as Pinnakayal (Pinnacoil).
Tambraparni was also the name of the beach near a river in the northwest of Sri Lanka, where Prince Vijaya who led the Indo-Aryan invasion of the Island in the 6th-century B.C, landed. The name Tambraparni is believed to have been derived from the copper-colored, sand on the beach where the Prince and his followers landed, “Tamba” meaning copper. Tambrapani in the northwest coast of Sri Lanka was close to the pearl banks also situated off the northwest coast of the Island.
2) Pandyaka-vata – Pandyaka-vata is the legendary Pandyan Kapatapuram that was situated to the south of the mouth of River Tambraparni. It was actually the terrain between the rivers Kumari and Tambraparni. Kapatapuram was founded by the Pandiyan kings after the ocean deluge, possibly an Indian Ocean Tsunami, that destroyed Tenmaturai and its learned academy of Sanskrit-Tamil Literature. Pandyaka-vata was not only a center of learning, but an important commercial center, visited by foreign merchant ships to buy pearls, ivory, etc. Pandyaka-vata was also close to the pearl banks on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar.
3) Pasika – Pasika is the ancient name for modern Ramnad or Ramnathapuram, in Tamil Nadu, situated near the mouth of river Vaigai. The Vaigai river originates in the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range, and flows northeast through the Kamban Valley, lying between the Palni Hills to the north and the Varushanad Hills to the south. The river then turns southeast, running through the region of Pandya Nadu. Madurai, the capital and largest city of the Pandyan kingdom, was situated on the River Vaigai. The river empties into the Palk Straits in the Ramnathapuram district. Pasika in ancient times was famous as a pearl fishing and selling center.
4) Curni – Curni is the ancient name for River Periyar, in Kerala State, southwest India. The Periyar River originates in the Sivagiri hills of Western Ghats range in Tamil Nadu, 1,830 meters above sea-level. It is the only perennial river in the region, said to be the lifeline of Kerala, providing drinking water to several major cities in Kerala, as well as Tamil Nadu States. The river flows northwards through the Periyar National Park, then northwest and finally eastwards towards the Arabian Sea. Curni, the place where the Periyar River joins the Arabian Sea was famous as a center of pearl fishing in the Arabian Sea, on the eastern coast of Southern India.
5) Kula – Kula is a river in northwest Sri Lanka, flowing into the Gulf of Mannar. Kula probably refers to the Kala Oya, originating in the hills of Matale-Laggala, flowing in the northwest direction and entering the Gulf of Mannar below the island of Mannar, closer to the Kondaichi Bay, where the lucrative pearl banks of Sri Lanka were situated. Thus, Kula refers to the pearl fishery in the pearl banks closer to the mouth of the Kula river (Kala Oya) in northwest Sri Lanka, the most lucrative pearl banks in the Gullf of Mannar.
Pearl producing area in eastern India
Mahendragiri in Orissa – Mahendragiri mentioned in the Arthashastra, is a region and mountain peak in the Eastern Ghats, in Orissa India, between the Godavari and Mahanadi Rivers. A natural pearl fishery existed in this region in ancient times, and pearls originating from the region were known as Orissa pearls.
Pearl producing areas in northwestern India. Kautilya is the only writer from ancient times who mentions about the production of freshwater pearls in ancient India.
Four areas are mentioned in northwestern India, where pearl fisheries existed in ancient times. These are :- 1) Kardama 2) Srotasi 3) Hirda 4) Himavat
1) Kardama – Kardama was a river in northwest India in Uttarapatha or Udichya beyond the Hindu Kush mountain range, a region known as Bactria (Balkh), between the Amu Darya river and the Hindu Kush mountains. Bactria was part of the northeastern territory of the Persian empire. Today the ancient region of Bactria, is divided between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Kardama being a river in northeast Iran or Afghanistan, pearls produced in this region are undoubtedly freshwater pearls. This is the first record of the production of freshwater pearls in the northwestern borders of the Indian sub-continent.
2) Srotasi – The name Srotasi refers to a distributary in the estuary of the Indus River.
3) Hirda – Hirda is a lake in the estuary of the Indus.
4) Himavat – Himavat was a river flowing from the Himalayas.
The four sources of pearls from northwestern India, mentioned above are either freshwater rivers or lakes. Hence the pearls produced from these sources were most probably freshwater pearls. Kautilya, is the only writer from ancient times who mentions about production of freshwater pearls in India.
“Periplus of the Erythrian Sea” provides the second strongest written evidence for the antiquity of the Indian pearl fishery, after the “Arthashastra” and confirms that the pearl fishery around the mouth of the Tambraparni river was the main pearl fishery of India since ancient times
Extensive accounts of the pearl fishery on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar are given in the Greek book, Periplus of the Erythrian sea written in the 1st-century A.D. by the unknown Alexandrian-Greek author, relevant sections of which were already dealt with under evidences for the antiquity of the Ceylon pearl fishery. The book gives details of all important places connected with the Gulf of Mannar pearl industry, mainly on the Indian side of the Gulf. where the pearl industry in southern India was based, such as Kolkhoi (Korkai), situated at the mouth of the River Tambrapani, the second largest city in the Pandyan kingdom around which the South Indian pearl industry was centered; “Paraha” the coastal belt occupied by the “Parawa” community, who were by profession pearl divers and fisherman; “Komar,” Cape Comorin situated at the tip of the Indian sub-continent; Argaru, a city that specializes in the drilling of pearls; and the island of Epidorus (island of Mannar) the main center of the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery, situated on the Sri Lankan side. The description in the Periplus of the Erythrian Sea, is actually a first hand account of the exploration of the South Indian coastline undertaken by the unknown explorer/author in the 1st-century A.D., one of the renowned coastlines during this period, producing the most precious of all valuables at that time – Pearls. The author not only gives details of the pearl industry of the Gulf of Mannar at that time, but also definite sailing directions for the use of mariners navigating the Gulf of Mannar. The “Periplus of the Erythrian Sea” provides the second strongest written evidence for the antiquity of the Indian pearl industry after the “Arthashastra,” and also confirms that the pearl fishery around the mouth of the river “Tambraparni” in southern India, was the main natural pearl fishery of India, listed as the first pearl producing area in the “Arthashastra.”
Ptolemy, a Roman-Egyptian author writing about the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar in the 2nd-century A.D., mentions about the karaiyar caste, Tuticorin and Korkai, the center of the pearl fishery on the Indian side of the Gulf
Ptolemy, a Roman-Egyptian (Alexandrian-Roman) geographer, writing about the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar in the 2nd-century A.D. mentions about the towns on the southeastern coast of southern India. “Country of the Kareor; in the Kolkhie Gulf, where there is the pearl fishery, Sosikourai and Kolkhoi, an emporium at the mouth of the river Solen.”
Country of the “Kareor” refers to the country of the “karaiyar” (coast people), the caste name for the coast people – fishermen, boatmen and pearl and conch-shell divers. The Paravas (Parathavar) are a section of the “karaiyar” caste. The town Sosikourai refers to Chochikourai or Tuticourai, anglicized later to Tuticorin. “Kolkhoi” refers to “Korkai” the center of the pearl trade, at the mouth of the River Tambrapani. “Kolkhie Gulf” refers to the Gulf of Mannar, and River “Solen” is the name given by the Greeks to “Tambrapani” river.
Strabo’s reference to the lucrative trade between the Roman Empire and Pandyan Kingdom in South India, a significant portion of which included pearls harvested from the Gulf of Mannar, confirms the pre-eminent position held by the South Indian kingdom in the international pearl trade, between the 1st-century B.C. and 4th-century A.D.
Strabo, the Greek traveler, and geographer reported in his book “Geographica” written in the early 1st-century A.D. that there was a thriving trans-Indian Ocean trade between the ports of the Roman empire in the Red Sea and the South Indian Pandyan kingdom ruled by king Porus (Pandyan), in which around 120 vessels were employed in 25 B.C. that made use of the seasonal monsoon winds to navigate the Indian Ocean. Items traded included spices, pepper, ivory, ebony, sandalwood, muslin, precious stones and pearls. The trans-Indian Ocean trade according to Pliny accounted for 50% of the annual trade of the Empire, and a significant portion of this trade was on pearls, a commodity highly valued both in India and the Roman Empire, and considered to be more valuable than gold.
South Indian ports that exported pearls according to the Periplus of the Erythrian Sea
Trade and commerce prospered during the early period of the Chera empire from 3rd-century B.C to around 3rd-century A.D. Apart from high quality pearls, other items that were traded and exported from the three main ports of the Chera coast (Kerala coast) of southwest India, Muziris (Cranganur), Nelcynda (Kottayam), and Bacare (Porakad), were precious stones, ivory, tortoise shell, Chinese silk and pepper. For ships originating from Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, during the Roman empire, the season for sailing to these southwest Indian ports, was around the month of July, taking advantage of the southwest monsoon. Even Ptolemy in his “Geographia” mentioned about the three ports of the Chera coast, through which the bulk of the South Indian and some east Asian products reached the Roman empire. The pearls exported to Rome from the Chera ports without any doubt originated from the south Indian or Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar, or from the southern Coromandel coast on the southeast of India, which was under the domain of the Chola king.
According to the Periplus, pearls that were harvested from the Chola coast (Coromandel coast), were carried to Argalou (Argaru), the market for these pearls, situated some distance inland from the coast, and also the main drilling and stringing center. The markets or collection centers for pearls originating in the Gulf of Mannar, were Colchi emporium (Kolkhoi or Korkai) and Modura Regia (Madurai), the two cities also mentioned by Ptolemy. The only other Indian port, mentioned in the Periplus, from which pearls were said to have been exported was the Ganges, which refers to both the river as well as the town by that name, situated in the Ganges delta in northeastern India. However, pearls harvested from the Ganges river were freshwater pearls.
Buddhabhatta’s 6th-century A.D. treatise on gems, “Ratnapariksa” mentions Tamraparni in southern India, the Himalayas in northern India, Surastara in northwestern India south of the Indus estuary, and Sri Lanka as sources of pearls
“Ratnapariksa” is the first written text on Gemology in any part of the world
The 6th-century A.D. Indian treatise on gems and precious stones known as the “Ratnapariksa” (Examination of Gems), the first written text on Gemology in verse form, by Buddhabhatta, deals with the origin and attributes of pearls, from Verse 52 to Verse 76. In verses 75 and 76 Buddhabhatta refers to the sources of pearls in the known world at that time, that include Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Paraloka, Surastra (south of the Indus estuary), Tamraparni (southern India), Pundra and the Himalayas. In verse 76, he singles out Barbara in Persia, Aravati, Kontara and Ceylon, as sources of pearls of a certain quality in terms of color, size and shape.
Verses 52-76 of “Ratnapariksa” relevant to pearls are reproduced below:-
Verse 52. Pearls which are known to fame have their origin in one or other of these sources: the elephant, the clouds, the wild boar, the conch, fishes, the serpent, the oyster, and the bamboo. Of these pearls, the only one that is common is from the oyster.
Verse 53. This is also the only one for which a value can be given, and for no other. Similarly, this pearl alone can be pierced; connoisseurs say it is impossible to make holes in the others.
Verse 54. Pearls from the serpents, the bamboo, clouds, the conch, and the wild boar are, for the most part, without brilliance and are valuable only for their health-giving properties.
Verse 55. These are the eight “mothers” of the pearl, as they are called by connoisseurs. The conch pearl is reputed to have most health-giving powers, that of the elephant the least of all.
Verse 56. The conch pearl is of the same colour as the inside of the mother in which it is formed. Those which are born in the frontal bone of the elephant are the size of a large Kola berry, in colour of a yellowish-copper and without lustre.
Verse 57. The shell fish belonging to the family of the queen of the conches, purified by contact with the lips of Vishnu, and elephants of pure descent, are the producers of pearls.
Verse 58. The fish pearl is similar in colour to the back of the catfish; it is very round, light in weight and fairly large; it is born in the mouths of fishes; these fish are of those which live in the sea.
Verse 59. During the rites in honour of the Devas, of Agni and the Manes when practicing yoga, at family festivals, the conch pearl should always be worn as a charm by him who desires prosperity.
Verse 60. The pearl produced by the tusks of the wild boar resembles the point of these tusks. Such a wild boar will have been born in a certain place, and in a certain manner, on ground sacred to the king of the wild boars.
Verse 61. Pearls formed from the knots of the bamboo are described as having the colour and lustre of hailstone. These bamboos do not grow upon the earth, but in a place accessible only to the gods.
Verse 62. The serpent pearl is bluish, limp, round, absolutely splendid in colour and lustre, pure and scintillating in the highest degree.
Verse 63. Magnificent jewels, wealth, fortune, the most unattainable splendour: such are the advantages which a pearl born in the head of a serpent assures to the virtuous man.
Stanza 64. Once, wishing to do honour to this great jewel, some zealous experts placed it, when the weather was fair, on the terrace of a palace protected by a guard of many soldiers.
Verse 65. Whereupon, with a noise like the rolling of a great drum, flashing lightning across the space that divided them, and then re-uniting and descending from the heights, thick clouds covered the sky.
Verse 66. Neither serpents, nor magicians, nor sickness, nor accidents can touch him who has and holds in honour a pearl born in the head of a serpent.
Verse 67. The cloud pearl never reaches the earth; the gods seize it whilst it is still in the air. It is like the sun, a dazzling sphere the rays from which fill the whole of space.
Verse 68. It eclipses the light of fire, of the moon, of the lunar constellations, of the stars and all the planets. As the sun is to the day, so is this pearl to the darkness of the night.
Verse 69. The earth, adorned by the four seas, the waters of which glitter with the lustre of many jewels, the whole earth covered with gold, would scarcely attain to the value of this one pearl: such is my belief.
Verse 70. He who, by reason of an act of virtue of the highest degree, becomes possessed of it, will remain without a rival in the whole world, so long as he retains it.
Verse 71. It is not beneficial to the King only; its appearance brings good fortune to his subjects also; it drives away evil for a radius of a thousand yojanas around it.
Verse 72. Scattered in the heavens like the lunar zodiac, the teeth of the great Asura, many coloured, and perfect in shape, fell into the waters of the Ocean.
Verse 73. In every part of the sea wherein fell the splendid seed of this pearl, Queen of gems, perfect in form, lovely as the rays of the full moon;
Verse 74. In that place, the water poured out by the clouds penetrated the oysters, reached the seed deposited there and became a pearl. Formerly, there were pearls from other sources.Verse 75. Ceylon, Paraloka, Surastra, Tamraparni, Pundra, and the country of the North (Kauvera), the Himalayas are the homes of the pearl oyster.Verse 76. There is an oyster pearl, not the most inferior in colour and possessing certain qualities of size and shape to be found at Barbara, in Persia, at Aravati, Kontara and Ceylon.
A commentary on the above verses from the “Ratnapariksa”
In verse 52, Buddhabhatta enumerates the different types of “pearls” based on their source, according to ancient beliefs. Out of the eight categories of “pearls” mentioned only two categories, conch and oyster pearls can be considered as real pearls, and the remaining six are actually calcareous concretions. A significant information that emerges from this verse is that ancient Indians were aware that conches also produced pearls, a fact that was also discovered by conch-eating Caribbeans in ancient times. According to verse 53, Buddhabhatta was well aware that only oyster pearls were common, and could be valued and pierced. Another important observation he had made was that only oyster pearls had a luster and brilliance that was absent in all other “pearls.”
Reference to the so-called “cloud pearls” is based not on facts and observations, but on beliefs and traditions of the period. So are the reference to the extraordinary mystical properties and value of “serpent pearls.” He had also observed correctly that the color of the conch pearls reflects the color of the interior of its shell. The rest of the account is on the mystical values of different kinds of pearls, and a theory of the origin of pearls based on ancient beliefs. The most important information on pearls in the “Ratnapariksa” is about the sources of pearls during the 6th-century A.D. The author however, does not differentiate between saltwater and freshwater pearls. Some of the sources mentioned are sources of saltwater pearls, while others are sources of freshwater pearls.
Varahamihira’s 6th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia Brihat Samhita dealing extensively on a variety of subjects also has a section on pearls and their sources
Daivajna Varahamihira who lived in the 6th-century A.D. in Ujjain, northern India, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician and astrologer attached to the court of the legendary king Vikramaditya, who wrote two important treatises on astronomy, astrology and related subjects. The treatise known as “Pancha-Siddhantika”- “Five Astronomical Canons,” was his main work, and dealt with mathematical astronomy, summarizing five earlier astronomical treatises – 1) Surya Siddhanta – Doctrine of the Sun, composed by Latadeva; 2) Vasishtha Siddhanta – Doctrine of Vasishtha, one of the stars of the Great Bear, composed by Vishnucandra; 3) Paulisa Siddhanta – Doctrine of Paul composed by Paul the Greek, from the city of Saintra, believed to be Alexandria; 4) Romaka Siddhanta – Doctrine of the Romans, composed by Srishena and 5) Brahma Siddhanta from Brahman, composed by Brahmagupta. Two of the Siddhantas, the Paulisa Siddhanta and Romaka Siddhanta, were two works of western origin that influenced Varahamihira’s thought. Thus, Varahamihira was actually a product of the ancient Indian Vedic thoughts and ancient Greek and Roman thoughts, to which Varahamihira himself gives credit in his next work the Brihat Samhita, in which he states that the Greeks, though foreign deserve honor for they were trained in the sciences in which they excelled others.
The Brihat Samhita, known as the “Great Compilation,” Varahamihira’s second monumental work was an extensive Sanskrit encyclopedia, consisting of 106 chapters, dealing with a variety of subjects of common interest affecting human lives such as astrology, planetary movements, eclipses, clouds, rainfall, growth of crops, architecture, manufacture of perfumes, matrimony, domestic relations, rituals, and also gems and pearls. Varahamihira further expounds on the gemstone evaluation criterion, and the sacred nine types of pearls given in the “Garuda Purana.”
Was the Gulf of Mannar region another probable region where pearls came to be first discovered and appreciated ?
The antiquity of the Persian Gulf pearl fishery is authenticated both by archaeological and written historical evidence
The Gulf of Mannar region together with the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions are the most ancient sources of pearls in the world. The antiquity of the pearl fishery in the Persian Gulf region is well authenticated both by archaeological and historical evidence. The archaeological evidence of the use of pearls in the Persian Gulf region dates back to approximately 6,000 years, which is supplemented by evidences from written inscriptions dating back to 2,000-1,000 years B.C. and from writings of ancient Greek and Roman writers, the oldest of which is by Theophrastus dating back to the 4th-century B.C. The oldest piece of pearl jewelry on record is also from the Persian Gulf region – the 2,500-3,000 year old, triple-row, Susa necklace, probably from the late Elamite or early Archaemenid period, discovered from a bronze sarcophagus in 1901. Several pieces of pearl jewelry of the ancient Greek and Roman periods also exist in the Natural History museums across the world.
Archaeological evidence for the antiquity of the use and appreciation of pearls in the Gulf of Mannar region is very scarce
In the Gulf of Mannar region, both in India and Sri Lanka, archaeological evidence of the use and appreciation of pearls are very scarce or virtually non-existent. The earliest archaeological evidence of the use of pearls uncovered from Bhir in Taxila dates back to only around 200-300 B.C.E. (2,200-2,300 B.P.). However, evidence for the use of mother-of-pearl beads have emerged from the Mohenjo-daro the largest urban settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization, dating back to 2,600 B.C.E. (4,600 B.P.). In Sri Lanka, evidence for the trade in pearls and other commodities between Sri Lanka and the Roman empire from the 1st-century B.C. to the 4th-century A.D. had been uncovered in the form of Roman pottery and coins, as well as whole pearls and drilled pearls unearthed from the site of the ancient port of Mantai or Mahatittha near Mannar. This is the oldest archaeological evidence available for the use of pearls in Sri Lanka. The scarcity of archaeological evidence for the use and appreciation of pearls both in India and Sri Lanka, does not mean such use and appreciation in these countries were of recent origin. The scarcity of archaeological evidence is mainly due to the organic origin of pearls, that could not withstand the ravages of burial for long periods of time, especially in the acidic soils of the tropical regions of Asia.
In Sri Lanka the recent archaeological excavation of a pre-historic stone-age shell midden created by oyster-eating pre-historic people who lived in the coastal areas, seem to raise the possibility that such people were the first to stumble upon rare pearls found in the oysters
In Sri Lanka however, recent archaeological excavations at Pallemalala, in the southeastern coastal region of the country, have unearthed a pre-historic stone-age shell midden belonging to the mesolithic period, that became the site of a subsequent settlement. Skeletal remains found on the site are probably 6,000 years old (4,000 years B.C.), but the midden itself was undoubtedly much older than that, formed by a previous generation of pre-historic men who survived on saltwater oysters, and discarded the shells that formed the midden. The skeleton of the oldest mesolithic cave dwellers in Sri Lanka is about 37,000 years old. Thus, the shell midden is perhaps as old as 37,000 years. The discovery of shell middens as old as 6,000-37,000 years B.P. shows that oyster-eating pre-historic peoples lived in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, raising the possibility that such coastal dwellers were the first to stumble upon the rare pearls that were occasionally found in these oysters. Hence, the Pallemalala archaeological excavations in Sri Lanka, appears to compensate for the lack of other forms of archaeological evidence for the use and appreciation of pearls in the country. In India, the discovery of such shell middens have not been reported yet, but it is quite possible that such middens would be discovered in the future, in all probability in the southern parts of the country, closer to the Gulf of Mannar.
The antiquity of the use and appreciation of pearls in India and Sri Lanka is authenticated mainly by written historical evidence
The scarcity of archaeological evidence for the antiquity of the use and appreciation of pearls in the Gulf of Mannar region, in India, is compensated by the availability of a large volume of written evidence, the oldest dating back to around 1,700 B.C. (3,700 B.P.) from the “Rigveda.” Other sources of evidence include the Atharvaveda (1,200 B.C.), Manusmriti (1,200-500 B.C.), the Puranas (3rd-5th century A.D.) the Ramayana (5th-4th century B.C.), Mahabaratha (4th-century B.C.) Arthashastra (4th-3rd century B.C.), Periplus of the Erythrian Sea (1st-century A.D.), Ptolemy (2nd-century A.D.), Strabo (1st-century A.D.), Buddhabhatta’s Ratnapariksa (6th-century A.D.), Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita (6th-century A.D.). In Sri Lanka, the oldest written evidence for the use and appreciation of pearls dates back to the mid-6th century B.C. from the Mahawamsa referring to a gift of pearls and other jewels sent by the first Indo-Aryan king Prince Vijaya to his Dravidian father-in-law, the king of the Pandyan kingdom of Southern India. Other written evidences originate from the Mahabaratha (4th-century B.C.), Arthashastra (4th-3rd century B.C.), Megasthenes (3rd-century B.C.), Periplus of the Erythrian Sea (1st-century A.D.), Ptolemy (2nd-century A.D.), Pliny (1st-century A.D.), Strabo (1st-century A.D.), Buddhabatta (6th-century A.D.).
The written historical evidence from India dates back to around 1,700 B.C. but in Sri Lanka only to around 550 B.C. This is due to the lack of historical data in Sri Lanka prior to the Aryan conquest of the island.
The written evidence available for the antiquity of the use and appreciation of pearls is much older in India than in Sri Lanka. This was mainly due to the absence of all historical data prior to the Aryan conquest of Sri Lanka around 550 B.C. The fact that Prince Vijaya was able to send a gift of pearls to his father-in-law, soon after he settled in Sri Lanka in the mid-6th century B.C., points to an established fishery in the island at the time he arrived in Sri Lanka. But, how old was this fishery is only a matter of conjecture. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the pre-Vijayan pearl fishery in the island. Only future archaeological excavations might throw some light on the pre-Vijayan use and appreciation of pearls in the Island.
The discovery of shell middens created by oyster-eating prehistoric coastal dwellers of Sri Lanka, raises the possibility that the first pearls to be discovered and appreciated by human beings came from the coastal waters of Sri Lanka
The antiquity of the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar is established by a large volume of written historical evidence both pertaining to India and Sri Lanka, and scarce archaeological evidence from both countries. Archaeological evidence from Sri Lanka of shell middens created by oyster-eating, pre-historic, mesolithic, coastal dwellers, perhaps as old as 6,000 – 37,000 years B.P. raises the possibility that the first pearls to be discovered and appreciated by human beings came from pre-historic Sri Lanka.
History of the Gulf of Mannar Pearl fisheries after the 6th-century A.D. to modern times is considered on a separate webpage
In the above article on the history of the discovery and appreciation of pearls, the history of the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery has been considered only up to the 6th-century A.D. up to the period of Buddhabhatta’s “Ratnapariksa” and Varahamihira’s “Brihat Samhita. The history of the Gulf of Mannar pearl fishery from the 7th-century A.D. to modern times are considered in detail on a separate webpage dedicated for this purpose.
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Back to Learning CenterRelated
1) The Sultan Pearl Necklace
2) The Ceylon Pearl Necklace
3) History of the Gem Trade in Sri Lanka
4) History of the Discovery and Appreciation of Pearls – Page 1
1) The Mahawamsa – The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka – www.mahawamsa.org
2) Pallemalala discovery throws new light on Lanka’s pre-historic culture – by Asiff Hussein. www.lankalibrary.com
3) Pre and Proto-Historic Settlements in Sri Lanka – S.U. Deraniyagala. Director General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. www.lankalibrary.com
4) The Early Man and the Rise of Civilization in Sri Lanka – The Archaeological Evidence – S.U. Deraniyagala. Director General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. www.lankalibrary.com
5) Beyond Price – Pearls & Pearl Fishing : Origins to the Age of Discoveries – R.A. Donkin, Jesus College, Cambridge
6) Periplus of the Erythrian Sea – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7) Strabo – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8) Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon – Part II, Ancient References to Ceylon – by Arnold Wight
9) Indus Valley Civilization – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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11) Harappan Civilization – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12) Taxila – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
13) Rigveda – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
14) Hinduism and the Aryan Influence – Harsh Nevatia, www.suite101.com
15) Atharvaveda – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
16) Manusmriti -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
17) Laws of Manu – or Manawa Dharma Shastra. www.hinduism.about.com
18) Puranas – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
19) Hinduism – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
20) Ramayana – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
21) The Story of Mahabharata – www.brown.edu/sanskrit-in-classics-at-brown/mahabharata
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23) Varahamihira – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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- Research article
- Open Access
Low dose native type II collagen prevents pain in a rat osteoarthritis model
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders volume 14, Article number: 228 (2013)
Osteoarthritis is the most widespread joint-affecting disease. Patients with osteoarthritis experience pain and impaired mobility resulting in marked reduction of quality of life. A progressive cartilage loss is responsible of an evolving disease difficult to treat. The characteristic of chronicity determines the need of new active disease modifying drugs. Aim of the present research is to evaluate the role of low doses of native type II collagen in the rat model of osteoarthritis induced by sodium monoiodoacetate (MIA).
1, 3 and 10 mg kg-1 porcine native type II collagen were daily per os administered for 13 days starting from the day of MIA intra-articular injection.
On day 14, collagen-treated rats showed a significant prevention of pain threshold alterations induced by MIA. Evaluation were performed on paws using mechanical noxious (Paw pressure test) or non-noxious (Electronic Von Frey test) stimuli, and a decrease of articular pain was directly measured on the damaged joint (PAM test). The efficacy of collagen in reducing pain was as higher as the dose was lowered. Moreover, a reduced postural unbalance, measured as hind limb weight bearing alterations (Incapacitance test), and a general improvement of motor activity (Animex test) were observed. Finally, the decrease of plasma and urine levels of CTX-II (Cross Linked C-Telopeptide of Type II Collagen), a biomarker of cartilage degradation, suggests a collagen-dependent decrease of structural joint damage.
These results describe the preclinical efficacy of low dosages of native type II collagen as pain reliever by a mechanism that involves a protective effect on cartilage.
Osteoarthritis pathophysiology involves the whole joint in a disease process that includes focal and progressive loss of hyaline articular cartilage. Concomitant changes in the bone underneath the cartilage involve formation of osteophytes and bony sclerosis, as well as alterations in the synovium and joint capsule . Cartilage loss or degeneration may be a result of natural aging, obesity, repeated trauma or hormone disorders. The mechanical stress on the damaged joint irritates and inflames the cartilage causing joint pain and swelling [2, 3].
An integrative treatment of osteoarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis, must consider a supplementation with collagen since it is the most prevalent component of the solid phase of articular cartilage . The three major groups of collagen derivatives clinically used for arthritis treatment are based on the various degrees of hydrolysis of collagen: gelatin, collagen hydrolysate and native undenatured collagen . Analogous working mechanisms has been described for gelatin and collagen hydrolysate: after oral administration peptides can be used as building blocks for the cartilage [6–8]. Moreover, it is hypothesized that collagen hydrolysate also influences bone metabolism [9, 10] or the vascular system involved in the atheromatous disease of the subchondral bone [11, 12]. For these purposes collagen hydrolysate is dosed in grams per day (usually 10 g) [13–15]. On the contrary, undenatured collagen has been reported as beneficial for articular pain when per os administered in the order of milligrams [16, 17]. Undenatured collagen was preclinically and clinically studied mainly in rheumatoid arthritis [16, 17]; the autoimmune component of this pathology suggests a mechanism called oral tolerance, the usual response of the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) to harmless gut antigens inducing local and systemic immunological tolerance [18–20]. The knowledge about the relevance of low doses of undenatured collagen in osteoarthritis are more limited and the absence of an immune component in the pathology of osteoarthritis make difficult to assume the oral tolerance as possible mechanism of collagen action.
In order to verify the efficacy of low doses of porcine native type II collagen as pain reliever and cartilage protector, we determined its pharmacological profile in a rat unilateral osteoarthritis induced by sodium monoiodoacetate (MIA).
For all the experiments described below, male Sprague-Dawley rats (Harlan, Varese, Italy) weighing approximately 200-250 g at the beginning of the experimental procedure were used. Animals were housed in CeSAL (Centro Stabulazione Animali da Laboratorio, University of Florence) and used at least one week after their arrival. Four rats were housed per cage (size 26 × 41 cm); animals were fed with standard laboratory diet and tap water ad libitum, and kept at 23 ± 1°C with a 12 h light/dark cycle, light at 7 a.m. All animal manipulations were carried out according to the European Community guidelines for animal care (DL 116/92, application of the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC). The ethical policy of the University of Florence complies with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication No. 85-23, revised 1996; University of Florence assurance number: A5278-01). Formal approval to conduct the experiments described was obtained from the Animal Subjects Review Board of the University of Florence. Animals were anaesthetised before cervical dislocation. All efforts were made to minimize animal suffering and to reduce the number of animals used.
Unilateral osteoarthritis was also induced by injection of monoiodoacetate (MIA, Sigma-Aldrich) into the knee joint according to a described method [22, 23]. On day 1, rats were slightly anesthetized by 2% isoflurane, the left leg skin was sterilized with 75% ethyl alcohol and the knee located by palpation; then, a 28-gauge needle was inserted vertically to penetrate the skin and turned distally for insertion into the articular cavity until a distinct loss of resistance was felt. 2 mg MIA in 25 μl saline were delivered into the left articular cavity. Control rats received 25 μL of saline solution (day 1) in the knee joint. Behavioral and biochemical measures were performed at day 14.
Porcine native type II collagen (Bioiberica, Spain) was suspended in 1% carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC) and administered by the per os (p.o.) route. 1, 3 or 10 mg kg-1 collagen were daily administered starting from the day 1 immediately after MIA injection to the 13th day. Behavioural and biochemical tests were performed 24 hours after the end of treatments. Control rats received p.o. CMC every day. For all tests blind experiments were performed.
Paw Pressure test
The nociceptive threshold in the rat was determined with an analgesimeter (Ugo Basile, Varese, Italy), according to the method described by . Briefly, a constantly increasing pressure was applied to a small area of the dorsal surface of the paw using a blunt conical probe by a mechanical device. Mechanical pressure was increased until vocalization or a withdrawal reflex occurred while rats were lightly restrained. Vocalization or withdrawal reflex thresholds were expressed in grams. Rats scoring below 40 g or over 80 g during the test before drug administration were rejected (25%). For analgesia measures, mechanical pressure application was stopped at 120 g.
Von Frey test
The animals were placed in 20 cm x 20 cm plexiglas boxes equipped with a metallic meshy floor, 20 cm above the bench. A habituation of 15 minutes was allowed before the test. An electronic Von Frey hair unit (Ugo Basile, Varese, Italy) was used: the withdrawal threshold was evaluated by applying force ranging from 0 to 50 grams with a 0.2 gram accuracy. Punctuate stimulus was delivered to the mid-plantar area of each anterior paw from below the meshy floor through a plastic tip and the withdrawal threshold was automatically displayed on the screen. Paw sensitivity threshold was defined as the minimum pressure required to elicit a robust and immediate withdrawal reflex of the paw. Voluntary movements associated with locomotion were not taken as a withdrawal response. Stimuli were applied on each anterior paw with an interval of 5 seconds. The measure was repeated 5 times and the final value was obtained by averaging the 5 measures .
The Pressure Application Measurement (PAM from Ugo Basile, Italy) was used to measure mechanical pain threshold of the knee jont. A force transducer (2 mm diameter) is mounted on the operator’s thumb and a progressive a quantified force was applied for direct stimulation of the joint. The rate of application of the force is decided by the operator. The force (gram-force; gf) which elicits the animal response (normally, limb withdrawal) was recorded. The value considered for each joint was the mean of 5 consecutive measurements. Data are expressed as the difference between the force tolerated on the knee joint contralateral to the injury and the force tolerated on the ipsilateral one (Δ Force).
Weight bearing changes were measured using an incapacitance apparatus (Linton Instrumentation, UK) detecting changes in postural equilibrium after a hind limb injury . Rats were trained to stand on their hind paws in a box with an inclined plane (65° from horizontal). This box was placed above the incapacitance apparatus. This allowed us to independently measure the weight that the animal applied on each hind limb. The value considered for each animal was the mean of 5 consecutive measurements. In the absence of hind limb injury, rats applied an equal weight on both hind limbs, indicating a postural equilibrium, whereas an unequal distribution of the weight on hind limbs indicated a monolateral decreased pain threshold. Data are expressed as the difference between the weight applied on the limb contralateral to the injury and the weight applied on the ipsilateral one (Δ Weight).
Spontaneous activity meter (Animex)
Locomotor activity in rats was quantified using an Animex activity meter Type S (LKB, Farad, Sweden) set to maximum sensitivity. Every movement of rats, which were placed on the top of the Animex activity meter, produced a signal due to variation in inductance and capacity of the apparatus resonance circuit. Signals were converted automatically to numbers. On the day of the experiment the cage, containing three rats, were put on the measuring platform. Activity counts were made for 5 min.
CTX-II and CPII levels
On the day 14 plasma and urine samples were collected and analyzed to measure the Cross Linked C-Telopeptide of Type II Collagen (CTX- II) levels. Dosages were performed using ELISA assay (Antibodies online, Germania) by specific antibody. The method was in accordance to the procedure described by for plasma and urine measure, respectively. Plasmatic levels of CPII, the carboxyl propeptide of type II procollagen, were also evaluated by ELISA assay (Ibex, Canada) according to [28, 29].
Results were expressed as means ± S.E.M. and the analysis of variance was performed by ANOVA. A Bonferroni’s significant difference procedure was used as post-hoc comparison. P values of less than 0.05 or 0.01 were considered significant. Data were analyzed using the “Origin 8.1” software.
