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Today we started exploring polar animals a little . I love putting new things on the tables and watching them explore and decide how to use them.
Just from this picture alone there are so many opportunities to teach concepts .
Which is the smallest ?
Which is the largest?
Which swims in water?
Which as fur ?
Which has feathers?
What color are the animals?
The list could go on and on.
In small group today we looked an some old copies of the weekly reader I had . The generally love the weekly readers and it is a piece of paper they can take him that as a parent you can go over with them .
( You also see a patterning activity there… )
But then you get to the back and you see one of the reasons I didnt subscribe this year. Match the animal to its name . REALLY ? We are just not getting really good at recognizing our own names and our friends names. Some of the kids were persistent that they do the back so we matched the dots. ” Draw a line from the blue dot to the other blue dot. ”
Randy did a density experiment with the kids today too. Density is how much something weighs. The kids was to layer the liquids so that they stacked on top of each other and didnt mix and made a rainbow.
And it worked !
All in a days work … until tomorrow! | <urn:uuid:2c36c025-3836-4d25-b4c1-ea61eec92405> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://siloampreschool.com/2012/01/polar-animals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027323246.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20190825084751-20190825110751-00416.warc.gz | en | 0.963802 | 287 | 2.8125 | 3 |
by Kathy Larson
photos by Kathy Larson and Joe Coffey
On March 16, I watched the eastern half of the Frontier prairie go up in flames. This part of the prairie hadn’t been burned for seven or eight years and the plant litter was thick, so the fire burned hot and fast.
Fire has been important to maintaining the prairie that covers the Midwest since before the arrival of settlers. Native prairie grasses and flowering plants carry the buds for next year’s growth underground where they are protected from fire. The buds of trees are above ground where they’re easily damaged or killed by fire. Young trees and seedlings are killed by fire.
Fire also helps rid the prairie of the build-up of heavy plant litter which can smother or shade other plants. Burning opens up the land to sun and rains and returns nutrients back to the soil.
Our local fire department volunteers are our prairie burn heroes. They take the opportunity to practice handling grass fires by conducting a controlled burn of our prairie. For us, it’s assurance that the fire won’t get out of control.
The day was perfect for the burn: sunny, warm and breezy. While we didn’t want a strong wind, the 10-mph wind out of the south was perfect to help hurry the flames along.
The burn began with a water truck driving around parts of the perimeter and wetting down trees and bushes that were close to the prairie.
The firefighters then started a back fire on the north side of the prairie using a small drip torch.
The back fire burned more slowly because it was burning into the wind. It created a burned area that would corral the main fire.
The firefighters left an opening in the backburn to provide exits for wildlife. We saw pheasants, rabbits, snakes, mice and many red-winged blackbirds moving to the unburned section of prairie. We always burn our prairie in alternate years to leave nesting sites for the prairie wildlife.
As the backburn started to die out, another was started on the lower east and west sides of the prairie. The east burn came up over a small hill, and catching the wind, began to turn hot and strong with flames shooting up into the air. It was our first sight of the strength and ferocity of a prairie fire.
The final phase of the burn came when the rest of the east side and the south sides were set on fire.
If all went well, the fire would burn the rest of the way across the prairie and end at the small pond. I walked to the pond to watch the approach of the fire. As it came over the ridge the sound was loud and a bit frightening. Flames were 20 feet high and the fire was advancing very fast. I looked up from my camera and it suddenly seemed that it would overwhelm me and my small pond area refuge.
Not to worry, though. Minutes later it was all but over and lingering smoke and the ashes of the dead foliage puffed across the blackened prairie.
Five days after the burn, the blackened prairie is already turning green. Helped along by rain and warm temperatures, the benefits of fire can quickly be seen as newly exposed soil hastens the emergence of plants.
Next month we’ll look at what’s coming up — in both the burned and unburned portions of the prairie –and we’ll see how they compare. | <urn:uuid:9c063df6-8c22-430e-ad04-9f2cf62b5cc4> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://cayenneroom.com/2012/03/22/fire-on-the-tallgrass-prairie/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247480622.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216145907-20190216171907-00063.warc.gz | en | 0.965057 | 727 | 3.21875 | 3 |
New Publication : Contemporary Issues in Human Rights Education
Current issues including the celebration of diversity, interfaith dialogue, gender-sensitive education, prevention of racism, discrimination and violence as well as civic engagement of youth are discussed in a new UNESCO publication entitles “Contemporary Issues in Human Rights Education”.
This collection of papers addresses contemporary issues in human rights education which has shifted over time, as new social contexts have evolved, in turn throwing up ever more complex challenges to educators. It discusses key questions that build on concepts of human rights education and includes examples of actions reported by UNESCO Member States.
Human rights education has been at the core of UNESCO’s work ever since the Organization was created in 1945, with the mandate to promote peace and tolerance in the context of a world torn apart by the Second World War.
The publication is one of UNESCO’s contributions to the major UN initiatives, including the ongoing World Programme for Human Rights Education.
French and Spanish versions are foreseen in late 2011.
UNESCO’s work on Human Rights Education
<- Back to: Human Rights Education | <urn:uuid:15e64484-28e8-4739-9df0-93d79d57bcb6> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/human-rights-education/single-view/news/new_publication_contemporary_issues_in_human_rights_education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257828010.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071028-00069-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93005 | 226 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 48
The variety of forms of sexual violence reflects, to some extent, the different experiences of indigenous women and girls around the world. It also reflects the multidimensional ways in which indigenous women are vulnerable to violence and the severe threat of revictimization.
Non-negotiated soft law
Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
Equality & Inclusion
SR Indigenous Peoples, Report to the HRC (2015), A/HRC/30/41, para. 48. | <urn:uuid:8a9e5916-32ce-4e78-91d9-365448750646> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.girlsrightsplatform.org/en/entity/1eob8dwbrms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948632.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327123514-20230327153514-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.817588 | 180 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Acrylate Butadiene Rubber
Surface loss of a material due to frictional forces.
The ability to resist mechanical wear. - The resistance of a material to loss of surface particles due to friction.
The act or process of one substance absorbing another substances liquid, gas or vapor into its interior.
A method in which an attempt is made to produce and measure the effects of natural aging in a shorter period.
Accelerated Life Test
Test conditions designed to reproduce, in a shortened time period, the deterioration a product will obtain in its normal conditions.
A compounding material used in small amounts with a vulcanizing agent to increase the speed of vulcanization. A chemical which speeds up the vulcanization of an elastomer.
A concept of exactness. When applied to a test method, it denotes the extent to which bias is absent; when applied to a measured value, it denotes the extent to which both bias and random error are absent.
Withstands the action of acids.
Defect in which the rubber adjacent to the mold parting line shrinks below the level of the molded product, often leaving the parting line ragged and torn.
Compounding material used in small proportions to increase the effectiveness of an accelerator.
The precise size of an o-ring or seal in decimal dimensions, inches or millimeters, including tolerances.
The tendency of a material to cling to a contact surface. The state in which two surfaces are held together by interfacial forces which may consist of molecular forces or interlocking action, or both.
Clinging or sticking of two surfaces.
The separation of two materials at the surface interface rather than within one of the materials itself.
Part of a cement system applied over prepared surfaces for bonding them to rubber
The adhesive force in accordance with this standard is the maximum force which arises when the elastomer is peeled off from the rigid plate of a standard test body at an angle of 90 °C
The surface retention of matter by other matter.
Clusters of particles of compounding materials contained in a continuous rubber phase.
(1) The irreversible change of material properties after environmental exposure for an interval of time; (2) Exposing materials to an environment for an interval of time.
Surface markings resulting from the trapping of air between the material being cured and the mold surface.
The vulcanization of a rubber product in air as distinguished from vulcanizing in a press or steam vulcanizer.
Surface markings or depressions due to trapping air voids in body or part due to entrapped gas between the materials being cured and the mold or press surface.
A unique composition of two or more polymers that has one or more of the polymers treated or processed in a special way to confer enhanced performance characteristics on the resulting material.
A positively charged particle consisting of two protons and two neutrons.
Materials with no definite arrangement of atoms.
A unit of length, an angstrom is one ten thousandth of a micron (10-4 µm) or 100,000,000 Ã =1 cm.
An etch process that exhibits little or no undercutting.
A high temperature processing step, designed to minimize stress in the crystal structure of the wafer.
A substance added to field latex to retard bacterial action which would otherwise cause rapid coagulation of the latex.
A compounding material used to retard deterioration caused by oxidation, ozone, light and combinations of these.
Anti-Extrusion Ring or Device
A washer like device of a relatively hard material placed in the gland between the o-ring and groove side wall also called a back up ring.
A thin ring installed on the low pressure side of a seal to prevent elastomer extrusion into the clearance gap.
A compounding material used to retard cracking caused by cyclic deformations.
Compounding material used to retard deterioration caused by oxidation.
A material which reduces the tendency for accumulation of electric charge on the surface of an article.
Compounding material used to retard deterioration caused by ozone.
Referred to here as a part of Reliability Engineering. Synonymous with the term Reliability Apportionment, which is the assignment of reliability goals from system to subsystem in such a way that the whole system will have the required reliability.
The attack strength S in mg of the sheet of test emery paper is the loss in mass of a defined test body from the control elastomer that is moved over this sheet under defined test conditions
A pressure vessel into which materials or articles can be placed and exposed to steam under pressure. It is commonly used for vulcanization.
A hydrocarbon process oil containing at least 35%, by mass, of aromatic hydrocarbons.
The residue from incineration of a material under specified conditions.
The process of removing photoresist with oxygen plasma.
Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD)
A method for depositing layers at atmospheric pressure.
A reduction in intensity of energy traveling through a medium or space.
An o-ring that seals on a plane perpendicular to its axis.
Compression on the top and bottom of the o-rings surface.
A washer like device of a relatively hard material placed in the gland between the o-ring and groove side wall, also called a back up ring.
Secondary post-curing operation designed to remove residual volatile materials.
An electron or positron emitted from a nucleus.
Brom Isobutene Isoprene Rubber
A transistor (consisting of an emitter, base and collector) whose action depends on the injection of minority carriers from the base by the collector.
A portion of a rubber compound of suitable volume to fill the cavity of a mold.
The exuding of a liquid compounding material from the surface of a vulcanized or unvulcanized rubber.
Deformity on the surface of a molded product.
A cavity within the lining material, between the lining materials layers, or between the lining and substrate.
A liquid or solid material that has migrated to the surface of a rubber, thereby changing appearance. Sometimes confused with surface dust.
A compounding material used to produce gas by chemical or physical action, or both, in the manufacture of hollow or cellular articles.
The union of materials by use of adhesives, usually used in related parts vulcanized after attaching.
Borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG)
A compound of boron, phosphorus, silicon and oxygen.
Monomer that is combined or reacted with itself or other types of monomers in a polymerization reaction to form a polymer.
The force required to overcome friction to start a body in motion over a surface.
The temperature at which elastomers break when subjected to an impact.
Tendency to crack upon deformation.
Bulk modulus of elasticity
Also known as compression modulus, the ratio of compressive force applied to a surface per unit surface area to the change in volume of the substance per unit volume.
Bumping, molding process
The application, release, and reapplication of pressure prior to the start of vulcanization to vent entrapped gases, thereby facilitating complete filling of the mold.
A general term for the copolymer butadiene and acrylonitrile also referred to as NBR or Nitrile.
A general term for the copolymers of butadiene and styrene.
A joint made in a rubber part before or after vulcanization by placing the two pieces to be joined edge-to-edge.
Isobutene Isoprene rubber (IIR), synthetic rubber, soft rubber, chlorobutyl and bromobutyl rubber as variants containing halogens with modified properties, high chemical resistance and high resistance to permeation, resistant to ozone and weathering
A machine with two or more parallel, counter rotating rolls with a controllable, roll-to-roll spacing, rotating at selected surface speeds and controlled temperatures, used for sheeting, laminating, skim coating (topping) and friction coating, to a controlled thickness and/or surface condition. A machine equipped with two or more heavy, internally heated or cooled rolls used for the continuous sheeting or "plying up" of rubber compounds.
A discrete device which stores electrical charge on two conductors separated by a dielectric.
Elemental carbon in finely divided form used to reinforce elastomeric compounds.
A chemical in small quantities which accelerates a chemical reaction without itself necessarily becoming part of the final product.
Rubber products which contain cells or small hollow receptacles. The cells may either be open or interconnecting or closed and not interconnecting.
The formation of a powdery residue on the surface of a rubber, commonly resulting from surface degradation.
Typically, a gas or plasma cleaning of the chamber to prevent the buildup of polymer or contamination on the chamber walls.
An analytical technique for displaying the relationship between process parameters and manufacturing stations.
The short, shallow cracks on the surface of a rubber product, resulting from damaging action by environmental conditions.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
A method for depositing some of the layers which function as dielectrics, conductors or semiconductors. A chemical containing atoms of the material to be deposited reacts with another chemical, liberating the desired material, which deposits on the wafer while by-products of the reaction are removed from the reaction chamber.
A chemical adsorption process in which weak chemical bonds are formed between gas or liquid molecules and a solid surface.
Die or device, one of the individual integrated circuits or discrete devices on a wafer.
Chloro Isobutene Isoprene Rubber (CIIR)
The abbreviation for cloth inserted, indicating a sheet of rubber containing one or more plies of fabric covered with rubber.
A compounding ingredient used in small amounts to increase the cross-linking efficiency of certain no sulfur vulcanizing systems or to modify the properties given by such systems.
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
Average material expansion per one degree change in temperature, expressed as a fraction of the initial dimension.
Coefficient of friction
The force in the direction of motion required to move one surface with respect to another, divided by the force normal to the two surfaces.
A rupture occurring entirely within any single uniform layer of the assembly.
Continued deformation under stress.
O-Ring flexibility (resistance to cracking and breaking) at low temperatures.
The ability of an o-ring to function at low temperatures.
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)
N- and P-channel MOS transistors on the same chip.
One of the two or more monomer species that polymerize to form a copolymer.
A mixture of an elastomer and other ingredients to produce a rubber like material.
Thermoset molding technique in which the uncured rubber compound is put in a heated open mold cavity and closed under pressure. The material then flows completely filling the cavity.
The residual deformation of a material after removal of the compressive stress.
A seal composed of two or more dissimilar materials.
The storage of a rubber, under specified conditions (time, temperature, humidity) prior to testing.
To conduct or transmit heat or electricity.
Glue, used for the application of pre-vulcanized rubber material
Discoloration of a product by another material or by a rubber article in the area directly touching it.
A polymer consisting of two different monomers chemically combined.
Fissure(s) originating in the surface of a vulcanized n rubber or product as a result of natural weathering.
Fissure(s) originating in the surface of a vulcanized rubber, resulting from cyclic deformation (usually bending).
Fissure(s) originating in the surface of a vulcanized rubber, caused by exposure to an ozone-containing environment; the fissure(s) are perpendicular to the direction of strain.
A surface effect on rubber articles characterized by many minute cracks.
The deformation, in either cured or uncured rubber under stress, which occurs with lapse of time after the immediate deformation.
Arrangement of previously disordered polymer segments of repeating patterns into geometric symmetry.
Chemical bond bridging one polymer chain to another.
Compounding material that produces cross-linking in rubber.
An O-ring as viewed if cut at right angles to the axis showing internal structure.
Chloro Sulfonated Polyethylene
The act of vulcanization. See Vulcanization.
The act of vulcanization; a description of a definite time and temperature of vulcanization.
The distance between cuts or parallel faces of articles produced by repetitive slicing or cutting of long pre-shaped rods or tubes such as lathe cut washers.
An expression of the ratio of two values of power or voltage in logarithmic terms.
Any of various processes used to remove the waste edge from a molded rubber part.
The mass-per-unit volume of a material.
Process in which layers are formed as the result of a chemical reaction in which the desired layer material is formed and coats the wafer surface.
Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
An analytical technique used by a design responsible engineer/team as a means to assure, to the extent possible, that potential failure modes and their associated causes/mechanisms have been considered and addressed.
Design for Manufacturability and Assembly
A simultaneous engineering process designed to optimize the relationship between design function, manufacturability; and ease of assembly.
Design Information Checklist
A mistake proofing checklist designed to assure that all important items are considered in establishing design requirements.
A proactive process to prevent problems and misunderstandings.
Testing to ensure that product conforms to defined user needs and/or requirements. Design validation follows successful design verification and is normally performed on the final product under defined operating conditions. Multiple validations may be performed if there are different intended uses.
Testing to ensure that all design outputs meet design input requirements.
Compounding material used to irreversibly absorb moisture present (in a rubber mix) particularly for the purpose of minimizing risk of porosity during vulcanization.
Chemical used to remove areas defined in the masking and exposure step of wafer fabrication.
Diametral Clearance Gap
The difference in diameters between two mating surfaces.
The difference in the amount of force being exerted on the high pressure side of a seal relative to the low pressure side
The measure of a product's ability to resist passage of a disruptive discharge produced by an electric stress; the voltage that an insulating material can withstand before breakdown occurs,
Difference between the dimensions of the cross section of an extrudate and the corresponding dimensions of the die orifice by which the extrudate is formed.
A material that conducts no current when it has voltage across it.
A polymer formed from one or more monomer species, at least one of which is a diolefin.
The spontaneous mixing of one substance with another when in contact with, or separated by, a permeable membrane or microporous barrier.
A molecule with positive and negative charge centers.
Dispersing agent (latex)
A surface-active substance used to facilitate the suspension of solid compounding materials in a liquid medium and to stabilize the dispersion thereby produced.
Dispersion (the act of)
Application of shearing forces to distribute one or more compounding materials uniformly throughout the mass of a continuum material.
An element that alters the conductivity of a semiconductor by contributing either a hole or electron to the conduction process. For silicon, the dopants are found in Groups III and V of the periodic table.
The introduction of impurity atoms (dopants) into the crystal lattice of a semiconductor.
Etching a process resulting in the selective removal of material, achieved by the use of gas or plasma.
The growth of silicon dioxide using oxygen and hydrogen, which forms water vapor at process temperatures, rather than using water vapor directly.
A compact, firm, heavy, plain weave fabric made from cotton or synthetic fibers, or a combination of both. Duck is also known as canvas, army duck, belt duck harvester duck, hose duck and shoe duck.
A flat specimen having a narrow, straight central portion of essentially uniform cross section.
An arbitrary numerical value that measures the resistance to indentation of the blunt indenter point of the durometer. Shore hardness, Shore A for soft rubber, Shore D for Ebonite/hard rubber
Dynamic random access memory (DRAM)
Memory device for the storage of digital information. The information is stored in a volatile state.
A seal used in an environment that subjects it to movement.
The greatest stress that a material is capable of sustaining without any permanent strain remaining upon complete release of the stress.
The tendency of a material to return to its original shape after deformation.
A general term used to describe both natural and synthetic polymers possessing the resilience to return to its original shape after deformation.
A material that has a tendency to attract electrons to itself.
Percentage increase in original length of a specimen produced by a tensile force applied to the specimen.
A surface-active substance used to facilitate the dispersion of an immiscible liquid compounding material in another liquid and to stabilize the emulsion thereby produced.
(Greek for arranged upon) the growth of a single-crystal semiconductor film upon a single-crystal substrate.
Erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM)
Device that allows stored information to be erased; erasing is typically accomplished with ultraviolet light. Esters a compound formed by the elimination of water and the bonding of an alcohol and an organic acid.
a process for removing material in a specified area through a wet or dry chemical reaction or by physical removal, such as a sputter etch.
A process step that uses heat to change a material (metal or metal alloy) from its solid state to a gaseous state with a result of the source being deposited on wafers. Both electron beam and filament evaporation are common in semiconductor fabrication.
Cellular rubber having closed cells made from a solid rubber compound.
Method of defining patterns by the interaction of light or other form of energy with photoresist that is sensitive to the energy source.
An organic material used to augment the polymer in a compound.
A device for determining elongation of a specimen as it is strained.
The material that issues from an extruder.
Machine designed to force a rubber or rubber mix through an orifice, which is often shaped to the geometry of the desired product. machine for continuous forming of rubber by forcing through a die.
1) Distortion, under pressure, of portion of seal into clearance between mating metal parts. 2) Material, under pressure, which is forced through the opening of a die in order to obtain a desired cross sectional shape.
Failure Modes Analysis (FMA)
A formal, structured procedure used to analyze failure mode data from both current and prior processes to prevent occurrence of those failure modes in the future.
Fatigue life (dynamic)
The number of deformations required to produce a specified state of fatigue breakdown in a test piece or product that is deformed under a prescribed set of conditions.
A determination that a process, design, procedure, or plan can be successfully accomplished in the required time frame.
The region on an electrical device where the oxide serves the function of a dielectric.
Relatively inexpensive and inert material added to an elastomer to reinforce or modify properties.
The quality or appearance of the machined surface of a mold.
The quality or appearance of the surface of a rubber product.
Finite Element Analysis
A technique for modeling a complex structure. When the mathematical model is subjected to known loads, the displacement of the structure may be determined.
A surface split or crack.
The excess material protruding from the surface of a molded part at the mold junctions.
Surface imperfections that occur infrequently.
A cracking condition of the surface of rubber articles such as tires and footwear, resulting from constantly repeated bending or flexing in service.
Ability of a material to flex without permanent distortion or breaking.
Surface imperfections due to improper flow and failure of stock to knit or blend with itself during the molding operation.
Elastomer also known as fluoroelastomer.
A fluorinated silicone elastomer.
Foam stabilizer (latex)
A substance used in the preparation of latex foam to help stabilize the foam latex before gelation, drying and vulcanization.
A list of the materials and their amounts used in the preparation of a compound.
The number of periodic oscillations, vibrations or waves per unit of time.
Resistance to motion due to the contact of surfaces
A piece of equipment containing a resistance heated element and a temperature controller. It is used to maintain a region of constant temperature with a controlled atmosphere for the processing of semiconductor devices.
Furnace carbon black
Type of carbon black produced by the decomposition reaction of hydrocarbons when injected into a high-velocity stream of combustion gases under controlled conditions.
Gallium arsenide (GaAs)
A semiconductor material with the advantage of producing radiation resistant and higher speed devices than those produced using silicon as a substrate.
Glass transition point
Temperature at which a material loses its glass-like properties and becomes a semi-liquid.
A deformable material clamped between essentially stationary faces to prevent the passage of matter through an opening or joint.
The openings in an injection or transfer mold that ensure even flow into the cavity.
A thin, high-quality silicon dioxide film that causes the induction of charge, creating a channel between source and drain regions of an MOS transistor.
Gel, dry rubber
The portion of unvulcanized rubber insoluble in a chosen solvent.
A cavity into which a seal is installed.
The unidirectional orientation of rubber or filler particles occurring during processing (extrusion, milling, calen- dering) resulting in anisotropy of a vulcanized rubber.
(1) The resistance to deformation of a rubber stock in the uncured state. (2) Uncured adhesion between plied or spliced surfaces.
The machined glandular recess into which the o-ring is fitted.
Compound a rubber compound containing only those ingredients necessary for vulcanization and small amounts of other ingredients for processing, coloring and improving the resistance to aging.
Ability to resist a distorting force.
Loss of physical properties as a result of exposure to heat.
The accumulation of thermal energy generated within a material as a result of hysteresis, evidenced by an increase in temperature.
The accumulated amount of heat a rubber stock has been subjected to during processing operations, usually after incorporation of the vulcanizing agents. Incipient cure or scorch can take place if heat history has been excessive.
Rubber compounds capacity to undergo exposure to some specified level of elevated temperature and retain a high level of its original properties.
An international unit for frequency the number of cycles per second.
Polymer composed of differing monomers
The absence of a valence electron in a semiconductor crystal. Motion of a hole is equivalent to motion of a positive charge.
Having uniform composition or structure.
Repeated passage of raw rubber through a mill or other mixing device, under specified conditions, to ensure uniformity.
A polymer formed from a single monomer species.
Hybrid integrated circuit
A structure consisting of an assembly of one or more semiconductor devices and a thin film integrated circuit on a single substrate, usually ceramic.
Unusually strong dipole-dipole attractions that occur among molecules in which hydrogen is bonded to a highly electronegative atom.
Chemical decomposition of a substance involving the addition of water.
Affinity toward water (water-loving); a hydrophilic surface is one that will allow water to spread across it in large puddles.
Aversion to water; a hydrophobic surface will not allow large puddles of water, but rather will form droplets. These surfaces are often termed "de-wetted."
Attracts and absorbs water.
The lagging of strain behind stress during deformation.
The inside diameter
Sobutene Isoprene Rubber (usually designated butyl rubber)
Resistance to fracture under shock force. Impedance the total opposition offered by an electric circuit to the flow of an alternating current. It is the combination of resistance and reactance.
A material used to suppress a chemical reaction.
Process where preheated rubber is injected under pressure through a closed mold cavity.
Mixing unit for the production of rubber mixtures
Interlayer dielectric (ILD)
Films that insulate between the wafer surface and the first metal layer. They are typically some form of doped silicon dioxide, formed by reaction between a silicon source gas (silane or TEOS), an oxidizing gas (O2, N2) and dopant source gases.
Intermetal dielectric (IMD)
Films that insulate between two layers of conductive metal.
An atom that has either gained or lost electrons, making it a charged particle.
Introduction of selected impurities (dopants) by means of high-voltage ion bombardment to achieve desired electronic properties in defined areas.
The electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ionsâ€"characterized by electron transfer.
A polymeric molecular structure containing a sequence of regularly spaced asymmetric atoms arranged in like configuration in the polymer chain.
Having the same properties in all directions.
An organic compound containing the carbonyl group -C=O.
The minimum force required to maintain a body in motion over a surface.
Where raw stock did not unite into a homogeneous mass during the vulcanization. This is also called poor knitting. See Flow marks
A joint made by overlapping the edge of one piece of material flat over the edge of another.
Colloidal aqueous dispersion of rubber.
Layer thickness of the rubber lining
Thickness of the rubber lining applied, usually nominal thickness +/- 10 %
The rate at which a fluid passes through a barrier.
A laboratory test of the amount and duration of a products resistance to destructive forces.
Light-emitting diode (LED)
A semiconductor device in which the energy of minority carriers in combining with holes is converted to light.
A custom seal, static or dynamic, that seals on a flexible extension.
A mass of material or collection of articles of similar composition and characteristics.
Low Temperature Flexibility
The ability of an elastomeric product to be flexed at low temperatures without cracking.
The probability that a failed system can be made operable in a specified interval or downtime.
A bar, serving as a core, around which rubber is extruded, forming a center hole.
A glass plate covered with an array of patterns used in the photomasking process. Mask patterns may be formed in emulsion, chrome, iron oxide, silicon or a number of other opaque materials.
A homogeneous mixture of rubber and one or more materials in known proportions for use as a raw material in the preparation of the final compounds.
A breakdown or softening of raw rubber, or a mix, by the combined action of mechanical work (shear) and atmospheric oxygen, sometimes accelerated by the use of a peptizer and frequently at elevated temperatures.
Points where different parts of an assembly meet.
Ability of an elastomeric material to return to its original shape after deformation.
1) the deposition of a thin film pattern of conductive material onto a substrate to provide interconnection of electronic components or to provide conductive contacts. 2) the layer of high-conductivity metal used to interconnect devices on a chip. Aluminum is commonly used.
Hardness measured with an instrument having a smaller indentor and applying a lower force than the standard instrument, permitting measurements on smaller specimens or thinner sheets that are not amenable to measurement by normal instruments.
A unit of length, one millionth of a meter.
A machine with two horizontal rolls revolving in opposite directions used for the mastication or mixing of rubber.
a defect resulting from differing cross-section dimensions in adjacent mold halves.
A machine that incorporates and disperses compounding ingredients into rubber to form a mix or a compound through the action of mechanical work (shear).
A machine with a closed cavity in which a specially shaped rotor (or rotors) masticates the rubber or incorporates and disperses compounding materials into the rubber, or both.
Driven pair of rollers for the production of rubber mixtures as well as for the plasticizing, homogenizing, preheating and rough-crushing of rubber
The ratio of stress to strain. In the physical testing of rubber, the load necessary to produce stated percentage of elongation, compression or shear.
Modulus of Elasticity
Ratio of the stress to the strain as measured on a rubber specimen.
See tensile stress, at given elongation the preferred term.
Hollow space in the mold designed to impart the desired form to the product being made.
Means used to align the parts of a mold.
Surface imperfection transferred to a molded product from corresponding marks on a mold.
See release agent (mold).
The process of forming a material to a desired shape by flow induced by a force applied after a material is placed in the mold cavity.
The process of forming a material by forcing it from an external heated chamber through a gate into the cavity of a closed mold by means of a pressure gradient that is independent of the mold clamping force.
The difference in dimensions between a molded product and the mold cavity in which it was molded, both the mold and product being at normal room temperature when measured.
The process of forming a material by forcing it from an auxiliary heated chamber through a gate into the cavity of a closed mold by means of a pressure gradient that is dependent on the mold clamping force.
Smallest quantity of a substance that retains the properties of that substance.
A low molecular weight substance consisting of molecules capable of reacting with like or unlike molecules to form a polymer.
A measure of the incipient curing characteristics of a rubber compound using the Mooney viscometer.
A measure of the viscosity of a rubber or rubber compound determined in a Mooney shearing disc viscometer.
Natural rubber or polymer of isoprene (NR), lower degree of cross-linking than hard natural rubber, high abrasion resistance, medium chemical resistance
Acrylnitrile-butadiene rubber (usually designated nitrile rubber)
Acrylnitrile Chloroprene Rubber.
The localized reduction in cross section that may occur in a material under tensile stress.
Photoresist that remains in areas that were not protected from exposure by the opaque regions of a mask while being removed by the developer in regions that were protected. A negative image of the mask remains following the development process.
Trade name, the usual designation in the USA for chlororprene rubber
The elastic resistance of unvulcanized rubber or rubber compounds to permanent deformation during processing.
A three-dimensional structure formed by interchain or bonding of polymer molecules in combination with chain entanglements.
Progressive mode of seal failure that occurs when excessive pressure forces a portion of the o-ring into a clearance gap.
The radial clearance between rolls of a mill or calender on a line of centers.
Acrylnitrile Isoprene Rubber
Copolymer of Butadiene and Acrylonitrile presently the industry’s most common elastomer.
The absence of a bloom.
A defect in a finished rubber product caused by the rubber failing to completely fill the mold.
Pertaining to an element or compound which has no permanent dipole moment.
Approximate size of an o-ring or seal in fractional dimensions.
Natural Rubber (latex), plantation rubber
Quality Planning Sign-Off
A review and commitment by the Product Quality Planning Team that all planned controls and processes are being followed.
Process by which materials are entrapped within the folds of a given substance during manufacture.
The outside diameter of an o-ring.
Misalignment of mold halves causing out-of round O-ring cross section.
Ability of a vulcanized rubber to resist the swelling and deteriorating effects of various type of oils.
A family of hydrocarbons with one carbon-carbon double bond.
A polymer consisting of only a few monomer units, such as a dimer, trimer, tetramer, etc., or their mixtures.
A cell not totally enclosed by its walls and hence interconnecting with other cells.
State of vulcanization at which maximum desired property is attained.
In this application the inner or outer member if the gland moves in an arc around the axis of a shaft, most commonly used in faucets.
The release of adsorbed or occluded gases or water vapor, usually by heating.
The addition of another layer of lining over an in-place lining construction before
A chemical reaction in which a compound loses electrons.
The surface cracks, checks, or crazing caused by exposure to an atmosphere containing ozone.
The ability of rubber to withstand exposure to ozone without cracking or breaking.
A collar or gasket used to seal mechanical devices to retain fluids under pressure or seal out foreign matter.
Straight-chain hydrocarbons of the methane series.
The parting force is the adhesive force related to the width of the test body
The final layer in a semiconductor device, forming a hermetic seal over the circuit elements. Plasma nitride and silicon dioxide are materials primarily used for passivation.
Most often as a final passivation layer.
A thin film of an optical-grade polymer that is stretched on a frame and secured to a mask or reticle. This solves the problem of airborne contamination forming on the mask. The pellicle keeps the dirt out of the focal plane.
A fully fluorinated fluoroelastomer. charges. Polar molecules ionize in solution and impart conductivity.
The permanent distortion of an elastomer after being strained.
The permeation rate divided by the pressure gradient of the gas or vapor.
The permeation rate divided by the pressure differential of a gas or vapor between opposite faces of a solid body.
The flow rate of a gas or vapor, under specified conditions, through a prescribed area of a solid body, divided by that area.
An insoluble compounding material used to impart color.
A small, pore-like defect or leak extending entirely through the lining thickness and appearing as a discontinuity; synonymous with "holiday".
High-energy gas made up of ionized particles.
Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD)
A deposition system primarily used for deposition of silicon oxide and silicon nitride films. A plasma is used in addition to a heat source which allows for lower temperature processing (200°/400°C).
The use of energized gases to chemically remove a surface.
A silicon-nitrogen film deposited using
(1) A measure of the resistance to shear of an unvulcanized elastomer; (2) A tendency of a material to remain deformed after reduction of the deforming stress to or below its yield stress.
A compounding material used to enhance the deformability of a polymeric compound.
Uneven blister-like elevations, depressions, or pimpled appearance.
Describing a molecule or radical that has, or is capable of developing, electrical
Polychloroprene Chloroprene Rubber (CR)
Synthetic rubber, polymer of 2-chlorobutadiene, can be vulcanized to soft rubber, shows good chemical resistance as well as resistance to ageing, weathering and abrasion, and has medium resistance to oils
Polyisoprene Isoprene Rubber (IR)
Synthetic version of natural rubber, is used instead of or mixed with natural rubber, can be processed to hard or soft rubber
A substance consisting of macromolecules characterized by the repetition (neglecting ends, branch junctions and other minor irregularities) of one or more types of monomeric units.
A three-dimensional reticulate structure formed by chemical or physical linking of polymer chains.
Polycrystalline silicon, extensively used as conductor or gate material in a highly doped state.
The presence of numerous small holes or voids.
Heat or radiation treatment, or both, to which a cured or partially cured thermosetting plastic or rubber composition is subjected to enhance the level of one or more properties.
The period of time during which a reacting thermosetting plastic or rubber composition remains suitable for its intended use after mixing with a reaction-initiating agent.
Preliminary Bill of Material
An initial Bill of Material completed prior to design and print release.
Preliminary Process Flow Chart
An early depiction of the anticipated manufacturing process for a product.
Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA)
An analytical technique used by a manufacturing responsible engineer/ team as a means to assure that, to the extent possible, potential failure modes and their associated causes/mechanisms have been considered and addressed.
Product Assurance Plan
A part of the Product Quality Plan. It is a prevention-oriented management tool that addresses product design, process design, and when applicable software design.
Production Trial Run
Product made using all production tools, processes, equipment, environment, facility; and cycle time.
The first coat of an adhesive system applied over a prepared surface for adhesion of rubber.
A physical adsorption process in which there are van der Waals forces of interaction between gas or liquid molecules and a solid surface.
A material commonly used for dielectrics before metalization, also for passivation. These films are composed of phosphorous-doped silicon dioxide.
The light-sensitive organic polymer film spun onto wafers and exposed using high-intensity light through a mask. The exposed photoresist is dissolved with developers, leaving a pattern of photoresist which allows etching to take place in some areas while preventing it in others.
Vapor deposition (PVD) the layering of a vapor, usually by means of evaporation or sputtering.
The relative ease with which raw or compounded rubber can be handled in rubber machinery.
A compounding material that improves the processability of a polymeric compound.
A concept of uniformity based on the magnitude of the random errors. The smaller the random errors, the higher the precision.
The principal, highest concentration accelerator used in a vulcanizing system.
O-ring or seal having compression applied to its outside diameter (O.D.) and inside diameter (I.D.).
Compression on an O-ring outside diameter (O.D.) and inside diameter (I.D.).
Atoms or polyatomic molecules with at least one unpaired electron.
A multi-step wet chemical process to clean wafers before oxidation; named after RCA, the company that invented the procedure.
Reactive ion etching (RIE)
An etching process that combines plasma and ion beam removal of the surface layer. The etchant gas enters the reaction chamber and is ionized. The individual molecules accelerate to the wafer surface. At the surface, the top layer removal is achieved by the physical and chemical removal of the material.
Rebound is a measure of the resilience, usually as the percent- age of vertical return of a body which has fallen and bounced.
The rebound resilience R is the ratio of the energy recovered to the energy expended
Method of deter - mining the resilient properties of vulcanized rubber, by measuring rebound of a steel ball or pendulum falling from a definite height onto a rubber sample.
A formula, mixing procedure and any other instructions needed for the preparation of a product.
Dynamic seal used to seal piston or seals.
The degree to which a rubber product returns to its normal dimensions after being distorted.
The act of increasing the mechanical performance capability of a rubber by the incorporation of materials that do not participate significantly in the vulcanization process.
Release agent (mold)
A substance applied to the inside surfaces of a mold or added to a material to be molded, to facilitate removal of the product from the mold.
The probability that an item will continue to function at customer expectation levels at a measurement point, under specified environmental and duty cycle conditions.
The variation in the average of measurements made by different operators using the same gage when measuring identical characteristics of the same parts.
The property of a material that enables it to return to its original size and shape after removal of the stress which causes the deformation.
The ratio of output to input mechanical energy in a rapid deformation and recovery cycle of a rubber specimen.
The ratio of the electric potential gradient to the current density when the gradient is parallel to the current in the material.
A material used to reduce the tendency of a rubber compound to vulcanize prematurely.
A reproduction of the pattern to be imaged on the wafer (or mask) by a step-and-repeat process. The actual size of the pattern on the reticle is usually several times the final size of the pattern on the wafer.
Deterioration of vulcanizate properties that may occur when vulcanization time is extended beyond the optimum. A similar change in properties after air aging at elevated temperatures. Natural rubber, butyl, polysulfides and epichlorobydrin polymers exhibit this effect (extreme reversion may result in tackiness). Most other polymers will harden and suffer loss of elongation on hot air aging.
Rubber Manufactures AssociationRCA, the company that invented the procedure.
Root Mean Square - The measure of surface roughness, obtained as the square root of the sum of the squares of micro-inch deviation from true flat.
Root Mean Square - The measure of surface roughness, obtained as the square root of the sum of the squares of micro-inch deviation from true flat.
High performance extruder with wide extrusion head and two-roller calendar
Seals for rotating shafts, with the turning shaft protruding through the I.D. of the o-ring.
A material that exhibits elastic properties that allow recovery from large deformations quickly and forcibly. A tough, waterproof substance obtained through polyme- ric synthesis or in natural form from the sap of various species of plants or trees.
Rubber hardness degree, international (IRHD)
A measure of hardness, the magnitude of which is derived from the depth of penetration of a specified indentor into a specimen under specified conditions. The scale is so chosen that zero would represent a material showing no measurable resistance to indentation, and 100 would represent a material showing no measurable indentation.
Colloidal aqueous emulsion of an elastomer.
A natural product from the juices of tropical plants
Calendered Several plyers of thin rubber foils of the same or different qualities applied to one rubber sheet
Rubber sheets - extruded
Continuous extrusion of rubber sheets or hoses in one layer
Rubber sheets – precured
Rubber sheets, partially or completely cured in an autoclave prior application
Man made elastomers such as Nitrile.
The secondary feed channel for transferring material under pressure from the inner end of the sprue to the cavity gate.
Society of Automotive Engineers.
Styrene Butadiene Rubber
Scanning electron microscope (SEM)
Microscope used to magnify images as much as 50,000 times by means of scanning with an electron beam. The impinging electrons cause electrons on the surface to be ejected. The ejected electrons are collected and translated into a picture of the surface.
A connection made with two ends cut at an angle and overlapping.
Premature vulcanization of a rubber compound, generally due to excessive heat history. Also see Mooney Scorch;
The time to incipient cure of a compound when tested in the Mooney shearing disk viscometer under specific conditions.
Premature curing of rubber during storage or processing, usually caused by excess heat.
Any material or device that prevents or controls the passage of matter across the separable members of a mechanical assembly.
A product of precise dimensions molded in one piece to the configuration of a torus with circular cross section, suitable for use in a machined groove for static or dynamic service.
Accelerator used in smaller concentrations, compared to the primary accelerator, to achieve a faster rate of vulcanization.
A material whose electrical resistivity is intermediate between that of conductors and insulators, in which conduction takes place by means of holes and electrons.
Strain remaining after complete release of the force producing the deformation.
Rotating or reciprocating component that operates within a cylinder or housing.
The potential degradation of seal performance capabilities due to exposure of o-ring elastomers to stressful environmental factors during storage
Length of time a molded compound can be stored without suffering significant loss of physical properties.
The sudden application of an external force.
Shore A Hardness
An indentation method of rating the hardness of rubber using a Shore Durometer with the A scale from 0 to 100.
Contraction of molded rubber upon cooling.
A compound of silicon with a refractory metal. Common silicide semiconductor films (used as interconnects) include titanium, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum.
Silicon dioxide (SiO2)
A non-conducting layer that can be thermally grown or deposited on silicon wafers. Thermal silicon dioxide is commonly grown using either oxygen or water vapor at temperatures above 900°C.
Silicon nitride (Si3N4)
A nonconductive layer chemically deposited on wafers at temperatures between 600° and 900°C.
Any of a group of semi-inorganic polymers based on the structural unit R2SiO, where R is an organic group, characterized by wide-range thermal stability, high lubricity, extreme water repellence, and physiological inertness and used in adhesives, lubricants, protective coatings, paints, electrical insulation, synthetic rubber, and prosthetic replacements for body parts.
Poly dimethyl siloxane elastomer.
A way of simultaneously designing products, and the processes for manufacturing those products, through the use of cross functional teams to assure manufacturability and to reduce cycle time.
The practice of mimicking some or all of the behavior of one system with a different, dissimilar system.
A relatively dense layer at the surface of a cellular material.
Plantation natural rubber sheets that, after passing through a mill that puts the conventional ribbing design on them, are washed and hung on racks in a smoke house where they undergo a combined smoking and drying process.
Product and process characteristics designated by the customer including govern- mental regulatory and safety; and/or selected by the supplier through knowledge of the product and process.
The ratio of the mass of a unit volume of a material to that of the same volume of water at a specified temperature.
A joint or junction made by lapping or butting edges, straight or on a bias, and held together through vulcanization or mechanical means.
(1) The primary feed channel that runs from the outer face of an injection or transfer mold to mold gate in a single cavity mold or to runners in a multiple cavity mold; (2) The piece of material formed or partially cured in the primary feed channel.
A mark, usually elevated, left on the surface of an injection or transfer molded part, after removal of the sprue.
Cross section diametrical compression of O-ring between bottom surface of the groove and surface of other mating metal part in the gland assembly.
Standard clean one
A mixture of ammonium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide and UPDI. The first step in the RCA Cleaning process, which is designed to remove organic material.
Standard clean two
A mixture of hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide and UPDI. The second step in the RCA Cleaning process, which is designed to remove metals and other inorganic material.
State of cure
The cure condition of a vulcanizate relative to that at which optimum physical properties are obtained.
A seal in which the sealing surfaces do not move relative to each other.
Thermal silicon dioxide grown by bubbling a gas (usually oxygen or nitrogen) through water at 100°C.
A machine which steps a reticle directly onto the wafer. A reticle can be produced at lower defect level and with tighter dimensional control than an entire mask, resulting in wafer images having fewer defects. Alignment of reticle to wafer is accomplished by reflecting a laser beam through a special reticle pattern (alignment target) and off a corresponding pattern on the wafer.
The increase in static friction resulting from prolonged seal compression.
Storage life, shelf
The period of time after production during which a material or product that is stored under specified conditions retains its intended performance capabilities.
The unit change, due to force, in the size or shape of a body referred to its original size or shape.
Force per unit of original cross sectional area required to stretch a specimen to a stated elongation.
The decrease in stress after a given time of constant strain.
Removal process; usually refers to photoresist.
A major part of a system which itself has the characteristics of a system, usually consisting of several components.
A component of many equipment systems on which the wafer is
Increased seal volume caused by exposure to adverse operating conditions, such as exposure to oils, fluids, heat and the like
The increase in volume of a specimen immersed in a liquid or exposed to a vapor.
A combination of several components or pieces of equipment integrated to perform a specific function.
The ability to adhere to itself; a sticky or adhesive quality.
The material to be sputtered during the sputtering process.
Team Feasibility Commitment
A commitment by the Product Quality Planning Team that the design can be manufactured, assembled, tested, packaged, and shipped in sufficient quantity at an acceptable cost, and on schedule.
Mechanical rupture initiated and propagated at a site of high stress concentration caused by a cut, defect or localized deformation.
Resistance to the growth of a nick or cut in a rubber specimen when tension is applied.
The maximum force required to tear a specified specimen, the force acting substantially parallel to the major axis of the test specimen.
Lowest temperature at which rubber remains flexible and highest temperature at which it will function.
Force in pounds per square inch (psi) required to break the rubber specimen.
The applied force per unit of original cross sectional area of a specimen.
Tensile Stress at Given Elongation
The tensile stress required to stretch a uniform section of a specimen to a given elongation.
Fracture, through crack growth, of a component or test specimen subjected to a repeated tensile deformation.
Increase in the length of an elastometric specimen following initial stretching and release.
A polymer formed from three monomer species.
Thermal carbon black
Type of carbon black produced under controlled conditions by the thermal decomposition of hydrocarbon gases in the absence of air or flames.
A process by which dopant atoms diffuse into the wafer surface by heating the wafer in the range of 1,000°C and exposing it to vapors containing the desired dopant.
Irreversible and undesirable change in the properties of a material due to exposure to heat.
Linear or volumetric expansion caused by temperature increase.
A diverse family of rubberlike materials that, unlike conventional vulcanized rubbers, can be processed and recycled like thermoplastic materials.
Rubber that does not require chemical vulcanization and will repeatedly soften when heated and stiffen when cooled; and which will exhibit only slight loss of its original charac- teristics.
Materials that undergo a chemical cross linking of molecules when processed, heated and molded, and therefore can not be reshaped.
Chemically vulcanized rubber that cannot be re-melted or remolded without destroying its original characteristics.
A plan that lists tasks, assignments, events, and timing required to provide a product that meets customer needs and expectations.
Alternative name for a mold
The characteristic of a surface referring to its degree of flatness and smoothness.
A turning or twisting force generally associated with the rotation of the shaft.
Torr pressure unit
International standard unit replacing the English measure, millimeters of mercury (mm-Hg).
Method of molding thermosetting materials. The elastomeric compound is placed in a transfer chamber which is part of the mold, heated, then squeezed down through a sprue, a runner, and agate leading into a closed mold cavity.
A test method for approximating the low-temperature capabilities of an elastomer.
Transition, first order
A reversible change in phase of a material; in the case of polymers, usually crystallization or melting.
A semiconductor device that uses a stream of charge carriers to produce active electronic effects. The name originated from the electrical characteristic of transfer resistance.
The process Involving removal of mold flash.
The % of specimen stretching at the point of breaking.
Ultrapure deionized water (UPDI)
A highly purified water in which all charged species of ionizable organic and inorganic salts have been removed.
Electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength 4â€" 400 nanometers.
A condition where rubber has not been cured enough, exhibiting poor physical properties.
A compounding material that, through its ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation and render it harmless, retards the deterioration caused by sunlight and other UV light sources.
Evaporation a deposition technique whereby the deposited gas results from an evaporation process.
Value Engineering (Value Analy- sis)
A planned, clean sheet approach to problem solving, focusing on specific product design and process characteristics. Where value analysis is employed to improve value after production has begun, value engineering is employed to maximize value prior to expend- itures of facilities and tooling money.
Van der Waals
Force an attractive force between two atoms due to a fluctuating dipole moment in one molecule inducing a dipole moment in the other molecule which then interact.
The pressure of the vapor in equilibrium with its liquid or solid phase.
An apparent leak in a vacuum system that is often traceable to some internal release of occluded and/or sorbed gases.
A combination of viscous and elastic properties in a material with the relative contribution of each being dependent on time, temperature, stress and strain rate. Viscosity the resistance of a material to flow under stress.
The resistance of a material to flow under stress.
A measure of the viscosity of a rubber or rubber compound determined in a Mooney shearing disk viscometer.
Voice of the Customer
Customer feedback both positive and negative including likes, dislikes, problems and suggestions.
Voice of the Process
Statistical data that is feedback to the people in the process to make decisions about the process stability and/or capability as a tool for continual improvement.
The absence of material or an area devoid of materials where not intended.
Void, cellular material
A cavity unintentionally formed in a cellular material and substantially larger than the characteristic individual cells.
Also known as vaporization, the conversion of a chemical substance from a liquid or solid state to a gaseous or vapor state.
A unit of electromotive force or difference in electric potential.
The increase in dimension caused by the absorption of a fluid.
The product of vulcanization, a cross-linked rubber.
Heat induced process whereby the long chains of the rubber molecules become crossed linked by vulcanizing agent to form three dimensional elastic structures. This reaction turns weak materials into strong one
Compounding material that produces cross-linking in rubber.
The combination of a vulcanizing agent and, as required, accelerators, activators and retarders used to produce the desired vulcanization characteristics or vulcanizate characteristics.
Flat area(s) ground onto the wafer’s edges to indicate the crystal orientation of the wafer structure and the dopant type.
The reduction in viscosity of a rubber or rubber mix, by mechanical work and heat, to render it suitable for further processing.
The increase in weight and volume after immersion in water.
The ability to withstand swelling by water for a specified time and temperature.
The length of the wave to complete one cycle.
The tendency of some o-ring seals to surface crack upon exposure to atmospheres containing ozone another pollutants.
Completeness of contact between particles dispersed in a medium, such as carbon black rubber.
Transmission of a gas or liquid, due to a pressure differential or capillary action, along fibers incorporated in a rubber product.
An o-ring cut at a 90 degree angle to the mold parting line. The cross sectional diameter of an o-ring.
A device designed to keep out foreign material.
That point on the stress-strain curve, short of ultimate failure, where the rate of stress with respect to strain goes through a zero value and may become negative.
The level of strain at the yield point.
The level of stress at the yield point.
The ratio of normal stress to corresponding stress or compressive stresses below the proportional limit of the material. | <urn:uuid:7b884f92-e54b-44bd-bbed-101f0ad965ea> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://spaggiarigomma.it/Apps/WebObjects/Spaggiari.woa/wa/viewGlossary?id=7307&lang=rus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864940.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20180623035301-20180623055301-00153.warc.gz | en | 0.882888 | 12,120 | 3.15625 | 3 |
In another instance of Australia’s larger-than-life wildlife causing shocking the internet, a gargantuan python has been spotted stretched across a road.
The snake was found in northern Queensland on Tuesday, with its scaly length crossing the whole width of one of the road lanes.
“Check out the size of this one,” Redland’s Snake Catcher captioned a Facebook post sharing pictures of the snake. “Sent in from a lady officer stationed in far north Qld.”
In the comments, many expressed their horror at the sight, while others were pleased to see the snake reach such a large size.
“Another ‘nope rope’,” one commented.
“Not only would I be moving house, I’d be moving state too,” said another.
“Beautiful to see a snake get to the size,” somebody else commented.
The snake catchers helped the python move itself out of the road, slithering off into the undergrowth.
“They helped this ‘Tiny’ snake across the road. Imagine finding this in your backyard!” Redland’s Snake Catcher said in the post.
The snake catchers do not specify the species. There are 14 species of python that live in Australia, including the carpet python, diamond python and scrub python.
In the comments of the post, one person suggested that this snake may have been a scrub python.
Australian scrub pythons—a subspecies of the amethystine python—are the largest species of snake found in Australia, growing to around 15 feet long on average, with some having been reported to have reached up to 25 feet long.
These huge snakes are native to the far north of Queensland, and mostly feed on birds and mammals, including bush rats, northern quolls, bandicoots, possums, and domestic poultry. Australian scrub pythons are not venomous, instead killing their prey by constricting them to death using their long, muscular bodies.
Australian scrub pythons have been found lying across roads like this before, including in Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rainforest in 2021.
In the comments on the post, one person suggested killing the snake instead of rescuing it, which sparked a retort from Redland’s Snake Catcher.
“Cut into a million pieces would be good,” the commenter said.
“why is that John? Killing snakes in Australia is not only illegal, but why on earth would you kill a harmless reptile,” Redland’s Snake Catcher replied.
Snakes in Queensland are protected under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, which makes it an offense to kill, injure or take snakes from the wild.
“When left alone, snakes pose little or no danger to people,” the Queensland government states.
This article by Jess Thomson was first published by Newsweek on 22 June 2023. Lead Image: Redland’s Snake Catcher image of the snake stretched across the road next to a person. The images of the enormous reptile have shocked the internet. REDLAND’S SNAKE CATCHER.
What you can do
Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.
Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate. | <urn:uuid:ced11664-8135-4c79-8cb2-11acee683ed2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://focusingonwildlife.com/news/size-of-huge-python-crossing-the-street-shocks-internet-id-move-state/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474445.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223185223-20240223215223-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.940697 | 760 | 3.046875 | 3 |
ObamaCare is more formally known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was passed in 2010. From an article published March 5, 2020, at The Hill:
In its first decade, ObamaCare has failed to solve many of the health care problems it was supposed to address. Even worse, it has compounded many of the issues it was meant to fix — the law of unintended consequences in action.
First, then-candidate Barack Obama said his namesake act would “cut the cost of a typical family’s premiums by up to $2,500 a year.”In reality, the opposite has occurred. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “premiums have doubled for individual health insurance plans since 2013, the year before many of Obamacare’s regulations and mandates took effect.”
Third, President Obama repeatedly assured voters, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” After ObamaCare was enacted, millions of Americans were unable to keep their pre-ObamaCare health insurance plan.
Individual market premiums were $2789/year in 2013, compared to $5712/year in 2017.
Obamacare proponents promised that the plan would drastically reduce the number of uninsured folks. Wasn’t it 30 million uninsured? But there are still 28 million uninsured. And it’s probably going to get worse since citizens are no longer forced to buy something they don’t want or can’t afford.
Nearly all of Obamacare remains in effect except for the mandate to purchase health insurance whether you want it or not.
The author of the article is affiliated with The Heartland Institute.
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: Avoid the medical-industrial complex by getting and keeping as healthy as possible. Let me help: | <urn:uuid:95bd0641-30a5-468b-b54d-15d95139a182> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://advancedmediterranean.com/2020/10/30/obamacare-10-years-out-disappointing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178355937.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20210225211435-20210226001435-00300.warc.gz | en | 0.981618 | 386 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Henry Gray (18251861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
ridge, which runs from the dorsal end of the radial notch, downward to the dorsal border; the triangular surface above this ridge receives the insertion of the Anconæus, while the upper part of the ridge affords attachment to the Supinator. Below this the surface is subdivided by a longitudinal ridge, sometimes called the perpendicular line, into two parts: the medial part is smooth, and covered by the Extensor carpi ulnaris; the lateral portion, wider and rougher, gives origin from above downward to the Supinator, the Abductor pollicis longus, the Extensor pollicis longus, and the Extensor indicis proprius.
The medial surface (facies medialis; internal surface) is broad and concave above, narrow and convex below. Its upper three-fourths give origin to the Flexor digitorum profundus; its lower fourth is subcutaneous.
FIG. 216 Epiphysial lines of ulna in a young adult. Lateral aspect. The lines of attachment of the articular capsules are in blue. (See enlarged image)
The Lower Extremity (distal extremity).The lower extremity of the ulna is small, and presents two eminences; the lateral and larger is a rounded, articular eminence, termed the head of the ulna; the medial, narrower and more projecting, is a non-articular eminence, the styloid process. The head presents an articular surface, part of which, of an oval or semilunar form, is directed downward, and articulates with the upper surface of the triangular articular disk which separates it from the wrist-joint; the remaining portion, directed lateralward, is narrow, convex, and received into the ulnar notch of the radius. The styloid process projects from the medial and back part of the bone; it descends a little lower than the head, and its rounded end affords attachment to the ulnar collateral ligament of the wrist-joint. The head is separated from the styloid process by a depression for the attachment of the apex of the triangular articular disk, and behind, by a shallow groove for the tendon of the Extensor carpi ulnaris. | <urn:uuid:b87f16f0-ab61-4e50-871a-aa73677fbdfe> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://bartleby.com/107/pages/page218.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982935910.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823200855-00023-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90284 | 485 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Autonomous Robots: Employment Impacts, And An Editorial ShowcaseAugust 01, 2011
Robotics is a key development focus area for embedded vision...err...visionaries. Perhaps the most popular robot line currently available for sale is the Roomba vacuum cleaner series and closely related Scooba floor scrubbers, designed and manufactured by iRobot (who, not coincidentally, is also a leading producer of military robotic systems). However, Roomba's visual acuity is at best limited.
All models contain infrared 'cliff' sensors, located underneath the front 'bumper', to prevent the Roomba from driving itself off steep edges such as the lip of a stair step. Optional infrared-transmitting 'Virtual Wall' accessories interact with another infrared sensor, this one omnidirectional and mounted at devices' top front center locations, to prevent Roombas from crossing the IR beams into designated areas. And that same top-mounted infrared sensor also finds use, in second-generation and newer Roomba models, to assist the robotic vacuum cleaner in returning to its docking station for recharging once it's concluded the cleaning task.
But the predominant means by which a Roomba navigates through a room is through trial-and-error, in conjunction with the earlier mentioned impact 'bumper' which signals the device that further forwards travel is not possible. This approach is algorithmically simplistic and therefore leads to low cost implementations, but it also has downsides, as Wikipedia notes:
Roombas do not map out the rooms they are cleaning. Instead, they rely on a few simple algorithms such as spiral cleaning (spiraling), room crossing, wall-following and random walk angle-changing after bumping into an object or wall. This design is based on MIT researcher and iRobot CTO Rodney Brooks' philosophy that robots should be like insects, equipped with simple control mechanisms tuned to their environments. The result is that although Roombas are effective at cleaning rooms, they take several times as long to do the job as a person would. The Roomba may cover some areas many times, and other areas only once or twice.
A more robust approach would leverage embedded vision technology to map the room as it's being traversed, not only remembering the locations of obstacles but also recalling regions that the robot has already traveled through in order to avoid unnecessary path repetition. As such, I'd like to draw your attention to the new (Volume 27) edition of Make Magazine, which just showed up in my mailbox a few days ago. As the publishers note:
The Robots have returned! MAKE Volume 27 features a special package with robotics projects for every age and skill level. They play music; they spy via the internet; they outwit your pets; they learn from their mistakes!
A subset of the print content (which, among other things, discusses a vision-augmented Roomba) is already available on the website, with more progressively appearing in the coming weeks. However, if you're an employee of Taiwan-based Foxconn, I'll certainly understand if you're not enthused to learn more about robots. That's because, as was widely reported in cyberspace over the past 24-or-so hours, the company's CEO recently announced to mainland China-based subsidiary employees at a 'corporate dance party' (believe it or not) that a goodly percentage of them would be replaced within the next three years by 1 million robots that Foxconn planned to bring online.
While still with EDN Magazine, I traveled to Taiwan two sequential summers to visit with companies there. During the second trip, I published an admittedly critical writeup that, among other things, expressed surprise at the lack of assembly line automation I found. Instead, what I instead found were lots of young women working long hours doing mind-numbing soldering and other tasks, often in dimly illuminated and poorly ventilated facilities, and frequently wearing wrist braces indicative of repetitive strain injuries. And, when even lower cost labor was needed, Taiwanese companies would obtain it via contract labor from Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere, with employees housed in cramped dormitories next door to the manufacturing facilities. Suffice it to say that my Taiwanese hosts were not terribly pleased with my editorial angle, and I didn't get invited back for a third visit.
Robots are the inevitable next step in this labor transition. They don't eat. They don't sleep. They don't get paid. They don't commit suicide in response to stress. And they don't leak client secrets. Foxconn already harnesses 10,000 robots for simple tasks such as paint spraying, welding, and assembly, and I presume the experiment has been a success so far, judging from the energetic expansion plans. A transition from human labor to autonomous robots might make fiscal sense, but does it make moral sense? This time, I'll leave that one for you to judge. I welcome your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
For more perspectives on the Foxconn news, check out the following links: | <urn:uuid:96648eed-f79e-42cb-9344-1afc4551f506> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.embedded-vision.com/news/2011/08/01/autonomous-robots-employment-impacts-and-editorial-showcase | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122233086.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175713-00125-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965757 | 1,036 | 2.765625 | 3 |
|Ro, Irj-Hor, Iri(-Hor)|
Signs r-Ḥr inscribed on a large vessel from the tomb of Iry-Hor, Ashmolean Museum.
|Reign||Early to Late 32nd century BC (Dynasty 0)|
|Predecessor||Scorpion I ? Double Falcon ?|
|Successor||Uncertain, Possibly Ka|
|Burial||Chambers B1, B2, Umm el-Qa'ab|
Iry-Hor or Ro (as read by the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie) was a predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt during the 32nd century BC. Until recently, Iry-Hor's existence was debated, with egyptologist Toby Wilkinson contesting the reading and signification of his name. However, continuing excavations at Abydos in the 1980s and 1990s and the discovery in 2012 of an inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai establish his existence. Iry-Hor is the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name and possibly the earliest historical person known by name.
