text stringlengths 222 548k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 95 values | url stringlengths 14 7.09k | file_path stringlengths 110 155 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 53 113k | score float64 2.52 5.03 | int_score int64 3 5 |
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(domain name system) is a network system of servers that translates numeric
IP addresses into readable, hierarchical Internet addresses, and vice versa.
This is what allows your computer network to understand that you want to reach
the server at 192.168.100.1 (for example) when you type into your browser a
domain name such as www.watchguard.com.
Because DNS is used by virtually every device connected to the Internet, it is a common target of hacker attacks. Examples include DNS cache poisoning, DNS spoofing, and buffer overflow attacks transmitted through DNS commands.
With Fireware, you have two methods to control DNS traffic through your firewall: the DNS packet filter and the DNS Proxy policy. A packet filter examines the header information while a proxy examines the contents at the application layer and validates that the packet meets RFC compliance for DNS traffic. In this training module, we concentrate on the higher level of security available through a DNS Proxy policy.
To make configuration of your DNS security policy easy, the default configuration includes two template proxy actions for DNS. You can use these rulesets without changing them, or you can use the rulesets as a base for a ruleset to meet the needs of your organization.
This proxy action includes rulesets to protect your DNS server from DNS queries that are not correctly formed and certain query types that could be a risk to the security of your DNS server.
This proxy action includes rulesets to control outgoing DNS requests from your trusted users.
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Copyright © 1996 - 2005 WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:dbd8f6fd-b1cd-48aa-8b26-08a1d74ad914> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://www.watchguard.com/training/fireware/80/dnsprox2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463637.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00043-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892302 | 324 | 3.046875 | 3 |
My teacher, Kevin Lynch (1918-1984), had a very important idea. He said that planners should understand and consider the way ordinary people perceive their environment before proposing changes. Lynch wrote many books on many topics, but his first and most important work is The Image of the City. For the first time, interviews were conducted to learn how ordinary people perceive and understand the city. Lynch believed that design could make the city clearer and stronger and more understandable. He assumed that a good city form should have an understandable structure and image which is not imposed by designers and planners but derived from the perceptions of the people who use the place.
In the psychophysical approach, the perceived qualities of a landscape are derived from perceptual responses of different groups of respondents. Considered from the perspective of the cognitive approach, landscape perception becomes a process of interpretation, mediated by emotional responses to sites, perceived meanings, and physiological reactions (e.g. stress reduction). Design is thus a cognitive activity made up of thought processes, such as the search for ideas, the generation of solutions, the evaluation of information, the consideration and production of visual representations, and the development of strategies, while learning and experiencing.
A clear image of the environment will contribute to wayfinding performance in the future. Thus, to learn the large-scale structure of space, the traveler must necessarily build a cognitive map of the legible environment by integrating observations over extended periods of time, inferring spatial structure from perceptions and effects of actions.
Based on the above discussion, it is evident that the configurational properties of the environment are important variables in acquiring environmental knowledge. Cognitive representations and legibility comprise an subjective evaluations of the urban environment. It seems impossible to understand human-landscape interactions and specifically the experience of landscape without knowledge of their psychological foundations. Experience is first and foremost a psychological phenomenon. | <urn:uuid:37892d43-9e7d-428a-b541-4b4e11b4a85e> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://landscapetheory1.wordpress.com/category/people/observation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540507109.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20191208072107-20191208100107-00210.warc.gz | en | 0.952855 | 373 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Combating Extremism Through Education: Lessons from Pakistan and Across the Muslim World
Last year, Pakistan suffered several hundred terrorist attacks and clashes between security forces and militants. Such figures, according to Javaid R. Laghari, illustrate the extent of extremism in the country. Laghari, speaking at an Asia Program event (co-sponsored by the Middle East Program) on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, argued that this extremism—and the mindset that produces it—is a consequence of Pakistan’s “dysfunctional educational system.” Millions of Pakistani children do not attend school. Those who are in school must deal with decrepit school buildings, limited supplies, outdated curricula, and poorly trained teachers.
Laghari identified several causes of Pakistan’s education crisis. One is meager expenditure. Islamabad allocates 2.3 percent of GDP to education—one of the lowest rates in the world, and not even half of the 5 percent allotment recommended by the United Nations. Another driver is Pakistan’s young and rapidly growing population. Half the Pakistani populace is under the age of 18, and two-thirds are under 30. Currently numbered at 180 million, the total population is projected to balloon to 350 million by 2040. Such large quantities of young people put tremendous pressure on Pakistani schools. A third contributor to Pakistan’s education woes is the country’s troubled economic situation. One-third of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, two-thirds subsist on less than two dollars a day, and less than 2 million Pakistanis pay taxes. Under such conditions, Laghari concluded, it is hard for the nation—both the government and families—to marshal the necessary resources to support education.
As a result, Pakistan faces a looming illiteracy crisis. Though nearly 60 percent of the nation is literate today, the number of literate Pakistanis is rising at an annual rate of only 1 percent. According to Laghari, this low rate, coupled with high population growth, means that the number of illiterate Pakistanis is growing—and he estimated that Pakistan will be the world’s largest illiterate nation by 2050. Another unsettling outcome of Pakistan’s education crisis is the “parallel system of education” provided by madrassas. Seven percent of school-going Pakistani children attend these religious institutions, stated Laghari, though given the high number of unregistered madrassas, the number is likely much higher. These schools, he said, have become a “breeding ground” for extremism.
The sad story of Pakistani education is mirrored elsewhere in the Muslim world. Throughout the region, “dictatorial leaders” have traditionally neglected the education sector. Consequently, there are currently only 450 researchers per million people in the Muslim world (compared to over 4,000 per million in the United States). Only two Nobel laureates hail from the Muslim world, and both carried out their award-winning research in non-Muslim-majority countries.
Laghari argued that extremism can be combated by implementing educational policies that more aggressively promote science—a field sorely lacking in the curricula of most Pakistani schools. Science, he said, increases levels of creative and rational thinking and behavior. Additionally, because “it knows no boundaries,” science creates opportunities for global engagement. Laghari asserted that higher education is a promising vehicle for the promotion of science-driven education. The number of Pakistani universities has risen from 59 to 134, and higher education has enjoyed a four-fold increase in enrollment.
He singled out the institution he chairs, the independent Higher Education Commission (HEC), for much of this success. The HEC, he noted, owes its existence to former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who established the body in 2002. Musharraf wanted to wrest higher education from the control of ministries (where it was vulnerable to corruption and political interference) and make it autonomous. The HEC chairperson has the status of a government minister, even though the commission does not belong to any ministry.
Laghari emphasized that he does not mean to understate the importance of—and problems with—Pakistan’s primary and secondary education. He noted that a third of primary-school-aged children in Pakistan are not in school, and that most high school and vocational school graduates enter the labor force with no skills. He recommended that Pakistan apply the HEC model to lower-level education through the establishment of “lower education commissions” across the country’s four provinces.
Laghari insisted, however, on the critical importance of higher education. He cited the scholarship of the American scholar Richard Florida, who argues that universities promote three Ts—technology, talent, and tolerance—and cultivate environments that become “Ellis Islands of creative thought.” | <urn:uuid:e603d4a9-695a-47ad-9b91-b5845ce641ef> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | https://wilsoncenter.org/event/combating-extremism-through-education-lessons-pakistan-and-across-the-muslim-world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644064517.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025424-00304-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945608 | 1,005 | 2.890625 | 3 |
We would like to inform the public in Britain that ZeroWater have now received accreditation’s from the US Environmental Protection Agency. So, this confirms, that all ZeroWater jugs remove 99% of Asbestos from any water supply.
93% of bottled water showed signs of plastic contamination. The average Liter of bottled water contained 10.4 larger particles. Each bigger than a human hair. Some particles are big enough to be handled individually. Even more smaller particles were found with on average 314 particles (under 6.5 microns) per Liter.
We have discussed this contaminant previously in our articles:
- What Are the Health Risks Associated With Plastic Fibers Found In Most Bottled Water?
- Plastic Fibers Found In 83% Of All The World’s Water Supplies
The issue lies in the fact that 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute. 480 billion of bottles were sold last year. Of these 50% were collected for recycling. 7% were turned into new bottles. It takes a plastic bottle 450 years to biodegrade. A recent study by the Marine Conversation Society found that on average 225.3 plastic bottles were found per every 100 Meter off UK beaches.
This is not the end of the our sad story additionally our society generates massive amounts of plastic waste.
6.3 Billion Tonnes of Plastic waste annually
It’s not just water bottles that are the issue. According to Science Magazine, 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste was created in 2015. Only 9% was recycled. It’s clear now how plastic ends back into our water supplies.
Not only causing irreparable damage to our oceans but UN Oceans Chief recently told the BBC:
“This was a planetary crisis.”
It’s not just Plastic you should worry about
With on average 7 Asbestos water pipes breaking per week, each releasing Asbestos fibers into the water stream.
The Cranleigh Civic Society has been researching this issue and are seriously concerned about Asbestos in our drinking water supplies.
ZeroWater jugs remove 99% of Asbestos from your water supplies!
Very few people will be unaware of the health risks associated with the inhalation of Asbestos fibers, which can result in long term disability and, often, premature death.
Asbestos products were widely used up to about the year 1970.They were easy to use and inexpensive. No one foresaw that they had a relatively short lifespan. Neither did we foresee that, if broken. Dust is created which is seriously harmful if inhaled. A 2002 report for the DWI found that:
“There is potential for exposure to Asbestos fibers in drinking water by inhalation of aerosol droplets or from fibers that are trapped on clothing during washing and which are subsequently released into the atmosphere”.
Asbestos cement (AC) pipes were widely used in the 50’s and 60’s to convey mains tap water. These pipes are now coming to the end of their lifespan. Meaning that bursts are increasing in frequency. When they burst, Asbestos cement fibers are inevitably released into the water supply.
Asbestos Health Risks
There are several forms of Asbestos related diseases including Mesothelioma and Asbestosis. None of them manifest it selves immediately. Symptoms are often first noticed decades after exposure to the dust which comprises of minuscule Asbestos fibers. This explains why, to the present day, advertisements from solicitors are still appearing offering to discuss and pursue claims.
A study in Quebec (Wigle 1977, Toft et al 1984) found that in areas of very high levels of Asbestos in drinking water. There were increases in overall cancer mortality in men. Slight increases in stomach cancer in men and pancreatic cancer in women.
Installing an effective water filtering system throughout a house can cost in excess of £ 1.000. Well beyond the means of most families. Until very recently, water filter jugs did not filter out Asbestos fibres.
The solution – ZeroWater Jug with it’s 5 Stage Water Filtration System
There are now affordable worktop or refrigerator sized solutions available from ZeroWater.
Our 5-Stage Water Filtration Systems have been independently tested by a US Environmental Protection Agency accredited testing laboratory to reduce Asbestos levels to less than 0.01 million fibers (exceeding 10 microns in length) per Liter.
In plain English, over 99% of all Asbestos fibers are filtered out by our ZeroWater jugs and accompanying filters.
All ZeroWater jugs include a free water quality meter giving consumers the control to test for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in their water and confidently filter out impurities (including 99 % of all Asbestos fibers) for the purest tasting, and safest, drinking water.
If you are worried about Asbestos in your local water supply or just want more information on our ZeroWater products in the UK click here. | <urn:uuid:52da5b77-70fe-49d7-87aa-e99d392158b4> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://news.zerowater.co.uk/its-not-only-plastic-in-your-water-that-you-should-be-worried-about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247479729.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216004609-20190216030609-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.954312 | 1,024 | 2.984375 | 3 |
A common cause of heel pain is the heel spur, a bony growth on the underside of the heel bone. The spur, visible by X-ray, appears as a protrusion that can extend forward as much as half an inch. When there is no indication of bone enlargement, the condition is sometimes referred to as "heel spur syndrome." Heel spurs result from strain on the muscles and ligaments of the foot, by stretching of the long band of tissue that connects the heel and the ball of the foot, and by repeated tearing away of the lining or membrane that covers the heel bone. These conditions may result from biomechanical imbalance, running or jogging, improperly fitted or excessively worn shoes, or obesity.
One frequent cause of injury to the plantar fascia is pronation. Pronation is defined as the inward and downward action of the foot that occurs while walking, so that the foot's arch flattens toward the ground (fallen arch). A condition known as excessive pronation creates a mechanical problem in the foot, and the portion of the plantar fascia attached to the heel bone can stretch and pull away from the bone. This damage can occur especially while walking and during athletic activities.
Symptoms may be similar to those of plantar fasciitis and include pain and tenderness at the base of the heel, pain on weight bearing and in severe cases difficulty walking. The main diagnosis of a heel spur is made by X-ray where a bony growth on the heel can be seen. A heel spur can occur without any symptoms at all and the athlete would never know they have the bony growth on the heel. Likewise, Plantar fasciitis can occur without the bone growth present.
Diagnosis of a heel spur can be done with an x-ray, which will be able to reveal the bony spur. Normally, it occurs where the plantar fascia connects to the heel bone. When the plantar fascia ligament is pulled excessively it begins to pull away from the heel bone. When this excessive pulling occurs, it causes the body to respond by depositing calcium in the injured area, resulting in the formation of the bone spur. The Plantar fascia ligament is a fibrous band of connective tissue running between the heel bone and the ball of the foot. This structure maintains the arch of the foot and distributes weight along the foot as we walk. However, due to the stress that this ligament must endure, it can easily become damaged which commonly occurs along with heel spurs.
Non Surgical Treatment
Acupuncture and acupressure can used to address the pain of heel spurs, in addition to using friction massage to help break up scar tissue and delay the onset of bony formations. Physical therapy may help relieve pain and improve movement. The Feldenkrais method could be especially helpful for retraining some of the compensation movements caused by the pain from the spur. Guided imagery or a light massage on the foot may help to relieve some of the pain. Other treatments include low-gear cycling, and pool running. Some chiropractors approve of moderate use of aspirin or ibuprofen, or other appropriate anti-inflammatory drugs. Chiropractic manipulation is not recommended, although chiropractors may offer custom-fitted shoe orthotics and other allopathic-type treatments.
Approximately 2% of people with painful heel spurs need surgery, meaning that 98 out of 100 people do well with the non-surgical treatments previously described. However, these treatments can sometimes be rather long and drawn out, and may become considerably expensive. Surgery should be considered when conservative treatment is unable to control and prevent the pain. If the pain goes away for a while, and continues to come back off and on, despite conservative treatments, surgery should be considered. If the pain really never goes away, but reaches a plateau, beyond which it does not improve despite conservative treatments, surgery should be considered. If the pain requires three or more injections of "cortisone" into the heel within a twelve month period, surgery should be considered. | <urn:uuid:c0ec59e9-7b7a-4ee6-9eef-a2ad60eb4017> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://tiffaniventrella.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/09/27/165555 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125937780.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20180420120351-20180420140351-00551.warc.gz | en | 0.928834 | 843 | 3.265625 | 3 |
|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Maya Angelou accompanies Malcolm X to the airport after his meeting with:
2. When Maya confronts her son about his girlfriend, what does he say?
3. How does Maya react to Nana Nketsia's request?
4. "The Blacks" is the name of a:
5. Why does Malcolm X plan to go before the General Assembly of the United Nations?
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Describe how Maya's fierce independence creates both challenges and opportunities for her in Ghana.
Essay Topic 2
Using three specific examples from the book, explain how circumstances beyond Maya Angelou's control shape the course of her life.
Essay Topic 3
Not everything goes well for Maya in Ghana. Give two examples of something that is unexpected or goes wrong for Maya in Ghana. In each case, address the following:
1. How Maya is affected by the experience or turn of events.
2. In what way she suffers or struggles.
3. How she grows or matures from the experience.
This section contains 250 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:ea3ba639-0cd8-4e01-894b-83e5cd6567a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/all-gods-children/test6.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701165302.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193925-00343-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904742 | 280 | 3.5 | 4 |
Current article in the Lübeck News
The Lübeck News reports again about the dangers and risks of increasing heavy rain events as a result of climate change. Although Lübeck has been less affected than other regions by weather extremes, “(…) the temperature increase in Schleswig-Holstein (…) is more pronounced than the global average” (The LN quoted Dr. Thomas Einfalt from hydro & meteo GmbH).
hydro & meteo GmbH has been working for several years with the Hanseatic City of Lübeck on municipal climate adaptation. The project RainAhead (“Rain in Sight”) has created planning and warning tools for heavy rain in the urban area. The follow-up project i-quadrat, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as the “municipal lighthouse project for adaptation to climate change” for the years 2018-2020, focuses primarily on the issue of taking measures to protect against heavy rain events. Further goals are the development of local and regional cooperation as well as the intensification of communication with citizens and other target groups.
Through newspaper articles, workshops and brochures about the dangers of heavy rain and how to protect oneself from it, the topic is becoming more and more popular.
Read the article (in german) by clicking on the adjacent title:
ExUS 2020 – Flyer for heavy precipitation in North Rhine-Westphalia published
Extreme precipitation events have become more prevalent in recent decades, according to the study “Extreme Statistical Investigation of Heavy Dumping in NRW (ExUS) 2010”.
In continuation of the ExUS 2010 project, hydro & meteo GmbH & Co. KG is once again cooperating with the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV), dr. papadakis GmbH, aqua_plan GmbH and with Dr. med. Markus Quirmbach (Head of the Department of Hydrology, Urban Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering of the Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences (HRW) at the ExUS 2020 study, in which measurement data from ten further years can be examined and used for the evaluation.
Questions arising from the consequences of climate change have become more complex. In particular, the development of heavy rains of shorter duration, changes in air temperature and dry times as well as findings from spatially high resolution radar precipitation data have not only necessitated a new edition, but also an extension of the scope of research in the new ExUS 2020 study.
Read more about the individual work packages of the study by clicking on the image on the right (in german)
or get further information about the project under the link: LANUV
Publication in the current issue of WasserWirtschaft
In the new issue of the journal WasserWirtschaft, Dr. Ing. Thomas Einfalt / hydro & meteo GmbH & Co. KG and Dipl.-Ing. Marc Scheibel / Wupperverband published an article about “Precipitation: Data quality and processing for practical applications in hydrology”. The article explores the criteria that can meet the requirements for high-quality precipitation data for urban areas. The heavy rain event of 29 May 2018 in Wuppertal serves as a case study and clarifies the procedure.
Read the article by clicking on the adjacent title:
Introduction tutorial for the Radolan event database online!
To get an impression of the event database with access to the radar climatology of the German Weather Service, we have created a video tutorial. Here we give you an overview of the functions of the event database and their operation.
Excursion to the retention area Mühlenau in Hamburg
On 07.12.2018 an excursion to the retention area Mühlenau in Hamburg took place as part of the project StucK. With the help of this retention basin, the StucK project is investigating how flood protection can be improved on the one hand and ecological conditions on the other with the creation of habitats for threatened animal and plant species.
HydroNET SCOUT event database
New: with radar climatology of the German Weather Service (DWD)
hydro & meteo GmbH & Co. KG has created the concept for an event database in order to simplify the evaluation of extensive radar data sets. This was implemented by HydroLogic B.V. for four water boards in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) based on the HydroNET portal. In the area of NRW, the database includes high quality data from 2001 to 2016 with a resolution of 1km x 1km and a time step of 5 minutes for the complete area of NRW. The data set consists of carefully semi-automatic radiated data checked and corrected with SCOUT (database: DX product of the German Weather Service), which was adjusted with the help of quality-controlled rain gauge data from more than 900 stations in NRW.
The event database offers innovative solutions in the areas of risk management, extreme values and easy data access. A special search algorithm was developed, which searches the dataset for spatially and temporally independent precipitation events. This allows to search for events of different duration intervals above selectable rainfall levels and for different area sizes in different search areas. The access to the event database is direct via the web portal HydroNET.
Since the end of 2018, the radar climatology of the German Weather Service is available via Open Data and since the beginning of this year this dataset can also be accessed in the event database. This data set contains post-processed and adjusted Radolan radar data with a resolution of 1 km2 and 5 minutes across Germany from 2001 to presently January 2018.
The journal Korrespondenz Wasserwirtschaft in its March issue headlines our advertisment for the event database:
Day of Geodata Infrastructure Schleswig-Holstein
This year’s Day of Geodata Infrastructure Schleswig-Holstein (GDI-SH) will take place on 28.2.2019 in the Audimax of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. Hydro & meteo will be represented there in the context of its project i-quadrat with a stand on the topic “heavy rain – damage minimization with the help of INSPIRE compliant data”. The project i-quadrat is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety for the years 2018-2020. It deals primarily with the topic of prevention for heavy rain events and takes up the results of the project RainAhead (2013 – 2016) in order to communicate with citizens and other target groups.
The event, titled “GDI-SH – A Sea of Data”, focuses on the importance of geodata for the work of state and local government, as well as for business, science and the public, and their benefits in dealing with social challenges.
The program flyer can be found here!
Closing event of the joint project “StucK” on 22. 08. 2018
On August 22, 2018, the closing event of the joint project StucK(“Ensuring the drainage of coastal, urban areas considering the climate change”) took place in the conference center at the Department of Environment and Energy in Hamburg.
At the event, the most important project results and their possible applications were presented and discussed with the participants. In our work package we have produced combined ensemble predictions from radar nowcasts and numerical weather forecasts (COSMO-D2-EPS). Furthermore, we have created an operational test warning platform as an extension of the existing warning system “Binnenhochwasser Hamburg” (www.wabiha.de). In addition to the water level measurements, the measured water levels of the respective catchment areas and the improved precipitation forecasts now also flow into the warning status of the individual water levels. Also we have integrated additional radar products into the system to analyze the current precipitation event. The high-resolution precipitation forecasts are passed on to the Technical University of Hamburg for modeling, which calculates effluent ensembles.
In order to continue the successful work, the funding of the StucK project has been extended for another year until 30.09.2019.
The extension phase is about putting the results of the project into practice. In particular, an action plan and management plan for the implementation of dry and temporarily wet flood retention basins shall be developed. These have proven to be beneficial in the StucK project, both in terms of their contribution to flood protection and from an ecological point of view.
The 2nd HydroNET LIVE Event took place in Amersfoort, Netherlands
On September 13th, the second edition of the HydroNET LIVE event took place in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. The topic of this biennial event was called “Smart water management without borders”. During the event many interesting smart water management case studies were presented and it was an excellent opportunity to meet other water managers from the HydroNET community.
Two masterclasses where specially organised for the international HydroNET community: Showcases of Dutch and international HydroNET implementations to support smart water management. Over 3000 water professionals in 12 countries use HydroNET as decision support tool for the analysis and sustainable management of water resources. In this masterclass more than twelve users and partners from the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Germany demonstrated why and how they use HydroNET in their daily practice. They explained how HydroNET helps them to make well-informed and transparent smart water management decisions and why and how they share information with internal and external stakeholders and which boundaries are broken.
Thomas Einfalt and Alexander Strehz from hydro & meteo presented two applications from German HydroNET users. Thomas demonstrated solutions for the quality assurance of precipitation data developed for the State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas Schleswig-Holstein (LLUR). In addition, at an information desk Alexander informed about the application “Event Database”. This combines a large high quality data pool in high spatial and temporal resolution with easy access to the data via HydroNET. It hus enables, among other things, the simple use of the data for the dimensioning of water management structures.
Workshop: heavy rainfall and Open data from the German Weather Service (DWD) on 14.06.2018
On 14.6.2018, 35 persons took part in the workshop organized by hydro & meteo on heavy rainfall preparedness and Open Data of the German Weather Service (DWD).
The participants were representatives of municipalities, water boards and the state environment administration of Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Berlin.
In addition to lectures on use of the Open Data Portal of the DWD and information on precipitation measurement and forecasts, the workshop also provided a space for a constructive and lively exchange on questions of responsibilities, possibilities and challenges of different actors with the context of heavy rainfall.
Many thanks to the workshop participants and the constructive exchange!
If you are interested in further workshops please contact us.
On May 16, 2018 Sebastian Luers from hydro & meteo has been certified as a Certified expert flood label to issue the flood label of the HochwasserKompetenzCentrum (HKC) for real estate.
The flood pass is an innovative and useful document for the location analysis and evaluation of existing or planned private and commercial real estate in flood prone areas.
For more information about the flood label, email us “contact at hydrometeo” or visit www.hochwasser-pass.com.
Hydro & meteo in cooperation with scientists of the University of Hamburg participated in a publication about the: Kurzfristige Niederschlagsvorhersagen für die Starkregen- und Hochwasserwarnung veröffentlicht. This contribution presents the results of the project StucK (Long term drainage management of tide-influenced coastal 38 urban areas with consideration of climate change stuck-hh.de), supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.
The article Ensembles of radar nowcasts and COSMO-DE-EPS for urban flood management was published in the journal of Water Science and Technology.
Authors: Alrun Jasper-Tönnies, Sandra Hellmers, Thomas Einfalt, Alexander Strehz, Peter Fröhle
Workshop: heavy rainfall and DWD open data at hydro & meteo.
Damage caused by heavy rainfall events has become a matter of public interest.
As of the end of last year the German weather service (DWD) is obliged to provide many datasets to the public free of charge.
This represents a large opportunity for cities and small municipalities to improve their flood risk management.
On June 14th hydro & meteo will host a workshop to provide a platform to discuss problems encountered when using the data as well as successful examples of how the data can be used.
ICUD 2017 in Prague.
From 10 – 15 September 2017, the 14.IWA / IAHR International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) took place in Prague. On the 14th of September Dr. Thomas Einfalt held a presentation about the project StucK concerning heavy rainfall forecast and warning: Short-term precipitation forecasts for the Flood Warning Service Hamburg. This presentation has been filmed and is available here.
Hydro & meteo in cooperation with scientists of the University of Innsbruck participated in a publication about the: future heavy rainfall and adjustment to climate change. This contribution presents the results of the project DynAlp (Dynamic Adaption of Urban Water Infrastructure of Sustainable City Development in an Alpine Environment) supported by the Austrian climate- and energy fund. The article Decision Support for Adaptation Planning of Urban Drainage Systems was published in the journal of water resources planning and management.
Authors: Christian Mikovits, Franz Tscheikner-Gratl, Alrun Jasper-Tönnies, Thomas Einfalt, Matthias Huttenlau, Martin Schöpf, Heiko Kinzel, Wolfgang Rauch und Manfred Kleidorfer.
DWD is starting with its open data portal.
Free access to DWD – geodata
The German weather service (DWD) started with its free of charge open data service in August 2017. | <urn:uuid:e6b58cf8-ade5-449a-bb01-86a043c995fc> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.hydrometeo.de/index.php/en/homepage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540537212.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20191212051311-20191212075311-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.891572 | 3,022 | 2.71875 | 3 |
In the book of Joel, the prophet laments God’s punishment in the aftermath of a swarm of locusts that had ravaged the country of Judah. This instrument of God’s wrath had swooped through the country, devouring everything in its path. The devastation was complete,
The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.
In chapter 2 the prophet paints a poetic picture of the swarm descending like a conquering foe,
They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ranks.
They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not cut down.
They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter at the windows like a thief.
The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
This metaphor is a powerful one. Instead of God sending a foreign power to conquer and punish Judah for their sin, He chooses a plague of nature. Instead of one giant enemy, He uses a million little ones.
Think about the power of this Biblical example to us. Often we are on the lookout for the big enemy. We take great care to prevent the big sins, and take great pride when we evade them. But what if it’s not a giant enemy we face, but a million little ones? What if it is not a single death blow that brings us down, but a million tiny little mouths, each eating away at who we are.
Our modern, media-drenched society offers me a million opportunities each day to choose something other than God. A million things I can focus on. A million ways to wander off the path, even if only for a step. A million chances to ignore, judge, condescend or look away. A million excuses to pick me and my way.
Little bite by little bite these enemies can devour my growth, ruining the grain and drying up the oil and new wine. Before I know it I am stripped bare of what I once was. And it wasn’t the big enemy that slayed me, but a million little ones.
This is not meant to inspire guilt, but caution. Our focus can be so fixed on the giant that we miss the locust. Sometimes our enemy takes a different for than what we expect. What if my enemy doesn’t sound like a roaring lion, but a game, a song, a relationship or any one of a million devices meant to sap my strength and weaken my focus. We defend against the big enemies and miss the million little ones.
They are easy to overlook, but just as deadly. Ask the prophet Joel. | <urn:uuid:cadfd943-c799-48a5-bb27-517eb912a0cf> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://davekirby.com/2011/05/17/a-million-little-enemies/?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780060882.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20210928184203-20210928214203-00253.warc.gz | en | 0.935511 | 612 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Week 11 22/06
Weekly Plan - Year 3
w/c 22nd June 2020
1) Please follow each of the daily links for the maths this week.
2) This week we will be looking at a short story and writing a character description.
3) Story Time Online is a different resource for reading where you can listen to different stories read by authors and celebrities.
4) Geography sessions have been uploaded
5) This week we are learning plants
6) We also have an RE task about Hinduism.
7) You can keep going with Joe Wicks PE or I have added some other options including Just dance and Cosmic Yoga (there is a Harry Potter one!)
8) Challenge yourself with an enrichment task too - great fun!
This week, I would love to see these tasks uploaded to your portfolios so I can give you feedback:
Feel free to upload more if you like but do not worry if you do not get to upload this week! I will be looking at the work submitted and choosing my EPIC learners from what I have seen.
Please hover your mouse over the activity you wish to complete, you will then be able to access a PDF document or PowerPoint slideshow with instructions for that particular task. | <urn:uuid:5c6ae3dc-75c1-4b82-a558-ffdf885bdb3f> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.stnicholasprimary.co.uk/week-11-2206-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662529538.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519141152-20220519171152-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.941188 | 275 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Migraine Study Reveals Evidence of Possible Changes to Brain
Research published yesterday by the journal Neurology shows there is a link between Migraine and the risk of three specific types of structural changes within the brain. But what does this actually mean for patients?
While this evidence may sound frightening to patients who suffer Migraine, more research needs to be done before we know the implications of these particular structural changes and how they relate to the function of the patients who have them, as well as the deeper details of those patients who are at greater risk.
Does frequency or severity play a part? How about the length of time the patient has experienced their Migraines? Genetics? We don’t know. Studies like this help to lay the foundation for more detailed looks at what is happening.
Although it’s scary to receive a diagnosis of structural changes, some of these changes have been researched before, and as yet, have not been found not to affect the function of patients who have them. Now, we have more perspective. You are aware that these changes may not ultimately affect the function of patients who find they have them, so let’s talk about what the study actually said and what it means:
The research itself looked at several studies together. They used the information they found in many studies done by many researchers, and put it all together to try to give us a more complete and diverse picture about this fairly mysterious situation. This is a great way to analyze data, because it helps to minimize questions of bias, etc., that can sometimes come up with single studies, and it utilizes a broader range of patients and their data.
Three types of structural changes were analyzed: white matter abnormalities, infarct-like lesions, and changes in white and grey matter volume. All of these did appear to be significantly more common in patients with these two types of Migraine than in controls (patients without Migraine). The strongest correlation however, was in patients who have Migraine with aura.
Patients with white matter abnormalities were more likely to have Migraine with aura, but not Migraine without aura.
Risk for infarct-like lesions was greater for Migraine with aura than Migraine without aura.
Changes in volume of brain tissue was more common in Migraine patients with and without aura over controls.
Summary and implications:
Sometimes, research like this can leave patients and their loved ones stunned and feeling helpless. Important to remember, is that each of these studies is like a piece to the Migraine puzzle, and the more pieces we have, the clearer the picture becomes. The information here is not a whole, but a part of the whole. This information is important to us though, because it helps to remind us why it's is so important to pay attention to our disease.
Appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and management to keep our Migraine attacks to a minimum are things over which many of us have some control. We already know ignoring our Migraines is not helpful. Not adding insult to injury by adding medication overuse headache to the mix is something we can control. Maximizing our health so we can hopefully minimize the chance that we end up with further problems is also in our control.
Have you and your doctor discussed your own personal plan of attack for getting and keeping the best control over your Migraines?
Please post a comment with suggestions, questions, and comments so we can discuss them.
1 Bashir, Asma, MD; Lipton, Richard B., MD; Ashina, Sait, MD; Ashina, Messoud, MD, PhD. "Migraine and structural changes in the brain." Neurology. Early View. August 28, 2013.
2 Press Release. "Migraine May Permanently Change Brain Structure." American Academy of Neurology. August 28, 2013.
Live your best life,
© Ellen Schnakenberg, 2013.
Last updated August 30, 2013. | <urn:uuid:12373ade-dcff-4797-9578-f5f658ad477f> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/82083/162619/migraine-reveals-evidence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542712.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00384-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948739 | 813 | 2.59375 | 3 |
My kids blow on soup to cool it down. Sometimes they blow like a tornado and most of the soup exits the spoon rather than entering the child. I always tell them to blow gently—it will cool just as fast.
Well, we put the theory to the test. For cleanliness, we simulated a broth soup with hot water. Viscous soups, like cream soups, might be different.
For apparatus we mounted a spoon in a third hand tool. A thermistor temperature sensor was affixed to have the sensor at the lowest point in the spoon’s bowl. We had a small hand-held anemometer to measure the air speed at the spoon. We transferred hot—nearly boiling—water into the spoon with the turkey baster. The data logger, my own design, recorded the temperature.
Each of three test subjects blew on the soup to cool it. Each person blew lightly or strongly. We attempted to calibrate the airspeed at the spoon during an exhale. The picture below shows the first test subject (Dear Daughter) measuring the air speed. The anemometer is aligned with the spoon. Each subject attempts to hold their head in the same position.
Each subject blew on the spoon until the thermistor reading fell below 30°C. We recorded the start time and the stop time as indicated by the data logger. The start and stop time became cut points in the data processing.
We did all the experiments over about an hour, and left the data logger running the whole time. The plot of temperature is shown next. The spikes correspond to times when we recharged the spoon with hot water. The drops at the bottom of each trough correspond to our evacuation of the remaining water from the spoon.
A cut portion of the timeline, corresponding to each experiment, is fitted to an exponential function of the form Temp = A×exp(time×B). The time constant for these fits is –1/B. The time constant corresponds to the amount of time for the temperature to drop 73% of the way to the ambient temperature.
The time constants from each trial also describe a curve as a function of the air speed. I fitted these data with another exponential function, and although the fit is not exact, it is satisfying close to the data.
Each point color in the graph represents one person’s attempt. The dark blue point in the upper left is the a control where nobody blew on the spoon. The red point in the lower right corner corresponds to my son’s fastest effort, which removed about half the soup from the spoon.
To summarize the results, faster air speed does cool the soup considerably faster—meaning that I was not correct. My recommendation, based on the data, is to blow as fast as possible provided the soup is not sloshing out. You are welcome to use this data next time you’re trying to convince a young child to cool their soup properly. Your mileage may vary. | <urn:uuid:a8cb97ba-bbb9-4aa0-a77c-bade38adb556> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://blog.inkofpark.com/?p=1070 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250609478.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123071220-20200123100220-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.942976 | 609 | 3.3125 | 3 |
HarperCollins, March 2015. 416 pages, paperback, black and white illustrations.
Combining both curiosity and a playful spirit, this engaging book provides an anecdotal tutorial on the fascinating science of plants. After pruning a kumquat tree with the best of intentions, Kassinger watched as it proceeded to turn brittle and brown. Why did the kumquat die when a rose bush and a crape myrtle similarly clipped had thrived? While she knew the basic rules of caring for indoor plants, Kassinger realized that she understood very little about plant physiology – how roots, stems, leaves, and flowers actually function. Determined not to repeat her failure, she set out to learn the fundamentals of botany in order to become a better gardener. This is the story of her wise and enchanting odyssey to discover the secret life of plants.
Kassinger retraces the progress of the first botanists, including Charles Darwin, who banished myths and misunderstandings and discovered that flowers have sex, leaves eat air, roots choose their food, and hormones make morning glories climb fence posts. She goes out into the world as well, visiting modern gardens, farms, and labs to discover the science behind extraordinary plants like one-ton pumpkins, truly black petunias, ferns that eat the arsenic in contaminated soil, biofuel grass that grows twelve feet tall, and the world’s only photosynthesizing animal. Kassinger also introduces us to modern scientific research that offers hope for combating climate change and alleviating world hunger. She then transfers her insights to her own garden.
Intertwining personal anecdotes, accessible science, and little-known history, A Garden of Marvels takes us on an eye-opening journey into Kassinger’s garden – and yours – offering us a new appreciation of this exquisite gift of nature.
Out of stock | <urn:uuid:12bacd11-7602-4a86-9e40-3446bcc6ee00> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.nokomis.com.au/product/new-books/botanical/biology-botanical/a-garden-of-marvels-how-we-discovered-that-flowers-have-sex-leaves-eat-air-and-other-secrets-of-plants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178366477.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20210303073439-20210303103439-00007.warc.gz | en | 0.913861 | 386 | 2.78125 | 3 |
22 May 2008
Surveillance and epidemiology of hepatitis B and C in Europe – a review
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are frequent causes of acute and chronic hepatitis worldwide and leading causes for hepatic cirrhosis and cancer. There is a distinct geographical variation in HBV and HCV incidence and prevalence in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area/European Free Trade Association (EEA/EFTA) member states and neighbouring countries. The HBV carrier prevalence ranges from 0.1 to 8.0% and that of HCV from 0.1 to 6.0%. Within the last few years, the HBV incidence has decreased while the HCV incidence has increased. Both diseases are concentrated in certain subpopulations, such as injecting drug users, with tens of times higher prevalence than in the general population. Most EU and EEA/EFTA countries have a surveillance system for HBV and HCV infections, but due to differences in system structures, reporting practices, data collection methods and case definitions used, the surveillance data are difficult to compare across countries. The harmonisation and strengthening of HBV and HCV surveillance at the European level is of utmost importance to obtain more robust data on these diseases.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are frequent causes of acute and chronic hepatitis worldwide and they create a significant burden to healthcare systems due to the high morbidity and mortality, and costs of treatment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, one third of the world’s population have been infected with the HBV virus and more than 350 million have chronic infection. Regarding HCV, it has been estimated that 170 million persons have chronic infection and that 3 to 4 million new infections occur each year [1,2]. In the European Union, the occurrence of both HBV and HCV is known to differ across countries but the interpretation of this heterogeneity is difficult . Within the last two years, a number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of viral hepatitis have been undertaken in the European Union. In 2006, the harmonisation process of surveillance of viral hepatitis in the EU was identified by the European Parliament as one of the priorities for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). With the aim of strengthening the surveillance of HBV and HCV the ECDC has started on: 1) reviewing available information on surveillance systems and epidemiology of HBV and HCV in the EU and 2) drafting a proposal for EU-wide surveillance for hepatitis B and C. The objective of this paper is to summarise the main results and conclusions of the first of these projects.
Materials and methods
Data about existing surveillance systems were collected from the former Eurohep.net project funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Research (DG Research) (available at: www.eurohep.net), the first annual epidemiological report of the ECDC (available at: www.ecdc.europa.eu) , and the 2006 annual report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe of the European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA, available at: www.emcdda.europa.eu)
Information on current vaccination schedules were obtained from EUVAC.NET (available at: http://www.euvac.net/graphics/euvac/vaccination/vaccination.html). Country-specific data on the number of reported HBV and HCV cases are based on the background data sent by countries and used by ECDC for the first epidemiological report.
To summarise the epidemiology of the HBV and HCV infections in Europe a literature review was performed in September 2007 – February 2008. Articles indexed in the PubMed database were searched by using the following key words: hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C, incidence, prevalence, surveillance, Europe. Country-specific information was searched by adding a country name to the search. The search was restricted to EU and EEA/EFTA countries, Switzerland, countries of the former Yugoslavia and Albania. To obtain information on risk groups or other epidemiological features of these diseases, the following auxiliary terms were added to the search: injecting drug users (IDUs), men having sex with men (MSM), sex workers, prisoners, tattooing, immigrants, HIV, haemodialysis, blood transfusion, blood donors, health care workers. The search was restricted to publications written in English. Both review articles and original research reports were included. Papers published during recent years (2000-2007) were preferred.
Hepatitis B surveillance
Eurohep.net was a feasibility project funded by DG Research in 2002-2005. The aim of the project was to take stock of, co-ordinate, strengthen and standardise the country-specific surveillance systems and prevention activities of the vaccine-preventable viral hepatitis A and B . A survey was carried out on existing hepatitis A and B surveillance systems; here, only information concerning hepatitis B is summarised. A surveillance system for HBV infections was in place in all 19 European countries that responded to the survey. The objectives for surveillance were revealed to be very similar. Eighteen countries indicated that underreporting of cases was possible. Source of data, the variables, data availability at central level, and frequency of reporting and analysing the data varied between the countries (Table 1). Sixteen countries reported the use of ten different types of age categories .
In 2006, the ECDC conducted a survey on surveillance systems in 27 EU and EEA/EFTA countries. All 27 countries responded to the survey and all of them declared having a mandatory reporting system for HBV (Table 2). Altogether 39 different HBV surveillance systems were described in the survey: 21 countries had only one surveillance system, whereas six countries had 2-6 different systems. At the national level, the EU case definition for HBV was used in 16 countries. Nine countries used other case definitions, and data were missing from two countries. At the surveillance system level, the EU case definition was used in 20 out of 39 surveillance systems . The category of case definition used and the source of reporting varied greatly between the surveillance systems. The characteristics of HBV surveillance systems are presented in Table 2.
Epidemiology of HBV in Europe
The incidence of reported HBV cases in the EU and EEA/EFTA countries has declined over the past ten years from 6.7 cases per 100,000 population in 1995 to 1.5 cases per 100,000 population in 2005. In 2005, a total of 6,977 new HBV cases were reported. The most affected age group was 25-44 year-olds followed by 15-24 year-olds. Men were 1.8 times (range 1-3) more frequently affected than women. Country-specific incidences for the period 1995-2005 are shown in Table 3 .
The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the general population varies widely between European countries with intermediate to high HBsAg carrier rates in Turkey (8%) and Romania (6%), followed by Bulgaria (4%), Latvia (2%), and Greece (2%). In the Slovak Republic, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Lithuania, Italy and Germany the HBsAg prevalence was 0.5%-1.5% and in the Netherlands, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia and Norway below 0.5 %. The estimates are from different years and populations, which makes comparison difficult [5-7]. Estonia is, however, considered to be a highly endemic country because of the high incidence of cases (33/100,000) .
The most common HBV genotypes in Europe are A and D of which the former is more prevalent in Northern Europe, and the latter in the Mediterranean region and Eastern Europe . For example, genotype A seems to be the prevailing one in Belgium , Iceland , the Netherlands , and Poland , whereas genotype D is dominant in northern Italy and Spain . Also, genotypes B and C which are common in Asian countries, genotype E which occurs in Western Africa, and genotypes F and G which are the main genotypes found in South and Central America, respectively, have been detected in Europe. The prevalence rates of the different genotypes vary both between and within individual countries, depending on the populations at risk and their ethnic and geographical origins [9,15,16]. For example, in 1999-2004 in south-western France, among HBsAg positive patients, genotype A was most frequent (51%) followed by genotype D (26%) while in another study which included patients from Paris and south-east region of France, the proportion of genotypes D and A were 27% and 24%, respectively . In general, in countries where the population is mixed and consists of groups of different geographical and ethnic origins, a more widespread distribution of different genotypes is observed . Co-infection with two genotypes is also possible, but information on the prevalence of co-infections is scarce in Europe . Several studies suggest that HBV response to treatment may differ between the genotypes. For example, patients infected with genotype B seem to have better response to interferon (INF) treatment than those infected with genotype C. A better response to INF treatment has also been detected for genotype A compared to genotype D. However, more studies on the relationship between patient outcome, treatment and HBV genotypes are needed .
