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That said, some facts are incontrovertible: For one, coal-mining communities experience significantly more birth defects than communities where mining doesn’t occur. Secondly, adults living in MTR districts are, on average, sicker than adults who live elsewhere. So what to do? |
Coal is currently responsible for generating almost half of the electricity used in the US, something that is unlikely to change unless viable alternatives are developed. At the same time, the companies that see coal as a cheap and abundant |
fossil fuel need to be reminded that here is nothing cheap about human health. When I was a kid my grandmother frequently repeated a phrase that I found ridiculous: “If you have your health, you have everything.” Who would have |
consumer for a producer. When this object runs out of data (as when a send(2) call on a socket succeeds in moving the last data from a userspace buffer into a kernelspace buffer), it will ask the producer to resumeProducing(). |
Classifying Critical Points So let’s say we’ve got a critical point of a multivariable function . That is, a point where the differential vanishes. We want something like the second derivative test that might tell us more about the behavior of the function near that point, and to identify (some) local maxima and minima... |
region around . The analogue of the second derivative for multivariable functions is the second differential . This function assigns to every point a bilinear function of two displacement vectors and , and it measures the rate at which the directional derivative in the direction of is changing as we move in the directi... |
by an orthonormal basis , we can write the second differential in terms of coordinates This matrix is often called the “Hessian” of at the point . As I said above, this is a bilinear form. Further, Clairaut’s theorem tells us that it’s a symmetric form. Then the spectral theorem tells us that we can find an orthonormal... |
Hessian is actually diagonal, and the diagonal entries are the eigenvalues of the matrix. So let’s go back and assume we’re working with such a basis. This means that our second partial derivatives are particularly simple. We find that for we have and for , the second partial derivative is an eigenvalue which we can as... |
. Now, if all of these eigenvalues are positive at a critical point , then the Hessian is positive-definite. That is, given any direction we have . On the other hand, if all of the eigenvalues are negative, the Hessian is negative definite; given any direction we have . In the former case, we’ll find that has a local m... |
, and in the latter case we’ll find that has a local maximum there. If some eigenvalues are negative and others are positive, then the function has a mixed behavior at we’ll call a “saddle” (sketch the graph of near to see why). And if any eigenvalues are zero, all sorts of weird things can happen, though at least if w... |
positive and one negative eigenvalue we know that the critical point can’t be a local extremum. We remember that the determinant of a diagonal matrix is the product of its eigenvalues, so if the determinant of the Hessian is nonzero then either we have a local maximum, we have a local minimum, or we have some form of w... |
“generic” critical points, since if we “wiggle” the function a bit (while maintaining a critical point at ) the Hessian determinant will stay nonzero. If the Hessian determinant is zero, wiggling the function a little will make it nonzero, and so this sort of critical point is not generic. This is the sort of unstable ... |
test. Unfortunately, the analogy doesn’t extent, in that the sign of the Hessian determinant isn’t instantly meaningful. In two dimensions a positive determinant means both eigenvalues have the same sign — denoting a local maximum or a local minimum — while a negative determinant denotes eigenvalues of different signs ... |
a clear explanation why it works. So, given a direction vector so that , then since is in , there will be some neighborhood of so that for all . In particular, there will be some range of so that . For any such point we can use Taylor’s theorem with to tell us that for some . And from this we see that |
for every so that . A similar argument shows that if then for any near in the direction of . Now if the Hessian is positive-definite then every direction from gives us , and so every point near satisfies . If the Hessian is negative-definite, then every point near satisfies . And if the Hessian has both positive and ne... |
The humble Grape (pl. Grapes, adj Grape-like, Grape-ish, Grape-esque) is a small, succulent fruit famous for being the primary ingredient in most wines, beers and spirits, and also enjoys the distinction of being the only known vertibrate fruit. It comes in three basic flavours: white, purpley, and wrath. Grapes are |
also known to be the most flirtacious of all fruits, forming hybrid babies with other foods, leading to children that nobody really likes. Because of this, the grape family is very large. Some well-known distant relatives are the Grapefruit, Grapenut, Grapeshot, Tentacle Grape, The Grape White Shark, The Grape Wall |
of China, and Kevin Bacon. Currently the Grape Family is very influential, owning large parts of the French Countryside, where they form countless offspring to use in their cannabalistic wine. A grape once killed my father, so I adopted a new one. We set up grape defenses (land mines, machine |
guns, Nancy Pelosi, the standard) and were never bothered again. edit How is am, the grape? Glad you asked. Grapes grow on trees, where they are harvested by French peasants and trained monkeys (who are also French), who knock the grapes out of the trees with long sticks. The grapes |