Iry-Hor's name is written with the Horus falcon hieroglyph (Gardiner sign G5) above a mouth hieroglyph (Gardiner D21). While the modern reading of the name is "Iry-Hor", Flinders Petrie, who discovered and excavated Iry-Hor's tomb at the end of the 19th century, read it "Ro", which was the usual reading of the mouth hieroglyph at the time. Given the archaic nature of the name, the translation proved difficult and, in the absence of better alternative, Ludwig D. Morenz proposed that the literal translation be retained giving "Horus mouth". In the 1990s, Werner Kaiser and Günter Dreyer translate Iry-Hor's name as "Companion of Horus". Toby Wilkinson, who contested that Iry-Hor was a king, translated the signs as "Property of the king". Following excavations at Abydos and the discovery of an inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai in 2012, Wilkinson's hypothesis is now rejected by most egyptologists and Iry-Hor is widely accepted as a predynastic king of Egypt.
The egyptologists Jürgen von Beckerath and Peter Kaplony initially also rejected the identification of Iry-Hor as a king and proposed instead that the known inscriptions refer to a private person whose name is to be read Wer-Ra, wr-r3 (litt. "Great mouth"), i.e. reading the bird above the mouth-sign as the swallow hieroglyph G36 rather than the Horus falcon. They translated the name as "Spokesman" or "Chief". However continuing excavations of Iry-Hor's tomb at Abydos by Günter Dreyer established that the tomb was of similar dimensions and layout as those of Ka and Narmer and must thus have belonged to a king. This was consequently accepted by von Beckerath and Iry-Hor is now the first entry in the latest edition of von Beckerath's Handbook of Egyptian Pharaohs.
Until 2012, the name of Iry-Hor had not been found in or next to a serekh, so the identification of Iry-Hor as a king was controversial. Egyptologists Flinders Petrie, Laurel Bestock and Jochem Kahl nonetheless believed that he was indeed a real ruler. They pointed to the distinctive spelling of Iry-Hor's name: the Horus falcon holds the mouth hieroglyph in its claws. On several clay seals this group of characters is found accompanied by a second, free-standing mouth hieroglyph. This notation is reminiscent of numerous anonymous serekhs held by a Horus falcon with individual hieroglyphs placed close to it rather than within the serekh, as would be expected. Finally, the serekh could have been a convention that started with Ka, whose name has been found both with and without a serekh. Therefore, they concluded that the argument that Iry-Hor was not a king because his name was never found in a serekh was insufficient.
Supporters of the identification of Iry-Hor as a king, such as egyptologist Darell Baker, also pointed to the size and location of his tomb. It is a double tomb, as big as those of Ka and Narmer, located within a sequential order linking the older predynastic "U" cemetery with the First Dynasty tombs. Furthermore, Iry-Hor's name is inscribed on a large jar exhibiting the royal Horus falcon and is similar to those found in the tombs of other kings of this period.
In contrast, some egyptologists doubted Iry-Hor even existed, precisely because his name never appeared in a serekh, the Horus falcon being simply placed above the mouth sign. Ludwig D. Morenz and Kurt Heinrich Sethe doubted the reading of Iry-Hor's name and thus that he was a king. Morenz, for example, suspected that the mouth sign may simply have been a phonetic complement to the Horus falcon. Sethe understood the group of characters forming Iry-Hor's name as an indication of origin (of the content of a jar and other goods to which clay seals were usually attached). Toby Wilkinson dismissed the tomb attributed to Iry-Hor as a storage pit and the name as a treasury mark. Indeed, r-Ḥr may simply mean property of the king. Supporting his hypothesis, Wilkinson also noted that Iry-Hor was poorly attested and, until 2012, the only inscription of Iry-Hor outside of Abydos was located in Lower Egypt at Zawyet el'Aryan, while Ka and Narmer have many inscriptions located as far north as Canaan.
Dreyer's excavations of the necropolis of Abydos revealed that Iry-Hor was in fact well attested there with over 27 objects bearing his name and that his tomb was of royal proportions. Furthermore, in 2012 an inscription mentioning Iry-Hor was discovered in the Sinai, the inscription comprising furthermore an archaic empty serekh on the right of Iry-Hor's name. The inscription mentions the city of Memphis, pushing back its foundation to before Narmer and establishing that Iry-Hor was already reigning over it. Following this discovery, most egyptologists, including G. Dreyer and the discoverers of the inscription, Pierre Tallet and Damien Laisney, now believe that Iry-Hor was indeed a king.
Reign and attestations
Iry-Hor was most likely Ka's immediate predecessor and thus would have reigned during the early 32nd century BC. He probably ruled from Hierakonpolis over Abydos and the wider Thinite region and controlled Egypt at least as far north as Memphis, since the Sinai rock inscription relates a visit of Iry-Hor to this city. The egyptologists Tallet and Laisney further propose that Iry-Hor also controlled parts of the Nile Delta.
He was buried in the royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa'ab near Ka, Narmer and the First Dynasty kings. Iry-Hor's name appears on clay vessels from his tomb in Abydos and a clay seal with the hieroglyphs for r-Ḥr was found in Narmer's tomb and may refer to Iry-Hor. In total no less than 22 pottery jars incised with Iry-Hor's name have been in Abydos as well as at least 5 ink-inscribed fragments and a cylinder seal. A similar seal was also found far to the north in the tomb Z 401 of Zawyet el'Aryan in Lower Egypt. An incision on a spindle whorl found in Hierakonpolis during James E. Quibell and Petrie excavations there in 1900 may refer to him. Finally, the discovery of a rock inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai constitutes his northernmost attestation. The inscription shows the name of Iry-Hor on a boat, next to the word Ineb-hedj meaning "white walls", the ancient name of Memphis.
Iry-Hor's tomb is the oldest tomb of the Abydos necropolis B in the Umm el-Qa'ab. It comprises two separate underground chambers B1 (6m x 3.5m) and B2 (4.3m x 2.45m) excavated by Petrie in 1899 and later by Werner Kaiser. A further chamber, now known as "B0", was uncovered during re-excavations of Iry-Hor's tomb in the 1990s. These chambers have a size similar to those found in the tombs of Ka and Narmer. No superstructure, if there ever was one, survives to this day. Chamber B1 yielded jar fragments incised with his name. Chamber B2 produced another incised jar fragment, a seal impression, several ink inscriptions and interestingly, vessel fragments bearing names of Ka and Narmer. Parts of a bed were also found onsite.
- P. Tallet, D. Laisnay: Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene, in: BIFAO 112 (2012), 381-395, available online
- Flinders Petrie: The Royal tombs of the earliest dynasties, 1900, pp. 29 & 30, available online.
- Werner Kaiser, Günter Dreyer: Umm el-Qaab. Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof : 2. Vorbericht, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo (MDAIK), 38. Ausgabe. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung (Hrsg.). de Gruyter, Berlin 1982, pp. 211–246.
- Werner Kaiser, Günter Dreyer: Umm el-Qaab. Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof 5./6. Vorbericht, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo (MDAIK), 49, 1993, p. 56.
- Werner Kaiser, Günter Dreyer: Umm el-Qaab. Nachuntersuchungen im frühzeitlichen Königsfriedhof 7./8. Vorbericht, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo (MDAIK), 52, 1996, p. 48-57 and taf. 9.
- W.M.F. Petrie: Abydos I, pp. 4–6.
- Laurel Bestock: The Development of Royal Funerary Cult at Abydos, pp. 16, 17, 21 & 28
- Ludwig D. Morenz: Bildbuchstaben und symbolische Zeichen, p. 88
- Toby Wilkinson: The identification of Tomb B1 at Abydos: refuting the existence of a king 'Ro/Iry-Hor'. In: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (JEA), 79, Egypt Exploration Society, London 1993, ISSN 0307-5133, pp. 91–93.
- Edwin C. M. van den Brink: The incised serekh signs of Dynasties 0-1. Part I: complete vessels, in: J. Spencer editions, Aspects of Early Egypt (1996), pp. 140-158, pl.s 24-32, London, British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0714109992.
- E.C.M van den Brink: The incised serekh signs of Dynasties 0-1. Part II: Fragments and Additional Complete Vessels, available online.
- Peter Kaplony: Inschriften der Ägyptischen Frühzeit, vol. 1, p. 468
- Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, available online see p. 9 and 36-37
- Jochem Kahl: Das System der ägyptischen Hieroglyphenschrift in der 0.-3. Dynastie, pp.96–101.
- Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 156
- Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt, pp. 19, 55 & 234.
- Edwin C. M. van den Brink: Two Pottery Jars Incised with the Name of Iry-Hor from Tomb B1 at Umm El-Ga'ab, Abydos, available online, in : Zeichen aus dem Sand, Streiflichter aus Ägyptens Geschichte zu Ehren von Günter Dreyer, Eva-Maria Engel, Vera Müller and Ulrich Hartung editors, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05816-2
- Winfried Barta: Zur Namensform und zeitlichen Einordnung des Königs Ro, in: GM 53, 1982, pp. 11–13.
- James E. Quibell, Flinders Petrie: Hierakonpolis. Part I. Plates of discoveries in 1898 by J. E. Quibell, with notes by W. M. F. P[etrie], London 1900, available online
- Raffaele, Francesco. (PDF) [xoomer.virgilio.it]. Missing or empty
- Werner Kaiser: Einige Bemerkungen zur ägyptischen Frühzeit. In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde., vol. 91, 1964, pp. 86–124.
Scorpion I? Double Falcon?
|King of Thinis | <urn:uuid:fa3c2c01-87a8-4615-8206-b610b0c416c8> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | https://readtiger.com/wkp/en/Iry-Hor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737951049.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221911-00250-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.870148 | 3,085 | 3.09375 | 3 |
In the modern world, it is a fallacy of every individual that capitalism has led to the development of an emotional world that is dominated by bureaucratic rationality; it is surprisingly assumed that authentic relationships are at conflict with an individual’s economic behavior. Every human believes that the private and community spheres are constantly lacking the effort to be incongruent with each other. However, Eva Illouz, in her book ‘the making
- Type: Descriptive Essay • Category: Sociology • Citation format: APA • Words: 1156
Youth suicide in Australia is said to be mostly associated with extreme depression and most of youths who have been victims of this horrible situation are said to have tried it in the first time. According to the research the rates of youths committing suicide have increased due to psychological differences such as mental illness, depression and mental disorders. Also personal and family issues which are stressing to the victim have
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The relationship between ethnicity, gender difference and crime in the U.K is a subject matter for research, government surveys as well as public concern. Under section 95, of criminal justice Act 1991, the government has collected an annual statistics based on race, gender and crime rate as well.Ethnic difference According to the official statistics there is a very huge striking difference between the ethnic minority groups. For instance, the blacks make
- Type: Research Paper • Category: Sociology • Citation format: Other • Words: 2407
Problem Statement Misbehavior exhibited by youths has been increasing each day in the current societies. The behavior can be of various forms and have different ways of understanding them. Rebellious behaviors seen in youths and the juveniles are related basically to their unwillingness or inability to obey and follow the norms of a certain community and have respect for the authority or for the rights of other people in the society. | <urn:uuid:808028c3-3f75-48e7-a296-7f3d96302537> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://supremestudy.com/sociology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998298.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20190616202813-20190616224813-00166.warc.gz | en | 0.952422 | 431 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What is the conflict in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
1 Answer | Add Yours
The conflict in Robert Louis Stevenson's Gothic novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the struggle between Dr. Henry Jekyll and the dual nature of his personality. As a Victorian, Dr. Jekyll enjoys the reputation and recognition of the best social sets. He is known as a man of prudence and intelligence, which is what earns the respect that he gets from his upper-class peers.
Yet, it is quite obvious that there is a dark side that Henry Jekyll wishes to experience, and he does not openly attempt to do it because of his fear of breaking the iron-clad rules of decorum that dominate the overall psyche of the Victorian society where he lives.
To be able to indulge in the pleasures of sin and innate secret desires, Jekyll abides by his Promethean nature of desiring to change the natural order of things and creates a way to transform himself into another man: Mr. Edward Hyde; one who does as he pleases and responds only to his own wants and operates under his basic Id.
Hence, the conflict: In wanting so badly to protect the outer image of Dr. Jekyll, and also in wanting so badly to indulge in the sins of Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll does not take into consideration that both personalities would still need to be under control. Mr. Edward Hyde is never controlled, and is left to act as badly as he wants. It is this freedom that grants Hyde the power and the strengths that make him so much stronger than Dr. Jekyll. Conclusively, Hyde's inherent and sinful nature (perhaps ALL of our natures, as well?) is much more powerful than the monitored and well-manicured persona of Dr. Jekyll that the world sees.
The resolution begins when Hyde starts taking over and dominating the persona of the man. Hence, whenever Jekyll is able to go back to being himself, he immediately locks himself in his lab. The experiment of the dual personality has gone completely awry and, from what the reader learns, the man kills himself...under the personality of Hyde. We learn about the resolution through Lanyon's letters which also represent one of the most climactic moments of the novel.
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Famine is not a new thing, and it certainly is not limited to “under-developed” countries. If you ask the average teenage boy who is hungry all the time, famine is a daily occurrence – even though they appear to be like a dragonfly which according to Encyclopedia Britannica can eat its body weight in 30 minutes. IN 2004, it was estimated that 35 million people in America were at risk of hunger – that is, they do not know where their next meal is going to come from or have to cut back on what they eat because of insufficient money. The same year, 842 million people worldwide did not have enough to eat. The typical response to long-term famine has changed little over the centuries – if food is not to be had in sufficient quantities at home, go where there is food. That can be a soup kitchen, shelter, family member, government agency, or another country. Germans in the 1830s, Irish in the 1840s, Lithuanians in the 1860s, Swedes in the 1900s, all came to America fleeing the famine at home and seeking ways to provide food for themselves and their families. The list is seemingly endless and continues around the world to this day.
1. Man’s Solution
Our text describes a family of four who because of a prolonged lack of food voluntarily became refugees in a neighboring country. Some Bible scholars fix the time of this story during the period in Israel’s history when God used the Midianites and Amalekites to oppress His people and discipline them for their disobedience. These marauding Bedouin herdsmen swept through the countryside during harvest, consuming everything in their path as they helped themselves to livestock and produce.
In order to save their lives and some of their supplies, many Israelites hid in hills and caves nearby. Others like Elimelech and his family decided to leave the country. He and his wife Naomi along with their two boys, Mahlon and Chilion, packed up their belongings and moved across the Jordan River to Moab where they thought they would be safe from the Midianite raiders.
It’s ironic, isn’t it, that this family from Bethlehem, the house of bread, should have to flee to another country in order to find food, leaving behind not only their residence but their inheritance also. Bethlehem, a place where corn, barley, figs, olives and grapes grew in abundance reduced to a center of famine. When we consider the larger picture Elimelech’s decision, fraught with danger, plunged his family into more dire circumstances than they faced at home.
By taking his family to Moab, Elimelech put the spiritual life of his family in danger, especially that of his two eligible bachelor sons. And here we come to an even greater irony – in his quest for life-giving supplies Elimelech dies, leaving his widow in a foreign country and dependent on her sons for support. It appears Mahlon and Chilion were in no hurry to return to Bethlehem; they both married and settled down in Moab, becoming comfortable in a culture that worshiped the fish-god.
From Naomi’s perspective, while she had great affection for her daughters-in-law, that provided small consolation when both her sons died, leaving her utterly destitute and on the brink of abject despair. She had faithfully followed her husband in search of life; in the process her husband and two sons died untimely deaths and with no hope for the next generation. Naomi didn’t understand why God had dealt with her so harshly, bringing calamity on her in this way, but she recognized God’s sovereign control of the events in her life. Perhaps she, too, saw the irony as she had left her ancestral home full – full of life and hope in the future, and was about to return there empty and bitter.
2. God’s provision
In the depths of her despair and bitterness Naomi had heard something in the fields of Moab – she heard that the Lord had visited His people (Rth_1:6). In the place where she least expected it, food could be found because God had intervened in the affairs of men. Suddenly, in the midst of Naomi’s emptiness, a ray of light came breaking in on her. There was, after all, a reason to hope in the future even though as a childless widow that hope would hang only by a fragile thread.
The Lord of history had entered history and changed the expected course of events by giving His people bread. He had heard the cries of His children and answered the pleas for mercy made out of repentant hearts. Somehow, we’re not told how, word of that momentous happening had made it to Moab and the ears of Naomi.
Now Naomi’s life had purpose; now she had a goal – go avail herself of the food that was to be had in plenty back in her home town. God had blessed the house of bread with bread in abundance and Naomi could participate in that blessing if she could only return to Bethlehem. She packed her bags, set out on her journey (Rth_1:7), and encouraged her daughters-in-law to accept their freedom and each go find a husband (Rth_1:8-9). Both Ruth and Orpah said the right thing in claiming undying loyalty to Naomi (Rth_1:10), but Orpah’s heart was bound to her people and her gods (Rth_1:15).
Ruth was made of different stuff than Orpah; Ruth’s profession of loyalty to Naomi was genuine, in part because it was coupled with a determination to be loyal also to Naomi’s God (Rth_1:16). The depth of her determination was so great she even called down a curse on herself if she should fail to keep her vow (Rth_1:17). And there we see in this touching picture of real life two widows, one young and one past the prime of life, carrying all their worldly possessions up the dusty road toward Bethlehem. And God in His wonderful teaching style shows us yet again that both Gentile and Jew could find nourishment of His providing.
3. True sustenance
But in the words of W. M Statham, “THERE ARE WORSE FAMINES THAN THIS. It was famine of another sort that led Moses from Egypt, when he feared not the wrath of the king, that he might enjoy the bread of God; and it was religious hunger that led the Pilgrim Fathers first to Amsterdam, and then to New England, that they might find liberty to worship God.” W. M. Statham, Pulpit Commentary
If a billion people on this planet are presently experiencing hunger from lack of proper nutrition, the numbers are staggering when we broaden our view and consider all who are in the midst of that “worse famine”, having never heard that God visited His people and gave them bread. Millions have not heard that God entered history in a unique way in that same little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
Think of just those within your own circle of influence who are striving with all the energy they can muster to find meaning, satisfaction, contentment in life. They like Solomon have looked everywhere and tried everything to no avail, only to determine that each thing in its turn is empty and so they move on to the next. Millions are consuming the food the world has to offer and after years on that diet are empty and starving. You see that when you look past the holiday smiles to the emptiness in their eyes, their downcast expressions in unguarded moments.
It was in that least likely of all places, Bethlehem-Judah, the least significant of all places in Judah, that God promised through the prophet Micah that He would raise up a Ruler. This Ruler was to be a native of Judah but whose “origin is from antiquity, from eternity” (Mic_5:2) HCSB, none other than the very Son of God, who would shepherd his people (Mic_5:4), the one who would bring peace and deliverance from their enemies. Most importantly it was He who would bring release from slavery to their ultimate enemy, sin, and its accompanying consequence of death.
As marvelous as God’s works are and all the mighty deeds He did over the many millennia as He providentially cared for His people, the work He began in a lowly stable on a cold night in Bethlehem and which culminated thirty-odd years later with the glorious coronation march of the risen Christ surpassed all the rest. God, not expecting subjects to do for Him but His doing for them what they were unable to accomplish. God, not expecting subjects to become little gods like Him but taking on man’s nature and form to fully identify with His creatures. God, to whom a bankrupt humanity owes an incomprehensible debt assuming that debt Himself and paying it on behalf of His people.
God, the one revealed to us in the pages of Scripture and unique among all gods is the true God who offers Himself as the true life-giver to a destitute people famished for food that satisfies. God the Son after He had visited the multitude on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and fed them with five loaves and two fish declared that it was His “Father [who] gives you the real bread from heaven.” Anticipating their question, what is that? He responded by explaining that “the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Joh_6:32-33)
This bread Jesus spoke about has unique qualities that set it apart from other bread, even the manna that the Lord wonderfully provided in the wilderness. The true bread of God satisfies completely and permanently – the search is over, the famine is ended when one finds the bread of life (Joh_6:35). Jesus’ promise recorded here assures us that each one who comes to Him in faith believing that He is the sovereign Lord, the one God promised to send to save His people, the only one who can make us righteous before a holy God, that person will find full satisfaction in Christ.
Jesus, the true bread, the genuine article, is the living bread, the bread of life, that which gives eternal life to the one who eats it. This is an exclusive claim – there are many sorts of bread, even some others provided by God at various times, but there is only one who can completely satisfy spiritual hunger and guarantee that whoever partakes will live forever (Joh_6:47-51). As politically incorrect as it may be, a starving world needs to hear the message that God visited earth 2000 years ago for the specific purpose of bringing light and life to a dark and dying world.
Those of us, beggars, who have found the living bread must tell all who will listen where they, too, can find life, where they can find that for which they seek. They, like we, need to feed upon the bread of God, to taste the calm of sin forgiven, to recognize that ours is the sin but His the righteousness. And most glorious of all it is all of grace and not of our works – it is purely God’s gracious work on our behalf that saves us. As objects of God’s grace and partakers at His table, let us make it our mission in life to tell others of His wondrous provision of living bread and urge them to experience it with us. | <urn:uuid:b0fab5de-4e05-46fa-a792-7d27054681be> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://reformanda.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/hungry-for-bread/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806569.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122103526-20171122123526-00787.warc.gz | en | 0.978881 | 2,403 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Pupils never lie.
People often call eyes the windows to the soul. But what exactly do we see when we gaze into the eyes of another person? In fact, the eyes do provide lots of information about another person’s emotional state. When people are sad or worried, they furrow their brow, which makes the eyes look smaller. Yet when people are cheerful, we correctly call them “bright eyed.” That’s because people raise their eyebrows when they’re happy, making the eyes look bigger and brighter. We can tell a true (or Duchenne) smile from a fake by looking at a person's eyes. The mouth shape of a smile is easy to fake—we do it all the time out of politeness. But the eyes are the giveaway: When we’re truly happy, we not only smile but also crinkle the corners of our eyes in a “crow’s feet” pattern. But when people fake a smile, they usually forget about their eyes.
David Ludden Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College. He received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Iowa, and is the author of The Psychology of Language: An Integrated Approach. He will be focusing on the role that language plays in human psychology–from perception to persuasion, from attention to attitudes, from motor skills to mental states.
Editor: Saad Shaheed
If the eye is the window into the soul, the pupil is—quite literally—an opening into the eye. The pupil acts like the aperture on a camera, dilating or contracting to regulate the amount of light coming into the eye. We all know that our pupils get smaller in the light and bigger in the dark. This is the pupillary light response.
In an article published in a recent issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, psychologists Sebastiaan Mathôt and Stefan Van der Stigchel argue that there’s a lot more to the pupillary light response than, well, meets the eye. They claim that the size of the pupils tells us a lot about the emotions and intentions of their owners.
According to the researchers, the pupillary light response isn’t just a mechanical reaction to ambient light. Rather, as we shift our gaze from one spot to another, our pupils adjust their size in advance to the amount of light we expect to encounter at the new location.
Consider working at a computer: Most of the time, our gaze is fixed on the bright screen, so our pupils are contracted. But every now and then, we glance down at the keyboard, as when we need to reposition our fingers. The authors of the article claim that the pupils begin to dilate even before the downward eye movement begins. Because the pupillary light response is relatively slow—about a quarter of a second—anticipating the amount of light at the new location improves vision once our gaze gets there. (All of this, of course, operates below the level of consciousness.)
The pupillary light response is only one reason why the pupils change size. They also dilate when we’re aroused. The body has an alarm network called the autonomic nervous system that prepares us to take action whenever we detect a threat—or an opportunity—in our environment.
Encounter a bear while walking through the woods, and your autonomic nervous system goes on alert. Your heart and breath rates increase, you begin to sweat as your muscles tense up, and, among other bodily reactions, your pupils dilate. The autonomic nervous system prepares your body to take action against the threat—perhaps scampering up the nearest tree.
We also need to take action when we encounter opportunities. Meet an attractive person at a party, and what happens to your body? Your heart and breathing rates increase, you begin to sweat—and your pupils dilate.
Psychologists consider pupil dilation to be an honest cue to sexual or social interest. That’s because pupil size isn’t under your voluntary control. Let’s say you’re trying to fake interest as your coworker recounts every play in his weekend golf game. You can force a smile. You might even remember to crinkle the corners of your eyes, to make that smile look real. But your tiny pupils will reveal your lack of interest.
Arousal increases pupil size irrespective of the amount of ambient light present because optimal pupil size involves a trade-off between two factors. The first is visual acuity, or how well you can see the details of whatever you’re looking at. In this case, you need “Goldilocks” pupils—not too bright and not too dark, with just the right amount of light coming in. Thus, the pupillary light response is important for visual acuity.
The second factor is visual sensitivity, or how well you can detect something that’s in the environment. If you want to really see what’s out there, you need to have your eyes—especially your pupils—wide open. This is where the connection between arousal and pupil dilation comes in.
Psychologists consider pupil size in terms of the two functions of vision—exploration and exploitation. When we’re exploring our environments, we’re on the lookout for threats and opportunities, so we’re in a heightened state of arousal. Visual sensitivity is most important in exploration, so our pupils are wide open, taking in as much visual information as possible.
Once we’ve identified an object of interest and have it under our control, we shift to exploitation mode: We need to examine the item carefully to find all the ways we can use it, to understand it as fully as possible. Now, visual acuity is most important, and our pupils dilate or contract so that just the right amount of light comes in.
The so-called pupillary light response isn’t just a mechanical reaction to the amount of ambient light, as is the aperture on a camera. Instead, the pupils also adjust according to our emotions and expectations. Thus, the eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the pupils tell a lot about what’s going on in the mind of another person. | <urn:uuid:709c9f09-827c-4b15-8ec1-f1a212a6c80b> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://willingwaystoday.willingways.org/eyes-really-window-soul/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549427766.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170729112938-20170729132938-00491.warc.gz | en | 0.935533 | 1,295 | 3.546875 | 4 |
"This paper develops a series of arguments regarding the contribution of social movements to the reduction of chronic poverty in both urban and rural social contexts...The summary is divided into three sections addressing: the relevance of social movements to the chronically poor; social movements and the representation of the chronically poor; and the interaction between the state and movements of the poor, with a special focus on the influence of social movements on policy and politics...[the] discussion suggests that the power of social movements lies less in their ability to influence the specifics of policies and programmes, and rather more in their capacity to change the terms in which societies debate poverty and social change, and to influence the types of development and policy alternatives that are considered legitimate in a given social and political context"
These fact sheets aim to provide policy makers with concise information about gender related aspects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They deal with core facts and issues in thematic areas and are underpinned by an analysis which clarifies how gender issues are fuelling the crisis. Each theme presents a self-contained set of issues and recommendations and many of the themes are interlinked. All of them are connected by a concern to promote a gender-enlightened and comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS and its impacts
Source e-bulletin on Disability and Inclusion | <urn:uuid:5d8674d3-25e2-414d-8e02-c5c22eaf4899> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://asksource.info/resources/search/keyword/human-rights/keyword/rural-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540491871.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20191207005439-20191207033439-00102.warc.gz | en | 0.946459 | 263 | 2.578125 | 3 |
DNA and RNA might not be the only genetic materials – Scientists discover millions of DNA-like molecules
DNA and RNA are believed to be the genetic material that encodes hereditary information until now.
But are there any other biological material that stores hereditary information along with DNA and RNA?
Scientists believe that life could not have happened on the earth before the origin of nucleic acids. And for the same reason understanding the origin of nucleic acids on earth was given utmost importance.
Nucleic acids are the key targets for pharmaceutical research. Synthetic molecules that can imitate the function of nucleic acids are widely used for the treatment of viral infections like HIV. Yet the possibility for alternatives of nucleic acid to store hereditary information was unknown.
Researchers at Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Emory University explored the “Chemical Space” of nucleic acid-like molecules. The word “Chemical Space” refers to the DNA like molecules discovered which are structurally and functionally similar to the nucleic acids. They were surprised to identify over one million variants of such molecules suggesting unexplored chemistry relevant to biochemistry, pharmacology, and the study of theorigin of life on earth. The study of such molecules could help develop potential therapeutic drugs.
Although nucleic acids were initially discovered in the 19th century, their biological role, composition, and functions were not known until the 20th century. Watson and Crick unveiled the double-stranded helical structure of DNA in 1953, which later explained the regulation of biological functions.
DNA, the Deoxyribonucleic Acid, stores the genetic and hereditary information in most of the living organisms. They are double-stranded and helically wrapped with the capability of replicating each strand to generate two copies of DNA.
DNA, the polymer is composed of four nucleic acids “Adenine,” “Guanine,” “Cytosine,” and “Thymine” arranged in a sequence along the length of the polymer. These sequences are precisely duplicated with almost no errors during the DNA replication. They are later copied to RNA and then read into protein sequence. The proteins control the whole biological system in the organisms.
Occasionally, errors could happen during the replication resulting in positive as well as negative impacts in the organisms. Positive impacts alter the genetic sequence evolving the organisms to a fitter generation. Evolutionists call this process as “Natural Selection.”
But are DNA and RNA the only genetic material to store hereditary information? Or the best means discovered and explored until now?
There are two kinds of genetic material discovered to date, RNA and DNA. The scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology were trying to find if there is one more possible genetic material. Professor Jim Cleaves of ELSI finally answers this with excitement that there could be millions of DNA like molecules to be discovered.
Biologists had been wondering since 1953, why just DNA and RNA? Aren’t there any other molecules that could perform the function? Or others were selected to extinct during the evolution?
Nucleic acids play an essential role when it comes to therapeutics. Most of the significant antiviral drugs are the analogs of nucleic acids, including the drugs treat herpes, viral hepatitis, and dreadful HIV. Nucleic acid analogs are also used for cancer therapy since some of the cancers have genetic mutations that cause the DNA to replicate abnormally.
Co-author Chris Butch, formerly of ELSI and now a professor at Nanjing University, said that understanding hereditary is fundamental research, but it has very important practical applications also.
Basis of Biology is the heritable information, which makes natural selection possible. Scientists have also tried making DNA or RNA from simple chemicals by mimicking the early environmental conditions on earth. Most of them believe that RNA was evolved from DNA for some unknown reasons. However, the evolutionary research split into two in the 1960s: those who thought RNA to be the answer to all questions regarding the origin of life and those who found it difficult to believe in RNA’s potential.
Dr. Jay Goodwin from Emory University, one among the scientists behind the discovery of DNA like molecules – commented, “It is truly exciting to consider the potential for alternative genetic systems based on theses nucleoside analogs—that these might possibly have emerged and evolved in different environments, perhaps even on other planets or moons within our solar system. These alternate genetic systems might expand our conception of biology’s ‘central dogma’ into new evolutionary directions, in response and robust to increasingly challenging environments here on Earth.”
It is absolutely fascinating that modern computational techniques could discover alternate genetic materials that can instigate the synthesis of new therapeutic drugs.
Author : Namitha | <urn:uuid:82017d5c-1a88-40f0-a586-f345932a9b40> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.biotecnika.org/2019/11/dna-like-molecules-discovered-scientists-say-there-could-be-millions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511361.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004052258-20231004082258-00553.warc.gz | en | 0.951517 | 1,003 | 3.5625 | 4 |
THIS ARTICLE IS MORE THAN FIVE YEARS OLD
This article is more than five years old. Autism research - and science in general - is constantly evolving, so older articles may contain information or theories that have been reevaluated since their original publication date.
Six of the rats each lack one autism candidate gene — FMR1, NLGN3, MeCP2, NRXN1, CACNA1C and PTEN — and a seventh lacks mGluR5, which encodes a neuronal signaling receptor that is important in fragile X syndrome.
The impetus for making the rat models is to make autism research more attractive to the pharmaceutical industry. The standard approach in the industry is to test dosage and toxicology in rats, not in mice.
“Unless there’s investment, it doesn’t matter how many great ideas — which tend to be risky — you generate, they will not proceed forward,” says Robert Ring, vice president of translational research at the autism science and advocacy organization Autism Speaks. The idea is not to replace mice, Ring adds, but “to begin creating complementary animal models that help facilitate translational research.”
Over the past few months, Richard Paylor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has done behavioral testing on young rats missing FMR1 — mutations in which lead to fragile X syndrome— and NLGN3, one of the first genes implicated in non-syndromic autism.
Unexpectedly, some of the rat behaviors are the opposite of what’s seen in their mouse counterparts: The FMR1-deficient rats engage in social play less than controls do, for example, whereas some strains of mice lacking FMR1 have more social interactions than controls.
Rats missing either FMR1 or NLGN3 also show some unexpected new characteristics, such as severe female aggression and compulsive chewing on water bottles.
Big and bold:
For more than a century, the rat was scientists’ favorite laboratory animal. Then, in the mid-1980s, genetically engineered mice debuted, and rats slowly began to be relegated to the back bench. “Everybody moved to mice, whole facilities changed,” Paylor recalls.
In many ways, though, rats are better suited for neuroscience. Their brains, and brain cells, are larger, making it easier to map out structures and connections.
“There’s so much more history on the anatomy of the rat,” says Caroline Blanchard, professor of genetics and molecular biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “To replicate a literature that’s going back 100 years is no easy thing to do.”
Social behaviors are also tricky to measure in mice. “Their social play is not quite non-existent, but not much, really not much,” Blanchard says.
Rats, in contrast, live in large social groups and have dramatic interactions. When two rats meet for the first time, for instance, they immediately begin to rough and tumble. “We understand social play very beautifully in the rat, because it’s there. In the mouse, it’s very minimal,” says Robert Blanchard, Caroline’s husband and collaborator.
It’s much more difficult to manipulate a rat’s genetic make-up, however.
In 2009, Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering Labs (SAGE) and a large team of researchers created the first rat lacking a targeted gene1. The company has since made a few dozen different rat mutants, including the seven new autism models.
Now that the technology has come of age, autism researchers may begin to look at rats anew.
“We worked on rats for many years,” says Jacqueline Crawley, an expert in mouse behavioral testing at the National Institute of Mental Health. “I don’t know, maybe we’ll all switch back.”
Scientists, especially those interested in measuring neuronal signaling, will definitely be eager to work with the rat models, says Matthew Anderson, associate professor of pathology at Harvard University.
“The one downside is the general cost,” Anderson says. The new rats cost $400 each, which is about ten times the price of a mouse. Rat housing is also much more expensive: A cage can hold five mice but only two or three rats.
SAGE, a subsidiary of Sigma Life Science, created the rats using zinc finger nucleases, which recognize and cut particular DNA sequences. This effectively prevents the gene from making functional protein.
Through a joint project with Autism Speaks and SAGE, Paylor’s team is the only one with access to the autism rat models. Apart from the behavioral testing on young male FMR1 and NLGN3 models, his team is breeding rats lacking MeCP2, the gene mutated in Rett syndrome, and plans to begin work on the other four strains next year.
Paylor noticed differences between the rats and mice right away.
Rats are extremely sensitive to sounds and odors in the lab, for example. “They stop what they’re doing when they hear something,” Paylor says. “Everything about the rat is more dramatic.”
Female NLGN3 rats, which are used for breeding, are extremely aggressive. The researchers observed them frequently biting the feet and tails of male rats, and chewing on their cheeks. “We had to euthanize some of the males because the females beat them up — bad,” Paylor says. Sometimes, after an attack, the female cuddles underneath the male, “and he just takes it.”
Paylor also noticed something strange in the females’ cages: water bottles, made of hard plastic, with holes in them. The rats had chewed through them in two days. “We thought, no matter what this is, it’s a very perseverative behavior,” Paylor says.
To measure this more quantitatively in the male offspring of these females, Paylor designed a new ‘block chewing’ assay in which a small block of wood is placed in the rat’s cage overnight. After 16 hours, the researchers weigh the block to measure the chewing.
The FMR1 rats chew off more of the wood than controls do. The NLGN3 rats don’t chew the blocks — they chew through the water bottles instead.
Testing social behavior in these rats is more time-consuming because researchers must manually score the animals’ complex behaviors — including wrestling, boxing, chasing and grabbing one another’s necks. Two pairs of FMR1 rats analyzed so far are less social than controls, and emit fewer ultrasonic squeaks during play.
His team is assessing NLGN3 mice for social behaviors. Based on what the researchers have noticed in the cages, he says, he expects “to see some very dramatic differences in their social behaviors.”
For more reports from the 2011 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, please click here.
1: Geurts A.M. et al. Science 325, 433 (2009) Full Text | <urn:uuid:303e5e6c-adf7-478e-ad8d-d4ab60e2651c> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/researchers-unveil-seven-new-rat-models-of-autism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662601401.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220526035036-20220526065036-00530.warc.gz | en | 0.940931 | 1,502 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Submitted to: International Journal of Sediment Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/5/2012
Publication Date: 5/10/2013
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/58940
Citation: Kuhnle, R.A., Alonso, C.V. 2013. Flow near a model spur dike with a fixed scoured bed. International Journal of Sediment Research. 28(3):349-357. Interpretive Summary: The streams of agricultural watersheds often have unstable channel boundaries. The erosion associated with unstable channels may destroy valuable lands, threaten infrastructure, and negatively impact the habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. Improved techniques to stabilize channel boundaries effectively and efficiently without destroying aquatic habitats are needed. One common structure used to stabilize channel boundaries is termed the spur dike. These structures are built out from the bank into the channel and serve to deflect flow away from the bank. Yet knowledge of precisely how spur dikes interact with the flow to protect channel banks is unknown. In this study detailed velocities of the flow in the vicinity of a model spur dike in a laboratory model stream channel were measured. These velocities allow the forces of the flow on the stream channel to be calculated and related to the rate of local erosion around a spur dike. This knowledge will lead to a more complete understanding of how spur dikes interact with the flow and allow watershed managers to design more effective channel protection structures.
Technical Abstract: Three-dimensional flow velocities were measured using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter at a closely spaced grid over a fixed scoured bed with a submerged spur dike. Three-dimensional flow velocities were measured at 3484 positions around the trapezoidal shaped submerged model spur dike over a fixed scoured bed. General velocity distributions and detailed near field flow structures were revealed by the measurement. Clear differences were revealed between flow over fixed flat and scoured beds. Strong lateral flows were the dominant cause of the observed local scour. Shear stresses were higher for the scoured bed than in the flat bed case. Decreasing rates of scour as the scour hole developed were attributed to increases in critical shear stress in the scour holes caused by the increase in the length and magnitude of adverse slopes associated with the two main scour holes. | <urn:uuid:cb394e61-fc4e-4e15-8c5e-2987711d0eda> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=273960 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320040.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623082050-20170623102050-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.940583 | 492 | 2.734375 | 3 |
introduction b-thalassaemia is most common genetically transmitted disorder in Eastern Mediterranean region including Pakistan. Like other recessive disorders, prevalence increases through consanguinity; Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey reports 50% consanguineous marriages. Perceptions about consanguinity in our population have recently not been studied. Objectives were to determine consanguinity related characteristics among parents of children with thalassaemia and without thalassaemia visiting a major health centre in Karachi-Pakistan. To compare consanguinity practices among such families and to assess susceptibility, benefits and barriers towards thalassaemia. Methods Sample of 340 cases and 340 controls; age-sex matched were selected from February to April 2010. Parents of thalassaemic children and parents of non-thalassaemic children were interviewed after consent. Consanguinity related characteristics followed in families were inquired. Perceptions regarding susceptibility to thalassaemia, benefits and barriers to screening were determined. Conditional logistic regression used to calculate matched OR. Parents’ approaches towards index child were assessed. Results Compared to no cousin marriage, parents of thalassaemic children had more cousin marriages (MOR: 7.3, 95% CI 3.6 to 14.6), and grand-parents cousin marriage (MOR: 2.8, 95% CI 1.8 to 4.4) than controls, more cousin marriages occurred in immediate family in last 5 years of cases than controls (MOR: 2.7, 95% CI 1.7 to 4.3) adjusting for ethnicity defined by mother tongue. Among case parents, (51%) were taking index child to social events and only 21% were satisfied with attitudes of other’s towards index child. Conclusion Study supports hypothesis that among parents of thalassaemic (cases), practices and perceptions favouring consanguinity were greater as compared to parents of non-thalassaemic children (controls).
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
(2011). P2-498 Parents' perceptions and practices regarding consanguinity related to β-thalassaemia: a matched case control study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 65(Supl.1), A358--A358-.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_surg_surg/360 | <urn:uuid:35bcf1c5-5430-4c58-a5d3-df5a0f89ec19> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_surg_surg/360/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618039398307.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20210420122023-20210420152023-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.93824 | 491 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a fascinating dissociative disorder when a person has at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities. Legal and mental health professionals are divided whether it exists, and if it does, is the person responsible for the crimes committed. It’s also possible the disorder is a form of another illness, such as schizophrenia, or simply the people who claim to have it are good at acting and manipulating.
There is no direct link between criminal behavior and multiple personality disorder. Having DID doesn’t automatically mean a person is more prone to commit crimes, but when they do, the outcome is fascinating from the criminal science point of view. In criminal cases, the question whether the defendant is trying to deceive the jury is always left hanging in the air.
From 1991 to 1992, a convicted rapist Thomas Huskey, who got his nickname Zoo Man from prostitutes whom he took to the Knoxville Zoo to have sex, lured 4 girls to a remote area and strangled them to death. Huskey swore another man killed the women: a different personality, who called himself Kyle, but lived inside his body.
Huskey’s psychiatrist Dr. Robert Sadoff argued his client had multiple personalities and therefore, wasn’t responsible for killing the girls. Huskey himself claimed that he had no memory related to any of the murders, but one of his personalities, Kyle, confessed that he had committed the murders. The main reason to believe Huskey might not have been guilty was the fact that Kyle was left-handed while Thomas Huskey was right-handed. Huskey had a low IQ, suggesting that he would have been incapable of concocting such a clever scheme.
Knox County district attorney general pushed for the death penalty, but the jury couldn’t reach a verdict. The murder charges were finally dismissed in 2005 when prosecutors simply gave up. Huskey did get a 64-year sentence for raping four other women before the murders. He has a chance for a parole hearing in April 2015.
Billy Milligan was in the middle of a highly publicized court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. During the time span of 12 days, in 1977, 3 women were kidnaped and raped. One of the victims claimed he had a German accent, despite the perpetrator being a 22-year-old American Billy Milligan.
His psychiatrist diagnosed him with DID and 24 different personalities. The Defense attorney said it wasn’t Billy who had committed the crimes. Instead, a Yugoslavian man named Ragen and Adalana – a 19-year-old lesbian who craved for affection. Seemingly unbelievable, but the jury bought the theory and Billy was the first American who was found not guilty due to DID.
Billy and his bizarre disorder made him somewhat famous, there is a book about him, The Minds of Billy Milligan, and a documentary made, part of it is on Youtube.
Famous examples of people with DID, who didn’t commit any crimes, but for one reason or other are well known or talked about.
The former president of the Asian Society, Robert Oxnam, had always struggled with his mental health. After being diagnosed with alcoholism, his psychiatrist realized the distinguished American scholar had multiple personalities, at least 11 separate identities. For an example, a young and angry boy named Tommy, who was living in a castle.
While Mr. Oxnam didn’t commit any crimes, he did write a book about his experiences with the disorder: A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder.
After being featured on Oprah, Kim Noble became one of the most famous and talked about individuals suffering from the disorder. The count of 50-year-old Kim’s personalities is uncertain – according to her, she has over 100. These personalities are all distinct, with their own names, ages, and quirks of temperament. Some are children, some are male.
And just like many others with the diagnose, she too wrote a book about, which became an instant hit. | <urn:uuid:48237ad6-374e-4071-aae2-111d72abbb9f> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://www.bizarrepedia.com/multiple-personality-disorder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218191986.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212951-00482-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980452 | 835 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The demand for new housing units accommodating the needs of older adults will increase significantly in the coming decades. It is estimated that 60 million new housing units will be needed to serve this growing population and replace aging households by 2030. This report produced by AARP defines livable communities, discusses barriers to implementing livable communities and explains the importance of increasing livability for older adults and all community members.
The report notes the key components of livable communities – housing, transportation and mobility, land use, cooperation and communication, prior education, and involvement in community planning and leadership. “Taking steps to improve livability takes dedicated resources and the support of all sectors in the community. When public officials lead or endorse livable community efforts, it is more likely that others will follow.”
Other report highlights include:
- The majority of adults age 50 and older have voiced that they want to remain in their homes or communities for as long as possible while they age.
- Land use and zoning policies affect a community’s capacity to provide affordable and accessible housing, transportation, and other services to meet the needs of older adults in the community.
- Establishing universal design features for homes allows people of all ages and abilities to live comfortably in their communities.
- Some of the highlighted barriers are lack of accessible and affordable housing types available, lack of transportation options, lack of regional coordination, and lack of communication around livable community objectives to the public.
How to Use
The report offers an in-depth discussion regarding the components of livable communities, opportunities for creating livable communities, and barriers to implementing livable communities. Local planners can use this report to gain an understanding of how best to alter zoning, transportation, road design, and/or housing policy to make communities more livable for all residents, but specifically for older adults. The examples provided of communities that have overcome one or more of the barriers discussed also provide a learning tool for planners. | <urn:uuid:0bc79d35-d9e7-45c8-85e6-8acc2dfe9551> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/learn/planning-land-use/info-12-2012/opportunities-for-creating-livable-communities-2008.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257822598.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071022-00168-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932257 | 397 | 2.90625 | 3 |
At the turn of this century, by general estimate, 100,000 tigers shambled over a vast range of Asia extending from southern India to the Siberian taiga and from the equatorial tropics of Java and Bali to the Transcaucasus and eastern Turkey. By 1950 one authority was already predicting that "the species is now on its way to extinction"; three years from now, when the present century ends, perhaps no more than 2,500 scattered individuals of Panthera tigris will still wander a few isolated regions of their former range.
A Wildlife Conservation Society report in November 1995 proposed a total of "less than 5,000" wild tigers, and most tiger biologists and conservationists I have spoken with would set the number even lower—possibly as low as 3,000. Certainly one cannot accept the official figures of Asia's "tiger-range states," which for political reasons still claim ghostly tigers in battered landscapes where no viable population could persist.
The disappearance of this creature represents a great loss to our earth, for the resplendent tiger rivals the African elephant and the blue whale as the most majestic and emblematic creature in the history of human imagination. Like most children, I was fascinated by the great flaming cats of zoo and circus and the striped exotic beasts of Oriental art—and also, of course, by a tiger tale called Little Black Sambo, which in its title and illustrations encouraged whole generations in the mistaken notion that tigers dwelled in Africa with lions. Then came Kipling's The Jungle Book, with its mysterious great cats, Bagh and Bagheera, and Jim Corbett's enthralling tales of tiger hunting, related in such books as Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Finally, in the late 1960s, I happened upon an obscure masterpiece called Dersu the Trapper, by the Russian Army officer and explorer V.K. Arseniev—the first account I had ever read of the Amur, or Siberian tiger.
Since reading Dersu and envisioning this great carnivore moving along an icebound coast on the blue Sea of Japan, I had always longed to see a tiger in the wild, and in 1992 I made my first visits to tiger reserves in India and the Russian Far East. I returned to both countries in 1996, and just over a year ago, on a bright, cold January day, I had a sighting of an Amur tiger bounding across the deep snow of a coastal valley in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, deep in Dersu's country.
The Indian, or "Royal Bengal," tiger of Kipling and Corbett is but one of the eight geographic races, or subspecies, of this mighty animal, of which three—the Caspian, Balinese, and Javan races—have already vanished forever in our lifetimes. Of the five that remain—the Amur (or Siberian), Sumatran, Indochinese, South China, and Indian— most reports disagree on their status and distribution (a sign of how much remains unknown about this secretive, nocturnal animal even as it vanishes from the earth). Yet most biologists would agree that three and perhaps four of these subspecies are unlikely to survive the first years of the new century. The Amur, South China, and Sumatran tigers, according to most recent estimates, total fewer than 1,000 animals among them; and the Indochinese population, to judge from recent surveys in Thailand, seems unlikely to amount to more than a few hundred animals.
In the opinion of most authorities, the Indian tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, provides the main hope for any future for the species. This spectacular flame-colored race was formerly found throughout most of the Indian subcontinent, as well as in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and western Burma. In India tigers have been killed for sport for many centuries, but their numbers were not seriously reduced until the advent of firearms, which, in combination with trained elephants, made tiger hunting one of the least sporting diversions ever devised. Even as late as 1965, about 400 tigers were slaughtered every year in India alone; meanwhile, tiger habitat was declining almost everywhere due to swelling human pressures. In 1951 Jim Corbett warned that tiger numbers had fallen to approximately 2,000 animals, and by the late 1960s some researchers were estimating that no more than 600 wild tigers survived in all of India. In 1972 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, along with the World Wildlife Fund, initiated Operation Tiger, which was designed to raise funds and public support for emergency government conservation programs in Asia's tiger-range states.
The same year, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi sponsored a worthy initiative called Project Tiger, setting aside nine tiger reserves. (There are now 23.) In its first two decades Project Tiger raised $30 million—a very large sum for conservation, though much less significant when one considers that in the same period 10 human beings were born in India for every dollar spent. The initiative was mainly funded by international nongovernmental organizations, which put pressure on India's bureaucracy to produce immediate results. They got them, too, at least on paper, because from the start the eager bureaucrats—from the smallest park official to the ministers in New Delhi—reported nothing but the best possible news. By the early 1980s, in fact, there seemed reason to believe that the tiger population had more than doubled, to a total of 4,300 animals, and that Project Tiger was one of the great successes in the history of wildlife conservation.
Of all the tiger reserves, the most celebrated was Ranthambore, in Rajasthan, a private province of the maharajas of Jaipur since the 18th century. After independence, in 1947, the maharaja had continued to use Ranthambore as a hunting preserve, filling the blinds with such august sportsmen as Prince Philip of England. (" 'Bagh! Bagh! Tiger! Tiger!,' cried the beaters, moving the tiger toward the prince," is the wry description of Fateh Singh Rahore, who has worked at Ranthambore most of his life.) But in 1970, with most of the tigers shot out, these executions were finally stopped, and the following year Fateh Singh was made Ranthambore's head warden. Under the banner of Project Tiger, local villagers were discouraged from poisoning or shooting tigers and "encouraged" to move out of the park, and by 1979 the 12 villages in the center of the park had been relocated. Two years later Fateh Singh was badly beaten by local people for strictly enforcing his own edicts. Nevertheless, the prey species had come back in numbers, well protected and unafraid, and were the most readily observed and photographed in all of India.
That year, the impolitic Fateh Singh was removed from his post for overzealous prosecution of his duties. In the same period, the beginning of a fierce seven-year drought encouraged the villagers around the park to drive more herd animals inside its boundaries, resulting in severe habitat destruction, which was duly blamed for a sudden and rapid decline among the tigers. The loss of cover worsened through the early '90s, as drought and overgrazing continued, and suddenly the first signs were appearing that the Ranthambore tigers were more threatened than ever before.
In the winter of 1992, as a leader of ornithological safari to northwestern India, I stopped for three days at Ranthambore, a small, beautiful park where lotus lakes and ruins, in an Arcadian setting of overgrown temples and pavilions, are laid out beneath an immense and ancient for that rises from cliff walls high above the forests. Sambar and spotted deer, wild hog and gazelle were everywhere, as if they, too, awaited the scarce tigers; and we marveled at the fruit bats and large crocodiles and exotic birds—the fish owls and painted snipes and crested serpent eagles and lovely rose-ringed, blossom-headed, and Alexandrine parakeets.
Surely this was the realm that inspired the Indian tiger biologist Ullas Karanth to reflect, "When you see a tiger, it is always like a dream." Every day in the cold dawn we passed through the dark stone portals to scour the dirt roads and lake edges and the dry, grassy uplands. Here and there we found some fresh scrapes and pugmarks, but we saw no tiger. While at Ranthambore, we paid a call on Fateh Singh, who affects a kind of princely strut to go with his white mustache, safari clothes, and Stetson hat. He gave us tea at his farm at the edge of the reserve, where tigers and leopards used to pad along beneath his terrace. Poaching had increased so cruelly in the years since his retirement that only the birds now visited his pools. No, Fateh Singh sighed, the chances of seeing a Ranthambore tiger now were small.
A few months later, in the spring of 1992, a large tiger-poaching operation was broken wide open at the nearby town of Sawai Madhopur. Most of the killing had been done by hunters of the Moghiyba tribe, using modern weapons—a man named Gopal Moghiya claimed 12 joined in, sprinkling poison on fresh kills that tigers would return to, and selling off the skins and body parts, which were smuggled to Delhi's Sadar Bazaar district for processing. The skins, which might bring $15,000 each, went mostly to Arab countries, while the bones and other parts, ground to powder for use in traditional medicines, went to China, Taiwan, and the Koreas. The genitalia went to rich, flagging Asians: A tiger penis brought $1,700 in Taiwan, where a single bowl of penis soup cost $300. A single tiger, for which the local poacher might be paid $100, may produce 11 kilograms (about 24 pounds) of powdered bone, which at $500 per gram might bring as much as $5.5 million.
In the great furor that ensued, the bureaucrats of Project Tiger confessed that their tiger figures had been inflated to please the Delhi politicians. An honest census was demanded, and when the smoke cleared, Ranthambore's proud 45 tigers had been boiled down to an optimistic 28. Despite the presence of 60 forest guards, the missing tigers had been poached with impunity and had disappeared almost unnoticed. Today, according to Fateh Singh's disciple Valmik Thapar, 15 tigers may survive at Ranthambore, including perhaps 7 or 8 that "do not show themselves."
In the few years of intensified poaching that began in 1987, perhaps one-third of India's tigers had been killed—almost as many as were said to remain in the whole country at the time Project Tiger began. India still claims 3,750 tiger and is formally committed to protecting them. But few accept that rosy figure or have faith in the commitment—not in the present rancid atmosphere of governmental bribery and corruption. To this day, except in a very few reserves in India and Nepal, the Indian tiger is hunted throughout its remaining range. Though still granted about 60 percent of the wild population of the species, the Indian race probably numbers no more than 1,500 animals—less than half the Indian government's official face-saving figure.
One of the last great redoubts of the Indian tiger lies in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in the central highlands. In 1963, when U.S. biologist George Schaller began a pioneering study of Indian ungulates, he chose the great Kanha plateau as his study area, not only because it was huge and remote but because "there were more tigers at Kanha than in any other area" he visited. He reached this conclusion even though, by his own estimate, Kanha's entire tiger population in that period was approximately 11 animals.
Kanha was one of the first reserves established under Project Tiger—in fact, Bob Wright, noted entrepreneur of the colonial-era Tollygunge Club of Calcutta, who turned up at Kipling Camp, near Kanha, during my visit there in February 1996, thought Kanha might have been the very first one chosen. The camp is owned by his wife, Anne, who assisted Mrs. Gandhi in founding Project Tiger and was a founder of World Wildlife India. Their daughter, Belinda, has since become the most outspoken tiger activist in India.
The Kanha reserve, designated a national park in 1976, contains 940 square kilometers—not counting a buffer zone of 1,005 square kilometers in which human activity is restricted—and is one of the largest of India's parks, though little visited by foreigners. In eight splendid days at Kanha, I saw wild dog and leopard and the mighty gaur, sambar,chital, barking deer, barasingha, blackbuck antelope, and wild boar. The only large animal I did not see was Panthera tigris tigris.
Belinda Wright was kind enough to put me up in Delhi on my return from Kanha, and for three days we talked about little except tigers, working around discreet phone calls from informers in regard to her investigative work for the Wildlife Protection Society of India, of which she is executive director. One informer, a jeweler, had just been offered two poached tiger skins and might cooperate in setting up a sting; another would come by later in the morning, to avoid the risk of a tapped phone. Because her undercover work is dangerous, Belinda lives in a small house out of the city, and the garden enclosure is steel-fenced, with heavy locks and two permanent guards.
On my first evening in Delhi, we went to dinner with a few friends at the house of Valmik Thapar, who had worked with Fateh Singh at Ranthambore. Among those present was Bittu Sahgal, editor of the wildlife magazine Sanctuary ASIA. I asked my host how much he and Fateh Singh had known about the extent of the poaching at Ranthambore when I visited four years earlier, and Thapar said that Fateh Singh already suspected the worst. "I discounted it," confessed Thapar, a large, bearded man of intense, brooding demeanor. "I simply did not wish to believe what was happening to our tigers." Not until the spring of 1992, when the scandal broke, and it became clear that Ranthambore's tigers had been reduced almost by half, could he bring himself to accept what had already happened.
In 1994, when Wright uncovered the first evidence of extensive tiger poaching at the Kanha reserve, nobody—including her friends Thapar and Sahgal—wished to believe her. Thapar nodded ruefully. Ranthambore was different, he said—not only much smaller than the huge and remote Kanha but pressed on all sides by hungry humanity and far closer to the animal-parts trade around Delhi. But eventually Thapar and other wildlife people in India had to accept the fact that poaching was epidemic, not only at Kanha but also throughout most if not all of the new reserves.
In the face of government indifference, Thapar and Sahgal, with Wright tiger biologist Ullas Karanth, founded the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), whose foremost mission was and is the protection of tigers from the poachers. In 1996 this small and intense group was joined by Ashok Kumar of the World Wildlife Fund International's TRAFFIC network, which concerns itself with the animal-parts trade the world over. Mostly because of Belinda Wright's operations, 82 people have been taken to court for wildlife violations during the past two years. Yet every last one of them has been set free. Though Wright is not bitter, as are Thapar and Sahgal, she wonders if India has the will to save its own wildlife, observing that the corruption in high government has further weakened the faint resolve that Project Tiger used to inspire in the politicians.
Despite continuous and spirited disagreement, the dedicated people of the WPSI are very closely bonded in their cause. They cannot know what effect they will have on India's bureaucracy, yet they think they are seeing some small signs of progress. In any case, as Wright and Thapar remarked separately, they are dedicated to a lifelong fight to save the tiger. After all, as Bittu Sahgal says, "The tiger is the very soul of India."
Throughout the tiger's former and present range, the forces acting to exterminate it are consistent, though they might be ranked in different order from country to country: ever-increasing human settlement; destruction of habitat by lumbering, mining, agriculture, fires, war, dams, and reservoirs; general access to modern weapons, with increased hunting and poaching of both the tiger and its prey animals; increased confrontation between tigers and humans or livestock; genetic drift cause by inbreeding due to isolated and diminished populations.
The South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis, was formerly abundant in South China's temperate upland forests, with a population estimated by Chinese authorities at 4,000 in the late 1940s. By the early 1950s extensive forest clearing for agriculture had destroyed much habitat, and "pelt harvest" of the tiger for the fur trade increased. In 1959, under Mao Tse-tung, eradication campaigns against these "pests" were encouraged by government bounties, resulting in uncontrolled hunting, not only for the skin but for blood, bones, organs, and medicines. By the early 1960s the South China tiger had declined to an estimated 1,000 animals; a decade later it was listed as endangered. Today its wide range has been reduced to three isolated areas in south-central China, where small and scattered populations are said to persist along the mountainous borders between provinces. Two of these regions include parts of Jiangxi Province, where in the winter of 1993, on a crane expedition, I made a five-hour journey overland from the capital, Nanchang, to Poyang Lake, near the Yangtze River, and also two flights over the region at low altitude and in clear weather, which provided a good look at this rough, mountainous region. One can only hope that Jiangxi is not typical of the last tiger habitat in China, for it appeared fatally battered and denuded.
According to official Chinese estimates, more than 150 amoyensis survive. But some Western authorities now fear that as few as 20 to 30 are left, and even this low figure maybe optimistic, since no one knows of any recent sightings. Even if not already extinct, the South China race seems destined to become the fourth to vanish in our lifetime.
The tiger subspecies to the south of amoyensis (and the one most recently recognized by scientists as a distinct form) is the Indochinese tiger, Panthera tigris corbetti. Smaller and darker than the South China race, it ranges widely from eastern Burma, now known as Myanmar, through Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Present estimates of the Indochinese tiger's population range from 600 to 900; but little is known about its distribution, and recent surveys of Indochina's vast, empty forests by Wildlife Conservation Society biologists George Schaller and Alan Rabinowitz are not encouraging. According to Schaller, local people have set snares "from the mountaintop all the way down into the valley," and Rabinowitz agrees that "the people are literally wiping out everything—sambar, barking deer, even young elephants. The forests look good, but there are no tigers because there is nothing for them to eat. In these areas it is not the tiger that is being killed directly but the prey."
Much the same can probably be said of the rest of Indochina. In Myanmar, scarcely 1 percent of the country is protected, although 45 percent remains forested; and even where guerilla warfare has not prevented the few forest guards from entering the forests, they are not permitted to arrest poachers. In the other countries, large areas have been set aside as reserves and parks, but none of these nations try to control the use of firearms. The ill-paid guards are imperiled by well-armed poachers and even by local people, who perceive them as enemies who interfere with their traditional harvest in the forest. According to Rabinowitz, "no more than an estimated two hundred and fifty adult tigers are in danger of further decline." The same—or worse—can probably be said of the populations elsewhere in corbetti's range.
Little is known of the tiger race found less than 50 miles across the Malacca Straits in Sumatra, the last sanctuary of tigers in Indonesia. Sumatra is the world's sixth-largest island, more than 1,000 miles long, though far less populous than nearby Java and Bali. Poor agricultural soils put off the destruction of its forests until after World War II. But in the 1960s the conversion of forestland was greatly expanded by timber concessions, rubber and palm-oil plantations, and oil fields, and the habitat loss was compounded by hunting and trapping. Today the Sumatran tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, is largely confined to the southwestern mountains and remote northern regions, which include the largest and best of the reserves known as Gunung Leuser, a complex of about 7,927 square kilometers where 20 to 100 tigers are said to persist. (The numbers spread is an indication of how little is actually known about the sumatrae.)
At a conservation workshop in 1992, some 35 Indonesian forestry and conservation officials assigned to Sumatran parks and protected areas—the majority of the tiger professionals in Sumatra—were asked how many had ever laid eyes on a wild tiger. Four raised their hands. How many had seen tiger tracks? Perhaps half of them. How many with raised hands had seen tracks 10 or more times? Half of the hands went down. (Since tigers commonly use roads and trails, leaving big pugmarks, this informal poll was even more ominous than it may appear.)