Some groups are more frequently affected by HBV infection than the general population. The prevalence of HBsAg in IDUs ranges from 0 to 21% and the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc), which indicates past infection, ranges from 20 to 85% . Concurrent infections with HBV and/or HCV and HIV are common [20,21], especially among IDUs . In Spain and in England, the HBsAg prevalence among sex workers varies between 6-7% [23,24]. In many European countries immigrants from highly endemic regions are 5-90 times more frequently affected by HBV than the general population [25-29]. Other populations at high risk of HBV infection are MSM, and those having multiple sex partners [30,31].
Transmission routes and prevention of HBV
In countries with intermediate to high HBV endemicity (HBsAg ≥ 2%) the most common transmission routes are mother-to-child transmission and horizontal transmission via close household contacts. In low endemic countries HBV is usually acquired via injecting drug use, sexual contacts, or body piercing activities . There is evidence, at least from Denmark and the Netherlands, that the number of HBV infections transmitted by sexual contact has recently been increasing [32,33] but injecting drug use is a major mode of transmission in many countries [32,34]. In the past, HBV was frequently transmitted via blood transfusion, but due to improved testing of blood donors the estimated residual risk of acquiring HBV infection ranges from 1 to 10 per million transfusions in Europe [35-39]. The transmission of HBV infection may also occur through needle stick injuries, which is why health care workers can be at higher risk of getting the HBV infection. However, data from Denmark, Germany, Turkey and Albania showed that HBsAg prevalence among health care workers was at the same level as in the general population [20,40-42].
According to the most recent information from EUVAC.NET , 21 out of 30 EU and EEA/EFTA countries have implemented a universal vaccination programme for infants or adolescents or both. Eight countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland and United Kingdom) with low HBV prevalence have chosen a selective vaccination programme against hepatitis B targeted at risk groups. Information on one country was missing . Most countries have implemented additional prevention programmes for different risk groups, most commonly targeted at those at increased risk of acquiring HBV infection via occupational exposure. For example, the Eurohep.net survey showed that 19 out of 19 countries had a vaccination programme for those at increased occupational risk of HBV infection. The next most common risk group targeted by vaccination programmes were the household contacts of HBV patients (17/19), neonates born to HBsAg-positive mothers (17/19), followed by dialysis patients (16/19) and IDUs (14/19). Vaccination of MSM or patients visiting STI clinics was offered in 10 and 9 countries, respectively. A screening programme for pregnant women was in place in 15 countries .
HCV surveillance in Europe
All 27 European countries which responded to the ECDC survey in 2006 reported having a surveillance system for HCV infection (Table 5). In 25 countries the reporting was mandatory. Altogether there were 38 different HCV surveillance systems in 27 countries. Six countries had more than one system: Belgium (n=3), Cyprus (n=2), France (n=5), Italy (n=2), the Netherlands (n=3) and Portugal (n=2). The EU case definition was reported to be used in at least one of the surveillance systems in 17 of the 27 countries. Eight countries used other case definitions and two countries did not provide information on this topic. Surveillance data were collected from laboratories, physicians, hospitals, and other sources, or different combinations of these. Twenty countries collected data from laboratories as part of their surveillance system. Seven countries did not include laboratory reporting in the HCV surveillance . The characteristics of HCV surveillance systems are shown in Table 4.
HCV epidemiology in Europe
Almost 250,000 HCV cases were notified by 24 EU and EEA/EFTA countries in 1995-2005. During this period a steady increase in the incidence of reported HCV cases was observed (Figure).
As hepatitis C is often asymptomatic and could easily be missed for diagnosis, cases reported to national surveillance systems could be either newly diagnosed prevalent cases or new incident cases. In 2005, a total of 29,243 HCV cases were reported in EU. The rate was highest in the age group of 25-44 year-olds followed by 15-24 year-olds. In men, the rate was twice as high as in women . The incidence of reported HCV cases by country in 1995-2005 is shown in Table 5. According to the WHO, the HCV prevalence in Europe is estimated to be approximately 1% . Compared to other geographical areas in the world this figure is relatively low . The available data from Europe indicate a wide variation in HCV prevalence between the countries, ranging from 0.1 to 6.0%. The lowest HCV prevalence (≤ 0.5%) estimates are from Scandinavian countries, Austria and the Netherlands, and the highest (≥ 3%) from Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Romania .
Types 1a, 3/3a and 4 are commonly found in IDU-related infections whilst 1b and 2 genotypes are linked to blood transfusion or nosocomial transmission . Genotype 4 has also been associated with having a tattoo . As a result of improved blood transfusion safety serotypes associated with blood transfusions are being replaced by other serotypes especially those related to injecting drug use . Prisoners often have prevalence rates of antibodies to HCV comparable to those of IDUs due to a high proportion of IDUs among this group [46-54]. In Germany, Spain and in UK the anti-HCV prevalence in sex workers ranged from 0.7 to 9.0 %; with the lowest estimate in Germany [20,23,24]. In Germany, Spain and in the UK the anti-HCV prevalence in sex workers ranged from 0.7 to 9.0 %; with the lowest estimate in Germany . However, these figures are difficult to compare due to methodological and timeframe differences.
HCV infections in sex workers have been shown to be associated with injecting drug use . A north to south gradient in anti-HCV prevalence among hemodialysis patients in Europe was described based on samples from the 1990’s . According to samples from 1997-2001, the anti-HCV prevalence (adjusted for age, gender, race, time on end stage renal disease, and alcohol or drug abuse), was 22% in Italy and Spain, and lower in France (10.4%), Germany (3.8%) and UK (2.6%) , although these figures do not necessarily represent the country-specific incidences in general. Data from different studies indicate that there is a remarkable variation between and within individual countries in the anti-HCV prevalence in HD patients. However, it is likely that many of the populations in these studies have been chronic cases exposed to the virus in the past, before screening and testing was widely available, so most likely these results do not reflect the current situation. It should also be noted that the anti-HCV prevalence does not indicate what proportion of the population are HCV RNA carriers and thus infective. The presence of virus (being RNA-positive) can be confirmed in 40-90% of those who are anti-HCV-positive .
Transmission routes and prevention of HCV
HCV infection is mainly associated with injecting drug use (blood-blood contact, sharing syringes and needles), blood transfusion, nosocomial transmission, or other parenteral exposure such as needle stick injuries, body piercing or tattooing. In many countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Sweden and Italy, the most common risk factor is injecting drug use, which accounts for 30-59% of all HCV infections. The second most common risk factor is blood transfusion performed before 1991. In 10-54% of cases the risk factor is unknown . Mother-to-child transmission and transmission of HCV by sexual contact seem to be rare although it has been observed that high-risk sexual behaviour among MSM may predispose to HCV infection probably via permucosal route, especially in HIV-infected MSM [57-59]. The implementation of effective virus inactivation procedures and of anti-HCV testing methods in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the recent introduction of HCV RNA tests significantly improved the safety of blood products . The estimated residual risk for acquiring HCV via blood products ranges from 1 to 40 per 10 million transfusions in Europe [35-39].
There is no vaccine against HCV infection. The cornerstones of preventing and reducing the burden of HCV are early diagnosis, effective preventing programmes, and appropriate treatment [44,60]. It is known that a large number of individuals carrying the HCV virus are not aware of being infected due to the high proportion of asymptomatic infections [2,61]. Thus it is necessary to target the screening of HCV at the risk groups and to provide appropriate testing facilities, also for hard-to-reach populations. However, personal and institutional barriers may reduce the uptake of HCV testing, especially in prisons. Thus further research and development of testing strategies is needed . Needle and syringe exchange programmes, may be useful in reducing the incidence of HCV infection among IDUs, although the impact may be limited, as indicated by the high prevalence of HCV in IDU . In addition, it is vital to encourage education and increase awareness of HCV in the general population, health care providers and policy makers .
Numerous scientific reports on HBV and HCV epidemiology have been published. The comparability of their results, however, is challenged by differences in objectives, methods, strategies, timeframes, and target populations. Regardless of these limitations, the available data suggest that the epidemiology of both HBV and HCV differ widely between countries and that HBV and HCV infections create a significant burden to health care systems. Viral hepatitis affects the general population disproportionately, with the highest burden on certain risk groups with different epidemiological characteristics across the EU. Prevention and control of HBV and HCV infections require continuous monitoring as well as evaluation of surveillance and prevention strategies. Surveillance and prevention of HCV infection is even more challenging than that of HBV because HCV infections are mostly asymptomatic and may remain undiagnosed for a long time. Also, prevention is challenging as there is no vaccine available against HCV. Despite significant improvements in blood transfusion safety, hygiene practices, screening, education messages, sterile needle and condom availability and blood product treatment, the HCV infection rates continue to rise in Europe. The increasing trend cannot be easily interpreted as it may also partly reflect the results of improved surveillance, intensified screening activities and the availability of accurate testing methods. Nevertheless, HCV can be considered to be an increasing public health concern in Europe in the coming decades, which calls for appropriate public health action.
Comparison of surveillance data is hampered by differences in the surveillance systems, the population under surveillance, the data sources, and the unknown proportion of infections being undiagnosed or missed because asymptomatic or – if diagnosed – unreported. Also, there is no clear distinction in the overall reporting between acute and chronic cases. Abrupt changes in country-specific incidences of reported HBV and HCV cases most probably reflect changes in surveillance systems made by these countries rather than true trends. However, at present, information on these changes is mostly lacking at the EU level and deserves more attention in the future. The differentiation between acute and chronic cases of HBV or HCV infections is a demanding task but will need to be tackled in order to accurately estimate the disease burden. Reporting asymptomatic infections is controversial, but should be discussed as part of a new framework for enhanced surveillance of hepatitis B and C in the EU. Asymptomatic infections may have long term consequences since HBV and HCV infections acquired early in childhood are commonly asymptomatic but may lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure or even carcinoma at the older age. They can also serve as a reservoir for infection to spread. In the light of these facts non-reporting of asymptomatic infections would underestimate the real incidence and burden of HBV and HCV. To enhance the specificity and comparability of surveillance data between the countries only laboratory-confirmed cases should be reported, but laboratory data need to be supplemented by good quality clinical and epidemiological data. Underreporting of cases also seems to be a common phenomenon. All except one country in the Eurohep.net survey replied that underreporting of HBV was possible. This applies also to HCV. For example, in England, only half of the HCV cases diagnosed in sentinel laboratories were reported via national surveillance system between October 2002 and September 2003 . In Austria, the reporting activity was even lower since only one fifth of the 10,000 HCV cases in the hospital discharge register were reported to the national surveillance in the period of 1993-2000 .
Toward harmonisation of EU-wide surveillance
Although there were some differences in methodology and the number of participating countries between the Eurohep.net and the ECDC surveys, both clearly showed that surveillance systems differ in many ways. The objectives of the surveillance systems are very similar and basic data sets (e.g. age, sex, place of residence, date of onset, data on hospitalisation, and risk factors) are collected in most countries, but there is great heterogeneity between surveillance systems regarding the use of EU case definitions, reporting of acute and chronic cases, inclusion of asymptomatic cases in the reporting, data sources, and the legal aspects of reporting. While the availability of electronic data has markedly improved within the last years, many different types and formats of the data are being used. All these issues are likely to pose a major challenge for EU-wide harmonised data collection.
Nevertheless, harmonisation of EU-wide surveillance of viral hepatitis is of utmost importance in order to be able to make true comparisons between trends and epidemiological characteristics of these diseases across countries, to contribute to targeted prevention and control strategies, and to assess the disease burden. The ECDC is currently preparing to strengthen the surveillance of HBV and HCV in the EU.
To conclude, comparable and validated reliable data on HBV and HCV infections are needed in the EU in order to estimate the disease burden of these diseases. However, harmonisation of the EU-wide surveillance of HBV and HCV infections faces many challenges due to differences in surveillance systems between the countries.
Project leaders and participants of EUROHEP.net are acknowledged for the permission to use their data by the ECDC in the process of developing the viral hepatitis surveillance.
The authors also wish to thank Viviane Bremer for reviewing the first draft of the paper.
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62. Brant LJ, Hurrelle M, Balogun MA, Klapper P, Ahmad F, Boxall E, et al. Sentinel laboratory surveillance of hepatitis C antibody testing in England: understanding the epidemiology of HCV infection. Epidemiol Infect. 2007;135:417-426.
63. Strauss R, Fülöp G, Pfeifer C. Hepatitis C in Austria 1993–2000: reporting bias distort HCV epidemiology in Austria. Euro Surveill. 2003;8(5):pii=412. Available from: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=412 | <urn:uuid:d5cc3655-d45c-48a4-add9-83c32e5b18ba> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=18880 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737882743.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221802-00202-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886458 | 8,941 | 3.0625 | 3 |
STEM from the perspectives of engineering design and suggested tools and learning design
STEM is an educational concept about which little consensus has been reached as to what it is, and how it can be taught in schools. This study provides a snap shot of prominent contemporary research results contributing to better understanding of STEM and its implementation in education. In addition, this study tries to tackle an issue that school science has traditionally been built around well defined problems for learning purpose. As most real-world problems are ill-defined, this study proposes to implement the notion of STEM to help students acquire real-world problem-solving skills by engaging them in an engineering design process, in which students use the technology tools of graphic-based programming. The proposed learning practice is experiential task-based learning, in which students are forced to apply and acquire related science and mathematics knowledge during their engineering design process. It is hoped that related rationales and discussions will stimulates researchers and educators to adopt or tailor their own learning designs for the current generation of youngsters and promote the quality of teaching and learning in STEM. | <urn:uuid:009d6a3b-e107-4580-89ac-f82fd7592a95> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://j-stem.net/index.php/jstem/article/view/22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875144027.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20200219030731-20200219060731-00494.warc.gz | en | 0.975749 | 215 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Role: Creative lead & developer
Team: Sofia Tsalidou, Kareem Elkadi, Venus Chung
Designing a smart toy that forms a healthy toothbrushing habit for teenagers
Teens tend to not brush their teeth for a full 2 minutes, which could cause gum rot later in life.
Philips asked us to design a smart toy that connects to their Philips sonicare toothbrushes and improves the brushing routine of teenagers by making it more fun.
We interviewed 55 teenagers in their high school about their brushing habit and environment, interests, and ideas. The interviews were followed by 2 co creation sessions which started by having the teens generate a context map by making sticky notes containing their interests, technologies they use, and subjects regarding their oral hygiene.
These were used as a frame of reference for a crazy 8 session where the teens were grouped in teams and each teen generated ideas. The teens then discussed and voted on their favorite ideas and drew one final concept to present to us and the rest of the class.
The results of our interviews and co-creation sessions gave us a tremendous amount of valuable insights about the teenagers’ lives. Resulting in a lot of usefull statistics and journey maps of their brushing routine.
Prototyping & testing
After our desk and user research we set out to create various prototypes using a rapid prototyping methods like paper prototyping and wireframing. The teenagers were into games, apps, customisation, belonged to a wide range of subcultures and had very different interests so we tried to think of concepts that could cater to those different interests and had the ability to be customisable. After testing our prototypes we made a Harris profile and combined the best features into one final concept.
Gen is an artificial intelligence that lives in your bathroom and evolves as you brush your teeth correctly. During your brushing session Gen will entertain and guide you to brush better and longer. Gen starts out as a robot with no charisma, intelligence or creativity, and it’s up to you to upgrade those characteristics after each brushing session.
As you evolve Gen by putting points into it’s characteristics, you’ll see it change day-by-day, turning into you own customisable tooth brushing buddy. Not only it’s appearance will change, but also it’s personality and behaviour. Below you can see a generic progression of Gen from day 1 until day 7.
Spend your points in intelligence but none in charisma and it will turn into an evil AI set to take of the world, spend your points into charisma but none in intelligence and Gen will turn into a clumsy comedian. There are 8 big archetypes that Gen can turn into, each requiring at least 14 days of brushing to reach. Below are some examples of how different Gen can become depending on your choices.
We designed a 3d printed model that could be manufactured with low cost, and has a slot to fit various phone models that run the Gen app. Using Gen is just a matter of opening the Gen app and putting your phone in the model and Gen will ‘wake up’. After the user is done brushing he/she can upgrade Gen in the app, where you can also unlock accessories for Gen by brushing better.
The shape of Gen’s actual body is the result of extensive user testing of different forms with teens. We designed the body in such a way that it fits in any bathroom style, and it’s also possible to attach gen to a flat surface using suction cups. The aesthetics of the body are designed to have the same curves and color of the Philips diamond clean toothbrush.
This is a video of our first prototype, demonstrating what a brushing session with Gen would be like on the first day. Gen runs on an app and is connected to the Philips toothbrush through bluetooth, and knows when you start or stop brushing and if you are brushing too hard. Gen also has a LED light timer at the base of it’s body that serves as a visual indicator of how far you are in your brushing session.
This is a video of the Gen on day 1, when it has no personality yet, running a shortened brushing routine.
This is a video of the final version of Gen on day 7, with a generic personality and a shortened brushing routine.
In order to upgrade Gen, users need to do this in the app after or before a brushing session. Users get one point after each successfull brushing routine and they can also unlock accessoires if they brush better by not brushing too hard and switching sides on time. All of Gen’s customisation is done through the app. The app was designed by Sofia Tsalidou.
After the project was done Philips commended us for our structural way of working and performing solid research at important moments throughout the project, putting the user in the center at all cost. Gen has been showcased at the Philips innovation event.
The Double Diamond model of our design process during this Research through Design project can be seen below. | <urn:uuid:d63763e8-37ca-4bc4-878a-c305bcd74270> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://unfrm.com/portfolio/gen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370525223.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20200404200523-20200404230523-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.95582 | 1,029 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Steeping yourself in negativity has seriously terrible consequences for your mental and physical health.
The idea that helping others is part of a meaningful life has been around for thousands of years. Aristotle wrote that finding happiness and fulfillment is achieved “by loving rather than in being loved.” According to the psychologist Carol Ryff, who reviewed the writings of numerous philosophers throughout history, relationships with others are “a central feature of a positive, well-lived life.”
In her article for the Greater Good Science Centre, Juliana Breines writes about three strategies to bring more kindness into your life.
One of the best ways to increase our own happiness is to do things that make other people happy. In countless studies, kindness and generosity have been linked to greater life satisfaction, stronger relationships, and better mental and physical health—generous people even live longer.
When is the last time you did a good deed for someone in your office? How did it make you feel? How did it make them feel? It is an amazing thought to consider that just a small act of random kindness can have massive effects when it comes to human performance in the workplace.
For Psychology Today, Dr. Prince-Mitchell explains the key to happiness for children and teens.
We don’t make children happy by simply enabling them to be receivers of kindness. We increase their feelings of happiness and well-being, reduce bullying, and improve their friendships by teaching them to be givers of kindness… | <urn:uuid:40f16779-55c9-41f0-8553-06ef420363fe> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://kindcanada.org/articles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676593378.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180722155052-20180722175052-00131.warc.gz | en | 0.962533 | 303 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Part of what makes my cold climate garden cold is the fact that we live in the bottom of a valley, and cold air flows downhill and settles all around us. So however cold the weatherman predicts it will get, it’s usually colder here. Often, ten degrees colder. For example, on May 12th, when a light frost was predicted, the low temp in the morning was 28F(-2C). The following morning, it was 28.5F (-1.9C). I call those two hard frosts. And on the 19th, it was 25.5F(-3.6C). When it gets that low, I call it a freeze. And I believe all these recordings were on the high side, because the temperature sensor is located near the house, under an overhang (it’s not supposed to get sopping wet), in the general neighborhood of where we are raising a bunch of chicks, using two heat lamps to keep them warm.
So, what happens when we get an untimely freeze like that? Well, it depends…
Same Genus, Different SpeciesI really don’t know what species or parentage these “trumpet” lilies are, but they are definitely the most frost tender lilies I have. Lilies only put out one set of leaves per year, so these plants are starting the growing season handicapped with less than a full complement of leaves. I don’t expect any blooms from them. I’ll be happy if they make it through another winter, and give me another chance.
When I removed the containers that I had put over these Oriental lilies to protect them from the freeze, I could see frost in between the leaf layers. But a week later, they still don’t look damaged. This surprised me, because I remember them getting damaged by frost in other years.
I didn’t realize the Lilium henryi bulbs had emerged, so never considered covering them, and they made it through just fine.
Protected in Vain?Plants from tropical climates have their limits when it comes to cold tolerance. Whatever temperature it was inside that upturned flower pot, it was still below freezing. However, keep in mind the insulating properties of soil. As a result of a timely comment, I was inspired by this post to pile more dirt over the tuber after I planted it. This protected it sufficiently that it was able to send up new growth. If the tuber itself had frozen, it would have died and no new growth would have been possible. Often in a cold climate, it pays to plant things a little deeper. Sometimes the most you can accomplish is reducing your losses. The more undamaged foliage there is, the more that foliage can feed the roots, building up the plant for a bigger, better display next year.
Continued in Part 2, where I illustrate how appearances can be deceiving, what happens to trees and shrubs, and a few plants unfazed by the dramatic temperature drop. | <urn:uuid:a3c8d42c-fa64-490f-998a-3a74e5e64bc0> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2009/05/27/what-happens-to-plants-after-an-untimely-freeze-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645378542.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031618-00194-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974165 | 627 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Don't Sleep On It: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ambien
Medically reviewed on May 31, 2018 by C. Fookes, BPharm
1. Sleep Problems Common. Sleep Aid Use Increasing.
Sleep deprivation is no joke. Numerous motor vehicle crashes, industrial disasters, and medical errors have been linked to insufficient sleep. Sleep problems often stem from stress, pain or medical conditions that may not always respond to lifestyle changes recommended to improve sleep.
So maybe it's no surprise for you to hear that more than 9 million prescriptions are written for Ambien (zolpidem) or Ambien CR every year. Ambien is a sedative, also called a hypnotic, that is used to treat insomnia. Other brands of zolpidem include Edluar, Intermezzo and Zolpimist.
2. Not A Benzodiazepine But Has Benzodiazepine-Like Effects
Although Ambien belongs to a different class of medicines than older drugs historically prescribed for sleep (such as benzodiazepines), it works in a similar way.
Both benzodiazepines and zolpidem (Ambien) are thought to enhance the effects of a specific neurotransmitter called GABA. However, Ambien only induces sleep whereas benzodiazepines also work as anticonvulsants and muscle-relaxants. Although addiction centers report Ambien is not as habit-forming as benzodiazepines, it is still addictive. Ambien is also a lot shorter-acting than most benzodiazepines, although some side effects may stick around.
3. Original Doses Packed Too Big A Punch
The FDA regularly monitors prescription drug information and makes label changes based on reported side effects. In 2013, the FDA ordered Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturers of Ambien and Ambien CR, and all other manufacturers of zolpidem to change their dosage recommendations. This was in response to over 700 reports of zolpidem-related driving accidents, including drowsy driving and sleep-driving (patients getting out of bed while not fully awake and driving). Other reported activities have included eating, walking, making phone calls, or having sex after taking Ambien and later having no memory of the activity.
4. Long-Lasting Forms: Impaired Alertness Still High
Ambien CR has two layers. The first layer dissolves quickly to send you off to sleep. The inner layer dissolves more slowly, and helps you stay asleep. But this inner layer can also mean blood levels of the drug are still high enough the next morning to impair your ability to drive or operate machinery. Impairment with Ambien CR is increased with higher dosages; when taking it late at night with less than 7 to 8 hours of sleep left; in women; and if taken with narcotic pain medicines, antidepressants or alcohol. Always wait until you are fully awake before you do anything that requires you to be alert.
5. Women More Susceptible To Effects Of Zolpidem
Zolpidem (Ambien) is broken down (metabolized) in the liver to an inactive form, but the enzymes responsible are more active in men than in women. Some scientists believe the faster rate of zolpidem metabolism in men may be due to the enzyme-enhancing effects of testosterone. This means that Ambien's effects are more likely to last longer in women. In fact, plasma levels of zolpidem can be up to 50 percent higher in women. As a result, recommended initial doses of Ambien in women are 5 milligram (mg) for the immediate-release form and 6.25 mg for Ambien CR. Seniors also have a reduced ability to metabolize Ambien and should also take lower initial dosages.
6. Not As Addiction-Free As Once Thought
When zolpidem (Ambien) was first discovered, scientists thought it unlikely to cause tolerance, dependence or be subject to abuse like benzodiazepines. Unfortunately, if you've been taking moderate-to-high doses of Ambien for long periods of time, you may struggle with medication withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit.
Symptoms can include shaking, stomach cramps, vomiting, nervousness and panic attacks. Ambien is designed for short term use only. Taking it at higher than recommended doses for long periods of time increases your chance of addiction.
7. Things That Go Bump (Or Tweet) In the Middle Of The Night
Parasomnia is the medical term given to an activity someone might perform while they are technically asleep.
These range from sleep-walking, hallucinations, cooking meals, binge eating, cleaning the house or even driving the car while in an altered state of consciousness. The next morning, the person has no idea of what went on the night before.
Drugs such as Ambien (zolpidem) reportedly induce this side-effect more than benzodiazepines do. So much so, that the terms "Z-drug Zombie" or "Ambien Zombie" are in common usage.
While research has shown that some people are indeed prone to occasional parasomnias after taking Ambien, these are more of a physical rather than a cognitive nature. Despite recent claims by celebrity Roseanne Barr that Ambien was responsible for her inflammatory slur about Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to President Obama, there is no evidence that Ambien makes you more likely to make bilious comments or statements. As the manufacturers of Ambien succinctly put it; "Racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication".
8. Prescription Medicine. Prescription Needed
Ambien is a controlled, prescription drug which means on-line sales of the drug without a prescription are illegal. Plus, drugs bought over the Internet might be far from safe, and there's no guarantee they actually contain the right ingredient. In 2007, the FDA described several instances where individuals who ordered Ambien received a product containing haloperidol, a powerful antipsychotic. After ingesting the counterfeit product, some of these people experienced difficulty in breathing, muscle spasms and muscle stiffness requiring emergency treatment. Ask yourself...is it worth it?
9. Making You Feel Worse, Not Better
Depression is a serious condition that can cause lack of sleep. In some people, insomnia occurs before symptoms of depression. In others, symptoms of depression occur before the onset of sleep problems. As a result, many people with depression take sedatives such as Ambien.
However, sedative use is associated with a higher chance of developing depression, or worsening existing depression. Alcohol use, which should be avoided when taking Ambien, can compound this risk. Report any new or worsening symptoms of depression to your doctor. Ambien may not be the right sedative for you.
10. Taking A Sedative? Accidents Can Happen
Taking Ambien occasionally to help you sleep is generally safe...as long as you stay in bed! But what if you need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet? What if you wake up earlier than usual and get out of bed or go to work? Chances are, you will still be drowsy from the drug's effects, and you are more likely to fall, break a hip, hit your head, or have a car accident, especially if you are of an older age. In fact, use of Ambien and other sedatives can double the risk of a car accident or other serious injuries. Sleeping pills should not become a regular habit - and be especially careful when you do use them.
Fight Back: Other Ways To Combat Insomnia
Lack of sleep is often a symptom of an underlying problem. It is not really a condition or illness in its own right. Sleeping pills should only be used as a last resort.
Think about your caffeine use, is it too much? Monster-sized energy drinks or triple venti lattes may be the culprit. What about life situations? Do you keep the TV on in your bedroom? A victim of late-night computer use? Are you getting any exercise? Have you recently lost a loved one, had a job change, or a marital dispute? All of these can affect your ability to rest soundly. See other ways you can address lack of sleep and think about joining the Drugs.com Insomnia Support Group to ask questions and voice concerns.
Finished: Don't Sleep On It: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ambien
- Ambien (zolpidem) [Product Information] Drugs.com https://www.drugs.com/ambien.html
- Ambien Addiction and Abuse. Addiction Center. September, 2017. https://www.addictioncenter.com/sleeping-pills/ambien/
- FDA. Questions and Answers: Risk of next-morning impairment after use of insomnia drugs; FDA requires lower recommended doses for certain drugs containing zolpidem (Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar, and Zolpimist). December 2014. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm334041.htm
- Lin F-Y, Chen P-C, Liao CH, Hsieh Y-W, Sung F-C. Retrospective Population Cohort Study on Hip Fracture Risk Associated with Zolpidem Medication. Sleep.2014;37(4):673-679. doi:10.5665/sleep.3566. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4044749/
- Cubala WJ, Landowski J, Wichowicz HM. Zolpidem abuse, dependence and withdrawal syndrome: sex as susceptibility factor for adverse effects. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2008;65:444–5.
- Olubodun JO, Ochs HR, von Moltke LL, et al. Pharmacokinetic properties of zolpidem in elderly and young adults: possible modulation by testosterone in men. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2003;56:297–304. | <urn:uuid:15ea57f1-e04b-4c1a-b450-d2095a9e2ec0> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.drugs.com/slideshow/ambien-facts-1189 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583513844.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20181021094247-20181021115747-00439.warc.gz | en | 0.906946 | 2,098 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Lycoming College History Department
“Upon looking round I do not see any Quarter from which I may so confidently look for Assistance as the Pennsylvania Troops who have shewn so much Spirit & Zeal.”
~General George Washington to Colonel Samuel Miles, August 8, 1776
With the outbreak of war in April 1775, ordinary farmers, artisans, servants, and laborers in Pennsylvania, like elsewhere, mobilized to meet the threat. Volunteer rifle battalions from Berks and Cumberland Counties were quickly raised and joined the Continental Army at Cambridge. During this initial moment and afterward, the“Pennsylvania Troops,” General George Washington wrote to one correspondent, “have shewn much Spirit & Zeal.” Pennsylvania’s revolutionary soldiers had many opportunities to show the general such passion. Between 1775 and 1781, Pennsylvanians fought in key battles and experienced all the hardships of war. They crossed the Delaware with Washington and took part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton in late 1776 and early 1777. They fought at Brandywine and Germantown to repel the British invasion of their state, and they guarded the roads and policed inhabitants after their efforts failed and the British occupied Philadelphia. Hard as these realities were, Pennsylvania’s soldiers also endured the difficulties of Valley Forge and the horror of the Wyoming Massacre.
Not all of Pennsylvania’s soldiers participated in these famous encounters and experiences. Many more ordinary soldiers remained local, building forts, acting as scouts and guides, and protecting their communities from enemy Native Americans and those neighbors, friends, and even kin who remained loyal to the crown. Pennsylvania’s soldiers also acted as a police force, exerting the full power of the commonwealth against perceived criminals and enemies of state. They rounded up “tories and thieves,” guarded prisoners to jail, and supplemented state officials in lesser matters frequently. The war, for many of these soldiers, was just as much about protecting their homes, their communities, and their state, as it was about expelling the British from America.
With the end of hostilities in 1781, the soldiers may have returned home, but the revolutionary struggle was far from over. They now had the task of rebuilding their lives and their state, which goals were sometimes at odds. The state government, suffering from political factionalism and a depleted treasury, exacted heavy taxes on its citizens, many of whom, recently returned from war and in the process of rebuilding, could not pay. Anywhere from 15 to 40 percent of ordinary people in some counties had their land and property confiscated and sold to pay for these back taxes. In result, some remained in the state, endured their losses and attempted to make do with what they had. Others moved to another state, and many more trudged west to the Ohio country.
This website, created and maintained by undergraduate students at Lycoming College, is dedicated to telling the stories of these soldiers and their experiences. On this site, you will find student essays about the American Revolution in Pennsylvania, and the transcribed/annotated pension files and short biographies of some of Pennsylvania’s revolutionary soldiers. Through these essays and primary sources you will be able to read about the soldiers’ experiences in their own words while also understanding what they endured within the context of their individual and collective lives. I hope you enjoy reading about these soldiers, and please check back as we update the site with more essays, pensions, and biographies.
Dr. Christopher Pearl
Professor of History
ROBERT COVENHOVEN was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, December 7, 1755 to Albert Covenhoven. Covenhoven lived in an area that could not legally arbitrate these disputes. He squatted on 'Indian lands' outside the western jurisdiction of Pennsylvania and thus beyond the boundaries of the law. Without local government, Covenhoven and several other members of the area banded together and created their own self-government known as the 'Fair-Play System.'
Featured Guest posts:
BENJAMIN TOTH, “Life, Liberty, and Security”: The Sanguinary Tale of a Valley at War
In 1763, the Pennsylvanian legislature ordered a group of rangers from the frontier counties to enter the Wyoming Valley in order to expel the New England settlers. Among these rangers was Lazarus Stewart, serving as a part of an eviction force meant to escort the New Englanders from the Wyoming Valley as peaceably as possible. The rangers could not have prepared for what greeted them, however, as they arrived at the settlement at Mill Creek. When they arrived “They… found the New Englanders, who had been killed and scalped a day or two before they got there…”
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Ce rapport est disponible en français Français.
Women’s rights and access to the internet
The internet is an important resource that allows individuals in general, and women in particular, to exercise their right to free speech, share their opinions and ideas, develop new skills and understanding, and share information. Internet access allows women to participate in the information society, exercise their rights as citizens, access information about health care and other services, form communities, engage in both the formal and informal processes of shaping their social, cultural, and political lives, and construct movements for their own rights.
However, in recognising the role of the internet in the empowerment of women in the West, one might ask if the internet plays the same role for women and girls in African countries, such as the Republic of Congo.
Before responding to this question later on in the report, it is first important to specify how many internet subscribers there are in the Congo. According to the Agency of Regulation of Post and Electronic Communications (ARPCE), there were approximately 15,000 subscribers in 2009 out of an estimated population of four million. Additionally, ARPCE indicates that there are 4.3 million mobile phone subscribers accessing internet service through the four telecommunication companies in the country.
This study examines how information and communications technologies (ICTs), especially the internet, are used to both promote and defend the rights of women, as well as to support their fight for equality and the end of social, economic, cultural and political inequalities. What are the challenges that are facing women and their organisations?
Analysis of legislation relating to ICTs and women’s rights
For the purposes of this report, it is important to understand how the legal framework relates to ICTs, as well as how it relates to the protection of women’s rights.
The legal framework for ICTs
Currently, Law No. 9-2009 of 25 November 2009, which regulates the electronic communications sector, is the only one that relates to ICTs. This law describes the conditions for the installation and use of electronic communication services and networks. Article 6 of the law specifies that electronic communication activities may be carried out freely as long as they strictly respect the conditions of the legislation.
Article 85 of the same law states that the public powers shall guarantee the necessary conditions for developing universal access and service. To this end, the Republic of Congo adopted a national policy on the development of ICTs. Law No. 11-2009 also created an agency that regulates electronic communication.
Other laws are currently in the works; these include a law that would protect personal data in the Republic of Congo, a law on cyber security, a law to combat cyber crime, and a law on the digital economy. A national high-speed internet development plan is also in the offing.
The legal framework for women’s rights
With respect to legislation on women’s rights, it is important to emphasise that different laws cover different aspects. These include a law from 17 October 1984 establishing the Family Code, the Penal Code of 1810, a law from 14 June 2010 on the protection of children, a law from 25 February 2011 that promotes and protects the rights of indigenous populations, and a law from 3 June 2011 that supports the fight against HIV/AIDS and protects the rights of those living with HIV. Drafts of other laws are underway, such as a law on gender parity. No specific law exists on violence against women and girls, and the texts that do touch on the subject, notably the penal code dating from 1810 and the family code of 1984, no longer correspond to the current realities of our society.
Pertinent questions on women’s rights
The women’s movement can be considered as the ensemble of groups and networks of women who have fought in the political, social and economic spheres for the empowerment of Congolese women and girls. Congolese women have been actively involved in the fight for independence up to today. The fight for women’s rights has been primarily focused on social, economic and political rights, and Congolese women have worked on numerous issues important to them. These include the fight for women to be able to assume positions of power, particularly in politics; education; the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria, sickle cell anaemia and other illnesses; the fight against violence against women and girls; the fight against discrimination of indigenous populations; and more recently, gender parity.
Whether the demands were put forth by women in political groups or women in civil society, they have been successful in bringing about change. The demands of women in both political groups and in civil society have produced tangible results, such as the creation of a Ministry for the Promotion of Women and Integration of Women in Development in 1992, the adoption of a national action plan, and their integration in strategic documents and programmes.
The strategic use of ICTs in promoting women’s rights in the Congo
Internet access for women’s organisations
Despite problems of internet access for Congolese society, and particularly women – problems even more pronounced in rural areas – the internet’s contributions since 2000 must be recognised. It has supported women’s movements on crucial topics such as the right to health care, education and female leadership, and the fight against violence, among others. Some women’s organisations describe having paid 5,000 CFA francs (USD 10) an hour to use the internet in cybercafés, and today they are able to do so for 500 francs (USD 1). The desire to gain knowledge and to be connected has led women to seek information and develop new programmes. Many stories like the following have been told.
This story takes place in Makoua, approximately 800 kilometres north of Brazzaville. Lucie, the director of a women’s rights NGO, is there to monitor the activities being carried out by an organisation leading the fight against HIV/AIDS. Aware of the difficulties of accessing the internet in the area, she buys a modem in the form of a USB drive from a mobile phone company so that she may access the internet during her trip to Makoua. As soon as she has arrived in the area, she discovers that she is unable to connect to the internet. There is no network, and no internet connection. Having resigned herself to the fact that she cannot connect to the internet, residents of the neighbourhood inform her that she must go to another neighbourhood to try to access the network. However, after two days, she is still unable to access the network. Faced with the need to connect to the internet to get news from partners and colleagues, she said, “I cannot spend an entire day without internet. It’s my sole source of communication with our organisation’s partners.” Finally, she ends up going to the only cybercafé in the town, which is operated by a religious group. This story, among others, shows that internet access in certain areas of the country remains extremely difficult and requires overcoming obstacle after obstacle.
In the Republic of Congo, as in many African countries, violence in its many forms is a daily occurrence for many women and girls. Faced with these cases of violence, some associations are fighting back, each with its own approach and particular methods. Today, with the help of the internet, many organisations are now working together. Among these organisations are AZUR Développement, l’Association pour le Développement des Femmes dans la Bouenza (AFDB), Réseau des Associations de Solidarité Positive du Congo (RASPC), and l’Agence Régionale d’information et de prevention sur le SIDA (ARIPS). Their work consists of educating women in order to prevent these types of violence. Additionally, these organisations train survivors on social communication to further prevent the violence and to provide psychosocial, medical and legal aid. The internet has been an asset in this fight; specifically, women are able to use an internet platform created by the Association for Progressive Communications and AZUR Développement to report and map domestic violence. Now, domestic violence, long considered normal in our country, is being denounced and reliable data on this violence is available online.
However, as the story of Lucie in Makoua demonstrates, Congolese women still experience difficulties in gaining internet access. The internet is helping women in their fight, but under what circumstances and with what results?
“In theory, we would love to be on the internet every day, but we have a problem: we have no computers or internet connection at the office. In short, we’re able to use the internet at least four times a week because we access it at the office of another women’s association,” declared Blandine Sita, president of Association Femme Plus du Congo, a women’s AIDS organisation. Internet access for Congolese activists who work with civil society organisations is further complicated by a lack of equipment, financing and technical skills.
The different uses of ICTs for women’s rights
The most commonly used internet applications are email and search engines, such as Google. Electronic forums, online classes and workshops, blogs and social networks are also occasionally used by women’s organisations.
However, as a result of skills workshops organised by AZUR Développement, Association Dynamique Plurielle and Handicapés Sans Frontières, more women and organisations are now using blogs to make their voices heard.
The personal accounts received from women recognise the place of the internet in their work: “Before we had access to the internet, we would call friends on the telephone to let them know that we had a meeting. People would either come to the meeting or not, and when the quorum was not met, we weren’t able to hold the meeting and had to push back certain deadlines. Today, we no longer need to meet up in one location; we are able to connect with each other via the internet and can exchange ideas there,” stated Carine Ndamba, president of Association Dynamique Plurielle (ADP). As such, the internet has not only facilitated the work done within associations, but it has also improved the ability of organisations with similar goals to work collaboratively.
Some women’s organisations have seized upon the idea of using ICTs and the internet to carry out tasks, do research, and communicate with other organisations and networks. These organisations have been able to join regional and international networks, as well as benefit from the reinforcement of skills, grants and knowledge.
Today, “certain at-risk women who have been trained have created blogs and been contacted by others, even here in the Congo. Each year, we receive emails from people who tell us, for example, ‘I am a victim of violence and I don’t know where to go. Am I alone?’ Several years ago, this wasn’t possible,” said Sylvie Niombo, director of AZUR Développement.
As women’s organisations today search for current information on women’s rights, the internet has allowed them greater access to the information they need. Often, existing texts are outdated; for example, the Penal Code dates back to 1810. Internet access has improved the response to the needs of the women these organisations serve. Amaïcool Mpombo, of the Women Lawyers Association of Congo, describes this change:
Before the internet, people had to head to libraries. Law books are expensive, so most people didn’t have them readily accessible. But even then, women in the professional world didn’t have much time to go to the library. Now, when I’m in my office, I can easily access the internet and find the information that I need on the subjects that interest me. The internet is of fundamental importance and helps us greatly in our work, most notably in improving our research so that we can better help the people who contact us.
Enough cannot be said about how much the internet has aided in advocating for and inciting change in legislation, policies and programmes for women.
Factors limiting internet usage among women’s organisations
It is important to remember that electricity is a prerequisite to internet access. However, the electricity grid remains inadequate and unreliable in both urban and rural zones, presenting a great obstacle to internet access. In Sibiti, Makoua, Mossaka and Mossendjo, among other places, the population has electricity only between 6 pm and 11 pm, and even then, it is not guaranteed, despite the current efforts to bring electricity to these areas of the country.
As there is a lack of basic infrastructure, it is inherent that there is also insufficient ICT infrastructure. The National Coverage Project seeks to extend access to remote areas and to move closer to universal broadband access. The country also foresees joining the fibre-optic cable system in West Africa through the WACS Project. The CAB Congo-CITCG project (Central Africa Backbone-Communication Infrastructure and Technology) in Central Africa should also improve connectivity.
Moreover, competition in the mobile phone market has intensified in the past few years. Consequently, approximately 70% of the country’s population is covered by a GSM signal as compared with 48% in resource-rich African countries, according to a March 2010 study published by Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD). While it is true that all the mobile phone companies provide internet access through the use of modems, it must be recognised that not only is the service extremely weak, but certain areas are still not completely covered.
A lack of infrastructure also means that there is a lack of personal computers. According to a 2010 study done by the Pratic Association, 0.9% of the population used personal computers and 56% used mobile phones. Certainly the situation has changed since then, but not significantly; the price of a computer remains high, at least USD 500.
There is a gap in internet accessibility for women in both rural and urban zones. Problems linked to women’s socioeconomic status, family responsibilities, and the lack of content responding to their needs can account for some women’s disinterest in the internet.
The strategic use of the internet by women’s organisations to advance women’s rights assumes that they are already savvy internet users. Women’s technology skills remain weak, however. According to surveys conducted with 15 organisations, among groups of 20 to 50 members, only two or three female leaders on average per group are trained in and regularly use the internet.
Although the internet is an invaluable tool for raising awareness about the challenges faced by Congolese women, internet access remains limited for many women. As such, actions must be undertaken in order to give Congolese women from every level of society and from all corners of the country the ability to access and use the internet to both gain autonomy and contribute to the development of the country. These efforts can be realised only if the suggested measures are implemented.