are then de-spined obliterated and bottled, then depending on the size and quality of the grape, are sent to an appropriate alcoholic beverage factory. The most juiciest, purpliest grapes are made into wine, whereas the scraggliest runty ones go to the white cider distillery. The now drinkable grapes are consumed |
by the buyer. The grapes which are not worthy to be drunk are poured on French blouses to freshen them up. Some people will tell you that Grapes grow off of vines, but this is simply a cruel stereotype that emerged in the era of segregation. They do, in fact, |
grow off of trees. edit Grape Apes The enigma of this spined fruit made it an obvious potential candidate for fulfilling man's ageless dream of crossing small fruit with primates. Swiss scientists managed to successfully splice grape DNA with that of the greater mountain gorilla in the year of our |
Lord 1992, using test tubes and stuff like that. The experiment was a great success with Dr Herzkoff Bork, the head geneticist on the project, declaring Grape Apes to be "the juiciest and purpleyest monkeys I ever ate". The Grape Family was reluctant at first to include this test-tube relative |
into their ranks, but after many wacky hijinx together thwarting Baron Von Hatekill's evil plans and saving christmas, they've become fast friends. Baron Von Hatekill, however, was not amused, and has since sworn to "Destroy those meddling Grapes!". edit Grape Nuts The grape is a fruit, I already said that, |
but in 1974 the grape was temporarily reclassified as a nut by the FDA, in order to support the Vietnam war effort. This is because nuts are harder than fruits and don't go rotten as quickly, making them much more suitable for intercontinental transportation and thereby much easier to deliver |
to desperate grape-less troops on the front lines. When the war was over, grapes were reclassified as fruit again. This specific relative of the Grape Family was welcomed into the family with open arms. They at first were a model citizen, getting amazing grades in high school, helping old Grapes |
across the street, and generally being nice. However, they were never the same after Vietnam. They lost an arm, en eye, and, most importantly, they lost hope. They suffered alienation after returning, and, not able to get a job, turned to alchohol and drugs to sate their foracious apetite for |
adventures that had long since died. Yes, things looked grim for Grape Nut. However, through many power ballads and years of withdrawl, they managed to pull through and become a model Grape again. In 1999, Grape Nut released a solo album thanking his friends and family for standing by him. |
edit Health Risks Consumption of red grapes has been linked with a degenerative nerve disease colloquially known as "Red Grape Disease". Recent studies have shown that eating a mere handful of red grapes a day can greatly increase the risk of developing red grape disease. Like many seedless vertibrates, the |
red grape contains a spine, but no seeds. Recent studies suggest that red grape disease may be caused by the reproductive process of red grapes, a phenomenon which red grape expert Dr. Roger Lodge describes as "a confusing and terrible process that, frankly, scares the hell out of me". Many |
accidents related to grapes can be attributed to the little-known but well-established fact that at least one grape in every bunch is evil and/or vengeful. edit The Grape in Popular Culture In the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, Cap'n Quint initially believes the titular great white shark to be "some kind of |
giant grape". It has been noted that people of the African descent are naturally attracted to grape flavored products such as purple drink. In the Seinfeld episode The Jockstrap, Jerry and George compete to see who can go the longest without shaving. Jerry wins by default when George chokes to |
death on a grape. John Williams is a famous grape aficionado, and frequently attends film premieres with his face painted purple to show his love for the fruit. Rosie O'Donnell, a revered grape lover, Once threw a ten hour long "I'm Ape For Grape" parade in which he "dressed" as |
a large gorilla in full Greek toga regalia, being fed bunches of grapes in a golden bath tub by lesbian slaves wearing Ann Coulter masks. The party was said to be the most vile monstrosity and abuse of power ever known to man and even made your mom run crying |
PowerPoint, and other presentation tools like it, is either the blessing or bane of most professors' daily work. As a tool to project content, it has often been misused by presenters in a hurry or too uninformed of its features |
to use it properly. On the other hand, it can be very successful when used well. PowerPoint has its detractors, though. Every article that I reviewed for this blog posting referenced Edward Tufte's 2003 article on the Cognitive Style of |
PowerPoint, and talked about his great dislike for bullet points, linear presentations, and simplistic presentations. Tufte even called PowerPoint "content vacuous". There are other PowerPoint detractors in addition to Tufte. David Brier and Kaye Vickery, in a 2009 articled titled |
"Perception and Use of PowerPoint at Library Instruction Conferences" (References & User Services Quarterly) listed their 5 top characteristics of bad PowerPoint presentations: 1. Speaker reads slides to audience 2. Overuse of text on slide 3. Slides use full sentences |
and paragraphs instead of bullet points 4. Text is too small to be read 5. Slides are hard to see because of color choices Many of us have sat through PowerPoint presentations that were difficult to endure, for these reasons |