A recent report by the Wildlife Conservation Society claimed that about 650 Sumatran tigers may survive, and one hopes, without much confidence, that this is true. Hundreds of stuffed specimens adorn Sumatran government offices and private homes, in addition to the hundreds shipped abroad. Between 1975 and 1992 South Korea alone imported 3,720 kilograms of dried tiger bone from Indonesia (in effect, Sumatra, since the tiger was already extinct in Java and Bali), or somewhere between 338 and 620 tigers over an 18-year period; between 1991 and 1993 South Korea imported 475 kilograms of bone, or about 20 tigers annually. In Singapore a well-tanned Sumatran tiger skin brings about $2,000; a tiger penis fetches $100. Small wonder, then, that according to one recent report, "the Sumatran form is close to extinction in the wild."
In 1936, when the Sikhote-Alin International Biosphere Reserve was established, on the Siberian coast north of Vladivostok, perhaps 50 Amur tigers were left in the wild— too few, some said, to provide the genetic variation critical to the long-term survival of the race. Yet everywhere throughout its range, Panthera tigris has shown itself to be a marvelously resourceful and adaptable animal, and during World War II, with most of the hunters off shooting at other human beings, it made a small recovery in numbers. By the mid-1980s the wild population was thought to approach 450 animals, including 250 breeding adults—an exciting recovery that justified hope for reestablishing a viable population, assuming the tigers had avoided long-term damage from inbreeding. But with the implosion of the Soviet Union, the Amur country was laid wide open to the international poaching that was destroying the last tigers everywhere. Within a few years more than a third had been destroyed, and once again the Amur, or Siberian, tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, was in serious danger of extinction. In this emergency, a group of Russian researchers and U.S. wildlife biologists founded the Siberian Tiger Project, with headquarters in Terney, a fishing port north of Vladivostok.
In June 1992, not long after the project's fieldwork had begun, I joined the researchers at Terney and accompanied them on treks into the forest. In the beautiful early summer taiga, I saw fresh tiger sign—pugmarks and scent posts and scat—and joined in the reconnaissance of the territory of a tigress that had been captured, radio-collared, and released two days before. Using telemetry, we approached the stream where she lay in hiding; as we drew near, the tigress rose and began moving, changing her radio signal to a rapid beep, and my heart with it, for this was my first experience with a tiger in the field. According to Maurice Hornocker, an eminent authority on the great cats and a codirector of the project, her sharp eyes were probably watching us through those silent trees, and certainly she could hear us. Knowing she was intent upon our presence, the striped fur of her harlequin mask rising and falling with her fetid, meaty breath as she stared and listened, was exhilarating, to say the very least.
In January 1996 I returned to the Russian Far East by way of Vladivostok, where I was met by Siberian Tiger Project biologists Howard Quigley and Dale Miquelle. The next day we flew up the coast road through what is now the Sikhote-Alin reserve, in the heart of tiger country. During the next fortnight, taking part in air monitoring and snowtracking of the animals that had been captured, radio-collared, and released since my first visit, four years before, gave me a chance to compare the prospects of altaica with those of the other tiger races.
The Amur tiger, generally regarded as the largest of the world's great cats, once ranged widely in Siberia, from Lake Baikal east to Korea. Today it is almost entirely confined to the Russian Far East, in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Officially, it is till reported to exist in contiguous North Korea and northeastern China, but the biologists and researchers of the Siberian Tiger Project mostly dismiss these remnant animals as border wanderers.
The Sikhote-Alin, 600 miles north and south, with a very low human population, is the largest single region of potentially good habitat in all of Panthera tigris's modern range. If its large reserves can be linked by wooded corridors across the mined and timbered forestlands, and if its prey species can be protected from overhunting, the Sikhote-Alin might offer a better region except possibly the huge Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, called the Sunderbans, which is generally inhospitable to humans. On the other hand, the population densities of the tiger's prey species, poached relentlessly since firearms became generally accessible a few years ago, are now so low that the carrying capacity for this region may have already been reached. Few authorities give the Amur tiger much chance of long-term survival into the next century, but having observed and listened to the Americans and Russians involved in the Siberian Tiger Project, and the local people, too, my own views are more optimistic. Low prey densities and small numbers notwithstanding—according to a 1996 census, about 330 adults and 101 subadults—this may well be the most stable tiger population left on earth.
The vanished tiger races, never studied, might have told us much about the phylogeny of tigers—the origin and evolution of the species. Tigers and lions both descend from a jaguarlike Panthera ancestor, but although the lion was widespread in western Asia and southern Europe as well as Africa, no tiger fossils have been found outside of Asia. Among the earliest were skulls and bones from the late Pliocene and the early Pleistocene, discovered in China and also in Java and on the north coast of Siberia. These Ice Age tigers were larger than the modern races, among which only the Amurapproaches in size.
In the Pleistocene the species was widely distributed, crossing land bridges to Japan, and the geographic region where the species originated is still debated. While some authorities now suggest a southern Asian origin, most adhere to a "northern hypothesis." According to that theory, the early tiger dispersed westward to the Caspian Sea and south into India and Southeast Asia more than a million years ago, when most of central Asia was covered in forest. When sea levels receded during the Pleistocene to expose the continental shelf that linked the Malayan peninsula with the East Indies, the tiger reached Sumatra, Java, and Bali. At some unknown time it vanished from Japan, and in later ages, for want of water, it withdrew from the arid Himalayan rain shadow of Tibet and Central Asia. (Though the tiger can adapt to cold, it cannot survive in arid country.) But all around this great desert ellipse, its range appears to have been almost continuous. As the earth warmed after the Pleistocene, the dispersing tigers spread through Asia, losing their long-haired pelage and heavy, tufted paws. Until regional populations were cut off from one another by climatic changes, all Asian tigers were essentially the same animal; yet the only one that remained comparable in size to the Amur race was the Indian tiger, which needed to deal with the large prey animals of the subcontinent. In the tropics, with mostly smaller prey, the cumbersome size of the northern tiger proved nonadaptive The South China, Indochinese, and Caspian races became smaller than the Amur and the Indian, and the three island races of the equatorial tropics were smaller still.
Tiger dimensions adapt readily to prey size, which is generally (though not invariably) smaller in island fauna. The extinct Japanese tiger of the Pleistocene was approximately the same size as the Balinese race, which seems to have been the smallest of modern tigers. According to tiger authority John Seidensticker, curator of mammals at the National Zoo, in Washington, D.C., the original habitat of the island tigers of Indonesia appears to have been the great river swamps, where the tiger evolved as the largest predator in a chain of life whose essential members were deer and wild boar.
In modern times, Bali's rich and volcanic slopes encouraged an intensive wet-rice agriculture, but its tigers were found mostly in the high western forests. So far as is known, no Balinese tiger was ever captured, though eight were killed for museums in the 1930s. Collecting specimens from a small population hastened the extinction of the race, and the Bali Barat Game Reserve, created in western Bali in 1941, came too late to help it. In the 1960s and '70s, much plantation forest was cut down, by which time, in all likelihood, the Balinese tiger, Panthera tigris balica, was already gone. Seidensticker tells me that in July 1978 he spoke with a local man who claimed to have observed a tiger one month earlier as it drank from a spring at the base of a great ficus tree shading his temple; in 1979 a Bali newspaper printed reports that at least six tigers still survived in the Bali Barat reserve. I, too, was told that, on a journey there last winter en route from Siberia to India, and the legend seemed persuasive enough when I gazed at those mysterious, high, dark mountain forests in the distance. Pressed a little, however, the genial Balinese agreed that their tiger was gone.
Departing Bali en route to India, the aircraft passed along the northern coast of Java, a mysterious and striking dark massif of 20 or more volcanic cones. The once-abundant Javan tiger was bountied and killed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and not until the 1920s and '30s was a system of reserves established. The few captive animals reported in zoos and collections before World War II were dispersed during the war, and none survive. By 1945 the Javan tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, was mostly gone from all but the most inaccessible regions of the island, as much of the monsoon forest was converted to teak plantations and rubber trees and coffee.
Java is one of the world's most populous places, aswarm with 120 million people, and this virulent population growth—with forest loss and intensive cultivation—made survival impossible for the tiger. By the mid-1960s, when civil unrest spread across the island, the Javan tiger survived in only three of the reserves; in the same period one of its main prey species, the rusa deer, was reduced severely by disease. By 1970 the last four or five animals were confined to a rugged area on the coast, known as Meru-Betiri, which was made a park in 1972. The last good sighting of sondaica was made in 1976, and it is presently assumed that the Javan race died out in the 1980s, despite the local legends to the contrary.
Not surprisingly, all three of the first races to go extinct—the Balinese, the Javan, and the Caspian—were located at the extremities of tiger range and were cut off from the main body of the species. Perhaps even before the advent of human beings, the Caspian tiger, Panthera tigris virgata, lived 1,000 miles or more from its westernmost kin, in Siberia, and was cut off from the Indian and South China populations by high mountains and deserts. The Caspian tiger is the exotic creature seen scowling and skulking in ancient Persian art—the rather small, dark race of the Transcaucasus and the shores of the great inland seas of western Asia. A specimen killed in the Transcaucasus in 1932 was the last one seen until 1964, when one or more were sighted near Lenkoran, on the southwest shore of the Caspian Sea near the Iranian border. In the early 1970s a U.S. researcher surveying the Caspian shore with camera traps found leopards but no evidence of tigers, and a survey of Iran's remote mountains between 1973 and 1976 had the same result. The Lenkoran tigers, it appears, were the last of this subspecies ever to be seen, and today the Caspian tiger is presumed extinct.
One day last April in Washington, D.C., John Seidensticker was kind enough to give Belinda Wright and me a close look at two of his Sumatran tigers in their cages beneath the exhibit pens at the National Zoo. Perhaps two and a half feet at the shoulder, this last representative of Indonesia's island tigers is little more than half the size of the Amur or Indian tigers, with a smaller head and shoulders relative to its weight. The ground color of the Sumatran tiger is comparatively darker, rather tawny (the Javan and Balinese forms were darker still), and its underside is a dirty, gray white, as opposed to the bright white of its northern kin. Its stripes are narrower and more closely spaced and may be spotted at the tips, and it is oddly big footed, like a toy tiger. The watchful male, slung out on his hard bench, had his head close to the bars. When I peered too closely, our intent visages scarcely a yard apart, the tiger closed his agate eyes and opened his jaws in a silent, yawning snarl. The face of sumatrae is relatively narrow, with a pronounced white ruff— characteristics that might camouflage its bulk as it approaches, Seidensticker suggests, since the body does not extend outside the ruff when seen head on.
Seidensticker remains mildly skeptical of the current separation of the tiger into eight races, since the status of these subspecies is still argued—the Indochinese tiger, Panthera tigris corbetti, was only "created" three decades ago—and because, in more than one pair in the group, the alleged differences seem problematic at best. In his opinion, "viable population" might be a more useful designation than "geographic race," since—in a creature that seems equally adaptable to dry upland forest and tropical rainforest, monsoon mangrove habitat and Himalayan foothills, northern taiga and the reedbeds of Asia's inland seas—size, external appearance, and behavior tend to be more influenced by climate and ecology than by geographic range. Like most of the 36 species of cat, the tiger is exceptionally flexible, adapting to a range of habitats perhaps unmatched by any other large mammal except Homo sapiens.
Yet even if all necessary steps to protect the last wild tigers are undertaken, it may not be enough. As Seidensticker says, traditional conservation management techniques for tigers have failed or are failing, even where there has been increased protection. Effective restoration will require corrective and preventive management, to insure that mere benign neglect—as in Java and Bali, where the tiger went extinct despite a system of protected reserves—does not permit some fatal imbalance to occur before it can be properly understood.
Gazing into a nearby cage at a great white tiger, the last of a celebrated "albino line" from India, we fell silent for a while, considering that stunted future in which the mysteries of wild tigers will be gone and the only tigers left on earth will be these listless specimens cooped up in zoos. How excited I would have been, I thought, to have glimpsed one of those Persian tigers, scowling from the reeds near Lenkoran on the shore of the Caspian Sea.
This story originally appeared in the March-April 1997 issue. | <urn:uuid:a65413f7-1670-47da-a29e-3781084ea60c> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://www.audubon.org/news/the-last-wild-tigers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589892.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20180717183929-20180717203929-00372.warc.gz | en | 0.972363 | 7,883 | 3 | 3 |
A small archipelago of three islandsTavolara (the largest), Molara and Molarottooff the north-east coast of Sardinia. Vegetation is mainly maquis. Tourism is the main land-use.
An important breeding site for seabirds.
BirdLife International (2022) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Tavolara archipelago, Cape Ceraso and Cape Figari. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 27/09/2022. | <urn:uuid:8f6576d3-c807-4109-be56-0b05be7fc1c8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/tavolara-archipelago-cape-ceraso-and-cape-figari-iba-italy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335054.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927162620-20220927192620-00607.warc.gz | en | 0.741498 | 117 | 2.875 | 3 |
From the early 1860s, railways promised a quick, cost-effective way of transporting people and goods. They could carry large quantities of produce, and take perishable goods such as fruit to distant markets.
Lobbying for a line
In 1875 people living south of the Rangitīkei River asked the superintendent of Wellington province to fund a railway between Sanson and Palmerston North. They pointed out that a railway would ‘open up to the Manawatu & Rangitikei farmers a reliable market for their produce which would give such an impetus to agricultural pursuits as would soon render this one of the most productive settlements in New Zealand’. 1
In the 1870s, more railways were built by the government as part of a major public works programme. They helped more people move into the backblocks. The first railway lines connected Christchurch with its farming hinterland. By 1880 they had spread throughout Canterbury and Otago. In the North Island they extended through Waikato, Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatū, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa, linking farming regions with their nearest port.
By the 1890s connections had been made between some regional lines, and the North Island main trunk line was being built. Completed in 1908, it opened up the King Country and other inland regions to Pākehā settlement. Between the world wars, many key rail links were completed. In the South Island, Christchurch was connected with the West Coast and Picton. In the North Island, Auckland was linked with Northland, Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty. In the 1950s lines were built across the Volcanic Plateau.
Railway construction had similar problems to road building. Tracks had to be built on gentle gradients, so tunnels were needed in hilly areas. Railways also needed permanent bridges, so often the first bridge across a river was for the railway. Combined road and rail bridges provided dual access for road traffic and trains.
The first trains were steam-powered. Although they were gradually replaced by diesel and electric trains, steam locomotives were in use until the early 1970s. In the mid-1890s insulated wagons were designed and built at the Addington railway workshops in Christchurch, to transport meat carcasses from freezing works to ports.
Benefits for farming
Railways provided country districts with more convenient transport for goods and passengers, including school children. They also made some types of farming economically viable. In drier areas, rail transport encouraged grain growing and mixed arable and pastoral farming. Land that was once suitable only for large stock or sheep runs could be divided into smaller holdings for raising fat lambs, and this type of farming increased once freezing works were built near railway lines. Where it was possible to get milk and cream to central dairy factories by rail, dairy farms spread. Railway networks helped dairying develop in the Waikato.
Trains were the main way of transporting livestock until the 1960s, when restrictions on trucking were lifted.
In the late 19th century, farmers lobbied for and obtained reduced charges for transporting farm produce and fertiliser. They also got special rates for taking stock, produce, machinery and other exhibits to and from A & P (agricultural and pastoral) shows, and for travelling to other rural events such as ploughing competitions.
The fall and rise of rail
Rail transport peaked in the early 1950s, and then declined – trucks were more flexible for transporting farm and other goods. Tracks needed to be upgraded for modern trains, and some branch lines closed – particularly from 1960 to the mid-1980s, as road freighting expanded. However, increased road user costs saw rail freight tonnages grow again in the 2000s. | <urn:uuid:b784bf11-c8fe-426e-b230-55fd97b7612c> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://teara.govt.nz/mi/rural-services/page-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487634576.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20210617222646-20210618012646-00250.warc.gz | en | 0.983949 | 779 | 3.71875 | 4 |
I have been hearing a lot of noise about Magnesium lately from word of mouth and by reading articles and blogs. It is such an amazing and important mineral that people don’t even realise they need.
Low levels of systemic Magnesium in the human body is what is known as Magnesium Deficiency or hypomagnesemia.
Up to 15% of the population suffer from its effect with the major causative factor being poor diet. (Wikipedia)
Due to the fact that Magnesium has so many health benefits, a deficiency can be incredibly detrimental to one’s health indeed. So in order to find out just what is magnesium deficiency, we must first look at the jobs that magnesium does in the body.
What is Magnesium and Why is it Such a Big Deal?
Magnesium is the second most prevalent element in human cells and it serves literally hundreds of enzymatic and metabolic functions at a cellular level.
It plays an essential role in cardiac function, neurotransmission and neuromuscular activity. Half of the magnesium in the body is in the skeleton and most of the remainder is found within the cells with only 1% in the blood.
After the bones, the biggest concentration of magnesium in the body in found in the heart.
Magnesium is responsible for a healthy heart by sustaining smooth muscle contractions and a regular heartbeat while maintaining normal blood pressure by facilitating vasodilation (the relaxation and widening of blood vessels.)
Magnesium helps with bone formation by supporting the osteoblasts and osteoclasts in their function of making and strengthening bones.
High magnesium intake directly benefits your skeletal system by preventing bone degeneration and encouraging new bone cell formation.
Magnesium is an important co-factor to starting and stopping enzyme function in the gut.
Enzymes are imperative to breaking down glucose, cholesterol, protein and fat in our digestive systems and they can’t work without the help of the co-factors, one of which is Magnesium.
Cells are the building blocks of life, and all living things are made out of these cells. We really want these cells and their DNA to maintain stability while avoiding gene mutations.
Magnesium provides assistance to the vital function of RNA and DNA at a cellular level by stabilizing DNA structures and repairing damaged DNA.
With insufficient levels of Magnesium, cell synthesis and cell turnover is much slower.
Adenosine tri-phosphate or ATP is a molecule found within the cell and it is the fuel for the power of the cells.
Without enough magnesium, the food we consume would not be broken down into glucose molecules and these molecules would not be further broken into usable ATP. ATP is used in protein synthesis, cell reproduction and muscle contraction so magnesium is an essential part in a whole set of drastically important chain reactions in your body.
The basic function of magnesium and ATP is to ensure we have enough energy to function and do not suffer from fatigue.
Ease Anxiety and Relax the Brain
Magnesium is vital in the function of neurotransmitters responsible for ‘feel good’ hormones such as serotonin.
These hormones are an essential part in relaxing the brain which helps us to have a normal night’s sleep.
Within every cell in the body, the four main minerals are constantly working hard to maintain a delicate balance we call haemostasis.
To achieve this equilibrium, the minerals magnesium, potassium, calcium and sodium are constantly passing backwards and forwards across the cell membrane. ATP, the energy molecule is needed to maintain the balance by providing the energy for the mineral molecules to pass back and forth.
When the delicate electrolyte balance is in turmoil, you end up with problems with muscle contractions (cramps), cardiac arrhythmias and nerve impulses.
What is Magnesium Deficiency?
Along with calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorous and chloride, Magnesium is one of the 6 ‘Macro Minerals’ which the body needs in large quantities to function at optimum levels.
Because Magnesium cannot be manufactured by the body, it must be consumed and the recommended dietary intake is 350mg daily.
Worryingly, 68% of people in the US do not meet the dietary intake requirements for Magnesium (Wikipedia) and so these are the people at risk for magnesium deficiency.
Do I Get Enough Magnesium?
One way to discover what your magnesium levels are is to have blood tests with your doctor. However only a very small amount of magnesium in the body is actually found within the blood so health practitioners will not rely on blood tests alone to diagnose a magnesium deficiency.
A doctor will test your blood for serum magnesium but also examine your lifestyle for risk factors and keep an eye out for the telltale signs and symptoms listed below.
Some risk factors for magnesium deficiency are:
Stress – either emotional or physical eg. surgery
High intake of refined sugar – this uses more magnesium up to digest
Regular consumption of carbonated drinks – the substances in sodas actually bind with magnesium molecules and render it unusable to the body.
More than 7 alcoholic beverages per week – increases the excretion of magnesium by the kidneys
Caffeine – causes extra magnesium release through kidneys.
Calcium supplements – too much calcium in the body requires larger amounts of magnesium as well
Medications – diuretics, heart medication and estrogen therapy can all effect magnesium excretion.
What are the Symptoms and Signs?
Some of the classic neurological and neuromuscular signs of magnesium deficiency are:
- Facial tics
- Muscle spasms
- Sleep disturbances
- Eye twitches
- Severe pain disorders such as Fibromyalgia
What is Magnesium Deficiency Doing to my Body?
Long term magnesium deficiency and consistently low dietary intake can seriously deplete your body’s magnesium stores and lead to chronic hypomagnesemia and have drastic effects on your body systems.
Some diseases which may be caused directly or indirectly from magnesium deficiency include:
- Erectile Dysfunction
- Cardiovascular Disease and Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Liver and Kidney dysfunction and damage
Magnesium deficiency has also been associated with pre-eclampsia in pregnancy, migraines, Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis.
How do I Increase my Magnesium Intake?
A balanced diet low in refined sugars and high in magnesium rich foods is the easiest way to increase your magnesium levels. To get your 350mg per day is possible by looking closely at the foods you eat.
Sources of dietary magnesium include:
- Milk and dairy products
- Wholegrain cereals such as multigrain bread, brown rice, pumpkin seeds
- Nuts and legumes – black beans, kidney beans, almonds, cashews
- Green leafy vegetables: kale, spinach, silverbeet, broccolli, brussels sprouts
- Avocados and bananas
If your dietary intake is not sufficient enough to meet your body’s magnesium requirements, then perhaps you need to look at a magnesium supplement.
There are a variety of different forms of magnesium supplements on the market. Magnesium chloride, citrite or cheleate are generally believed to be absorbed better than their counterparts and so become more readily bioavailable faster.
Tablets, powders and transdermal oils or patches all have different rates of absorption and also have different uses.
Tablets: Magnesium oxide is the most commonly used form of magnesium found in pharmaceutical supplements, however it is far from the best. It is favoured for it’s high magnesium content and compactness but is not water soluble and not easily absorbed.
The other common forms of magnesium such as chloride, citrite, glycenate, aspartate and sulphate all have a bioavailability much greater than the oxide form and so are much better supplements to use.
Powders and liquids: Because of the solubility of these forms of magnesium, the mineral in liquid form is the most absorbable.
Magnesium Chloride Oil and Bath Salts: Magnesium Oils are applied topically directly to the skin and are effectively used to treat digestive problems such as constipation. These are especially helpful to those who may suffer gastrointestinal intolerance to taking tablets.
Magnesium Chloride is one of the most easily absorbed by the body and it’s direct application and absorption allows it to be carried directly to the cells without being metabolised.
Oil and bath salts such as Epsom Salts are also effective in treating muscles aches and pains and and increase endurance and muscle stamina.
Patches: Transdermal Magnesium Chloride patches offer a sustained release of the mineral which is absorbed directly through the skin.
Intravenous: Intravenous magnesium is the fastest route of delivery of the mineral and it is used in emergency situations as the drug of choice for pre-eclampsia, hypertension and severe cardiac arrhythmias. IV Magnesium saves lives.
Fulvic Acid Mineral Supplements
These amazing organic compounds are great sources of trace elements and they facilitate absorption of the ions within the cells.
They are worth looking into if you have a need for organic materials and have great all over benefits.
For further information check out: http://www.fulvicmineral.com/
Can I Have Too Much Magnesium?
If your dietary intake of magnesium exceeds the recommended daily amount the kidneys simply excrete the excess so problems from overuse are rare.
However, kidney disease can effect the way magnesium is excreted so hypermagnesema can be found in those patients with poor renal health.
Magnesium toxicity is extremely rare however taking too many supplements can have a laxative effect.
Please see your doctor if you are taking any other medications prior to starting magnesium therapy.
So, don’t just sit there and wonder what is magnesium deficiency, instead find ways to prevent and treat it before it becomes a real problem.
Your healthy heart, muscles, bones, digestive tract, nervous system, brain, liver and kidneys will all thank you! | <urn:uuid:cb1cc35a-1c64-4613-9859-7c625cc616cc> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | http://absolutecouple.com/what-is-magnesium-deficiency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987798619.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20191022030805-20191022054305-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.912045 | 2,079 | 3.296875 | 3 |
What is a generator ATS? What does it do?
An automatic transfer switch or ATS for a diesel generator is a device that switches the load from the mains to the generator and back again. The mains is monitored either in the generator control panel, or in the ATS. When the mains either fails, a phase fails, or the mains goes in/out of preset parameters, the generator will start and the ATS will changeover, from the mains to the generator, to ensure that the generator does not backfeed the grid.
Back feeding the grid when it has failed is a sever risk to the life of any grid employees working on the lines, poles or transformers. Imagine the grid cut the power to your street, because a transformer needs replacing. It’s going to take them around an hour. You start your generator, which you have connected directly into your fuse board and you haven’t stripped the main breaker in the house. The power will travel back into the grid, directly to the man working on the transformer, potentially killing him.
It is essential, in all circumstances, that a foolproof method of isolating the grid from your generator when the mains has failed. Never be tempted to save a few pounds and risk the lives of others. The consequences for them, for yourself and your family could be disastrous.
This is the internals of a small ATS panel that uses a motorised switch to change over - other panels may also use contactors, MCCB's and ACB's, depending on their size and cusotmer requirements.
How does an ATS panel work?
There are various designs of ATS panel. Typically, a mains failure relay is fitted in an electrical enclosure, with two contactors. The contactors are mechanically and electrically interlocked. This means there is a mechanical device, called an interlock, that ensures the two contactors cannot be closed at the same time. The contactors need electrical power to close (you can get both DC and AC types).
The electrical interlock is designed in the circuitry, to prevent the contactors from energizing at the same time. While the mechanical interlock should stop both of them closing even if this were to happen, this secondary circuit is an added protection. Usually, a normally closed contact is fitted to each contactor. These contacts, normally (ie when the contactor is not energized) are closed. When the contactor is energized, they open. If you have two contactors, A and B, the circuit to close contactor A is wired through the auxiliary of B, thereby when B is closed, its not possible to energize A. The same is true for B, this is wired through the auxiliary of A. This provides the electrical interlock.
When the mains fails, the ATS sends a remote start (normally volts free) to the generator. The generator runs up and when at the required power and voltage, the ATS will open the mains contactor and close the generator contactor. When the mains returns, the generator contactor is opened and the mains contactor is closed.
Because both contactors are never closed together, even when the mains returns, there will be a short break in electrical supply as the contactors change over. | <urn:uuid:a9f74f1e-f2fe-4675-980d-957b8310b14b> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://support.wellandpower.net/hc/en-us/articles/360001922817-What-is-a-generator-Automatic-Transfer-Switch-ATS-How-does-it-work-What-does-it-do- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496664469.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20191112001515-20191112025515-00184.warc.gz | en | 0.93658 | 688 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Conventional parasite control measures
are based on the use of curative (chemotherapy) and preventive
Only three drugs are available - isometamidium chloride,
diminazene aceturate and homidium (bromide and chloride).
These compounds have been on the market for over 40 years.
It is currently estimated that 35 million doses of these chemicals
are used in Africa each year and that between 40 million and
60 million cattle are at risk. Although there is a consistent
demand for trypanocides by African farmers and national veterinary/livestock
services, the total value of the market (more than US$ 30
million) is not considered sufficiently financially important
to justify investment by large pharmaceutical companies in
the development and licensing of new trypanocides, the cost
of which may exceed US$250 million for a single compound.
Perhaps the greatest risk to the future use of existing trypanocides
is the development and spread of drug resistance in parasite
populations to the point they become ineffective over large
areas of Africa. Resistance to one or more of the trypanocidal
drugs used in cattle has been reported in at least 13 countries
of sub-Saharan Africa. Very few systematic surveys have been
carried out and the occurrence of drug resistance was found
to be greater in those regions where drug use was more intensive
which led to the selection of resistant strains. | <urn:uuid:4174fa8c-9f9e-4438-af6d-cbb59df60993> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.fao.org/Ag/againfo/programmes/en/paat/par_control.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824068.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020101632-20171020121632-00817.warc.gz | en | 0.940035 | 296 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Landseer's dog paintings of the 1830s are among his most celebrated works and Dignity and Impudence remains the most popular of all. Many, including this work, consist of commissioned, life-size 'portraits'; the rest are independent subjects, smaller in scale and usually with a narrative content. Here Landseer wittily contrasts the scale and character of a bloodhound called Grafton and a West Highland terrier called Scratch. Both dogs belonged to Jacob Bell, who commissioned the picture. The picture's composition parodies the Dutch portrait tradition, whereby the subject is framed by a window, with an arm or hand extending over the edge, just as the bloodhound's paw hangs over the edge of the kennel. Landseer draws attention to the dogs' 'human' characteristics: the soulful look and gentle dignity of the bloodhound is contrasted with the mischievous expression of the small terrier. Moreover, the larger dog is painted in smooth, variegated textures, while the smaller dog comes to life with a few jabbing and expressive brushstrokes. | <urn:uuid:9965ab6d-af99-4fda-9d21-18160d0bb73e> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://curiator.com/art/sir-edwin-henry-landseer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998755.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20190618143417-20190618165417-00281.warc.gz | en | 0.93479 | 223 | 2.546875 | 3 |
COPENHAGEN, Jan. 6 -- Measles persists in Europe despite more than two decades of routine childhood vaccination programs, researchers here said.
Continuing outbreaks -- blamed mainly on inadequate vaccine coverage in a handful of countries -- probably mean Europe will not reach the goal of eradicating the virus by 2010, according to Mark Muscat, M.D., of the Statens Serum Institut and colleagues in the European surveillance network for vaccine-preventable diseases (EUVAC.NET).
The epidemiological analysis of two years of data -- from 2006 and 2007 -- showed wide variation in incidence of measles, both in terms of where outbreaks occurred and which age groups were most affected, Dr. Muscat and colleagues said online in The Lancet.
All told, the analysis found 12,132 reported measles cases in 32 European countries over the two years. The U.S. typically has about 50 cases a year, although the CDC was concerned about a number of outbreaks in 2008. (See: CDC Alarmed Over U.S. Measles Surge)
Most of those infected, the analysis showed, were children who had either not been vaccinated or had not had the complete series of shots, the researchers said.
In 2006, for example, 77% of cases had not been vaccinated and 17% had received only a single shot. The comparable figures for 2007 were 87% and 10%.
The World Health Organization says 95% coverage with at least two doses of the vaccine is needed to eradicate the virus.
In this study, the countries with the highest incidence rates had less than optimal vaccine coverage, while those that met or exceeded the WHO benchmark tended to have few or no cases.
For instance, the researchers found, 85% of the measles cases reported over the two years came from five countries: Romania, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Italy.
Switzerland reported vaccination coverage of about 82% between 1991 and the beginning of this decade, but with substantial regional variation, while German vaccination coverage for children born between 1996 and 2003 was consistently about 70%, also with substantial regional differences.
In contrast, nine countries -- Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- reported no indigenous measles cases in either year.
Vaccine coverage in Finland is consistently above 95% and rates in Iceland, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Hungary range between 90% and 99%, the researchers said.
Among other findings of the study:
- Over the two years, 1,756 patients who developed measles were 20 or older, with 84% unvaccinated in 2006 and 86% in 2007.
- Seven deaths were reported during the two years of the study, including six in 2006, all among children 13 or younger.
The analysis showed that the overall crude incidence rate in the 32 countries studied was 1.41 per 100,000 population in 2006 and fell to 0.67 in 2007, a difference that was significant at P<0.0001.
Although that might seem encouraging, preliminary data for 2008 show the pendulum swinging the other way, according to Jacques Kremer, Ph.D., and Claude Muller, M.D., of the Laboratoire National de Santé in Luxembourg.
Writing in an accompanying editorial, they said it appears as if incidence in the first half of 2008 was about three times higher than in the same period of 2007 -- possibly reflecting "the periodicity of measles outbreaks, rather than sudden progress in vaccination."
Most of the measles seen in the two years of the study was indigenous to the reporting country, but 210 cases were reported as imported, more than half of them from another country in Europe.
On the other hand, Drs. Kremer and Muller noted, measles exported from Europe to other parts of the world has caused outbreaks in regions with less developed health care systems.
Global measles deaths have fallen sharply in recent years, mainly because of progress in measles control in developing countries, they said. (See: Global Measles Mortality and Cases Fall Dramatically)
"To see large outbreaks and high measles mortality in these regions after a reintroduction of measles virus from Europe would be embarrassing," they said.
| The study was supported by the European Commission and the Statens Serum Institut.
Dr. Muscat reported no conflicts.
Drs. Kremer and Muller also reported no conflicts.
Primary source: The Lancet
Source reference: Muscat M, et al "Measles in Europe: an epidemiological assessment" Lancet 2008; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61849-8.
Additional source: The Lancet
Source reference: Kremer J, Muller C "Measles in Europe-there is room for improvement" Lancet 2008; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61850-4. | <urn:uuid:360937c3-d1d7-4efc-b340-50e1a72e7361> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/GeneralInfectiousDisease/12344 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999668224/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060748-00068-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958369 | 1,004 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Sometimes, when two nations are not too friendly towards each other, they have two options … One is to focus on the differences between the viewpoints of these nations, and the other is to focus on the common ground. Which option the nations choose could decide which way they go. Such is probably the case with Pakistan and India. In finding the common ground, there is one name which emerges, and that is why this post is named the way it is. Common Name has a meaning very different. And this is what they were talking about the other day. This name is Sir Ganga Ram.
One can read about Sir Ganga Ram, so that’s not what we need to go into here. Suffice it to say that he was a learned man, with ample enterprise and intent to benefit the common people, who contributed immensely to a shared heritage.
There is, though, a story about Sir Ganga Ram which needs to be told here. At the time of Partition, there was a statue of Sir Ganga Ram in Lahore. This is a story written by the inimitable Sadat Hasan Manto. In this story, which is based on a true incident, a Muslim mob, venting their anger against Hindus, were pelting stones at the statue of Sir Ganga Ram which stood at the Mall Road in Lahore. Not satisfied with this, they proceeded to put a garland of shoes. In the meantime, as the police came, they started firing on the mob. People got injured in the firing, and one of those who got injured was the man holding the garland of shoes. With these people injured, the rest decided to take them to hospital. The Sir Ganga Ram Hospital was the one they wanted to take them to.
What an irony.
Sir Ganga Ram, who is known as the father of modern Lahore, stands as a towering figure who could cement ties between two nations. A man, upon whose death, part of the ashes were immersed in the Ganga (after whome he was named) and part are kept in his Samadhi which stands on the banks of the Ravi, a reminder to the possibility of friendship between two nations. And a man after whome two hospitals are named, on in Lahore and one in Delhi. | <urn:uuid:5179b465-a5f5-4ba3-86da-e289863df982> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | https://9minnon.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-name-common/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189130.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00144-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987874 | 470 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Why should we stop global warming?
Global warming is here, it's man-made, and it will cause serious problems in the years ahead. What's more, humanity has daillied so long that avoiding the worst impacts will now require extremely sharp emissions cuts — and possibly taking carbon out of the air.
Avoiding drastic warming may mean zeroing out fossil-fuel emissions by 2100
That's the upshot of a major new synthesis report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It provides a helpful summary of the panel's previous three big reports on global warming, which dealt with: 1) the physical science of climate change, 2) how bad it could get, and 3) how to stop it.
The new report includes a review of the evidence that carbon dioxide from burning coal, gas, and oil is heating the planet. It notes that some amount of "irreversible" climate disruption is already locked in, but things can also get much, much worse. Additional global warming could wreak havoc across the globe, potentially leading to food shortages, the flooding of major cities, and mass extinctions.
Perhaps the most relevant sections are about how to avoid this fate, something the world's nations will be discussing over the next year of UN climate talks. To avoid the worst outcomes, the world would need to act immediately and drastically, reducing emissions 41 to 72 percent below 2010 levels by mid-century. We'd then need to keep cutting and possibly be taking carbon-dioxide back out of the atmosphere by 2100.
That won't be easy. And the task gets all the harder if countries delay action or if they rule out certain controversial technologies, like nuclear power or carbon capture for coal plants. Here are seven key points from the report:
Total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. (IPCC)
The world's nations have pledged to prevent global average temperatures from rising more than 2° Celsius (or 3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. If we go too far above that, the worry goes, we dramatically increase the risks of things like rapid sea-level rise or mass extinctions or severe damage to our farms and crops.
Trouble is, on our current course, it's unlikely that we'll meet that goal. Global average temperatures have already risen 0.85°C since the 19th century, as humans have burned fossil fuels and cleared forests and put more heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And, the IPCC notes, yearly greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise fast (see chart).
If emissions keep rising, we're likely on pace for between 3.7°C and 4.8°C rise in average temperatures by the end of the century. The World Bank, for one, thinks that would be a total disaster — because "there is no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible.".
Now, countries like Europe and the United States, have made various pledges to cut their emissions in recent years. But even if those pledges pan out, the IPCC estimates, the world would still be on pace for roughly 3°C of global warming by the end of the century. (There's a range of possible outcomes, but that's the central estimate.)
Global Warming: A complete Guide to Understanding Global Warming, How Global Warming Affects Us, and What You Can Do to Stop It! (Global Warming, Climate Shift, Recycle Book 1)
Get Down to Earth! What You Can Do to Stop Global Warming | <urn:uuid:ef786290-55b9-4f79-b06c-f90fc249eaa1> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://global-safety-culture.com/StopGlobalWarming/why-should-we-stop-global-warming | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247480240.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216085312-20190216111312-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.925345 | 725 | 3.1875 | 3 |
In the most recent case, a woman who developed this condition following an unsuccessful bone-marrow transplant after being treated with radiation and chemotherapy for lymphoma experienced an improvement in her bone marrow and blood count following injection with Pluristem's cells, the company said.
In the other case earlier this year, Pluristem's stem cells were injected into a seven-year-old girl with aplastic anemia after two bone-marrow transplants failed to improve her condition. The stem-cell treatment improved her blood count enough for her to be released from hospital and ultimately saved her life, according to Pluristem and the girl's doctors.
Both patients were treated under Israel's compassionate-use clause at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Pluristem has applied for orphan drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its treatment, based on stem cells derived from placenta. Orphan drug status, reserved for treatments of rare diseases, gives drug developers certain benefits, including government-subsidized research, exclusive marketing agreements and other financial incentives.
The Israel-based life-sciences company is working to use placenta-derived stem cells to treat a variety of other conditions, including radiation exposure, peripheral arterial disease, multiple sclerosis, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Clinical trials have recently shown the safety of using Pluristem's placenta-derived stem cells to treat peripheral arterial disease, it said. Pluristem's treatments have a large market potential because they are simple to administer, requiring only injections that can be given outside of a hospital setting, the company said. | <urn:uuid:85b12ca0-68e5-4433-8b62-527cceb93ce1> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.technologynetworks.com/StemCells/news.aspx?id=142892 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049276964.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002116-00240-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953861 | 340 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Food Safety at Farmers Markets: A Reality Check
By Joshua Scheinberg, M.Sc., and Catherine Cutter, Ph.D
It’s no secret that Americans like their local farmers markets. As the local food movement continues to gain momentum, these unique sources of agricultural products and foods may very well become a significant and integrated part of our current food system. For now, farmers markets and other sources of farmer-to-consumer sales, or what is officially referred to as “direct-to-consumer marketing,” account for less than 1 percent of total agricultural sales in the U.S. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. has experienced a steady increase in the number of farmers markets, with approximately 8,144 farmers markets in 2013, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. So what kinds of food products are consumers buying at farmers markets? Without a doubt, fruit and vegetable sales dominate the farmers market landscape, but these trends may be changing. In 2007, the USDA Economic Research Service reported that although farmers who sell livestock products via direct-to-consumer made up only 9. percent of all direct sales, sales from those farmers totaled $377 million, the highest among all product categories. Beef farmers alone totaled 35,984 direct sales in 2007, nearly double the amount of sales of fruit and vegetable growers. Likewise, the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot” Chef Survey listed locally sourced meats and seafood as the number one menu trend for 2014. This growing trend toward buying and selling meat and poultry products direct from the farmer has obvious positive economic benefits. However, with more and more farmers moving into the business of slaughtering, processing, packaging, transporting and selling their own meat and poultry, it is becoming more evident that these products are quite different from their supermarket counterparts, generally unregulated and may come with their own new set of food safety risks.
What’s the Real Risk?
To date, no outbreaks or recalls from farmers markets have been associated with meat or poultry products. Unbeknownst to many, outbreaks from foods purchased at farmers markets are more common than one might expect. In 2008, 18 people fell ill to Campylobacter infections after consuming contaminated raw bagged peas sold at five south-central Alaskan farmers markets. In 2010, a vendor selling guacamole, salsa and tamales at several Iowa farmers markets was the cause of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened 25 people. Strawberries sold at roadside stands and several farmers markets in Oregon made headlines as the source of an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak that sickened 16 people and caused 1 death in 2011. Contaminated raw milk, sold at a Pennsylvanian farm and other retail operations in the state, was the source of a large Campylobacter outbreak, sickening 38 people in 2012. In January 2014, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 14 cases of Salmonella that were attributed to “cashew cheese,” which was sold in several farmers markets in California’s Sacramento County, as well as other retail markets in California, Nevada and Wyoming. In addition to these reported outbreaks, the California Department of Food and Agriculture recalled raw cream sold at several farmers markets and retail outlets in the Fresno, CA, area in 2007 due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Similarly in 2012, cheese tested positive for L. monocytogenes after being sampled by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, resulting in recalls from farmers markets in three counties. In February 2014, a farmers market vendor was also the first to be convicted under Michigan’s Food Law after he pled guilty to willful misbranding and adulteration of food products. This conviction was the result of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with the vendor’s apple cider sold at a Michigan farmers market, which sickened four, including two children. After being cited by the Michigan Department of Agriculture for being an unlicensed cider processor and producing cider under unsafe production standards, the vendor continued to produce and sell his cider until he was charged with criminal negligence for producing food that caused illness and injury to unsuspecting consumers.
Although surprising, these instances of foodborne illness, recalls and criminal negligence clearly indicate that we have not fully grasped the severity of food safety risks associated with farmers markets and direct-to-consumer marketing. What about meat and poultry sales at farmers markets? Since individual farmers markets typically have a much smaller percentage of meat and poultry vendors, and these raw products are typically cooked by the consumer, we are not finding as many instances of foodborne illness associated with raw meat and poultry sold at farmers markets. This is not to say that these products pose little risk. In fact, several researchers demonstrated that raw meat and poultry products sold direct-to-consumer may carry higher concentrations of harmful bacteria compared with those produced commercially and sold at retail stores.
A Microbiological Assessment of Poultry Sold at Farmers Markets
In an effort to delve deeper into the issue, researchers at Penn State University investigated the prevalence of pathogens in poultry sold at farmers markets in Pennsylvania. Scheinberg et al. focused on poultry for this study, due in part to the exemption status afforded to many farmers under the U.S. Poultry Product Inspection Act (PPIA). PPIA allows processors who raise, slaughter and process no more than 20,000 birds (chicken, turkey or other fowl) in a year to operate without daily and/or bird-by-bird USDA inspection. In other words, PPIA allows farmers who raise fewer than 20,000 birds per year to slaughter on site, process, package and sell their poultry product directly to the public at farmers markets, with little regulatory oversight. Some states may have additional requirements for poultry and meat processing, but regulations vary between states and are generally less stringent than federal regulations. It is important to note that other species (cow, goat, sheep and pigs) fall under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and therefore must be slaughtered and processed at a USDA-inspected facility, regardless of the number raised, slaughtered or processed in a year. Even the smallest farmers market vendor of red meat must have the USDA seal on his or her packages of meat; the same can’t be said of poultry products.
Over the period of 1 year, 100 whole chickens from 21 farmers market vendors, located in 17 cities in Pennsylvania were collected, transported to the laboratory and analyzed to determine the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter. During this study, 50 nonorganic, conventionally processed whole chickens, as well as 50 organically processed whole chickens sold at large retail supermarkets in Pennsylvania, were collected and analyzed for the same pathogens. The results, which were published in the Journal of Food Safety, revealed that 28 percent of chickens collected from farmers markets were positive for Salmonella, while 90 percent were contaminated with Campylobacter. This finding is in contrast to the 8 percent of conventional whole chickens that were positive for Salmonella and 52 percent that were positive for Campylobacter. Approximately 20 percent of the organic chickens purchased at the supermarkets tested positive for Salmonella, with 28 percent positive for Campylobacter. Although these results may be surprising to some, it is important to remember that the whole chickens tested in this study were raw products, and if cooked properly to an internal temperature of 165°F, the pathogens would be destroyed. Nevertheless, the high levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter could increase the risk of cross-contamination between the chicken and other ready-to-eat foods (e.g., produce) during transport from the market and during home preparation. Even if consumers take proper precautions to avoid cross-contamination at the market and in the kitchen, the use of a properly calibrated thermometer is essential to determine when that older, heritage breed chicken purchased at the farmers market will be fully cooked and safe for consumption.
USDA Farmers Market in Washington, DC
Poultry sold at farmers markets in Washington, DC, also were the focal point of a national news story after chicken sold at the USDA headquarters farmers market tested positive for Salmonella. In 2010, a local Washington news station hired a federally licensed private laboratory to test chicken sold at the USDA’s sponsored farmers market, located in front of the agency’s headquarters. Three chickens were sampled from one vendor at this farmers market. Although a small sample, all three chickens were positive for Salmonella. At another nearby market, additional chickens purchased from another vendor tested positive for Campylobacter. When both vendors were interviewed after this incident, neither believed there was anything wrong with their poultry processing or handling practices. Additionally, it was discovered that the market manager had no knowledge that these poultry vendors were exempt from USDA inspection, under the auspices of PPIA, and assumed they were inspected similar to red meat producers.
Pasture-Raised Poultry: Is There a Difference?
The local food movement has produced many cascading effects, many of which are beginning to influence how farmers raise their livestock. One of the more popular movements is this concept of pasture-raised poultry. Don’t confuse pasture-raised poultry with free-range, grass-fed, cage-free or humanely raised poultry. Although it sometimes seems as if these terms are used to describe the same thing, “pasture-raised” has not been officially defined by the USDA or any other U.S. government body. On the other hand, “free-range,” “grass-fed,” “cage-free” and “humanely raised” poultry have been defined by the USDA. So it’s best to ask your poultry vendor or farmer exactly what his or her label means. Generally speaking, “pasture-raised poultry” refers to poultry that have been allowed access to fresh pasture, either through a movable pen system or by allowing poultry to roam free in a confined pastured area. It is also important to note that a majority of farmers who pasture-raise poultry and sell that poultry direct-to-consumer are processing those birds under the PPIA exemption status described previously, with little to no oversight during the slaughter, processing, packaging and/or storage. Many consumers typically perceive this kind of poultry production as more humane, healthier and resulting in a better quality product, but what about safety? To begin to answer this question, researchers at the University of Georgia, University of Arkansas, Oklahoma State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service investigated the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter from pasture-raised broilers processed on-farm versus in a USDA-inspected facility. The results, published in Food Control, revealed that of the 120 pasture-raised chickens processed on-farm, 89 percent of those processed carcasses were positive for Salmonella versus 43 percent in the USDA-inspected facility. Additionally, 70 percent of on-farm-processed poultry were positive for Campylobacter, versus 82 percent in the USDA-inspected facilities. In a related study, Martinez et al. found that among 36 retail chicken carcasses produced by pasture-raising farms, 50 percent were positive for Salmonella. An additional 164 environmental samples were taken from those same pasture-raised farms. Among those samples, 25 percent were positive for Salmonella. These researchers also determined that while the sampled farms had no history of antibiotic usage, all of the isolated Salmonella were resistant to the antibiotics sulfisoxazole and novobiocin, both used to treat humans. What does this all mean? At least for now, much of the research demonstrates that while pasture-raising may have some benefits, it does not eliminate the risk of contamination from Salmonella and Campylobacter. Regardless of how one raises their poultry, processing poultry on-farm appears to increase the risk of contamination.
Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Farmers Market Vendors
Many questions still loom, and it is still unclear why some farmers market products, like poultry, have been shown to harbor higher levels of pathogens in comparison to their supermarket counterparts. In an attempt to answer some of these questions, the same Penn State researchers described previously conducted a needs assessment of farmers market poultry vendors to determine their knowledge about poultry processing, as well as their food safety knowledge, behaviors and attitudes. The results, published in the Journal of Extension, found that among 21 farmers market vendors surveyed in Pennsylvania, 43 percent did not use any sanitizers or antimicrobials during their poultry processing operations, only 33 percent utilized an organic acid rinse for poultry prior to packaging and 24 percent only used chemical sanitizers to clean their processing areas. Researchers also found that a small portion of vendors (33 percent) were processing outside, whereas a little over one-half of the vendors had their chickens slaughtered and processed by someone else, with little to no knowledge of the processing conditions. Knowledge questions on food safety and pathogens revealed that 63 percent of vendors could not correctly identify the common pathogens associated with chicken (Campylobacter, Salmonella), while one-half of the vendors could not identify which areas of a chicken (feathers, blood, feces, organs) can contaminate the chicken carcass during slaughter and processing. Alternatively, over 80 percent of the vendors correctly answered questions on proper poultry chilling and storage, and the majority of vendors were transporting and storing chicken at the farmers market in sufficient coolers with ice or some kind of refrigeration.
What about Beef and Pork?
The popularity of farmers markets has begun to highlight the drastic differences between the way U.S. federal agencies regulate direct-to-consumer beef and pork farmers versus those farmers raising poultry. Since all meat must be processed at a USDA-inspected facility, regardless of farm size or number of animals raised, meat sold at farmers markets has not been researched like poultry has. Even with proper USDA inspection, it is up to the individual farmer selling direct-to-consumer to ensure that his/her meat is packaged, stored, transported and sold under sanitary and safe conditions. Direct regulatory oversight will typically end once that meat product is processed and inspected, and most states in the U.S. do not actively inspect or regulate direct-to-consumer meat sales in any manner. Food safety should and must be a top priority for meat vendors. However, without proper training and education, many vendors may be unaware that their current practices might be putting their consumers at risk. Further research and active support from local, state and federal agencies are needed to assess the unique food safety issues associated with direct-to-consumer meat and poultry sales.
Food Safety Support and Research Are Overdue
Much research on farmers markets has focused primarily on the social, economic and nutritional benefits that foods from farmers markets can provide to local communities and consumers. USDA has dedicated millions of dollars in grant funding and aid to develop and sustain farmers markets and promotional programs, as well as commissioning numerous economic and marketing research studies. Most states have allotted a significant amount of funding for farmers market promotion and research programs, with a similar focus on marketing and economic strategies. Other federal and state programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Women, Infants and Children, Farmers Market Nutrition Program and various “farm-to-school lunch” programs, also have increased the presence and popularity of farmers markets. All of this support is very positive and there is no doubt that farmers markets continue to provide an important alternative source of food products for millions of Americans. However, there is one critical underlying issue that does not appear to be capturing the attention of local, state and federal supporters of farmers markets—food safety. This is not to say that food safety isn’t a priority of local, state and federal agencies, but it appears that the food safety risks at farmers markets have, for the most part, been ignored or assumed to be understood.
Unlike the relatively large collection of marketing and economic research that has been performed on farmers markets and direct-to-consumer marketing, only a handful of studies have begun to investigate the food safety risks of farmers market products and the unique retail environments in which they are sold. It is understood that farmers markets have become venues for farmers, who may have formerly focused primarily on farming but are now in the business of processing, packaging, storing, transporting and selling their own agricultural products at retail, rather than using brokers or selling directly to a food processor. Farmers markets also provide many nonfarming entrepreneurs with opportunities to sell their agricultural or processed foods directly to consumers. In contrast to typical conventional food processing, the conditions under which food products sold at farmers markets are grown, processed, stored, transported and sold are highly variable, generally unregulated and potentially unknown.
Where Do We Go from Here?
As the research suggests, there are clear gaps in farmers market vendor knowledge and their understanding of food safety, which may contribute to the contamination of meat, poultry and other foods grown and processed by these farmers. The keys to addressing these issues appear to be in the areas of food safety education of vendors and consumers, as well as microbiological research that will provide information on interventions, prevention and/or control of foodborne pathogens in these foods. Although increased regulation is likely, it will be through integrated and collaborative research projects and outreach programs that these unique food safety risks will be understood. Using this information, educators and researchers can develop and disseminate future food safety training and educational programs for farmers market vendors. While critical issues associated with foods sold at farmers markets remain, there also is a great opportunity for vendors, government, academia and consumers to act now, support and demand that we take the safety of meat, poultry and other foods sold at farmers markets seriously.
Joshua Scheinberg is a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State University, department of food science. He holds a B.Sc. in biology from Virginia Tech and a M.Sc. in food science from Penn State.
Catherine (Nettles) Cutter, Ph.D., received a Ph.D. in food technology from Clemson University in 1992. In 1999, she joined the department of food science at Penn State, where she is a professor and food safety extension specialist.
3. Gardner, T.J. et al. 2011. Outbreak of campylobacteriosis associated with consumption of raw peas. Clin Infect Dis 53:26–32.
11. Scheinberg, J., S. Doores and C.N. Cutter. 2013. A microbiological comparison of poultry products obtained from farmers markets and supermarkets in Pennsylvania. J Food Safety 33:259–264.
13. Trimble, L.M. et al. 2013. Salmonella and Campylobacter prevalence and concentration on pasture-raised broilers processed on-farm, in a mobile processing unit, and at small USDA-inspected facilities. Food Control 34:177–182.
14. Martinez, S. et al. 2010. Local food systems, concepts, impacts, and issues. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Report Number 97.
15. Scheinberg, J., R. Radhakrishna and C.N. Cutter. 2013. Food safety knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of vendors of poultry products sold at Pennsylvania farmers markets. J Extension 51:6FEA4.
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Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an optical-based, label-free detection technology for real-time monitoring of binding interactions between two or more molecules. The throughput, flexibility and sensitivity of the SPR platform gives researchers the potential to characterize biomolecular interactions in any binding study. A wide range of molecules can be studied, from ions, fragments and small molecules to proteins and viruses. SPR technology provides biophysical data such as affinity, kinetics and thermodynamics.
SPR-based analytical biosensors are powerful tools in the characterization of molecular interactions. The combination of three elements – the detector, the sensor surface and the sample delivery system – are critical to the performance of the experiment.
Binding interactions between a molecule on the sensor surface (ligand) and its binding partner(s) in solution (analyte) are monitored in real-time by SPR.
SPR uses a type of total internal reflection and causes a reduction in the light intensity reflected at a specific angle from the glass side of the sensor surface. As molecules bind, the refractive index close to the surface changes causing a shift in the angle of minimum reflected intensity. The change in angle is proportional to the mass of bound material. The typical output is a sensorgram, which monitors the change in angle as a function of time.
The Sierra SPR-24/32 Pro employs the Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging detection called SPR+. SPR+ enables the imaging of 2-dimensional arrays with a level of detection sensitivity normally restricted to linear arrays. SPR+ derives its high sensitivity by combining traditional SPR imaging with high intensity laser light and high speed optical scanning. The intensity of the light source permits the use of high-speed cameras, which in turn permit more resonance measurements per scan. The net result is lower RMS noise and improved accuracy when measuring small response changes.
The sensors used in the Sierra SPR systems are gold-plated prisms mounted on easy-to-handle cartridges. The design makes installation straightforward and eliminates user-related assay variation. The gold surface, which is required for SPR, can be coated with a self-assembled monolayer to block nonspecific binding of proteins and to facilitate the attachment of molecules to the surface. The increasing variety of surface linkage chemistries broadens the utility of analytical biosensors for a wide range of applications.
Sample delivery to the sensor surface via a continuous flow microfluidic device yields the most accurate binding measurements. For reproducible sample delivery, the Sierra SPR-24/32 Pro system utilizes proprietary Hydrodynamic Isolation (HI) technology. HI is a method for presenting small, yet highly discrete fluid volumes, to isolated locations on a two-dimensional surface contained within a flow cell under laminar flow. Location-specific fluid addressing within the flow cell is facilitated by combining components of hydrodynamic focusing with site-specific evacuation. The process does not require the use of physical barriers within the flow cell or mechanical valves to control the paths of fluid movement, thereby permitting high-throughput multiplexing or the construction of two-dimensional arrays with individually addressable detection spots.
The Sierra SPR Pro-Series is a high performance, high-throughput analytical biosensor for real-time, label-free characterization of molecular interactions across a wide range of applications.
Investigation of condition-dependent binding using frame inject
The traditional investigation of condition-dependent binding demands high reagent costs as well as lengthy run time. Frame inject delivers cost and time savings at low sample consumption.
How to influence ligand density using amine coupling
Finding the ideal immobilization level to obtain optimal kinetic measurements is critical. Here we examine the influencing parameters on different example targets.
Screening and characterization of small molecule binding to protein targets
Real-time, label-free (RT-LF) analysis by SPR detection is a powerful tool for the biophysical characterization of small molecule drugs and drug candidates.
Screening and characterization of biotherapeutics
Real-time, label-free (RT-LF) analysis by SPR detection is a powerful tool for the biophysical characterization of protein therapeutics.
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Introducing children to locally-grown, fresh produce they've never seen before at a young age increases the chances they'll like them. Photo by gpointstudio/Shutterstock
PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Getting children to eat vegetables can be a challenge. Researchers found in a pilot program in Portland that educating young children on nutrition using locally-grown fruits and vegetables increased their likelihood of trying and liking them.
Harvest for Healthy Kids is a program that began as a joint effort of Portland State University and Mt. Hood Community College Head Start and Early Head Start. The pilot study focused on 226 children within at five participating Head Start centers in Portland. The goal was to introduce children ages 5 and under to locally-grown vegetables that many of them may not have tasted before.
"Fruits and vegetables are an important part of healthy eating habits which are critical in the prevention of childhood obesity and diet-related chronic diseases," said Betty Izumi, a professor at Portland State University and project director and principal investigator of Harvest for Healthy Kids, in a press release. "We know that early food experiences influence lifelong eating habits and that the more times children are exposed to new foods, whether through taste exposures or other sensory exposures, the more likely they will be willing to try those foods and to like them."
Researchers worked with children at the five Portland-area schools between 2012 and 2013, splitting them into 3 groups: One center received no additional food education; two centers had meals altered to include more of the locally-grown vegetables considered for the program; and two centers had meals modified as well as nutrition education.
The target foods used in the program, all of which are relatively affordable and prepared with simple recipes, included carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, cabbage, turnip, rutabaga, berries, beets and asparagus.
In the low-intervention group, willingness to try the vegetables increased for four of the nine: beet, cabbage, rutabaga and turnip. In the high-intervention group, willingness to try all nine foods increased.
Researchers found a significant increase in the interest and willingness to try, and enjoy, new vegetables among the children who received both high and low intervention. In the case of rutabaga, 78.1 percent of children liked the vegetable after going through the program and trying it, whereas just 44.2 percent who liked it before intervention.
"The Harvest for Healthy Kids pilot study suggests a positive association between the intervention and willingness to try and liking for target foods among study participants," researchers wrote in the study. "Additional research is needed to assess the impact of the program on fruit and vegetable intake."
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Tensions are high in America when it comes to race, at least that’s what the media wants many to believe. This is not the case for the majority of the country. But, when tensions are played out from cities like Baltimore and Ferguson, it calls for a new way to address the suspected problems. Enter willpower; yes, willpower. The ability to control your beliefs and actions under the framework of one’s best long-term interests.
For example, spouting that all policemen are “out to get you” or that “police are racists”, even though most people know views these aren’t true, shows a lack of self-control. However, these views are widespread among certain minority communities in America. So it shouldn’t be a surprise when they spew into tragic horror shows for the world to see on television. And this is where a large portion of the problem comes from: television.
Every time there’s a tragic shooting involving police and nearly always someone from a minority race, the media jumps to it and reports it for countless hours or days and even for weeks.
Stanford University professor Kelly McGnonigal argues in her book, The Willpower Instinct that, “the more racial minorities are exposed to prejudice, the less self-control they have—and just reminding minorities of discrimination depletes their willpower.”
The endless streaming of tragic events skews and shapes the affected community’s picture of reality to views that are inherently against their best self-interest. They are led to act in ways that stem from a detachment of actual reality. For example, the man who assassinated five Dallas, TX officers in 2016, had a genuine fear in his mind that all cops are racists, a view he cemented from exposure to escalating incidents of high profile shootings over the recent years. He simply lost the willpower to control his worst instincts.
In addition, McGonigal adds that, “Anytime we feel excluded or disrespected, we are at greater risk for giving in to our worst impulses.” Which leads to an obvious question: why aren’t there wide-spread reports of increasing positive relationships among police and certain communities that feel disenfranchised? Imagine for every tragic event involving police and minority communities, there’s a report next to it stating that this isn’t the norm, or this isn’t systematic and that relations are actually improving in the majority. Stories showing that police are good people who care about their communities, that they are willing to risk their lives to protect and not harm others. Relations with police in some of these communities would drastically improve.
Moreover, domestic events have international implications as well. They dampen America’s global luster as a bastion for human rights, leaving the rest of the world mystified how the world’s number one Democracy continues to experience racial tensions in their own backyard and then travels to the backyards of other nations to criticize them for their problems with minorities.