The pharmacological activity of low dosages of type II collagen was evaluated in the rat unilateral osteoarthritis model induced by MIA. 14 days after intra-articular MIA injection the mechanical withdrawal threshold to a noxious stimulus was measured by Paw pressure test (Figure 1). The weight tolerated on the ipsilateral paw was significantly reduced (42.2 ± 2.0 g) compared to the contralateral (77.0 ± 4.1 g). 1 mg kg-1 collagen administered daily p.o. for 13 days (starting from the day of MIA injection) increased the withdrawal threshold of the ipsilateral paw up to 67.5 ± 3.1 g. The doses of 3 and 10 mg kg-1 were significantly active but progressively less effective. Figure 2 shows the response to a non-noxious mechanical stimulus evaluated by the Von Frey test. On day 14 pain threshold of the ipsilateral paw (MIA + vehicle group) was decreased to 14.1 ± 2.0 g as compared to the contralateral (31.4 ± 4.2 g). Animals treated with 1 mg kg-1 collagen showed an ipsilateral threshold of 25.3 ± 4.0 g; the groups treated with higher dosage tolerated a stimulus of about 21 g. In both Paw pressure and Von Frey tests the pain sensitivity of the contralateral paw of MIA + vehicle or MIA + collagen groups was not different with respect to the control (vehicle + vehicle, data not shown). Articular pain was evaluated by PAM test, in Figure 3 the difference (Δ Force) between the force tolerated directly on the knee joint contralateral to the injury and the force tolerated on the ipsilateral one was described. Δ Force in control rats (vehicle + vehicle, 36.1 ± 21.1 gf) was dramatically increased on the day 14 in MIA + vehicle group (129.5 ± 10.1 gf). Collagen treatment prevented articular pain in a manner inversely proportional to the dose, reaching 15.8 ± 2.7 gf Δ Force in animals treated with 1 mg kg-1.
Unilateral pain was also able to induce hind limb weight bearing alterations (Incapacitance test): the difference between the weight burdened on the contralateral and the ipsilateral limb was significantly increased in MIA + vehicle (54.1 ± 5.3 g) with respect to vehicle + vehicle (4.3 ± 3.5). The protective effect of collagen was shown in Figure 4. Moreover, the Animex test showed a collagen-dependent improvement of motor activity increasing the number of movements by about 50% (Figure 5).
Biochemical analysis of biological fluids performed 14 days after MIA injection, allowed to observe a 4 fold increase of CTX-II in plasma of MIA + vehicle rats compared to the control group (vehicle + vehicle). The plasmatic CTX-II increase was reduced by 53% in the rats treated with 1 mg kg-1 collagen and by 40% in those treated with the higher doses (Figure 6). The same parameter was increased by MIA also in urine (2.6 fold with respect to the control); 3 mg kg-1 collagen induced the higher protective effect (75% inhibition compared to MIA + vehicle; Figure 7). 1, 3 and 10 mg kg-1 collagen daily administered p.o. for 14 days, in the absence of articular damage, did not alter CTX-II levels in plasma and urine (data not shown). In Table 1 are shown the plasmatic levels of the collagen synthesis marker CPII. MIA-induced articular damage evoked an increase of CPII that is unaltered by collagen repeated treatments.
Osteoarthritis, also called degenerative joint disease, is a chronic pathology frequently seen in knee, hip, spine and hand causing pain, stiffness, decreased range of motion, and reduced quality of life for million people throughout the world . It is by far the most widespread joint-affecting disease. According to the World Health Organization, osteoarthritis is the sixth-leading cause of disability in the world , being comparable to that of asthma [31, 32]. It is estimated that it affects over 12% of the total population in the USA , compared with 0.6% for rheumatoid arthritis . The prevalence of osteoarthritis increases with age because the condition is not spontaneously reversible . Almost 9.6% of men and 18.0% of women ages 60 years in the world are thought to have symptomatic osteoarthritis . Given the increasing incidence of osteoarthritis with age, the extended life expectancy observed in the Western world (for example 20% of the Italian population is age > 65 years; ) is expected to result in a progressively higher number of people affected by this pathology.
The usual management of patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis requires a combination of non-pharmacological and pharmacological modalities of therapy. Pharmacological treatments include acetaminophen, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) non-selective and selective oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), topical NSAIDs and capsaicin, intra-articular injections of corticosteroids and hyaluronates, glucosamine and/or chondroitin sulphate for symptom relief. Glucosamine sulphate, chondroitin sulphate and diacerein have possible structure-modifying effects . The characteristic of chronicity determines the need of new active disease modifying drugs.
In the present research osteoarthritis was mimicked in rats injecting MIA in the knee joint. The intra-articular injection of MIA induces necrosis of condrocytes with decrease of cartilage thickness and osteolysis , in the presence of a relevant component of oxidative stress . Kobayashi et al. showed that MIA is able to disorganize condrocytes and to promote cartilage erosion. These alterations are comparable with joint damages typical of humans affected by osteoarthritis [22, 41, 42].
In our experiments behavioral and biochemical features were evaluated 14 days after MIA injection, when pain as well as the degenerative articular process are overt [42, 43]. At this time, CTX-II levels were strongly increased as measured in urine and plasma. CTX-II is a C-terminal peptide generated by the concerted action of matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) on the fibrillar type II collagen, and it is considered a biomarker of cartilage degradation [44, 45]. Its level was found to correlate with cartilage loss in animal models of osteoarthritis . In agreement, clinical studies showed increased CTX-II levels in patients with osteoathritis compared with controls [47, 48].
Type II collagen is the principal molecular component of mammalian cartilages : the present work is focused on the study of this fibrous protein as preventive of MIA-induced articular damage. Different dosages of native type II collagen were daily administered per os for 14 days starting from the day of MIA injection. 1-10 mg dose range was chosen on the bases of the efficacy demonstrated in rheumatoid arthritis models . Lower doses, in particular 1 mg kg-1, was able to strongly prevent pain behavior when evaluated both as an increase on suprathreshold stimulation (hyperalgesia-related measure) or as pain threshold decrease (allodynia-related measure). Collagen was able to reduce pain on the paw ipsilateral to the MIA injection. Since articular pain and joint tenderness are the most frequent and disabling symptoms we evaluated also the animal responses to a direct stimulation of knee joint. The efficacy of collagen on reducing articular pain progressively increased lowering in the dose. Moreover, collagen-dependent pain relief allowed also to reduce postural unbalance, a feature of disease progression , as measured by hind limb weight bearing alterations. A general improvement of motor activity was observed.
The behavioral positive effects of collagen may be related to a prevention of articular damage since CTX-II levels were reduced in urine and in plasma of collagen-treated rats. On the other hand, low dosed collagen did not promote the synthesis of new collagen given that the plasmatic levels of CPII, the carboxyl propeptide of type II procollagen [28, 29], was not altered by 14 days of collagen treatment.
The higher efficacy of the lower dose and, in general, the low dosages administered in the present work do not justify a mechanism founded on cartilage structure supplementation, as confirmed by the lack of CPII increase. Moreover, cartilage has limited repair capabilities and cartilage damage is difficult to heal since chondrocytes are bound in lacunae and they cannot migrate to damaged areas; hyaline cartilage does not have a blood supply and the deposition of new matrix is slow . Other working mechanisms remain to be explored.
In rheumatoid arthritis the induction of oral tolerance was suggested as mechanism for the beneficial effect on pain evoked by low doses of native collagen [17, 50]. The relevance of oral tolerance has been described for pathologies related to immune dysregulations and for autoimmune diseases , indeed a complex immune mechanism contribute to the pathology of rheumatoid arthritis [16, 52]. The proposed mechanism for collagen-induced oral tolerance is that dendritic cells in the GALT take up the collagen and present it to T cells to generate regulatory T cells. Regulatory T cells control the immune response inducing several inhibitory cytokines, such as transforming growth factor β and interleukin 10, while decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines [17, 53].
To the actual knowledge osteoarthritis has not immune characteristic, but shares with rheumatoid arthritis cartilage degradation and the consequent inflammatory response. The role of oral tolerance in the management of osteoarthritis remains to be investigated. However, future research focused on the pharmacodynamic study of collagen therapeutic effects could offer new insights in osteoarthritis pathophysiology.
Low dose collagen decrease pain induced by the intrarticular injection of MIA, a rat model of articular damage that mimics osteoarthritis alteration. Treated animals showed a reduced postural unbalance and a general improvement of motor activity. The decrease of CTX-II levels in urine and plasma suggests a protective effect on cartilage. This evidence highlights the interest for further investigation about the mechanism of low dose collagen and its relevance in osteoarthritis therapy.
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The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/14/228/prepub
The present research is funded by the Italian Ministry of Instruction, University and Research and by the University of Florence.
CG received a grant from MDM S.p.A, Monza Italy.
LDCM participated in the design of the study and drafted the manuscript. LM and MZ carried out the behavioral tests, the immunoassays and performed the statistical analysis. CG conceived the study, participated in its design and to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Di Cesare Mannelli, L., Micheli, L., Zanardelli, M. et al. Low dose native type II collagen prevents pain in a rat osteoarthritis model. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 14, 228 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-14-228
- Oral tolerance
- Articular pain | <urn:uuid:2a5c0225-9351-446d-91fb-aea92adb707c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2474-14-228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.875094 | 8,948 | 1.96875 | 2 |
In the early days of Islam, it was the time of the Caliphate of Rashida that the Erini king came to Turkmenistan, along with his companions, after being defeated by the Muslims. It was the native region of the Turks. And while living here and marrying the localpeople, a few generations later the descendants of Yazd alike were completely abandoned. A thousand years ago, a Turkish youth from the same family was enslaved. The slave was bought by Alpat Gen, a governor of the Samania Empire, the most powerful empire in Central Asia. The slave’s name was ‘Sabakat Gain’. The same ‘Sabakat’ whose son we and you know as Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi
How did this little slave of the Turkish race and his son become unforgettable characters in history? I am Faisal Waraich and see who he was in the series we will show you all this. The slave ‘Sabakat Gain’ became very fast close to his master ‘Alpat Gain’ because of his bravery and ability. ‘Alpat Gen’ was the governor of the Samani Empire. The Samani Empire was established twelve hundred years ago. During its peak period, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and many parts of Pakistan were part of this empire.
But the story of the period we are telling was the Samani Empire. The ‘Alpat Gen’ was also made something of a samani ruler Abu Mansoor. That is why Al-Pat Gen rebelled and established a government over the Ghazni region in Afghanistan. And declared his freedom. This success of ‘Alpat Gain’ benefited his slave Sabakat Gain. It so happened that Al-Pat Gain promoted Sabakat Gain to general and entrusted him with the task of conquering other areas outside the empire. Sabakat Gain attacked the provinces of Multan and Laghan several times. These areas were part of the kingdom of King Jaipal. Sabakat Gain had also sent thousands of people from these areas as slaves to Ghazni. When Alpat Gen died, his son and successor Ishaq also died 2 years later. Now there was chaos in the Ghaznavid Empire, there was Chaos and it needed a capable ruler to run it. So the army and the courtiers, in consultation, put Sabakat Gain, the son-in-law of Alpat Gain, on the throne of Ghazni.
When Sabakat Gain sat on the throne, his eldest son Abdul Qasim or Abul Qasim Mahmood was only six years old. The same child is known as Mahmud Ghaznavi. Sabakat Gain had subjugated the small Ghazni empire to the Samani Empire and became the governor of the Samanis in Ghazni itself. All his focus was on training his son Mahmud Ghaznavi in both war and political. Perhaps he was preparing his son to be the sultan of the former. That is why Mahmud Ghaznavi was very confused during his father’s 20-year reign. He looked a powerful young man of reasonable stature. According to the books, he was so powerful that the gurs and spears he used were hardly picked up by others.
He was going to war with his father on every front. The first major test of his life took place in the battle with King Jaipal of India. Sabakat Gain invaded the kingdom of King Jaipal. Jaipal also went out for the competition and there was a great war between the two armies in the Laghan area. Mahmud Ghaznavi fought very fiercely in this war, Jaipal’s army also fought hard. But there was a problem with Jaipal’s army. That most of his soldiers belong ed to Punjab | <urn:uuid:dcdc860d-c9ca-4aa2-8296-6c32bb5f370c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://gatewayisp.com/history-about-sultan-mahmood-ghaznavi-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.986857 | 812 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In most nations, we now have about 5–6 funding choices. With regards to private finance planning, it’s best to stay goal when investing. You don’t wish to be emotionally hooked up to your cash as a result of it places you susceptible to making poor monetary choices.
Make investments not less than 20% of your revenue in numerous belongings. Actual property might be troublesome and superior for a newbie because of the quantity of paperwork required and the low liquidity. It additionally necessitates a large funding price range. As a substitute, begin with one thing easy, resembling a Provident Fund or 401K. That is one thing you must benefit from, particularly in case you are nonetheless employed.
A easy funding formulation is (100 – Your Age) to calculate how a lot of your financial savings needs to be in a secure funding possibility resembling a Mounted Deposit (FD), 401K, or Public Provident Fund (PPF). You’re additionally planning on your retirement by doing so. For instance, in case you are 30 years previous (100-30 = 70), make investments 70% of the cash you allotted for funding functions in fairness (shares/mutual funds) and 30% in PPF/FD.
For an extended time horizon, the fairness market is much less dangerous and gives the next return than every other funding possibility. Assuming your present age is 24, your retirement age is 55, and your charge of return is 12%, you may simply obtain your monetary targets should you make investments correctly. | <urn:uuid:917060e0-1a2e-4fe8-a8c9-08b5bcc3a597> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.cashmaker.org.uk/why-is-private-finance-planning-necessary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.922532 | 313 | 2.234375 | 2 |
I wrote this back in 2006 for NerdBlurb
when the Wii was released. Bare in mind this was before the better Classic Controller Pro came out. It was just weird at the time that Nintendo forced the GameCube controller to have it’s buttons A to A, B to B, etc-etc, when they were in the position compared to a SNES controller. So having a Classic controller helped. Though it felt really weird to play with one for N64 games.
So… you’ve downloaded a few games onto your Wii, and you want to get playing, you could use a GameCube Controller. However you can buy a Wii Classic controller for £15/$20. So why should you buy it when you can use a GameCube controller?
First off, playing SNES games with the GCN controller is awkward, back then, the “B” button became the new “A” button to jump, and the new “Y” button became the new “B”. The thing is, Nintendo has been literal about what the buttons, so A on the GCN is A on the SNES pad, which mean if you’re playing Super Mario World, you’ll be spin jumping instead of normal jumping, plus have you ever tried pressing B and Y together on a GCN pad? It’s quite awkward to pull off unless you’re holding the controller in an odd way.
The Controller itself is very comfortable, think of it as a SNES pad, but a tad thicker. Just like the SNES pad, it features the Dpad, A, B, X and Y face buttons and the L and R buttons; however an additional Z buttons (ZL and ZR), two analogue sticks and a home button are available on the pad for N64 and Wii Home options. The L and R buttons are sprung just like the GCN pad’s triggers, including the digital click. This could be used for original download games for the Wii. There’s a button in between the ZL and ZR buttons that controls a sort of lock on the back of the pad; there are two slots that looks like something can be attached to the back of the Classic controller.
So, why should you buy a Wii Classic controller? Well it really depends on what games you’re going to get, the GCN pad feels OK for all the other consoles (NES, N64, MD/Gen and TG-16), and it’s just a pain for SNES games. I’d say buy it if you’re going to get a lot of SNES games from the Wii Shop, if not, you might not really need it. Otherwise it’s a very nice controller that guarantees to work on all VC games, although the GCN controller at the moment works on all VC games, Sega and Hudson have mentioned that the GCN may not work on up coming MegaDrive/Genesis and TurboGrafix-16 games.
Guarantees to work on all VC games.
Button layout matches SNES pad.
Wireless (connected to the Wii Remote).
Isn’t necessary for other VC games (NES, N64, MD/Gen and TG16).
The two sticks a little too close to each other.
Requires a Wii remote to work.
So… That was my review and analysis of the Wii Classic controller in 2006. As I said above, Nintendo later on would release the Classic controller Pro that would be bigger and a lot more comfortable than the original classic controller. Shame it didn’t come with rumble or made better for N64 games, but it was a good controller for virtual console, and Wii disc based games that used it. I’ll review the Classic Controller Pro later on… | <urn:uuid:de02f8e6-babb-4654-b26a-fe0f55a5c7e6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.greatbitblog.com/tag/hardware/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.94387 | 819 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Do you hear scurrying or scratching noises coming from above your ceiling? Sounds coming from the attic or walls may be the first indication that animals are present, but there are other things to watch out for. The type of animal in the attic and the extent of the problem cannot be determined without sufficient experience in wildlife control. Fortunately, Johnson Pest Control‘s wildlife removal experts can help! Our critter control team has removed all sorts of wild animals around Eastern TN from our customers’ attics with efficient and humane strategies. Read on to learn more about common wildlife attic invaders!
Clear Signs of Animals in the Attic
If you suspect that the sounds coming from your attic are the result of a wildlife infestation, make sure to check around your house for other signs that can shed some light on the issue. There are several more things to look for that show you have animals in the attic:
- Animal urine and feces behind appliances, in crawl spaces, and along walls
- Nesting damage or destruction of insulation
- Bite marks on your belongings or on the structure of your building
- Branches, leaves, and torn paper litter your roof or attic
Contact us today for wildlife removal!
What Wildlife Do I Have in my Attic?
Once you’ve determined that there are animals upstairs, the first step in handling them safely is to identify them. Following is a list of the animals most commonly found in Eastern TN attics, along with the evidence they leave:
- Rats and mice: Mice and rats make nests in attics by tearing up insulation. Furthermore, they must constantly gnaw on hard surfaces in our houses to prevent overgrowth in their incisors. You have a rodent infestation if you notice these signs paired with dainty scurrying in your walls or attic.
- Raccoons: The strongest of the common culprits, raccoons are able to tear through our walls and roofing to get inside our attics. They are active at night, and being as heavy as they are, tend to make the loudest noises while we sleep.
- Squirrels: Squirrels use roof vents and eave gaps to sneak into our homes, preferring a less forceful approach than raccoons. You can tell squirrel noises apart from raccoon noises by their volume and times—squirrels are diurnal.
- Birds: Birds nest in our attics using twigs and leaves from outside like some other animals, but can be easily told apart by the noises that they make. It’s important to deal with birds quickly to eliminate any risks posed by their hazardous droppings.
What is the Safest Way to Get Rid of Animals in the Attic?
It’s important to get ahead of wild animals in Eastern TN by taking preventative measures before they arrive, such as sealing your trash bins and closing off holes in your roofing, walls, and foundation. However, if they’ve already snuck into your home, you’re best off leaving the wildlife removal work to your local exterminators. At Johnson Pest Control, we prioritize the most humane techniques to get wildlife out of your home safely as well as quickly. Contact us today to learn more about our critter control services and receive a free quote! | <urn:uuid:84a86937-0a1e-47d5-ace4-cd4bdda9ac56> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://johnsonpestcontrol.com/tag/rats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.950592 | 676 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Children and Libraries (CAL) is the journal of the Association for Library Services to Children. “[I]t primarily serves as a vehicle for continuing education for librarians working with children, and showcases current scholarly research and practice in library service to children and significant activities and initiatives of the Association” (http://www.ala.org/alsc/publications-resources/cal).
Share your knowledge and experience with your peers. “Best Practices Pieces” provide an opportunity for readers to learn from your program planning, preparation, and implementation. If you would like to peruse past issues of the journal, then you may access them online. (Tip: Past issues through the fifth-most-recent are accessible to all; More recent issues require ALA login.)
“Best Practices” are inclusive of successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Written reflections should be limited to approximately 1,500 words and include details on program timelines, materials, attendance, marketing plans, and funding sources. Quotes and feedback from staff and attendees may also be included.
Submissions are open on a rolling basis year round. In addition to sharing “Best Practice Pieces”, you are welcome to contact the CAL Editor, Sharon Verbeten, with your story ideas, author interviews, personal essays, research pieces (peer review process applies), and high resolution (300 dpi) photos from events. (Tip: Any pictures depicting children’s faces must include a signed parental permission slip).
There is still time to submit content for consideration in the upcoming Summer 2022 issue. Copy must be finalized no later than January 15 for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you and featuring your work!
This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: III. Programming Skills; V. Advocacy & Outreach; VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.
Amalia E. Butler, Senior Children’s Librarian and CAL co-chair, is writing this post on behalf of the ALSC Children & Libraries Editorial Advisory Committee. | <urn:uuid:c4291b6d-dda3-47d0-ad03-6dfeb23bed13> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2021/12/best-practices-pieces-children-libraries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.899815 | 428 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Quito, Ecuador’s capital, sits above the clouds at 2850masl. It was originally built on the foundations of an ancient Incan city and sits on the Pichincha Volcano slopes. The locals know it as the “Carita de Dios”, undeniably so for its renowned and historical treasures, making it a World Heritage Site in 1978. Viewing Quito from above on the Teleferico gives a bird’s eye view, while the Panecillo in the center of the city gives a unique perspective at all angles. Here, you can see many churches known for their exceptional architecture worldwide, captivating history and legends, and remarkable examples of the Baroque School of Quito, commonly known as the “Escuela Quiteña”. ost Incan City of Machu Picchu, one of the 7 World Wonders. | <urn:uuid:d079e232-665d-4c9f-a756-9a5bd38482a0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.columbusecuador.com/ecuador/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.921653 | 180 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Explaining variation in support for Basic Income
Building on my previous research published in the Basic Income Studies Journal in 2019, I carried a more systematic investigation of the Political Economy of individual level support for the basic income in Europe which has is now out in online first in the Journal of European Social Policy. In the process of exploring why different individual characeristics correlated with support for a BI, I became interested in why different parts of the Left are more or less supportive of a BI. This led me to work with Prof Hanna Schwander on different strands of left wing thought and how they may be associated with BI support. This has been accepted at Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy.
“The Political Economy of individual level support for the basic income in Europe” Journal of European Social Policy. ABSTRACT: There is a long-standing debate in academic and policymaking circles about the normative merits and economic effects of a universal basic income (UBI). However, existing literature does not sufficiently address the question of which factors are associated with individual support for a UBI. While a large literature in political economy has focused on individual preferences for existing welfare state benefits, it has not analysed the case of a UBI. Using the eighth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS), this article seeks to remedy this gap by analysing individual support for a UBI in 21 European countries. The findings from logistic regression analyses with country fixed effects are partly consistent with the expectations of previous social policy and political economy literatures. Younger, low-income, left-leaning individuals and the unemployed are more likely to support a UBI. Individuals with positive views of benefit recipients and/or high trust in political institutions are also more supportive, while anti-immigration attitudes are associated with lower support. By contrast, the patterns across occupations are mixed and male respondents appear slightly more supportive. Trade union membership is not statistically significant, perhaps because of contradictory effects: unions typically support new welfare state policies but they also have a key role in many existing welfare state schemes and may worry about individuals’ attachment to the labour market. At the cross-national level, support tends to be higher where benefit activation is more pronounced and unemployment benefits less generous. These results suggest one possible reason why countries with high support for a UBI have not introduced it: the mixed support among the left means a pro-UBI coalition has to draw on right-wing voters who may support it only with lower taxes and/or extensive replacement of welfare state benefits, which in turn may further alienate parts of the left.
“The Left and Universal Basic Income: The role of ideology in individual support” (with Hanna Schwander), Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy. ABSTRACT: Few studies analyse individual support for Universal Basic Income (UBI). This article theorises and explores empirically the relationship between different strands of left ideology and support for UBI across European countries. We delineate three types of concerns about capitalism: ‘Labourist Left’ worry about exploitation; ‘Libertarian Left’ about repression; and ‘Social Investment Left’ about inefficiencies. Contrary to expectations, our results based on data from the European Social Survey suggest that having high concerns about exploitation is positively correlated with support for UBI, whereas repression concerns are negatively correlated with support. In line with our hypothesis, left-leaning individuals with efficiency concerns are more likely to support UBI. Our findings call for more detailed surveys and further research on the different ideologies within the Left and how these relate to variation in support for UBI which would shed further light on the resulting potential coalition dynamics for a larger-scale introduction of UBI.
Political Economy of labour market dualisation and liberalization
Two articles on the political economy of labour market dualization and liberalization have also just come out. The first deals with the different ways to test the role of labour market dualization in shaping social policy preferences and is part of a special issue on the wider importance of dualization for political science, with contributions from David Rueda, Achim Kermmerling, Hanna Schwander, Silja Hausermann, Philip Rehm and Marius Busemeyer (and more). The second article (joint with Marco Simoni) tries to understand the patterns of labour market liberalization reforms in Europe since the 1980s. It argues this is the outcome of complex interactions between governments, partisanship, trade unions and the state of the Economy.
“The political consequences of labour market dualization: Labour market status, occupational unemployment and policy preferences” Political Science Research and Methods. ABSTRACT: This article explores empirically how different types of labour market inequality affect policy preferences in post-industrial societies. I argue that the two main conceptualisations of labour market vulnerability identified in the insider-outsider literature are complementary: Labour market risks are shaped by both labour market status-whether an individual is unemployed, in a temporary or permanent contract-and occupational unemployment-whether an individual is in an occupation with high or low unemployment. As a result, both status and occupation are important determinants of individual labour market policy preferences. In what follows, I first briefly conceptualise the link between labour market divides, risks and policy preferences and then use cross-national survey data to investigate the determinants of preferences.
“Labour Market Liberalization and the Rise of Dualism in Europe as the Interplay between Government, Trade Unions and the Economy” (with Marco Simoni), Social Policy & Administration. ABSTRACT: Why have labour market reforms varied so much across European countries in the 30 years preceding the economic crisis? We argue that the degree of liberalization over time in each country depends on the interaction between governments’ partisan leaning, the strength of trade unions and the economic problem-load pushing governments to adopt distinct labour market reform strategies. Building on existing literature, we interpret ‘dualizing’ labour market reforms as weaker forms of liberalization and test our argument on the cross‐national variation in over 200 labour market reforms carried out in 14 western European countries between 1985 and 2007. Our empirical results show that governments are less likely to liberalize if they face a strong union movement and the economic problem-load is low. However, even in countries with strong unions, opposition may not always manage to block change. First, as unemployment becomes more severe, unions’ ability to reduce the likelihood of liberalization strongly decreases. Second, trade unions often do not manage to prevent liberalization advanced by social democratic governments. Third, governments can devise three (non-rival) strategies to deflect opposition: (1) they can re-regulate parts of the labour market to protect certain workers from liberalization; (2) generous unemployment benefits can cushion the costs of liberalization, thereby increasing its likelihood; and (3) they can carry out two‐tier reforms to insulate insider (unionized) workers employed in permanent contracts, which limits union opposition. By identifying the complex interactions between variables that explain variation in labour market liberalization across European countries, this article contributes to our understanding of the evolution of European political economy.
Economic insecurity, anti-immigration attitudes and far right party support in Europe
Finally, two papers on the rise of far right parties in Europe were also published. They both deal, from different angles, with whether and how exactly concerns about immigration shape far right party support.
“‘Birds of a feather’? Assessing the prevalence of anti-immigration attitudes among the far-right electorate”, (with Daphne Halikiopoulou and Daniel Stockemer) Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the prevalence of anti-immigration attitudes among the far-right electorate. Drawing on the distinction between the predictive power of immigration concerns, and the question of how widespread these concerns are among the far-right voter pool, we proceed in two steps. First, we assess the extent to which anti-immigration attitudes are a necessary condition for voting far right; and second we examine whether far right voters with different levels of anti-immigration attitudes exhibit similar individual and attitudinal characteristics. Using data from the 8 th wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) we find that, surprisingly, anti-immigration attitudes are not a necessary condition for voting for the far right as approximately one third of far-right voters have no concerns over immigration. We further show that far-right voters with different levels of immigration concerns have different profiles when it comes to other predictors of the far right-vote including ideological affinity, attachment to the EU and government satisfaction. Our contribution is significant as we suggest that there are different routes to voting for the far right by groups with different grievances, including non-immigration related.
“When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions driving far right party success in Europe” (with Daphne Halikiopoulou) European Political Science Review. ABSTRACT: This article contests the view that the strong positive correlation between anti-immigration attitudes and far right party success constitutes evidence in support of the cultural grievance thesis and against the economic grievance thesis. We argue that far right party success depends on the ability to mobilise a coalition of interests between their core supporters, i.e. voters with cultural grievances over immigration and the, often, larger group of voters with economic grievances over immigration. Using individual level data from 8 rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), our empirical analysis shows that while cultural concerns over immigration are a stronger predictor of far right party support, those who dislike the impact of immigration on the economy are important to the far right in numerical terms. Taken together, our findings suggest that economic grievances over immigration remain pivotal within the context of the transnational cleavage. | <urn:uuid:547958f8-7764-492d-8f54-842a6f0c5e89> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://timvlandas.com/category/uncategorized/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.930623 | 1,995 | 1.601563 | 2 |
This is a picture of a flipped upper eyelid of a patient who complained of discomfort after something flew into his eye. The eye in this photo actually looks pretty good. The picture below shows what happens when fluorescein stain is put in the eye and a special filter is used to visualize it.
Now you can see there is staining. This is where the outer protective cells of the conjunctiva have been abraded away. | <urn:uuid:8804eb2a-c95e-44e0-9f3e-4aa917fd67c1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.sonorandeserteye.com/stain-helps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.971918 | 90 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Our network of Hunger Relief Partners connects the Food Bank of Delaware to our neighbors struggling with food insecurity. In Kent and Sussex Counties we work with 377 partners who help us distribute close to 8 million pounds of food last year. Our partners include faith-based organizations, senior centers, nonprofit organizations and more. (A list is available upon request). Over the past five years, food distribution out of the Milford branch has increased 79 percent.
The expanded cold storage will allow us to expand our refrigeration and freezer capacity so we can distribute more fresh foods to our neighbors in need. Expansion will allow us to store and distribute 3,727,936 additional pounds of fresh foods like fruits and vegetables, dairy products and meats. This is a 114 percent increase from our current facility. Our dry storage space will increase, allowing us to distribute an additional six million pounds of non-perishable food each year. | <urn:uuid:4f956294-8c20-4e8a-9d21-83815ff5822e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fbd.org/hopeinmilford/benefits/expanded/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.927305 | 182 | 1.546875 | 2 |
A neonatologist is specially trained to care for the most complex and high-risk situations for newborns. Care for newborns at delivery due to issues or conditions in the mother or child that may require intervention in the delivery room.
Is neonatology a good career?
The life of a neonatologist is not an easy one. Those who succeed should know that it remains one of the noblest of all the medical careers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the neonatologist job outlook is positive, with an expected growth rate of 7 percent in all physician and surgeon roles up to 2028.
What dies a neonatologist do?
Neonatologists are doctors who specialize in the care of newborn children. Newborns can present a unique set of health challenges that require a high level of skill and medical expertise to treat. This is particularly true of premature newborns and those with underdeveloped organs.
What does a Neonatalogist do?
What Types of Treatments Do Neonatologists Provide? Neonatologists generally provide the following care: Diagnose and treat newborns with conditions such as breathing disorders, infections, and birth defects. Consult with obstetricians, pediatricians, and family physicians about conditions affecting newborn infants.
Is being a neonatologist worth it?
It’s a great job from a lot of standpoints. It’s a great job from a lot of standpoints. Neonatology is very specialized work, with several years of additional training required after pediatric certification, so it’s a small community of professionals, a small ecosystem.
How many hours do neonatologist work weekly?
Neonatologist work environment A neonatologist usually works long hours, including 12-hour shifts, because there are few specialists in neonatology. Their environment involves walking, sitting, responding quickly to stressful situations and using specialized medical equipment as well as phones and computers.
Is being a neonatologist stressful?
Almost all neonatologists experienced stress at work: 34% moderately severe and 16% very severe stress. This study confirms that neonatology, in the eyes of those who practice it, is a highly stressful career. It also suggests that job stress is a greater problem than job dissatisfaction.
How long does it take to become a neonatologist?
As a highly specialized area of pediatrics, neonatologists require very intense training and education. It can take up to fourteen years after beginning college studies before one is able topractice on his own in this field of specialized medicine.
What do I major in to become a neonatologist?
The education needed to be a Neonatologist is normally a Doctoral Degree. Neonatologists usually study Medicine, Nursing or Biology. 56% of Neonatologists hold a Doctoral Degree and 12% hold a Bachelor’s Degree.
What kind of a doctor is a neonatologist?
This doctor, called a neonatologist, is a pediatrician with special training in caring for babies who are sick and require intensive care after birth. Although there are many different people involved in your baby’s care while in the NICU, it is the neonatologist who determines and coordinates the daily plan of care.
What is a pregnancy doctor called?
An obstetrician (OB) is a doctor who has special training in women’s health and pregnancy. OB doctors specialize in both caring for women during pregnancy and labor, and delivering their babies. Some OBs have advanced training in caring for high-risk pregnancies.
What does NICU stand for?
When babies are born early, have health problems, or a difficult birth they go to the hospital’s NICU. NICU stands for “neonatal intensive care unit.” There, babies get around-the-clock care from a team of experts.
How long does it take to become a neonatologist UK?
This master’s in neonatology gives you the flexibility to study part time over 3 years. You’ll study modules that all students on the course take, as well as modules you can choose.
What is the easiest doctor to become?
A general practice doctor is probably the easiest doctor to become. Even though students must complete four years of medical school and one or two years of a residency, this is the minimum amount of education required for medical doctors.
DO doctors DO surgery?
Like MDs, physicians with a DO are licensed in all 50 states to practice medicine and surgery, as well as to prescribe medications. This philosophy of treating the patient and not the symptom really appealed to me and greatly influenced my decision to become a DO. Dr.
Do neonatologists only work in the NICU?
Physicians who want to become neonatologists first complete a three-year pediatrics residency. She devotes about half of her time to running the Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program at UCLA. But neonatologists in community settings typically work only in clinical care.
Do neonatologists work nights?
Most of the practices that I have seen or heard about generally have doctors work ten 24hr shifts per month, which is a 24hr shift every 3 days so you’re either on call, post-call, or pre-call all the time.
How hard is it to get a neonatology fellowship?
Applicants for a Fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine have 90-95% chance of matching. Many fellowship training programs including ours offer two tracks: one three-year track and one research track with an additional 1-2 years for research.
What makes a good neonatologist?
Neonatologists are usually at the head of teams of other neonatal health care professionals, such as neonatal nurses and nurse practitioners, neonatal pharmacists and occupational therapists. They need to be strong leaders and display confidence, excellent judgment and confidence in decision-making and problem-solving.
Do you get paid during med school?
Students don’t get paid in medical school. However, graduates get paid during residency (they are paid less than their peers). One year of residency is required to get a license to practice medicine. Residency to specialize in a particular field of medicine can last from three to eight years.
Can a neonatal nurse become a neonatologist?
Students, who want to specialize in neonatology, can pick that specialization track or start the two-year advanced-practice neonatal nurse practitioner program. The NP residency programs are also a possible educational pathway for aspiring neonatal NPs. | <urn:uuid:69347378-3222-4bb4-8715-6c7180798348> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://viceblogger.com/do-neonatologists-deliver-babies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.955936 | 1,363 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Work in Progress
Work in process (WIP), work in progress (WIP), goods in process, or in-process inventory are a company's partially finished goods waiting for completion and eventual sale or the value of these items. These items are either just being fabricated or waiting for further processing in a queue or a buffer storage. The term is used in production and supply chain management.
Standing behind the king, listening, was his daughter, Ariadne. From the moment she set eyes on Theseus, Ariadne fell in love with him. As she listened to her father goading and taunting the young prince, she decided that she would help him. As he entered the labyrinth and the guards walked away, she called softly to him.
"Theseus, take this," she whispered. "Even if you kill the Minotaur, you will never find your way out again."
She threw him a great ball of string and he tied one end of it to the entrance. He smiled at her, turned and began to make his way into the maze, the string playing out behind him as he went.
Theseus and the Minotaur
Founder, CEO, director, scriptwriter
scriptwriter, media content specialist | <urn:uuid:70628f3b-07b1-40f4-a26e-7b8d2b8430e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.filrouge.si/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.967738 | 278 | 2.203125 | 2 |
||El-Kurd, Mohammed ; Monet, Aja
Each day after school, Mohammed El-Kurd's grandmother welcomed him at the door of his home with a bouquet of jasmine. Her name was Rifqa--she was older than Israel itself and an icon of Palestinian resilience.
With razor-sharp wit and glistening moral clarity, El-Kurd lays bare the brutality of Israeli settler colonialism. His poems trace Rifqa's exile from Haifa to his family's current dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, exposing the cyclical and relentless horror of the Nakba.
El-Kurd's debut collection definitively shows that the Palestinian struggle is a revolution, until victory. | <urn:uuid:ccff7040-e4f0-46ef-a381-2456a27507f9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://massivebookshop.com/products/9781642595864 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.915995 | 204 | 1.757813 | 2 |
In today’s world a country like Iraq or North Korea with 1.2 million soldiers is one of the worlds top 5 sized armies. How big were the armies of Germany, the USSR, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, etc?
Before the third Reich the German “Reichswehr” was limited to 100 000 in the army plus 15 000 in the navy which was tiny by the standards of the time.