In order to allow Congolese women to benefit from all that the internet has to offer, civil society, the government and even international groups must take certain measures:
Civil society organisations
- Train women on the strategic use of the internet in the domain of women’s rights.
- Encourage the creation of internet content that responds to the needs of women and girls.
- Advocate at the national level for national coverage of ICT infrastructure.
- Encourage networking and collaboration among different organisations and movements on the internet.
- Pursue projects to connect to the fibre-optic network.
- Pursue policies to bring electricity to rural and outlying zones.
- Integrate the teaching of ICTs into the Congolese educational system at all levels.
- Develop and adopt legal policies protecting women, taking into account the strategic use of ICTs.
International organisations and partners
- Grant the necessary financial resources to civil society to train women on the internet.
The blog feministescongo.wordpress.com publishes various women’s blog entries. Other women’s rights blogs include www.iteco.be/Au-Congo-des-blogs-pour-les-femmes, arletteraymonde.unblog.fr/2009/12/30/la-cedef-bilan-et-perspectives, azurweb.blogspot.com/2008/02/formation-pour-le-leadership-des-jeunes.html and pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/66640
Several blogs published by women on the subject of violence can be viewed at feministescongo.wordpress.com/blogroll-des-congolaises | <urn:uuid:74477ddc-2dc6-4822-b8cc-81970b812794> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://giswatch.org/en/country-report/womens-rights-gender/congo-republic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864148.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621114153-20180621134153-00487.warc.gz | en | 0.948587 | 3,484 | 3.375 | 3 |
What’s New, What’s Next: TBM Equipment for the Mining Industry
TBMs have become well accepted in civil construction tunneling and excavate a high percentage of civil construction projects each year. But each year in the mining industry, far more kilometers of tunnels are excavated for mining purposes than for civil purposes. The amount of tunnels needed for mining operations is staggering.
Some examples from metal mines:
- A large, deep gold mine has over 800 km of tunnels. That is a single mine!
- One small underground metal mine excavates over 13 km of tunnel each year
- In the Sudbury, Ontario mining district, there are over 5000 km of mine tunnels
If tunnels for coal mining were included, the statistics would be even more dramatic. But all these tunnels hold a little-known secret.
The Lack of Mechanized Tunneling
How many of the above thousands of kilometers of mine tunnels do you think have been excavated by TBM? The answer is “Nada”. Compare that to the thousands of kilometers of civil construction tunnels built over the last decades, which required hundreds of TBMs. Why such a great disparity when the objective in both industries is to excavate underground openings as rapidly, economically, and as safely as possible? What are the differences in these industries?
In TBM civil construction, the TBM crew members that know how to make things happen underground, that know how to drive the machines, how to lift heavy components and repair the equipment, how to get the trains in and out to remove the muck and to bring in supplies, are known by a special name. They are known as the “miners”. Yet the only thing they are mining is the muck, no coal, no minerals. But “miners” is a term of reverence for someone who knows how to excavate a tunnel rapidly and efficiently. When a civil tunnel is progressing well, they say “now we’re mining”. (Well, sometimes they also say this sarcastically sometimes when things are going poorly underground.) Why aren’t such talented miners, who know how to make a TBM perform, using their TBMs to excavate thousands of kilometers of mine tunnels each year? What are the differences between civil tunneling and mine tunneling?
TBMs for Civil Tunnels
TBMs have become well accepted for civil tunneling. TBMs designs have become widely adapted for different ground conditions or specialized applications: Hard rock, soft ground, mixed face, pressurized face. Various types of ground support can be installed, according to current geological conditions. More current “hybrid” or “Crossover” TBM designs can handle widely different geological conditions, with the TBM adaptable to cope as conditions change.
Civil tunnels are generally long tunnels, where the efficiency of TBM excavation offsets the longer mobilization and demobilization times. And civil tunnels are generally designed with equipment mobilization/demobilization in mind. Suitable sized shafts are located to allow relatively simple introduction or retrieval of the TBM equipment. The most efficient type of TBM is the full face, rotary type TBM, which produces a circular tunnel profile. The circular profile is nearly universally accepted for civil construction. It is the optimum profile for fluid flow for fresh water, waste water, or hydro tunnels. It is also widely accepted for vehicular civil tunnels that need a flat roadbed. A flat roadway is constructed within the circular tunnel profile and the remainder of the profile within the circle is used for ventilation, services, escapeways, etc.
Some efforts have been made to develop non-circular profile TBMs for the civil sector. These machines include the Mini-Fullfacer, the Mobile Miner, and horseshoe shaped shields with excavator boom or roadheader. Such machines may produce a non-circular profile that is better for that specific job. But usually, there is a penalty in production rate compared to full face, circular TBMs.
TBMs for Mine Tunnels
There have been some notable successes to the application of circular profile “civil type” TBMs for mining projects. Benefits have been lower costs, quicker access, and improved safety. Some examples include:
- Magma Copper, San Manuel Tunnels
- Stillwater Mines (four TBMs used)
- Grosvenor Coal Mine, Two Inclined Access Drifts to the coal seam
However, application of TBMs for mine tunnel construction has remained surprisingly limited. Why is this? Tunnels for mining are often not so long, or a developed in shorter phases, with the excavation front moved from place to place within the mine. TBMs and their constituent components are large and heavy. It is not easy to mobilize a TBM deep underground in a mine at a remote face. Better efforts must be made to make TBM transport and mobilization within the mine practical. This includes considerations for steep ramp roads and other restricted cross sections within the mine.
Efficient TBMs are highly productive, but require a lot of power, ventilation, cooling, and support services. These need to be part of the mining plan so that the TBM has the necessary support and can provide the full benefit. Operating personnel with proper skills are also essential. If a TBM is introduced into a mining environment, either the mine personnel need proper TBM training or motivation, or the TBM drive must be isolated as a “stand alone” operation within the mine and be given proper priority of skilled personnel and the necessary services so the full benefit can be realized.
Mines often do not accept the circular profile produced by the most efficient, full face rotary TBMs. Mine tunnels are usually designed with a flat invert to allow for passage of rubber tired vehicles during the production phase of the mine tunnel. Many efforts have been made to provide TBM type equipment that produces a flat invert. Some have been relatively successful. But generally these machines do not provide the same productivity of efficient, full face circular profile TBMs. Rail bound mining vehicles can be used in the circular tunnel to take advantage of this TBM efficiency. Or, precast invert slabs, poured in place concrete, or partial invert filling can be used in a circular tunnel to provide a flat roadway. The cost/benefits must be analyzed and presented to the industry for a change to occur.
Mining plans often have tunnels with steep gradients and sharp radius curves. On steep gradients (up to 12-15 degrees), the most efficient haulage is usually by belt conveyor. However, the belt system is not effective if there are sharp radius curves. And typical TBM curve ability is limited. Special TBM designs can be made that allow for excavation in sharp curves, but there is a compromise in reduced TBM performance.
Mines need Versatile TBMs
It seems the mining industry needs the benefits that TBMs can provide. Open pit mines are becoming depleted, and mining activities are reaching deeper. Longer access tunnels are needed. Safety and speed of development are paramount. TBMs can offer these advantages, but have limitations. Special TBMs can be developed that meet special requirements, but usually there is a penalty in reduced TBM performance. The mine planners and the TBM equipment designers must work together at an early stage in the mine planning to determine the optimum compromise between most desirable mine plan, and most beneficial application of TBM equipment. A good partnering approach is necessary in the planning stage, as well as the operating stage, to allow for the most efficient application of TBM equipment to the needs of the mine.
By Dennis Ofiara, Chief Engineer
- Tunneling in Turkey: The Esme Salihli Railway
- Incredible India: Machines on the Move in Agra and Delhi
- Notice of Retraction and Apology
- Four Things You Need to Know about Probe Drilling and Pre-Grouting
- The Latest Updates: Records in Toronto, the News from Nepal, and More | <urn:uuid:97c25739-cae5-4b06-afef-656e45dc7d3c> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.robbinstbm.com/tbm-equipment-mining-industry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510326.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20230927203115-20230927233115-00752.warc.gz | en | 0.952137 | 1,660 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Zell Hart Deming, 1869-1936
By Joel Coblentz, undergraduate, and Leslie Heaphy, faculty sponsor, Kent State University, Stark, North Canton, Ohio
Treasurer, Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, First Female President of the Warren Tribune-Chronicle, first female member of the advisory board for the Associated Press
Zell Hart Deming was born in Trumbull County on September 18, 1869. She married Frank Hart around 1890 and moved to Chicago. However, she returned to Warren in 1893 after her husband passed away, leaving her with an infant daughter. After returning to Warren, she began to work as a society reporter for the Warren Tribune and by 1907 had served as secretary, treasurer, president and general manager and earned a controlling stake in the paper. That same year, she married William C. Deming, who was the publisher of the Cheyanne Tribune. The Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County Ohio attributes the financial success of the newly formed Tribune Company (a merger of both the Cheyanne and Warren newspapers) in no small part to Mrs. Hart Deming. However, by 1918 she was divorced and had begun to expand the Tribune from a minor, local circulation to a nationally syndicated newspaper. By 1921, under her supervision, the paper was a Warren staple, being read by nearly every household in the city. In addition, she had expanded the operation into a new building, a modern spectacle that was studied by many other pioneers in the industry.
What is remarkable about her fight for admission to the central advisory board of the Associated Press was, according to contemporary sources, the ease with which she fought for it. According to The Editor and Publisher from April 1918, she fought "like a woman thoroughly accustomed to campaigning" against a man named Samuel McClure. McClure believed that Warren was part of his newspaper's territory, and in order to override his protests, Deming needed four-fifths of the contemporary Associate Press board to vote in her favor. Ultimately, they voted 214-19 in her favor. Deming's fight with the A.P. was notable because she was the first woman to gain such a position with the organization. However, the article is also apt to point out the connections between Deming's get-out-the-vote efforts which paralleled her work with the suffrage movement.
Hart Deming was able to use her power as a local newspaper mogul to advance the woman's suffrage movement. She greatly encouraged another area suffragist, Harriet Taylor Upton, to write pro-suffrage articles, which were then published in Warren's most respected newspaper. In addition, she served as treasurer for the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association during Upton's tenure as president.
"12 to Join Ohio's Honored Women." The Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio). October 6, 2002, p. B4. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/10/06/loc_12_to_join_ohios.html.
Coupland, Bob. "Warren's Upton House: Trip Down Memory Lane." The Tribune Chronicle (Warren, Ohio). November 8, 2016. http://www.tribtoday.com/news/local-news/2016/11/warrens-upton-house-trip-down-memory-lane/.
Harper, Ida Husted, ed. "Ohio." Chapter XXXIV in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 6: 1900-1920. New York: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922, 508-519. [LINK]
Royster, Jacqueline. "Zell Hart Deming." Profiles of Ohio Women. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), 25.
Schmitt, Samuel. "On This Day in 1914." Carl Schmitt: The Vision of Beauty (blog). August 11, 2014. https://carlschmittvisionofbeauty.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/on-this-day-august-10-1914/.
Upton, Harriet Taylor. A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County Ohio. The Lewis Publishing Company: Chicago, 1909.
"Wins Her Battle for Franchise of A.P." The Editor and Publisher 50 no. 46. (April 27, 1918), p. xviii.
"Zell H. Deming, Warren, Ohio, Publisher, Dies." Chicago Tribune. April 27, 1936, p. 14. Newspapers.com. | <urn:uuid:30ea139b-469e-4bc8-a90f-cdad8db9a0d3> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009859960 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027314641.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20190819032136-20190819054136-00195.warc.gz | en | 0.961224 | 964 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Maize / Corn / Makai Price in Pakistan Today 2024
Maize (corn) is a major staple crop in Pakistan and is widely grown for food and feed purposes. It is the third largest cereal crop grown in the country, after wheat and rice. The majority of maize grown in Pakistan is used for animal feed, with the remainder being used for human consumption and industrial purposes such as starch production. The main maize-growing regions in Pakistan are Punjab and Sindh provinces.
The Maize (corn) price in Pakistan today 2024 is updated on this page whatisprice website. The Pakistani government provides various forms of support for maize farmers, including subsidies for seed and fertilizer, credit, and extension services.
آج کا مکئی کا ریٹ – قیمت فی 40 کلو گرام پیک
|District / City
|Minimum Rate Per 40 KG
|Maximum Rate Per 40 KG
|Dera Ismail Khan
|Rahim Yar Khan
|Toba Tek Singh
What is maize :
Maize, also known as Corn, is a cereal grain that is widely grown for food and livestock feed. It is a staple food in many parts of the world, including Pakistan. Some of the properties of maize include being high in carbohydrates and protein and having a relatively low glycemic index.
Maize in Pakistan:
In Pakistan, maize is used primarily for food, feed, and industrial purposes. It is a major crop in the country and is used to make a variety of food products, including flour, grits, and corn oil. It is also used as feed for livestock, particularly chickens and cattle. In addition, maize is used in the production of industrial products such as starch and biofuels.
Maize in Pakistan Growth :
Maize production is an important contributor to Pakistan’s GDP. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the value of maize production in Pakistan was approximately $3.3 billion in 2020, making it the third-highest value crop in the country behind cotton and wheat. Additionally, the agricultural sector accounts for around 21% of Pakistan’s GDP, so maize production plays a significant role in the country’s overall economic growth.
Maize uses in Pakistan:
- Food: Maize is a staple food in Pakistan, used to make various products such as flour, grits, and corn oil.
- Feed: Maize is used as feed for livestock, particularly chickens and cattle.
- Industrial uses: Maize is used in the production of industrial products such as starch, corn syrup and biofuels.
- Cereals and snacks: Maize is used in the production of cereals and snacks such as corn flakes, popcorn, and corn chips.
- Animal feed: Maize is used as animal feed for poultry, cattle, and fish.
- Beverages: Maize is used in the production of soft drinks, beer, and whiskey.
- Pharmaceuticals: Maize is used in the production of certain pharmaceutical products such as glucose and dextrose.
- Cosmetics: Maize is used in the production of certain cosmetic products such as body lotions and creams.
- Paper: Maize is used in the production of certain types of paper such as corrugated cardboard.
- Adhesives: Maize is used in the production of certain types of adhesives such as corn starch glue.
- Textiles: Maize is used in the production of certain types of textiles such as corn fiber fabric.
- Plastics: Maize is used in the production of certain types of plastics such as biodegradable corn-based plastics.
- Biodegradable plastics: Maize is used to make biodegradable plastics that can be used in packaging and disposable products.
- Ethanol: Maize is used to produce ethanol, which is used as a fuel additive and a solvent.
- Cooking oil: Maize oil is used for cooking, frying and in the production of margarine and shortening.
- Starch: Maize is used in the production of corn starch, which is used in a wide range of products including adhesives, paper, and textiles.
- Sweeteners: Maize is used to produce sweeteners such as high-fructose corn syrup and dextrose.
- Industrial alcohol: Maize is used to produce industrial alcohol, which is used in the production of a wide range of products including perfumes, pharmaceuticals, and cleaning products.
- Biodegradable packing materials: Maize is used to make biodegradable packing materials such as corn-based foam.
- Biogas: Maize is used as a feedstock to produce biogas, which can be used as a source of energy.
Maize Industries and products of maize in Pakistan:
It is a well-known fact that Pakistan is an agricultural country and maize is one of the most important crops in Pakistan. Therefore, there are likely many industries involved in the production, processing, and distribution of maize in Pakistan. These industries may include those that grow, harvest, and process the maize, as well as those that manufacture products made from maize such as flour, corn oil, and animal feed. Additionally, there are also likely trading companies and export businesses that specialize in exporting maize and maize-based products from Pakistan to other countries.
Mostly Asked questions about maize production in Pakistan:
Q: What are the major regions in Pakistan where maize is grown?
The major regions in Pakistan where maize is grown include Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
Q: What are the major challenges facing maize production in Pakistan?
Some of the major challenges facing maize production in Pakistan include water scarcity, lack of modern farming techniques, lack of proper storage facilities, and pest and disease infestation.
Q: What is the role of government in maize production in Pakistan?
The government plays a role in supporting maize production in Pakistan through policies and programs aimed at increasing productivity and profitability, such as providing subsidies for fertilizers and seeds, investing in research and development, and building storage facilities.
Q: How does climate change affect maize production in Pakistan?
Climate change can affect maize production in Pakistan by leading to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, which can lead to crop failures, reduced yields, and increased pest and disease pressure.
Q: How does the use of genetically modified maize seed affect maize production in Pakistan?
The use of genetically modified (GM) maize seed can potentially increase yields and reduce the use of pesticides, but there is also concern about potential negative impacts on the environment and human health.
Q: What are the export opportunities for maize and maize-based products from Pakistan?
Pakistan has export opportunities for maize and maize-based products in the region, particularly in neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, and China.
Q: What are the major maize-based industries in Pakistan?
Some major maize-based industries in Pakistan include feed manufacturing, starch and glucose production, and biofuel production.
Q: What are the major maize-based food products in Pakistan?
Some major maize-based food products in Pakistan include corn flour, corn grits, and corn oil. | <urn:uuid:420c491a-b805-4de3-9f05-744a954fd5fd> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://whatisprice.pk/maize-price-in-pakistan-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474686.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240227184934-20240227214934-00160.warc.gz | en | 0.917373 | 1,532 | 2.796875 | 3 |
One 95-year-old man, whose eyesight is not good due to macular degeneration, believes that practicing falling in a safe way is a good idea for older people. Accordingly, he practices falling multiple times each day.
The man says he has fallen seven times in the past 10 years but has not been seriously hurt.
To try to help others in the same situation the man works to educate others in the techniques he uses. He meets with them at community centers, senior centers and assisted living centers. He teaches those in attendance that there are three things they need to remember to do:
Bend refers to bending one’s knees in the direction of the fall. At the same time, the person should twist at the waist with the shoulders turned away from the direction in which the person is falling. Upon landing on the ground, the person should roll to help with the force of the impact.
Sometimes these falls are the result of poor balance. Other times however negligent conditions play a role. In those situations an elderly person who falls may want to explore his or her legal options. | <urn:uuid:e29fdf8a-d8b0-40f2-9ebb-5342af8d5a07> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://www.bergerandgreen.com/blog/learning-to-fall-the-right-way-could-prevent-serious-injuries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917119782.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031159-00080-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966117 | 224 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Inverter plasma metal cutting machine requires gas assistance when cutting, usually direct use of compressed air for auxiliary cutting. The gas quality is directly related to the cutting quality and affects the life of accessories and cutting tools. The basic gas source requirements of the plasma cutting machine will be explained below.
The minimum gas storage volume of the plasma metal cutting machine working gas pump is 40L, and the gas volume 60L-80L can be used for continuous cutting by machine. The gas storage volume above 120L can make the continuous cutting pressure more stable. If you want to achieve the best cutting effect, you need to use a gas storage tank and Air compressor. Insufficient gas capacity can easily cause instability of the cutting air pressure, resulting in poor cutting results and damage to the cnc plasma cutter torch.
Generally, the pressure of the gas storage tank is stable at about 0.7-0.8Mpa, and the actual working pressure of the plasma can reach above 0.5Mpa. 0.45-0.55Mpa is the ideal cutting pressure. In addition, water-cooled plasma and fine cutting torches have high requirements for air pressure. (There will be differences depending on the plasma and cutting torch)
Compressed air, such as oily water and other impurities, will affect the cutting quality, reduce the life of consumables, and directly cause the torch to be destroyed and scrapped. Adding a three-stage filter can ensure the air quality, and the fine cutting torch must be equipped with a three-stage filter. | <urn:uuid:d7a62365-433a-4eaa-a8df-3a9a76b36217> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.anhuigusheng.com/plasma-cutting-machine-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510387.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230928095004-20230928125004-00382.warc.gz | en | 0.906314 | 315 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Though this puzzle
presents no great difficulty to
any one possessing a knowledge of algebra, it has perhaps rather
Seeing, as one does
in the illustration, just one
corner of the proposed square, one is scarcely prepared for the fact
that the field, in order to comply with the conditions, must contain
acres, the fence requiring
the same number of rails.
Here is a little
rule that will always apply where
the length of the rail is half a pole.
Multiply the number of rails in
a hurdle by four, and the result is the exact number of miles in the
side of a square field containing the same number of acres as there are
rails in the complete fence.
Thus, with a one-rail fence the field is
four miles square; a two-rail fence gives eight miles square; a
three-rail fence, twelve miles square; and so on, until we find that a
seven-rail fence multiplied by four gives a field of twenty-eight miles
In the case of our present problem, if the field be made
smaller, then the number of rails will exceed the number of acres;
while if the field be made larger, the number of rails will be less
than the acres of the field. | <urn:uuid:2771b395-e06b-4ed5-b2d5-3828e1d7856f> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.pedagonet.com/mathgenius/answer117.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720845.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00089-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925 | 269 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Students interested in learning an innovative way to make solving a complex mathematical problem faster and easier crowded into the Aula Magna at Florida Polytechnic University on Jan. 31.
Dr. Udita Katugampola, an assistant professor of mathematics, shared with the students a fast and nontraditional approach he has developed to find the eigenvector of a matrix. He explained how his method can take the process from 10 to 15 minutes for complex matrices to under a minute.
“It is very interesting to see someone like Dr. K present this,” said senior Stephen Boyle, who is majoring in mechanical engineering. “To see the way he thinks about things is very different compared to other people. He sees mathematics almost like another animal – second nature almost.”
Katugampola said he was grading final examinations in December 2019 when he began to try to figure out why some students struggled with the concept and erred on their exams.
“I was thinking about it and those numbers were in my head for a day or two when I suddenly realized this,” Katugampola said. “All of a sudden I thought, ‘Oh, man. This works.’”
According to Katugampola, the simplified method for finding eigenvectors will make it easier for students to understand many new concepts because they will only need knowledge of college algebra as a foundation. The method can be used across many disciplines, as the eigenvectors are used in things like robotics, computer science, image processing, finding chemical reactions, and even the Google search engine.
“We are privileged,” said Boyle, from Brandon, Florida. “Most universities don’t have access like this and it’s really cool that this is going to be implemented in our teaching in the next few months while other universities will have to wait for a new book or paper to be published on it.”
The mathematics department at Florida Poly will soon begin incorporating Katugampola’s method into regular instruction.
Katugampola submitted a 40-page paper detailing this method to a top mathematics journal for consideration. He is also planning several national and international research talks to disseminate his findings and discuss them for further development.
“Recently, Dr. Terence Tao and his collaborators at UCLA found another method to determine eigenvectors for Hermitian matrices, but our method works for pretty much any matrix, Hermitian or not,” Katugampola said.
Katugampola said his method uses simple subtraction to find those eigenvectors and hopes students will remember it through the mnemonic, “Find your puppy at your neighbor’s,” meaning the eigenvector is in the other matrix.
Seminar attendees said they were grateful to learn Katugampola’s method.
“Him being able to teach us this method will save us a lot of time,” said Sandra Davis, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering from Plant City, Florida. “His approach to math is always so different, and he always tries to give us extra information and find the easiest approaches for us.”
Director of Communications | <urn:uuid:78554c9c-62ac-4fc6-9e5a-a7c3a9a08d9c> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://floridapoly.edu/news/articles/2020/professor-shares-novel-mathematical-concept-with-florida-poly-students-and-faculty.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300253.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20220117000754-20220117030754-00666.warc.gz | en | 0.958047 | 694 | 2.734375 | 3 |
- Reference Number: HEY-318/2016
- Departments: Infection Prevention and Control
You can translate this page by using the headphones button (bottom left) and then select the globe to change the language of the page. Need some help choosing a language? Please refer to Browsealoud Supported Voices and Languages.
This leaflet informs you about viral gastroenteritis. It explains what it is, what causes it and what you should do to prevent the spread of it. This leaflet is designed to provide background information but if you have any questions generated by this leaflet please ask one of the health professionals caring for you.
What is viral gastroenteritis?
Viral gastroenteritis is an illness caused by a number of viruses including Norovirus or Rotavirus. Gastroenteritis means inflammation of the stomach, small and large intestines. The viruses cause various symptoms which may include:
- Diarrhoea, often watery
- Nausea and vomiting, often violent and sudden
- Stomach cramps
- Malaise (general feeling of being un-well)
In general, the symptoms begin 24 to 48 hours following exposure to the virus. The illness usually lasts for 24 to 72 hours.
How did I get it?
The viruses are spread:
- From contact with other people who have viral gastroenteritis
- From food contaminated by someone who has viral gastroenteritis
- From raw food or uncooked food, particularly meat and fish
The viruses are highly contagious and can be easily spread within hospital wards, mental health units, schools, nurseries and institutional settings such as nursing and residential homes.
Staff working in these settings are equally susceptible if they do not adhere to precautions such as hand hygiene and the wearing of aprons and gloves. Staff who experience symptoms of viral gastroenteritis should inform Occupational Health and must stay off work until they have been symptom free for 48 hours.
Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of diarrhoea and vomiting in infants and young children but the elderly, with an impaired immune system, can also be affected. Norovirus is more likely to cause symptoms in older children and adults.
Will these viruses do me any harm?
The symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea can be very debilitating but these are usually short-lived and a full recovery is made.
Vomiting and diarrhoea can cause dehydration and for some people this can be a problem especially if they are unable to replace fluids which they have lost. Infants, young children and people who are unable to care for themselves, such as the disabled or elderly, are especially at risk.
How are the viruses diagnosed?
By obtaining a sample of the diarrhoea and sending it to the laboratory.
How are the viruses treated?
There is no specific treatment; the illness should be allowed to take its course. Maintaining good hydration is important due to potential loss of fluid.
How can the spread of the virus be prevented?
One of the best ways to prevent the spread of the virus in hospitals is to nurse you in a side-room if possible and to provide a separate toilet or commode and hand washing facilities. Containment of the virus is important to prevent its spread to other wards and units. If a number of patients are affected it may be necessary to close the bay or ward to new admissions.
Frequent and thorough hand washing with soap and warm water is extremely important especially after visiting the toilet and before preparing and eating food.
Can my visitors catch or spread these viruses?
Yes unfortunately they can, they can also bring the virus into the hospital if they have symptoms themselves. A notice will be placed at the entrance to an affected ward to notify visitors if there is an outbreak of viral gastroenteritis. Visitors should avoid coming to the hospital if they have had diarrhoea and vomiting within the last 48 hours. When patients have symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting, all consumables such as fruit and opened sweets should be removed from any affected patient areas. Visitors must wash their hands on entering and leaving the room/ward where there are patients with symptoms of viral gastroenteritis.
Can I be discharged with these viruses?
Discharge can take place following consultation with your doctor, family and yourself providing you have been symptom free for 48 hours. Patients are not generally discharged to nursing or residential homes if a ward is closed due to viral gastroenteritis. This is due to the possible spread of infection to these establishments.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 we are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any information we hold about you. For further information visit the following page: Confidential Information about You.
If you or your carer needs information about your health and well-being and about your care and treatment in a different format, such as large print, braille or audio, due to disability, impairment or sensory loss, please advise a member of staff and this can be arranged. | <urn:uuid:0c0a5f01-1ce8-44b8-ae4b-f9b80f3a29aa> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.hey.nhs.uk/patient-leaflet/viral-gastroenteritis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704824728.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20210127121330-20210127151330-00578.warc.gz | en | 0.944389 | 1,028 | 3.5 | 4 |
Book apa 6th edition citation style libguides at american. Apa format establishes a number of clear rules for how to list reference works using author information. Use the first few words of the title, or the complete title if short, as listed in your reference list, and the date. Sep 07, 2016 citation tutorial on citing a book source in the apa format. Apa format is based on the associations publication manual of the american psychological association. In both cases, proper nouns and certain other types of words are always capitalized. Date published november 14, 2019 by jack caulfield. Apa american psychological association style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences.
The first line of each reference should be flush left with the margin of the page. The book title is written in sentence case only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns. A guide to help users create citations using apa american psychological association style, 7th edition. A book is a work that is published once, not as part of a regular series.
American psychological association, or apa, style is a set of guidelines often used when writing in the social sciences, such as psychology, anthropology and history. The reference will contain the title of the article and the title of publication in which it appears. To have your bibliography or works cited list automatically made for you, check out our free apa citation generator. Capitalize only the first word of the title, and the first word of any subtitle. How to reference authors in apa format verywell mind. Once youre finished with your citations, we can also help you with. When citing a chapter, the edition number, the volume number which is different from a journals volume number, and the page range are all enclosed within the same parenthesesin that orderafter the title of the book, and they are separated by commas. If a digital object identifier doi is available, include it at the end of the reference. Citing an ebook from an ereader ebook is short for electronic book. Apas title case refers to a capitalization style in which most words are capitalized, and sentence case refers to a capitalization style in which most words are lowercased. Include an intext citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. The following rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors apply to all apa style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work book, article, electronic resource, etc. If the book is a volume in a titled series of books, add the series title as a subtitle. Use the following template to cite a book using the apa citation format.
The apa intext citation for a book includes the authors last name, the year, and if relevant. How to capitalize and format reference titles in apa style. If the book does not have a doi and is an ebook from an academic research database, end the book reference after the publisher name. Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on. Jun, 2019 within the social sciences, research papers commonly cite sources using the american psychological association apa citation method. General apa intext citations follow the pattern author, year of publication if you need to intext reference a specific page or a range of pages in a book, you can do so easily in this form author, year of publication, p.
Cite the first few words of the reference entry usually the title and the year. The formatting requirements for each element on the apa title page are listed below. This page contains reference examples for chapters in edited books, including the following. Cite sources in apa, mla, chicago, turabian, and harvard for free. Edition other than the first apa citation style, 7th. This format may differ if you accessed the book online, or if the book you used was a translation of a work in another language. We also provide style guides for the mla, chicago, and turabian styles. In a reference to a whole book, cite the edition and volume numbersseparated by a commabut do not cite a page range. How to cite a book title, not chapter in apa format. References include more information such as the name of the authors, the year the source was published, the full title of the source, and the url or page range. The apa citation style was developed by the american psychological association, and it is the standardized method for formatting apa citations in the reference page in the field of social sciences, particularly in psychology, criminology, education, business, and the nursing profession. Note that even though apa style says that the article title should not be italicized, the book titles heart of darkness and things fall apart within the article title are still italicized.
Pink text information that you will need to find from the source. The web site address should be the home page url of the digital library or publisher. Apa style has a facebook page where you can ask your citation questions. Mar 18, 2020 see the below for how to write a reference. Use italics for title of a periodical, a book, a brochure or a report. Intext citations reference list apa 6 style guide citefast. When citing online books and ebooks, the publisher location and name are replaced with a web site address. Use the following template to cite a book using the apa citation style. For example, the way that you reference a single author will differ somewhat from how you reference a source with multiple authors.
The running head displays the title of the paper and the page number on all pages of the paper. A book, as we are defining it here, is distinguished from an edited book in that the entire text of. Wodtke and govella 2009 discuss eight basic principles of web design. Reference list citations are highly variable depending on the source. How you reference different sources varies depending on the number of authors to whom the source is attributed. Apa citation style citation information for citing a book chapter. How do i refer to a book by title intext in apa format.
A reference list is a complete list of references used in a piece of writing including the author name, date of publication, title and more. This happens most often with corporate or group authors. How to cite sources in apa citation format mendeley. If the book does not have a doi and comes from a library or academic research database, end the book reference after the publisher name. Apa title page cover page guidelines, example, template. If a book has no author or editor, begin the citation with the book title, followed by the year of publication in round brackets.
Do i italicize the series title and put the book title which i know is normally italicized in quotes. Citing your sources according to apa style helps you avoid. The terrifying story of how typhus killed napoleons greatest army. There is the format including the periods, abbreviations, and capitalization and an example for each type of item to be in the reference list.
Do not capitalize anything else even if the title on the physical book or on your screen is capitalized. Is a book title underlined or italicized when typing in apa. To have your reference list or bibliography automatically made for you, try our free citation generator. According to apa, government documents can be considered books, technicalresearch reports or brochures. Book title and chapter title are in sentence case only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.
The apa cover page adheres to the general apa formatting guidelines. So the basic format of a book reference is as follows. Citing pdf files is the same as how you cite a print publication, but with the inclusion of the url or doi. Titles of papers are now bolded, with a blank line before the authors name. See our apa citation basics guide or the apa publication manual for more information. Apa recommends that your title be focused and succinct and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. It is a digital version of a book that can be read on a computer, ereader kindle, nook, etc. Title of the article or worklifestyle disease and mortalityfor works with short titles, write the full title in the intext citation, whereas for long titles, include only the first few words enclosed in double quotation marks. If you have an openaccess ebook, you may provide the url at the end, provided it directly takes you to the full text without logging in. Cite in the text the first few words of the title and the year. Jul 26, 2019 in your apa reference page only, the rule for capitalization is. Apa style has special formatting rules for the titles of the sources you use in your paper, such as the titles of books, articles, book chapters. Reference examples american psychological association. You will see what i mean when we discuss the apa pdf citation format in detail, but for now, here is a guide in listing the authors.
Receive feedback on language, structure and layout. Chapter in an edited book, reprinted from another book. Its probably out there it is the internet, after all, but in any case, if i want to reference, in a single sentence, both the title of a book series as well as one of the books in the series, what are the rules. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be doublespaced.
Apr 10, 2020 information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the publication manual of the american psychological association. Apa guidelines stipulate rules for punctuation, tables, headings, statistics and citations. Reference list apa 6th referencing style guide library. The periodical title should be all capitalized except for small words i.
Book citation help for apa, 6th edition csslibraryguides. Citation tutorial on citing a book source in the apa format. Book citations in apa contain the author name, publication year, book title, publication title, and publisher name. How to reference a book in apa style cite this for me. Create your citations, reference lists and bibliographies automatically using the apa, mla, chicago, or harvard referencing styles. Where the wild things are sendak, 1963 is a depiction of a child coping with his anger towards his mom. Apa citation style 6th edition book examples search. Examples based on the sixth edition of the publication manual from the apa. More tips for book references in apa format remember that your reference page needs to be doublespaced. Give the full title of the book, including the subtitle. How to reference books and articles in text grammar and.
Book examples apa 7th edition citation guide libguides. In your apa reference page only, the rule for capitalization is. If you used a book as a reference, there is a basic format for your citation. Use capital letter for the first word for subtitle. Management is defined as cch macquarie dictionary, 1993. Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and any subtitles the first word that follows a colon, as well as the first letter of any proper nouns. If an author is also the publisher, put the word author where youd normally put the publisher name. Book with no author american psychological association rules for formatting papers, intext citations, and end references. The new information here begins with citing the journal this article is from. The 7th edition of apa does not differentiate between the format of the books, print or electronic. Is a book title underlined or italicized when typing in. If there is a series or report number, include it after the title p. When writing out titles for books, articles, chapters, or other nonperiodical sources, only capitalize the first word of the title and the.
How do i reference a book title within an article title. Management is defined as cch macquarie dictionary, 1993 cch macquarie dictionary 1993 defines the cch macquarie dictionary of business. The apa intext citation for a book includes the authors last name, the year, and if relevant a page number. In a reference to a whole book, cite the edition and volume numbersseparated by a. Both apa book intext citation rules and rules for reference list entries state that the title should be in sentence case. This guide describes basic examples for citing sources apa style according to the 6th edition of the apa publication manual. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report. Apr 17, 2017 american psychological association, or apa, style is a set of guidelines often used when writing in the social sciences, such as psychology, anthropology and history.
Sep 19, 2018 when citing a chapter, the edition number, the volume number which is different from a journals volume number, and the page range are all enclosed within the same parenthesesin that orderafter the title of the book, and they are separated by commas. Titles apa style guide libguides at indian river state. Title of the article or worklifestyle disease and mortality. Both the modern language association mla and the american psychological association apa have guidelines governing the intext citation of book. Apa style references are cited intext using an authordate citation system. Reference page apa style guide libguides at western. There is no font requirement as long as the font is legible and consistent. Apa intext citation style uses the authors last name and the year of. Citation producer apa citation, apa citation generator.
Check out the basic intext citation format required for apa here. Book with no author apa style guide libguides at indian. This resource, revised according to the 6 th edition, second printing of the apa manual, offers examples for the general format of apa research papers, intext citations, endnotesfootnotes, and the reference page. Jan 27, 2020 the reference will contain the title of the article and the title of publication in which it appears. For example, to cite both print books and ebooks, use the books and reference works category and then choose the appropriate type of work i. If the book includes a doi, include the doi in the reference after the publisher name. In the reference list, start with the authors last name and initials, followed by the year. Instead, write a reference for the whole authored book and cite the chapter in the text if desired. Do not create references for chapters of authored books.
The equivalent resource for the older apa 6 style can be found here. Automatically cite a book in apa, chicago, harvard, or mla style format. When writing a term paper for a college class, you may often be asked to provide citations within the text identifying the sources from which you are drawing information. Apa style uses two kinds of capitalization to format reference titles, which are also mentioned in the table above. Cite a book in apa, chicago, harvard, or mla style cite. For every intext citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list. For basic rules of apa citation, check out our apa guide linked below. Feb 01, 2018 citations are placed in the context of discussion using the authors last name and date of publication.
The words of the article title should be capitalized the same way you capitalize a book title. This header is found on every page of a professional paper not a student paper, even on the title page sometimes called an apa cover page and reference list taken from section 2. How to reference a citation within a citation in apa style duration. For more information about book citations, see pages 202203 of the apa manual, 6th ed. Apa is short for the american psychological association. Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics. Article in a reference book apa citation style, 7th. The full title of the book, including any subtitles, should be stated and italicized. In titles of materials books, articles, websites, etc. Write the name of the author in parentheses, along with the year a work was published and the page number you are referencing. Place this at the end of your sentence, before the period.
Citing electronic or online books apa citation style. For a twopart title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title. Title of book give the full title of the book, including the subtitle if one is given. A book citation in apa style always includes the authors name, the publication year, the book title, and the publisher. When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use pp. Depending on what citation style you are using, such as mla or apa, you either underline or italicize the book title contained within the article title. Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle as well as all proper nouns. The date of publication and title are formatted the same. Book examples apa citation style 6th edition guides at. For help with other source types, like books, pdfs, or websites, check out our other guides. According to apa format, italicize the book title here being in love.
Jan 27, 2020 place the title of the chapter or dictionaryencyclopedia entry in the author spot when there is no author. See the publication manual of the american psychological association 2010, p. Now in its 7th edition, the manual puts forth a set of clear reference and citation guidelines that are used by writers, researchers, students, and educators all over the globe. Article in a reference book a guide to help users create citations using apa american psychological association style, 7th edition. Article in a reference book apa citation style, 7th edition. If format, medium or description information is important for a resource to be retrieved or identified, use square brackets after the title to include this detail.
This title page does not require a running head and has a different set of information to include. Books apa 6th referencing style guide library guides at. The right way to list book references in apa format. Apa style has special formatting rules for the titles of the sources you use in your paper, such as the titles of books, articles, book chapters, reports, and webpages.1346 606 188 1659 1314 519 258 746 1349 733 225 142 1538 1354 745 1653 1375 1291 1619 942 1153 212 1281 1475 48 1095 233 1088 1206 471 632 693 298 1391 407 362 1483 520 | <urn:uuid:e0085a8d-2787-4aea-bbfe-50acf6943c20> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://crowunidah.firebaseapp.com/388.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335257.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928145118-20220928175118-00244.warc.gz | en | 0.873219 | 3,949 | 3.203125 | 3 |
make a new name for a file
int symlink(const char *OldPath, const char *NewPath);
symlink creates a symbolic link named NewPath which contains the string OldPath.
Symbolic links are interpreted at run-time as if the contents of the link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file or directory.
Symbolic links can contain .. path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the parent directories of that in which the link resides.
A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) can point to an existing file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling link.
The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is ignored when following the link, but is checked when removal or renaming of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with the sticky bit set.
If NewPath exists it will NOT be overwritten.
RETURN VALUE On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately. ERRORS EPERM The filesystem containing NewPath does not support the creation of symbolic links. EFAULT OldPath or NewPath points outside your accessible address space. EACCES Write access to the directory containing NewPath is not allowed for the process's effective uid, or one of the directories in NewPath did not allow search (execute) permission. ENAMETOOLONG OldPath or NewPath was too long. ENOENT A directory component in NewPath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or OldPath is the empty string. ENOTDIR A component used as a directory in NewPath is not, in fact, a directory. ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available. EROFS NewPath is on a read-only filesystem. EEXIST NewPath already exists. ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving NewPath. ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry. EIO An I/O error occurred.
No checking of OldPath is done.
Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the file (unless it also has other hard links). If this behaviour is not desired, use link.
"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships" ~ Sharon Stone
Related linux commands:
unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), lstat(2),
ln - Make links between files
Equivalent Windows command: SHORTCUT - Create a windows shortcut (.LNK file) | <urn:uuid:ea42ac68-ebf4-4745-b43d-1569dc7b56b9> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://ss64.com/bash/symlink.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141716970.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202205758-20201202235758-00549.warc.gz | en | 0.894985 | 552 | 3.296875 | 3 |
build castles in the air
The first term dates from the late 1500s. The variant, castles in Spain (or châteaux en Espagne), was recorded in the Roman de la Rose in the 13th century and translated into English around 1365.
build castles in the air (third-person singular simple present builds castles in the air, present participle building castles in the air, simple past and past participle built castles in the air or (archaic or poetic) builded castles in the air)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To have any desire, idea, or plan that is unlikely to be realized; to imagine visionary projects or schemes; to have an idle fancy or a pipe dream; to daydream.
- 1696, John Vanbrugh, “The Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger. […]”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), London: Printed for the proprietors, under the Direction of John Bell, […], published 1795, OCLC 837257051, Act III, scene ii, page 72:
- Look you, Amanda, you may build castles in the air, "and fume, and fret, and grow thin and lean, and pale and ugly, if you please." But I tell you, no man worth having is true to his wife, or can be true to his wife, or ever was, or will be so.
- Rita Rudner, US comedian:
- Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them.
- David Frost, English journalist, comedian and writer:
- Labor and you build castles in the air. Vote Conservative and you can live in them. | <urn:uuid:5d51d5f1-bb90-4ebc-92ad-f570f6a1947a> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/build_castles_in_the_air | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512395.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20181019103957-20181019125457-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.898458 | 362 | 2.8125 | 3 |
A lot of people relate artificial intelligence with science fiction, and it has been noticed that artificial intelligence has found to be one of the most significant parts of their daily lives. Also, you might have noticed that the households are also using the AI these days extensively. Mainstream society has already accepted it as a whole new phenomenon and not a concept. Just like other industries, businesses also get a huge advantage from artificial intelligence. Organizations every day utilizes artificial intelligence in some or the other way, starting from the sales and marketing to the annual profit-making, AI has already made it possible for the businesses to reach heights of success every time. If you want to use of artificial intelligence in sales software to increase pipeline and improve forecasting, EngageIQ guides you to the Best Outcome with Cutting-Edge AI for Sales Calls
Instead of working it the best option of human intelligence or ingenuity, the concept of artificial intelligence mostly works as a supporting tool. Even though artificial intelligence is facing problems to finish the common tasks, yet it has the advantage of analyzing various data much quicker than the human mind.