Despite this seductive argument, America stems from positive force unlike many nations around the globe. And it has proved that it can implement impactful change in just a fraction of the time other nations would take. From abolishing slavery, to securing voting rights for all, to equal treatment of every citizen in less than 200 years. One would be hard pressed to find another nation that has implemented this kind of change in less than a millennia. Furthermore, this is what gives me hope about this country despite what currents events may portray. That there’s an underlying goodness of America some choose to ignore, leading to their false beliefs about this nation. | <urn:uuid:2746a773-6eaf-45a9-8259-7e2a9e2e8487> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://thecollegeconservative.com/2017/01/21/misperception-of-racial-tensions-in-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039746386.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20181120110505-20181120132505-00410.warc.gz | en | 0.959839 | 753 | 2.625 | 3 |
In a recent number of TOMORROW'S WORLD (March, 1971 issue), we ran an article absolutely proving that short hair was the accepted mode in Roman-occupied Judaea. That article — profusely illustrated with pictures of the busts of Roman Emperors — is reprinted here.
Short hair was the dominant, accepted mode for men in the time of Christ. Pick up any good, illustrated history book on the period and you will see the evidence before your eyes. Two good books in this area are A History of the Holy Land, Michael Avi-Yonah, editor, and Daniel to Paul, Gaalyahu Cornfeld, editor. Now notice the busts and statues of various Greeks and Romans of the time of Christ. The men are wearing their hair short on every one of them in a manner similar to that generally accepted today.
For example, on pages 126-7 of Avi-Yonah's work are found busts of Pompey, Augustus, and one believed to be Herod — all with short hair. All statues and carvings of Roman legionnaires show them with closely cropped hair. A Roman with long hair was an oddity as is... er... used to be the case for men in our society. In fact ALL the Roman emperors before, during, and after the time of Christ, from Julius Caesar to Trajan, wore short hair. And the emperor was the individual who set the pattern in style and mode of dress for the whole empire
Prior to the coming of the Romans, it was the Hellenistic Greek culture which dominated the Eastern Mediterranean, and Judaea by no means escaped Even in Christ's day, a large segment of the Jewish population was Greek-Bespeaking and Hellenistic in outlook. (See John 12:20; Acts 6:1.) The Greek, Hellenistic style for men was to wear the hair short (Cornfeld, pp. 15, 146). On page 146 of Daniel to Paul is a picture of a "marble statuette of an unidentified man of the hellenistic period — a time of close contacts between the Jewish and hellenistic civilizations in thought, art, and everyday life. Whether Jewish or Gentile, he evokes his age and environment." The man had short hair. But notice that the author, a learned historian and archaeologist, COULD NOT TELL whether the man was Gentile or Jewish. Why? Because the styles of the day were the same throughout the Near-Eastern region, and that included short hair!
What about the non-Hellenistic Jews? The Jewish Talmud, which is anti-Hellenistic, states that all priests should have their hair cut once every thirty days (Ta'anith 17a). These Jews were aware of the statement in Ezekiel 44:20, "Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long." The Talmud further tells us exactly what hair style — the "Julian," or what we would call "a Caesar cut" (Sanhedrin 22b). And the priests were the religious leaders whom God intended to set the example for the community (Malachi 2:7). There are numerous other references to cutting hair in the Talmud.
Statues and other reproductions of the Jewish men from Christ's period are few because many Jews objected to them on religious grounds. But those few we do have again point to short hair as the style for men of the period (Cornfeld, p. 287).
Also, the following are sources in which you can find ancient pictures of known Jews having short hair:
1) Nathan Ausubel, The Book of Jewish Knowledge, Crown Publishers, New York, 1964, pp. 25-26. This shows Jewish conceptions of both David and Ezra — with short hair. They date from 250 A.D.
2) The Standard Jewish Encyclopaedia, Cecil Roth, editor, Doubleday and Co., Garden City, New York, 1966, article "Art," p. 167. This shows Jews of the third century A.D. with short hair.
Additionally, pictures are available in many encyclopedias of both the bust and the coins of King Herod Agrippa I. This king, contemporary with the early apostles, is regarded by scholars as having been an observant Jew by religion. He, too, wore his hair short.
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|Roman emperors set the style for the entire empire before, during and after the time of Christ. Neither General Pompey (upper left) nor the Emperor Trajan (left) wore long hair, nor did Julius Caesar nor Caesar Augustus (upper right). King Herod Agrippa I of Judaea (lower right), a Jew by religion, ruled shortly after the time of Christ. || | | <urn:uuid:e1ca88f6-fe51-4d56-afba-7cecd87b5996> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getmagazine&InfoID=1333893081&GetMag=TW&byYear=&page=&return=magazines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296944606.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323003026-20230323033026-00731.warc.gz | en | 0.956039 | 993 | 2.875 | 3 |
Art nouveau was the curvilinear, nature-inspired style that dominated everything from jewellery to architecture at the start of the 20th century. As it spread throughout Europe and across the Atlantic it followed two main strands: the curvy, whiplash decoration that flowed out of Paris-Brussels and the more linear, geometric style seen in Vienna and Glasgow. East European centres such as Prague, Riga and Budapest merged art nouveau with their own local traditions and the outstanding buildings of the era are found in those cities. By 1915, the craze for art nouveau had been crushed by the advent of the first world war and the arrival of a new style, art deco.
Over the last 100 years the demolition of art nouveau structures has been ruthless. French architect Hector Guimard’s innovative Parisian concert hall was pulled down as early as 1905 and only three of his roofed entrances to the Paris metro remain. While Barcelona, Vienna, Munich and Subotica claim stunning yet isolated art nouveau buildings, other cities have managed to preserve the style as part of their dominant architectural heritage.
Prague’s art nouveau credentials are based around one man: Alphonse Mucha. Ironically, he barely set foot in his Czech homeland until the style was waning. Mucha’s sassy artwork was used to advertise cigarette papers, champagne and Sarah Bernhardt plays, and propelled him (reluctantly) to the forefront of the movement. While Mucha was away in Paris and the US, it was left to architects, Ohmann, Bendelmayer and Dryák to promote Prague’s art nouveau and they did so by combining floral motifs and looping metalwork with a more traditional neo-baroque look. The Hotel Central (rooms from €125 a night) was one of the city’s first art nouveau structures and is still open for business today. As for Mucha, there’s a museum dedicated to him in the Kaunicky Palace, his symbolist murals adorn the Municipal House, and the Zbiroh castle nearby is where he painted a series of giant works about the Slav people.
Art nouveau in Budapest took slightly different turns to the styles prevalent in other European cities. Ödön Lechner, regarded as the greatest of the period’s Hungarian architects, adopted oriental forms including delicate floral imagery and lacquered finishes to his minarets (using local tiles) as a nod to the Asiatic origins of the Magyar people. The roof of his Post Office Savings Bank resembles a Persian textile. Lechner’s Institute of Geology, the Török bank and school on Dob Utca are typical of the merging of the sinuous early art nouveau with Hungarian national romantic traditions. It is celebrated at the Bedö Ház, a Szecesszió museum, which has a coffee shop on the ground floor. Stay at the Hotel Gresham Palace (rooms from €330 a night), overlooking the Danube, which is named after the founder of London’s Royal Exchange and with 179 bedrooms is one of the largest art nouveau buildings in the world.
With less whiplash, less decorative ornamentation, less feathery flamboyance and naturalistic carving, Glasgow offers a different form of art nouveau. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s designs are celebrated for their elegance, geometry and angularity and with his wife Margaret Macdonald, her sister Frances and Herbert MacNair, together known as “The Four”, was commissioned to design the architecture and interior furnishings of a handful of buildings in and around Glasgow. At that time, the city was a thriving yet grubby shipbuilding port, so the moneyed class would have welcomed the temperance of the Willow Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street. Mackintosh and Macdonald turned Glasgow’s tearooms into salons of taste using a refined, linear style, touches of Japonism, purples, creams and leaded-glass decoration. Other art nouveau buildings include Scotland Street School and the Glasgow School of Art – damaged by fire in May 2014, it is planned to reopen in 2018.
A vision of speed and flowing movement was fundamental to the designs established in art nouveau and its era coincided with the firing up of the Italian automobile industry. Fiat (1899) and Lancia (1906) started production in the back streets of Turin. Fiat’s original blue-floral logo and Lancia’s whiplash (characteristic curves), twirling lettering were typical of the movement’s regard for dynamism. Italians termed their own variation of art nouveau Stile Liberty, and after Turin’s international exhibition of decorative arts in 1902, the city was its undisputed capital. Visit the first Fiat factory on Corso Dante and then go to Borgo Pô to see some Stile Liberty villas: architect Pietro Fenoglio’s Casa Fenoglio-Lafleur and Villa Scott (both 1902), the Palazzina Rossi on Via Passalacqua and, best of all, Casa Maffei on Corso Montevecchio, which has flamboyant, double-tiered balcony railings and a semi-naked woman riding an eagle stuck onto the facade.
King Leopold II’s beautification of a vibrant Brussels in the late 19th/early 20th century coincided with the spectacular emergence of art nouveau. Belgian architects Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde and Paul Hankar created buildings where new techniques in manufacturing meant an end to conventional room space, where the underlying structure was often exposed and light could enter through glass roofs onto botany-inspired ironwork, gold mosaics and wavy door handles. Horta’s Hôtel Tassel, completed in 1894, is considered Europe’s first true art nouveau building. It’s the perfect place to start a tour, followed by the Hôtel Solvay, La Maison Cauchie, Square Ambiorix, the Hôtel Van Eetvelde and the Belgian Comic Strip Center, before ending at the Horta Museum via the Musical instruments Museum, all important art nouveau buildings. Diehard fans should take a peek at Stoclet House, too, but Josef Hoffmann’s masterpiece is still occupied by the Stoclet family and not open to the public.
Three of the biggest names in art nouveau, Gallé, Daum and Majorelle had their glassware and furniture manufacturing plants in Nancy. They were part of a dynamic and artistic business culture that had its origins in the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany after the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71) when artists, intellectuals and industrialists fled to Nancy. Forty years on, their offspring were enjoying long lunches under the sculpted ferns and stained-glass windows of the Brasserie L’Excelsior. Today, the 1911-built cafe is the centrepiece of Nancy’s art nouveau design with a full assortment of teased ironwork, ornate mouldings, copper sconces and the combination of rare woods and handcarved masonry, which came to be associated with the movement. Take a stroll alongside the pretty, coloured facades of the rue Félix Faure with their intertwined plant designs and embellished lettering. Other art nouveau gems include the villa Majorelle, the Chambre de Commerce, Graineterie, the École de Nancy museum and villas in the Saurupt estate.
Art nouveau buildings tend to be dotted around urban centres but in Darmstadt, 30km south of Frankfurt, there is an entire colony. It was the brainchild of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen, the province’s ruler (and Queen Victoria’s grandson), who commissioned seven artists and architects to design and build private houses and workshops in the modern Jugenstil vein at Mathildenhöhe, on a hill above the city. His artists’ colony opened in 1899, each building a complete work of art, inside and out. But after the colony’s final exhibition in 1914, it began to dissolve. Artists departed, the Wedding Tower and Exhibition Buildings left empty. Today, visitors can roam around the Vortex garden and visit some of the refurbished buildings and a permanent exhibition in the Mathildenhöhe museum. The colony is also a reminder of how uninspiring architecture has become in the “modern” Darmstadt next door.
Riga has over 700 art nouveau buildings, more than any other European city. The movement’s golden age coincided with the city’s rapid economic growth and within three years of the industrial and handicraft exhibition of 1901, art nouveau had become the only style of construction. One of the main streets, Alberta iela, has rows of Jugendstil houses. Designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, the Amphora building on Elizabetes iela is a showcase of art nouveau with floral motifs, stained glass, sky-blue tiles, sculpted knockers, peacocks and stern female faces peering out of the top floor. The other great architect of the period was Konstantins Pēkšēns, whose former home is now the Riga’s Art Nouveau Museum, where staff wear period costume. Nearby is the Sienna art cafe (makslas kafejnica) on Streinieku iela, with its elegant drawing room complete with floral-design crockery, screens, chandeliers and large sugary desserts.
When art nouveau ideas began to be incorporated into Nordic architecture, Finland was planning its independence from Russia. This sense of anticipated liberation led to a strong desire to include authentic Finnish traditions and rural mythology in a national romantic style. Art nouveau quickly became the country’s architectural redeemer and there are still around 600 buildings in Helsinki, many built from solid granite. The Wilkman House, Pohjola insurance building and the stock exchange all display the characteristic rough-hewn facades combined with Finnish flora and fauna. The railway station, Helsingin päärautatiesema, designed in 1909 and with two pairs of grim-faced statues lighting up the street outside, is the most celebrated building in the city. Visit the Aschan Café Jugend, constructed as a banking hall in 1904, for live music and to gaze at the tree murals over a fish soup.
Halfway between Porto and Coimbra, Aveiro is a floating city full of art nouveau treasures. Aveiro’s economy still comes from seaweed, salt and ceramics, and it was the revenue from these, plus the wealth of returning emigrants who had grown rich in Brazil at the end of the 19th century, that led to requests for extravagant new residences. Take a tour on one of the gondola-style moliceiros to the Rossio district; try the local ovos moles delicacies in one of the bars where Aveiro’s particular style of arte nova includes pale-shaded tiles, ironwork balconies and floral mouldings. The Museu de Arte Nova is in the Casa Major Pessoa on Rua Dr Barbosa Magalhães and its first-floor tearoom, the Casa de Chá, turns into a cocktail lounge serving caipirinhas in the evening – its floral designs and tiled birdlife motifs masked by mood lighting after dark. | <urn:uuid:5ea3f4fc-65da-425f-b4cf-2046d030d761> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/mar/29/10-best-art-nouveau-cities-europe-prague-budapest-glasgow | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583688396.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20190120001524-20190120023524-00325.warc.gz | en | 0.931528 | 2,494 | 2.734375 | 3 |
My kids already know that I enjoy the finer things in life. The sun setting with palm trees in the foreground, fresh squeezed orange juice and rock glaciers. The San Juan mountains seem to have more than a few rock glaciers to observe and very few palm trees. These two examples are near Molas Pass on Highway 550. Hike south on the Colorado Trail and you will pass both within the first fifteen miles.
The basic ingredients to rock glaciers are pretty simple.
1. Lots of rocks! In both cases, the raw materials, talus, are made from the weathering of volcanic tuff. This volcanic rock is brittle and weathers easily into smaller chunks of rock. Mountains are great places for freeze-thaw weathering as almost every day of the year sees temperatures above and below 0 degrees C.
2. Frozen water. Within the pore space of these talus fields we find ice. Water has filtered between the rocks of the rock glacier and has frozen into place. Even though temperatures will rise above 0 C often, the insulating property of the rocks coupled with the lack of direct sunlight beneath the rocks keep the water frozen.
3. A slope. After even a small time hiking these mountains it is easy to see there is very little level ground. A slope is not hard to find.
Plenty of rock available. An obvious slope and we will assume some ice present under the surface layer of rock.
Notice the ribbing of rock. An ice glacier will exhibit similar crevasse fields from the movement of the mass. | <urn:uuid:030483c7-c6e1-4a75-9e41-9d2618d1e461> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://geologyhappens.blogspot.com/2009/09/back-in-mountains-rock-glaciers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802764752.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075244-00074-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947176 | 315 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Adjusting to a new home can be a tense and frightening experience for a cat. Your patience and understanding during his initial adjustment period can do a lot to help your new cat feel at home.
The ride home
Riding in a car can be traumatic for cats. Your cat or kitten should be confined to a carrier during the ride home as well as during subsequent trips to the veterinarian. Do not let your new cat loose in a moving car or allow children to excite him. Do not leave the cat unattended in the car or stop to visit friends, shop, etc. Keep your cat in his carrier until you are safely inside your home.
The new home
Consider your companion's past experiences. Your kitten may have been recently separated from his mother and litter mates. The kitten or cat has had to cope with the transition of a shelter and the stress of surgery. The adult cat may have been separated from a familiar home and forced to break a bond with human companions or other animals. Now he must adjust again to totally new surroundings.
Allow your cat several weeks to adapt. During this period, the cat or kitten should be carefully confined indoors. He needs to get used to you as the provider of love, shelter and food. Be sure that all windows and doors are kept closed and that all screens are secure. A scared cat can easily get out of a high open window. PAWS strongly advocates keeping cats indoors for their entire lives, but if you choose to eventually let your new cat outside, it is imperative that he stay totally indoors for at least one month, and the new kitten until he is grown.
It's not uncommon for cats to display behavior problems during the first days in a new home, but these usually disappear over time. New cats and kittens often bolt under furniture. Some may spend hours or even days hiding. Sit and talk quietly to the cat. If you must take the cat out of his hiding place, carry him gently to a quiet protected area where he will feel secure. Be sure food, water and litter box are nearby.
What can you do to train your cat to behave better around the home?
Jackson Galaxy—a cat behaviorist with more than 20 years of experience, and the host of Animal Planet’s hit show My Cat From Hell—explains in his entertaining video The Best and Worst Ways to Train Your Cat:
Can't see the video playing above? Try watching it on YouTube instead.
The first day
Introduce your cat to his new home gradually, restricting him to one room at first.
Isolate other animals from your new cat during this time. Supervise children, advising them to always be gentle with the cat. Have the litter box ready when you remove the cat from the carrier. Show him the location of the litter box. Offer a bowl of water but do not provide food for an hour. Your cat may be bewildered, fearful or curious. Do not overwhelm him with attention or demands. Remember to keep doors and windows closed, and be sure the cat has an I.D. tag on at all times. It is not unusual for cats to leap on top of very high furniture in order to explore or to feel secure. Do not panic, shout, or run to the cat. When he is ready, he will come down alone.
Try to spend several hours with your new cat as he becomes accustomed to your home. Your sensitive handling of the initial transition can ease the trauma and set the stage for a happy settling-in.
Most cats choose several favorite sleeping spots where they can be comfortable, warm, and free from drafts. Providing a bed for your cat may discourage him from sleeping on furniture. A cozy box or basket lined with soft, washable bedding and placed in a quiet corner makes a suitable cat bed.
Some cats enjoy continually picking new (and sometimes surprising) sleeping spots. If you allow your cat to sleep on furniture, a washable cover can be placed over favorite spots. A cat's sleeping spot should be respected as his own. Don't allow children to disturb your cat when he is resting. Cats need solitude and quiet time.
Introduction to other animals
The ability of animals to get along together in the same household depends on their individual personalities. There will always be one who dominates. A new cat will often upset the existing pecking order or the old cat or dog may feel it necessary to establish dominance immediately. Wise handling of the "getting acquainted" period is an important factor in the successful introduction of a new cat. The first week or two may be hectic, frustrating and time consuming. Be patient. The adjustment will take time.
New cat to resident dog
Keep your dog confined until the cat feels secure in his new home. Introduce them indoors with the dog under control on a leash. Do not allow the dog to chase or corner the cat, even out of playfulness or curiosity. Supervise them carefully and don't tolerate any aggressive behavior from your dog. The cat should have a safe retreat, either up high or in a room inaccessible to the dog.
An adult cat may swat a dog to set limits. Allow your animals to accept one another in their own time and don't leave them alone together until this is accomplished. Never force interaction. Many cats and dogs become companions and playmates while others simply tolerate each other. Be sure to give your dog lots of extra attention to avoid jealous reactions.
New cat to resident cat
Spayed or neutered cats are generally more accepting of other cats. Adult cats are generally more accepting of kittens than of other adults. Two altered adult cats often become friends in the same home. Read more about introducing your new cat to your resident cat.
New cat to other resident animals
Birds, rodents, and fish should be adequately protected from possible harassment by the new cat. These animals are the natural prey of cats and may be subjected to stress merely by the presence of a cat. Cats and rabbits generally live harmoniously together, with the rabbit often assuming a dominant role. However, watch early interactions closely in case your cat should manifest a prey reaction and never leave them unsupervised together until their relationship is clearly friendly. | <urn:uuid:ed89d3a8-7a4e-4b2c-a23a-e7517956958d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.paws.org/index.php/library/cats/home-life/helping-your-cat-adjust/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280319.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00514-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95822 | 1,266 | 2.609375 | 3 |
30 Things People With Mobility Challenges Want You to Know on the 30th Anniversary of the ADA
People with mobility impairments represent the largest group among all disabilities, impacting 1 in 7 adults in the U.S. Beyond the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) efforts, here are 30 things people with mobility challenges and their caregivers wish you knew to help advance inclusion for this community.
This list came directly from The Driving Force, a group of people with mobility disabilities and their caregivers who are part of the BraunAbility Drive for Inclusion. This is a movement to elevate the voices of this community to help advance inclusion for all.
What Does Mobility Inclusion Mean to You?
1. Being able to participate, without feeling as if it is a burden to others.
2. To have the same services available as everyone else.
3. The ability to be a part of the family and community.
4. To be visible.
5. To fit in. To live a normal life.
6. To not be denied access.
7. Not being treated as different or inferior.
8. To be included as an individual with a wheelchair, not defined as a wheelchair.
9. Considered a whole, capable individual who has a voice, can use it and can participate in a manner similar to those around me.
10. It means somebody cares.
What Are Some Challenges to Mobility Inclusion?
11. My voice or presence isn't always acknowledged.
12. Many places are not accessible. It only takes one barrier.
13. People who are able-bodied don't understand how limiting it is to navigate inaccessible facilities.
14. In so many cases it is obvious that a wheelchair individual was not consulted.
15. ADA standards have helped a great deal, but sometimes problems arise just because someone is thoughtless or insensitive (or inexperienced) at dealing with the issues.
How Can Businesses, Organizations & Government Help Advance Mobility Inclusion?
16. ADA compliance and enforcement.
17. Listen first. Generally there is a way for us to join society in activities, but people need to hear our needs in order for that to happen. Get input early in the process!
18. Make sure (accessible parking spaces) are properly painted and marked.
19. More inclusion in the workforce.
20. Train people without disabilities on how to communicate with and include people with disabilities.
How Can Individuals Help Advance Mobility Inclusion Right Now?
21. Remember us. Invite us.
22. Always talk to a person in a wheelchair like you would talk to anyone else.
23. Look people with disabilities in the eye when you’re speaking with them.
24. Don’t assume someone with mobility challenges isn’t smart.
25. Recognize that people with mobility challenges sometimes feel awkward socially because they are treated differently.
26. Get the community to watch Crip Camp.
27. Respect accommodations, like bathroom stalls. It is not okay to misuse accessible parking spots.
28. Sometimes people are afraid to ask what someone with a disability needs for fear of insulting them. Not all people need the same accommodations. It’s important to communicate openly.
29. Write a letter or contact the people making the decisions (about ADA compliance/enforcement).
30. Specifically during shelter-in-place: Being isolated is very lonely. Call. Bring a meal. Put flowers on their porch. Ask if they need anything. Just be a friend.
Did you like this article? Keep up to date on the latest from The Driving Force by joining the community.
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5 Diversity and Inclusion Thought Leaders You Need to Know
Four Ways to Become a Disability Advocate and an Advocate for Yourself
10 Actions You Can Take to Further Disability Inclusion
10 Actions Your Workplace Can Take to Further Disability Inclusion
10 Actions Your Community Can Take to Further Disability Inclusion
BraunAbility Launches ‘Drive for Inclusion’
30 Things People With Mobility Challenges Want You to Know
Save Our Spots with Zach Anner
BraunAbility Joins Major Global Brands in the Fight For Disability Inclusion as Part of The Valuable 500 Campaign
BraunAbility is celebrating ADA's 29th anniversary
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Kouvola, dry fermentation plant
Dry fermentation plant to Kouvola, Finland year 2017. Plant consist of two 1000 m3 batch digesters and one percolation tank. Biogas is produced from laundry waste, grass and grease. Energy is used for heat and electricity production.
Laukaa, dry fermentation plant
Dry fermentation plant to Kalmari farm year 2015. Plant consist of one 800 m3 batch digester and one percolation tank. Biogas is produced from grass, wheat straw, horse manure and wood chips and it is used for heating households and after upgrading as traffic fuel.
There has been 3-4 batches / year since 2015. Gas power is adjustable between 50-150 kW.
Biogas plant and public CBG filling station in Joutsa, Finland. Biomethane production started in spring 2014. Biomethane is produced from household biowaste and sewage sludge, together 5000 tons/year. Fermenter size is 750 m3.
Biogas plant and upgrading unit are from Metener. Compressor station and dispenser are by Schwelm Anlagentechnik GmbH.
Biogas plant in Huittinen, Finland. Plant is next to pig house and biogas is produced from pig manure, food industry waste like potato peel and agricultural waste. All together nearly 16 000 tons of biomass is used yearly.
Biogas is used for combined heat and power production (CHP) and energy is used in pig house. Plant has ability to produce up to 5000 MWh gas energy yearly. CHP unit is now 150 kWe.
Biogas plant is situated at the agricultural college in Tuorla, Finland, by the Baltic sea. Feedstocks are pig slurry, farmyard manure, common reed from sea and grass. Energy is used as heat and electricity 50kWe.
Special emphasis has been given to nutrient recycling and preserving vulnerable Baltic sea.
Biogas plant to Juva, Finland, commissioned year 2010. This plant process 19 000 tons of biomass yearly and this consist of cow slurry, chicken manure, vegetable waste and other sidestreams. Biogas is used in a greenhouse as electricity and heat, 250 kWe.
Biogas plant and upgrading unit in China. Reactors 2 x 400 m3, feedstock is mainly pig manure. Biogas is utilised as heat and also as kitchen gas after upgrading and pressurizing into bottles.
Kuopio and Kouvola
Mobile biogas plant for Savonia polytechnic. Plant is used as education and research. Two 3 m³ biogas reactors, continuous gas power 2-3 kW. Biogas is utilised for heating the process and container.
Biogas plant for Kouvola Region Vocational College. Plant is used in education. Reactor 34 m³ and secondary reactor 14 m³ . Continuous gas power 10 – 15 kW, biogas is used to produce heat and electricity.
Biogas plant for dairy research farm in Maaninka, Finland. Biomasses are cow slurry and agricultural plant biomass. Continuous gas power is 100 kW. Biogas is utilized as combined heat and power production (CHP).
Biogas plant for pig farm in Halsua, Finland. Plant has been producing biogas continuously since 2004. Biomasses are pig slurry and waste from food industry. Energy is used for combined heat and power production.
Biogas plant for Kalmari farm in year 1998. Plant has produced biogas continuously since then. Biomasses has been mainly cow slurry and waste from food industry. Energy is used for heat and power production as well as for traffic fuel since 2004.
Metener has developed biogas tractor together with Valtra and Agco Power. This tractor has been in every day use at Kalmari farm and fuel is from farm’s own biogas station.
- Laukaa, for public filling station, capacity 25 Nm3 / h
- Landfill gas upgrading and pressurizing unit for research use in University of Jyväskylä, capacity 8 Nm3 / h
- Northern China, upgrading and pressurizing unit, capacity 40 Nm3 / h
- England for traffic use, capacity 10 Nm3 / h.
- Joutsa Finland, 60 Nm3/h. Upgrades biogas for public filling station.
- Laukaa Finland, 60 Nm3/h. Upgrades biogas for public filling station.
- Australia, Griffith University, 10 Nm3/h.
- Hyvinkää Finland, under construction, 60 Nm3/h for public filling station. | <urn:uuid:3b39cc5f-e971-4042-89a3-4aa842beea20> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | http://www.metener.fi/en/references/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267160641.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20180924185233-20180924205633-00521.warc.gz | en | 0.921278 | 1,003 | 2.609375 | 3 |
More than 400 icebergs have drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes over the past week in an unusually large swarm for this early in the season, forcing vessels to slow to a crawl or take detours of hundreds of miles.
Experts are attributing it to uncommonly strong counter-clockwise winds that are drawing the icebergs south, and perhaps also global warming, which is accelerating the process by which chunks of the Greenland ice sheet break off and float away.
As of Monday, there were about 450 icebergs near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, up from 37 a week earlier, according to the U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol in New London, Connecticut.
Those kinds of numbers are usually not seen until late May or early June.
The average for this time of year is about 80.
In the waters close to where the Titanic went down in 1912, the icebergs are forcing ships to take precautions.
Instead of cutting straight across the ocean, trans-Atlantic vessels are taking detours that can add around 400 miles to the trip.
That's a day and a half of added travel time for many large cargo ships.
Close to the Newfoundland coast, cargo ships owned by Oceanex are throttling way back to 3 or 4 knots as they make their way to their homeport in St. John's, which can add up to a day to the trip, said executive chairman, Capt. Sid Hynes.
One ship was pulled out of service for repairs after hitting a chunk of ice, he said.
"It makes everything more expensive," Hynes said Wednesday.
"You're burning more fuel, it's taking a longer time, and it's hard on the equipment."
He called it a "very unusual year."
Coast Guard Cmdr. Gabrielle McGrath, who leads the ice patrol, said she has never seen such a drastic increase in such a short time.
Adding to the danger, three icebergs were discovered outside the boundaries of the area the Coast Guard had advised mariners to avoid, she said.
McGrath is predicting a fourth consecutive "extreme ice season" with more than 600 icebergs in the shipping lanes.
Most icebergs entering the North Atlantic have "calved" off the Greenland ice sheet.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, said it is possible climate change is leading to more icebergs in the shipping lanes, but wind patterns are also important.
In 2014, there were 1,546 icebergs in the shipping lanes - the sixth most severe season on record since 1900, according to the patrol.
There were 1,165 icebergs in 2015 and 687 in 2016.
The International Ice Patrol was formed after the sinking of the Titanic to monitor iceberg danger in the North Atlantic and warn ships.
It conducts reconnaissance flights that are used to produce charts.
In 104 years, no ship that has heeded the warnings has struck an iceberg, according to the ice patrol. | <urn:uuid:2702a163-918d-496c-952c-4b02bce5ebad> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.thebigwobble.org/2017/04/climate-change-and-uncommonly-strong.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657129257.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20200711224142-20200712014142-00199.warc.gz | en | 0.972031 | 615 | 2.890625 | 3 |
|Do you and your students tend to do the same thing on your interactive whiteboard over and over? Us too! That’s why we were excited to talk with Rebecca Penina Simon, an interactive-whiteboard expert who’s also the director of educational technology at Solomon Schechter School of Queens. Here are some of the cool ways she’s using Teq Unlimited, a resource that combines SMART’s software with some awesome online PD and that we want to try right now.
1. Take advantage of built-in activity templates to create some seriously cool lessons.
Most interactive-whiteboard software comes with activity templates that make it easier to create activities and games. But a lot of teachers don’t use them! Check them out—they’re definitely worth another look. SMART’s Lesson Activity Builder (LAB), features six core activity templates that can be customized in various ways. One of our favorites is Super Sort, which guides you through a series of questions to choose your theme (e.g., aliens), enter categories (e.g., nouns and adjectives), category components (e.g., beach, library, soft, green, etc.) and game components (e.g., buzzers, spinning wheel to randomly pick students, etc.). You can even import your student list, and then, voilà! You’ve got a super-fun, interactive and totally customized class activity!
2. Have students submit answers on their phones.
It’s pretty much impossible to call on every student in class, but it’s still possible for all your kids to participate–even the shy ones. Use SMART Notebook’s LAB to create a Shout It Out! activity that asks kids to submit photos or text answers for each of the categories you specify (e.g., mammals, reptiles, amphibians). With SMART Response, your kids can use their 1:1 devices (computers, tablets or smartphones) to submit their answers.
3. Teach algebra and geometry with virtual manipulatives.
If you think the only way to use an interactive whiteboard for math is to write out equations with a pen, this one is going to blow you away. You can handwrite equations or formulas, and SMART Notebook’s Math Equation Editor will turn them into typed text! As if that’s not cool enough for all you math geeks, there’s more: You can use GeoGebra to take your written or typed algebraic equations and instantly create corresponding graphs. It’s a powerful time-saver!
4. Add a smiley face to student board work.
Kids love getting stickers and stamps on their worksheets, so why wouldn’t they love seeing them next to the work they do on a whiteboard? If you have SMART Ink, you can use the Stamp Pad feature to put a thumbs-up or a smiley face stamp next to a student’s correctly answered question on the board. If a student writes an incorrect answer on the board, you can stamp a sad face or an “X.” You can even add up to 20 of your own custom stamps.
5. Hand out copies without having to use the dreaded copy machine.
The copy machine can be a teacher’s worst nemesis! Thankfully, if you have SMART amp, you don’t have to wait in line at the copy machine (just to have it jam!) any longer. Instead, you can digitally pass out copies of a workspace to all your students. Bonus: It saves trees too!
6. Evenly divide shapes to teach fractions.
We’ve all been there. You’re trying to teach fractions by showing your class how to divide a circle into equal parts, but the sections you’ve drawn are far from equally divided (some poor kid’s going to get 1/16 of the pizza while another’s going to get 1/3!). With SMART Notebook, you can right-click on a shape, choose the number of segments and—like magic—the shape is evenly divided! If you want, you can then drag and drop individual sections anywhere on your workspace. You can even select whether or not the fraction labels (1/4, 1/8, etc.) are shown on each section.
7. Write on anything!
Your SMART pens aren’t just for writing on a blank canvas. With SMART Ink, you can grab a pen and write on just about anything. Use the pens to write over text in a Word document or circle pictures on a website.
8. Find out exactly who’s contributed what in group projects.
When kids work offline, it can be challenging to know who really painted the diorama or worked on the poster. With SMART amp, you can create a digital canvas that has sections designated for each group member. It’s kind of like Google Docs—but way cooler. All group members can contribute to the same workspace at the same time, but they don’t have to be doing the same thing—one kid can do word processing while another watches a YouTube video and still another creates a timeline! The best part? Teachers can take control of the workspace to review a concept or use the “attribution” feature in real time to see exactly which students are contributing to the project.
9. Figure out which students “get” it.
With SMART Response, you can choose to keep students’ answers anonymous or include their names to make it easy to keep track of which students grasped the concept. If you need to check off the Common Core box, there’s even a way to tag standards to questions and export the data to any system your school uses. Plus you can use the time you would have spent grading quizzes to plan follow-up lessons that help them practice the skills they find most challenging.
10. Knock off some PD requirements.
If this list got you excited about all the cool stuff you can do with your whiteboard and left you inspired to learn more, you’re in luck. SMART offers lots of professional development options to help you keep up with all the newest features and how you can actually use them in your classroom. Teq Online PD has multiple one-hour live broadcasts each week where you have the opportunity to ask questions and chat with the instructor in real time. Or you can access more than 150 archived sessions on-demand whenever you have time. Either way, you can knock off some of your PD requirements for the year.
11. When you get stuck, connect with your own personal tech tutor.
How many times have you taken a technology PD session only to forget what you learned when it came time to actually use it in your classroom? You might know you can create a graph out of an algebraic equation you wrote on the board but can’t seem to recall exactly how to access it. With the Teq PD Instructional Support Now button, you can connect with a PD specialist who’s an expert in instructional technology the moment you get stuck—or you can schedule a future time that’s convenient for you.
To try out all these ideas in your classroom, check out Teq Unlimited, a software package that combines SMART’s software—Notebook, Response, Lesson Activity Builder and amp—with awesome online professional development. | <urn:uuid:ad703b47-7f84-4f0b-98bf-48fa1d8cff5b> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.weareteachers.com/11-things-you-never-knew-you-could-do-with-your-smart-board/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818685993.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20170919183419-20170919203419-00230.warc.gz | en | 0.913735 | 1,559 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Nizhny Novgorod scientists prove the possibility of creating a liposomal form of porphyrazine photosensitizer
A team of Nizhny Novgorod researchers led by Dr. V.A. Vodeneev, head of the Laboratory for Optical Theranostics at the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine of the Lobachevsky University, is working to develop effective ways to combat cancer.
Currently, much attention is given to photodynamic therapy (PDT) of tumors, a method of treatment based on the accumulation of photosensitive substances (photosensitizers) in the tumor. When these photosensitizers absorb light at a certain wavelength, they can generate toxic agents that kill cancer cells. Researchers’ efforts are aimed at developing methods for targeted delivery of drugs to target cells. By solving this problem, it will be possible to minimize the impact on the surrounding normal tissues, reduce systemic effects, and achieve the maximum effectiveness of photodynamic therapy due to the specific accumulation of drugs in the affected tissue.
Preparations for PDT being developed at the UNN Laboratory for Optical Theranostics belong to the porphyrazine class. In 2015, a group of scientists from the London Imperial College (Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom), together with researchers from the Lobachevsky University and the Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of the RAS (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) proved the unique possibility of their double use as photosensitizers and viscosity markers in photodynamic therapy. Intracellular viscosity measurement is very important for monitoring the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy. It allows one to evaluate structural changes at the cellular level (since cell death during therapy is accompanied by an increase in intracellular viscosity). These results were published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry [Izquierdo M.A., Vyšniauskas A., Lermontova S.A. et al. (2015). Dual use of porphyrazines as sensitizers and viscosity markers in photodynamic therapy. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 3:1089–1096].
Nizhny Novgorod researchers propose to increase the effectiveness of these photosensitizers by loading them into special lipid capsules - liposomes. Scientists claim that liposomes will ensure effective delivery of the photosensitizer to the affected area due to the structural features of the tumor vasculature. In this case, it will be also possible to reduce systemic toxicity of anti-cancer agents.
According to Dr. Vodeneev, the studies carried out at the UNN Laboratory for Optical Theranostics show that the porphyrazine photosensitizer can be effectively loaded into liposomes consisting of phosphatidylcholine and its mixtures with cholesterol and phosphatidylglycerol.
“We have achieved a high rate of cellular uptake of the liposomal preparation and a strong photoinduced toxicity. This provides the prerequisites for the further use of the liposomal form of this photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy of tumors”, notes Dr. Vodeneev. | <urn:uuid:e2d2bc9c-d3f1-4be4-a0c1-a9af46102bf1> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | http://eng.unn.ru/news2/nizhny-novgorod-scientists-prove-the-possibility-of-creating-a-liposomal-form-of-porphyrazine-photosensitizer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585120.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20211017021554-20211017051554-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.905423 | 670 | 2.515625 | 3 |
What do you think when you hear the words transcription service? An old-fashioned secretary sitting in a dusty office taking notes on a notepad? An automated app for transcribing speech that turns your words into a strange jumble of phrases? Both images are related to reality but thankfully there is another way to see audio transcription. Today, modern digital transcription services give you an accurate written account of a conference, focus group, research project, or the spoken notes for a novel. Digital transcription can be highly useful for many people, from marketing managers to medical doctors, students to writers. Find out more about modern audio transcription with our quick guide.
What is Audio Transcription?
Audio transcription is the process of transcribing spoken words into written form. You get a written record of everything that was said and you can use this written transcription for a variety of purposes. Transcription services are used by medics carrying out patient examinations, by drug companies conducting trials, by media agencies for press conferences, lecturers for notes, companies for recording conferences, and many more. Digital transcription refers to the process of using digital recording and methods to carry out the transcription process.
Digital Transcription Has Human ears
When you outsource your transcription to a provider like Alphabet transcription services you can be sure that you won’t receive a robotic, error-strewn transcript in return. When you use a transcription service rather than an automatic software program you know that people are actually listening to your words and have been trained to understand your terms, jargon, and concepts. A human will be able to create an accurate transcript based on what they hear and their own intelligence.
How to Find a Good Audio Transcription Company
Not all transcription services are created equal and you do need to do a little homework before you select a company that meets your needs. You should be looking for a supplier that offers a quick turnaround while also guaranteeing quality. Make sure that the company uses native speakers, who are experienced in transcription. This will make it more likely that you receive a transcription that is fit for your needs and not one that you will have to pay to get fixed. Above all, you need a finished product that is accurate to the words spoken, and a transcription that is free from errors in grammar and spelling. Choose a company that guarantees the quality of its work so you can have peace of mind that the final product will be accurate and useful for you.
How Much Does Audio Transcription Cost?
The price of audio transcription varies and different companies will charge different rates for their work. Don’t assume that the cheapest rate will be the best choice. Make a decision based on the factors above, as well as on price, so that you won’t be disappointed with the product. Take a look around at the different companies, get a few quotes, and speak to the suppliers about what is included in the price. Then you can make an informed decision about which company to use. | <urn:uuid:305f6474-ca99-4da0-8f7c-567781d52e7f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.theallineed.com/business/20151115/quick-introduction-to-audio-transcription-services/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526337.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20190719182214-20190719204214-00114.warc.gz | en | 0.956936 | 598 | 2.625 | 3 |
Message Passing API (MPAPI) is a framework that enables programmers to easily write parallel as well as distributed software systems without having to use standard thread synchronization techniques like locks, monitors, semaphors, mutexes and volatile
It is written in C# and runs on Microsoft .NET 2.0 or newer, as well as Mono.NET 1.9.1.
Message Passing Concurrency (MPC)
Using messages to communicate with nodes separated by a network is the simplest way to control a network of nodes. Two separate computers have no shared memory, no (simple) way to share state. Sending messages back and forth is the simplest, most elegant way
of communication between two threads on two nodes.
But it is also a very simple way to communicate between two different threads on the same node. In MPC a thread is fully disengaged from the rest of the system. It shares no state with any other thread, and the only way to instruct a thread to do some processing,
or alter its internal state, is by sending it a message. So the message must not allow state to be shared by two threads, and this is a fundamental property since two (or more) threads can execute on the same node.
Using only a few simple primitives to communicate between threads frees the programmer to worry about the task that needs to be solved instead of the technical difficulties need to accomplish this task. The framework takes care of all the boiler plate code
needed to synchronize threads, and the three most important primitives a programmer ever has to know are Spawn, Send and Receive.
Connecting several nodes into a compute cluster is also handled in the framework.
Key features of MPAPI
- Easy parallel programming through the use of message passing concurrency instead of the traditional shared state concurrency.
- A few simple primitives to handle communication between - and control with - different threads.
- Cluster computing made simple through the same primitives regardless of whether a thread runs locally or on a different machine. The framework simplifies the connection of computing nodes.
- Cross-platform - the framework has been tested in a mixed environment with machines running Microsoft .NET 2.0, 3.0 and Mono.NET 1.9.1. The RemotingLite framework was written specifically to fascilitate the MPAPI frameworks need for service calls across
networks, and was also specifically designed and written to run on Mono.NET. | <urn:uuid:8ee68e30-8d16-45ac-83b7-9cdc2de7bb28> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://mpapi.codeplex.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300031.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00152-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929543 | 503 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Looking Back: Six Years Since Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
APRIL 20, 2016 -- Wednesday, April 20, marks six years since the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
That terrible incident was the start of a three month-long oil spill of millions of gallons per day until the well was capped on July 15, 2010. The cleanup took years to complete, the natural resource damage assessment was just finalized this spring, and restoration activities will take decades to complete.
Many long-term research projects are underway, and we are still learning about the effects of the spill on the environmental and the coastal communities of the Gulf of Mexico.
On April 4, 2016, the court approved a settlement with BP for natural resource injuries stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This settlement concludes the largest natural resource damage assessment ever undertaken.
It is safe to say that scientists will be publishing papers and results for decades. For many of the people involved, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is considered THE SPILL, the same way the generation of scientists that worked on the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska almost 30 years ago consider that event.
We even keep track of events in a rough vernacular based on those incidents: Post-Deepwater or Pre-OPA (the Oil Pollution Act, passed in 1990, the summer after the Exxon Valdez spill).
But while those spills generate most of the publicity, policy interest, and research, responders in NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other agencies know that spills are a routine occurrence. Since the Deepwater Horizon spill, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration has responded to over 800 other incidents.
Most are ones that you've probably never heard of, but here are a few of the larger incidents since Deepwater Horizon.
Enbridge Pipeline Leak, Kalamazoo, Michigan: On July 25, 2010, while the nation was fixated on the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an underground pipeline in Michigan also began gushing oil. More than 800,000 gallons of crude oil poured out of the leaking pipeline and flowed along 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River, one of the largest rivers in southern Michigan. The spill impacted over 1,560 acres of stream and river habitat as well as floodplain and upland areas, and reduced recreational and tribal uses of the river. A natural resource damage assessment was settled in 2015 that will result in multiple resource restoration projects along the Kalamazoo River.
Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture, Yellowstone River, Montana: On July 1, 2011, an ExxonMobil pipeline near Billings, Montana, ruptured, releasing an estimated 31,500 to 42,000 gallons of oil into the iconic river, which was at flood-stage level at the time of the spill. Oil spread downstream affecting sensitive habitats.
Paulsboro, New Jersey, rail accident and release: On November 30, 2012, a train transporting the chemical vinyl chloride derailed while crossing a bridge that collapsed over Mantua Creek, in Paulsboro, New Jersey, near Philadelphia. Four rail cars fell into the creek, breaching one tank and releasing approximately 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride. A voluntary evacuation zone was established for the area, and nearby schools were ordered to immediately take shelter and seal off their buildings.
Molasses spill, Honolulu, Hawaii: On September 8, 2013, a faulty pipeline operated by Matson Shipping Company leaked 233,000 gallons (1,400 tons) of molasses into Hawaii's Honolulu Harbor. A large fish kill resulted.
Texas City "Y" collision, Galveston, Texas: On March 22, 2014, the 585 foot bulk carrier M/V Summer Wind collided with an oil tank barge, containing 924,000 gallons of fuel oil. The collision occurred at the intersection, or "Y," in Lower Galveston Bay, where three lanes of marine traffic converge: vessels from the Port of Texas City, the Houston Ship Channel, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The collision breached the hull of the tank barge, spilling about 168,000 gallons of fuel oil into the waterway. A natural resource damage assessment is underway, evaluating impacts to shoreline habitats, birds, bottlenose dolphins, and recreational uses.
Refugio State Beach pipeline rupture, California: On May 19, 2015, a 24-inch crude pipeline ruptured near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, California. Of the approximately 100,000 gallons of crude oil released, some was captured and some flowed into the Pacific Ocean. The spill raised many challenges. The spill occurred in an especially sensitive region of the coast, known for its incredible diversity of marine life and home to the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The Refugio spill site is also the site of one of the most historically significant spills in U.S. history. Just over 46 years ago, off the coast of Santa Barbara, a well blowout occurred, spilling as much as 4.2 million gallons of oil into the ocean. A natural resource damage assessment for the Refugio spill is underway, focusing on impacts to wildlife, habitat, and lost recreational uses.
Barge Apex 3508 collision, Columbus, Kentucky: On September 2, 2015, two tug boats collided on the Mississippi River near Columbus, Kentucky, spilling an estimated 120,500 gallons of heavy oil. The oil sank to the river bottom and had to be recovered by dredge.
Train derailment, West Virginia: On February 16, 2015, a CSX oil train derailed and caught fire in West Virginia near the confluence of Armstrong Creek and the Kanawha River. The train was hauling 3.1 million gallons of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to a facility in Virginia. Of the 109 train cars, 27 of them derailed on the banks of the Kanawha River, but none of them entered the river. Much of the oil they were carrying was consumed in the fire, which affected 19 train cars, and an unknown amount of oil reached the icy creek and river.
Each year NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration is asked to respond to an average of 150 incidents and so for this year we have been asked for help with 43 incidents. Most of these were not huge, and include ship groundings in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii; five sunken vessels, fires at two marinas, a burning vessel, and an oil platform fire; nine oil spills and a chemical spill; and multiple "mystery sheens"—slicks of oil or chemicals that are spotted on the surface of the water and don't have a clear origin.
Since 1990, we have responded to thousands of incidents, helping to guide effective cleanups and protect sensitive resources. Also, since 1990 and with our co-trustees, we have settled almost 60 spills for more than $9.7 billion for restoration.
We hope that we will never have to respond to another "Deepwater Horizon" or "Exxon Valdez," but should a large disaster occur, we will be ready. In the meantime, smaller accidents happen frequently and we are ready for those, too. | <urn:uuid:e9469a91-9ef1-4f30-9771-807f2645cd3d> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/looking-back-six-years-deepwater.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496668416.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20191114104329-20191114132329-00014.warc.gz | en | 0.953063 | 1,464 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Published: Jun 1979
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Computer use in vertebrate pest management has been suggested for allocating research funds and justifying budgets, and a technique for doing so is suggested. An algorithm for deciding when to use computers is given. Injury and damage are defined, and the role of the computer in determining the marginal difference is supported. Eight specific applications for computers are recommended, including increased use of nonparametric statistical techniques. The use of the computer as a deductive aid in data analysis for managerial decision making is suggested. A regional or national computer program is described both as a means for improving vertebrate pest damage control decisions and as a concept essential for improved evaluation of control procedures.
vertebrate pest control, computers, systems ecology, vertebrate pests, control
Professor of wildlife management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va | <urn:uuid:ad08c429-cffb-4e22-b7e7-10434f6f7131> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/STP/PAGES/STP34987S.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720026.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00219-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.882102 | 224 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The 3 laws of Mathematics Shri Narendra Modi ji invented in past 6 months:
Theorem 1: Dividing an unknown number by the population of India gives you 15,00,000.
Modiji last year said that the amount of Black Money in Swiss Banks sums upto 15 lacs per head if distributed to each Indian! If Population of India = x and the sum of Black Money in Swiss Banks = y then, y/x = 15,00,000
But recently Modiji said that he doesn’t know how much Black Money there is in the Swiss Banks, so y is an unknown number.
Thus, Theorem 1 proved!
Theorem 2: 100 > 100
Remember the promise of 100 days?
Theorem 3: 45,00,00,00,000 = 0
Shri Modiji said that nothing was left in Sarkari Tijauris when he came into power! That means in Sarkari Tijauris, the total amount left by Congresspersons was Rs. 0 only. Still he somehow managed to gift Bhutan Rs. 4500 Crores for their development.
Thus, 4500 Crore = 0 :) | <urn:uuid:84d84660-ec20-4f21-bbc5-a100c20e1411> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://teekhimirchi.in/2014/11/three-laws-mathematics-shri-modiji/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934807650.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124104142-20171124124142-00504.warc.gz | en | 0.901962 | 244 | 3.125 | 3 |
Known to hamper diagnosis, it helps detect colon cancer
Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of mortality in both developed and developing countries. Screening methods for colon cancer depend on detecting the precancerous changes. Generally, colonoscopy is carried out but the test is expensive (Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000) and the procedure highly invasive. An alternative is Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) which detects subtle blood loss in the gastrointestinal tract. The test does not directly detect colon cancer and shows positive in case of any kind of gastrointestinal bleeding. This results in many false positives.
But researchers at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that giving low-doses of aspirin prior to FOBT helps in better detection of colorectal cancer. The risk of colon cancer rises with age, with more than 90 per cent of cases occurring in people over the age of 50.
It was believed that aspirin leads to increased bleeding and false results. People who underwent FOBT were advised to go off the drug. Aspirin’s blood-thinning properties prompt doctors to prescribe its low-doses to those at risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Hermann Brenner and his colleagues assessed the association between low-doses of aspirin and performance of FOBTs in a sample of 1,979 patients with an average age of 62 years. The study was conducted over a period of four years (2005-2009). They were divided according to aspirin usage (regular users and non-users).
The study found the sensitivity of FOBTs was twice for low-dose aspirin users as compared to that of non-users in both the tests. The results were more accurate as well. “Our study suggests that use of low-dose aspirin does not hamper testing of the cancer, on the contrary, it enhances test performance,” said Brenner. | <urn:uuid:f9b5a76e-be01-4924-9a2d-ec7a491bc487> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://cseindia.org/content/aspirin-boosts-accuracy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507443438.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005723-00340-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962647 | 397 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Indias well- targeted aid programs include many factors like infrastructure development, institutional capacity building, small development projects, as well as food security assistance in the form of ongoing deliveries of wheat to Afghanistan. Since 2001, more than 10,000 Afghan students have studied in India on ICCR scholarships, with some 7,000 returning home with an education and technical skills, which they are using towards the progress in Afghanistans stabilization and development. Meanwhile, many mid-career officers in the Afghan government has benefited from the technical capacity building programs of ITEC and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, while some 8,000 Afghan students are pursuing self-financed degrees in different fields across India.
And Indias signature infrastructure projects- the building of the Afghan parliament in Kabul and the Salma Dam in Herat, are nearing the process of completion. The former will soon give Afghan MPs the secure space they need to further institutionalize democracy in Afghanistan, while the latter will generate 42MW of much-needed power for the electrification of rural and urban Herat, as well as helping irrigate 80,000 hectares of agricultural land.
In spite of many transit obstacles, the volume of Indo-Afghan trade stood at $680 million during 2013-2014, a figure that should exponentially rise. Moreover, air connectivity between the two countries has grown steadily. There are now four to five flights operating daily between Kabul and Delhi, bringing to India nearly 1,000 Afghans, many of them medical tourists, seeking better treatment in Delhi hospitals.
In January 2009, India completed construction of the Zaranj-Delaram highway in southwest Afghanistan near the Iranian border. Bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan has been on the rise, reaching $358 million for the fiscal year April 2007 to March 2008. India hopes its investment in the Iranian port at Chabahar will allow it to gain trading access to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Pakistan currently allows Afghanistan transit rights for its exports to India but does not allow goods to move from India to Afghanistan.0 | <urn:uuid:7dc0d47d-6a9c-468c-894e-9231d05da8ed> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.writemore.in/2017/07/19/Aid-Granted-By-India-and-the-Bilateral-Relation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864740.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20180622162604-20180622182604-00636.warc.gz | en | 0.959104 | 410 | 2.625 | 3 |
You can see an overview of our Grade 10 interdisciplinary unit on Human and Civil rights here.
We headed off the wonderful Center for Civil and Human Rights. We were granted access before the museum opened to the public, and had booked the function room for afternoon activities.
Our first activity was run by our wonderful theatre teachers, Mr Bell and Ms Weeks. They had students move around the space, then would randomly call out 'get into a group of 4' or 'get into a group of 8', then they would give them a word to physicalize. These words included; Social Conflict, Violation, Privilege, Human Rights, Exploitation, Moral Principles, Segregation, Freedom of Expression/Thought, Justice and Humiliation. These words would be used later in the day too!
The rest of the morning included a tour from Ted Ward from the center. I can not speak highly enough about him - he had a wonderful way with the students and really told them stories that they connected to. I had briefly mentioned to him through email that they were looking at human and civil rights around the world, and we wanted them to look at a range of different perspectives - he knew exactly what I meant, and highlighted stories of everything from Latino to LGBTQ activists.
I spent most of the time in the function room setting up for the afternoon, but was able to see him talking to the students about the Aids Memorial Quilt and joined them for the end of the tour. If you are a school in the south east, I cannot recommend this tour and center enough! Get there now!
After the tour, and after lunch, we looped back into the initial activity (physicalizing those words), by doing a PZ activity called Making Meaning:
After this group activity, we set up different activities at every table. Students would all start off at one time and would spend around 20 minutes there. We would then let them know to move tables. They did not rotate, but could choose where they moved each time. We had 11 tables, each with an activity, and we had some spare activities we swapped out at times too - meaning that all students would not make it to all activities. As we gave them a little summary of the activities at the start, they could move to the tables that interested them most.
Here are a description of some of the activities - along with some photos.
This is America.
This station at two parts. One had questions about the Childish Gambino Video This is America. The next part had students answer "what does the phrase 'this is America' mean to you?"
The next table, manned by Ilse Ortega, had students look at three different Amnesty International Posters. We had questions translated into German, Spanish and English for each poster. This table worked well, as it had a teacher leading the discussion. We could have separated the activities by languages, or had students respond to them silently, (Chalk Talk style)! Here and the questions and translations.
Apples to Apples and Pictionary!
Tim McMahon planned two tables, which were set out as games. One was a spin on the classic American game, Apples to Apples, where students would read out the description from a card from a deck of civil rights activists! They would then use the regular Apple to Apple cards to find a matching word! We also had students use white boards to play Pictionary, where they would draw our a human right and have the other students guess it. This was a great way to get students to familiarize themselves with different rights.
I stole this idea directly from the Atlanta History Center! Students had copies of the American citizen test, in Spanish and English, which they could turn into poems. If we do an activity like this next year, I think the language and literature teachers will choose different articles, in different languages for our students to use!
The main reason for bringing the students to the museum and doing these activities was really to give them lots of different human and civil rights to think about, as well as exposures to violations around the world! As well as to get them to think about the importance of images in telling stories! By the end od the day, I am sure they were all prepared for Day Two! | <urn:uuid:05faa878-a2c7-4827-8e4f-785f78cd38da> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.excitededucator.com/home/civil-human-rights-idu-day-one | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247481612.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217031053-20190217053053-00592.warc.gz | en | 0.983509 | 874 | 3.140625 | 3 |
By floating nearly a hundred trees down a river, collecting them on an island and cutting them into shape with their newly developed chainsaw skills, six students from Dartmouth College rebuilt a treasured log cabin that had burned down. Here's how they got it done.
After fire destroyed the 57-year-old Titcomb Cabin, Kate Bowman pried away its chimney, preparing to rebuild.
Dartmouth students studied archival photos of New England log drives to learn how to transport spruce and pine trunks to the site of burned-down Titcomb Cabin on an island in the Connecticut River. The crew peeled the bark from 97 trees, grouped the logs by size, rolled them to the river, and then used eyebolts and carabiners to clip them to a 2 x 4 frame. The debut eight-log run broke apart, but later drives hauled 12 and 16 logs per trip.
Greg Sokol guides a log up a 40-foot trough at the island's bank. The rig was dubbed the Death Slide after one log snapped the axle of a hand-cranked winch. The solution: A chain-saw-powered Lewis Winch that zipped logs up the slide in seconds. The crew also brought in a mixer and a generator—by canoe—and carried 52 80-pound bags of concrete from the shore.
Lucas Schulz lops off a log butt with a Husqvarna 359 chain saw. All workers took chain-saw certification classes. "It was a decibellious day," Jordan Nesmith blogged.
From left, Parker Reed, Kodiak Burke, Greg Sokol and Kate Bowman. The crew practiced joinery on an 8 x 10–foot test structure before moving on to the main 14 x 23–foot Titcomb Cabin. The final product ended up measuring perfectly level at every corner. | <urn:uuid:18ab10b6-499d-44be-8f7b-4b2f2d1bafd3> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/outdoor-projects/how-to/g537/how-to-re-build-a-log-cabin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703519883.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20210120023125-20210120053125-00696.warc.gz | en | 0.945393 | 378 | 2.875 | 3 |
If you appreciate artfully manicured hedges, the green velvet boxwood provides the dense foliage, bright green hue and low-lying stature for creating a best-in-the-neighborhood display. Even if you choose not to prune, this hardy evergreen will hold its wonderfully rounded form.
Perhaps the best characteristic of green velvet boxwood is that it retains its deep color (with a tinge of bronze) even in winter; just be sure to shield it from heavy wind and snow. The shrub grows at a rate of less than a foot per year to a mature height of 2-4 feet tall. Choose any soil so long as it is not a wet soil, and plant your green velvet boxwoods in a spot receiving at least 4-5 hours of direct sunlight daily.
Did You Know?
Green velvet boxwood plants grow small clusters of spring flowers that you can smell but hardly see due to their pale green-cream color.
Other Fun Facts About Green Velvet Boxwood
- Boxwood plants have been cultivated dating back to the ancient Romans and Greeks.
- Green velvet boxwood is a hybrid cultivar from European and Japanese boxwood species.
- Deer and other wildlife tend to pass on eating boxwood plants, as they contain toxic (and bad-tasting) alkaloids. | <urn:uuid:32b0e02b-2ba4-446a-8e09-1012c36dabfa> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.hightechlandscapes.com/green-velvet-boxwood/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370524604.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200404165658-20200404195658-00301.warc.gz | en | 0.924258 | 273 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The melting glaciers of Peru have figured in previous Hot Topic posts such as the review of Mark Carey’s book In the Shadow of Melting Glacier and the report from Guardian journalist John Vidal’s Oxfam-sponsored Andean tour. I was therefore interested to come across an article on what the loss of the Peruvian glaciers implies for US national security. Not that the national security of America normally figures on my list of concerns about what climate change is doing to Peru, but I’m happy to add it if it is required to awaken more widespread US awareness of the realities of climate change. The fact that a version of the article appeared in last weekend’s Washington Post was testimony to that potential. US national security concern might also represent Peru’s best chance of getting much-needed assistance in the enormous adaptation measures facing them.
Heather Somerville, the article’s author, is a member of a team of graduate journalist students from Medill School of Journalism who have been investigating the effects of climate change on US national security in various parts of the world.
Said a former CIA Director:
“Think what it would be like if the Andes glaciers were gone and we had millions and millions of hungry and thirsty Southern neighbours. It would not be an easy thing to deal with.”
Somerville summarises the effects already under way in Peru:
“…glacier melt has begun to deplete crops, displace communities, cause widespread drinking water shortages, destabilize hydroelectric power, diminish trade and affect transportation and tourism. The trend is expected to cause regional conflict, economic crises, increased crime, broken infrastructure and food insecurity.”
Without substantial foreign assistance within the next five years the climate change advisor at Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sees the shrinking of the glaciers leading to a social and economic disaster.
If the US does offer assistance it is likely to be bound up with strategic questions.
“[The Obama administration] must decide whether to send money, development assistance and possibly even military help south to an important democratic ally on a continent where Chinese and Iranian influence is growing, and anti-U.S. sentiment permeates certain regimes.
“Other U.S. allies vulnerable to the impacts of climate change will be paying close attention to how the U.S. responds. Peru’s crisis could set a precedent for how the U.S. uses diplomacy, foreign aid and the military to address the climate change threats around the world.”
The State Department is taking an active interest in the impacts of climate change on the region, acknowledging it as a significant threat which the US must come to terms with in respect to the security challenges it poses. Some assistance has been forthcoming from Washington but the article reports frustration from Peruvian officials with what they see as poor coordination among US agencies, US disregard for the importance of global cooperation and an agenda that fails to address the urgent need in Peru.