and many more. But PowerPoint, used well, can be quite effective in transmitting important content to listeners. Patricia Nemec and Anne Sullivan Soydan, in the 2008 Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal (The Medium Isn't the Message), write that PowerPoint has two main |
functions. First, it is a visual aide supplemented by a spoken lecture, and second, it is a set of trainer notes that are a useful organizer and pacing tool. Not only is PowerPoint good as a tool for presenters, it |
also can help listeners learn and remember better. Jo Mackiewicz, in her 2009 article Comparing PowerPoint Experts' and University Students' Opinions About PowerPoint Presentations (Journal of Technical Writing and Communication), associates Dual Coding Theory with PowerPoint, saying that PowerPoint is |
uniquely positioned to offer both verbal and visual content, thus activating both processing systems and enhancing memory. So if PowerPoint can be used well, how can we become better designers and presenters? One of the greatest minds on the correct |
use of PowerPoint is Jean-Luc Doumont. In his 2009 book, Trees, Maps, and Theorems: Effective Communication for Rational Minds, he spells out clearly how to design and present excellent PowerPoint presentations. I will borrow liberally from his work as I |
explain how to both design and organize slides and deliver presentations. Good PowerPoint Slide Organization Jean Luc Doumont says that presentations should answer five questions -- what, when, why, who, and where. With a focus on the audience, presenters should |
be concentrating on what the listeners will be able to do after attending the presentation, not on the next slide. Doumont recommends this slide organization -- title, attention- getter, preview slide, content, transition, content, conclusion, questions. The title slide should |
do just that -- state the title and author's name. Quickly following, the attention-getter slide is the one that really makes the very first impression on listeners and, obviously, gets their attention. Using a statement, question, anecdote, analogy, or visual, |
Doumont says that it also serves as an advance organizer, telling the listeners quickly what to expect from the presentation topic and getting them ready to learn. The preview slide is very important; this contains the "table of contents" or |
outline of the presentation. This tells listeners how long the presentation will be and how many sections it will include. The preview slide can also be used again as a transition slide throughout the presentation; whenever a new section is |
begun, show the preview slide with the completed sections grayed out. This offers listeners a visual indicator of progress and tells them what is left in the presentation. The conclusion slide should concisely sum up the presentation, and the questions |
slide need not say "Questions" -- it could just contain an organizational logo, or some other symbol, and the presenter can just ask for questions. Effective Slide Design Doumont correctly says that poorly-designed slides reflect upon the speaker and compete |
with the speaker for the audience's attention. Many times we place too much text on the slide, and then the listener cannot both read and listen to the text read out loud at the same time (Dual Coding again -- |
confusion of processing systems.) Doumont says that if you aren't going to mention it, don't put it on your slide. He says speakers make three common mistakes: 1. Creating slides for themselves as memory aides with often cryptic text 2. |
Making slides to double as a written report 3. Copying text to slides without adapting it to slide format Doumont says that opening sentences like "Hello My Name Is" or "I am going to talk about fail to appeal to |
the audience because they lack a compelling purpose and are not motivating. Instead, he says to start with a rationale and tell listeners immediately about the purpose of the presentation. He says that listeners want to know why they should |
listen at all, and thus we should tell them -- and that we should talk about the topic (The system has three advantages...), and not about the speaker (I will present three advantages...). Doumont recommends standing either to the left |
or right of the screen, whatever works with your right or left hand or how you have to advance the slides. Face the audience with shoulders, hips, and feet, and point to the slide with the hand closest to the |
screen. Project your voice to the back of the room, and elaborate on the slide, never reading the text to listeners who can read it themselves. Maintain eye contact with listeners as you speak. This means you should know your |
presentation material well enough that you don't have to look each time you make a slide transition -- slides should not be used as visual prompts. When you make a transition to a new section, use the preview slide, but |
don't read it; let it visually tell the listener what's been done and what's next. At the closing, sum up the presentation both visually and verbally, and then you're ready for questions. PowerPoint is like many tools -- it is |
what you make of it. By following these guidelines, you can make a credible, successful presentation that will be listened to and remembered. You don't have to be an advanced PowerPoint user to use it well -- just one who |
By Mike Stark, Associated Press Writer SALT LAKE CITY Hey, Great Salt Lake: Your shoreline is showing. All summer and into the fall, warm temperatures kept evaporation humming, drawing down the lake to near-record low levels and exposing more shore than normal. But the shrinking appears finally to have stopped. Wallace... |