Helps in the Quick Collection of Data
Artificial intelligence has changed businesses in different ways, but when it comes to the effective collection of special data and utilizing the deep learning algorithms, then it is a proper example. Collection of data mostly takes place from the online analytic reports, and it helps the businesses to get data regarding the website performance along with all the new or the returning visitors. The same goes for the factories since the various projections of the company can only be made depending on the previous data for the streamlining process.
Streamlines Various Sales Strategy
Along with the proper collection of any data, artificial intelligence can also be used in different other ways. Using it in the sales strategy, and purpose helps in properly taking care of everything that helps in increasing the rate of conversion of the companies. Information on disposable income, location, as well as age, is taken through certain forms of AI algorithm. These will help in providing the sales team with an effective start mostly to the person to contact as well as the things that are necessary to complete when it comes to company’s drive sales.
Manage the Supply Chains
Although AI is the best match for online businesses, it is also useful for supply chains. Be it manufacturing of different cars or food items, with the help of artificial intelligence it makes a time scale particularly for the machinery just to make sure that there are many units made for per working day. This concept is great for the businesses that manufacture major bulk of products every day, and you can properly regulate different processes, and also keep an eye on the performance of the company.
Therefore, these are some of the ways by which artificial intelligence have helped the businesses in proper streamlining. | <urn:uuid:aca5222c-f6e0-42ed-b55f-cbb4f97b98d6> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://brainrack.co/how-ai-can-streamline-your-business/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141681209.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201170219-20201201200219-00219.warc.gz | en | 0.957642 | 563 | 2.65625 | 3 |
While the Spanish conquistadors vanquished the Incas and Aztecs with relative ease, the Mapuche Indians of Chile staved off the invaders for generations with ferocious hit-and-run attacks. The Spanish rarely dared to cross the deep, rushing waters of the Bio-Bio River, which served as a tense barricade well into the 18th century.
Today the Mapuches are a faint shadow of their mighty ancestors, but once again they are making a stand on the Bio-Bio.
The Government and Endesa, a Spanish-owned electric utility, want to build a $500 million dam project on the river intended to provide more than 10 percent of Chile's electricity by 2002. But a dozen Indian families have refused to leave their lands, which would be flooded by the dam. Their militancy has provoked demonstrations and road blockades around the country, embarrassed President Eduardo Frei and put the entire hydroelectric project in jeopardy.
After years of lost Indian land battles during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the conflict has become a test for Indian minority rights in Chile's decade-old democracy, one that may take years to resolve in the courts. But the issue has also highlighted two divergent views of what the future of Indian life should be: one based on traditional ways of living, or one that favors economic development at the risk of assimilation.
The debate is sharply dividing the impoverished farming and herding community of 500 Pehuenche Indians -- a subgroup in the Mapuche nation -- that sprawls below a breathtaking swath of snow-capped Andean mountains. Faced with an Endesa offer to leave their lands in exchange for a package of new land, housing, a school and credits, the holdouts are opposed by about 90 Pehuenche families who have agreed to make a deal.
''It will mean a new day for us,'' said Maria Olga Galpan, 26, a goatherd who is ready to leave Ralco. ''We want to keep our traditions but this land is good for nothing. We need new schools, new houses, new opportunities.''
But a minority in the community will not budge because, they say, the 1,000-acre reservoir the 570-megawatt project would create would flood traditional burial grounds and other plots where the Pehuenches conduct their religious rituals under sacred trees. They say several herbs the Pehuenches depend on for medicine do not grow on the lands offered by the company.
''I was born on this land and I want to die on this land,'' said Nicolasa Quintreman Qulpan, 59, a leader of the Indians who oppose the project. ''How can I abandon my grandparents and great-grandparents?''
The two groups accuse each other of being manipulated by outsiders, either by the Spanish electric company or by Chilean and foreign environmentalists who say the dam will upset a precious ecosystem and doom several exotic species of fish that are found nowhere else in the world. A couple of fistfights have broken out over the dam in Ralco, says one Chilean environmentalist following the issue, but mostly members of the two groups exchange frosty stares when they meet on the dirt paths that crisscross the riverside community.
The struggle has taken on national proportions, including a three-day protest march this week by a few hundred Mapuche Indians from Santiago to Valparaiso, where Congress sits. At issue, Indian advocates say, is a 1992 Indian rights law that prohibits the sale of Indian lands without the unanimous consent of the community involved. The law states that only the National Indigenous Development Board, the Government bureau of Indian affairs, which has strong Indian representation on its board of directors, can authorize any land swaps. | <urn:uuid:840e88db-d7bd-4e8c-a121-669243a1f7a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/world/indians-make-a-stand-on-a-historic-river-in-chile.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163046151/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131726-00009-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950847 | 770 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The Issue: Food Insecurity
Unfortunately, food insecurity is on the rise due to COVID-19. More than 37 million people in the United States are suffering from food insecurity; that number is expected to increase.
may experience hunger because of COVID-19.
in the number of people seeking help from food banks.
needed to meet increasing demand.
The Solution: Bag Program
The Bag Program enables donors to easily give nonperishable food on a recurring basis. | <urn:uuid:6d498734-6a9d-4f40-8bc7-b24e8b13fd38> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.doorstepdonations.com/subscription-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964358443.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20211128013650-20211128043650-00592.warc.gz | en | 0.892063 | 114 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Accelerate your biologic drug development with Praesto®
Did You Know...Ion Exchange and Adsorbent Resins Remove Bitter Compounds and Acids From Citrus Juice — Such as Grapefruit, Orange, and Lemon — Making Them Sweeter and More Delicious?
Bitterness stems largely from limonin and naringin compounds found in these fruits. Limonin is a bitter, white, crystalline substance found in citrus and other plants. The bitterness of the juice increases during extraction from the fruit and subsequent pasteurization with heat – a process known as “delayed bitterness,” which is a major problem of the citrus industry worldwide.
Over 95% of the delayed bitterness can be removed by passing the juice through a column of debittering adsorbent resin. Weak base anion resins can effectively reduce excess acids and control the pH of the juice in low energy, more environmentally sustainable process. | <urn:uuid:43cb01f0-3566-4d59-b817-5907c561ee4c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.purolite.com/index/Company/News-and-Events/blog/DYK-Resins-Debitter-Fruit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572043.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814143522-20220814173522-00113.warc.gz | en | 0.894508 | 259 | 3.015625 | 3 |
I'm new to working with motors. Reading up on BLDC theory, it is repeatedly said that in SI units, the Ke and Kt will be numerically equal. I downloaded the motor spec excel sheet of the T1101 motor by MTI. After choosing a particular winding and input voltage, it generates its motor data. As expected, the Ke = (30/pi/Kv). However, the Kt value displayed on the data sheet is different from the Ke value displayed. I'm confused as to the discrepancy. This is true both for peak and RMS categories.
Which brings me to my second point of confusion. Should I be using peak or RMS voltage/current in calculating motor performance? As a mechanical engineer, I'm trying to get a certain torque and RPM for some purpose. I look at a formula that relates torque and RPM to current, no load current, torque constant, voltage, etc. In these formulae, do I input the RMS or peak for voltages and currents?
I very much appreciate the help. | <urn:uuid:1406a873-c1b8-4bff-b696-e61bc96e7b61> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/399593/bldc-motor-constants-why-is-my-kt-and-ke-different | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347417746.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20200601113849-20200601143849-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.930719 | 217 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Did you know agriculture was a startup with 8 founders?
Agriculture is rooted back to approx. 11,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent* with only eight founder crops: three cereals (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, and barley), four legumes (lentil, pea, chickpea, and bitter vetch); and linseed . Similarly, the earliest domesticated fruit (figs) is reported to date back to 11,400 years ago . Olive trees are thought to be first domesticated 6,000 years ago .
Since then, continuous progress in agricultural practices, plant breeding and crop protection tools has helped societies prosper. Take wheat for example: it’s in your bread, pasta, cookies, and fermented beverages like vodka and whiskey. It's also an important raw material in animal feed and meat production. Wheat is the largest cereal consumed in Europe and contributes to 20% of the total dietary calories and proteins worldwide .
* Today’s southern Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Turkey & Iran
The Eight Founder Crops and the Origins of Agriculture (thoughtco.com)
Kislev et al. Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Science. 2006, 2; 312 (5778):1 372-4.
Archaeology of Olive Domestication (thoughtco.com)
Shiferaw et al. Crops that feed the world 10. Past successes and future challenges to the role played by wheat in global food security. Food Sec. (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-013-0263-y | <urn:uuid:ce3a8f28-bc06-48db-ae72-9294aedef417> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://agriculture.basf.com/global/en/media/public-government-affairs/did-you-know/stories/agriculture-was-a-startup-with-8-founders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335355.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929131813-20220929161813-00250.warc.gz | en | 0.893653 | 356 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing Database
The Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing database is a contractor's product procured by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Thus, the recommendations contained in this database do not necessarily reflect NIOSH policy.
This page provides additional information believed to be critical for properly using the provided recommendations for selecting barrier materials used in chemical protective clothing (CPC). As required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Personal Protective Equipment Standard [OSHA 1994], selection of CPC must be provided after a hazard assessment is performed and a need for CPC is determined. A non-mandatory appendix (Appendix B) in the standard provides some general suggestions on what should be included in a hazard assessment: conducting a survey of each operation, identifying specific potential hazards, organizing the data, and analyzing the information. The analysis should include a determination of the level of risk and seriousness of the potential injury from each hazard found in the area. OSHA does not present specific recommendations on how these elements are to be accomplished or how the information is to be interpreted for protection against specific chemicals and against mixtures of chemicals as they are used under a variety of conditions in industry. In reference to gloves, the appendix also states that OSHA is unaware of any gloves that provide protection against all potential hand hazards and that commonly available glove materials provide only limited protection against many chemicals. Therefore, it is important to select the most appropriate glove for a particular application and to determine how long it can be worn and whether it can be reused. The OSHA website provides the most recent guidance on performing a hazard assessment of skin exposures.
Before discussing the technical issues regarding selection of CPC, it is appropriate to introduce this subject with the understanding that NIOSH does not recommend using CPC as a first choice for preventing skin contact [Roder 1990]. NIOSH believes that CPC should be considered as the last line of defense to protect against accidental contact (e.g., spills, splashes). This is in conformance with the generally accepted industrial hygiene strategy for controlling workplace exposures to chemical hazards, which recommends, beginning with the highest preference, the following hierarchy of primary controls: (1) substitution or elimination, (2) process change, (3) isolation/enclosure, (4) ventilation, (5) good housekeeping, and (6) personal protection [Birmingham 1991]. This hierarchy of controls is similarly expressed by OSHA . In addition, three secondary means of preventing exposure and occupational illness include: (1) education and training of management, first-line supervisors, and employees, (2) medical surveillance programs, and (3) environmental monitoring. With this strategy, all chemical hazards, including those that primarily involve potential contact with the skin because of aerosol impingement or direct contact, may be effectively controlled. Experience indicates that choosing CPC as a first choice of protection is not prudent as it is likely to be the least reliable in providing consistent, dependable protection.
The Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing database is intended to provide assistance for identifying potentially appropriate types of chemical barrier material for protection against skin contact with the chemicals listed in the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. In the Pocket Guide, a broadly applicable phrase, Prevent skin contact, is used. In the Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing database, the author defines possible circumstances under which this phrase might be applied. These scenarios include damaging the skin directly, absorption through the skin and into the body, or concern for hand-to-mouth transfer. However, the Pocket Guide does not indicate in such detail the specific concern involved for each substance.
For the approximately 450 organic substances where it is recommended in the Pocket Guide to protect the skin, a recommendation for specific glove material could be provided for only 39%. For those substances where a glove type was recommended, 47% of the recommendations for glove material were for PE/EVAL co-laminate, Teflon® or Viton® polymers. Unfortunately, these latter materials are either uncomfortable to wear, lack good tactility, are fragile and expensive, or (as in the case of Teflon®) are presently difficult to purchase. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer offers excellent resistance against many organic substances but is highly sensitive to degradation by water and may be ineffective for extended use where perspiration occurs. Thus, a glove material such as natural rubber, polyvinyl chloride, butyl rubber, nitrile, or neoprene is suggested for less than 21% of the organic substances listed in the Pocket Guide where preventing skin contact is recommended. For many organic substances that may be potential skin exposure hazards, no recommended barrier for hand protection can be presently provided. The principal reason why a specific glove material type is not provided for over 60% of the chemicals for which skin protection is recommended is because of the limitations of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Method F739. In its most common applications, Method F739 is limited to chemicals with vapor pressures of at least 0.1 mm Hg and up to 10 mm Hg, depending on modifications to the method, or to chemicals that are water soluble so that the permeant can be collected in a gaseous or aqueous receptor stream, respectively [ASTM 1999]. However, modifications to optimize the method have suggested that toxic chemicals with very low vapor pressures will permeate most CPC materials within a short time, albeit perhaps not at the same mass flux rate as more volatile substances [Fricker and Hardy 1992]. Chemicals with low volatility may readily penetrate the skin barrier, may be highly toxic, and may tend to bio-accumulate within exposed persons over time. Thus, even small amounts of CPC breakthrough could carry a health concern.
For chemicals that exist as a powder, flake, or solid at room temperature, guidance for selecting appropriate CPC materials is generally not available because of the technical difficulties of testing membranes against such substances. It may not be prudent to assume that the chemical cannot substantially solubilize into a CPC polymer membrane or that the dry chemical will never become moistened, both potentially resulting in enhanced permeation through the barrier. If the chemical is capable of affecting the skin or causing systemic effects, a good chemical protective barrier should be worn, regardless of its physical state. A review of the literature and possible approaches to testing gloves using solid sorbents as collection media has been recently proposed to objectively determine the adequacy of CPC performance [Boeniger and Klingner forthcoming]. Additional testing results are needed regarding the effectiveness of CPC membranes against substances not previously tested.
Another problem with the published permeation data is that great inconsistencies in glove performance are sometimes reported for substances with similar chemical properties (e.g., dimethylamine, diethylamine), and a wide range of test values may be reported by different laboratories for similar glove materials. This is likely to be explained in part by the apparent inconsistent composition of manufactured gloves [Mickelsen and Hall 1987; Perkins and Pool 1997; Oppl 2001a]. Thus, kinetic testing data reported on a specific barrier membrane from one manufacturer, and even from different lot batches, may differ substantially and may not be representative of all such membranes from different sources. Imperfections during manufacturing, resulting in thin areas and even small holes that can allow penetration through the membrane have been found in gloves meant to be used for both single use and longer term chemically resistant use [Canning et al. 1998; Dashner and Habel 1988; Sansone and Tewari 1978]. Imprecision in laboratory testing has also been cited to contribute to some of the variance in reported permeation results, which may vary up to 50% between laboratories [Oppl 2001b].
In selecting CPC materials, the user is also confronted with the fact that the actual use conditions of the CPC is likely to be different than the testing conditions used in the laboratory. Multiple variables present in actual use that are dissimilar to typical laboratory testing conditions might include higher working temperatures, mechanical stresses, and exposure to chemical mixtures. Cost and human factors, such as the need for tactility when performing a job, are also important considerations. In many cases, a glove with the longest breakthrough time may not necessarily be the most practical choice. More frequent changes but better usability may be an acceptable trade-off for choosing a glove with a shorter breakthrough time [Klingner and Boeniger forthcoming]. Over extended periods of use, gloves will likely become contaminated on the inside by repeated doffing and donning [Garrod et al. 1999; Garrod et al. 2001; Kusters 1992; Sanderson et al. 1995].
In summary, the Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing database should be used as a starting point for considering which barrier materials might provide resistance to chemical permeation as shown under laboratory testing conditions. When such laboratory testing data are available, it should not be assumed, that based on this information alone, selection of this material for use in the workplace will always provide adequate protection. For chemicals for which no recommended barrier material is provided, additional testing would be necessary to support any determination of adequacy after selecting a specific barrier material. Other factors, such as cost, practicality of use, workplace exposure conditions, and toxicity must be considered when choosing CPC. Finally, CPC should ideally be used only after other options to control skin exposures are investigated, and if CPC is deemed necessary, it should be used by workers with an appropriate level of understanding of its proper use.
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- Contact CDC-INFO | <urn:uuid:4b62b5ff-1921-44ae-9651-bbc4e2685cff> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ncpc/disclaimer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207928562.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113208-00106-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921798 | 1,977 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Here is an overview of what your child will be learning this half term in the different subject areas. The Learning Challenge focus usually encompasses several curriculum areas. If you have any questions about the learning this half term, please contact us as we are more than happy to discuss any queries with you.
Miss Ferguson and Miss H Owen
Learning Challenge: Can you survive the Amazon?
This half term, we will be focussing on The Amazon Rainforest and Brazil in a geography based Learning Challenge. We will begin the topic by developing our atlas skills in order to identify climatic zones and vegetation belts, along with looking at where in the world the Amazon is situated. We will then follow on from this by studying the weather and rainfall in comparison to Leeds. We will be using our maths skills to create graphs and charts showing the comparison between the two. Linking to climate, we will be learning about the water cycle and how this sustains life in the rainforests. We will also research the people, animals and plants of the rainforest and create exciting oral and written presentations to show what we have learnt. Linking to maths, we will also be planning an (unfortunately imaginary!) expedition to the Amazon, looking at costs, equipment and logistics of visiting the South American region. The children will also be creating flip books to show the layers of the rainforest and the different species found in each layer.
This term’s class novel is Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. This will be the main focus of our writing and guided reading until Spring half term. We will be using the ideas and concepts visited in the book over the next few weeks to write an Amazon adventure story. We will be looking at character and setting descriptions using varied descriptive vocabulary and will develop this by building on children’s knowledge of story writing to write wonderful problems and solutions to a story. Children will have the opportunity to practice skills such as using short sentences for effect to build tension in their stories, and using a varied vocabulary to enhance their writing. Children will also be improving their grammar and we will concentrate on using different types of sentences – simple, compound and complex – to vary the pace and structure of their writing, as well as looking at the use of adverbial phrases and tense. This half term we will also be continuing our work on the Upper Key Stage 2 spelling list, focussing on different rules and strategies for spelling unknown words.
This half term Year 5 will continue to develop their understanding of the four operations. During these topics children will become more confident and familiar with long and short division, long multiplication and solving word problems involving these calculations. Towards the end of the half term we will look at fractions, decimals and percentages, beginning by exploring fractions. Children will learn about finding equivalent fractions, fractions of amounts and how to simplify fractions. We will move on to looking at decimals and how to convert fractions to decimals, and solving word problems involving fractions and decimals. There will be an increased emphasis on application and reasoning and all children will access this at a level designed to make them ask relevant questions and solve the problem with logic and clear direction. Maths homework will be sent home on a weekly basis in the form of either paper copies or online tasks. This will be based on the work completed that week and will enable children to consolidate their mathematical skills and knowledge.
The focus for this term will be ‘What is the circle of life?’ We will be looking at the life-cycles for a range of animals and plants as well as looking at the human circle of life where we will be studying humans from birth to adulthood. This also links well to our topic as we look at plants and their life cycles and so can relate it to species that we would find in the rainforest as well as looking at adaptation in plants and animals in different climates. Children will be working scientifically to investigate the ideal conditions for germination and healthy growth of plants.
This half term in RE children will explore the religion Sikhism. We will be looking at different teachings, beliefs and the history and practices of the Sikh faith and using what we learnt during our visit to the Sikh Gurdwara to help us with our learning!
This half term we will continue our gymnastics learning within our PE sessions so that we are able to create complex sequences using a variety of shapes, balances and movements. Throughout this, we will look at effective ways to give feedback to others to improve their own routine and think about why feedback is useful and constructive. We will also be beginning our learning about tag rugby, where we will learn how to combine basic tag rugby skills such as catching and quickly passing in one movement.
This half term the Year 5 PSHE topic will be looking at healthy lifestyles. This will involve the children learning about keeping themselves safe and healthy. This will include discussing peer pressure and our roles and responsibilities within society. We will also discuss our differences under the banner of ‘what makes me me?’ In addition to this children will be learning to recognise and manage their own feelings and develop skills of risk management.
In Music this half-term, the children will be introduced to the solfa singing names and handsigns to support learning melodies. They will improvise pitch to a given rhythm using three different levels of pitch. They will singing in two parts. They will also be learning about samba drumming and music from South America.
This half-term in French, the children will be recapping vocabulary related to hobbies. They will be learning how to express likes and dislikes for a range of activities and will take part in speaking and listening activities to build on their confidence in speaking French. They will learn how to write sentences about their likes and dislikes, using the simple future tense. They will then go on to learn the numbers 20-50, playing a variety of games to consolidate this vocabulary.
Computing this half term will focus on online safety and ensuring that we know how to keep ourselves safe on a variety of platforms including online games and social media sites. We will also look at ways to protect our computer from some of the dangers online, such as viruses. Throughout this unit, year 5 will continue to work on their word processing skills and will present what they have learned in a variety of ways using our computing skills. | <urn:uuid:30c88f82-5be2-456e-b0db-4bd539eb4bd3> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.farsleyspringbank.co.uk/y5-spring-1-2019/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027316785.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20190822064205-20190822090205-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.955974 | 1,297 | 3.703125 | 4 |
China is home to approximately 10 per cent of the world's biodiversity. But this biodiversity is being destroyed by farming and industrial developments at an alarming rate.
In this article, Chung-I Wu and colleagues argue that conservation needs a scientific basis and must attract the brightest scientists if it is to be taken seriously. For this to happen, it is essential that conservation biology is seen as a stimulating and prestigious scientific endeavour, otherwise few bright young people will enter the field.
The authors call for the creation of a national centre for ecological and evolutionary studies. This would promote the synthesis of a diverse array of biodiversity research results. It could also run workshops where ecologists and evolutionary biologists could gather, and could train the next generation of such scientists. | <urn:uuid:ea0e0ca2-ca31-4cd8-8caf-894c42ac9cfb> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.scidev.net/global/biodiversity/opinion/the-case-for-conservation-in-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948616132.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20171218122309-20171218144309-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.957026 | 148 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Ruth St. Denis
|Ruth Saint Denis|
January 27, 1879
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
|Died||July 21, 1968
|Known for||modern dance|
Ruth Saint Denis (January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was a modern dance pioneer, introducing eastern ideas into the art. She was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dance and the teacher of several notable performers.
Ruth Denis was raised on a small farm in New Jersey, where she was drilled by her mother in physical exercises developed by François Delsarte. This was the beginning of St. Denis's dance training and was instrumental in developing her technique later in life. In 1894, after years of practicing Delsarte poses, she debuted as a skirt dancer for Worth's Family Theater and Museum. From this modest start, she progressed to touring with an acclaimed producer and director, David Belasco, under whom her stage name, "St. Denis", was created. While touring in Belasco's production of Madame DuBarry in 1904 her life was changed. She was at a drugstore with another member of Belasco's company in Buffalo, New York, when she saw a poster advertising Egyptian Deities cigarettes. The poster portrayed the Egyptian goddess Isis enthroned in a temple; this image captivated St. Denis on the spot and inspired her to create dances that expressed the mysticism that the goddess's image conveyed. From then on, St. Denis was immersed in Oriental philosophies.
In 1905, St. Denis left Belasco's company to begin her career as a solo artist. The first piece that resulted from her interest in the Orient was Radha. This piece was created to tell the story of Krishna and his love for a mortal maid. Radha was originally performed in 1909 to music from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé. This piece was a celebration of the five senses and appealed to a contemporary fascination with the Orient. Although her choreography was not culturally accurate or authentic, it was expressive of the themes that St. Denis perceived in Oriental culture and highly entertaining to contemporary audiences. St. Denis believed dance to be a spiritual expression, and her choreography reflected this idea.
In 1911, a young dancer named Ted Shawn saw St. Denis perform in Denver; it was artistic love at first sight. In 1914, Shawn applied to be her student, and soon became her artistic partner and husband. Together they founded Denishawn, the "cradle of American modern dance." One of her more famous pupils was Martha Graham. Other notable dancers such as Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Evan-Burrows Fontaine and Charles Weidman also studied at Denishawn. Graham, Humphrey, Weidman and the future silent film star Louise Brooks all performed as dancers with the Denishawn company. At Denishawn, St. Denis served as inspiration to her young students, while Shawn taught the technique classes. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were also instrumental in creating the legendary dance festival, Jacob's Pillow.
Although Denishawn had crumbled by 1940, St. Denis continued to dance, teach and choreograph independently as well as in collaboration with other artists. In 1938 St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program, one of the first dance departments in an American university. It has since become a cornerstone of Adelphi's Department of Performing Arts. For many years St. Denis taught dance at a studio in Hollywood, near the Hollywood Bowl. In 1963 she teamed with Raymond D. Bowman to bring the first full-length Balinese Shadow Puppet play to the United States. The performance was held at her studio and lasted more than eight hours.
Ruth Saint Denis died of a heart attack in 1968, aged 89, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles.
The legacy left behind included not only her repertory of orient-inspired dances, but also students of Denishawn who later became pivotal figures in the world of modern dance. Many companies currently include a collection of her signature solos in their repertoires, including the programme, "The Art of the Solo", a showcase of famous solos of modern dance pioneers. Several early St. Denis solos (including "Incense" and "The Legend of the Peacock") were presented on September 29, 2006, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A centennial salute was scheduled with the revival premiere of St. Denis' "Radha", commissioned by Countess Anastasia Thamakis of Greece. The program's director, Mino Nicolas, has been instrumental in the revival of these key solos. St. Denis was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987. The global organization and activity, the Dances of Universal Peace, credits Ruth St. Denis for much of the inspiration behind its creation. The Dances of Universal Peace organization subsequently published many of St Denis' previously unpublished writings on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body.
- Sada Yacco
- Ted Shawn
- Isadora Duncan
- Modern dance
- Women in dance
- Rue Saint-Denis (Paris) (homonym)
- Edna Guy
- Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film
- Anderson, Jack, Art without Boundaries (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997), 44.
- Sherman, Jane, Denishawn: The Enduring Influence (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983), Editor's Foreword.
- Douglas-Klotz, Neil. (1990). "Ruth St Denis: Sacred Dance Explorations in America" in Cappadona, Diane and Doug Adams: Dance as Religious Studies. New York: Crossroad. 109-117.
- Miller. Kamae A., ed. (1997). Wisdom Comes Dancing: Selected Writings of Ruth St. Denis on Dance, Spirituality and the Body. Seattle: PeaceWorks.
- Miller, Kamae A. Wisdom Comes Dancing: Selected Writings of Ruth St. Denis on Dance, Spirituality and the Body. Seattle: PeaceWorks. 1997. ISBN 0-915424-14-2
- Shelton, Suzanne. Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis. New York: Doubleday, 1981.
- Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Denis: pioneer & prophet; being a history of her cycle of oriental dances. Printed for J. Howell by J. H. Nash, 1920.
- St. Denis, Ruth. An Unfinished Life: an Autobiography. Dance Horizons Republication, Brooklyn, New York, 1969.
- Terry, Walter. Miss Ruth: the "more living life" of Ruth St. Denis. Dodd, Mead, New York, 1969.
- Schlundt, Christena L. Into the mystic with Miss Ruth. Dance Perspectives Foundation, 1971.
- Vito Di Bernardi, Ruth St. Denis. Palermo, L'Epos, 2006. ISBN 88-8302-314-5
- Guide to the Clarence McGehee Collection on Ruth St. Denis. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
- Guide to the Photograph Collection on Ruth St. Denis. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruth St. Denis.|
- Archive footage of Ruth St. Denis performing in Liebestraum in 1949 at Jacob's Pillow.
- Chapter 2: The Solo Dancers: Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) from "The Early Moderns Web Tutorial" at the University of Pittsburgh
- Archive footage of Ruth St. Denis performing "The Delirium of the Senses" from Radha in 1941 at Jacob's Pillow
- Ruth St. Denis portrait gallery at Corbis | <urn:uuid:2fd12788-5e92-451d-a5ad-d04893831898> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_St._Denis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657131545.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011211-00103-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929309 | 1,652 | 2.671875 | 3 |
February 10, 1543
Birth of Johann Eck (birth name Johann Maier) in Egg, Germany. Eck was ordained a Catholic priest in 1508 and attained the degree, Doctor of Theology in 1510. He then was appointed as professor of theology at the University of Ingolstadt. Eck was outraged at Luther’s 95 theses which he denounced as heresy in 1518. He debated directly with Luther in 1519. In 1520 he assisted in the writing of the papal bull condemning Luther’s theses and threatening excommunication. He continued, with papal authority, to struggle against the Reformation for the remainder of his life.
February 10, 1745
Birth of Leonty Leontyevich Graf von Bennigsen in Grunswick, Germany (original name Levin August Gottlieb von Benninsen). Bennigsen joined the Russian army in 1773 and fought the Turks in 1774 and 1778. He was a Russian officer crushing the Polish uprising in 1793. He participated in the Russian invasion of Persia in 1796. He became the Governor of Lithuania in 1801. He fought Napoleon in 1806, 1807, and 1812. He led a Russian force against Napoleon again at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. In 1818 he retired to his estate near Hildesheim, Germany.
February 10, 1835
Birth of Victor Hensen (1835-1924) in Schleswig, Germany. Hensen was a physiologist who created the term “plankton” for the tiny organisms in the sea. He was a professor at the University of Kiel. Hensen died in Kiel in 1924.
February 10, 1853
Birth of Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt in Mainz, Germany. Goldschmidt was a mineralogist specializing in crystallography. He indexed and cataloged all known crystals and established tables of crystal angles. From the number series in crystal symbols he developed a theory of number and harmony which subsequently was applied in several fields of study.
February 10, 1898
Birth of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) in Augsburg, Germany. Brecht was among the best of the German Marxist playwrights. His plays include Baal (1923), and Trommeln in der Nacht (1922). With musician, Kurt Weill, he wrote Die Dreigroschenoper (1928) and Aufstieg und fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930). He fled the Nazis, living in Scandinavia and then the United States where he lived and worked in California. During the war he wrote Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941), Leben des Galilei (1943), and Der gute Mensch von Sezuan (1943). In 1947 he was required to appear before Joseph McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities to answer questions about his alleged communist affiliations. He left the United States immediately thereafter. He lived for a short time in Switzerland and then emigrated into East Germany where he founded his own theater, Der Berliner Ensemble. He wrote Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis (1948) and Der Aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui (1957). In addition to his plays, Brecht was a preeminent theoretician, developing the concepts of alienation effects and epic theater.
February 10, 1901
Birth of Richard Brauer in Berlin, Germany. Brauer was a mathematician who followed up on Georg Frobenius’ work on group characters. Brauer developed a theory of modular characters, which was a step forward in algebra. In Germany he taught at the University of Königsberg. In 1935 he was appointed to a position at the University of Toronto and in 1948 a position at the University of Michigan.
February 10, 1923
Death of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) in Munich. Röntgen was the discoverer of X-rays. He was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery in 1901. Röntgen was professor of physics at the Universities of Strassburg, Giessen, Würzburg and Munich. The first X-ray picture he took of a human being was of his wife’s hand.
Back to Today in German History Calendar | <urn:uuid:9809220f-8f46-4cc9-bb42-a7afe8d085d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://germanculture.com.ua/day/february-10-in-german-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718285.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00299-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950597 | 912 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Alternate Means of Communications
Numerous alternate means of communications are available to the field commander. The most commonly used will be addressed in the following paragraphs.
Messenger service is one of the oldest and most effective alternate means of communications but is no longer a dedicated Signal Corps responsibility. Commanders can greatly enhance their ability to control their units by effectively using all types of messengers from all battalions and staffs.
a. The need for messengers is inversely related to our desire and/or ability to use radio. There are many disadvantages in relying too heavily on radio communications. Messenger service is an important consideration for combat operations. With the EMP effect becoming more of a tactical probability than a possibility, messenger service may become the only viable communications after the initial outbreak of wartime hostilities.
(1) Advantages to messenger service are as follows:
(a) Permits delivery of lengthy, bulky items not requiring immediate action; or requiring lengthy transmission times, such as, operation plans, map overlays, administrative/logistical matters, and reports.
(b) Reduces the need for using radio.
(c) Reduces mutual radio interference by reducing radio traffic and transmission time.
(d) Reduces the enemy's EW capability by--
- Providing a secure communications means which is not subject to EW.
- Deferring exposure of critical nets until they become urgently needed.
- Making it more difficult for the enemy to identify critical nets.
(2) Disadvantages to messenger service are as follows:
(a) Slower than electrical means.
(b) Subject to enemy action, terrain, and weather conditions.
(c) Requires dedicated equipment and trained personnel.
b. The type of messengers employed is determined by the urgency, bulk of messages, the terrain, the weather, and the availability of transportation.
(1) Foot messengers are used for CP distribution and in small units.
(2) Motor messengers are used between headquarters.
(3) Air messengers are used to speed up delivery over long distances, over difficult terrain, over enemy controlled territory, or for vital or urgent messages.
c. The types of service available by messengers, usually at EAC, are scheduled, special, and exchanged.
(1) Scheduled messengers follow prearranged and published time schedules, travel designated routes, and stop at predesignated points and headquarters. They normally deliver and pick up message traffic at TCCs or exchange points.
(2) Special messengers are used when scheduled service has not been established or to augment scheduled service. They are employed when the urgency of a message will not allow the message to wait for scheduled messenger service or transmission by other communication means.
NOTE: Couriers transporting COMSEC or classified materials orders IAW AR 66-5.
(3) Exchanged messengers are exchanged between specified headquarters when personnel and vehicle assets permit. These messengers would know routes back to their parent headquarters and would deliver high priority messages only.
d. Additional sources of messenger service should be considered.
(1) Personnel should never leave a CP en route to another unit without consulting the TCC for possible message traffic for that unit. Liaison officers can assist during times of limited messenger resources.
(2) Certain designated headquarters act as clearing houses and reroute points for messages. This allows unit messengers to pick up and deliver to these points, freeing dedicated messengers for more frequent delivery and pickup between relay points.
(3) Commanders should identify those organic assets which in an emergency could be used for messenger purposes. They should provide necessary training and planning so these assets can be effectively used when needed. All assets should be considered for the role; for example, the commander's vehicle and driver and the S3's vehicle and driver.
An alternative to electronic communications is visual signaling. This form of communications has been used extensively throughout the history of military operations. However, the flexibility, range, and speed of today's radios have reduced the use of visual signaling. Few units today would be capable of establishing a working system of visual communications without first conducting extensive planning and training.
a. Visual signaling systems normally require simple equipment. They provide timely point-to-point communications over the distances usually associated with company, battalion, and sometimes brigade and division deployments. They are not normally susceptible to EMC and EMP problems and are relatively reliable in many combat situations. Training requirements vary with the systems used and can be taught at unit level.
b. Visual signaling is not a cure-all. Numerous limitations need to be recognized. Visual signaling sites must be within LOS of each other and the signal means used must be distinguishable at the desired range. Fog, rain, snow, smoke, and background light conditions can reduce effective ranges.
c. Visual signaling cannot adequately handle the mass of routine communications between echelons, but it can be used as an alternate means to pass the high priority messages that may affect the tactical situation. Units should consider their requirements for continuous command communications, then develop a visual system that will provide an effective backup to their current systems. Realistic training of personnel and frequent practice during training exercises enhance a commander's ability to maintain effective control of assigned and attached units.
d. Visual signaling systems employing flashing lights of various types are most effective because they provide distinguishable signaling at great ranges. Several field expedient visual signaling devices are readily available to the tactical command.
(1) Any standard flashlight can be pulsed in a controlled manner and can normally be seen over several hundred meters in daylight and up to two or more kilometers at night. A more directional beam can be obtained by attaching any sort of cylindrical extension.
(2) Any other light source, including chemical lights, that can be keyed is also usable. An example is a vehicle headlight used with a keying device and a director to provide long-range signaling.
e. Reception of visual signals can be enhanced using readily available devices.
(1) A pipe or other device pointed directly at the visual source can be used to limit the receiver's susceptibility to distraction. Such a device should be stabilized to prevent movement while in use.
(2) Binoculars assist in distinguishing the signals at greater ranges. At night, the use of ambient light devices such as night vision goggles AN/PVS-5 or night vision sight AN/PVS-4 can greatly extend the system's range. The PVS-5 or PVS-4 is authorized in many divisional units including infantry/mechanized, infantry battalions, engineer battalions, division artillery units, cavalry and air cavalry troops, and air defense artillery battalions.
f. A flashing light system can be both an asset and a liability.
(1) Flashing light signaling sites will often be visible from enemy positions and appropriate safeguards must be planned. Using infrared or near infrared sources and receiving devices will prevent unaided observation; however, most potential adversaries also use the infrared spectrum and can observe these signals.
(2) Visual signaling sites should be remoted from CP locations to maintain CP location security. Remoting may also be required to attain LOS.
(3) Portability and weight of equipment used is an asset. If the equipment can readily be mounted in trees or on antenna towers, LOS may be more easily attained.
(4) Communications between the signal site and CP is mandatory. Wire is strongly recommended, but short-range radio or a messenger could be used.
(5) Messages prepared for transmission by visual means should be as short as possible to facilitate the slower transmission speed and concentration required to copy at long ranges. Properly encrypted brevity codes should be used.
(6) Flashing light systems can use directional or nondirectional devices. Nondirectional equipment will generally provide less range, but can be used to transmit to more than one receiver simultaneously.
(7) All signal sites should be manned by a minimum of two personnel to enable one to focus attention on the distant sender and the other to record or relay the message over the telephone as it is received.
(8) Operators must be trained in the transmission and reception of code.
Panel signaling is used primarily between ground troops and aircraft. Its use is very limited and is covered by instructions in the unit's SOI. Care must be exercised in panel use to ensure that the panels can easily be seen from aircraft and that the hovering aircraft do not disclose CP or signal site locations when reading the panels.
Pyrotechnic signaling uses colored smoke, colored and combinations of star clusters, or parachute flares. This kind of signaling is limited to prearranged signals. These signals are prescribed at command-, corps-, division-, brigade-, battalion-, and, under certain conditions, company-level. Meanings of signals are provided in the SOI or operation orders. Continual reassessment for completeness and adequacy of this signal system is encouraged.
|Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list| | <urn:uuid:772c14d3-6a4c-46d6-afc8-162622b3373c> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/24-12/Ch6.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608648.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170526071051-20170526091051-00342.warc.gz | en | 0.926317 | 1,856 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Knots/Loop knots/Figure-eight loop
From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
The figure-eight loop (not to be confused with the figure-eight knot, which is similar, but it is a stopper knot) is a loop knot that is used in climbing. It can be tied in two ways:
- Tie a figure-eight knot in a rope, then put the working end around something and follow the rope back through the figure-eight. This is the method used to attach a rope to a harness.
- Tie a figure-eight knot in a bight. This is not the way to attach a rope to something that you can't slip the loop over or into. | <urn:uuid:061a917a-d1d3-4f8a-9948-bda003d2e65b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Knots/Loop_knots/Figure-eight_loop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988725451.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183845-00188-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942653 | 149 | 2.671875 | 3 |
"The Gray Lady" been exhibiting
signs of dementia for decades. On January 13, 1920, it famously ran an article proclaiming that space flight was impossible because there
was nothing in the cosmic void for the exhaust to push against. Isn't that typical of the ignorance that the mainstream media applies to
much of its reporting? The writers have an agenda to push, and they are not about to let facts get in the way.
On 17 July 1969, the
day after Apollo 11's launch, the New York Times issued this correction over a 1920 story it ran saying spaceflight is impossible. They probably
figured best to get it out there before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were slated to step foot on the moon. An, enlightenment for the benighted
masses who read their rag.
Here is the text: "1969: On Jan. 13, 1920, Topics of The Times, an editorial-page feature of The New York
Times, dismissed the notion that a rocket could function in a vacuum and commented on the ideas of Robert H. Goddard, the rocket pioneer,
as follows. 'That Professor Goddard
, with his 'chair' in Clark College and the countenancing of the
Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than
a vacuum against which to react
-- to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high
schools." Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century and it is now definitely
established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.'"
What a display of
How long will it take them to retract some of the anthropogenic global warming... er... climate change gospel that they have been preaching
now that those e-mails
from the Climatic
Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in eastern England.
A huge collection of my 'Factoids' can be accessed from my 'Kirt's Cogitations'
table of contents.
Topical Smorgasbord, another manifestation of Factoids,
are be found on these pages:
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4 | 5
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11 | 12 |
13 | 14
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16 | 17 |
18 | 19
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21 | 22
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24 | 25 |
26 | 27
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29 | 30 |
31 | 32
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34 | 35 |
All pertain to topics that are related to the general engineering and science theme
of RF Cafe. | <urn:uuid:7f015d43-e099-43a0-b140-1fc816fb8c21> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://www.rfcafe.com/miscellany/factoids/ny-times-admits-moon-flight-possible.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512504.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20181020034552-20181020060052-00172.warc.gz | en | 0.93724 | 568 | 2.609375 | 3 |
It’s not a death spiral—at least, not yet. Examples abound of how city leaders can turn the numbers around.
Any frank conversation about building better bus service in American cities must address one fact at the outset: Ridership is in free fall across the country.
Numbers released last month from the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database show a 2.5 percent decline in total transit ridership from 2016 to 2017, with bus ridership leading the way with a 5 percent drop. This nationwide decline in transit ridership has been in progress since 2014, despite growth in U.S. population and employment.
The result? More cars on the road, more traffic deaths, more lost time in longer commutes, and more pollutants in the atmosphere.
These troubling trends demand the attention of transit agencies who need to honestly assess where service improvements are needed most. Fixing the decline will also require political will from elected officials to give priority to buses on city streets where transit ridership and traffic are both in ample supply. Luckily, there are some examples of how to do this.But first, the harrowing numbers. Only four of the country’s high-ridership regions saw an overall increase in transit use (across trains, buses, and other modes) in 2017: Seattle, Phoenix, Houston, and New Orleans. Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, and New Orleans are the only high-ridership areas where bus ridership increased in 2017.In addition to the most recent annual numbers, it is important to consider longer-term trends. Going back to 2014, ridership is down 7 percent, and bus ridership in 2017 was down almost 20 percent from its peak in 2008. During the same nine-year period, the Chicago Transit Authority alone lost more bus riders than all U.S. agencies with growing ridership gained. Seattle’s King County Metro (an 8 percent increase in bus riders) and San Francisco Muni (a 19 percent increase) are the two bright spots among major cities during those nine years.Historically, this isn’t the first time bus ridership has fallen, but it is now at its lowest level in the past 30 years. Bus ridership also declined sharply in the early 1990s, before recovering steadily for about a decade.This decline may also be different: 2018 will be the first year that for-hire vehicle trips (including taxis, Uber, Lyft, and their peers) will outnumber bus trips in the U.S., transportation consultant Bruce Schaller forecasts. Research in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and nationally show that the rapid growth of ride-hailing is adding new vehicles to congested city streets. These services offer shared rides via “pooling” services, but they have seen limited uptake and cannot physically match the people-moving efficiency of city buses.Meanwhile, the theoretical advantage of this space efficiency has in recent years often been defeated by crippling city traffic. Yet the bus is not at an inherent disadvantage relative to trains, which have seen ridership growth and typically run on a dedicated right-of-way. Transit agencies and city governments simply need to make buses useful, which is to say fast, frequent, and reliable. To do this, city and transit agency officials need to start by assessing ridership trends in a local context.Amid the gloomy trends, examples of success abound. In Houston, METRO realized that even as it added more transit service, ridership did not respond—leading the agency to redesign its entire bus network. Since the redesign, Houston METRO is outperforming its peer agencies in terms of ridership, even with a bus ridership decline of 0.01 percent in 2017 (bus ridership at lead transit agencies in San Antonio and Dallas is down 4.5 percent; in Austin, down 1.3 percent). Ridership on every one of New York City’s “Select Bus Service” routes has outperformed ridership trends in those routes’ respective boroughs. Nashville’s bus rapid transit-esque routes have also bucked the region’s downward ridership trend. In fact, nationally, “Rapid Bus” service in the National Transit Database has seen consistent yearly ridership gains since it was introduced as a new category in 2012, even as bus ridership overall has declined (though at least some of this increase is due to new “Rapid” lines opening, rather than ridership growth on existing routes). Seattle and San Franciso’s success is especially telling—besides adding service, which Seattle transit operators have also done, the City of Seattle has taken an active role in both funding transit and prioritizing transit improvements. In San Francisco, the transit agency is also a municipal entity, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), so transit operations and planning are integrated with management of city streets. With respect to buses in particular, SFMTA developed and oversees the Muni Forward program, a city-wide effort to improve bus service. These effective plans stand in stark contrast to the absence of comprehensive bus service improvements in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago—cities whose largest transit agencies together comprise 40 percent of all bus ridership decline since 2008.There are plenty of strategies at transit agencies’ disposal that are proven to get buses moving faster. In addition to dedicated lanes, cities can design streets with “bus bulb-outs” that allow buses to pick up passengers without blocking traffic, and optimize traffic-light timing using “transit signal priority” to help buses catch lights before they turn red. Transit agencies can allow riders to board through all doors, and install 21st-century fare payment technology to reduce the time buses spend at bus stops.