In 1935 the draft was reinstituted and the army was renamed to “Wehrmacht”. By 1936 a number of 550 000 was reached. In 1939 the Wehrmacht consisted of 2.75 million men. Note that Germany decided start the war at this point, so that number was probably considered about adequate.
The total number of soldiers drafted through 1945 was 17 million, 4.7 of those fell.
This does not count SS units, “Volkssturm” pseudo-volunteer militias, troops of other axis countries etc.
I believe that the Soviet Army was the largest army in WWII:
I don’t know about the rest of them but the US had a total of about 15 million in all services.
The Oxford Companion to World War II lists strength of armed forces (all services) in 1944 as:
UK – 5 million
USA – 14.8 million
USSR – 11.2 million
Germany – 9.1 million
Japan – 5.3 million
1945 isn’t listed, and this is the peak year for all nations except for Germany, which peaked at 9.5 million in 1943.
To give a little perspective lookhere . This lists the amount of divisions in the American Army right before and during WWII. There are now 10 active divisions. A division is about 10 to 12000 men. Dissonence gave you the total ammount, this gives you an idea of the combat strength. | <urn:uuid:8ad2c0ef-ec36-4874-9281-b1edd393e473> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-soldiers-did-each-ot-the-major-combatants-in-world-war-two-have/237738 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.957693 | 407 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Cite this article: Li, Z., Ji, Y., Ma, H., Zhao, P., Zeng, X., Liu, S., Jiang, Y., Wang, L., Liu, A., Gao, H., Liu, F. and Mwangi, J.K. (2017). Characterization of Inorganic Elements within PM2.5 and PM10 Fractions of Fly Ashes from Coal-Fired Power Plants.
Aerosol Air Qual. Res.
17: 1105-1116. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2017.02.0071
Inorganic elements were analyzed within PM2.5 and PM10 for power plant fly ashes.
Contamination levels for 13 heavy metals were determined based on Igeo values.
Element profiles between any two power plants were similar for PM2.5 or PM10.
Relative enrichment factors for most elements were found to be lower than 1.30.
In this study 15 fly ash samples were collected from 15 large-scale coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in China. The samples were then re-suspended through PM2.5 and PM10 inlets and analyzed for the contents of 39 inorganic elements (IEs) using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The results show that the particle size distributions for the 15 FAs samples exhibited bimodal patterns. The Ʃ39IEs (g g–1) for the PM2.5 (0.292–0.564) in all the 15 CFPPs were higher than that of PM10 (0.269–0.403). Except for Cu, all the other 38 IEs were more enriched in the PM2.5 with the PM2.5/PM10 ratios being 1.06–1.73. Considering 13 heavy metals, the same orders occurred between PM2.5 and PM10 with Al >> Cr > Zn > Mn > Cu > V > Pb > Sn > Co > As > Sb > Tl > Cd. More attention should be paid to the high contents of Cr in both PM2.5 (1310 mg g–1) and for PM10 (1240 mg g–1) from all 15 CFPPs. 23 IEs for PM10 and 26 IEs for PM2.5 had the geo-accumulation index (Igeo) values higher than 0, indicating different pollution levels for them. On the other hand, there was moderate to extreme levels of pollution for Cr, Zn, Cu, Pb, Sn, Sb, Tl, Cd and Al based on Igeo values. The element profiles for PM2.5 or PM10 from 15 CFPPs were similar based on low coefficients of divergence for PM2.5 (0.254 ± 0.038) and PM10 (0.244 ± 0.054) according to the comparison between any two CFPPs. Most elements with low relative enrichment factors (REF) as less than 0.70 or 0.70–1.30 indicated no or weak condensation occurred for them during coal combustion, while Cr, Cu, Zn, Sn, W and Pb had REF values higher than 1.30 indicated that significant condensation occurred for these elements.
Keywords: Inorganic elements; Fly ash; PM2.5; PM10; Coal-fired power plant | <urn:uuid:b80d1ef8-6e2c-4db6-ae16-3501624bf247> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-17-02-oa-0071?tmpl=component&print=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.924848 | 751 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Product pointers: We’ve seen of many labels and you may businesses use identification assessment for this – once they reply to your issues, you could strongly recommend the product(s) you to definitely best matches their demands. This quiz particular works particularly well when you give for every single associate a targeted dismiss (“Save yourself 25% on the device X”) with this call to action keys.
Therapists: Much more about counsellors is swinging their techniques on the internet, and utilizing character testing locate their prospective clients. Tests like “Will you be very struggling with stress?” otherwise “What makes my spouse driving myself crazy?” are great on catching mans interest.
Never test taker would-be a consumer – smart therapists fool around with identification assessment to help you filter people who usually do not you need its features , and only upload follow-up characters towards top fits.
Community or life educators: This really is a comparable play with instance – instructors will passion identification testing one talk about each customer’s field and you may lives requirements. They are able to focus on the better matches – and explore its identity sample answers to aid its 1st services otherwise training.
Fitness analysis: Various other well-known option, identity testing are ideal for health-related concerns – they could really works just like a symptom examiner (age.g. “In the morning I disheartened?” or “Exactly how fit am I… extremely?”.
Fitness quizzes are a good example where it is okay to ignore all of our ‘6-10 question’ greatest habit. People who engage the quiz was keenly interested in order to find their health influence – in order to ask up to twenty-five-35 concerns with no miss-off during the end cost.
Pop culture / entertainment: Changing methods a little while, never ever undervalue the efficacy of an identity take to to own light, enjoyable amusement. This is the way Buzzfeed produced their draw asking things like “What Relatives character are you presently?”.
Politics: Furthermore personal than just your governmental values? We’ve got seen an abundance of governmental functions and you will development groups control character assessment up to have fun with circumstances instance “Whom if you vote for?” otherwise “Just what people very fits your own viewpoints?”
Education/colleges: Several other interesting straight, identity evaluating features aided universities publication and evaluate its people. Eg, Aston College or university utilized its ‘Exactly what master’s path suits you?’ quiz to point the proper system geared to each test taker’s private passions.
Exams make inquiries having right otherwise incorrect solutions – and give for each and every member a rating for how better it performed.
We love how income individuals from the United kingdom College or university off English use their “Just what English peak are you?
Naturally, there are some methods get this idea – let us plunge for the a few of the most prominent versions and rehearse cases.
Trivia or IQ test: The fresh vintage ‘how much cash did you know?’ quiz, these exams are used for almost any subject, and have multiple-choice and you will free text admission questions (tend to with a quiz timer). You can examine such aside with this tests ‘Are you presently very cyber-safe?’ (We fcn chat.T.) and you may ‘San francisco bay area: are you currently a community or customers?’ (tourism).
True/incorrect quiz: This might be a virtually relative toward trivia contest, however with simply a couple of respond to options (your suppose they – true/false). The fresh new convenience of the theory try irresistible so you can pages – and gives alone to help you quick-flame exams, with additional (however, faster) inquiries.
You could ask a few questions to evaluate the fresh new owner’s education and feature him or her ideal address need. Up coming blog post-quiz, you could posting follow-up texts according to the top.
” quiz once the a top out of utilize direct magnetic – to evaluate possible people and you can publication them to best way.
Purchase it quiz: Sometimes, we want to complications your audience which have succession-particular inquiries. It can be something like ‘Arrange the brand new Superstar Battles video because of the discharge date’ or ‘What are the strategies to possess CPR?’ (clear airway > tilt head > then offer breaths). | <urn:uuid:4edc6b6f-014d-4658-8771-4f243af788ea> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.estherbarrera.com/assessment-group-test-coaches-like-playing-with/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573193.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818094131-20220818124131-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.941466 | 959 | 1.796875 | 2 |
This, from The Guardian: We are offered five “unshakeable truths” in science that can be dismissed on the basis of “unexpected findings” (= evidence, as opposed to materialist propaganda):
1 Lifestyle can change genes We have come to think that if something is “in our genes”, it is our inevitable destiny. However, this is a gross oversimplification.
Yes. Let us pause to remember all the competent biologists who have been ridiculed and harassed by Darwin’s followers for insisting on following evidence in this matter. It was never an unshakable truth. Like everything else on this list it was a materialist “need to believe,” in this case because it propped up Darwinian evolution as the sole or main source of innovation in life forms. (Yes, Darwin’s followers really do believe that.)
2 | The mind can affect the body
It is hard to believe anyone could doubt this; surely, no one should be permitted to practise medicine who does. What we feel is happening to us is a part of what is happening to us. That is simply part of what it means to be a conscious being and requires no further explanation.
Research carried out on 4,000 people over a 12-year period showed that a man whose wife has just died had a 25% higher chance of dying in those 12 years. The bereaved reported heart and circulatory problems twice as often as people in the control group.
But of course. Many old men are kept alive by their old wives. E.g. (and this is so common where I live), he would not follow a prescribed diet or take his meds or attend his physician, except that she makes him do it.
Then she dies, and afterward he just sits there until professional caregivers intervene. But, however competent, they are not by nature as devoted as she. That old fellow is not their life, just their job. And in any event, some time may have elapsed before they become involved, so some irreversible damage may be done.
Again, anyone who cannot accept such facts as part of the normal course of events in human life is perhaps not best suited to medical research. So once again, I am mystified that “science” would find any of this surprising. Maybe this stuff is part of why we need to replace materialist “science” with actual science.
3 Quantum effects exist in biology …There are also hints that smell is a quantum sense. Our noses appear to work by sensing the natural vibration frequencies of the bonds between atoms in molecules. Those frequencies determine whether a smell receptor is switched on and sends a signal to the brain. The best explanation for experimental observations involves an electron using a phenomenon known as quantum uncertainty to tunnel through a seemingly impenetrable barrier. … We don’t know what other quantum feats nature performs, but the fact that these things happen in the warm, wet world of biological material suggests that we are missing a trick.
Indeed we are.
So far, our writer was mainly demonstrating where materialism conflicts with nature. Then it starts to get a bit silly. It must get silly at this point, by the way, because few science writers today are prepared to just lose the pom poms and start asking serious questions. So next we read:
4 The universe is a computer (and we are the programmers) According to Lloyd’s calculations, a kilogram of matter can perform around a million billion billion billion billion billion operations every second. That processing power is applied to about 10 thousand billion billion billion bits of information. Since time began, Lloyd has calculated, the universe has performed around 10 to the power of 122 operations on 10 to the power of 92 binary digits. What are those operations? We see them as chemistry and physics, as the processes of life and the mechanisms of thought.
And why should we believe this?
One of the sacred laws of physics is that information can’t be destroyed. That’s a problem when you consider the information contained in things that fall into black holes – unless it remains at the event horizon, which is the spherical “point of no return” surrounding a black hole. That means all the information about what’s inside the black hole is held at its edge. If that’s true for black holes, it’s probably true for the universe as a whole. And that means we are effectively the “holographic projection” of the information held on the spherical shell of the universe.
So a problem with black holes (which is under dispute) leads to all this empty speculation about what a kilogram of matter (a brick?) can do all on its own besides just sit there.
Best of all, of course is
5 Human beings are nothing special … We have been taught to think of ourselves as the pinnacle of creation, but that pinnacle is getting rather crowded. In many cases, crows and chimps can use tools – and sometimes abstract reasoning – better than humans. If it’s culture that makes you feel superior, visit the Tanzanian Gombe chimps, Canadian killer whale communities or Australian dolphins: they all show distinct cultural practices in the way they relate with one another, hunt or sing. Animals show personality and morality – elephants can be empathetic or insensitive, rats can be lovers of fair play, spiders can be bold or spineless, chipmunks can be extrovert or shy. Cockroaches have feelings, too, it turns out.
So where are the books these life forms have written, the spacecraft they have built?
On the face of it, the deduction drawn from these claims is so idiotic that it prompts the thought that materialism actually disables the mind. Apparently, orders of magnitude disappear in the face of the idee fixe.
Even the hard facts are letting us down: at the moment, researchers know of only a handful of genes unique to humans; it’s thought that, when the count is finished and the numbers are totted up, fewer than 20 of our 20,000 genes will be exclusively human.
Well, either those genes are pretty significant or else genetics isn’t all its cracked up to be. Again, this isn’t an especially difficult idea to grasp, unless one of the pom poms got lodged in the cranium … perhaps a more significant risk than we have supposed.
To hear some “unshakeable truths” actually getting shook, see
The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (cosmology).
The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (origin of life)
The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (human evolution)
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A Street of Dreams
Special | 58m 1s | Video has closed captioning.
From 1994. Throughout its history, Omaha's near north side has been the neighborhood that succeeding generations of immigrants have moved into and moved out of eventually, until protective real estate practices forced blacks to stay. The history of the community includes lynching,riots and discrimination. It also includes a vibrant community with jazz, and shops, and entrepreneurs.
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning | <urn:uuid:cc3c9735-46fd-4920-bc69-a827bf20e034> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://video.nebraskapublicmedia.org/video/net-nebraska-presents-street-dreams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.972957 | 106 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Table of Contents
Luminous Switch Audio Video Console Button Switch With Light LED Tact Switch 5A
The light color of the Luminous switch can be customized, and different lights can meet different usage scenarios.
The luminous switch is a kind of weak current electronic switch used under safe voltage (36V). The principle of use of the product is: lightly tap the switch button to turn on the switch, and the switch will turn off when the hand is released. The structure is switched on and off by the force of the metal shrapnel.
The luminous switch has been widely used in household appliances such as audio-visual products, digital products, remote controls, communication products, household appliances, etc., due to its low contact resistance, clear hand feeling when pressed, and complete height specifications. Security products, toys, computer products, fitness equipment, medical equipment, money detector pens, audio equipment, laser pen buttons, etc.
But the light touch switch also has its shortcomings. Frequent pressing will cause the metal shrapnel to fatigue and lose its elasticity and fail. Therefore, the buttons of most electrical appliances are directly replaced by conductive rubber or metal shrapnel for pot switches, such as computer keyboards and remote controls.
Luminous switch connection characteristics
Luminous switch low-voltage rectifier and filter circuit: The pulsating voltage after the high-frequency transformer step-down also needs to be rectified and filtered by diodes and capacitors, and the capacitor used in the rectifier part must not have too much AC impedance, otherwise it cannot be filtered out, Therefore, the selected capacitor should not only have a large capacity but also have a lower AC resistance. In addition, you can also see one or two large inductance coils with magnetic cores, which are filtered out together with the filter capacitor. The high-frequency AC component ensures the output of pure DC power. Press the shrapnel to connect the printed circuit.
How important is the selection method of Luminous switch?
A good zone light touch switch is also very important to the life of the entire product. Such as computer keyboard, remote control and so on.
If it is a low-quality light-touch switch, the metal shrapnel will lose its elasticity and become invalid after frequent pressing. Therefore, the choice of Luminous switch is very important.
The main factors affecting the quality of the waterproof tact switch are the protection, conduction reliability, life, feel, production process and installation dimensions of the waterproof tact switch.
Luminous switch power test
1. Temperature drift: The change of the ambient temperature affects the change of the parameters of the components, which causes the voltage regulator output voltage to change. The temperature coefficient is commonly used to indicate the size of the temperature drift.
2. Absolute temperature coefficient: a temperature change of 1 degree Celsius causes a change in the output voltage UoT, the unit is V/°C or millivolt per degree Celsius.
3. Relative temperature coefficient: the relative change of output voltage UoT/Uo caused by a temperature change of 1 degree Celsius, the unit is V/°C
Luminous switch, little knowledge:
Introduction to Switching Power Supply
Low-power switching power supplies are widely used in many electronic products such as measurement and control instrumentation, communication equipment, learning and entertainment, etc. with their many excellent performances.
With the increasingly prominent environmental and energy issues, people continue to increase environmental requirements for electronic products and pay more attention to the energy efficiency of electronic products. Designing pollution-free, low-power, high-efficiency green mode power supplies have become a hot spot in the research of switching power supply technology
One of the medium and small power switching power supplies uses advanced power control technologies such as transition mode active power factor correction, quasi-resonant variable power isolation conversion control, and synchronous rectification to achieve the purpose of green switching power supply design.
The basic structure of switching power supply
All things must follow the law of conservation of energy, and switching power supplies are no exception. In fact, switching power supplies are also completed by transferring energy in the form of energy.
From the energy point of view, switching power supply can be divided into DC switching power supply mode and AC switching power supply mode. DC switching power supply mode mainly outputs DC signal power, while AC switching power supply mode mainly outputs AC signal power. The DC switching power supply mode is the current mainstream model.
Control circuit and control circuit and other modules.
The AC and DC input voltage is passed through the LC filter, then the bridge rectifier and the bus electrolytic capacitor are smoothed to become a DC voltage, and then converted by the DC/DC converter, and then filtered by the diode rectifier and electrolytic capacitor to the output, in order to enable the circuit It becomes a closed-loop operation, and a control circuit is drawn at the output end, and then the amplifying circuit is transferred to the duty ratio control circuit to the DC/DC converter to form a closed loop. Duty ratio control circuit in the representation method of the duty ratio.
For this Luminous switch, if you have any other questions, please contact our email directly: firstname.lastname@example.org or log in to our website: www.indicatorlight.com | <urn:uuid:d89479f2-6848-4944-9117-6723fd380fa5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.indicatorlight.com/luminous-switch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.908037 | 1,097 | 2.375 | 2 |
Each brand has a different formulation and different dosage, so it’s important to read the label. Some can be given as early as 2 weeks old, but others require that a baby be at least one month old, Woods says.
Can a 1 week old baby have gripe water?
Gripe water is not recommended for babies younger than 1 month. The digestive tract is sensitive and still developing at this age. Most pediatricians will advise parents to try other methods of soothing a colicky baby before giving them gripe water.
Is gripe water OK for newborns?
Gripe water is considered an herbal remedy. Although many parents swear by it, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved gripe water. There is also no proof that it works to ease stomach discomfort in babies who may suffer from colic.
What can I give my 1 week old for gas?
What are the best remedies for baby gas relief?
- Burp your baby twice. A lot of newborn discomfort is caused by swallowing air during feedings. …
- Control the air. …
- Feed your baby before meltdowns. …
- Try the colic carry. …
- Offer infant gas drops. …
- Do baby bicycles. …
- Encourage tummy time. …
- Give your baby a rub-down.
How many ml of gripe water do you give a newborn?
Recommended Dose: Babies 2 Weeks to 1 Month of Age: 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml). Infants 1 to 6 Months of Age: 1 teaspoon (5 ml).
Will gripe water help my baby poop?
Gripe water for newborns and babies is thought to help relieve stomach discomfort, make it easier for babies to pass gas, possibly battle constipation and encourage bowel movements and even potentially soothe colic (or excessive crying), Woods says.
Which gripe water is best for newborns?
Is Gripe Water Safe?
- Loved by Parents. Little Remedies Gripe Water. …
- Settles Tiny Tummies. Mommy’s Bliss Gripe Water. …
- Certified Organic. Wellements Organic Gripe Water. …
- Soothes and Calms. Colic Calm Homeopathic Gripe Water. …
- All Natural. Zarbee’s Naturals Baby Gripe Water. …
- Also Consider… FridaBaby Windi Gas and Colic Reliever.
Is gripe water OK for 2 week old?
This pediatrician-recommended gripe water can be delivered orally with a syringe and is suitable for babies from 2-weeks-old to 6-months-old. There’s also no additives in this gripe water, making it a safer alternative for infant tummy troubles.
Does gripe water work immediately?
That all sounds great, but how fast does it work? Some babies will see symptoms of gas and colic ease soon after using Gripe Water, though it may take longer with some. … If your baby is not able to complete feedings due to gas & fussiness, then give Gripe Water about 30 minutes prior to feedings.
Can you give gas drops and gripe water together?
We recommend trying Little Remedies® Gas Relief Drops if your baby is just gassy and see how they respond. You may add Little Remedies® Gripe Water to the mix as well if they have hiccups and/or seem to be irritable at times.
Can I give my 1 week old gas drops?
The American Academy of Pediatrics suggest that gas drops are safe to give to newborn babies, and adverse side effects are rare. However, if a baby is also taking thyroid hormone medication, do not give them gas drops as simethicone can interact with this type of medication.
Are Little Remedies gas drops safe for newborns?
Best Overall: Little Remedies Gas Relief Drops
Little Remedies Gas Relief Drops are free from alcohol, artificial dyes, parabens, and artificial flavors. These gas drops are safe for newborns and can be given by mouth or mixed into formula with the easy-to-dispense dropper that comes with it.
When do you start tummy time?
When To Start Tummy Time With Baby
The American Academy of Pediatrics says parents can start tummy time as early as their first day home from the hospital. Start practicing tummy time 2-3 times each day for about 3-5 minutes each time, and gradually increase tummy time as baby gets stronger and more comfortable.
When is the best time to give gripe water?
When should I give gripe water to my baby? – Gripe water can be used any time your baby is experiencing discomfort from gas buildup, and the various issues associated with it. It is advised to administer gripe water 30 minutes after feeding, to give your baby time to digest their last meal.
Why is gripe water banned?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned gripe water due to the following reasons: Some formulations of gripe water consist of alcohol. Alcohol, as high as 9%, can cause developmental problems in babies. The U.S. FDA does not consider gripe water safe for children.
When do newborns get colic?
Colic is when a healthy baby cries for a very long time, for no obvious reason. It is most common during the first 6 weeks of life. It usually goes away on its own by age 3 to 4 months. Up to 1 in 4 newborn babies may have it. | <urn:uuid:1516aacd-3830-4ae8-b703-42ae22b0d565> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://health9.org/infants/question-can-i-give-my-1-week-old-gripe-water.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.932149 | 1,174 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Corporate tax rate cut may be effective in the long run, however, looks ineffective in providing immediate relief from the slowdown.
In her latest press conference, the finance minister announced a cut in the corporate tax rate to 25.17% (effective Tax Rate) to help the industry to tackle the current economic slowdown. This will have an impact on govt revenue by approx. 1.45 lac crores, whereas, the effective tax rate for newly established manufacturing companies, established on or after 1st Oct 2019 is reduced to 17.01%. This is a unique thing to happen as the direct tax rates are normally announced in the government budget.
According to industry experts, the move will be good for the overall profitability of companies. The lower tax rate for new manufacturing companies will attract foreign investors to invest in the country’s manufacturing industry and will boost make in India programme of the government.
Some experts suggest that the corporate tax rate cut may be effective in the long run, however, seems ineffective in providing immediate relief from the slowdown. The major reason current slowdown is that the consumers don’t have money to buy goods. So increasing the real purchasing power of the consumer would be a better way to deal with the current slowdown. The Tax that has a direct impact on the real purchasing power of the consumer is GST. The GST rates in India are much higher, a rate cut will make the product cheaper and affordable for consumer to buy and will help the industry to clear its already manufactured unsold inventories. | <urn:uuid:9206d244-9681-401f-b9df-7d5e728d7dd9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.khidkii.com/post/corporate-tax-rate-cut-will-it-reverse-the-slowdown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.96037 | 307 | 2.1875 | 2 |
According to About.com, IRAs are basically savings plans with lots of restrictions.
The main advantage of an IRA is that you defer paying taxes on the earnings and growth of your savings until you actually withdraw the money.
The main disadvantage is the tax law imposes stiff penalties if you withdraw the funds before you turn age 59.5 years old.
There are different types of IRAs, each with their own tax implications and eligibility requirements. And here is a little fun fact, IRA's stem from the early 1970s when NBC broadcasted a television special called “The Broken Promise,” which showed Americans the consequences of poorly funded pension plans.
In this short video, USAA Certified Financial Planner Scott Halliwell explains IRAs in further detail. | <urn:uuid:093d8811-567a-4655-aa06-3cbdcfc7faa5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://malemilspouse.com/page/macho-money-definitions-what-is-an-ira/197/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.954013 | 156 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Most doctors will want to see you within a few weeks, 8 weeks would be average, unless you are having problems and need to be seen right away. Good prenatal care is an important part of having a healthy baby. Don't wait for weeks or months to see your doctor; starting early is essential for your health and the health of your baby.
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popular pregnancy articles every | <urn:uuid:09500d37-455b-42f1-ac14-dd44bacc08ee> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://pregnancysurvey.com/pregnancy_questions_answers/question_26.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.967734 | 93 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Accessing your Third Mind
I learned not long ago that sitting alone in a room trying to think was a fool’s errand.
I think much better when my subconscious is mulling things over, when I’m in the shower and when I go for walks.
But the most powerful instance of unlocking new ideas is when I’m locked in fascinating conversations with others.
Introducing the Third Mind
This concept is inspired by the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which discusses how when two people talk, the room is taken up by three minds.
The mind of Person One.
The mind of Person Two.
And then the Third Mind – the mind that comes to exist because of the interaction of these two Persons engaged in conversation.
The whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.
Bringing two people together does not double their creative power – it squares it. This is the power of the Third Mind.
This force is so powerful because two dynamic organisms are brought together, giving each other very rich feedback, such that a Third and more powerful Mind comes to be.
Third Mind Moments I recall
The gutsy decision to shut down From the Ground Up came from a conversation between myself and Nick Abraham in Dubrovnik in 2018.
A pivot in our real estate model to try a $9,999 fee model came via a random, open-ended conversation between myself and my colleague Andrew in 2019.
These ideas are just a few examples of ideas that neither party would have arrived at on their own. The ramifications however are massive.
How many Third Mind Moments have been missed?
Now let’s invert the situation. I shudder to think at how many Third Mind Moments and breakthroughs I’ve missed by remaining insular and closed-off at many points of my journey.
This cost of inaction must be real, if not tangible or quantifiable. So we must ask ourselves today, how are we keeping the door to the Third Mind shut?
How to access the Third Mind
It is not just by bringing two or more people together in any situation and circumstance that we come to unlock a Third Mind. Rather, we need open-minded people who allow each of the voices present to express themselves safely.
If a mind is closed, it cannot open and connect with another to form the Third.
The better we get at thinking collectively rather than individually or in-competition, the greater our capacities.
The meritocracies at companies like Pixar and Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates show us the powerful instances of Third Mind Thinking.
The myth of the brilliant individual at the top of an organisational pyramid with a thousand helpers is one we have fallen into by continuing to create individual rather than team-based awards and recognition.
No individuals here.
Nobel Prizes, Academy Awards, Gold Medals, Wimbledon Crowns and Ballon d’Or go to individuals, and skim over the importance of team accomplishments and contributions.
In sport we can observe this most directly. Teams with inferior resources that work well together and are well-balanced outperform teams with stars thrown together. It is easy to defend an individual by doubling up on them or depriving them of service.
But a team with multiple threats is more difficult. Worse still, is the team who have a deep and intricate understanding of one another.
Thanks to the Netflix Documentary The Last Dance, we learnt that basketball’s greatest ever player, Michael Jordan, was taken to another level when he was pushed to ‘open doors for others’ by new incoming coach Phil Jackson in 1989, instead of being a solo-performer.
Ironically it was by creating more for others that he was able to elevate his own game than if he’d doubled down on himself.
In other words, why use Two Minds at odds when a Third is available?
Who do you think of when you read this? Would this piece open a door for them?
Remember, the best way to open a thousand doors for yourself is to open doors for others. | <urn:uuid:f96e6389-d66f-4971-895f-1513865b3d18> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://withjoewehbe.com/2020/08/31/accessing-your-third-mind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.953707 | 850 | 1.695313 | 2 |
It may be a grim Christmas for thousands of unemployed Canadians. Today’s Employment Insurance figures show that fewer workers received benefits in October, even as more became unemployed and filed EI claims.
Specifically, the number of people receiving regular benefits declined from 546,580 in September to 541,230 in October. The Labour Force Survey indicates that unemployment rose from 1,334,200 in September to 1,374,200 in October. Therefore, only 39% of unemployed Canadians got benefits (i.e. 541,230/1,374,200 = 0.39).
The situation was even worse in Ontario, which had only 159,630 beneficiaries out of 592,700 unemployed workers. In other words, scarcely more than one-quarter of unemployed Ontarians received benefits (i.e. 159,630/592,700 = 0.27).
Statistics Canada has already reported that national unemployment rose further in November, due to economic factors beyond the control of Canadian workers. The EI system’s apparent inadequacy should be a major concern. The labour movement has long proposed to help more jobless workers by improving the accessibility and duration of EI benefits.
Erin Weir is an economist with the United Steelworkers union and a CCPA research associate.
UPDATE (December 17): Quoted in The Hamilton Spectator (page T7). | <urn:uuid:98a70e8a-3e38-4a44-89ba-0bc9f73e3db1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://monitormag.ca/articles/ei-coverage-falls-below-40/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.962034 | 280 | 1.945313 | 2 |
President Obama’s second-term inauguration ceremony will take place on January 21, 2013, which is also the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic Citizens United decision. Citizens United freed corporations and unions to spend money from their treasuries directly on politics, and opened the door for the creation of super-PACs.
With that anniversary in mind, Public Citizen, the good-government group founded by Ralph Nader, is pressuring Obama to reject corporate donations to his inauguration ceremony. Public Citizen president Robert Weissman writes in a November 29 letter to Obama that the public would likely be left in the dark about which corporations gave money and states that there is a “very real risk of corruption” from letting corporations underwrite the ceremony. Weissman’s letter comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration is mulling whether to take corporate money for the inauguration. Obama banned corporate donations for his 2009 inauguration, and instead raised $50 million from hundreds of individual donors.
“The corporate donors to the inauguration will expect—and receive—something in return,” Weissman writes. “The concern is less that they get a tax break in exchange for their million-dollar donation than that they get better access—their calls returned faster, their proposals reviewed in a more favorable light.”
If the inauguration needs to rely on private donors and not just public funding this time around, Weissman says, that outside money should come in the form of small-dollar donations from individuals.
If inauguration planners do break with the precedent set by the corporate-free 2009 inauguration, it wouldn’t be the first time Democrats backtracked on this kind of issue. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee, told reporters a year before her party’s 2012 national convention that planners would not accept corporate money to put on the convention. But strapped for cash, convention planners ended up taking millions from corporations anyway, breaking their pledge.
Read Weissman’s letter to Obama urging a ban on corporate inauguration money: | <urn:uuid:205aa97e-49f3-45dc-9edb-d1bdd9d277ff> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://practice.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/obama-inauguration-corporate-money-public-citizen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.939471 | 427 | 1.570313 | 2 |
According to the results of the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s (EBRI) 2011 Health Confidence survey, 57% of individuals with employment-based coverage are extremely or very confident their employer or union would continue to offer health coverage following the enactment of the federal health reform law.
American workers are not confident that they could afford to purchase coverage on their own, even if they were given the money to do so by plan sponsors. In 2011, 20% were extremely or very confident they could afford to purchase coverage; 30% were somewhat confident and 48% were not too or not at all confident.
Statistically significant differences were found by gender and age, but not by education, income, marital status or race. When it comes to health status, persons in excellent, very good and good health or whose health improved or stayed the same were more likely than those in fair or poor health or whose health had declined to be extremely or very confident that they could afford to purchase health coverage. Those whose costs went up in 2011 were less likely than those whose costs did not increase to be confident that they could afford to purchase health coverage on their own.
The survey also found individuals rating the healthcare system highly and those rating their plan highly were more likely than others to be confident that they could afford health coverage on their own
Despite the low confidence levels regarding their ability to afford coverage, individuals reported relatively high likelihoods of purchasing coverage if it was no longer available through work. Nearly two-thirds (63%) reported they were extremely or very likely to purchase coverage on their own if it was not available through work, and another 19% were somewhat confident they would purchase coverage. Less than one in five (17%) were not too or not at all likely to purchase coverage on their own.
A prior report by EBRI also examined trends in public opinion surrounding the future of employment-based health coverage. See Public Confidence in Future of Employer-Sponsored Health Care Falls.
The full survey findings are published in the December 2011 EBRI Notes, “Variation in Public Opinion on the Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits: Findings from the 2011 Health Confidence Survey,” available at http://www.ebri.org/pdf/notespdf/EBRI.Notes.Dec11.HCS.pdf.
« Matthews Launches Asia Fixed Income Fund | <urn:uuid:0e9c1960-5178-4dd1-b6f5-f10ec6979841> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.plansponsor.com/majority-of-employees-confident-employers-will-continue-healthcare-coverage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.98832 | 482 | 1.578125 | 2 |
A noiseless, undetectable, battery powered weapon capable of neutralizing hundreds of enemies without killing them? Meet the dazzler.
The idea of blinding enemies has always been around. Searchlights were even used to dazzle bombers during WWII. The idea isnâ??t new, but the military weapon that came out of it is. A laser powered dazzler was reportedly first used in combat by the British during the Falklands War of 1982. The dazzlers were mounted on Royal Navy warships to dazzle Argentinian air attacks. The United States has also used dazzlers against Iraqi insurgents in the massacre of Kurdish civilians at Chamchamal.
Weapons that can cause permanent blindness have been banned by the United Nations on 13 October 1995. As long as the dazzler at hand is not designed to cause irreversible and uncontrollable loss of vision it is allowed to be used in the combat field. The thinking behind this is that permanently blinding enemeies is inhuman.
How Do Dazzlers Work?
Have you ever stared into the sun or a light bulb? If so youâ??ve probably experienced something call an afterimage. Focusing on something in front of you is hard when the afterimage is still burned into your retina.
The dazzler works the same way. By using a specific green laser at a specific wavelength (532nm) and megahertz (4-12Hz), a dazzler can effectively burn an afterimage into your eyes. The directed light hits your entire retina and thus the effect is across your whole vision. Your vision does come back after a while, but some adverse effects may also be experienced. Nausea, dizziness, headaches, eye pain, and vomiting are all common symptoms of being dazzled.
Dazzling gives the military a non-lethal alternative to neutralizing enemies or slowing down unknown motorists. Dazzlers are often used at stop points or on convoys to slow down any suspicious incoming vehicles. The idea behind using dazzlers at stop points is that you donâ??t have to yell at the incoming vehicle to slow down, or translate your message, etc. Being flashed with a dazzler is the universal language for “slow down, we mean business.”
Dazzlers arenâ??t always the safest most reliable weapons. From 2008 to 2009 there have been 45 documented injuries to soldiers resulting from mistakes when using dazzlers. A few years ago a soldier accidently shot himself in the eye through a rearview mirror when trying to aim at an oncoming vehicle. The laser had traveled less than 6 meters when it him in the center of his right eye causing permanent damage. Dazzlers are now being designed with safety features in mind that reduce the power of the laser when the target is too close. Laser training requirements are also being raised to prevent further accidents from happening again.
Buy a Dazzler
If you have enough money or interest in buying a dazzler, you can! The Spider 3 Krpyton is 8,000 times brighter than looking directly at the sun. The range of the Spider 3 is 85 miles! You could probably signal down a commercial airplane with this thing! Wicked lasers, the company who created this awesome gadgets even claims:
‘If the laser was held using a highly stabilized mount (which we do not sell) and precisely in line with a satellite, the astronaut should be able to see a faint green hue,’ says Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers. ‘This kind of experiment would require explicit permission from that government’s space agency.’
While this guarantee may be real, it is a little unrealistic. On the other hand there have been many accounts of people using dazzlers to blind helicopter pilots.
On September 2009 a 25 year old man was acquitted of intentionally endangering a helicopter by trying to dazzle the pilot. His plea of guilt was:
‘I wasn’t trying to dazzle the pilot. I definitely didn’t mean to cause any hassle. I apologise for wasting police time’
Make your own
If you canâ??t afford buying a dazzler you can also make your own for under $250. Although it isnâ??t going to measure up to more expensive lasers, it can cause all the symptoms intended such as flashblindness, dizziness, and vomiting. The bedazzler is made up of flashing LEDs, and not actually lasers. Naturally its range would be limited, and will not reach 85 miles as the Kryton can!
After looking around at many dazzlers, a recurring thought kept coming back to me. Would a military grade dazzler or homemade bedazzler save you from a bear attack? Could it save you from a pack of deadly wolves and lions? If so I would honestly get my hands on one of these things the next time I go on a safari!
Article written by Octavian Ristea. (He has actually never gone on a safari…) | <urn:uuid:8deb77a4-f341-450d-a954-c41a80fb68b3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://appcomrade.com/dark-tech-laser-blinding-weapons/?replytocom=4403 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.95575 | 1,023 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Reentry Court Practitioners have available to them an eleven part education series that enhance their ability to implement evidence based practices in their courts. The Center for Effective Public Policy and its partners, The Urban Institute and The Carey Group, developed this free educational program now available to criminal justice professionals and their partners interested in enhancing their implementation strategies.