Somerville makes it clear that the need is urgent. And it is by no means limited to the areas adjacent to the glaciers, serious though it is for them.
“Life on Peru’s coast depends on water from the Andes. Most of its agriculture production is on the arid coast, fed by water from the Andes. Glacier-fed rivers also support the nation’s largest hydroelectric plants, which provide 60 percent of the country’s electricity.
“Lima, the world’s second largest desert city, is almost totally dependent on Andean rivers fed by glacier melt. Water shortages are widespread there, and even worse in communities nearby that can’t compete with the capital for meagre water supplies.”
The Pentagon’s Southern Command (SouthCom), responsible for Latin America, has also been looking at the security aspects of climate change in Peru. Their environmental security expert comments that there is some way to go to get a complete buy-in from the Department of Defense that this is a core military role, but Somerville comments that SouthCom probably won’t have a choice but to start planning for climate change. One of SouthCom’s primary missions is humanitarian aid and it has a history of being called on for disaster response in Latin America.
Not that Peru is sitting helplessly waiting for outside assistance. Somerville reports that it created a national strategy on climate change in 2003 and in 2008 set up a Ministry of Environment with oversight of climate change programmes. Work is being undertaken in conjunction with the US Agency for International Development and non-profit organisations to build water reservoirs in Andean communities and monitor water flow from the glaciers.
But resources are lacking, and the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is asking Washington and other allies for at least $350 million every year through 2030 for reservoirs to collect runoff, dams to regulate water flow from the Andes and irrigation techniques. Said a spokesperson:
“If we don’t solve our problems … this will become a problem for the United States. When you have a dysfunctional country, you have a problem for the entire region.”
Whether national security concerns will drive significant aid for countries like Peru remains to be seen. But the concerns are clearly making some think seriously about what climate change is doing to the world. I found myself wondering about how this is going down with the climate change deniers so prominent among Republicans in the House. Presumably if climate change is not happening it can’t be posing a security threat to the US. But what if you’re a politician who professes great concern about national security? And what if that question comes close to home as it does in some of the other articles in the series to which Somerville’s belongs? There’s an article on the threat to Houston. Another on the what sea level rise will do to military bases on the US coast. Another on the threat of climate change-related disease in the US as well as other countries.
A day must eventually dawn when denial becomes impossible to maintain even when it is bolstered by wealthy vested interests. If perceived national security threats will help bring about that day, then the more they are pointed out the better. | <urn:uuid:9f7d66eb-c0fc-421a-8ead-b4f04d044472> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hot-topic.co.nz/peruvian-glacier-melt-challenges-us-security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703001356/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111641-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9462 | 1,277 | 2.546875 | 3 |
When snapping digital photos with our cameras and phones, it’s easy to forget what’s actually happening inside to get the light from your subject into the camera, and then up on its way to Instagram. So, if you ever wondered how a CCD sensor actually works, and how light is turned into electricity and shifted off the sensor, watch this great video by Engineer Guy Bill Hammack.
You probably know that light sensitive pixels create a charge when hit by light. The trick is getting the charge off the sensor chip and into the camera’s computer. Instead of using wires, a CCD works more like a game of Connect 4 aka Four In A Line.
Imagine your Connect Four game is full of counters. If you could carefully open the bottom and only let the first row drop out, the other rows would all drop down by one line, intact. This is exactly how the CCD does it, only instead of plastic disks it shifts electrical charges.
And that’s it — ingenious and simple, just like most clever solutions. I sure learned something today. Thanks, Engineer Guy! | <urn:uuid:b6ff01b0-2cba-468d-8d5f-6f1715368b25> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.cultofmac.com/167350/how-a-camera-ccd-works-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698543035.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170903-00506-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938821 | 228 | 3.125 | 3 |
Current RO membranes are inefficient
As water traverses an RO membrane it must do so through the many apertures within the porous structure. In conventional polyamide RO membranes these pores are a chaotic mesh of interconnected passages that twist and turn throughout the membrane. This type of structure provides a lot of resistance to the passage of water molecules across the membrane, and the net result is low permeability membranes that require a high operating pressure.
Anfiro's membrane technology
Our membranes create a nanoscale porous pattern of cylindrical pores that go straight through the membrane selective layer, with minimal pore-to-pore size variability. The result is a massive increase in permeability without sacrificing selectivity performance. Anfiro's self-assembling polymer technology is enabling a new generation of energy-efficient membranes that can significantly reduce the operational and capital costs of an RO system.
Chlorine is one of the most widely used water disinfectants, yet current RO membranes are permanently damaged when exposed to chlorine. Unlike current membrane technology, Anfiro's polymer materials are not degraded by exposure to chlorine. This enables chlorine to be used throughout the RO stage, which reduces bio-fouling and can lead to a longer membrane lifespan. | <urn:uuid:c3053749-60ef-4ad2-90f1-8ae268de1fff> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://www.anfiro.com/tech/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256163.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190520222102-20190521004102-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.864326 | 251 | 2.84375 | 3 |
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, which recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians. Over 40 years later, Americans are still standing by this decision: 7 in 10 Americans believe Roe v. Wade should remain the law of the land.
Abortion Access: Then & Now
In 1965, illegal abortions made up one-sixth of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. A survey conducted between 1965 and 1967 found that 8 in 10 low-income women in New York City who had an abortion attempted a dangerous self-induced procedure.
But now that abortion is legal, it has become one of the safest medical procedures in the United States — with a safety record of over 99%. Moreover, because it is legal, women who decide to have an abortion can receive support throughout the process from medical professionals.
Nationwide Attacks on Roe v. Wade
The right to safe and legal abortion has been the law of the land for more than 40 years, and is a part of the fabric of this country. This is clearly established precedent, and shouldn’t be up for debate. And yet, opponents of abortion have made it increasingly harder for women to access — and these threats are not slowing down.
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice: This year, the Supreme Court will rule on challenges to Roe v. Wade that could strip women of the right to safe and legal abortion. President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, has an alarming history of interfering with reproductive rights and health. Speak out to say #NoRoeNoGo!
- Looming Abortion Restrictions: As part of a broader effort to chip away at Roe v. Wade and ultimately ban abortion nationwide, anti-abortion politicians have been pushing a variety of bills in Congress that would restrict access to abortion at any point in pregnancy nationwide. Anti-abortion members of Congress also have been trying for years to pass a nationwide ban all abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- Existing Federal Abortion Ban: An abortion ban that became law in 2003 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007 criminalizes certain abortion procedures in the second trimester of pregnancy — procedures that doctors say are often the safest and best to protect women's health.
State Attacks on Roe v. Wade
In Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the U.S. Constitution protects a woman's right to make her own medical decisions, including her decision to have an abortion. Therefore, a state may not ban abortion prior to viability. In the more than 40 years following that landmark ruling, in decisions including Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court has never wavered from this principle.
Despite this precedent and Americans' consistent support for Roe v .Wade, anti-women’s health state legislators continue to attack abortion access through ballot measures and legislative restrictions.
Americans Support Roe v. Wade and Don't Want It Overturned
Support for access to safe, legal abortion is at a record high. Here are the stats:
- 70% of Americans don’t want to see Roe V. Wade overturned, according to surveys from Quinnipiac University and Pew Research. That's the highest rate since the case was decided more than 40 years ago, and it includes people who voted for Donald Trump.
- Support for Roe v. Wade is on the rise: In the last three years, opposition to overturning Roe V. Wade has gone up 6 points.
- Latinos in this country are very supportive of access to reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion: Contrary to stereotypes, 67% of Latino/a voters do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned and 82% agree with women making their own decision on abortion without political interference.
The vast majority of Americans have supported access to safe and legal abortion for decades. Americans simply don't believe that politicians or judges should be making decisions for women about their pregnancies.
Ensuring That Women Have Health Care, No Matter What
For almost a century, Planned Parenthood health centers have been providing professional, nonjudgmental, and confidential health care and information to keep women healthy and prevent unintended pregnancies. As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood knows firsthand why it’s so critical that everyone have access to a comprehensive range of reproductive health care services, including abortion.
Bottom line: People must have access to safe, legal abortion services without interference from politicians. From courthouses to statehouses to Capitol Hill, Planned Parenthood works to protect that access — no matter what. | <urn:uuid:55a92529-687b-4edc-bb50-92809ba38721> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/roe-v-wade | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125937090.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20180420003432-20180420023432-00297.warc.gz | en | 0.959528 | 984 | 2.859375 | 3 |
With funds from the US Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of Arizona State University researchers is working to create a model that will examine the effects of urban farming on various aspects of city life and its environment. The planning model to be created will incorporate such factors as air pollution, land cover, water use, and energy sources.
The team, led by Dr. Alex Mahalov, includes mathematicians and experts in agribusiness, geography, and sustainability. “This is an integrated project; it’s not just about agriculture. It’s about food, energy and water,” stated Mahalov, the lead principal investigator.
The model will be able to examine the effects of transforming vacant lots into urban farms, including factors such as food production and the mitigation of urban heat-islands. Working with high-resolution data from the National Agriculture Imagery Program, evaluations can be made of extremely precise locations. It will also be used to study the feasibility of vertical farming.
Economists on the team are working to assess the economic viability of urban farms, looking at such factors as supply and demand. “If you use the land for farming, you need consumer demand because without demand you can’t be successful in business,” said Dr. Carola Grebitus, a co-principal investigator. She and her team are conducting surveys of local residents regarding demand for produce and cost concerns. “There’s a model called motivation, ability, opportunity. Right now we are differentiating between ‘are you willing to buy food?’ or ‘would you be willing to grow your own food?’ You need to be motivated to do either one,” continued Grebitus. “Ability means you have to know how to grow the food. For opportunity, I like to use the example of the single mother who is motivated to provide nutritious food for her children and has the ability to cook it, but she might simply not have the time.” | <urn:uuid:7e9b2e6d-90a6-4b65-827b-2d22a5ed3f98> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://smartcitiesconnect.org/how-does-urban-farming-influence-city-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607620.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523103136-20170523123136-00040.warc.gz | en | 0.959655 | 421 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Monarchys of the world
|Part of the Politics series on|
Forms of monarchy differ widely based on the level of legal autonomy the monarch holds in governance, the method of selection of the monarch, and any predetermined limits on the length of their tenure. When the monarch has no or few legal restraints in state and political matters, it is called an absolute monarchy and is a form of autocracy. Cases in which the monarch's discretion is formally limited (most common today) are called constitutional monarchies. In hereditary monarchies, the office is passed through inheritance within a family group, whereas elective monarchies are selected by some system of voting. Historically these systems are most commonly combined, either formally or informally, in some manner. (For instance, in some elected monarchies only those of certain pedigrees are considered eligible, whereas many hereditary monarchies have legal requirements regarding the religion, age, gender, mental capacity, and other factors that act both as de facto elections and to create situations of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election.) Finally, there are situations in which the expiration of a monarch’s reign is set based either on the calendar or on the achievement of certain goals (repulse of invasion, for instance.) The effect of historical and geographic difference along each of these three axes is to create widely divergent structures and traditions defining “monarchy.”
Monarchy was the most common form of government into the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent, at least at the national level. Where it exists, it now often takes the form of constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch retains a unique legal and ceremonial role, but exercises limited or no political power pursuant to a constitution or tradition which allocates governing authority elsewhere. Currently, 44 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. All European monarchies are constitutional ones, with the exception of the Vatican City, but sovereigns in the smaller states exercise greater political influence than in the larger. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia and Morocco "reign, but do not rule" although there is considerable variation in the amount of authority they wield. Although they reign under constitutions, the monarchs of Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Swaziland appear to continue to exercise more political influence than any other single source of authority in their nations, either by constitutional mandate or by tradition.
|Part of the Politics series|
|Basic forms of
|List of forms of government|
EtymologyThe word monarch (Latin: monarcha) comes from the Greek monàrches, μονάρχης (from mònos, μόνος, "one/singular," and àrchon, ἄρχων, "leader/ruler/chief") which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word monarchy generally refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule, as elective monarchies are rare in the modern period.
HistoryTribal kingship is often connected to sacral functions, so that the king acts as a priest, or is considered of Divine ancestry. The sacral function of kingship was transformed into the notion of "Divine right of kings" in the Christian Middle Ages, while the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period.
The system of monarchy since antiquity has contrasted with forms of democracy, where executive power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Ancient Rome (Roman Republic, 509 BC), Ancient Athens (Athenian democracy, 500 BC).
In Germanic antiquity, kingship was primarily a sacral function, and the king was elected from among eligible members of royal families by the thing. Such ancient "parliamentarism" declined during the European Middle Ages, but it survived in forms of regional assemblies, such as the Icelandic Commonwealth, the Swiss Landsgemeinde and later Tagsatzung, and the High Medieval communal movement linked to the rise of medieval town privileges.
The modern resurgence of parliamentarism and anti-monarchism began with the overthrow of the English monarchy by the Parliament of England in 1649, followed by the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1792. Much of 19th century politics was characterized by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism.
Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, especially in the wake of either World War I or World War II. Advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism.
Characteristics and roleMonarchies are associated with political or sociocultural hereditary rule, in which monarchs rule for life (although some monarchs do not hold lifetime positions, such as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, who serves a five-year term) and pass the responsibilities and power of the position to their children or family when they die. Most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the center of the royal household and court. Growing up in a royal family (when present for several generations it may be called a dynasty), and future monarchs were often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule.
Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority (Salic law). While traditionally most modern monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have ruled in history; the term queen regnant may refer to a ruling monarch, while a queen consort may refer to the wife of a reigning king. Form of governments may be hereditary without being considered monarchies, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies.
The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the immediate continuity of leadership, usually with a short interregnum (as seen in the classic phrase "The King is dead. Long live the King!").
Some monarchies are non-hereditary. In an elective monarchy, monarchs are elected, or appointed by some body (an electoral college) for life or a defined period, but otherwise serve as any other monarch. Three elective monarchies exist today, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates are twentieth-century creations, while one (the papacy) is ancient.
A self-proclaimed monarchy is established when a person claims the monarchy without any historical ties to a previous dynasty. Napoleon I of France declared himself Emperor of the French and ruled the First French Empire after previously calling himself First Consul following his seizure of power in the coup of 18 Brumaire. Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic declared himself "Emperor" of the Central African Empire. Yuan Shikai crowned himself Emperor of the short-lived "Empire of China" a few years after the Republic of China was founded.
Powers of monarchToday, the extent of a monarch's powers varies:
- In an absolute monarchy, the monarch rules as an autocrat, with absolute power over the state and government—for example, the right to rule by decree, promulgate laws, and impose punishments. Absolute monarchies are not necessarily authoritarian; the enlightened absolutists of the Age of Enlightenment were monarchs who allowed various freedoms.
- In a constitutional monarchy the monarch is subject to a constitution. The monarch serves as a ceremonial figurehead symbol of national unity and state continuity. The monarch is nominally sovereign but the electorate, through their parliament/legislature, exercise usually limited political sovereignty. Constitutional monarchs have limited political power, except in Japan, where the constitution grants no power to the Emperor. Typical monarchical powers include granting pardons, granting honours, and reserve powers, e.g. to dismiss the prime minister, refuse to dissolve parliament, or veto legislation ("withhold Royal Assent"). They often also have privileges of inviolability, sovereign immunity, and an official residence. A monarch's powers and influence may depend on tradition, precedent, popular opinion, and law.
- In other cases the monarch's power is limited, not due to constitutional restraints, but to effective military rule. In the late Roman Empire, the Praetorian Guard several times deposed Roman Emperors and installed new emperors. The Hellenistic kings of Macedon and of Epirus were elected by the army, which was similar in composition to the ecclesia of democracies, the council of all free citizens; military service often was linked with citizenship among the male members of the royal house. Military domination of the monarch has occurred in modern Thailand and in medieval Japan (where a hereditary military chief, the shogun was the de facto ruler, although the Japanese emperor nominally ruled). In Fascist Italy the Savoy monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel III coexisted with the Fascist single-party rule of Benito Mussolini; Romania under the Iron Guard and Greece during the first months of the Colonels' regime were much the same way. Spain under Francisco Franco was officially a monarchy, although there was no monarch on the throne. Upon his death, Franco was succeeded as head of state by the Bourbon heir, Juan Carlos I, who proceeded to make Spain a democracy with himself as a figurehead constitutional monarch.
Person of monarchMost states only have a single person acting as monarch at any given time, although two monarchs have ruled simultaneously in some countries, a situation known as diarchy. Historically this was the case in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta or 17th-century Russia, and there are examples of joint sovereignty of spouses or relatives (such as William and Mary in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland). Other examples of joint sovereignty include Tsars Peter I and Ivan V of Russia and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Joanna of Castile of the Crown of Castile.
Andorra currently is the world's sole constitutional diarchy or co-principality. Located in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, it has two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell (a prince-bishop) in Spain and the President of France. It is the only situation in which an independent country's monarch is democratically elected by the citizens of another country.
In a personal union, separate independent states share the same crown with one person as the monarch. The sixteen separate Commonwealth realms are sometimes described as being in a personal union with Queen Elizabeth II as monarch, however, legally each Commonwealth Realm has its own crown or monarchy, so they can also be described as being in a Shared Monarchy.
A regent may rule when the monarch is a minor, absent, or debilitated.
A pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else.
Abdication is when a monarch resigns.
Monarchs often take part in certain ceremonies, such as a coronation.
Role of religionMonarchy, especially absolute monarchy, sometimes is linked to religious aspects; many monarchs once claimed the right to rule by the will of a deity (Divine Right of Kings, Mandate of Heaven), a special connection to a deity (sacred king) or even purported to be divine kings, or incarnations of deities themselves (imperial cult). Many European monarchs have been styled Fidei defensor (Defender of the Faith); some hold official positions relating to the state religion or established church.
In the Western political tradition, a morally-based, balanced monarchy is stressed as the ideal form of government, and little reverence is paid to modern-day ideals of egalitarian democracy: e.g. Saint Thomas Aquinas unapologetically declares: "Tyranny is wont to occur not less but more frequently on the basis of polyarchy [rule by many, i.e. oligarchy or democracy] than on the basis of monarchy." (On Kingship). However, Thomas Aquinas also stated that the ideal monarchical system would also have at lower levels of government both an aristocracy and elements of democracy in order to created a balance of power. The monarch would also be subject to both natural and divine law, as well, and also be subject to the Church in matters of religion.
In Dante Alighieri's De Monarchia, a spiritualized, imperial Catholic monarchy is strongly promoted according to a Ghibelline world-view in which the "royal religion of Melchizedek" is emphasized against the sacerdotal claims of the rival papal ideology.
In Muslim World, The King of Saudi Arabia is a head of state who is both a absolute monarch of country, and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Islam (خادم الحرمين الشريفين).
Titles of monarchsMonarchs have various titles, including king or queen, prince or princess (Sovereign Prince of Monaco), emperor or empress (Emperor of Japan, Emperor of India), or even duke or grand duke (Grand Duke of Luxembourg) or duchess. Many monarchs also are distinguished by styles, such as "Majesty", "Royal Highness" or "By the Grace of God". Islamic monarchs use titles such as Shah, Caliph, Sultan, Emir and Sheikh. In Mongolian or Turkic lands, the monarch may use the title Khan or Khagan.
Sometimes titles are used to express claims to territories that are not held in fact (for example, English claims to the French throne) or titles not recognized (antipopes).
Dependent monarchiesIn some cases monarchs are dependent on other powers (see vassals, suzerainty, puppet state, hegemony). In the British colonial era indirect rule under a paramount power existed, such as the princely states under the British Raj.
In Botswana, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda, the ancient kingdoms and chiefdoms that were met by the colonialists when they first arrived on the continent are now constitutionally protected as regional and/or sectional entities. Furthermore, in Nigeria, though the hundreds of sub-regional polities that exist there are not provided for in the current constitution, they are nevertheless legally recognised aspects of the structure of governance that operates in the nation. In addition to these five countries, peculiar monarchies of varied sizes and complexities exist in various other parts of Africa.
SuccessionThe rules for selection of monarchs varies from country to country. In constitutional monarchies the rule of succession generally is embodied in a law passed by a representative body, such as a parliament.
Hereditary monarchiesIn a hereditary monarchy, the position of monarch is inherited according to a statutory or customary order of succession, usually within one royal family tracing its origin through a historical dynasty or bloodline. This usually means that the heir to the throne is known well in advance of becoming monarch to ensure a smooth succession.
Primogeniture, in which the eldest child of the monarch is first in line to become monarch, is the most common system in hereditary monarchy. The order of succession is usually affected by rules on gender. Historically "agnatic primogeniture" or "patrilineal primogeniture" was favoured, that is inheritance according to seniority of birth among the sons of a monarch or head of family, with sons and their male issue inheriting before brothers and their issue, and male-line males inheriting before females of the male line. This is the same as semi-Salic primogeniture. Complete exclusion of females from dynastic succession is commonly referred to as application of the Salic law (see Terra salica).
Before primogeniture was enshrined in European law and tradition, kings would often secure the succession by having their successor (usually their eldest son) crowned during their own lifetime, so for a time there would be two kings in coregency – a senior king and a junior king. Examples include Henry the Young King of England and the early Direct Capetians in France.
Sometimes, however, primogeniture can operate through the female line. In some systems a female may rule as monarch only when the male line dating back to a common ancestor is exhausted. In 1980, Sweden became the first European monarchy to declare equal (full cognatic) primogeniture, meaning that the eldest child of the monarch, whether female or male, ascends to the throne. Other kingdoms (such as the Netherlands in 1983, Norway in 1990, Belgium in 1991) have since followed suit. Similar reforms were proposed in 2011 for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms, but have yet to pass into law, pending approval by all of the affected nations. Sometimes religion is affected; under the Act of Settlement 1701 all Roman Catholics and all persons who have married Roman Catholics are ineligible to be the British monarch and are skipped in the order of succession.
In the case of the absence of children, the next most senior member of the collateral line (for example, a younger sibling of the previous monarch) becomes monarch. In complex cases, this can mean that there are closer blood relatives to the deceased monarch than the next in line according to primogeniture. This has often led, especially in Europe in the Middle Ages, to conflict between the principle of primogeniture and the principle of proximity of blood, with outcomes that were idiosyncratic[clarification needed].
Other hereditary systems of succession included tanistry, which is semi-elective and gives weight to merit and Agnatic seniority. In some monarchies, such as Saudi Arabia, succession to the throne usually first passes to the monarch's next eldest brother, and only after that to the monarch's children (agnatic seniority).
Elective monarchiesIn an elective monarchy, monarchs are elected, or appointed by some body (an electoral college) for life or a defined period, but otherwise serve as any other monarch. There is no popular vote involved in elective monarchies, as the elective body usually consists of a small number of eligible people. Historical examples of elective monarchy include the Holy Roman Emperors (chosen by prince-electors, but often coming from the same dynasty), and the free election of kings of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. For example, Pepin the Short (father of Charlemagne) was elected King of the Franks by an assembly of Frankish leading men; Stanisław August Poniatowski of Poland was an elected king, as was Frederick I of Denmark. Germanic peoples had elective monarchies.
Three elective monarchies exist today. The pope of the Roman Catholic Church (who rules as Sovereign of the Vatican City State) is elected to a life term by the College of Cardinals. In Malaysia, the federal king, called the Yang di-Pertuan Agong ("Paramount Ruler") is elected for a five-year term from and by the hereditary rulers (mostly sultans) of nine of the federation's constitutive states, all on the Malay peninsula. The United Arab Emirates also has a procedure for electing its monarch.
Appointment by the current monarch is another system, used in Jordan. In this system, the monarch chooses the successor, who is always his relative.
Current monarchiesCurrently there are 44 (or 45) nations in the world with a monarch as head of state. They fall roughly into the following categories:
- Commonwealth realms. The sixteen Commonwealth realms (Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) all share Queen Elizabeth II as monarch in a personal union arrangement. They all share a common British inheritance and have evolved out of the British Empire into membership of the Commonwealth of Nations as fully independent states where they retain Queen Elizabeth as head of state; unlike other members of the Commonwealth of Nations which are either dependencies, republics or have a different royal house. All sixteen realms are constitutional monarchies and full democracies where the queen has limited powers or a largely ceremonial role. The queen is head of the established Protestant Christian Church of England in the United Kingdom however, the other monarchies do not have an established church.
- Other European constitutional monarchies. Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden are fully democratic states in which the monarch has a limited or largely ceremonial role. There is generally a Christian religion established as the official church in each of these countries. This is a form of Protestantism in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, while Belgium, Luxembourg, and Andorra are Roman Catholic countries. Spain has no official State religion.
- European Constitutional/Absolute Monarchies Liechtenstein and Monaco are constitutional monarchies in which the Prince retains many powers of an absolute monarch. For example the 2003 Constitution referendum which gives the Prince of Liechtenstein the power to veto any law that the Landtag proposes and the Landtag can veto any law that the Prince tries to pass. The Prince can hire or dismiss any elective member or government employee from his or her post. However what makes him not an absolute monarchy is that the people can call for a referendum to end the monarchy's reign. The Prince of Monaco has simpler powers but can not hire or dismiss any elective member or government employee from his or her post, but he can elect the minister of state, government council and judges. Both Albert II and Hans-Adam II have quite a bit of political power, but they also own huge tracts of land and are shareholders in many companies.
- Islamic monarchies. These Islamic monarchs of Bahrain, Brunei, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates generally retain far more powers than their European or Commonwealth counterparts. Brunei, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia remain absolute monarchies; Bahrain, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates are classified as mixed, meaning there are representative bodies of some kind, but the monarch retains most of his powers. Jordan, Malaysia and Morocco are constitutional monarchies, but their monarchs still retain more substantial powers than European equivalents. Malaysia could also be considered as an East Asian constitutional monarchy (see next).
- East Asian constitutional monarchies. Bhutan, Cambodia, Japan, Thailand have constitutional monarchies where the monarch has a limited or ceremonial role. Bhutan, Japan, and Thailand are countries that were never colonised by European powers, but have changed from traditional absolute monarchies into constitutional ones during the twentieth century. Cambodia had its own monarchy after independence from France, which was deposed after the Khmer Rouge came into power and the subsequent invasion by Vietnam. The monarchy was subsequently restored in the peace agreement of 1993. Shintoism and Mahayana Buddhism are the established religion in Japan, while Bhutan, Cambodia and Thailand are all Theravada Buddhist countries. However, most Japanese people practice Buddhism and Shinto simultaneously.
- Other monarchies. Five monarchies do not fit into one of the above groups by virtue of geography or class of monarchy: Tonga and Samoa in Polynesia; Swaziland and Lesotho in Africa; and the Vatican City in Europe. Of these, Lesotho and Tonga are constitutional monarchies, while Swaziland and Vatican City are absolute monarchies. Samoa falls into neither class, as one of the Four Paramount Chiefs of the country is elected to hold the position of O le Ao o le Malo, or "Chieftain of the Government". This position is not required by the Samoan constitution, which is why Samoa is officially classified as a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. The pope is monarch of Vatican City by virtue of his position as head of the Catholic Church; he is an elected rather than hereditary ruler. | <urn:uuid:763f5070-54c9-4443-a466-681506a8e301> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://vaticannewworldorder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/monarchys-of-world-part-of-politics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123484.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00022-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956796 | 4,971 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Variegated Pink Coprosma Planting Information
Coprosma repens, commonly called mirror bush, is a New Zealand native that reaches heights of up to 8 feet and has several cultivars. The cultivar “Pink Splendor” has the same shiny, green variegated leaves as its predecessors. However, the “Pink Splendor” mirror plant typically grows to about 5 feet tall and its leaves will begin to turn shades of terra cotta and pink during colder months. These stunning hues will add much needed color to your fall and winter garden.
This versatile evergreen thrives in full sun to partial shade in Sunset’s climate zones H1 and 14 through 24. It prefers sandy soil that has good drainage but can tolerate areas with a heavier soil. The mirror bush is salt spray coastal wind-resistant, which makes it a good choice for coastal gardens. This colorful, deer-resistant shrub works well as a screen or hedge and can be pruned to maintain the desired shape.
Before planting the mirror plant in the ground, prepare the soil where it will grow by digging a hole in the ground about twice the size of the root ball, keeping the hole wide but not too deep. Place the soil from the hole to the side and add a 3- to 5-inch layer of organic mulch to it. With the garden shovel, incorporate the mulch into the soil until well mixed. Carefully remove the mirror plant from its plastic container and gently loosen the roots with your fingers. Position the plant in the middle of the hole, spread the roots outward and fill the hole in around the plant with the amended soil. Once the plant is in place, water the soil deeply.
Care and Maintenance
“Pink Splendor” can tolerate temperatures as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit and generally becomes drought-resistant once established. To help protect the shrub during the colder seasons, surround the mirror plant with a 3- to 4-inch layer of mulch that spreads outward several 5 to 6 inches. Furthermore, keep the mulch about 2 to 4 inches away from the base of the plant. During hot summer months, water the mirror bush at least once or twice a week. Adjust the amount of watering to ensure the soil is moist but not soggy. In spring before new growth appears, feed the mirror plant a balanced fertilizer.
Pests and Problems
Mirror plants are generally pest, disease and trouble free. However, certain common garden pests can find their way to the mirror plant. These pests generally will not affect the life of the mirror plant but can cause aesthetic damage to the shrub. Scales, mealy bugs and aphids are the three most common garden pests that will affect shrubs such as the mirror plant. Insecticidal soaps and horticultural oils can help with these pests. However, consider using a more natural pest control such as introducing beneficial insects to the garden that will feed on damaging pests. Ladybugs and lacewings are predator insects that naturally keep problematic insects to a minimum.
Amanda Flanigan began writing professionally in 2007. Flanigan has written for various publications, including WV Living and American Craft Council, and has published several eBooks on craft and garden-related subjects. Flanigan completed two writing courses at Pierpont Community and Technical College. | <urn:uuid:35f7b9ad-8c0c-4c50-875e-0070623bff82> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://homeguides.sfgate.com/variegated-pink-coprosma-planting-information-24513.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323588242.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20211027181907-20211027211907-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.949367 | 682 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Archive for January, 2018
Dental implants have changed the face of modern dentistry. They have been called the “gold standard” of teeth replacement for more reasons than one. More than any other available option, they can mimic the feel, function and look of natural teeth. But how did implants dentistry evolve to become such a superior solution in restorative dentistry? Here’s a closer look at the history of dental implants.
As early as 600 AD, we have records that the Mayan civilization tried to substitute missing teeth. Archeologists have dug up primeval skulls that contained evidence of tooth replacement materials such as wood, stone and even small pieces of seashells. continue reading | <urn:uuid:a8ea397d-2367-4c91-b2b0-3b6d0eaeb6c5> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.dentalimplantsmarietta.com/2018/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256227.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20190521042221-20190521064221-00452.warc.gz | en | 0.95134 | 144 | 2.78125 | 3 |
All experiments and trials should be reproducible! No questions about it. A reader should be able to read your materials and methods section of your report and/or your journal publications and be able to replicate your experiment or trial. Think of this as the recipe for your trial. You can read and follow recipe instructions, as you should also be able to follow the materials and methods section of a trial and replicate it.
But this isn’t always true in publications. There are a number of thoughts as to why this may happen:
- word limitations – should the words be used in the materials and methods, or should we reserve them for our Results and Discussions?
- uncomfortable talking about the statistical analysis – lack of knowledge or too much knowledge?
- lack of confidence – so lets skip it, nobody is going to read it?
Examples – can you replicate the following studies?
Read through the Materials and Methods section of these papers and decide whether you have enough information to replicate the study.
- Mist Blowing versus Other Methods of Foliar Spraying for Hardwood Control (1968)
- Seedling year management of Alfalfa-grass mixtures established without a companion crop (1969)
- Leaf and stem nutritive value of timothy cultivars differing in maturity (1996)
Goals of writing:
Our readers should be able to determine:
- that the analysis fits the objective stated for your experiment or trial
- that your research methodology and data collection processes match the analyses
- that your data management processes ensure data quality
- Objectives clearly stated
- Materials and Methods:
- Identify your target population
- State your treatment effects
- Identify how you selected your experimental units and your sample size
- State your experimental design, be sure to include number of replicates
- Identify your analysis variables:
- Are you using your raw data?
- Are you using derived variables? If so, what are they?
- Are you using transformed variables? If so, how and why were they transformed?
- State your statistical model – don’t be shy about this!
- State your method of analysis – if you say something like “model was produced using stepwise regression” – this is a flag for a statistical reviewer!! Provide your reader with clear directions
- State your p-value
- State the software that was used.
Additional items to consider and add to your description
- If you have several trials, consider combining them rather than reporting several single trials.
- Remember that you must account for your error variances if they are heterogenous.
- If the data was transformed for your statistical analysis, back transform your results for presentation in the publication
- When your Null hypothesis is NOT rejected (in other words, when there are no differences observed), report the observed p-value. As an example p=0.35
- No Significant difference is correct and accepted in publications. Do NOT say the difference was non-significant
- Report means with their standard errors.
Can you replicate the following trial? | <urn:uuid:975fdd53-dfbf-46f2-8af8-d296aa7b0cfa> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://oacstats.blog/2017/11/26/writing-about-your-experimental-design-and-statistical-analysis-for-publications/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178366477.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20210303073439-20210303103439-00132.warc.gz | en | 0.91996 | 635 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Women live longer than men all over the world. The main reason is the lack of timely diagnosis
According to statistics, out of 100 000 Ukrainian men 10 000 do not live to 35 years and 25 000 to 60. Some of them are killed in accidents, alcoholism and suicide, others die due to disease: about 1,000 people from diseases of the cardiovascular system, almost 200 from cancer, about 10 kills tuberculosis, and two – the impact of HIV.
According to the State statistics service for the year 2017, the average life expectancy for men in Ukraine – 62.8 years. For comparison, the average life expectancy of women in our country – 74.8 years.
In Ukraine, men live less than women for almost 12 years. And kill Ukrainians are mostly not heavy and harmful working conditions, and neglect their own health.
These surveys will help men to reduce the risks of early mortality.
One of the major causes of male mortality in Ukraine heart attacks and strokes. They kills almost four times more men than prostate cancer.
The main risk factors are: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, type II diabetes, low fruit and vegetable intake, alcohol and Smoking.
Increases with age risk of high blood pressure, which could without warning lead to dangerous complications, including the occurrence of saccular protrusion of the artery wall (aneurysm) that threatens a possible hemorrhage, and often with a tragic outcome.
The level of cholesterol in the blood
High levels of cholesterol in the blood leads to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques consisting of fat-like substance adhering to the walls of blood vessels. Atherosclerosis is one of the most frequent diseases and causes of death of men for many years may develop asymptomatic, which greatly complicates its diagnosis.
Therefore, since 35 years, men are required every 5 years to take a blood test that determines the level of cholesterol.
The risk of cancer
The most common type of cancer in men is prostate cancer (1 out of 7 men), on second place is colon cancer (1 of 10), followed by lung cancer (1 of 13) and fourth in this terrible list – skin cancer (1 of 14).
One of the most common and aggressive types of cancer. More often diagnosed in men over the age of 65 years.
Recall that orange juice will save men from dementia
As reported Politeka, more common in males: Ukrainians are at risk of losing his life due to dangerous habits
Also Politeka wrote that the child was healthy, the man must be the father to 35 years old | <urn:uuid:f6ddfa72-97d9-4376-a2e7-ea52723e9b0f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://theqtimes.com/men-die-before-women-how-the-ukrainians-extend-the-life-of/3108/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526818.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20190721020230-20190721042230-00509.warc.gz | en | 0.938477 | 539 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Treatment methods for bladder cancer in both genders include several types of surgery, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, according to Mayo Clinic. If removal of the entire bladder is necessary in a male patient, as in cases of invasive bladder cancer, the seminal vesicles and prostate may also be removed.Continue Reading
If the bladder cancer has not yet progressed to the walls of the bladder, a surgeon may remove the tumor via transurethral resection, as stated by Mayo Clinic. The procedure involves inserting a cystoscope and wire loop through the urethra and into the bladder to burn away cancer cells. Another procedure involves removal of a small portion of the bladder. If the cancer has progressed to the bladder wall's deeper layers, removal of the entire bladder may be required. This may cause erectile dysfunction in men due to the loss of the prostate and seminal vesicles, but the doctor is often able to save the nerves associated with having an erection. After this procedure, the doctor must create an alternative path for urine to leave the body.
Immunotherapy, also called biological therapy, involves the use of immune-stimulating bacterium or a synthetic immune system protein to push the immune system to fight cancer cells, as confirmed by Mayo Clinic. Patients may undergo chemotherapy before or after surgery to help kill cancer cells, which may be applied intravenously or through the urethra. Doctors occasionally recommend radiation therapy to kill remaining cancer cells after surgery.Learn more about Cancer | <urn:uuid:5a64b77f-29de-4f87-abd4-51fc6871b61a> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.reference.com/health/male-bladder-cancer-treated-fea6bd3dab421547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647758.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20180322014514-20180322034514-00576.warc.gz | en | 0.941836 | 300 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Handheld BioPen filled with stem cells grows bone and cartilage to heal failing joints
If the pen is mightier than the sword, how does it stack up against a scalpel?
An enterprising Australian biofabrication center known as BioFAB3D seeks to answer that question with a handheld cartilage-printing device they’ve dubbed the BioPen. Filled with bioink made of stem cells derived from a patient’s own fat, the BioPen is designed to create and surgically implant customized 3D scaffolds made of living, growing material into failing joints. Developers say it has the potential to accelerate the regeneration of functional bone and cartilage while improving patient outcomes and reducing procedure times.
BioFAB3D is Australia’s first biofabrication center embedded within a hospital, and is a multidisciplinary effort by engineers, biologists and surgeons at Australia’s University of Wollongong, St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the University of Melbourne. They are currently scaling up their tests of the BioPen following successful preliminary results with sheep. More work is required before it will be ready for human testing, but results have been encouraging enough to suggest that day will come sooner rather than later.
The device incorporates coaxial 3D bioprinting technology into a handheld stylus that enables surgeons to place the bioink layer by layer in a manner akin to pen-on-paper drawing. The ink layers form a 3D scaffold in the damaged bone, enabling the patient’s reproducing cells to rapidly strengthen the structure for a lasting repair, the researchers said. The ink itself comprises the patient’s stem cells along with specially selected growth factors within a biopolymer matrix. This layer is combined with a protective hydrogel outer layer in the print head to form the finished ink. As it’s dispensed, the ink is solidified by low-level UV radiation from the pen’s embedded source. According to the researchers, the undifferentiated stem cells within the finished structure are capable of evolving into nerve, bone or muscle cells that eventually develop natural functionality.
Other groups are pursuing similar breakthroughs. For example, a team at the University of Arizona recently received a five-year, $2-million Department of Defense grant supporting the development of 3D printed repairs for bone fractures. Led by John A. Szivek, a professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics, the research team is focused on fixing very large bone fractures – the kind that are not likely to heal on their own. Their repair technology involves placing customized frames to fill the void created by missing bone fragments, then adding a 3D printed scaffolding made of calcium and adult stem cells. The goal is to provide a structure where the natural bone can grow back. The researchers are also hoping their stem-cell-based approach will yield scaffolding that grows with exercise, like real bones do, to help speed up the healing process.
In Australia, BioFab3D researchers opened their facility last year for an open performance of a loosely adapted revival of R.U.R., the 1920 drama by Czech playwright Karl Capek that coined the term “robot.” The idea behind the performance was to raise awareness of some of the prickly ethical issues of modern bioengineering technologies. Some critics felt the production bordered on “info dumping” without effectively communicating the sense of realism that might go into its real-world setting. But the group gets credit for opening dialogue as the BioPen shows early promise in filling the void between the respective curative capabilities of nature and current surgical knowhow.
The world of 3D bioprinting is moving rapidly but is still in the first act, with plenty of drama to come.
Michael MacRae is an independent writer based in Oregon.
Read More from AABME: Organ-on-a-Chip Gives Insight into Chrohn's and Other Diseases | <urn:uuid:9caf6897-9d1a-4a82-a78e-8f45ef021385> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://aabme.asme.org/posts/3d-bioprinting-grows-bone-cartilage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703522133.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20210120213234-20210121003234-00133.warc.gz | en | 0.940485 | 817 | 2.859375 | 3 |
7 Iconic Irish Poets You Should Know
From the 20th-century work of W.B. Yeats to emerging voices like Alice Kinsella, there are a number of Irish poets who bring a rich history of contributions to verse in the English language. If you’re looking to learn more about Irish poetry and history, don’t miss these seven iconic Irish poets.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
A leading spokesman for the aesthetic movement, the iconic Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde firmly believed that style was of the utmost importance. Among his longest enduring poems is “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which tells of Wilde’s experience in prison, where he witnessed the sentence and execution of a fellow inmate. His rich and witty body of work criticizes many social and political issues of his time, such as the brutal and horrific prison system and the criminalization of homosexuality.
Katharine Tynan (1859–1931)
A cornerstone of the Irish Literary Revival, poet, novelist, and playwright Katharine Tynan wrote expressively about nationalism, catholicism, feminism, poverty, and the effects of World War I. In addition to more than 100 novels, 12 short story collections, and several plays, Tynan completed just over a dozen books of poetry in her lifetime.
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
A prominent figure of 20th-century literature, W.B. Yeats is one of Ireland’s greatest writers. As a poet, Yeats is known for his traditional, timeless style and strong symbolism, despite the many free verse modernists of his era. While his early work was inspired by Irish myth and folklore, he later took on more contemporary issues with his writing. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in LIterature.
James Joyce (1882–1941)
One of Ireland’s most celebrated writers, James Joyce was a major contributor to the modernist avant-garde movement. While he is best known for authoring Ulysses, Joyce published a number of poetry books during his career. He wrote with a sense of humor and imagist quality that poet Ezra Pound championed regularly.
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013)
Poet, playwright, and translator Seamus Heaney has been called “the most important Irish poet since Yeats” and is arguably one of the best-known poets in the world. Heany earned the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His work is known for its vivid and lyrical renderings of Irish history and settings, as well as its unpredictable rhythm and rhyme. With universal themes, ethical depth, and unparalleled clarity, Heaney was able to achieve literary acclaim and widespread popularity.
Eavan Boland (1944–2020)
One of the foremost female voices in Irish literature, Eavan Boland brought Irish national identity and the role of women in Irish history to the center of her work. Boland is best known for her honest accounts of the female experience, exploring difficult topics such as domestic violence, infanticide, and cancer, as well as more broad themes like domestic life, love, history, and the Irish rural landscape.
Alice Kinsella (b. 1993)
Dublin-born poet Alice Kinsella has achieved national and international acclaim in her quickly blossoming career. In addition to earning residences from SICCDA Liberties Festival, the John Hewitt International Summer School, and Cill Rialaig Aritsts’ Residency, her work has been translated into Polish, Arabic, and Greek. Kinsella has even scored a stamp of approval from Eavan Boland with her 2018 poetry pamphlet Flower Press. “The poems included here are spirited disclosures, ready to come to the threshold of the surreal but also intimate and present in language… The speaker, as in the poems in Flower Press, insists on a charged private space, with every intent of persuading the reader to join her there,” said Boland. | <urn:uuid:ae75088c-b739-4a35-8266-bb6fa2ebddee> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.readpoetry.com/irish-poets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572286.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816090541-20220816120541-00204.warc.gz | en | 0.973276 | 843 | 3.65625 | 4 |
By: Maitreya Buddha
The political system works against minorities in Pakistan, dovetailing wealth, power, and sectarianism. While Pakistan’s Hindus feel the effects keenly, the elites have adjusted to the political apparatus rather than challenging it.
Over 50 Hindu families migrate to India every month. According to Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the founder of the Karachi-based Pakistan Hindu Council, this is due to the failure of the Pakistani government to find a solution to the acute sense of discontentment among Hindus arising, in part, from increasing incidence of forced conversion, particularly in Sindh province in southern Pakistan. …
Read more » Open Democracy | <urn:uuid:26bb16a6-c024-49bc-8c0d-e4ae65490d5e> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://iaoj.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/pakistans-disappearing-hindus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794867995.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20180527024953-20180527044953-00291.warc.gz | en | 0.928182 | 137 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Sadlier's BackgroundSadlier had an extremely long and prolific literary career that lasted from the age of eighteen to eighty. Relatively little is know about the personal details of her life, as she never wrote an autobiography and left no collection of letters, although letters written to her by her friend Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Irish-Canadian poet and statesman, have been preserved in the Public Archives of Canada (Lacombe, Frying Pans and Deadlier Weapons, 15). The few extant biographical sketches are often contradictory and always spare. It is possible to piece together a basic outline of her life from various records, as well as her public writings, but her private thoughts will most likely remain a mystery.
Sadlier's YouthSadlier was born in Cootehill, County Cavan, in the Irish midlands, on December 31, 1820, the daughter of Francis Madden, a "man of refinement and literary tastes, and a highly respected merchant" (Kelly, 1) who could afford to have his daughter privately tutored (Lacomb, Dictionary, 293). Sadlier's mother, who died while her daughter was a child, "shared her husband's love for poetry and the legendary lore of their native land" (Kelly, 1). Little is known of Sadlier's childhood, or whether she had any brothers or sisters. Francis Madden encouraged his daughter's literary pursuits, and she published her first poems at the age of eighteen in a "genteel" London magazine, La Belle Assemblˇˇ (Anna Sadlier, 31). Francis Madden suffered a series of financial setbacks, and died in 1844 when Sadlier was 23 (Fanning, 13). More than one biographer suggests that "business embarrassments and financial troubles hastened Mr. Madden's death" (Kelly, 1).
Left impoverished and without any other family, Sadlier left Ireland in
1844 and emigrated to Montreal (Kelly, 1). She supported herself for two years, at least in part, by publishing for the Canadian journal The Literary Garland, although scholar Colleen MacDannell has speculated that
Sadlier also might have worked as a domestic servant. Publication records
suggest Sadlier contributed poems, short articles and sketches to the Garland on a monthly basis, eventually writing longer pieces serialized over a period of six months in early 1847. Sadlier soon found a larger audience for her work in the three million Catholics of the United States: in addition to the Garland, Sadlier published stories in such Catholic newspapers as the New York Freeman's Journal, McGee's New York-based American Celt and the Boston Pilot, the largest Catholic periodical in North America (Anna Sadlier, 331). Sadlier began to write survival guides for immigrants only six years after arriving in the New World herself. Her own disillusionment most likely played a part in the pessimism and anxiety that fills her novels. In one of her early poems, "The Village Bell," Sadlier writes an elegy for her lost homeland: "I hear thee now when time has damp'd/ The hopes of earlier youth,/ And cold experience shown the world/ In all its chilling
truth" (Lacombe, 98).
Sadlier's Early NovelsSadlier published her first book, Tales of the Olden Time: A Collection of European Traditions, serially in the True Witness, later publishing it by subscription in 1845 (Lacombe, Dictionary, 292). Sadlier's preface insists that she wrote Tales of the Olden Time because of financial need. "Had it been my fate to belong to that fortunate class which is happily exempt from the necessity of working, I should, in all probability, never have presented myself before you" (Lacombe, "Frying Pans," 99). Sadlier is thus in good company with Susan Warner, Fanny Fern and most of the American women novelists of the nineteenth-century, who began writing largely out of financial needs. As the panic of 1837 prompted women authors such as Susan Warner to write her best seller The Wide, Wide World, Irish economic depression in the 1840s, and most forcibly the Famine of 1845-1850, led many Irish women to emigrate to America to seek their fortunes (Tompkins, 589; Warren, xiv; Baym, 35).
At some point after she settled in Canada, the young writer met James
Sadlier, junior partner and Montreal branch manager of the New York Catholic publishing house D. & J. Sadlier & Company. The couple married in 1846. The Sadliers appear to have had a profound impact on each other's literary careers. Mary Anne Sadlier was both a contributor and editor for her husband's magazine and many books; James published, promoted and advised her on most of her books after their marriage. James frequently gave his wife advice on the reading habits of the Irish Catholic market, using his "wise counsel, keen business instincts and truly Catholic spirit," most likely focusing her novels on themes that would sell (Kelly, 1). Anna Sadlier, who became an author in her own right, notes that her mother "usually consulted with her husband as to the nature and scope of the story, and his practical business instincts, combined with the unerring judgment which led many to call 'the ideal publisher,' were of immense help" (Anna Sadlier, 335). The younger Sadlier may here simply be inflating her father's influence in order to conform with patriarchal marriage roles that demand the husband make all family decisions. It does appear, however, that Sadlier was responsive to her readers' demands; she changed the ending of Alice Riordan; the Blind Man's Daughter (1851) while preparing it for publication as a book, and gave her heroine a traditional happy ending -- marriage -- in addition to the good end Sadlier had planned -- spiritual salvation -- in response to reader requests (Lacombe, "Frying Pans", 107). In this light, it does appear likely that Mary Anne Sadlier adapted her writing to popular taste in order to increase sales.
Domesticity and the Woman Writer
Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sadlier combined motherhood with a busy writing career (Lacombe, "Frying Pans," 100-101). Sadlier's phenomenal productivity indicates she must have been working full-time. Sadlier and her family lived in Montreal for fourteen years, during which time she bore six children -- three boys, three girls and one foster son -- including Anna Teresa in
1854. Two of her sons later died young (James, 219). It should come as no
surprise that Sadlier the working mother did most of her writing at home in her own library, and wrote most of her work as she went along, "chapter by chapter, often when an emissary from a too-exacting printer was waiting in the hall" (Anna Sadlier, 334-5). Indeed, Sadlier's literary pursuits, copious as they
are, did occasionally take a backseat to her family's needs. "That Sadlier wrote
her serial novels to weekly deadlines in the manner of Charles Dickens is clear from a note in the Tablet of April 1, 1865, temporarily suspending publication of this one, due to the 'dangerous and protracted illness of one of the author's children" (Fanning, 116).
Sadlier's lifestyle and her writing, like that of Stowe and most other
female domestic novelists, were in stark opposition. Although Sadlier preached that women should stay home and tend to their families, she produced sixty books, edited a weekly newspaper, ran a business and was far more famous than her husband. In The Blakes and Flanagans, Eliza Blake is depicted as vain and foolish for learning French rather than acquiring domestic
skills such as sewing; yet Sadlier not only read French fluently, she also translated at least sixteen French novels and religious works. Sadlier depicts Sister Mary-Teresa as the ideal woman, one who lives in retirement and selflessly devotes her talents to God and the benefit of others. The school teacher Sister Mary-Teresa was:
"a woman of excellent understanding,
with a strong and vigorous mind, well fitted to grapple with
the most abstruse subjects, if such had been her taste . . .
Had she been a Protestant, she would have been
"a strong-minded woman," beyond all doubt; she might have
taken the lead at public meetings, edited a daily newspaper
in some of our great cities, delivered public lectures,
and written huge volumes on metaphysics or philosophy.
But being a Catholic . . . her mind was early imbued with
the old-fashioned Catholic notions regarding feminine modesty
and Christian humility. . . . her talents were hidden
in "the bosom of her God," and devoted to him in the service of his creatures."
--- Blakes and Flanagans, 106-7
Sadlier was often described in precisely the terms she used to evoke the true Catholic woman.
"She was not a literary woman in the sense in which that
term would now be applied. She did not follow writing
as a career; she lived in as much as in retirement
as circumstances permitted. Her instincts
were purely domestic, and in those early days, it was
the exception for women to devote themselves to
anything outside the home circle."
(Anna Sadlier, 331)
Anna Sadlier's justification of her mother's career, or non-career as she describes it -- in spite of the fact that Sadlier single-handedly ran her husband's publishing house for ten years after his death -- reads as if Sadlier's public life was in need of defending. Indeed, Sadlier's male editors were not naturally inclined to hire a woman. The male writer of a biographical sketch touches on the difficulty women faced in gaining respect for their work when he discusses the editor of the Quarterly: "The late Dr. [Orestes] Brownson was always a great admirer of Willie Burke, and readers of Brownson's own writings do not need to be told it was no easy accomplishment for a woman to win his praises as a story-teller" (Kelly, 324). Women such as Stowe and Sadlier may have had to negotiate patriarchal conventions in this manner in order to take the unconventional roles they did. As productive as Sadlier was, all of her writing was anchored about the most traditional and conservative of roles
for women -- religion, family, children, education, and patriotism.
Sadlier's writing suggests that she was aware of these issues and
grappled with them herself. In her preface to Tales of the Olden Time, written in 1845 before she was married and while she was supporting herself, confronts the position of the woman writer directly:
"Authorship is a perilous craft . . . seeing that there
are so many master to be pleased. It is foreign to a
woman's nature, moreover, to 'move in the uncongenial
glare of public fame' -- hers are, or should be,
the quiet shades of retirement, and woe to her who
steps beyond their boundary, with the hope -- of
finding happiness. A fair young Poetess, who only
appeared in the hemisphere of Literature, to vanish
forever from our sight, has sweetly and truly sung,
'Yet, genius, yet -- thou art a fearful thing --
Madness -- a broken heart -- an early grave --These are
thy portions." (Tales of the Olden Times, preface).
Sadlier ends the preface to Tales of the Olden Time with a quotation that underscores her anxiety, or at least mixed feelings: "And there is as much wisdom as melancholy beauty in the well-known wish of a distinguished writer, 'May my sons be talented -- and my daughters happy!' Alas! that the distinction should be so just" (Tales of the Olden Times, preface). Sadlier here appears to agree with Ruth Hall's advice to her daughter: "No happy woman ever writes." Six years later, in Alice Riordan, Sadlier again takes up the question of woman's proper public and private roles. In the "Epigraph" for that novel, however, Sadlier sounds as if she is reconciled to a domestic role and takes pride in it, in contrast to the anxiety of the earlier preface. "Warriors and statesmen have their meed of praise,/ And what they suffer men record;/ But the long sacrifice of a woman's days/ Passes without a thought, without a word" (Sadlier, Alice Riordan). Although Sadlier describes many working Irish woman -- domestic servants, wash women, sweatshop workers -- she never mentions a married woman who works outside the home.
Sadlier experienced her most productive literary period after her
marriage and was most creative after about the time all of her children were born. While living in Canada, Sadlier published eighteen books -- five novels, one collection of short stories, a religious catechism and nine translations from the French -- in addition to assorted magazine articles she contributed to the
Pilot and American Celt free of charge. After moving to New York in 1860, she produced 26 books, including 14 novels, within nine years. Sadlier apparently donated her articles out of sympathy with the nationalistic causes of Irish journals. In addition to the novels already discussed, during her stay in Montreal Sadlier also wrote two novels set in Ireland: Alice Riordan; the Blind Man's Daughter (1851) and New Lights; or, Life in Galway (1853). In New Lights, Sadlier deals with the Famine for the first time. The book proved one of her most popular, going through at least eight editions in fifty years. In this novel, Sadlier focuses a polemical attack on the Protestant practice of converting Irish peasants by promising them soup, but condemns peasant retaliation and violence (Fanning, 116).
The Sadlier's New York home became the hub of literary activity in the
Catholic community, and Sadlier also enjoyed the company of the brightest Irish writers in the United States and Canada, including New York Archbishop John Hughes, editor Orestes Brownson and McGee. She held weekly salons in her Manhattan home, as well as her summer home on Far Rockaway on Long Island (James, 219). Her closest friend was McGee, a poet, Irish nationalist
exile and Canadian statesman known as one of the founding "Fathers of
Confederation" who helped bring about Canada's independence. McGee and Sadlier shared an interest in a "national poetry" that would not only capture the spirit of a people, but inspire them to political and national independence. While McGee, as a man, could take part in political rallies and organize Irish-
American support for Home Rule, Sadlier, as a woman, directed her support for
Irish independence into literature. McGee's associates in "Young Ireland" included Samuel Ferguson, who in the words of one critic "become a link with the Irish Literary Revival of Yeats's generation" and were the founders of the Dublin newspaper the Nation" (Klinck, 169-170). McGee's biographer
notes that Sadlier's success inspired him to write emigrant novels, and was planning a novel on this subject at the time of his death (Phelan, 285). McGee's controversial politics that cost him his life, when an Irish-American radical who opposed McGee's shift to the right assassinated him in 1868. McGee, who
sorely missed the Sadlier family after their move to New York in 1860, had been
planning a visit when he was shot. His death was "a crushing blow to Mrs. Sadlier and her husband, who were his enthusiastic friends" (Anna Sadlier, 332). Sadlier edited a collection of McGee's poetry in 1869 in tribute to his memory.
McGee's death in 1868 was the first of two devastating losses; Sadlier
also lost her husband James in 1869. D. & J. Sadlier began to decline during the 1870s. An index of D. & J. Sadlier's success was its publication from 1864 to 1896 of Sadlier's Catholic Directory, Almanac and Ordo, a listing of all the Catholic parishes in the nation, the privilege of printing accrued to the most powerful publisher. Rival directories began appearing in 1886 as the company's influence wanted. James's death in 1869 prompted Mary Anne to assume a more active role in running the company. Denis was able to carry on the business, and emerged from the Panic of 1873 unscathed (Adams, 283). Financial troubles brought on by increased competition and unfortunate real estate speculations began to plague the firm in 1879, however, and the company was never able to fully regain its stride (Healey, 39). In 1881, Denis Sadlier was forced to close down the Tablet to ease his burden of debt (Lacombe, "Frying Pans", 103). Mary Anne Sadlier was forced to run the
company alone after Denis's death in 1885, managing to direct the firm from
Montreal for ten years until she lost control of the business to William Sadlier, Denis's son.
D. & J. Sadlier was then "swallowed up" by P.J. Kenedy, who bought out the copyrights, and proceeded to reprint all of Mary Anne's best-selling work. A new tide of Irish immigration in the 1880s made Sadlier's 30-
year-old stories marketable once again -- although Sadlier herself reaped few
of the profits. Even P.J. Kenedy's official history of the period credits Mary Anne for her valiant efforts. "Henceforth, all the tireless Mrs. Sadlier's own work appeared under the Kenedy label. The original Sadlier firm survived on a very subdued scale until 1912, when the remaining assets were sold to P.J.
Kenedy and Sons" (Healey, 39).
Sadlier's literary output declined steeply after James' death in 1869; she
wrote no novels after 1870. In addition to the emotional loss of losing McGee and her husband within a year of each other, James's death meant increased business responsibilities. With the exception of one historical novel and a collection a short stories, most of Sadlier's writing consisted of readers for
Catholic school children, a few one-act plays and translations. During the
1870s, she devoted much of her spare time to public works, in effect creating the kind of Catholic charitable institutions whose lack she had lamented in novels such as Willy Burke and Aunt Honor's Keepsake. In these novels, Sadlier had "exposed" the practices of American Protestant relief agencies, which aided the poor but insisted on their conversion. To provide Catholic alternatives, Sadlier founded the Home for Friendless Girls, the Foundling Asylum and the Home for the Aged. After Denis's death in 1885, she moved back to Montreal to be closer to her adult children, particularly Anna, with whom she collaborated on Stories of the Promises (1895). The tragic death of Sadlier's son Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, in Rome in 1885 prompted
her to write Purgatory: Doctrinal, Historical and Poetical the following year (Lacombe, Dictionary 294).
Sadlier, once something of an affluent New York society matron, was reduced to financial straits in 1895, toward the end of her life, when she lost control of D. & J. Sadlier to her nephew William and control of her copyrighted material -- a lifetime of work -- to other publishers. Once again, Sadlier was forced to turn to writing as a source of income, fifty years after emigrating to North America. "It must have been with no slight pang of disappointment that she left the home on Sherbrooke Street [Montreal], where for so many years she had tasted with her children an unruffled peace and received so many distinguished guests, to seek a residence in lesser quarters" (Lacombe, "Frying Pans," 104). Concerned friends in Montreal responded to her plight by creating the "Sadlier Testimonial Fund," raising $1300 which, as "the times were not propitious," Sadlier accepted. Friends also recommended her for several awards, so that the last years of her life gave Sadlier some recognition for her work. In 1895, Notre Dame University awarded her the Laetare Medal for literature. In 1902, the year before she died, Sadlier received a "special blessing" from Pope Leo XIII in recognition of her "illustrious service to the Catholic Church" (Lacombe, Frying Pans 105). Sadlier died in 1903 at the age of 82. With the exception of a few Catholic and Canadian histories -- she and work were forgotten after her death. | <urn:uuid:8cbe4742-f18c-4704-bb5b-fda2953f53e8> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/SADLIER/Biograph.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463165.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00123-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975027 | 4,350 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Castletown Kilpatrick church, also known simply as St Patricks, is a Church of Ireland ‘Board of First Fruits’ church built in 1823 under the direction of the bishop of Meath Thomas Lewis O’Beirne. The Board of First Fruits was a body set up to renovate old disused churches and construct new churches, glebe houses and schoolhouses, in the first quarter of the 19th century almost 700 churches were built with the aid of these grants. The Church stands on the site of an earlier medieval church that is mentioned as early as 1306 in the ecclesiastical records of Pope Nicholas IV. The church fell into ruin by 1641 and is depicted in the Down Survey of 1656-58 as being a roofless ruin. Many parts of the earlier structure were incorporated into the First Fruits designed church. The church’s declining number of worshippers led to it closing for services during the mid 1960s, it has since then rapidly fallen into decay.
The ruin as it stands today is unusual as the walled pathway that leads to its entrance is below the level of the graveyard. I visit many such places and by and large I feel nothing unusual or untoward but I must say St Patrick’s C of I was one place that certainly had a palpable ominous feeling that I wasn’t feel welcome there, and there was a sense of disorientation. Perhaps it was the late evening light disappearing quickly as I took the photos, or the noise of the crows endlessly caw-cawing in the surrounding trees but I have read many other people’s reports on visiting the site and they seem to echo the same opinion as I do. Perhaps any readers who have visited this church would care to share their feelings in the comments.