Ultimately, though, putting transit ridership back on an upward trend will require a sustained political commitment to improving local bus service. This is not a problem that our elected leaders can solve solely through technological innovation or big, shiny infrastructure projects. Instead, transit agencies and city leaders should work together to leverage transit’s most important competitive advantages—capacity and dedicated right-of-way—by giving priority to transit in the places where ridership and congestion justify it. Municipal support and coordination with transit agencies will define the destiny of urban transportation’s most underrated workhorse: the local bus. | <urn:uuid:b2699078-d3ab-4f3d-8e63-da7cce3d7f20> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | http://www.brt.cl/the-stark-and-hopeful-facts-about-bus-ridership/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710898.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202050510-20221202080510-00834.warc.gz | en | 0.944442 | 1,300 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools: A Progress Report
Vermont has not escaped the racial prejudice that has afflicted our nation for centuries. In its 1999 report, Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools, the Committee identified racial harassment as a pervasive problem that harmed minority as well as white children in the stateís schools. In some cases, the problem was exacerbated by administrators not responding appropriately to incidents because of the lack of training and clear standards for schools to follow.
The Committee hoped that the report would move legislators, educators, and business and religious leaders to join forces to improve the safety and educational welfare of all Vermontís children. This would require making the elimination of racial harassment a statewide priority by state leaders, who could lend their coordinated efforts and leadership to the problem. To accomplish this goal, the Committee recommended that the state legislature give greater investigative and enforcement authority to the Vermont Department of Education (VDOE) and the Vermont Human Rights Commission (VHRC), two agencies best suited to spearhead the effort. By allocating sufficient funds and hiring additional staff, the agencies could work directly with local school boards, educators, and parents to handle complaints, develop appropriate bias-free curricula, and improve the overall school climate.
In the three years since the reportís release, the Committee monitored many exemplary efforts undertaken by state agencies, schools, and community action organizations to accomplish these goals. By holding its town meetings and soliciting written responses to its questions from these entities, the Committee learned of the considerable progress Vermont has made in addressing the problem of racial harassment in schools and in the larger community, including (1) enactment of a new anti-harassment and hazing law (Act 120); (2) efforts by organizations, such as VT LEADS, to bring together education leaders to coordinate their efforts to eliminate racial harassment; (3) major conferences and training programs on diversity and anti-racism issues; and (4) reallocation of staff and agency priorities by VDOE and VHRC to better address prejudice in the schools. However, the Committee identifies four remaining problem areas:
Racial and other forms of harassment continue to occur, as reported by VHRC, community groups, and victims. A significant number of incidents are race related, with some accompanied by physical altercations or serious threats of violence. As the Committee concluded in 1999, some administrators are not responding effectively to stop the incidents from reoccurring.
There is no coordinated plan to address the problem among various education entities, state agencies, and advocacy organizations. Training of teachers, administrators, and school staff to develop a common understanding of appropriate responses to incidents has begun, but this needs to be instituted in a systemic, mandatory way. Appointing and training civil rights officers in each school to receive and investigate complaints, as proposed in Vermont House of Representatives Bill 113, would help in this regard.
Vermont lacks a comprehensive, reliable way to collect and analyze data on harassment incidents. Although VDOE began collecting data, it needs to provide more guidance to schools to guarantee the accuracy of the information. VDOE should give serious consideration to developing a clear process for reporting, recording, and processing incidents. It needs direct oversight responsibility to ensure that school systems collect data and report findings to the public. A standard incident report form should be developed for parents to formally communicate incidents of harassment and bullying to school officials.
The Committee commends the efforts that Vermont has made since 1999 to address the problem of racial harassment in its schools. There is a genuine commitment among many individuals and organizations in the state to ensure that schools are safe learning environments for all students. Indeed, one of the challenges that remains for Vermont is to identify best practices that schools and communities have developed for dealing with the problem and implement them on a statewide basis.In recent years, there has been much discussion in Vermont of the need to be competitive in the global marketplace. Clearly, Vermont will be at a serious economic disadvantage if the stigma of bigotry deprives the state of a competent, diverse workforce and if our schools produce graduates who do not understand and respect differences among all people. Beyond this pragmatic consideration, the very high value that Vermonters place on strong communities is at risk if we do not embrace the growing diversity of those communities. We have taken important steps in that direction; the real work lies ahead. | <urn:uuid:afabbe37-b652-4390-89cb-48e6d311a22c> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/sac/vt1003/ch3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164014852/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133334-00074-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961502 | 885 | 2.953125 | 3 |
- Fascism's Stages:Imperial Violence, Entanglement, and Processualization
At the high point of its power in 1941, National Socialist Germany ruled over a landmass exceeding the United States in area and population and producing a greater economic output than any equivalent territory on earth. The historian Mark Mazower deemed National Socialism an empire,1 and in the last few years a new approach in Fascism Studies accepts Mazower's insight and examines fascism in its imperial form.2 Political latecomers, the fascisms of Germany, Italy, and Japan challenged the liberal world order and Communist internationalism, and also radicalized the logic of imperialism and the forms of colonial war conduct. In the destruction of [End Page 85] the European Jews, the "Nazi empire" was clearly more radical; but in its dedication to the achievement of a large contiguous and racially defined area to be conquered in wars of destruction and modernized with settlers, it was both comparable to and directly bound up with the Italian and Japanese empires.
The fascist empires radicalized older imperial traditions: the missionary idea, the uses of violence and repression, hierarchically graduated justifications and special laws. Fascists intensified the idea of hierarchies among peoples and turned them into matters of survival. The destruction of other peoples became a consistent expression of this tendency, and the settlement empires were tied up with the typically national aim of internal homogeneity.3 They constructed a contradictory mixture of imperialism and nationalism in forming nation-empires, as Roberta Pergher insightfully observed.4 Notwithstanding this pattern, the models of rule they followed in their actual occupation policies were thoroughly heterogeneous. Substantial variations are evident already in the Japanese case—between Manchukuo (industrialized using forced laborers and intended for rapid adaptation to Japanese conditions with modern city planning and a comprehensive policy of Japanese settlement) and the Japanese East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Daitōa Kyōeiken, with indirect rule in allied Thailand and the economic plunder of the Philippines). A secret 1943 document analyzed by John W. Dower, "Global Policy with the Yamamoto Race as Nucleus" ("Yamamoto Minzoku o Chūkaku to suru Sekai Seisaku no Kentō") demonstrates that the Japanese considered themselves the superior people, and not only vis-à-vis other Asian ethnicities. Besides different forms and degrees of imperial rule, this document directly evoked familiar European concepts like natalism, blood-and-soil nationalism, and Lebensraum.5
The National Socialists also developed steep hierarchies. A spring 1941 document by SS brigade commander and administrative jurist Werner Best suggested four categories of a racially designed administrative system of governance: (1) informal control of states (e.g. Denmark); (2) [End Page 86] "oversight administrations" where German representatives used a national administration while leaving it structurally almost unchanged (France, Netherlands, Belgium); (3) "governmental administration," with far-reaching reconstruction of the local bureaucracy (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia); (4) "colonial administration" (Generalgouvernement in Poland), with administrative control and reduction of the indigenous population to forced labor.6
With Operation Barbarossa, the spectrum of heterogeneous power relations expanded to a kind of "polycratic fabric of occupations."7 Next to the formal sovereignty of Vichy France and the almost untouched self-administration of Norway, there were occupied lands with German chiefs presiding over civilian administrations, as in Slovenia; areas under direct military administration (Belgium, Serbia); and finally the outright rule of destruction practiced by the Reich Commissariats of Ukraine and Ostland. Some newly organized Gaue (districts) were intended for annexation and Germanization, like Danzig-West Prussia in Poland, Alsace-Lorraine in France, or parts of northern Slovenia.8
These imperial constructs were inherently less stable than the empires of the nineteenth century, as became evident in the rapid depletion of the readiness to collaborate with the Nazis in the Baltic states, Belarus, and Ukraine. Armed resistance, barely existent in occupied Europe from 1938 until mid-1941, grew explosively within a few months of the attack on the Soviet Union.9 The situation in the Japanese empire was not much different. Nationalist forces first greeted liberation—in Burma from British and in Indonesia from Dutch rule—until regional leaders like Ba Maw and Sukarno understood that their countries would continue to be ruled repressively under... | <urn:uuid:3690242f-b794-4a3d-9d26-933dbfd16116> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/781614 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153860.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20210729140649-20210729170649-00134.warc.gz | en | 0.931286 | 930 | 2.828125 | 3 |
A WHITE dwarf caught mimicking a black hole may be the first in a new class of stellar objects.
A short, ultra-bright X-ray flare spotted in November 2011 seemed to match bursts of radiation from a black hole swallowing matter. But the temperature of the flare was unusually low, so Phil Charles of the University of Southampton, UK, and colleagues made more observations and ran computer simulations.
They found that the flare was best explained by a white dwarf burning off mass sucked from a much bigger, hotter companion – a pairing that has never been seen before (The Astrophysical Journal, http://doi.org/j3c). Charles says there may be many more such binary stars misidentified as black holes.
More on these topics: | <urn:uuid:b06612c0-ea11-40e7-bc44-1b0181c1ca78> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21728984.800-black-hole-exposed-as-a-dwarf-in-disguise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698541905.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170901-00170-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948352 | 152 | 3.625 | 4 |
Aor Breath Biotics 60 Lozenges:
The Bad Breath Buster.
Halitosis, or bad breath, can be caused by a number of factors. It may indicate a local exposure to malodorous foods, an infection or a deeper more systemic concern. The odour itself relates to volatile compounds that have a high sulfur content and are produced by gram negative bacteria on the tongue, or between and around teeth. Halitosis can be transient (such as from sulfuric foods, tobacco products, or dry mouth) or it can persist. Persistent halitosis can indicate a systemic or local infection, post nasal drip, GERD, kidney disease, or even liver failure, though systemic diseases only account for 10% of these cases. Cleaning the tongue, by brushing or with mouthwashes, can remove some of the offensive compounds (food remnants, dead cells etc.) that the bacteria feed on, clear away bacteria themselves, or mask the odour for a period of time. But treatment of the underlying cause is ultimately best practice. One of the most effective treatments is to ensure that the oral microbiota is healthy. Breath Biotics with BLIS K12 contains a patented strain of the probiotic Streptococcus salivarius K12, to ensure a healthy oral microflora. By increasing the good bacteria present in the mouth you can reduce bacteria that cause bad breath, and strengthen your first line of defense against infections.
Breath Biotics is Streptococcus salivarius K12, an oral probiotic which helps reduce halitosis (bad breath) and promotes oral health. Breath Biotics can also help reduce the incidence of sore throat caused by pathogenic Streptococcus pyogenes.
|Medicinal Ingredients per serving|
|BLIS K12* (Streptococcus salivarius K12)||1 billion CFU †|
|*BLIS K12 is a registered trademark of Blis Technologies New Zealand|
|† Colony-forming units|
|Non-medicinal ingredients: isomalt, sodium stearyl fumarate, maltodextrin, monk fruit extract, starch, gum Arabic, hyprolose, trehalose, lacitol, natural flavour (wintergreen, peppermint).|
AOR guarantees that all ingredients have been declared on the label. Contains no wheat, gluten, sesame seeds, sulphites, mustard, eggs or shellfish.
Suggested Dose: For halitosis take 4 lozenges daily for a minimum of 3 days. For oral health take 1-2 lozenges daily for a minimum of 10 days. For the prevention of sore throat due to infection, take 5 lozenges daily for 90 days. Suck lozenge for 5 minutes, do not chew or swallow. Before taking the first lozenge of the day, rinse mouth with an antimicrobial mouthwash. Take at least 2-3 hours before or after antibiotics.
Cautions: Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you have fever, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, or severe abdominal pain. Do not use if you have an immune compromised condition (e.g. AIDS, lymphoma, undergoing long-term corticosteroid treatment), are taking aminoglycoside antibiotics (e.g. kanamycin, streptomycin), or have a dairy allergy. If symptoms of ear, nose or throat infections (e.g. fever, sore throat) occur, or if symptoms of digestive upset (e.g. diarrhea) occur, worsen or persist beyond 3 days, discontinue use and consult a health care practitioner.
BLIS K12™ is a patented probiotic strain (Streptococcus salivarius K12)
The information and product descriptions appearing on this website are for information purposes only, and are not intended to provide or replace medical advice to individuals from a qualified health care professional. Consult with your physician if you have any health concerns, and before initiating any new diet, exercise, supplement, or other lifestyle changes. | <urn:uuid:ca408146-fdd6-4a48-a7c5-fe14152ee491> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.healthpalace.ca/aor-breath-biotics-60-lozenges/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583514879.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20181022071304-20181022092804-00109.warc.gz | en | 0.873669 | 833 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Public schools in my area have developed a new karma over the last decade: data central. It was student central for a while, but alas, like many other movements in education, it was replaced by something perceived to be bigger and better. What could be more scientific and certain than basing decisions on data? And which data are the most important? Student performance data, of course. We measure our schools by how their students perform.
To be more specific: In North Carolina we measure our schools by how their students perform on a state-wide multiple choice test at the end of the year that is designed to measure school-wide mastery of the state’s grade level educational objectives for reading, math, and science. This type of measurement does not take into account other student performance data, such as how well students can talk about what they have learned, what projects or portfolios they have completed, how their writing has improved, or whether they can think critically.
It also means that it is the combination of all the different versions of the test that has meaning for school-wide achievement, but the individual versions of the test vary greatly. For example, Form A of the test might be much thicker than Form B. Form C might have several technical terms, and Form D might have none. Taken collectively they purportedly measure the chosen learning objectives for the grade level, but individually there is no such validity. (One wonders if the Common Core Assessment will be of the same type.)
The test does not take into account students who get very nervous when their most significant measurement is a one-shot deal that measures an extremely narrow range of knowledge and skills. It does not take into account that schools don’t always modify for students who may need it but don’t have an IEP (Individual Education Plan). It doesn’t take into account that the test covers such a small percentage of what most teachers cover in their classroom that it cannot possibly be a reliable measurement of student learning. It measures, for example, certain kinds of reading skills but not English or Language Arts curricula in general.
More important, however, is whether the performance data is achievement data or growth data. Since the NC test was designed to measure school achievement rather than individual achievement, how meaningful are the individual student growth figures that are extrapolated from these test results? How many students could have passed the test on the first day of school that year? Since there is no pretest given on the grade level objectives for the coming year, we in fact don’t measure student growth at all. Yet the only meaningful data for measuring the school or its students is individual student growth data.
Despite all these problems, the latest trend in education is to use the all-important student performance data to measure our teachers as well as our schools and students. Since the tests don’t measure student growth, how can they possibly measure teacher competence?
Additionally, learning is affected by many variables of which teacher quality is only one. We might conclude that a plant died because it didn’t get sunshine when it really died from drought.
Proponents of measuring teacher quality by students’ test data say they will make the test data only a part of a teacher’s evaluation, so drought will not be too much of a discrediting factor. No one has heard yet what part it will be or how much it will weigh, however, and since the tests are not measuring student growth, it is a moot point anyway. Until we offer testing that measures pre- and post- performance, and until we include broader kinds of pre- and post- data—such as writing, speaking, thinking, acting, creating—we can’t say we are even coming close to measuring student growth.
What does this mean for measuring teacher competence? Quite a bit, since the two are inextricably related. Student growth should be a critical factor in teacher competence. Assuming we had such data, should that be the only kind of data we use? Should there also be qualitative considerations?
Qualitative data require much more work for administrators. It is much easier simply to rest everything on test scores and not do the hard work of evaluating a human being in his or her work setting. Qualitative data require knowledge of how the teacher’s classroom operates on a daily basis, how well the teacher knows and communicates his or her subject, how the teacher thinks about lesson planning, how well the teacher relates to all kinds of students, and much more. It requires extensive observation and communication with the teacher, which many administrators forego due to being pressured to favor data that fits their district’s agenda.
The bottom line is that if you want to measure teachers in their interactions with students and their learning, there is no way to do it objectively; you must tell the teacher’s story based on observation and evidence, starting with data such as how many hours did the administrator spend in the teacher’s classroom? How many minutes did the administrator spend talking to the teacher about his or her practice?
During my last year of teaching my new principal (he did not know me since he was new to the school that year) spent 37 minutes total in my classroom over three visits. He spent 0 minutes talking to me about my teaching (although he did talk at me at length about his interpretation of the data he chose to record during my 30-minute observation and the research on which he based it).
Performance data has its place in education, but it should not be our central operating principal. People and their learning are not subjects that can be represented best by numbers and test scores. Our goal in education is not to train students to take tests, after all; it is to help students develop into good citizens who can deal productively, effectively, and creatively with the complexities of modern society.
We need to break out of the web of data central karma; and since we are capable of freedom and thought, we can. | <urn:uuid:5ab3e2b3-9c6c-4086-8758-763e27108f28> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://robinwilsonjohnston.edublogs.org/2012/11/26/data-central/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423269.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170720161644-20170720181644-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.975896 | 1,220 | 2.875 | 3 |
- Elementary Differential Geometry
(second edition), Barrett O'Neill.
The prerequisite is one or more 200-level calculus course, such
as 242, 243, 280, or 285.
- There will be frequent homework
assignments, due on Wednesdays, often with problems assigned
from the textbook. Students are encouraged to keep a journal and complete
a project. The homework, project, and general class participation counts
for 50% of the course grade.
- There will be an test in September, in class, and
a take-home test in November. The material covered
and dates will be announced later. These tests count for 20% of your grade.
The final exam covers the entire course, and counts for 30% of the course
grade. The final exam will be at the time assigned by the timetable.
This course is an introduction to the geometry of differentiable curves and
surfaces in ordinary 3D-space. We look for properties of their shape, such
as their curvature, which are independent of how the object is parametrized
by explicit functions, or where it is placed in space. For this purpose we
present a thorough treatment of 3D-vector calculus, implicit function
theorems, the Frenet-Serret theory of moving frames, sectional, mean and
Gaussian curvatures for surfaces. Students are encouraged to explore
applied topics of special interest to them further. Possible topics include
camera paths, splines for curves and surfaces, fairness and other curvature
related attributes of industrial interest.
The high point of the course is the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. The Gauss-curvature
is intrinsic to the surface, in the sense that bending a surface without
stretching (roll a sheet of paper into a cylinder) does not change it.
Moreover, the integral of the Gauss curvature over the entire surface is
invariant even if we stretch and distort the surface topologically. | <urn:uuid:42afcc9d-14c6-4f22-adfe-2f76853ba797> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~gfrancis/m323/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662546071.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20220522190453-20220522220453-00052.warc.gz | en | 0.875835 | 451 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The field of additive manufacturing (more commonly known as three-dimensional printing) has developed significantly in recent years, consequently increasing the need for new materials for the fabrication of functional 3D structures. It is currently being used for a variety of applications ranging from modelling to medical devices. Current methods are based on layer-by-layer fabrication of a three dimensional structure, each layer being built by one of the following methods: (1) Fuse Deposition Modelling (FDM) based on melting a material which is typically a polymer (2) Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) based on laser melting of powder particles, (3), Color Jet Printing (CJP) based on jetting a binder onto a powder, and (4),stereo lithography (SLA) which is based on selective curing of polymerizable monomers. A common method for this technique is Digital Light Processing (DLP) which is based on selective polymerization of individual pixels within a thin layer. This is done by using a digital micro mirror device (DMD) that results in small dots (tens of micrometers).
Our research is focused on developing new materials for most types of 3D printing technologies, including conductive inks, ceramic materials and metals, and shape memory polymers. Some of the research activities will be described in the following sections.
3D printed organic-ceramic complex hybrid structures with high silica content
New hybrid organic-inorganic sol gel inks that can undergo both condensation and radical polymerization were developed, enabling fabrication of complex objects by additive manufacturing technology, yielding 3D objects with superior properties. The 3D objects have very high silica content and are printed by Digital Light Processing commercial printers. The printed lightweight objects are characterized by excellent mechanical strength compared to currently used high performance polymers (139 MPa), very high stability at elevated temperatures (Heat Deflection Temperature >270 °C), high transparency (89%) and lack of cracks, with glossiness similar to silica glasses. The new inks fill the gap in additive manufacturing of objects composed of ceramics only and organic materials only, thus enabling harnessing the advantages of both worlds of materials. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201800061
3D printing process of sol gel based inks with dual polymerization mechanisms of complex hybrid 3D object (scale bar, 1cm).
Additive manufacturing of transparent silica glass from solutions
We developed an ink composition for 3D printing of transparent silica objects. The ink is based on combining a sol−gel process with photopolymerization for obtaining dense-fused, silica transparent objects. In contrast to recent studies, which used inks based on dispersed silica particles, the sol−gel ink enables us to achieve fused-silica glass at a low temperature, with controlled density and RIs. In addition, control over the density can be realized at the ink preparation step, by enabling the printing of one silica structure with zones of different RIs by a multilateral, 3D printer. Moreover, the new process and the new approach to ink preparation facilitate the fabrication of other metal oxide structures that contain a variety of functional materials. This opens great possibilities in various applications such as optical devices, as well as complex and miniature reactors, including microfluidic devices. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b03766
Scheme of printing process and the obtained transparent silica glass objects at different stages. Printed waveguide and miniature flask filled with colored water.
3D printing of responsive hydrogels for drug-delivery systems
We have developed a hydrogel formulation that could function as a model for 3D printed controlled drug delivery system. Hydrogel tablets with complex structures were printed by using acrylic acid as the monomer and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) as a cross-linker, resulting in pH responsive drug-delivery system.
We have demonstrated the utilization of 3D printing to improve performance of classic solid dosage forms by offering new ways to control drug release as function of pH and surface area, while controlling geometry parameters. We have shown a good correlation between the swelling of the tablets and the release of a model drug, meaning we can tune the drug release by designing specific shapes with the desired surface area. It is expected that advancing this technology would eventually allow to provide an important means for personalized drug delivery by controlling critical parameters for drug action and absorption. DOI: 10.2217/3dp-2017-0009
Images of the 3D printed hydrogel tablets using digital light processing technique. (A) Box. (B) Hemisphere. (C) 5 × 5. (D) Hive. (E–F) are scanning electron microscopy images of D and C shapes, respectively.
Highly Stretchable and UV Curable Elastomer for Three Dimensional Printing
We have developed compositions of highly stretchable and UV curable (SUV) elastomers that can be stretched by up to 1100%, which is more than five times the elongation at break of the existing UV curable elastomers and are suitable for UV curing based 3D printing technologies. Using DLP printing with the SUV elastomer compositions enabled the direct creation of complex 3D lattices or hollow structures that exhibit extremely large deformation. For example, we directly printed a soft actuator and a soft robotic gripper which have a complex 3D and hollow structures and can undergo large local deformations (Fig. 1). We also demonstrated a 3D Bucky ball light switch by combining the DLP printing with a silver nanoparticles coating and room temperature sintering process. Overall, the SUV elastomers will significantly enhance the capability of the DLP based 3D printing of fabricating soft and deformable 3D structures and devices including soft actuators and robots, flexible electronics, acoustic metamaterials, and many other applications (The scale bar in the figures in 10 mm). Adv. Mater. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201606000.
Figure 1. Shows different 3D printed structures such as soft actuator, gripper, spherical balloon and electronic switches using SUV elastomer
Porous structures by printing Oil-in-Water emulsions
A new ink was developed for printing porous structures that can be used for embedding various functional materials. The ink is composed of a UV polymerizable Oil-in-Water emulsion which can be converted into a solid object upon UV irradiation, forming a porous structure after evaporation of the water phase. The water phase can contain silver NP that are sintered by a chemical sintering, resulting in a 3D conductive structure (Fig.2). The surface area of the object can be controlled by changing the emulsion's droplets size and the dispersed phase fraction. see: Journal of Materials Chemistry C 1.19 (2013): 3244-3249. and Journal of Materials Chemistry C 3.9 (2015): 2040-2044.
Fig. 2: Printed 3D porous (left) and conductive objects (right)
3D and 4D printing of shape memory materials
Until now, Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) were not used in the field of 3D printing or flexible electronics due to inadequate processing technologies. We developed a new process and inks which enables printing of oligomer melts in a DLP printer, to generate high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) shape memory structures (Fig. 3). We also demonstrated how these printed structures can be further utilized for constructing flexible electronic devices (Fig.4), see: Adv. Mater.. doi:10.1002/adma.201503132
Fig. 3: 3D printed structures changing shape upon heating due to the shape memory polymer.
Fig. 4: Printed 3D electrical circuit made of shape memory polymers, activated by heat. | <urn:uuid:696f6ebc-d6cc-4734-8bb8-54c650aa0696> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://scholars.huji.ac.il/magdassi/book/3-d-printing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585911.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20211024050128-20211024080128-00361.warc.gz | en | 0.91355 | 1,638 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Themes and Meanings
Frank O’Connor’s “The Man of the World” is an initiation story, in which Larry is led to the moment in which he will be introduced into the world. His guide, however, is only a year older than he is, and has a premature and jaded view of the world. What Larry is initiated into is merely a loss of innocence, rather than the expected gain of maturity. He passes beyond the anticipated maturity to adult shame and guilt.
Another theme is the reversal of the observer and the observed. In spying on the young couple, Larry thinks that he is a privileged observer. With Jimmy’s guidance, he is acquiring knowledge by looking down on people who are living what they think is a private life. He, however, becomes aware of being watched by some higher power, a god who sees and truly knows all, in contrast to the limited and weary false sophistication of Jimmy Leary. A recognition of the reduced role he will now play in the world follows this perception, and there is a permanent diminishment of his sense of self.
The story is also about the consequences of knowledge. Larry loses his innocence forever at the end of the story. He attempts to refuse the inappropriate sophistication that is represented by Jimmy, but he cannot recover his innocence. He has tasted of the tree of knowledge and can never return to his innocent childhood. There thus seems to be a use of the Eden myth to define and describe Larry’s change in the story. He has been cast out of his innocent and blessed world of appearances, and he can never return to that state.
A related theme is religious. The presence of an omniscient power is revealed as observing what Larry has been doing. As a result of his awareness of the presence of this deity, Larry can never escape the guilt and shame that he feels. Even if he determines that he will never be as sophisticated as Jimmy, he cannot purge the feeling of someone looking down on him and judging all his actions. He has entered a world of sin and shame that he must live with; the initiation robs him of an innocence he can never recover. | <urn:uuid:71e54571-c5d4-454f-8d3d-05b9b93ce9a7> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://www.enotes.com/topics/man-world/themes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084890187.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20180121040927-20180121060927-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.983119 | 443 | 2.765625 | 3 |
[This is the second post in a 5-part series, excerpted from my forthcoming book: Find it Fast: Extracting Expert Information from Social Networks, Big Data, Tweets, and More, 6th. Ed., CyberAge Books, Autumn 2015]
No doubt you've heard the phrase "The Wisdom of Crowds." Some deride the concept as just putting one's trust in an angry or ignorant mob; others dismiss it as a philosophy that ignores the value of the credentialed expert. And while a discussion of mob behavior or the value of the credentialed expert today would be an interesting one, it’s not what the wisdom of crowds is about.
James Suroweicki, a writer for The New Yorker is the person credited with coming up with the phrase. His book, which explored how and when large groups of people can be more accurate in answering factual questions or making decisions was in fact, titled, “The Wisdom of Crowds.” In the book Suroweicki looked at problems ranging from simple ones like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar, to knowing the answer to popular trivia questions, to making predictions about future events, or coming up with solutions to large social problems and showed how large groups of people were more likely to come up with the right or best answer than a single individual, even if that person was an expert.
Suroweicki’s most important discovery, though, were his critical qualifiers outlining the four specific conditions that must be present for a crowd to act “wisely” (that is, be more accurate, solve a problem and/or come to better decisions). Those conditions were: independence, diversity, decentralization and aggregation.
Here’s what each of these means in practice:
Independence requires that each person in the crowd was able to cast a vote or make his or her decision independently--there was no knowledge or influence of the actions of other people (as can happen, for instance, on consumer rating sites where visitors can be influenced by previous ratings); diversity simply means that the voting or decision making group was not too much alike; decentralization means that the voting/decision making process was not centralized but done in a decentralization manner and aggregation means that there is some process for adding up and calculating the group's final answer from all of the individual responses.
But there is another important element to note here too: while these are the four conditions that must be present for the wisdom of crowds process to work, Suroweicki did not answer the question as to why crowds can be smarter than an individual. Those reasons were explained by Harvard Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Cass Sunstein in his book Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. Sunstein, who is a prominent legal scholar and had served as the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, explained in his book that the underpinnings of this phenomenon are mathematical and based on a key criteria: in order to be “wise”, at least 51% of a group must be composed of people that have the right answer. That mathematical principle is called “The Condorcet Jury Theorem”. It too has implications for when and how the wisdom of crowds principle works and when it does not as well.
The origin of the Condorcet Jury Theorem was in political science, where it was utilized to determine the probability of a given group of individuals coming to a correct decision in a legal case. The theorem states that for any given group, the more people that know (and then can express) the correct answer, the more likely the group will arrive at the right decision. However, for the group to end up with the right decision, a minimum of <50% of the group must have that correct answer; and the more people in the group that have the right answer, the higher the probability of the accuracy of the group. Expressed mathematically, the theorem is as follows:
The assumptions of the simplest version of the theorem are that a group wishes to reach a decision by majority vote. One of the two outcomes of the vote is correct, and each voter has an independent probability p of voting for the correct decision. The theorem asks how many voters we should include in the group. The result depends on whether p is greater than or less than 1/2:
- If p is greater than 1/2 (each voter is more likely to vote correctly), then adding more voters increases the probability that the majority decision is correct. In the limit, the probability that the majority votes correctly approaches 1 as the number of voters increases.
- On the other hand, if p is less than 1/2 (each voter is more likely than not to vote incorrectly), then adding more voters makes things worse: the optimal jury consists of a single voter.
The implication of this theorem though, is that it adds one more condition to Suroweicki’s list of four, and the fifth one is: in order for a group’s answers to be accurate, more than 50% of its members must know/have and provide the correct answer. And of course the corollary is true as well: when the group’s members are mostly wrong the group as whole will be wrong as well.
Next Monday we'll look at when it makes sense to apply the wisdom of crowds method for assessing accuracy to what one finds on the Web. | <urn:uuid:abd511e5-3b2c-4fbd-882b-e8b6be2dd901> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://www.bestbizweb.com/thinking-out-loud/just-how-wise-is-the-crowd-first-in-a-three-part-series | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583867214.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20190122182019-20190122204019-00143.warc.gz | en | 0.964803 | 1,129 | 2.5625 | 3 |
A lot of have forfeit the ability of learning. They assume they are fully aware what they desire to understand to obtain through their hectic days. Very frequently they discover that what they’ve learned is becoming outdated with no longer pertains to existence. They soon get substituted with somebody that knows more while he has stored up to date with new understanding and developments. Learning isn’t difficult when the right techniques are implemented. Should you follow them, you’ll realize better results and also have more happiness compared to majority who just manage on which little they are fully aware.
The requirement for Discipline
Before anything could be learned, your brain needs the skill to pay attention to the fabric that should be learned. Your brain from the average man and lady is really a jumble of scattered ideas full of worries and fears. A stressed thoughts are a confused mind and may not focus on what must be learned. An undisciplined mind means a disorganized lifestyle. Before you aspire to learn anything, you have to learn to discipline that grey matter inside your skull therefore it can devote full focus on absorbing new understanding.
A Readiness to understand
No expert knows everything about his selected career. Breakthroughs occur daily that cause a brand new knowledge of how things work. Whatever your selected field, in case your thoughts are closed to researching new breakthroughs, your worth to your small business is limited. You must have a balanced view and become prepared to absorb new understanding because it arrives. A readiness to understand does mean being prepared to get rid of individuals archaic theories that may prevent you from evolving through existence.
It’s an important answer to memory improvement. Your brain can certainly forget details and figures unless of course they’re remembered and reinforced. It’s important to rehearse that which you learn, daily, if it’s something you have to remember. You can’t be a professional player if you don’t reinforce that which you learn through constant practice. Repetition helps discipline your brain therefore it can concentrate on learning without distractions getting in the manner.
Learning like a Creative Challenge
The only method to remember and discover anything is as simple as making it challenging. Lots of people possess the typical “one-track mind” that’s sufficient to obtain them through a full day. However the mind needs stimulation if it’s for use at full capacity. Stimulation means using the senses. Couple of people can recall the things they learn as they do not employ feelings in to the learning process. Creativeness and using imagination helps your brain better retain what’s being learned. Youngsters are like sponges. They learn rapidly because they use their senses along the way. If you’re able to make learning challenging and fun, you’ll remember much more as well as for for a longer time.
Learning As they are
If whatever you ever study is exactly what pertains your job, your existence is going to be dull. Individuals have hobbies that don’t connect with their careers because they find stimulation in individuals hobbies. To maintain your mind sharp and enhance your learning skills, you ought to be participating in something unrelated for your expertise. Read biographies and self-help books. Attempt to become familiar with a new language or learn how to play golf. Any type of activity energizes the mind and improves learning skills.
The significance of A Healthy Body
Constant learning doesn’t seem possible if you’re tired, irritable or stressed. Factors for example diet, exercise, ecological pollutants reduce the opportunity to effectively learn. You can’t stay sharp should you subsist dieting of burgers, fries and cola. The very best that you can do on your own prior to taking on any task that needs your full attention, is address individuals factors that hinder learning.
Improving learning skills is really essential in today’s busy world that demands you remain competitive. All effective individuals are learners. If you would like success and all sorts of things existence provides, take time to master the opportunity to learn. | <urn:uuid:fd5e267d-6888-482e-9f60-becc76185506> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://ilearningglobal.biz/post/improving-existence-skills-through-constant-learning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988696.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20210505203909-20210505233909-00153.warc.gz | en | 0.960087 | 837 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The University of Guyana Library, located on the main campuses, in confronting the difficulties to guarantee information resources are effective, efficient and accessible, have physical catalogues to display what materials are available in its collections and where the materials are. In 2014, in keeping with technological advances in libraries worldwide, the University of Guyana Library (UG Library) started an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) operated by KOHA Open Source Integrated Library System. Ogbole and Morayo (2017 cite by Aina 2004 op. cite) claimed, “OPAC is the most modern form of the library catalogue, where bibliographic records of all the documents in a collection are stored in the computer memory.” At UG Library, OPAC is the library’s computerised catalogue that is available virtually to students, faculty members who use the library through computer terminals.
Access to the online catalogue may also be done through a web-OPAC allowing persons outside the university campuses to have access to the catalogue of the library expediently. Borgman (1996) stated, “The user-friendly design addresses screen displays and functional capabilities but does not search deeply into task motivation, much less into the connection between a computer user and the work. Users were expected to adapt to systems and considerable effort was devoted to user training.” Given that the OPAC web design offers a professional approach, users experienced user-friendly designed interfaces, such as a simple menu-driven, interface using offline storage of search strategy, automatic login procedures, and software-controlled navigated searching techniques. While the user interface of the UG Library portal remains user-friendly, some users discovered difficulties with the layout. The complete web design appears easy to manipulate for users who possess knowledge of the online search. Users expected that input allowed them to manipulate the system and output allowed the system to process the effect of their manipulation.
The system is capable of adapting to users rather than requiring users’ adaptation to the system. Banati, Bedi, and Grover (2006) stated, “The relationship between usability and trust is a very complex relationship.” Yet, some researchers opined OPACs interfaces intended to reduce online connection time and printing options. The intention is that search and retrieval of the UG Library collections should be easy due to OPAC. Usability experts argued that current users have already developed a firm mental model of searching; A box where they can type words; A button labelled “search” that they click to run the search; and A list of top results that’s linear, prioritized, and appears on a new page—the search engine results page Nielsen (2005).
UG Library OPAC search allows users to do simple searches (any keyword) via the drop-down menu where users can search for books, journals, e-books using the authors, titles, subjects, ISBN numbers, Publishers and Barcodes, information that is known to the library user. The feature also supports advanced searches within the set of previous results by extending or restricting the search scope. Users had hitches with the feature that provided control over the search. Users only accessed the basic search features although the system allows users to search using a combination of words and phrases using Boolean AND, OR, and NOT. The overall display of UG Library OPAC lacks esthetics. The aids in the visual display, lacks multimedia features such as audio, real play, etc., as such, users were not coping with the deficiencies and in some instances, users were unable to find books in the collections. Some Guyanese users lack computer knowledge and were reluctant to change to the new technology and the designs of the interface of the system were not as user-friendly as expected. The system would have revealed some difficulties to online users and online assistance proved futile. The title links are misleading.
OPAC title links on the result page did not take users to the specific bibliographic record but, instead, users had to click a full record link that is sometimes difficult to locate to view the individual bibliographic record. This feature is misleading and makes the retrieval process inefficient. Usability of the OPAC system did not make the inefficiency less evident although some users lacked training on how to conduct searches and to retrieve information. It is also necessary for the University to consider alternative sources to power the library software or collaborate with other Universities within the region to assure the improvement of the OPAC system. Notwithstanding the many issues with the system, information retrieval within the OPAC system of the UG Library continues to be an important concern at the library. The Library should have the OPAC designed more comprehensively to ensure fewer difficulties, in to boost users’ usage.
Educating users about the search and retrieval system of the OPAC will eliminate most of the challenges associated with the use of OPAC. Keywords search should highlight when performing a keyword search. In highlighting keywords, users can decide how relevant the retrieved publication is to their aim. Most university libraries in the region have this feature. The user interface is not the only line of improving a good OPAC system of the library. The technological factor, mechanisms for the better use of OPAC and continuous education on the awareness of the use of this new service is also important. University of Guyana Library should aim to design user-centres, self-sufficient online catalogues that fit the web 2.0 model. Ultimately the goal is that users will be comfortable and confident using the library’s OPAC for their information needs wherever a computer is available and without special training.
In conclusion, the OPAC system of the University of Guyana Library, the information-seeking world, has entered an era of self-service. Self-service is being described as an “I wish I had known that the solution for needing to teach our users how to search the catalogue was to create a system that did not need to be taught.”(Tennant, 2005). The OPAC system of the University of Guyana Library is still in its operational phase. With more work in improving the ineffective areas, the system will fulfill its mandate that is to improve the overall library function.
This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. You can order our professional work here. | <urn:uuid:881fd9e0-2b63-4ec1-a137-8f168062f770> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://eduzaurus.com/free-essay-samples/the-university-of-guyana-library/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703514495.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20210118092350-20210118122350-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.938693 | 1,293 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) has ensured that the law recognises vulnerable people and has protected the decision making power of an individual with mental disabilities. But the Act also recognises that if a person lacks capacity, important decisions can be made on their behalf. The term capacity refers to the decision-making ability of an individual. To assess whether a person has the capacity to make a specific decision at a specific moment in time, the MCA has set out a test.
The test is a ‘decision-specific’ test, which focuses only on the decision that has to be made. It might be that a person may be completely capable of making decisions about which transport route to take to town or what food to buy, but at the same time be unable to make decisions about medical treatments or financial matters.
The test is in two stages and will be satisfied if:
In deciding the second part of the test, a person will lack the capacity to make a particular decision if they cannot:
If a person cannot do any one of the above things, they will lack the capacity to make the decision. You must note that both parts of the test must be completed.
It may be the case that a person may lose capacity during severe mental breaks. For example, a person with bipolar disorder may normally have the capacity to make decisions for themselves. But they may lack the capacity to make decisions during severe period of their illness. Whilst they may be able to understand information and retain it, they may lack the ability to make the decision.
If you are involved in the person’s daily decisions as a carer, then you are capable of assessing capacity. But when a doctor suggests that a particular type of treatment is necessary for a patient, the doctor must consider whether the patient has the capacity to consent to the treatment.
As previously mentioned, the individual can also appoint an attorney.
Thanks for contacting Access Solicitor. We'll get back to your enquiry as soon as possible, and during normal business hours this should be within the next 30 minutes. We look forward to helping you find the legal advice you need.
Access Solicitor Customer Care | <urn:uuid:ff3f02f6-cb77-46af-8fd8-063dc9f814d9> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://www.accesssolicitor.com/legalguides/mental-health-capacity/who-lacks-capacity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084891485.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20180122153557-20180122173557-00725.warc.gz | en | 0.958107 | 444 | 2.75 | 3 |
Fire Down in Texas
Two ships carrying ammonium nitrate explode in the worst industrial accident in U.S. history
NFPA Journal®, May/June 2012
For a time, it seemed to the people of Texas City that all they did was go to funerals. So wrote Steve Olafson in the April 13, 1997 edition of the Houston Chronicle, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Texas City, Texas, explosion and fire, the worst industrial accident in United States history.
The disaster began around 8 a.m. on April 16, 1947, as a stevedore prepared to load ammonium nitrate from the Monsanto Chemical plant onto the SS Grandcamp, berthed nearby at the Texas City docks. When he entered the hold, which contained some ammonium nitrate that had been loaded the day before, as well as machinery, peanuts, and twine, he smelled smoke. Moving some of the cargo, he uncovered the fire and called for water, according to a report written days later by the Fire Prevention and Engineering Bureau of Texas and the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Two containers of water thrown on the blaze had no effect, so the stevedore tried to put it out using a soda-acid extinguisher. When that, too, failed, he called for a hose line. Before it arrived, however, he was told not to apply water, as it might damage the cargo.
By now, about half an hour had passed, and the stevedores abandoned ship. The fire department was called to the scene at around 8:30 a.m., and two trucks arrived, followed shortly by two more trucks. Firefighters began laying hose lines and streaming water from the dock, but the ship’s hull was so hot by 9 a.m. that the water vaporized when it hit the deck.
Twelve minutes later, the ship disappeared in a tremendous explosion, destroying the dock, the Monsanto plant, and other buildings, as well as a number of oil and chemical storage tanks. The explosion also set fire to the SS High Flyer, which carried 2,000 tons (1,814 metric tons) of sulfur and 961 (872 metric tons) tons of ammonium nitrate.