Too often, practitioners have been encouraged to use research based strategies such as “Evidence Based Practices”, but find the can only access highly conceptual education materials, that provide little guidance for implementation in the real world. On the other hand, each of the eleven Coaching Packets provided in this series, provides an overview of a key topic related to successful offender reentry, concrete strategies and key steps for enhancing practice in this area, and a “self assessment tool” that jurisdictions can use to evaluate their strengths and challenges in the particular topic area discussed. The packets are organized in three series:
- Series 1 provides a blueprint for an effective offender reentry system;
- Series 2 addresses key issues related to the delivery of evidence-based services to offenders; and
- Series 3 provides guidance and tools to ensure that reentry efforts achieve their intended outcomes.
Though not specifically designed for Reentry Courts, I would encourage Reentry Court Practitioners to investigate this important educational series (especially the “Implementing Evidence Based Practices Packet”), and decide for yourselves. | <urn:uuid:42878c8e-190f-46b2-ae78-a6824e252a2d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.reentrycourtsolutions.com/tag/carey-group/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.936584 | 295 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A short film campaign on women entrepreneurship in India was started on August 18 as part of Indo-German development cooperation project on women entrepreneurship in India called Her&Now.
Together with the local partner ‘Dhriiti – The Courage Within’ and other entrepreneurship stakeholders from the Northeast, the online event on August 18 marked the official start of the Her&Now film campaign in the Northeast, through which the project wants to initiate a positive debate around women entrepreneurship.
Deputy head of economic cooperation and development division at the German Embassy in New Delhi, Dirk Steffes-Enn, gave an introducing keynote on the occasion.
The live discussion focussed on two of the films: ‘Ritu Goes Online’ a documentary directed by Vrinda Samartha (Believe Films) and an animation film ‘Pahal – An Initiative’ directed by Swarup Deb, Anuj Kumar and Avinash Medhe (Girgit Studios). The filmmakers were joined by the ‘Pahal’ voice actor Dipannita Sharma-Atwal.
“Through this film, I hope the society sees value in the kind of financial benefits and change in mindset women entrepreneurs can bring in. I also hope it inspires more families to come forward to support them”, said Vrinda Samartha.
Her documentary ‘Ritu Goes Online’ depicts the inspiring story of how Ritu Kaushik, a homemaker with no background in business, nor a complete education, runs a very successful handbag business today. The protagonist herself hopes that through this film “more and more women get the opportunity to realize their potential so that they can give wings to their dreams.”
Cleverly applying different animation styles, the short film ‘Pahal – An Initiative’ tells the stories of three women entrepreneurs. Despite being from very diverse backgrounds, they find a connection with each other while waiting for a venture funding event to begin. “Our hope for the film is to bring about a mindset change within the families to become the nourishing soil to help more and more women entrepreneurs to flourish. Also, to motivate women to break boundaries and find ways to unleash their entrepreneurial potential,” said directors Swarup Deb, Anuj Kumar and Avinash Medhe.
Dipannita Sharma-Atwal led her voice to the character Mridu, a young and ambitious entrepreneur from Assam. For the actor, originally from Assam herself, the films stand for women supporting each other: “The importance of women empowerment as a global topic is at the heart of this film. That, as women we can inspire and encourage each other to achieve seemingly impossible goals.”
The other two short films – ‘B Selvi & Daughters’ a fiction film directed by Drishya Gautham (Stray Factory) and ‘Kashmakash – The Dilemma’, a fiction film directed by Manav Rath (Eleeanora Images)– were also shared with the audience as an exclusive preview.
They are in the focus of the two other online Her&Now film premieres for selected guests this month.
“Film is a powerful medium that reflects and shapes dominant societal discourses and perceptions about gender norms. Through the Her&Now film campaign we want to increase the visibility of the entrepreneurial spirit of women in India. We hope the short films and the discussions around them will contribute to a mindset change that recognizes women’s ambitions, skills and rights to be entrepreneurs,” said Julia Karst, Project Head of Her&Now.
While physical screenings were not possible due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the moment, the project will provide digital options to watch the short films over the next months and will establish local screenings partnerships.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to promote aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India. Under the name of ‘Her&Now’, the project supports the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) in improving the overall framework conditions for women-led businesses through implementation of incubation and acceleration support programmes for women entrepreneurs. The project also includes a media campaign to tell the stories of successful women entrepreneurs and to foster a positive mindset change in society. | <urn:uuid:db5bbc12-0b70-427c-9447-702b739036a6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://thenewsmill.com/hernow-film-campaign-depict-realities-of-women-entrepreneurship-in-india/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.92977 | 942 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Environmental activists argue the monarch butterfly needs protection. Could a new state plan help?
For years, people flocked to California's central coast from October to February to observe thousands of monarch butterflies.
Recently, California State Parks released a draft of its 900-page Public Works Plan. The plan could affect Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area and Pismo State Beach in a myriad of ways if accepted, especially when it comes to the Monarch Butterfly Grove.
Before last year, the Pismo Beach butterfly grove was one of only five sites in California that saw over 10,000 butterflies yearly, as they sought shelter from northern winters, according to the Conference & Visitors Bureau of Pismo Beach.
The Pismo Beach colony is one of the largest in the nation and is run by state parks. In 1990, there were more than 230,000 monarchs counted.
However, the total number of monarchs reported has been on the decline since 2016.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation held its annual count across hundreds of sites from Nov. 14 to Dec. 6. Volunteers counted a total of 1,914 monarchs, a 99.9% decline since the 1980s.
“Iconic and beloved monarch overwintering sites like Pismo Beach and Natural Bridges reported only a few hundred monarchs during the count,” the Xerces Society wrote in a Jan. 19 blog post. “More startling, Pacific Grove, which goes by the name 'Butterfly Town, USA' because of its overwintering sites, had no monarchs at all.”
The California State Parks plan could offer some hope.
The ecological improvements park officials plan to implement include: relocating the northern pedestrian entrance and replacing it with a native vegetation buffer, planting new eucalyptus trees to replace those deteriorating from fungal disease, and enhancing the native plant garden to provide additional nectar for the butterflies.
Written in the plan are a number of visitor amenity improvements such as a new accessible pedestrian entrance and footpath, enhancing the bike trails to the grove, and developing a visitor drop-off/loading zone in front of the new grove entrance.
Unfortunately, the concern about the decreasing number of butterflies is not the first time in recent months that the Xerces Society shared what it feels is distressing news regarding the monarch butterflies and other insects.
In November, the Superior Court of Sacramento County decided that the State of California does not have the legal authority to protect insects under the California Endangered Species Act.
“About 80% of the world’s animals are insects. If this ruling stands, the California Endangered Species Act will effectively exclude a huge proportion of animal diversity from a law that was enacted to broadly protect the state’s wildlife,” the Xerces Society wrote. “Pollinators, among other insects, are essential to life on this planet, and should be conserved in their own right—but also for the services that they provide.”
On Feb. 4, multiple elected officials, including Congressman Jimmy Panetta, who represents most of the Central Coast region, wrote a letter urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director Martha Williams to dedicate resources to pollinator conservation and habitat restoration.
“One of America’s most iconic pollinators, the monarch butterfly has been trending toward extinction,” the joint letter stated. “This essential pollinator faces growing threats from the loss of milkweed and habitat, global climate change, and disease.”
It’s ultimately up to the California Coastal Commission to approve the plan.
Currently, the state agency is accepting feedback on the plan, which can be read here, until March 2 at 5 p.m.
You can send in written comments by mail to California State Parks Strategic Planning and Recreation Services Division, located at 1725 23rd St, Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95816, or by email at email@example.com.
While Pismo’s colony is among the largest, there are multiple sites throughout California. Some colonies include:
- Pacific Grove Monarch Grove Sanctuary
- Ventura, Camino Real Park
- Morro Bay State Park, Campsite #116
- Santa Cruz, Natural Bridges State Beach
Angelica Cabral is a journalist and podcaster for The Californian covering a wide variety of topics from movies filmed in Monterey County to how much political candidates have fundraised. Have a tip for an interesting story? Email her at firstname.lastname@example.org. You can also follow her on Twitter @avcabral97 | <urn:uuid:2eb7bd6d-f035-4620-8bc8-f0a648c18224> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/2021/02/16/monarch-butterflies-california-continue-decline-numbers/6758657002/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.93224 | 969 | 3.078125 | 3 |
The query optimizer uses statistics to create query plans that improve query performance. For most queries, the query optimizer already generates the necessary statistics for a high quality query plan; in a few cases, you need to create additional statistics or modify the query design for best results. This topic discusses statistics concepts and provides guidelines for using query optimization statistics effectively.
In This Topic
Components and Concepts
When to Create Statistics
When to Update Statistics
Queries that Use Statistics Effectively
Components and Concepts
Statistics for query optimization are objects that contain statistical information about the distribution of values in one or more columns of a table or indexed view. The query optimizer uses these statistics to estimate the cardinality, or number of rows, in the query result. These cardinality estimates enable the query optimizer to create a high-quality query plan. For example, the query optimizer could use cardinality estimates to choose the index seek operator instead of the more resource-intensive index scan operator, and in doing so improve query performance.
Each statistics object is created on a list of one or more table columns and includes a histogram displaying the distribution of values in the first column. Statistics objects on multiple columns also store statistical information about the correlation of values among the columns. These correlation statistics, or densities, are derived from the number of distinct rows of column values. For more information about statistics objects, see DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS (Transact-SQL).
Filtered statistics can improve query performance for queries that select from well-defined subsets of data. Filtered statistics use a filter predicate to select the subset of data that is included in the statistics. Well-designed filtered statistics can improve the query execution plan compared with full-table statistics. For more information about the filter predicate, see CREATE STATISTICS (Transact-SQL). For more information about when to create filtered statistics, see the When to Create Statistics section in this topic. For a case study, see the blog entry, Using Filtered Statistics with Partitioned Tables, on the SQLCAT Web site.
There are three options that you can set that affect when and how statistics are created and updated. These options are set at the database level only.
When the automatic create statistics option, AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS, is on, the query optimizer creates statistics on individual columns in the query predicate, as necessary, to improve cardinality estimates for the query plan. These single-column statistics are created on columns that do not already have a histogram in an existing statistics object. The AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS option does not determine whether statistics get created for indexes. This option also does not generate filtered statistics. It applies strictly to single-column statistics for the full table.
When the query optimizer creates statistics as a result of using the AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS option, the statistics name starts with _WA. You can use the following query to determine if the query optimizer has created statistics for a query predicate column.
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(s.object_id) AS object_name, COL_NAME(sc.object_id, sc.column_id) AS column_name, s.name AS statistics_name FROM sys.stats AS s JOIN sys.stats_columns AS sc ON s.stats_id = sc.stats_id AND s.object_id = sc.object_id WHERE s.name like '_WA%' ORDER BY s.name;
When the automatic update statistics option, AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS, is on, the query optimizer determines when statistics might be out-of-date and then updates them when they are used by a query. Statistics become out-of-date after insert, update, delete, or merge operations change the data distribution in the table or indexed view. The query optimizer determines when statistics might be out-of-date by counting the number of data modifications since the last statistics update and comparing the number of modifications to a threshold. The threshold is based on the number of rows in the table or indexed view.
The query optimizer checks for out-of-date statistics before compiling a query and before executing a cached query plan. Before compiling a query, the query optimizer uses the columns, tables, and indexed views in the query predicate to determine which statistics might be out-of-date. Before executing a cached query plan, the Database Engine verifies that the query plan references up-to-date statistics.
The AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS option applies to statistics objects created for indexes, single-columns in query predicates, and statistics created with the CREATE STATISTICS statement. This option also applies to filtered statistics.
The asynchronous statistics update option, AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC, determines whether the query optimizer uses synchronous or asynchronous statistics updates. By default, the asynchronous statistics update option is off, and the query optimizer updates statistics synchronously. The AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC option applies to statistics objects created for indexes, single columns in query predicates, and statistics created with the CREATE STATISTICS statement.
Statistics updates can be either synchronous (the default) or asynchronous. With synchronous statistics updates, queries always compile and execute with up-to-date statistics; When statistics are out-of-date, the query optimizer waits for updated statistics before compiling and executing the query. With asynchronous statistics updates, queries compile with existing statistics even if the existing statistics are out-of-date; The query optimizer could choose a suboptimal query plan if statistics are out-of-date when the query compiles. Queries that compile after the asynchronous updates have completed will benefit from using the updated statistics.
Consider using synchronous statistics when you perform operations that change the distribution of data, such as truncating a table or performing a bulk update of a large percentage of the rows. If you do not update the statistics after completing the operation, using synchronous statistics will ensure statistics are up-to-date before executing queries on the changed data.
Consider using asynchronous statistics to achieve more predictable query response times for the following scenarios:
Your application frequently executes the same query, similar queries, or similar cached query plans. Your query response times might be more predictable with asynchronous statistics updates than with synchronous statistics updates because the query optimizer can execute incoming queries without waiting for up-to-date statistics. This avoids delaying some queries and not others.
Your application has experienced client request time outs caused by one or more queries waiting for updated statistics. In some cases, waiting for synchronous statistics could cause applications with aggressive time outs to fail.
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When to Create Statistics
The query optimizer already creates statistics in the following ways:
The query optimizer creates statistics for indexes on tables or views when the index is created. These statistics are created on the key columns of the index. If the index is a filtered index, the query optimizer creates filtered statistics on the same subset of rows specified for the filtered index. For more information about filtered indexes, see Create Filtered Indexes and CREATE INDEX (Transact-SQL).
The query optimizer creates statistics for single columns in query predicates when AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS is on.
For most queries, these two methods for creating statistics ensure a high-quality query plan; in a few cases, you can improve query plans by creating additional statistics with the CREATE STATISTICS statement. These additional statistics can capture statistical correlations that the query optimizer does not account for when it creates statistics for indexes or single columns. Your application might have additional statistical correlations in the table data that, if calculated into a statistics object, could enable the query optimizer to improve query plans. For example, filtered statistics on a subset of data rows or multicolumn statistics on query predicate columns might improve the query plan.
When creating statistics with the CREATE STATISTICS statement, we recommend keeping the AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS option on so that the query optimizer continues to routinely create single-column statistics for query predicate columns. For more information about query predicates, see Search Condition (Transact-SQL).
Consider creating statistics with the CREATE STATISTICS statement when any of the following applies:
The Database Engine Tuning Advisor suggests creating statistics.
The query predicate contains multiple correlated columns that are not already in the same index.
The query selects from a subset of data.
The query has missing statistics.
Query Predicate Contains Multiple Correlated Columns
When a query predicate contains multiple columns that have cross-column relationships and dependencies, statistics on the multiple columns might improve the query plan. Statistics on multiple columns contain cross-column correlation statistics, called densities, that are not available in single-column statistics. Densities can improve cardinality estimates when query results depend on data relationships among multiple columns.
If the columns are already in the same index, the multicolumn statistics object already exists and it is not necessary to create it manually. If the columns are not already in the same index, you can create multicolumn statistics by creating an index on the columns or by using the CREATE STATISTICS statement. It requires more system resources to maintain an index than a statistics object. If the application does not require the multicolumn index, you can economize on system resources by creating the statistics object without creating the index.
When creating multicolumn statistics, the order of the columns in the statistics object definition affects the effectiveness of densities for making cardinality estimates. The statistics object stores densities for each prefix of key columns in the statistics object definition. For more information about densities, see DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS (Transact-SQL).
To create densities that are useful for cardinality estimates, the columns in the query predicate must match one of the prefixes of columns in the statistics object definition. For example, the following creates a multicolumn statistics object on the columns LastName, MiddleName, and FirstName.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.stats WHERE name = 'LastFirst' AND object_ID = OBJECT_ID ('Person.Person')) DROP STATISTICS Person.Person.LastFirst; GO CREATE STATISTICS LastFirst ON Person.Person (LastName, MiddleName, FirstName); GO
In this example, the statistics object LastFirst has densities for the following column prefixes: (LastName), (LastName, MiddleName), and (LastName, MiddleName, FirstName). The density is not available for (LastName, FirstName). If the query uses LastName and FirstName without using MiddleName, the density is not available for cardinality estimates.
Query Selects from a Subset of Data
When the query optimizer creates statistics for single columns and indexes, it creates the statistics for the values in all rows. When queries select from a subset of rows, and that subset of rows has a unique data distribution, filtered statistics can improve query plans. You can create filtered statistics by using the CREATE STATISTICS statement with the WHERE clause to define the filter predicate expression.
For example, using AdventureWorks2012, each product in the Production.Product table belongs to one of four categories in the Production.ProductCategory table: Bikes, Components, Clothing, and Accessories. Each of the categories has a different data distribution for weight: bike weights range from 13.77 to 30.0, component weights range from 2.12 to 1050.00 with some NULL values, clothing weights are all NULL, and accessory weights are also NULL.
Using Bikes as an example, filtered statistics on all bike weights will provide more accurate statistics to the query optimizer and can improve the query plan quality compared with full-table statistics or nonexistent statistics on the Weight column. The bike weight column is a good candidate for filtered statistics but not necessarily a good candidate for a filtered index if the number of weight lookups is relatively small. The performance gain for lookups that a filtered index provides might not outweigh the additional maintenance and storage cost for adding a filtered index to the database.
The following statement creates the BikeWeights filtered statistics on all of the subcategories for Bikes. The filtered predicate expression defines bikes by enumerating all of the bike subcategories with the comparison Production.ProductSubcategoryID IN (1,2,3). The predicate cannot use the Bikes category name because it is stored in the Production.ProductCategory table, and all columns in the filter expression must be in the same table.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO IF EXISTS ( SELECT name FROM sys.stats WHERE name = 'BikeWeights' AND object_ID = OBJECT_ID ('Production.Product')) DROP STATISTICS Production.Product.BikeWeights; GO CREATE STATISTICS BikeWeights ON Production.Product (Weight) WHERE ProductSubcategoryID IN (1,2,3); GO
The query optimizer can use the BikeWeights filtered statistics to improve the query plan for the following query that selects all of the bikes that weigh more than 25.
SELECT P.Weight AS Weight, S.Name AS BikeName FROM Production.Product AS P JOIN Production.ProductSubcategory AS S ON P.ProductSubcategoryID = S.ProductSubcategoryID WHERE P.ProductSubcategoryID IN (1,2,3) AND P.Weight > 25 ORDER BY P.Weight; GO
Query Identifies Missing Statistics
If an error or other event prevents the query optimizer from creating statistics, the query optimizer creates the query plan without using statistics. The query optimizer marks the statistics as missing and attempts to regenerate the statistics the next time the query is executed.
Missing statistics are indicated as warnings (table name in red text) when the execution plan of a query is graphically displayed using SQL Server Management Studio. Additionally, monitoring the Missing Column Statistics event class by using SQL Server Profiler indicates when statistics are missing. For more information, see Errors and Warnings Event Category (Database Engine).
If statistics are missing, perform the following steps:
Verify that AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS are on.
Verify that the database is not read-only. If the database is read-only, the query optimizer cannot save statistics.
Create the missing statistics by using the CREATE STATISTICS statement.
When statistics on a read-only database or read-only snapshot are missing or stale, the Database Engine creates and maintains temporary statistics in tempdb. When the Database Engine creates temporary statistics, the statistics name is appended with the suffix _readonly_database_statistic to differentiate the temporary statistics from the permanent statistics. The suffix _readonly_database_statistic is reserved for statistics generated by SQL Server. Scripts for the temporary statistics can be created and reproduced on a read-write database. When scripted, Management Studio changes the suffix of the statistics name from _readonly_database_statistic to _readonly_database_statistic_scripted.
Only SQL Server can create and update temporary statistics. However, you can delete temporary statistics and monitor statistics properties using the same tools that you use for permanent statistics:
Delete temporary statistics using the DROP STATISTICS (Transact-SQL) statement.
Monitor statistics using the sys.stats and sys.stats_columns catalog views. sys_stats includes the is_temporary column, to indicate which statistics are permanent and which are temporary.
Because temporary statistics are stored in tempdb, a restart of the SQL Server service causes all temporary statistics to disappear.
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When to Update Statistics
The query optimizer determines when statistics might be out-of-date and then updates them when they are needed for a query plan. In some cases you can improve the query plan and therefore improve query performance by updating statistics more frequently than occur when AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS is on. You can update statistics with the UPDATE STATISTICS statement or the stored procedure sp_updatestats.
Updating statistics ensures that queries compile with up-to-date statistics. However, updating statistics causes queries to recompile. We recommend not updating statistics too frequently because there is a performance tradeoff between improving query plans and the time it takes to recompile queries. The specific tradeoffs depend on your application.
When updating statistics with UPDATE STATISTICS or sp_updatestats, we recommend keeping AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS set to ON so that the query optimizer continues to routinely update statistics. For more information about how to update statistics on a column, an index, a table, or an indexed view, see UPDATE STATISTICS (Transact-SQL). For information about how to update statistics for all user-defined and internal tables in the database, see the stored procedure sp_updatestats (Transact-SQL).
To determine when statistics were last updated, use the STATS_DATE function.
Consider updating statistics for the following conditions:
Query execution times are slow.
Insert operations occur on ascending or descending key columns.
After maintenance operations.
Query Execution Times Are Slow
If query response times are slow or unpredictable, ensure that queries have up-to-date statistics before performing additional troubleshooting steps.
Insert Operations Occur on Ascending or Descending Key Columns
Statistics on ascending or descending key columns, such as IDENTITY or real-time timestamp columns, might require more frequent statistics updates than the query optimizer performs. Insert operations append new values to ascending or descending columns. The number of rows added might be too small to trigger a statistics update. If statistics are not up-to-date and queries select from the most recently added rows, the current statistics will not have cardinality estimates for these new values. This can result in inaccurate cardinality estimates and slow query performance.
For example, a query that selects from the most recent sales order dates will have inaccurate cardinality estimates if the statistics are not updated to include cardinality estimates for the most recent sales order dates.
After Maintenance Operations
Consider updating statistics after performing maintenance procedures that change the distribution of data, such as truncating a table or performing a bulk insert of a large percentage of the rows. This can avoid future delays in query processing while queries wait for automatic statistics updates.
Operations such as rebuilding, defragmenting, or reorganizing an index do not change the distribution of data. Therefore, you do not need to update statistics after performing ALTER INDEX REBUILD, DBCC REINDEX, DBCC INDEXDEFRAG, or ALTER INDEX REORGANIZE operations. The query optimizer updates statistics when you rebuild an index on a table or view with ALTER INDEX REBUILD or DBCC DBREINDEX, however; this statistics update is a byproduct of re-creating the index. The query optimizer does not update statistics after DBCC INDEXDEFRAG or ALTER INDEX REORGANIZE operations.
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Queries That Use Statistics Effectively
Certain query implementations, such as local variables and complex expressions in the query predicate, can lead to suboptimal query plans. Following query design guidelines for using statistics effectively can help to avoid this. For more information about query predicates, see Search Condition (Transact-SQL).
You can improve query plans by applying query design guidelines that use statistics effectively to improve cardinality estimates for expressions, variables, and functions used in query predicates. When the query optimizer does not know the value of an expression, variable, or function, it does not know which value to lookup in the histogram and therefore cannot retrieve the best cardinality estimate from the histogram. Instead, the query optimizer bases the cardinality estimate on the average number of rows per distinct value for all of the sampled rows in the histogram. This leads to suboptimal cardinality estimates and can hurt query performance.
The following guidelines describe how to write queries to improve query plans by improving cardinality estimates.
Improving Cardinality Estimates for Expressions
To improve cardinality estimates for expressions, follow these guidelines:
Whenever possible, simplify expressions with constants in them. The query optimizer does not evaluate all functions and expressions containing constants prior to determining cardinality estimates. For example, simplify the expression ABS(-100) to 100.
If the expression uses multiple variables, consider creating a computed column for the expression and then create statistics or an index on the computed column. For example, the query predicate WHERE PRICE + Tax > 100 might have a better cardinality estimate if you create a computed column for the expression Price + Tax.
Improving Cardinality Estimates for Variables and Functions
To improve the cardinality estimates for variables and functions, follow these guidelines:
If the query predicate uses a local variable, consider rewriting the query to use a parameter instead of a local variable. The value of a local variable is not known when the query optimizer creates the query execution plan. When a query uses a parameter, the query optimizer uses the cardinality estimate for the first actual parameter value that is passed to the stored procedure.
Consider using a standard table or temporary table to hold the results of multi-statement table-valued functions. The query optimizer does not create statistics for multi-statement table-valued functions. With this approach the query optimizer can create statistics on the table columns and use them to create a better query plan.
Consider using a standard table or temporary table as a replacement for table variables. The query optimizer does not create statistics for table variables. With this approach the query optimizer can create statistics on the table columns and use them to create a better query plan. There are tradeoffs in determining whether to use a temporary table or a table variable; Table variables used in stored procedures cause fewer recompilations of the stored procedure than temporary tables. Depending on the application, using a temporary table instead of a table variable might not improve performance.
If a stored procedure contains a query that uses a passed-in parameter, avoid changing the parameter value within the stored procedure before using it in the query. The cardinality estimates for the query are based on the passed-in parameter value and not the updated value. To avoid changing the parameter value, you can rewrite the query to use two stored procedures.
For example, the following stored procedure Sales.GetRecentSales changes the value of the parameter @date when @date is NULL.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO IF OBJECT_ID ( 'Sales.GetRecentSales', 'P') IS NOT NULL DROP PROCEDURE Sales.GetRecentSales; GO CREATE PROCEDURE Sales.GetRecentSales (@date datetime) AS BEGIN IF @date is NULL SET @date = DATEADD(MONTH, -3, (SELECT MAX(ORDERDATE) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader)) SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader h, Sales.SalesOrderDetail d WHERE h.SalesOrderID = d.SalesOrderID AND h.OrderDate > @date END GO
If the first call to the stored procedure Sales.GetRecentSales passes a NULL for the @date parameter, the query optimizer will compile the stored procedure with the cardinality estimate for @date = NULL even though the query predicate is not called with @date = NULL. This cardinality estimate might be significantly different than the number of rows in the actual query result. As a result, the query optimizer might choose a suboptimal query plan. To help avoid this, you can rewrite the stored procedure into two procedures as follows:
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO IF OBJECT_ID ( 'Sales.GetNullRecentSales', 'P') IS NOT NULL DROP PROCEDURE Sales.GetNullRecentSales; GO CREATE PROCEDURE Sales.GetNullRecentSales (@date datetime) AS BEGIN IF @date is NULL SET @date = DATEADD(MONTH, -3, (SELECT MAX(ORDERDATE) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader)) EXEC Sales.GetNonNullRecentSales @date; END GO IF OBJECT_ID ( 'Sales.GetNonNullRecentSales', 'P') IS NOT NULL DROP PROCEDURE Sales.GetNonNullRecentSales; GO CREATE PROCEDURE Sales.GetNonNullRecentSales (@date datetime) AS BEGIN SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader h, Sales.SalesOrderDetail d WHERE h.SalesOrderID = d.SalesOrderID AND h.OrderDate > @date END GO
Improving Cardinality Estimates with Query Hints
To improve cardinality estimates for local variables, you can use the OPTIMIZE FOR or OPTIMIZE FOR UNKNOWN query hints with RECOMPILE. For more information, see Query Hints (Transact-SQL).
For some applications, recompiling the query each time it executes might take too much time. The OPTIMIZER FOR query hint can help even if you don't use the RECOMPILE option. For example, you could add an OPTIMIZER FOR option to the stored procedure Sales.GetRecentSales to specify a specific date. The following example adds the OPTIMIZE FOR option to the Sales.GetRecentSales procedure.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO IF OBJECT_ID ( 'Sales.GetRecentSales', 'P') IS NOT NULL DROP PROCEDURE Sales.GetRecentSales; GO CREATE PROCEDURE Sales.GetRecentSales (@date datetime) AS BEGIN IF @date is NULL SET @date = DATEADD(MONTH, -3, (SELECT MAX(ORDERDATE) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader)) SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader h, Sales.SalesOrderDetail d WHERE h.SalesOrderID = d.SalesOrderID AND h.OrderDate > @date OPTION ( OPTIMIZE FOR ( @date = '2004-05-01 00:00:00.000')) END; GO
Improving Cardinality Estimates with Plan Guides
For some applications, query design guidelines might not apply because you cannot change the query or using the RECOMPILE query hint might be cause too many recompiles. You can use plan guides to specify other hints, such as USE PLAN, to control the behavior of the query while investigating application changes with the application vendor. For more information about plan guides, see Plan Guides.
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Benefits and Definitions
What is mentorship?
As various definitions and practices exist, mentoring is a fuzzy concept. The ScotELAs Mentoring Scheme embraces the themes of reflection, sharing and helping in non-judgmental ways, and adopt the following definition:
A mentor is anyone who provides guidance, support, knowledge, and opportunities for whatever period the mentor and protégé deem this help to be necessary.
(Burlew, 1991, p. 214)
In the context of learning development, in supporting mentees in their acculturation to the role, mentors will help mentees to develop best learning and teaching practice, promote reflection, and deal with specific challenges.
Benefits of mentorship
The benefits of mentoring are well documented and highlight the value of peer relationships in allowing mentees to experience a ‘feel equal’ factor (Blackwell & McLean, 1996) and enhanced confidence and self-esteem (Lieberman & Miller, 2000). As indicated below, the benefits of mentoring are not exclusive to mentees; mentors have much to gain too, including the enhancement of interpersonal, leadership and pedagogic skills that can be applied to other contexts (Morton, 2003).
Develops leadership skills
Enhances learning and teaching practice, and professional development
Expands mentee’s professional network
Enhances interpersonal skills
Increases job satisfaction and effectiveness
Provides sense of satisfaction associated with ‘giving back’
Increases perspective and knowledge
Enhances context-specific teaching skills
Types of Mentorship
Two pathways to recognition: Role-focused and Expertise-focused
For colleagues new to learning development
Enhances growing into the role
Supports development of emerging expertise
Supports reflection on own and best practice
Provides feedback on own practice where desired
For colleagues at any stage of their career
Develops knowledge and skills in specific areas, e.g. research skills, EAP, pedagogies for specific discipline contexts, digital literacy skills, working with specific student groups
Area chosen according to expertise of mentor and area of interest of mentee | <urn:uuid:695305bc-5d0e-4b4a-91c4-443235b96b87> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.scotelas.org/benefits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.893927 | 480 | 3.578125 | 4 |
They move quickly from idea to delivery
Their business concept “Veeking Telekom helps network operators increase traffic in their networks. This is done by developing and marketing products and systems that provide access to networks and services. Their competitive strength is based on their ability to move quickly from idea to delivery.”
They dare to think big
Veeking Telekom’s overall objective is to be a leading supplier of access products. Their products will be established globally and be among the best on the market. To achieve their objectives they are following a growth strategy that covers the following points:
• Geographic market expansion and wider customer base
• Wider product range and continued investment in product development
• Continued use of sub-contractors for manufacturing
• Collaboration and partnerships
Business area Telecom
In their business area Telecom, they develop and market products and systems that enable streamlined delivery of new and existing services in fixed telecom networks.
Products and systems for mobile services in the fixed telecom network
Veeking Telekom launched its first system consisting of both terminal and server platform for sending and receiving SMS (Short Message Service) messages in the fixed telecom network, at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, In March 2001. At the moment the platform is integrated with many major online financial trading providers like bestbinarytradingbrokers.com, where the integration has achieved significant increase of the client and leads validation.
Unlike most of its competitors, Veeking Telekom is a complete supplier of terminals and platforms from its product range. This allows them to quickly introduce new functions or adapt their solutions to customers according to the requirements set by the market.
Veeking Telekom’s SMS Server platform (SMSS) (in here) is a flexible hub that ties together SMS in the fixed and mobile networks. The combination of standards offered by Veeking Telekom means that different suppliers’ products work with their server platform, while their terminal works with competing server platforms. The server platform also works as an application server for different services.
More information on these products can be found here.
Router products for voice telephony
Veeking Telekom began to develop least cost routers in 1996. On the market, the routers are also called Least Cost Routers (LCR), diallers or Smartbox.
Telecom operators use voice telephony routers to steer end-user trafficcost-effectively. For the end-user, this usually means cheaper calls. Routers can be programmed, for example, to select different operators depending on the destination and time of day, with the purpose of minimising the cost of the call
Their router portfolio has been developed to meet customer demands for functionality, cost-efficiency and the ability to implement value-added services. Today a majority of their router sales involve products where the router technology is built into another product, such as cordless telephones and SMS terminals.
Veeking Telekom is currently the largest supplier of router products for voice telephony in Europe, and the company results are clearly shown in the financial portfolio management reports for the fiscal year.
Business Area Microwave
In their business area Microwave, they develop and market access solutions for the next generation of access networks, by supplying microwave links and other access products for high-speed communication. These services have been warmly accepted by most of their clients like the online bookies at bettingsitesuk.co, which have been eager to implement it to their betting platforms and live gambling mobile applications.
The business area Microwave provides fibre and radio-based access solutions to reduce the connection cost for LAN and voice customers.
The business area includes their wholly-owned subsidiary Veeking Microwave AB and the joint venture HyLink AS. The owners of HyLink are Veeking Telekom and the Norwegian company AXXESSIT ASA, each with a 50 per cent holding. HyLink was formed to bring together the cutting-edge technology within both companies. The aim is to create a collective product range consisting of digital microwave links for wireless telecom and data communication.
The Link155 range
The first product to be developed in-house was a microwave link (radio link) with broadband
capacity for use in both fixed and mobile networks. The advantage with the Link155 range modular construction is that it is possible to change between different transmission media such as radio, fiber or coaxial cable when required without changing equipment. This gives their customers the lowest possible running costs plus high future security. | <urn:uuid:d69d2eb6-2ed4-4cca-a159-7bc81a69cf8d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.viking-telecom.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.948402 | 924 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The micro compact home is a high quality compact dwelling for one or two people. Its neat dimensions of a 2.66m cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning sleeping, working/dining, cooking and bath spaces make it suitable for everyday use.
The m-ch is the outcome of a research project at Technical University Munich to design a 2.6m cube dwelling. The project was initiated by Prof. Richard Horden with his team of students and assistants in 2001 and as of 2011, there have been over 15 built and installed.
The team of researchers and designers based in London and at the Technical University in Munich developed the m-ch as an answer to an increasing demand for short stay living accommodation for students, business people, sports and leisure use and for weekenders. The m-ch, now in use and available throughout Europe, combines techniques for high quality compact ‘living’ spaces deployed in aircraft, yachts, cars, and micro apartments. Its design has been informed by the classic scale and order of a Japanese teahouse, combined with advanced concepts and technologies. Living in an m-ch means focusing on the essential – less is more. The use of progressive materials complements the sleek design. Quality of design, touch and use are the key objectives for the micro compact home team for ‘short stay smart living’.
The Micro-compact Home may be arranged as a single unit raised above the ground on a light aluminium frame and placed in a garden for private use. its compact dimensions make it easily integrated with shrubs and trees.
Inside the m-ch features:
• Two compact double beds, each measuring 198cm x 107cm, with covered cushions.
• Storage space for bedding and cleaning equipment.
• Sliding table measuring 105cm x 65cm, for dining for up to five people.
• Flat screen television in the living/dining space
• Shower and toilet cubicle
• Kitchen area fitted with electrical points and featuring a double hob, sink and extending tap, microwave, fridge and freezer units, three compartment waste unit, storage shelves, cutlery drawers with gentle return sprung slides and double level work surfaces.
• Air conditioning, water heating, fire alarm and smoke detectors.
• Thermostat controlled ducted warm air heating or electric under floor are available alternatives.
Micro-compact Home may be grouped in horizontal or vertical arrangements in compact clusters, or form larger villages for social or student accommodation or for short-stay business or leisure uses.
The 02 Student Village:
above: The o2 Student Village in Munch is a village of seven micro-compact homes, sponsored by international telecoms company O2 Germany, was built at the Technical University Munich. Each 2.65m cube features high technology, including broadband and standard internet links a plasma screen and high quality kitchen and bathroom appliances, some provided by co-sponsors, Siemens.
Spin-offs include the Tree Village, the Golden Cube, low e-home and snowboard village, all of which demonstrate how the basic concept can be adapted for a number of uses, environments and cultures.