Lastly there is a well nearby the church known as St Patrick’s from which the church gets its name. It was believed that St Patrick stopped at this well on his way to Slane and knelt on a stone nearby and prayed, the tracks of his hands and knees apparently ‘still to be seen’ as stated by a contributor to the Duchas Schools Collection of 1938.
GPS: 53.78673, -6.71453 | <urn:uuid:009b0d61-7e80-4880-8890-ab3a14b452da> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://visionsofthepastblog.com/2018/10/20/castletown-kilpatrick-church-meath-ireland/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657151761.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20200714212401-20200715002401-00182.warc.gz | en | 0.989095 | 464 | 2.5625 | 3 |
It compares the genetic material of a patientâEUR(TM)s tumor with genetic information on malignant tumor types stored in a database. It uses a microarray technology to analyze thousands of pieces of genetic material at one time. "With the help of microarray technology, [scientists] will be able to classify these types of cancers in a standardized non-reader dependent manner based on the patterns of gene activity in the tumor cells," said CDRH director Daniel Schultz. The test's software converts the scanned image data to gene expression measurements. The gene expression patterns are compared with known gene expression patterns in the database that correspond to different tumor types. And that knowledge can help clinicians determine the best course of treatment. The test is made by Pathwork Diagnostics. It uses a gene expression array made by Affymetrix Inc. | <urn:uuid:57d2c911-c753-49f7-82b9-8f0c20d17ca4> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.mddionline.com/regulatory-quality/fda-clears-test-ids-types-tumors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488273983.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20210621120456-20210621150456-00458.warc.gz | en | 0.896108 | 168 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Timothy H. Heaton
Department of Earth Sciences
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD 57069
Robert J. Emry
Department of Paleobiology
Washington, DC 20560
In the past, the taxonomy of the leptomerycids has been confused by the enormous variation in the ridge configuration of the lower premolars, especially P3. Our statistical study of large samples demonstrates that these are merely individual variations within all species of Leptomeryx and therefore have little taxonomic value. Individual specimens cannot be identified based on premolar morphology, but, using statistical samples, the proportion of different character states can help in establishing ancestor/descendent relationships.
Because Leptomeryx is a hornless artiodactyl, only the teeth have been used to distinguish species. Dentaries are the most common elements recovered, and many of these show signs of scavenging. Complete dentaries include four incisiform teeth (I1-3 and C1), a peg-like first premolar (P1) within the diastema, three anteroposteriorly elongate premolars (P2-4), and three selenodont molars (M1-3). Most commonly the anterior part with incisors is missing, and the preserved part contains P2-M3 (Figure 1b). Less commonly the P2 is also preserved (Figure 1d). The lower cheek teeth form the basis of most studies. Upper dentitions are less common and include three elongate premolars and three molars.
The sporadic distribution of fossil deposits makes environmental and evolutionary reconstruction difficult because geographic and chronologic variations cannot always be distinguished and because important transitions are not always recorded (see Heaton, this volume). This problem is exacerbated for the Chadronian-Orellan transition because the most fossiliferous Chadronian deposits are located in isolated basins of the Rocky Mountains while the most productive Orellan localities occur in the more climatically uniform Great Plains. Fortunately, Leptomeryx material from central and eastern Wyoming spans the late Duchesnean through early Orellan, and the species found there occur in deposits of similar age throughout the region.
During its existence Leptomeryx underwent several important morphological transformations that were interspersed with periods of stasis. The timing and nature of these transformations is the subject of this paper. The evolutionary history of Leptomeryx, as we believe it can best be reconstructed, is discussed in three parts. In chronological order they are: 1) the development of Leptomeryx from Hendryomeryx in the late Duchesnean or earliest Chadronian; 2) the apparent cladogenesis of L. yoderi into L. speciosus and L. mammifer in the early to middle Chadronian; and 3) the development of L. evansi from L. speciosus during the late Chadronian to early Orellan. The later history of leptomerycids is described by Taylor and Webb (1976).
|AMNH||American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York|
|CM||Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|
|MCZ||Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts|
|MPUM||University of Montana Museum of Paleontology, Missoula, Montana|
|NMC||National Museums of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario|
|PTM||Pioneer Trails Museum, Bowman, North Dakota|
|ROM||Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario|
|SDSM||South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota|
|SMNH||Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Regina, Saskatchewan|
|USNM||U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.|
We have not studied the earliest specimens of Leptomeryx (e.g. Hendryomeryx) in detail, and they are less relevant to this volume than the later forms. All are small in size. Most of the material is incomplete and difficult to evaluate, especially when one considers the enormous amount of individual variation found in later species. We will therefore limit our coverage of the earliest specimens to a review of the literature, a report of new material, and some comments on taxonomy.
Wilson (1974) described a new species, Leptomeryx defordi, based on what was then the earliest known leptomerycid material, from the Porvenir local fauna of Trans-Pecos Texas. He described it as a primitive species, "upper molars with incomplete selenes," and "in lower molars the metaconid is a distinct cusp but joined to the posterior internal crest by a ridge at right angles to the tooth."
Black (1978) reported even earlier leptomerycid dentitions from Badwater Creek in central Wyoming and chose to give them, as well as the Porvenir material and two specimens from McCarty's Mountain, Montana, the name Hendryomeryx. According to Black "Hendryomeryx is less advanced than the Oligocene Leptomeryx of the plains and intermontane regions in having lower crowned, less selenodont molars, and a weak metaconid-entoconid lophid." Black gave his Badwater Creek material the specific name H. wilsoni.
Storer (1981), in his review of leptomerycids from the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, assigned Cope's (1889) small species Leptomeryx esulcatus to Hendryomeryx and gave the genus a fuller description. Storer described the molars of Hendryomeryx, in addition to being lower crowned, as "much shallower-patterned than in Leptomeryx, with the bottoms of the fossettes and fossettids easily visible; in Leptomeryx, valley walls are much steeper, and valley bottoms are not easily visible except in very worn specimens." Tooth length measurements for the three species assigned by Storer (1981) to Hendryomeryx are reported in Table 1. Hendryomeryx esulcatus occurs with a middle Chadronian fauna, and Storer indicated that its teeth were higher crowned than in H. wilsoni. The inclusion of L. esulcatus in Hendryomeryx would extend this genus into the middle Chadronian when more derived species were also present.
We consider Black's (1978) decision to separate Hendryomeryx from Leptomeryx to be unfortunate because the differences between the species assigned to this genus and the Chadronian species retained in Leptomeryx are hardly worthy of generic distinction. Leptomeryx evansi of the Orellan is more distinct from the Chadronian leptomerycids than any of the Chadronian and Duchesnean species are from one another, and even these differences are only of specific value. On the whole, the species of Leptomeryx exhibit remarkable uniformity, so there is no utility in dividing the genus.
Undescribed material from several Duchesnean and early Chadronian localities will need to be considered when unraveling early Leptomeryx evolution. Black (1978) reported that "in the McCarty's Mountain fauna in Montana an undescribed species of Hendryomeryx appears to be present (CM 1057 and 31397) together with a species of Leptomeryx," though Storer (1984) considered both of these to represent Leptomeryx. The West Canyon Creek fauna of late Duchesnean or early Chadronian age in central Wyoming (under study by Emry) includes several Leptomeryx specimens, possibly of L. (H.) wilsoni. Tooth lengths for the West Canyon Creek sample are listed in Table 2. A new sample has also been found in the Medicine Pole Hills of North Dakota (discussed below).
Because late Duchesnean and early Chadronian faunas are few in number and do not contain abundant leptomerycid material, tracing the origin and early development of Leptomeryx is a difficult task. All we know at present is that the transition to a later grade involved an increase in crown height and a deepening of valleys in the molars (Storer, 1981).
As noted by Emry (1970, 1973), there are several species of Leptomeryx at Flagstaff Rim, and at least one lineage clearly represents an evolutionary transition from one species to another. Figures 2 through 4 are bivariate plots of Leptomeryx showing the size of specimens from different stratigraphic levels. The size is based on length of the cheek tooth series (P2-M3) in Figure 2, length of the molars (M1-3) in Figure 3, and length of M2 (the most abundantly represented tooth) in Figure 4. Figure 5 is a similar plot using M2 length for Leptomeryx from the Ledge Creek locality, 11 miles SSE of Flagstaff Rim. In each plot a unimodal size distribution is found at the lowest level while a bimodal distribution, which includes a larger species, is found throughout the upper part of the section. Levels in between exhibit an intermediate amount of size variation.
At Flagstaff Rim the single tooth measurement (Figure 4) provides the largest sample size, while the full cheek tooth row measurement (Figure 2) provides the cleanest separation between two coexisting species in the upper part of the section. The length of the molars (Figure 3) makes a good compromise and is used in a series of size histograms in Figure 6. Because the two species from the upper portion of the Flagstaff Rim section are in stasis (or become only slightly larger up section), they are grouped into a single histogram (Figure 6d). Specimens from the lower part of the section are concentrated in three quarries that exhibit different size distribution patterns, so they are shown (together with specimens from nearby stratigraphic levels) in three separate histograms (Figure 6a-c). We will refer to these samples as Quarry A ("Low Pocket"; oldest), Quarry B ("Dry Hole Pocket"; middle), and Quarry C ("B-44 Pocket"; youngest).
Of the three quarries, Quarry A has the largest sample size, shows the greatest morphologic uniformity, and comes closest to exhibiting a normal size distribution (Figure 6a). Emry (1973) referred this population to Leptomeryx yoderi because of its similarity in morphology and age to the type specimen from the Yoder local fauna, located 125 miles ESE of Flagstaff Rim. Leptomeryx yoderi was described by Schlaikjer (1935), and more material from the type locality was referred to this species by Kihm (1987). Statistical data on the Quarry A sample and on L. yoderi from the Yoder local fauna are presented in Table 3.
The upper portion of the Flagstaff Rim section exhibits a distinctly bimodal size distribution that is best interpreted as representing two species. Similar bimodal size distributions are found in samples of equivalent age from Ledge Creek, Wyoming (Figure 5); Pipestone Springs, Montana (Matthew, 1903; Tabrum and Fields, 1980); and Calf Creek in the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan (Storer, 1981). Emry (1973) considered the smaller of the two species from Flagstaff Rim to be the same as the smaller species from Pipestone Springs, which Matthew (1903) had provisionally referred to Leptomeryx esulcatus. However, Storer (1981) instead assigned this material to L. speciosus, a species originally described from the Cypress Hills by Lambe (1908), and this name is used here (see Emry et al., 1987). Statistical data on this sample and on similar samples from Ledge Creek and Pipestone Springs are shown in Table 4.
Emry (1973) referred the larger of the two species from the upper part of the Flagstaff Rim section to Leptomeryx mammifer because of its similarity to the sample of similar size from Pipestone Springs, which Matthew (1903) referred to that species. The type specimen of L. mammifer was described by Cope (1885) from the Cypress Hills, but it is very fragmentary and may not be diagnostic of this species (Storer, 1981). We have not examined the type but will use the name L. mammifer until this taxonomic problem is resolved. Table 5 presents statistics for this larger species from Flagstaff Rim, Ledge Creek, and Pipestone Springs.
The samples from Quarries B and C (Figures 6b-c) are more difficult to interpret because of their skewed size distributions, but they seem to exhibit intermediacy between the Quarry A sample and the sample from the upper part of the Flagstaff Rim section. Emry (1973) suggested that Leptomeryx from Flagstaff Rim represents two coexisting lineages, both of which underwent anagenetic increases in size. In particular, he considered L. mammifer to be a descendant of L. yoderi. Even more significantly, this sequence of four chronologically distinct samples may represent a case of sympatric speciation, and this is the reason for our unusually detailed analysis.
Six subjective measurements were made on P2, with corresponding measurements on P3. The first five refer to the configuration of one or more ridges that extend posteriorly from the protoconid (discussed below). The sixth measurement is the size of the cingulum on the posterolingual corner of the tooth. Eight additional measurements were made on P3. The first refers to a forking at the tip of the ridge extending anteriorly from the paraconid. The others refer to five accessory ridges and two accessory cusps found on some specimens. Twelve subjective measurements were made on P4: the anterior fork (as in P3), five accessory ridges, five accessory cusps, and an anterolingual cingulum (Table 6, Table 7c).
Three subjective measurements were made on M1 and M2: 1) development of the "Paleomeryx fold," which extends posteriorly off the protoconid to meet the anterior extension of the hypoconid; 2) presence of an accessory cusp (referred to as a "buccal column" by Storer, 1981) in the valley between the protoconid and hypoconid on the labial margin of the tooth; and 3) presence of an accessory cusp or transverse ridge at the posterior end of the tooth. M3 has a posterolophid behind the two selenes. Six subjective measurements were made on this tooth, two of which are development of the "Paleomeryx fold" and presence of the labial accessory cusp as in M1 and M2. The third is the presence of an additional labial accessory cusp that is sometimes found in the valley between the hypoconid and the hypoconulid (Figure 7c). The final three subjective measurements relate to the shape of the entoconulid and the valley posterior to it on the lingual side of the posterolophid (discussed below).
Dentaries from Flagstaff Rim (Chadronian) and Douglas (Orellan) were studied extensively prior to the selection of measurements in order to include all possible variations. Very few variants were found that could not be measured with this set of objective and subjective measurements. All measurements of accessory cusps, ridges, folds, cingula, and forks were scored with an integer from zero (feature absent) to five (feature exceptionally large or well-developed), though some did not exhibit this entire range of variation (Table 6). The only subjective measurements with a different scoring system are the position of the primary ridge behind the protoconid on P2 and P3, the last three measurements on M3, and the wear stage.
All our examinations of Leptomeryx teeth were conducted using a binocular microscope. Objective measurements were made using a single pair of fine-tip metal calipers. The bulk of material was measured at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, though some specimens were measured by Heaton at the University of South Dakota or on visits to the American Museum of National History in New York City.
This effort served only to document that the ridges on P3 are highly variable in all the species studied and therefore have little taxonomic value. We base this conclusion on several observations: 1) roughly the same range of variation is found in all species studied, 2) this range of variation exhibits nearly every conceivable intermediate condition, and 3) the configuration of the ridges, within any sample, does not correlate well with any other characters on P3 or any other tooth. Several variations in the P3 ridges are shown in Figure 8.
Table 7 shows counts of specimens with the main ridge behind the P3 protoconid in various lateral positions for samples from Flagstaff Rim, Pipestone Springs, and Douglas. The vast majority of Chadronian Leptomeryx have the primary ridge in a lingual position, while most Orellan specimens (L. evansi) have it in a medial to labial position. But the range of variation covers nearly the entire spectrum in most large samples with no indication of bimodality, so this is not a reliable character for distinguishing any two species. It is only useful in comparing species with large samples for evidence of relatedness. Of the ten samples compared in Table 7, the earliest (L. yoderi) and the latest (L. evansi, discussed later) exhibit the widest and most curious ranges of variation.
The primary P3 ridge in L. yoderi from Quarry A very commonly occurs in a fully lingual to a fully medial position (Table 7), and this same variation is seen in other early Chadronian populations of Leptomeryx from the Yoder local fauna of Wyoming (Kihm, 1987), the Medicine Pole Hills local fauna of North Dakota (Pearson and Hoganson, 1995), and the Southfork local fauna of Saskatchewan (Storer, 1984). The medial position of the ridge becomes less common up section from Quarry A and is unusual in L. speciosus and L. mammifer from Flagstaff Rim, Ledge Creek, and Pipestone Springs (Table 7). In this character L. speciosus and L. mammifer are more similar to one another than either is to L. yoderi.
Table 7 considers only the most prominent ridge behind the protoconid of P3, which in most cases is much larger than any others. In some cases two ridges connect the protoconid with the entoconid and/or hypoconid and are of nearly equal size, but only the larger one was considered for this measurement. Because as many as three ridges commonly extend posteriorly from the protoconid, separate scores were given for their sizes (Table 6). A presentation of these statistics comparable to that in Table 7 would not be useful because it would fail to account for the relationship among the ridges in individual specimens. Table 8, instead, shows statistics for two ridges based on samples for which the third ridge is fully connected to the entoconid (scored as 5). Only four samples were deemed large enough to be considered: L. yoderi from Quarry A, L. speciosus and L. mammifer from the upper section at Flagstaff Rim, and L. evansi (discussed below) from above the persistent white layer (PWL) at Douglas. These are the best tabular data we can provide to show the enormous individual variation in the ridges of P3.
Though not included in Table 8, we have found that P3s of L. speciosus from Pipestone Springs exhibit the same range of variation seen at Flagstaff Rim, including multiple ridges connecting the protoconid with the entoconid and/or hypoconid. This variation was noted by Tabrum and Fields (1980). The same is true for a population with a smaller mean size from Canyon Ferry, Montana (White, 1954; Table 2), where three of six P3s have two connecting ridges. Clark (1937) noted variation in the size of the accessory ridges behind the P3 protoconid in small Leptomeryx from the Chadronian of South Dakota. The large sample of L. mammifer from Ledge Creek exhibits the same variations seen at Flagstaff Rim, including multiple ridges in various configurations. Extreme variation in P3 ridges is the rule rather than the exception in populations of Leptomeryx.
The Chadronian Leptomeryx species more commonly have a fully- connected lingual ridge on P3 while Orellan L. evansi more commonly has a fully-connected medial ridge, and this is reflected in the totals at the bottom of Table 8. While L. yoderi exhibits more variation than the other Chadronian populations in the position of the primary ridge (Table 7), it shows less variation in the additional ridges (Table 8). Not a single specimen from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim has two ridges that connect the protoconid with the posterior end of the tooth, though three such specimens have been found in Quarry B, one of which (USNM 366176, Figure 8d) is positively identified as L. yoderi. All Quarry A specimens with a fully-connected lingual ridge have a large but non- connected labial ridge and, in some cases, a smaller medial ridge. All specimens with the connecting ridge in a more medial position have moderate-sized labial and lingual ridges. No bimodality is exhibited in any of the L. yoderi columns of the table. Specimens with two connecting ridges are much more common in the other three species, as are bimodal distributions. This again suggests that L. speciosus and L. mammifer are more similar to each other than either one is to L. yoderi.
Leptomeryx evansi exhibits the greatest bimodality, with additional ridges being either absent or fairly large, so this species displays the greatest variability in both Table 7 and Table 8. As discussed below, L. evansi is easily recognized based on several characters and is most certainly a single species, so premolar variations should not be used to suggest that any of these samples represent coexisting species of the same size. What Table 8 shows, instead, is that for every specimen with a second ridge connecting the protoconid with the entoconid and/or hypoconid, there are many specimens in the population with a second ridge that is large and nearly makes such a connection. The only bimodality exhibited is in the presence/absence of secondary ridges, and since secondary ridges take on an almost infinite variety of shapes and orientations (Figure 8), their absence in some specimens is hardly surprising.
This study demonstrates that previous attempts to use the ridges on P3 for taxonomic distinction are completely invalid. Matthew (1903) stated:
|In the third lower premolar the protoconid has two posterior ridges, of which [in Leptomeryx speciosus and L. mammifer] the internal one connects with the heel, and the external one does not; while in L. evansi and the other species from the Oreodon and Leptauchenia Beds, the external ridge connects with the heel, and the internal one does not. In the lower jaw I have observed no entirely constant distinctions, except [this one] in P3.|
Attempts have also been made to distinguish the various Chadronian species of Leptomeryx using premolars. Storer (1981, 1984) listed three possible characters to distinguish L. yoderi from L. speciosus: 1) small paraconid on P2, 2) less prominent labial "heel" on the P4 hypoconid, and 3) lack of an enclosed basin behind the P3 protoconid (as is occasionally found in L. speciosus when two ridges connect the protoconid and entoconid). Kihm (1987), in his study of L. yoderi from the Yoder local fauna, dismissed the first two of Storer's distinctions as individual variation, which is also confirmed by our sample, but he found the distinction in P3 to be valid. We found the same to be true for the large sample from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim as indicated by the lack of any L. yoderi specimens with two fully-connected ridges as discussed above. However, one positively identified specimen (USNM 366176, Figure 8d) and two probable specimens (USNM 366201 and 366203) of L. yoderi from Quarry B have the enclosed basin. This distinction appears to be of little value, anyway, because the vast majority of L. speciosus P3s also lack the enclosed basin between two ridges (Table 8).
Kihm (1987) proposed two additional distinguishing characters for L. yoderi, bifurcation of the talonid crest on P2 and presence of a labial cingulum on P3, but as he suspected, larger samples demonstrate that these characters are variable in all species. We have found many premolar variations that have not been previously reported, and it is our firm opinion that no two species of Leptomeryx can be positively distinguished using characters of these teeth. Some character traits are found more commonly in one species than another, however, and these may be useful in tracing the evolution of certain lineages.
Storer (1981) and Kihm (1987) provisionally accepted Leptomeryx yoderi as a species distinct from L. speciosus, though all of the differences they listed are actually individual variations. As can be seen in Figures 2-6 and Tables 3, 4, and 6, these two species have very similar size ranges. Our study was unable to identify any distinguishing character between the two except one that Emry discovered prior to our joint work (Emry, 1970; cited by Storer, 1984). This involves a difference in the configuration of a small cusp (entoconulid) and valley on the lingual side of the posterolophid of M3 (Figure 9, Table 10). In this character L. yoderi and the much larger L. mammifer are identical while L. speciosus is distinct from both. This similarity, together with populations of intermediate size from Quarries B and C at Flagstaff Rim (Figures 2-4 and 6), demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that L. mammifer is a direct descendent of L. yoderi.
In the Leptomeryx yoderi/mammifer lineage the entoconulid is long and narrow, and the anterior and posterior ridges extending from its peak slope downward at about the same angle when viewed lingually. In L. speciosus the entoconulid is much more rounded and pronounced, and it slopes steeply downward posteriorly (Figure 9). We assigned subjective scores for the shape (V-shaped vs. U-shaped) and depth of the valley behind the entoconulid (Subjective Measurements 42 and 43 in Table 6), but these did not help in distinguishing the two lineages. Ultimately we simply assigned each M3 to the lineage to which it belongs based on the shape of the entoconulid (Subjective Measurement 44 in Table 6).
This distinguishing character on M3 is not perfect because a few specimens exhibit an intermediate condition or an odd condition that cannot be classified. There are also many specimens that cannot be classified due to excessive wear or damage to the posterolophid. Nevertheless, the distinctive shape of the M3 entoconulid exhibits remarkable consistency in middle Chadronian populations where size can be used to identify species independently. The large sample of Leptomeryx speciosus from Pipestone Springs and the smaller sample from Canyon Ferry are identical to L. speciosus from Flagstaff Rim in this respect. For early Chadronian samples, this is the only character we have found useful for distinguishing the similar-sized L. yoderi and L. speciosus. It may also hold the clue to their relationship.
As can be seen in Table 10, the large sample from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim consists entirely of Leptomeryx yoderi type M3s with the exception of three intermediate and two odd cases. Not a single specimen matches L. speciosus. This uniformity, combined with the normal size distribution at Quarry A (Figure 6a), strongly suggests that only a single species is represented (L. yoderi). In the smaller sample from Quarry B, three M3s match L. speciosus, and they are among the smallest specimens in this left-skewed sample (Figure 6b). The same is true for Quarry C (Figure 6c). Only in the upper part of the section at Flagstaff Rim are M3s of L. speciosus and L. mammifer non- overlapping in size (Tables 4-5 and 10).
Kihm (1987) assigned all Leptomeryx from the Yoder fauna to L. yoderi except for two unusually small, low crowned specimens (Tables 2-3). Based on this he correlated the Yoder local fauna with the lower quarries at Flagstaff Rim. Kihm (1987) did not mention the M3 posterolophid configuration of his sample, so this will be described here. The majority of M3s from the Yoder local fauna, including the type specimen of L. yoderi (MCZ 2095), match the L. yoderi/mammifer entoconulid pattern of Figure 9 (SDSM 5343, 5346, 5348, 53295, 53304). The two smallest specimens (SDSM 8659 and 53300) do not match either configuration and may be a different species as Kihm (1987) noted. The two largest of Kihm's "L. yoderi" (SDSM 5345 and 8435) actually match L. speciosus. This suggests that Kihm's correlation between the Yoder local fauna and the Flagstaff Rim section may be suspect, especially when one considers that the localities are only 125 miles apart and that Leptomeryx was a highly mobile animal.
The absence of the small Yoder leptomerycid from all levels at Flagstaff Rim might suggest that the Yoder local fauna is older, predating the extinction of this species. But the joint occurrence of M3s matching both Leptomeryx yoderi and L. speciosus correlates the Yoder local fauna only to Quarry B at Flagstaff Rim. (The large sample from Quarry A lacks L. speciosus while the L. yoderi/mammifer specimens from Quarry C are too big to match L. yoderi from the Yoder local fauna.) We considered the possibility that the Yoder local fauna contains a mixture of several ages, but this seems unlikely because 1) the fossils come from a relatively small area, 2) the fossils have excellent preservation, and 3) the three "morphs" are sometimes found together in small quarry samples.
The M3s of Leptomeryx speciosus from the Yoder local fauna differ from those of Quarry B in being larger than L. yoderi specimens from the same localities (Table 10). Though it is statistically improbable, this could be due to sampling error as all of the Yoder M3s fall within the size range of L. speciosus from the upper part of the Flagstaff Rim section (Table 4).
The situation becomes more complex when one considers the Raben Ranch local fauna of northwest Nebraska, 160 miles east of Flagstaff Rim and 75 miles NNE of Yoder. Ostrander (1980) recovered four isolated M3s of "Leptomeryx sp." from Raben Ranch, two of which match L. yoderi (both SDSM 10191) and two of which match L. speciosus (SDSM 10193 and 10210) in the configuration of the M3 entoconulid (Table 10). The odd thing is that all these teeth are relatively small (M3 length of 9.2 to 9.7 mm). The shortest M3 from Flagstaff Rim is 9.6 mm long (from Quarry B), and the shortest M3s from Pipestone Springs and Canyon Ferry are 9.5 mm long. In size the Raben Ranch specimens match the small Yoder species (Table 3), but in cusp height and other morphological characters they clearly match L. yoderi and L. speciosus. It is peculiar that three geographically close Chadronian localities are known to contain a mixture of the two M3 types (Figure 9), but that none of the three exhibit the same size distribution.
Localities in Saskatchewan and North Dakota also contain Leptomeryx with probable affinities to L. yoderi. Storer (1984) reported a dentary with P3-M3 (ROM 23207) and an isolated M2 (SMNH P1276.3) of L. cf. yoderi from the Southfork local fauna of Saskatchewan, together with several smaller specimens that he referred to L. cf. blacki after a species from California named by Stock (1949). The single complete M3 of each species (ROM 23207 and SMNH P1185.8, respectively) matches L. yoderi in entoconulid pattern (Table 10; Storer, 1984, fig. 2) as well as in crown height and other features. The smallest specimen that Storer referred to L. cf. blacki is no smaller than the Raben Ranch Leptomeryx and may represent the same species (i.e. a small variant of L. yoderi or a closely-related species). We find no justification based on morphology or size range to regard the Southfork Leptomeryx as two different species. If a single species is represented, however, it would have a smaller mean size than L. yoderi of Wyoming.
Storer (1984) based his identification of Leptomeryx cf. blacki in part on the lack of a P1-P2 diastema in SMNH P1185.7. The position of P1 is highly variable in all Flagstaff Rim species. For example, in the 31 specimens of L. yoderi from Quarry A in which the P1-P2 diastema can be measured, its length ranges from 2.7 to 6.5 mm with a mean value of 4.7 mm and a coefficient of variation of 18.3% (Emry 1970). Because this character is so variable, we do not consider the lack of a P1-P2 diastema to be significant.
Leptomeryx has recently been discovered from the Medicine Pole Hills of southwestern North Dakota (Pearson and Hoganson, 1995). In size, the teeth match L. yoderi from the Yoder local fauna and from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim (Table 10). Of four M3s discovered so far, two (PTM 663 and 1525) match L. yoderi in entoconulid pattern, and the others are too heavily worn to be certain. The posterolophid of M3 in both unworn specimens is smaller relative to the rest of the tooth than in L. yoderi and has a less developed entoconulid with a shallower valley behind it. The molars are very high crowned like L. yoderi, however. The Medicine Pole Hills Leptomeryx may represent an early grade of L. yoderi or possibly a new species.
The relationship of Leptomeryx yoderi to L. speciosus is more problematic. Only a single character (shape of the M3 entoconulid, Figure 9) reliably distinguishes between them, and that not in every case (Table 10). Leptomeryx speciosus, like L. mammifer, is abundant in the middle Chadronian, and the most likely early Chadronian ancestor for both species is L. yoderi. This raises the possibility that the Flagstaff Rim section illustrates a case of sympatric speciation in Leptomeryx. The principal questions are: 1) whether the Quarry B specimens with L. speciosus type M3 entoconulids descended from the L. yoderi population represented by the Quarry A sample, and 2) whether the Quarry B sample represents two coexisting species (L. yoderi and L. speciosus) or a single species (L. yoderi) with newly-acquired variation (incipient L. speciosus). An alternative explanation is that L. speciosus evolved elsewhere (still probably from L. yoderi) and migrated into the Flagstaff Rim region after the deposition of the Quarry A deposit.
We will not review the literature on speciation except to state that many biologists discount the possibility of sympatric speciation (Cracraft, 1989; Lynch, 1989). The division of an interbreeding population into two species would seem particularly unlikely in a prolific and mobile artiodactyl like Leptomeryx, though it might be possible for distinct herds to develop genetic differences while still occupying the same region. This would be a borderline case of allopatry/sympatry, sometimes called microallopatry. Genetically isolated sympatric populations, or sibling species, have been found in less mobile vertebrates such as salamanders (Larson, 1989). Such cases are usually attributed to habitat fragmentation (another form of microallopatry) which would be less likely to effect an artiodactyl.
The fact that the Leptomeryx sample from Quarry B, like the other samples shown in Table 10, contains few intermediate or odd M3s compared to the number of easily-classified specimens argues for two distinct, coexisting species rather than a single, morphologically diverse species. The asymmetry of the size distribution (Figure 6) and the fact that all of the L. speciosus type M3s are among the smallest specimens in the long left tail of that distribution (Table 10) also suggest the presence of two species. If the Quarry B and Yoder samples are combined (on the assumption of similar age), then M3s of the two types have similar size ranges, but as stated above, correlation of the Yoder fauna with any level at Flagstaff Rim is problematic.
We do not know the duration of the hiatus between Quarry A and B at Flagstaff Rim because no datable ashes exist below Quarry C, so it is not possible to know the length of time available for evolutionary change to take place (Emry 1973, 1992). Leptomeryx yoderi underwent only a slight increase in mean size between Quarry A and B, much less than between Quarry B and C or between Quarry C and the upper portion of the Flagstaff Rim section (Figure 6). Sympatry of two similar-sized species may have driven or accelerated the increase in size of the L. yoderi/mammifer lineage, however. The only hope of unraveling this relationship is to compare the three Flagstaff Rim leptomerycids to see if L. speciosus shares any characters with L. yoderi or L. mammifer that the other lacks.
The most obvious similarity between Leptomeryx yoderi and L. speciosus is their size, although the latter is slightly smaller on average (Tables 3-4, Figure 6). If Quarry B contains two species that can be distinguished based on the shape of the the M3 entoconulid, as suspected, then a size comparison can be made between these two species and L. yoderi from Quarry A. As can be seen in Table 10, L. yoderi from Quarry B ranges to larger size than in Quarry A, while L. speciosus averages smaller than Quarry A L. yoderi (0.2 mm difference in length of M3 in each case). These size range extensions are significant because the Quarry B sample contains so few specimens compared to the Quarry A sample. Above Quarry B, L. speciosus remains roughly the same size while the L. yoderi/mammifer lineage undergoes a marked increase in size. But between Quarries A and B the divergence is nearly symmetric. The only other unique similarity between L. yoderi (Quarry A) and L. speciosus (and L. evansi) is that some specimens have the main ridge behind the P3 protoconid in a more labial than lingual position; no specimen of L. mammifer with this condition has yet been found (Table 7).
Leptomeryx speciosus and L. mammifer share several unique similarities. Unlike L. yoderi from Quarry A, both have relatively fewer P3s with the main ridge in a medial position (Table 7), and both include P3s with two ridges connecting the protoconid with the entoconid and/or hypoconid (Table 8). Both these characters first appear in Quarry B, so they could be shared, derived characters (though they are relatively uncommon in both species). Rarely L. speciosus and L. mammifer show some development of the Paleomeryx fold in the molars (Table 11, discussed below), but no cases of this have been found below Quarry C.
In contrast to these somewhat dubious similarities, Leptomeryx yoderi and L. mammifer share the same unique configuration of the M3 entoconulid (Figure 9, Table 10) in nearly every specimen. They also have a similar distribution pattern of accessory labial cusps in the molars (Table 9) and are less likely than L. speciosus to have a large medial ridge behind the protoconid of P3 when a fully-connected lingual ridge is present (Table 8). The only significant difference between L. yoderi and L. mammifer is size, and at Flagstaff Rim the size transition is well documented. No comparable graded link has been found between L. yoderi and L. speciosus. While L. yoderi remains the most likely ancestor for L. speciosus, it is uncertain whether L. yoderi speciated sympatrically or, alternately, whether L. speciosus developed from L. yoderi or a related species in another location.
In conclusion, the dominant Chadronian species of Leptomeryx are closely related and represent a grade of evolution beyond their Duchesnean counterparts. Six stages in the evolution of Chadronian Leptomeryx seem to be indicated: 1) earliest Chadronian: Leptomeryx from the Medicine Pole Hills of North Dakota may represent an early grade of L. yoderi or its immediate ancestor; 2) middle early Chadronian: L. yoderi became a widespread species and is the only species found in Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim; 3) late early Chadronian: Leptomeryx speciosus appeared, probably a descendant of L. yoderi, and these two similar-sized species are found together in Quarry B; the Yoder local fauna, considered early Chadronian by Kihm (1987), and the Raben Ranch local fauna, considered middle Chadronian by Ostrander (1980), seem to best fit this stage, though the match is imperfect in both cases; 4) early middle Chadronian: L. yoderi increased in size, approaching L. mammifer, and is found with L. speciosus in Quarry C; 5) middle middle to early late Chadronian: L. mammifer developed as a species distinctly larger than L. speciosus, and the two species became widespread and stable; both are found throughout the upper part of the Flagstaff Rim section, at Pipestone Springs, and in the Calf Creek local fauna of the Cypress Hills; and 6) latest Chadronian: L. mammifer became extinct, and L. speciosus underwent some modifications approaching the Orellan L. evansi grade (discussed below).
Leptomeryx evansi is slightly smaller on average than L. speciosus and has a number of unique characters. First, the primary ridge behind the P3 protoconid is usually more labial than lingual (Table 7), though as in the Chadronian species, there is considerable variation in this feature. It commonly has two ridges connecting the P3 protoconid with the entoconid and/or hypoconid, one medial and one lingual (Table 8). Secondly, most specimens have a well-developed Paleomeryx fold on each of the lower molars (Table 11). Leptomeryx evansi also tends to have more strongly developed vertical crenulations around the tooth crowns, especially on the lingual side of the lower teeth, though this is a variable feature. Crenulations on the lingual side of the metaconid and entoconid of the lower molars tend to be better developed in L. evansi than in other species (Figure 11). In the critical feature of the M3 posterolophid, L. evansi matches L. speciosus rather than L. yoderi and L. mammifer (Figure 9). In fact the M3 entoconulid tends to be even broader and more rounded posteriorly in L. evansi than in L. speciosus, or at least more consistently so.
We have not found any variation that would suggest that more than a single species of Leptomeryx existed in the Orellan of the Great Plains. The distinguishing characters are variable in their degree of development, just as in the Chadronian species, but the range of variation is generally continuous rather than bimodal, and the degree of development of the various characters on individuals is not well correlated. For example, there are specimens with the major ridge on P3 in a labial position that have little or no development of the Paleomeryx fold on the molars (USNM 443715), and there are specimens with the P3 ridge in the lingual position with strongly-developed Paleomeryx folds (AMNH 127017). The Paleomeryx fold can even be strongly developed on some molars of a jaw and entirely absent on adjacent ones (AMNH 127019, USNM 443664), though this is unusual. The type specimen of L. evansi (USNM 157) lacks the P3 but has molars with prominent Paleomeryx folds. Several other Orellan and Whitneyan species were named by Cook (1934) and Frick (1937). We have not examined the type specimens of these species but suspect that they are synonyms of L. evansi.
South and east of Douglas, Wyoming, about 90 miles east of Flagstaff Rim, White River deposition is apparently continuous from middle Chadronian through Orellan time (Evanoff et al., 1992). The Chadronian/Orellan transition is approximately at a volcanic ash bed referred to as the persistent white layer (PWL), "Glory Hole Ash," purplish-white ash, 100-foot white ash, or No. 5 tuff (Evanoff et al., 1992:117). Except for the uppermost part of the Chadron Formation, the entire section is fossiliferous (Kron, 1978; Evanoff et al., 1992).
The lower part of the Chadron Formation at Douglas is temporally equivalent to at least part of the upper portion of the section at Flagstaff Rim (Prothero and Swisher, 1992; Evanoff et al., 1992), though the exact correlation is uncertain due in part to the paucity of fossils in the uppermost levels at Flagstaff Rim. Leptomeryx speciosus appears to persist later at Flagstaff Rim than does L. mammifer (Figures 2-4; see also Emry, 1992), and a population with a slightly smaller mean size than L. speciosus of Flagstaff Rim is found below the PWL at Douglas (Figure 11). The L. evansi population above the PWL at Douglas has a mean size that is slightly smaller yet, and the size ranges are similar. A comparison of these three successive populations suggests the strong possibility that L. evansi descended from L. speciosus in the latest Chadronian. This relationship has also been proposed by Prothero (1985a, 1985b, and unpublished data).
Our study of Chadronian Leptomeryx has shown that the most diagnostic character for distinguishing species of similar size is the configuration of the M3 entoconulid. Because the variant found in L. speciosus is a derived character that first appears in that species and is shared by L. evansi, a strong case can be made for an ancestor/descendant relationship. The few M3s found below the PWL at Douglas all share this condition as well. Another similarity between the two species is found in the labial accessory cusps on the molars (Table 9). Both have less frequent or smaller cusps between the protoconid and hypoconid than is seen in L. yoderi and L. mammifer (being even more uncommon in L. evansi, especially on M1), and both more commonly have an accessory cusp between the hypoconid and hypoconulid of M3 (Table 9).
If the Leptomeryx population from below the PWL at Douglas is intermediate between L. speciosus from Flagstaff Rim and L. evansi, then an even stronger case can be made that these are chronospecies. Unfortunately this population is very small, but it does exhibit remarkable intermediacy. In mean size it is intermediate between Flagstaff Rim L. speciosus and L. evansi (Tables 4 and 12), though somewhat closer to L. evansi. Only four specimens include P3, all of which have a fully lingual main ridge behind the protoconid as in L. speciosus (Table 7). In terms of the Paleomeryx fold this population is perfectly intermediate, having the fold much more commonly than in L. speciosus but much less commonly than in L. evansi (Table 11). The folds even become more common higher in the Douglas section (less common 12 to 16 m below the PWL; more common 9 to 12 m below the PWL). Because three of the four P3s come from the lowest level at Douglas (16 m below the PWL), the distinguishing characters of this tooth may also undergo gradual change. Evidence for such a conclusion comes from specimens of L. evansi found above the PWL at Douglas. Those P3s that have the dominant ridge in the lingual position (as in L. speciosus) occur more frequently near the Chadronian/Orellan boundary than they do higher in the Douglas section.
Assigning the population from below the PWL at Douglas to a species would be a judgement call between Leptomeryx speciosus and L. evansi. Taxonomically the same sort of dilemma is faced as with the L. yoderi/mammifer population from Quarry C at Flagstaff Rim. We therefore conclude that L. speciosus and L. evansi are chronospecies exhibiting gradual anagenesis across the Chadronian/Orellan boundary.
MPUM 3296 is a dentary from Little Pipestone Creek (near Pipestone Springs) that is as large as the largest L. mammifer specimens from Flagstaff Rim and exhibits several L. evansi features: 1) the main ridge behind the P3 protoconid is labial rather than lingual, 2) the Paleomeryx fold is moderately developed on the molars, 3) the enamel is strongly crenulated (though no more than in some L. mammifer specimens), and 4) the M3 posterolophid matches L. speciosus and L. evansi more closely than L. mammifer. This specimen differs from L. evansi and the other species of Leptomeryx, however, in lacking a deep and relatively wide depression in the posterolophid of M3. MPUM 3296 also has an unusual accessory ridge extending posteriorly from the metaconid on M1.
USNM 19001, a large M3 from Pipestone Springs, has stronger development of the Paleomeryx fold than any M3 from Flagstaff Rim and has strongly crenulated enamel. The entoconulid of USNM 19001 has a rounded posterior edge as in L. speciosus and L. evansi, but unlike all other Leptomeryx specimens we have examined, the entoconulid has a small ridge projecting into the medial basin toward the hypoconulid. So while the posterolophids of these molars match L. evansi in some respects, in other ways they are entirely unique.
The P3 ridge configuration on MPUM 3296 and the crenulated enamel on both specimens can be dismissed as individual variations in Leptomeryx mammifer, as can the Paleomeryx fold because these are occasionally found on L. mammifer molars from Flagstaff Rim (Tables 7 and 11). The M3 entoconulid is more problematic, as is its presence in specimens that possess several other L. evansi characters. There are three possible explanations: 1) these large specimens are merely unusual variants of L. mammifer, 2) there is a second large species of Leptomeryx from the Pipestone Springs area which has developed features paralleling L. evansi, or 3) this species shares a unique common ancestry with L. evansi independent of L. speciosus and L. mammifer. We view the third possibility as very unlikely. Leptomeryx evansi has never been found in the Chadronian, and we have provided substantial evidence that it evolved from L. speciosus across the Chadronian/Orellan boundary. The L. evansi features seen in MUPM 3296 and USNM 19001 can all be found as variants in L. speciosus and/or L. mammifer (Tables 8-11). The vast size difference and lack of intermediate populations argue against a close relationship with L. evansi.
The sample of large Leptomeryx specimens from Pipestone Springs and other Montana localities is very small compared the sample from Flagstaff Rim (see Table 5, though not all Pipestone Springs material is included). The presence of greater morphological variation in this much smaller sample is perhaps the strongest evidence that more than one species is represented in the Montana material. However, larger samples are needed to determine for certain whether these specimens with unusual combinations of characters comprise a new species or merely represent individual or geographic variations in L. mammifer.
The early evolution of the group is obscured by small sample sizes and a predominance of isolated teeth rather than full dentitions. Duchesnean forms, called Hendryomeryx by some authors, exhibit a slightly lower-crowned condition than their Chadronian and Orellan counterparts. These lower-crowned forms appear to extend into the Chadronian in the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan (Storer, 1981) and at Yoder, Wyoming (Kihm, 1987).
Leptomeryx yoderi became the dominant species of the early Chadronian and is the only species found in the enormous sample from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim. It is slightly larger than its predecessors and has higher-crowned, steeper-walled teeth. This species underwent a gradual size increase and evolved into L. mammifer of the middle Chadronian. This anagenetic shift is well-documented at Flagstaff Rim. Prior to this increase in size, L. yoderi apparently gave rise to L. speciosus, a species of similar size that can only be distinguished from it by a change in the shape of the entoconulid on the last molar. Leptomeryx speciosus and L. mammifer are found together in middle Chadronian deposits from Wyoming to Saskatchewan. Large samples exhibit clear bimodality in size, so that individual specimens can be distinguished by size as well as by M3 entoconulid configuration.
Leptomeryx mammifer became extinct before the end of the Chadronian, leaving L. speciosus as the only known surviving species of the genus. Leptomeryx speciosus underwent a size reduction at the end of the Chadronian and gradually evolved into L. evansi, apparently the only Leptomeryx species of the Orellan. This anagenetic transition is documented by an intermediate population from the latest Chadronian of Douglas, Wyoming, where L. evansi characters become more common stratigraphically higher in the section. The most distinctive characters of L. evansi, the labial ridge behind the protoconid on P3 and Paleomeryx fold on the molars, are only rarely found in L. speciosus and almost never in the same specimens.
Changes in Leptomeryx across the Duchesnean/Chadronian boundary can be accounted for by normal evolutionary adaptation. Leptomeryx yoderi, being larger and possessing higher-crowned teeth than its contemporaries, may well have out-competed them. The Chadronian/Orellan transition, however, is marked by the extinction of a large species and the size reduction and morphological modification of a smaller species. No new predators or competitors appear at this boundary, so these changes must be attributable to climatic factors. Evanoff et al. (1992) provide evidence for a fairly rapid change from moist subtropical to semiarid warm temperate climate at the Chadronian/Orellan boundary. The standardization in L. evansi of characters that are rare in its predecessors, as well as the decrease in size, suggests strong selection pressure, a population bottleneck, or both. Nevertheless, L. evansi survived this transition to become one of the most common and widespread species of the Orellan.
Partial funding for this project was provided by a Smithsonian Institution postdoctoral fellowship to the senior author.
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Figure 2. Bivariate plot of 129 Leptomeryx specimens from Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming, showing the length of P2-M3 vs. level in the stratigraphic section. Specimens from the lower part of the section are concentrated in three quarry deposits, the lowest of which contains only L. yoderi. This measurement of six consecutive teeth allows for excellent resolution between L. speciosus (small) and L. mammifer (large) in the upper part of the section, but the sample size is small. See Tables 3-6 for tooth size statistics on each species.
Figure 3. Bivariate plot of 466 Leptomeryx specimens from Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming, showing the length of M1-3 vs. level in the stratigraphic section. The measurement of three teeth increases the sample size over that seen in Figure 2 and still allows good resolution between L. speciosus and L. mammifer. See histograms of four stratigraphic samples based on this measurement in Figure 6.
Figure 4. Bivariate plot of 928 Leptomeryx specimens from Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming, showing the length of M2, the most abundantly preserved tooth, vs. level in the stratigraphic section. The measurement of a single tooth provides an enormous sample size but reduces the resolution between L. speciosus and L. mammifer seen in Figures 2-3.
Figure 5. Bivariate plot of 111 Leptomeryx specimens from Ledge Creek, Wyoming, showing the length of M2 vs. level in the stratigraphic section. Leptomeryx mammifer (large) greatly outnumbers L. speciosus (small) in the upper part of the section. Comparisons for the lower part of the section are obscured by the small sample size.
Figure 6. Size histograms, based on M1-3 length, of four stratigraphic samples of Leptomeryx from Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming. Quarry A ("Low Pocket") is a localized deposit (probably a single carnivore den) containing Leptomeryx almost exclusively. Quarry B ("Dry Hole Pocket") and Quarry C ("B-44 Pocket") are also localized deposits; a few specimens from above and below Quarry C are included in that sample. Because L. speciosus and L. mammifer remain in relative stasis throughout the upper part of the section (Figures 2-4), all specimens from above 50 m have been grouped into histogram d. Only L. yoderi is found in Quarry A, whereas two species coexist in the other three samples. Leptomeryx yoderi can be traced through size increase to L. mammifer in this diagram. Leptomeryx speciosus remains about the same size in samples B, C, and D. See Tables 3-6 for tooth size statistics on each species.
Figure 7. Three diagrams of the lower dentition of Leptomeryx in occlusal view: a. tooth cusps referred to in the text, b. objective measurements made with calipers, and c. subjective measurements (scores) given to various accessory cusps, ridges, and other variable features. See Table 6 for a list of the measurements illustrated and summary statistics.
Figure 8. Diagram of twelve Leptomeryx P3s showing variability of the ridge(s) extending posteriorly from the protoconid. See Tables 7-8 for statistics concerning these ridges. MCZ 2095 has the most typical pattern seen in L. yoderi, L. speciosus, and L. mammifer, while ND 238.4 shows the most typical pattern for L. evansi. But all species studied contain variants such as those seen here, so these differences are not species diagnostic.
Figure 9. Diagrams of Leptomeryx M3s in lingual and occlusal view showing the different configuration of the entoconulid in L. yoderi/mammifer and L. speciosus/evansi. See Table 10 for counts of specimens with these configurations from several localities.
Figure 10. Diagrams of Leptomeryx M2s in occlusal view showing the development of the Paleomeryx fold and the greater incidence of crenulations in L. evansi compared to L. speciosus. Statistics concerning the Paleomeryx fold can be found in Table 11. The accessory cusp in the labial valley is found more commonly in L. speciosus than in L. evansi (Table 9).
Figure 11. Bivariate plot of 116 Leptomeryx specimens from Douglas, Wyoming, showing the length of M2 vs. level in the stratigraphic section. The Chadronian/Orellan boundary is marked by the persistent white layer (PWL). The Orellan specimens are L. evansi while the Chadronian specimens are a population showing characters intermediate between L. speciosus and L. evansi. See Table 12 for size statistics on these two stratigraphic populations.
Table 1. Tooth length measurements (mm) for the three species assigned to "Hendryomeryx": H. defordi from Trans-Pecos Texas (late Duchesnean), H. wilsoni from Badwater Creek, Wyoming (early Duchesnean), and H. esulcatus from the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan (middle Chadronian). All Trans-Pecos Texas and Badwater leptomerycid material is included here, whereas the Cypress Hills measurements represent those specimens assigned by Storer (1981) to Hendryomeryx rather than Leptomeryx.
Table 2. Tooth length measurements (mm) for small leptomerycids from two early Chadronian localities in Wyoming and one locality of less certain age in Montana. All West Canyon Creek and Canyon Ferry leptomerycid material is included here, whereas the Yoder measurements represent only those specimens considered by Kihm (1987) to be too small for Leptomeryx yoderi. The West Canyon Creek and Canyon Ferry material was measured by Heaton.
Table 3. Tooth length measurements (mm) for two populations and the type specimen of Leptomeryx yoderi, all from eastern Wyoming. The type is a distorted dentary from the Yoder local fauna collected by Schlaikjer (1935). All leptomerycid material from Quarry A at Flagstaff Rim (Figure 6a) and from the Yoder local fauna is included except for two Yoder dentaries considered by Kihm (1987) to be too small to be L. yoderi (see Table 2). The Flagstaff Rim and type material was measured by Heaton.
Table 4. Tooth length measurements (mm) for three populations of Leptomeryx speciosus from Flagstaff Rim (Figure 6d) and Ledge Creek (Figure 5), Wyoming, and Pipestone Springs, Montana. Included are all specimens judged on size and morphology to be L. speciosus rather than L. mammifer. All measurements were made by Heaton.
Table 5. Tooth length measurements (mm) for three populations of Leptomeryx mammifer from Flagstaff Rim (Figure 6d) and Ledge Creek (Figure 5), Wyoming, and Pipestone Springs, Montana. Included are all specimens judged on size and morphology to be L. mammifer rather than L. speciosus. All measurements were made by Heaton. The type specimen of L. mammifer from the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan (NMC 6278) has an M2 length of 10.2; an M3 from the Calf Creek local fauna (SMNH P1585.1230) has a length of 15.2 mm (Storer, 1981).
Table 6. List of objective (44) and subjective (45) measurements taken on Leptomeryx dentaries used in this study, including summary statistics of four species. See Figure 7 for illustrations. The L. yoderi sample is from Quarry A, and the L. mammifer and L. speciosus samples are from the upper part of the section at Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming. The L. evansi sample is from above the PWL at Douglas, Wyoming.
Table 7. Lateral position of largest ridge extending posteriorly from the protoconid of P3 for ten samples of Leptomeryx. Some variations are illustrated in Figure 8. The sample from Quarry B at Flagstaff Rim is a mixture of L. yoderi and L. speciosus, most of which cannot be distinguished. The sample from below the PWL at Douglas is a species intermediate between L. speciosus and L. evansi (Table 12).
Table 8. Size of secondary ridges extending posteriorly from the protoconid of P3 of Leptomeryx. Some variations are illustrated in Figure 8. Each P3 was given a score for a labial, medial, and lingual ridge from 0 (absent) to 5 (large and connecting to entoconid and/or hypoconid). In this table, scores for two ridges are given for the sample in which the third ridge (lingual or medial) was given a score of 5. Only four samples were considered large enough for inclusion: L. yoderi (Y), L. mammifer (M), and L. speciosus (S) from Flagstaff Rim, and L. evansi (E) from Douglas, Wyoming.
Table 9. Size of accessory cusps (buccal columns) on the labial margin of the tooth in the valley between the protoconid and hypoconid of the molars (hypoconid and hypoconulid of M3 posterior; Figure 7) for four species of Leptomeryx: L. yoderi (Y), L. mammifer (M), and L. speciosus (S) from Flagstaff Rim, and L. evansi (E) from Douglas, Wyoming. Each cusp was given a score from 0 (absent) to 4 (large).
Table 10. Classification of Leptomeryx M3s from Flagstaff Rim and several other localities that contain L. yoderi based on the configuration of the entoconulid as illustrated in Figure 9. The categories are: 1) L. speciosus configuration (S), 2) L. yoderi and L. mammifer configuration (Y/M), 3) intermediate or mixed characters of L. speciosus and L. yoderi/mammifer (I), and 4) odd configuration not matching either type (O). The two samples from the upper section at Flagstaff Rim include only USNM specimens. Size ranges (length of M3 in mm) are given for the "S" and "Y-M" samples. The two "O" specimens from the Yoder local fauna are the two small specimens listed in Table 2.
Table 11. Degree of development of the "Paleomeryx fold" (Figure 10) on the molars of eight populations of Leptomeryx ranging from 0 (absent) to 4 (large). All specimens from Quarries A and B from Flagstaff Rim are combined, as are the two species from Quarry C. Specimens from the upper part of the section at Flagstaff Rim and from Pipestone Springs are separated by size into L. speciosus (S) and L. mammifer (M). Specimens from Douglas are separated into those below the persistent white layer (PWL) and those above it, which are L. evansi (E). Counts are shown separately for each molar and combined.
Table 12. Tooth length measurements (mm) for two stratigraphically restricted populations of Leptomeryx from the Douglas area, Wyoming, and the type specimen of L. evansi from the Big Badlands of South Dakota. The population from above the persistent white layer (PWL) is L. evansi, whereas the population from below the PWL appears to be ancestral to that species. All measurements were made by Heaton. | <urn:uuid:00aaf68d-0cec-425c-b844-8eec99f239e6> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | http://apps.usd.edu/esci/pubs/lept-vol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125947939.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20180425174229-20180425194229-00332.warc.gz | en | 0.909068 | 16,934 | 3.171875 | 3 |
This study explored parents’ views on kindergarten and primary school students’ distance learning experience and support needed as well as the amount of time children spend on screen media at home during COVID-19 class suspension. Between February 19 and 22, 2020, three weeks after classes were suspended in Hong Kong, responses from 6,702 parents (93% mothers) of kindergarten students and primary school students were collected via an online survey. Research Findings: Three major findings emerged: (a) Most children encountered difficulties in completing distance learning tasks at home, with major difficulties being children’s lack of learning interests and home environment related limitations. Most children were not able to complete the learning tasks independently; (b) More parents without online learning were dissatisfied with distance learning during class suspension than those with online learning. Parents wanted more interactive online learning to facilitate children’s learning during class suspension and desired better learning support from schools, flexible work arrangements, and government subsidies; (c) There was a high usage of electronic devices without parental mediation during class suspension. Practice or Policy: Together, the findings have important policy and pedagogical implications for delivering a distance learning curriculum and working with families during class suspension. The findings also suggest the need for schools to work on a balance of types of learning during class suspension by introducing diversified on- and off-line activities as well as supporting parents in navigating children’s screen time. Copyright © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. | <urn:uuid:96c0c379-7821-466f-bf37-b219363cf8e1> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/parents-views-on-young-childrens-distance-learning-and-screen-tim | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500151.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20230204173912-20230204203912-00408.warc.gz | en | 0.97226 | 299 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Every day in the remote city of Attock, Pakistan, in the homes of 35,000 Afghan refugees, the women and girls get up, get breakfast, and get to work – on the giant carpet looms that dominate the households. They will spend about 14 hours a day at the loom, paid not by the hours they spend hunched over weaving, but by the square meter of the carpets they produce. After years of this, the women’s backs are bent and their hands are hardened and blackened by the constant weaving – but it’s work that women can do in the home, and it supports the family.
In Pakistan girls can go to school for free, and young ones often do, but once a girl is old enough weave, the family can’t afford for her not to be at the loom. The “opportunity cost” of education is too high; so the girls stay illiterate because they are poor, and will remain poor because they are illiterate– and the cycle of poverty makes one more turn.
Saba Gul, a Pakistani-born, MIT-educated Computer Science grad student is all about disrupting that chain of events with her BLISS http://bagsforbliss.org– Business and Life Skills School, an initiative to reduce exploitative child labor and increase literacy with an innovative approach to getting girls back to school and keeping them there.
BLISS is a self-sustaining program that offers families a monetary incentive to send girls to school several hours a day, funded by an after-school vocational program in unique indigenous crafts that more than offsets the $12/month it costs the family for the girls to be in school. By allowing children to earn an income while getting an education, BLISS intends to circumvent the heartbreaking choice of girls having to pick work over school to make ends meet. Saba started BLISS in Attock in 2009, with a pilot program of 38 Afghan refugee girls who learn English, Math & Urdu, and do embroidery and needlework after-school that can be used in producing beautiful bags that BLISS will design, market and distribute globally in fair trade marketplaces.
Saba will also be teaching these girls business and financial life skills that will improve their employment and income prospects. “It’s a very practical and financially self-sustaining program that we hope will prove to the community that education can open new opportunities for these very hard-working and entrepreneurial people.”
An insular, isolated refugee community, the Turkmen Afghani refugees have been in Pakistan since the Russian invasion of 1979, yet most still do not speak Urdu, the language of Pakistan. Saba fervently believes if she can use BLISS to convince the community of the value of educating girls, she can use the model to impact the rest of the Pakistan, where 3 million children laborers are working every day – and across the developing world, with its 166 million child workers.
This cause is Saba’s bliss – and don’t get her started talking about it if you don’t have an hour to devote to the high-intensity conversation. From a lucrative career in computer science, she fell in love with social development working in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, and has never found work that made her feel so moved and gratified. BLISS has been given a seed grant by MIT’s Legatum Fellows and been lauded in numerous Social Venture competitions nationally, but the path is long and daunting. Saba is undeterred. “Whenever I get tired, I just think of those beautiful, amazing girls of Attock who are working so hard and really want to learn, and that keeps me going. They are my inspiration.”
And today, Saba is mine. $100 to BLISS! bagsforbliss.wordpress.com | <urn:uuid:a9af12a4-6f90-485f-8d66-6c1acefe3ce2> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://whatgives365.com/2010/03/31/teaching-afghan-refugee-girls-to-follow-their-bliss/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507442420.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005722-00288-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964114 | 796 | 2.625 | 3 |
Help your elementary schooler understand allowances
Even young children can use a small allowance to learn essential money management skills.
If you’ve decided to pay your child a weekly stipend, you’ve joined a time-honored tradition: 54 percent of parents begin doling out an allowance by the time their child is 8 years old, according to a 2012 survey by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the most recent study available. Although the amount varies, many moms and dads follow a popular guideline of 50 cents to $1 each week for every year of an elementary schooler’s age. So an 8-year-old might receive $4 to $8 a week.
Parents give out allowances for a variety of reasons. While some parents intend to pay for chores, others simply want to provide their children some real-life experience handling money. In addition to learning how to count and handle money, many experts believe an allowance can be a tool to teach children about basic money management life skills, such as earning, budgeting and saving, as well as the benefits of delayed gratification.
Make it age-appropriate
That may seem like a lot for an elementary schooler to handle. But young children are often capable of much more than their parents give them credit for. (Check out our guidelines on how to establish money rules for any age child.) Children can begin to learn how to count coins around age 5 and should master this skill by the end of second grade—even if they still struggle to comprehend the value and purpose of money. During this same time kids also start to differentiate between wants and needs, and can develop the discipline to save for short-term goals, according to Joline Godfrey, the author of Raising Financially Fit Kids. By the time children finish fourth grade, parents realistically can expect them to be able to list examples of financial decisions and their possible consequences, according to the Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy.
When implementing an allowance, it can be helpful to talk with your child— keeping in mind her age and level of understanding, so she understands what you are giving her, why she is receiving it and what parameters you set.
- First, spell out how much you’re giving, and make the amount nonnegotiable.
- Then explain what’s required to earn the allowance. The big question: Will your elementary schooler have to do chores? Some experts believe chores are helpful since they make a child earn the allowance. Others fear kids may stop doing the jobs around the house once they feel they have enough money. That choice is up to you.
Consider where the money goes
Once you hand your child a weekly payment, determine how it’s used.
- One popular idea is to split money among three categories: spending, saving and giving to charity. Experts note that a simple way to encourage elementary school children to do this is to provide them with three piggy banks.
- Then dole out the allowance in denominations that are small enough so kids can immediately divide up their money across the three vessels.
- Even if you choose not to give an allowance, you can apply many of the same teaching methods to money your young child may receive as gifts.
When it comes to the bucket that’s allocated to spending, children need to understand if there are any rules or expectations. For younger children the cash could be intended for discretionary items, including ice cream, checkout counter trinkets, action figures and other toys.