Early that afternoon, tugboats made several unsuccessful attempts to move the High Flyer, according to the Fire Prevention Bureau’s report. At 10 or 11 p.m. they finally freed the ship, pulling it about 100 feet (31 meters) away before it, too, exploded.
The toll of the explosions and fire was enormous. Property losses were estimated at $67 million, and thousands of people were injured. Although the exact number of people killed will never be known, a monument to the victims notes that 576 people, 398 of whom could be identified, died. Among them were 27 of the Texas City Fire Department’s 28 firefighters.
— Kathleen Robinson | <urn:uuid:0b046035-fd13-4aff-8cf2-16abe2f87461> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.nfpa.org/newsandpublications/nfpa-journal/2012/may-june-2012/news-and-analysis/looking-back/?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461861812410.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428164332-00185-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975255 | 599 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Of the more than 400 species of salamanders found worldwide, 130 to 150 live in North America. Over 40 percent of these are considered to be at risk. The greatest diversity of salamanders in the world is found in the Southeastern United States. Salamanders are amphibians, like frogs, and most need water in which to reproduce. They live in a wide variety of habitats from swift-moving mountain streams to moist forests. In many habitats, they are the most abundant vertebrate.
Currently, 11 species are on the federal endangered or threatened species list in the United States, but many more species are at risk. The loss and modification of habitat is putting enormous pressure on salamander populations. Salamander habitat is being destroyed, modified, and fragmented, seriously diminishing the diversity and number of salamanders in the United States and around the world. Although these secretive creatures are unknown to many people, they are important parts of our natural world and in serious need of our protection.
What Is a Salamander?Salamanders are amphibians (class Amphibia), related to frogs and toads. They are in the order Caudata, meaning they have a tail. Because of their secretive nature and nocturnal lifestyle, salamanders are one of the least studied groups of animals. They love dark, wet places, often in deep woods, which is one reason why salamanders are the subjects of numerous myths and legends.
Structure and appearance
At first glance, most salamanders look like lizards and sometimes are called "spring lizards." However, salamanders are amphibians, not reptiles, and, unlike lizards, they have moist skin with no scales, no ears, and no claws.
Salamanders in the United States range in size from 2 inches to over 2 feet in length. Most species have two pairs of legs, but some look more like eels than lizards and have reduced or only a single pair of legs.
The tails of aquatic salamanders are often compressed to aid in swimming, whereas those of terrestrial species are more rounded. Some salamanders have the ability to regenerate their tails if they are lost.
Salamanders continue to grow past sexual maturity and must periodically shed their skin. After shedding, they often eat the skin. Mucous-secreting glands help prevent their skin from drying out when they are out of the water. Other glands release toxins that protect them from predators. Some have glands that produce pheromones, chemicals that are used in courtship and mating.
Some salamanders have lungs; others do not. In lungless species, respiration occurs through the skin and mouth. Respiration through the skin is important to both those with and without lungs during hibernation. All salamanders must remain in damp environments to keep their skin moist and prevent drying out.
Most aquatic larval salamanders have gills that are absorbed when they metamorphose to adults. Some salamanders, such as the mudpuppies and waterdogs, keep external gills throughout their lives. The gills, as in fish, are red in color due to the high blood concentration necessary for oxygen absorption from the water. Gill size may be related to the water quality. In warm, slow-moving, low-oxygen waters, salamanders often have larger gills than those found in cool, flowing, high-oxygen waters.
Salamanders do not have ears, but may be able to detect vibrations through their legs and jaws. In the water, vibrations are detected by the lateral line system, rows of sensors found on the head. Most species have well-developed eyes. The exceptions are the few cave-dwelling species that live in complete darkness where eyes are unnecessary. Salamanders, unlike frogs, are voiceless except for a slight squeaking noise made by a few species when disturbed or excited.
What do they eat?Salamanders are predators. Most feed on insects, worms, and other small invertebrates. Salamanders are often the most the abundant vertebrate animal in the forest. They are an important link in the food web, preyed upon by larger amphibians, snakes, turtles, birds, predaceous insects, and fish. Salamanders are active foragers, moving through their environment searching for prey. They can use visual and chemical cues to detect prey items. Salamanders use their tongue (covered with sticky secretions) to capture prey. Aquatic salamanders use suction to capture prey. Immature (larval) salamanders, like adults, are predators and feed upon aquatic insects and other invertebrates.
How do they reproduce?
Salamanders have a variety of reproductive strategies. Most species have a two-part life cycle that, like frogs, includes a larval stage and an adult stage. Some species lack a larval stage, and newly hatched individuals look like miniature versions of the adult. Most salamanders hatch from eggs and spend several weeks to years growing as aquatic larvae before they undergo metamorphosis to become adults. When the adults reach sexual maturity, they often return to breed at the same site where they were born.
Although frogs typically reproduce by external fertilization, few (10 percent) salamanders exhibit external fertilization. In most salamanders, fertilization is internal. Male salamanders court females with species-specific behaviors. The male then deposits a packet of sperm (a spermatophore) on the ground and the female transfers it into her body. The eggs are fertilized internally, but laid externally in a selected habitat.
Where do they live?
Most salamanders are found in or near wetlands. Because they lack the scales of reptiles, salamanders are susceptible to drying out, and must live in moist environments. Some species have the ability to burrow underground; others use burrows created by other animals like crayfish.
Salamanders occupy a wide range of aquatic habitats, from temporary pools to large rivers (hellbenders) and from cold mountain streams (many dusky salamanders) to warm ponds (tiger salamanders). Salamanders are able to live in cool environments. Most salamanders are active at night and during rain events, which permit them to move around to feed or mate.
All species of salamanders in the United States lay eggs. Aquatic salamanders lay their eggs in water, and terrestrial species lay their eggs in moist areas under vegetation, rocks, or logs or underground. The female usually stays with the eggs for weeks or months until they hatch, defending them from predators and removing silt, debris, or fungal growth.
During the breeding season, males often develop secondary sexual characteristics such as pads on their hind limbs to help them hold onto slippery females when mating. Males of some lungless salamanders develop long teeth that are used to scratch the females' backs.
Some species can breed year round, but most salamanders have distinct breeding seasons, which vary depending on the species, location, and weather conditions. Those that breed in ponds and temporary wetlands are explosive breeders. Hundreds of individuals may migrate into a breeding pond, reproducing in mass on a single night when conditions are right.
How long do they live?
Would you believe some salamanders live more than 50 years? Most salamanders live for 8 to 20 years, but large aquatic salamanders, such as hellbenders, have been known to live between 25 and 55 years. Even the small streamside salamanders, such as the mountain dusky salamander, regularly live more than 10 years.
Many small salamanders need three to four years to become large enough to breed. The red-spotted newt, for example, may spend seven years in the immature red eft phase before undergoing a second metamorphosis, and returning to a pond to breed. Because of their long life span, loss of adult salamanders may have a larger effect on population survival than occasional reproductive failure.
Since terrestrial salamanders generally are active at night, they can often be observed during the day by flipping over logs, rocks, and other debris. It is important to return all logs, rocks, and other debris that are flipped back to their original position so animals can continue to use them for shelter. Aquatic salamanders can sometimes be found by carefully turning rocks on the stream bottom. Salamanders typically are more active on rainy nights.
Although collecting a few live salamanders is legal in most states, many states restrict collecting large numbers. Take special care not to disturb any threatened or endangered species. Never release salamanders collected at one location at another location; they could transmit disease. Enjoy observing wild animals in their natural habitats or keep them for a few days in a clean terrarium or an aquarium filled with water and materials collected at the same site. Newts, larvae, and aquatic species may be captured intentionally or accidentally using seines or minnow traps.
Salamander skin is very sensitive. Handle salamanders with wet hands. No salamanders are poisonous to humans; however, some produce toxins than can irritate human skin. Most salamanders do not bite, but some large aquatic salamanders can bite hard. A good way to observe salamanders is to use a clear plastic container. Salamanders should then be released at the point of capture.
What Good Are They?
Despite the fact that salamanders are rarely seen, they are important members of the food web, both as predators and prey. They are especially important in controlling rates of decomposition and nutrient cycling. They also are a major food source for wild reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals.
Salamanders are used in medical research to study tissue regeneration and the effects of skin toxins for treating different diseases. Due to their permeable skin and amphibious lifestyle, salamanders also serve as an indicator species for environmental quality. The loss or reduction in the numbers of salamanders from an area may serve as an early warning of environmental pollution.
Salamanders are not a food source for people, but they are sometimes used as fish bait by anglers. Like all organisms, they are valuable not because they can benefit people but because they have been a valuable part of our ecosystem for millions of years.
Because salamanders are little known and secretive, scientists cannot be sure of the extent of the decline of this group worldwide. Over 40 percent of North American salamander species are considered to be at risk.
Most salamanders are threatened by habitat loss and water pollution. Over-collection for the pet trade or bait sales, acid rain, wetland drainage, drought, exotic species, stocking fish in breeding ponds, and the creation of dams are all significant threats. Growing urban development is converting woodlands and wetlands into parking lots and strip malls, reducing aquatic and terrestrial salamander habitat. Even if small patches of habitat are preserved, populations may be doomed for extinction if they are disconnected and surrounded by roads or other development. Forest cutting and thinning for fire control may reduce the abundance of salamanders.
It is not too late to save our native salamanders. Better forestry and agricultural practices can lessen the risk of destroying the habitat and limit pollution. Streamside conservation efforts will protect important habitats. Damaged wetland habitat can be restored. Small streams need to be protected from development and natural streamside vegetation should be kept intact.
Useful Salamander Web Sites
- Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation http://www.parcplace.org/education/index.htm
- Checklist of Amphibian Species and Identification Guide: An Online Guide for the Identification of Amphibians in North America north of Mexico: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/idguide/index.htm
- Conservation International: http://www.biodiversityscience.org/xp/CABS/research/repamp/rep_amp_cons.xml
- Frog Watch USA: A frog and toad monitoring site: http://www.nwf.org/frogwatchUSA/
- Visit FrogWeb: Amphibian Declines & Deformities: http://www.frogweb.gov/
- Reptiles and Amphibians of Virginia and Maryland: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1m6wp/
- San Francisco's Exploratorium Museum's Frog Exhibition: http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/
- North American Amphibian Monitoring Program: http://www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/
- Georgia Amphibians: http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/gawildlife/amphibians/amphibians.html
- Frogs and Toads of Tennessee: http://www.state.tn.us/twra/frogs.html
- North Carolina's Amphibians and Reptiles: http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/herpcons/herpcons.html
- South Carolina Reptiles and Amphibians: http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/index.htm
- Amphibiaweb, worldwide data base on amphibians: http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/search/
We greatly appreciate the editorial reviews of Doug Harpole and Nancy Templeman, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the support of Randy Rutan and Hilary Chapman, National Conservation Training Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Reviewed by Michelle Davis, Research Associate, Fisheries and Wildlife
Virginia Cooperative Extension materials are available for public use, reprint, or citation without further permission, provided the use includes credit to the author and to Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, and Virginia State University.
Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Edwin J. Jones, Director, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; M. Ray McKinnie, Administrator, 1890 Extension Program, Virginia State University, Petersburg.
May 1, 2009 | <urn:uuid:12c6a03b-b91c-4465-bfbb-7ecd18ff3bbe> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-528/420-528.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267865250.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20180623210406-20180623230406-00378.warc.gz | en | 0.922516 | 2,940 | 3.890625 | 4 |
GEOGRAPHY OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP OF UKRAINE AND THE COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
The article deals with the current state and trends of development of foreign economic relations of Ukraine and the European Union. It is determined that foreign economic relations are a system of multi-faceted forms of international cooperation of states and their subjects in the branches of the economy, which is carried out on the basis of international division and integration of labor. It is specially noted that Ukraine has sharply changed the vector of its economic activity during 2014-2017, and the European Union is a key trading partner now. The dynamics of volumes of export and import of goods and services is analyzed. Trends in recent years show a decrease in volumes of commodity exchange. It should be noted that since 2005, the volume of imports exceeds exports. The largest trading partners of Ukraine are: export of goods – Italy, Poland, Germany; import of goods – Germany, Poland. The main European partners of Ukraine in the exchange of services are the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Cyprus. The basic positions of export of goods are – products of the agro-industrial complex and the food industry, precious metals and products from them; and import of goods – mineral fuel, and products of the chemical industry. The largest volumes of services exports to the EU countries relate to transport services and materials-processing services. Ukraine imports transport services, business services, services related to sales and financial activities, royalties, professional and consulting services, government and government services. Special attention is given to regional distribution of export and import of goods and services of Ukraine and the European Union. The largest volumes of commodity exchange are observed in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv and Zakarpattia regions and in Kiev; a significant dominance of exports over imports is observed in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, and Zakarpattia regions; the region’s largest importers of goods: Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv regions. The largest volumes of trade in services are observed in the Lviv, Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In the central and northwestern regions of Ukraine, the volume of service exchange is relatively insignificant. Exports far exceeds imports in Lviv, Zakarpattia, Odessa regions. Significant dominance of imports over exports is available in Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Donetsk regions. It should be emphasized that more than 2/3 of foreign investments into the Ukrainian economy come from the European Union. The main investors in the Ukrainian economy among the member states of the European Union in 2016 were Cyprus, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A large share of direct foreign investment was concentrated in industrial enterprises, financial and insurance institutions. Most of the Ukrainian investments were directed to the economies of Cyprus, Latvia and Poland. Special attention is paid to the regional analysis of the distribution of foreign direct investment per person. Most foreign investments from the EU come to Dnipropetrovsk region. Well-invested regions of Ukraine are Donetsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa regions. The article contains the data on perspective directions of bilateral foreign economic relations of Ukraine and the EU. It is established that the European choice for Ukraine opens numerous prospects of cooperation with the developed countries of the world, promotes economic development, and strengthens the position of the country on the international arena.
Key words: foreign economic relations, export, import, trade in goods and services, foreign trade turnover, foreign direct investment.
- Didkovska B.V. Foreign trade in goods of Ukraine with countries of Western Europe / BV Didkovsky // BUSINESSINFORM. – 2013. – No. 4. – P. 62-67.
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- Foreign trade of Ukraine with goods with EU countries / State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Mode of access: http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua.
- Klyuchevskaya A.М. Foreign Trade Relations of Ukraine in the Context of Choosing its Integration Vector / A.M. Klyuchevskaya // Research of the international economy: Sb. sciences Ave – No. 2 (67). – K.: ISEMV NAS of Ukraine, 2011. – P. 185-192.
- Leschuk I. Economic-geographical connections of Ukraine and Canada // Realities, problems and prospects of development of geography in Ukraine. Mother studio sciences conf. (Lviv, May 18, 2016) .- Lviv, 2016. – P. 42-47.
- Litvinenko N.P. Main tendencies and dynamics of development of trade-economic relations of Ukraine with the European Union, the USA and Japan / Н.П. Litvinenko // Current problems of international relations. – 2015. – Vip. 126 (Part I). – P. 117-125.
- Nikiforova V.A. Features of the integration of the metallurgical industry of Ukraine into the Customs Union and the EU / V.A. Nikiforov // Strategy of economic development of Ukraine. – 2013. – № 33. – P. 139-146.
- Official website of the Delegation of Ukraine to the European Union and the European Community on Atomic Energy. [Electronic resource]. – Mode of access: http://ukraine-eu.mfa.gov.ua/ua
- Official site of Eurostat statistics of the European Union. [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
- Prysyazhnyuk Y.V. Development of Foreign Trade Relations of Ukraine and European Countries / Yu.V. Prisyajnyuk // Collection of scientific works of Cherkasy State Technological University. Seria: Economics. – 2014. – Vip. 37 (2). – P. 201-207.
- Sklyarskaya O.I. Socio-geographical aspects of Ukraine’s foreign trade relations with Romania / O.I. Sklyar-sk, O.P. Hryvna [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: https://internationalconference2014.wordpress.com/2017/05/11. | <urn:uuid:81e32d40-2921-4874-8d41-23ee7545b917> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | http://geography.tnpu.edu.ua/irina-leschuk-ivan-rovenchak/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488552937.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20210624075940-20210624105940-00416.warc.gz | en | 0.879431 | 1,372 | 2.65625 | 3 |
It is safe to say world events are unfolding now in a way that is unlike any other time. And with social media and the 24-hour news cycle, we may be exposed to news, strong opinions, and calls to action almost constantly. Contemplating issues or taking a stand can be energizing, but having our beliefs and thoughts about events in mind so often can also be distressing and exhausting. And all this can be a significant, destabilizing distraction, interrupting our daily routines and chipping away at our well-being.
It's understandable if you or your family members experience increased distress in this highly charged climate, but fortunately there are ways to manage it. These suggestions are intended to help you begin to transform distress or discomfort into resiliency – for both you and your children.
Be mindful about media. As people around the nation and the world work to come together on important issues, we will continue to be exposed to many intense reactions – in the news, on social media, and through other outlets. Think about how much news you want to receive and in what way. If you find yourself spending so much time on social media, or watching the news until you lose your sense of feeling connected in other areas of your life, come up with a plan to engage with news and social media in limited, focused ways. Then spend the rest of your time on the other things in your life that are important to you.
Take a moment for yourself. Pause and feel whatever emotions and thoughts you have as they come up. Your thoughts and feelings can be useful guides to help you cope with nonstop information, telling you what kind of information helps you feel engaged and productive, and which kind leaves you depleted. Remembering to breathe and take care of yourself demonstrates a healthy way to approach life and living to your children.
Filter the news for your children. You are their best source of information about whatever is happening because you can see their responses and adjust how much you share and in what context. Listen to them as they play: They have heard and seen a lot of viewpoints, and hearing how they explore them during play can give you a better idea of what kind of support and information they need. You can also help them stay in touch with your core values – even while they learn that others may have a different view.
Model your values. And finally, as we figure out how we want to engage in this new world of politics and social media, it's important to remember to be guides for each other as well as for our children. Take some time to reflect on the principles that matter to you, and then think of how to act on them in your daily life in ways that feel good to you. Being strong, vulnerable, and honest as we reinforce and model our core values not only helps us cope when we struggle but can also transform struggle and conflict into an opportunity to see that we can find our way forward together. | <urn:uuid:1ab3bcc8-cd63-48ac-a6df-17a5e16f57b6> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://www.seleni.org/advice-support/article/staying-grounded-in-politically-charged-times | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806660.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122194844-20171122214844-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.966693 | 597 | 2.875 | 3 |
Scientists once thought that the brain stopped developing after the first few years of life. They thought that connections formed between the brain’s nerve cells during an early “critical period” and then were fixed in place as we age. If connections between neurons developed only during the first few years of life, then only young brains would be “plastic” and thus able to form new connections.Standford.Edu
Physio-pedia says: “Before understanding Neuroplasticity, it is necessary to understand the term; ‘plasticity’. ‘Plasticity is the ability of any structure weak enough to change by an external stimulus, however strong enough not to mould at a once’. In addition, the nervous tissue in the human brain is allocated with a tremendous capacity of plasticity.
Neuroplasticity or brain plasticity is defined as the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections. A fundamental property of neurons is their ability to modify the strength and efficacy of synaptic transmission through a diverse number of activity-dependent mechanisms, typically referred to as synaptic plasticity.”
Definitions by Physiopedia:
‘The ability of the brain to change in structure or function in response to experience’.
‘The capacity of the nervous system for adaptation or regeneration after trauma’
‘The ability of the Central Nervous System to undergo structural and functional change in response to new experiences’.
Can you visualize the following anecdote?
Imagine that you are in your kitchen and wanted to redo the cupboard where you keep your morning coffee and replace it by other items, such as glass cups, or else. You make the plan to move the items around to make it nicer or more practical. When all the job is finished, and you come back later on to prepare a cup of coffee. You would certainly go to the old cupboard setting and realize that you have made a change to the cupboards. Darn, I just changed that yesterday, you might say. Then the following day you make the same attempt and realize that there was a change, and so on until you realize that new connections are being formed in the brain until you go to the right cupboard. This simple example can lead you to understand what neuroplasticity is. In fact, neuroplasticity is nothing complicated. All you need is to get used to the planned and realized changes and continue to make efforts to make it second nature to your own habits. One may think it is silly as the confusion continues; but with real efforts and determination you can adjust yourself to new patterns in your life. In fact, the brain is re-wiring itself to get used to a new condition. It only takes the D.E.S.I.R.E. to change and things will come to you naturally. James Olson in Build a Happier Brain says, “We have the freedom to adjust our perception — and our creativity — by consciously shifting our attention, as the occasion demands”.
Yes, the brain is “plastic”, “malleable”; not hard-wired as once thought in the past. Neurons that fire together, wire together. This principle is known as the Hebbian learning rule: i.e., if interconnected neurons become active very close in time during a particular event, their connection strengthens and “a memory” of this event is formed. Neuropsychologist Donald Hebb first used this phrase in 1949 to describe how pathways in the brain are formed and reinforced through repetition.
It is only with the advances in imaging medicine to help us visualize the real (current) situation of the brain. There are so many cases when people have lost one of their brain’s hemispheres completely because of an accident or sorts of tumors. Those people were studied and educated to practice neuroplasticity. The neuroplastic changes were to teach the other side of the brain to learn what was new to it. Ex.: If someone had lost their right side of the brain where visual awareness, creativity, emotions, spatial abilities, music skills happen. So, all those functions are now “lost” temporarily until you make conscious and subconscious adaptation to teach the left side of the brain to take charge and re-wire again. All of this is in opposition to what the left side of the brain was in charge for, ex.: logical, analytical and orderly. The way our brain works is incredible, isn’t it? But remember this, it is not a miracle. One has to work hard to get those results. Practice makes permanence.
Self-Directed Neuroplasticity through Psychotherapy:
“I assist the client in self-directed neuroplasticity. Trained, conscious voluntary directing of attention and the practice of new voluntary behaviours can produce long-lasting biological changes in the brain. Through exploration one learns to identify which areas of their brain structures appear to be over-active and other areas that are under-active.
One learns to classify personality traits that lead to anxiety or/and depression such as perfectionism or self-criticism. You must understand that neuronal pathways grow stronger with repeated action or repetitive thinking. I guide the patient in self-examination and intentional learning that leads to self-directed neuroplasticity.
Your brain is driving your emotions and behavior, and may be confusing your thinking. You will learn tools to calm the amygdala. Seeing pleasant and peaceful images can lower amygdalae reactivity. Muscle relaxation is also helpful as is redirecting attention to something that requires focus. Your mind is more than your brain—you can use your mind to retrain your brain”. | <urn:uuid:646b8d38-0bb3-4dc4-bd69-b71cccee93d6> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://vitalcore.ca/whats-neuroplasticity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475311.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301125520-20240301155520-00126.warc.gz | en | 0.963069 | 1,200 | 3.484375 | 3 |
US researchers have identified a preventative measure against HIV that could dramatically reduce the number of new cases in high risk areas such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Tenofovir is an antiviral drug that is currently used in combination medications given to HIV patients.
Is is being trailed on HIV negative participants of groups who are considered at high risk of contracting the virus, including gay and bisexual men, sex workers and drug users.
Tenofovir is one of the group of drugs known as nucleotide analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (nRTIs).
The results of the five studies taking place in four continents will not be available until early 2008.
However, scientists using computer modelling technology have predicted several outcomes based on the efficiency of the drug and the likeliness of people taking it regularly.
While cautious of over-stating its effects, it is possible that one pill per day of Tenofovir, manufactured by California pharmaceuticals company Gilead Sciences under the brand name Viread, could keep millions of people healthy.
They found that the best-case scenario in sub-Saharan Africa could be a reduction of 30 million new cases of HIV over the course of a decade.
Previous testing on monkeys has been successful in preventing the infection with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the strain of the virus contracted by primates.
There were 24.5 m cases of HIV recorded in Sub-Sahara Africa, according to the Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2006.
“If you do it right, you can prevent lots of infections,” Dr. John Mellors, who helped direct the study, told Reuters. | <urn:uuid:c50d3b81-c1d2-49a3-a21d-031be651ac61> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2007/09/19/hiv-prevention-drug-could-save-millions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719547.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00418-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952548 | 338 | 3.359375 | 3 |
I have JDK1.3 installed on my system. Obviously, the JVM is in c:\jdk1.3\bin folder. Any .java file created in the bin folder runs fine. But if i save my .java source code in some other folder say c:\jdk1.3\bin\prog\abc.java and try to compile it, I get an error "File cannot be found". Please help me.
First, do not put your own .java or .class files in the JDK's bin directory. This is for Java's "inner workings," and mixing your own files in there is bound to complicate things.
If there is no CLASSPATH specified, Java's default (since version 1.2) is to look in the current directory. So it sounds like you have a system CLASSPATH set (so you're not getting the default behavior) and the set CLASSPATH does not include a dot (.) to indicate the current directory.
The best approach is to avoid a system CLASSPATH entirely. But if you must set one, be sure it includes a dot.
Originally posted by Rekha Anand: ...I would like to mention that I have set the path and the classpath to path=%path%;c:\jdk1.3\bin\rekha progs
and classpath=%classpath%;c:\jdk1.3\bin\rekha progs...
The PATH should point to...
...because that's where the executable tools are (like javac and java). It should not point to the "rekha progs" directory. See Update the PATH variable in the installation instructions.
A system CLASSPATH should not be needed at all, because Java's default is to look in the current directory. If you do need a system CLASSPATH (and again, you probably do not need this), then make sure it includes a dot (.) so that class files can be found in the current directory. See Check the CLASSPATH variable in the installation instructions.
Joined: Feb 23, 2008
Finally... I got it. I want to thank all forum members who helped me on this. | <urn:uuid:95f1fec0-32d7-4178-8c7a-581891f5928c> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/409575/java/java/find-filename-java | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657114204.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011154-00004-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929845 | 464 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The Lead Safe API uses characteristics about the patient to determine if they are at a higher risk for lead poisoning. This determination is based on a machine learning algorithm that considers many factors that directly and indirectly correlate with future lead poisoning.
The model behind Lead Safe API, originally developed by the Data Science for Social Good Program at the University of Chicago, includes clinical data, census data, open data on buildings, and data belonging to the CDPH Lead Program. Because all of this data is collected and stored separately, applying it can be difficult. One challenge was turning a large amount of information into a comprehensive, yet comprehensible, data set. Another is providing this data to physicians in a format they can use. This project led to a streamlined method of sharing data across sectors of health by using an API, which will also be made available to other healthcare providers in the future.
“Decades of data on lead prevalence exist, but data silos impede its potential impact on addressing disparities that are perpetuated due to social determinants of health,” says Nivedita Mohanty, M.D., AllianceChicago’s Chief Research Officer and Director of Evidence Based Practice.
CDPH worked with University of Chicago data scientists to develop and deploy a predictive algorithm to identify lead risk. AllianceChicago provided leadership on the design and implementation. AllianceChicago is also conducting the initial pilot within their health centers to make this information available to clinicians who work directly with families living in at-risk neighborhoods. | <urn:uuid:23e21148-9a0b-40e0-9583-bc3823c2474d> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.qvera.com/case-study-alliancechicago-identifying-child-lead-exposure-risk/?utm_campaign=Case%20Study%20-%20AllianceChicago&utm_source=Website | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735851.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20200804014340-20200804044340-00191.warc.gz | en | 0.941241 | 303 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Congratulations! You can now speak in English! Can you choose one of the topics on the last page of the photocopies for unit 6 and talk about it for 2 minutes? You need to write notes before you speak but don’t write everything on paper! This is not speaking, but writing and reading! Don’t choose the category of “Personal information” because it is too simple. Choose any of the other categories and think of examples to make it more interesting.
You can record your voice using this website Vocaroo, your mobile phone, or an MP3 player. You need to send the recording to your teacher’s email address and then he can listen to you. Use these extensions so we can listen to them (mp3, m4a, wav, wma). The extension 3ga is difficult to open so please don’t record in this format.
Here is an example. I recorded it with Vocaroo, … and it’s almost 2 minutes long! Here are the notes to help me. If you practise, why not record it? Sometimes the best version is the first one. You can listen and then record it again if you don’t like it (click on ‘Retry’ if you use Vocaroo). Deadline: Thursday 27th March. | <urn:uuid:774ffe40-96a5-4ec6-807c-aa7d63b72896> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | https://englishinguiaintermedio.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/speak-to-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982968912.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823200928-00025-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9133 | 274 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Get Smart About Product Design
IIoT, digital twins and manufacturing simulation all stand to help engineers accelerate the design process.
Engineering Resource Center News
Engineering Resource Center Resources
December 10, 2018
In today’s age of digitization, design engineering teams and their manufacturing counterparts are constantly working on new ways to improve processes and create products that consumers use on a daily basis. Though this mindset isn’t just happening in the design process; the emergence of smart manufacturing technology, sensors and the internet of things (IoT) are bringing new ways to prototype, test and iterate products.
The goal of these technologies is to introduce a new level of human-machine interaction and allow for iterative design changes and optimization. It also gives engineers a way to work with real-time and real-world data, instead of drafting CAD models or manufacturing in a vacuum.
These innovations give users more flexibility to make on-the-fly and late-stage design changes than more “data dark” options that require much more human intervention. The industry is using the industrial IoT and data collection to make manufacturing — and therefore product design — smarter.
By building the right foundation, companies can use data to meet regulatory requirements much more easily and respond to consumer demands at a moment’s notice. According to a report from Capgemini, 76% of manufacturers have a smart factory initiative that they are working on or formulating.
Though smart manufacturing is still evolving; companies are implementing a variety of technologies across the supply chain, such as sensors, 3D printing, digital twins, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, analytics, automation and simulation.
What Smart Manufacturing Looks Like
At its core, smart manufacturing is an environment that uses data collection and automation to improve equipment operations. While there are benefits on the shop floor and throughout many facets of the supply chain, smart manufacturing technologies bring greater transparency to product design.
For design, a lot of the “smarts” happen off of the shop floor. With sensors, engineers can gather more testing and usage data than ever before. With this influx of information and digital twins, they are able to develop more dynamic prototypes that mimic how the consumer uses the product. It also serves as an impetus for engineers to collaborate on all necessary systems in a design, breaking down interoperability barriers and siloed workflows.
By being able to work in a digital format, design engineering teams can reduce the amount of guesswork in the product design and iterate faster. The digital workflow is driven by the increased power provided by professional workstations, software that makes use of graphical processing units to speed parallel processing, and the ability to collaborate via mobile computing and software developed with sharing in mind.
Additionally, having manufacturing data for specific machines at their fingertips allows engineers to see the manufacturability of the product and percentage of materials used, which helps them find ways to get to market faster. There’s always a better way to manufacture products; with digital tools, companies can test new manufacturing methods and techniques to home in on the best options.
Beyond product development, new software and simulation tools can help organizations and line managers build a quicker, easier manufacturing processes. Through software-based testing, organizations can visualize how factory workers will interact with machines, figure out the best shop floor layout, and try different machine settings without actually running equipment.
With software-based machines, managers can also use data to keep on top of maintenance and extend the equipment lifecycle.
Overall, the use of data collection, automation software and smart hardware can help organizations create a feedback loop that can easily account for changes in design and manufacturing processes. With the right integration, not only can manufacturers respond in real time to malfunctions, design changes and run sizes, but engineers can also adapt to changing manufacturing needs.
Bringing smart design and manufacturing principles to organizations opens up a world of possibilities, but organizations that don’t digitize will lose out on profits, product optimization insight and lower product defect rates.
According to Capgemini’s analysis of a hypothetical average car and truck manufacturer with revenues of $1 billion and a 5% operating margin revealed that manufacturers that currently operate at an average level of effectiveness could experience digitization benefits that would launch them into an industry leadership position. This gain in operating margin–ranging from 36% to 108%–is the combination of enhancements in productivity and efficiency along with a reduction in various costs.
This hypothetical scenario also makes the case for smart manufacturing as a revenue driver. With the ability to small manufacture, customized product versions and easily integrate consumer feedback, organizations can sell more tailored items to customers and diversify their portfolios.
The application of smart manufacturing and digital design brings transparency to both engineers and shop floor managers. By being able to translate big data into smart data with sensors, software and digital designs, organizations can maximize their resources and easily adapt to changing market preferences.
With the potential to add anywhere from $500 billion to $1.5 trillion to the economy in five years, according to Capgemini, and its ability to set more transparent and flexible design workflows, smart manufacturing is only making product design more efficient. | <urn:uuid:a2d4116f-c04d-4cbf-b961-4ef852afa6ad> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.digitalengineering247.com/article/get-smart-about-product-design/engineering-resource-center | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347458095.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20200604192256-20200604222256-00316.warc.gz | en | 0.929708 | 1,060 | 2.9375 | 3 |
So far, research by pro-life groups had not turned up any dubious Development and Peace partners in Colombia. Until now.
Enter the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC), which means Cauca Regional Aboriginal Council. According to their website, they are an Aboriginal-rights advocacy group representing more than 90% of Aboriginal communities in the Department (province) of Cauca, which is located in the southwest corner of Colombia. They’re also a Development and Peace partner, as can be seen on page 111 of D&P’s Latin American Program. While they do some good work in promoting respect for Aboriginal peoples, they espouse some positions that are clearly not aligned with Catholic teaching.
CRIC represents the 47th D&P partner that has been found to deviate from core Church teaching. Let’s look at the evidence on CRIC.
Project pushing condoms and “sexual and reproductive rights”
A few years ago, CRIC commissioned a joint study with USAIDS called Reducing the risk of HIV/AIDS in Aboriginal communities of Cauca. Unfortunately, the study is only available in Spanish. The main purpose of the study was to learn about sexual practices of Aboriginal communities and to sensitize them to the need of protecting themselves from disease. The study was conducted mainly through workshops with Aboriginals, which were led by members of CRIC staff and some researchers. Two key themes for the workshops were:
- The importance for Aboriginals to use condoms.
- For women, special emphasis was placed on their “sexual and reproductive rights“, which is a typical code phrase for contraception and abortion rights. This phrase was used in conjunction with the expression “women’s rights”, which is also typical.
In order to desensitize Aboriginals to their natural aversion to condoms, CRIC and the researchers employed a number of strategies including a game called “hand me the condom” (alcance el condón), although the nature of the game isn’t described. They also offered workshops on “developing abilities on adequate and consistent usage of condoms”.
They never taught the Aboriginals about abstinence or marital fidelity as the fool-proof solutions advocated by the Catholic Church to avoid disease and unplanned pregnancies.
Strategizing with feminist militants to advance abortion rights
There exists a very militant pro-choice feminist group in Latin America called Campaña por la Convención Interamericana de Derechos sexuales y Derechos Reproductivos, which means Campaign for an Inter-American Convention on Sexual and Reproductive Rights. The Campaign’s purpose is very explicitly defined in a Proposal posted on their website, which is essentially their official manifest. They state:
Women of all ages have the right to exercise safe and voluntary maternity. Thus, they have the right to voluntarily interrupt their pregnancies, without putting their lives or health in risk as a result. (Source)
In plain English, that means access to abortion on demand. The Campaign also advocates for contraception and reproductive technologies for all, including homosexual couples:
All persons have the right to access to secure, effective, acceptable and accessible methods of controlling fertility, as well as to reproductive technologies and treatments. This right includes the dissemination, availability and provision of high quality birth control and/or reproductive methods that are appropriate to diverse needs, gender identities and sexual orientations. (Source)
Their Proposal is almost exclusively concerned with reproductive rights, which is not surprising given the name of the Campaign. Moreover, the Proposal explains that the State is responsible for providing these services, meaning that the Campaign is engaging in political lobbying for abortion and contraception.
So how does this concern CRIC? In 2007, the Campaign organized a three-day meeting between themselves and several Aboriginal-rights groups with the explicit goal of opening a dialogue to exchange ideas and work together towards the elaboration of the pro-choice Proposal described above. At that time, as is explained in the letter of invitation for this meeting (see page 15 of the minutes), the Proposal had not yet been written and the Campaign was consulting with various “social movements” in order to establish a consensus. The invitation letter makes it absolutely clear that the Campaign’s goal is to ensure legal guarantees for the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights and that the meeting was being organized to make progress towards this end.
Sadly, CRIC sent a representative to this anti-life strategy meeting named Nancy Ruth Bravo Chantre, as is shown on page 19 of the minutes. She is clearly identified as a representative of CRIC. The email addresses, phone number and fax number listed for Ms. Chantre are those of the CRIC office. The caption also provides a brief description of CRIC’s mandate and the type of activities they engage in.
Why would CRIC participate in a three-day strategy meeting on advancing abortion and contraception unless they support these goals?
Abortion is still largely illegal in Colombia, being permitted only in some circumstances such as rape or when the mother’s life is in danger. But how long can they hold off the pro-abort forces being funded by rich Western nations and the Canadian bishops’ official development and aid agency? | <urn:uuid:4ff8c303-0304-4e70-bea5-4fc518768332> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.catholic-legate.com/colombia-has-also-been-victimized-by-development-and-peace/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948617816.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20171218141805-20171218163805-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.961209 | 1,100 | 2.671875 | 3 |
1. What is the main difference between elections in a democracy and elections under an authoritarian
a. In democracies, elections are about issues, while under authoritarian
governments, elections concern the personalities of leaders.
b. Democratic regimes allow for viable opposition, while the leaders do not permit
themselves to lose under an authoritarian government.
c. Unlike democracies, there are no political parties in an authoritarian regime.
d. Authoritarian regimes never have elections. | <urn:uuid:e96a7607-dab5-408f-98ba-e3c2eb3e7135> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://quizlet.com/2204362/chapter-10-flash-cards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123635.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00132-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932897 | 94 | 3.5 | 4 |
Every paper writer knows that creating a term paper is one of the most popular homework assignments in any college or university course. Students who write term papers usually know that they make up a significant percentage of their final grade. Nowadays more and more students choose writing services instead of spending sleepless nights dealing with writing assignments. Please, read these basic guidelines that will help you produce an A+ term paper. Sometimes, a term paper is also called "a research paper." In most cases, it is more than five pages in length, based on your topic and subject matter, as well as the level of the student's academic proficiency. All term papers must be double-spaced, typed, with 1-inch margins on all sides.
Remember that different teachers provide different requirements for their term papers. At times, lecturers require that students use a particular writing style, such as APA or Harvard. When writing your term paper, you will also have to develop a strong argument, create an argumentative thesis statement, and provide evidence to back up your statements. As a good paper writer, you will have to conduct thorough research to support your thesis. Of course, not all term papers require that you take a stance and argue for it, because some term papers are simply designed to describe an important phenomenon or event, while others are purely informational. At times, lecturers will provide specific topics for term papers, while others will leave students enough freedom of choice. Remember that the basic intent of a term paper is to have it published, which means that you have to follow the required format.
Don't forget that term paper writing is all about objectivity and veracity. Your format must fit the topic – it means that you cannot effectively describe the issue of death penalty on one page only. Unfortunately, many students find it difficult to choose the most suitable topic for their term paper projects, and that’s why using a good paper writing service is a great solution for them. Term paper topics can be of any kind, either argumentative or informative. You may write a term paper to increase your audience's knowledge of the topic or persuade them to accept your position on the given subject.
A lot of new students find it difficult to adjust to the demands of college life and college-style writing. Usually, it takes considerable practice and some mistakes before a student feels comfortable with college essay writing. Very often, the preparation they receive in high school is insufficient. Follow the tips below to improve your essay grades:
Before starting, take time to understand exactly what it is your professor wants. Read any instructions you are given thoroughly. If you have any questions, clarify these with your tutor or course instructor. The majority of tutors are available at scheduled times, so use these times to discuss any ideas you have with your tutor. Students can expect lower grades for their essays if they do not adhere to the instructions they are given.
Try to choose a topic that suits your assignment. All too often, students choose topics that are mundane and unoriginal. So, distinguish yourself from your peers by selecting a topic that is unique. Similarly, you should choose something that interests you personally so that you do not struggle with your essay. If you find it difficult to choose a topic, do a little brainstorming and/or ask your tutor for ideas.
Start by creating an essay outline. The best essays are always well structured and properly organised, and it is virtually impossible to organise any paper if you do not have an outline to guide you. Your outline need not be too detailed because your thoughts may change during the research and writing stages. Ask your tutor to check your outline once it is complete.
Every assertion and claim should be supported by solid evidence. Use the opinion of experts, empirical evidence, logic, and anecdotes as evidence. If, for instance, you make any claims about global warming, you should support these with reliable opinion or scientifically proven evidence. You should not use too many examples even if you think one or two does not properly support your point. Describing a time you spent in a particular state during an especially hot summer does not properly support your point. However, this example can be effective if you back it up with credible evidence.
Make sure you write a strong, eye-catching introduction. This is the hallmark of a good essay. You could use alarming statistics or an interesting anecdote to get readers’ attention. Be brief but creative.
The thesis statement in your paper should be clear and simple, and it should provide a brief overview of what your paper will cover. It is essential to have a good thesis if you are to earn the best grades for your work. Every other part of your paper should be organised around your central thesis, which should set out any claim with supporting evidence. The topic sentences in the body paragraphs should mimic the language from the thesis. Arguments should be presented in the order they appear in the thesis statement. The rest of your paper should not have any ideas that are not related to the thesis.
Any source material and references you use should be authoritative and reliable. Often, students are reluctant to cite sources and only do so because these are a requirement. However, good source material can determine whether you get a bad or good grade. Choose source materials from reliable books, journals, and other scientific sources. Avoid sources that are irrelevant or out-of-date and do not over-use any one source. Similarly, it is dishonest to list any source that is not used in your paper. You should not be afraid to use more sources than the minimum requirement.
Eliminate any irrelevancies since tutors will deduct marks for “space fillers.” Students sometimes write overly long introductory and concluding paragraphs full of unnecessary detail to achieve the word or page count requirement.
Avoid plagiarism. This practice is likely to bring a failed grade, disciplinary action or even expulsion. To plagiarise is to use someone else’s work without correct citation.
Seek assistance from your peers, tutor or a professional writing service if you find college-style writing difficult. A lot of academic institutions have learning or writing centres where tutors are available during certain hours to answer questions. | <urn:uuid:1262a027-c10f-4d18-b20c-1b9aaba9d263> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://primeessay.org/term-paper.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583728901.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20190120163942-20190120185942-00227.warc.gz | en | 0.941757 | 1,258 | 2.78125 | 3 |
WHAT IS RBM
Restricted Boltzmann Machine is one of the special cases of Boltzmann Machine, which restricted all visible-visible connections and hidden-hidden connections, which makes for each hidden unit, it connects to all visible units, and for each visible unit, it connects to all hidden units. Following is a figure which shows the model of RBM.
RBM is kind of unsupervised learning method, it is often uses as the pre-training of large deep networks, it is also the basis of DBN.
There are tons of tutorials and blogs online that introduce the underlying math of RBM (energy-based model and so on), so I’m not going to make the effort on explain these things, instead, I’m going to talk about some details on implementing it.
In order to train an RBM, we’d like to minimize the average negative log-likelihood:
And when doing that by using stochastic gradient descent,
The idea of CD method is replace the expectation by a point estimate at v(t), and we can get this v(t) by Gibbs sampling, v(t) is the node where the chain converges.
Here’s how this Gibbs sampling works (say the weight matrix between hidden layer and visible layer is W, the bias vector of hidden layer is B, the bias of visible layer is C):
- Convert training data x into binary form, by build a v(0) matrix, each element of v(0) is randomly chosen to be 1 (versus 0) with probability of x (For correctly doing this, x should be pre-processed by normalization).