The m-ch has a timber frame structure with anodised or polyester powder coated aluminium external cladding finishes, insulated with polyurethane foam and fitted with aluminium frame double glazed windows and front door with security double lock; graphics can be applied for sponsors, exhibition and business use.
The m-ch measures 266cm x 266cm x 266cm. The ceiling height is 198cm and the door width is 60cm.
Price (subject to change) is 38,000 EUR ($52,405.80 USD)
The quoted price is for a single unit and frame and does not include delivery, installation and connection to services, consultant’s fees and taxes. Subject to site conditions the inclusive guide price is 50,000-90,000 EUR depending on the landscape fees and infrastructure.
In special cases such as helicopter delivery an aluminium frame is used. Approximately 30% of the weight of a standard micro home (2.2 tons approx. the same as a Bentley Continental) is plywood and timber framing.
While the micro homes are being assembled, the site is prepared with services, simple pad foundations, pathways and planting. Immediately before truck delivery of the 2.6m cube the aluminium subframe is installed on site and the micro home is usually lifted into place using a portable crane which minimizes damage to the landscape.
As of January 2011 there have been fifteen micro compact homes built. Installations have been made for The Museum of Modern Art in New York, UBS Bank in Zurich Switzerland, O2 Telecom in Germany and for various private clients with sites overlooking Lake Zurich and now planned for Lake Maggiore near Ascona and at Millbrook in New York State.
Wanna buy one?
m-ch units are available to purchase for delivery to geographical Europe at a guide price of EUR 38,000 (subject to contract). This price includes all interior fittings. Subject to site conditions, the price excludes delivery, installation, connection to services, consultant’s fees and taxes.
The m-ch is delivered from their production center in Austria and they advise an average of 8-10 weeks delivery from the date of order.
micro-compact home ltd. is managed by director, Prof. Richard Horden, who is also chairman of the architectural practice in London, Horden Cherry Lee Architects.
For complete credits of everyone involved in the project, research, design and production, go here. | <urn:uuid:187e1cd2-1eb9-4a28-8ad9-908dd4ce212c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ifitshipitshere.com/micro-compact-home-proof-good-things-come-small-packages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.930688 | 1,170 | 1.882813 | 2 |
As we reported and as you all are most likely aware of by now, Twitter will begin censoring tweets.
The idea of censoring tweets does raise a few concerns, especially among those who used it in revolutionary protests last year in the Middle East. It’s still being used by different factions within activist and protest groups to spread the word on events and actions taking place.
I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but just take a look at @YourAnonNews. They are tweeting announcements of protests, where to meet up, the time they are taking place, etc. The problem arises if and when a country asks Twitter to remove these tweets to throw protest movements into disarray.
Heck, a major reason the ACTA protests in Europe are being successful is because of Twitter’s influence. Multiple Twitter accounts are coordinating their efforts to create protests today in Warsaw, Poland; Brussels, Belgium and other cities across Europe.
The story we ran today on Polish politicians wearing Guy Fawkes masks was retweeted over and over again giving solidarity and hope to the protesters. Under Twitter’s new censorship guidelines, it could all swept under the rug.
Speaking to WebProNews, Anonymous Sweden said that they can absolutely see European governments blocking access to protestor tweets to stifle the movements against ACTA.
The move comes at a time where Twitter wants to expand internationally and with these new tools may be able to convince China to let them in. The need to selectively censor tweets after seeing this is pretty obvious. It would expand their business and allow them to grow far more rapidly.
One must wonder, however, if Twitter is putting their own interests ahead of the “positive global impact” that they themselves see Twitter having.
The reaction to Twitter’s announcement was pretty strong, but expected. Of course, the Internet took off right away to get #TwitterCensored trending to make a statement to the social media giant that it wouldn’t stand for it.
#TwitterCensored needs to know that when internet was cut off in Egypt, more people decided to go on the street and protest.
Most using the hashtag #TwitterCensored are unsurprisingly from Arab nations who used the social networking tool to organize protests last year.
On top of that, Twitter users are also using the hashtag #TwitterBlackout to pledge their support to a campaign centered around not tweeting Saturday, January 28.
Right now, the only tweets being reported are DMCA takedown notices. You can view the reported tweets at Chilling Effects.
In Twitter’s defense, it’s encouraging that they are making this whole process as transparent as they possibly can. They do say, however, that they have no obligation to tell users that a tweet was taken down if they are “legally prohibited from doing so.”
It’s also encouraging that they are moving with the selective country censorship instead of a global take down of offending tweets. This makes the process easier to get around in a loophole as we’ve previously reported on.
At the end of the day, it’s just discouraging to see Twitter enact a policy like this. They claim that their value as a company is to “defend and respect each user’s voice.” If they did respect their voices, there wouldn’t be a policy like this in the first place. There’s a reason why people are upset and it’s aimed squarely at what they perceive as a violation of their freedom of speech.
Twitter obviously doesn’t seem think so. Their blog post makes it seem as if they are only going to censor tweets that are offensive as hate speech or infringe copyright. Even if you don’t agree with it, hate speech is protected under some governments. The Internet, despite numerous attempts by governments to exert their power over it, is still very much a free forum for people to discuss their ideals, even nasty ideals that the majority doesn’t agree with it.
The “marketplace of ideas” is a concept that should be familiar to law students as it was used in Justice Holmes’ dissent in Abrams vs. United States. The idea is that the genuinely good ideas and speech will become favorable while offensive and infringing speech will die.
Twitter would be wise to take that into account with their new policy. Instead of trying to police all the users on their service, let what comes natural take place. Sure, there will be infringing and offensive tweets, but they mostly never trend. If you look at any trending page on most days, you’ll see ideas being shared between users that can enrich their lives and alert them to topics that are important to society as a whole.
Even if Twitter’s censorship amounts to nothing more than censoring offensive images in countries where they are banned, it still sets a disturbing precedent that would give more credence to other services’ efforts to stifle free speech.
Even if Twitter moves ahead with its plans and it turns out to be the worst case scenario, the Internet would still be a place of free expression. As John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, “The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”
Do you see any concern in Twitter censoring tweets by country? Or is this just the concern of worst case scenario theorists? Let us know in the comments. | <urn:uuid:69ce67fc-03ff-491c-bc06-b0582ab83c6f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.webpronews.com/twitter-openness-censorship/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.966703 | 1,123 | 1.75 | 2 |
Embracing virtual care to support mental health
In any given year, one in five Canadians personally experience a mental health problem or illness. This startling statistic shows how mental illness can impact everyone – whether it’s a personal struggle or the experiences of family, friends, or colleagues.
In this blog, we’ll examine how attitudes to mental health are changing and how accessibility barriers and increased demand now lead many Canadians to seek virtual mental health support.
Finally, we’ll look at how WELL Health is going virtual by investing in tools and services that make a difference and improve access to mental health support for Canadians.
Changing attitudes and approaches to mental health
Conversations about mental health are something that Canadians are growing increasingly familiar with. And while things have not changed overnight, or without a lot of hard work, there is little doubt that awareness has risen, and attitudes are beginning to change.
Campaigns to educate people of all ages about mental illness have helped Canadians recognize signs and symptoms and chipped away at some of the stigma.
“It almost feels commonplace for people to say, in casual conversation,
even amongst colleagues, “my therapist thinks this or that.’’’
- Marion Adams, Focus Mental Wellness
In the workplace too, these conversations have become more common. And not just amongst employees. Employers are becoming increasingly committed to helping support better mental health amongst their teams.
These changing attitudes in the workplace are something that Shane Sabatino, Chief People Officer at WELL Health, has observed and embraced.
“There is a reduced stigma, which is a great thing! Although we are not yet where we want and need to be. There is a reduced stigma that is making it okay to say, ‘I’m not okay,’” explains Shane.“I think that’s the biggest change I’ve seen over the years is that people can actually say they need help and talk to somebody.”
Canadians should be proud of the steps made to recognize mental health issues and empathize with those struggling. But, while giant strides have been made in raising awareness and beginning to destigmatize mental illness, there should be no doubt that there is still work for us all to do.
What is the state of Canadian mental health services?
We know that COVID-19 has placed Canada’s mental health system under extreme duress, with one in five Canadians showing signs of high mental distress by 2021.
And let’s not forget how challenging the uncertainty of current political and economic circumstances can be. Not to mention the everyday challenges of navigating daily life, including work, family, and relationships.
Perhaps in this context, it shouldn’t surprise any of us that over 7 million people in Canada are impacted by mental health issues. The question then becomes, after years of raising awareness about mental health and trying to fight stigma, shouldn’t things be getting better?
Well, as Marion Adams, CEO of Focus Mental Wellness (A WELL Health Ventures Company) puts it, “The other side of the coin is, “Why are we talking about mental health so much more?’ Well, partly because during the pandemic our mental health has been so much worse!”
“The pandemic became something we couldn’t ignore, and a lot of us experienced a significant mental health issue for the first time,” explains Marion.
This is backed up by findings from the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), which found that even in 2022, levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety were rising back to levels found in 2020. CAMH also found a significant increase in reports of unmet mental health needs, with around 25% of Canadians disclosing that they needed mental health services during the pandemic but were unable to receive them.
So, it’s clear that Canadians are more open to discussing their mental health. But unfortunately, it is also obvious that too many are left without adequate access when they need it most.
Barriers to receiving mental health support
Healthcare should be accessible to all. However, that isn’t necessarily the case. Let’s examine why research suggests many Canadians are not receiving adequate mental health support. In Canada, your experience accessing in-person mental health services can change depending on the following:
In urban areas, in-person mental health services are likely to be more convenient. But, in rural or remote areas, there can be a lack of coverage, meaning long, expensive, or inconvenient journeys to access care.
If you are relying on public mental health services, you may experience longer wait times due to increased demand and a lack of resources. According to CMHA, this leads many Canadians to access mental health services via employer-based benefits or pay out-of-pocket, which can act as a barrier to access.
The combination of location and capacity issues can lead to there being a lack of appropriate care options for many people. For example, are the mental health services available that address individuals' language or cultural circumstances?
Alongside stigma, these accessibility barriers contribute to an increasing number of Canadians being unable to access appropriate mental health services. However, as Canadians have seen with primary care, many of these barriers can be removed when virtual care options are available.
Why virtual care mental health services are a game-changer
Since its rise to prominence in 2020, research suggests virtual care is popular, with over 90% of people proving satisfied with virtual visits and the time and money they save. Does it make difference if the virtual care offered is mental health, not primary care?
Marion Adams explains that while online therapy was met with a lot of skepticism before the pandemic, “the past few years have shown us that almost anything can happen online.”
At WELL Health, our data suggests that patients seeking mental health services prefer virtual care, with 68% choosing a virtual over an in-person visit. In other words, Canadians are not only willing to go virtual for mental health support, but they often prefer it!
How virtual care can provide accessible, high-quality mental health services
First, it’s important to note that not every mental health issue is necessarily appropriate for virtual care. In cases of severe mental illness, crisis, or emergencies, in-person care remains essential. However, for the millions of Canadians struggling with mild to moderate mental health challenges, virtual care can be a great fit. It all comes down to individual needs.
If we think about the barriers to access that have prevented 25% of Canadians from accessing mental health support during the pandemic, virtual care offers a compelling solution to a need that is more prevalent than ever.
For example, if you live in downtown Toronto and have the means to pay out-of-pocket for private in-person therapy, in-person care remains a great option. But many people live in areas where services aren’t convenient or rely on private health insurance. And others don’t have insurance coverage for therapy.
In these common situations, virtual mental health services can remove location and capacity barriers to access and offer more cost-effective options, including text-based therapy. Providing more people with access to high-quality, affordable, and convenient support.
How WELL Health is going virtual to support mental health
Focus Mental Wellness, a member of the WELL Health family, is a pioneer of virtual mental health therapy and aims to make mental health support accessible to all Canadians.
Focus offers 3 unique services that empower Canadians to choose an option that fits their needs and lifestyle, including:
- Video therapy
- Phone therapy
- Text therapy
These options help to dismantle barriers to access and remove wait times, with initial appointments often available on the same or the next day. Not only does Focus offer timely mental health support, but they also do so at a fraction of the price of many in-person therapy options. And their services are covered by most private health insurance plans.
Uniquely, Focus also allows you to select your therapist or counsellor during the initial booking process. This empowers patients, wherever possible, to choose a professional that aligns with their linguistic or cultural needs and removes another accessibility barrier.
Since its founding, Focus has been at the forefront of innovating and making mental health care more accessible to Canadians. And that spirit remains to this day, with Marion and everyone at Focus determined to further remove barriers to mental health support.
Marion’s hope for the future is that political parties in Canada continue to move towards integrating mental health services under the umbrella of provincial healthcare plans, further removing barriers that block access for Canadians.
“I see a future where mental health support becomes a central aspect of the universal healthcare system. And where seeing a therapist becomes as ubiquitous and socially normative as going to the dentist or the gym,” explains Marion. "You don’t just go when you’re feeling down or anxious. You see a therapist to maintain your overall health and wellness.”
Until then, Marion, Focus and WELL Health will continue to work towards making mental health support accessible to as many Canadians as possible.
Follow our blog to read more stories about how WELL Health and Focus Mental Wellness work together to support better mental health for employees and everyone. | <urn:uuid:149c4440-7ac9-4fe0-9e3b-0792957cada3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://well.company/for-investors/media/embracing-virtual-care-to-support-mental-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.952438 | 1,968 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Homeless Heroes: Veterans Struggles
Like a recent tragic event in Iraq brought out a number of reports on PTSD around the country there have also been a number of other reports as well that focussed on the homeless veterans, the first one just below is in and around this Nations Capital:
A new report is giving sobering statistics about how homeless veterans are treated in the Washington area.
The report says beds are available for only 10% of the homeless vets in Virginia, 8% have beds in Maryland and in the District, there is room is less than 2%.
From the Iraq War with the Army's First Calvary Division to fighting a battle to find homes for fellow veterans, Chad Lego says he never imagined when he came home, he would find some 200,000 service members homeless. >>>>>More
Last week there was a two part series, the first reporting on a brother 'Nam Vet who has been homeless for pretty much the whole time since 'Nam, but now seeking and getting the help needed. The second is of a much younger Vet from these most recent Wars and Occupations who came back confused and disoreinted and ended up homeless and drifting, he also is seeking and getting the help needed now.
The issue of homelessness has garnered much attention in the metro recently, following a fire at homeless camp along the Des Moines river. While it is no secret many of the homeless people living in tents and so-called hooches are veterans, we don't often examine the question of 'why'. >>>>>More
Part 1 Video
In Part One, we introduced you to a Vietnam veteran who has spent the last four decades battling to get his life on track. In Part Two of our series on homeless veterans, a veteran of recent combat in the Middle East shares his story of the struggle to save himself from an all too-common fate.
For the better part of 40 years, following two tours in Vietnam, Paul Lizotte found himself homeless, jobless, and angry at the country he volunteered to serve. Now, at age 57, he's slowly getting his life back together, but fears for the next generation of soldiers -- those returning from the Middle East.
"They're going to have a pack of troubles, because their war is a whole lot different than ours. Vietnam was a guerilla warfare. Theirs is an urban warfare. They're going to come back here, be amongst buildings that they're used to getting sniper fire from, rocket attacks from," he says.
More than three decades separate the two wars, but the struggle of returning to civilian life is the same now as it was then. "They're going to have to learn how to deal with it. I hope they don't choose my road, of going for the loner," Paul says. >>>>>More
Part 2 Video
Coming home for some war veterans means slipping off the track of chasing a fading American dream. Despite the yellow ribbons of support for the troops festooning patriotic front yards and backs of cars, there’s an army of homeless former soldiers seeking shelter in cities and towns across this country. Compounding the shock of becoming homeless can be another bitter discovery: Few communities provide programs to help veterans who hit a rough patch get back on their feet. Consequently, an estimated 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
At the bottom of Jan's post he gives a few URLs:
This one speaks for itself National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
These next two are of a local action being taken on to give housing to some local Vets in New Jersey Highland Park agrees to convert shuttered church to homeless veteran housing, and this one as well, Pastor Seeks to House Veterans in Old Church
And more grassroots help out of Arizona:
A grassroots effort to help homeless veterans is making some real progress, the Madison Street Veterans Association is a group started by veterans for veterans.
"We've got a big sheet cake coming, it says congratulations Madison Street Veterans Association, it's red, white and blue," Terry Araman says country loyalty is important to this grassroots group, "we feel that Veterans, whether they're homeless or not, whether they've gone through PTSD or not, have a lot to offer the community,"
Terry Araman along with others at the Madison Street Veterans Association are working to help military vets like Richard Chamberlain who was recently laid off and is now studying Quantum Mechanics. >>>>>More
The next generation of American Veterans is on its way home. Over 1.3 million American troops have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and tens of thousands more will return from combat over the years to come. After these young men and women put away their uniforms, they will still be coping with the consequences of years spent at war. When these conflicts have faded from the headlines, will we, as Americans, continue to honor our yellow-ribbon commitment to “Support the Troops”? Already there are many disturbing signs that we are not prepared to meet that obligation. >>>>>More
A short note to Paul, and our younger brothers and sisters of these present, that should not have been, occupations. Please choose your words respectfully when mentioning us old foggies now, 'Nam Vets, but not only of that occupation, but of all those vets, conflict or peace time, that came before you. You'll want those coming after you to do the same.
Paul I'm sure will know what I mean, there are some really ruffled feathers in the 'Nam Vet community this past week, most of us got riled than let it pass as we have all the rest over these many years, actually your few words have been said many times and are even used today, mostly by the 'chickenhawks' who try and cut those of us of 'Nam but not Hawks down, they loose everytime.
Another thing to keep in mind, all that's been happening to those returning these recent years is not new, we Vets and this Country have seen it all before and through these years since. By Country I mean the few who actually pay attention, like those that have joined us in the fight to push better understanding of PTSD and TBI. We've been fighting the battles now for over thirty years, we're right there with you all as you continue these battles, and now maybe we can get them in a real 'Victory' a 'Victory' for this country, and world, that really counts.
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There are times when retrieving data for complex business requirement requires you to temporarily store one or more results sets for a short period of time. Typically these temporary tables are stored in the scope of the current connection, but they may also need to be available across multiple connections. In this level I will be discussing temporary tables, and showing you examples of how to use these transient tables.
What Are Temporary Tables?
What exactly is a temporary table? It is a table that is created, populated, used, and deleted within the scope of a single business process. Temporary tables, as the name suggests, means they are transient and are deleted when they are no longer needed. Temporary tables are created and stored in the tempdb database, and have two different kinds of scope: Local and Global.
A local temporary table is created and used in a single session. Local temporary tables are only available to the session that created the table. Other sessions can't access a local temporary table. Local temporary table are identified by having a single “#” sign as the first character in their name.
Global temporary tables on the other hand are available to all sessions, as long as the session that created the global temporary table is still active. When a table name starts with two “#” signs it is a global temporary table.
The Life of Temporary Tables
As already stated temporary tables are transient, meaning they come and go. They just don't stay around very long.
Temporary tables (both Local and Global) are created just like any other table with a CREATE TABLE statement. But since they are temporary they will be automatically deleted at some point. These temporary tables will be automatically deleted when the session that created them ends. But you can also manually drop local and global temporary tables with a DROP TABLE command as soon as they are not needed.
There are a number of limitations you need to be aware of when you use temporary tables. Here is a partial list of those limitations:
- Temporary tables cannot be partitioned
- Temporary tables cannot reference or be referenced by FOREIGN KEY constraints
- When a session creates temporary table that contains a named constraint inside a transaction, another sessions cannot create a temporary table of the same name until the first session commits the transaction.
- To read more about limitations of global and local tables refer to the Books Online documentation that can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174979.aspx
Examples of Using Temporary Tables
In this section I will be sharing a number of different examples to give you a better sense of how to use temporary tables. For some of the examples I will be using data from the AdventureWorks2008R2 database. If you want to follow along and run the examples in this article you can download the AdventureWorks2008R2 database from here: http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/releases/view/93587
For the first example, in listing 1, I will be creating, populating and selecting data from a temporary table.
SET NOCOUNT ON; CREATE TABLE #Person ( BusinessEntityId int, Title nvarchar(8), FirstName nvarchar(50), LastName nvarchar(50)); INSERT INTO #Person (BusinessEntityID, Title, FirstName, LastName) SELECT TOP 10 BusinessEntityID, Title, FirstName, LastName FROM AdventureWOrks2008R2.Person.Person; SELECT * FROM #Person; DROP TABLE #Person;
In the example in Listing 1, I first created a local temporary table named #Person. You can tell this is a local temporary table because the name of the table starts with a single number sign character (#). Next I populated the newly created local temporary table using an INSERT statement that selected a few columns from the Person.Person table in the AdventureWorks2008R2 database. I then used a SELECT statement to show the rows that were inserted into my #Person local temporary table. Finally, I dropped my local temporary table. As you can see, creating a local temporary table isn't much different than creating any other table.
For the second example let's look at the code in Listing 2.
SET NOCOUNT ON; CREATE TABLE ##SalesOrderHeader ( SalesOrderId int, SalesOrderDate DateTime, CustomerId int); INSERT INTO ##SalesOrderHeader (SalesOrderId, SalesOrderDate, CustomerId) SELECT SOH.SalesOrderID, SOH.OrderDate, C.CustomerID FROM AdventureWorks2008R2.Sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH LEFT OUTER JOIN AdventureWorks2008R2.Sales.Customer C ON SOH.CustomerID = C.CustomerID; SELECT TOP 10 * FROM ##SalesOrderHeader; DROP TABLE ##SalesOrderHeader;
If you review the code in Listing2 you can see I created, used and dropped the global temporary table named ##SalesOrderHeader just like I did the local temporary table in Listing1. The only different is that table created in Listing 2 starts with two number sign characters (##), instead of one. The double # signs on the ##SalesOrderHeader table name tells SQL Server that this is a global temporary table.
The code in Listing 1 and Listing 2 do not demonstrate the scoping difference of these two kinds of temporary tables. As we already stated the scope of the local temporary table in Listing 1 is the session and the scope of the global temporary table in Listing 2 is all sessions. Let me go through an example that will help show the scoping differences of these two types of temporary tables.
The test I am going to run will create three different sessions. Each session will be running a different series of TSQL commands. I will be using the query window within SQL Server Management Studio for each one of these sessions.
To start this test off I open up three different query windows in SQL Server Management Studio. I then note the Session ID in each window. One way I can do that is to run the command in Listing 3 in each query window.
The next step of my test is to create a local temporary table in one query window, and a global temporary table in another query window. In the query window with the lowest session id number returned when I run the code in Listing 3, I run the code in Listing 4.
CREATE TABLE #Local (TableType varchar(10)); INSERT INTO #Local values ('Local');
The code in Listing 4 creates a local temporary table.
For the next step I run the code in Listing 5 in the query window that has the second lowest session id number.
CREATE TABLE ##Global (TableType varchar(10)); INSERT INTO ##Global values ('Global');
The code in Listing 5 creates a global temporary table.
For the last step of my test I run the code in Listing 6 In the query window that has the highest session id.
SET NOCOUNT ON; SELECT * FROM ##Global; GO SELECT * FROM #Local;
The code in Listing 6 reference both the local and global tables I created in my first two sessions.
When I run the code in Listing 6 and displaying my output in text mode I get the output in Report 1.
TableType ---------- Global Msg 208, Level 16, State 0, Line 3 Invalid object name '#Local'.
By reviewing the output in Report 1 you can see I was able to reference the global temporary table in this session, but not the local temporary table . This demonstrates how local temporary tables created in one session are out of scope in another session, and how global temporary table are available in sessions that didn't create the global temporary table. Additionally if you close the first two sessions and then try to run the code in Listing 6, you will see that the global table is no longer available.
Another situation where local temporary are out of scope is when you have nested stored procedure calls. If you read the Books Online documentation it says “temporary tables are only visible in the current session”. In reality temporary tables are only visible in the current session when the nesting level is the same or greater than the nest level in which the temporary table was created. Let me demonstrate this by running the code in Listing 7.
SET NOCOUNT ON; GO CREATE PROC MyProc AS CREATE TABLE #Level1 (Level int); INSERT #Level1 VALUES (1); SELECT @@NESTLEVEL as Level, @@SPID as SPID SELECT * FROM #Level0; SELECT * FROM #Level1; GO CREATE TABLE #Level0 (Level int); INSERT #Level0 VALUES (0); SELECT @@NESTLEVEL as Level, @@SPID as SPID EXEC MyProc; SELECT * FROM #Level0; SELECT * FROM #Level1;
When I run this code I get the output in Report 2.
Level SPID ----------- ------ 1 55 Level ----------- 0 Level ----------- 1 Level SPID ----------- ------ 0 55 Level ----------- 0 Msg 208, Level 16, State 0, Line 6 Invalid object name '#Level1'.
By reviewing the code and output associated with Listing 7 we can see that when a local temporary table is created at higher nesting level it is not available to a lower nesting level, even when they are created in the same session. In Listing 7, I created and populated a temporary table named #Level0 in nesting level 0, then I called a stored procedure MyProc that runs in nesting Level 1. In that stored procedure I create and populated a temporary table named #Level1. In that same stored procedure I displayed the nest level and SPID (Session ID), and selected data from the two local temporary tables (#Level0 and #Level1) that were created by my session. I was successful in querying both local temporary tables in MyProc because the #Level0 table was created at a lower nest level, and #Level1 table was created at the same nesting level. But when my stored procedure MyProc ends SQL Server automatically deleted the temporary table #Level1. This caused the last SELECT statement to fail with an “Invalid object name” error because I was trying to reference the temporary table #Level1 that was created in higher nest level then my current nest level.
Here are few best practices to consider when creating temporary tables:
- Before you create a temporary table, verify you can't create a set based query that does not require the creation of a temporary table.
- Explicitly drop temporary tables as soon as they are no longer needed.
Local temporary tables are a great way to store a result set for a short period of time so you can use it in additional processing within the same session. But keep in mind temporary tables take space in tempdb and therefore you should drop them as soon as they are not needed any longer. If you need your temporary tables to be available by multiple sessions then you will need to create a global temporary table.
Question and Answer
In this section you can review how well you have understood using local and global temporary tables by answering the following questions.
What characteristic is not associated with local temporary tables?
- They have to be explicitly deleted prior to the session ending
- They are created in tempdb
- They can be used to store temporary data for additional processing in the same session
- They are created just like normal tables using the CREATE TABLE statement but the table name starts with a single # sign.
Which two statements best describe the differences between a local and a global temporary table (Pick two)?
- Local temporary tables are available to only the current session whereas global temporary tables are available to all sessions.
- Local temporary tables are available to all sessions whereas global temporary tables are only available to the current session.
- Local temporary table names start with a single # sign, and global temporary tables start with two # signs.
- Local temporary table names start with two # signs, and global temporary tables start with a single # sign.
What happens to local and global temporary tables when the session in which they were created ends?
- The temporary tables stay around until SQL Server is recycled.
- The temporary tables are automatically dropped.
- The temporary tables are flagged as unavailable and removed at some future point in time when SQL Server is idle.
- The sessions that created the temporary tables fail, because temporary tables must be dropped prior to a session ending.
The answer is a. Local temporary tables do not have to be explicitly deleted prior the session ending. They can be deleted prior to the session ending, but it is not required. If a local temporary table is not deleted prior to the session ending it will be deleted automatically when the session ends.
The correct answer is a and c. b is incorrect because local temporary tables are only available to the current session and global temporary tables are available to all session. d is incorrect because local temporary tables start with a single number sign (#) and global temporary tables start with two number signs (##).
The correct answer is b. Global and temporary tables are dropped automatically when the sessions that created them ends. However, best practice is to manually drop temporary tables as soon as they are no longer needed to free up space in the tempdb database. | <urn:uuid:cfdb8f19-ab3f-48cf-a490-d91b46b58420> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.sqlservercentral.com/steps/stairway-to-t-sql-beyond-the-basics-level-5-storing-data-in-temporary-tables | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.867197 | 2,815 | 2.953125 | 3 |
If you have ever experienced an anxiety attack, you’re probably familiar with the fear of not having control over your mind or body. During an attack, it can be difficult to stay focused long enough to calm yourself. In order to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety attacks, it may help to understand and anticipate the changes in the body during an episode.
How Does an Attack Begin?
Everyone experiences these types of attacks differently, but there are some common signs to look out for. Panic is often triggered by specific situations, so it may be helpful to analyze your day-to-day stress points. Attacks of anxiety don’t necessarily have to stem from circumstances, and many people experience moments of panic abruptly and unexpectedly. | <urn:uuid:8936dc0e-f39a-4119-a835-236535af485a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://comprehendthemind.com/2014/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.962801 | 147 | 2.40625 | 2 |
In the wake of yet more revelations of the grave violations of international law perpetrated in Syria and in view of the upcoming next round of UN-led peace talks in Geneva, FIDH and its Syrian member organisation, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), publish 6 recommendations for maximising the potential of the new International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria in investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the most serious crimes.
Ensuring accountability and fighting against impunity are both critical to any future solution for Syria. To do this, a clear and specific roadmap for obtaining justice is needed. The creation of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (Mechanism) by the UN General Assembly is a welcome first step, and FIDH and SCM hope that it will make an effective contribution to combating impunity for grave violations of international law committed during the Syrian conflict. With the appointment of the Head of the Mechanism expected later this month, FIDH and SCM publish 6 recommendations designed to maximise its potential and ensure that its contribution to ongoing and future accountability processes is effective, comprehensive and credible.
Read the open letter (PDF Format) | <urn:uuid:0f352475-2f48-4c71-8fac-b4861b5984fd> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://scm.bz/en/scm-statements/2017-5/fidh-and-scm-open-letter-to-the-leadership-of-the-un-international-impartial-and-independent-mechanism-for-syria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.920269 | 239 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Third Post in A Series of Five in Honor of Malaysian Independence Day
About three week ago Jovenus of Biblio Junkie and I decided we would do a joint posting in honor of Malaysian Independence Day which is observed on August 31. I more or less got the idea for this project from Novroz' posting in honor of Indonesian Independence day on her blog , observed on August 17. I ended up doing a series of five posts on short stories by Indonesian women, all written in the 21th century. I really enjoyed doing this project and wanted to see if I could expand the idea to other countries. At the time I did a Google search on independence days world wide to see how many South and South East Asian countries observe an independence day. I noticed Malaysian Indepedence Day is observed August 31. I was very interested in posting on Malaysian literature in part because Malaysia is less than two hours away from my home in Manila. Also most historians see Malay culture as having a large influence on pre-colonial Filipino history.
Jovenus has done a great overall post on Malaysia (for which she has a special knowledge and affinity) which explains the history of Malaysia and its struggle for Independence. She also talks about some of the best known Malaysian writers of today. I decided as my contribution to our project to post on five short stories by contemporary Malaysian writers. This will be done in a series of five posts. This is my third post in the series.
Catalina Rembuyan, author of "Angry" and numerous other short stories works at and and is working on an advanced degree at the University of Malaysia. "Angry" is a simple story that any one who has ever walked their children past the candy store window can directly relate to.
Anna saw the chocolate shop. It was a very small shop, but it had all of the richest and the tastiest chocolates that could be found in the Klang Valley: chocolates coating raisin jelly, chocolates coating more layers of chocolate coating nuts, chocolates white and sweet, and chocolates hidden in caramel shells. She felt an urge to grab one rise in her, and thought of stopping for a minute or two - which, she reminded herself; she had no time for, and marched straight on towards the ticket counter. Then she heard Samantha yowl. "I want a chocolate!"
What parent from wherever you may be cannot relate to how trying this can be:
Samantha gave one last bitter howl, a howl Anna thought would never end, howling and howling and filling the air with thick shame, until the howl turned into a whimper and Anna heard a sob. Moments later Anna heard another howl on her shoulder. Samuel had woken up and was bawling his heart out, confused and frightened by the commotion, sensing the bitterness in his mother's voice. Samuel's tears sparked more tears from Samantha and a fresh flow of tears poured out of her eyes.
Emotional blackmail works pretty much the same everywhere. Everyone in the train station where the shop is located seems to be looking at the mother and thinking what a horrible little child raised by a quite unfit mother.
"Angry" is just a simple story that any parent can relate to. It can be read online here | <urn:uuid:ff0f95c3-3c5a-4c35-b276-a8f1183a2cd9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2010/09/angry-by-catalina-rembuyan-malaysian.html?m=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573744.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819161440-20220819191440-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.973991 | 681 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Padang R, Bagnall RD, Richmond DR, Bannon PG, Semsarian C
J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 2012 Aug;53(2):277-81
Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the commonest congenital heart disease and a highly heritable trait; however, only the NOTCH1 gene has been linked to limited cases of BAV in humans. Recently, the transcription factor GATA5 has been shown to have an essential role in aortic valve development, and targeted deletion of Gata5 in mice is associated with partially penetrant BAV formation. Here, we investigated the relationship between GATA5 gene variants and BAV with its associated aortopathy. One hundred unrelated individuals with confirmed BAV were prospectively recruited. Following collection of clinical information and DNA extraction, the coding regions and splice signal sequences of the GATA5 gene were screened for sequence variations. The clinical characteristics of the cohort included a male predominance (77%), mean age of diagnosis 29 ± 22 years, associated aortopathy in 59% and positive family history for BAV in 13%. Genetic analysis identified the presence of 4 rare non-synonymous variations within the GATA5 transcriptional activation domains, namely Gln3Arg, Ser19Trp, Tyr142His and Gly166Ser, occurring in one patient each. Gln3Arg and Tyr142His substitutions affect highly conserved and functionally relevant residues, and are likely to impact on the transcriptional activation of GATA5 target regions. A novel Ser19Trp variation was identified at a highly conserved amino acid residue in one patient, while the Gly166Ser variant was found in a familial case of BAV and associated aortopathy. Rare non-synonymous variations in the functionally important GATA5 transcriptional activation domains may be important in the pathogenesis of BAV disease in humans. | <urn:uuid:09c16ab4-ccce-4171-81e8-5b9f09e5b2a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bairdinstitute.org.au/research/rare-non-synonymous-variations-in-the-transcriptional-activation-domains-of-gata5-in-bicuspid-aortic-valve-disease/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.91689 | 400 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In a world concentrated on fighting COVID-19, there is not room for much else – especially a disease caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox. We have not considered the spread of smallpox in decades, but now find ourselves staring at an outbreak similar to smallpox and hoping that efforts to eradicate in the past prove successful in the present.
On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly declared the world free of smallpox. Eradication of smallpox was considered a crowning achievement in public health at the time and served as a testament to how well-funded research and unified support could impact disease.
Since then, our world has faced other forms of disease and attacked each one head-on with confidence and scientific research, with COVID being our toughest foe and greatest challenge to eradicate since smallpox. So how does monkeypox rear its head in the U.S. in 2022? The CDC reports two cases in the US in 2021 (July and November) and a more recent case in May 2022. All involved the disease entering the US following documented cases of international travel.
What is monkeypox and how does it present? Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research. Due to the origin from monkeys and discovery that monkeypox belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus, which also includes variola virus (which causes smallpox), the label monkeypox stuck quickly.
Monkeypox starts with fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, chills and exhaustion, much like COVID and smallpox, although it also causes lymph nodes to swell, which happens with COVID, but is not a symptom of smallpox. The most disturbing symptom of monkeypox is a rash that develops all over the body and moves through various stages; macules, papules, vesicles, pustules and scabs. According to the CDC, 1 in every 100 cases of monkeypox will result in death. Severe cases are more likely to cause death.
Monkeypox is easily transmissible when a person comes into contact with the virus from an animal, human, or materials contaminated with the virus, so it is important to report symptoms and be proactive if exposure occurs. Fortunately, the smallpox vaccine is at least 85% effective against the monkeypox virus, so we are ahead of the game in the United States, but we must be ready if outbreak cases increase in the days ahead.
Dr. David L. Holden is president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association (okmed.org). | <urn:uuid:42f3ed90-78e6-4c29-b0fd-3f53c7be393d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://journalrecord.com/2022/05/31/office-visit-monkeypox-rise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.94657 | 531 | 3.921875 | 4 |
|What could be better than a healthy sweet treat that tastes great? That’s why we were buzzing when we recently discovered the Bumble Bar, handcrafted in microbatches in Spokane, Washington (just 154 bars are made per batch).