at 4,194 feet above sea level — seems to have bottomed out about 6 feet below normal. "I don't think we're going to go a lot lower than this," Gwynn said. The lake hasn't been this low since the early 1970s. Some speculated it might slip past the record low of 4,191.35 feet set in 1963. But cooler temperatures this fal... |
the shrinking to a stop. That's welcome news to boaters driven away by shallow waters. "Six years ago, when I arrived as park manager, we had 70 sailboats in the marina," said Ron Taylor, who runs Antelope Island State Park in the southern part of the lake. "Now we have two." The lake has a reputation for being cyclica... |
the whims of temperature, rainfall and other factors. In the 1960s and 1970s, many worried the lake would completely dry up. In the 1980s, more than $60 million was spent on gigantic pumps, which for two years funneled water into the desert west of the lake after severe floods along the shoreline. By 2002 and 2003, the... |
in years. Like many lakes, the Great Salt Lake collects water from mountain rain and snow. But, unlike most, the Great Salt Lake has no drain and relies on evaporation to help regulate its levels. "It's pretty predictable," Taylor said. Not only was the evaporation spurred on by warmer temperatures during the summer bu... |
before it ever reached the lake. When the year started, there wasn't much moisture in the first 2 feet of soil in some places around the lake, Gwynn said. That soil acts as a sponge for water that runs on top of it. "If we're trying to fill up the first 2 feet, that takes a lot of water," Gwynn said. There's another fa... |
at play, too, said Dan Bedford, an associate geography professor at Weber State University who studies the lake: A portion of the fresh water that used to flow to the lake is now diverted for human uses. Scientists roughly estimate that the Great Salt Lake is typically about 5 feet lower than it would be if received al... |
said. With another million or so people expected to arrive along the Wasatch Front — the urban area in the north-central part of Utah — in the coming decades, that strain on the lake's water supply is expected to deepen. That's not to mention predictions of warmer temperatures and longer droughts for portions of the We... |
to be less water available for the lake in the future unless we're careful about it," Bedford said. Lower lake levels affect more than boaters and the brine shrimp industry, which scoops the tiny creatures out of the water for sale as fish food and other products. Exposed shorelines offer easier access for predators su... |
Bedford said. Lake levels also play an important role in the wetlands around the lake that provide habitat for millions of birds each year. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY communit... |
The debate over the military's women in combat exclusion was reignited by a 2011 government study calling for more diversity in the armed services. Allowing women in combat positions would be a reversal of a Pentagon policy adopted in 1994. The Military Leadership Diversity Commission advocated for the military to end ... |
a disproportionate share of the upper echelons of the armed services. The report described the policy as an "institutional barrier" to women that "can affect their ability to reach the senior leadership ranks, particularly in the officer corps." Panel Advocates Women in Combat White males accounted for 77 percent of th... |
of white males far outpaced the portion of black officers active duty, who accounted for 8 percent, Hispanics, who made up 5 percent, and Asians, who made up 4 percent. In addition, the commission reported, women held only 16 percent of senior office positions. "The armed forces have not yet succeeded in developing a c... |
nation they serve," the commission wrote. "Racial/ethnic minorities and women still lag behind non-Hispanic white men in terms of representative percentage of military leadership positions held." Why Males Dominate Military Brass The Diversity Commission suggested one reason white males have dominated the ranks of mili... |
promotion process early in their careers. "Multiple occasions for preparation can help servicemembers recognize career-enhancing opportunities and make choices that further their professional and personal goals," the commission advocated. A more obvious reason white males make up such a large portion of active-duty off... |
barriers in order to open traditionally closed doors, especially those relating to assignments -- both the initial career field assignment and subsequent assignments to key positions," the report said. "An important step in this direction is that DoD (Department of Defense) and the services eliminate combat exclusion p... |
combat directs that "women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground." The policy states that "direct ground combat takes place well forward on the battlefield." |
« Back to Pet Talk Cancer and Your Pets: What You Need to Know Almost everyone has known a friend or loved one who has been affected by cancer. While cancer in humans is definitely prevalent, our pets are also afflicted with this disease. According to Dr. Heather Wilson, assistant professor of oncology at the Texas A&M... |
Sciences, 50 percent of all dogs and 30 percent of all cats over the age of 10 will be diagnosed with some form of Types of cancers most common in dogs include: lymphoma (tumor of the lymph nodes), mast cell tumors (skin tumors), and osteosarcoma (tumor of the bones). Some common types of cancer in cats are: lymphoma, ... |
head, neck and mouth), and vaccine associated sarcomas. "Cats are not nearly as prone to cancer as dogs, but one of the most common cancers in cats comes from vaccine injection sites," notes Wilson. "While you can pick and choose some vaccinations, rabies vaccinations are required by law. However, there is a non-adjuva... |