- Now positive phase, calculate a positive-probability matrix which is Sigmoid(W’ * v(0) + B), then normalize this matrix.
- Build hidden layer matrix h(0), each element of h(0) is randomly chosen to be 1 (versus 0) with positive-probability matrix we got in last step.
- Now negative phase, calculate a negative-probability matrix which is Sigmoid(W * h(0) + C), then normalize this matrix.
- Build new visible layer matrix v(1), each element of v(1) is randomly chosen to be 1 (versus 0) with negative-probability matrix we just got.
- Repeat doing the above steps, with positive phase and negative phase in turn, until the chain converges.
Say the chain converges at v(t), then sum((v(0) – v(t)) ^ 2) is the error.
If we manually make the CD method iterates k times of Gibbs sampling, then this method is called CD-k. In general, the bigger k is, the less biased the estimate of the gradient will be. However, in practice, the CD method works pretty good even we let k equals 1, especially we train this RBM net for pre-training.
After we get this v(t), or x-tilde in following formulae, we can then update parameters W, B, and C:
The whole CD method is nothing but keep Gibbs sampling and parameters updating until stopping criteria.
I implemented single layer RBM using C++ and Armadillo.
(All results are shown by gif images, be patience please…)
I used the MNIST dataset for testing.
First I tried to train 50 different features for only digit 7.
Then I tried if I can see the difference between CD-1 trained weights and CD-5 trained weights (100 hidden size), here are the results:
CD-1 (left), CD-5 (right):
And I tried to learn a 500 hidden size net, here’s the result (this image is really big, about 20M). | <urn:uuid:fa65045b-e126-4cf7-afa3-4cc9ba0ccaa8> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://eric-yuan.me/rbm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000353.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20190626134339-20190626160339-00105.warc.gz | en | 0.86999 | 806 | 2.71875 | 3 |
So, imagine, we are getting really good at off-earth mining at a larger scale and in a larger timespan, we continue to mine thousands and thousands of asteroids.
First off, that is a problem for our children's children's children to solve. It is not our problem. The quantity of materials mined from space so far is a bit over 380 kilograms, the 382 kilograms returned from the Moon by the Apollo missions, the 300 grams of materials returned from the Moon by automated Soviet spacecraft, 7 particles of interstellar dust returned from comet Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft, and 1500 particles of dust returned from asteroid Itokawa by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft.
For the foreseeable future, there is very little stuff in asteroids that is worth anything on Earth. There is no point in mining commodity metals in space and bringing that material down to Earth. Doing so would be a money-losing proposition. Mining precious metals in vast quantities would turn those expensive precious metals into worthless commodity metals.
One thing that might be of value on Earth is helium 3, but that is so very, very rare that bringing it down to Earth will have zero effect on the Earth's mass. This of course depends on making fusion viable; that's been cited as being twenty years in the future since the 1960s. Current estimates are well beyond 20 years.
The foreseeable future (at most 50 years from now; anything beyond that is science fiction) of asteroid mining is using those materials mined in space in space. That opens the door to extracting substances that are extremely common on Earth. The same economics that dictates that mining precious metals in space doesn't make sense economically means that sending consumable up into space doesn't make much sense economically. For now, the most valuable substances to be mined in space are volatiles such as water and methane. This assumes a sizable space infrastructure that needs those substances.
Wouldn't that affect the gravitational balance of our star system at some point, or is the gravitational influence of an asteroid belt negligible?
The asteroid belt accounts for about a billionth (one part in 109) of the mass of the solar system. The gravitational influence of the asteroid belt is negligible. | <urn:uuid:0a6463e3-5bbc-486f-90c0-77237f6a2faf> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/16174/could-asteroid-mining-affect-gravitational-balance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989030.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20210510033850-20210510063850-00110.warc.gz | en | 0.951316 | 446 | 3.671875 | 4 |
This episode of These Vibes was all about language.
In the first part, Stevie spoke with Dr. Kate Riestenberg, linguist and postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and visiting scholar at Truman State University in Missouri, about the varied and far-reaching work of linguists. Then, they took a deep dive in to the topic of endangered languages — how they’re defined, how a language becomes endangered, and why we should care.
In the second portion, Kristin Guest, Bilingual Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), discussed her work in SLP and working with kids in (primarily New York City) public schools. She described the differences between learning, language, and speech disabilities, as well as how you determine if a student has a disability in one of these three categories. Next Kristin gets in to the linguistically and culturally biased assessment practices in schools, and how they should change.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, National Ethnobotanical Herbarium Online that Dr. Riestenberg mentioned in her interview can be found at neho.si.edu
- Bilingual Speech Language Pathology critical questions and the Leaders Project that Kristin Guest mentioned during the show can be found here: http://www.leadersproject.org/2016/08/26/the-critical-questions-early-intervention/ | <urn:uuid:ffb98acf-b064-4e54-a400-c038e7fb7599> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://tvr2c.com/2017/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987836368.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20191023225038-20191024012538-00312.warc.gz | en | 0.93241 | 283 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Yellow fever in Guinea
2 November 2005
As of 30 October , the Ministry of Health, Guinea has reported a total of 9 cases of acute jaundice syndrome suspected to be yellow fever. Preliminary confirmation of 6 cases was carried out by the National Reference Laboratory of Donka hospital. Samples from the 9 cases have been sent for final confirmation to the WHO Collaborating Centre for Yellow Fever, the Pasteur Institute at Dakar, Senegal.
The cases occurred between 3 October - 23 October 2005 in the regions of Boké (3 cases), Kankan (2 cases), N'Zérékoré (1 case), Faranah (1case) and Conakry city (2 cases).
WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health in risk assessment and implementation of control measures. With the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) support, the WHO Regional Office for Africa will be sending a team composed of an epidemiologist, entomologist and virologist. | <urn:uuid:d9a982bd-f62b-42a8-916b-781abb3455f0> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://who.int/csr/don/2005_11_02/en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936468546.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074108-00200-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924138 | 201 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Deimos walked past Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto. It was all captured by ESA ‘s Mars Express probe .
ESA ‘s Mars Express orbiter has imaged the rare moment when Mars ‘s small moon Deimos passes in front of Jupiter and its four larger moons.
Celestial alignments like these allow a more precise determination of the orbits of the Martian moons.
The fortuitous alignment of Deimos as it passed in front of Jupiter on February 14, 2022 allowed Deimos’s position and orbit to be more precisely determined. That is, by measuring the duration of the occultation, when the light of one celestial body is blocked by another, the orbit can be calculated.
Such an alignment is extremely unusual because Deimos must be exactly in the orbital plane of Jupiter ‘s moons for the alignment to occur, the ESA reports .
a transit of moons
The animated sequence of 80 images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) shows the bumpy surface of the small, irregularly shaped moon 15 km wide as it passed in front of Jupiter. Jupiter ‘s moons appear as small white specks, due to their distance of almost 750 million km from Mars Express . This staggering separation is five times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
The animation first shows Deimos passing in front of the icy moon Europa. The largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, is hidden from view . The gas giant Jupiter, appearing as a large white spot in the center, then disappears behind Deimos.
Deimos then covers the extremely active volcanic moon Io, which is about the same size as Earth’s moon. Finally, the cratered moon Callisto disappears behind Deimos.
Deimos appears to move up and down in the animation due to the small wobbling movements of Mars Express as it rotates to bring the HRSC camera into position. The movement of the solar wings, which extend 12 m from the spacecraft, as well as two long radar antennas, also contribute to the small vibrations.
After photographing the alignment with Jupiter , Mars Express turned its gaze to the moment Deimos was blocked by its older brother, Phobos, which measures about 27 km along its longest axis. The animation is made up of 19 HRSC images, taken on March 30, 2022 when Phobos was 12 km from the camera. From this perspective it is difficult to see the difference in size between the Martian moons, as Deimos is farthest from the camera at a distance of 28 km. ( EuropaPress ) | <urn:uuid:dd2b5524-5e1b-4301-bbda-6e6ac409a4ea> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://techypu.com/jupiter-and-mars-moons-line-up-in-stunning-image/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224650264.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604193207-20230604223207-00717.warc.gz | en | 0.935706 | 546 | 3.59375 | 4 |
People learn in different ways, but most of us usually use a single style or method more often than another. Knowing your preferred method of learning may help you with your studying techniques.
Find out how you learn best - take the Multiple Intelligences Quiz.
The 3 primary methods of learning
If you’re a visual learner, you learn best by seeing. You prefer to read material, watch videos, observe demonstrations and use computers. You probably use note–taking techniques as a study aid.
If you’re an auditory learner, you learn best by hearing. You prefer to learn through lecture and discussion. Your study aids are probably audio recordings and talking out loud.
If you’re a kinesthetic learner, you learn best by doing. You prefer to learn through hands–on activities and trial and error. Your study aids are probably games, flash cards and practice techniques.
What is your learning preference?
Put a check mark beside the statements that best apply to you.
- I like reading books with pictures and graphs better than books without illustrations.
- I notice details, errors, scruffy shoes and missing buttons on clothes.
- I would rather read than be read to.
- I doodle or draw with some detail.
- I like seeing how a task is done before trying it.
- I have difficulty following verbal directions.
- I prefer classes in which teachers use visual aids like videos, smartboards and projector slides.
- I rarely participate in class discussions.
- When someone gives me a complicated problem, I prefer to see it on paper rather than hear about it.
- When trying to remember where I left something, I visualize where I last placed it.
- When learning something, I like to sit back, listen and absorb what is being said.
- I would rather learn about the news by listening to the radio than by reading about it.
- I learn best when I can discuss my ideas with others.
- I have difficulty with spelling.
- I require an explanation to understand charts, graphs or maps.
- In order to learn material, I talk in my head or say it out loud.
- When learning something new, I would rather listen to an audio recording of the material than read about it.
- I like to talk about what needs to be done before actually doing it.
- Listening to music is one of my favourite pastimes.
- I am a good verbal communicator.
- Learning has more meaning for me when I get a chance to try out what I've learned.
- The activities I remember best are ones in which I have participated.
- I prefer classes in which I am actively doing something.
- I like to write on blackboards, whiteboards or flip charts.
- I take a lot of notes during lectures.
- I would rather participate in an activity than watch others do it.
- I feel confined in a classroom.
- I tend to be clumsy or fidgety.
- I like to set up equipment—like hooking up a computer to a projector or hooking up a stereo.
- I rub my hands along the railing while in the lunch line or walking down hallways.
Add up the number of check marks under each style. Your preferred learning method will most likely be the one with the most statements checked off.
Once you know your learning style, you can focus your study habits accordingly. | <urn:uuid:469edef3-b9b4-45ad-9b7a-2c9be14dac62> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://alis.alberta.ca/explore-education-and-training/what-s-your-learning-style/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948592972.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20171217035328-20171217061328-00161.warc.gz | en | 0.930976 | 720 | 3.875 | 4 |
Image credit: Chandra
Astronomers using the Australia Telescope Compact Array have found a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spitting out jets of material at nearly the speed of light. Jets like this have only been seen previously coming out of black holes, and this discovery challenges the theory that only the environment around a black hole can be so energetic. The astronomers studied Circinus X-1, an object located about 20,000 light years away, which is a bright source of X-rays. They know it’s a neutron star, but it also has these unusual characteristics.
Scientists using CSIRO’s Australia TelescopeCompact Array, a radio synthesis telescope in New South Wales, Australia, have seen a neutron star spitting out a jet of matter at very close to the speed of light. This is the first time such a fast jet has been seen from anything other than a black hole.
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The discovery, reported in this week’s issue of Nature, challenges the idea that only black holes can create the conditions needed to accelerate jets of particles to extreme speeds.
“Making jets is a fundamental cosmic process, but one that is still not well understood even after decades of work,” says team leader Dr. Rob Fender of the University of Amsterdam.
“What we’ve seen should help us understand how much larger objects, such as massive black holes, can produce jets that we can see half-way across the Universe.”
The scientists, from The Netherlands, the UK and Australia, studied Circinus X-1, a bright and variable source of cosmic X-rays, over a three-year period.
Circinus X-1 lies inside our Galaxy, about 20 000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Circinus near the Southern Cross.
It consists of two stars: a ‘regular’ star, probably about 3 to 5 times the mass of our Sun, and a small compact companion.
“We know that the companion’s a neutron star from the kind of X-ray bursts it’s been seen to give off,” says team member Dr. Helen Johnston of the University of Sydney.
“Those X-ray bursts are a sign of a star that has a surface. A black hole doesn’t have a surface. So the companion must be a neutron star.”
A neutron star is a compressed, very dense ball of matter formed when a giant star explodes after its nuclear fuel runs out. In the hierarchy of extreme objects in the Universe, it is just one step away from a black hole.
The two stars in Circinus X-1 interact, with the neutron star’s gravity pulling matter off the larger star onto the neutron star’s surface.
This ‘accretion’ process generates X-rays. The strength of the X-ray emission varies with time, showing that the two stars of Circinus X-1 travel around each other in a very elongated orbit with a 17 day period.
“At their point of closest approach, the two stars are almost touching,” says Dr. Johnston.
Since the 1970s astronomers have known that Circinus X-1 produces radio waves as well as X-rays. A large ‘nebula’ of radio emission lies around the X-ray source. Within the nebula lies the new-found jet of radio-emitting material.
Jets are believed to emerge, not from black holes themselves, but from their ‘accretion disk’ – the belt of dismembered stars and gas that a black hole drags in towards it.
In Circinus X-1 it’s likely that the accretion disk varies with the 17-day cycle, being at its most intense when the stars are at their closest point in the orbit.
The jet from Circinus X-1 is travelling at 99.8% of the speed of light. This is the fastest outflow seen from any object in our Galaxy, and matches that of the fastest jets being shot out of other complete galaxies. In those galaxies, the jets come from supermassive black holes, millions or billions of times the mass of the Sun, that lie at the centres of the galaxies.
Whatever process accelerates jets to near the speed of light, it does not rely on the special properties of a black hole.
“The key process must be one common to both black holes and neutron stars, such as accretion flow,” says Dr. Kinwah Wu of Unversity College London, UK.
Original Source: CSIRO News Release | <urn:uuid:97b6776f-c424-4208-8128-08b17bdaaffc> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.universetoday.com/9202/star-mimics-a-black-hole/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764495001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20230127164242-20230127194242-00430.warc.gz | en | 0.942382 | 980 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Home Insurance Quotes
Flood insurance glossary
100-year flood: The term "100-year flood" is something of a misnomer. Instead of meaning that a flood will occur once every 100 years, the term indicates that there is a one percent chance the base flood elevation will be equaled or exceeded each year. Areas where there is a one percent annual chance of flooding are also sometimes referred to as the "base flood."
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) uses the 100-year flood to designate Special Flood Hazard Areas (SPHA) and determine flood insurance needs. Structures located within SPHAs have a 26 percent chance of sustaining flood damage during the course of a 30-year mortgage.
Actual cash value: Price to replace an insured piece of property minus the cost of physical depreciation.
Base flood: Also known as the "100-year flood," properties located in the base flood area have a one percent chance of seeing the flood elevation equaled or exceeded each year.
Base flood elevation: The water surface elevation expected during the base flood. The base flood elevation can be found on Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) and can also impact flood insurance premiums.
Community Rating System: Provides incentives for communities to exceed floodplain management requirements and implement additional flood protection strategies.
FEMA: The Federal Emergency Management Agency. A part of the Department of Homeland Security, this agency is responsible for managing all aspects of readiness for and recovery from man-made and natural disasters.
FIRM: Flood Insurance Rate Maps. These are the official maps used to determine flooding risk and flood insurance premiums. FIRM also designate Special Flood Hazard Areas in a community.
Flood: A flood occurs when two or more acres, or two or more properties, of normally dry land are partially or completely inundated as a result of one of the following:
- An overflow of inland water or tidal waters
- Rapid accumulation of surface water runoff from any source
- Flow of mud
- Wave or current erosion resulting in the collapse or subsidence of land along the shoreline of a lake or similar body of water
Flood Disaster Protection Act (FDPA): This act made it mandatory for properties located within Special Flood Hazard Areas have flood insurance.
Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM): These official maps show flood and mudflow boundaries. In addition, they indicate erosion areas that may pose special hazards.
Flood insurance: Insurance offered through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to protect structures against water and mud damage sustained during a flooding incident. Standard homeowners insurance will not pay for flood damage, but property owners who live in a community that participates in the NFIP floodplain management program are eligible to buy flood insurance regardless of their flood risk. Flood insurance may be purchased for rental properties, condominiums and business facilities. However, those located within a community that does not participate with the NFIP or residents of an area designated as a "coastal barrier resource system" may have difficulty locating flood insurance coverage.
Floodplain: Refers to any land area that may be inundated by floodwaters.
Floodplain management: The overall process of preventing and reducing flood damage. Floodplain management practices may include creating emergency preparedness plans, controlling flood waters through the use of levees or other means and developing construction requirements for properties located in a floodplain.
Mandatory flood insurance: Certain properties are required by law to maintain flood insurance. The Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973 mandates that any individual or organization building or improving upon property located in a Special Flood Hazard Area must purchase flood insurance. The insurance is required in order for property owners to be eligible for direct or indirect federal financial aid such as loans, grants, subsidies or disaster assistance.
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP): This federal program provides property owners in participating communities the opportunity to purchase flood insurance regardless of their property's flood risk.
Participating community: Communities where the sale of flood insurance, through the NFIP, has been authorized by the Mitigation Division Administrator.
Preferred risk policy (PRP): A flood insurance policy that is only available for properties located in zones designated B,C, and X. These plans generally feature affordable, fixed premiums that may cover contents-only or offer a combination of building and contents coverage.
Regular program: A community enters the regular program as the final phase of its participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. At this point, a Flood Insurance Rate Map has been finalized and put into effect and flood insurance coverage is fully available.
Replacement value: Price to replace an insured piece of property using the same materials and construction; physical depreciation is not deducted from the replacement cost.
Special Flood Hazard Area: A high-risk area with a one percent annual chance of having a water surface elevation equal to or exceeding the base flood. Flood insurance is mandatory in these FEMA-identified high-risk flood areas. Special Flood Hazard Areas are designated on maps as Zones A, AO, A1-A30, AE, A99, AH, AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/AH, AR/AO, AR/A1-A30, V1-V30, VE or V.
Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP): A flood insurance policy that provides coverage for the structure and/or the contents.
Zone: Areas shown on a Flood Hazard Boundary Map or a Flood Insurance Rate Map. Zone rankings reflect the type and severity of the flooding risk for that area. | <urn:uuid:987c8e33-229b-474b-948f-7f8885c8c83e> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.insure.com/flood-insurance/terms.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737952309.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221912-00170-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930244 | 1,135 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Main Difference – Manganese vs Magnesium
A chemical element is a chemical species that represent the atoms having the same number of protons in the nucleus of their atoms. All chemical elements that have been discovered so far are placed in the periodic table of elements. This periodic table of elements show the chemical elements according to the ascending order of their number of protons in the nucleus. Manganese and magnesium are such chemical elements. Manganese has 25 protons in its atom. Magnesium has 12 protons in its atom. Manganese and magnesium have different chemical and physical properties. Their occurrence is also different from each other. However, the main difference between manganese and magnesium is that the melting point of manganese is about 1246oC, which is a very high value whereas the melting point of magnesium is about 650oC, which is comparatively a lower value than that of manganese.
Key Areas Covered
1. What is Manganese
– Definition, Properties, and Reactions
2. What is Magnesium
– Definition, Properties, and Reactions
3. What is the Difference Between Manganese and Magnesium
– Comparison of Key Differences
Key Terms: Atomic Number, Electronegativity, Magnesium, Manganese, Protons
What is Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element given by the symbol Mn. The atomic number of manganese is 25. Therefore, it is composed of 25 protons in its nucleus. The atomic weight of Manganese is about 54.93 amu. The electron configuration of Manganese is given as [Ar]3d54s2. Therefore, Manganese belongs to the group 7 in the d block of the periodic table. Manganese is a d block element. It is considered as a transition metal.
At standard temperature and pressure conditions, Manganese is in the solid phase. The melting point of manganese is about 1246oC. It is a very high value. Manganese can exist in several oxidation states in compounds. The oxidation states vary from +7 to -3. The electronegativity of manganese is given as 1.55. The atomic radius of manganese is about 127 pm due to the presence of d orbitals.
Manganese is considered as a paramagnetic compound. That is due to the presence of unpaired electrons in its orbitals. At room temperature and pressure, manganese is a very hard and brittle metal. Furthermore, manganese has several natural and synthetic isotopes. But 54Mn is the 100% stable and abundant isotope whereas other isotopes are found in very trace amounts.
Since manganese can have several different oxidation states, it can be found in various types of solid and liquid compounds in different oxidation states. One most common compound is KMnO4 (potassium permanganate). It is in dark violet color when it is a solid, and it can easily be dissolved in water forming MnO4– ions. This solution also has a deep purple color. Here, the manganese atom is in +7 oxidation state, which is the highest oxidation state manganese can have.
Manganese is used in the production of steel. The role of Manganese in steel production is to act as a deoxidizing and alloying agent. Moreover, Manganese is used in the production of aluminum alloys. Apart from that, manganese is useful in many chemical species that are needed in laboratory scale applications.
What is Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element having the symbol Mg. It is placed in the group 2, period 3 of the periodic table of the elements. The atomic number of magnesium is 12. That means magnesium has 12 protons in the nucleus. At room temperature and pressure conditions, Magnesium is in solid phase. The electron configuration of magnesium is [Ne]3s2. Therefore, it can have 0 and +2 oxidation states.
The melting point of Magnesium is about 650oC. The atomic mass of Magnesium is given as 24 amu. It is in the s block of the periodic table. Magnesium and other elements in the same group are considered as alkaline earth metals. This is because the oxides they form have basic characteristics. The electronegativity of Magnesium is about 1.31. The atomic radius of Magnesium is about 160 pm.
Magnesium has three stable isotopes. The most abundant isotope is 24Mg. Its abundance is about 79%. But magnesium also has radioactive isotopes. Magnesium can react with water at room temperature. This reaction forms magnesium hydroxide and hydrogen gas bubbles are evolved from water during this reaction. Magnesium can also react with many acids, forming the Mg+2 ion and hydrogen gas. Magnesium is highly flammable. It can burn in air, resulting in a very shiny white flame.
Magnesium can be mainly found in mineral deposits. Such minerals are dolomite and magnesite. Sea water also has a considerable amount of magnesium ions dissolved in it. Magnesium has wide applications as a metal, especially in aircraft designing, and automotive designing.
Difference Between Manganese and Magnesium
Manganese: Manganese is a chemical element given by the symbol Mn.
Magnesium: Magnesium is a chemical element having the symbol Mg.
Manganese: The atomic number of manganese is 25.
Magnesium: The atomic number of magnesium is 12.
Manganese: The atomic weight of manganese is about 54 amu.
Magnesium: The atomic weight of magnesium is about 24 amu.
Manganese: The melting point of manganese is about 1246oC.
Magnesium: The melting point of magnesium is about 650oC.
Manganese: Atomic radius of manganese is about 127 pm.
Magnesium: Atomic radius of magnesium is about 160 pm.
Location in the Periodic Table
Manganese: Manganese is in the d block of the periodic table of elements.
Magnesium: Magnesium is in the s block of the periodic table of elements.
Manganese: The electron configuration of manganese is [Ar]3d54s2
Magnesium: The electron configuration of magnesium is [Ne]3s2
Manganese: Electronegativity of manganese is about 1.55
Magnesium: Electronegativity of magnesium is about 1.31
Manganese: Manganese can have oxidation states from -3 to +7.
Magnesium: Magnesium can have 0 and +2 oxidation states.
Manganese and magnesium are chemical elements that are abundantly found on the earth’s crust. Both of them are metals. Although the two names are a little bit confusing, they show very distinct physical and chemical properties. The main difference between manganese and magnesium is that the melting point of manganese is about 1246oC which is a very high value whereas the melting point of magnesium is about 650oC which is comparatively a lower value than that of manganese.
1. Libretexts. “Chemistry of Magnesium (Z=12).” Chemistry LibreTexts, Libretexts, 21 July 2016, Available here. Accessed 21 Aug. 2017.
2. “Manganese.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Aug. 2017, Available here. Accessed 21 Aug. 2017.
1. “Electron shell 025 Manganese” (CC BY-SA 2.0 uk) via Commons Wikimeida
2. “Potassium-permanganate-sample” By Benjah-bmm27 – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
3. “Magnesium crystals” By Warut Roonguthai – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
4. “Magburn1.” By Yannickcosta1 – Yannick McCabe-Costa (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia | <urn:uuid:bd9745bd-2eb5-4b8a-bf7c-1f100bc754af> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://pediaa.com/difference-between-manganese-and-magnesium/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221210413.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20180816034902-20180816054902-00609.warc.gz | en | 0.887945 | 1,701 | 3.703125 | 4 |
How to build a Bench Swing Support Frame
Step 4. Add a brace
Fasten a diagonal brace to the horizontal brace of the "A" frame as shown in fig.12.
Secure with a couple of 100mm (4") galvanized nails and a nail-on plate.
Next make up the second "A" frame BUT WITHOUT ADDING THE DIAGONAL BRACE, as that brace will be added when the (almost) complete frame is standing upright.
Step 5. Fix the beam to an "A" frame
Tilt an "A" frame against the beam in a sort of a 3-sided pyramid shape so that the beam, "A" frame top and diagonal brace all align.
Ensure that the top end of the beam is overhanging the "A" frame by 100mm (4") and that the beam is at right angles (90°) to the "A" frame.
Refer to the plan if necessary.
Then, fix the beam to the "A" frame with galvanized nail-on plates. Refer to the 'Fastening detail' page, and fig.13 on this page. | <urn:uuid:1b9999c7-2dd0-40ec-a24a-1d6932c1c16a> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.buildeazy.com/benchswingsupport-8.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424910.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724202315-20170724222315-00395.warc.gz | en | 0.862161 | 239 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Playing Chess, Learning More
This story in the Baltimore Sun chronicles the growth of a chess club in the Baltimore public school system over the past few years. According to the article, the program has not only helped kids learn how to play chess and improve their concentration, it has also helped keep them out of trouble and improve their academic performance all-around. Here's what one of the chess coaches in the article had to say:
"I've watched kids, particularly girls, who had very little confidence build a huge amount of confidence. I've seen it over and over, academically and the way they carry themselves generally in life. The chess board is math, algebra, geometry and logical reasoning - it helps kids in all those areas. A good choice has a good consequence, and a bad choice has a bad consequence."
The whole article really speaks to the importance of after-school activities like clubs and sports. It seems to me that even if those kinds of programs don't have a specifically academic focus, the skills they teach often have far-reaching effects on student performance and an ability to tap into kids' motivation levels in a way that traditional classes can't. | <urn:uuid:0429c003-0c02-4392-ac9b-27c92d6291c5> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/motivation/2008/05/improving_academics_through_ch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189239.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00573-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981332 | 237 | 2.8125 | 3 |
While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap -- sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain -- arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself), psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside or outside the nervous system).
Medications, acupuncture, local electrical stimulation, and brain stimulation, as well as surgery, are some treatments for chronic pain. Some physicians use placebos, which in some cases has resulted in a lessening or elimination of pain. Psychotherapy, relaxation and medication therapies, biofeedback, and behavior modification may also be employed to treat chronic pain.
Many people with chronic pain can be helped if they understand all the causes of pain and the many and varied steps that can be taken to undo what chronic pain has done. Scientists believe that advances in neuroscience will lead to more and better treatments for chronic pain in the years to come.
Prepared by the National Institutes of Health
Chronic Pain Discussions
HELP! Diagnose me.
I have been in pain for almost a year now. It started with left jaw pain, along with right pelvic pain. Then 3 months later swollen glands in my groin - 90% more... | <urn:uuid:c471ef1a-24a0-467b-aa9c-bd7fb28a5e56> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://medications.com/chronic-pain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401632671.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20200929060555-20200929090555-00037.warc.gz | en | 0.937107 | 365 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Symmetrical shapes are discussed here in this topic.
We know that in one symmetrical figure may have more than one line of symmetry.
Some symmetrical shapes have one line of symmetry, some have two and some have more than two, as shown below:
(i) Examples of the shapes having one-line symmetry:
(ii) Examples of the shapes having two - lines symmetry:
Two – Lines Symmetry
(iii) Examples of the shapes having three - lines symmetry:
Three – Lines Symmetry
(iv) Examples of the shapes having four - lines symmetry:
Four – Lines Symmetry
(v) Examples of the shapes having many - lines symmetry:
Many – Lines Symmetry
Thus we may conclude that;
(i) Some shapes have no line of symmetry,
(ii) some have one line of symmetry,
(iii) some have two,
(iv) some have three and
(v) some have many lines of symmetry.
A circle has innumerable lines of symmetry that pass through its centre,
The knowledge of symmetrical shapes and lines of symmetry is very useful for making symmetrical designs.
Related Concepts on Geometry - Simple Shapes & Circle | <urn:uuid:6abba2f4-1869-441a-aa01-30d7e81e8be3> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www.math-only-math.com/symmetrical-shapes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375096991.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031816-00146-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950139 | 255 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Clutches form the bond between getting the energy from all that internal combustion in the engine through to the transmission and then finally out to the driven wheels. And with countless combinations of engine and transmission types scattered all over the automotive world, many different denominations of clutch exist to adhere to the job required. Whether they’re dealing with 90bhp or 900bhp, there’s a clutch out there that - once engaged - will be able to help transmit as much torque as possible through to any transmission.
Before we get started, click here for a basic overview of how a clutch works!
Most cars use a form of friction clutch which has all the normal components that you have probably seen or heard of before. Operated hydraulically or by a cable, a friction clutch uses a pressure plate, a clutch plate (or clutch disk) and a release bearing to engage and disengage the flywheel and the transmission. Most cars will use a simple single-plate clutch, with only higher powered engines needed a multiplate clutch to engage the transmission properly.
When the clutch pedal is depressed, the release bearing applies a pressure to diaphragm springs on the pressure plate which releases a clamping pressure on the clutch plate and disengages the transmission from the flywheel.
As the gear change is made and the clutch is released, the release bearing is sent back from the pressure plate and the clutch plate is again clamped and driven by the pressure plate, allowing drive through to the transmission.
Wet clutches in general have multiple clutch plates (in cars) and have a supply of oil to lubricate and cool the components. They are used in high torque situations where friction levels would be high and therefore clutch temperatures would soar without some form of coolant. Any powertrain over 250lb ft of torque should really be employing a wet clutch to avoid excessive wear on the rest of the transmission through overheating.
Dry clutches on the other hand have no oil supply and are generally single-plate. This means they can be more efficient as lubrication can lead to a lack of friction between the plates in a wet clutch as well as producing parasitic losses from the drivetrain as a pump is needed to supply the lubricating oil. The small coefficient of friction in a wet system is therefore the reason for having multiple plates for effective clutch performance.
With multiple friction plates stacked on top of each other, obvious benefits are that the amount of friction generated within the clutch can be greatly amplified and therefore it can cope with much higher torque inputs. Used in many racing cars including Formula 1 and WRC, the amount of friction needed to stop the clutch slipping can be fitted into the same diameter as a single-plate clutch due to the neat stacking.
Dual-clutch transmissions now dominate the premium car market after their first general release through the VW Mk4 Golf R32. Using one large clutch for odd gears and a smaller clutch for even gears, this form of transmission is renowned for quick, smooth changes and is now found in every supercar worth its salt, as well as many hot hatches and saloons.
Used in automatic and semi-automatic setups, DCTs use two wet multiplate clutches which eradicate the need for a torque converter. The shifts are seamless due to the fact that the torque output to the driven wheels is not broken as it can be applied to one clutch while the other is disengaging, meaning no break in output.
Electromagnetic clutches can be used when mechanical sympathy and timing of clutch operation is generally disregarded, with the clutch being actuated by a simple button press on the gearstick or even a proximity sensor when your hand is near the gearstick. When the clutch is actuated remotely, a DC current passes through an electromagnet which produces a magnetic field. The armature is then attracted to a rotor, creating a frictional force to engage the engine and transmission.
Electromechanical clutches are prominent in the automotive industry, used in virtually every paddle-shift system. By pulling on a paddle, an electrical signal is sent to a computer which engages a servo to disengage the clutch hydraulically.
This negates the need for any form of clutch pedal and when combined with a DCT transmission can become the most efficient form of gear changing on the market. In general, these systems are used alongside more powerful powertrains and therefore use multiple plates within the clutch.
There are a few other clutch types out there, but most of them are either extinct or are only used in much smaller factions of the automotive sector. For example, centrifugal clutches are widespread in the moped and biking industry, using shoes (like on a drum brake) to engage and disengage the clutch. Dog clutches are also used in non-synchromeshed transmissions but necessitate double de-clutching and were brushed under the mat once gearboxes evolved.
If you’re looking to get more power from your engine through modifications, thinking about your clutch is a must. As Alex experienced when turbocharging his MX-5, once torque reaches a level too high for your clutch, the plates begin to slip as they can’t handle the forces channeled through them. In this scenario, a clutch upgrade is needed, and numerous aftermarket specialists manufacture performance clutches for this reason. Most of us will only ever really encounter a standard friction clutch on our travels, but there are plenty options out there if an increase in power is on the cards. | <urn:uuid:e53dfb67-734c-4ee3-83d9-5763695e0081> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.carthrottle.com/post/different-types-of-clutches-and-how-they-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512014.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20181018194005-20181018215505-00426.warc.gz | en | 0.939649 | 1,125 | 3.140625 | 3 |
People quite often use alcohol as a way of coping with emotional problems.
Coupled with this is the fact that often, coping with difficult emotions via alcohol does not actually deal with the situation causing such feelings.
Of course this is only one side of the equation. The other side being that…
Heavy alcohol use inevitably causes emotional problems of its own.
Prolonged drinking leads to instability of the emotions; depression is the most common effect of long-term alcohol use. Alcohol is a powerful nervous system depressant, that’s why it is so relaxing. However, the depression of the nervous system, and hence the emotions, lasts much longer than the pleasurable effects.
Another major emotional problem which alcohol leads to is irritability, or anger management problems. This has a number of causes, but probably the most immediate is from low blood-sugar levels. Alcohol consumption usually boosts blood sugar levels in the short term. Alcohol then disturbs the normal production of sugar by the liver. While your liver is metabolising any alcohol you’ve had, it won’t release its stored sugar once your blood sugar level starts to drop. Your blood sugar can then drop too low, causing irritability, usually the day after drinking.
And finally, probably the biggest cause of emotional problems associated with alcohol use comes from the disruptive behaviour which drunken people tend to engage in. After drinking, people will act in ways which they normally would not, be it increased risk taking, aggression or violence, accidents, arguments and a whole lot more.
These altered behaviours then have emotional consequences – both directly on the individual (such as guilt), then indirectly
on that person’s relationships. The people closest to an alcoholic may find themselves in an abusive relationship. | <urn:uuid:4c1ab738-9755-422b-990b-04d0ad7942b1> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.brighteyecounselling.co.uk/emotional-problems-alcohol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864148.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621114153-20180621134153-00627.warc.gz | en | 0.949047 | 360 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Where have all the sandeels gone?
Most people accept that the North Sea has been subjected to the most appalling overfishing. Whitefish stocks, such as cod and haddock, have collapsed and the mackerel and herring fisheries are all but commercially extinct.
Under normal circumstances the removal of whole rafts of large predatory fish would allow room for species such as sandeel, the favoured prey species of these fish, to increase their numbers dramatically, but this is not the case.
And why is this? The sandeel fishery has now become by far the biggest single-species fishery in the North Sea, with landings accounting for one-third of all fish landed. The vast majority of this catch is landed and processed in Denmark. Such fundamental changes in the fabric of the marine ecosystem are what ecologists refer to as 'fishing down the food web'.
Since 1977, total yearly North Sea sandeel catches have fluctuated around 600,000-800,000 tonnes, but since 2003 catches have crashed dramatically to between 200,000-300,000 tonnes. The collapse of the fishery was particularly severe in the Norwegian economical zone with a 95% reduction in landings in 2005.
You will not have eaten a sandeel knowingly (unwittingly perhaps as a fish-oil supplement), so what exactly are sandeels used for? The sandeel is an exceptionally oily fish and is harvested for the rapidly expanding fish-oil and fish-meal industries and used in everything from food for farmed salmon to animal feed and health supplements. At one stage sandeels were even used to fuel Danish power stations. And demand is set to increase.
Recent forecasts by the FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) indicate that aquaculture and its insatiable appetite for fish-oil, will dominate world fish supplies by 2030, fuelling pressure for a high level of industrial sandeel fishing in the North Sea. It takes, for example, 4kg of wild caught sandeel to produce 1kg of farmed salmon.
This does not bode well for the marine species in the North Sea that depend on sandeels for food. Many scientists and ecologists believe that the recent disastrous breeding seasons for many of Europe's seabird colonies can be directly linked to the industrial fishing of sandeels in the North Sea.
As early as 1997, two respected Danish fisheries scientists - Henrik Gislason and Eskild Kirkegaard - were highly critical of the North Sea sandeel fishery, and they concluded that "it cannot be ruled out that (sandeel) fishing could adversely effect the breeding success of the birds. It would therefore be precautionary to close areas to fishing until more is known about sandeel stock structure and interactions between sandeels and seabirds". And a report published by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) suggests that "the amount of industrial fish species taken by fishermen in the North Sea appears to leave little for seabirds and marine mammals".
It would not be unreasonable then to suggest that the overfishing of sandeel stocks may represent the single greatest threat to seabirds in the North Sea, especially in the breeding season when seabirds forage close to their colonies.
And it is not only the seabirds that are suffering. Studies into the diet of common dolphins, grey seals and harbour porpoises in Scottish waters have shown that they feed mainly on sandeels in the spring and early summer. The affects on these species if they cannot find sandeels to eat at this time of year can be disastrous. For example, spring is a critical time for dolphins and porpoises in terms of energy requirements. Some of the lowest sea temperatures occur in the North Sea in March, putting a great strain on dolphins and porpoises as they require the thickest blubber layer to limit heat loss at this time. In addition young animals are weaned and become independent foragers in spring, placing them at the mercy of changes in sandeel availability.
Ironically the long-term overfishing of sandeels in the North Sea may also inhibit a return to the former healthy status of predatory fish stocks such as cod and haddock, as these stocks can only recover if there are sufficient prey fish for them to feed upon. This is what ecologists refer to as a 'negative feedback loop', a vicious circle of exploitation that renders an ecosystem incapable of a recovery to anywhere near its former productivity.
It may not yet be too late however, but our attitudes and tolerance to an industry that has got perilously close to destroying the very fabric of the North Sea must change dramatically. No longer can we view the commercial fishing industry with the romantic notion of hard working fishermen risking everything to put fish on our plates. It must now be seen for what it is, a ruthless, efficient, hi-tech industry of destruction that is prepared to wipe out whole species for profit with almost no long-term consideration for the health of the marine environment. | <urn:uuid:b30b3044-120c-4760-95c2-44f0296657ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blueplanetsociety.blogspot.jp/2009/06/where-have-all-sandeels-gone.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710313659/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131833-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950671 | 1,047 | 2.984375 | 3 |
What are we weighting for? A mechanistic model for probability weighting
Behavioural economics provides labels for patterns in human economic behaviour. Probability weighting is one such label. It expresses a mismatch between probabilities used in a formal model of a decision (i.e. model parameters) and probabilities inferred from real people’s decisions (the same parameters estimated empirically). The inferred probabilities are called “decision weights.” It is considered a robust experimental finding that decision weights are higher than probabilities for rare events, and (necessarily, through normalisation) lower than probabilities for common events. Typically this is presented as a cognitive bias, i.e. an error of judgement by the person. Here we point out that the same observation can be described differently: broadly speaking, probability weighting means that a decision maker has greater uncertainty about the world than the observer. We offer a plausible mechanism whereby such differences in uncertainty arise naturally: when a decision maker must estimate probabilities as frequencies in a time series while the observer knows them a priori. This suggests an alternative presentation of probability weighting as a principled response by a decision maker to uncertainties unaccounted for in an observer’s model. | <urn:uuid:8b318323-9203-4c3e-ab2a-9f54f6445df2> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://lml.org.uk/event/mark-kirsteinwhat-are-we-weighting-for-a-mechanistic-model-for-probability-weightingerich-schneider-seminar-in-quantitative-economics-at-universitat-kiel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703499999.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20210116014637-20210116044637-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.937432 | 245 | 3.28125 | 3 |
New Mother Goose Mini-book Unit Study
It finally happened, we created a My Book Mini-book Unit study on the works of Mother Goose as presented in Mother Goose in Prose by Frank L. Baum. We began reading this collection of stories aloud during the lunch hour. Originally, we created the Big Book of Narration for this work for our older, poetry hating, daughter..lol. Our oldest began to fall in love with poetry as she learned about good moral behaviour and our youngest wanted to narrate something about the works too. So, we created this Mother Goose unit study as part of our eclectic, Charlotte Mason style learning approach.
This unit study is fun because it allows children to express and tell back the details of the stories which they felt were most important. This zipped file contains an instruction sheet, all of the 22 My Book Mini-books, the matching My Book Keepsake Pages as well as colourful matching cover. The books are not prompted so that younger children may draw more than they write and older learners may write more than they draw. Also if you do not have the book mentioned above by Frank L. Baum, you can simply use the rhymes as the catalyst for writing narrations or as little copywork books.
If you like this CM inspired style of narrative learning, you may want to try one of our other My Book Unit Studies on various topics including the saints, the human body and more.
Click HERE to download this and other My Book Mini-book Unit studies now.
That Resource Team | <urn:uuid:9e33aac4-8c45-44b5-8aaa-b7c2cee819d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://thatresourcesite.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-mother-goose-mini-book-unit-study.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982298875.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195818-00104-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955813 | 314 | 2.890625 | 3 |
|Gitau, M - PENN. STATE UNIV.|
|Jarrett, A - PENN. STATE UNIV.|
Submitted to: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 20, 2004
Publication Date: February 20, 2005
Citation: Gitau, M.W., Gburek, W.J., Jarrett, A.R. 2005. A tool for assessing bmp effectiveness for phosphorus pollution control. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 60(1):1-9. Interpretive Summary: A Best Management Practice (BMP) assessment tool has been developed as a part of an effort to address the phosphorus (P) pollution and associated eutrophication problem affecting the Cannonsville reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system. Presently, BMPs for controlling P loss from agriculture have been implemented on a farm-by-farm basis within the Cannonsville reservoir watershed, with the plan being to extend BMP implementation to the entire 1969 sq-mi New York City Water supply watersheds. The effectiveness of these practices have, however, not been quantified. A literature-based quantification of BMP effectiveness was developed for those BMPs currently in use, considering site characteristics, study methods used, scale, and resulting levels of P reduction. The information was stored in an MS Access database, which served as the foundation for development of the assessment tool. The tool allows site-specific estimation of BMP effectiveness. It outputs estimates for a number of possible BMPs for a particular site, thus providing a basis for BMP selection. It also offers access to summarized information on various aspects of BMP effectiveness. The tool can be used as a stand-alone application, or it may be linked to a GIS-based model. The tool will serve as a resource for BMP selection by providing estimates of BMP effectiveness under a variety of site-specific conditions. Finally, we have shown that an accumulation and analyses of BMP effectiveness data from previous studies offers a means of BMP assessment that is widely applicable.