As kids get older, parents may want to consider whether kids should contribute to some of their own needs, like sports equipment or school supplies. You could also use this opportunity to discuss any spending restrictions, such as violent video games, makeup or other hot-button items.
Once you start paying, don’t stop the conversation. Discussions at the toy store or grocery store can help illustrate the idea that if your child spends all of his money the day he receives it, there’s nothing left over for the end of the week. When it comes to saving, consider suggesting that your child set short-term savings goals: Write down the coveted items and figure out how long it takes to save enough money to purchase them. You also could offer your child opportunities to do extra chores around the house to earn more money, so he can buy the items sooner.
Finally take a step back and avoid micromanaging your child’s spending. As long as your elementary schooler is following your rules, let her make a spending mistake or two—that’s one of the best ways to learn. | <urn:uuid:b2e8d8ff-8be0-4be7-89a3-9cdc7f7a3cd1> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://bettermoneyhabits.bankofamerica.com/en/personal-banking/budgeting-for-kids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084889681.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20180120182041-20180120202041-00545.warc.gz | en | 0.952397 | 953 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Propagate clematis by layering or cutting
When should I prune my clematis? I have several different kinds, and I'm always confused about how to prune each one.
Clematis are typically divided into three categories: early-blooming clematis, early large-flowering hybrids, and late-flowering clematis.
Early-blooming clematis typically have single or bell-shaped flowers; these bloom on old wood and should be pruned immediately after flowering.
Early large-flowering hybrids, such as the mauve-pink "Nelly Moser" or mauve-blue "Barbara Jackman" bloom on old wood, often with a second flush of bloom on new growth. Plants in this group don't usually need pruning except to remove dead or dying stems.
Late-flowering clematis, such as the ever-popular dark purple "Jackmanii," bloom in late summer to fall. They can be pruned hard yearly by cutting them back to about 10 inches above ground.
Clematis wilt is a somewhat serious disease of clematis, infecting the stem and causing portions of the plant to die. Should large portions of the clematis vine wilt and die, these portions should be cut back to ground level in the hopes of removing the fungal pathogen. New growth should sprout from the base.
How can I move my clematis? I'm having some construction in an area where I have an old "Jackmanii." I'm afraid to move it, but I'll lose it if I don't.
The clematis should not be too difficult to dig and move, even an old, established plant. Dig a generous area around the plant base, taking care not to disturb the roots and soil any more than necessary. Pick a site to relocate the plant where it can get full sun but where the roots can be shaded; clematis will suffer in an area with hot soils. Mix plenty of organic matter into the new planting site, which should be generously wide. Woody portions of the vine may be damaged in the process of transplanting; simply cut these stems off with sharp pruners. Be sure to water the plant in, and be mindful of dry periods this summer as the plant becomes established. Mulch over the root zone to protect roots from summer heat.
My neighbor has an autumn-blooming clematis that is beautiful in fall. Which clematis is this?
Sweet autumn clematis covers itself with fragrant white, star-shaped flowers in fall. The vine is vigorous, and can easily climb 20 feet or more. Mine covered my arbor in only two years. This clematis will also self-sow, so if you and your neighbor are on friendly terms, ask her if she has a start to share. Just be sure you really have the space to grow this clematis, because it will take over any space allowed. The Latin name of this clematis is Clematis terniflora. Our native clematis, Clematis viginiana, also blooms in autumn, and while it is not as floriferous as the sweet autumn clematis, it can make a successful garden addition.
How can I propagate my clematis? I don't know which one it is, but it has beautiful double white flowers. I'd like another for the front of the house.
Clematis can be propagated by either layering the stems or by taking cuttings. To layer the vine, choose a long stem that can be laid on the ground. Gently and shallowly bury a length of the stem, anchoring the buried portion with a stone or other weight. Eventually, the buried portion of the stem will root, and can be cut and removed from the parent plant. Layering can take a year or more.
To propagate with cuttings, take short cuttings from the plant base now, and root them in a well-drained sterile potting mix.
Ellsworth is an extension educator, Summit County OSU Extension Service. Call a master gardener for advice 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at 216-429-8235. Gardening information is also available at cuyahoga.osu.edu and webgarden.osu.edu. Write master gardeners at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:c53aa30e-6b00-45ef-9678-087b27318443> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2009/05/propagate_clematis_by_layering.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257836392.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071036-00022-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931786 | 936 | 2.625 | 3 |
Step 2: Learn the Different Types of Investments
Knowledge is power. Even if you don't plan on personally managing your individual investments, it pays to know the details about the most common types of investment instruments: stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
When you buy stock, you're buying partial ownership in a company. Stocks are sold as shares, and every shareholder is entitled to a percentage of the company's annual profits called a dividend. But most people don't buy stocks for the dividends. They buy them as long- or short-term investments.
The price of a share of stock is constantly changing. Stock prices go up and down based on the value of a company on paper and the perceived value of a company in the eyes of investors.
The golden rule for investing in stock is to buy when the price is low and sell when the price is high. This is easier said than done. Unless you have ESP, it's very difficult to predict when a stock has reached its lowest or highest price. The best you can do is invest in companies that you're sure are going to grow. For example, if Microsoft releases particularly weak sales numbers after Christmas, its stock price will probably go down. But since Microsoft is such a successful company, it's probably safe to assume that the price will rebound quickly and keep growing. This is an opportunity to buy Microsoft stock for a relatively cheap price and sell it later for a profit.
Historically, the stock market has grown on an average of between 10 and 12 percent a year. This is why many financial advisors consider stock an excellent long-term investment. The stock market is also attractive for short-term, higher-risk investors. With stock prices changing every minute, there's tremendous potential for a quick profit or an equally quick loss.
Another investment tool, bonds are considered some of the safest investment securities around. This is because a bond is essentially a loan. In this case, the investor is the one who's loaning the money. The most common bond is a Treasury bond or a T-bill. When you buy a T-bill, you're loaning money to the United States government at a fixed interest rate. You can also by bonds from local governments -- municipal bonds -- and businesses -- corporate bonds. Because bonds are such safe investments, they carry some of the lowest interest rates.
With a mutual fund, your money is pooled together with cash from thousands of other investors to buy a portfolio of stocks, bonds and other securities. A mutual fund is run by a team of professional money managers.
The advantage of mutual funds is that they give you instant diversity in your investments. For a beginning investor, it would be very expensive and time-consuming to make lots of individual stock and bond purchases, and we'll talk more about these fees later. With mutual funds, your money is invested in a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds without incurring fees for each purchase.
Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are the most common investments, but certainly not the only ones. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are companies that own and manage a portfolio of real estate properties and mortgages. By investing in an REIT, you're entitled to a cut of the company's profits. Stock futures are contracts to buy or sell a certain amount of stock on a specific date. You can also trade international currencies on the foreign exchange market known as forex. The list goes on and on.
But if you're just getting started as an investor, it's best not to leap into complicated, high-risk investment instruments. Stick with stocks, bonds and mutual funds for now and learn more about the other options as you go.
The person who will help you devise and execute your investment strategy is your broker. Let's talk about how to choose a broker in the next section. | <urn:uuid:ae8b089c-515e-4cb1-bedf-aa98d12d8c4d> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/how-to-start-investing2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251802249.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20200129194333-20200129223333-00512.warc.gz | en | 0.972575 | 780 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Rabbi Abraham Saba (אברהם סבע) was born in Castilla, Spain in1440. Like thousands of other Jews, at the time of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, he fled to Oporto, Portugal, hoping to live there under the noble King Joao the second. In 1496 the new King Manuel I (changing the Hebrew vocalization of his name, the Sephardim called this king "menuval", --מנואל--as per the famous qina which Moroccan Jews recite on Tish'a be-Ab: "yom me-ori hashakh begerush Castilla..."). King Manuel decreed that all Jews are considered di-facto Christians, therefore, from that momentany "new Christians" found practicing any jewish rite would be judged by the Inquisition (=tortured) and burned alive in an "auto de fe" to expiate for his or her sins. The worst part of these new edicts was that to assure that the parents will not teach Judaism in secret to their children, all Jewish children, especially infants, were taken by force from their homes and brought to convents to be raised as faithful Catholics. This tragedy was also recorded in yom me-ori ילדים האומרים בכל יום שמע ישראל אמרו לעץ הקיצה ולאבן עורי. Rabbi Abraham Saba's two sons were also taken from him....
It is said that looking for his sons and in an attempt to identify and try to save Jewish children, he disguised as a Christian peasant and visited numerous convents. In every convent he would recite out loud the Shema Israel. When hearing the voice of Rabbi Abraham, attracted by the familiar sweet melody of the Shema the Jewish children in the convent would come toward him and cry disconsolately. He never found his children.
From Oporto he fled to Lisbon. There, he was caught by the Inquisition's guards trying to hide his Tora books and Tefillin. He was sent to prison. After six months confinement he escape to Fez (Morocco) where he lived, in illness and suffering, for ten years.
In memory of Ezra ben Nizha - Rabbi Ezra Labaton z"l.
Most of Rabbi Saba books were lost or burned in Portugal. In Fez, however, he recommitted to paper from memory the following works
- Eshkol ha-Kofer , a commentary on Megilat ruth and Megilat Esther.
- Tseror haHayim a commentary on Shir haShirim.
- Tseror haMor , a commentary on the five books of the Tora. In it, one can also find many autobiographic insights.
- Tseror haKesef a book of rabbinic responsa and legal decisions
Click here to download the book TSEROR HAMOR, from hebrewbooks.org
Click here to read and listen to he piyut "yom me-ori" | <urn:uuid:2c68e610-4b38-4eca-939a-fae2b42a46cc> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://rabbibitton.blogspot.com/2013/12/sephardic-rabbis-rabbi-abraham-saba.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218188773.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212948-00215-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957364 | 674 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Introduction to Technical Seminar Topic on Captcha:
Internet use has been increased from last 20 years. Therefore we need to provide security over the internet. For that we may use Captchas. When we sign up for any web site then at last of the sign up, we need to enter the Captchas, Captchas are the combination of the word that are written in jig jag form. We need to enter the same words and box, and then only our sign up is complete. This is use for verifying that we are humans. It is the best method for preventing the bot to use the computer as it is difficult from them to identify such Captchas. There are many types of Captchas are used like:
TEXT Captchas: in this Captchas they ask simple questions from us like if today is Sunday then what was yesterday. This are very easy for humans to solve but not for bots. They also display the words by distorting it.
Graphics Captchas: in this Captchas they display the images like horse, flower and ask from us what they resemble or we need to find such similar objects from many.
Audio Captchas: in this Captchas then they play the word in form of sound. This sound is distorted with other things, now we have to hear the sound and then enter the correct word in the box.
Applications: they are used in the private blogs to prevent from spams. Used by web site that has registrations. They are also used in emails services. They are also used by some search engines.
Captchas are created by the program that is programmed for that. Basically they generate random words and that words are distorted to make them complicated to read. These Captchas are easy to read for humans but not for bots.
Download Technical Seminar Report on Captcha . | <urn:uuid:492899a5-4847-46ff-9863-ec9cc77ca622> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | http://1000projects.org/technical-seminar-report-on-captcha.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267164469.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20180926081614-20180926102014-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.957539 | 382 | 3.40625 | 3 |
By Katharine Webster
Fight, flight or freeze – those are the most common responses to high-stakes decisions made under stress.
Most of the time, soldiers quickly choose fight or flight, practically without thinking about it, says Neil Shortland, a visiting lecturer and program manager for the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies.
But when faced with two equally bad or uncertain choices, soldiers, police and other emergency responders may freeze, Shortland says.
“You can be so focused on not making the wrong choice that you don’t make any choice,” he says.
Now Shortland has won a three-year, $531,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Institute to study military decision-making, working with the HEROES center on campus, the Army Natick Soldier Research and Development Center and colleagues from the University of Liverpool and Tufts University.
The study will compare military to nonmilitary decision-making in situations that call for a quick choice between two equally bad or uncertain alternatives, known as “least-worst” decision-making. A typical example: Armed insurgents set off a bomb in a tunnel where soldiers are trapped. Do you send in more soldiers to treat and evacuate the wounded? Or do you hold off, knowing that the insurgents could set off a second bomb to kill the rescuers?
The researchers will focus in particular on indecision, known in psychological terms as “decisional inertia,” as well as what leads to it and how training might help reduce it.
Shortland already has some ideas. A forensic psychologist, he started research in this area several years ago. First, he interviewed about 30 soldiers and veterans, asking each one to describe in detail a “least-worst” decision he or she had to make during wartime.
He used their examples to create immersive scenarios – brief podcasts with sound effects, followed by questions – that he could use with research subjects. Then he did a pilot study comparing 35 active-duty soldiers and veterans with 35 police officers (none of them military veterans) and 35 UMass Lowell students.
“Both soldiers and police officers make phenomenally hard choices under terrible circumstances and terrible stress,” he says. “But overall, the soldiers were faster and more confident than the police or the students.”
Shortland’s research suggests that soldiers may find it easier to make least-worst decisions because they have a very clear and strong hierarchy of values: namely, that protecting their fellow soldiers takes priority over everything else.
Police, who are generally dealing with civilians instead of an organized and well-armed enemy, operate within a more complex set of values. When confronted with a situation that requires them to choose between equally strong values, such as the imperative to protect civilians versus the need to protect fellow officers, they may hesitate.
That has implications for training, says Shortland, who is increasingly involved in training police and domestic security agencies.
“When people are better at identifying a single goal, they make better decisions,” he said.
In the new study, Shortland and his colleagues – Prof. Laurence Alison, director of the Centre for Critical and Major Incident Psychology at the University of Liverpool and Psychology Prof. Holly Taylor at Tufts University – will broaden the investigation to study more soldiers and civilians, measuring their psychological, neurological and physical processes at critical decision points.
Shortland’s doctoral dissertation on the earlier research earned him the American Psychological Association’s Society for Military Psychology research award, which he will accept at the society’s annual meeting in August. He’s the first non-American to win it.
Shortland is also coming out with a book, co-authored with Alison and Joe Moran, a senior cognitive scientist at Harvard and the Natick Soldier Research and Development Center, who will also help in the new study. “Conflict: How Soldiers Make Impossible Decisions” will be published by Oxford University Press next year. | <urn:uuid:e7d45b6a-a276-47f2-b552-1fcef598b19c> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.uml.edu/News/stories/2017/ShortlandGrant.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038492417.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418133614-20210418163614-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.954962 | 827 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A copula is a cumulative probability distribution for multiple interdependent variables. Values are input for each variable, and the copula produces a single probability: the probability of each variable having a smaller value than its input value – for example, the probability that a portfolio loses less than $50.
For example, to determine the probability that portfolio A loses less than $50 will require specifying whether portfolio B simultaneously loses less than $100 or perhaps $1000. If, instead, portfolio B is specified to allow any size of loss, the distribution of losses of A will be uniform.
Gaussian copulas, which are built on a multivariate normal distribution, gained notoriety during the 2008 financial crisis as, when used for the pricing of derivatives such as collateralised debt obligations, they produced an unrealistically low probability of extreme events occurring for two variables simultaneously.
Click here for articles on copulas. | <urn:uuid:9cbfcf82-8bd0-44b1-99fe-8aeca46c2266> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.risk.net/definition/copula | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247489282.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20190219000551-20190219022551-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.883844 | 180 | 3.15625 | 3 |
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hooker, Joseph
HOOKER, JOSEPH (1814-1879), American general, was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, on the 13th of November 1814. He was educated at the military academy at West Point (1833-1837), and on graduating entered the 1st U. S. Artillery. In the war with Mexico (1846-48) he served as a staff officer, and rose by successive brevets for meritorious services to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1853 he left the service and bought a large farm near Sonoma, Cal., which he managed successfully till 1858, when he was made superintendent of military roads in Oregon. Upon the opening of hostilities in the Civil War of 1861-65, he sacrificed his fine estate and offered his sword to the Federal Government. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on the 17th of May 1861 and major-general on the 5th of May 1862. The engagement of Williamsburg (May 5th) brought him and his subordinate Hancock into prominence, and Hooker received the soubriquet of “Fighting Joe.” He was engaged at the battle of Fair Oaks, and did splendid service to the Union army during the “Seven Days.” In the campaign of Northern Virginia, under General Pope (August 1862), he led his division with fiery energy at Bristoe Station, Manassas and Chantilly. In the Maryland campaign (September) he was at the head of the I. corps, Army of the Potomac, forced the defile of South Mountain and opened the way for the advance of the army. The I. corps opened the great battle of the Antietam, and sustained a sanguinary fight with the Confederates under Stonewall Jackson. Hooker himself was severely wounded. He was commissioned brigadier-general in the United States army on the 20th of September 1862, and in the battle of Fredericksburg (q.v.), under Burnside, he commanded the centre grand division (III. and V. corps). He had protested against the useless slaughter of his men on that disastrous field, and when Burnside resigned the command Hooker succeeded him. The new leader effected a much-needed re-organization in the army, which had fought many battles without success. In this task, as in subordinate commands in battle, Hooker was excelled by few. But his grave defects as a commander-in-chief were soon to be obvious. By a well-planned and well-executed flanking movement, he placed himself on the enemy's flank, but at the decisive moment he checked the advance of his troops. Lee turned upon him, Jackson surprised and destroyed a whole army corps, and the battle of Chancellorsville (see Wilderness), in which Hooker was himself disabled, ended in a retreat to the old position. Yet Hooker had not entirely forfeited the confidence of his men, to whom he was still “Fighting Joe.” The second advance of Lee into Union territory, which led to the battle of Gettysburg, was strenuously resisted by Hooker, who would have inflicted a heavy blow on Lee's scattered forces had he not been condemned to inaction by orders from Washington. Even then Hooker followed the Confederates a day only behind them, until, finding himself distrusted and forbidden to control the movements of troops within the sphere of operations, he resigned the command on the eve of the battle (June 28, 1863). Faults of temper and an excessive sense of responsibility made his continued occupation of the command impossible, but when after a signal defeat Rosecrans was besieged in Chattanooga, and Grant with all the forces of the West was hurried to the rescue, two corps of the Army of the Potomac were sent over by rail, and Hooker, who was at least one of the finest fighting generals of the service, went with them in command. He fought and won the “Battle above the Clouds” on Lookout Mountain which cleared the way for the crowning victory of the army of the Cumberland on Missionary Ridge (see Chattanooga). And in command of the same corps (consolidated as the XX. corps) he took part in all the battles and combats of the Atlanta campaign of 1864. When General McPherson was killed before Atlanta, the command of Grant's old Army of the Tennessee fell vacant. Hooker, who, though only a corps commander, was senior to the other army commanders, Thomas and Schofield, was normally entitled to receive it, but General Sherman feared to commit a whole army to the guidance of a man of Hooker's peculiar temperament, and the place was given to Howard. Hooker thereupon left the army. He was commissioned brevet-major-general in the United States army on the 13th of March 1865, and retired from active service with the full rank of major-general on the 15th of October 1868, in consequence of a paralytic seizure. The last years of his life were passed in the neighbourhood of New York. He died at Garden City, Long Island, on the 31st of October 1879. | <urn:uuid:955387c8-8fc7-483f-9097-7d6b98fcb94e> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Hooker,_Joseph | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246639121.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045719-00308-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982558 | 1,079 | 2.890625 | 3 |
When many members of the class of 1945 moved into their houses, the house master wore a uniform, and not the normal professional coat and tie.
Instead, several of the houses were run by the United States military.
Following the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1942, then Harvard President James Bryant Conant '13 pledged the entire University's resources to a speedy Allied victory.
The College even went on a trimester plan which allowed most students to graduate in three years and aid in the war effort.
When United States involvement in World War II escalated, several hundred Harvard men left to serve in the armed forces, leaving large vacancies in the undergraduate houses.
In order to fill the space, the United States armed forces took control of several dormitories.
The U.S. Navy took over Eliot and Kirkland Houses to house V-12 and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC).
In the summer of 1943, the army took over Leverett and Winthrop house in order to provide housing for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). The soldiers living there took special courses and were not involved in many College activities.
A.C. Hanford, then dean of the College, wrote in his annual report for the 1943-44 annual report that "Harvard College has become in large part a military and naval training school."
In 1944, civilian students numbered under 2,000, while the University had among its residents 5,000 military personnel preparing for war service.
And for the first time, the College was forced to install bunk beds in the River Houses in order to accommodate the military personnel.
By 1944, civilian students occupied only Adams, Dunster and Lowell Houses. | <urn:uuid:20e0c94c-8548-4f6c-814e-304232c56bf9> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/6/5/military-took-over-houses-pwhen-many/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644063666.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025423-00141-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974175 | 351 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Information architecture is about organising all the possible destinations into a structure, that will help your customer access the required information easy and quickly.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE HELPS USERS
GET A SENSE OF PLACE
It’s a mastery of storytelling to lead people through the content and help them find what they desire avoiding pain points.
One of the methods we use to organise the information is card sorting. All the elements and pieces of information that need to be sorted are written on the cards. We invite a group of people and ask them to place those cards in order that seems understandable and most natural for them. This technique is affordable and very useful for improving the labelling and establishing the intuitive navigation.
By developing IA we:
- put information into order
- provide intuitive access to content
- organise web destinations contextually
- navigate users through the entire system
- make complex systems easy to perceive and access | <urn:uuid:e34bcc1a-56b2-4d53-88f0-0610f6dafac1> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://jazzpixels.com/service/61/information-architecture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247513661.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20190222054002-20190222080002-00582.warc.gz | en | 0.912686 | 191 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Foothills pine; historically, called digger, Sabine, bull, gray or grayleaf pine. It has widely been named digger pine due to its wide use by Native American tribes collectively and colloquially referred to as "diggers." However, that term has fallen into disgrace. As explained by Hunter (1991): "many Native Americans find the term digger offensive. A spokesman, who requests anonymity, for the California State Native American Heritage Commission says, "The word `digger' is very derogatory and insulting to California Indian people." A historical interpreter, who also requests anonymity, for the California State Indian Museum in Sacramento agrees: "To call a California Indian a `digger' means you are either ignorant or you are purposely trying to insult him. It is a very derisive word." These observers concur in the opinion that "the term digger is as offensive to California's Native Americans as the term 'nigger' is to African Americans." The terms "foothills pine" or "gray pine" are now officially preferred.
Some authorities spell the epithet "sabineana." This is an alternative, but not required spelling under Recommendation 60C of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. The merits of this spelling are debatable, and warrant a digression into the history of the name.
The species was described by David Douglas as Pinus sabinii, which is not grammatically correct Latin appears to be a conjugation of Sabinius, which was the Latinized form of Sabine's name. At the time it was commonly regarded as honorific to Latinize a scientist's name, so it is quite probable, given Douglas' deep respect for Sabine (see Aside, below), that he intended to commemorate Sabinius rather than plain old Joe Sabine.
It is also worth considering that the epithet "sabiniana" is to be found in literally thousands of references in both popular and common literature and thus should not be changed without a very good reason. On occasion the ICBN has determined to conserve an incorrect name simply on the basis of such long-standing and widespread use. Certainly, we can ask for a better reason to rename this species than "because it's not prohibited."
Aside: Douglas' journals left much evidence of his respect for Sabine (a respect which, alas, seems not to have been sincerely reciprocated; but that's another story). Consider his comment on July 24, 1824: "After several weeks’ preparation for a voyage to the Columbia river on the west coast of North America, on the afternoon of Saturday parted with J. Sabine, Esq., and all other friends." A month later he wrote Sabine a letter from Madeira, in September he called upon a friend of Sabine's in Rio de Janeiro. In June of 1825, he found a fine Phlox, an "exceedingly beautiful species I name P. Sabinii, in honour of Jos. Sabine, Esq." Throughout his journeys in North America, his journals are filled with references to Sabine, who is always first when he names the letters he must dispatch.
Trees 12-21(25) m with diameters of 60-120 cm, straight to crooked, often forked; crown conic to raggedly lobed, sparse. Bark dark brown to near black, irregularly and deeply furrowed, ridges irregularly rectangular or blocky, scaly, often breaking away, bases of furrows and underbark orangish. Branches often ascending; cone-bearing branchlets stout, twigs comparatively slender, both pale purple-brown and glaucous, aging gray, rough. Buds ovoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves mostly 3 per fascicle, drooping, persisting 3-4 years, 15-32 cm × 1.5 mm, slightly twisted, dull blue-green, all surfaces with pale, narrow stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex short-acuminate; sheath to 2.4 cm, base persistent. Staminate cones ellipsoid, 10-15 mm, yellow. Ovulate cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 7 years, pendent, massive, heavy, nearly symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, 15-25 cm, dull brown, resinous, stalks to 5cm. Scales long, thick, sharply keeled and 4-sided; apophyses elongate, curved, continuous with umbos to form long, upcurved claws to 2 cm. Seeds narrowly obovoid, thick-walled; body ca. 20 mm (largest in the genus), dark brown; wing broad, short, ca. 10 mm, shed easily. 2n=24 (Little 1980, Kral 1993).
USA: California through the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, nearly ringing the Central Valley, in dry foothills; Oregon, local in Douglas, Jackson and Josephine counties. Found at (30)300-900(1900) m elevation (Little 1980, Kral 1993, records of the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria searched 2009.06.16, and David Landrum email 2012.03.31). Commonly found in association with California blue oak (Quercus douglasii) or canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis). The climate is Mediterranean, with annual mean precipitation of 530 mm, ranging from 76 to 1,000 mm. Eighty percent of precipitation occurs during winter and early spring. Snow falls occasionally. The annual mean temperature is 16°C, with maximum summer temperatures sometimes above 41°C). Relative humidity is often 5 percent or lower in summer (FEIS database, 2004.03.02). Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001). See also Thompson et al. (1999).
Foothills pine and four species of Quercus (oaks) comprise the dominant species of the blue oak woodland, a community that essentially encircles California's Central Valley. There are few shrubs, and the understory consists mainly of introduced grasses and native forbs. As such, the woodland is slightly hotter and drier than the chaparral, with which it forms a landscape mosaic that also includes parklands and grasslands. At increasing elevations, foothills pine is restricted to open habitats on serpentine soils, being competitively displaced by Pinus coulteri and P. ponderosa subsp. benthamiana (Barbour 1988). The role of fire in the establishment and perpetuation of foothills pine has not been widely studied, but the species' fecundity, short life span and occurrence in fire-prone areas all suggest that it has coevolved with relatively frequent fire. However, fire can extirpate an isolated grove of the trees, and their range appears to have increased with anthropogenic fire suppression in California's Central Valley (Callahan 2009).
As with all other pines having large seeds with vestigial wings, this species relies on corvids to gather its seeds and plant them in suitable locations. In this case the principal actors are the Steller's jay and the scrub jay. The Steller's jay lives in forests and dense woodland and is a great flier, likely carrying the seeds for distances of some kilometers. In contrast, the scrub jay lives in the chaparral and in open country, but it usually does not carry seeds far from the tree, and is thus of limited value in reestablishing groves that have been destroyed by fire (although long seed longevity and the sturdy nature of the cones facilitate reestablishment from seed after fire). The contrasting ecology of these species may explain why this is a species of the foothills, not ranging far from the mountains (Callahan 2009).
There are a number of contenders. The current official champion is 162.5 cm dbh and 38.40 m tall with a crown spread of 26.21 meters, and grows in Kern County, CA (American Forests 2005). Past champions have ranged up to 180.3 cm diameter and an unverified height of 54.86 m (Callahan 2009). I found the tree shown at left along the Nacimento-Ferguson road in the southern Santa Lucia Mountains; it is 156 cm in diameter, 37 m in height, with a crown spread of 25.1 m.
Seen widely throughout its range. It can be seen in many California State Parks around the Central Valley and in Yosemite National Park, although it is strangely absent in the vicinity of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Within the proper habitat it is abundant and well-developed groves are common.
This species was first discovered to botany by David Douglas in 1826, in the Umpqua country in Oregon, near the uttermost northern range limits of the species. Alas, he lost his specimens in crossing the Santiam River, and did not encounter the tree again until February 1831, during a trip to the summit of the Gabilan Range near Monterey, California (Harvey 1948).
The large, heavy cones resemble footballs covered with wooden spikes. It is best to avoid the pine groves on windy days.
John Muir, as always, waxed poetic when he described this tree in the first chapter of My First Summer in the Sierra: "This day has been as hot and dusty as the first, leading over gently sloping brown hills, with mostly the same vegetation, excepting the strange-looking Sabine pine (Pinus Sabiniana), which here forms small groves or is scattered among the blue oaks. The trunk divides at a height of fifteen or twenty feet into two or more stems, outleaning or nearly upright, with many straggling branches and long gray needles, casting but little shade. In general appearance this tree looks more like a palm than a pine. The cones are about six or seven inches long, about five in diameter, very heavy, and last long after they fall, so that the ground beneath the trees is covered with them. They make fine resiny, light-giving camp-fires, next to ears of Indian corn the most beautiful fuel I've ever seen. The nuts, the Don tells me, are gathered in large quantities by the Digger Indians for food. They are about as large and hard-shelled as hazelnuts, --food and fire fit for the gods from the same fruit."
This species is the principal host for the dwarf mistletoe Arceuthobium occidentale (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).
Barbour, Michael G. 1988. California upland forests and woodlands. P. 131-164 in Barbour, M.G. and W.D. Billings (eds.), "North American terrestrial vegetation." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Callahan, Frank. 2009. Discovering Gray Pine (Pinus sabiniana) in Oregon. Kalmiopsis 16:1-14. Available: www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis04.html, accessed 2009.11.14. Useful summary of subjects such as history, ecology, and ethnobotany.
Harvey, A. G. 1948. Douglas of the Fir. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Hunter, Melvin. 1991. Racist Relics: An Ugly Blight On Our Botanical Nomenclature. The Scientist 5:0. http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/nov/opin_911125.html, accessed 2004.03.02.
Griffin, J. R. 1962. Intraspecific variation in Pinus sabiniana Doug. PhD Thesis, University of California, Berkeley. 274 pp.
Griffin, J. R. 1964. David Douglas and the digger pine: some questions. Madroño 17:227-230.
Griffin, J. R. 1964. Cone morphology in Pinus sabiniana. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 45:260-273.
The FEIS database has an extensive entry for this species. Highly recommended.
Griffin, J.R. 1964. Cone morphology in Pinus sabiniana. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 45:260-273.
Hinton, Leanne. 1994. Flutes of Fire. Berkeley, CA. Heyday Books, see particularly the remarks quoted HERE.
Ledig, F. T. 1999. Genic diversity, genetic structure, and biogeography of Pinus sabiniana Dougl. Diversity and Distributions 5:77-90.
Powers, R. F. 1990. Pinus sabiniana. Pp. 463-489 in Burns & Honkala 1990.
Last Modified 2014-12-13 | <urn:uuid:45e676d1-efdb-44b1-850f-d6139e780f58> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://conifers.org/pi/Pinus_sabiniana.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802765678.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075245-00045-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923159 | 2,720 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Ever heard of the old saying: “Feed a cold, starve a fever”? Ever wondered about the origins of the old adage and whether it is actually true?
This idea most likely originated during the Middle Ages when people believed there were two kinds of illnesses – illnesses caused by low temperatures, such as a cold and illnesses caused by high temperatures, such as fever. The belief is that the body needed fuel to combat illnesses caused by cold temperatures, hence the need to eat when one has a cold. On the converse, for illnesses caused by high temperatures, we needed to deprive the furnace of the body of energy by not eating and hence starving the fever.
The idea that there are cold or hot temperature illnesses has now been largely debunked by modern medicine and doctors will say that one needs plenty of rest and fluids for both colds and flu. Colds and flu are caused by viruses, for which there is no cure. But one can support the immune system with proper nutrition and, even more importantly, proper hydration.
In other words, we should be feeding both the flu and a cold with nutritious and healthy foods!
There are many reasons you should not try to starve a fever. Fever is part of the immune system’s attempt to combat the virus. Fever raises body temperature, which increases metabolism and burns more calories. That’s one reason why taking in calories becomes important. You need to fuel your body to fight!
The importance of hydration also cannot ve understated in both cases. Fever dehydrates the body, in part through increased sweating from the elevated temperature. Vomiting and diarrhoea, two common symptoms of the flu, also quickly dehydrate the body. Dehydration makes the mucus in the nose, throat, and lungs dry up, which can lead to clogged sinuses and respiratory tubes. When mucus hardens it becomes more difficult to cough, which is the body’s way of trying to expel mucus and the germs it contains.
Replacing fluids is critical to helping the body battle the virus. Water works just fine, as do fruit juices and electrolyte beverages. If you feel nauseated, try taking small sips of liquids, as gulps might cause you to throw up. | <urn:uuid:6413f050-287b-49df-8548-0d165306c62d> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://thehealthydaily.com/2021/11/14/feed-a-cold-starve-a-fever-true-or-false/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964362287.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20211202175510-20211202205510-00442.warc.gz | en | 0.966331 | 464 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Tuna Commission fails again to ensure bluefin tuna recovery
Under pressure from the Mediterranean fishing industry and countries benefiting from the highly profitable trade of the sushi favourite red-fleshed bluefin tuna, ICCAT endorsed an annual catch still far too high to enable the species’ recovery – and held back efforts to regulate the fishery in the Mediterranean, where the eastern Atlantic population of bluefin tuna migrates to spawn.
Commission members decided to drop the 2011 eastern bluefin fishing quota by only 600 tonnes, from 13,500 tonnes to 12,900 – while WWF was urging a catch of less than 6,000 tonnes in line with more precautionary recommendations to enable recovery of the overexploited fish stocks. What has been decided does almost nothing to help the troubled species recover.
“Greed and mismanagement have taken priority over sustainability and common sense at this ICCAT meeting when it comes to Atlantic bluefin. This measly quota reduction is insufficient to ensure the recovery of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of WWF Mediterrean’s Fisheries Programme.
“After years of observing ICCAT and countless opportunities to do the right thing, it is clear to us that the commission’s interests lie not in the sustainable harvesting of bluefin tuna but in pandering to short-term business interests. There have been no effective measures implemented here to deal with widespread illegal and unreported fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean,” said Tudela.
Recent investigations have shown the high levels of non-compliance and rule-bending still rife across the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery. While there are observers on vessels there is a lot of guess work involved, and control measures were not significantly improved at the Paris ICCAT meeting.
“ICCAT members are wilfully blind to the fact that failing to reduce fishing quotas to precautionary levels recommended by science will logically result in the lack of recovery of the species. Before this meeting WWF asked whether ICCAT wants to remain ineffective or help save bluefin tuna. The answer is becoming all too clear,” said Tudela.
WWF welcomed, however, the decision to finally respect the so-called payback regulations, meaning that countries which have overfished would see their quotas reduced accordingly in future to compensate. This application of fishing rules is crucial in Europe at a time when the EU is reforming its common fisheries policy and has pledged to follow science and slash illegal fishing.
In 2007 France fished well over 10,000 tonnes, while in 2011 its quota will be less than 1,000 after payback. France’s 2011 quota should be allocated among artisanal fleets rather than the industrial purse seine vessels that are responsible for the massive overfishing in the recent past.
WWF is urging that capacity reduction measures put in place today also focus on cutting purse seiners. The new rules dictate that within three years boat capacity in the Mediterranean – currently far too high – should be aligned with fishing quotas. While current figures for boat numbers underestimate real capacity, this is a positive move.
Coming into the meeting ICCAT’s chairman Dr Fabio Hazin talked of “the obligation to respect science” and expressed “confidence and consequent optimism” that countries would “act responsibly and adopt measures needed to ensure sustainability” of fish stocks. But ICCAT members countries have fallen short of this expectation.
“Everyone talked of respecting science and wanting to adopt measures to ensure recovery of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, but the measures adopted today are highly risky given the dire status of bluefin tuna stocks and all the blanks and unknowns in the current data gathering and analysis,” said Dr Tudela of WWF.
ICCAT has for years failed to implement recovery and sustainable management of the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean Sea.
WWF, an observer at the negotiations during the ICCAT meeting, was calling on governments to end rule-bending and impunity for illegal fishing, and urging the inter-governmental body to implement a science-based management plan that will allow the Atlantic bluefin tuna to recover.
WWF was also calling for the establishment of no-fishing sanctuaries in the six identified spawning grounds in the Mediterranean Sea, but this suggestion was removed entirely from the agenda.
A proposal to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna through a listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was defeated in Doha, Qatar last March. But the main harvesting and consuming countries of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna, the EU and Japan – as well as Norway, Canada and the U.S. – promised to lead in getting sustainable and science-based fisheries management measures adopted at this year’s ICCAT meeting.
Japan in particular opposed the CITES listing and stressed that ICCAT was the place to sustainably manage Atlantic bluefin tuna and that countries would show the world ICCAT is capable of ensuring the recovery of the species.
“WWF is disappointed the Doha commitments were not respected here in Paris. We had high hopes that Japan especially would take leadership at this ICCAT meeting in putting in place sustainable and precautionary management measures for bluefin tuna as well as enforcing strict compliance,” said Dr Aiko Yamauchi, Fisheries Officer at WWF-Japan. “The results fall short of our high expectations, in spite of fresh evidence of widespread rule-breaking again this year. We are urging Japan to strictly enforce compliance rules.”
ICCAT’s scientists will next assess bluefin tuna stocks in the East Atlantic in 2012, when they vow to address the uncertainties in data to ensure recommendations are clearer. Data quality must improve but also the methodologies employed to analyse figures. WWF will work with scientists to optimise the process during the next two years.
For more information
Gemma Parkes at WWF: m +39 346 387 3237 // e firstname.lastname@example.org // www.panda.org/tuna | <urn:uuid:041a94d8-5c04-4ca8-aa39-ef4815201a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?197331/Tuna-Commission-fails-again-to-ensure-bluefin-tuna-recovery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163052593/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131732-00097-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938723 | 1,254 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What are the important skills or exercises to keep track of for youth soccer?
It depends on the individual team. Younger kids are going to have more generalized fitness goals. Old and higher levels of soccer will be more specific.
The older athlete will probably have more of them as well. They should have input into what is being measured…as well as goal setting for how they will accomplish the goal.
Here are some exercises that a U8 soccer team could use to see if they are improving in their fitness goals.
1. 50 yard dash. For measuring speed.
2. 5 yard agility run. Players shuffle for five yards and touch the yardline each time. Do six touches. Measures agility.
3. Push-ups. A good general measure of upper body strength.
4. Crunch or sit-up. Not the best core exercise but easily administered and standardized. See how many in 30 or 60 seconds.
5. Three standing broad jumps for distance. Measure leg strength and easier to measure than jumping for height.
Obviously, you could add as many exercises as you wanted. I think five is a good number; enough to measure most fitness goals needed for soccer.
How often should you measure or test?
I would do it three or four times during the season. You don’t have to test each one at the same time.
Another thing to do is to give the kids an “I can do” report. When they are done with the test, they take home a goal sheet that states:
I can do 12 push-ups.
I can do 21 sit-ups in 30 seconds.
This will keep the kids involved and the parents as well. Let the parents know that you think fitness is an important part of being a soccer player.
Get your parents to help you improve their children’s fitness and athletic skills. Encourage them to check out athletic skills for soccer; the only program that teaches parents how to improve their child’s soccer fitness.
Click on the above link to find out more! | <urn:uuid:c5a30ccc-f115-49c8-b44f-7e5892cdb20c> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://athleticskillsforkids.com/2011/07/07/keeping-track-of-soccer-fitness-part-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320206.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623235306-20170624015306-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.976102 | 425 | 2.78125 | 3 |
By Vanda Faria, Nathalie Erpelding, Alyssa Lebel, Adriana Johnson, Robert Wolff, Damien Fair, Rami Burstein, Lino Becerra, and David Borsook | PAIN | July 13, 2015
The prevalence of migraine has an exponential trajectory that is most obvious in young females between puberty and early adulthood. Adult females are affected twice as much as males. During development, hormonal changes may act on predetermined brain circuits increasing the probability of migraine. However, little is known about the pediatric migraine brain and migraine evolution. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we evaluated 28 children with migraine (14 females and 14 males) and 28 sex-matched healthy controls to determine differences in brain structure and function between: (a) females and males with migraine, and (b) females and males with migraine during earlier (10-11 years old) vs later (14-16 years) developmental stages compared to matched healthy controls. Compared to males, females had more gray matter (GM) in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), supplementary motor area (SMA), precuneus (PCu), basal ganglia (BG), and amygdala, as well as greater PCu functional resting state connectivity to the thalamus, amygdala and BG, and greater amygdala functional resting state connectivity to the thalamus, anterior midcingulate cortex, and SMA. Moreover, older females with migraine had more GM in the S1, amygdala, and caudate compared older males with migraine and matched healthy controls. This is the first study showing sex and developmental differences in pediatric migraineurs in brain regions associated with sensory, motor, and affective functions, providing insight into the neural mechanisms underlying distinct migraine sex phenotypes as well as their evolution that could result in important clinical implications increasing treatment effectiveness.
Read the full article here. | <urn:uuid:f2d11f22-caf6-49c5-9772-a63af9751812> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://clbb.mgh.harvard.edu/tag/david-borsook/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320304217.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20220123081226-20220123111226-00534.warc.gz | en | 0.930187 | 385 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Carbohydrates are the most abundant fuel source available for human metabolic processes. Carbohydrates can be classified as simple and complex, and they often determine whether a carbohydrate is nutritious or non-nutritious.
People have an understanding of carbohydrates that are ‘natural’ or ‘refined’ but do not understand what the difference is between these two types of carbohydrates. For this reason, it is important to be well versed in this knowledge, so individuals can make better decisions about what to put into their bodies.
When it comes to making decisions about the food we eat, understanding the difference between natural and refined carbs is important. Refined carbs such as added sugar foods that not offer any nutritional value and can increase the number of risk factors for many diseases and strokes such as LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), triglycerides, and inflammation.
Conversely, natural carbs or digestible carbohydrate such as vegetables, whole foods, green beans are rich in nutrients that promote good health. By eliminating refined starch foods from the diet people can lose weight and improve their health. To know more about the context scroll up here
In This Article
What Are Refined Carbs?
Refined carbohydrates are simple carbohydrates that have been manipulated or processed foods. In most cases, this process strips away many of the important nutrients found in natural dietary fiber. On the other hand, complex carbs are known as ‘good’ carbs because they provide many nutritional benefits. Complex carbs are essentially the opposite of refined carbohydrates, as they leave a person feeling full and satisfied after consumption.
Though foods with refined carbohydrates have been processed to the point where they no longer contain naturally occurring nutrients from their original form. Refined carbs are mainly sugars, such as glucose and fructose, which can cause blood sugar spikes. When there is too much glucose in the bloodstream, it becomes converted into fat. Refined starch foods also include other blood sugar such as sucrose, which is found in many processed foods. Other refined carbs include simple starches that have been heavily processed to make them easily digestible.
First of all, natural carbs are found in whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Refined carbs, on the other hand, sometimes called bad carbs or simple carbs, tend to be processed and lack nutritional value. This is not to say that natural carbs are inherently “healthy” and refined carbs are inherently “unhealthy.”
Natural carbs also come in processed forms. An example is fruit juice, which lacks the fiber of eating whole fruits. There’s no denying that substituting natural for refined grains is a good thing. It can have positive effects on weight loss, disease prevention, and even athletic performance.
What are refined carbs to avoid?
Refined carbs generally get their start as whole grains. Wheat, corn, oats-all of these things can be processed into their refined form. Refined carbs such as chips and cookies do not offer any nutritional value and can contribute to weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes.
There are a few things you can do to reduce the number of refined carbohydrates in your diet. People who are trying to weight loss or are particularly sensitive to blood sugar should avoid eating simple carbs with other diets high benefits. The reason for this is because they are often high in calories while being void of fiber, protein, and other nutrients that slow digestion.
As well as one another way to avoid refined carbohydrates is to read labels on the foods you are buying. When purchasing bread, try to opt for options that have less than five grams of sugar per serving or are whole grain. The same goes for other food items such as pasta sauce – the best option is one that does not contain added sugars.
Many of the complex carbs that are high in fiber help to make you feel full longer because they take longer to digest, leaving your blood sugar levels relatively stable compared to their refined grains or insulin resistance counterparts. For example, replace white rice with brown rice or substitute whole grains for pasta and bread. Also, choose fresh fruit instead of juice and drink water, tea, or coffee instead of high fructose corn syrup.
Why refined carbs are bad for health?
In the above of this article, we already have told that refined starchy foods such as chips and cookies do not offer any high fiber foods. They are often high in sugar, sodium, and trans-fats which can be detrimental to your overall health benefits. Unrefined carbs such as whole grains provide fiber, vitamins, and minerals are considered healthy eating foods.
For example, a cup of brown rice provides over 100 percent of the daily recommended allowance of thiamin, niacin, and folate. One cup of white rice contains zero percent of those vitamins and minerals.
Refined carbohydrates are “bad for health” because there are no nutritional benefits or they are also the reasons for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The body breaks them down quickly because they offer little to no fiber, vitamins, or minerals. Instead of a glass of orange juice for breakfast, try a bowl of oatmeal with fruit. These are also called simple carbohydrates, meaning they get broken down quickly by the body.
As compared to refined grains, natural carbohydrates are “good for health” because they come packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Plus, they take longer to break down in the stomach so people feel full longer. Whole-grain bread and pasta offer more nutrients than their processed counterparts. So, swap out white rice for brown and snack on air-popped popcorn rather than potato chips.
Refining food destroys the beneficial parts of natural foods or a healthy diet, which often leaves us with carbs that are easily digested and absorbed by our bodies. The outcome is an excess of glucose being stored as fat since there is plenty of glucose available for energy production. When we eat added sugar foods we do not take in as much fiber as those who eat natural carbohydrates. Refined carb further supports the build-up of high blood sugar and leads to obesity.
What are refined carbs foods?
People often turn to refined carbs because they are cheap, readily available, and taste good. Yet, these same people may not realize that eating added sugar carbs food is harmful to their bodies. Refined carbohydrates are typically processed in some way by taking a simple carbs product and removing its outer layer, or bran. Refined carbohydrates can include things such as candy, white bread, whole wheat flour, empty calories foods like waffles or pastries, and other snack foods like white bread and pasta which are high in refined foods.
Refined grains are any type of carbohydrate that has been processed or altered from their natural state. Products made with refined carbohydrates lack many of the nutrients, minerals, and fiber you find in their less-processed counterparts. The sugar and refined carbs process destroys most of the fiber content of the original grain, as well as some of the nutrients contained in the outer layer.
Natural carbs can still cause health problems if we eat too much of them, examples include unpeeled potatoes, fruit juice, empty calories snacks, and spikes in blood sugar. The main difference between refined and natural (complex) carbs is that one has been processed.
Refined carbohydrates which contain important fibers, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants, and other phytonutrients necessary for good health are stripped of their outer coatings. According to the high glycemic index, these carbs are processed sugars and have lack nutrients which are usually replaced with additives, preservatives, chemicals, or other ingredients that harm your body.
What are examples of refined carbs?
In addition to being low fiber diets, these types of carbohydrates are also loaded with added sugars, sodium, and saturated fats. While both types of carbs can be consumed in moderation to maintain a balanced diet, natural complex carbohydrates still provide essential nutrients which help the body process these foods more efficiently.
However, the most common refined or simple carbs include:
- White bread
- White pasta
- Sugary cereals
- White flour
The most common carbohydrate foods which are the main reason for high blood sugar levels or weight gain include:
- Cakes and pies
- Ice cream
- Frozen yogurt, or other sweets.
On the other side, according to dietary guidelines high fructose corn syrup is high in refined carb diets, Like:
- Distilled alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine are at increased risk fatty acids.
- Added sugars syrup such as processed meat, caramel, etc.
- Canned fruit juices
- Granola bars
- Maple syrup
Not all carbs are added sugars there are many processed carbohydrates which considered as bad carbs and affects our many health benefits or have empty calories, they are:
- Pizza and other baked goods with white flour crusts.
- French fries are also considered a refined carb and help in weight gain.
- Burger or white flour vegetables role which also called as low carb diets.
Additionally, many types of natural sugars drinks are also considered refined carbohydrates. These types of natural sugary drinks are often found in processed foods, including:
- Many breakfast cereals
- cane sugar,
- starchy vegetables or soup
- salad dressings
- packaged foods
- plant foods
- barbecue sauce, and
- other condiments.
What carbs should I avoid losing belly fat?
If you want to lose belly fat, avoid soluble carbs because they spike insulin and promote fat storage in the midsection.
Foods that are high in refined starch foods such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, etc. you should avoid if you want to lose belly fat.
If it’s possible, try not to consume any carbs at all for a full day before bedtime. Complex carbohydrates can also help people lose weight, but they should be eaten in moderation during the day and only after vigorous exercise. Refined grains such as white rice or white bread should also be avoided if possible due to their rapid release of sugars into the bloodstream which translate into high blood sugar levels which result in more stored belly fat.
How many carbs you should consume per day?
The USDA Dietary Guidelines recommends that 50% to 65% of daily calories come from carbohydrates, which is 160-235 grams per day.
To calculate your appropriate carb intake target for weight management, take your body mass index (BMI) and divide it by 18.5. For example, if the person weighs 170 lbs- the quotient would be 8.8, so he or she should aim to eat 575 Healthy Carbs for Weight Management each day (170/18.5).
What foods are high in refined carbs?
Foods that are high in refined carbs often include Waffles, pastries, pizza, breakfast cereals or burgers, etc are the foods that are high in refined carbs. A lot of wheat and corn-based products use refined carbs as a cheap filler option to make their product that much more cheap.
Processed grains such as cereal bars or muffins also typically contain a fair amount of white flour which is made from refined carbs.
It’s not only over-consumption of carbs that’s bad either – too many simple carbs can also cause spikes in blood glucose which help damage cells faster over time due to all the insulin released into your bloodstream! With more going on inside your body
What are good carbs for weight loss?
As well for losing weight you can consume that food which is low in carbs like white rice or natural juicy drinks.
There are many types of carbs. High-fiber carbohydrates found in whole grains, vegetables and fruit provide energy with less fat than other types of food. They also promote a healthy digestive system and facilitate weight loss because fiber increases satiety and leaves you feeling full for longer periods of time.
Why carbs are good for your health?
Carbs are considered a high-calorie food, but is a carb a good source of nutrition for your body? Absolutely! They not only give you energy to get through the day, they’re loaded with dietary fiber that can help lower cholesterol.
Carbs are essential to make the hormones that regulate blood sugar, like insulin and glucagon. Your brain needs carbs for fuel, which is important because if there’s not enough carbs to maintain this level of brain activity, your body will break down muscle protein in your muscles (along with many other tissues) in order to get energy. Carbohydrates also stimulate tryptophan production in the intestine which makes us sleepy!
In conclusion, simple or refined carbs should be carefully monitored because too much can lead to negative health issues. One way to reduce your intake of these carbs is by avoiding highly processed foods as well as those high in sugar or white flour. Instead, opt for whole grains and a variety of fresh produce to ensure you are getting the nutrients your body needs.
Food is inherently good. It sustains life, provides energy, all the while being delicious. However, this does not mean that food cannot be bad for you if consumed in excess or in an unhealthy way. Simple carbs are carbohydrates that have been processed to remove their outer coating through grains such as wheat, rice, and corn are refined before we eat them.
They supply the body with calories but offer very little nutrition. Because of this, refined carbohydrates should be substituted with clinical nutrition as much as possible. There are health concerns associated with over-consumption of simple carbohydrates such as obesity and diabetes therefore it is important to monitor your intake and take care not to exceed what you need.
However, eating too much refined starch foods can lead to weight gain which has been associated with increased causes for cancers or other cardiovascular diseases. It’s suggested by a glycemic index that individuals who consume a diet high in refined or simple carbohydrates are at risk of developing metabolic syndrome. | <urn:uuid:14c7ec22-8a16-42ea-8caf-635cc875ed0f> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.momnewsdaily.com/health/what-are-refined-carbs-what-you-should-know/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300616.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220117182124-20220117212124-00186.warc.gz | en | 0.957132 | 2,869 | 3.453125 | 3 |
WHERE THE SALT LAMP CAME FROM
Salt Lamps emit negative ions. These ions neutralize positively charged ions found in the dust and germs present in our environment. Pollution, dust, heating systems and computers destroy negative ions. Salt lamps create negative ions and help restore the purity of your air. The salt was formed more than 250 million years ago in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. The salt is extracted by hand to avoid contamination and then shaped to highlight its natural beauty. The stone is then handcrafted into a lamp by a professional craftsmen. These beautiful lamps vary in color, from crystalline white to dark orange. The luster is from a rough matte finish to shiny. Each lamp is extraordinary in shape and hue.
Salt lamps are new to North America. The warm glow of the Himalayan Lamp will beautify any room in the house or office while the heated crystal gently cleanses the air.
Regular testimonies from many different clients state that salt lamps have the ability to eliminate or reduce stress, depression, headaches, allergies, and breathing problems. Salt lamps can stimulate the immune system and aid in digestion. It has been known to heighten sexual behavior, and provide relief from other ailments.
Many people feel that using salt lamps leaves them feeling content and invigorated. Whether used for their health benefits or as a night light, the warm glow creates a feeling of wellness and comfort.
The Benefits of Himalayan Salt Lamps
- Dust Mites
- Dander Allergies
- Smoke Sensitivity
- Promotes stable pH balance in the cells including the brain
- Encourages excellent blood sugar health
- Promotes cellular hydroelectric energy creation
- Promotes increased absorption of food elements in the intestinal tract
- Aids in vascular health
- Supports healthy respiratory function
- Lowers incidence of sinus problems and promotes sinus health
- Reduces muscle cramps and increases bone strength
- Naturally promotes healthy sleep patterns
- Creates a healthy libido
- In combination with water, it regulates blood pressure
- Reduces chances of developing:
- rheumatism arthritis | <urn:uuid:663ec180-5453-439e-9b37-f8517d6daf12> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://margaretsreflectionsofhope.com/himalayan-salt-benefits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999263.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620165805-20190620191805-00280.warc.gz | en | 0.896065 | 437 | 2.75 | 3 |
In this blog post, Pritishree Dash, a student of National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, who is currently pursuing a Diploma in Entrepreneurship Administration and Business Laws from NUJS, Kolkata, discusses if debentures can be converted into shares and vice versa.
What are shares?
Every company limited by shares must have a share capital which is the amount invested in the company to carry out its functions. The share capital can be divided into small shares of a different kind. A share is the interest of a member in a company measured for liability and dividend. Section 2(84) of the Companies Act, 2013 defines “share” which means a share in the share capital of a company and includes stock.
What are debentures?
A debenture is like a certificate of the loan or a loan bond evidencing the fact that the company is liable to pay a specified amount with interest and although the money raised by the debentures becomes a part of the company’s capital structure, it doesn’t become share capital. A debenture is a method of borrowing. Section 2 (30) of the Companies Act, 2013 defines inclusively debenture as debenture stock, bonds or any other instrument of a company evidencing a debt, whether constituting a charge on the assets of the company or not. The term debenture covers both secured and unsecured debentures. Section 71 of the Act enables that a company may issue debentures with an option to convert such debentures into shares, either wholly or partly at the time of redemption. The issue of debentures with an option to convert such debentures into shares, wholly or partly, has to be approved by a special resolution passed at a general meeting. On the basis of convertibility, Debentures may be classified into following categories:
(A) Non-Convertible Debentures (NCD): These instruments retain the debt character and cannot be converted into equity shares.
(B) Partly Convertible Debentures (PCD): A part of these instruments are converted into equity shares in the future at the notice of the issuer. The issuer decides the ratio for conversion. This is normally decided at the time of subscription.
(C) Fully convertible Debentures (FCD): These are fully convertible into Equity shares at the issuer’s notice. The issuer decides the ratio of conversion. Upon conversion, the investors enjoy the same status as ordinary shareholders of the company.
(D) Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCD): The investor has the option to either convert these debentures into shares at the price decided by the issuer/agreed upon at the time of issue.
Conversion of shares into debentures
A company may issue debentures with an option to convert debentures into shares, either wholly or partly at the time of redemption, provided that the issue of debentures with an option to convert such debentures into shares shall be approved by a special resolution passed by the shareholders at a duly convened general meeting of the company. Under SEBI (ICDR) Regulations 2009, “specified securities” means equity shares and convertible securities. The “convertible security” has been defined to mean a security which is convertible into or exchangeable with equity shares of the issuer at a later date, with or without the option of the holder of the security and includes convertible debt instrument and convertible preference shares. Additionally, the issuer of convertible debt instruments has to be in compliance with the following:
(a) obtain a credit rating from one or more credit rating agencies;
(b) appoint one or more debenture trustees in accordance with the provisions of Section 117B of Companies Act, 1956 [new section 71(5) of the Companies Act, 2013] and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Debenture Trustees) Regulations, 1993;
(c) create debenture redemption reserve in accordance with the provisions of Section 117C of Companies Act, 1956 [new section 71(4) of the Companies Act, 2013;]
(d) if the issuer proposes to create a charge or security on its assets in respect of secured convertible debt instruments, it shall ensure that:
- such assets are sufficient to discharge the principal amount at all times;
- such assets are free from any encumbrance;
- where security is already created on such assets in favour of financial institutions or banks or the issue of convertible debt instruments is proposed to be secured by creation of security on a leasehold land, the consent of such financial institution, bank or lessor for a second or pari passu (it implies with equal step, equally treated, at the same rate, or at par with) charge has been obtained and submitted to the debenture trustee before the opening of the issue;
- the security/asset cover shall be arrived at after reduction of the liabilities having a prior charge, in case the convertible debt instruments are secured by a second or subsequent charge.
The issuer shall redeem the convertible debt instruments in terms of the offer document. SEBI (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008 deal with compliances with respect to non-convertible debt instruments and apply to (a) Public issue of debt securities and (b) listing of debt securities issued through public issue or on private placement basis on a recognized stock exchange. It deals with aspects which include the filing of offer documents, disclosures, price discovery mechanism through book building and other routine public issue aspects.
Debentures conversion into shares
Section 81(3) of the Companies Act, 2013 permits companies to issue convertible debentures. Convertible debentures are converted into equity shares on maturity. The conversion date and rate of conversion is stated in the prospectus. The company does not redeem convertible debentures. Convertible debentures can be classified into fully convertible and partly convertible debentures.
A resolution for conversion has to be approved at the board meeting. The shareholders, as well as the debenture holders’ approval, is taken for conversion. A special resolution is passed to that effect. A copy of the special resolution is filed with the Registrar of companies within the 30 days of its passing. A letter of the option is sent to the debentures holders, and one copy of the same is filed with SEBI. The secretary then verifies the consent sent by the debenture holders for conversion. A debenture is converted into equity shares. A notice of the conversion is sent, and the debenture holders are asked to return debenture certificates. Secretary carries out the process of allotment of the shares. After allotment, changes have to be made in the Register of charges. Shares certificate is issued to the holders, and their names are entered in the register. A return of the allotment has to be filed with the Register of Companies.
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it is 71(3) of Companies Act,2013 not 81(3)
where is the procedure for conversion of debentures listed?
it is neither in the companies act nor in the Companies (Shares and Debentures) Rules, 2014 and also the 2016 amendment to the rules does not highlight the same. please advise! | <urn:uuid:03ad7219-53dd-4991-9bda-9e10036439b9> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://blog.ipleaders.in/can-debentures-converted-shares-vice-versa/?noamp=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649343.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603201228-20230603231228-00171.warc.gz | en | 0.927029 | 1,534 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Benefits of Administrative Law
Administrative law refers to the area of law responsible for overseeing the various branches of government in charge of administration. Government agencies that work in administrative capacities normally work like public law branches and deal mainly with the decision making branches of government. To discover the advantages of administrative law, continue reading this article.
1. Dispute resolution
The administrative practices in administrative law usually offer benefits that may not be located in the standard judicial process. Administrative law has greatly expanded because legislative bodies have created more regulating agencies. A great example is that administrative law allows parties to easily resolve their disputes. These disputes are resolved in a more reasonable and convenient manner as compared to trial courts. It also promotes uniform justice application as it applies to public agencies and public officials.
2. Lower costs
Because administrative law encourages quick resolution of conflicts than in the standard courts and judicial system, the costs of running it is comparatively lower. Judges in administrative law preside over conflicts or disputes between various parties, similar to the way judges preside over standard court cases. The cases are usually very quickly dealt with, which saves vital government resources.
3. Benefit litigants
In general, tribunal proceedings in administrative law function to the benefit of litigants. This is credited to the speedy justice delivery as well as the cost efficiency. Furthermore, with the use of administrative law and tribunals, the standard judicial courts no longer require dealing with the administrative matters. The courts are therefore released from the time consuming case hearing linked to certain administrative issues. Actually, an administrative court is better served to evaluate and weigh evidence in the arising administrative issues.
The demerit of administrative law is lack of sufficient publicity as hearings may be carried out in private, with no explanations being provided for decisions made. | <urn:uuid:7a01c50e-9e5a-4fae-a374-e3c4a7322133> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-administrative-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221217354.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20180820215248-20180820235248-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.949313 | 360 | 3.15625 | 3 |
In Thrace, and among the refugees from Pontus, now living mainly in Greek Macedonia, but also among other Balkan people the long type of vertical flute (floghera) which is made of three pieces and is about one meter in length, is called gavala, gaval or kaval. In other areas in Greece the same instrument is called tzamara.