to cause cancer and is available at most The type of cancer your pet has can also be closely associated with its breed. In dogs, lymphoma is most common in Golden Retrievers, Boxers, and Labs. Mast cell tumors are common in dogs with short noses such as boxers, pugs, and bulldogs. Large breed dogs such as Rottweilers a... |
"There is very little distinction across breeds when it comes to cancer in cats," states Wilson. "However, cancer most commonly affects the Siamese breed of cats." Once your veterinarian has diagnosed your pet with cancer you will then want to find a veterinary oncologist in your area that specializes in your pet's spe... |
radiation oncology. There are also surgeons that specialize in surgical oncology," explains Wilson. "The best way to find a medical oncologist in your area is to go to the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) website at Treatment options range from chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, and immun... |
one treatment option for animals with lymphoma," says Wilson."While cure rates in dogs vary greatly with the type of cancer, overall response rates for dogs with lymphoma treated with the CHOP chemotherapy protocol (a multidrug protocol given weekly over 19 weeks) is greater than 80 Response rates for dogs with mast ce... |
radiation for low grade tumors the control rates is often greater than 80 percent at three years. "Unfortunately, the majority of dogs with osteosarcoma and metastatic disease do not achieve a cure," states Wilson. "Also, most cancers in cats are also very hard to cure. When we do achieve remission in cats with vaccine... |
a recurrence." Cost is another important thing to consider when deciding on the treatment of an animal for cancer. While costs range widely, the average cost for a surgery is $2,000-$3000; Chemotherapy regimen is $1,200-$3,000, and radiation averages $3,000. "As cost is prohibitive to some families, a good option may b... |
of these trials have a financial incentive such as a free treatment regimen, and they also help with future research for both veterinary and human oncology." For more information on clinical trials at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine, go to vetmed.tamu.edu/clinical-trials. While cancer in pets can ... |
Pope lived during a period of intense and varied scientific activities — the development of the microscope, and Newton's formulation of a theory explaining the gravitational basis of the universe, for example — which revealed a great deal about the nature of things: for Pope, these discoveries seemed to provide scienti... |
which can be expressed as the fundamentally conservative notion that the physical universe itself, and man's place in it, are aspects of an orderly Divine scheme of things which, though it is too vast for the merely human intellect to comprehend, is nevertheless both majestic and meaningful. Pope's acceptance of this c... |
work, are revealing: contemporary scientific discoveries, that is, seemed to him to provide acceptable answers to questions which had previously been matters of religious faith or philosophical belief. With what questions does he seem to have concerned himself most? Much more so than darker and more sceptical figures l... |
the very notion of scientific "progress") Pope seems to have regarded contemporary scientific and technological advances — those, at any rate, which could be incorporated into his belief-system — as being somehow reassuring. Incorporated in the Victorian Web July 2000 |
Barbara Heath Land Race – 2012 By the time Barbara Heath visited Horsham, the town and the surrounding Wimmera District of Western Victoria were in the process of recovering from a decade-long drought. To inform her work, which was initially |
to address issues of drought, Heath held a number of planned and fortuitous conversations with the assistance of Horsham Regional Art Gallery staff, which came to focus on the changes in agricultural practices in the area. The list of people |
with whom Heath consulted is lengthy, but Dr Bob Redden, curator Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection of the Grains Innovation Park became her main contact. In an email of August 2011, Dr Redden wrote to Heath: ‘Now with unprecedented population |
levels and growth, there is a risk of disconnect and taking food supply for granted, even with climate change. Humans will need to change if they wish to continue their increasing diverse interests, but will need to prioritise agricultural research, |
better understanding our available genetic resources, plant growth and development, and imaginative paths to harnessing science and truly earn the title ‘Homo sapiens’. Land race is a direct response to the urgency of maintaining biodiversity. Agriculture today requires economies of |
scale that change the social landscape and limit population diversity. This results in the erasure of many small communities, loss of connection to the past and cultural loss. Dr Redden explained his department’s work to ensure plant gene diversity by |
sourcing and saving seed from land race crops. ‘Land race’ is the term used to describe heritage seed varieties now being displaced by International Seed Uniformity Standards. Heath’s Land Race series shows distinct levels, from biodiversity in the soils to |
the patterns of farming practices above. Each Land Race also features a remnant plant species that reaches up and through the tractor track patterns: briar, apple and aloe. There are numerous hero shots (one above) and details prepared (below), we |
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