Technical Abstract: A Best Management Practice (BMP) assessment tool was developed as a part of an effort to address the phosphorus (P) pollution and associated eutrophication problem affecting the Cannonsville Reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system. P reaching the reservoir is thought to emanate from runoff from the surrounding farms, mainly as a result of manure spread on these farms. Efforts to address the problem have involved implementation of BMPs on a farm-by-farm basis; however, the effectiveness of these practices is not known. This study establishes a means of assessing BMPs quantitatively and develops a tool that allows users to obtain BMP effectiveness estimates for their respective site conditions. The tool offers both stand-alone and model-linked capabilities for BMP assessment. An example application is presented. | <urn:uuid:1bbbbc64-6a1c-4931-91d6-87815b3fe67d> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=140124 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999642307/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060722-00019-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929341 | 614 | 2.53125 | 3 |
You might think that varicose veins are something you only need to worry about when you’re old and grey, but the truth is that plenty of people develop varicose veins before 30. Some people are genetically predisposed to varicose veins and there are a number of other factors that can increase the likelihood of you developing varicose veins earlier in life.
These bulging veins can be unsightly and cause embarrassment for some people. If they worsen with time they can create significant medical problems in later life. Signs and symptoms of varicose veins can include:
• A feeling of heaviness in the legs
• Pain in the legs
• Tired, aching legs
• Swollen legs
• Itchiness in the skin over the vein (especially in the ankles)
• Venous ulcers on the legs.
Symptoms of varicose veins are often worse after a long day of standing and can often be relieved by putting your feet up and resting. Venous ulcers may develop where varicose veins remain untreated for a long period of time. These ulcers can be difficult to treat and may become infected, causing severe pain and disability for older people.
What causes varicose veins?
The root cause of varicose veins is the dysfunction of valves in the veins. This allows blood to pool in the veins, typically in the legs, which can lead to bulging and distension of the vein. Over time, the walls of the veins weaken and the problem worsens, leading to visible bulging and the possibility of damage to the skin on the lower part of the leg.
Who gets varicose veins before 30?
Pregnancy is the main cause of varicose veins before 30, but there is also an inherited (genetic) component to varicose veins and other factors that increase the risk of this condition, such as:
• Lifting heavy weights
• Being overweight or obese
• Working as a manual labourer
• Working as an airline steward.
People working in retail or any occupation requiring prolonged periods of standing are also more likely to develop varicose veins because they often spend hours on their feet every day and spend time squatting and lifting heavy objects, which places extra strain on the veins in the legs. For similar reasons, varicose veins are also common among construction workers and weightlifters.
Pregnancy increases the likelihood of varicose veins because of the increase in blood volume and body weight during pregnancy and hormonal changes that relax blood vessels. For many women, varicose veins that arise in pregnancy tend to resolve within a year of giving birth, but in subsequent pregnancies the veins come back more severely than the first time and often do not completely resolve. Modern surgical techniques such as EVLT laser treatment can prevent this from happening.
Should I be worried about my varicose veins?
For many people, varicose veins can be a cause of embarrassment, preventing them from wearing the clothes they want to wear or from participating in certain activities, such as swimming. Varicose veins can also be itchy, irritating and cause tiredness and heaviness in the legs, which could prevent a person from exercising and socialising.
While younger patients are often motivated to have varicose vein treatment for aesthetic reasons, it’s also important to note that there are a number of medical reasons for addressing varicose veins early, particularly if there are signs of skin damage such as darkening of the skin in the ankle area or an itchy irritation in the lower leg.
How to reduce your risk of varicose veins
While there’s not much you can do about your genes, there are ways you can lower your risk of varicose veins. These include:
• Achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight
• Getting regular exercise, such as walking, swimming, and cycling
• Avoiding frequent heavy lifting or exercises such as squats
• Staying hydrated and eating healthily
• Avoiding sitting or standing still for long periods of time
• Putting your feet up after a long day of standing
• Massaging your legs in long upward strokes toward the heart
• Doing ankle pumps, especially on long flights
• Wearing compression stockings.
Staying active helps to encourage healthy venous return by engaging the muscles in the lower leg. This reduces the risk of blood pooling and distending the vein. Try doing a set of 10 ankle pumps every half hour or so if you are forced to sit for a long period of time: raise your toes towards your shins and then point your toes down to the ground and repeat.
Massage can also help soothe aching, heavy legs, while compression stockings can help prevent that feeling in the first place. These stockings are designed to provide a consistent, gentle pressure to squeeze blood upwards and prevent pooling in the lower legs.
Natural remedies for varicose veins
A wide variety of natural remedies have been proposed to help with varicose veins, including garlic, red wine, red vine leaf, and white willow. In almost all cases there is a complete absence of scientifically credible evidence to support the claims for varicose vein benefits. Some natural remedies for varicose veins may, however, contain substances that could be beneficial, such as antioxidants, astringent compounds, and anti-inflammatory components.
If you are considering using natural remedies, be sure to talk to your physician or surgeon first as some can pose problems. White willow and fish oil may thin the blood, for example, and increase the risk of problematic bleeding and bruising. Be sure to let your surgical team know of any supplements you are using prior to undergoing any procedures.
Treating varicose veins
Compression stockings and lifestyle changes are standard ways to manage varicose vein symptoms and can help minimise progression of varicose veins. These things do not cure varicose veins, however, and we’re fortunate to now have a number of quick and painless treatment options to address unsightly and painful varicose veins.
The traditional high tie and strip procedure that has been standard practice in the National Health Service for decades is no longer considered a good option for treating varicose veins, especially for younger patients. This is because the procedure has to be carried out under general anaesthetic, is painful, requires numerous incisions down the leg, has a long recovery time, and poses a much higher risk of deep vein thrombosis and recurrence of varicose veins.
For most people with varicose veins under 30, modern varicose vein treatments are significantly less invasive and require little if any downtime. Laser treatment for varicose veins is highly effective and can be carried out as an outpatient procedure, allowing patients to return to normal activities almost right away. Injection therapy is another simple surgical option to block a troublesome vein, with Clarivein as a painless option ideal for younger patients who need to get back to busy lives quickly.
The risk of common complications such as recurrence of varicose veins, nerve injury, and deep vein thrombosis is also much lower with modern procedures such as endovenous laser therapy. EVLT has around a 98% success rate and the rate of recurrence is very low, making it the surgical procedure of choice for people with varicose veins under 30. | <urn:uuid:e8cd6c72-68c1-4acc-8297-b9bffe2a71d3> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://radianceveinclinic.com/blog/varicose-veins-30-2391.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573570.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190919183843-20190919205843-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.947675 | 1,528 | 3 | 3 |
Motivation is hard to come by. There’s always another task, another project, another objective–and any motivation you manage to scrape together for one thing is absent for the next.
But motivation isn’t a resource–at least not in the way the language surrounding motivation suggests. Motivation is a response to stimuli, and that response isn’t always the same. Different stimuli trigger different parts of the brain and motivate us toward productivity in different ways. So instead of wishing for motivation or hunting for more motivation, it might be more helpful to think about the different types of motivators we experience, and what’s going on in our brains when we experience them.
The basic science of motivation
Over the years, neuroscientists and psychologists have established that we generally experience motivation when dopamine–a neurotransmitter that relays signals between brain cells–is released and travels to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is an area of the brain that mediates reward behavior: So when dopamine reaches the nucleus accumbens, it solicits feedback on whether a good thing or a bad thing is about to happen. As Kimberly Schaufenbuel, program director of UNC Executive Development, explains, this prediction prompts us to respond in ways that either “minimize a predicted threat (the bad) or maximize a predicted reward (the good).”
So if you get an email from your boss with a new assignment, dopamine hits up the nucleus accumbens to form a prediction of what will happen if you do the assignment or not, or if you do it well or poorly. With that prediction in place, you’ll either act to increase the probability of reward (payment, praise, sense of accomplishment) or decrease the probability of punishment (demotion, yelling, sense of failure).
Let’s look at our four motivators for productivity and see what truly drives us.
In writing this blog post, I’m motivated by creative expression. It gives me an opportunity to flex my creative muscles and express myself through prose and storytelling. But what’s happening in my brain while I’m writing?
When you’re motivated toward productivity via creative expression, it’s likely that one of two things is happening:
1. You’re “in the zone”
This is the colloquial term used to describe an uninhibited creative flow, in which it seems as if you’re not even thinking about what you’re doing. When you’re in the zone, a region of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) becomes less active. Research conducted by neuroscientists Dr. Charles Limb and Dr. Allen Braun connects the DLPFC to planning, inhibition, and self-censorship, which makes sense considering that those qualities are almost antithetical to uninhibited creative flow. When mediating a rush of ideas, there’s no time to analyze or organize. Planning and censoring only get in the way.
2. You’re “methodically sculpting”
Most creativity is hard, tedious work, and during these pre- or post-zone creative sessions, activity in the DLPFC can actually ramp up, especially if you’re reviewing or editing. That’s because creative expression usually involves a balance of uninhibited flow and methodical sculpting. Similar to the famous piece of writing wisdom, “Write drunk, edit sober,” a good book or moving song is often the product of both stream-of-consciousness inspiration and meticulous craftsmanship.
Takeaway: Being motivated by creative expression can result in an organized delivery of new, unexpected, and imaginative ideas.
It would be dishonest to say that I’m not also motivated by payment. Our brains look very different when motivated by financial compensation. And just as different types of creative expression are associated with different neurochemical processes, so are different types of financial incentives, namely salary versus added incentive.
1. Motivation from salary
Money can certainly motivate us toward productivity–anyone with a job can tell you that. But extrinsic motivators like salary work best when paired with other, more intrinsic motivators. Edward Deci, a psychologist at Rochester University, says that we have three psychological needs that help supplement financial motivation: autonomy, competency, and the sense of feeling connected to others. Salary alone doesn’t motivate us, Deci says. In fact, he argues, “Overemphasis on financial reward undermines autonomy and therefore intrinsic motivation.”
2. You’re “methodically sculpting”
Many employers offer added financial incentives like commission and bonuses: If you perform to X level, you get Y extra cash. Even if you’re already motivated by a healthy balance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, things change when these performance-based financial incentives are introduced.
In a study led by Dan Ariely of Duke University, researchers asked participants to play games that tested memory, creativity, and motor skills. They would each receive a financial reward based on their performance, but one group was offered a small reward, another a medium reward, and another a very large reward. The study found that participants who were offered the largest amount of money performed the worst.
Ariely concluded that while performance-related rewards generally increase activity in areas of the brain involved in motivation, there comes a tipping point. When the potential reward is too large, it can undermine performance by making people overly focused or mentally aroused.
Takeaway: Being motivated by an excessively large financial incentive can result in a mistake-riddled product, while a reasonably-sized financial incentive (paired with intrinsic motivators) can result in something more thoughtful and polished.
Curiosity and the desire to learn are purely intrinsic motivators. According to Domenico and Ryan, we’re motivated toward productivity by curiosity/learning when we encounter new types of stimuli “that present optimal challenges or optimal inconsistencies with one’s extant knowledge.” We want to investigate things that we don’t understand or things that run counter to our experiences. This explains why, for example, somebody might hear a ringing payphone and answer it.
So what’s going on in the brain here? Dopamine, as with nearly all types of motivation, plays a key role when motivated by curiosity/learning, and dopamine neurons tend to exhibit two modes of activity: tonic and phasic.
When dopamine is in tonic mode, neurons fire at a steady rate, reflecting what Domenico and Ryan call the “general strength of animals’ exploratory seeking tendencies.” When we’re in tonic mode, we might be walking around smelling things, looking at things, listening to things. You know, normal human stuff.
In phasic mode, neurons experience short bursts of activity or inactivity in response to specific stimuli, leading to an increase or decrease of dopamine, usually lasting several seconds. Whereas in tonic mode you might be compelled to glance at an unusual looking tree, a weird noise from its branches might trigger phasic mode–and suddenly you’re inching toward that tree, eager to discover the source of the noise.
Takeaway: Being motivated by curiosity and learning can result in a more thorough investigation of ideas and a more fleshed out final product.
What if I woke up thinking this post was due in to my editor tomorrow only to realize the deadline was in two hours? Fear would ensue. And that fear would motivate me to do whatever it took to minimize the likelihood of that bad thing happening.
Fear typically drives you toward productivity because you want to avoid a threat or punishment. And while a “due in two hours!” fear may not reach the level of fear you experience when a grizzly charges at you, it does trigger a similar neurochemical response: The amygdala, a part of the brain critical in the formation of memories, processing emotions, and making decisions, goes haywire. Once it detects danger, it sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, during which survival is prioritized above all else.
But just because you’re being productive in this moment of fear doesn’t mean you’re producing something of quality. When fear kicks in, most of the brain’s resources are diverted from their usual tasks to perform that survival function. So when fear hijacks your brain, it can compromise your decision making.
Fear might motivate you to work harder or work more, but when fear is the dominant motivator, intrinsic motivation is nowhere to be found. There’s no room for creative expression or curiosity and learning. And without those, there’s no urge to seek out new information or let ideas flow through you naturally. So while the work might be completed, it won’t be as well-rounded. More likely, it will simply reveal your urgency to just get it done.
Takeaway: Being motivated by fear can lead to a lower-quality–albeit promptly delivered–product.
Each of these motivators has the power to propel you toward productivity, but the outcome of that productivity won’t always be the same. But if we recognize why we are motivated toward productivity, we might be able to identify how we work best, and what kind of motivation produces the best results. | <urn:uuid:2eb5a428-e563-4115-8ad3-42c2b1bb8c07> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.fastcompany.com/90217110/here-are-the-4-types-of-motivation-and-what-they-do-to-your-brain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662529658.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220519172853-20220519202853-00544.warc.gz | en | 0.928888 | 1,971 | 2.984375 | 3 |
University of Chicago scientists have observed for the first time a phenomenon in exotic three-atom molecules where the molecules fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls.
They watched three such molecules in the series, consisting of one lithium atom and two cesium atoms in a vacuum chamber at the ultracold temperature of approximately 200 nanokelvin, a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero (minus 459.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Given an infinitely large universe, the number of increasingly larger molecules in this cesium-lithium system also would be infinite.
The three atom molecule is called an Efimov molecule after the Russian physicist who first predicted the ultracold state in 1970.
The finding, reported in Physical Review Letters, is important because it shows that Efimov molecules follow a simple mathematical rule.
"This is a new rule in chemistry that molecular sizes can follow a geometric series, like 1, 2, 4, 8…," said Cheng Chin, professor in physics at UChicago. "In our case, we find three molecular states in this sequence where one molecular state is about five times larger than the previous one."
The geometric scaling is unique to three-atom molecules and cannot be seen in two or four combinations.
Given the vast differences in the mass of lithium and cesium, the scientists had to use various tricks to 'get the monkey and elephant hanging on the same spring' to interact.
They lowered the temperatures of the lithium and cesium atoms separately, then brought them together to form the triatomic, Efimov molecules.
This required a tool called Feshbach resonance, carried out in a magnetic field, which allowed the researchers to bind and control the interactions between the cesium and lithium atoms.
The first Efimov state was experimentally observed in 2006 in molecules consisting of three cesium atoms which get entangled at temperatures slightly above absolute zero.
Efimov said the latest results made him feel like the parent of a successful child. "The parent is proud of the child's achievement, and he is also proud that in a sense he is part of the child's success." | <urn:uuid:c5bdc9d2-eec9-4b1b-86e3-7bf63b9c8187> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/exotic-molecules-seen-first-time-fit-into-one-another-following-simple-math-rule-1484784 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320679.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626050425-20170626070425-00287.warc.gz | en | 0.929135 | 440 | 2.859375 | 3 |
KJV Dictionary Definition: scorn
1. Extreme contempt; that disdain which springs from a person's opinion of the meanness of an object, and a consciousness or belief of his own superiority or worth.
He thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Esther 3.
Every sullen frown and bitter scorn but fann'd the fuel that too fast did burn.
2. A subject of extreme contempt, disdain or derision; that which is treated with contempt.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are around us. Ps. 44.
To think scorn, to disdain; to despise. obs.
To laugh to scorn, to deride; to make a mock of; to ridicule as contemptible.
They laughed us to scorn. Neh. 2.
1. to hold in extreme contempt; to despise; to contemn; to disdain. job. 16.
Surely he scorneth the scorner; but he giveth grace to the lowly. Prov. 3.
2. to think unworth; to disdain.
Fame that delights around the world to stray, scorns not to take our Argos in her way.
3. To slight; to disregard; to neglect.
This my long suff'rance and my day of grace, those who neglect and scorn, shall never taste.
SCORN, v.i. To scorn at, to scoff at; to treat with contumely, derision or reproach. Obs.
SCORN'ED, pp. Extremely contemned or despised; disdained.
1. Contemptuous; disdainful; entertaining scorn; insolent.
Th' enamor'd deity the scornful damsel shuns.
2. Acting in defiance or disregard.
Scornful of winter's frost and summer's sun.
3. In Scripture, holding religion in contempt; treating with disdain religion and the dispensations of God.
SCORN'FULNESS, n. The quality of being scornful.
SCORN'ING, ppr. Holding in great contempt; despising; disdaining.
SCORN'ING, n. The act of contemning; a treating with contempt, slight or disdain.
How long will the scorners delight in their scorning?
Prov. 1. Ps. 123. | <urn:uuid:efdc091d-ad68-45d3-9ca3-f9098cb794f0> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/scorn.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657720.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610131939-20230610161939-00721.warc.gz | en | 0.895332 | 540 | 2.78125 | 3 |
In a previous blog post, I surveyed the highlights of statements made by presidents of the United States regarding America’s efforts to be a blessing to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
Our nation has a rich legacy of support for Israel, for which we should be very thankful. Many have conjectured that this may ultimately be the reason that God has blessed the United States so abundantly over the course of so many years.
This begs the question: What is the source of this centuries-long focus on Israel? What was the foundation that gave rise to this concept of support for Israel, which—despite the winds of political change—has endured consistently throughout our history?
Our historical search for the answer to that question must take us back to the 16th century and the city of Geneva, Switzerland, where English Reformers gathered after fleeing the persecution advanced by Bloody Mary Tudor, who ruled in England from 1553 to 1558. A number of these men (including Miles Coverdale and John Foxe) congregated in the city where John Calvin preached and there—for the first time in history—translated the Bible completely from the original languages into English. The work they produced is called the Geneva Bible.1
But as important as the translation itself was, this Bible was invaluable for another reason: It was truly the original study Bible. Foremost among the array of materials it offered were its annotations regarding the Biblical text.2 In fact, the explanatory notes greatly upset King James I, who later authorized a new English translation that famously bore his name, which was published, of course, in 1611 and ultimately surpassed the Geneva Bible in popularity—even in the New World.3
But how does the Geneva Bible tie back to America’s love for Israel? We must realize that the Geneva Bible was the Bible of both the Pilgrims and the Puritans who came to these lands, beginning with the arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower at Provincetown Harbor in Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, and continuing later with the arrival of the first Puritans in the 1630s.4
The Geneva Bible’s notes on Romans 11:25 and 11:28 jump out as being light years ahead of their time with regard to the future prophesied for the Jewish people. It is amazing to think that these notes could have been written just 43 years after Martin Luther first posted the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, officially (albeit unwittingly at the time) launching the Reformation.
Those verses, and the Geneva Bible notes regarding them, are as follows:
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Rom. 11:25).
The blindness of the Jews is neither so universal that the Lord hath no elect in that nation, neither shall it be continual: for there shall be a time wherein they also (as the Prophets have forewarned) shall effectually embrace that which they do now so stubbornly for the most part reject and refuse.5
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers (Rom. 11:28).
Again, that he may join the Jews and Gentiles together as it were in one body, and especially may teach what duty the Gentiles owe to the Jews, he beateth this into their heads, that the nation of the Jews is not utterly cast off without hope of recovery…. In that, that God respecteth not what they deserve, but what he promised to Abraham.6
In the providence of God, the authors behind these notes in the Geneva Bible summarized two overarching truths regarding God’s Chosen People—namely, that their current state of unbelief is neither complete nor permanent. Rather, as a well-known and much-beloved (to dispensationalists) contemporary study Bible puts it:
Israel’s blindness is partial (Jews are being saved today) and temporary (until they acknowledge Jesus at His second coming).7
While we may not see direct evidence of a belief in the future restoration of Israel taking hold among the Pilgrims,8 we do know that the sentiment behind these particular notes in the Geneva Bible began to have an influence upon the Puritans who followed them.
Dr. William C. Watson, in his groundbreaking book Dispensationalism before Darby, makes these astounding statements to summarize his vast research on this subject:
Most seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century colonial ministers did not see America as “the New Jerusalem” but expected the Jews to return to the biblical Jerusalem in preparation for the last days.9
… New England Puritans understood Israel as the focal point of the future millennial reign.10
Dr. Thomas Ice likewise concludes:
Within the English-speaking world, the most pro-Israel element has been American Christianity, starting with Colonial America and up to our present time. The reason appears to be the fact that America was primarily founded, not just by Christians, but by Protestant Christians who were clearly philo-Semitic – the Puritans.11
As you take time to reflect on how God has blessed you, I encourage you to thank Him for a heritage of understanding the promises that He has made to the nation of Israel—along with a determination to bless the Jewish people—which was built into the very foundation of the United States of America.
- For more information, see “The Geneva Bible, A Bible of Firsts”; <https://www.olivetree.com/blog/geneva-bible-bible-firsts/>; Internet; accessed 13 July 2019. See also Roger Nicole, “The Original Geneva Bible”; https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/the-original-geneva-bible/; Internet; accessed 13 July 2019.
- Dr. David L. Brown notes: “The Geneva Version quickly became very popular in England. Here is why. It was backed by the great reformers Knox, Calvin, Beza, and others. It was a very handy size. But, the primary reason it was so popular with the people was because it was the first ‘study Bible’ filled with copious [sic] by the Reformers.” The Incomparable Book – The Holy Bible: Examining the History of the English Bible (Oak Creek, WI: David L. Brown, 2000), p. 177.
- For more information, see “The Geneva Bible and Its Influence on the King James Bible”; < https://founders.org/2011/10/12/the-geneva-bible-and-its-influence-on-the-king-james-bible/>; Internet; accessed 13 July 2019.
- “The Geneva Bible was the ‘Bible of the Protestant Reformation’, and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims. It was the first Bible taken to America, brought over on the Mayflower. The Geneva Bible is the Bible upon which America was founded.” (“Geneva Bible History”; <http://www.geneva-bible.com/geneva-bible-history.html>; Internet; accessed 13 July 2019.)
- 1599 Geneva Bible note on Romans 11:25; <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11&version=GNV>; Internet; accessed 12 July 2019.
- 1599 Geneva Bible notes on Romans 11:28; <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11&version=GNV>; Internet; accessed 12 July 2019.
- Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible: Expanded Edition (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), p. 1,714 (KJV).
- Gov. William Bradford’s 1592 edition of the Geneva Bible is said to have “journeyed with him from England to Holland and eventually to Plymouth.” (“About the Pilgrims”; <http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/ap_religion.htm>; Internet; accessed 13 July 2019.
- William C. Watson, Dispensationalism before Darby: Seventeenth-Century and Eighteenth-Century English Apocalypticism (Silverton, OR: Lampion Press, 2015), p. 203.
- Ibid., p. 329. See also Watson’s instructive comments about Theodore Beza, John Calvin’s disciple and a leading influence behind the notes in the Geneva Bible, on pp. 14-15 and 47-48.
- Thomas Ice, The Case for Zionism: Why Christians Should Support Israel (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Publishing Group, 2017), p. 30. | <urn:uuid:9b3af9aa-9fa9-4c69-93bd-962d289749ad> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.foi.org/2019/08/23/the-source-of-americas-love-for-israel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145818.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20200223154628-20200223184628-00344.warc.gz | en | 0.943555 | 1,885 | 2.921875 | 3 |
252. Physostigma.—Calabar bean.
BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS.—A lofty, half-shrubby, twining plant, obtaining its name from its peculiar footed stigma. Leaves trifoliate, leaflets ovate. Flowers purplish-pink, in axillary racemes. Legume about 7 inches long.
DESCRIPTION OF DRUG.—About the size of a pecan nut, oblong, some what flattened, and kidney-shaped, invested with a light to deep chocolate-brown testa. Along its entire convex edge there extends a prominent black furrow, bordered on each side by a reddish ridge, and traversed the entire length by the raphe as a little ridge in the center. This raphe is terminated at one end by a small funnel-shaped depression, the micropyle. Exalbuminous, embryo large, the cotyledons are concavo-convex, the concave surfaces inclosing a rather large cavity, thus enabling the bean to float upon water. Nearly odorless; taste bean-like, afterward acrid. Spurious calabar beans have been called "calibeans" in European commerce, those occurring the most frequently belonging to the following species: Entada scandens, E. gingalobium D. C., Mucuna urens D. C., and seeds of oil palms, Elaeis Guineensis. E. H. Holmes called attention to certain specimens of calabar beans of commerce bearing a close resemblance to the genuine beans. They were longer, of circular cross-section, and the hilum did not extend the full length of the beans. They also differ chemically, as upon touching the cotyledons with a solution of potassa a permanent yellow tint was produced , and upon treating the spurious article similarly a deep, almost orange, color is formed, turning to a greenish hue. It has been found that the ordinary test-reagents for alkaloids are so sensitive for physostigmine (eserine) that one one-millionth part of a gram may be recognized. The poisonous qualities reside in the seeds, especially in the cotyledons. It has been ascertained that the leaves and stems are not poisonous.
Powder.—Characteristic elements: See Part iv, Chap. I, B.
CONSTITUENTS.—Physostigmine, C15H21N3O2 (also known as eserine), contracting the pupil of the eye; calabarine, a tetanizing principle, a derivative of physostigmine; eseridine, C15H23N3O3 (producing purgation); and physosterin, a neutral principle closely related to cholesterin. These principles are soluble in alcohol. Physostigmine is amorphous, tasteless, reddened by potassa, soda, and lime when exposed to the air, due to absorption of oxygen. The drug sometimes contains over 0-15 per cent. of the alkaloid Physostigmine. Ash, not exceeding 3 per cent.
Preparation of Physostigmine (Eserine).—Treat powdered drug (mixed with 1 per cent. tartaric acid) with water. Shake out coloring matter with ether, make aqueous solution alkaline with an alkaline bicarbonate, and shake out alkaloid with ether. Evaporate ethereal solution.
Preparation of Eseridine (Calabarine).—Precipitate the alkaloid from the liquid from which physostigmine has been separated by lead subacetate and ammonia; evaporate the filtrate, treat the residue with alcohol, precipitate with phosphotungstic acid, and decompose with baryta. It is converted into physostigmine by hydrolysis.
Preparation of Physosterin.—Exhaust beans with petroleum ether and evaporate solvent.
ACTION AND USES.—Physostigmine is used in medicine chiefly for three purposes: as a depressant for the spinal cord; as a stimulant to the intestinal muscles; and to contract the pupils. As a motor depressant physostigmine is useful in the treatment of tetanus and strychnine poisoning. Its greatest value in internal medicine is as a stimulant to intestinal muscles in paralytic forms of colic, but especially in chronic constipation in conjunction with cathartic drugs.
Physostigmine stimulates the secretory nerve-endings of glands and the nerve-endings of striated and smooth muscle. It therefore antagonizes the effects of atropine and curare.
If a drop of 1:200 aqueous solution of eserine is placed in the eye, contraction of the pupil begins in one or two minutes and reaches its maximum in one-half to one hour.
When the alkaloid calabarine is present in excess in the drug, and is taken in overdose, convulsions develop. Dose of drug: 1 to 4 gr. (0.065 to 0.25 Gm.).
- Physostigminae Salicylas, Dose: 1/120 to 1/30 gr. (0.0005 to 0.00216 Gm.).
- Extractum Physostigmatis, 1/10 to ½ gr. (0.0064 to 0.0324 Gm.).
- Tinctura Physostigmatis (10 per cent.), 10 to 30 <minim> (0.6 to 2.6 mils). | <urn:uuid:56611eaa-7b4a-43fa-8058-4e2860e3c1c2> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/sayre/physostigma.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153729.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20210728123318-20210728153318-00419.warc.gz | en | 0.878325 | 1,172 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Your brain tells you when to go to sleep by producing melatonin. Melatonin is what makes you feel tired, and prepares you for sleep.
The brain hormone melatonin is produced later at night for teens than it is for kids and adults. This can make it harder for teens to fall asleep early. – TeensHealth How Much Sleep Do I Need?
This has been noted by many, many reputable sources, here's one more:
Sometime in late puberty, the body secretes the sleep-related hormone melatonin at a different time than it normally does. This changes the circadian rhythms that guide a person's sleep-wake cycle. For instance, if you told your teen to go to bed at 10 p.m., she may end up staring at the ceiling until 1 or 2 a.m. waiting to fall asleep. At about 7:30 p.m. a teen feels wide awake and fully alert, unlike an adult who is starting to "wind down." – Adolescent Sleep (Stanford)
I think controlling your child's bedtime is unhealthy, you should let their body do the healthiest thing that it can, which it will dictate on its own.
Once you start forcing your child into certain circadian rhythms (sleep patterns) you may start detrimentally affecting their health (e.g. as Dan points out), and are definitely decreasing their productivity.
I think the best thing you can do is make a no-screens from 9 PM (her current bedtime) rule. In fact get her to leave her devices somewhere far from her room (try to trust her to do this herself.)
I am 17 years old at the moment and wish my parents had been stricter with this earlier in my adolescence. Now I enforce this rule on myself, and naturally won't feel like sleeping until after 11 o'clock, but when I was staying up glued to a screen earlier in my teens I would be unnaturally (and unhealthily) staying awake until 3 AM, 4 AM in some cases, destroying daily productivity and (hopefully not irreparably) my health.
If you encourage her to read books or do paper-based homework/tests past that time it will be extremely beneficial to her academic life.
We found that memory was superior when sleep occurred shortly after learning rather than following a full day of wakefulness. Lastly, we present evidence that the rate of deterioration across wakefulness was significantly diminished when a night of sleep preceded the wake period compared to when no sleep preceded wake, suggesting that sleep served to stabilize the memories against the deleterious effects of subsequent wakefulness. – Memory for Semantically Related and Unrelated Declarative Information: The Benefit of Sleep, the Cost of Wake. PLoS ONE 7(3): e33079.
Things you read and learn just before going to bed are more likely to be remembered, I wish I'd abused this more often when I was younger.
Also it gives a great opportunity to read books.
The benefits are plenty, which is especially important in a distracted, smartphone age in which one-quarter of American children don’t learn to read. This not only endangers them socially and intellectually, but cognitively handicaps them for life. One 2009 study of 72 children ages eight to ten discovered that reading creates new white matter in the brain, which improves system-wide communication. – How Reading Rewires Your Brain for More Intelligence and Empathy
I hope she'll come to love reading both fiction and non-fiction Since I set myself the no-screens before bed rule I've become happier and more productive in the day, and have fallen in love with reading. Learning about what other people think of the world, comparing theories you read in different books, is so interesting. And immersing yourself in the stories of fabricated worlds is great.
Don't enforce a bed time, just enforce a no-screens time. She will naturally fall asleep whenever her body's ready. | <urn:uuid:645940cb-c405-4f52-acec-a48939d5e137> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/33002/bedtime-for-12-13-year-old-girl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100484.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20231203030948-20231203060948-00818.warc.gz | en | 0.955839 | 811 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Chances are you’ve experienced the downsides of lack of sleep a few times in your life.
BUT – IS IT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?
Yes! Sleep is essential. Without enough sleep, the brain can’t function properly. This is the time for the body and mind to reset. Not having enough sleep can have serious effects on both your physical and mental health.
Poor sleep can deplete energy, lower productivity, and increase the chance for mood swings. Sleep deficiency has also been linked to a higher risk of certain diseases or medical conditions such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 Diabetes and more.
Work schedules, day-to-day stressors, a poor sleep environment, and medical conditions are just a few things that can interfere with good quality sleep.
WHAT IS "HEALTHY " SLEEP?
As with most things in life, the key to sleep is balance. The National Sleep Foundation recommends the average person should aim for at least seven hours and no more than nine hours a night. Healthy sleep means adequate duration, good quality, and appropriate timing of sleep. This means sleeping for 3 hours, then up for an hour, back to sleep for 2 hours, up for 30 minutes, and so on, is not the ideal way to achieve 7 hours of good quality sleep.
SO, WHY IS SLEEP IMPORTANT FOR FERTILITY?
Lack of sleep is detrimental to your overall health and wellness in ways that might not seem to be directly connected to fertility, but it can all take a toll. Keeping in mind that sleep deprivation increases the risk of other health conditions such as obesity and diabetes, these conditions alone can make getting pregnant more difficult. This is the time when hormones reset, brain chemistry normalizes, and reproductive hormones reach a baseline level.
The most significant factor that sleep can affect in relation to fertility is hormone production. The same part of the brain that is responsible for regulating sleep-wake hormones like melatonin and cortisol also regulates reproductive hormones. Sleep deprivation can cause the body to produce more stress hormones, which throw off levels of estrogen, testosterone, and other reproductive hormones.
Not getting enough sleep is also detrimental to your emotional health and mood. The hormonal imbalance can decrease libido and cause moodiness, which certainly isn’t helpful to the situation. If you’re tired and irritable for an extended time, it may cause problems with your partner or affect your sexual intimacy. And unless you’re pursuing fertility treatment, a lack of sexual intimacy is a huge barrier to conception.
And because optimal health and wellness are often the building blocks of any treatment plan for health issues, improving things like sleep will give any fertility treatments you’re undergoing the best chance of working.
TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR ZZZ’s
Those of us who don’t receive a sufficient amount of sleep each night can implement some positive lifestyle and sleep habits in order to get in their 7 – 9. Start small to see lasting benefits, you don't have to change everything at once. Here are some tips to help boost your sleep quality….
· Avoid nicotine, caffeine, and large meals several hours before bedtime. A lighter snack is okay depending on nutritional content (ie. avoid sugar too!).
· Keep naps short if you partake, aiming for 20 – 30 minutes. Longer naps can make it difficult to fall asleep at night.
· We are creatures of habit so it is important to establish a routine with a realistic bedtime, and stick to it every night – including the weekends if possible.
· Keep your room cool with low levels of light. Darkness is key, it helps your body naturally produce melatonin which tells your body it is time to fall asleep.
· Your bedroom should be a sanctuary. Invest in a good mattress, sheets, and pillows you love, declutter, get blackout curtains or use a sleep mask.
· Stop using electronics 60 minutes before bed. I know, this is a tough one – but, the light from these devices can stimulate your brain and keep you from falling asleep. Put down the phone...Your bed is for 2 things – sleep and...sex, not tv or scrolling on social media.
While positive lifestyle habits can help improve sleep quality, seek medical assistance if you are concerned you may be suffering from a sleep disorder.
It is too easy to ignore good sleep, but now is the time to focus on improving the quality of your zzz’s for a simple way to boost your natural fertility and gain other health benefits.
For more support, learn about Embrace Fertility's natural Fertility Enhancing Program. | <urn:uuid:d6e36001-9e6c-4a6b-85aa-00a9df524b4e> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.embracefertility.com/post/how-is-sleep-connected-to-fertility | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487607143.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20210613071347-20210613101347-00287.warc.gz | en | 0.912767 | 961 | 2.90625 | 3 |
China recently secured land in the Democratic Republic of Congo roughly the size of Belgium, to set up the world’s largest palm tree plantation for biofuels. In December, Rwanda signed a $250 million investment deal to produce 20 million litres of biodiesel per year from jatropha, a hardy ‘wonder plant’ that can grow in low-quality soil. All over Africa the land grab to plant biofuels is speeding up. Ghana, Rwanda, Angola, Tanzania, Ethiopia – country after country is rushing into production of jatropha, hoping it will bring them foreign currency and cut their dependence on oil imports. But there are also threats: water shortages, evictions of farmers and corruption.
Take Tanzania. In October 2009, the Government reportedly suspended millions of dollars’ worth of biofuel investments. The reason? Growing public outcry over the looming evictions of local farmers. Foreign companies were planting biofuel crops on fertile lands intended for growing food.
The problem in Tanzania, as in many sub-Saharan countries, is lack of policy to guide biofuel investments. The cost of unclear procedures is borne by villagers, who often have no knowledge of their own rights. In exchange for land, companies promise to build schools, roads and water supply systems. But such promises are rarely put in writing. Laws to protect the environment are lacking. Water is being diverted to irrigation, threatening supply for the biggest city, Dar es Salaam. Jatropha, native to Central America, replaces local plants, and is grown in massive monocultures that require the use of pesticides. ‘Ministry officials told me that the coastal forests have been cleared,’ says Emmanuel Sulle, Research Associate at Tanzania Natural Resource Forum. ‘Protecting them is a challenge, since there is poor co-ordination between the Ministry of Lands and Ministry of Natural Resources.’
Tanzania is pushing to become a world leader in the production of jatropha, which can provide income for farmers from otherwise unproductive soils. According to the Tanzania Investment Centre, the country has over 33 million hectares of uncultivated, arable land. But uncultivated doesn’t mean unused. For many villagers such land is a source of firewood, medicinal herbs and building materials. When foreign investors come, locals get displaced.
Moreover, loss of economic opportunities is rarely included in compensation for land legally belonging to a village. In Kilwa District in southern Tanzania, villagers were paid less than $10 per hectare by a biofuel company for giving up their right to their farms. The International Institute for Environment and Development, a London-based think-tank, calculated that in some cases the value of timber harvested from such land each year is higher than the compensation the villagers receive.
According to Esther Mfugale, biofuels co-ordinator at Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Co-operatives, the guidelines for biofuel investment will be ready in early 2010. ‘So far we’ve been learning,’ says Mfugale. ‘Now we are going to create awareness in local communities about land issues and biofuel potential. We are going to be very busy.’ But guidelines may not be enough to protect farmers and the environment. What is needed are laws, enforcement and co-operation between state agencies. ‘But at least they are trying,’ concedes Emmanuel Sulle. Which, unfortunately, cannot be said about many other African governments.
This first appeared in our award-winning magazine - to read more, subscribe from just £7 | <urn:uuid:dbbc528e-2959-4ca1-a580-8c36abbfa146> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newint.org/columns/currents/2010/03/01/land-rights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708882773/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125442-00080-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956308 | 741 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Neck pain is one of the most common ailments faced by the majority of us out there. Although a tiny percentile of these is serious, neck pains account to disability in some cases if not treated correctly. They usually last no longer than a week with subsiding pain since the initial onset. The neck is a vital part of the body that helps us interact with our environment, by providing mobility to our head which houses the majority of our sensory organs.
The neck connects our head with the trunk and limbs and is a protective extension for the nervous system that runs the entire body system. The neck provides a secure channel for nerves and blood vessels between the brain and the rest of the body. It supports the near 5 kg head while giving it mobility. The spine begins at the top of our neck and runs through the back of the body.
There are 33 bones called vertebrae that are stacked upon each other to give flexibility and protection. The top 7 vertebrae make up the neck, also called the cervical spine. These are numbered during scans to identify for medical diagnosis. Let us try to discover more about how it starts, whether to seek medical attention and the treatment procedures available.
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What Causes Neck Pain
Often the structures involved with neck pain are muscles and ligaments that support the neck, cervical facet joints, cervical discs, neural structures. Depending on the degree of force that caused the injury, it may be Traumatic or atraumatic neck pain. Depending on the occurrence of the episode, the pain may be acute, chronic or episodic. Acute pain is when it has lasted for less than 6-weeks. Chronic or persistent pain when endured over 12-weeks. Episodic pain when episodes of the same type of pain and injury recur. A stiff neck due to a sprain to the muscles or ligaments of the neck is called “Acute wry neck”. It occurs when waking up from an inept sleeping position or turning the head wrong.
Postural neck pain is by strain on neck joints and muscles. It occurs due to wrong postures, especially continuous hours in front of computer, phone or tablet screens, lying on the couch in front of the TV. Thinning of the intervertebral discs due to age, or changes to the joints due to arthritis, causes Cervical spondylosis. It is a stiffness of the neck, causing soreness often in the mornings. Whiplash is general neck pain and stiffness by sudden forceful movement of the head. Caused during vehicle accidents, or falls during sporting events. The pain subsides within a few weeks of the incident.
Although neck pain is plenty of trauma in itself, it is often a precursor to another. Headaches, Arm Pain, Pins and needles in your hand and arm, Tight upper back, Sinus pains are few of the ailments that are closely connected to neck pain. Upper neck problems from poor posture, stiffness, joint inflammation, strain or lack of muscle control can overly excite the lower brain stem and result in headaches or migraines. Arm pain or pins and needles in your hand and arm occurs due to nerve roots coming out of the cervical spine compromised by bony spurs around the neck joint, inflammations or disc changes. Tight upper back could occur from pain due to changes in the lower neck joints. Stiffness of the outside part of the vertebrae that moves against it, inflammation of the discs, wear and tear are reasons leading to lower neck joint problems. Sinus pain could be caused by neck related trigger points.
A few causes of neck pain are:
- Sedentary style of work
- Poor health and routines of fitness
- Improper physical posture during driving, sleeping or sex
- Frequency increases with age
- Family derived diseases and disorders
- Previous occurrence leads to repeated episodes
- Anxiety and depression are often indicative
When To Diagnose
Although neck pain is a temporary ailment, in case of severe pain that is recurrent and persistent, it is highly advisable to seek medical attention immediately. Repetitive patterns in neck pain symptoms suggest the proper diagnosis and correct treatment in each case. In breaking down the pain causes and effects, the physiotherapist may be able to help you out accordingly. Tracing back to how the injury occurred helps in understanding the amount of damage. Finding out the points of pain, how it hurts, how the pain could get worse or better, helps in analyzing the ligament or muscle strains quickly enough.
In some instances of suspected fractures scans are advised, such as major traumas or elderly patients. Possible tumours, infections, cancer history all better be treated after detailed scan reports. Medication is usually painkillers that could lower the pain sensation and does not address the real issue. Physical or cognitive treatment or ultimately, physiotherapy is the final answer. Treatment is carried out by spinal physiotherapists after a thorough physical examination. This includes observing postures, feeling the muscles, moving the neck, assessing the strength of the muscles, testing sensation and reflexes and recreating pain during specific movements. Questioning the patient, physical observation and scan reports are plenty of evidence enough to go ahead with the treatment.
Common Treatment Procedures
Highly trained physiotherapists lead the treatment. Pain specialists and other specialist physiotherapists act together for specific treatment. Psychologists support the patient to cope with mental stress. Exercise physiologists having specialised training with Neurosurgeons and Spinal Surgeons get consulted in case of advanced treatment or surgery. Interventional radiologists assist them in diagnosing injuries.
Spinal Physiotherapists have expertise in spinal conditions. They quickly identify movement patterns and can relate pains specific to each patient. In severe cases of disc problems, discectomy gets advised. In this, the disc is entirely or partially cut out by minimally invasive procedures. They have the highest results rate with minimal muscle disruption and decreased recovery time.
One must take into consideration seating posture ergonomics in case of sedentary work culture. Refrain from a fixed posture of watching the TV, phone or tablet screens for prolonged durations. Give ample rest for neck, shoulder, back and arms during or after whatever physical activity you take. | <urn:uuid:46c3d3d6-8c35-43b8-bab2-bdc9b870f796> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.sridevihospital.com/get-rid-of-that-neck-pain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141723602.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203062440-20201203092440-00557.warc.gz | en | 0.94576 | 1,292 | 3.203125 | 3 |
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