The toumbeléki (goblet drum) is a ceramic vase-shaped drum, which seems to be more popular in the northern regions of Greece and in some islands (e.g. Mytilene). It is normally held under the left arm and beaten with both hands. The Paidoushka (or Baidoushka) is a lively Thracian dance in 5/16 meter, also popular in other Balkan countries and especially Bulgaria. Markos Ph. Dragoumis (1974)
Studio recording, 1974. | <urn:uuid:edf997f9-2194-4e9e-8776-e2d2f3e0d91e> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.domnasamiou.gr/?i=portal.en.songs&id=464 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711150.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20221207053157-20221207083157-00842.warc.gz | en | 0.941756 | 220 | 2.828125 | 3 |
This article demonstrates a psychological stress protocol for use in a laboratory setting. Protocols that allow researchers to study the biological pathways of the stress response in health and disease are fundamental to the progress of research in stress and anxiety.1 Although numerous protocols exist for inducing stress response in the laboratory, many neglect to provide a naturalistic context or to incorporate aspects of social and psychological stress. Of psychological stress protocols, meta-analysis suggests that the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is the most useful and appropriate standardized protocol for studies of stress hormone reactivity.2 In the original description of the TSST, researchers sought to design and evaluate a procedure capable of inducing a reliable stress response in the majority of healthy volunteers.3 These researchers found elevations in heart rate, blood pressure and several endocrine stress markers in response to the TSST (a psychological stressor) compared to a saline injection (a physical stressor).3 Although the TSST has been modified to meet the needs of various research groups, it generally consists of a waiting period upon arrival, anticipatory speech preparation, speech performance, and verbal arithmetic performance periods, followed by one or more recovery periods. The TSST requires participants to prepare and deliver a speech, and verbally respond to a challenging arithmetic problem in the presence of a socially evaluative audience.3 Social evaluation and uncontrollability have been identified as key components of stress induction by the TSST.4 In use for over a decade, the goal of the TSST is to systematically induce a stress response in order to measure differences in reactivity, anxiety and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) or sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis during the task.1 Researchers generally assess changes in self-reported anxiety, physiological measures (e.g. heart rate), and/or neuroendocrine indices (e.g. the stress hormone cortisol) in response to the TSST. Many investigators have adopted salivary sampling for stress markers such as cortisol and alpha-amylase (a marker of autonomic nervous system activation) as an alternative to blood sampling to reduce the confounding stress of blood-collection techniques. In addition to changes experienced by an individual completing the TSST, researchers can compare changes between different treatment groups (e.g. clinical versus healthy control samples) or the effectiveness of stress-reducing interventions.1
24 Related JoVE Articles!
An Alternative to the Traditional Cold Pressor Test: The Cold Pressor Arm Wrap
Institutions: Marquette University.
Recently research on the relationship between stress and cognition, emotion, and behavior has greatly increased. These advances have yielded insights into important questions ranging from the nature of stress' influence on addiction1
to the role of stress in neural changes associated with alterations in decision-making2,3
. As topics being examined by the field evolve, however, so too must the methodologies involved. In this article a practical and effective alternative to a classic stress induction technique, the cold pressor test (CPT), is presented: the cold pressor arm wrap (CPAW). CPT typically involves immersion of a participant's dominant hand in ice-cold water for a period of time4
. The technique is associated with robust activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary (SAM) axis (and release of catecholamines; e.g.
adrenaline and noradrenaline) and mild-to-moderate activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis with associated glucocorticoid (e.g.
cortisol) release. While CPT has been used in a wide range of studies, it can be impractical to apply in some research environments. For example use of water during, rather than prior to, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to damage sensitive and expensive equipment or interfere with acquisition of MRI signal. The CPAW is a practical and effective alternative to the traditional CPT. Composed of a versatile list of inexpensive and easily acquired components, CPAW makes use of MRI-safe gelpacs cooled to a temperature similar to CPT rather than actual water. Importantly CPAW is associated with levels of SAM and HPA activation comparable to CPT, and can easily be applied in a variety of research contexts. While it is important to maintain specific safety protocols when using the technique, these are easy to implement if planned for. Creation and use of the CPAW will be discussed.
Behavior, Issue 83, Sympathetic Nervous System, Glucocorticoids, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Neuroimaging, Functional Neuroimaging, Cognitive Science, Stress, Neurosciences, cold pressor, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol, sympatho-adrenomedullary axis, skin conductance
State-Dependency Effects on TMS: A Look at Motive Phosphene Behavior
Institutions: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Aalto University School of Science and Technology.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive neurostimulatory and neuromodulatory technique that can transiently or lastingly modulate cortical excitability (either increasing or decreasing it) via the application of localized magnetic field pulses.1,2
Within the field of TMS, the term state dependency
refers to the initial, baseline condition of the particular neural region targeted for stimulation. As can be inferred, the effects of TMS can (and do) vary according to this primary susceptibility and responsiveness of the targeted cortical area.3,4,5
In this experiment, we will examine this concept of state dependency through the elicitation and subjective experience of motive phosphenes. Phosphenes are visually perceived flashes of small lights triggered by electromagnetic pulses to the visual cortex. These small lights can assume varied characteristics depending upon which type of visual cortex is being stimulated. In this particular study, we will be targeting motive phosphenes as elicited through the stimulation of V1/V2 and the V5/MT+ complex visual regions.6
Neuroscience, Issue 46, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, state dependency, motive phosphenes, visual priming, V1/V2, V5/MT+
Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Children
Institutions: Academic Medical Center - University of Amsterdam, Public Health Service of Amsterdam (GGD), VU University, VU University Medical Center, VU University, VU University Medical Center.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls mainly automatic bodily functions that are engaged in homeostasis, like heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration and renal function. The ANS has two main branches: the sympathetic nervous system, preparing the human body for action in times of danger and stress, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates the resting state of the body.
ANS activity can be measured invasively, for instance by radiotracer techniques or microelectrode recording from superficial nerves, or it can be measured non-invasively by using changes in an organ's response as a proxy for changes in ANS activity, for instance of the sweat glands or the heart. Invasive measurements have the highest validity but are very poorly feasible in large scale samples where non-invasive measures are the preferred approach. Autonomic effects on the heart can be reliably quantified by the recording of the electrocardiogram (ECG) in combination with the impedance cardiogram (ICG), which reflects the changes in thorax impedance in response to respiration and the ejection of blood from the ventricle into the aorta. From the respiration and ECG signals, respiratory sinus arrhythmia can be extracted as a measure of cardiac parasympathetic control. From the ECG and the left ventricular ejection signals, the preejection period can be extracted as a measure of cardiac sympathetic control. ECG and ICG recording is mostly done in laboratory settings. However, having the subjects report to a laboratory greatly reduces ecological validity, is not always doable in large scale epidemiological studies, and can be intimidating for young children. An ambulatory device for ECG and ICG simultaneously resolves these three problems.
Here, we present a study design for a minimally invasive and rapid assessment of cardiac autonomic control in children, using a validated ambulatory device 1-5
, the VU University Ambulatory Monitoring System (VU-AMS, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, www.vu-ams.nl).
Medicine, Issue 74, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Anatomy, Physiology, Pediatrics, Cardiology, Heart, Central Nervous System, stress (psychological effects, human), effects of stress (psychological, human), sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, autonomic nervous system, ANS, childhood, ambulatory monitoring system, electrocardiogram, ECG, clinical techniques
Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory
Institutions: Boston College, Wofford College, University of Notre Dame.
Although rises in cortisol can benefit memory consolidation, as can sleep soon after encoding, there is currently a paucity of literature as to how these two factors may interact to influence consolidation. Here we present a protocol to examine the interactive influence of cortisol and sleep on memory consolidation, by combining three methods: eye tracking, salivary cortisol analysis, and behavioral memory testing across sleep and wake delays. To assess resting cortisol levels, participants gave a saliva sample before viewing negative and neutral objects within scenes. To measure overt attention, participants’ eye gaze was tracked during encoding. To manipulate whether sleep occurred during the consolidation window, participants either encoded scenes in the evening, slept overnight, and took a recognition test the next morning, or encoded scenes in the morning and remained awake during a comparably long retention interval. Additional control groups were tested after a 20 min delay in the morning or evening, to control for time-of-day effects. Together, results showed that there is a direct relation between resting cortisol at encoding and subsequent memory, only following a period of sleep. Through eye tracking, it was further determined that for negative stimuli, this beneficial effect of cortisol on subsequent memory may be due to cortisol strengthening the relation between where participants look during encoding and what they are later able to remember. Overall, results obtained by a combination of these methods uncovered an interactive effect of sleep and cortisol on memory consolidation.
Behavior, Issue 88, attention, consolidation, cortisol, emotion, encoding, glucocorticoids, memory, sleep, stress
Extraction and Analysis of Cortisol from Human and Monkey Hair
Institutions: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The stress hormone cortisol (CORT) is slowly incorporated into the growing hair shaft of humans, nonhuman primates, and other mammals. We developed and validated a method for CORT extraction and analysis from rhesus monkey hair and subsequently adapted this method for use with human scalp hair. In contrast to CORT "point samples" obtained from plasma or saliva, hair CORT provides an integrated measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system activity, and thus physiological stress, during the period of hormone incorporation. Because human scalp hair grows at an average rate of 1 cm/month, CORT levels obtained from hair segments several cm in length can potentially serve as a biomarker of stress experienced over a number of months.
In our method, each hair sample is first washed twice in isopropanol to remove any CORT from the outside of the hair shaft that has been deposited from sweat or sebum. After drying, the sample is ground to a fine powder to break up the hair's protein matrix and increase the surface area for extraction. CORT from the interior of the hair shaft is extracted into methanol, the methanol is evaporated, and the extract is reconstituted in assay buffer. Extracted CORT, along with standards and quality controls, is then analyzed by means of a sensitive and specific commercially available enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit. Readout from the EIA is converted to pg CORT per mg powdered hair weight. This method has been used in our laboratory to analyze hair CORT in humans, several species of macaque monkeys, marmosets, dogs, and polar bears. Many studies both from our lab and from other research groups have demonstrated the broad applicability of hair CORT for assessing chronic stress exposure in natural as well as laboratory settings.
Basic Protocol, Issue 83, cortisol, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, hair, stress, humans, monkeys
Collecting Saliva and Measuring Salivary Cortisol and Alpha-amylase in Frail Community Residing Older Adults via Family Caregivers
Institutions: Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Salivary measures have emerged in bio-behavioral research that are easy-to-collect, minimally invasive, and relatively inexpensive biologic markers of stress. This article we present the steps for collection and analysis of two salivary assays in research with frail, community residing older adults-salivary cortisol and salivary alpha amylase. The field of salivary bioscience is rapidly advancing and the purpose of this presentation is to provide an update on the developments for investigators interested in integrating these measures into research on aging. Strategies are presented for instructing family caregivers in collecting saliva in the home, and for conducting laboratory analyses of salivary analytes that have demonstrated feasibility, high compliance, and yield quality specimens. The protocol for sample collection includes: (1) consistent use of collection materials; (2) standardized methods that promote adherence and minimize subject burden; and (3) procedures for controlling certain confounding agents. We also provide strategies for laboratory analyses include: (1) saliva handling and processing; (2) salivary cortisol and salivary alpha amylase assay procedures; and (3) analytic considerations.
Medicine, Issue 82, Saliva, Dementia, Behavioral Research, Aging, Stress, saliva, cortisol, alpha amylase, dementia, caregiving, stress
Assessment of Vascular Function in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease
Institutions: University of Colorado, Denver, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to the general population, and this is only partially explained by traditional CVD risk factors. Vascular dysfunction is an important non-traditional risk factor, characterized by vascular endothelial dysfunction (most commonly assessed as impaired endothelium-dependent dilation [EDD]) and stiffening of the large elastic arteries. While various techniques exist to assess EDD and large elastic artery stiffness, the most commonly used are brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMDBA
) and aortic pulse-wave velocity (aPWV), respectively. Both of these noninvasive measures of vascular dysfunction are independent predictors of future cardiovascular events in patients with and without kidney disease. Patients with CKD demonstrate both impaired FMDBA
, and increased aPWV. While the exact mechanisms by which vascular dysfunction develops in CKD are incompletely understood, increased oxidative stress and a subsequent reduction in nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability are important contributors. Cellular changes in oxidative stress can be assessed by collecting vascular endothelial cells from the antecubital vein and measuring protein expression of markers of oxidative stress using immunofluorescence. We provide here a discussion of these methods to measure FMDBA
, aPWV, and vascular endothelial cell protein expression.
Medicine, Issue 88, chronic kidney disease, endothelial cells, flow-mediated dilation, immunofluorescence, oxidative stress, pulse-wave velocity
A Chemical Screening Procedure for Glucocorticoid Signaling with a Zebrafish Larva Luciferase Reporter System
Institutions: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Campus North, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Campus North, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Campus South.
Glucocorticoid stress hormones and their artificial derivatives are widely used drugs to treat inflammation, but long-term treatment with glucocorticoids can lead to severe side effects. Test systems are needed to search for novel compounds influencing glucocorticoid signaling in vivo
or to determine unwanted effects of compounds on the glucocorticoid signaling pathway. We have established a transgenic zebrafish assay which allows the measurement of glucocorticoid signaling activity in vivo
and in real-time, the GRIZLY assay (Glucocorticoid Responsive In vivo
Zebrafish Luciferase activitY). The luciferase-based assay detects effects on glucocorticoid signaling with high sensitivity and specificity, including effects by compounds that require metabolization or affect endogenous glucocorticoid production. We present here a detailed protocol for conducting chemical screens with this assay. We describe data acquisition, normalization, and analysis, placing a focus on quality control and data visualization. The assay provides a simple, time-resolved, and quantitative readout. It can be operated as a stand-alone platform, but is also easily integrated into high-throughput screening workflows. It furthermore allows for many applications beyond chemical screening, such as environmental monitoring of endocrine disruptors or stress research.
Developmental Biology, Issue 79, Biochemistry, Vertebrates, Zebrafish, environmental effects (biological and animal), genetics (animal), life sciences, animal biology, animal models, biochemistry, bioengineering (general), Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists, zebrafish, Danio rerio, chemical screening, luciferase, glucocorticoid, stress, high-throughput screening, receiver operating characteristic curve, in vivo, animal model
Biomarkers in an Animal Model for Revealing Neural, Hematologic, and Behavioral Correlates of PTSD
Institutions: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, GenProMarkers, Inc..
Identification of biomarkers representing the evolution of the pathophysiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is vitally important, not only for objective diagnosis but also for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy and resilience to trauma. Ongoing research is directed at identifying molecular biomarkers for PTSD, including traumatic stress induced proteins, transcriptomes, genomic variances and genetic modulators, using biologic samples from subjects' blood, saliva, urine, and postmortem brain tissues. However, the correlation of these biomarker molecules in peripheral or postmortem samples to altered brain functions associated with psychiatric symptoms in PTSD remains unresolved. Here, we present an animal model of PTSD in which both peripheral blood and central brain biomarkers, as well as behavioral phenotype, can be collected and measured, thus providing the needed correlation of the central biomarkers of PTSD, which are mechanistic and pathognomonic but cannot be collected from people, with the peripheral biomarkers and behavioral phenotypes, which can.
Our animal model of PTSD employs restraint and tail shocks repeated for three continuous days - the inescapable tail-shock model (ITS) in rats. This ITS model mimics the pathophysiology of PTSD 17, 7, 4, 10
. We and others have verified that the ITS model induces behavioral and neurobiological alterations similar to those found in PTSD subjects 17, 7, 10, 9
. Specifically, these stressed rats exhibit (1) a delayed and exaggerated startle response appearing several days after stressor cessation, which given the compressed time scale of the rat's life compared to a humans, corresponds to the one to three months delay of symptoms in PTSD patients (DSM-IV-TR PTSD Criterian D/E 13
), (2) enhanced plasma corticosterone (CORT) for several days, indicating compromise of the hypothalamopituitary axis (HPA), and (3) retarded body weight gain after stressor cessation, indicating dysfunction of metabolic regulation.
The experimental paradigms employed for this model are: (1) a learned helplessness paradigm in the rat assayed by measurement of acoustic startle response (ASR) and a charting of body mass; (2) microdissection of the rat brain into regions and nuclei; (3) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for blood levels of CORT; (4) a gene expression microarray plus related bioinformatics tools 18
. This microarray, dubbed rMNChip, focuses on mitochondrial and mitochondria-related nuclear genes in the rat so as to specifically address the neuronal bioenergetics hypothesized to be involved in PTSD.
Medicine, Issue 68, Genetics, Physiology, Neuroscience, Immunology, PTSD, biomarker, stress, fear, startle, corticosterone, animal model, RNA, RT-PCR, gene chip, cDNA microarray, oligonucleotide microarray, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, cingulate cortex, hypothalamus, white blood cell
A Novel High-resolution In vivo Imaging Technique to Study the Dynamic Response of Intracranial Structures to Tumor Growth and Therapeutics
Institutions: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital.
We have successfully integrated previously established Intracranial window (ICW) technology 1-4
with intravital 2-photon confocal microscopy to develop a novel platform that allows for direct long-term visualization of tissue structure changes intracranially. Imaging at a single cell resolution in a real-time fashion provides supplementary dynamic information beyond that provided by standard end-point histological analysis, which looks solely at 'snap-shot' cross sections of tissue.
Establishing this intravital imaging technique in fluorescent chimeric mice, we are able to image four fluorescent channels simultaneously. By incorporating fluorescently labeled cells, such as GFP+ bone marrow, it is possible to track the fate of these cells studying their long-term migration, integration and differentiation within tissue. Further integration of a secondary reporter cell, such as an mCherry glioma tumor line, allows for characterization of cell:cell interactions. Structural changes in the tissue microenvironment can be highlighted through the addition of intra-vital dyes and antibodies, for example CD31 tagged antibodies and Dextran molecules.
Moreover, we describe the combination of our ICW imaging model with a small animal micro-irradiator that provides stereotactic irradiation, creating a platform through which the dynamic tissue changes that occur following the administration of ionizing irradiation can be assessed.
Current limitations of our model include penetrance of the microscope, which is limited to a depth of up to 900 μm from the sub cortical surface, limiting imaging to the dorsal axis of the brain. The presence of the skull bone makes the ICW a more challenging technical procedure, compared to the more established and utilized chamber models currently used to study mammary tissue and fat pads 5-7
. In addition, the ICW provides many challenges when optimizing the imaging.
Cancer Biology, Issue 76, Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Neurobiology, Biophysics, Anatomy, Physiology, Surgery, Intracranial Window, In vivo imaging, Stereotactic radiation, Bone Marrow Derived Cells, confocal microscopy, two-photon microscopy, drug-cell interactions, drug kinetics, brain, imaging, tumors, animal model
Psychophysiological Stress Assessment Using Biofeedback
Institutions: Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School.
In the last half century, research in biofeedback has shown the extent to which the human mind can influence the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, previously thought to be outside of conscious control. By letting people observe signals from their own bodies, biofeedback enables them to develop greater awareness of their physiological and psychological reactions, such as stress, and to learn to modify these reactions. Biofeedback practitioners can facilitate this process by assessing people s reactions to mildly stressful events and formulating a biofeedback-based treatment plan. During stress assessment the practitioner first records a baseline for physiological readings, and then presents the client with several mild stressors, such as a cognitive, physical and emotional stressor. Variety of stressors is presented in order to determine a person's stimulus-response specificity, or differences in each person's reaction to qualitatively different stimuli. This video will demonstrate the process of psychophysiological stress assessment using biofeedback and present general guidelines for treatment planning.
Neuroscience, Issue 29, Stress, biofeedback, psychophysiological, assessment
Determining Cell Number During Cell Culture using the Scepter Cell Counter
Institutions: Millipore Inc.
Counting cells is often a necessary but tedious step for in vitro
cell culture. Consistent cell concentrations ensure experimental reproducibility and accuracy. Cell counts are important for monitoring cell health and proliferation rate, assessing immortalization or transformation, seeding cells for subsequent experiments, transfection or infection, and preparing for cell-based assays. It is important that cell counts be accurate, consistent, and fast, particularly for quantitative measurements of cellular responses.
Despite this need for speed and accuracy in cell counting, 71% of 400 researchers surveyed1
who count cells using a hemocytometer. While hemocytometry is inexpensive, it is laborious and subject to user bias and misuse, which results in inaccurate counts. Hemocytometers are made of special optical glass on which cell suspensions are loaded in specified volumes and counted under a microscope. Sources of errors in hemocytometry include: uneven cell distribution in the sample, too many or too few cells in the sample, subjective decisions as to whether a given cell falls within the defined counting area, contamination of the hemocytometer, user-to-user variation, and variation of hemocytometer filling rate2
To alleviate the tedium associated with manual counting, 29% of researchers count cells using automated cell counting devices; these include vision-based counters, systems that detect cells using the Coulter principle, or flow cytometry1
. For most researchers, the main barrier to using an automated system is the price associated with these large benchtop instruments1
The Scepter cell counter is an automated handheld device that offers the automation and accuracy of Coulter counting at a relatively low cost. The system employs the Coulter principle of impedance-based particle detection3
in a miniaturized format using a combination of analog and digital hardware for sensing, signal processing, data storage, and graphical display. The disposable tip is engineered with a microfabricated, cell- sensing zone that enables discrimination by cell size and cell volume at sub-micron and sub-picoliter resolution. Enhanced with precision liquid-handling channels and electronics, the Scepter cell counter reports cell population statistics graphically displayed as a histogram.
Cellular Biology, Issue 45, Scepter, cell counting, cell culture, hemocytometer, Coulter, Impedance-based particle detection
Making Sense of Listening: The IMAP Test Battery
Institutions: MRC Institute of Hearing Research, National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing.
The ability to hear is only the first step towards making sense of the range of information contained in an auditory signal. Of equal importance are the abilities to extract and use the information encoded in the auditory signal. We refer to these as listening skills (or auditory processing AP). Deficits in these skills are associated with delayed language and literacy development, though the nature of the relevant deficits and their causal connection with these delays is hotly debated.
When a child is referred to a health professional with normal hearing and unexplained difficulties in listening, or associated delays in language or literacy development, they should ideally be assessed with a combination of psychoacoustic (AP) tests, suitable for children and for use in a clinic, together with cognitive tests to measure attention, working memory, IQ, and language skills. Such a detailed examination needs to be relatively short and within the technical capability of any suitably qualified professional. Current tests for the presence of AP deficits tend to be poorly constructed and inadequately validated within the normal population. They have little or no reference to the presenting symptoms of the child, and typically include a linguistic component. Poor performance may thus reflect problems with language rather than with AP. To assist in the assessment of children with listening difficulties, pediatric audiologists need a single, standardized child-appropriate test battery based on the use of language-free stimuli.
We present the IMAP test battery which was developed at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research to supplement tests currently used to investigate cases of suspected AP deficits. IMAP assesses a range of relevant auditory and cognitive skills and takes about one hour to complete. It has been standardized in 1500 normally-hearing children from across the UK, aged 6-11 years. Since its development, it has been successfully used in a number of large scale studies both in the UK and the USA. IMAP provides measures for separating out sensory from cognitive contributions to hearing. It further limits confounds due to procedural effects by presenting tests in a child-friendly game-format. Stimulus-generation, management of test protocols and control of test presentation is mediated by the IHR-STAR software platform. This provides a standardized methodology for a range of applications and ensures replicable procedures across testers. IHR-STAR provides a flexible, user-programmable environment that currently has additional applications for hearing screening, mapping cochlear implant electrodes, and academic research or teaching.
Neuroscience, Issue 44, Listening skills, auditory processing, auditory psychophysics, clinical assessment, child-friendly testing
A Multi-Modal Approach to Assessing Recovery in Youth Athletes Following Concussion
Institutions: Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, University of Toronto, University of Toronto.
Concussion is one of the most commonly reported injuries amongst children and youth involved in sport participation. Following a concussion, youth can experience a range of short and long term neurobehavioral symptoms (somatic, cognitive and emotional/behavioral) that can have a significant impact on one’s participation in daily activities and pursuits of interest (e.g.,
school, sports, work, family/social life, etc.
). Despite this, there remains a paucity in clinically driven research aimed specifically at exploring concussion within the youth sport population, and more specifically, multi-modal approaches to measuring recovery. This article provides an overview of a novel and multi-modal approach to measuring recovery amongst youth athletes following concussion. The presented approach involves the use of both pre-injury/baseline testing and post-injury/follow-up testing to assess performance across a wide variety of domains (post-concussion symptoms, cognition, balance, strength, agility/motor skills and resting state heart rate variability). The goal of this research is to gain a more objective and accurate understanding of recovery following concussion in youth athletes (ages 10-18 years). Findings from this research can help to inform the development and use of improved approaches to concussion management and rehabilitation specific to the youth sport community.
Medicine, Issue 91, concussion, children, youth, athletes, assessment, management, rehabilitation
Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Institutions: University of Zurich.
Mori's Uncanny Valley Hypothesis1,2
proposes that the perception of humanlike characters such as robots and, by extension, avatars (computer-generated characters) can evoke negative or positive affect (valence) depending on the object's degree of visual and behavioral realism along a dimension of human likeness
) (Figure 1
). But studies of affective valence of subjective responses to variously realistic non-human characters have produced inconsistent findings 3, 4, 5, 6
. One of a number of reasons for this is that human likeness is not perceived as the hypothesis assumes. While the DHL can be defined following Mori's description as a smooth linear change in the degree of physical humanlike similarity, subjective perception of objects along the DHL can be understood in terms of the psychological effects of categorical perception (CP) 7
. Further behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of category processing and CP along the DHL and of the potential influence of the dimension's underlying category structure on affective experience are needed. This protocol therefore focuses on the DHL and allows examination of CP. Based on the protocol presented in the video as an example, issues surrounding the methodology in the protocol and the use in "uncanny" research of stimuli drawn from morph continua to represent the DHL are discussed in the article that accompanies the video. The use of neuroimaging and morph stimuli to represent the DHL in order to disentangle brain regions neurally responsive to physical human-like similarity from those responsive to category change and category processing is briefly illustrated.
Behavior, Issue 76, Neuroscience, Neurobiology, Molecular Biology, Psychology, Neuropsychology, uncanny valley, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, categorical perception, virtual reality, avatar, human likeness, Mori, uncanny valley hypothesis, perception, magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, imaging, clinical techniques
Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
Institutions: University of Amsterdam.
Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically and consistently triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other modalities. A relatively common and well-studied type is grapheme-color synesthesia, defined as the consistent experience of color when viewing, hearing and thinking about letters, words and numbers. We describe our method for investigating to what extent synesthetic associations between letters and colors can be learned by reading in color in nonsynesthetes. Reading in color is a special method for training associations in the sense that the associations are learned implicitly while the reader reads text as he or she normally would and it does not require explicit computer-directed training methods. In this protocol, participants are given specially prepared books to read in which four high-frequency letters are paired with four high-frequency colors. Participants receive unique sets of letter-color pairs based on their pre-existing preferences for colored letters. A modified Stroop task is administered before and after reading in order to test for learned letter-color associations and changes in brain activation. In addition to objective testing, a reading experience questionnaire is administered that is designed to probe for differences in subjective experience. A subset of questions may predict how well an individual learned the associations from reading in color. Importantly, we are not claiming that this method will cause each individual to develop grapheme-color synesthesia, only that it is possible for certain individuals to form letter-color associations by reading in color and these associations are similar in some aspects to those seen in developmental grapheme-color synesthetes. The method is quite flexible and can be used to investigate different aspects and outcomes of training synesthetic associations, including learning-induced changes in brain function and structure.
Behavior, Issue 84, synesthesia, training, learning, reading, vision, memory, cognition
Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat
Institutions: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fear of certain threat and anxiety about uncertain threat are distinct emotions with unique behavioral, cognitive-attentional, and neuroanatomical components. Both anxiety and fear can be studied in the laboratory by measuring the potentiation of the startle reflex. The startle reflex is a defensive reflex that is potentiated when an organism is threatened and the need for defense is high. The startle reflex is assessed via electromyography (EMG) in the orbicularis oculi muscle elicited by brief, intense, bursts of acoustic white noise (i.e.
, “startle probes”). Startle potentiation is calculated as the increase in startle response magnitude during presentation of sets of visual threat cues that signal delivery of mild electric shock relative to sets of matched cues that signal the absence of shock (no-threat cues). In the Threat Probability Task, fear is measured via startle potentiation to high probability (100% cue-contingent shock; certain) threat cues whereas anxiety is measured via startle potentiation to low probability (20% cue-contingent shock; uncertain) threat cues. Measurement of startle potentiation during the Threat Probability Task provides an objective and easily implemented alternative to assessment of negative affect via self-report or other methods (e.g.
, neuroimaging) that may be inappropriate or impractical for some researchers. Startle potentiation has been studied rigorously in both animals (e.g
., rodents, non-human primates) and humans which facilitates animal-to-human translational research. Startle potentiation during certain and uncertain threat provides an objective measure of negative affective and distinct emotional states (fear, anxiety) to use in research on psychopathology, substance use/abuse and broadly in affective science. As such, it has been used extensively by clinical scientists interested in psychopathology etiology and by affective scientists interested in individual differences in emotion.
Behavior, Issue 91,
Startle; electromyography; shock; addiction; uncertainty; fear; anxiety; humans; psychophysiology; translational
High Efficiency Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Cardiomyocytes and Characterization by Flow Cytometry
Institutions: Medical College of Wisconsin, Stanford University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Hong Kong University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin.
There is an urgent need to develop approaches for repairing the damaged heart, discovering new therapeutic drugs that do not have toxic effects on the heart, and improving strategies to accurately model heart disease. The potential of exploiting human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology to generate cardiac muscle “in a dish” for these applications continues to generate high enthusiasm. In recent years, the ability to efficiently generate cardiomyogenic cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has greatly improved, offering us new opportunities to model very early stages of human cardiac development not otherwise accessible. In contrast to many previous methods, the cardiomyocyte differentiation protocol described here does not require cell aggregation or the addition of Activin A or BMP4 and robustly generates cultures of cells that are highly positive for cardiac troponin I and T (TNNI3, TNNT2), iroquois-class homeodomain protein IRX-4 (IRX4), myosin regulatory light chain 2, ventricular/cardiac muscle isoform (MLC2v) and myosin regulatory light chain 2, atrial isoform (MLC2a) by day 10 across all human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and hiPSC lines tested to date. Cells can be passaged and maintained for more than 90 days in culture. The strategy is technically simple to implement and cost-effective. Characterization of cardiomyocytes derived from pluripotent cells often includes the analysis of reference markers, both at the mRNA and protein level. For protein analysis, flow cytometry is a powerful analytical tool for assessing quality of cells in culture and determining subpopulation homogeneity. However, technical variation in sample preparation can significantly affect quality of flow cytometry data. Thus, standardization of staining protocols should facilitate comparisons among various differentiation strategies. Accordingly, optimized staining protocols for the analysis of IRX4, MLC2v, MLC2a, TNNI3, and TNNT2 by flow cytometry are described.
Cellular Biology, Issue 91, human induced pluripotent stem cell, flow cytometry, directed differentiation, cardiomyocyte, IRX4, TNNI3, TNNT2, MCL2v, MLC2a
A Restriction Enzyme Based Cloning Method to Assess the In vitro Replication Capacity of HIV-1 Subtype C Gag-MJ4 Chimeric Viruses
Institutions: Emory University, Emory University.
The protective effect of many HLA class I alleles on HIV-1 pathogenesis and disease progression is, in part, attributed to their ability to target conserved portions of the HIV-1 genome that escape with difficulty. Sequence changes attributed to cellular immune pressure arise across the genome during infection, and if found within conserved regions of the genome such as Gag, can affect the ability of the virus to replicate in vitro
. Transmission of HLA-linked polymorphisms in Gag to HLA-mismatched recipients has been associated with reduced set point viral loads. We hypothesized this may be due to a reduced replication capacity of the virus. Here we present a novel method for assessing the in vitro
replication of HIV-1 as influenced by the gag
gene isolated from acute time points from subtype C infected Zambians. This method uses restriction enzyme based cloning to insert the gag
gene into a common subtype C HIV-1 proviral backbone, MJ4. This makes it more appropriate to the study of subtype C sequences than previous recombination based methods that have assessed the in vitro
replication of chronically derived gag-pro
sequences. Nevertheless, the protocol could be readily modified for studies of viruses from other subtypes. Moreover, this protocol details a robust and reproducible method for assessing the replication capacity of the Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses on a CEM-based T cell line. This method was utilized for the study of Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses derived from 149 subtype C acutely infected Zambians, and has allowed for the identification of residues in Gag that affect replication. More importantly, the implementation of this technique has facilitated a deeper understanding of how viral replication defines parameters of early HIV-1 pathogenesis such as set point viral load and longitudinal CD4+ T cell decline.
Infectious Diseases, Issue 90, HIV-1, Gag, viral replication, replication capacity, viral fitness, MJ4, CEM, GXR25
The Multiple Sclerosis Performance Test (MSPT): An iPad-Based Disability Assessment Tool
Institutions: Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Precise measurement of neurological and neuropsychological impairment and disability in multiple sclerosis is challenging. We report a new test, the Multiple Sclerosis Performance Test (MSPT), which represents a new approach to quantifying MS related disability. The MSPT takes advantage of advances in computer technology, information technology, biomechanics, and clinical measurement science. The resulting MSPT represents a computer-based platform for precise, valid measurement of MS severity. Based on, but extending the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC), the MSPT provides precise, quantitative data on walking speed, balance, manual dexterity, visual function, and cognitive processing speed. The MSPT was tested by 51 MS patients and 49 healthy controls (HC). MSPT scores were highly reproducible, correlated strongly with technician-administered test scores, discriminated MS from HC and severe from mild MS, and correlated with patient reported outcomes. Measures of reliability, sensitivity, and clinical meaning for MSPT scores were favorable compared with technician-based testing. The MSPT is a potentially transformative approach for collecting MS disability outcome data for patient care and research. Because the testing is computer-based, test performance can be analyzed in traditional or novel ways and data can be directly entered into research or clinical databases. The MSPT could be widely disseminated to clinicians in practice settings who are not connected to clinical trial performance sites or who are practicing in rural settings, drastically improving access to clinical trials for clinicians and patients. The MSPT could be adapted to out of clinic settings, like the patient’s home, thereby providing more meaningful real world data. The MSPT represents a new paradigm for neuroperformance testing. This method could have the same transformative effect on clinical care and research in MS as standardized computer-adapted testing has had in the education field, with clear potential to accelerate progress in clinical care and research.
Medicine, Issue 88, Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite, computer-based testing, 25-foot walk test, 9-hole peg test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Low Contrast Visual Acuity, Clinical Outcome Measure
Inducing Plasticity of Astrocytic Receptors by Manipulation of Neuronal Firing Rates
Institutions: University of California Riverside, University of California Riverside, University of California Riverside.
Close to two decades of research has established that astrocytes in situ
and in vivo
express numerous G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that can be stimulated by neuronally-released transmitter. However, the ability of astrocytic receptors to exhibit plasticity in response to changes in neuronal activity has received little attention. Here we describe a model system that can be used to globally scale up or down astrocytic group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in acute brain slices. Included are methods on how to prepare parasagittal hippocampal slices, construct chambers suitable for long-term slice incubation, bidirectionally manipulate neuronal action potential frequency, load astrocytes and astrocyte processes with fluorescent Ca2+
indicator, and measure changes in astrocytic Gq GPCR activity by recording spontaneous and evoked astrocyte Ca2+
events using confocal microscopy. In essence, a “calcium roadmap” is provided for how to measure plasticity of astrocytic Gq GPCRs. Applications of the technique for study of astrocytes are discussed. Having an understanding of how astrocytic receptor signaling is affected by changes in neuronal activity has important implications for both normal synaptic function as well as processes underlying neurological disorders and neurodegenerative disease.
Neuroscience, Issue 85, astrocyte, plasticity, mGluRs, neuronal Firing, electrophysiology, Gq GPCRs, Bolus-loading, calcium, microdomains, acute slices, Hippocampus, mouse
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Institutions: Brown University, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
There has been a long-standing interest in the assessment of the neurobehavioral integrity of the newborn infant. The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) was developed as an assessment for the at-risk infant. These are infants who are at increased risk for poor developmental outcome because of insults during prenatal development, such as substance exposure or prematurity or factors such as poverty, poor nutrition or lack of prenatal care that can have adverse effects on the intrauterine environment and affect the developing fetus. The NNNS assesses the full range of infant neurobehavioral performance including neurological integrity, behavioral functioning, and signs of stress/abstinence. The NNNS is a noninvasive neonatal assessment tool with demonstrated validity as a predictor, not only of medical outcomes such as cerebral palsy diagnosis, neurological abnormalities, and diseases with risks to the brain, but also of developmental outcomes such as mental and motor functioning, behavior problems, school readiness, and IQ. The NNNS can identify infants at high risk for abnormal developmental outcome and is an important clinical tool that enables medical researchers and health practitioners to identify these infants and develop intervention programs to optimize the development of these infants as early as possible. The video shows the NNNS procedures, shows examples of normal and abnormal performance and the various clinical populations in which the exam can be used.
Behavior, Issue 90, NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale, NNNS, High risk infant, Assessment, Evaluation, Prediction, Long term outcome
The use of Biofeedback in Clinical Virtual Reality: The INTREPID Project
Institutions: Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a constant and unspecific anxiety that interferes with daily-life activities. Its high prevalence in general population and the severe limitations it causes, point out the necessity to find new efficient strategies to treat it. Together with the cognitive-behavioral treatments, relaxation represents a useful approach for the treatment of GAD, but it has the limitation that it is hard to be learned. The INTREPID project is aimed to implement a new instrument to treat anxiety-related disorders and to test its clinical efficacy in reducing anxiety-related symptoms. The innovation of this approach is the combination of virtual reality and biofeedback, so that the first one is directly modified by the output of the second one. In this way, the patient is made aware of his or her reactions through the modification of some features of the VR environment in real time. Using mental exercises the patient learns to control these physiological parameters and using the feedback provided by the virtual environment is able to gauge his or her success. The supplemental use of portable devices, such as PDA or smart-phones, allows the patient to perform at home, individually and autonomously, the same exercises experienced in therapist's office. The goal is to anchor the learned protocol in a real life context, so enhancing the patients' ability to deal with their symptoms. The expected result is a better and faster learning of relaxation techniques, and thus an increased effectiveness of the treatment if compared with traditional clinical protocols.
Neuroscience, Issue 33, virtual reality, biofeedback, generalized anxiety disorder, Intrepid, cybertherapy, cyberpsychology
Demonstration of Cutaneous Allodynia in Association with Chronic Pelvic Pain
Institutions: University of Calgary.
Pelvic pain is a common condition that is associated with dysmenorrhea and endometriosis. In some women the severe episodes of cyclic pain change and the resultant pain becomes continuous and this condition becomes known as Chronic Pelvic Pain. This state can be present even after the appropriate medical or surgical therapy has been instituted. It can be associated with pain and tenderness in the muscles of the abdomen wall and intra-pelvic muscles leading to severe dyspareunia. Additional symptoms of irritable bowel and interstitial cystitis are common. A common sign of the development of this state is the emergence of cutaneous allodynia
which emerges from the so-called viscero-somatic reflex. A simple bedside test for the presence of cutaneous allodynia
is presented that does not require excessive time or special equipment. This test builds on previous work associated with changes in sensation related to gall bladder function and the viscera-somatic reflex(1;2).
The test is undertaken with the subject s permission after an explanation of how the test will be performed. Allodynia
refers to a condition in which a stimulus that is not normally painful is interpreted by the subject as painful. In this instance the light touch associated with a cotton-tipped applicator would not be expected to be painful. A positive test is however noted by the woman as suddenly painful or suddenly sharp. The patterns of this sensation are usually in a discrete pattern of a dermatome of the nerves that innervate the pelvis.
The underlying pathology is now interpreted as evidence of neuroplasticity as a consequence of severe and repeating pain with changes in the functions of the dorsal horns of the spinal cord that results in altered function of visceral tissues and resultant somatic symptoms(3).
The importance of recognizing the condition lies in an awareness that this process may present coincidentally with the initiating condition or after it has been treated. It also permits the clinician to evaluate the situation from the perspective that alternative explanations for the pain may be present that may not require additional surgery.
Medicine, Issue 28, Chronic pelvic pain, cutaneous allodynia, trigger points, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis, dyspareunia | <urn:uuid:d3586e9f-8222-43e3-8f2b-0d9ac4092ca0> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.jove.com/visualize/abstract/24788346/the-role-stress-absenteeism-cortisol-responsiveness-among-patients-on | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00519-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910673 | 10,934 | 2.9375 | 3 |
It probably doesn't shock you to hear that sugar is being reframed as a villain in the American diet. But you might have to dig a little deeper to understand that sugars aren't all alike, and scientists are beginning to unravel more about how glucose, sucrose and fructose function.
One important new finding is that fructose, which is linked to obesity and diabetes, isn't just added to our bodies by guzzling sodas and snacking on sweets and fruit. Researchers observed for the first time that the brain actually can produce it, too, from the sugar glucose. And the brain isn't alone in its ability to generate fructose. This is bad news when you consider that excessive fructose consumption is a factor in high blood sugar and obesity and that limiting dietary intake of fructose may not entirely work.
The small Yale study gave eight healthy folks doses of glucose over a period of four hours. Using a neuroimaging method called magnetic resonance spectroscopy, they were able to see that the fructose levels in the brain rose with the glucose courtesy of the polyol pathway (the metabolic pathway allows for fructose to be converted from glucose, and diabetes researchers have long known about its existence). Meanwhile, participants' blood fructose levels experienced little change.
Research has shown that glucose sends the brain increased feelings of satiety, while fructose doesn't. So while it's not exactly heartening to learn that glucose consumption is producing fructose in the brain in humans as well as other animals, it might be great news for researchers who are trying to figure out how sugars in general affect the brain, and find some targeted advice and guidelines for sugar consumption. | <urn:uuid:0b52b74a-5f5c-4a1e-bebf-d09701077277> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/scientists-discover-your-brain-makes-fructose.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007080917-20221007110917-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.954475 | 333 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The Internet is very large and contains an enormous amount of information. Some of this is very unreliable – this reflects the fact that anyone can publish information on the net, there are no editors and no quality control. However, much of the information online is of high quality and the Internet is one of the most important sources of information available today.
Security and Safety
There is very little that you can do on the Internet that will break anything. You should feel free to explore and experiment, surfing and browsing from website to website and becoming familiar with the technology and what it can do.
However, you should bear in mind that there are large amounts of offensive and sometimes harmful material on the Internet, often not suitable for juvenile or sensitive audiences. There are technologies available for protecting users from such material and you may wish to look into this.
Downloading anything other than text or pictures from the Internet should be done with great care. In particular, be cautious about downloading and installing software that you find on the net. A small but significant proportion of such material contains viruses and other programs that can damage your computer and the information that you store on it, as well as attacking other computers to which yours is connected. Ask the advice of someone with more experience, if in doubt. | <urn:uuid:42498f05-545f-46ab-8e7c-cc77c1a898cf> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://lifesteps.ie/module_show.php?ID=25&topic=276 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224643462.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20230528015553-20230528045553-00317.warc.gz | en | 0.96388 | 258 | 2.96875 | 3 |
This KS3 Citizenship quiz takes a look at community living. The word community has several different definitions in a dictionary. In citizenship, it refers to people living in a particular area. It can also mean a group of people who share common interests. The people who live in your village, town or city could be classed as a community. People who share the same religious beliefs, people who play online computer games and people who are in business could also be classed as communities too.
Communities often organise community events. This is done for different reasons. Sometimes, a community event is intended to raise money but other times, a carnival or fete is organised so that the whole community can relax and enjoy themselves. An example of this is the Notting Hill Carnival in London, which began as a small community event in 1966. Now it is a huge annual event attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world, but is still organised by the local community.
Sometimes, people are left out of a community. It isn't usually anything deliberate, perhaps they don't have children of school age or maybe they can't walk very well. There are many other reasons. Some communities are better than others at looking after these excluded people and organise events that will help them to join in with community life, or organise visits if they can't leave their home without help (house-bound). | <urn:uuid:f351072f-948b-428a-93db-919cdc1f52e4> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.educationquizzes.com/ks3/citizenship/community-living-01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256184.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20190521002106-20190521024106-00167.warc.gz | en | 0.98513 | 278 | 3.734375 | 4 |
A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1923.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
SULHAMSTEAD ABBOTS with GRAZELEY
Silhampsted (xiv cent.); Sulhampsted Abbott (xvi cent.).
The parish of Sulhamstead Abbots is separated into three portions, the area of the whole parish being 1,417 acres, of which 132 acres are covered with woods and plantations, the rest being nearly equally divided between arable land and permanent grass. (fn. 1) The main portion forms a long strip, lying to the east of Sulhamstead Bannister parish (Upper End) and to the west of Burghfield parish. The north-western boundary is formed by the River Kennet and the south-eastern in part by Burghfield Brook. The other two parts of the parish are detached from the main portion. The first is a long and very narrow strip lying to the west of Sulhamstead Bannister parish (Upper End) and reaching from Englefield parish in the north to Stratfield Mortimer parish in the south. The second detached part forms a small triangle lying between Burghfield Common on the east and Benham's Farm in Sulhamstead Bannister on the west. Close to the western boundary of the main portion of the parish and a little to the north of Sulhamstead Abbots Church there is a spring called Foxes Spring. The River Kennet flows through the first detached portion, and the Kennet and Avon Canal is to the south of the river, crossing both the main portion of the parish and the first detached portion. The Tyle Mill stands on the Kennet with a bridge, called Tyle Mill Bridge, over the river. To the east of the mill is Sulhamstead Widemead, the name being of interest, since the Widemead is mentioned in a charter of Robert Pincent in the 12th century. (fn. 2) At that time there was also a bridge called after the Pincent family. (fn. 3) Streams which join the Kennet from the south frequently flood the neighbouring land, here less than 200 ft. above the ordnace datum. Further south it rises to over 300 ft. The subsoil is various, alluvium in the bed of the Kennet, Bagshot and Bracklesham beds, London Clay and Woolwich and Reading beds. The Berks and Hants section of the Great Western railway crosses the first detached portion and the nearest railway station is Theale, 2 miles north of the village.
Sulhamstead House, the residence of Sir William G. Watson, bart., lord of the manor, stands a short distance to the north-east of St. Michael's Church, Sulhamstead Bannister. It is a plain plastered building with a tetrastyle Ionic portico. The original building, which was erected about 1748, was entirely remodelled at the beginning of the 19th century. Alterations were made in 1852 and again, by the present owner, in 1910. The house is well placed in its wooded park on lofty ground commanding a good view of the surrounding country.
The village of Sulhamstead is chiefly composed of small brick houses. On the Bath Road is a neat inn with the curious sign 'The Three Kings Jack's Booth'; the latter part may have arisen from Jack of Newbury having had business dealings there, or another suggestion is that it was so called after a former publican named Jack Jones. There are two or three thatched cottages and some of brick on the road from Sulhamstead to Ufton Nervet.
There is a Congregational chapel here built in 1881 in place of an older chapel.
The following place-names are found in various documents relating to Sulhamstead Abbots: Stodham, Shaies, Widemead (fn. 4) and Palentines or Valentines. (fn. 5) A palaeolithic implement has been found in the parish. (fn. 6)
The inclosure of the two parishes of Sulhamstead Abbots and Sulhamstead Bannister was made by Act of Parliament, the award being dated 9 July 1817. (fn. 7)
Grazeley is a tithing in the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots containing 519 acres. It is completely detached from the rest of the parish. In 1854, when the manorial estate of Grazeley was advertised for sale, it was inclosed in a ring fence and apparently included the whole tithing. (fn. 8)
The manor of SULHAMSTEAD ABBOTS is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, and its early history is entirely unknown until it appears amongst the possessions of Reading Abbey at the close of the 12th century. (fn. 9) At that time one of the tenants of the abbey, Robert Pincent (Punzun), was deeply in debt and together with his son and heir William quitclaimed much of his land to his lords in return for ready money in his 'great and urgent necessity.' (fn. 10) His patrimony, indeed, Robert still retained as well as the land of his wife Agnes, the daughter and heir of Tovus of Sulhamstead, but the rent of both was increased in return for the cancelling of a large debt owed to the monks. (fn. 11) Moreover, he granted all his tenants with their households, lands, rents and services as well as various smaller pieces of land to Reading Abbey. (fn. 12) Gervase and Gilbert Pincent also granted land to the abbey at a later date. (fn. 13) Edmund the son of Gilbert exchanged the estate with the abbot in 1316 for lands in the parish of Tilehurst, (fn. 14) where Pincent's Farm still bears his family name. The abbey retained Sulhamstead until the Dissolution, when the value of the different rents there is given amongst its possessions, but a manor is not definitely mentioned. (fn. 15) In 1541, however, Henry VIII granted the manor of Sulhamstead Abbots, 'formerly belonging to the monastery of Reading,' to Sir John Williams, afterwards Lord Williams of Thame, for the yearly rent of 34s. 5d. (fn. 16) On the death of Lord Williams in 1559 his possessions were divided between his two daughters and heirs, Isabel the wife of Sir Richard Wenman and Margery the wife of Henry Norreys, first Lord Norreys of Rycote, (fn. 17) Sulhamstead was at first divided into two moieties, but in 1569–70 the Norreys obtained the whole manor, (fn. 18) which then followed the descent of Burghfield Abbas (fn. 19) (q.v.). In 1711 the second Earl of Abingdon sold Sulhamstead Abbots to Charles May of Basingstoke. (fn. 20) The latter gave it to his son Daniel on his marriage in 1714 to Mary Tipping of Woolley. (fn. 21) Daniel held the manor till his death in 1753. (fn. 22) He devised it to his nephew John Thoyts, a minor, and it remained in the Thoyts family until 1901, when Col. Newman Thoyts sold it to Sir William G. Watson, bart., the present owner. (fn. 23)
The manor of GREYSHULL, GREISLEY or GRAZELEY in the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots came to the abbey of Reading before the 13th century, since the Abbot of Reading had made inclosures in the common pasture of Grazeley in the early years of that century, and was, therefore, presumably the lord of the manor. (fn. 24) At the time of the dissolution of the abbey the rents from Grazeley were worth £9 15s. 10d. a year. (fn. 25) The manor was granted in 1541 with the manor of Sulhamstead Abbots to Sir John Williams, (fn. 26) the annual rent of Grazeley payable to the Crown being 19s. 0½d. It passed to Sir John's daughters and co-heirs, (fn. 27) but in 1560, the year after his death, it was granted to Anthony Forster and Anthony Bulter (fn. 28) to hold for the use of Nicholas Williams in tail-male. Nicholas was the son of Reginald Williams, the elder brother of Lord Williams, (fn. 29) and he held Grazeley at the time of his death in 1568, when his widow Mabel claimed a third of the manor in dower. (fn. 30) He left no sons, and the manor reverted after the division of Lord Williams's property to Lord Norreys and his wife Margery, (fn. 31) who granted a lease of a farm called Jennings in Grazeley to Mabel and her second husband Sir Reade Stafford in composition for her dower. (fn. 32) From this time until the 18th century the manor followed the same descent as Sulhamstead Abbots. (fn. 33) The Earl of Abingdon sold it before 1759 to John James of Denford Court, Berks. (fn. 34); the latter died in 1769, (fn. 35) and left it to his great-nephew William Head, who took the name of James on succeeding to the property. (fn. 36) William James died in 1777, and Grazeley passed to his brother Walter James Head (fn. 37); he assumed the name of James and in 1779–80 (fn. 38) made a settlement of his property in Grazeley. He was created a baronet in 1791. (fn. 39) Mr. James Herbert Benyon is lord of the manor at the present day.
The so-called manor of FOXLEY COURT, mentioned in the 15th century, when it belonged to the Abbot of Reading, is probably his manor of Sulhamstead Abbots under another name. (fn. 40) In the reign of Edward IV land was held under this manor by the Perkins family, (fn. 41) who according to tradition lived at the old Moat House at Sulhamstead before they built their moated house in Ufton. (fn. 42) In 1746 Daniel May bought land in Sulhamstead from Francis Perkins of Ufton. (fn. 43) This property, which is mentioned in his will, was thus united with the main manor of Sulhamstead Abbots.
In the 12th century Elias Englefield granted to Reading Abbey half the profits and tolls of the mill of Russiford with a water-course (fn. 44) appurtenant to the manor of Englefield (q.v.). Russiford is mentioned in a charter of rather later date by Robert Pincent in connexion with his holding in Sulhamstead Abbots, (fn. 45) and it seems that the mill of Russiford must be identified with a mill in Sulhamstead, near the Kennet to the east of the Pincent bridge, which was quitclaimed by Sir William Englefield to Reading Abbey in the 13th century. (fn. 46) Tyle Mill was held by the abbey of Reading at its dissolution. It was not granted with the manor of Sulhamstead Abbots, but was acquired with the lands belonging to it by Sir John Williams in a separate grant in the year 1544. (fn. 47) Tyle Mill is now a corn-mill, and was bought a few years ago from the executors of Mr. William Strange by Mr. Thomas L. Smith, whose widow is the present owner.
The church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN consists of a chancel measuring internally about 25 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft., north vestry, nave 36 ft. by 20 ft. 6 in., north aisle 4 ft. 3 in. wide, south porch and west wooden bell-turret.
The church apparently dates wholly from about 1220, and had, as originally built, a south as well as a north aisle, the arcade of which was probably removed in the 15th century when a new roof was put on spanning the whole width of the nave and former aisle, the south wall being raised to receive it. The easternmost bay of the north arcade of the nave seems to have been formed in the 14th century, while the first pier has been so restored as to be practically modern. The church was restored in 1878 and a west gallery, which was erected in 1762, was removed at this date. The chancel arch was also rebuilt a little before this time. The vestry and the porch are modern additions of 1878. Traces of the south arcade wall are said to show under the modern plaster which now covers the walls.
The east wall of the chancel has three modern lancet windows with a small vesica in the gable. The north and south windows of the chancel, two in each wall, are small 13th-century lancets more or less restored. Near the east end of the south wall is a small round-headed piscina with chamfered edges and a modern basin. At the other end of the wall is a blocked priest's doorway with a pointed head, apparently of 13th-century date. Only the outside jambs show and these are chamfered. The vestry is entered from the chancel by a small doorway at the west end of the north wall. The modern chancel arch has plain chamfered jambs. It is moulded and two-centred, the inner order resting on foliated corbels. Above this arch the gable is built of 15th-century half-timber work, covered outside with hanging tiles.
The north arcade of the nave is of three bays, the restored first pier being circular with a moulded capital and base, while the second pier, which is of original 13th-century date, is square with chamfered edges and abacus. The east respond is modern and is carved with foliage in 14th-century style, but the small return on the south side, set back from the plaster, is old. The west respond has chamfered edges and a modern chamfered abacus. The three arches are all of different span, increasing in size from east to west. The first, of 14th-century date, has two chamfered orders, but the other two are plain pointed arches of square section. The easternmost of the two south windows is of 15th-century date and has three cinquefoiled lights under a square head with a moulded label. The second window has two plain square-headed lights and is probably of the 16th century. Between these two windows is the late 15th-century south doorway, which has moulded jambs and a four-centred arch under a square head. The west doorway, now blocked, has plain hollow-chamfered jambs and a four-centred head. Built into the blocking of this doorway are some old stones; two, which were found face downwards in the sill of the easternmost window of the north aisle, are each carved with a Maltese cross in a circle and may be voussoirs of a window head. Below these two stones is part of a square-headed 15th-century window, of which the heads of two trefoiled lights and half of a third still remain.
There are three windows in the north wall of the aisle, the first two having each three trefoiled lights with square heads; they are modern restorations and only have a few original jamb stones. The third window near the west end is a single trefoiled light of 15th-century date, much restored, but the foiled head is old. In the east wall of the aisle is a small cinquefoiled 15th-century niche.
The walls of the nave, aisle and vestry are of flint with stone dressings, those of the chancel being covered with plaster, and the roofs are tiled. There are three old sundial scratchings, two on a stone in the south-east quoins of the chancel and one on the north jamb of the west doorway. The bell-turret is an old timber construction, weather-boarded outside and now roofed with tiles, but formerly with copper. It is supported on the east by two large wood posts rising from the floor of the nave; these are modern, but the peculiar curved supports to them are old. The porch is constructed of oak framework with trefoiled lights in each side, the rest of the spaces being filled with diagonal brickwork.
The nave has a fine 15th-century open timber roof, the principals having arched supports, some with large tie-beams and some without; between them are curved wind-braces and the whole rests on embattled wall-plates. The chancel roof is probably of the same age, but is more simple in design.
The font is of the 12th century and of tub shape, the sides being ornamented by eight semicircularheaded panels separated by small attached shafts with capitals and bases; the base upon which it stands is modern. All the other fittings to the church are modern except two of the old oak pews at the west end from which the others have been copied.
The walls were once covered with paintings, and until fairly recently the figure of St. Christopher could be traced on the wall of the arcade opposite the south doorway. Modern plaster now covers all the walls, and the only traces of old decoration are on the easternmost arch of the nave arcade, which has a floral pattern.
There is a brass inscription to Ralph Eyer, rector (d. 1527). In the nave is a floor slab to Frances Chamberline, daughter of Henry and Frances Chamberline, who died in 1638, aged eight years less one week.
In the turret are three bells, the treble having the churchwardens' names, a band of ornament and the date 1773, but no maker's name; the second bears the inscription 'Ellis and Henry Knight made me 1673'; the third has only the date 1654.
The plate is modern.
The registers begin in 1602 for baptisms and burials and in 1660 for marriages.
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, Grazeley, is a small modern building consisting of a chancel with a north vesery and a nave with a timber south porch. It was erected in 1850 and is in the style of the 14th century. Over the west gable is a bellcote containing one bell. The walls of the church are of flint with stone dressings.
The church of Sulhamstead Abbots was granted at some time before the 13th century to the abbey of Reading, (fn. 48) presumably at the same time as the manor. In 1378 the king presented Richard Hall during the voidance of the abbey. (fn. 49) At the Dissolution the abbot held a pension, (fn. 50) but though a perpetual vicar is mentioned in the 13th century (fn. 51) no vicarage seems to have been permanently instituted nor any separation made of the great or small tithes. The benefice is called a rectory in 1535. (fn. 52) The pension of £2 a year payable to the abbey of Reading from the church of Sulhamstead was confirmed to it in a charter of Robert Bishop of Salisbury (fn. 53) (Robert Bingham, 1229–46). The pension was payable in 1291, (fn. 54) and at the time of the Dissolution had been assigned to the sacrist of the abbey. (fn. 55) The advowson of the rectory was granted with the manor in 1541 to Lord Williams (fn. 56) and from him passed to the Norreys family. (fn. 57) Lord Norreys sold it about the year 1610 to Queen's Colleze. Oxford, (fn. 58) the provost and scholars being already the patrons of the neighbouring rectory of Sulhamstead Bannister. The two benefices had been held together in 1535 before the patronage was united. (fn. 59) They were formed into one consolidated rectory in 1782, (fn. 60) which is in the gift of the provost and scholars of Queen's College, Oxford, at the present time.
Grazeley, which lay partly in this parish and partly in Shinfield, was formed into a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1860. The benefice was first formed as the district chapelry of Lambwood, which was separated from the parish of Shinfield in 1854. (fn. 61) The boundaries were extended by the addition of Grazeley tithing and parts of Sulhamstead Bannister (Lower End) in 1860, the whole ecclesiastical parish being renamed Grazeley. (fn. 62) The church of Holy Trinity was built at Lambwood Hill. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford.
The following charities are for the benefit of the parishes of Sulhamstead Abbots and Sulhamstead Bannister jointly, namely, fuel allotments, acquired by an award dated 9 July 1817, made under the Inclosure Act, (fn. 63) containing 12 a. 3 r. 28 p., the rents to be applied in the distribution of fuel among the poor of the two parishes; and gravel allotments, acquired under the same award, containing 2 a. 2 r. 30 p., the average annual income received from the sale of gravel for the repair of the highways being about £8 a year.
The Misses Thoyts's school was founded as a Sunday school by a deed poll dated 25 September 1817, and is endowed with the school building and site containing half and acre, the master's house let at a yearly rental of £8 16s. and £570 5s. 3d. consols with the official trustees, the gross yearly income being £23 1s. The school is now used as a public elementaryschool as well as a Sunday school.
The following charities are applicable solely in the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots, namely, the charities of Hugh Sawcer, sen., Hugh Sawcer, jun., consisting of 10s. yearly, and the charity of John Munger, 5s. yearly. The annuities are paid by the owner of the Sulhamstead House estate. An annuity of 10s. is likewise received by the poor in respect of a gift of Reginald Butler, paid by Mr. J. H. Benyon, the owner of Field Farm, Burghfield.
Ecclesiastical parish of Grazeley, otherwise Grazeley Tithing.
— The charitable trusts founded by William Merry, by deed dated 2 September 1862 (enrolled) and by will proved at London 10 March 1873. By an order of the Charity Commissioners of 10 June 1904, made under the Board of Education Act, 1899, it was determined that the part of the endowments held for educational purposes consisted of the school and teacher's residence, £1,566 16s. 8d. consols, and £155 11s. 2d. consols as a repair fund, producing £45 a year. The school is conducted as a public elementary school. £20 a year is, in accordance with the directions in the donor's will, applied for clothing poor children—ten boys and ten girls attending the school.
The endowments of the eleemosynary branch of the trusts consist of a cottage and garden, originally an alms cottage, but now occupied by a parish nurse, and £1,557 12s. 2d. consols and £133 9s. in the savings bank, producing yearly £42 15s., which is applied partly in paying the stipend of the nurse and in payments for fuel and lighting for her and other necessaries for her or the patients. | <urn:uuid:2d4c1e75-b855-42ed-8d58-7c1fc563a861> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3/pp306-311 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218191405.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212951-00409-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971185 | 5,124 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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