While not made with honey, they evoke a gourmet version of those sesame-honey candies—but they’re soft and pose no harm to dental work. They’re flat bars, the size of a chocolate bar, and you can devour one whole or break off a piece at a time. The sesame seeds and flax seeds provide much more than texture, flavor, lots of fiber and heart-healthy linolenic acid and omega-3s;* they require a lot of chewing, so the snack lasts longer. And, in the summer heat, the bars don’t melt like chocolate or go gooey like caramel.
While Bumble Bars call themselves energy bars, they don’t stack up nutritionally the way a Balance Bar, Clif Bar or Lara Bar will. Those bars have twice the protein and half the fat, and are formulated for energy. We’d call it a confection—a healthy candy. In fact, the world’s first candies were seeds, nuts and fruits mixed with honey. Bumble Bars are descendants of those simple, whole foods. They’re gluten-free, wheat- and dairy-free and vegan, made of certified organic good stuff and sweetened with brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice. And it’s not easy to tire of them, given 12 delicious flavors: Awesome Apricot, Chai With Almonds, Chocolate Cherry, Chocolate Crisp, Chunky Cherry, Lushus Lemon, Original (peanut and cinnamon), Original with Almond, Original With Cashew, Original With Hazelnut, Original With Mixed Nuts and Tasty Tropical.
These sesame and flax seed bars are
our new favorite guilt-free candy. Chunky
Cherry and Original With Almonds,
above, are two of the 12 flavors.
|Read the buzz in the full review, and stock up for camp, car trips, the gym—and healthy workplace snacks instead of what’s in the lobby concession or that infernal candy machine.|
Comments are closed. | <urn:uuid:0e7ed421-f237-4e4e-afc6-07258625a571> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.thenibble.com/2008/07/21/top-pick-of-the-week-bumble-bars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.903106 | 493 | 1.515625 | 2 |
National Civic League is hosting - Promising Practices Webinar: The ABCs of Inclusive and Equitable Engagement
The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, is hosting an event called Promising Practices Webinar: The ABCs of Inclusive and Equitable Engagement.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm CT, 12:00 pm MT, 11:00 am PT)
The process of civic engagement ensures that the many parts of a community— residents, government, business, nonprofit agencies, faith-based organizations and others—work together to address public needs and desires. Whether it’s economic development, safety, health, environmental quality or other matters, civic engagement can lead to lasting solutions that best represent the values and desires of communities. However, if inclusivity and equity are not prioritized as a part of engagement efforts from the very beginning, then resulting information, solutions, and decisions will fail to benefit from or serve the entire community.
During this webinar we will discuss the myriad of considerations–convener, time, location, language, etc.–that need to be addressed to ensure engagement efforts are inclusive and equitable. Registrants will also learn about strategies and best practices for equitable and inclusive engagement, with a few examples from communities successfully doing this work.
Join fellow Dialogue and Discussion champions from London to Lagos, for small group and Open Space conversations that matter. NCDD member, Ron Gross shared an event called Conversation Day hosted by Conversations New York. The event takes place Saturday, June 11, 2022 from 2-4pm Eastern.
Let's share what we've learned -- and our hopes moving forward! Come share your experiences, concerns and wisdom. Join us for an afternoon of bracing comradeship, mutual support, and intellectual stimulation.
1. What’s one of the most significant experiences you have had this year, in coping with the multiple crises we have endured?
2. What have you learned about yourself?
3. What are some ways that you expect or hope that our your society will be different, as we resume our lives?
4. What will you do differently going forward – personally, socially, professionally, or politically?
NCDD Member Organization, The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), leverages science to advance community priorities. These projects are contributing to a growing movement toward engaged, community-driven science. They recently shared an interview from The Wildlife Center of Virginia where Community Science Fellow Devin Jefferson was interviewed for "Untamed: Life is Wild". Devin showcased his work with the Science Museum of Virginia and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond to study urban heat islands and air quality. His interview is in the May 5: Episode 403: Citizen Science (starting at 16:53).
Untamed: Life is Wild is an award-winning television series co-produced by the Wildlife Center of Virginia and VPM, Virginia's home for public media. The series focuses on a variety of wildlife issues drawn directly from the stories of the thousands of wild animals in need of care that arrive at the Wildlife Center’s doorstep every year. The stories of these animals illustrate the wider problems wildlife face — litter, pesticides, free-roaming domestic animals, habitat loss, and diseases – and challenge viewers to take action to protect wildlife.
The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) is a professional membership organization with a vision of increased understanding of—and engagement with—science and technology among all people and a mission to champion and support science and technology centers and museums. Founded in 1973, ASTC champions and supports more than 500 science and technology centers and museums, natural history museums, children’s museums, and other STEM-rich, place-based institutions. ASTC currently runs a Dialogue & Deliberation Fellows Initiative - learn more here!
NCDD member, Martín Carcasson of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University was interviewed by NPR about their collaborative journalism project. From the episode details:
Today on Colorado Edition: We hear about the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project, a collaborative of area newsrooms, journalists, and media scholars aiming to strengthen local journalism. And we hear from two songwriters in rural northeast Colorado about how rural living inspires them and their art.
To learn more about the Center for Public Deliberation and the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project, visit their website here.
The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the National Civic Review (NCR) Spring 2022 edition and NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Thanks to Rebecca Trout, NCL’s Program Director for All-America City Award & Communications, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network!
National Civic Review Spring Edition 2022 – Access Code: NCDD22
Executive Director, Courtney Breese was recently featured on the Co-creating Peace Podcast, hosted by NCDD Member Kathleen Oweegon. The Co-creating Peace episode "Let's Talk About It" (episode 66) is part of a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation. From the episode description:
The difficulties we have with one another are very often the result of lack of insight and understanding. In the absence of information we make assumptions about one another – assumptions that often lead to conflict.
There is a cure for this phenomenon, and that is dialogue – sitting down with one another to have conversations that help us to learn about one another at deeper levels. When we put aside our assumptions, our biases, and the fears on which those are often based, and enter into dialogue with not only a willingness, but a desire, to learn about others and the way they experience and see the world, and then deliberate together to arrive at paths forward that can better meet the needs of all, we begin to build bridges of peace which can one day span the world.
America Talks is back April 21 and 23, and now is the time to sign up!
America Talks (April 21 & 23) invites Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs to connect one-on-one or in small groups, face-to-face on video. America Talks is powered by over 150 nonpartisan, bridge building organizations and promoted by USA TODAY and other media partners. This is an exciting opportunity to meet other Americans who want to connect across differences and talk. You can sign up to participate on one or both of these dates at this link.
The 5th annual National Week of Conversation that follows (April 24-30), invites Americans to find their place in the bridging movement with events hosted by over 80 bridging organizations. These events provide Americans from every corner of the United States the opportunity to discover common interests, solve problems and raise their voices together. Join lots of NCDD member orgs and friends to connect, discuss, and decide together in the many events being offered throughout the week!
Are you hosting an event during National Week of Conversation? Let us know! Add your event in the comments. Don't forget a link for people to find out how to join!
The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the National Civic Review (NCR) Winter 2022 edition and NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Thanks to Rebecca Trout, NCL’s Program Director for All-America City Award & Communications, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network!
Be sure to check out the following articles from NCDD Members:
The Case for Principled Impartiality in a Hyper-Partisan World by Martin Carcasson
Common Ground for Action: Experimenting with Better Ways to Deliberate Online by Kara Dillard and Nicholas Felts
As well as pieces from Matt Leighninger, Maura Casey, and more!
The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the National Civic Review (NCR) Summer 2021 edition and NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Thanks to Rebecca Trout, NCL’s Program Director for All-America City Award & Communications, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network!
Friendly reminder that the League is always seeking articles for NCR on community-based examples of civic engagement, public deliberation, co-production, and democratic innovation – more info here.
Students spend most of their days in school. Naturally, when national events occur, this extends the teachers regular duties to the role of “first responders”. This publication from Essential Partners was adapted for the classroom from their Reflective Structured Dialogue, and is offered as a tool for teachers to create a space of self- reflection, deep listening and open sharing in the classroom. The prompts and guidelines to consider, proactively invite the students to process crisis in a healthy way.
Read about the structure and prompts offered below or find the original post here. | <urn:uuid:2ef6b584-4c82-41b1-ba76-e1c71ff514f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ncdd.org/news/category/current-issues | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.942501 | 1,953 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The International Collegiate Programming Contest is an algorithmic programming contest for college students. Teams of three, representing their university, work to solve the most real-world problems, fostering collaboration, creativity, innovation, and the ability to perform under pressure. Through training and competition, teams challenge each other to raise the bar on the possible. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. The contest has raised aspirations and performance of generations of the world’s problem solvers in the computing sciences and engineering.
The ICPC features several levels of competition:
- Local Contests
- Regional Contests
- Regional Championships
- The World Finals
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Schools of Engineering has been hosting the most prestigious International Collegiate Programming Contest regional contests for the past 13 years. This year’s Onsite Contest is scheduled on December 26 – 27, 2019 at Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri & Bengaluru campuses. Number of slots: 250.
Registration fees per team, to participate in the online round is INR 900. Registration fees per team, to participate in the onsite round is INR 3800. | <urn:uuid:cf3ed3c4-4d97-4649-bcd3-4caf211e9cc1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2017/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.932711 | 280 | 1.625 | 2 |
WHAT Resveratrol dosage SHOULD HUMANS TAKE?
When it comes to resveratrol dosage, you actually couldn't call it a more popular discovery within this modern age. Resveratrol has been spoken about everywhere, from the newspapers to the web. Resveratrol has entered the science world with a reputation that has been maintained strong since the 1940s.
Resveratrol Recent Studies.
With that said, there have been many research study studies on resveratrol in these last 5-10 years that have made it come out from obscurity, and understanding how the dosage works when it pertains to resveratrol will alleviate the concerns of lots of people who are taking a look at including resveratrol into their lifestyle.
The Resveratrol Dose Is Not The Same For Everyone.
Although, when it comes to Resveratrol dose, the results can be different depending on the individual.
That's right. The dosage that works great for someone can be different for another individual who tried that precise same dose that worked excellently for the other. The blood statistics of Resveratrol doses are generally done by checking the level in your blood or through a urinalysis where the Resveratrol level is also discovered.
The list below can assist you quite a bit to help determine what amount of resveratrol you may want to consider.
I am comprehending the various Resveratrol dosage levels.
Minimum Resveratrol Dosage: Between 100 mg – 500 mg of resveratrol per day.
This is usually thought to be the lowest amount you may need.
Medium Resveratrol Dosage: Between 500 mg – 1500 mg of resveratrol per day.
This usually is what most people take nowadays. The Academy of Sciences recommends 500 mg.
High Resveratrol Dosage: Over 1500 mg of Resveratrol per day.
This is considered a high amount of resveratrol; however, a new study shows that taking 2000 mg of resveratrol a day is beneficial. The high dose is anything over 1500mg of resveratrol each day.
Nobody knows the perfect amount of resveratrol to take.
These dosage levels are certainly quite argumentative when professionals talk them over. Just how much a supplement should take is one of the numerous factors involved in this. When it boils down to it, nobody knows what is correct for you besides your physician. Therefore, before taking resveratrol, you must seek medical suggestions from your routine doctor.
Remember that your doctor is the only one that can assist you effectively when selecting your Resveratrol dose level as they know your medical history. You must let your physician understand any medications you believe you might be allergic to. In this manner, you're not blending resveratrol with anything that might cause a harmful reaction, as resveratrol may make your current medications more powerful or last longer in your system.
The Best Resveratrol is Micronized Resveratrol.
Many other things need to be looked at closely before jumping onto the Resveratrol lifestyle. Nevertheless, the best Resveratrol supplements companies like RevGenetics will know and help answer any questions you may have about taking a Resveratrol supplement. Hopefully, this article helped you comprehend resveratrol a bit more. After all, it is an excellent discovery that has changed the lives of lots of people from different parts of the world. It might be the solution you need! If you're considering trying a resveratrol supplement, do not hesitate to click the links on the top menu of this post in the box labeled “Micronized Resveratrol” to see our current suggestions. | <urn:uuid:3f02a8a3-0322-474d-884d-3549b12b6faf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.revgenetics.com/a/news/what-resveratrol-dosage-is-recommended-by-the-ny-academy-of-sciences | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.933164 | 866 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Kristina Marinkovich, author of the cookbook “H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. Eats”, shares a recipe for Quinoa Fiesta.
Submitted by: Rachel Collins
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 cup quinoa
1 cup vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 cup corn kernels
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and jalapeno, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in quinoa, vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder and cumin, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro.
Get your copy of Kristina’s “H.E.A.L.T.H.Y. Eats” cookbook today by email. The proceeds go to Lifeline Humanitarian Organization Chicago. The organization benefits the handicapped, orphaned, and disabled of Serbia. | <urn:uuid:75f637d7-2329-4554-b75c-fac75f780684> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.abc23.com/newspost/healthy-eats-quinoa-fiesta-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.806208 | 334 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Firefighters are asking people to read up on water safety guidelines as the heatwave continues.
The 25 th of July is the World Drowning Prevention Day.
They said: “With the tragic news of a fourth death related to drowning in the past week we would urge everyone, particularly parents and guardians, to brush up on water safety awareness and skills.”
DFB are urging people to read the information provided on Water Safety Ireland’s website.
Water Safety Ireland said to be aware of submerged objects when swimming in rivers, lakes and inland safety.
They warn swimmers to take care when near the edge of riverbanks as they can crumble away suddenly.
Those heading to the beach this weekend are asked to swim near a lifeguard and with a friend.
Beachgoers should learn rip current safety and obey posted signs and flags.
Rip currents are the biggest hazard for those swimming in the sea.
They are particularly dangerous for weak and non-swimmers but can even sweep the strongest swimmers out to sea.
An Garda Siochána also reminded people to be careful this weekend.
They said: “25 th July is World Drowning Prevention Day.
“The Garda Water Unit would like to remind everyone to be careful when using our inland and coastal waterways.
“No matter what your ability is, anyone can drown, but no one should.” | <urn:uuid:5a22c50c-bf6a-4875-b000-0fd8d397fcac> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://voonze.com/dublin-fire-brigade-and-gardai-issue-water-safety-warnings-following-recent-drownings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.956503 | 294 | 2.828125 | 3 |
To counteract the record low 58.8% voter turnout in the 2008 federal election, there was an unprecedented push to engage voters this past election.
With only 37% of 18-24 year-olds casting a ballot in 2008, many of the ‘get out the vote’ efforts in 2011 were focused on young voters: Rick Mercer rants, vote mobs and vote socials, ShitHarperDid. It looked as if things might be different this time around.
So, what happened? Voter turnout was up slightly this election, to an estimated 61.4%—the third lowest in history. We're still waiting for full voter-turnout data so we don't know whether there was a significant increase in the youth turnout at the polls but there was some interesting data released by Statistics Canada yesterday looking at the reasons why people didn't vote.
The most common response: 28% of Canadians said they were "’not interested in voting’, which also includes feeling their vote would not have made a difference in the election results.” Reasons for not voting differed by age group:
“Among young people aged 18 to 24 who did not vote, the most common reason was that they were not interested in voting, cited by 30%. Another 23% reported they were too busy, while 11% said they were out of town or away.
“For adults aged 25 to 34 who did not vote, 31% indicated they were not interested in voting, while a nearly identical proportion (30%) said they were too busy.
“Among seniors aged 65 to 74 who did not vote, the two most common reasons were their own illness or disability (22%) and that they were not interested (21%). The most common reason among individuals aged 75 and over was illness or disability (44%).”Political parties tend to focus on older Canadians during election campaigns. There are proportionately a lot more older people in Canada—we have one of the world’s largest baby-boom populations. The median age in Canada today is 42 and the typical voter is in his or her early 60s.
According to a post-election analysis by Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research Associates, less than half of Canadians under 45 vote. Younger Canadians have a voting likelihood of at most 40%, decreasing to 30% for those under 25. Canadians over 45, who are more likely to favour the Conservatives, have a voting likelihood starting at 60% and rising with age to more than 80%.
Why are so many young Canadians opting out of the electoral process? The Statistics Canada survey is telling but has its limitations. When they asked Canadians why they didn't vote in 2011, "for the sake of brevity" StatsCan lumped together “not interested in voting” and “vote would not make a difference” when they are in fact two very different things.
My theory is that young people don’t vote because they don’t see the federal government as a force for change, not because they don't care. When was the last time a federal government instituted a new national program along the lines of CPP or Medicare (I'm not talking about PR stunts like the Millennium Scholarship Program or the Universal Child Care Benefit)? As a Gen-Xer, governments have been scaling back—cutting programs that benefit the many while cutting taxes for corporations and the rich—for as long as I can remember. The message to Canadians: “don’t count on us to help you out, you’re on your own.”
Our first-past-the-post electoral system is also a deterrent to many would-be voters, old and new. It’s easy to feel as though your vote doesn’t count but nothing could be further from the truth. The Conservatives won their majority by a combined margin of victory of just over 6,000 votes in the most closely contested ridings across the country.
Things in Ottawa would look a lot different if we had a strong youth vote, which is generally more progressive, to balance out the more conservative older vote. According to Frank Graves' report, if Canadians under 45 had voted in the same proportion as those over 45, there would have been no Conservative majority but more likely an NDP-led coalition.
Of course, our system is far from perfect but not participating in it only ensures it won’t change. Electoral reform is badly needed but it’s almost certainly off the table for at least four years. (Though that’s not to say we should stop pushing for it.)
The challenge now is how to engage and empower young Canadians—and not just during elections. There’s an inter-generational gap developing that can no longer be ignored. We need to ensure youth become more involved in the national conversation and make sure their voices are heard, instead of expecting them to do all the listening.
Kerri-Anne Finn is Senior Communications Officer with the CCPA National Office. | <urn:uuid:06eb81e6-f157-4089-9b23-cdc8e198657a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://monitormag.ca/articles/kids-these-days-canadas-inter-generational-voting-gap/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.980698 | 1,028 | 2.265625 | 2 |
At Section, we’ve been hard at work providing a Cloud-Native Hosting system that continuously optimizes the orchestration of secure and reliable global infrastructure for application delivery. If you’re a customer, you know Section’s sophisticated, distributed clusterless platform intelligently and adaptively manages workloads around performance, reliability, compliance, or other developer intent to ensure applications run at the right place and time.
In short, we make it easy to optimally run modern apps.
What would it take to roll your own version of the Section platform using off-the-shelf hyperscaler products from AWS, Azure, or GCP? And how close could you get to what Section offers?
Let’s run a little thought experiment using AWS as an example. To replicate the adaptive global Section platform, you’d first use AWS CloudFormation’s multi-region capabilities to simultaneously deploy identical Kubernetes clusters to all the AWS regions you select. Then, using AWS Global Accelerator it would be possible to dynamically route users via anycast to the Kubernetes cluster in the lowest-latency region for each user. The standard Kubernetes Horizontal Cluster Autoscaler and Horizontal Pod Autoscaler would allow management of your Kubernetes clusters so each region is only running the minimum infrastructure to service the active workload in the region.
How is this like Section?
This scenario would make it possible to deploy and manage apps using standard Kubernetes tools like kubectl, replicating what Section provides with our KEI Kubernetes Edge Interface. It would also allow deployment of applications in regions that are appropriate to your particular application (mirroring a key aspect of Section’s value proposition) – but only as long as those locations correspond to AWS regions. And it would ensure you only pay for the increased infrastructure in regions with an active workload (again, like Section).
Okay, so the big question: what are you missing taking this approach versus using the Section platform?
First and foremost, this approach requires you to be responsible for monitoring and operating all global Kubernetes Nodes. In contrast, Section’s Adaptive Edge Engine intelligently and continuously tunes and reconfigures your distributed delivery network to ensure your workloads are running the optimal compute for your application. In other words, we do this for you.
Second, this is a single-cloud deployment, limiting reach and resilience. Your region selection is limited to those provided by AWS, and when there is an inevitable outage your application will go down. Section, on the other hand, uses a federated multi-cloud on-demand network – we call it our Composable Edge Cloud – that distributes Kubernetes clusters across a vendor-agnostic selection of leading infrastructure providers (including AWS, Azure and GCP). This both extends the geographic locations your application can run, and means that even when there’s an outage with one provider your application workloads will dynamically adjust to run on another vendor’s network.
You will also pay for the minimum AWS infrastructure in each region, even when there is no traffic. With Spot Instance pricing this could be small enough to be negligible, and it’s possible using KEDA that you may even be able to scale-to-zero. However, this spend management and optimization is all on you, and be prepared to pay regardless of traffic if you don’t invest the necessary administration time. Section charges only for active workloads, and can dynamically spin workloads up and down based on policy parameters (for example: run containers where there are at least 20 HTTP requests per second) so you won’t pay at all when there’s no traffic.
Finally, you will be responsible for duplicating and maintaining clusters in each AWS region, and there won’t be any centralized management console to provide the necessary visibility into status and performance across all clusters and regions. At Section, the distributed network effectively becomes a cluster of Kubernetes clusters (i.e, clusterless) as our AEE automation and Composable Edge Cloud handles the global orchestration. Meanwhile, the Section Traffic Monitor and Section Console provide a single view of status, usage, traffic flow, and more.
So where does this leave us?
Overall, it’s possible to get many but not all of the same benefits you get with Section using a hyperscaler. However, with this sort of self-managed approach, it’s incumbent upon you to correctly configure and then continue to orchestrate the distributed network.
Or, as we like to say, you can just use Section. If you aren’t already a Section customer, get started with a platform demo today. | <urn:uuid:bf692645-29b8-409e-a1d2-e822e8fefdac> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.section.io/blog/building-distributed-k8s-orchestration-with-hyperscaler/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.900002 | 990 | 1.515625 | 2 |
What is it?
A ganglion is a harmless swelling, containing a clear jelly like substance. It is commonly found over the back or front of the wrist, the palm side of a finger or at the end joint of a finger (known as a ‘mucous cyst’). A ganglion may fluctuate in size and disappear spontaneously before reforming.
Who gets it and what causes it?
This condition can affect people of all ages but is noted to affect young people between 15 to 40 years of age more often. The ganglion is usually connected to the underlying joint or tendon by a stalk, which provides a route for the fluid to enter it and cause the visible swelling. The actual cause is unknown although various theories have been put forward.
What are the signs and symptoms?
The ganglion may be painful and aesthetically unpleasing. Sometimes when it swells up quite significantly it can cause pressure to surrounding nerves causing symptoms of numbness, tingling and weakness.
What tests will I need?
A consultation, involving a medical history and clinical examination, is usually sufficient to make a diagnosis but an X-ray may be taken to identify any degenerative disease in the joints. An ultrasound or MRI scan may also help confirm the diagnosis.
What is the treatment?
Treatment is not always necessary as ganglions are harmless and can just be observed. Ganglions can recede but it may take many years.
If the ganglion is painful or significantly interfering with your daily life there are a few treatment options.
Needle puncture and aspiration allows drainage of the fluid to reduce the swelling and this can be performed in the clinic. However, recurrence following aspiration is not uncommon. If there is recurrence then surgical treatment may be considered.
What does the surgical treatment involve?
Surgery removes the ganglion and a small part of the associated joint or tendon that is connected to the stalk of the ganglion. By removing the ganglion itself and the source of entry of fluid into the ganglion the recurrence rate is reduced.
Mr. Naqui performs wrist ganglion excision arthroscopically (key hole surgery). This usually requires 3 pinpoint skin incisions. Usually no stitches are required using the keyhole method. If you are interested in having your ganglion removed in this way, please discuss this at your consultation.
Surgery can also be performed in an open manner. In open surgery the surgical scar is usually 3 to 4 cm long. Stitches will be needed to close the wound and a dressing will be applied.
Surgery usually lasts between 30 to 45 minutes and is a day case procedure. Depending on the size and location of the ganglion, it may be done under local, regional or general anaesthetic (see FAQs page).
Mr. Naqui performs ganglion surgery at a number of hospitals around Manchester (see Hospitals page).
What happens after the surgery?
Taking simple painkillers such as paracetamol regularly for the first 2 days after the operation will help to relieve any post-operative pain. Stitches, if used, will be removed at 10-14 days after the operation either at your GP or at the hand clinic. Mr. Naqui and the hand therapist will provide you with specific exercises to perform after the surgery but early hand movements are advised.
When I can return to normal activity ?
If you are a manual worker it is advised to stay off work for around 6 weeks. If you work in an office a period of 2-4 weeks off work is sufficient. A return to driving is usually possible after the sutures, if used, are removed. A return to sports after 6 weeks.
What are the complications of surgery?
There may be pain and stiffness post operatively especially if there is underlying degenerative joint disease. The risks of infection and nerve damage are small. Recurrence of ganglion can occur in approximately 10 to 15% of patients.
We hope you are all safe and well during these difficult times. Our clinic is still open to offer help and advice via tele-video appointments. Please contact us by phone on 0161 495 7012 or email us at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:e4529047-8c93-413f-899c-64429a9435fc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.zafnaqui.com/hands-wrists/ganglion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.939919 | 889 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Several years ago we discussed the value of a project management framework as a way of generating a consistent approach to project management. Since then we have see more and more organisations adopting frameworks and getting benefits of improved governance, more consistent project delivery and generally less chaos and confusion.
Challenges implementing a project management framework
However adopting a project management framework the first time can be challenging for many organisations. They were unsure where to start and which elements they need. Many of the published approaches such as PRINCE2 and the APM or PMI Guides to the Bodies of Knowledge are too high level to apply directly. Often to overcome these problems organisations would employ consultants to spend many hours writing a project management framework for them. This is neither cost-effective nor is the framework very specific to the needs of the organisations. However this all change with the Praxis framework. The Praxis framework is an open source project management method which draws from different bodies of knowledge; to provide a consistent framework for project management. The nice thing about praxis framework is that most of the work is already done and those responsible for implementing the framework can focus on tailoring the model to fit their organisation.
So what is in the Praxis framework?
The praxis framework is organised into five areas. These are;
Knowledge which describes what project managers need to know in order to manage a project. Many of these were already familiar to project managers including stakeholder management, risk management, cost management and scheduling.
Processes which define step-by-step approaches to project management tasks such as defining the budget or preparing the project management plan. This section also includes template documentation such as the business case, risk registers and change control forms.
The third part the competency framework which can help identify how competence gaps in applying the knowledge and processes described above. This is very helpful in identifying those parts of project management individuals need to develop.
Fourth part is an organisational maturity model which looks at how well project management is applied across the organisation at a programme, portfolio or project level. This is helpful for organisations trying to understand where organisations need to target their development efforts.
The final section is a library which contains a comprehensive description of the models tools and techniques used in project management.
Where to start applying the Praxis framework?
But where do you start if you want to adopt a project management method based on the Praxis framework. Let’s set out a step by step guide
Step 1 Understand where you are as an organisation. The first step is to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. The best place to start applying the Praxis framework is an assessment project management competence for individuals or an assessment the overall project maturity. These assessments will indicate which areas of project management need development and they can be cross-referenced with the knowledge and process areas in the Praxis framework.
Step 2 Select the element of the Framework that you need. The Praxis framework covers the entire range of project, programme and portfolio management. This is going to be too complex for most organisations so you need to identify how to tailor the framework to fit the needs of your organisation. This should be based on the outcome of the needs analysis conducted in step 1. From this you should have a list of elements that you need, for example you may decide that you need a project mandate, but not a vision statement.
Step 3 Prepare a communication package to launch the Framework. You will need to communicate the Framework in your language, using your projects and examples. We find this is best done by a combination of a printed brochure and an intranet site for key documents. Pointing people to the complete Praxis framework is just going to be overwhelming for most people.
Step 4 Plan and implement a communications package. To get buy in you need to communicate the new framework across the organisation, so we recommend a launch road show, either face to face or online. Often training will be required to up skill teams in the key areas. The design of the training should be informed by the assessments in step 1.
Step 5 Monitor, measure and improve. Don’t expect to get it right first time. Any change in the way an organisation does projects is bound to generate resistance at first. The key thing is to listen and reflect on the feedback . However we would recommend letting the method settle for some time before making changes, if you change things to often people get confused and they need time to try it before they can give proper feedback. | <urn:uuid:d803dc46-6496-4b30-9761-6a67ddefd325> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.parallelprojecttraining.com/blog/using-the-praxis-project-management-framework/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573193.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818094131-20220818124131-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.935554 | 924 | 2.1875 | 2 |
International Maritime Organization (IMO) has announced the ban on carrying non-compliant fuel oil on ships to reduce ocean pollution.
IMO’s 2020 regulation to limit the use of sulphur in the fuel oil came into effect on 1 January.
The new regulations were imposed on 1 March. IMO has announced a 0.5% maximum amount of sulphur in ship fuel oil from the previous 3.5%. The ban is expected to benefit the environment and human health.
In addition, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships (MA RPOL) amendment bans the use of non-compliant fuel oil for propulsion and ship operation.
There is an exception when the ship is fitted with an approved exhaust gas cleaning system called scrubber.
In some areas, the permitted level of sulphur in the fuel oil is 0.1%. The emission control areas are the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the North A merican area and the United States Caribbean Sea area.
The request is based on the new research that found some of the blended low-sulphur shipping fuels contribute to highly polluting black carbon emissions in the environment.
In May 2019, CA A urged IMO member states to cut the impact of black carbon emissions from global shipping on the A rctic environment. | <urn:uuid:cb83d5c4-c7d0-4128-84dc-07017cde64da> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ship-technology.com/news/imo-non-compliant-fuel-oil-ships/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.955008 | 269 | 2.59375 | 3 |
For your travel to Bratislava, you can use both Bratislava’s and Vienna’s International Airport. The bus terminal at the Vienna’s International Airport is located just outside the arrival hall. A direct bus (Slovak Lines, RegioJet, Flixbus) will bring you to Bratislava’s main bus station in about an hour. For your subsequent journey, you can use:
For your stay in Bratislava, we recommend to choose from the following hotels:
- Falkensteiner Hotel Bratislava (booking link) - Book before 16th September! - Information about booking (pdf) [Room €109]
- Crowne Plaza Hotel Bratislava (booking link) - Book before 27th October! - How to book (pdf) [Room €110]
- Loft Hotel Bratislava - Booking code for 5% discount: webspecial [Room €75]
- Hotel Devin Bratislava (booking link) - Book before 4th October! [Room €99]
Information about Bratislava:
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. With a population of about 450,000, it is one of the smaller capitals of Europe but still the country's largest city. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 650,000 people. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two sovereign states.
The city's history has been strongly influenced by people of different nations and religions, namely (in alphabetical order) Austrians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs and Slovaks. It was the coronation site and legislative center of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1536 to 1783, and has been home to many Slovak, Hungarian and German historical figures.
Bratislava is the political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia. It is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament and the Slovak Executive. It has several universities, and many museums, theatres, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions. Many of Slovakia's large businesses and financial institutions have headquarters there.
In 2017, Bratislava was ranked as the third richest region of the European Union by GDP (PPP) per capita (after Hamburg and Luxembourg City). GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions.
For more see: https://www.visitbratislava.com/ | <urn:uuid:751d946c-c96c-4447-8e9a-b8a6aa469bee> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bratislava2019.technology-assessment.info/venue/location | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.908343 | 621 | 1.671875 | 2 |
In this talk, Vicent Peris will review his works in the astrophotography and image processing disciplines. Working as astrophotographer at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia, he leads an astrophotography project at Calar Alto Observatory in southern Spain. This is the first astrophotography project in the world with access to the observational time of professional telescopes (about 50 night per year). Along with this project, he is also co-founder of the Documentary School of Astrophotography, the first school of thought in the astrophotography discipline.
In addition, Peris has been a member of the development team of PixInsight during the last 10 years, an advanced, modular image processing software platform designed specifically for astrophotography and other technical imaging fields. He will show some of his developed techniques that are now implemented in this software and their applications on imaging fields like aerial photography, radiography or computer fluid dynamics.
Peris also has successful experience in forensic image processing and has worked during the last years as an image processing specialist for the Spanish National Police department. In this talk we'll review the application of some commonly used astronomical image processing techniques in forensic image analysis.
View the recording of this colloquium on the Seamless Astronomy YouTube Channel | <urn:uuid:99e9e5a3-bc33-449c-a9d6-33a6c6064fc8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://seamlessastronomy.org/event/concerning-astrophotography | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.95705 | 266 | 2.234375 | 2 |
EuroGOOS and Mercator Ocean International organised a one-day workshop gathering the Copernicus Marine Service TACs (Thematic Assembly Centres) and MFCs (Monitoring and Forecasting Centres), together with the EuroGOOS ROOSes (Regional Ocean Observing Systems) and Task Teams who operate and organise the European observing systems. The goal of this workshop was to:
- refine present and future Copernicus Marine Service requirements for in situ observing systems,
- review the status of the existing observing system based on an up to date status of EuroGOOS (ROOSes, Task Teams) networks and of their foreseen evolution.
Based on such anlaysis, a common understanding on the main gaps to be filled to fulfill CMEMS needs will be performed and lead to a reference CMEMS paper on in situ requirements (end of July) and the CMEMS OceanObs19 Community paper on observation requirements (end of September).
Euro-Argo presented the present status of the Argo network, the strategy for the evolution of the European contribution to Argo as well as the identified gaps in term of technological developments and funding to fully fulfil CMEMS requirements. | <urn:uuid:732f7e25-62ba-44a7-bf48-767ef02c527b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.euro-argo.eu/News-Meetings/News/News-archives/2018/CMEMS-in-situ-requirements-Workshop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.904796 | 244 | 1.5625 | 2 |
What You’ll Need: Paper plate (black, or you can paint a white one), black paint (optional), white string, hole puncher, scissors, construction paper & a marker (or spider stickers!).
Directions: Directions are pretty much self explanatory. Paint or color your paper plate black. Once dry, use your hole puncher to make holes around the outside of the plate. Cut a long piece of string, around 3 feet in length. Tape one end to the back of the paper plate and thread randomly through the holes to create a web design. Have your child draw a spider on the construction paper and cut out/glue down. See? So easy!! | <urn:uuid:e5d18c06-a458-4696-a9e9-6ca208d8f5f3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://learncreatelove.com/paper-plate-and-string-spiderweb-craft/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.878795 | 139 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Kids’ Advice For Living Life With a Smile
A group of kids are asked various questions about what makes us happy. How do you turn a frown upside down? Is laughing better than smiling?
These cheerful kids are asked to demonstrate various different smiles. I dare you not to smile back! These happy people know what they are talking about. They also give us some jokes to make us laugh. They have definitely succeeded in making us happy!
Want to see more HooplaHa Originals? Check out the HooplaHa YouTube page…and don't forget to smile! | <urn:uuid:cd7a6fc3-3af6-4dee-aa55-bcd7ea81a477> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.onlygood.tv/kids-live-life-with-a-smile-2078462542.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.951839 | 119 | 1.835938 | 2 |
- Open Access
A retinoid X receptor partial agonist attenuates pulmonary emphysema and airway inflammation
Respiratory Research volume 20, Article number: 2 (2019)
Retinoid X receptors (RXRs) are members of the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily that mediate signalling by 9-cis retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative. RXRs play key roles not only as homodimers but also as heterodimeric partners, e.g., for retinoic acid receptors, vitamin D receptors, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors. The NR family may also play important roles in the development of emphysema. However, the role of RXRs in the pathogenesis of emphysema is not well defined.
We developed a novel RXR partial agonist (NEt-4IB) and investigated its effect and mechanism compared to a full agonist (bexarotene) in a murine model of emphysema. For emphysema induction, BALB/c mice received intraperitoneal cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or intratracheal porcine pancreas elastase (PPE). Treatment with RXR agonists was initiated before or after emphysema induction.
Treatment with NEt-4IB significantly suppressed the increase in static lung compliance and emphysematous changes in CSE-induced emphysema and PPE-induced established and progressive emphysema. NEt-4IB significantly suppressed PPE-induced neutrophilic airway inflammation and the levels of keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), C-X-C motif ligand5 (CXCL5), interferon (IFN)-γ and IL-17. NEt-4IB also improved the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9)/tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) imbalance and the reduced anti-oxidant activity in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. NEt-4IB suppressed PPE-induced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in the airway. Treatment with NEt-4IB and bexarotene significantly suppressed the increase in static lung compliance and emphysematous changes. However, adverse effects of RXR agonists, including hypertriglyceridemia and hepatomegaly, were observed in bexarotene-treated mice but not in NEt-4IB-treated mice.
These data suggest that RXRs play crucial roles in emphysema and airway inflammation, and novel partial RXR agonists could be potential therapeutic strategies for the treatment of PPE- and CSE-induced emphysema.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by airflow obstruction that is not fully reversible, leading to respiratory insufficiency and functional disability . Existing therapeutic options for COPD can reduce symptoms and the frequency and severity of exacerbations. Nonetheless, these therapies are not able to effectively preserve lung function or completely palliate symptoms in COPD . Therefore, new anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies are required.
Recent investigations have demonstrated that nuclear receptors (NRs) are related to the development of COPD. Mice lacking peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) were reported to exhibit enhanced cigarette smoke (CS)-induced airway inflammation and emphysematous changes in the lungs . Rosiglitazone, which is an agonist of PPARγ, attenuated CS-induced airway inflammation and emphysematous changes in the lungs . Gene expression of liver X receptor (LXR) in the lungs was increased in COPD patients, and an LXR agonist exerted anti-inflammatory effects on C-X-C motif ligand 10 (CXCL10), C-C motif ligand 5 (CCL5), and IL-10 production by alveolar macrophages . Retinoid X receptors (RXRs) are NRs that control gene transcription in a manner dependent on ligand binding and act as homodimers or heterodimers with PPARs, LXRs, and other NRs [6,7,8]. These data suggest that RXRs may be potential targets for the prevention and management of COPD. The efficacy of RXR agonists for treatment of several diseases has been reported. For example, the RXR full agonist bexarotene has been used for the treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma and has been reported to have therapeutic potential for treatment of animal models of type-2 diabetes , Alzheimer’s disease , and Parkinson’s disease . We previously reported that a new RXR full agonist, NEt-TMN, has the potential to reduce adverse effects while retaining desired activities . However, RXR full agonists including NEt-TMN and bexarotene also induce various adverse events, such as weight gain, hepatomegaly, and blood triglyceride elevation, when used to treat underlying diseases .
Partial agonists have only partial efficacy on receptors relative to full agonists and exert both agonistic and antagonistic effects. Clinically, partial agonists can be used to activate receptors to give a desired submaximal response and prevent overstimulation or prolonged activation of receptors, which could cause adverse events. It was reported that activation of LXRα/RXRα induced increased levels of triglycerides in the serum . To avoid severe adverse events, we planned to induce moderate activation of RXRs sufficient to regulate airway inflammation and focused on the production of novel RXR partial agonists with lower maximum capacities to activate RXRs than that of full RXR agonists. We finally developed the innovative RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB, 55% of the activity of a full agonist in a luciferase reporter assay . In addition, we previously reported that long-term administration of NEt-4IB induced no significant adverse events .
In the present study, to determine whether RXRs play important roles in the development of emphysema and whether novel RXR partial agonists may be promising options for the treatment of emphysema, we investigated the therapeutic potential and adverse effects of these molecules on emphysema development and airway inflammation in a murine model of emphysema.
Female BALB/c mice at 8 weeks of age were purchased from Charles River Japan, Inc. (Yokohama, Japan). All experimental animals used in the present study were housed under a protocol approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Okayama University Medical School (Okayama, Japan).
COPD induction by cigarette smoke extract
For the preparation of cigarette smoke extract (CSE), 3R4F reference cigarettes were purchased from the University of Kentucky. One non-filtered cigarette was burned, and the smoke was passed through 8 ml PBS by connecting to a vacuum pump with a constant air flow of 2 L/min. The extract was used when the pH was between 6.2 and 6.4, and the OD at 320 nm was between 1.600 and 1.900. The extract was prepared fresh for each experiment and used for administration after adjusting the pH to between 7.00 and 7.40 and filtering through a 0.2-μm-pore filter to remove particles and bacteria. Mice were anaesthetized with isoflurane for administration of CSE. The experimental mice received 400 μl CSE intraperitoneally on days 0, 7, 14, and 21. The control mice received 400 μl phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at the same time points.
COPD induction by porcine pancreas elastase
Mice were anaesthetized with isoflurane for the administration of porcine pancreas elastase (PPE) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). The experimental mice received 50 U/kg PPE dissolved in 40 μl PBS via the trachea. The control mice received 40 μl PBS at the same time points.
Administration of the novel RXR partial agonist and bexarotene
The mice orally received a novel RXR partial agonist (0.005, 0.015%, or 0.05% NEt-4IB; see Additional file 1) or a full RXR agonist (0.015% bexarotene). In detail, mice were fed standard diet containing RXR agonist (mixed feed) with free eating system by mice. The control mice received vehicle. The changes of the weight of feed in each cage were measured every day or ever week according to the study protocol.
Determination of static lung compliance
A flexiVent small-animal ventilator (SCIREQ, Montreal, PQ, Canada) was used to assess static lung compliance (Cst), which is a measurement of the elasticity of the lungs. It was calculated from the pressure volume curves using flexiVent software (version 5.0) , as previously described. In brief, the mice were anaesthetized with 150 mg/kg ketamine and 10 mg/kg xylazine (Kyoritsu Seiyaku, Tokyo, Japan) by intraperitoneal injection. The mice were tracheostomized with a 5-mm section of metallic tubing (18 G cannula) and ventilated at 150 breaths/min with a tidal volume of 10 ml/kg and a positive end-expiratory pressure of 3 cmH2O, and Cst was then measured.
Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
Lungs were lavaged with Hanks’ balanced salt solution via the tracheal tube (2 × 1 ml, 37 °C), and the number of cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was counted. Cytospin slides were stained and differentiated in a blinded fashion by counting at least 200 cells under light microscopy.
Lung histology and morphometric measurements of air space size
The left lung was inflated by intratracheal instillation with 10% formalin at a static pressure of 20 cmH2O and fixed in 10% formalin. The tissue was then embedded in paraffin, and 2-μm thick sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Air space enlargement was quantified by assessing the mean linear intercept (Lm) and the destructive index (DI). Ten of tissue image fields were randomly selected from all parts of the whole lung at the height of the hilum from each mouse. The Lm, which represents the average size of the alveoli, was calculated by counting lines of a defined length, as previously described . In detail, we put 10 traversed lines provided at regular intervals on the lung section. A total number of intercepts with the lung structures on each traversed line are counted. A total 1000 lines per each mouse lung were evaluated. Lm is calculated as the ratio between the sum of the length of traverse lines and the sum of all the intercepts. The DI, which represents the proportion of destroyed alveoli among the total alveoli, was determined by dividing the number of identified destroyed alveoli. We put 50 counting points on each image. Only point putting on alveolar and duct space were counted. If a counting point was surrounded by normal alveolar or alveolar duct, they are considered as normal [18, 19]. Destruction was counted when there were more than two alveolar wall defects, when there were more than two intraluminal parenchymal rags in alveolar duct, when clearly abnormal morphology, or when classic emphysematous changes. More than 3000 alveoli randomly were counted in each group. DI was represented as percentage of the destructive alveoli as a fraction of total number of alveoli.
Cytokine and chemokine measurements
The cytokine levels in the BAL fluid and in the supernatants of homogenized lungs were measured by ELISA, as previously described . For preparation of lung homogenates, lung tissue was frozen at − 70 °C immediately after euthanasia. The lung tissue was mixed with a PBS-0.1% Triton-X100 solution containing proteinase inhibitors at a 1:2.5 ratio of weight per volume (Sigma-Aldrich). The specimens were homogenized and then centrifuged at 21,480 g for 30 min. The supernatants were frozen at − 80 °C until analysis. All cytokine and chemokine ELISAs were performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The limits of detection were 2 pg/ml for keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), 1.74 pg/ml for CXCL5, 2 pg/ml for interferon (IFN) -γ, 5 pg/ml for IL-17A, 1.8 pg/ml for IL-6, 4.8 pg/ml for IL-1β, 7.2 pg/ml for tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, 3 pg/ml for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), 0.014 ng/ml for matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), 3.5 pg/ml for tissue inhibitor of metaroproteiase-1 (TIMP-1) (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA), and 40 pg/ml for perforin (Diaclene, France).
Measurement of anti-oxidant activity in BAL fluid and serum
The anti-oxidant activity in the BAL fluid and the serum was determined by the bio-anti-oxidant power (BAP) test using a Free Radical Elective Evaluation FRS4 system (Diacron International, Grosseto, Italy), as previously described .
Measurement of serum parameters
Triglyceride (TG), glucose, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), amylase (AMY), and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) levels were measured using a Fuji Dry Chem system (Dry Chem 4000 V; Fuji Medical Co., Tokyo, Japan).
All results were described as the means ± standard error of the means (SEM). Statistical significance among all groups was detected by using a one-way ANOVA. Pairs of groups of samples distributed parametrically were compared by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-tests, and samples distributed nonparametrically were compared by the Mann-Whitney U test. Significance was assumed at P values < 0.05.
The optimal dosage of the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB in a murine model
We assessed the dose-related effects of the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB in a murine model of emphysema to determine the optimal dosage of NEt-4IB in an emphysema model (see Additional files 1, 2). These results suggested that the optimal concentration of NEt-4IB in our murine emphysema model was 0.015%; this concentration has therapeutic efficacy without inducing adverse effects and is consistent with our recent study in a murine model of asthma .
Treatment with the novel RXR partial agonist prevents CSE-induced emphysematous changes
We assessed the efficacy of the novel RXR partial agonist in CSE-induced emphysema (Fig. 1a). Intraperitoneal administration of CSE to vehicle-treated mice significantly increased Lm and DI values on day 28 compared to PBS/vehicle mice. Treatment with 0.015% NEt-4IB significantly suppressed the increases in Lm and DI values compared to the increases in CSE/vehicle mice (Fig. 1b). Representative light microscopic photographs of lung sections are shown in Fig. 1c. Additionally, the Cst values in CSE/vehicle mice on day 28 were significantly increased compared to those of PBS/vehicle mice, and treatment with NEt-4IB significantly attenuated the increase in Cst compared to that observed in CSE/vehicle mice (Fig. 1d).
Treatment with NEt-4IB suppresses established and progressive emphysematous changes
Next, we assessed whether NEt-4IB could prevent the progression of emphysematous changes (Fig. 2a). On the seventh day after first intratracheal administration of PPE, emphysematous changes in the lungs were already observed in PPE-treated mice. Lm and DI were significantly increased in PPE/vehicle mice compared with PBS/vehicle mice on day 7 (Fig. 2b). To further evaluate the progression of emphysematous changes, PPE/vehicle mice were administered a second dose of PPE on day 7. This additional PPE instillation significantly promoted the increases in Lm and DI compared to those observed in both PPE/vehicle mice on day 7 and PBS/vehicle mice on day 21. Interestingly, treatment with NEt-4IB from days 7 to 21 significantly suppressed the PPE-induced increases in Lm and DI compared to those observed in PPE/vehicle mice on day 21 (Fig. 2b). Representative light microscopic photographs of lung sections are shown in Fig. 2c. According to the pulmonary function test, the Cst values in PPE/vehicle mice on day 7 did not significantly increase compared to those of PBS/vehicle mice. However, after the second PPE instillation, the Cst values in PPE/vehicle mice on day 21 did significantly increase compared to those of PBS/vehicle mice, and treatment with NEt-4IB significantly suppressed this increase in Cst value compared to the increase observed in PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 2d).
Treatment with NEt-4IB attenuates PPE-induced airway inflammation
To determine whether treatment with NEt-4IB can affect inflammatory changes in the lungs, we assessed airway inflammation in BAL fluid or lung tissue in a murine model of PPE-induced emphysema (Fig. 3a). The numbers of macrophages, lymphocytes, and neutrophils in BAL fluid were significantly increased in PPE/vehicle mice compared to PBS/vehicle mice. Treatment with NEt-4IB significantly reduced the numbers of total cells and neutrophils in BAL fluid compared to those seen in PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 3b). The levels of KC and CXCL5 in BAL fluid and IFN-γ in lung tissue were also significantly increased in PPE/vehicle mice compared to PBS/vehicle mice (Fig. 3c a, b, f). Treatment with NEt-4IB significantly reduced the levels of KC and CXCL5 in BAL fluid and IFN-γ and IL-17 in lung tissue compared to levels in PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 3c a, b, f, g). PPE did not significantly increase the level of perforin in the lung compared to that of PBS/vehicle mice; nevertheless, treatment with NEt-4IB tended to reduce this augmentation (Fig. 3c e). IL-6 and IL-1β levels in the BAL fluid were below the threshold of measurement sensitivity (Fig. 3c c, d), and there was no significant difference in the levels of TNF-α in lung tissue (Fig. 3c h).
Treatment with NEt-4IB improves the PPE-induced proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance in BAL fluid and the reduction of anti-oxidant activity in the airway
A proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance has been implicated in COPD pathogenesis in both experimental models and humans. We assessed the MMP-9/TIMP-1 balance on day 4 and anti-oxidant activity on day 1 (Fig. 4a). The MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio in the BAL fluid was significantly increased in PPE/vehicle mice compared with PBS/vehicle mice, but treatment with NEt-4IB significantly decreased the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio (Fig. 4b). Oxidative stress has also been associated with the pathogenesis of COPD in both experimental models and humans. Therefore, we assessed anti-oxidant activity in BAL fluid and serum on day 1. Anti-oxidant activity in the BAL fluid was significantly reduced in PPE/vehicle mice compared to PBS/vehicle mice, and treatment with NEt-4IB significantly improved the reduction of anti-oxidant activity in BAL fluid. This anti-oxidant activity in the serum was not reduced by PPE instillation, although treatment with NEt-4IB significantly increased the anti-oxidant activity compared to that in PBS/vehicle and PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 4c).
Treatment with NEt-4IB suppressed PPE-induced VEGF expression in the airway
Angiogenesis-induced airway remodelling plays an important role in the pathogenesis and the development of COPD . We assessed the levels of VEGF in the acute phase on day 2 and the late phase on day 14 in our mouse model (Fig. 5a), and the levels of VEGF significantly increased in PPE/vehicle mice compared to PBS/vehicle mice. Treatment with NEt-4IB significantly attenuated the increase of VEGF levels in PPE/NEt-4IB mice compared to PPE/vehicle mice on both day 2 and day 14 (Fig. 5b, c).
Comparison of the effects of RXR partial agonist (NEt-4IB) and full agonist (bexarotene) on Lm, DI and Cst
We compared the efficacy of the novel RXR partial agonist (NEt-4IB 0.015%) with that of the RXR full agonist (bexarotene 0.015%) (Fig. 6a). Treatment of PPE-treated mice with bexarotene (PPE/bexarotene 0.015%) significantly suppressed the increases in Lm and DI values observed in PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 6b). Representative light microscopic photographs of lung sections are shown in (Fig. 6c). According to the pulmonary function test, treatment with bexarotene and NEt-4IB significantly suppressed the PPE-induced increase in static lung compliance observed in PPE/vehicle mice (Fig. 6d). There were no significant differences in Lm, DI, and Cst values between PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice and PPE/bexarotene 0.015% mice. These data suggest that RXR agonists have the potential to attenuate the development of emphysema.
Comparison of adverse events associated with NEt-4IB and bexarotene regarding the liver weight to body weight ratio and serum parameters
The amount of feed intake per day per mouse was not significantly different in each group (Additional file 2). To assess the adverse effects associated with RXR agonists, we measured the body and liver weight (Additional file 2) and the liver weight to body weight (L/BW) ratio and serum parameters (Table 1, Additional file 1). Treatment with NEt-4IB significantly improved the PPE-induced suppression of the ratio of BW change in a dose-dependent manner (Additional file 1D), but liver weight in PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05% mice significantly increased compared to PPE/vehicle mice. Furthermore, liver weight of PPE/bexarotene 0.015% mice was significantly higher than that of PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05% mice (Additional file 2). The L/BW ratio in PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice was slightly increased compared to that of PPE/vehicle mice, but there was no significant difference between PBS/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice. In contrast, the L/BW ratio in PPE/bexarotene 0.015% mice was significantly higher than in PBS/vehicle, PPE/vehicle, and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice (Table 1). Regarding serum parameters, the level of TGs in PPE/vehicle mice was significantly lower than that of PBS/vehicle mice. Treatment with NEt-4IB 0.015% significantly improved the PPE-induced suppression of TG, and there was no significant difference between PBS/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice. In mice treated with bexarotene 0.015%, the TG level was significantly increased compared to those of PBS/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice. Treatment with NEt-4IB 0.015% did not affect the levels of glucose, AST, ALT, ALP, LAP, or AMY in blood serum, which were measured to evaluate liver and pancreas damage. In contrast, serum levels of ALP and AMY in bexarotene-treated mice were significantly increased compared to those of PPE/vehicle mice, and serum levels of ALP in bexarotene-treated mice were significantly increased compared to those of PBS/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% mice (Table 1).
In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that RXRs may have important roles in the development of emphysema, and our novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB exhibited therapeutic potential for use in a murine model of emphysema. Our data clearly showed that treatment with NEt-4IB significantly suppressed histologic emphysematous changes and the increase in Cst values, as supported not only by the attenuation of neutrophil accumulation and expression of neutrophilic chemotactic factors but also by improvements in the proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance and in the reduced anti-oxidant activity. Furthermore, treatment with NEt-4IB significantly attenuated the increased VEGF levels in emphysematous mice, which is an important factor for the development of airway remodelling, and suppressed both established and progressive emphysematous changes. These data acquired for both PPE- and CSE-induced emphysema models suggest that the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB has the potential to attenuate the development of emphysema.
RXR, retinoic acid receptor (RAR), and the associated ligands play critical roles in the generation of the lungs. High concentrations of retinoid binding protein and retinoic acid binding protein are observed during the perinatal period : furthermore, RAR and RXR play important roles in the generation of the lungs and in septation of the alveoli . Many studies in animals and humans have been conducted using retinol and retinoid derivatives, which activate RAR and RXR. Am80, which is an RAR alpha agonist, had therapeutic effects in a murine model of emphysema . In contrast, all-trans retinoic acid improved the diffusing capacity of the lung carbon monoxide (DLCO) and CT density score in patients with emphysema with some adverse effects, although no clinical benefit was reported . Palovarotene, a selective RARγ agonist, failed to induce clinical effects in patients with moderate to severe COPD . These data suggest that RAR agonists alone may not have sufficient therapeutic potential to prevent and improve emphysema. RXRs function not only as homodimers but also as permissive heterodimers with PPAR and LXR . Therefore, RXR agonists may exert potential effects on RXR/RXR, PPARγ/RXR and LXR/RXR.
Bexarotene, which is an RXR full agonist, is known to be effective against cutaneous T cell lymphoma in humans and has been reported to have therapeutic potential in animal models of type-2 diabetes , Alzheimer’s disease , and Parkinson’s disease . However, bexarotene has various strong adverse events, such as weight gain, hepatomegaly, hypertriglyceridemia, pancreatitis, and hypothyroidism . Therefore, we developed a novel RXR partial agonist, NEt-4IB, that reduced adverse events in these assays, in contrast to full agonists, even after 28 consecutive days of administration . Partial agonists are drugs that bind to and activate a receptor but exert only partial effects on the receptor relative to a full agonist. We believe that an important key property of partial agonists is that they display both agonistic and antagonistic effects. Weak partial agonists are compounds that are able to produce only a small percentage of the total response produced by an agonist and that act predominantly as antagonists. Strong partial agonists may come close to mimicking the maximum effects of a full agonist and may display only weak antagonistic ability. Clinically, partial agonists can be used to activate receptors to give a desired submaximal response and prevent overstimulation of receptors, which could result in adverse events. NEt-4IB was found to have a maximum RXR activation efficacy of 55% compared with full agonists based on a luciferase reporter gene assay . To assess the clinical advantages of NEt-4IB compared to bexarotene, we compared the effects of NEt-4IB and bexarotene in a murine model of PPE-induced emphysema. Treatment with bexarotene attenuated PPE-induced emphysematous changes to the same extent as treatment with NEt-4IB, but bexarotene induced less favourable side effect profile than NEt-4IB in the assays studied. We found that administration of bexarotene induced hepatomegaly, hypertriglyceridemia, and ALP and AMY elevation, which were not observed upon treatment with NEt-4IB. Although we did not evaluate the dose-related effects of bexarotene, the human equivalent dose (HED) of bexarotene in the mice in our study (HED 1.5 mg/kg) corresponded to approximately 20% of the dose of bexarotene used to clinically treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma (300 mg/m2). It was demonstrated that even a low dose of bexarotene induced hypertriglyceridemia and could cause pancreatitis . These data suggest that NEt-4IB treatment has promising therapeutic potential without inducing the severe adverse events associated with bexarotene treatment.
Accumulation of inflammatory cells, including neutrophils, macrophages, and CD8+ T cells, a proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance, apoptosis, and oxidative stress may play important roles in the pathogenesis of COPD . Neutrophils, which secrete MMP-9, cathepsin G, and neutrophil elastase, are a predictor of the disease severity of the emphysematous component of COPD [29, 30]. Human MMP-9 induced emphysema in a murine model , and an MMP-9/TIMP-1 imbalance was observed in COPD patients with exacerbations . According to these data, controlling neutrophilic inflammation may prevent the progression of emphysema. Various nuclear receptor agonists were reported to control neutrophil accumulation and the expression of MMP-9, and agonists of PPARγ and LXR exerted some anti-neutrophilic inflammatory and protective effects in the development of emphysema in a murine model . Bexarotene reduced the levels of MMPs and increased the levels of TIMPs in human alveolar adenocarcinoma cells and in a rat model of cerebral ischaemia . Our data show that treatment with NEt-4IB significantly reduced the levels of IL-17, KC and CXCL5 in BAL fluid and the levels of IFN-γ in lung tissue, consequently reducing neutrophil accumulation and improving the MMP-9/TIMP-1 imbalance in the airways. In the present study, the levels of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α did not increase after PPE-instillation. The cause of this is likely that 50 U/kg PPE may not be sufficient for inducing these cytokines in our murine model of emphysema. While eosinophilic inflammation in the airway of COPD patients has recently attracted significant clinical attention, we previously demonstrated that NEt-4IB significantly suppressed airway hyperresponsiveness and eosinophil accumulation in the airways and attenuated the levels of IL-5, IL-13, and NO in BAL fluid. NEt-4IB also reduced the numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, TNF-α levels, and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) expression in lung tissue in a murine model of allergic asthma . Taken together, these findings indicate that the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB regulates airway inflammation and prevents the progression of various phenotypes of emphysema.
Oxidative stress plays important roles in the pathogenesis of COPD . Smoke from cigarettes, wood, and plastic contains high concentrations of free radicals and other oxidants [35, 36]. Oxidative stress is increased in smokers and patients with acute exacerbations of COPD , and the levels of oxidants in exhaled breath condensate are increased in patients with COPD . PPARγ regulates gene transcription, acting as a heterodimer with RXR, and PPARγ/RXR promotes Nrf2, which regulates the transcription of genes, including the anti-oxidant response element . In the present study, treatment with NEt-4IB significantly increased anti-oxidant activity in BAL fluid compared to PPE/vehicle mice. There was no significant difference in the anti-oxidant activity in the serum between PBS/vehicle and PPE/vehicle. Although intratracheal administration of 50 U/kg of PPE could not induce systemic inflammation which could reduce anti-oxidant activity in the serum, treatment with NEt-4IB significantly increased the anti-oxidant activity compared to PPE/vehicle mice. These data suggest that NEt-4IB may have the potential to induce anti-oxidant activity by the anti-oxidant response element activation via PPARγ/RXR.
Chronic airway inflammation results in airway and vascular remodelling in COPD as it does in asthma . The air flow limitation caused by airway remodelling is one of the important factors leading to the pathogenesis of COPD . VEGF could have important roles in airway inflammation, tissue remodelling, and angiogenesis in COPD . VEGF levels were significantly higher in the sputum of COPD patients compared to non-smokers . The expression of VEGF in the bronchiolar epithelium, bronchiolar vascular smooth muscle cells, and bronchiolar airway smooth muscle cells was significantly increased in COPD patients compared to non-COPD patients . In addition, the increased VEGF levels were inversely correlated with the values of FEV1 in COPD patients . Furthermore, the blockade of VEGF significantly suppressed small airway remodelling in a rat model of COPD . These data suggest that suppression of VEGF in the airway may be a therapeutic strategy to prevent the progression of COPD. Although few data have been reported regarding the relationship between angiogenesis and MMPs in the pathogenesis of COPD, the levels of MMP-9 and VEGF in sputum were significantly higher in asthma patients compared to non-asthma patients, and the levels of MMP-9 were significantly correlated with the levels of VEGF. Moreover, administration of VEGF receptor inhibitor reduced the levels of MMP-9 . The agonists of PPARγ, RAR and RXR are suggested to act as inhibitory NRs in the context of angiogenesis via reduction of VEGFC production in brown adipose tissue . Although active all-trans RA (ATRA), which is a strong pan RAR agonist, stimulates angiogenesis and induces production of VEGFA and VEGFR2 mRNA in human lung microvascular endothelial cells, endogenous RA signalling may regulate alveolar maintenance and repair . Our data show that treatment with NEt-4IB, which is a selective RXR partial agonist, did not activate RARs and significantly suppressed the PPE-induced augmented VEGF levels in BAL fluid in both acute and late phase emphysema. These data suggest that a selective stimulation of RXR by NEt-4IB may have a therapeutic potential to attenuate the progression of airway remodelling by persistently suppressing VEGF levels. In addition, the therapeutic capability of NEt-4IB to improve the proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance may result of suppressing VEGF production via NR signals.
Although the mechanism of RXR partial agonists in the progression of emphysema are not fully elucidated, NEt-4IB may play a critical role in controlling the accumulation and activation of neutrophils by suppressing IL-17, KC and CXCL5 and by regulating the activation of Th1 cells. There are some limitations of this study design. First, we did not measure lung volumes. Lm can be used as a surrogate for airspace size and contains both alveoli and alveolar ducts, however it was reported that there was a significant correlation between Lm and DI, and DI is a more sensitive parameter for parenchymal alternation than Lm in human lung . In our study, the values of Lm, DI and Cst which we measured to evaluate emphysematous change of the lung were consistently attenuated by the treatment with NEt-4IB. Although we did not measure lung volumes, our data could evaluate the effects of NEt-4IB in a murine model of emphysema. Second, we could not apply the long-term CS-exposed emphysema model, because this systematic protocol was not approved by the institutional animal care and use committee of Okayama University Medical School.
Our study demonstrated for the first time that treatment with the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB holds therapeutic potential for the development of emphysema. The mechanism of this novel RXR partial agonist may be that it plays a crucial role in attenuating neutrophilic airway inflammation, correcting the proteinase/anti-proteinase imbalance, and improving insufficient anti-oxidant activities. Although additional studies will be required to demonstrate that NEt-4IB may partially and permissively affect heterodimeric partners such as LXR or PPARs, NEt-4IB could be a promising strategy for the treatment of emphysema.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Cigarette smoke extract
Static lung compliance
C-X-C motif ligand 5
Diffusing capacity of the lung carbon monoxide
Human equivalent dose
Liver weight to body weight ratio
Mean linear intercept
Liver X receptors
Phosphate buffered saline
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors
Porcine pancreas elastase
Retinoic acid receptors
Retinoid X receptors
Tissue inhibitor of metaroproteiase-1
Tumour necrosis factor-alpha
Vitamin D receptors
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The authors sincerely thank Dr. Masayuki Hanaoka (Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan) for the suggestion regarding the preparation of cigarette smoke extract in the animal model of emphysema.
This study is supported in part by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Japan, 2646118906 (A.K.).
This study is supported in part by the Translational Research Network Program from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED (H.K.).
Availability of data and materials
This study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Okayama University Medical School. Approved number is OKU-2014526.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Treatment with the novel RXR partial agonist NEt-4IB (0.015%) suppresses PPE-induced emphysema and body weight loss without hepatomegaly. (A) Experimental protocol. (B) Lm values. (C) Representative photographs of H&E-stained lung tissue (magnification: X200) (a) PBS/vehicle, (b) PBS/NEt-4IB 0.015%, (c) PPE/vehicle, (d) PPE/NEt-4IB 0.005%, (e) PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015%, (f) PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05%. (D) The ratio of body weight change during experiment. (E) The liver weight to body weight ratio on day 14. The results for each group are expressed as the means ± SEM. This experiment was started with 8 mice in PBS/vehicle, PBS/NEt-4IB 0.015%, and 10 mice in PPE/vehicle, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.005%, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015%, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05%. No mice were died during the experimental period. * Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PBS/vehicle and PPE/vehicle. ** Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PPE/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.005%, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% or PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05%. # Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PPE/vehicle and PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015% or PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05%. † Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05% and other groups. (PDF 6712 kb)
Absolute body weight, liver weight, and the amount of feed intake containing NEt-4IB and Bexarotene. The results for each group are expressed as the means ± SEM. This experiment was started with 8 mice in PBS/vehicle and PBS/NEt-4IB 0.015%, and 10 mice in PPE/vehicle, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.005%, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015%, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05%. No mice were died during the experimental period. * Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PPE/NEt-4IB 0.05% and PBS/vehicle, PBS/NEt-4IB 0.015%, PPE/vehicle, PPE/NEt-4IB 0.005%, or PPE/NEt-4IB 0.015%. † Significant differences (P < 0.05) between PPE/Bexarotene 0.015% and other groups. (PDF 29 kb)
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Morichika, D., Miyahara, N., Fujii, U. et al. A retinoid X receptor partial agonist attenuates pulmonary emphysema and airway inflammation. Respir Res 20, 2 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-018-0963-0
- Retinoid X receptor
- Neutrophilic airway inflammation
- Matrix metalloproteinase-9
- Anti-oxidant activity
- Vascular endothelial growth factor | <urn:uuid:beafb8bd-87a7-41b6-9775-5c9b8894c7a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12931-018-0963-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.900274 | 12,824 | 1.554688 | 2 |
On September 8, 2011, the New-York Historical Society opened its doors to our Remembering 9/11 installation. With photographs, newspaper clippings and audio accounts of the events of September 11, 2001, we wanted our gallery to be a place to remember and reflect on the events and the time that has passed. With that in mind, we’ve encouraged those who visit to share their thoughts in a guestbook or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. So far, they’ve had a lot to say.
Below is a visual of the most common words and phrases shared by those who have left their thoughts with us; the collection straddles the line between painful and hopeful, with words like “tragedy” juxtaposed with “building” and “survivors.” It’s a testament to the pain felt in the city, and the country, but also our ability to endure and thrive as a nation of people of all backgrounds and beliefs. Here are a few reflections from the visitors so far:
“I had been resisting participating in 10th anniversary events but this feels just right. Thank you.”
“It’s so painful to revisit and yet so important to never forget all 3,000 who died that day and all the others who have died of lung diseases because they helped clean up.”
“Memories sometimes fade away with time. A look at your exhibit, however, opens them up with such heart wrenching pain that Americans must never forget a tragedy of such magnitude.”
Remembering 9/11 is on display through April 2012, and is free now through November 10, 2011. here is new york @ 195 Broadway, a special memorial exhibition of more than 500 images on loan from the New-York Historical Society, is also on view in the historic lobby of 195 Broadway, presented by L&L Holding Company. We encourage visitors to leave their thoughts on both exhibits with us in our guestbook at Remembering 9/11, or on Facebook and Twitter. | <urn:uuid:1e3ae7a8-a9f9-4b67-9e3b-a754e4d90469> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-words-of-remembering-911 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.972897 | 426 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Temperature probe Pt100/B for low temperatures. Temperature range -190 to +150°C. PTFE covered cable 2m, 4-wires, IP67 probe in in stainless steel tube 50mm.
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rod and connected with a 4-wire cable. 2-, 3-, or 4-wire connection can be used. | <urn:uuid:46506aaf-d526-42d7-813f-5e9812ff712d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://new.hwg.cz/sensor/probe-pt100-tr125-2m | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.799392 | 251 | 1.5625 | 2 |
|KUBI Camp Lets Children of Incarcerated Parents ‘Just Be a Kid’|
|By Rachel Friederich, Washington Department of Corrections|
Twenty-two children hiked through the woods, swam in a lake, ate sloppy joes and sat around a campfire.
They laughed and giggled while doing normal kid stuff.
“I like the arts and crafts,” said 13-year-old Ja’Shon.
“The archery is really fun,” added his 12-year-old sister, Maliyah.
They’re like most kids their age. Except they have a parent in prison.
The same was true for all campers at the Kids United By Incarceration summer camp, also known as KUBI. The Department of Corrections, in partnership with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington, hosted the camp August 28-31 at Camp Lyle McLeod, a slice of wilderness along Lake Bennettsen, just west of Belfair.
The camp is a way to give kids who have an incarcerated parent an experience they might not otherwise have been able to have. And to do so with peers, who are struggling with the same emotions and stigmas that can come with having a parent behind bars.
“Ultimately, it gives them the freedom to be who they are and there’s no judgement here,” said Cory McLaughlin, a classification counselor at the Washington State Penitentiary, who has volunteered at KUBI camps for the past couple years. He and other employees from at prisons, headquarters, and field offices from all over the state volunteer as camp counselors. “They know that every kid they’re looking at has a similar situation to them and the great big secret they have isn’t such a secret anymore and they can just be a kid.”
KUBI camp launched in 2015. It was so successful the following year, Corrections partnered with the YMCA to launch a second KUBI camp in eastern Washington, at Camp Dudley in Yakima County. The eastern Washington camp, held Aug. 23-25, hosted 18 kids.
"I appreciate the agency staff who are giving their time to support this important effort at KUBI camp," said Corrections Secretary Stephen Sinclair. "While this is not our agency's typical work, it reflects the values of our agency by empowering those who want to learn and grow. The agency has always supported and engaged families in our facilities and those in community supervision, and KUBI camp is a different approach to help support strong families, which is in line with Governor Inslee's vision of safe and healthy Washington children and youth."
Ja’Shon and Maliyah have attended three camps. They say they spent a lot of time this year helping staff set up activities and serve as leaders, introducing new kids to camp.
He says it’s hard learning how to talk about a mom or dad who is in prison.
“For some kids it was a little bit difficult because when I bring it up, then they start to cry,” Ja’ Shon said. “I try to cheer them up and say it’s going to be okay.”
Messages from Behind Bars
The camp also serves as a way for parents to stay involved in their kids’ lives, even if they have to do so from behind bars.
Incarcerated fathers at the Washington State Penitentiary made hand sewn bears to give to the campers, while incarcerated mothers at the Washington Corrections Center for Women made the campers’ t-shirts.
All the campers’ incarcerated parents filled out applications and wrote letters explaining what it meant for them to have their son or daughter attend camp. Bea Giron, family services unit specialist, read the letters to each child on the final day of camp:
“Before I got in prison, I really struggled to provide the basics. KUBI summer camp would be an awesome opportunity to meet new friends, create some memories and come off of summer on a positive note.”
“I want him to know that I want to be a part of his life, even though I can’t take him to do some of these activities myself.”
“My daughter has never been to camp before. I want to make a big impact in her life. She’ll benefit a lot from this camp. It’ll open her horizons to new things and let her see a whole new world instead of the environment she’s used to.”
“I want my boy to have fun and not be sad. He’s a good kid who deserves a couple of days to enjoy nature and other kids whose parents are also incarcerated.”
“It will help her with her self-esteem and other issues she may have. It means giving her something of her own, even if I can’t be there for her and maybe she can learn some skills to help cope with my incarceration.”
“I don’t think it’s about what it would mean for me, but more what it would mean for them. It would be an experience for them to appreciate and remember for years. These types of activities will have a positive impact on them. I want to be heavily involved in my children’s lives and let them have the opportunity to explore what it means to them.”
“I want them to know that they are not alone.”
Rachel Friederich is a Communications Consultant for the Washington State Department of Corrections. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from Central Washington University. She has worked communications and public relations for various Washington non-profit organizations as well as a reporter at newspapers and radio stations across Washington including The Daily World, Yakima Herald-Republic, and KGY-AM in Olympia.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | <urn:uuid:84a07ed7-a2d0-4c57-907e-3198e6e8bad0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.corrections.com/news/article/47396-kubi-camp-lets-children-of-incarcerated-parents-just-be-a-kid-?utm_source=CCNN_ezine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CCNN_ezine_2017Dec27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.972002 | 1,258 | 1.664063 | 2 |
October is national Breast Cancer Awareness month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States (except for skin cancers). Most doctors believe that early detection tests for breast cancer save thousands of lives each year, and that many more lives could be saved if more women and their health care providers took advantage of these tests.
Let’s take a look at three breakthrough technologies that are helping to fight breast cancer.
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientist Deborah Kelly has developed a new set of tools to help doctors view cancer cells at an unprecedented resolution.
Kelly and her team developed the microchip-based toolkit to examine the genetic material contained within the breast cancer cells. They prepped the genetic material and applied it to microchips coated with antibodies raised against the BRCA1 protein. The antibodies recruited the BRCA1 protein assemblies that were tethered to the microchip surface. This allowed researchers to get a closer look at the nature of the protein interactions.
Doctors at St. Vincent Carmel Women’s Center in Indiana are using two new technologies to help fight breast cancer.
The first is called radioactive seed localization. It helps doctors easily locate where cancer is within the breast tissue and improves clinical outcomes and the patient experience.
The second piece of new technology is called The MarginProbe. It’s the first and only FDA-approved technology that allows for real-time analysis of the outer layer of cells of the tumor once it’s removed.
New ultrasound technology developed in Detroit can potentially detect breast cancers masked by dense breast tissue more accurately and comfortably than conventional ultrasound and mammogram.
Instead of compressing the breast between two plates and manipulating it to various viewing angles, the SoftVue technology has the patient lie on a table with the breast submerged in warm water. It takes less than two minutes to scan and never touches the patient.
What did we miss? Share links to your favorite innovative finds in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out last week’s Innovation Friday.
Disclosure: Lexmark is not endorsing any products or features shared in this Innovation Friday blog post. It’s just stuff we think is really, really cool and innovative. | <urn:uuid:67d7e2f8-d59c-4f02-9e1e-b75d6f68671d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://etsconnect.com/innovation-friday-breast-cancer-awareness-month/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.942498 | 458 | 3.265625 | 3 |
He recalled Benedict XVI’s assertion that the crisis of the Church is “essentially a crisis of the liturgy because it is a crisis of the relationship with God.”
“If God is not at the center of the Church’s life, then she is in danger of death,” the cardinal said.
Sarah also emphasized that the liturgy is about God, not the community or the individual. This reality, he said, is expressed well when the liturgy is said ad orientem, meaning with the priest facing the altar rather than the people.
The cardinal also explained why he thinks silence is important in the liturgy.
“When man remains silent, he leaves a place for God,” he said. “On the contrary, when the liturgy becomes chatty, it forgets that the cross is its center, it organizes itself around the microphone.
He said these questions are crucial, “because they determine the place we give to God,” and lamented that they had become “ideological.”
Factional struggles within the Church are a source of suffering for him, he said. “Too often we act as if everything is a question of politics, power, influence and the unjustified imposition of a hermeneutic of Vatican II that totally breaks and is irreversibly at odds with Tradition.”
He declared it “false” that he is opposed to the Second Vatican Council because he speaks of a sense of the sacred in the liturgy.
“I don’t believe that the struggle between progressives and conservatives has any meaning in the Church. These categories are political and ideological,” he stated, adding that “the Church is not a field of political struggle.”
“The only thing that counts is to seek God ever more deeply, to meet him there and humbly kneel down to adore him.”
It is unfortunate, Cardinal Sarah went on, that there are “idealogues” who set the pre-Council Church against the post-Council Church.
(Story continues below)
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According to the cardinal, these people “are dividers; they are doing the work of the devil.”
“The Church is one, without rupture, without changing course, because her Founder ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,’” he said. “She goes towards God, she directs us towards him. From the profession of faith of St. Peter to Pope Francis through Vatican II, the Church turns us towards Christ.”
Now that he is retired from the Congregation for Divine Worship, Sarah said he intends to continue working and is happy to have more time to pray and read.
“I will continue to write, to speak, to travel. Here in Rome, I continue to receive priests and faithful from all over the world,” he said.
Sarah will also continue to serve as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, where he said he sees “with immense joy how the Church is bursting with holiness.”
“More than ever the Church needs bishops who speak clearly, free and faithful to Jesus Christ and to the doctrinal and moral teachings of his Gospel,” he said. “I intend to continue this mission and even amplify it.” | <urn:uuid:b7421127-7c86-4e3b-a120-61175078e01d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246804/cardinal-sarah-says-he-has-never-opposed-the-pope-in-first-interview-since-stepping-down | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.974342 | 837 | 1.726563 | 2 |
We were glad of an extra day in Port Blair which allowed us the time to visit the notorious cellular jail and then take a short ferry ride over to tiny Ross Island which served as the capital of the Andaman Islands during the British occupation from 1858 to 1941 afterwhich the Japanese occupied the island and used it as a POW camp.
The Cellular jail was built because it was felt that the prisoners (mostly political) banished from India by the British had it “too easy” compared with other prisoners in regular Indian prisons. As if the concept of banishment wasn’t enough!
The following excerpt from proceedings of the Home Department which describes the reasoning behind sending prisoners from mainland India to the prison colony is chilling:
“The separation resembles that which takes place at that moment of death. The criminal is taken for ever from the society of all who are acquainted with him and conveyed by means of which the natives have an Indistinct notion over an element they regard (ed: the ocean) with extreme awe to a distant country of which they know nothing from which he is never to return.”
However, in the eyes of the British administration banishment alone was too good for prisoners who had the temerity to rise up against British rule and the Cellular Prison construction began in 1893 with the jail being completed in 1906.
This three storey structure comprising seven “spokes” leading from a central watch tower was where each prisoner arriving in Port Blair was put in solitary confinement for six months (and more if they did not comply with the many rules). Each cell wing faced the back of the next wing, with only a small vent near the ceiling for air circulation so the prisoners could not talk to or signal one another. The walls between each adjoining (tiny) cell were solid and thick, preventing any communication between prisoners.
Each prisoner had only a wooden bed, a blanket, an iron plate and bowl and an earthen pot. There were no toilets and the prisoners were only allowed to use the latrines three times a day. Any request to use the facilities at other times was met with “outrage”.
The prisoners were locked in their cells at 6pm and the doors were opened again after 6 am. During the day they worked yoked to a mill, pressing oil, and if they failed to reach their target amount were brutally punished. For some, the grinding physical work and the loneliness of being in solitary confinement was too much and they hung themselves rather than live such a dreadful life.
Of the seven original wings only three remain today – the rest were destroyed by earthquakes and bombing in WWII.
After spending a couple of rather melancholy hours walking round the prison we took a small ferry over to Ross Island.
In its heyday the diminutive island (only one square kilometre) was a thriving and vibrant community with shops, a fabulous bakery, printing press, well kept streets, sturdy houses, a massive Governor’s residence, Churches, clubs and even a swimming pool. Supposedly it was once known as “Paris of the East” but I’m not sure who by!
It was poignant walking round the island and seeing the once fine homes, shops, clubs and other buildings collapsed and being overtaken by strangler figs like a modern day Ankor Wat.
You could almost hear the echo of plummy English accents and the clink of teacups, the thwack of a tennis ball, far off laughter. Away from the brutality of the prison life, it must have been a wonderful haven for all those who resided on Ross Island – what a contrast to life in the Cellular Jail.
Earthquakes and war, abandonment and looting all hastened the demise of Ross Island’s structures. The final blow came with the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 when the little island bore the brunt of that horrific onslaught, saving Port Blair from the worst of the marauding wall of water.
Now, apart from the crumbling buildings, the island is home to a massive herd of spotted deer, domestic rabbits and a large number of handsome peacocks.
As we waited for the ferry back we were dazzled by a gorgeous kingfisher that flew directly in front of us – its vibrant azure plumage flashing in the sunlight. The water clarity was astonishing for a spot so close to a busy port and it was delightful to watch the clouds of blue and yellow fish darting through the shallows.
We spent our final evening in Port Blair in the rooftop bar and restaurant at Seashells Hotel with Yantara and one half of the Smart Choice crew (the other half was on their way back to Australia by air). It was a great evening and we ended up dancing (oh no, old people dancing arggh!) to a two piece band who came from Nagaland – way up in the Northeast of India near the Chinese border.
We had a thrill a minute ride back to the jetty being hurtled around in the two tuk Tuks that took us home. It was a giddy end to an amazing and fabulous four weeks in the Andaman Islands.
Read more about these wonderful islands at:
Or my previous blog post: | <urn:uuid:21c75818-579c-4885-81ea-16675d424bcc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://saltytalesfrombalihai.com/2017/06/14/contrasting-lives-the-freedom-fighters-and-a-privileged-few/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.976275 | 1,070 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Every day at work something amazes me. That’s why I wrote this book – so you can be amazed too!
Andrea Wild is a science writer at CSIRO who works with the National Research Collections, Australia which is home to over 15 million natural history specimens! She wrote this book for young readers so that they can also be amazed by what she sees every day – and she has done a great job at this!
Written from A-Z, each double page spread includes two animals that start with that letter. Phographsy from the collection or field are used for some of these animals but there are also some fun illustrations by Rachel Tribout that either show items that could not be photographed or possibly don’t exist – think Loch Ness Monster!
The reason I like this book is that children love anything A-Z – it gives them a bit of joy to go searching for letters in their name and seeing what matches up for them. It also gives them an accessible way to know more about different living things from a broad range of species rather than having to specifically go to a particular book on one area of living things.
With a focus not only on animals, children will learn also about how plants are important to our biodiversity along with insects and even stars.
The photographs not only give the reader a view of what the item really looks like, many also include the scientists who are researching every day to learn more about how these living things interact in their environment.
The more we know about the biodiversity of this planet the better we can educate others on how to care for it. The idea of A to Z shows just how important everything is and that even the most unassuming letters of X,Y and Z have the more intriguing creatures associated with tme!
This is an excellent book for older readers (10 and up) due to the language used in the text BUT the photographs and illustrations can help younger readers to engage too. A great book for the science classroom, the literacy block and lovers of nature. | <urn:uuid:4d5b61d4-b1be-4bd5-b916-b0a880b6869c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://books4sustainability.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/amazed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.964221 | 412 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Large Cheerleading organizations like USA Cheer and the U.S. All-Star Federation (USASF) have stated missions to "enrich the lives" of the girls & boys that they teach. They also have a duty to protect them from harm. Sadly, potentially thousands of children suffered routine sexual abuse while attending Cheer training and events overseen by these companies, and the organizations protected themselves by covering up the crimes instead of standing up for the children who were being abused. This happened across the country, over and over again.
Because of these matters' sensitivity, all survivors' names and information will be kept in the strictest confidence.
Although some of these organizations report as "non-profits" they are anything but. In fact, a Private Equity firm recently purchased the parent company of one cheerleading organization for a reported $2.5 Billion.
Though the core principles of Cheerleading have long been to teach children to be helpful to others, physically strong, mentally awake, and morally centered, the leadership of the national organizations has failed its children by not holding to those values themselves. Countless lives were damaged or destroyed as a result. If you have been a victim of these failures to protect, register today to ensure yourself the ability to get the compensation that you deserve.
Our experienced team will evaluate your claim and help you maximize the amount of money you receive. Time is limited. Act now to receive compensation. | <urn:uuid:1e3878e1-71a6-4e87-a203-a5acda4aaa59> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://survivor-claims.com/cheer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.962725 | 304 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Introduction: A TOTE-ally Easy Way to Help the Earth
I've got one, my friends have them, and I'm willing to bet you've got one, too.
Oh, sure, we try to hide them. We stash them under our kitchen sink or in the back of a drawer.
I'm speaking, of course, of the evil wad of plastic grocery bags (more than 500 billion of them are used every year worldwide). These ubiquitous little devils seem to multiply like crazy, and we know they're no good for the environment. To learn more about the environmental effects of disposable grocery bags, please read Step 7:Get informed.
The best solution is to carry your own re-usable sacks. You've probably thought about it before or seen them in your local grocery store. You were probably turned off by their cost and dreadful appearance, usually featuring a big corporate logo.
With this instructable I'm going to show how you can make your own durable, stylish tote bags for very cheap, even if you have little to no experience with sewing. I use a very simple design to create a fully lined bag which will be amazingly strong (no more chasing your canned good around the parking lot!) The next time that greasy little bagboy asks you if you want paper or plastic you can tell him to stop pushing those evil things on you... or you could just ask him politely to use your totes instead.
This instructable is written assuming that you have little to no experience with sewing.
The sample items made in this tutorial are also available to be purchased at my etsy page http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6135809
Step 1: Everything You'll Need to Get Started!
I put a lot of thought into the design of the tote for this instructable. I decided it had to meet three requirements:
1. The supplies need to be cheap
2. The bag has to be strong enough to hold groceries
3. the design has to be easy enough for anyone to follow
Here are your required materials:
-- 1/2 yard of fabric
If you've never bought fabric before, just go to a local sewing or craft store and start wandering around. When you find the one you like, just grab the big thing of fabric (the 'bolt') and take it up to the cutting counter. They'll cut it to any length you need. For this project I'll suggest that you stay away from anything that stretches. it probably isn't worth the trouble. Prices are generally printed on one end of the cardboard center and refer to the cost per yard. Depending on what fabric you choose, you shouldn't have to pay more than a couple of dollars for your fabric. (If you're using the same fabric for the straps as the main bag you will need to add 8-12 inches to the length you buy.)
Note: A standard pillowcase is usually the right size to use in place of the fabric, this can make the project even cheaper!!
For the straps of your bag you can choose to sew them from the same material as your main bag, from a contrasting fabric, or use 'webbing' or 'strapping' (that's the stuff they use on most backpacks) If you want to sew your own you'll only need 8-12 inches of fabric (a little more for thicker straps)
--Sewing machine or needle and thread
You just need to be able to sew a reasonably straight line.
-- Straight pins
although not entirely necessary, they will make things much easier
makes bumpy things smooth, or make creased folds
any stuff you want to sew/glue/iron on to make your bag unique (Step 6 has a few ideas for decorating your bag)
Step 2: Prepare Your Straps
If you're attaching purchased straps or using ribbon you can skip this step, otherwise:
img 1 Cut the fabric that you picked for the straps in half lengthwise so that you have two 4-5 inch wide strips.
img 2 Next, with the outside facing down, fold the long edges of the outside edges in so that they meet in the center. Iron this flat.
Fold the strap in half lengthwise. You should now have a strap with four layers of fabric 1-3 inches wide (depending on what you started with)
img 3 Finally, stitch along length of the straps on the edge of the fabric with the folded in sides, holding together the open side.
img 4 This is a quick illustration of cutting and attaching straps made from the same fabric as your main bag. (The darker areas show the fabric being used for straps)
Step 3: Attach the Straps to the Bag Fabric
img 1 Unfold you fabric and lay it out flat. It should be 18" on the short side. The long side's length will vary depending on the fabric.
img 2 Fold the short lengths of the fabric in towards the middle. They should overlap just a little.
img 3 Fold the whole thing in half with the open edges inside. This is about what the final size of your tote will be.
img 4 Lay your straps down on the fabric how you want them and begin to pin. Make sure to pin only to the top layer of the folded fabric, and that you place a pin near the top of the bag where you will stop stitching.
img 5 Once you've finished pinning the first side, flip the bag over and pin up the other side the same way
Step 4: Stitch the Straps in Place
img 1 As long as you were able to pin only to the top layer of fabric you should be able to unfold the fabric completely and your straps will be pinned to the middle of the fabric
img 2 Stitch along the straps, securely attaching them to the main bag fabric. Make sure to stitch across the strap where the pins stop.
Step 5: Sew the Body of the Bag
img 1 Fold the straps in towards the center and fold the main piece of fabric in half so that the straps are on the inside (it will be inside out when you sew it) You can pin the edges together if you like.
img 2 Sew along the open sides of the bag except for a 4-6 inch section on the short side. When you finish your sewing reach into the unsewn section and turn it inside-out (now the right side with the straps should be on the outside)
img 3 fold the loose edges of the hole to the inside and stitch across the fabric as close to the edge of the fabric as you can.
img 4 Now you have big rectangle of fabric with straps sewn on one half. The half with no straps is the lining, so pull apart on the straps and push the lining down into the other half.
Now sew or tie the ends of the straps together and you have your basic tote bag!
The next step will cover a few easy techniques for adding more flair to your brand new bag.
Step 6: Extras! Add Flair to Your Bag!
There are an infinite number of ways that you can add to or change this design to personalize your tote bag and make it really special. I'll share a few ideas here.
img 1 to add a pocket to the front of your bag, just sew a rectangle the size you want for your pocket and pin it in place while you're pinning on your straps in step 3. Sew the sides up with the straps and put an extra line of stitching along the bottom of the pocket.
img 2 Even very simple applique can add a lot of character to a bag. For this example I used stiff craft felt with a little sparkle to it (unfortunately the sparkle doesn't show up well in the photos). Use a simple zigzag stitch around the shape during step three, after the straps are attached.
img 3 If you want the lining to be a different color from the outside, just use two pieces of fabric sewn together. Actually, you can use as many pieces of fabric as you want, as long you end up with a piece that is 18" wide and four times as long as you want it to be tall.
img 4 box corners are an easy way to add stability to the bag, make a stronger and better looking bottom. To do this, just fold the bottom corners of the bag towards the straps, flattening out the side seam. stitch around the triangle shape that will form.
img 5 Ribbon, Lace, Buttons, Beads, or patches can be sewn, glued or ironed onto your bag to add the little details that make your bag stand out. Fabric paints or markers are an easy way of adding flair as well. Your only limit is your imagination!
Step 7: Get Informed
I feel very strongly about the need to reduce the numbers of disposable bags we all use. There are serious effects throughout the lifecycle of these bags. From production, to transportation, to disposal, It is staggering to try and wrap your mind around the statistics involved. I hope that you'll read what I've written here, maybe check out a few of the links I've included at the bottom and seriously consider carrying your own bag. Just think of the difference you could make, even if you reduce just some of the bags you carry home.
- Plastic or paper bags are not really free. The cost of these bags is figured in when the store sets the prices on their product. Reducing the number of bags a store has to buy will reduce their cost, which they can pass on to you.
-According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
- Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas, nonrenewable resources.
-There are no wide-spread recycling programs for plastic bags, it would cost too much for too little result.
- 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic and much of this is plastic bags.
What about the paper bags?
-Paper comes from trees (obvious, I know)
-Most paper bags are made from virgin materials (not recycled) or with a very small recycled content because recycled paper is generally not as strong.
-Paper bags weigh more than plastic and therefore require more resources to transport
- It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
Energy required to produce bags (in British thermal units): Plastic bags: 594 BTU; Paper bags: 2511 BTU.
Here are a few links to learn some more: | <urn:uuid:791cac02-f4cd-4208-848b-6f382f58f074> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.instructables.com/A-TOTE-ally-easy-way-to-help-the-Earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.944237 | 2,355 | 2.046875 | 2 |
A ceramic pizza oven makes the preparation and the cooking of pizza in your home easier and faster. The oven was originally made to make pizza, even the Italians agree on this.
The oven has the characteristics of the conventional oven used for cooking pizza. What makes it better than the latter version is that it is faster, more efficient, and sells at a much cheaper price.
The big secret behind the savory pizzas made from the smoker is their being cooked on a porous plate. To make a pizza of your best, adjust the temperatures and the fuel while cooking. You can also Buy amazing pizza online at Enzo’s Pizzeria in Preston
There can never be anything in this whole wide world that can have a better taste than an oven-roasted pizza.
The pizza oven is made of an exterior of ceramic material that enables it to retain high heat and give pizza the right temperatures to cook under 350 degrees centigrade.
It uses either charcoal or seasoned wood as fuel. The pizza is usually ready within 30 minutes. It is portable, can be used to bake bread or do barbecues, needs only half an hour of warm-up, the pizza gets a crispy base after cooking.
The oven is portable, its stand is steel and zinc coated to prevent rusting.
A ceramic smoker cooks much slowly and at low temperatures. It takes a lot of time to cook but it is much economical and gives a fresher and a tasteful flavor to the food, unlike metal smokers. | <urn:uuid:12adf921-3fa3-40db-a0e2-d5047aea8010> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://antivirusservicenumber.com/the-best-food-experience-with-ovens-and-cookers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.954382 | 308 | 1.710938 | 2 |
We’ve used a Human Centred Design approach
Human Centred Design techniques have been at the heart of the project. By conducting user-research and workshops with relevant stakeholders, an in-depth understanding of existing EIA processes, challenges and pain points has been established.
So, whilst a variety of opportunities to design for have been revealed, the report is just the start – an opening selection of ideas. The hope is that this work will start a conversation and have a catalytic impact by encouraging you, and everyone in the EIA ecosystem, to get involved in making the changes needed.
- Interviewed 45 people from a variety of relevant organisations
- Held 3 collaborative workshops
- Defined 6 key challenge areas
- Developed seven idea groups
- Taken a closer look at three of them, designing user interface (UI) prototypes and developing roadmaps for each
We identified three key stakeholder groups
The EIA process has three key stakeholder groups
- Proposers – Such as developers and major infrastructure providers
- Reviewers – Such as local authorities, statutory consultees and the general public
- Producers – Such as EIA consultants and their data specialists
The existing journey is complex and chaotic
A typical EIA journey was mapped from the workshops and interview findings. This identified the pain points in the process, which then informed our ideas:
Key challenge areas
Following our identification of pain points on the process map, we were able to cluster these into key challenge areas which we have listed in the report.
Opportunities for improvement and innovation
The identification of key challenge clusters facilitated collaborative development of a number of opportunity areas for transformation:
- Data digitisation – The process needs to systematically collect, feed, store and access data in a standardised machine readable format, to allow recouping and recycling within and across assessments.
- Streamlined processes – The EIA process needs to be streamlined, where previous stages inform and build subsequent ones, e.g. the Scoping process should automatically generate the EIA chapters template.
- Real-time collaboration – A digital EIA should allow multiple stakeholders to write, collate, model, and assess impacts simultaneously, while managing, visualising and tracking overall progression.
- Improved communication – The Environmental Statement needs to explore new technologies and visualisation to communicate the impacts in an accessible, interactive, transparent and personalised way.
- Feedback-based iterative evolution – The whole assessment needs to be reviewed by post-development monitoring to re-configure mitigation, environmental baseline and re-assess methodologies.
We have developed seven high-level ideas
Following our research and a series of idea generation workshops, we were able to cluster our ideas into seven concept areas which aim to solve the challenges identified earlier in our design process.Read more | <urn:uuid:da509ae3-e9f6-42c8-990a-9ce30dd8d0df> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://digitaleia.co.uk/our-journey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.917412 | 579 | 2.125 | 2 |
The Facebook Messenger application is continuously being used to communicate with friends and family over the popular social network. It can also be used by businesses through their Facebook pages to talk to customers. Recently, the social media portal has started rolling out a new feature called “Secret conversation,” wherein the messages being sent and received by parties would have end-to-end encryption embedded into them for a more private way of talking to each other. However, unlike a similar feature in WhatsApp, this end-to-end encryption would not be turned on by default and users can opt to toggle the feature on and off whenever they wish.
Facebook Messenger Adds Optional End-to-End Encryption to Messages
According to an official blog post from the social network regarding this subject on Facebook Messenger that was posted last Friday, it stated the following: “We’ve heard from you that there are times when you want additional safeguards — perhaps when discussing private information like an illness or a health issue with trusted friends and family, or sending financial information to an accountant.”
The Messenger app has also taken measures in making sure that messages found in chats still remain secure, even if a user’s device would get lost or stolen. With Secret conversation turned on, the application will allow users to set an expiry date on a message. In other words, the message will self-destruct after a set amount of time, which is a similar feature found in Snapchat. Once the time on the message runs out, said message will vanish from all devices of all users found within a chat. The social media portal also published details pertaining to the feature on White Paper.
With the use of end-to-end encryption, it means no one would be able to see your messages except that of the receiver and the sender. Even the team over at Facebook would not be able to see what you are talking about in the application. This has already faced excellent popularity over the recent years. Mainstream companies, especially those found in the tech industry, use this functionality in their products to boost protection from cyber security.
Facebook Messenger joins in the ranks for the booming demand for end-to-end encryption as there is now a looming threat that there are terrorists that take to cyber space for their attacks. Users would be able to initiate secret conversations, they would just have to tap on a friend’s name at the top of the current message thread, then there will be an option to start the end-to-end encryption on the messages.
Share This on Facebook | <urn:uuid:9a9cce07-3ab2-4077-bd1b-c00468d7670c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://begadgets.com/facebook-messenger-social-network-rolls-out-secret-conversations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.959629 | 517 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Microneedles made from a range of materials including silicon, metals and polymers have considerable potential for inexpensive disposable patch delivery of drugs and vaccines. The design of robust microneedle arrays for reliable skin penetration, with or without applicators, cost-effective manufacture, and drug and vaccine storage strategies such as dissolving microneedle tips are some of the key areas of current R&D.
Contributions to the thematic issue are invited, including but not limited to, the topics: microneedle design, materials, manufacturing processes and scale-up potential, novel materials, skin penetration modelling and experiments, controlled insertion applicators as well as applications R&D including preclinical and clinical studies.
The guest editors are Philip Prewett from the University of Birmingham, Graham Davies from the University of New South Wales and Zahra Faraji Rad from the University of Southern Queensland.
Submission Deadline: May 1, 2022
28 Jan 2022 | <urn:uuid:e172f26f-bcb3-4729-8c61-70d6ac5863f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/news/7GMG2ICD545NYXULJHTBXPVAMY | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.926981 | 195 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Biocompatible Fillings in New Jersey
At Holistic Dental Center, we take a holistic approach to your dental care while integrating traditional medicine. Our holistic dental care process uses biocompatible materials at our practice. We believe that biocompatible fillings are the best choice for you and your health, and we are committed to providing you with the highest quality care.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment and learn more about these safe and effective dental fillings and which are right for you.
What are biocompatible fillings?
Non-toxic dental materials like biocompatible fillings work with the body, not against it. These non-reactive materials do not release substances into the circulatory system, so they do not cause allergic reactions, biodegradation, or carcinogens.
At the Holistic Dental Center, we opt to use fillings made from materials compatible with the human body and have minimal impact on overall health. Our biocompatible filling materials are tooth-colored, but more importantly, they are:
- Free from BPA and Bis-GMA
What We Know About Dental Fillings
Over 100 years ago, dentists began placing a combination of metals in patients’ mouths as dental fillings. This amalgamation of metals is composed primarily of toxic mercury, followed by a blend of silver, copper, tin, and other trace metals.
Most general dentists no longer use amalgam fillings because advanced technology has allowed for better options. Because they no longer use mercury amalgam fillings, many practices present themselves as being “mercury-free.”
However, this doesn’t always mean they will use safe removal protocols to replace existing mercury fillings. If the removal process isn’t done correctly, you may be exposed to additional mercury vapors and particles when having a filling removed or replaced.
Be careful when presented with this common marketing tactic. Not all dentists who advertise themselves as “mercury-free” actually offer mercury-safe practices.
Oral Health Benefits of Using Biocompatible Fillings
Biocompatible fillings are an excellent choice for both your oral and overall health.
There are many benefits of biocompatible fillings, including:
- Safety: Biocompatible fillings are made of materials that will not cause any adverse reactions in your body and are mercury-free. This makes them an excellent option for patients with allergies or sensitivities to certain materials.
- Aesthetics: Biocompatible fillings can be made to match the color of your teeth so that they will blend in seamlessly with your smile.
- Durability: Biocompatible fillings are solid and long-lasting, and they will not discolor your teeth or harm your body as toxic metal fillings can.
Compatibility of Dental Materials
It’s important to know what dental materials are made of, especially for patients with allergies or medical conditions that may compromise the immune system because their bodies are already working overtime to combat these problems.
With biocompatible dentistry, we use dental materials and products that naturally align with the human body, maintaining or improving the patient’s overall health. For patients who have chemical sensitivities, we use a blood test called a Clifford Materials testing profile.
Even if you don’t have known or existing health problems, patients should consider the Clifford Materials testing profile as a preventive measure before replacing any fillings. Because our bodies are constantly exposed to environmental toxins, we want to minimize any additional toxin exposure as much as possible.
Common Dental Materials Used in Fillings
There are several different types of dental materials available, and your dentist will choose the one that is best for your particular situation.
Porcelain biocompatible fillings are made from a ceramic material similar to natural tooth enamel. They are solid and durable, and they can be color-matched to blend in with natural teeth. In addition, porcelain biocompatible fillings are less likely to cause sensitivity than other fillings.
Composite Resin Fillings
Composite resin fillings are also more aesthetically pleasing, and we can match them to the natural color of the teeth. However, not all composite resin materials are created equal. Holistic dentists believe that oral health is essential to overall health, and they strive to use only safe, biocompatible materials in their practices. We’ve selected specific composite resin materials that are free of BPA, Bis-GMA, and fluoride.
Biocompatible Fillings FAQs
Yes, we do! Our skilled and certified dentists can safely remove a patient’s amalgam fillings and replace them with biocompatible materials that are safe for your body and mercury-free. We know patients’ concerns about mercury toxicity and mercury exposure, so we offer a safe, mercury-free amalgam removal treatment.
Contact Us for Biocompatible Fillings
If you are looking for an effective way to restore your smile that’s free of toxins and mercury metals, biocompatible fillings may be the proper treatment. We offer various restorative dentistry services that can help improve your oral health and overall well-being. Our dentists will consider our patients’ whole bodies for treatment, not just their teeth.
Contact the Holistic Dental Center of New Jersey today to learn more about biocompatible dentistry and schedule an appointment with our dental team. | <urn:uuid:a8f6db27-7b97-422c-af5b-a3c86e5439a0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://holisticdentalcenternj.com/biocompatible-fillings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.906056 | 1,186 | 2.296875 | 2 |
I have a first day routine that I am very proud of. I have used it for 25 years and I think I finally have it down pat. I have spoken to students from 20 years ago at reunions and they tell me that they still remember the first day of chemistry so I think it is pretty good.
Last night I had the opportunity to do another lab that I wrote with my students. It is so exciting to see something go from words on a screen to a group of students working together in a laboratory. I learned so much as I walked around the room last night. Here are a few highlights:
Students combine sodium carbonate and hydrochloric acid generating carbon dioxide gas which is allowed to escape. They measure the actual yield of carbon dioxide produced (missing mass), calculate the theoretical yield using stoichiometry, and then the percent yield. Students understand that 100% yield is the most appropriate answer (based on the Law of Conservation of Mass), so after considering the meaning of significant figures and the uncertainty of their measurements they are asked to decide if they did (or did not) get an answer that might indicate the validity of the Law.
Congratulations to Grazyna Zreda who solved the Chemical Mystery of the Mentos candies! To conduct this trick, two white Mentos candies are placed in separate beakers that both contain universal indicator.
National Chemistry week 2014 will be upon us in a little over a month.
Check out the answer to Chemical Riddle #2.
A student of mine, Anthony Shepherd, and I worked together to develop a new chemical riddle. Check out the video and see if you can come up with an answer.
In this Activity, students use citric acid and baking soda to make "bath bubblers" similar to those sold in bath and body stores. They investigate the fizzing reaction that occurs when the bubblers are added to both cold and hot water. Bringing this real world product into the classroom adds interest and can lead to creativity, while introducing both acid/base concepts and rates of reaction.
In this Activity, students extract a fluorescent substance from shavings of narra wood. The pH-dependent fluorescence can be turned on and off using household acid and base solutions. A yellow filter blocks the exciting light but not the fluorescent emission. This Activity gets students thinking about the interaction of light and molecules.
In this Activity, students gain an understanding of the importance of reading reagent labels both in chemistry class and on consumer products. Students explore the chemistry behind the directive on a package of Kool-Aid "Do not store in a metal container". The Activity illustrates properties of acids and metals. | <urn:uuid:934c4bc0-693e-4d80-b59e-5c9be3a955a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.chemedx.org/category/chemistry-topic/acids-bases?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572063.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814173832-20220814203832-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.945275 | 550 | 3.1875 | 3 |
In 2017, around 35,000 Congolese refugees fled conflict and violence from Kasai region in DRC to Lunda Norte Province in Angola, leading UNHCR and the Government of Angola to declare an emergency situation. Lovua settlement was then established on Sep 2017.Since then, the 2017 Kasai refugees, as they are referred to, have been granted asylum and provided with assistance and protection mainly in Lovua Refugee Settlement and other neighbouring areas.
This report comprises active refugee population originating from DRC Kasai region as registered by UNHCR until 31st August 2021.
▪ 100% of 2017 Kasai population were granted refugee status upon arrival.
▪ 70% of refugees live in Lovua Settlement.
▪ 30% live in out-of-camp settings.
▪ 100% of registered refugees are issued household documentation by UNHCR.
▪ Births and deaths are recorded weekly.
▪ Registration of new arrivals has been put on hold by GoA since Oct 2017.
▪ Since mid-2019 more than 14,000 refugees have spontaneously returned home, while 2,912 refugees were supported to voluntarily repatriate in coordination with the Governments of DRC and Angola.
▪ In March 2020, voluntary repatriation was suspended due to the closure of Angolan borders given the COVID-19 crisis.
▪ UNHCR proGres database is used for documentation, case management and planning | <urn:uuid:4b3bd6fc-009c-4934-8273-1b71901ba515> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://reliefweb.int/report/angola/angola-monthly-refugee-population-statistics-2017-kasai-active-refugee-population-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.960345 | 294 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Get to Know the Artist — Takashi Murakami
Drawing from traditional Japanese painting, sci-fi, anime and the global art market, Takashi Murakami creates paintings, sculptures, and films populated by repeated motifs and mutating characters of his own creation. His wide-ranging work embodies an intersection of pop culture, history, and fine art.
PANGAIA: How did you create the bee and flower print?
TM: My old friend Loic’s wife, Jasmine, has been involved in projects for a good cause, and she reached out to me with a request to collaborate on the theme of flowers and bees. The bee is an entirely new, original character that we are revealing for the first time.
PANGAIA: What is the importance of the bee print?
JM: To raise awareness on the importance of bees, and their plight. It is very special and quite rare for Takashi to create a new character for a collaboration and we are so honored and grateful for this.
PANGAIA: What/who are your biggest influences and inspirations?
TM: In the past it would have been AKIRA’s author Katsuhiro Otomo and the animation director Hayao Miyazaki, of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, but these days I think I have mostly been influenced by tremendous natural disasters. Both the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 and the current Coronavirus pandemic have greatly affected my view of life and death.
PANGAIA: Why did PANGAIA choose to work with Takashi Murakami?
JM: Apart from being one of the most important contemporary artists, the flower is a signature motif and icon of Takashi's work. Bees play a key role in, and are not only responsible for, pollinating a variety of fruits, nuts, and vegetables, but also flowers. This collaboration was a great way to share this message in a fun and creative way with one of our favorite artists on the planet.
PANGAIA: What does sustainability mean to you?
TM: I don’t know if this has anything to do with sustainability, but I have been developmentally challenged and have always had a difficult time throwing things away. When my staff accidentally throws something away that I had left on the floor in my room, I would get unreasonably angry. As someone with such a mental problem, it feels a bit strange to see people purposefully recycling things for sustainability.
PANGAIA: What is your favorite color?
TM: Pink, purple, and white.
PANGAIA: What do bees mean to you?
TM: I love honey, and have ordered and tried 20 or so different kinds. Ultimately the kind I liked were those made from milkvetch and apple.
PANGAIA: How has your perspective changed through the collaboration?
TM: To be honest, I have a sci-fi-esque mind and, rather than restoring nature, believe that nature inevitably and constantly changes. Perhaps this is a fatalistic, dystopian mentality, and I am envious of people who have the positive, utopian mindset. Since I can’t change, I simply despair every day. I really wish I could have such hopefulness.
PANGAIA: What do you see as a possible solution to this global problem surrounding the bees?
JM: Increasing awareness and supporting people and organizations that are doing great work for bees.
We partnered with Milkywire in an effort to raise awareness on the plight of bees and encourage real actions and solutions around this global issue. Milkywire has a unique and engaging platform that allows users to support local projects directly and see proof of impact by following their progress on the app.
The Bee The Change fund aims to protect and preserve vulnerable and endangered bee species across the world. No action is too small to make a difference in helping protect this tiny species that gives us so much. | <urn:uuid:0bcf5168-0559-4a4d-90f2-ddaf67136f7e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://pangaia.com/blogs/editorials/get-to-know-the-artist-takashi-murakami | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.959157 | 822 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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